Tailgating with Homebrew
Tailgating with Homebrew
Since becoming homebrewers almost two years ago, my friends and I have found every reason to have home-made beer at events. Get-togethers, parties, you name it, and we would have homebrew.
This never was more true than this past Iowa Hawkeyes football season. At the beginning of the season, two of my friends and I decided to create and keg a 5 gallon batch for every Hawkeye home game instead of the regular old tailgate beer (yuck).
There were seven home games, so we decided to split it up that I would brew three batches, and my two friends would each brew two.
We already knew how to make the beer, and we had the 5 gallon soda kegs, so all we needed were the “extras” to make it perfect. We used our carbon dioxide tanks and regulators to push the beer, and we purchased a picnic-style tap to dispense the beer. To make the beer stay cold, we bought a “Keglove“, which is a neoprene sleeve that houses an ice blanket. This sleeve fit over the soda keg, and kept the beer cold for several hours.
Because the University of Iowa doesn’t allow kegs, even 5 gallon kegs for responsible parties, we needed to find a location off-campus to do our tailgating. Luckily, we found a nice spot not far from the campus.
Over the course of the year, we had several styles of beer: an Irish red, a porter, an IPA, an English bitter, and a “breakfast” stout (coffee, oatmeal, and chocolate). Needless to say, all the people in our group always finished the keg before the game, and we had a great time.
Very nice! A group of my friends and I did the same last year for all of the Clemson games we had: A blonde ale, a czech pilsner type of ale (brewed with kolsch yeast and a bunch of saaz hops), an oktoberfest ale (again brewed with kolsch yeast to mimic a lager), a hoppy amber, an IPA and two different “strong ales” that didn’t quite fit the style for any category as they were brewed with various things like rye, honey, orange peel, and both came out around 7-8% and amber colored.
Comment by Matt — April 8, 2010 @ 12:49 PM
That sounds like a lot of fun! I am a big fan of Oktoberfests, but have never tried the kolsch yeast, just the California ale and even the san francisco lager yeast. How did it turn out? I’m always looking for ways to make an Oktoberfest in warmer conditions, but have never hit the right flavor I’m looking for.
I’m also a big fan of rye. One of my favorite beers I’ve made was a rye pale ale with Amarillo hops. Let me know if you want the recipe!
Comment by Ken Valley — April 9, 2010 @ 12:31 PM
[…] year, we got together every Saturday with our friends, just like last year, and had lots of food with homebrew. Three of us divided up the weeks for home games, and made up […]
Pingback by Tailgating With Homebrew – Part 2 | Thoughts on Beer — November 22, 2010 @ 12:22 AM
[…] year’s tailgating season, my friends and I started brainstorming ways to pay tribute to our game-day homebrew. Slowly our ideas grew from a tap attached to a board sunk into the ground, to a way to contain […]
Pingback by Building a Keg Totem | Thoughts on Beer — November 14, 2011 @ 11:42 PM