Winter Brewing Adventures

Sun. 10 March 2013

My brewing has typically gone in fits and starts. When people ask how long I have been brewing I always have trouble answering because I started in 2007, but I’ve taken three year-long breaks. The first two were because I was deployed to Iraq and then Afghanistan where I had other things to occupy my time. Then last year I lived in an apartment that was too small to brew. But last August my wife and I moved into a new house.

  

Two Saturdays ago I brewed a Saison (The Flying Fish Baby Saison Farmhouse Ale from Charlie Papazian’s Microbrewed Aventures). One of my friends stopped by to see the process. It is always fun to have a friend over when brewing since a good half of brewing is sitting around waiting for biology and chemistry to take place. I explained the brewing process over some slightly over-caronated pints of pumpkin porter. (Digression – an important part of the homebrew process is to have a homebrew from the previous batch. As you enjoy the yummy previous batch, you are reminded not to worry – a few mistakes go into every homebrew). This is the third time that I have made this Saison and it is fun to experiment with a known success. It has about 6-8 oz of acidulated malt that give it a nice spice.

Today I brewed a Magic Hat No. 9 inspired beer. I will confess that No. 9, while a fine beer, is not one I usually go to in the store. But a friend of my wife had a bunch of frozen peaches that she did not think she could use. I said we could probably handle them. I like it when there’s a story behind a particular batch.

During the brew another friend stopped by for an hour to check out the process. We had some pints of a poblano stout that I bottled two weeks ago. This one was inspired by a poblano stout that my wife and I had at Big Choice Brewing in Broomfield. I put five roasted poblanos in the secondary and let them sit there for a month. It came out with great flavor and not too much heat – in my humble opinion.

The Peachy Magic Hat (as I’m calling it) is now sitting in the carboy. I will add the peaches in a few weeks. Winter Sunday afternoons are pretty awesome.