This Saturday the Brewers East End Revival will hold their annual OctoBEERfest celebration at Cathedral Pines Park in Middle Island. In the traditional German spirit, and despite what the name might indicate, this event is always held in September. However, as the name does indicate, it is also a celebration of beer which is all brewed and contributed by B.E.E.R club members, but more on that later. Additional information about the event can be found on the website, but all you need to know is that it’s $15 (unless you brewed a beer), families are welcome and be sure to bring food for yourself and a little something to share with everyone. There will bee music, BBQ, clams, outdoor games and raffles (with a prize being a 1lb bag of CITRA HOPS!).
In addition to the general BBQ fun, music by White Room (featuring B.E.E.R.’s own Bill Ports) and outdoor beer drinking there will also be a special beer tasting and mini-contest. Mark from Brewtopia was generous enough to donate a 50 lb. bag of Briess Special Roast Malt as a prize for the 17th Annual B.E.E.R Brew Off. Since we assumed (correctly) that no brewer would want to take home a 50lb bag of specialty grain we decided to spread the wealth, dividing the bag among the club. All interested members received a 2 lb. bag with the only caveat being it had to be used to brew something for the OktoBEERfest. We had an overwhelming response and were only left with a couple pounds of malt, so it will be great to see how many different applications the same ingredient was used in. There will be a nut brown or ESB by Chritine Rudowski, a Pale Ale by Lou Zollo, a Belgian Pale Ale by Dave Phillips, a Dunkelweizen by Justin Brian, an American Pale Ale by Greg Woody, a Belgian Dark Mild by Al Raschdor, a Sourdough Roggenbier by Eric Grimm and more. We here at BLC really got wild with it and decided to make a gallon and a half or so of wort using the Special Roast Malt (along with a few other grains) and fresh hops. We then mixed that with four gallons of apple juice and ale yeast. Our beer/cider hybrid is currently fermenting away and we are definitely anxious to keg, serve and most importantly try it (the same goes for all of the other beers too).
Everyone involved goes out of their way to make this a great event for the club. This will be our first year attending so we are especially looking forward to participating in all of the outdoor fun and imbibing. So when will you hear more about our brewing a cider/beer with the Special Roast Grain? Soon. First we have articles from B.E.E.R. members, Al Raschdorf detailing the brew day for his Belgian Dark Mild and another from Eric Grimm where he discusses crafting his Sourdough Roggenbier. These will be featured as guest posts in the coming week. We hope you enjoy their writing as much as us and we cannot wait to try their brews.
