As you’ve probably come to realize, 99.99% of our brewing is about us. After all, if we’re going through the work, we had better enjoy the fruits of our labors. That being said, on the odd occasion, we do brew for our friends too. In this edition of Wall Brew, we brewed for one of my friends from way back when in high school. My friend, Paden, was getting married and we realized two things:

1. He needed wedding favors
2. I needed to find him and Amanda a suitable wedding gift

With that being the only information on hand, we decided to brew up a large batch (read as: 10 gallons) of one of his favorite styles: Brown Ale. This proved to be a new territory for me, so I went to the brewing guide and did my research. I used these numbers to feed brew-bot and make a template recipe, which was balanced and edited down to the following after a trial batch: (For 5 gallons)

• Grains
  • 3.0 lbs Mild Malt
  • 1.0 lbs Crystal 10L
  • 1.5 lbs Crystal 20L
  • 1.0 lbs Crystal 60L
  • 0.75 lbs Crystal 120L
• Extract
  • 3.3 lbs Pilsner Liquid Extract
• Yeast
  • Safale US-56: American Ale
• Hops
  • 0.5 oz Perle (60 minutes)
  • 0.25 oz Simcoe (5 minutes)

Having each independently come off of long nights of drinking and having an imminently approaching D&D session, Paden, Dariusz, and I did back-to-back 5-gallon batches. While our kettle could certainly manage to hold the full amount of wort, our feeble gas range had nowhere near the horsepower required. So, we accelerated the process with a pair of brûlée torches. Was it poor form? Perhaps. Did it work? You can bet your sweet ass it did.