Rugby Charity Beer?

So, a friend of mine plays in an over 30 rugby league and his team is doing a charity drive for an all handicapped, wheelchair rugby league. They are trying to raise about $3800 for a new wheelchair for one of the players. They've asked me to brew a few batches that they can put their team logo on and sell at the games to raise some of the money.

What I'm looking for is a beer(extract w/ specialty grains) that will be inexpensive to brew and won't take to long since they want to start selling it soon. I'm thinking I'll need to make at least four 5 gallon batches.

They're not looking for anything too fancy, the labels and the cause are going to be what sells the stuff. I'm leaning towards a simple pale ale that will be good ice cold at the games...

Any ideas? Any recipes that you guys have made that are crisp, not too heavy, and finish fermenting fairly quick?

Sorry to tell you this, but it is ILLEGAL to sell homebew.

EDIT:

Legal Status of Homebrewing in Connecticut

Updated: 6/97
State: Connecticut
Status: Permitted


Statute:
Connecticut Public Acts 1996

PUBLIC ACT NO. 96-220

AN ACT CONCERNING FARM WINERIES, BREW PUBS, THE HOME BREWING OF BEER, PERMIT BACKERS AND SHELF-LIFE PRICING.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Assembly convened:

Sec. 4. Section 30-77 of the general statutes, as amended by section 74 of public act 95-195, is repealed and the following is substituted in lieu thereof:

(b) THE PROVISIONS OF THIS SECTION SHALL NOT PROHIBIT A PERSON, OTHER THAN A MINOR, FROM PRODUCING BEER FOR PERSONAL OR FAMILY USE ONLY, IN THE FOLLOWING AMOUNTS: (1) ONE HUNDRED GALLONS OR LESS IN ONE CALENDAR YEAR IF THERE ARE TWO PERSONS WHO HAVE ATTAINED THE AGE OF TWENTY-ONE RESIDING IN THE HOUSEHOLD; AND (2) FIFTY GALLONS OR LESS IN ONE CALENDAR YEAR IF THERE IS ONLY ONE PERSON WHO HAS ATTAINED THE AGE OF TWENTY-ONE RESIDING IN THE HOUSEHOLD. SUCH BEER MAY BE TRANSPORTED IN SEALED CONTAINERS FOR USE AT ORGANIZED AFFAIRS INCLUDING BEER EXHIBITIONS, CONTESTS OR COMPETITIONS. SUCH BEER SHALL NOT BE SOLD OR OFFERED FOR SALE.

Approved June 4, 1996. Effective June 4, 1996.

Note: The information presented here is to the best of our knowledge and should not be used as a substitute for legal advice specific to the laws of your state.

But you can charge for entry and give beer away.
Or sell a glass with free beer
Or charge to enter a competition where you get free beer and you have to guess the recipe!

Legality aside, I have to ask: "How does wheelchair rugby work?"

Also, how many of these guys are in wheelchairs BECAUSE of rugby? (Sorry, couldn't resist!)

Or just give it away "free" and ask for donations. Might make more money this way if you have a bucket and don't give change.

Moonpile said:

Legality aside, I have to ask: "How does wheelchair rugby work?"

Also, how many of these guys are in wheelchairs BECAUSE of rugby? (Sorry, couldn't resist!)

Click to expand...

Add Murderball to your Netflix queue.

A relatively low gravity (1.045 or so) Pale is a good idea. Bitters (not ESB or SB) are also good for hot weather.

I had the same concern. The lawyer in me suggested that sale of homebrew could be a problem, and it looks like it is. Figure out a way to give it away with food or something maybe or charge admission. Good luck and stay out of jail.

As for the legality issues, the attorney I do business with said that since I'm donating the beer I should be in the clear. No money involved. Also, the guys this is for are all veterans and/or injured cops, so I'm not too worried.

As for rugby in wheelchairs, both teams are in wheelchairs and these guys are vicious and go all out, don't underestimate them...

My brother is an assistant attorney general for CT and he even said for something like this it's no big deal...

So, again, anybody have a recipe that will shave a week off the normal 1-2-3 rule?

Thanks for any help

Hey Man,

Any wheat recipe should easily break the 1-2-3 rule. Just do a primary then bottle. Should be ready to go in under a month.

just use and wheat DME (which is already half barley malt and half wheat malt)

for german wheat
hallertauer .75oz-1oz at 60 min
hallertauer .5 at 5 min

for american wheat
30 ibus roughly
hallertauer at 60
cascades about 1 oz at 5 min

let me know if you need more help then that

I play rugby for my schools team and Mark Zupan (captain of the US Quad Rugby team) came to our school last fall to give a speech and talk about the movie. after the game he ended up partying with our rugby team and crashing on my couch

cnbudz said:

As for rugby in wheelchairs, both teams are in wheelchairs and these guys are vicious and go all out, don't underestimate them...

So, again, anybody have a recipe that will shave a week off the normal 1-2-3 rule?

Thanks for any help

Click to expand...

Not at all, I was thinking more like the physical contact is likely to involve chairs, which sounds more dangerous than non-wheelchair rugby. Do they pad the chairs to keep from hurting one another?

I also concur that any kind of wheat beer is really fast. We've been drinking them in 2 or 3 weeks even, though the higher grav ones get even better after that.

Ok, now I'm going to have to go get a dunkleweizen from the fridge. See what you did?

It sounds like a good cause and I hope they enjoy the h-brews!

Thought I'd Bump/update this thread..

The rugby team is "raffling" off the bottles(that happen to contain my beer) for $250 per six pack(apparently rugby player have more money these days) Not that the beer is that good but the money is going to charity and 4 cases worth have already been spoken for. I guess that wheelchair is getting bought after all. BTW I went with a dark ale and a blueberry wheat(for the rugby swmbo's)