It’s quarter’s end. Almost. The folks I cover during my day job are now scrambling around crunching revenue figures and submarket rent data.
I will respond with a run-down of good homebrews that came to be in the past three months. In the end, it’ll be way, way tastier than a look at how sublease space is totally ballooning downtown.
Alewife IPA: Brewed in mid-March, OG 1.054, FG 1.012, Wyeast 1056. My first recipe that didn’t come out of the box. This one’s built on the malt bill from a Charlie Papazian recipe, with the hops blown out a lot. Brewed with 60L Crystal and home-toasted American Two-Row, bittered with an ounce each of Magnum and Amarillo, and finished with an ounce of Cascade and half an ounce of Centennial. This thing came out pretty damn well. Next time around, I’ll probably throw some Centennials in the dry hop and push the citrus notes forward even more.
Dead Man Walking Cream Ale: Brewed in late May, OG 1.054, FG 1.014, Wyeast 1056. Bittered with an ounce of Saaz, and finished with an ounce of Tettnang. Brewed for a bachelor party. I’m drinking the leftovers now. This one ended up kind of stuck in no-man’s land, but it’s a tasty brew. Made with 12-percent flaked rice and a half-pound of Carapils for body and head retention. The Carapils sends this one out of Cream Ale territory, color-wise, but because of the yeast and because it’s brewed with adjunct, it’s not much of an Amber or California Common, either. We’ll just call it a really nice, easy drinking awkward stepchild.
Jasper’s Old Ale: OG 1.080, FG 1.020, Wyeast 1318. Brewed at the end of March and bottled May 30, this one’s still evolving. That’s supposed to be the point. I bumped up the malt extract to three cans, from two, and threw in a pound of 60L Crystal and half a pound of Belgian Special B for good measure. Bittered with two ounces of Northern Brewer, and finished with two ounces of Perle and an ounce and a half of Willamette. Also threw a cup of blackstrap molasses in the boil, because why not? The thing came out dark, dark brown and boozy, with the molasses and Belgian malt fighting it out amongst themselves, pushing all those hops to the back of the room. I’ve got most of this batch cellaring in the basement; it’ll be interesting to see how this thing evolves as it ages and the malt bill rounds out.
When I interviewed Harpoon brewmaster Al Marzi for Beer Advocate magazine some months back, we talked a bit about this new homebrew kit that I’d found under my Christmas tree.
“You do it once, it’s really cool,” he said, marveling at this magic that anyone (seriously, anyone) can conjure up on the stove top. “On a homebrewing level, I can take these ingredients, and with very little knowledge, but a lot of effort, I can hopefully make something that’s drinkable. At the end of a number of weeks, I actually made something that has carbonation, hopefully, and is not infected, has alcohol in it, and has some flavor.”
Not much more than you can ask for.