National Homebrewers Conference

The National Homebrewers Conference (NHC) in Bellevue has come and gone.  There was a lot of drinking, lectures, drinking, eating, dorking out on beer, drinking, seeing vendors, hanging with other homebrewers and more drinking.  It was my first time attending the conference and I'd consider traveling again to it on the west coast.  Some of the lectures were hit and miss but the real value of the conference was serving our beer and talking to other homebrewers about it.  The Wayward crew was rocking the fez thanks to Jerome!!  We poured beers at both the Hospitality Suite on Friday morning and at Club Night of course, which was a one-of-a-kind experience of amazing beers from all over the country and crazy themed booths.  Jerome and I also got to meet and discuss our Sasquatch beer with Charlie Papazian, the "godfather" of homebrewing.  Cheers to Mark Emily and the whole WAHA crew for putting on a seamless conference.

Full Photo Set

Sasquatch Ale on the airwaves

Mark Emily was recently on the Basic Brewing radio show giving some updates on the National Homebrewers Conference and of course some background on the mighty Sasquatch Ale.  Reports from the field are that the beer is coming along nicely and I look forward to trying it soon.  Great interview Mark!!

If you want, you can give a listen to the May 17th show here:
Basic Brewing Radio - May 17th

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)

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!!

 

Sasquatch Ale Homebrew Competition

This week was the deadline for the Sasquatch Ale Homebrew Competition.  In short, the competition is for a beer to be the embodiment of a "Sasquatch Ale" capture a special, Northwest, "Sasquatchian" flavor.  The winner gets their recipe scaled up and brewed as the official "Sasquatch Ale" for the NHC in June.  Judging is tomorrow and I entered four beers and for each you had to come up with a reason why your beer has that "Sasquatchian" flavor.  Here are my four silly stories:

Meatstick:  The Sasquatch has long been the brunt of unfair jokes and discrimination in advertising.  Remember that whole “Messin' with Sasquatch” campaign?  Someone needs to call the ACLU about that one. But the biggest indignation might have been the long running association with that Canadian swill known as Kokanee.  Everyone knows that after a long day of chasing elk and terrorizing baby marmots, a Sasquatch likes to sit back and relax on a bed of soft hemlock bows and knock back a few smoked porters.  He just loves that smooth, rich, chocolate, rum and ashy mix because it reminds him of all those campfires he has to stamp out when groups of careless, city dwelling hipsters get too drunk and pass out while the fire is going full throttle.  Yup, a smoked porter – perfect for those long dark nights in the mossy, damp woods he calls home.

Toasted Meatstick: When the rain soaked slopes of the western Cascades is a little much for Sasquatch, he likes to head to those drier eastern slopes of the Wenatchee National Forest.  Here the Sasquatch enjoys the sunlight, ponderosa pines and the stunning views of Mt. Stuart.  This version of my smoked porter has been aged on oak spirals to bring out a mellowing dryness and earthy character that smoothes out the smoke, chocolate and rum flavors of the base smoked porter.  The Sasquatch is well known to enjoy this beer alongside some smoked lake trout, which he occasionally grabs out of Lake Chelan.

 

Sas-Squashed: For centuries, people have rambled the vast forests of the Pacific Northwest in search of the great Sasquatch, but somehow he always eludes capture or direct evidence of his existence.  I know; that’s totally crazy in this day of smart phones, ipads and temperature controlled conical fermenters.  But I will let you in on a little secret – to see a Sasquatch, all you have to do is leave out his favorite food – smoked squash.  It works just like Yogi Bear and fresh baked pies.  He mostly enjoys Hubbard squash slowly smoked over pecan wood chips and more recently, I’ve found that he enjoys beer when brewed with this smoked squash.  And that’s what you have the pleasure of drinking right now – a brown ale base beer that was brewed with smoked Hubbard squash in both the mash and boil.  All the smoked flavor and aroma was derived from the squash alone and results in a smooth, malty beer with pleasant smoke flavor and a light meatiness from the squash.

Sas-Squashed – Winter Vacation edition:  While is it a well known fact that the Sasquatch loves to eat smoked squash when he’s trouncing around the Pacific Northwest, it’s much less widely known where he spends his winters.  The common misconception is that he hibernates all winter in a den somewhere much like bears do.  However, like many humanoids of this region, the Sasquatch also enjoys relaxing and soaking in the rays in the Caribbean Islands during the winter time.  Specifically the western shores of Jamaica, where he spends his time surfing, smoking spliffs, dancing to dub reggae and forgetting about the rainy Pacific Northwest for awhile.  Seriously, this was all documented and reported by the CIA, Seattle Beer News or maybe it was TMZ.  In honor of this annual pilgrimage, my smoked squash brown ale has been aged with oak spirals soaked in Jamaican rum.  This additional treatment combines the tasty smoke flavors with a layer of spices, coconut vanilla and dry oak that would make for an enjoyable evening of jamming with a few Sasquatches in Jamaica, or anywhere else for that matter.      

2011 Re-Cap

2011 was a brewing year unlike any other.  Not only am I brewing all-grain now and renting this amazing space with 3 brewing friends, but the sheer volume of beer (previous 3+ years = 125 gallons, but this year = 180 gallons) and styles brewed trumps all my previous years of homebrewing combined and experimented with different techniques, ingredients, treatments, yeasts and fermentation temperatures.  Kind of hard to compare the last 12 months to how I was brewing before in my little kitchen.  A few stats:

• Batches = 18
• Gallons =  180
• Styles = 14
• Lagers = 3
• Saisons = 7 different variations/treatments!
• Yeasts =  20 different strains
• Broken Carboys = 3
• Bum Wine Treatments = 2
• Malt Liquors = 1

Brewing in 2012 is going to keep on rolling and the next 6 months especially are going to be quite busy.  In June the National Homebrewers Conference (NHC) comes to Bellevue and Jerome has already registered the "Waywards Brewers" as an official club, which means that we will have our own table at Club Night, which is basically a big beer fest where we'll have the opportunity to pour a bunch of our beers for fellow homebrewers and conference attendees.  Pretty exciting and I'm starting to plan which beers I want to possibly brew again (cisco malt liquor anyone?!?!) and have ready to share.  I plan on brewing a fresh batch of Squashes Me with Fear, White Rabbit Lavender Wit and a few others.  Part of the NHC is also a huge competition, so I'll hopefully be entering a few beers in that.

And while I'm not super big on competitions in general, there are a few other exciting ones coming up soon.  For the NHC, WAHA is holding a Sasquatch Competition that will essentially be the official homebrew beer of the NHC and the winning beer will be scaled up and brewed professionally.  I have two beers currently aging on oak spirals that I hope to enter - Oak Aged Meatstick Smoked Porter and Rum & Oak Aged Squashes Me with Fear.  Entries are due in a few weeks!!  Also a few months away is my favorite competition and the one I always dream of winning - the Puget Sound Pro-Am.  I hope to have 5-6 beers to enter in that.  Both of these competitions share the most exciting aspect - if you win, you get to brew your beer at a brewery and it will be available to lots of people.  

I need to get working on my brewing calendar!!!  Cheers :)