More Beer
I've been brewing a lot since I got back to beer making. Last weekend, I started my eighth batch since my amber ale. I brewed a blonde, two stouts, an IPA, a Belgian Brown, an Orval clone, a wit, and the latest, an American Pale Ale inspired by Sierra Nevada.
Brewing beer is easy. It takes some elbow grease to scrub and sanitize all your equipment but if you can bake a cake, you most certainly can brew beer. That's what I've been telling my friends and I'm glad that a few of them have started brewing on their own.
Since brewing beer is easy, there are no reasons not to do special brews for special events, just as one would bake a cake for a birthday. You only need to plan a bit to take into account fermentation time and your good to go.
It's Yann Larrivée of PHP-Québec who first pitched the idea of having homebrews from members of the developers community at an informal BBQ. So I brought a buckwheat Belgian brown at the latest PHP-BBQ and it was a huge success. Beside the unexpected party suitcase keeping the keg and CO2 cylinder out of sight, people really appreciated the fact that they were drinking a brew that was prepared just for them. That got me fired up.
As there are many thirsty developers in Montréal, got my stove into high gear and started brewing seriously. As I write this, I have three batches in various stages of preparation. From left to right on the above picture, we can see:
- an Orval clone that is currently maturing with Brettanomyces yeasts;
- an American Pale Ale that I plan to bring to the next Montréal-Python;
- a Belgian wit that I plan to bring to ConFooBBQ, the BBQ for developers.
I like how the wit is clearing up. It started extremely hazy, something that is to be expected when you brew with wheat, but after five days in the secondary fermenter, it's cleared up a nicely with only the bottom third exhibiting intense fogginess. I followed a recipe that called for Irish moss, which help to clear up a beer. The trick is that you want a wit to be served somewhat hazy so you have to balance the amount to Irish moss so you don't end up with a crystal clear drink. Let's see how it turns out at ConFooBBQ.