Brew Bros. of Pikes Peak: Homebrewer's Gone Wild

Brew Bros, friends, and family gather to help scale up the homebrew at Rockyard.

A couple times a year Jim Stinson and Kjell Wygant at Rockyard Brewing, in Castle Rock, invite a Colorado based homebrew club to enter a competition through Rockyard called Homebrewer's Gone Wild. One beer is chosen, it is then scaled up and brewed on the large commercial system at Rockyard, all the people in the homebrew club get to come and help make the beer, and then the beer is bottled and available for purchase at liquor stores around the state. This is a pretty cool series, as any homebrewer would love to work on a commercial system AND love to see their beer on the shelves.

John Garbett doing a yeast count for the Ringwood Ale yeast.

Rockyard extended the invitation to our local Colorado Springs area homebrew club, the Brew Brother's of Pikes Peak (BBoPP). The challenge was to come up with an original recipe for either an Old Ale or a Scottish Ale. John Garbett, who just resigned as four-year president of the club, won the friendly competition with his Old Ale. I wasn't able to make it to the brew day on Saturday but here's what fellow homebrewer Robert Cloutier reported:

This last Saturday the club brewed up 11 barrels of Johnny's beer and every member that attended prepared, brewed, cleaned or helped out in some way. We used ove 900 lbs of grain. There were twenty plus members, friends and family. Rockyard will bottle and label some of this beer in 22 bombers with the brew club logo and website info. A few barrels will be barreled aged for a year and the rest will go on tap at the brewery some time in February where we most likely will go for the tapping. Rockyard was very hospitable, they provided us with plenty of samples, a great lunch, and had door prizes for some lucky raffle winners.

Justin Carpenter working on the mash tun.

That sounds like a good time, I'm sorry to have missed it. So, look for bottles at nearby liquor store sometime in February. Also, stay tuned here for information on the release party, hopefully the BBoPP will make a big party out of it...they definitely know how to party. Not sure the title of the beer quite yet, my vote is on 'Better Than Yours Old Ale.'

For more information on the BBoPP homebrew club, you can check them out on Facebook, or visit the Website which hasn't been updated in a while, but I'm a part of a team that's going to change that. I've been a part of the group for almost a year and I've had a ton of fun with this group. Also, just because the club is called Brew Bros. doesn't mean women can't join, there are some women in the group.

Thanks Rockyard

Photos courtesy of Robert Cloutier.

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