Parents Weekend Saison a.k.a. Mom Beer

Well here we are already at the end of March. With only a month left until the Second Annual Parents Weekend, preparations are underway. Yesterday evening we brewed a very special beer for the weekend. The Parents Weekend Saison a.k.a. Mom Beer. (Don't worry Dads there will be plenty for you guys as well.)

Saison's are a wonderful style of beer traditionally from Belgium. They were originally brewed in the summer months due to the specialty yeast strains needing much warmer fermentation temperatures than your standard ales. Our's is fermenting away like crazy while sitting on our fermenter heater (Thanks Paul and Joyce). A Saison has a light straw colored body with some hazyness left behind from the yeast. With the warmer fermentation temps the yeast releases some very fruity esters that are present in the aroma and flavor of the finished product. There is mild hoppyness to the beer allowing the malts and yeast to shine. We will be aging this version of Mom Beer with French Oak to create a nice "Barrel Aged" character, as well as dried Grapefruit Peel and Rose Hips. In honor of all our mothers being the incredible women they are, we will be making this beer a bit Sassy with just a hint of Sassafras.

I hope you all have blocked out the dates for Parents Weekend at the end of April. We are in the works of locking down a Beach House and will have finalized plans out to you all soon. Until then raise your glass to the incredible families in your lives. We look forward to seeing you all at the beach soon.

Beer, as always, is happening around here.  Today, we are brewing up a Nut Brown, this is the third version of the Nut Brown we've brewed.  It's a simple recipe but it turned out well the first two times.  We grabbed a bottle of He'Brew Nut Brown and plan to drink that as we brew this one.  Has anyone had that one before?  What about other favorite Nut Browns? Why?

But what else is going on in our beer world?  Well... lots.  Travis bottled the Biere de Garde a few days ago.  It'll be entered into 3 different competitions, we'll let you know how that goes.  That bottling experience made us remember why we built a kegerator.  It's so much easier to just rack into a keg instead of cleaning bottles, and sanitizing bottles, and racking into a bottling bucket, and filling the bottles, and capping the bottles.  One step instead of five lets us brew so much more!  Travis also tried bottling from the kegerator today.  It worked, but we'll have to see how the carbonation stays.

The Amber went into a keg today.  It should be good, coming in at about 5.5% ABV. The Chinook One Hop IPA and Charlie's Milk Steak Stout are in the secondary fermenter. Those two will be great and very different from one another.  We've got a malty, roasty, thick beer with the Charlie's and a light, hoppy, smooth beer with the Chinook.  So, come by in about 2 weeks to get a taste of those.

We also have a few plans to sink further into the brewing lifestyle.  We plan on joining HOTV Homebrewers Club next month. Also, I'm planning on hatching a little "club" for Beer Lovin' Ladies.  If you or someone you know would be interested get me some contact info (or great ideas).  I want to have tastings, poker nights, brewing days, and all around good times celebrating babes and beer.

That's it for now. Come enjoy a beer with us soon. XO