Mariposa Brewer Bob Larson
We took first place in the Spirits Division 590, Class 5, brewing a India Pale Ale, while Bob Larson took second place with a lager that was brewed around nine months ago!
The following is how this Fair Winner batch of beer was made.
First up is a thorough cleaning off all items that will be part of the brewing process, use only soap or detergent that is made for brewing, next using a small amount of bleach and mixing with water in a large plastic container that will hold at least six gallons of liquid, add all items that will come in contact with the beer. Let that soak for at least a 1/2 hour, then rinse with hot water until the smell of bleach cannot be noticed.
While this is all soaking, your brewers yeast should be mixed and busy at work, around five gallons of water should be coming to a temp of 70-80 degrees Fahrenheit and the Coopers Malt Concentrate should be heating up nicely in hot water.
After the equipment is all cleaned and sanitized, pour the Coopers Concentrate into the plastic container then add your warm water but not all five gallons of it along with brewers sugar. Take a temperature reading to make sure you are in the 70-80 degree range, if not add cold water or the rest of the warm water to bring it into that range. Take your alcohol content percentage reading with a hydrometer then add your yeast to the mixture.
Next we siphoned the mixture into a five gallon water bottle, and put a air lock on the top of it that keeps germs out but allows the built up gasses to escape.
This bottle was then stored where the temp could be kept right below 80 degrees (Not hard to do in the summertime!) for around five days when a reading is taken with the hydrometer then a couple days later another reading is taken to make sure the fermentation has stopped. Then just before bottling add more sugar to the mixture.
At bottling time, a siphon was used to fill the bottles (Not to the top!), next an antique capper was used to cap the India Pale Ale. The beer then is stored for around two weeks before sampling as secondary fermentation is taking place.
The labels: The Sierra Sun Times entry was 'All American Beer', Mariposa's Finest Homebrew! With a photo by Ray 'Bubba' Sorenson II whose painting of a rock depicting war scenes has made him famous, and he is only now 18 years old. His paintings have went around through the email system many, many times. He was contacted and agreed to let us use the image. A big thank you to Mr. Sorenson for letting us use the photo and for his imagery on the 'Rock'. His website is here: bubbazartwork
Bob Larson's label is a custom label: Bobs Bathtub Brew: Lushmeadows Finest Beer.
Finally we want to thank the judges of the 2007 Mariposa County Fair for honoring us with first place. Also a big thanks to Bob Larson for showing me the way!
Watch for another entry next year and this time we may use some local Mariposa ingredients in our batch of Fair Beer!
