Wednesday, January 31, 2007

First Homebrew of 2007!

Just in time to make my January batch - tonight I brewed a Franziskaner Hefeweizen clone. Because of the cold weather, it was an indoor extract batch, using a modified recipe from Beer Captured. One case from this batch is a birthday present for my father-in-law; the rest will be for us and some friends.

Tonight was a special occasion because I had the founding members of the Indiana Beer Club over to see how to brew beer. We cracked open a few homebrews given to me by a fellow homebrewer, along with a growler of Marzoni's Doppelbock, Sly Fox Christmas beer (2006), and a few Magic Hat beers from a sample pack. We paired those with some aged cheddar and Amish blue cheese.

Another special part to the evening was a visit from Bill Zimmerman, a journalist from the Indiana Gazette. Bill is working on an article about local homebrewers and home wine makers - the article should appear in the Leisure section of the Feb. 11 edition. Bill spent about an hour with us, learning about the brewing process and enjoying a few beers with us. Hopefully, the article will attract some more brewers and some new members to the beer club!

I started the batch about 18:30, and the yeast was pitched in primary by 22:15 - not a bad way to spend an evening.

2 comments:

Eli said...

Hey, thanks for having us, it was a lot of fun and educational, to boot!

I'll put some pics up shortly.

Adam said...

Sounds like you guys are off and running. Keep up the good work.

Let us know if there's an online place to read the article when it comes out.

Oh...and be sure to put tasting notes up about your homebrew :-)