On Tuesday morning, I ventured an hour and a half (no traffic, thank goodness) to Redlands and Hangar 24 Brewery to help in the creation of….
“Polycot is a wheat beer brewed with hundreds of pounds of organic apricots grown in Southern California’s High Desert. We brew this beer during the very small window of time when the apricots are at their peak of freshness, usually early July. The pureed apricots add a wonderful fruit flavor to the beer and combine with the wheat for a refreshing tart finish. This beer goes down smooth, but at over 1.5 times the alcohol of the Orange Wheat, it will sneak up on you.”
I pitted for three hours in between chatting fellow volunteers and drinking Polycot 2011 and the Hangar 24 DIPA.
The Hangar crew would bring out a pallet of apricots (1 pallet = 1 batch) and the volunteers would grab a box take the sticker off the apricots, remove the pit and toss the fruit into a collection bucket.
There were a lot of apricots but the buckets of fruit filled up pretty fast.
And despite apricot stained fingers, it was a fun way to be a small part of the brewing process and I will be able to proudly hold a glass of 2012 Polycot and say that I helped to make it happen.