Brewing an IPA

Since being announced in front of Congress in 1988, National Homebrew Day has been celebrated by brewing enthusiasts and beer lovers around the country and the globe. The AHA organizes a yearly “Big Brew,” a commemorative recipe meant to be brewed around the world simultaneously and which yielded over 13,000 gallons brewed by over 5,000 people in six continents in 2009. My friend has never brewed a batch and offered up his home as a brewery if I agreed to teach him what I know, so we seized the occasion to brew our inaugural batch together. Admittedly, we would be brewing our own recipe for an IPA and we would be three days late, but life comes before beer more often than we would like and we would be contributing our five gallons to the greater cause none the less.

Having procured the last few pieces of equipment and the ingredients the day before, I was ready to head over to my friend’s house at 9am. We got the equipment in order, did the preliminary cleaning and then began bringing our water up to temperature. Once there, we began steeping the grains and I was happy to once again fill a house with the smell that comes off of a brew kettle; bready, sweet and inviting. After a nice long bath for the grains, we sparged them and began bringing the water to a boil. We then removed the kettle from the burner just long enough to stir in the malt extracts and, once the brew was back on the burner and up to a boil, we added the bittering hops.

Forty minutes until the next hop addition gave us plenty of time to clean and sanitize the rest of the requisite brewing paraphernalia. That done, we added the hops and went to the basement to utilize fifteen minutes to ready the carboy. One final hop addition and a five minute finishing boil and then we whisked the brew kettle down stairs to be dunked in an ice bath (in lieu of a wort chiller). Down to pitching temperature, we funneled and filtered the wort into the carboy and added water to top off the volume. A final transfer back upstairs to the pantry and then we pitched the yeast and set the blow off tube.

After a final round of clean up, my friend and I headed out to get some lunch and he remarked how he felt like we accomplished something and was surprised at the combination of skills that goes into brewing. I couldn’t agree more.

At its finest, the art of brewing owes much to the worlds of both refined scientific knowledge and practical know-how that, once combined with wholesome ingredients and honest labor, produces a precious liquid gold that nourishes the body and fortifies the soul. Seek the Alchemist, indeed.

It may not be possible for everyone to celebrate National Homebrew Day by actually brewing. If you are counted among that lot, my recommendation is to start assembling your kit for next year, seek out a new friend that homebrews or go to your local brewery, buy a pint or five and thank the brewer.

Actually, that last recommendation stands pretty much every day of the year. Sláinte!