Brew-Thai and the Beast

Hello, Brewthers and Sisters!

This weekend was a great one -- one to top most of the homebrew sessions in which I've ever partaken.  Justin came up with the genius idea to develop a Thai-themed brew, an idea he'd been batting around since we sampled The Bruery's Tradewinds with its rice and Thai basil adjuncts and extras (excellent beer -- I highly recommend it).

With this taste of inspiration, Justin aimed for much more savory elements and a stout heart (milk stout, that is) to carry the flavors through while still keeping the final product a beer, not just a carbonated soup.

So, on to the brewing!  We decided to go blond and remove anything from the grain bill that would take this past a deep gold.  From there we scaled a traditional Thai recipe to what we thought would be the right proportions become a well-balanced layer in our "blond milk stout" base.

Being that we're still experimenting with this recipe, I won't bother to share it yet.  When we give it a taste after a couple weeks, a "Part 2" will be posted.  I will say, though, that the wort itself showed a lot of potential.  Both elements, the brew and the Thai, seemed to play off one another very well.

Brew-Thai!

So, while we were brewing, and we brew outdoors since I'm using a propane double-burner to heat everything, we had a little woodland creature join us.  She became sort of a mascot for the evening events.  Take a look:

Aww...

But then as night fell, our mascot transformed from a cute, feathery friend into a blood-thirsty killing machine!

THE BEAST!

You can see her eerie, glowing red eyes up at the top of the haunted old Queen Palm tree.  Sinister... several times through the night I was extremely glad to not have been born a mouse or roach or whatever this owl hunts because there is absolutely no warning when this stealth bomber swoops down on you!  Not a flap of the wing, not a screeching battle cry like the eagle or hawk, just death.  Or grazed ankles.

So, she was harmless to us and I'm very glad she didn't end up landing in our brew, or adding any of her own spices, especially when I came up with idea to cool the wort by floating it in the pool. I'll leave you with this final image of our Thai brew just chillin' in the pool and bid you all abrew.

Chillin...