Wort City Brewers - September Meeting

Back to Wilmington Homebrew Supply Store for the September meeting and the members of the club really turned out. Maybe it was because they knew we would be sampling all the IPA entries from the quarterly competition? Maybe it's because sitting around and drinking homebrew while discussing homebrew is just plain awesome.

Sometimes this is a forum for people to show off and provide inspiration to fellow homebrewers. This night was no exception with one member bringing a giant bag of Zeus hops he had grown. He has so many hops he brought some in just so everyone could get a smell of them. If that isn't inspiring - I don't know what is. Makes me want to plant about 10 more hop plants and run trellises from the second story of my house!


In addition this someone had made a homemade Randall that can be hooked up in line with a ball lock homebrew keg and dispensed from a picnic tap. All it took was a few parts from Grainger, Lowe's and the LHBS and he created this. I can think of hundreds of possibilities of things besides just homegrown hops to put in the Randall for some experimentation. I fully plan to build one of these!

Of course the inspiration doesn't stop there. The biggest inspiration from these meetings is the BEER we get to sample! The overload of IPA's gave my palette a test, but there were several standouts that inspired me for some of my future brewventures.

Tasting Highlights

Citra Pale - Without a doubt one of my favorite hops and seeing this example of a single hopped Citra pale inspired me.

Strawberry Ale - I'm not sure exactly what to call this - bunch of crushed up strawberries and then add yeast? I list this as inspiration because if you have a bunch of leftover fruit you can't eat consider making alcohol with it. Not the best but it was drinkable

C-Storm IPA (1st place in competition) - Using Colombus, Citra, Centenniel, Cascade, and "C"imcoe hops made for quite a tasty IPA. This has inspired me to make a single IPA with a large variety of hops. I've done this with Double IPA's but never before on a large scale with single American IPA.

--Ben