Patience

It's been awhile since I wrote on this blog. Partly because there hasn't been any recent developments in the Bearded Brewing world and also because I attacked the blog with such gusto at first that my friends and family made fun of me for the lengthy blogs. So...I decided to take a break from my beer ramblings... but I'm back.

I titled this patience because this is an important virtue in brewing and something that I still don't have after all the batches I've made over the last three years. My recent example came from two Belgian beers I made this summer. I brewed two 3 gallon batches of beers I had never made before and was a little nervous about how they would turn out. The first one was a Belgian Abbey Ale made in honor of my friend Josh Broten, called Brother Brotino, and the other was a Saison, called Iron Lion Saison. Even though I knew the longer I left them the better they would be, I still drank them too soon. Now, with about 3 bottles left of each, I think they are tasting really good. Of course! The Brother Brotino turned out to be a sweet, darker abbey ale, in the tradition of Chimay. In comparison to other commercial abbey ales, I think it lacks the complexity, but maybe that will come with time. But its good, and I took a bottle to Chicago, so that the namesake could try it. As a drinker of exclusively Belgian beers, he was very pleased with the outcome.

The Saison was a bit of stretch for me because I'd never had one. I had read descriptions of saisons and thought they sounded interesting. I wrote the recipe based on some I had found, but didn't really know what to expect. It turned out to be a light yellow with a huge white foamy head. I dry-hopped it, so there is definately a hop presence, but also a sour yet crisp aftertaste. It's mellowed out real nicely and the flavors are really balanced.

Now, if I can only have patience to wait on the Burning Beard belgian ale, and the Northwoods Ale I currently have in the carboy (more on that in the next blog entry.)

Here are the labels for the Brother Brotino and Iron Lion Saison: