Big Brew Day 2016 – Throw Mama From The Flame

So May 7th was Big Brew Day.  What is that?  According to the American Homebrewers Association website, it says:

“In 1988, May 7 was announced before Congress as National Homebrew Day. The American Homebrewers Association (AHA) created AHA Big Brew as an annual event to celebrate National Homebrew Day around the world. AHA Big Brew is held each year on the first Saturday in May.”

So what did I do?  I had to brew!  Only problem was my wife was out of town for a trip, so I had to brew by myself.  That is really ok, but I wanted to be sure I brewed, so I did a quick batch.  Throw Mama From The Flame was born.  This is kind of a followup to a previous brew, Too Hot Mama, but a different style.  This brew didn’t just use two ghost peppers, but rather much more.

For this brew I had a few personal requirements.  One, I had to have all ingredients on hand since there was not time to hit the homebrew shop.  Two, it had to incorporate the last of the ghost peppers that I had grown.  Three, it had to be a simple brew that wasn’t going to be too time consuming.  So, I took stock and decided to wing it a bit.

Ingredients: 7 chili peppers, 7 Tabasco peppers, and 3 ghost peppers.  Then some Sovereign, Summit, and Centennial hops.  Finally, four cans of Mr. Beer  Classic American Light hopped malt extract.

The Summit hops, half an ounce worth, was thrown into the boil right at 60 minutes along with 2 cans of the Classic American Light.  Five minutes later, I started to add the peppers from “mildest” to boldest, starting with the chili peppers.  At 45 minutes, half an ounce of Sovereign hops was thrown in.  I know this is more often an aroma hops, but I was unsure of the age of these hops as they had been in my container for quite some time.  So, a mid boil hop addition it was.  At 30 minutes, the other half ounce of Sovereign went in as well.  At this point I also dropped in 7 Tabasco peppers.  At 15 minutes, the other two cans of Classic American Light went into the boil.  Then with 10 minutes left in the boil, I dropped in the three ghost peppers.  At flameout, I threw in a half an ounce of Centennial.

I did a quick cooling in the sink, and transferred the wort to my Big Mouth Bubbler.  I had to add a little water to top it off to a 5 gallon batch again.  I did a lot of agitation to introduce some extra oxygen in there, and sprinkled on four packets of the Mr. Beer yeast.    My starting brix was 12, and I am not sure if I got a good mix in the sample, or if the more dense wort had not mixed all the way.

6 hours after pitching the yeast!

After 6 hours, there was already a nice layer of krausen in the bubbler.  24 hours in, their is still lots of great action happening!