Brew Day With 3 Beers Gone!

Saturday August 25th 2012 I had a brew day with some guys from another local home brewery named 3 Beers Gone. Glenn Weisgerber one of the members has come to help me brew her at FAB on a few occasions. On one of those brew days we decided we would have a combined brew day. We would both brew the same beer but use our own brew rigs and use different yeast. We decided to try and model our beer to be similar to the fall brew "Tumbler" by Sierra Nevada. Here is the recipe listed below.

OG. 1.055
IBU's 40.6
SRM 29.5
ABV 5.2%

9.5 lbs Pale 2 Row (Bel.)
1lb 60L Crystal Malt
.75lb Chocolate Malt
.25lb Smoked Peat
2 oz. Northern Brewer (60 min)
1 oz. East Kent Golding (10 min)
.50 oz. Perle (5 min)

I used WL011 made a 1L starter 24 hours before pitching.

3 Beers Gone used WL002 English Ale

Overall the day was great we had a nice turn out and everyone was eager to get brewing. While I washed out my gear Tim and Ken from 3 Beers milled the grain for both batches. Glen and I tinkered with the recipe to try and match it as close as we could. Glen was doing ten gallons vs. my five.

I had a little home court advantage and was able to mash in about half hour before 3 Beers. My brew day went off with no issues. I was able to mash, sparge, boil, cool, aerate, and pitch the yeast all within 4 hours. 3 beers had a stuck sparge which caused some delay but nothing that was not manageable.

                                                      Glenn Messing With Beersmith

 We both finished off or brew days with great amount of success. I would encourage all home brewers to find like minded people to brew with. The value gained in brewing with other brewers is priceless. Our two home breweries are looking towards October to do another joint brew. We have even contacted another home brewery "Black Bus Brewing" to join us as well.

                                                                       Mashing

We ended the day with some food on the grill and of course sampled a few pints throughout the day. We compared brews we had both made IPA's so we compared the differences and gave both some feedback about what we liked and what we would change. Because of this feedback I am looking forward to brewing my IPA again with some modifications to the hop additions.

It was the first but not the last time we will get together to do a joint brew session. It was more work than a normal brew day for both groups but it was by far a well worth it.

As of the following morning both beers were fermenting nicely. I will follow up on this blog with tasting notes and comparisons to both beers.

Cheers for now!