FuzzyBrew

I didn’t quite have it together last year and missed the Memphis Brewfest at AutoZone Park. That I’m still recovering today is a good measure of the enormity of that mistake.

Our friends Jon and Bridget were in town from Madison, Wis., which made it all the more fun. We cooked up some burgers and cowboy caviar to fill everyone’s bellies beforehand, which is probably the best idea we’ve ever had.

The festival had 24 serving stations with more brews than are probably possible to sample in just three and a half hours. That doesn’t mean we didn’t try, though. There were many varieties of beer, and the servers kept the lines moving quickly, with generally generous pours. I tried to focus on the hoppy beers, but I had some great crisp and refreshing brews, too, like the Magic Hat Wacko and New Belgium’s Somersault.

I also really enjoyed sampling all of the Bluff City Brewers‘ homebrews. The club had a great showing and very tasty beers.

Don’t miss this festival next year.

Hey Internet!

We’ve developed a real affection for Magic Hat #9 this summer, (Mike even toured the brewery) and planned to brew a clone based on this recipe this weekend.

But the requisite three pounds of apricot extract hasn’t arrived yet. Oh no!

One of the things we’ve learned so far in our homebrewing adventures is to avoid making hasty decisions at the last minute.

So we need your help. Drop us a suggestion on what we should brew (a link to a recipe would be killer) and we’ll take a FuzzyBrew vote. We’ll pick one we think we might not screw up and let you know how it goes.

First, a preface.

Just a few weeks ago, before the launch of FuzzyBrew.com, we were sweating buckets in 100-degree heat in Jeff Marvin’s garage.

It was so hot that Grant nearly passed out. (See image to left)

But there was beer to make. 10 gallons, in fact.

Half the beer was an American Stout that we brewed for the Cooper-Young Regional Beerfest in October. The other was a recipe Grant found online for a clone of Ska Brewing Co.’ s Modus Hoperandi.

The Modus clone called for 3.5 lbs. of U.S. two-row malt, 1 lbs. caramel 120°L malt, .75 lbs. wheat malt and 7.5 lbs. pale malt.

The goodness, however, came from a slew of Centennial, Cascade and Columbus hops pellets.

For hops, the recipe called for:

1 oz. Centennial Pellets (9%) – 90 min
0.33 oz. Centennial Pellets (9%) – 30 min.
0.66 oz. Cascade Pellets (5%) – 30 min.
0.66 oz. Columbus Pellets (12%) – 5 min.
0.66 oz. Cascade Pellets (5%) – 5 min.
1.0 oz. Columbus Pellets (12%) – 0 min.
2.0 oz. Cascade Pellets (5%) – 0 min.
1.5 oz. Columbus Pellets (12%) – dry
3.0 oz. Cascade Pellets (5%) – dry

Despite the heat, brew day was a success — two carboys full of yummy beer.

That brings us to Wednesday night, and bottling of the Modus Hoperandi clone. First, we siphoned the beer from the carboy into the bottling bucket, as show below.

We sanitized all bottles, surfaces and equipment. And divided up the bottling duties into prepping bottles/adding carb drops, filling bottles and capping. It took about an hour to bottle 4.5 gallons.

All the while we sampled some interesting beers — a raisin-infused Dogfish Head Raison D’Etre, an amber ale in the Magic Hat Hex and a wheaty Magic Hat Odd Notion.

Nearly 1.5 inches of hop residue was left over at the bottom of the carboy, and it smelled glorious. We had a taste of the Modus clone, and it was quite promising. Cheers to a good night.

Take heart, homebrewers.

Even the pros have embarrassing stories of beers gone bad.

At Magic Hat Brewery in South Burlington, Vermont, where I went on a tour last weekend, the guide told us of a beer they once brewed that just might be the most disgusting concoction ever — garlic beer.

It was so bad, our guide said, that employees who lost bets were forced to drink it. And once they did, it rarely stayed down.

Luckily for us beer lovers, this microbrewery makes some great brews, including Magic Hat’s famed “#9,” with its unique apricot flavor. (We at FuzzyBrew will be attempting to brew a clone of the #9 very soon.)

Even better, as I found out on the tour, is Magic Hat’s super hoppy HI.P.A., an India Pale Ale hopped and dry-hopped with Columbus hops.

It smells amazing, and it tastes crisp and bitter.

Magic Hat, which was founded in 1994 and employs about 65, cranks out 400 bottles of beer a minute. Unfortunately, I went on a Saturday and they weren’t brewing or bottling.

Still, the brewery tour is free and definitely worth checking out if you’re in the Burlington area. I tried every single beer on tap at the brewery’s “growler” bar, and then a few extra samples of the HI.P.A., of course.

Find them at:

Magic Hat Brewing Company
5 Bartlett Bay Road
South Burlington, VT 05403