Yoker Belgian Tripel (Batch 385)

As I mentioned in Learning to Homebrew: 2025 X-Mas Ale (Batch 384), I was hoping to get together with at least one of my homebrewing buddies coming up soon.

It turns out that this past weekend, we were able to do this.

The SheppyBrew Beer Model and I packed up our brewing equipment Saturday and headed over to Doc's Brewery for a brew day.

Getting started at Doc's Brewery starts even later than when I brew at home with the Beer Model, but Saturday I still got up fairly early to get things ready for the Travel Brewing.

I put a Chuck Roast on the weber kettle to smoke for a few hours so that I could leave it in the crock pot most of the day.

That way we'd have dinner ready when we got home.

Golly Jeepers Wild Mango Ale (Batch 346)

If you read Roll-a-Style 13 ... Wild Specialty Beer, you know that Saturday was Learn to Homebrew Day, and that I brewed Golly Jeepers Wild Mango Ale.

My friend "Doc" wanted to host another brew day, so I headed over to his "brewery".

Generally, when I "Travel Brew", I like to start my mash at home and let it convert during the drive over. Then, when I arrive I can just transfer to a boil kettle and therefore have a head-start.

I do this in my old-style gott cooler / propane burner system.

But, my friend "Du" also was heading over, and he asked to use a propane burner and boil kettle.

2023 Big Brew Day ... Summer Lovin

So ... this past Saturday was the AHA's Big Brew Day.

This is one of those days that my brewing buddies and I try to get together to brew.

This time, my friend "Doc" wanted to host, so I headed over to "Doc's Brewery".

Travel Brewing is always a different experience than my typical brew day. I have to keep my recipe as simple as possible and always accept that I might be distracted enough that the beer might not turn out as planned.

A big part of it is that I don't typically drink while brewing unless the Beer Model makes me.

But, on these Travel Brewing I have to try the beers from both the host and the others who always bring growlers.

One of the things I typically do ... at least if I'm brewing all-grain ... is start my mash at home and let it go through the drive over to whoever is hosting.

2022 Learn to Homebrew Day

This past Saturday was the AHA's Learn to Homebrew day.

You might remember this from previous years, but my homebrewing friends "Doc" and "Du" and I try to get together a few times a year to brew together.

Learn to Homebrew Day and Big Brew Day are always great excuses to get together.

The AHA always posts a recipe for these national brewing days. The one they posted for Saturday was LTHD22 Hoppy Amber Ale.

While I don't ever actually use the AHA's recipes, their Hoppy Amber Ale, inspired me to come up with a recipe for a Hoppy Red Ale (aka Red IPA). 

Back in the day, I was a great fan of this style. Remember such classic beers as Quarter Life Crisis and Pompously Illegitimate Red Ale.

Learn to Homebrew Day: Dudocs English Mild (301)

This past Saturday was the AHA's Learn to Homebrew Day.

This year, my friend "Doc" decided he wanted to host a brew day, so I packed up my equipment and traveled to his brewery.

The recipe that I designed for this brew day, was Dudocs English Mild.

It is a pretty simple English Mild recipe fermented with Lallemand Voss Kveik Ale Yeast.

It should be an easy drinking flavorful dark, malty session beer. I'm looking forward to trying it out.

As usual, I started the mash at home and let the amylase enzyme do their thing while I was driving.

This way, when I got to Doc's I just had to drain the wort into the kettle and start heating to boil.

Lithuanian Autumn Ale (Batch 270)

If you've been following the blog over the past few months, you may remember that I've been playing with a Lithuanian Farmhouse yeast that I was able to harvest from a local brewery.

The awesome thing about this yeast is that it ferments fairly clean beers when fermented in the 80's and 90's Fahrenheit. 

I've brewed Sveikas Lithuanian Farmhouse Ale, Lithuanian Lovin' Wheat and Lithuanian Strong Pale Ale in the heat of the summer.

But, Denver weather has been cooling down. I still have some harvested Lithuanian Farmhouse yeast. I thought it would be interesting to see how the yeast performed in Autumn weather.

And, so I designed an Autumn Ale recipe ...

Lithuanian Autumn Ale

Dudocs Best Bitter (Batch 251)

It had been quite awhile since I brewed with my homebrewing buddies Du and Doc. Learn to Homebrew Day was the last time we had gotten together.

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

Dudocs Best Bitter

Muggled Pale Ale (Batch 237)

So ... I was talking to my homebrew friend "Du" and both of us thought it had been too long since we've brewed.

We contacted our other homebrewing friend, "Doc" and made a brewing date for August 11th.

"Doc" was kind enough to host the brew day. You may remember "Doc" from such hits as

Cinco de Bealtaine Irish Stout

Learning to Homebrew

Mardi Bock

and ...

Big Brew Day 2019

It is now becoming "a thing" when I go to other houses (usually "Doc's") to brew. It is fun, but I always feel like I'm forgetting something I'll need. It is also a pain to clean up afterwards.

But ... anyhoo ....

Mardi Bock

I brewed my 228th batch of beer on Saturday. It was one of those brew days on which I brought my brewing stuff over to a friend's house and brewed there.

Anyway ... you may remember my homebrew friend "Doc" from Cinco de Bealtaine Irish Stout and Learning to Homebrew.

The weekend before, SheppyBrew Beer Model and I had met Doc and his wife at a new brewery for some beers. He had mentioned that he was brewing Saturday with "Dan", another homebrewer we know.

He invited us over.

The Beer Model couldn't attend, but I decided to go.

I had to decide what to brew. SheppyBrew's PBR was almost done in primary, so I had lots of lager yeast I could harvest. I wanted to do a big lager.

The Beer Model said we should make a "Mardi Gras Beer". It took us a bit, but we came to the conclusion that a Bock would be a good Mardi Gras / Lent Beer.

Learning to Homebrew

So ... Saturday, November 3 was the AHA's Learn to Homebrew Day.

My homebrewing friend, "Doc" invited me to his house to brew. You may remember that earlier in the year, I went to house for Big Brew Day (see Cinco de Bealtaine Irish Stout).

In addition to the two experienced homebrewers, there were a couple of people there to watch us, and a new homebrewer doing his first "real" homebrew batch.

Again, I packed up my brewing equipment and brought it "on the road". Again, it is a little awkward for me to do this.

I need a checklist.

But I was able to get enough of the stuff to Doc's house that I wasn't missing anything. The only thing I had to borrow from him was his wort chiller.

Cinco de Bealtaine Irish Stout

The 5th of May was the American Homebrew Association's Big Brew Day.

One of my Homebrewing Friends ("Doc") hosted an event at his house and invited me to brew at his house.

I usually brew alone, and I've never brought my equipment "on the road". Generally, I'm pretty inefficient at fetching and readying my equipment during brew day. I usually get the next piece of equipment or brewing ingredient "Just in Time", and quite often take several trips down to the basement rather than bringing everything up at the same time.

This helps my fitbit stats, but is rather inefficient. A manufacturing engineer would never approve of my process. A Time and Motion Study would yield all kinds of low-hanging-fruit-improvements to make the process smoother.

I don't care. It works for me.

However, it does mean that I'm not used to getting everything I need together for a brewing road trip.