Beer will be Flowing for Big Brew Day!Dear Datz: I received the Big Brew Day flyer in my email inbox this week, and it looks great, but I¹m a little confused. Can you tell me more about Brew Day and Special Hoperations? Mark
Mark! I was glad to learn of your interest in our Brew Day and I’d love to yell you more about it. Brew Day is being held and run by the newly formed South Tampa homebrew club Special Hoperations. Datz has been great and supports us whole heartedly, and they don’t hesitate to host our club meetings or events. So Datz is really our de facto headquarters. The May 1st Brew Day will be Special Hoperations first event. As its also National Homebrew Day, we are centering the day on the three beer recipes that the American Homebrewers Association encourages brewers to make. However, don’t feel locked on to this. If you want to come out and brew something of your own choosing, please do! Our goal is really just to get together in the fellowship of craft brewmaking. You do not have to RSVP for Brew Day, but I encourage you to come to our next Special Hoperations meeting. We hold meetings the 2nd and 4th Mondays at 6:30 p.m. at Datz, so our next meeting will be Monday the 26. As an experienced brewer we would absolutely love to get you involved with us! Dues for membership are a whopping $15 a year. With membership, Southern Brewing Supply offers 10% off their grains and hops. Oh, and make sure to bring some of your beer to our meetings! We all try to bring in something for everybody to sample/critique. As for brew day, bring whatever equipment you need to make a batch of beer, including ingredients. Datz will supply us with a water source, but otherwise its on the individual to bring their own equipment. One great thing about a brew day is to inspect what other brewers use and see how they do things. We are starting the day officially at 11 a.m., but most of us will probably get there by 10 a.m. to start setting up. For more information about the AHA Big Brew Day and for a copy of the recipes, log onto the American Homebrewers Association website. Special Hoperations also has a fledgling website: www.specialhoperations.com. It’s only about a week old, so there is not a lot there right now, but go back often. Again, Mark it was great to hear of your interest and we look forward to meeting you. Please don’t hestiate to contact me with any other questions or comments. Cheers! Danny Reid President, Special Hoperations |
Home Brew How-ToIf you’re a connoisseur of fine beer, the day may come when you’ve grown weary of sampling the creations of others. If you can no longer satisfy your cravings, you may want to take the plunge and try your hand at brewing beer of your own. Many people are afraid to start brewing their own beer because they think the process is intimidating, but the truth is: it’s far easier than you may think. The equipment is not complicated or expensive. Plus, following a recipe for beer is much like following your grandmother’s favorite recipe for baking a cake from scratch. Measure this, boil that, and Voila! You’re drinking your own beer and impressing your friends. That said, there’s any number of places you can get how-to information. YouTube has come great videos, and the internet is a wealth of (sometimes conflicting) knowledge. The best books out there are The Joy of Homebrewing by Charlie Papazian, and How to Brew by John Palmer. They walk you, step-by-step, through the whole process. Further, How to Brew has its own website where you can read much of the book for free! (Check it out at www.howtobrew.com.) Of course, the best way to learn (in my humble opinion) is for you to come out to Datz for free classes! In a little less than two hours we’ll walk you through the process, actually making beer while we talk. And as an added plus, a few short weeks after we make the beer, come in and pick up a free bottle of the very same brew we made together! No matter what route you decide, the next step is always the same: buying the “stuff” to make it happen. Luckily there is a most excellent homebrew supply store here in Tampa. Southern Brewing Supply is located up on Busch Boulevard and has everything you need to start brewing. They are open Monday through Saturday and are extremely helpful to both the novice and expert alike. If you walked in and said “I want to make beer, but don’t know how,” they’ll square you away. If for some reason you can’t make it out to Southern Brewing, try the internet. There are a “gazillion” brewing supply stores on the web. Now, I don’t want to make a giant list here (because heaven knows it would take me a while to type a gazillion of anything), so again I recommend talking to Mr. Google. However, if you would like to see a good one, try www.northernbrewer.com. Very good prices on everything and shipping is only $7.99, no matter how much or what you buy. Finally, you’ll need ingredients. Again, Southern Brewing or a nice web based company has everything you need. Start out by buying a ready-made kit. Homebrew shops will already have everything you need put together and will come with a handy little “recipe.” Too easy. And that, in a nutshell, is all you need to know. Just go get a little smarter on it, and then dive right in. Again, we’d love to have you come out to Datz for the Homebrewing 101 class. Just go to the events page on the Datz website. Scroll down and find a homebrewing class that still has availability and register! It’s free, it’s easy, and I promise to make the class as fun as possible (which is pretty dang fun.) As most people like to sip a beer while we making the beer, the class gets even better and more fun as the night wear on. As Ben Franklin notably said, “Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.” So get to brewing! -Danny Reid |
