Keystone Barrel Brew and Picnic Tomorrow

If you’re the guy who always doubles up on your booze–say, you unfailingly drop shots of Bailey’s or Jamo into your Guinness or can’t stand a cocktail with fewer ingredients than a Long Island Iced Tea–you may be just the sort of fella who’d like to take a gander at the making of a beer aged in used bourbon or brandy barrels.

Tomorrow, from about 10 am to 5pm, Keystone Homebrew Supply is hosting its first Barrel Brew open house picnic that features an invitation to age beer brewed on-premise in either a Buffalo Trace bourbon barrel or a Lairds apple brandy barrel. Beer nerds get excited about liquid aged in these types of vessels as it lends a richer, sweeter flavor to the beer (see Founder’s Breakfast Stout, Kentucky), and your typical home brewer doesn’t often get a chance to use them in the making of his or her own beer because, seriously, where in your basement do you have room for a bunch of bourbon barrels?

If you’re not a brewer and just want to come to devour free hotdogs, hamburgers and what Keystone sales guy Aaron says will be enough free homebrewed beer to “kill the Irish Army,” don’t feel like you have to pretend you accidentally left your rig at home. It’s too late to sign up to brew anyway, so just bring the family, observe and ask questions as homebrewers use their own equipment to cook up two pre-determined recipes in preparation to combine them into common aging vessels, then eat, drink and get merry.

Oh, and most importantly, be sure you make friends with at least one of the brewers at the picnic, so hopefully they’ll invite you to come over in about three months to sample the finished product.

Barrel Brew and Picnic [Keystone Home Brew]