Session # 66


This month is hosted by DrinkDrank and here is the topic with apologies to Gollum.
“We all have our favorite brews—even if you say you don’t; deep,deep down we all do. From IPAs to Pilsners, Steam Beers to Steinbiers, something out there floats your boat. What if we look that to another level? What if you were to design the perfect brew—a Tolkien-esque One Beer to Rule Them All. The perfect beer for you, personally. Would it be hoppy and dark or strong and light? Is it augmented with exotic ingredients or traditionally crafted? Would your One Beer be a historic recreation or something never before dreamt of? The sky is the limit on this one. If you need to travel back in time to brew at Belgian farm during the 1870s, go right ahead—just say hi to Doc Brown and the Delorean for me. Maybe you’ll need to mount a expedition to the treacherous Amazonian rain forest to bring back some chicha, to spike your brew with; or perhaps, you’ll just dust off that old Brown Ale homebrew recipe, tweak it a bit, and call it an evening.

I’d suspect that most of you out there probably have a good understanding about the brewing process—but if you don’t, no sweat, just wing it. This exercise isn’t about making sure you’ve checked all the right boxes for the BJCP or some homebrew competition. This Session is all about imagining the possibilities—no matter how ridiculous! Feel free to create a recipe, right down to the aplha acid in your hops or conjure up a review just like you’d do for any other beer. However you want to come at this, it’s your ultimate beer, your One Beer to Rule Them All!

One small caveat, however, you do need to name your concoction—no imaginary super beer would be complete without some glorified moniker to seal the proverbial deal!”

The hardest part of this “mythic” beer challenge was the right sounding name. I wanted some history, I wanted to convey fun and I wanted to make sure the beer style was incorporated in there as well. I rejected more before I could finish typing them. But I guess I should go back to the beginning of this session.

What would be my perfect pint? I had to set parameters. I wanted something hoppy but not double or imperial. I wanted to pick up ingredients and elements of some of my favorite beers and re-jigger them into a brand new configuration. I also wanted something light (or dare I say, sessionable) because here in Los Angeles, there are more hot days than not and as good as Double IPA or Russian Imperial Stout can be, they are not easy to drink in the heat of August. (I know this is an imaginary beer that could be drunk anywhere at anytime but I want to stay somewhat tethered to reality.)

Without further ado, here is what I want in my glass. I want a hopped up Helles with a touch of sage in it. This fills my self-imposed parameters. I want this beer to be a bit fizzy but with a pronounced hop aroma from one of the hip New Zealand / Australian hops like Motueka with it’s lemon and lime burst followed by a background of tropical fruit or Rakau with it’s tropical fruit aromas of passionfruit and peach. Then just to add a secondary burst of flavor add some locally grown sage to add a bit more zing to the proceedings.

This recipe would hit a few more points of interest for me. I want to see more pilsners and helles’ on tap and it will showcase the diversity of hop styles and be a bit worldly and less West Coast-centric and the sage addition comes from my enjoyment of Farmer’s Markets that are all over the SoCal area.

This is also a nod to some beers that I have had that in the past like the Sand Dune Sage Pale Ale from El Segundo Brewing and the Saison du Buff from the collaborative efforts of Stone, Dogfish Head and Victory and to the excellent helles made by Hangar 24 in Redlands, California.

That being typed, the name of this lovely summer sipper is The Helles Reclamation Project # 1 – NZ Sage. That’s right. I am thinking about a whole series of new flavors for Helles. Now I just need to think of what I would add to # 2.

Since time machine’s were invoked, how about making sure it is in my hand before I finish this post?