NNB Home Brew Tasting Event

A Hydro&Brew sponsored home brew tasting party was held at the Northwest Nano basement brewery on October 12th. Some of the best home brewers from the region came out, growlers in hand to participate and govern our first ever 10 gallon batch of brew. As uncomfortable as events can be when they are one, not established, and two, no one has met yet, this jumped off great with introductions and favorite recipes. NN had the smoke house lit with cherry smoking a pot of Oldham Ale chili for hours as the brewers rolled in. Our sponsors, Jason and Jenny from Hydro&Brew brought the finished Oatmeal Stout and Baltic Porter from the beer day they hosted at the store. NN had its offering of Oldham Ale for the group to try and  critique. 

The second part of our day was running our first batch of a 10 gallon recipe through our newly purchased twin burner rig, an Imperial Nut Brown, we are calling, "Nutzo". Twenty six pounds of grain for the mash tun to convert. More on the brew later...

As the growlers came out, so did the tasters including myself. Our most senior brewer brougt this gem he called green as it had a pouch of fresh hops sitting in the bottom of the beer. Now, write this down, I don't like hoppy beer. I love hops, just not IPA's on steroids. So I grabbed a taster glass so I could take a sip, and set it down to rinse my mouth out with Ale. As I smelled it, I couldn't help but notice a pineapple note mixed in with a flowery onslaught of hops. As I tasted it I was surprised by the complex, fruity (but not flavored) aroma that seemed to permeate my nose and eyes as I swallowed a hesitant mouthful. It was the most complex beer I have ever tasted. It was the best IPA I have ever drunk up until the brewer reminded me it was not an IPA, rather an APA or American Pale Ale. Even better as I am in full support of revitalizing American brands in every part of our lives. 

I would say the Oldham Ale Smoked Chili was a hit as was the buffalo chicken dip and a cream cheese thing with bel peppers and ham chunks. Our brew den was tested both in ambiance and functionality. Three taps, a keg cellar, a shabby sheik humidor and a vintage record player spinning ACDC's iconic, Back In Black as the night wore on. 

Finally, the 10 gallon batch and the tutoring session I received from the attendees who can seriously brew beer. I would say my biggest confusion was around the sparging process and delicate nature of setting the grain bed. We (Jake and I) had previously treated these steps as "hurry up" sections of what can become a long process if you are brewing at the end of the day. Once they slowed me down and walked me through everything from the vorloff (sp) to setting the grain bed, I felt like the mash efficiency was rising as we continued to sample our brews and smoke cigars. 

The 1.080 OG

After pulling a test tube of post boils wort, I waited for it to cool to 65 degrees and plopped in my hydrometer for an original gravity reading.  1.080 right on the line!  The highest OG ever for our brewery. This small victory was conflicted with a slight error in measuring boil off and we ended the boil two gallons short of 10. So we will keg five and pull a special 3 gallon batch for the growlers. 

Join us next time for a taste test and review of the recipe!