Beer Bloggers Brew-off
I came up with this idea a couple months back. I’m not entirely sure what dark unused part of my brain it was spawned from, but has been warmly received from the Beer Blogger’s I’ve approached about it. Basically the idea stemmed from seeing my fellow bloggers tweeting about brewing beer. It seems to me, you get a deeper understanding of beer when you make your own. But I digress, since I’ve been doing the Beer Brawl™ podcasts, reviewing beers, and brewing them, I thought it would be fun to combine it all together! So, I enlisted the help of some beer bloggers you probably know…
Aaron – Captain’s Chair(@captainschair)
Derek – Luther Public House(@LutherHaus)
Erik – Top Fermented(@topfermented)
Ethan – Geek Beer (@geekbeer)
Joseph – Hopfentreader (@hopfentreader)
Michael – Thank Heaven For Beer (@heavenlybrew)
Nate – Thank Heaven For Beer (@THFBeer_nate)
Peter – Simply Beer (@simplybeer)
Thomas – Beer Genome Progect (@TomBGP)
So what is the “Beer Bloggers Brew-off“?
We are all going to brew the same base Stout recipe with the same time frame, but we all get to change ONE thing about the recipe, our secret ingredient. The secret ingredient can be anything, as long as the 5 gallon batch is completed on time. Once the batch of beer is bottled, we’ll ship each other a couple bottles of our Stout and we do a virtual tasting. I will record a podcast for all to hear. Sounds cool, huh?
The recipe:
9 lbs. Domestic 2-Row barley
16 oz. Chocolate Malt
16 oz. Roasted Barley
4 oz. Flaked Barley
4 oz. Caramel 60°L
1 oz Williamette hops (60min)
1 oz tettnang (2 minutes)
60 min mash @ 152
~75 min sparge @170
60 minute boil.
American Ale Yeast (wyeast 1056)
base recipe has estimated gravity of ~1.051 and finish around 1.014.
The Schedule:
Brew day will be December 13th, Beer bottled on January 10th, 3 bottles of Beer shipped to each of us on Feb 1st Tasting on Fri Feb 12th(subject to change)
Very simple! I’m excited to see what these accomplished homebrewers can put together. I’m sure it is going to be 6 exceptional brews that we’ll be tasting Febuary. If your a blogger and would like to be part of this and can meet the schedule. Please contact me.
This sounds awesome. Maybe I can be in next years brew off if it’s done again.
start brewing mike, we’ll save you a seat at the table!
Come the new year I will purchase my supplies and get started. I’m excited.
Great idea!
Aw, man. I would be all over this, but I can’t brew this weekend.
What if I brew a week late and still ship them out on the same date? 😀
if you can meet the ship schedule, you’re in! email me contact@simplybeer.com
This is a really, really good idea, and I like the secret ingredient component! Looking forward to reading about the results too!
Keep going with that brewing Scott and Join us next time!
Excellent idea and though I cannot make the schedule I will be following the progress to see how all of the batches turn out. I look forward to hearing what all of the secret ingredients turn out to be!
I’m stoked to hear what these brewing madmen are gonna do with this simple recipe. I know what I’m gonna do… just hope there is enough time 😉
You know, the most challenging part is only making ONE change. I keep on thinking of things that involve TWO.
I got it now, though. Will it be good? No idea. But it will most definitely be educational.
You said it Eric, not supposed to be easy but fun. Takes a bit of thought to make a unique beer with one secret ingredient. So you’re clear you can add, subtract or change 1 thing. So you could Change the yeast or add Another hop or increase the chocolate malt.
What a fantastic idea. Wish I could join but have both my fermenters full at the moment and no time to brew. Maybe keep me in mind for next year. I’ll be following your brew-off to see how it goes. Cheers!
This is a great idea, Peter. Maybe you should put together a panel of judges. I can’t brew yet, but I am an experienced beer drinking who is willing to help!
Lisa and I will definitely be following along to see how it goes. Maybe Lisa will want to enter the next one!
Just out of curiosity – what have people ended up as an OG?
When I put this recipe together in BeerSmith it gives me an estimated OG of 1.060, not 1.046. That’s pretty significantly different.
I mean.. not that I mind. 🙂 Just making sure I’m on track.
Looks like a typo on my part the OG should have been 1.051. I put it on Beer Smith too. I have an Estimated Gravity of 1.051. My OG was 1.052. I didn’t add any additional sugars to my boil. I added a picture of my OG here: http://www.simplybeer.com/blog/2009/12/16/beer-bloggers-brew-off-the-brew/
Huh. Interesting. So about 65% efficiency, then?
Guess I’ll see how mine turns out.