Time for the Meatstick

Late post on this, but back on June 27th was the Parkway Am-Pro event where my Meatstick Smoked Porter was part of the 6 other homebrews on draft that night.  In late May I brewed a 10-gal batch at  the Station U-Brew in Puyallup so it could legally be served at the Parkway.  A fun evening of drinking homebrews and pretty cool to order your own beer at a bar.

Sasquatch Ale - Part 2 @ Larry's Homebrew Supply

Brewing the Sasquatch Ale for NHC - Part Two

On April 22nd, Jerome and I headed down to Larry's Homebrew Supply in Tukwila to brew the second part of the world's first ever Sasquatch Ale.  Bascially concerned about not having enough for the conference, so we brewed ~ 120 gallons total (~ 90 at BJ's and ~ 45 at Larry's).  Essentially the same recipe though no smoked squash in the batch at Larry's.  We brewed in the warehouse on Don's super slick "homebrew" system.  So many cool features including hot water on demand, big clean vessels on wheels, stainless steel conical fermenters and efficient burner for the brew kettle.  I didn't hang around the whole day, but Don was a great host.  We had to add quite a few rice hulls to prevent a stuck mash and the transfer was incredibly slow.  I will post updates when the beer is kegged, etc.

Final recipe and some photos are below (full photo album). 

Recipe:

• 2 Row - 55.0 lbs
• Smoke - 55.0 lbs.
• Biscuit - 9.0 lbs.
• Flaked Rye - 9.0 lbs.
• Crystal 80L - 4.5 lbs.
• Crystal 60L - 4.5 lbs.
• Special B - 2.0 lbs.
• Carafa I - 2.0 lbs.
• Chocolate - 2.0 lbs.
• Juniper Berries in the mash
• Juniper Boughs stuffed in the grant during sparge 

• Cascade - 10.0 oz. (60)
• Centennial - 5.0 oz. (60)
• Cascade - 5.0 oz. (30)
• Centennial - 5.0 oz. (30)
• Juniper Berries - 5.0 oz. (0)
• Coriander - 5.0 oz. (0)

• Wyeast #1056 California Ale

• OG 18.65 (1.077) 

Sasquatch Ale - Part One @ BJ's

Brewing the Sasquatch Ale for NHC - Part One

On April 18th, Brandon and I headed down to BJ's Restaurant & Brewhouse in Tacoma to brew the first part of the world's first ever Sasquatch Ale.  BJ's brewer extraordinaire, Derek Osborne, was a great host and put us right to work throughout the whole process and he was very welcoming to the big mess of juniper and smoked squash.  It was a blast and eye-opening experience brewing on a professional system for a first time and even the cleaning was fun!!  The aroma mix from the smoked malt, juniper boughs, smoked squash and spices was amazing.  Batch size was ~ 3 barrels (90 gallons) and it is fermenting away.  I will post updates when the beer is kegged, etc.

Final recipe and some photos are below (full photo album).

Recipe:

• 2 Row - 137.7 lbs.
• Munich Light - 111.2 lbs.
• Biscuit - 23.0 lbs.
• Flaked Rye - 23.0 lbs.
• Smoke - 15.0 lbs.
• Crystal 80L - 11.5 lbs.
• Crystal 60L - 11.5 lbs.
• Special B - 5.7 lbs.
• Carafa I - 5.7 lbs.
• Chocolate - 5.7 lbs.
• Juniper Boughs in the mash
• Juniper Boughs stuffed in the grant during sparge 

• Cascade - 21.0 oz. (60)
• Centennial - 10.5 oz. (60)
• Cascade - 10.5 oz. (30)
• Centennial - 10.5 oz. (30)
• Smoked Buttercup Squash - 14.0 lbs. (20)
• Juniper Berries - 9.0 oz. (0)
• Coriander - 9.0 oz. (0)

• White Labs WLP 01 California Ale

• OG 19.8 (1.082)

Parkway Pro-Am

Great results from the Parkway Pro-Am competition with golds for Halley's Comet and Meatsitck Smoked Porter, plus Meatstick was picked as one of the "Best to Brew" beers.  So a bigger batch will be brewed at the Station U-Brew in the next few months and it will be on draft at one of the Parkway Tavern Pro-Am events on either June 27th or October 24th!!  

I want to thank everyone who participated in the 2012 Parkway Am-Pro Homebrew Competition.  I want to send a special thanks out to the Parkway and it's staff for helping us put on this great event.  I also want to thank all the judges who came down on Sunday and helped judge the 75 entries. Your time and expertise is much appreciated.

And now for the results...

Light Beer Category

• Gold - Ben Bottoms for Halley's Comet
  
• Silver - Casey Williams for Cream of the Hop
• Silver - Ryan Meyer for Boo Juice

English Ales Category

• Gold - Mike White for Mudd Puddle Ale
• Silver - Heather Erickson for Irish I Was
• Bronze - KC Graham for Boyd's Imperial Wee Heavy

American Ales Category

• Gold - Jiri Zatloukal for Populuxe Pale
• Silver - Johnathan Sherwin for Cutthroat Amber
• Bronze - Adam Sannes for House Pale

Porters and Stouts Category

• Gold - Ben Bottoms for Meatstick
• Silver - Aaron Johnson for Tall Order Porter
• Bronze - Scott Sannes for Chocolate Milk Stout

IPA Category

• Gold - Chad Wallin for Feral Dog Brewery-IPA
• Silver - Bryan Copeland for Moving Day IPA
• Bronze - Brian Tetreault and Ben Satterthwaite for Bloody Fingers IPA

Belgian Category

• Gold - Brian Tetreault and Ben Satterthwaite for Belgian Dark Strong
• Silver - Mike Braaten for 11 Belgian Stout
• Bronze - Jim Witwer for Down on the Farm
• Bronze - Matt Burns for Saelens Belgian Ale

Strong Ales Category

• Gold - Bryan Kramer for First Attempt
• Silver - Matt Lacroix for 28th Strong
• Bronze - Ryan Shdo for Bona Nox

Specialty Category

• Gold - Tim Kordik for Northwest Backwoods Brown Ale
• Silver - Tim Kordik for Rainy Days Rye CDA
• Bronze - Travis Nye for Sorta Sumpin

Results for the Best to Brew Beers

• Howard Hawley's Habanero Alt Amber
• Tim Kordik's Rainy Days Rye CDA
• Travis Nye's Sorta Sumpin' American Wheat IPA
• Brian & Ben's Belgian Dark Strong
• Mike Braaten's 11 Belgian Stout
• Jim Witwer's Down on the Farm Saison
• Brian & Ben's Bloody Fingers IPA
• Ben Bottoms’ Meatstick Porter
  
• Bryan Copeland's Tumble Down Brown
• Jiri Zatloukal's Populuxe Pale Ale
• KC Graham's Boyd's Imperial Wee Heavy
• Ryan Meyer's Boo Juice Blond

Congratulations to Everybody who won.  For the Best to Brew winners I will be sending out information later this week on how to get your beer brewed. The awards ceremonies will take place on June 27th for the beers styles that take less time to finish and October 24th for the big beer styles.

Puget Sound Pro-Am Results - Squashed :)

GABF Pro-Am Qualifying Selections

Elliott Bay Brewing Company – Matt Smith's Cascadian Brown Ale, American Brown Ale

Elliott Bay Brewing Company – Keith Bradley's RIP Stout, Russian Imperial Stout – 2013 GABF Selection

Elysian Brewing Company – Ben Bottoms' Squashes Me with Fear, Spice, Herb, Smoked Squash Brown Ale

Harmon Brewing Company – Jim Dunlap's Imperial India Rye Ale

Naked City Brewing Company – Mike Ritzer's Thorny Gose, Blackberry Gose

Silver City Brewery - Jonathan Permen's Denise's Kolsch

So the Smoked Squash strikes again!! And really it shouldn't be much of a surprise that if any brewer was going to choose it, Elysian would be the one.  They've been brewing a wide variety of pumpkin beers for years and put on the annual Great Pumpkin Beer Festival, which has become the premier pumpkin festival featuring creative beers from around the country.  

Details yet to be figured out, but Brandon and I will get to brew a scaled up recipe at one of the Elysian locations.  It will be on draft a few times around town at local Pro-Am events and then submitted to the Great American Beer Festival in Denver in October as part of the National Pro-Am Competition.  Woot!!!

And three cheers for Colin and his impressive 3rd place finish in the Bert Grant Competition!!

Complete Results:
http://www.wahomebrewers.org/competitions/388-2012-joint-cascade-brewers-cup-and-puget-sound-pro-am

Sasquatch Results!!!

Competition Results

41 Entries from 34 Brewers Judged by 20 Judges

BOS Beer Selection:

A blend of Jerome Seipp's "Bigfoot's Brown Thumb", an Imperial Brown Sahti and Ben Bottoms' and Brandon Van Curen's "Sas-squashed", a Brown Ale with Smoked Squash

Honorable Mention: Peter Charbonnier and Jin Zotioukai's Samsquant#1 (CDA with alder smoked malt)

Read through all of the descriptions of the submitted beers

Thanks to everyone for participating.  We'll summarize our judge's notes on the styles soon!

Rest of the Photos

What this means: Jerome, Brandon and I will have to formulate a recipe that combines the elements and flavors of both beers.  Next we get to brew the beer "scaled-up" to 1 barrel (30 gallons).  Then throughout the National Homebrewers Conference, Sasquatch himself will serve the beer to conference attendees. We will be recognized at the conference as the originator of the "Sasquatchian Ale" style and have the honor of serving their beer to renowned members of the American Homebrewers Association.

I've always wanted to do the "scale-up" process that comes with being one of Puget Sound Pro-Am winners, so I'm mostly excited for that part.  And it's going to be a lot of fun to do this with Brandon and Jerome (who also part of Wayward Brewers and rental space).  Plus so many people at the conference will get to try a beer that I brewed!!