FuzzyBrew

Judging beers for the 2013 Boscos Pro Am.

Memphis homebrewer Nick Vincent is GABF bound.

Nick is the winner of the 2013 Boscos Pro Am, taking first place in the local competition with his Extracurricular Hoptivity IPA.

As the Pro Am winner, Nick, a member of the Bluff City Brewers & Connoisseurs, will get to brew his recipe on Boscos’ 7-barrel system, and his beer will go on tap at the brewpub this fall.

In addition, Nick will get to take a keg of his beer to Denver to compete in the 2013 Great American Beer Festival Pro Am. He’ll get an all-access pass to the festival from Boscos and airfare provided by the homebrew club.

“This was by far my best IPA I’ve ever made, and I was pretty excited about it when I submitted it,” he wrote in an e-mail today.

Best of Show in the Pro Am was rounded out by Ben Pugh (H.E. Wheat) and Charlie Patrick (“S” Stout).

As the winner of the 2012 Pro Am, I got to judge this year’s competition with Boscos head brewer Adam Hargrove. The competition was really tough, but Nick’s beer, a hopped-up American IPA made with Magnum and Citra hops, was our favorite, and I can’t wait to have another pint when it goes on tap at Boscos this fall.

Nick is in for a real treat when he brews the Extracurricular Hoptivity at Boscos in late August or early September. Here’s what I wrote about my experience when I got to brew my Red Hop Ale there last year.

Cheers, Nick!

On Saturday, Boscos played host to Memphis’ celebration of National Homebrew Day, with close to 40 local homebrewers boiling wort on the back parking lot of the brewpub in Overton Square.

It was a cool morning with no rain, so conditions were good for the American Homebrewers Association Big Brew, which is celebrated by homebrewers from around the world and always takes place the first Saturday of May.

Homebrewers from the Bluff City Brewers & Connoisseurs and the Memphis Brewer’s Association marked the occasion this weekend. Boscos provided the space and gave each homebrewer free wort to brew with, as well as optional yeast. Brewers brought their own hops and created their own hop schedule and recipe.

Homebrewer Adam Steele assisted Boscos head brewer Adam Hargove in the brewhouse and got to experience brewing on the 7-barrel system. He filled the homebrewers’ kettles with either five or 10 gallons of wort.

To celebrate the Memphis Grizzlies’ playoff run, I brewed ten gallons of “Grit Grind IPA,” with Belma, Citra and Columbus hops.

Site manager Joe Barnes (left) helps homebrewer Stephen Russell carry a kettle to the wort chilling area.

At noon, Big Brew participants paused to join in on a world-wide toast. Ben Pugh (left) led the toast at Boscos.

Adam jumped in the kettle to clean it out and posed for a quick photo. Thanks for all your hard work Saturday, Adam!

The first Saturday of May is always a great day to be a homebrewer.

Homebrewers from around the world take part in the American Homebrewers Association Big Brew, an annual event to celebrate National Homebrew Day.

This Saturday in Memphis, homebrewers from the Bluff City Brewers & Connoisseurs and the Memphis Brewer’s Association will mark the occasion at Boscos in Overton Square.

The brewpub graciously provides the space and gives each homebrewer free wort to brew with, as well as yeast. Brewers just have to bring their own hops and can make whatever concoction they want with the wort.

In 2012, an estimated 7,100 people celebrated National Homebrew Day at 254 registered sites. About 1,500 batches created some 11,200 gallons of homebrew enjoyed around the world. Nine countries participated with registered AHA Big Brew sites, including 44 U.S. states.

If you’re interested in checking out the Memphis event and learning more about the hobby of homebrewing, come to the back parking lot at Boscos anytime from around 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

To toast the Memphis Grizzlies’ playoff run, I’ll be brewing a “Grit Grind IPA.” It will burst with citrus and resiny hops and smack your taste buds like the Grizzlies are smacking around the Clippers. (Hopefully, on Saturday, we’ll also be celebrating a Game 6 and first-round series win after Friday night’s game.)

Boscos will provide wort based on its Bombay IPA recipe, and all I really know is that it’s mostly two-row malt, with some crystal malt, and it has an original gravity of around 1.054.

I’ll be using Belma hops for bittering and Citra and Columbus hops during the boil and for dry hopping. Here’s my hop schedule, based on a 10-gallon batch:

1 oz. of Belma at 60 min.
1.5 oz. of Citra at 20 min.
1.5 oz. of Columbus at 20 min.
1.5 oz oz. of Citra at 1 min.
1.5 oz. of Columbus at 1 min.
3 oz. of Citra dry hopped for 7 days
3 oz. of Columbus dry hopped for 7 days

If my rough calculations are right, and they are indeed rough, that should get me IBUs in the mid to upper 50s and a ton of nose.

How does my recipe look? And are you brewing for National Homebrew Day? Let me know in the comments below.

A crowd of 2,000 beer lovers converged Saturday on AutoZone Park for the 4th Annual Memphis Brewfest, a celebration of American craft beers and international brews.

The 2013 festival, with more than 165 different beers sampled, was a big success. It rained, and the Grizzlies were playing the Clippers in Game 3 of the playoffs a few blocks away at FedExForum, and the festival still sold out on Saturday morning. Thankfully, there was covered space for all the booths in the concourse area of AutoZone Park, so everyone could stay dry.

There was beer from local and regional breweries, including Ghost River Brewing, Boscos, High Cotton Brewing, Yazoo Brewing Company and Blackstone Brewing Company. Two homebrew clubs were there: the Bluff City Brewers & Connoisseurs and Memphis Brewer’s Association. Craft and international beers were provided by distributors A.S. Barboro and Budweiser of Memphis, and for the first time, Joe’s Wines & Liquors even had a booth, pouring high-ABV selections from its Beer Nutz Beer Club.

The festival capped off the inaugural Memphis Beer Week, with beer tastings, beer dinners, firkin nights and pint nights all across town.

Memphis’ High Cotton Brewing, which has just started brewing at its new facility on Monroe, had samples of its Saison and Scottish Ale at Memphis Brewfest.

The Bluff City Brewers & Connoisseurs served up some great homebrew, including the “High C’s” IPA, Extracurricular Hoptivity IPA, Rauch Me Like a Hurricane and Strange Fruit Watermelon Wheat, just to name a few.

In addition to its year-round beers, Nashville’s Yazoo Brewing Company had two special beers on tap — a barrel-aged version of its Sly Rye Porter, as well as the New Belgium sour collaboration “Rufus.”

Yazoo also gave away this awesome custom big wheel to this lucky guy.

The mission of Memphis Brewfest is to raise awareness of Duchenne muscular dystrophy. All net proceeds from the festival benefit Parent Project Muscular Dystrophy and the Memphis Redbirds Foundation.