Big Brew Day at Great Fermentations turned out to be a winner. Rain was expected in the forecast for the event, but after some slight spitting during the morning hours the sun decided to stick around the rest of the day. There were several notable events throughout the day including a brewing equipment “garage sale”, an introductory cheesemaking class, an off flavor seminar, Ask-A-Judge, and a class on making Sour beer. BBQ’n Fools was churning out some pretty fantastic smoked food including some excellent smoked bratwursts. At 1:00pm over 40 attendees participated in a global toast given by Mayor Greg Ballard. GF staff counted 25 batches brewed right in their parking lot, including a batch of mead. BIMP brewed a Wheat Wine and Dunkelweizen.
Although we were brewing somewhat outside of our comfort zones, GF offered burners, propane, filtered/RO water, and even a mobile wort chilling station (two daisy chained counterflow chillers, a couple of pumps, and a cart for transferring your hot wort to the chillers) to ease the stress of brewing away from your home setup. Another perk was that if you forgot any supplies or ingredients (WHAT WERE YOU THINKING!! ;)) all you had to do was head into the shop. We had a great time and wanted to thank Great Fermentations for putting on event, and everyone that hung out and celebrated National Homebrew Day with us. We are definitely looking forward to a bigger and better Big Brew next year!