Teach a Friend to Homebrew Day

Well, this past Saturday (November 3), was the American Homebrewers Association's Teach a Friend to Homebrew day. I invited a number of friends over and registered our house as Site #82 on the AHA site. The day was absolutely beautiful, a nice crisp fall day with temperatures in the mid 60s. It proved an excellent opportunity to break the deck in with its first "multi-person" brew day. As a side note, the deck is not complete yet and people had to get on it by using a chair, but it looks nice and is already very functional.

Three friends of mine were able to make it out (Sid, Bryan, and John), along with my In-laws, wife, son, and daughter. My In-laws were in town for a completely unrelated reason and my son and daughter always help out in a matter of course (or as much as a 4 year old and a 2 year old can). So, we can count the number of brewers as 8, WOOT!

We brewed a spiced winter ale as our collective brew. One of the tasks the participants were charged with was coming up with a name for the beer. I, of course, reserved the right to veto any names that were deemed unoriginal enough (such as "Bryan, Sid, and John Ale," which actually was suggested). The winning name was "Slap the Bag Ale," named after a rather amusing drinking story shared by Bryan. I shall not recite it here, so I do not embarrass Bryan further, but it was rather funny.

The brew day ended with a cook out of sausages and grilled eggplant. You can see the fixin's behind John as he pitches the yeast into the cooled wort. I hope everyone had a good time and learned something.

Now, hopefully the beer is as good as the story behind its name . . .