Some Brews Are Just Happy Accidents

We had a few new folks join our meeting last night (June 12, 2022), and I spent some time talking to the one gent (whose name I’ll withhold since I didn’t ask permission to share). He had brewed using a kit he’s familiar with but didn’t realize some ingredients had been swapped. The final beer was not what he intended and wasn’t necessarily to his liking. I encouraged him to bring bottles in to share. Lo and behold, it was a pretty darn good beer despite being a big departure from what he intended.

I think anyone that brews long enough will have a similar experience. I know I’ve had my fair share, and one has been recently. My first all-grain beer was supposed to be a fairly simple 5.5-6% pseudo-Belgian blonde ale at the May 2013 Big Brew event at Lucid Brewing in Minneapolis. Between the stuck mash, boil over and fermentation eruption during primary, I ended up with a 7.75% super-Belgian blonde ale. I figured out how to recreate the final beer with an adjusted recipe and more careful management of fermentation. (If you use Wyeast 3787, a blowoff tube is a requirement; ye hath been warned.) Fast-forward 9 years almost to the day. Big Brew 2022 on the patio at Municipal Brewing in Hamilton. I’m trying to make a 9% Belgian Tripel and I can’t hardly keep a boil in the wind. I end up with too much wort, and sure enough I used Wyeast 3787 with too small of an overflow catch (at least I didn’t have to clean the ceiling this time). I am right this moment partaking of my latest version of a 7.75% super-Belgian blonde ale – Proost!

No doubt this beer is not what I was looking forward to, but I still made beer and it’s going to be refreshing without being quite as strong as the temps run into the 90’s this week. There will be other times that we as brewers will learn harsher lessons, but as long as we learn from both the “happy accidents” and the utter failures and we churn that knowledge into our next effort, we will continue to improve at our craft. Being able to share these experiences with each other through the club is kind of special because we’ve all been there. We share our challenges and failures. We find the knowledge and encouragement to go try again. And it’s really great to share in the redemption brews where things went the way they were supposed to go in the first place!

Well, I think this post is sounding enough like a cat poster from my childhood dentist’s office that it’s time to sign off for now. Happy brewing, and like the cat says in the poster “Hang in there!”