You are invited to a Birch Beer tasting at Klockow Brewing, 5 – 8 PM Thursday April 29th. We will be serving examples of homebrewed Birch Ale and Braggot. There are six ales and a Birch Braggot (part beer, part honey mead). Three of the ales are aged, three are new. We’ll also have a keg of fresh birch sap just so you can see what it tastes like. Hint: have you tasted water?
We ask that you vote on the three new Birch Ales, with the goal of choosing a recipe for a full sized collaboration brew at Klockow later this year, when the birch sap season is over.
What does this stuff taste like? If you search “birch beer,” you’re going to find a lot of examples of sweet birch soda, and descriptions of wintergreen flavor. These are real Birch Ales, made by boiling birch sap down to the flavor intensity of birch syrup, then brewing beer around that flavor. Birch syrup is difficult to describe – it’s very complex, with intense notes of caramel, molasses, dark fruit and horehound candy. Try describing the flavor of maple syrup without using the word maple!
The three aged ales are the same beer recipe, but they have varying amounts of sap in them – 25, 35 and 45 gallons of sap boiled down to make 5 gallon batches of homebrew.
The three new ales each have the same amount of condensed birch sap, but the malt & hops recipes vary from light to dark, with hops kept low to bring malt and birch flavors to the front. Come in, give them a try and cast a vote. These homebrews are donated and are free, and will be served as ~2 oz. samples. To read more about using birch sap, see the next post below.
Birch sap flows pretty fast from productive trees.
Research shows that moderate beer consumption can help prevent heart disease and strokes, provide important vitamins and minerals, is low in fat and helps increase good cholesterol (HDL).