So tomorrow's gonna totally kickass!

We are full on brewing a beer that represents the pub in its entirety.

We had some meetings to discuss flavor ideas, make some decisions, and do some math. Well, the recipe is set and tomorrow is a go!

We decided to make a strong 8% porter from Maris Otter, crystal, chocolate, black, Carafa 3, biscuit, and wheat malts. We all agreed that we love porters and we don't make them nearly enough. We then set out to determine what contributions would best represent the kitchen, front of the house, and distillery and still be complementary to the overall beer. It was unanimous that bacon best represents the kitchen.

10:30 is the magical hour that the aroma of bacon wafts from the kitchen into all corners of the pub. It's a great moment but it totally makes me salivate more than you can imagine. Anyway... I spoke with Dennis about the potential of smoking some malt in the kitchen to represent that moment in time. He was all about it and decided the malt should be smoked with Pohutukawa wood from New Zealand. This summer he smoked some house-made bacon with it and it was like manna from heaven...except it was made of meat and was far more satisfying, I'm sure. So the malt is in the smoker right now for 3 hours of cold smoking.

The front of the house folks love wine and they prefer Shiraz, turns out. Their contribution will come in the form of Shirazjuice added to the beer during fermentation. I like wine too and I'm totally into the fusion of the beer and wine worlds so naturally I was on board immediately.

Next came the distillery. Some folks suggested aging the beer on Brown Honey Rum oak chips. This made me remember that we have a whole bunch of brandy barrels left over from PoppaSkull and I floated that out their as a wood aging possibility. That turned out to be a popular suggestion so we'll be aging this beer in brandy barrels. Alison suggested the addition of the herb mix she seasons the Jin with. YES! This blend contains juniper, black peppercorns, coriander, cucumbers (yes, cucumbers), and hops. Well, we have some hops in our garden and (by some fluke) the cones are just now matured so three ounces of those will go in.

Yes, there is a lot going on in this beer but there is a lot going on her at the pub so it's really the perfect representation of our little world. I hope you'll come and visit.