I Hope It Doesn't Taste Like Shampoo

Little C's Honey Lavender

The thought of a honey lavender beer never crossed my mind. In fact, The idea of lavender in general never blossomed. My intentions were to make a spruce beer in honor of my Alaskan fisher friend.

Two events changed my course.
1. Stuart had me try his mead.
2. An old friend suggested I "mead him in the middle."

The latter was suggested to me while sitting in a Williamsburg beer hall. Why not combine elements of mead and beer? Why not use lavender? Well, there was no reason not to. I still have no idea where he came up with meade me in the middle but he seemed to think he was a visionary. I went home, did some research, and found that honey and lavender go together like peanut butter and jelly. Maybe this kid was on to something.

My only concern was how to cook with lavender. Apparently, lavender is quite bitter. I love bitter beers, but usually the bitterness comes from hops, not flowers. Therefore, I decided to use the dryhopping technique with lavender. Instead of cooking the dried flowers and absorbing their bitterness, I would use them solely for aroma. I left the bittering work to my trusted green friends Glacier and Simcoe.

The two pounds of Minnesota Clover honey will more than balance any residual hop bitterness. The use of Belgian Ale yeast will add a nice spiciness that I hope makes for an interesting, unique and delicious beer. While I want this beer to have a strong hop presence, I'm hoping the lavender and honey aroma will leave first impressions of sweet and flowery. Once that occurs, imbibers will be less likely to notice any lingering hop bitterness. My hope is that this beer will allow non hopheads to try other hoppy beers without adverse reactions (i.e. my Double IPA!).


Speaking of which, to the left is my Mocha Porter and Double IPA with beautiful foamy heads. Who doesn't love some good head?

To the right is my very expensive and technically savvy cooling device. One cannot pour boiling hot wort into a glass carboy without disaster. Luckily, I have "created" a natural cooling system.

In addition, two plus two equals four.

Sorry, that's an old Norm MacDonald joke from SNL.
I'll just give a brief update of my other beers.

Graduator
This malty bock impostor is bottled and yet to be tried in its carbonated form. I probably should have tried it before writing this blog but I'm sure all my die hard fans will live without tasting notes. It should be malty sweet with some residual hop bitterness. It's my attempt at attracting Stella drinkers. You know who you are.

Belgian Tripel
This Trappist infused creation is still sitting in secondary fermentation. I've been slow on the alcohol consumption so I am yet to acquire the requisite amount of bottles. I'll get there soon enough. I am very excited about this because I love tripels. They are light in color, spicy and strong in alcohol. If this comes out right, there should be no real alcohol presence on the tongue. This means you are going to drink it, not realize how strong it is, have another one and then have trouble standing up. Now do Monks know how to make beer or what?

Until next time, thanks for reading and keep trying new beer!!

Cheers

P.S. Suggestions on what I should brew next are always welcome!
I'm thinking of remaking my Iggy Wit for the summer and trying a Bishop's Best British Bitter Beer. (I don't care for alliteration). Spruce beer is still an idea.