Big Brew 2026 - Urban Forest

Name: Big Brew 2026 - Urban Forest
Start: 2026-05-02T11:00:00-06:00
End: 2026-05-02T16:00:00-06:00
Location: Urban Forest Craft Brewing

Schedule

Sat May 02 2026 at 11:00 am to 04:00 pm

UTC-06:00

Location

Urban Forest Craft Brewing | Rockford, IL

In 1988, May 7 was announced before Congress as National Homebrew Day. The American Homebrewers Association created Big Brew as an annual event to celebrate National Homebrew Day around the world. Big Brew is always held on the first Saturday in May. Homebrew clubs around the globe get together every year during Big Brew to brew and celebrate.
Big Brew will be back at Urban Forest Craft Brewing this year. We encourage brewers to pack up their gear and bring it out to the brewery and brew on site. If you are planning on brewing, please let us know. There is ample space. There will be water hookups and electric outlets (no 220v/240v hookups though). This will be a rain or shine event, but we'll have our club tents if need be.The official event will be 12pm - 5pm, but if you are brewing and want to show up earlier to get setup, it won't be an issue. Just let us know.
If you are new or interested in home-brewing, or have any friends that are interested, this is a great event to attend since you'll be able to watch multiple people brew from start to finish, check out the various setups and pick up some tips & tricks. Being a public event, this will also be a good recruiting event for the club.
In addition to the tasty beer on tap at Urban Forest, feel free to bring some homebrew beer as well, so if nothing else, stop by to share some beers and hang out.
The American Homebrewers Association always releases official recipes for people to brew during Big Brew. The official recipes for this year are Monk’s Ration Trappist-Style Single, George and Aaron’s Pre-Prohibition Porter, & Dark Cellar Imperial Stout. Recipes can be found here: https://homebrewersassociation.org/aha-events/big-brew-national-homebrew-day/