Out Of Key Brewing

I know no greater joy in brewing than brewing for other people.  This past weekend we had a pre-St. Patrick’s Day party on Friday night.  I served only my beers.  It was a great time.  It seems that my St. Reds Steam – Or as my friend Mitch calls it “St. Reads Steamer” -  was the big hit of the night.  Out of three gallons I would venture to guess that two of the gallons were consumed.  Another big hit was my imperial IPA which some friends enjoyed a bit more than others.  I warned them.  I now can officially say that Imperial IPA’s and Rock Band do not mix.

On Saturday we attended our annual St. Patrick’s day party on the south side.  I brewed an Irish Red Ale for the party.  Its really just a malty, mildly hoppy, red beer.  This party normally serves green bud lite, so it was a great departure from what they normally drink.  I can honestly say that it was a huge hit.  I brought five gallons of it and it was all gone in about an hour.  Most people referred to it as a Killians type beer, which all things being equal, I cant complain about.  The host of the party thanked me whole heartedly.  I will definitely brew more for the party next year.

When discussing beer, I typically use the following words to describe beer:  “Big”, “Hoppy” and “Malty”.  Stan over at Appellation, has a great article discussing the language of beer.

So this past weekend my entire family gathered at my parents house for a weekend of outdoor winter activity.  We had a great time playing in the snow, running up and down the hills, and generally just playing. It was just what winter should be.  There was a good foot of snow on the ground.  It was a bright sunny day and the temperature was sitting at a very comfortable 30 degrees.  Bottom line was it was perfect.  Everything came together to makes things just right.

That night Matt and I found a bottle of Saison de Truite that I evidently had bottled off the keg last spring and left at my parents place.  This bottle came from the batch that I had blended with a batch of 100% Brett C.  It had been sitting in a bottle in my parents back room at about 70 degrees for about nine months.  To be totally honest I had totally forgotten about the bottle.  I believe I had brought it up there for Matt and I to sample in a lead up to our fishing trip.

But to be honest with you.

I cant be sure.

What I am sure of was it was the best beer to ever come out of my brewery.  It was clear, crisp, very drinkable, and had a very nice sour character.  We split the 22oz bottle and I believe we had it gone in less than 3 minutes.  It poured a golden yellow with a billowing white head that just hung on the bottle.  Matt made the comment that the sour character tasted like it could have come from Jolly Pumpkin, which I consider to be a very high compliment.  I think it had that wonderful sour character, not unlike a bottle of Fantome, but I am just a touch biased and not nearly arrogant enough to think that my beers are anything like theirs.

Bottom line is I need to brew another one of these.  Bottle it.  And Forget about it.

I have three gallons of the original Saison wort, that I fermented totally with Brettanomyces Claussenii from White Labs.  I was thinking that I would somehow use that to produce an all brett beer, but I think now what I may do is bottle up the Brett batch and use it to spike batches in the future.  It seems like I should be able to just add a bottle of the stuff to a fully fermented (or earlier) batch and get the souring process started.

The first batch on deck is going to be Saison Noel for Winter/Christmas next year.  Hopefully 9 months will be enough to get it close to where I would like it.  Brewed possibly as soon as this weekend.  Recipe is under development, but I am thinking, 80% pils, 10% wheat, 10% Munich or something along those lines, perhaps spiced with  nutmeg and black pepper.