One of the great pleasures of homebrewing is its social aspect. Like a magic magnet, it attracts interesting, passionate people. If you’ve been brewing for some time, you probably know what I mean. If you’re new to the hobby, I urge you to get in touch with other brewers through your local homebrew shop, through the American Homebrewers Association (www.beertown.org), or through searching online.
Whether you’re generally a “joiner” or not, in a homebrew club you’ll usually find the kind of warmth and easy familiarity the Germans call Gemütlichkeit.
(Kinsley Dey)
Even single brewer, in a kitchen or garage, can make beer equal to the most treasured commercial brews, a power afforded by few pastimes. But put a group of brewers together and even more amazing things can happen. Some of them I present here, to get you thinking—and brewing.
Bourbon Stouts
This idea originated with a group of suburban Chicago brewers, although it has come to be the rage among certain microbreweries. Brewing a bourbon stout couldn’t be simpler.
First, obtain a recently used bourbon barrel. These 50-gallon, charred oak containers cost a bundle when new but cannot be reused for bourbon (although there’s a move afoot to change that). Many are disassembled and shipped off to Scotland, but garden centers often sell them, to be split into planters. I have also seen them at barrel companies. If you’re having trouble locating a barrel in you area, might I suggest that a road trip to bourbon country can be both fascinating and fun.
If the barrel you find is somewhat dried out, you may first want to refresh it by adding a bottle of inexpensive but respectable bourbon.
Then, assemble enough brewers to produce 50 gallons of stout. Each one can brew separately or you can gang up on brew day for one massive assault. At any rate, let the beer ferment out through the primary before adding to the barrel. Then, add all the beers to the barrel—make sure the barrel is stable, because it will be very heavy when full—and let the contents age. After a few weeks or months, depending upon the strength of the beer, have everyone assemble for a massive bottling party, or just rack off the stout into soda kegs, and you’ve got something wonderful.
Although a strong, export-style stout was the subject of the first efforts, any strong beer style will work, such as barley wine, imperial stout, or Scotch (strong) ale. If you like peated Scotch ales, toss in a wee drappie or so of a lower-priced single malt.
Wine Barrel Lambics
A brewpub in Cleveland, infiltrated by maniac homebrewers, came up with this one. Find one or more used wine barrels, reasonably fresh, not dried out, and use to flavor your next brew. This brewpub got several and had a “barrel water tasting” by brewery staff to determine which barrel would be used for what.
Wine barrels used for heavier-tasting reds might be best for beers with strongly-flavored fruits like raspberries, while lighter reds might be suitable for cherries, or for a non-fruit beer such as a Flemish sour brown. Whites might go for peaches or for fruitless beers like straight lambics. Wine barrels do come in different sizes, but 50 gallons is the most common size.
A homebrewer in northern Wisconsin maintains two barrels, one for lambics and one for sour browns. He uses them in solera fashion, in which a quantity of beer is periodically removed to make way for a new portion, but the whole barrel is never emptied. The beer is thus a blend of old and new, an important feature of many antique beers. Such a barrel could be maintained as a “club beer,” which is bottled or kegged only for group use, or bottled 5 or 10 gallons at a time, and dispersed. Brewers could contribute on a rotating basis.
Prepackaged Belgian yeast/bacteria mixes will give the appropriate flavors, but this is a complicated subject that will take some study and experience before you proceed on this larger scale.
Barley Wine Solera
This is just a way to procure a supply of blended ancient and new barley wine. Obtain a large demijohn or barrel, from 15 to 50 gallons. As in the above, brewers rotate brew duty. The only rule is that the beer must be at least a certain gravity, which, in my opinion, should be ridiculously high. Give this beer a special name, make ritual offerings to it on beer holidays—worship it, really—and serve it only for very special occasions. The result will be very fine, guaranteed to hold a group together.
