I sent 4 kegs, all of them kicked in the hospitality suite on Thursday. For the record, they were:
You Can’t Handle the Sour: a 4-year-old Flanders red that was a blend of WLP655 and WY3763. The WY3763 was great, the WLP655 was way too sour. I blended, back sweetened, and still thought it was too sour. A lot of people really liked it though, it was the first keg to kick.
Cross Dressing Amateur: a CDA bittered with cascades and the rest of the hops were Falconer’s Flight pellets. It is the same recipe as the Rapture Red that I talked about, but colored with 4-oz of Sinamar. Denny liked (tolerated) it.
Schmoked Dopplebock: a 100% Weyerman rauchmalt dopplebock fermented with WY2308, lagered for about a year.
Belgian Dark Strong: this was based on the recipe from JZ’s book that my club used as a basis for our barrel brew, I brewed 10 gallons, 5 were served straight. The beer at the WAHA booth called Bierelf was the same recipe, but aged in a barrel with 30 lbs of cherries.
I tasted a lot of great beers all weekend, so thanks to everyone who brought stuff!
Actually, I thought CDA was the best of it’s kind I tasted all week. I complimented Tom on the fact that he’d made the roasted malt and hops play well together, which is what I normally don’t like abut the style. Then he told me that all the color came from Sinamar…that explained it!
I tried Tom’s “you can’t handle the sour” and handled it quite well. Really well actually.
I had the CDA but I personally thought it was a little too roasty for my taste.
I also had many of Drew’s saisons. Hey, Drew, can you explain the guacamole saison again?
The Saison Guacamole was brewed with dark Avocado honey, malted oats and flaked rye. The portion that became the Saison Guacamole fermented with WLP Saison Blend was spiced with a tincture made of cilantro, coriander, cumin, chile pepper, black pepper and lime zest. The other portion (“Alligator Pear Saison”) no tincture and WLP Saison 2
Drew, the Guacamole, and frankly all of your saisons were awesome. And after your talk I officially put in my vote for WL to release Saison III. I’m sad that I missed Tom’s sour though. Far too many good beers to try them all. Oh well, I’m already planning for next year. Yay, NHC within driving distance! ;D
I didn’t make it to CHUG sadly. I spent most of my night talking Saisons with folks.
Thanks for the compliment! I was chuffed to see the enthusiastic response to the talk and the “California Saisons”.
Of course, my call to request the Saison III was eventually morphed by the grist mill into the rumor that White Labs was launching Saison III as a new strain. Neva looked at me with bewilderment.
I took pictures of every single club while I was there. If I get a chance… I’ll post the shots of the CHUG booth and if you’re in the shot let me know so I know who you are for next year.
Every booth!?!? You are more of a man than I. I wish I could remember everything we had on. But going from memory we had, Imperial Rye Red, American Red, Triple IPA (Kelsey McNair’s), English IPA on cask, a dark sour Saison, a few bottles of sour Brown, Mild, Helles, and a bunch of stuff I can’t remember. Considering we are a small club, we had more than enough beer.
Cool man, definitely post up the photos you have. I wish I could have made the rounds a little more than I did, but I was at the booth most of the night - which was still a blast.
That’s not to say I had more than one sample at any one booth. I tend to stay away from most of the Imperial/Barleywine/Triples, too. I think I tried all of the Milds I could find and most everything on cask.
At Pro Brewer night, I had a tough time getting small pours and ended up sipping and pouring out a lot of perfectly good samples. I saw one smart guy with a rubber band around his glass to give an idea of where the fill line should be.
Last year or the year before Crispy Frye said he sampled every single beer, but at an ounce or so it’s hardly enough to get a real taste.
It was 25% corn meal and 75% 6-row. Cereal mash.
The hops were cluster for bittering and saaz for flavor and aroma. 35 IBU target.
WLP830 fermented at 50F, lagered at about 35F.
Going home tomorrow, can post more details later if desired.
Well true. I only hit probably 10 booths or so. And whatever people handed me. But even then I had some great beers. I honestly was just enjoying pouring and chatting with people most of the night. Club night went by way too quickly.
I sent a keg of Belgian Wit that we sent through a Randall with Citra and Amarillo hops. Guess the novelty factor was at play because the keg kicked in the first hour.
I see you’re from Rock Hoppers.
I got the new t-shirt to match last year’s, thank you very much.
It’s like a rock concert t with all the participating clubs listed on the back.
