Last night
We brewed beer last night! It was awesome. Here’s the lowdown:
Southern Monk: We brewed the first batch (and hopefully not the last batch) of our peach Belgian beer, the Southern Monk. All went well, even after Joel peed in the wort.
Weissguy Hefeweizen: One week into fermentation, we transferred into kegs. We’re going to let this one sit for 3-4 weeks (compared to our usual 2 weeks) because the extra aging really seems to bring out the flavors of this beer. We also saved the yeast and hopefully we will be able to reuse it in our next batch.
“Nameless” Barleywine: Oh. My. Glory. After 2 weeks of fermenting, we transferred into kegs. This sucker is going to be AMAZING. Already flavorful and spicy, we’re targeting about 12% ABV. Suck on THAT!
Last but not least, our “Nameless” mint chocolate stout: Yes, we made ice cream stout floats. No, they were not terrible. In fact, they were amazing. I don’t care what you say, I stand behind my new favorite dessert.
Jonathan, Joel & Jeff
July 24th, 2007 at 9:27 pm
So my friend told me about these guys who brewed great beer every Monday on their porch, and invited me to come along and taste some of it. “Great, free beer,” I thought. Because of my somewhat snobbish taste in brews, I didn’t expect to find anything too remarkable in someone’s backyard cooking project/experiement. It was kind of like the attiude I took towards Transformers or 300…clearly shallow and unsubstantial movies, but hopefully entertaining, if not laughable.
But unlike either of these movies, I was thoroughly impressed by the variety and quality of all of these guys’ brews. I started with the Roundhouse Pale Ale, followed with the Drafty Kilt Scotch Ale, and tried the stout. All of these tasted exceptional, surpassing my expectations for a high quality brew of any of these varieties.
The best surprise of the night came with the new mint chocolate stout. Usually, such novelty beers end up tasting bitter, and are frankly more of a task to drink than a pleasure. And often the tastes are too overpowering, the texture too thick, and the finish unappealing. This I frankly expected from this stout. But it the opposite of all my expectations. Cool, crisp, and an unmistakable beer, with perfectly balanced tastes of chocolate and mint. Unreal. Great job Monday Night Brewery, please keep it up and keep brewing. I’ll look for your beers on the shelves.
-Erik