On National Homebrewing Day 1997, the Impaling Alers, a Zymology club from Kent, Washington, claimed the world's record for most beer styles made in a single place in a single day by a mob of homebrewers by making 35 different beer styles (as recognized by the American Homebrewing Association).
In 1995, the Impaling Alers set the record for most beer made in a single day by making 764.5 gallons of beer. In 1996 they shattered their own record, making 1478 gallons of beer. This year, the attempt was for quality instead of quantity in search of a new record.
Congratulations to all of the brewers that made this event such a success!
| Style | Brewer |
1. Barley Wine | |
| b) American-Style Barley Wine | Rich Webb |
2. Belgian and French Ale | |
| b) Dubbel | Don Johnson |
| f) White (Wit) | Tim Riddle |
3. Belgian-Style Lambic | |
| a) Belgian-Style Lambic | Jim Rogers |
4. Mild and Brown Ale | |
| c) English Brown | Ken Ward |
| d) American Brown | Al Coatshall / Doug Swovelan |
5. English-Style Pale Ale | |
| a) Classic English Pale Ale | Dan Reigger |
6. American-Style Ale | |
| c) American Wheat | Al Coatshall / Doug Swovelan |
7. English Bitter | |
| a) English Ordinary Bitter | Tim Riddle |
| b) English Best (Special) Bitter | Mike Kaplan |
8. Scottish Ale | |
| b) Scottish Heavy Ale | Jeff Barr |
| c) Scottish Export Ale | Tom Barnes |
9. Porter | |
| a) Brown Porter | Kevin Fawcett |
| b) Robust Porter | Bob Rau |
11. Stout | |
| b) Foreign-Style Stout | Rich Webb |
| d) Oatmeal Stout | Bob Rau / Jeff Barr |
12. Bock | |
| c) Doppelbock | Terry Elston / Ken Ward |
14. German Light Lager | |
| b) Dortmunder/European-Style Export | Walt Workman |
15. Classic Pilsener | |
| a) German-Style Pilsener | Pete Anthony |
| b) Bohemian-Style Pilsener | Bob Rau |
16. American Lager | |
| a) American Lager | Walt Workman |
| d) American-Style Premium Lager | Pete Anthony |
17. Vienna/Marzen/Oktoberfest | |
| b) Marzen/Oktoberfest | Don Johnson |
18. German-Style Ale | |
| b) Dusseldorf-Style Altbier | Al Smith |
19. German-Style Wheat Beer | |
| a) Berliner Weisse | Tim Riddle |
| b) Weizen/Weissbier | John Gehringer / Steve Stovell |
| c) Dunkelweizen | Ron Swan |
20. Smoked Beer | |
| a) Bamberg-Style Rauchbier Lager | Terry Elston |
21. Fruit and Vegetable Beer | |
| a) Fruit and Vegetable | Rich Webb |
23. Specialty Beer | |
| a) Specialty Beer | Robert Medley |
| b) Classic-Style Specialty Beer | Dean Anderson |
24. California Common Beer | |
| a) California Common Beer | Keith Warnock |
25. Traditional Mead and Braggot | |
| c) Sparkling Braggot | Dan Riegger |
26. Fruit and Vegetable Mead | |
| e) Sparkling Pyment | Rich Webb |
27. Herb and Spice Mead | |
| a) Sparkling Metheglin | Pete Anthony |
You would think that the third time's a charm in regards to this brew-a-thon thing, and perhaps you'd be right! After all, in this, the Impaling Alers third attempt at record setting beer making, we decided to cut back on the absolute quantity thing, and make lots of different styles instead. That should have given us time to relax and enjoy the process of making beer with our friends. And to a degree, we did. However, it was still a butt busting hard day of work, and I think that I was personally more busy this year than I had been in previous years! Details follow...
This was the first one of these deals that I wasn't actually even partially responsible for. In previous years, I was a club officer, and in fact the whole idea was mostly mine to begin with. This year I'm busy doing other things, so I therefore had more time to dedicate to brewing and less to bossing people around. The day started bright and early, or as bright as these things can get on a potentially stormy may morning, with me hitting up the new McClenden's hardware store for those last minute hardware store purchases necessary to brewing off-site. (Do not underestimate the hardships involved in moving your complete brewing system to a remote location for use there. At home, you can just pop into the kitchen for that measuring cup that you need. At your brew home away from home, you'd better either remember, or have friends who did!)
As I arrived, the brewing operations were ramping up to full swing. There were perhaps a half dozen brewing stations set up and in various stages of production. Again, these ran the gamut from Al working with a 3 gallon kettle on his camp stove, up to Terry with a very impressive recirculating heat exchanging kettle mounted on a metal stand that was part sculpture, part well organized car wreck. One of the few visiting brewing setups came from the Boeing Employees Beer and Wine club, with the club property three-tier system. It's nice to know that a tiny fraction of the profit generated by the sale of several great airliners was dedicated to the creation of a wonderful brewing system for Boeing employees!
At the last time I counted, our merry little band had made 35 different styles of beer and mead. I'm personally responsible for 4 of those, which means that personally, I was busier than I had been when I was just making quantity. After all, it's easier to make one big batch of stuff than 4 little ones! In any case, it was enough fun that we'll probably do it again next year. Mark your calendars, because it was a great party!
Copyright 1997 by Rich Webb, aka The Outsider.
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This document was placed here on May 13, 1997, and has been viewed countless times.