At our latest meeting it was rather quiet at 20:00 hours as flu and the weather prevented several from attending, which is rather strange as usually these guys are wildly raving on any bug or wild microbe in their lives. Anyway, attendees Chris, Rodrigo and Erik were shortly thereafter joined by Kiko, Sascha and Janneke. Quite an intimate setting as to say.
We started off by discussing out latest brewing adventures and upcoming plans. A few items to look forward to:
Erik’s Meconium Stout for his son Olivier was brought up with a FG of 1.050 we hope to get a sample in a few years for expert judgement
Sascha is planning his brews for the Festival Carnival Brettanomyces as he will be hosting a venue there and plans to brew a Lichtenhainer which is best enjoyed fresh.
Janneke told us she has decided to stop with her tapnights at the Vondelbunker as even though she enjoys it thoroughly, she just couldn’t combine it anymore with her, and I quote: “work and other fun activities such as laundry at home”
Chris told us after he won “Best Brewery” at the Homebrewers festival in June, he considered quitting while you’re on top, and although that is totally understandable we knew while taking a sip of the first beer he just missed Foebar enough to make a grand rentree. Good to have you back Chris!
Rodrigo had the first entry of the evening: the third installment of the Ginger Grisette coming in at 3,8%. Major adaptation from the previous installment was that this time the ginger was freshly ground. It sure kicked and was noticeable. Rodrigo would have like a little more balance to it, but the majority of people thought this to be a well refreshing summing time beer. Off to a good start.
Kiko leaned in with one of his upcoming plans also: to smoke a scoby (yes a scoby) and let it consequently ferment a kombucha for a smokey imparted flavor. We are sure looking forward to that!
Next up another beer experiment from Mr Yeast: Sascha. He told us that this year a global conference on yeast researchers will convene on a summit in Utrecht and that sixpacks of interesting yeasty beers will be gifted. The wildest project yet: a musky mystery bug which produces a compound also found as ingredient in many perfumes. The fermenting wort smells musky and delicious at this point, but will need regular Sacc to finish. It may blow out just enough muskiness to be enjoyed as beer. Looking forward!
Second beer of the evening: Hopersonic by Erik, an American IPA in which we decided to guess the ingredients and deconstruct the taste.
Several ingredients were identifiable or very well guessed, but we tend to think we are just getting better at it:
Guessed;
- Mosaic
- Simcoe
- Wheat Malt
- Age of 2 months
Not guessed
- Maris otter
- Caramunich III
- Centennial
Janneke proudly reported that this was the first night in which all beers were a 100% succes rate!
The evening concluded with several other fun discussions on 400 conegos, Mescal, non-beer related fermentations and cleaning regimen. Kiko promised to bring with him from Mexico some truly epic Mescal and made Chris a very happy man. Sacha, Rodrigo and Janneke were able to help Erik on a cleaning regimen that would allow him to confidently use Brett and wild bugs without cross contamination: “just buy a second house for Brett-fermentations” seemed like to be the most reasonable one.
Finally we discussed other fermentations in which Chris shared a treasure trove of information on Kimchi (check out: Maangchi).
Next month it is our 2nd anniversary, feel free to join in and bring all dregs from your cellar should you have any as last year this was a staggering success as well! Hope to see you all then!
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