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urban trappist brewery

image based on photo of thomas merton

Biography

This was the first time I actually listened to specific ingredient suggestions: vanilla and caramel. Tossing vanilla beans in the brewpot seemed easy and innocent enough, but I didn't know how to do caramel without using sugar, which I didn't want to do. But I found a way and it worked. But first it needed to sleep with some oak, which turned it into a dream: sweetness from the desserty ingredients, bitterness from deep hopping, and a mellow veneer of oak. A quietly excellent beer.

Creation

For the caramel, I took a mixture of malt powder and corn sugar, then caramelized them by the usual process. This might have been a sublimely rich beer had I not cranked the hops.

Stats

Style: Strong Ale
Base Grain: Maris Otter
Adjunct Grains: Crystal Malt, Caravienne, Honey Malt, Special, Biscuit, Torrefied Wheat
Hops: Fuggles, Hallertau, Saaz
Curious Additives: Vanilla Beans, Caramelized Malt/Sugar
Yeast: WLP 002 - British Ale
Special Processes: Aged with oak chips for at least 1 month and up to 7 weeks.
OG: 1.060 / FG: 1.014
ABV: Just a touch under 6.
Color: Oak bark.
Head: Fairly appropriate, if a tad thin.
Flavors: First come the hops, mostly bitter and spicy rather than herbal or citrusy. Then, after that cycle, the vanilla and caramel drift in like some sort of vision. Finishes a little bit rough, like an alarm clock interruption just 15 minutes early.