When I relocated to Denver a few years ago, I knew one person in the whole city; my girlfriend (now wife) that moved there with me. We hadn’t made many new connections until we spent one Saturday afternoon at a local brewery taproom when we really met our first friends in Colorado.
We overheard a group of people discussing their upcoming brew day at the table next to us. Being an eager homebrewer myself, I asked them what they’ll be brewing. Before I knew it an hour had passed while we were chatting about homebrewing, and we were invited to join them to brew the next day. It’s been five years, and we are all still great friends to this day.
Some homebrewers really enjoy the artistic approach to the hobby, adding home-grown spices or unique ingredients. Some others approach it from a scientific angle, meticulously tracking their brew day as a mathematical puzzle. Many like homebrewing to be a mixture of both art and science — but ask any homebrewer you know and they’ll tell you it’s also for the social experience.
That camaraderie is what this Saturday’s Big Brew for National Homebrew Day is all about. First observed in 1998, Big Brew is an annual gathering of the homebrewing community at American Homebrewers Association-registered brewing sites around the world. When Big Brew kicks off on May 6, thousands of homebrewers will fire up their brew kettles at more than 350 Big Brew events worldwide.
Discover the joys of homebrewing yourself, and check out HomebrewersAssociation.org for a list of Big Brew events near you and to learn more about creating your own beer at home.
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