Harvesting Gold
And all of a sudden , it’s October…..
Aside from an employee bash and a wedding of a dear friend in Jackson Hole (see photos below), it’s been quite a busy month; but I guess the biggest news is our two new medals from the Great American Beer Festival!
Both were in the Gluten-Free category, a Bronze for Celia IPA and a Gold for Celia Framboise.
When Jen found out six months ago that she would no longer be able to drink my beer, I set out on a mission to brew her something better than what she was bringing home from the stores. Last year, Anheuser-Busch took the gold medal , this year all they got was the silver….
I’ve gone ahead and brewed a second batch of the Celia Framboise which will be ready in about 3-4 weeks. The IPA may have to be shelved for a while because I just can’t add two more full-time offerings. So for the near future, the framboise will be your gluten-free choice at The Alchemist.
The Heady Topper is flowing freely as you read this. It is certainly a good time to come in for a visit if you are a fan of the hops. Heretic turned out just wonderfully, and the next batch of Holy Cow is a choice one.
I’ve got a second batch of Harvest Ale fermenting right now. I’ll take it a bit drier than the batch currently pouring, and I think I’ll jack up the dry-hopping. It should be on through the month and into November maybe.
Uncle Daddy 2009 has finished fermenting and will be put onto the spices late this week. I bumped up the pumpkins from 75# to 100# and moved them all into the kettle. Wow. The pumpkin flavor is very pronounced, and the color is a beautiful shade of orange. That should be released somewhere around the middle of October. For those of you that don’t remember, it is a 7% abv Pumpkin Hefeweizen. And for you Boston area folks, Uncle Daddy will once again be poured at Cambridge Brewing Company’s charity event on Halloween.
I will be racking the Petit Mutant off of the cherries sometime soon. Look for this beauty late October/ early November……
Other than that, I’ll be making a big oatmeal stout for my next seasonal. I’ll keep you informed about it as I figure it out. Before you know it, I’ll be making El Jefe…
Until then, drink up…
John
Will said,
September 30, 2009 @ 12:42 pm
Congrats on the two medals!! I have been gluten free for 6 months. I grew up wanting to be a brewer, went to brew school in Oregon (OSU), brewed professionally for 2 years, home for ten and now stuck with all this info and talent and no direction. Luckily I landed a job working in Yakima doing hops analysis and trying to make GF beers that don’t suck. I was wondering if you could help me in a a good direction to get me back on making a drinking beers. I find the Breiss Sorghum Syrup to not be the best and was wondering if you did anything else like malting grains and what not. I have only tried a couple of GF beers but the sorghum wort taste like the syrup and the break material is crazy amounts. I make mead too and have been focusing on that but want to get back to making beers and doing my dream of barrel aged beer including many Belgian styles. I might be able to send you some crazy experimental hops for your help. but cant guarantee it. I will find another way to compensate you for your time if that doesn’t work out. We can talk more about that if you are interested.
All the help would be appreciated.
Thanks so much…..Will
MM said,
October 5, 2009 @ 6:41 pm
Congrats on the two medals!! I have been gluten free for 6 months. I grew up wanting to be a brewer, went to brew school in Oregon (OSU), brewed professionally for 2 years, home for ten and now stuck with all this info and talent and no direction. Luckily I landed a job working in Yakima doing hops analysis and trying to make GF beers that don’t suck. I was wondering if you could help me in a a good direction to get me back on making a drinking beers. I find the Breiss Sorghum Syrup to not be the best and was wondering if you did anything else like malting grains and what not. I have only tried a couple of GF beers but the sorghum wort taste like the syrup and the break material is crazy amounts. I make mead too and have been focusing on that but want to get back to making beers and doing my dream of barrel aged beer including many Belgian styles. I might be able to send you some crazy experimental hops for your help. but cant guarantee it. I will find another way to compensate you for your time if that doesn’t work out. We can talk more about that if you are interested.
All the help would be appreciated.
Thanks so much…..Will