Columbia, MD October 17th, 2018

We changed things up this Wednesday and held a homebrew night. No pint glasses were acquired, instead, we all brought a homebrew or 2 and shared. 

Personally, I had a blast. The beers were all very different and most were really good. Stepping on the scale the next day was a tribute to the success of the event; I gained quite a few pounds. This has put quite a kink in my Beer Diet.

Pierce, dBear and I each made a beer from Sapwood Cellar’s wort. Sapwood ran a test batch on some old grain using their new equipment and generously gave the result away. It was wort made with Pils, Vienna and some other malt which I have forgotten along with Columbus hops. It was clear and fairly light tasting, subtly hopped. Pierce and dBear each made Saisons with it, and I made a ginger beer.

All the Sapwort beers tasted very different. Pierce’s had a mystery ingredient which we later learned was passion fruit. It had a nice tartness. dBear added figs to his Saison, something I’ve never tried before in a beer; I liked the sweet, fruit flavor the figs added. I thought my Sapwort Ginger was a refreshing mix of hops and ginger and pretty easy to drink. All 3 beers quickly disappeared. BTW, we plan to drop samples of our beers to Sapwood Cellars, just to say thanks for the wort.

Jim’s Pennant clone was a bit long in the tooth. I had tasted it new and loved the nice bitter hops mixed with toast and malty sweetness. The hops aroma and flavor had faded, but it was still a light and refreshing beer.

DBear brought a Two Hearted clone which he and his son-in-law made as a thank you beer for the wedding party. They used Citra hops so it was quite a bit juicier than a traditional Two Hearted IPA. I snuck a little extra of that one.

Also, DBear brought the very unusual, Boo Berry Beer. It is made with wild Maine blueberries (of course), as well as lactose and Boo Berry cereal. It was sweet, toasty and did taste of blueberries. I found it interesting but passed on a second tasting.

I was pleasantly surprised with Pierce’s Aletoberfest. This Octoberfest-style ale (most Oktoberfests are lagers, not ales) was a refreshing twist on all the harvest, Marzens, and Fest beers I have been tasting this fall. He also brought a barleywine, Mad Professor, that was quite tasty, but as expected, it came with a high ABV so my sampling was limited.

Not all the beers were homebrews. I brought some Modern Times beers which I had purchased from Allview Liquors. I enjoyed the Fruitlands gose, Nelson-hopped Space Ways and the Black House. Despite my body’s intolerance to coffee, I enjoyed the roasty, coffee Black House. I found the Fortunate Island to be an unfortunate wheat beer with an unpleasant blending of wheat, hops, and tropical flavors. Three out of four ain’t bad, though.

Pierce also brought a commercial beer, Good Nature Farm Kung Foeder Series Wild Ale. As the name implies, it is oak Foeder-aged for a year using a wild ale yeast. It is Good Nature’s first try at a real sour, and I found it delicious. I thought it was a Red Flanders style, but Good Nature describes it as: “Tart with hints of pineapple and cherry with a nice oak finish.” I didn’t really get the pineapple flavor but agree with the rest. If you see Good Nature anywhere, I recommend sampling it.

The surprise of the night was the Krampus, both 2016 and 2017. These are clones of Samiclaus, and 12-14% ABV beer. Traditionally it is made on St Nicholas Day, December 6th. The next year, another batch is made and you sample last year’s. We all got together in 2015 and made the first batch. The next year we made another batch and sampled the 1st batch. It was pretty bad. So…I was surprised to taste the 1st batch (2016)— it had aged well with mellow flavor and nose of cherry. Someone suggested we mix Krampus with dBear’s chocolate stout (I believe it was the Fosse Chocolate Stout). It was the surprise hit of the night, tasting quite a bit like a cherry cordial. It was such a hit, a few of us suggested we should try to market it. LOL

Cheers!

Warren