The 2nd event in two weeks for the Howard County Homebrew Club, this year's KokoPalooza went off very well. Much better attended by club members & their beers than the Taste of Kokomo the week before.
Rosie was on Pipeline Dr. when the truck arrived with the club bar. We had the same spot as last year in the first tent and set up next to the Lafayette brewpub. The beauty of our bar is the ease of set-up. Rosie & Larry had beer ready to pour within 5 minutes of arrival.
With the advances added to the bar in the form of Tinman's elaborate manifold, we are now able to serve up to 6 beers at once. And with the ability to quickly change from pin-lock to ball-lock connectors, changing kegs is a snap.
Through the tower taps for the evening, we had 3 variations on the ESB theme. Cary had the basic ESB, Tom had hopped one up to an APA, and the 3rd was Mike & Jason's soured Big Brew ESB. Through picnic taps we had, Larry's Southern English Brown, Tom's Hefeweizen and Jeff's American Amber Celebration clone. Waiting in the cooler was Tom's American Brown ale. Tom also opened up a bomber of the now rare Bourbon Barrel Stout later into the evening for the lucky few that would get to taste it.
Tom had a very interesting cooler converted to a two keg cooler. A basic picnic cooler with a couple of holes cut in the top for the kegs to fit through. It beats the open lid & cover with a blanket approach that we've been using in the past. Cary is wanting to build a cooler the length of the bar to hold all the kegs for future events. There is also talk of figuring out a way to add more taps to eliminate the need for the picnic lines. Another good idea that was spotted at the Lafayette Brewpub tower was having a tap just for water to rinse glasses. (We just borrowed a pitcher from the Half Moon.)
Just as at this year's Ales for Tails, Indiana Brewers Cup and the Taste of Kokomo, the hit if the evening was the sour ale. This was the beer that people would come up and ask for because they had heard others talking about it all around the event.
One of the most frequently asked questions heard at the bar was "where can I buy these beers?" We try to get the point across that you can't buy them, but you can make them yourself. A point that seems to be lost on many. A few do get it though and begin to ask questions about homebrewing. It will be interesting to see if we begin to see any new faces at the meetings.
I don't know exactly how much beer we poured. We did finish off the English Brown, ESB & soured ESB (much to Mike & Jason's delight, now they only have 1 keg of it). All 3 were partial kegs. The brown had been on tap at the Tin Whisker and the other two were at the Taste of Kokomo. I'd be willing to say that we poured at least 7 gallons of beer 4oz at a time.
Once again, we were very well received and are getting the reputation for always having top notch beers. We saw a lot of faces that kept returning many times over throughout the evening. Even the guys from the Lafayette Brewpub were glad to be next to us. But it looks as though someone is going to have to figure out how to make soured ales on purpose for future events.
The December meeting this year was quite the event. Once again meeting at the Barnhart's house instead of our Half Moon home. Taking advantage of being "away from home", we explored the world of commercially produced porters & stouts with a few homebrews thrown in for good mesure. After all, it is a homebrew club meeeting.
The beers outnumbered the people. A total of 21 different beers were in attendance. They were;
Posts
