Brewing in the cold always presents certain challenges. Last year we had a foot of freshly fallen snow. This year we had a little snow, but much "warmer" temperatures. Regardless, everything went off without a hitch. No frozen hoses, no frostbite and no need to establish late day "safe zones" for certain society members.

In fact, this was our largest Brew Day to date, with 6 brewers. Winter tends to firm up the turnout, as what else would you rather be doing on a cold blah day besides making beer and taking precautions to not die of carbon monoxide poisoning?

The Brewers

For my batch, I opted to go with an Imperial Stout. With 19 pounds of grain, I am looking for a big, big beer with an ABV around 10%. I'm going to try and sit on this one until fall. Try, of course, being the operative word.

Dave brewed a Newcastle clone and Eric a chocolate porter.

Brian brewed another batch this, coming off the sucess of his holiday ale he brewed a couple months ago. Keith, as always, was there lending a helping hand(s) to whoever needed it.

It was good to see Jay, too, who cranked out his batch in record time. He was an example of no fuss efficiency.

David and Alek showed up to brew for their first time with us and went through the maiden Brew Day process of assembling their burner. Thanks to all of the safety measures, this was a ridiculously time consuming process, as they will surely attest.

Drew held the award for most interesting and fastest brew of the day: mead. Mead, or honey wine, is made with just water and honey. Drew scored a ginormous (my unit of measure when I have no idea of the quantity) tub of fresh honey from a friend at work who has hives (think bees, not skin). The honey by the way tasted amazing on its own.

I am looking forward to trying it, which unfortunately won't be until next year after it ages.

Another Brian also showed up to help, as he plans to start brewing soon. He is taking Dave's excellent approach of watching everyone in action before buying/making his equipment and having his maiden brew.

If we play our cards right, our next Brew Day may rise to 7 brewers, which is fine because we had plenty of garage and by judging from the CO detector, plenty of good air movement.

The Food

We are going on our two year anniversary as a Society and over the course of those two years we have learned to improve the efficiency of our operation by fine-tuning one area: the timing of food consumption. Historically, we would brew like crazy and then feast at the end. Although the anecdotal stories of our early days are hilarious, we began to realize we had to watch out for the safety of our iPhones, backs and dignity...and yes, there are stories for all three.

Now feasting isn't at the end, it's all day long and this Brew Day was one of the best feasts yet. First, we had dueling Chilis from Dave and Jay. Dave's goal was to make his hot enough that Brian would need to bring a change of pants. I think he came close.

Brian (the newer), brought his electric turkey fryer to fry pickles. This is a sight you want to see when walking into the garage.

Frying in the winter can be a pain, so it was great that Brian was able to swing into action with his electric fryer and continue our hot oil tradition.

Drew brought along venison sliders. With his shorter brew time because of the mead, he was able to keep tabs on the grill while we started our own processes.

Served on small rolls with slithers of cheese, they were rich and excellent.

Another Brew Day perennial was the fatty stuffed with feta. You can not have a Brew Day without one.

Although the sliders, chilis and fatty took us through cooling, a 9 pound cajun pork loin finished up the night. Eric supplied the loin, which after his kilt incident at Brew Day this past summer, seemed quite appropriate.