6th annual Puget Sound IFT Brew Night on October 18th

Strike up another successful night of brewing and BBQ for the Puget Sound IFT group. That’s held each year at Gallagher’s Where-U-Brew in Edmond’s Washington.

The brewing event was sponsored by 8 Ingredient companies and included an award winning BBQ ribs and pulled pork meal, with all the sides and various hot sauces you’d hope for!

The event host was Jeff Clawson from OSU who is their Fermentation Science Plant Manager. Jeff talked about the 6 different beers we were going to brew that evening, as well as the red and white wines we were fermenting. He brought along several exotic varieties of hops from New Zealand that he wanted to test in 3 of the beers we were brewing that evening. To see what a difference they would make in three different styles of beers.

We broke up into teams of 5 and chose from 6 different beers to brew in 6 kettles. The beers ranged from a light pilsner to a dark Bavarian Ale. The ingredients were water, various malts, several different types of yeasts and different hops for different type of beers as well as grains in very small amounts.

Brewing is a mix of science and art, where minor differences in procedure or ingredients can make widely differing beers. Sanitation is most important and maintain as sterile conditions as possible must be applied in all brewing and fermentation procedures. Time and temperatures are also critical in making a consistent beer when adding ingredients to the wort and cooking them together.

I think the most interesting thing I learned was at the wine making station when we added oak chips to water and ground them up in a blender. Then added the chip emulsion to the red and white wines, to add that aged oaky flavor to the wines while they fermented.

Bottling of the beer is on November the 9^th the day after the election. They are looking for another excellent turnout to bottle and drink beer that night for sure.

All participants will leave with a mixed case of beer and a great attitude.