Big Brew 2002

Big Brew this year was held at the Deer Island home brewery. It was an enjoyable event, attended by about 24 people, with eight people actively involved in the brewing process. We brewed a total of 55 gallons of beer that day. This event is hosted by The Grateful Deaf Homebrew Society and
Deer Island Brewers. Here are a few pictures of the event.

Big Brew day was Another Fun event this year. We had around 25 people attending and Brewed up 76 gallons of Beer! This was the first full capacity brewing session on the 1 & 1/2 barrel system at the Deer Island Homebrewery.

Mash and sparge session on the barrel and a half system.

Rob is set up outside brewing a 15 gallon batch of Brutal Bitter, a Rogue clone.

The boil kettle is almost full!

A special thanks to our sponsors: Rouge Ales, for donating all the grain. Hop Union, for the hops and WYEAST for the yeast.

This year we had 12 people attending, and brewed 50 gallons of beer. We did a big batch on the barrel and a half system to share, and Lee Harries did a five gallon extract brew to show the simple and less time consuming brew method. Hops were provided by our little hop farm here at Deer Island, and yeast was provided by the Laurelwood pub and Rogue Brewery.

Mashing the brew. It takes a bit of time on this system, as the mash tun is not heated, and the hot water is heated in the kettle and pumped over to the tun for dough-in.

Just outside, Lee is starting the extract beer. Here they are pouring the extract syrup into the boil kettle. Lee did a concentrated wort and made up the rest of the volume by pouring the finished beer onto block ice to chill.

The barrel and a half system. It's great for big brew and teach a friend day as a bunch of us share in the brew and take some home.

Just outside the door and under cover by the lean-to roof, there is room to set-up additional brew systems. It was a nice sunny day, so it was nice to be outside.

The kettle is getting full. We start with around 53-54 gallons of wort and boil down to around 47 - 48 gallons before going through the chiller. This years brew is an American Strong Ale. I designed the recipe to be a malty deep amber with caramel notes. As this was a first time recipe, no one knew what it might be like. My efficiency went up on this batch and we ended up with a 1.079 starting gravity. I was shooting for something like a 1.068 to 1.072 but no problem, it should be fine. It is down to a 1.026 now, at 6.9% ABV and reminds me of "Raging Main" an American strong ale brewed by San Juan brewery, San Juan Islands - Washington.

The boil is done and we are pumping through the hop-back into the chiller and to the carboy's and conical fermentor. Paula is in charge of the flow rate in the hop-back. She keeps the wort flowing at the same rate it is being pumped through the chiller using the site tube.

The beer gets pumped through my custom built 50 foot chiller, into the aerator and to the conical fermentor or carboys.

Fill er' up with super please! We filled three carboys to take home and the rest went into my 31 gallon conical, until it is finished, for the guys who will keg and take home the brew.

Lee is showing some of our first time people the beer recipe that he is brewing.

I started the hot water and mash around 7:30 in the morning. I'm boiling a Scotch Ale in this picture. To the left is Ken's 55 gallon hot water kettle, very handy for the additional water needs while brewing!

We were a very busy group. Brewing was done inside as well as outside under the porch section of the brewery. It looks like the malt syrup is going into the boil pot for the McTarnahans clone. On the other side of the platform toward the back of the building, I have a Pale Ale going.

The Hops arrived just in time on Saturday afternoon. We thought we should celebrate the moment with a picture. Thanks to Hopunion USA for donating the Hops!

BIG BREW 2002