Our Fiftieth Recipe
- Posted by Josh on November 05, 2007 at 8:18am
- Categories: Homebrews
- 2 Comments »
My last batch of homebrew was original recipe #47. I have a Holiday Ale planned for next week or the week after: a sweet brown ale made with oats and with a touch of spice (only a touch – unlike last year’s clove monster). In the first half of December I’ll be using the Fat Tire Ale Yeast that I picked up the other day to make a Belgian Pale Ale: Hump’s Humble Monk Ale.
And then, on New Year’s Day, I will ring in 2008 by brewing up Hump’s Fiftieth Brew. It will be an American Stock Ale – strong, dark, and hoppy. If it goes well, it will turn out somewhere between Stone’s Arrogant Bastard and Avery’s Fourteen… and not unlike Rogue Brewer. All three of these are delicious examples of American Stock Ales – which, by the way, do not yet have their own category in the BJCP Style Guidelines. If I were to submit it to a homebrew competition, I would have to enter it as an Imperial IPA and then put a note about it being an American Stock Ale. The guidelines suggest that they may break it out into its own official style later.
Have you ever entered anything into any competitions? If not, any plans to?
I have not ever entered anything into a competition – but I definitely have plans to. I have considered it on several occasions in the past, too. I just noticed that Boston Beer Company (makers of Sam Adams) are having another homebrew competition. The three winners will receive $2000 and have their beers produced on a large scale (not that large) and distributed by Boston Beer Company under the brand “Long Shots”. They did this last year and they also did this back in 1996 and 1997 (I think I remember sharing the brews from 1996 with you, in fact – back when your mom lived in an apartment behind Pelham Road, near I-85).
I won’t actually have anything ready to send to that competition. But we’ll see. I feel like I’m waiting for a truly special recipe. The several batches I’ve had that turned out particularly good came at times when homebrew competitions weren’t on my mind (otherwise I would have certainly entered them). I am hoping that my 50th batch turns out well enough to consider sending to a competition.