Brewed Musings

Brewed Beverage of Choice: A Litre of Aktienbrauerei Edel Spezialbier…a great straw-coloured Pils great on a sunny spring day!

This winter has been quite tough on me both financially with the high energy prices and the mounting root canal bills, as well as emotionally/mentally with a stormy situation within the brewery leaving me defenseless. But last Wednesday brought on the feeling I imagine a bear has coming out of hibernation. We had a beer release at the pub for a new double IPA, the Double Diablos, which will take over a new tap called the Brewer’s Reserve. The Brewer’s Reserve will consist of beers mostly over 7.5% in alcohol or it will be a special beer that has been dry hopped or aged with or in oak. This new tap excites me because it challenges me to go out of my comfort zone of brewing. To show you how much of a geek I am, I had special goblet glasses ordered specifically for this beer. (Our company policy is if it is over 8% alcohol, it must be served in a wine glass…And there is no way I am serving my beer in a wine glass!)

The beer release was the first one we had at the pub aside from the Brewer’s Dinner we did to release the Weizenbock. One of the pieces of brewing I had been neglecting over the past few months thanks to the brutal Rocky Balboa-type winter that put me in the corner and beat me to a senseless pulp was the interaction with the people who have been consuming my brews. It is very nice to sit and have a pint with the customers to find out what they like and which of the beers on tap they continually drink.

When I got to the pub, after a frustrating appointment with a specialist who will attempt to remove the file from the root of my tooth that required the canal, several of the employees asked me if I was nervous. My reply was a calm and cooled, “No.” I have done these so-called “Meet and Greets” before and enjoy ‘em very much. So when I opened the door to the event and opened the tap - which was already pouring thanks to some renegade bartenders - my arms crawled with goosebumps. By the time we got things rolling the compliments were flying from every direction. And the excitement grew inside me.

The other brewer and his replacement stood there in newbie confusion whilst I grabbed sample after sample and proceeded to any table I was pointed to. I worked the room. I joked with every patron who was willing to sample a double IPA of 8.5% made from 3 different types of pale malts from across the globe, and from 7 different types of hops. The smiles from their faces, as well as the look of delight in tasting something that they were not expecting, made me smile. It brought on the realization that this is what I was missing.

The night continued on with me working every nook and craney of the pub property whilst the newbie and his newbie sat at the table waiting for people to come to them. Silly rookies! A group of men sampled Double Diablos while sharing stories of how they homebrew, or how they cringe at buying a bottle of beer for $6…And yet they do it. Goblets of Double Diablos could be seen at tables, on server’s trays, and being poured by the bartenders. Throughout the night, I shook hands; I self depricated; I marveled at the customers, and thanked the customers, and admired the customers more, I think, than they did in regards to the beer. Double Diablos satisfied them, and in turn their satisfaction brought out some pride in me as a brewer.

Two hours had passed and Double Diablos was not the only beer being appreciated. The Weizenbock had been tried to take over the night with a couple of high compliments, but was soon put back in its place in second…if only for the night. The Weizenbock compliments just made the evening that much better for me because I had yet to hear too much about the beer. By now it has aged over 6 months and continues to get better flavour. One very special person said the beer had the aroma of a very common spice, the name of which escapes me right now and will taunt me continuously until I try to sleep tonight.

Much thanks go out to the Double Diablos and Weizenbock and the people who sampled it on Wednesday. These are the people who have brought me out of a brewing slumber. Considering it came the Wednesday after I got back from the Cask Ale Festival, it could not have happened at a better time. Sometimes you have to go back to the basics. Sometimes you have to venture out into uncharted territory. This time I just had to rely on an old friend, human contact, to arouse all the flames that brought me into this industry in the first place.

Prost!

the confucian brewer