The New Year and Good Beer

I know things have been quiet here and on my FaceBook page the past couple of months. I spent several weeks doing research and writing my business plan. Now the bank has the paperwork for our business loan. Keep your fingers crossed and send happy thoughts our way.  And even though the name of our business is Thoroughbrewed, we are going to keep Fermdamentals as the educational aspect of our shop. Once we have our funding and actually start making our plans a reality, I will certainly be sharing what we are doing with y’all.

During the holidays we did a good bit of brewing. In addition to a Smoked Oaked Porter, an Irish  Red, and a Brown, my hubby brewed the most delicious thing I may have ever tried – a Caramel Apple Graff. From what I’ve been able to find out, graff is a concoction inspired by one of Stephen King’s stories. Graff is a combination of beer and apple cider. The Caramel Apple Graff tastes like the most wonderful apple pie you’ve ever eaten! In addition to a small amount of brewed malt, apple juice, brown sugar, maple syrup, and a variety of wonderful spices are blended together. It is still currently fermenting, but it is already 7% ABV. My hubby and I have been debating whether to let it continue to ferment or whether to kill the yeast and bottle it flat. We have several one gallon carboys sitting empty at the moment, so I think we might start pulling off a gallon at a time every few days or so, killing the yeast, and keeping notes on how the flavor changes until the last gallon finishes fermenting.  We didn’t time the brewing of the graff very well, because this is exactly the drink you want for the holidays. So with our tasting notes in hand next fall, we will brew our favorite version of the graff in time for Thanksgiving next time.