This year's MHBA Big Brew meeting will be held on Saturday, May 7th from 10am to 4pm at a warehouse in Minnetonka which may be the future home of a new brewery here in Minnesota. The address is: 6020 Culligan Way, Minnetonka MN 55345. We are gong to take a new direction with Big Brew this year. Our focus will be learning about single hop varieties in IPA's which include bitterness, flavor, and aroma. We, as a club, will be brew...ing an IPA with extract and specialty grains. Our club will be providing extract and specialty grains for a recipe we have created for brewing teams! (Hops and yeast will need to be provided by the members). Our mission is to form teams of 2 or 3 brewers per brew session (up to 10 brew sessions), and brew the same IPA extract recipe provided by the MHBA, and each team is to select which one single hop variety they will use in their IPA, and choose their own yeast. For example, Team 1 ("name your own team") will brew their IPA with their own additions of Simcoe at their chosen addition times, at their chosen amounts, and use WLP001 yeast. Team 2 ("name your own team") will brew using only Columbus hops in their IPA, and WLP051 California V yeast. It's up to you! Afterwards, we will ask that each team bring 2 bottles or more if you please to share to the July MHBA meeting to sample and will be judged in a MHBA exclusive IPA Big Brew Competition. Top 3 winning teams will receive prizes. MHBA teams are to provide kettles, burners, propane, chillers, hoses, and other brewing necessities you would need on a brew day to brew an extract beer. There will be water sources provided, as well as restroom facilities, and warehouse shelter if needed. Please bring lawnchairs, beverages if you please, and a type of food, snack or dessert. We will have a grill to cook on at the site! Anyone interested in bringing their equipment and brewing at Big Brew, please contact Neil Bromenshenkel at neilbrom(a)hotmail.com along with names of any co-brewers by May 1st in order for us to know how much extract and specialty grains to purchase for the event. More information will be posted to the MHBA Facebook page, and our Yahoo Members Forum page. Please signup through the membership pages or e-mail Neil Bromenshenkel directly at neilbrom(a)hotmail.com