FuzzyBrew

On Saturday, more than 20 Memphis area homebrewers brewed beer on the parking lot of Boscos in Overton Square to celebrate National Homebrew Day.

The brew day was part of the American Homebrewers Association Big Brew, an annual event to celebrate National Homebrew Day held on the first Saturday in May.

Boscos provided the space and gave each homebrewer free wort to brew with, as well as yeast. Brewers brought their own hops and made whatever concoction they wanted with the base of mostly two-row malt, with some crystal malt.

Homebrewers from the Bluff City Brewers & Connoisseurs and the Memphis Brewer’s Association participated in the event, which is always one of the highlights of the year for the brew clubs.

Grant waits for his wort inside Boscos.

Homebrewer Joe Barnes fills the kettle. Barnes was among the volunteers who assisted Boscos brewer Adam Hargrove on Saturday.

Each brewer got 5-10 gallons of wort to boil.

Mark and Nate carry a kettle full of wort to the burner.

Some people didn’t need help!

Memphis-grown Cascade hops.

I made a single-hop Cascade American Pale Ale.

FuzzyBrew kettles.

After chilling, the wort is dumped into carboys, with yeast added soon after at home.

What did you make for National Homebrew Day? Leave a comment below.

Registration is open for the “War of the Wort,” Mississippi’s first full-category sanctioned AHA/BJCP homebrew competition.

The event is being organized by the Golden Triangle Brewers homebrew club in Starkville.

Entries must be received at the club’s shipping location or at a drop-off location by May 11. Final judging will take place on May 19, starting at 9 a.m.

For more information on how to enter, or to volunteer to be a judge or steward, check out the War of the Wort website.

Those of us at FuzzyBrew have sent in our entries. Support the Golden Triangle Brewers and send in your beers!

And, yes, if you’re wondering, homebrewing remains illegal in Mississippi.

But the folks at Raise Your Pints, who successfully lobbied the state legislature this year to raise the alcohol-by-weight limit in beer, will be taking on the issue of homebrewing again.

Next year we will again work on legalizing homebrewing in Mississippi. #msleg

— Raise Your Pints (@RaiseYourPints) April 26, 2012

Those of us here at FuzzyBrew are big fans of the UFC. So we were happy to stumble on this “fighter diary” video for UFC veteran Jim Miller, who’s training for the big UFC on Fox fight May 5 against fellow lightweight Nate Diaz.

Turns out Miller is a homebrewer, and brewing beer is “part of his do-it-yourself attitude that helps him succeed in the octagon,” reports The Star-Ledger. Check out the video below of Miller brewing beer in his driveway.

Also, follow Miller on Twitter @JimMiller_155, where he sometimes tweets about brewing:

Brewed yesterday.Now I’m the proud papa of billions of single celled fungi.But I’m just using them for their pee… twitter.com/JimMiller_155/…

— Jim Miller (@JimMiller_155) April 16, 2012

The 3rd annual Memphis Brewfest drew a capacity crowd to AutoZone Park on Saturday, selling out all 2,200 tickets and drawing an additional 150 volunteers.

It was a perfect spring day to be in Downtown Memphis. We actually started the day at the Southern Hot Wing Festival, filling up on chicken before walking to AutoZone Park for the 4 p.m. start of the beer festival.

Over 190 beers were poured at the event, ranging from craft beers like Nebraska’s Lucky Bucket IPA and Atlanta’s Sweetwater 15th Anniversary Ale to international beers like Mythos from Greece. In addition, the Bluff City Brewers & Connoisseurs had tables at both ends of the concourse, serving homebrews that included a summer ale, a watermelon wheat beer and some great IPAs.

I had so much fun Saturday that I didn’t get to take many photos. But here are a few!

The courtyard area of AutoZone park had beer stations, a stage for a band, and was a great spot to warm up in the sun.
There were 26 beer stations in all, with most lining the concourse area of the park.

A necklace made out of pretzels, like the one worn here by Grant, came in handy when sampling lots of beers.

I didn’t drink any Dos Equis, but I did make sure to take my picture with the “The Most Interesting Man In the World.” Also, check out the sweet Sun Studio-inspired shirt made for the festival by Yazoo Brewing Company.

Music was provided by The Brit Stokes Band from Nashville.

What beers did you try for the first time at the festival, and what were your favorites? Leave a comment below.