UpComing Sour/Wild Ales

Last night I decided to transfer "Lucid Dreams" which is going to eventually be a blueberry Lambic into secondary fermentation after an over extended stay in primary. Generally, Lambics can take up to 2 or 3 years to mature properly. To my surprise however, this beer has already rounded into a very tasty, moderately sour lambic. I decided at that moment, I wasn't gonna fool around with things too much, this beer was basically ready to go and its time to add blueberries and get this thing on tap asap.
All of this excitement got me thinking.....I've got several sour type beers fermenting and I really haven't given a ton of insight about what I hope each to be like. There is a certain amount of hope as to when each will hopefully be ready to drink, but this most recent experience has taught me you just never know when your messing around with wild yeasts. Here's a list of sour beers that could be coming up in the next year.

• Lucid Dreams - as I stated above, this is going to be a blueberry lambic and overall, it seems to be drinking fairly easily right now almost like a sour piece of candy....makes my mouth water. Should be ready in a matter of weeks...maybe for St. Pattys
• Wild Horses - if any of you have had Cheeky Monkey, then you'll have a little bit of an idea what this beer will be like. This is an ongoing project of mine to brew a beer, pick a fruit and split the beer into 2 fermentors (1 sour and 1 not sour). Cheeky Monkey is a non sour raspberry fruit beer, Wild Horses is a raspberry beer that has been exposed to lactic bacteria in order to sour it for 2 months now. I'm hoping this one will be ready to go this summer sometime.....I still may add more raspberries.
• Hind Sight - this is a goof up beer that will hopefully be amazing. It was suppose to be batch 1 of O' Holy Night, but through several unfortunate circumstances, mainly an over excited fermentation that led to exposure to the environment for 36 hours I decided to sour it using two types of lactic bacteria.....I really don't know when this will be ready, maybe by next fall.....as long as the keg doesn't explode or the beer doesn't spontaneously combust we're doing okay!
• Dave's Butt Juice - I'm making this beer this weekend and it will prolly be less sour and more tangy (hopefully). The idea is to brew a Belgian IPA/pale ale with star fruit added to the secondary fermentation and expose the beer to lactic bacteria for 2 months.....sounds like it could be cool. Time will tell. St. Pattys Party Fo Sho!!
  
• I've Got a Raging Beanie - This beer is currently barrel aging and will hopefully blow minds up. The overall thought is to make a rather high alcohol beer and age it in a barrel and on fruit for 3 months a piece. Its a tripel that will be between 8 and 11% ABV and will hopefully take on some fun barrel traits in the coming months before it spends time on two fruits (that I've never used).....we'll see....if it sucks then it'll either get served under a different name or it'll get dumped.....stay tuned! Hopefully by July or August.

Things will remain up in the air with these beers and if 3 out of the 5 of them turn out well, I will be happy. Wild yeasts are crazy and can do amazing things to a beer.....or they can turn them into piss. I hope for Amazing!!!

Cheers!

You Stay Classy......Planet Earth!

Bashore BrewHaus'
Fancy Dress New Years Eve Gala
and
2nd Anniversary Party

Hey There Everyone,

Its time to celebrate and December 31st marks the end of 2010 and the anniversary of the first time that beer flowed from the taps of the bunker known as the Bashore BrewHaus.

To celebrate, this year we will be throwing a fancy dress themed party. We'd like to keep the requirements on the dress pretty loose, but feel free to do as much as possible for this. Ties, sweaters and sport coats are encouraged for ...the the gents but full tuxedos would be a sight to see and dresses, skirts and fancy shoes are encouraged for the misses (FYI, if your shoes scuff the floor in the basement we'll ask you politely to remove them).

Most of the details of this shin dig are still in the works, but we like everyone to bring a dish to pass....the fancier the better. We'll be having a beer pong (water pong) tournament starting at 8:30....cause what more classy then beer pong?

As always we'll be serving 5 house brews, champagne (if anyone wants to bring some that can be your dish to pass) and an assortment of specialty shots and drinks as well as craft root beer for certain friends. The beers that will be on tap at this party are as follows:

Rock n' Roll Jesus English Barleywine
Halstead's Hearty Ale
O' Holy Night Spiced Dunkelweizen
Azreal Imperial Maple Munich Porter
Our 2nd Anniversary Ale known as Cheeky Monkey which is a raspberry Belgian Ale.

I hope you can all make it out and please feel free to post what dish you'd like to bring when you decide!

Cheers!

On Tap this Weekend: O' Holy Night

O' Holy Night
Spiced Dunkelweizen
5% ABV

Let's keep this Christmas train rollin' along. Another beer that is a must for me is a good German Wheat beer and the season calls for a Dunkelweizen! O' Holy Night is a very non tradition German Dunkelweizen. Unlike the brewmiesters from across the pond that use only the 4 basic ingredients in all of there beers, I decided to turn this brew up to 11! O' Holy Night is spiced with cinnamon and star anise. Also, in order to give the beer a bit more of a richer flavor I used Mexican turbinado sugar. The resulting beer is subtle, malty, and delicious. From a personal perspective....I'm glad I misjudged my volumes and have 6 gallons rather than 5 gallons of this beer.

Spiced for the Season

Now on Tap: Azreal

Now on Tap
Azreal Imperial Munich Porter
w/ Maple added
8% ABV

Something that has been weighing heavy on me is that we don't have any Stouts or Porters on tap right now.....well problem solved! I introduced Azreal. This is an Imperial Porter that uses Germany Munich malt as its primary base malt in order to give the beer a richer, more malty flavor. Then, in order to make this beer even more decadent pure maple syrup was added to the beer in the keg. The resulting beer is powerful with flavored of maple (obviously), sweet chocolate and roasted dark malts. This beer shouldn't be taken lightly, too much will have you crawling across the floor. Its not bad.....just doing its job!

Runnin' with the Devil!

Halloween Thanks

Just wanted to take a minute and thank everyone for dressing up and coming out to the Halloween Party. Everyone's costumes looked great!! Last year we threw an Oktoberfest party and I was not nearly as satisfied with it as I was with this get together. We tore through quit a bit a beer and had a lot of fun. Thanks again and I can't wait to do it all again for New Years!

Cheers!!

I'll make sure to have more 80's and 90's Hip Hop playing next time!!

On Tap this Saturday 10/30/10

Halstead's Hearty Indian Brown Ale
4.75% ABV

Let's keep the ball rolling on the Patron Inspiration Series. In this exciting installment we bring you Halstead's Hearty Indian Brown Ale named for our good friends John and Lijana Halstead. The interesting thing about this addition to our collection is that John and Lijana don't drink beer.....or any liquor for that matter. Normally, you would think, "what in tar-nation are these guys doing hanging out Bashore BrewHaus?" The simple answer to that question is that we are just so cool, who wouldn't want to be around us?

In all seriousness, these are two of the best people that we have the privileged to be around. It goes to show you that its not about beer at the bunker, it's about good friends being goofy, dancing, joking and having good time and the Halstead's are at the top of the list when it comes to having fun. They never act like they are uncomfortable or out of place around all the drunken hooligans that are usually hanging around. They just go with the flow all the while injecting some of there own Halstead excitement into the place! (insert funny comment from John)

In honor of John and Lijana I made a dry hopped Indian Brown Ale. This beer looks like a regular sessionable brown ale right down to the lowish alcohol. That's where the similarities stop. This beer has an intense hop aroma and flavor with hints of chocolate and roasted malts that come from the grains. I really do think this beer is pretty delicious. I've only had samples of it warm without carbonation and I really enjoyed it.....which can't be said for most beers I brew. I know John and Lijana won't be drinking any of this ale, but they should be able to get a good idea about it from the smell.

Cheers to You Crazy Kids!

If it's Brown drink it down, if its black......send it back!!

NOW ON TAP: K-Roc Da House

Now on Tap!!
K-Roc Da House
Belgian Singel
5.25% ABV



The newest beer in our Patron Inspiration Series is a beer dedicated to our good friend and fellow Spartan Alumni Karen Thomas. Karen has been right by our sides through the course of our drinking/beer evolution. Whether we were singing at Crunchy's in college or attending beer festivals in temperatures well below freezing Karen was right there to sip and judge every beer that we were. Even now that beer has become more than just a drinking "thing" and has become about crafting fine ales and having events for friends to get together and tell stories over a pint or two. Karen is still there to give her opinion, whether she's sober or not......usually not!!

One of the things that I've always found to be funny about Karen is her intense, unbridled love for cool refreshing Triple Hopped brewed Miller Lite! Don't get me wrong Karen is willing to try any beer and she usually responses with her catch phrase, "it's good, but I couldn't drink a lot of it". But her love for the cheap stuff burns hotter than 10,000 cases of Herpes. Its always been hard for me to figure out why she couldn't bridge the gap and become a strictly craft drinker. Then the other day I had a Miller Lite and it occurred to me why she likes it so much. It tastes like water!! Karen loves Water.....Of Course!!

All kidding aside, it would be a waste of my and your time to make a beer that tastes like water. So I set out to try and recreate one of the first session beers, the Belgian Trappist Singel. Belgian beers are known for being sweet and complex due to the different sugars and yeasts used in the country. The Belgian Singel is what Trappist monks would/will drink during the day when they were brewing. It is light and refreshing with an up front "fruity" flavor followed by a slight hop bitterness. My goal for this beer if for Karen to utter the words, " I could drink this all day".......we'll see!!

Triple Hops.......Belgian Style!!