For the 7th annual Do-It-Yourself Brew-It-Yourself competition, I cooked up something unique but also very fast and easy. I got the recipe from Homebrew Favorites and took a risk on something that was very straight forward but unique. 10 bags of Bengal Spice tea, produced by Celestial Seasonings, was added at the cutoff boil to basically give all the character it could to an all-grain palest of ales and a single hop addition. The aroma was dynamic and the body was flat. It was served out of my kegerator at the event for a start out table beer. It unofficially took 5th place in the competition, but due to having won a place already with my Dark Port Hawk chocolate porter, the award was passed down.
No images exist of the brewing of the Bengal, but it hit the mark for a simple beer that took one stage of fermentation and then straight to the keg in time for the event. If event brewing turns out to be a regular affair for me, I will use this gem as a special seasonal ale.
In total, the event had 15 entries and about 25 tasters in total. Due to some smaller submissions, liter-age wise, had there been any more drinkers we would not have had enough to go around. Kevin and I had some tense moments of tallying at the end of the evening. But the event on the whole went off without a hitch.
