A MudHen First: Barrel-Aged Beer

For the past year-ish, we've had some beer aging in bourbon barrels in the brewery.

And last Wednesday, we tapped one - 2019's Yellow Flashing Lights. 

Before we emptied her

It went into a bourbon barrel in December of 2019 and all during the year Tony and I bounced ideas of how we'd sell it when we were ready to debut this gorgeous beer. Would we bottle it before Christmas and sell it as an extremely limited run? Would we keg it? Months and months of trying to decide what we'd do with this robust imperial stout (and sneaking tastes here and there) finally culminated last week - we kegged it off. And dedicated exactly one keg to nitro.

If you haven't tried the extremely, ultimate-limited run of our BBA YFL, you'd better hurry into the pub and grab a glass before it's gone. We didn't barrel-age any YFL this year, so this is literally one of a kind in terms of our brands and what we've made for in-house consumption. You won't find our BBA YFL on shelves anywhere, either. Just here, at MudHen Brewing Company.

It wasn't a complicated process to keg off the imperial stout. As with any other endeavor, we cleaned and sanitized hoses for our kegging process. We don't have a bulldog - because this is the first time we've ever done something like this - so we opted instead to use a pump with a CO2 connection to get it from the barrel to the keg. 

A simple-yet-effective process of pumping sanitizer through aforementioned lines to ensure they were beer-ready, removing the barrel bung (or plug), and then pumping beer into the line ensured we got as much BBA stout as we could out of that barrel. It yielded right around 46 gallons, which is about 3 kegs.

If you pass up on trying this BBA YFL, you're missing out on a one-of-a-kind, ultra-limited, perfectly balanced brand. My advice? Stop in and have a glass as soon as you can.

I look forward to seeing you!

Cheers.

End of Year Reflections - Growth

2020 is almost over and therefore I think an entry on growth is timely. And I'm not talking about our new fermentation vessel, though that will aid the brewery in future growth, no question about it.

It's been about 9 months since I became Tony's assistant and the amount I've learned is tremendous. In fact, I have a whole sheet in my notebook dedicated to things I've learned on the job. Most of the things I've learned, like Tony's mantra of "Don't fear the foam," do require some explanation, so instead I'll reflect on my first (almost) year of being an assistant brewer.

With hardly any experience in brewing, and a limited knowledge of home brewing, it was inevitable that it would take some time to learn every single thing about the job. I'm still learning to pay attention to literally everything I do. How well did I rinse that measuring cup after putting chemicals in it? Which way should I close that valve so nobody gets their knuckles smashed on a clamp? Is that valve cracked enough or does it need to be opened just the tiniest bit more?

Nearly everything we do is time sensitive, so while there's not a lot of room for hemming and hawing about what seem like such small things, it's imperative to make decisions before getting started and plan out what's going to work the best for the situation (and yes, I usually default to Tony's opinion if I'm seriously unsure). Because all of those small things? Add up to one Big Thing at the end of the day and it's important to get it right. Knowing which hoses to use while racking or even the placement of the pump - literally every single thing impacts how the job gets done. And I'm getting better at it as the weeks go by.

I wonder what Tony's gonna do the day I come in to do a job and ask literally zero questions. I wonder if that day will ever actually come (probably not; there's so many variables and I always want to ensure we're on the same page)!

The things I've learned have impacted my home brewing, too. I'm noticing things that my partner has made a habit of, which may not yield the intended brew (which is fine because whatever, it's beer and it's ours and we'll drink it anyway). Terminology, proper cleaning and sanitation habits, all of it comes home with me. Does it make home brewing a little less exciting? Well, not really. It just means I'm paying much more attention to what's happening and executing things a little differently. It also means I'm retaining a plethora of information bestowed upon me by Tony, which is excellent and helps build confidence that, when we're ready, I'll tackle my very own brew here at the MudHen.

2021 is, like, 11 days away. I think most of us are ready to put 2020 behind us (insert "hindsight is always 20/20" joke here or something). But the knowledge I've gained and the job experience will stay with me and build well into the new year. I'm not done growing, just yet, and I have a feeling MudHen isn't done, either.

So, come support growing small businesses and your local brewer. We still have 4-packs of Rambler to Miami (NEIPA), Yellow Flashing Lights (Imperial Stout), and 1883 IPA (flagship, west-coast style) for sale in the pub. You might just gift someone their new favorite beer.

The Beer Dilemma - What IS Beer?

If you ask a brewer what constitutes a beer, they may give you a pondering look for a moment before asking you to clarify what you mean. Either that, or they'll answer you similarly to the following explanation:

Traditional beer as we know it, thanks to the German Purity Laws of 1516, consists of three ingredients. No more, no less. Water, barely, and hops. The actual law doesn't mention yeast as an ingredient and it's unclear as to why (my pint for a time machine!). We can only assume the brewers didn't actually know what role yeast played in brewing, but they definitely used it as part of the process.

And before that? A lot of beer was flavored and bittered using a variety of herbs, which is not actually beer, but a beverage known as gruit.

Of course, times and laws change. Beer today is still comprised of those four ingredients - and ONLY those four if you talk to a purist. But there are so many exciting additives to beer these days, lactose being a popular one in the craft beer world. As well as a couple different kinds of bacteria in order to make a sour. Still other craft breweries opt to throw in cereal or candy as additives to their beer. And then there are the plethora of seltzers available (although they are NOT beer and never will be, you can't change my mind).

I was going to take on the enormous task tossing an entire apple pie into one of my homebrews earlier this year before I decided against it. I'm still too new at the process and the level of fat I use in my homemade pie crusts is... enormous. There's a lot that has to be accounted for, even in homebrews! Most recently, I learned that using fruit purees in primary fermentation results in accidental barley wine.

Here she is! My homebrewed blood orange cream ale-turned-barley wine towards the end of fermentation.

Even well-known types of beer, like IPAs, have changed immensely in the past 8 or so years. We now have hazy/juicy IPAs - aka New England IPAs - that have so much hops added during the boil, during fermentation, and after fermentation that it creates a turbid IPA that is now widely acceptable for a beer. Ask someone fifteen years ago if they'd drink a hazy IPA and they probably would've laughed: "You mean chill haze?"

These days, it seems as though people might be driven to purchase beer based on how Instagram-able it is, regardless of how it may taste. Neon green brews are becoming more and more commonplace, for example. I vividly remember seeing many guests dump out a very red beer at GABF in 2019 from a booth somewhere near ours. I can only imagine it won't be long before we start getting hot pink or flashy orange beer, too. Maybe I should look for a beer that matches my hair, which is currently purple!

Perhaps Tony and I are old school when it comes to beer and brewing. We make what we want to drink and we hope that we make it good enough that others will want to drink it, too. Sure, we have our Fruitie Patooties and NEIPAs on tap for the foreseeable future, but you might have to twist our arms a good deal for us to put out something super crazy. Who knows, though? 2021 may yield something exciting for us.

And while I do enjoy trying new things, I'll still go for a MudHen Pils or Rising Tides Pale Ale when I want something crisp and refreshing.

Cheers!

Brand New Vessel

After a couple delays, our brewery - as it stands at time of publication - is finally officially maxed out with fermentation vessels. And vessel number nine has arrived!

Last week, a few days before the estimated arrival date, Tony got the call that our brand new 30BBL FV was finally in the state of New Jersey. It had made its way across the continent all the way from British Columbia. We now have 9 fermentation vessels - 3 of which are 30BBL and 6 of which are 15BBL - and hope to have the new one hooked up and ready to use sometime in January.

This means even more production in 2021 and we couldn't be more excited! Stay tuned for blog updates on the first batch of beer that'll be going into our brand new vessel.

Here it is coming off the truck

Getting situated so we can bring it into the brewery

Still all wrapped from shipping

Peeled and shiny!