Big Brew, the annual Bay Area Society of Homebrewers (B.A.S.H.) celebration of National Homebrew Day was held on Saturday, May 5 at B&J’s Pizza on Staples at Timbergate. The shade canopies and club banner were set up by 11:00 a.m. Three teams then began demonstration brews. Aggie Bill Hughen used his propane-fired 3-tier gravity feed system to make one of this years’ recipes provided by the American Homebrewers Association (AHA) – “Battlecow Galacticose” New England IPA. Tim Grace and William Lee used Tim’s Grainfather electric brew system to make the other AHA recipe – “Trans-Atlantic Blonde Ale”. Mark Quade and John Fulton brewed an extract British brown ale over a propane burner.
Members of the general public poked their heads under the canopies from time to time to observe and learn about the hobby. We snared one as a new member – James King. At exactly high noon, Wild Bill Lehfeld led our contribution to the global synchronized toast to homebrewing. Delicious pizza and cold beer from B&J’s kept us sated during the event.
The festivities wrapped up about 3:30 p.m. The teams took their brews home to add yeast (Tom Freund took the extract brew to ferment for Colorado-bound Mark). We will sample the results at the July meeting.
Upcoming B.A.S.H. events:
8-May-19: Education Event “Cream Ale, California Common, Kentucky Common” (CC Homebrew Supply)
19-May-19: B.A.S.H. meeting (John Daniels, NOTE: 3RD SUNDAY, competition: American IPA, BJCP 21A/Specialty IPA, BJCP 21B)
9-Jun-19: B.A.S.H. meeting (need host, competition: Low Gravity Challenge <5% ABV Must Provide OG/FG)
12-Jun-19: Education Event?
14-Jul-19: B.A.S.H. meeting (B&J’s Pizza on Staples at Timbergate, hosted by Paul Holder)
11-Aug-19: B.A.S.H. meeting (William Lee, competition: Extract Challenge, open category >51% extract)
8-Sep-19: B.A.S.H. meeting (Mark Woerner, demonstration brew?)
13-Oct-19: B.A.S.H. meeting (need host, competition: märzen, BJCP 6A)
2-Nov-19: Iron Mash XVI (team brewing competition)
10-Nov-19: B.A.S.H. meeting (need host, competition: English barleywine (BJCP17D), American barleywine (BJCP22C))
8-Dec-19: B.A.S.H. meeting (Carroll Pate, brewing demonstration?)
Thank you Aggie Bill, Tim, William, Mark, John and Tom. Special thanks to B&J’s for hosting and to Kyle Hotz of CC Homebrew Supply for donating many of the ingredients. See you at CC Homebrew Supply and at eht Daniels'!