This was the scene down at the Niagara Association of Homebrewer’s annual event, Brew On The River. The concept is very simple- Bill invites the club to kindly invade his driveway on Grand Island, overlooking the lovely Niagara River for a day of brewing, eating, drinking, and hanging out. It’s always a fun time, and it’s usually an excuse for the club to tackle some kind of crazy brewing project- this year was no exception.

Now, last year, three of us “new” members (shout out to Shawn and Joe here) essentially ended up with the dangerous (yet strangely gratifying) job of ferrying really hot rocks from the fire to the kettle for an authentic Steinbier. We actually managed not to burn ourselves or anyone else, and using loads of bailing wire, we managed to fashion some great rigs for popping rocks into, and out of, the kettle. The only hitch was that we really didn’t have quite the right kind of rock (turns out, graywacke is what you want if you can get it) and many of them split upon hitting the wort. I think that wort had some extra mineral content! But, the beer did come out awesome- I had some at the NAH/Sultans picnic, and maybe at one other meeting since. It had a great caramel complexity, and a sharp color if I recall, and I hear there may be some left even, somewhere.

So but this year, an Egyptian gruit-style beer was on deck. (Funny, because I wore open-toed sandals just to avoid carrying hot rocks again!) Two aspects of this beer that I caught were especially historical. A gruit-beer is basically any un-hopped style of beer, as all beers were before the widespread use of hops occurred. So, this beer’s sweetness was matched against wormwood. I think among other things, but I didn’t catch it all. The second aspect of this beer that was also an historical re-creation was that the grist was composed of actual pieces of bread (baked specifically for this beer) and sprouted, unmalted barley. Check out the mash tun:

I’m looking forward to drinking that one! They seemed to get good conversion, but I didn’t catch the O.G., and I also failed to catch what kind of yeast they used, maybe it was a Belgian of some sort. Anyway, I’ll report on it more when it’s done.

As for myself, I pulled off a quickie partial mash + extract brew- I knew I didn’t have a lot of time because I had visiting relatives, so I figured something easy might be better. Also less equipment to haul and clean. Style-wise, I don’t even have a clue on this one, maybe it is an American Amber Wheat, but then there’s quite a bit of Aussie Coopers to it. All I know is I just hit the supply store in a whirlwind, pulling out ingredients left and right. One sad story, though… I was so anxious to use a new hop, Glacier, all the way through, a real one-hop brew. Alas, I left them on kitchen table, and ended up bumming hops from Bill (thanks again!!!) Even the best laid plans, right? So even had I a fairly specific thing in mind, it would have had to withstand some tweaking. Frankly, I like brewing by the seat of the pants as much as hitting the marks, so I’m not fussed. Since it was in the end such a strange brew, I have decided to call it:

Flesh-Eating Zombie Beer
(for 5 gallons)
3.3 lbs Coopers Light malt extract
3.3 lbs Coopers Wheat malt extract (50% wheat, 50% barley)
Enough Muntons Light DME to hit 1.068 SG (about 2.5 lbs for me)
approx .5 lbs Weyermann Carared (15-25L)
approx .5 lbs Carastan (~30L)
approx 3 oz. English Crystal (30-40L)
(the last three steeped at 150-154 for .5h)
.5 oz Perle (9%AA) at 60 min
.25 oz Spalt (~5%AA) at 15 + 1tsp Irish Moss
.25 oz Spalt at knockout
Coopers Dry Ale Yeast (I prepared about 1/2gal of starter over two days before brewing)

This beer really took off- I pitched the yeast when I got home (having already cooled it down before transport back from G.I.) and it was happening within 15-20 minutes- by one hour, the airlock was frankly buzzing. Of course, it started off at around 1.068-1.070, and it is fermenting at about 64. I am a little concerned about the hop levels, but I’ll give it a taste when it’s time for the secondary and figure I can dry-hop with those glaciers, still, if aroma is an issue. Here it is in repose in the basement Ale Closet:

(You can see some of my Mead Experiment No. 1 there, lit-up by the flash, now over a year old and ready for a final vertical tasting… ah, but that is another post!)

We’ll come back to the Flesh-Eating Zombie Brew as it progresses… here on day 4, it’s slowed to a bubble every 21 sec or so; I like to rack over to secondary when that slows down to below 30 sec, generally- maybe later today, or tomorrow.