What is better than coming off a week long celebration of beer than brewing more beer? Nothing really.
In keeping with the grand tradition of home brewing, ASH finishes the AZ Beer Week with the “Beer Week Ends When We Say It Ends Brewout.” This brewout is an opportunity for the club to come together and hang out, brew beer, and see what kind of crazy rigs everyone has.
When I first became a member of ASH in 2014, a brewout was the first opportunity to meet the club. I’d been brewing on my own for a little over a year when I lived in Colorado and never had a community to really work with and learn from. I found myself walking over to Brewers Connection, our benevolent sponsor, to a group of home brewers setting up their kettles, mash tuns, and ingredients.
It was a crazy amount of activity in a small space. Not knowing where to start, I walked up to someone that was setting up there gear and said “Hi”. That someone happened to be newly minted ASH lifer, Ken Forrey. Ken was super friendly and explained what crazy concoction he was brewing.
From there a met some other “new” brewers like me who hadn’t been brewing for a while and were doing a “quick” extract batch. I helped them throughout their brew day, while catching some hockey on their phone. We had a great time and sweat out in the sun but it was fun.
Since then I’ve really enjoyed going to the brewouts. I don’t usually brew because I’m terrible at transporting all my gear anywhere. But I do enjoy seeing everyone, talking about beer, sharing homebrew, and having a great brat that Jeffrey grills up. It’s not so much about brewing for me but building community.
I highly encourage all of you to attend these ASH brewouts in the future and help build our homebrewing community. And if the brew doesn’t really turn out the way you think it will: Don’t Worry, Relax, and Have a Homebrew! Prost!