My take on the thing:
I am fortunate enough to be within driving distance to have been privy to the "un-published" rules so I knew to be there beforehand to sign up. Well, actually my wife went since I had to work until noon
. She had mentioned wanting to do a batch too but we decided that one was enough. I got the feeling that they probably got more response about this than they anticipated and that is why they kind of changed the rules. Dunno.
The Cafe was a mess when I got there. You could tell that people were confused. There were people in line and people just waiting (the wife, bless her heart) near the head of the line for the time slots to be called. It was pandamonium! Things will definately need to be made more clear next time. All of their rules stated bring 5G carboys, and I saw peeps with all sorts of containers. I wish I'd brought a keg as lots had due to their filling system.
So I finally get into the brew house and they just had giant hoses and funnels to fill with. You guessed it, foam city as it splashed into the carboy. Most, like me, ended up with only ~4 gallons of wort in our carboys. Man it smelled good though! As noted it was considerably darker IMO than what I expected an all 2-row wort to look like and mentioned that to a couple of other guys. This is where a keg would have been nice as to direct the wort to the bottom and get MORE
. As stated before the guys that were filling answered any questions we had.
So I had to mash more grain then I had thought I would need to but I got through the brew store quickly and it was stocked with everything that I needed(for once). It was packed too! Everything went smoothly with the batch later that night and she's still fermenting like mad! I built it back up to five gallons and perked up the ABV slightly to make what I was thinking about making. It rides the line grist-wise between a black pale and IPA, but hopped to IIPA standards with all homegrown hops. I've never made a beer in this style. I've been talking with people about it and my final line is always "it's either gonna be awesome or really really suck". But I have no doubt it will find it's way through a tap in my kegerator so at the end of the day that's a win.
And I completely understand the sentiment of those that did not know about the early sign up. If I hadn't had a problem a couple weeks ago with my auto-siphon I wouldn't have had to stop by there(I don't usually use them) for a replacement and I wouldn't have known. And I was REALLY stoked when they announced this.
All in all I feel like I got to use my brewing brain a bit on this one. This was a unique concept and will be my first competition. With all of the unknowns up until the moment that the carboy got filled if I even make something drinkable I will be very happy.