O.C. Brew Fest Reviewed

This past weekend I ventured out to sunny California to check out some West Coast craft beer, as well as attend the 3rd Annual Orange County Craft Beer Festival located in scenic Oak Canyon Park in Silverado, CA.

This event is partnered with the Local 3631 Firefighter's Union. Boasting over 60 Award winning Breweries serving 150+ beers on tap, it raises thousands of dollars for the Fallen Fire Fighters Relief Fund.

All of the big breweries of the regional west were in attendance - Sierra Nevada, Lagunitas, Stone, Avery, Firestone Walker, North Coast Brewery as well as numerous smaller California breweries.

My strategy was to try things I haven't had before from some of the West Coast's craft beer trailblazers as well as discover some of the up and coming breweries. We found that most of the larger breweries had two tap lines, simply showcasing their flagship beers. I have to admit that I'd hoped based on my experience with Midwest beer festivals, that this would be a venue to try some special/limited releases but this was unfortunately not that case. The smaller, local breweries really came out to shine!

Beers of Note/Best in Show

• Epic Brewery (Salt Lake City, UT) Spiral Jetty IPA (6.6%), A bold IPA boasting 7 types of American hops

• North Coast Brewing Co. (Fort Bragg, CA) Red Seal Pale Ale on Nitro (5.4%), Copper-Red and creamy

• Bootlegger's Brewery (Fullerton, CA) Golden Chaos Belgian Ale (8.4%), Perfectly spiced

• Golden Road (Los Angeles, CA) Get Up Offa That Brown (5.5%), Smooth & smokey English-style Brown Ale
• Taps Fish House & Brewery (Orange County, CA) Pumpkin Ale (5.8%), Well balanced

Best Tent Display

• Hangar 24 Craft Brewery (Redlands, CA)

Custom Tent, vintage truck, 4+ taps, lots of swag - these guys had all of the bells and whistles.

Breweries To Keep An Eye On

• Hangar 24 Craft Brewery (Redlands, CA) www.hangar24brewery.com 

With a impressive list of quality crafted beers and vintage branding that can't be overlooked this local favorite caught my eye. I had a chance to visit their brewery - stay tuned for a dedicated write up.

Brad from Ritual Brewing and I

• Ritual Brewing Co. (Redlands, CA) www.ritualbrewing.com

A craft brewery opening this fall, this was their first festival and they had quite a showing. The Wit's End was refreshingly delightful.

• Monkish Brewery (Torrance, CA) www.monkishbrewing.com

These guys did not have their own tent, but were being served by Brü. Their Belgian spiced beers - Rosa's Hips (Belgian Brown spiced with rose hips) and Crux (Belgian Single spiced with elderflowers) were by far the most impressive I had while in Southern California. Check out their new tasting room right outside of LA.

Best Food Trucks

• Ranch A Go Go (Multiple Southern California locations) http://www.ranchoagogo.com

Let's just say these guys rocked my world with their over-sized Pulled Pork Sliders.

• Brewcakes (Redlands, CA) www.brewcake.com

A unique bakery specializing in desserts infused with craft beer, wine or liquor. We tried a sampling of craft beer infused cupcakes that were delicious!

Glass Half Full

 • Wrist bands - pretty cool each little tear off square was a drink ticket, no worries about losing paper tickets
• Overhead Misting Cords - such a life saver on a hot day

• Location - great amount of shade, not over-crowded

Glass Half Empty

• No cell reception - hard to meet up with people

• No map handouts - hard to know which breweries were where for planning/strategizing

• Brewery representation - as a beer geek I would have loved to see more people from the breweries who could answer questions about the beers on tap.

Overall the festival was spacious, delicious and well planned. Thanks so much O.C. Brew Fest and O.C. Firefighters Union, we had a fantastic time!

Beer T-Shirts of SoCal

Truth: People at beer festivals love their kitschy beer t-shirts, so it became a fun hunt of sorts to find and document the best of the fest. Only one person got angry at me, everyone else was pretty excited about being part of my project.

Route Beer?

That's what she said...

Brewcake was one of the delicious food vendors

This was our favorite! www.bierbitzch.com

This guy has a Belgian Yeast Infection

I have no idea...

Words to live by!

Trust me, this guy had plenty of beer.

This guy actually called me an asshole for asking about his beer blog, but let me photograph him anyway.

My score of the day. Pork: the perfect accompaniment.

Portland Brew Festival Reviewed

This past Labor Day weekend Portland Maine celebrated its 2nd Annual
Brew Festival on a picturesque New England summer day. It was held at
an old marina warehouse right on the waterfront of Oldport, which
added a unique and rustic feel to the event. Over 30 local breweries
were in attendance, including Allagash, Baxter, Shipyard, and Sebago
to name a few. The beer was flowing from 12-4pm, unfortunately the
selections from the breweries were a tad lackluster. The majority were
offering their staple brews without the added bonus of rarities or new
additions.

Allagash, however, was pouring their anniversary brew Fluxus, a
strong golden ale with a classic Belgian aroma and tart/peppery
finish. It was definitely a highlight of the afternoon. If you are a
Belgian beer fan, their beers always offer a balanced yet unfettered
experience.

Longtrail Brewery also surprised me by having their new Brewmaster’s
Series Imperial Pumpkin ale, which at 9% abv was amazingly smooth and
devoid of the canned pumpkin flavor. It was fresh and festive, as a
fall pumpkin brew should be.

One of the most distinct and satisfying beverages of the day wasn’t
actually a beer. Urban Farm Fermentary, based out of Portland,
specialize in ciders, mead and Kombucha, a Japanese fermented tea.
Their Ginger Kombucha was incredible. With aromas of pickled ginger, a
light effervescent mouthfeel, and refreshing sweet and sour flavors,
it was hard to believe I wasn’t drinking a Flemish sour ale. Kombucha
is derived by fermenting tea leaves with live bacteria and yeast,
sometimes including the ever popular strain Brettanomyces
Bruxellensis, which gives it that classic Belgian funk. Clocking in at
around 1.5-2% abv,  it isn’t exactly a party brew. In fact, you might
catch your parents drinking it within the next few years if it gains
popularity. The copious amounts of healthy bacteria in every bottle
are said to help ease indigestion and extract toxins from the body. 
Sounds like a perfect breakfast beverage after a late night out in one of 
the fastest growing craft beer cities on the east coast.

Reviewed by Dave Leshinski

The Beer Bistro North Opens in Lincoln Park

With an extensive background in the craft beer industry and a love of bringing quality beer and food to the masses, owner Bob McDermott has established the The Beer Bistro brand as a premiere destination for beer lovers. Whether you’re visiting the Madison location or the newly opened Fullerton location, you’ll find a feel-good atmosphere that is homey, welcoming, and unpretentious. Bob McDermott and his staff pride themselves on having a neighborhood approach - they offer a rotating selection of high-end beers, but will never look down at you for ordering a Miller High Life.
We met up with Bob at The Beer Bistro North on Fullerton to check out the new location and talk about their recent expansion.

H2TA: Bob, I understand you have quite a background in the restaurant industry. What led you to focus on brewpubs in particular?

Bob McDermott: I’ve worked at a lot of Chicago institutions over the years. My love of craft beer exploded when I was working at Goose Island on Clybourn and also helped open the Wrigleyville location. I then went on to run a larger national chain of restaurants. I learned an awful lot through those places - what to do, what not to do. Like any business you have to make a lot of mistakes before you get decent at it, that’s how you learn.

As far as what drew me to brewpubs, I’m a big fan of variety. I don’t want a beer all night long, it’s just not my style. I like to be able to have options - different IPAs, seasonal styles, really big beers to balance my day or night. Most brewpubs are pretty laid back and casual, which is how I am, not white collar and stuffy. I like the idea of hosting a party every day and I like that my party offers more variety than other places can.

H2TA: In 2005 you were one of the first to bring the artisan food and craft beer concept to the West Loop. How has the scene changed and what still makes The Beer Bistro unique?

Bob: The Beer Bistro didn’t start off saying “we’re going to be THE beer bar in the West Loop” and cut our niche. I opened it up as a neighborhood bar with a good beer list. Luckily the people in the neighborhood and those going back and forth to the United Center for games have learned about The Beer Bistro and use it as their stepping stone to learn about craft beer. We try to be very inclusive, rather than exclusive, and that goes for my staff. It’s important to have knowledge about what you’re selling but don’t be an asshole to people who don’t know, bring them into the fold because then they’ll come back and want to learn more about craft beer. Right now, craft beer in the West Loop is on fire - Haymarket, The Publican, Girl & The Goat, Paramount Room, Twisted Spoke – they all have great beer lists. We were fortunate enough to open up when the neighborhood was starting to change and were the first bar on the street. This neighborhood has helped us be who we are and what we are.

H2TA: This past spring you purchased Small Bar Fullerton as your second location and opened The Beer Bistro North in ten days - an incredible feat in this industry! Can you tell me a little bit about the space and what made it the ideal location?

Bob: Small Bar was already established and very successful. They have a great brand and did a good job of putting the bones in place. There’s a lot of history in this building - it used to be St Paul’s Billiards back in the day, where The Color Of Money was filmed. When I was younger, I used to hang out here because they sold $1.75 bottles of Miller High Life and $2 an hour to play pool. As a kid growing up in the city that was a pretty good deal. As an adult, it’s an odd feeling to actually be working here now, even though it looks different, because I know what was here. It’s in the middle of a neighborhood that wants to do more, surrounded by some great restaurants. I’m happy to be up here on the Northside and I think there’s a lot of potential. You can see we didn’t do an excessive amount of work to Small Bar, we just broke up some of the hard lines and made it a little softer and more homey.

H2TA: The West Loop is known as being a community of serious foodies and “hop-heads”. Is your approach at The Beer Bistro North any different than at the original location? What are you finding the Northside clientele are looking for?

Bob: We’re still feeling out the Northside clientele. They’re not as hop-driven as the West Loop. The West Loop can’t seem to get enough. When we did a tap takeover for IPA day we went through 4 barrels of Hopothesis in 3 hours, it was awesome. We’re learning up here (Northside) that sours and some other things we’re trying are well received. There are different distributors between the two locations so we’re able to bring in some unique beer at different times.

H2TA: With approximately 200 beers available, The Beer Bistro and The Beer Bistro North are considered prime beer locations. How are you able to consistently bring such a diverse selection of quality beers to your bars?

Bob: We want to have great beer list with variety. Breweries in the Midwest are on fire right now, so it’s not difficult to bring in quality beer. We’re fortunate enough that we have gotten the respect of not only the sales community but customers that come in that we can sell great beer. With this second location we’re learning that the craft beer drinker really is everyone - male, female, 25-75. You’ll get the older gentleman who drinks his High Life and shot of whiskey and then turns around and orders a Lagunitas A Little Sumpin’ Sumpin’ and you’re thinking - “How does he know about this?” but he does, it’s awesome.

As far as looking ahead to what’s new – we’re just asking, trying and having fun with what we do.

H2TA: And with the diverse selection you have at your fingertips, why was it important for you to have a House Draft? Who brews it and what makes it unique?

Bob: We’ve always done a “Beer Of The Month” special and I wanted to have a beer that we could call our own, one line that could switch out seasonally. We’re not brewers; I’m much better at selling it than making it. Originally, I wanted it to be locally-sourced, but that was in 2009 when Midwest beer was really exploding and breweries were having a hard time keeping up with beer production. We put our feelers out and were able to pair up with Brooklyn Brewery and it’s been a really good partnership for us. Will it always be with them? I don’t know. With the amount happening in Chicago right now, I’d love to see a window open up where we can work with someone locally, but we’ll see.

H2TA: You are known for some pretty fantastic tasting events (Goose Island Bourbon County Stout, Goose Island Fulton & Wood) and tap takeovers (Three Floyds, Two Brothers, Milwaukee Brewing, IPA Day). What is it about these events that draws so much excitement? How important are these events in promoting the local craft beer community?

Bob: Our first tap takeover was Three Floyds and it was not the easiest day for us. We had twenty different beers on tap on at once, which we had never done before. It was a huge investment and our hope was to be out of beer completely at the end of the night. It happened on February 23rd last year, the “thundersnow” day, where there was lightening and thunder in the middle of a snowstorm (which only seemed appropriate for Three Floyds). We were nervous whether people would make it out, but we tapped the beer at 4:30pm and by 5pm it was nuts in here. There were no issues and it was great because everyone was here for the craft beer. We try to offer all of the pints at the same price so that you can taste 8-10 different beers and get more flavors and varieties. The tap takeovers recreate the beer tour experience by bringing everyone to their neighborhood bar and letting them meet the brewers and try beers they haven’t had before.

H2TA: What excites you most about being on the purveyor side of craft beer and where do you see the future of The Beer Bistro/The Beer Bistro North?

Bob: I like to drink it, bottom line. I love craft beer. I’m going to be at a bar no matter what and I enjoy running a business doing it. Otherwise I’d be the bum, the old guy, complaining about the $5 whiskey.

I see the Madison location continuing to do well and hopefully being a mainstay in the neighborhood. At Beer Bistro North, the sky is the limit. We’re just getting started and working on some crazy events. There’s a lot of potential to do some different things up here. You can’t catch lighting in a bottle twice, and I wouldn’t presume to try. I think that’s the downfall of some establishments opening multiple locations - to run on reputation alone. We take advantage of social media, but we don’t pay for advertising, it’s not the way we do things. We’re just getting into the community and involved with this neighborhood. We’re about to hit Fall which is when Chicago comes alive with football, basketball, hockey and we love it. I’m blown away by our city’s ability to adapt and change beyond a Miller/Budweiser city. Chicago is a craft beer city and I’m happy with that.

H2TA: What value do you see in becoming an allied member of the craft beer community?

Bob: I’m not one of the brewers, I’m one of the purveyors and that’s where my strength lies - providing to the masses. I think there’s a huge advantage to being a member of the community beyond networking and shaking hands, it’s much more than that. With the amount of restaurants trying to survive, we felt it was time for us to expand. I have a great management staff in place, Chris Wortendyke is a great asset to my business on Madison. We’re not just selling craft beer, we’re part of the community and living craft beer life.

John J. Hall and Team Launch the Latest Goose Island Fulton & Woods Innovation Beer

This past Monday marked the launch of the 4th beer in Goose Island’s Fulton & Wood Series , Gran Gås (pronounced gu-az), which is Swedish for “Spruce Goose”. The launch party was held at the Swedish American Museum in historic Andersonville, the perfect location to introduce this Scandinavian inspired beer, brewed with lingonberries and spruce tips.

The team behind Gran Gås was Senior Brewer John J. Hall and Brewer Zach Greenwood. We had the opportunity to sit down with John J. and Zach to get a behind the scenes look into the making of Gran Gås.

H2TA: John J., for those who may not know you personally, tell us about your background. How long have you been brewing with Goose Island?

John J: I’ve been brewing with Goose Island just shy of 15 years. I started off as a Cellarman, moved up to a Shift Brewer in the first year, spent 4 years on second shift and then moved up to Lead Brewer, Head Brewer and then Senior Brewer.

H2TA: You’ve developed numerous best-selling Goose Island recipes such as 312 Urban Wheat Ale, Mild Winter Ale and the Harvest Ale, all very drinkable beers. How much do you keep in mind what consumers want in terms of a flavor profile? Or are you taking the opportunity to influence with your own tastes?

John J: The concept of 312 was Greg Hall’s idea. He said, “I want an unfiltered beer, with citrus notes”. Beyond that, honestly when I’m trying to design a beer I think of a flavor I want to achieve, that I want to drink and hope that everyone else is on board. I don’t try to make beer for “the people”, I try to make a beer that I want to drink and hope they all agree with me.

H2TA: Tonight we’re celebrating the launch of the 4th beer in the Fulton & Wood Series - Gran Gås (aka Spruce Goose). What a great name, by the way. Can you tell us what inspired this recipe?

John J: We started this whole program of Fulton & Wood Series innovation beers pairing up brewers who hadn’t worked together before. So in my case it was myself, a senior brewer and a new brewer, Ross Allen. One thing he had in mind that we both agreed on was taking our Belgian yeast (Golden Ale) and adding cranberries to it. I had just come back from a trip to Ireland. My wife Margie and I were having breakfast in Dublin and the side of her plate was garnished with lingonberries (a small berry from Scandinavia). I had never seen them before. I don’t eat berries but tried one and thought it tasted like a tart cranberry. So when Ross mentioned cranberries I thought that lingonberries could be a little more unique and obscure. Ross was rehired back by his old company and Zach and Gordon were added to the program. We now had a Belgian beer with lingonberries and started thinking about what else says “Scandinavian” and came up with spruce tips rather than hops, for aroma. That’s how it started.



H2TA: What is involved in brewing with lingonberries and spruce tips? And where does one source such unique ingredients?

Zach: We did benchtop fermentations, so we had Gordon make a few variations with different additions of spruce to smell, taste and determine the quantity we liked to scale up from. With the lingonberries we did something similar using Green Line base beer. We mixed in some berries until we achieved the ruby color and flavor we were looking for. The spruce tips were put in mesh bags and added to the whirlpool for 30 minutes. After fermentation the beer was racked over 700 lbs of berries which we puréed ourselves and then aged for 3-5 days.

John J: Once I had the idea to use spruce tips, the question was where to get them. I was hoping to find them locally grown and harvested from a Christmas tree farm. I searched around and found a few places that were interested in the idea, but the one last question I asked was, “Do you use chemical treatment on your trees?”, which they did. I found a company in Colorado, Spruce on Tap, a husband and wife team. They were picking them for local homebrewers and small brewpubs in small 2-3 oz packages. I called asking for 80 lbs, which then turned into 220 lbs. Randy Stowes and his wife went out and picked them over the course of 2-3 weeks, in between all of the forest fires in Colorado, and were able to find enough for us. They hand-picked, collected, vacuum-sealed, put on ice and shipped to us directly and we were brewing with spruce tips the next day.

I had never brewed with lingonberries or spruce tips before and had no idea how to use them. Having Zach and Gordon with lab backgrounds was phenomenal. When we first started brewing the trial batch, a new lab person, Dennis McCarthy chose to figure out on his own the bittering value the spruce would add and he achieved it. We got within .04 of our target. It’s innovative folks in the brewery all around that make this happen.

Gran Gås would not be possible without the hard work of Zach, Gordon and Allen Ross. This was a collaborative beer that we all did together. I added a few ingredients but I could not have done it without the lab helping me figure out how to make this beer. It’s a great tool that Goose Island has.

H2TA: Is Gran Gås going to be available to the public anytime soon?


John J: We’re releasing these like all of the other Fulton & Wood Series. There are about 30 or so really good craft beer bars in the Chicagoland area. Within two weeks you’ll see Gran Gås at select bars, on draft only, until it’s gone. It will probably last 90 days or so in the marketplace.

H2TA: The whole Fulton & Wood Series of craft beer is an amazing concept. Every creation seems to be getting a little more complex. In your opinion is it complexity, or just an exciting mix of fresh ingredients that draws so much interest?

John J: I think it’s a bit of both. The next beer on the line is “Casimir”. The brewers are using Polish hops, which we’ve never had in the brewery before, and caraway seeds. What’s really critical is Goose Island’s open-mindedness to whatever our ideas are. They’re not going to knock us down for being too weird or expensive if we think it’s a good idea. They’re behind us and will spend the money to make it happen. Fulton & Wood is about Goose Island’s commitment to expanding the boundaries.

H2TA: How much does the limited draft release aspect of the series add to your creativity versus a beer that has to be bottled and distributed?

John J: It expands creativity because we can turn around a new beer, a new idea relatively quickly and we only have to do it once, which means the next beer has to be on line right behind it. There’s a set timeline. We’re going to keep putting these fresh beers out as fast as possible.


H2TA: It seems many breweries just order their ingredients from their distributors. Do you feel that you’re inspiring a lot of these new breweries in terms of using fresher ingredients in the brewing process?

John J: I’d say yes. Even before this idea, Goose Island has been barrel aging different beers for years, buying fresh fruit from Michigan’s farms and local farmer’s markets. If we need to do something more extensive like lingonberries we’ll go further abroad. One of our brewers had an idea to brew with mission figs (Fulton & Wood Black Mission) so we found mission figs in California and made it happen. We are open to anything – Goose Island is great for that.

H2TA: Speaking of other great breweries John J., we understand that you’ve recently accepted the position of Head Brewer with 5 Rabbit Brewery, congratulations! Can you tell us a little bit about what you’ll be doing there and what the future of 5 Rabbit looks like from the Head Brewer’s perspective?

John J: Well, hopefully very similar to what I’m doing here at Goose Island – but expanded. I have a role at Goose Island that is very broad but I am primarily responsible for raw materials and production of the hot side of brewing. At 5 Rabbit I will be in charge of that plus the cellar, the aging, and packaging, so it’s an even broader role. I’ll also get to work with Randy Mosher who has written some phenomenal books on brewing, which is a great experience for me. This was a great opportunity when it came up, so even though I love Goose Island I just couldn’t pass it up.

Tack (“Thank You”, in Swedish), John J and Zach!

If you’re thirsty for more Spruce Goose, check out the team’s Youtube video!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TybTGbDNG38

(photos courtesy of Goose Island Brewing)

Tripel Flop: The story of a Belgian Tripel Ale

No, sadly this is not an attempt to re-live my figure skating days. It is the story of my first all grain homebrew batch - a Belgian Triple Ale that was indeed a flop.

After attending a seminar by Brooklyn Brew Shop at Brewcamp on transitioning to all grain I purchased my 1 gallon kit and was ready to start experimenting. My trip to Belgium had left me desperately wanting to brew my own batch of Belgian style ale so I started with Brooklyn Brew Shop's "Well-Made Tripel" recipe. It called for Belgian Pilsner malt, Caramel 10 malt, East Kent Golding and Saaz hops, Belgian Candi Sugar and Wyeast Belgian Abbey 1218 yeast. The process itself was easier than I expected though efficiency wise I spent the same amount of time as I would brewing a 5 gallon and only yielded 1 gallon. The instructions called for 15 days in the fermenter (no secondary) followed by bottle conditioning with honey or maple syrup. About 3 days after bottling I came home to a frightening mess - exploded bottles, glass shards everywhere and a foul, sticky floor (yes, yes empathetic groans, thanks). Being the first time I've experienced this it was pretty upsetting. I took the few remaining bottles and refrigerated to see if I could calm the carbonation and potentially save. It ended up being a lost cause. I tasted it after a few weeks and the beer had an awful funk/rot taste.

Although I appreciate the concept of 1 gallon recipes for the sake of transition without the additional equipment cost as well as the opportunity to experiment with perhaps some funkier ingredients - I found their technique to be a bit flawed.

- Too time consuming for a 1 gallon yield
- Although the cookbook was "user friendly" the directions were not specific enough in terms of times, temperatures, no mention of target OG/SG readings which is crucial in producing a successful batch
- I've found bottle conditioning with honey/maple syrup to be problematic - higher fermentables than table/priming sugar especially with high gravity beer causes exploding bottles
- I have a hard time accepting a primary only fermentation. For the sake of clarity I appreciate the opportunity to be able to filter and test levels along the way.

On a positive note the packaging concept I had for this batch was definitely one of my favorites (second to Not Your Honey). Since it was a small batch I decided to hand cut WMT (Well-Made Tripel, oh the irony) letters from 8 unique European inspired plaid and damask patterned papers, layered with craft papers mimicking the depths of rich patterns and textures I came across in the pubs and restaurants of Brussels.

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Brewing Gluten Free: Naked Pale Ale

Over two million people in the US suffer from Celiac disease - an intolerance to gluten, a protein found in most grains such as wheat, barley, rye. Unfortunately those are the base ingredients in pretty much every beer recipe. I am not gluten-free, but with an alarming amount of beer loving friends being diagnosed in the last few years I became increasingly curious to understand what, if any alternatives were available in the market.

Much to my dismay the few commercial gluten-free craft beers in the market that I was able to get my hands on had an awful sour flavor, giving the "beverage" a very chemical, non-beer-like taste. The common ingredient - sorghum syrup. Sorghum is a species of grass in which the seeds can be cultivated into a high protein grain, commonly used as a primary source of nourishment in countries such as Africa, Asia and Mexico.

Companies such as Briess manufacture sorghum extracts used as the key protein ingredient in almost all of the gluten-free beer recipes I could find online.

I was on a mission to find a way to make a gluten-free beer that tastes... well, like beer! The solution would be using non-gluten based grains like rice, corn and fermentable sugars found in either fruit or root vegetables. I ended up with a Pale Ale recipe that had Basmati rice, quinoa, carrots and two kinds of hops. With minimal expection but heart for the exercise of experimentation I dove in. Still new to the all grain process, it was rather time consuming for a small batch but a very unique experience in comparison to my other homebrew batches. The boil smelled mild and less sweet and the color of the wort was exceptionally light and cloudy - though what one would expect from boiled rice water. It stayed in the fermentor for two weeks, followed by a month of bottle conditioning.

  

The end result was quite pleasing to the palette. Again, extremely light and cloudy in appearance (similar to grapefruit juice) but very clean and crisp in flavor. The feedback I received was that the Cascade hops provided really nice grapefruit and citrus notes, but perhaps the Columbus hops were too bitter and a different combination would be less overpowering. All in all - a successful attempt and fantastic learning experience. I would definitely re-brew in the future as not only a tasty gluten-free option for my friends, but a crisp summer Pale Ale that anyone would enjoy!

Label design:

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