Pumpkin | Four Brewers Podcast

Season 1, Episode 22 – It’s that special time of the year when pumpkin beers abound. This week, we carve it up.

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This week on the show, we’ve got two homebrews from our Aussie brother from a different mother, “The Beer Mule”, and two interesting craft beers from Hangar 24 Craft Brewery.

Many of you may know The Beer Mule. You know, that globe-trotting-drink-you-under-the-table Aussie dude who also happens to be a pilot? Well, we were lucky enough to get some of his homebrew on the show this week.

We kick it off with what we think is his New Zealand hopped Pale Ale (after further reaserch…it is. Motueka & Wai-iti hops) called Kiwi Skunk. It’s an overall refreshing beer that’s crystal clear and vibrant, given that it’s two months old.

Check out the recipe for Kiwi Skunk here. Also, here are some notes from The Mule on the beer:

– Wanted to make a smashable pale ale with some funky kiwi hops
– Unfortunately it has started to lose its great aroma, but it was easily the best beer I have brewed
– Sydney water is very soft, so I had to adjust the water to get it hard so the hops could shine
– Filtered with polyclar. First time using this and pretty happy with results. I read that it can help improve the life of the beer, which is main reason for trying it. Being away a lot I can’t smash a keg to quickly
– Carbed in a keg
– OG 1.053
– FG 1.012
– Highly recommend this recipe which I managed to build from scratch

The next beer on deck is The Mule’s Flanders Red Ale, Intro To Oak. From all accounts, this beer spent probably around a year in secondary souring-up, and was bottled on 9.9.2014. Right off the bat, this beer smelled great. It had all of the usual characteristic that one would find on the nose of this style of beer. We dive into this beer further on the show, and in summation: sour beers need a lot of time and patience.

Check out the recipe for Intro to Oak here. Also, here are some notes from The Mule on this beer:

– Brewed as triple batch between 3 of us.
– Used the Aussie no chill method
– Started ferment with 1272 and crashed it at 1.030
– Racked it and then pitched the Wyeast Roselare Belgian Blend with oak cubes
– Sat in fermenter under the house for 18 months
– Carbed in keg
– OG 1.057
– FG 1.016

Bring thanks to The Mule for the homebrew!

Hangar 24 Craft Brewery - Falling Leaf. Label customized by Bob Vreeland. — Hangar 24 Craft Brewery – Falling Leaf. Label customized by Bob Vreeland.

Next are two beers from a brewery that’s near and dear (and quite local) to us, Hangar 24 Craft Brewery. Our buddy, Bob Vreeland, hooked us up with H24’s newest “Barrel Roll” series of barrel-aged beers called Falling Leaf, and their seasonal release, Gourdgeous. Essentially, Falling Leaf is Gourdgeous aged in bourbon barrels. Both beers are made with pumpkin and spice, and as we all know, pumpkin beers tend to really divide beer drinkers quite a bit. When it comes to pumpkin beers, you either love them or hate them. However, pumpkin beers present themselves in many different styles of beer, so pumkin beers shouldn’t be judged soley because they are made with pumpkin. Have we said pumpkin enough yet? Pumpkin. Pumpkin. PUMPKIN!

Things get a little crazy at the end of the show, which at this point seems to be par for the course. So yeah…deal. 😉

BREW THE SHIT OUT OF IT!

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Season 1, Episode 12 – Co-founder of Almanac Beer Co., Jesse Friedman, joins us for a healthy dose of Almanac brews, gives insight on the company’s history, and their place in the craft beer world.

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This week, we’re drinking not one, not two, not three, but FOUR different Almanac beers. Jesse Friedman, co-founder of Almanac Beer Co., crashes the party via Google Hangouts to chat about his beer, get thrown a few softballs, and drink some Almanac brews with us.

Almanac Beer Co., located in San Jose, CA, was founded in 2010, and has already made waves in the beer scene with their outstanding barrel-aged beers, ranging from bourbon porter, to sour blonde fruit ales. Founders Jesse Friedman and Damian Fagan first met in their local homebrew club, where Jesse happened to sample a homebrew made by Damian that had the quality, taste, and presentation of a commercial beer. Jesse gets into this a bit more on the show, as well as what makes their brewery unique in its vision.

Almanac Beer Co. - Episode 12 Beers — Almanac Beer Co. – Episode 12 Beers

The first beer on deck is Almanac’s Dark Pumpkin Sour, an ale aged in wine barrels and brewed with pumpkins and spices. The pumpkins are sourced from Bodega Bay in Sonoma County. The beer has a pleasant, soft tartness that really compliments the pumpkin and roasted malts quite well.

Keeping on the pumpkin theme, the next beer we open is Almanac’s Heirloom Pumpkin Barleywine. Pumpkin beer season makes for a plethora of pumpkin ales and seems to get a bit convoluted, but Almanac’s barleywine really stands out. It’s a blended beer made with 500 pounds of hand-roasted pumpkins from La Tecera, California. If you haven’t caught on by now, Almanac is all about sourcing fruits and adjuncts for their beers from local California farmers, hence the “Farm to Barrel” theme printed on all of their bottles of beer.

Next up, we open the Farmer’s Reserve Citrus. This sour ale is made with Buddha’s Hand citrons and Bergamot oranges, aged in red wine barrels, and is quite refreshing.

Feature: “Guess That Brew!”

Jesse, being a long time listener of Four Brewers, is no stranger to our little beer review game, “Guess That Brew.” But this time, we put a twist on it. All of the beer reviews we’re reading are Almanac beer reviews. Not to give anything away, but Jesse actually knows his beer pretty well…

Jesse Friedman Hanging Out On Google — Jesse Friedman hanging out on Google

While playing the game, we crack open our final beer from Almanac, Valley of the Heart’s Delight. Before Silicon Valley was known as such, it was called “the valley of the heart’s delight”, due to it’s sprawling fruit orchards. This sour ale pays tribute to its namesake with the addition of apricots, loquats, and cherries. It’s then aged in used wine barrels. All of the fruit in this beer was hand-picked by the Garden To Table non-profit from urban farms and privately-owned properties where the fruit resided.

We’d like to thank Jesse for being so considerate as to guest on our show. Almanac is really making some great beers and has a unique take on their vision as a brewery. At the moment, they’re available in California, Washington, and Denver, so if you see their stuff on a shelf and you’ve never experienced their brew, buy it and enjoy.

If you didn’t hear already, we’re officially on Stitcher.

See you next week! Drink some beer!

Subscribe to the show:
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