Have you ever wondered what it takes to be able to brew your own beer at home? Do you enjoy craft beer and want to learn more about how it’s made?
Come join us Sun. Sept. 9th at Toronto’s 10th Annual Learn2Brew event, hosted at Rainhard Brewing Co.
Visit this page for full details:
https://www.gtabrews.ca/learn2brew/
HomebrewCon is wrapped up for another year, and this year marked our best year ever for club attendance! In attendance we had: Zack, Eric, Rebecca, Matti, Sara, Jesse, Sasha, Jim, Laila, Kathy, Victor, and Fred!
Next year will be in Continue reading GTA Brews went to HomebrewCon 2018!
This past weekend saw Toronto's 9th annual #Learn2Brew event, with both east and west locations again this year! One change we tried this year is moving it to September, during Toronto Beer Week (TBW), to take advantage of the warmer weather.
Huge gratitude to our generous hosts Rainhard Brewing Company, and Common Good Beer Co. This event wouldn't be possible without local breweries like these two that support the homebrewing hobby.
Learn2Brew is an event where a half dozen brewers set up and demonstrate the brewing process. We invite the public to come in, learn about homebrewing, and hopefully get inspired to join this wonderful hobby. Here's a smattering of pictures to give you an idea Continue reading Learn2Brew 2017 Recap
Announcing the results from the BJCP component of the 2016 Cask Days Homebrew Competition! Please check the PDF link above for the list of winners. Congratulations to everyone that placed in the competition!
Judges were asked to nominate 1-3 beers from their table to move onto the selection component of the competition where the 10 brewers were selected. In total 21 beers were nominated for the selection round, and it was very difficult to pare that list down to only 10 beers. The selected brewers have been notified privately so we can begin planning, but their names won't be announced publicly today. Cask Days will announce their names in early August.
Scoresheets containing the judge's feedback and scores are still being sorted, but they will be sent out very soon.
In total we had 79 entries from 44 brewers submitted. Thank you to our 16 judges, and 5 stewards for their hard work on the judging day, we couldn't have done this without you. There were plenty of excellent beers submitted and we wish we had enough capacity to brew more, but we we're only able to select ten.
Don't forget that Brew Slam 2016 is coming up in September! If you enjoyed this competition, you'll enjoy Brew Slam even more since it is our flagship homebrew competition. We have thousands of dollars in prizes up for grabs, plus several Pro-Ams!
Thanks for Cask Days and Toronto Brewing for their partnership on this competition!
Here's a few pictures from the final round to tide you over!
Full details are posted here!
http://www.gtabrews.ca/competitions/seasonal-competition/
Entries Deadline: Sunday April 24th, 2016
Judging: Wednesday, April 27th, 2016 at Rainhard Brewing Co.
The third competition in this series will take place in April and have the theme, Spring and Warm Weather Beers! We've also added cider for the first time!
Also, we have updated our software to BCOE&M 2.0.1! Check out the slick new UI!
The 2015 GTA Brews Advent Exchange is done and we're off to the races with two separate advent calendars this year! Twice the size from last year, and twice the excitement!
Note for participants: Please remember to indicate which calendar you are drinking when posting on the FB group. Eg. "Drinking beer 21E, great job Nick Perry!"
Come join us November 7th at Toronto's 7th Annual Learn 2 Homebrew Day event, presented by GTA Brews and Rainhard Brewery.
Saturday, November 7th
10 am - 6 pm
Rainhard Brew Continue reading Learn 2 Homebrew Day 2015 - Nov 7th @ Rainhard Brewery
What is it like to be a homebrewer in Toronto?
Pretty awesome actually.
Ontario, and Toronto in particular, is currently experiencing a renaissance in homebrew retail, and public interest. There are countless new homebrewers buying starter kits every day, just ask the local homebrew shops (LHBS). This is definitely related to the exponential growth that craft beer in Toronto has experienced in recent years. People have been Continue reading The Toronto Homebrew Scene
When people think of advent calendars they usually think of candy, but since we are a homebrew club we were thinking beer. The idea was that we would get 24 people to sign up and brew a beer to put in the calendar. Each person would be assigned a day of the month so that we are all drinking the same beer on the same night, then we can discuss it. James Kennedy put in the effort to make it happen, organizing the exchange and making the calendar below. In the end we had 26 brewers participate in the exchange. Here's to a month of great beers!
I took a few blurry pictures of the exchange, it was a bit cramped and everyone was moving around!
![IMG_20141130_131219[1]](https://i0.wp.com/www.gtabrews.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/img_20141130_1312191.jpg)
![PANO_20141130_131104[1]](https://i0.wp.com/www.gtabrews.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/pano_20141130_1311041.jpg)
This past weekend was our 15th monthly meeting as a club and I'm constantly amazed that so many great brewers come out to share their beers. We had a good amount of new faces and lots of repeat attendees. I found the that the quality of beer was very high this time around, including beer from several people that were insisting they weren't that great! Remember, just because you didn't hit your gravity or mash numbers right on, or it doesn't taste exactly how you imagined, doesn't mean it doesn't taste great!
The Brett IPA we brewed in October at Geof Trail's house was fantastic. On the nose I got a little bit of funk but also tons of tropical fruit (mango, pineapple). Right on with what we were aiming for. I'm hoping to bottle some up to bring to future club meetings, and to do a full review.
Our wonderful hosts Shaun Staples and Peter Kirby guided us through their Brew In a Bag (BIAB) system on stove top. A great system that many small space brewers can take inspiration from. We brewed a clone of Firestone Walker's Double Barrel Ale, which is an oak aged English Pale Ale.
Unfortunately this was the last meeting for our friend Shaun Staples who has been an active member since meeting #3 and when the group was less than 40 people on Facebook (now over 360!). Best of luck in Australia, come back and visit sometime!
Here's the recipe we used:
Firestone Walker Double Barrel Ale clone (ish)
OG: 1.052
FG: 1.015
ABV: 4.85%
IBU: 30ish
SRM: 13ish
8.5 lbs of Pearl / 2 row (67%)
2 lbs of Maris Otter (16%)
1 lb Munich I (10L) (8%)
12 oz Crystal 75L (6%) (preferably english crystal)
4 oz Crystal 120L (2%)
1 oz Chocolate Malt (0.5%)
0.33 oz @ 14%AA Magnum for 60 mins (13.5 IBU)
1 oz @ 5%AA EKG for 30 mins (11 IBU)
1 oz @ 5%AA EKG for 20 minute whirlpool after FO (4.5 IBU)
1 oz @ 4.5%AA Fuggles for 20 minute whirlpool after FO (4 IBU)
WLP002
1.25 oz Medium toast oak cubes for 14 days, to be added after first 24 hours. Will soak in Whiskey or Cognac first, depending on what's handy.
