What, in the opinion of others, is the best beer you have ever made and why?
Let me see. I was going to write about how Bryan and Patty liked my Little Belgian Bastard Ale or how my uncle enjoyed the dry hopped strong German Ale or a plethora of other wonderful (just ask me) beers I brew. Actually most of brews are one offs. I don't have many that I've brewed more than once so that people would have a chance to taste them, but, then I remembered...
A few years ago I brewed a beer for my dear Mother's holiday party. She asked me if I wanted to brew and well how do you say no to brewing for your mother? I mean really. Its brewing....and its your mother. Anyway, there was one problem, I had no clue what people would like. Face it, I'm a beer geek and these people were not, well most of them anyway. At that time my definition of brewing something special would have probably been some kind of hoppy triple ipa with holiday spices. As I thought about it for a month or so I realized that I had to brew for an audience other than myself. Egads! I never brewed for somebody else before.
I thought about what they might like. Most of them probably drink I.C. Light or Coors Light or perhaps Yeungling Lager. I just don't brew that kind of stuff. Hell I don't brew lagers. Well, I did once, but, it was a disaster. Lets not talk about that. So what kind of ale could I brew for people who don't usually drink ales? It can't be too bitter or hoppy and it should be fairly light in body. Hmmm...I don't want anything with a high abv since everybody is driving home and they might not expect a beer to have too much kick. Now to complicate matters I had to brew it in short order. That's what happens when you're a procrastinating brew by the seat of your pants unorganized brewer.
I decided to break it down by ingredients. What was the least offensive yeast? Kolsch beer seemed closest to a lager and the yeast should be pretty clean tasting. As for malt, a base of light dry malt extract should do it. I also added some 10 L crystal malt and wheat to round out the flavor. Then the hops, well I had some Tettnang and Hallertau so that's what I used. This is my second revision (link to: The Brew Lounge) of the recipe which is pretty close to the first. Then it was just a matter of brewing it.
I have to say I sweated it out a bit. I mean I didn't think it was offensive in any way and I was guessing that I done good, but, you never know. As they say the proof is in the pudding. I brought the entire five gallon keg with me to the holiday party and they drank almost all of it. I had just enough to share with others while visiting over the holiday :-) Success!
So, back to the point. For three years I've been brewing a version of this beer for this holiday party and the response only gets better. Now I have to remember to shut the tap off when there's about a gallon left. This way I have some left over to share with family and friends who weren't at the party.
Last year I decided to fine tune it by using an English Ale yeast which has a higher flocculation rate. This resulted in a clearer beer in a shorter period of time without affecting flavor too much. I also decided to make this a session beer and decrease the abv from 4% to around 3.6%. Perfect for a holiday party. Plenty of taste without the alcohol. I also left out the wheat malt and substituted different hops while maintaining the low IBUs. Can I really call it the same beer? It still has a light malt base, does that count?
That my friends is a beer of mine that people really like. I used to call it my NRK, short for Not Really Kolsch. Now I call it my 1620 Just in Time Ale. I think their ability to kick my five gallon keg every year proves they like it. What do they like about it? It isn't too bitter and it has lots of flavor. Well compared to what they're used to, I would agree.
