Big Brew Day is one of the biggest homebrewer’s holidays of the year. Each year the American Homebrewers Association suggests two recipes for you to brew on the big day, which this year is on May 7, 2022. The AHA 2022 Big Brew Day recipes are for The CommUNITY American Lager and Dark Inception Imperial Porter; both of those recipes sound delicious and will be fun to brew.
To help celebrate the big day and get everyone amped to get into the homebrewery, Chop & Brew also asked our good friends at Imperial Yeast to help customize two additional recipes for fans to brew on (or before?) Big Brew Day 2022. What we came up with are Fool’s Spring Saison and Dry-Hopped Kölsch. We decided to aim springtime beers with low-ish starting gravity and fairly quick turnaround time. They’ll be great to brew on Big Brew Day or you might brew them in advance to serve to your friends — and maybe show them how to brew a second batch — on Big Brew Day, so they can taste the beer at the same time as seeing how it’s brewed. (Just an idea!) Both recipes are built around a unique yeast strain, and Imperial Yeast also gives a secondary strain option if you want a slightly different beer. See recipe pages below for full description and ingredients. If you brew these special recipes before, during or even after Big Brew Day, please share photos or video of your brew day with us by tagging @chopandbrew and @imperialyeast so we can enjoy and share them. Happy Big Brew Day, everyone!
Sometimes it seems like spring will never get here. This beer guarantees that your life will at least taste like spring – even if winter just won’t give up. This is a fairly classic and straightforward Saison recipe using B56 Rustic, which comes from Brasserie Blaugies. It’ll contribute some really nice light fruity esters with a solid backbone of spicy, clove, and pepper-like phenolics to back it up. If you love bubblegum esters, turn up the heat to pump those out. The resulting beer will finish with a full body and smooth mouthfeel. RECIPE | WATCH: Pro Tips on Fermenting Fool’s Spring Saison
We decided to throw tradition out the window with this one and combine our love for a delicate and crisp Kölsch with our NW hop loving roots. Below you will find a traditional Kölsch recipe that takes a wild turn at the end of fermentation with the addition of two ounces of Amarillo hops. It’s our experience that the combination of the G03 Deiter yeast’s delicate ester profile and crisp finish will play nicely with the big orange and orange peel flavors created by the dry hop addition. You could also consider a more floral or spicy hop for the dry-hop addition such as another does of Hallertau Mittlefruh or Spalter Select. RECIPE | WATCH: Pro Tips of Fermenting Dry-Hopped Kölsch.