Big Brew on Saturday
As you know, here on The Spirit World we have Brewsday every Tuesday, but coming up this weekend is Big Brewsday. Saturday May 6 is 
National Homebrew Day, the day of the “Big Brew“, the day when homebrewers all across the world will fire up their brew kettles in unison and brew a beer for World Peace (well, the World Peace part is my embellishment, but it’s a good idea).
Since 1979 homebrews have celebrated National Homebrew Day on the first Saturday in May. At noon Central time, homebrewers and their friends will toast homebrewing with a pint of homebrew. So far there are 192 home breweries registered with the American Homebrewers Association (AHA) as participating in the Big Brew. Find one near you and see if you can join in. Homebrewers are really friendly people.
Homebrewers are encouraged (but not required) to brew one of the suggested Big Brew recipes. One of the recipes this year is Poor Richard’s Ale, a beer formulated by Tony Simmons of Pagosa Springs Brewing Company to approximate the kind of beer that Benjamin Franklin might have drank. Poor Richard’s Ale was brewed all across America by breweries and brewpubs to be served on the 300th anniversary of Benjamin Franklin’s birthday which was last January 17th. (Benjamin Franklin is known in beer circles as the originator of the saying: “Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.” If he didn’t say it, he should have.) I had several pints of Poor Richard’s Ale at the Brickhouse Brewery here on Long Island. It’s a yummy, malty beer.
If you don’t get to brew beer on Saturday, I hope you’ll at least join in on the worldwide toast to homebrewing. Toast with a homebrew if you can, but if you don’t have ready access to homebrew, then visit your local brewpub and hoist a pint there.
