We made a plan to meet at Doc's house prior to all of Colorado's closings, and with all the covid-19 things going on, we considered cancelling.
But, none of us were feeling sick. We'd all been fairly separated from the world for awhile. We were planning on gathering in a group less than 10.
We decided to still go for our brew day.
And this happened Saturday.
Like last time we got together, I decided to go with a fairly simple extract recipe rather than doing a full all-grain batch.
It means I don't have to bring as much equipment and it means I don't have to pay quite as close attention while Doc's homebrew is distracting me. Plus, cleanup is quicker and simpler.
It just makes sense when I'm brewing away from my home brewery.
The recipe I came up with is
The plan was to start at 10AM. I started the day by firing up the Weber Kettle and smoking a chuck roast for a few hours.
Around the time I was packing up to leave, I moved the chuck roast into the crock pot so it would be ready to shred at dinner time.
Dinner taken care of.
I packed up my stuff in our little S.U.V, including a keg in my Pancho Brewing Lab keg cooler. At some point, I'll have to share that cool little thing with you.
But, for now, basically it is a 20 gallon gott cooler with a tap on it. Great for keeping homebrew kegs cold when you bring them away from home.
I got to Doc's house around 10AM. It took me awhile to actually get started because I was distracted by all the homebrew he has on tap.
But, that's ok. Doc and I were pretty close on our brewing schedule.
I forgot to bring a grain bag, which is certainly a rookie mistake. Doc let me use some hop bags for my grain.
Note to self ... don't forget the grain bag for Big Brew Day.
Between sampling homebrew and talking with my friends, I got the beer brewed and into the fermentor.
We also got to play with Du's drone for awhile.
I didn't chill the beer down all the way, figuring I could let ambient temperature in my garage at home bring it down before I pitched the yeast.
That's what I did. I pitched at 65 degrees right before I went to bed.
It was a great day. My beer is bubbling away in the fermentor. I am looking forward to drinking it in a couple of weeks.
We are planning on having Big Brew Day at Du's house the first weekend in May. Hopefully we'll be past all this Covid-19 craziness.
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