Hi all!  Looks like we're about ready for another brew-night.  =)

This one will be focused on brewing a bit more and less of a party celebrating 10+ batches...(in case you already forgot or couldn't remember that night to begin with, we are talking about these shenanigans) but everyone is still welcome to join us.

***For those of you looking forward to the next catholicbeer event involving the tapping of a keg, we do have something planned for the celebration of the zealot's new daughter which we will announce soon.

Brewing will begin at 10am on Sunday March 14th

BREW DAY BATCH XII

22928 210th Ave SE

Maple Valley, WA  98038

Beer Tasting Monday - Ommegang: "Ommegeddon"

The Zealot and I cracked open a bottle of Ommegeddon last night.  We have been trying beers lately which have used Brettonmyces and personally I think I am in love.  Brian was a little surprised by the beer as you can kinda tell from the video below, but it kept impressing me throughout the tasting just how robust and rich the flavor was (I think I mentioned truffles or mushrooms like 5 times.. ha!).

For those of you who are not familiar, Ommegang is a brewery opened up in the US, by the owners of Brouwerij Duvel Moortgat.  That makes it the closest thing to a Belgian brewery here in the states without actually being from Belgium (sorry New Belgium Brewery...).

This particular beer Ommegeddon, is a "Brett" beer with the subtext "Funkhouse Ale with Brettonmyces."  I really think I may be doing a batch of "brett" myself soon especially considering the last two beers that I have had which used the stuff:  Boulevard Brewing's "Saison Brett," and this one.

All in all I give this beer very high marks for balance and digestibility.  Don't go pulling this one out when you need a malty trappist brew... more of a dry, deep earthiness which would lend itself nicely to a nice big basket of moules et frites.

Batch 011- Oh yeah, we brewed...

Batch #011 kind of came and went without so much as a whisper.  Strangely enough, it was probably our most successful brew to date.  By "successful," I mean that no water heater elements blew up, all of our data was recorded (legibly), our mashing temperatures were right where we wanted them to be, and we even had a few celebratory brews!


We conducted a little experiment afterwards by taking the leftover "weak" wort to see if we couldn't make a micro batch of light stuff.  We scraped some of the active yeast off the top of batch #011 and added it to #011.5  It always seemed like such a waste to throw out the leftovers even if they had such a low ABV potential.  Our best guess is that we can scrape 2.5% ABV out of batch #011.5  It might make for a nice hot-summer cool-down brew.

Education not Legislation!

A recent post in one of my very favourite blogs, (Washington Beer Blog) put up an article about new legislation which passed from the Washington State Liquor Control Board about signage in bars.  It turns our it will now be illegal for a bar in the state of Washington to have more that a certain amount of alcohol signage visible from outside in an effort to reduce under-age drinking.

This was a great little article and sparked a conversation about the value of passing legislation which restricts the rights of the proprietor in favor of passing the values of a smaller group of people (whether right or wrongly held) upon the public at large.

Like to hear anyone chime in with their opinion if they are interested.  Post a comment here.

And then pour one for me!

joel.

Trappist?

So what the hell is a Trappist beer?

Just two days ago, I pretended like I knew.  The Saint is, I will admit, more knowledgeable regarding our pursuit than I.  I have leeched his brilliance on more than one occasion- often positing it as my own.  But I decided to battle the demons of ignorance the other day and start proactively furthering my education.  

What better place to start?  Wikipedia.  I discovered that the Trappists were an order of monks in France that introduced strict rules into the Abbey in the mid 17th century.  They brewed beer (like many other monasteries) in order to feed the community and fund good works.  

They separated themselves from other monastic brewing communities by strictly brewing for the sake of helping the poor or funding good works.  All influences on their beer had to be internal- no one outside the Abbey had any say as to what was to be brewed.  

They are a legitimate association of which only seven breweries are currently a part of- mostly located in Belgium.  A lot of breweries tried to say they were "Trappist" but really had no association with these monks other than a label (just as I would sometimes associate myself with Joel as someone with more than a little knowledge of beer).  Now, only beers brewed within the walls of a Trappist monastery and following the  strict guidelines are allowed to carry the association's logo.

So there you have it.  I'll continue doing my homework and bringing you useless tidbits of beer history.

Pour one for me.  Perhaps a Chimay.

-The Zealot

Trappist Beers

-Orval

-Chimay

-Rochefort

-Westmalle

-Achel

-Koningshoeven

-Westvleteren