In the heat of summer, any opportunity to brew is a good opportunity to brew. This past weekend, it was at the WGBH’s first Craft Beer Festival. We doubled the Pointon’s Proper recipe from this past March’s Big Brew Day to make what we’re calling Old Totbaggin’, an English-style old ale. Unlike its mild cousin, an Old Ale is slightly higher in alcohol and aged with oxidizing elements in mind. The result is a smooth, warming ale best enjoyed by the fireside of your winter manorhouse. We redistributed the hops just a touch, shifting 25% of the blend to lend a slight hop aroma underneath caramel and alcohol. To get this affect, we substituted in Safbrew’s S-33 as it is slightly less aggressive, leaving a bit more sweetness to compliment the anticipated oxidative components.
It takes good beer to make good beer, so we were found serving up a Belgian Pale, some of our gluten-free braggot Pink Haze, a touch of last month’s batch of Pointon’s Proper, and a cask-conditioned pin of Cream Ale provided by Brittany Burke of the local homebrew club, the Wort Processors. We’ll leave you with the haiku we used for the cream ale:
Cream Ale, served on cask.A lovely style for summer.
Real ale homebrew? Yes!