Pittsburgh's Craft Beer Homebrew Club

c.o.c.k held it’s first Big Brew Day on January 25th, 2009.  The end result was 3 beers:

 A bold barley wine from the first sparge runnings with a SG of around 1.12

An ESB from the second runnings with a SG of around 1.060

 And both a pale ale and lager from the third sparge with a SG of around 1.040

Two separate mashes and boils were combined to prepare around 10 gallons of wort for each beer using two separate home brew systems built by Bill Oates and Steele Stenger.    Bill’s tried and true system is a tier consisting of 3 kegs and several turkey frier burners.  This is only the second brew for Steele’s and while some kinks are still being worked out, it is proving to be a very good setup as well.  Hopefully there will be future posts detailing both of these systems.

Tim, co-owner of Barley’s and Hop’s Beer Cafe in Bethel Park, PA provided a vintage bottle Chimay Peres Trappistes from 2002 which was enjoyed by all!

The brew crew spent most of their day outside in the near 0 degree temperatures and in the falling snow towards the end of the day.  Despite the frigid temperatures, fun was had by all.

For photos of the day, check out http://www.pghbeer.com/?page_id=6&album=2&gallery=1.