Friday, May 8, 2009

The Homebrewing Spirit Lives on at MBC

Craft Beer. noun.
If a homebrewer (current or former) gets to decide what the beer tastes like, it's craft beer.
- Randy Mosher's Radical Brewing, p. 2

Lately it occurs to me that things have been very homebrew-esque around the cellar at Mattingly Brewing Company. Since the release of the mighty Dead Flowers Double IPA we have seen a Dubbel spiced with Star Anise, Cinnimon, Ginger and Orange peel, a Brandy Oak Aged Dubbel, and a Chipotle Porter. It looks a awful lot like the kind of homebrew lineup I have been known to turn out. The cellar has seen more that Drew-brand homebrewed insanity in the last few days. In the near future we'll see the release of the Black Sands Coconut Porter, Black Thoughts Cocoa Porter aged on toasted (by me) coconut and Scharffen Berger Cacao Nibs, resectively. But, dear beer ethusiasts, that is not all. I have also kegged off Black Past Historical Porter, Black Sky Stout Porter taken back to the 1800s. To create this 'Original' Porter, I added a bit of our Abominator Smoked Doppelbock, charred American White Oak (charred by yours truely) and the funky, yeasty dregs from a bottle of George Gale's Prize Old Ale (I'm enjoying the remainder of this bottle of the 2005 Vintage as I type), this will aged and develop or 'stale' in the parlance of the 1800s, the release date is TBA (read: When its good and ready, damnit!).
Oh, by the way, I've brewed up some Abominator Smoked Doppelbock, too! It was actually the first brew on the system, my test batch. The crazy system we have suprisingly is very efficient at getting every last bit of malty goodness out the mash, so the Smoked Bock quickly became a Samiclaus strength Doppelbock...woohoo! It has been patiently aging in our cellar, and will continue to until winter rears its ugly head and we beat back the bitter cold with a massive, smoky, sweet, caramelly, warming lager.
There are other projects maturing down here, like the Biere from Mars, the Biere de Mars inoculated (what a great word) with Brettanomyces from my favorite source for those little buggers, Orval. To be released in the fall.
Since I have finally kegged off the Abominator, I'll have some empty homebrew fermenters, which means its time to brew into them. Perhaps something like Black Forest Maple Extra Stout?
But you don't have to wait for everything exciting, in fact, for one, the wait is almost over. On June 3rd, be ready for the ride of the Pale Ryeder Palm Sugar Rye Tripel.

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