Despite my passion for craft beer, I’ve never brewed. It is something that’s crossed my mind often but I’ve never take the time to get serious about it. Well, that’s about to change. Sam Adams Cincinnati Taproom reached out to personally invite me to participate in a homebrew competition they are conducting with People Working Cooperatively. I couldn’t say no and thought I should document the process.
The event is called Boards & Brews and includes both home brewing and a cornhole tournament. The event is being organized by their Emerging Leaders Board and will help bring awareness to PWC’s mission which is to help those in low-income situations stay in their homes by completing repairs and other tasks. Definitely a great organization helping those in our community so it is great to be a part of this event.
Prepping For A Homebrew Competition
After committing to participating, there were a few things I needed to do but the first thing was assemble a team. This event allows for up to 5 people per team which is a good thing considering I’ve never brewed beer. So I reached out to friends that are as passionate about beer as I am including a few that have some home brewing experience.
With any competition, I’d love to win but my real hope is to better understand homebrewing while having fun with a group of friends. And the first thing we did was come up with a team name . . . Notorious Beer Clan. We even have team t-shirts that we will wear at the events tied to this competition.
Next, we will attend a kickoff event at the Sam Adams Cincinnati Taproom on March 13th. At this event, we will get to meet the head brewer Chris Siegman and tour the facility. The team plans on picking the style / beer that we will brew for the competition at this kick off event as well.
The big event is on Aug 7th but there’s lots to do between now and then; including brewing the beer and having it judged. Keep checking back on this article as I’ll be updating it along the way. And, of course, I’ll be posting on my Instagram as well.
Selecting A Style To Brew
While I can’t share the style we are brewing, I do want to share the process the team went through. Two members of the team have home brewed in the past so we leaned heavily on them for guidance on what styles we should consider.
The initial questions is lager or ale. These are the two types of beer and require different methods. The primary concern is fermentation temperature. Not every home brew system is designed to keep the beer cold enough during fermentation to achieve a well made lager.
There’s always a lot of debate between these two types of beer because it truly changes the mindset and options.
Next, our team considered many different styles. We discussed beers that we personally enjoy drinking, what styles we think the judges might enjoy, difficulty of brewing, and if we can get the appropriate ingredients. We debated basic styles as much as styles that push the boundaries.
You’ll have to wait until after judging to hear what we decided on but I’m confident that our decision will be something you’d love to drink.
Up next, brew day! I’ll add an update afterwards to let you know how it went.
Brew Day
Part of the magic of homebrewing is the fact that it isn’t a fast process. You truly need to block off a good portion of a day to do it. For us, we picked a Sunday and met around noon. It took about 6 total hours (with a break in there for food) to get the beer brewed and off to fermentation.
I won’t go into every step of the process but I do want to note a few elements that made the experience a lot of fun and really help explain how beer gets its flavor.
No brew day is complete without drinking beer along the way. Luckily, our team members had a few different homebrewed beers for us to enjoy while we brewed.
From milling the grain to transferring the wort, the work portion was pretty easy with five of us brewing. Anyone looking to get into homebrew should enlist a few people to help; it really makes it more fun and easier.
There are lots of different ways to go about brewing. For the malt portion, you can use raw grains that need to be milled or have the homebrew shop mill them. Another option is to use malt extract which saves time but many believe it doesn’t provide the same results. We used raw grains and milled them ourselves to get the full experience.
Much of what predicts the quality of the beer is how closely the process is followed, ensuring temperatures are accurate, and how clean everything is kept. Having an experienced brewer will help make sure that all of that is followed closely. The result was a day full of great beer shared with great friends with the hope of producing a great beer to win the homebrew competition.
A Party To Announce The Winner
The homebrew competition culminates with a party to announce the winner as well as conduct a cornhole competition to further benefit People Working Cooperatively. This event is August 7th from 12pm – 5pm but you’ll want to sign up to for the cornhole competition now.
There will be beer (obviously), food, raffles, and lot of fun. Make sure you get there at 12 because that is when the homebrew competition winner will be announced and the beer will be tapped. You’ll want to be one of the first to try this beer (especially if it is the beer I brewed!).
Being part of this competition and process has been amazing. I’m really looking forward to the final Boards & Brews event to cap off this great collaboration between Sam Adams and People Working Cooperatively.
Check Back For Updates & To Find Out If My Team Wins!
Learn about the time I judged a beer competition