Back to Brewing: Results

Looks good. Tasted pretty dang good too.

If you missed the last brewing post, check it out here. This is Savage Brewing’s clone of the Wassail by Full Sail.

Back At It

This afternoon marks the rebirth of Savage Brewing. We’re back in business!

Today we reunited all of the brewing equipment and the "brewing team" to create a seasonal favorite, our Wassail clone recipe. For those of you not familiar with Full Sail Brewing’s Wassail recipe, it’s a holiday ale brewed with spices and a darker mix of malts, just in time for the holiday season. With our friend’s Thanksgiving dinner coming up soon, we wanted to brew a batch to keg and share with everyone. Our version of this holiday recipe was very popular with our tasters and supporters last year, so I’m excited to see how it turns out.

Also, today marked our first attempt at outdoor brewing. I’ve included a few pictures below showing how we set things up on Luke’s deck. The outdoor arrangement is probably temporary, as we wait to figure out a more permanent brewing space, but it seemed to work pretty well. Being outside versus being in a hot, stuffy kitchen is obviously better. We also didn’t have to be as careful about dripping hot sugary wort (sugary beer-water?) everywhere, which was nice.

It’s good to be back in the brewing, good to have everyone back together and excited about making a go at this. Who knows what we’re going to be able to do, as far as business or whatever someday, but we’ve got big dreams. For all you non-Bellinghamers out there, make sure you let all your beer-loving friends know that we’re back at it and make sure you get up here to try some of our new recipes.

The pictures:

PS: More photos available

Coffee and Beer

The August/September issue of Northwest Brewing News has a great cover story: Coffee & Beer – Northwest Over-the-Counter Culture. Of course I was excited when I saw this sitting at the Archer a few weeks ago. I finally picked up an issue while we were at the Snoqualmie Falls Brewery this week. It’s a great article about how the Northwest is continuing to produce great coffee shops on every corner and a growing number of alehouses and microbreweries.

Savage Brew, Part 1

I thought I’d try one of those blog "series" things with one of my major hobbies/passions. This is the first post of however many it takes, documenting the home brewing process with Savage Brew.

Brian, my brewing partner, and I have been brewing for a little over a year now. Starting with a canned recipe, we’ve seen a lot of progression in our process, our recipes, and our results. From a stanky-skanky coffee stout to our most recent successes, which include a Honey Wheat, an Apple Porter, and a burly Imperial Oatmeal Stout, we’ve added up a lot of brewing experience.

A lot has changed over the year. We’ve defintely gained more knowledge about how to brew a good beer. It starts with choosing the right style, something you know you are going to enjoy and that other people (your wives and closest friends) will as well. We’ve made everything from IPAs to blacker-than-night Stouts. It’s really about working with a style, finding the high points (hoppy IPAs, rich Stouts) and bringing those attributes out.