DBF Celebrates AHA's 7th Annual Teach-A-Friend-To-Brew Day

Seven. That's the number of brew pots we had at DBF's first teaching demonstration held outside Park Winery on November 5.

The American Homebrewers Association's national Teach-A-Friend-To-Brew Day is not your ordinary Hallmark holiday. Oh, no! On this day, homebrewers all over America coerce their non-brewing friends and relatives to join in the fun of making beer. Displaced Brewery Fanatics did not disappoint.

Using a pot barely large enough to hold five gallons, Bruce Fine introduced his father to the craft. As usual, Bruce concocted his own recipe from ingredients purchased at Park Winery that afternoon. In another small pot, two new members combined efforts to brew a 2-gallon boil kit under the watchful eye of Ed Stone. Their resulting five-gallon ale spent the next week in a carboy at Park Winery.

Of course Ed had two batches of beer on the boil. In one pot, he duplicated the Detroit Brew Factory's highly-favored Centennial Ale, while another pot contained a modified Porter to which he will later add pure vanilla that will mimic Stoney Creek's popular ale. Jay Bradley brewed an Imperial Stout that we will not be able to taste until NEXT YEAR. John Wohlfarth was present to show his beer skills, using whole hops that he orders directly from the grower in Oregon. He also brought his plate chiller to show (or show off?) how quickly the hot wort is chilled to yeast-pitching temperatures.

John's plate chiller impressed veteran homebrewer Bruce Fine so much that he decided to try it. In the picture above, while John holds the plate chiller in his left hand and Bruce's dad feeds the cooled wort into the fermenter, Bruce demonstrates the "Atlas Technique" of using gravity to force the wort through a blocked brew pot spigot. Don't try this at home. Oh, wait! We're homebrewers, so we will try this at home.

With some arm-twisting and taunting, Al Minetola, self-proclaimed homebrewing hack, was convinced that he needed to take his brewing skills to the next level. Using Tom Adams' empty brew kettle and LP burner, Ed, Bruce and John assisted Al with an English Brown Ale that had been waiting on the Park Winery shelf.

Pat Scanlon was unable to attend the event. However, he provided the club with yeast from the Royal Oak Brewery. Special thanks go out to him.

Other members and friends attended the event and brought food to sustain the brewers while they worked. The final brew came out of the pot around 6:30 that evening.

The event is always held on the first Saturday in November. Next year, expect DBF to need twice as many tents, because the club is growing quickly. By November 2006, there will be enough brew kettles tostretch around the corner and down Beaconsfield.