Victorious!

This past Saturdays was the Upstate Brewtopian’s annual oyster roast gathering and beer tasting.  This is my second year of attendance and I had a lot of fun.  A large group of friends were along for this year’s event (including myself there was Eliza, Evan, Dan, BKS, Brian, Nicole, and Carm. Then there were also all the great brewing folks and their friends and families). While the weather was pretty shitty (cold and raining on and off) the whole afternoon proved to be a real blast. 

From a personal perspective I think I had a great time because of the multiple victories I encountered.  First was winning a new glass carboy in the auction raffle drawing (we could buy raffle tickets for a dollar a piece and then put them in cups for various items, many of which were brewing related).  I have wanted a new carboy for a long time now, but haven’t bought one because they are pretty pricy (see Northern Brewer’s cost – which is less than my initial estimate, but not much.  Also consider that it has to be shipped).  So it felt like a major victory to win one with having only spent a few bucks. 

My second victory was . . . wait for it . . . winning another glass carboy!  Yeah, that is right, I had put raffles tickets in cups for both of the carboys and I ended up winning both.  What does this mean?  it means that spending a very reasonable $7 on raffle tickets has greatly increased my brewing capacity (basically meaning I need to get on brewing some more beer).  So yeah, at this point in the day, with two carboys in hand, I was about as happy as I could be.

But victories were not done yet.  My final victory of that day was winning the monthly brew competition, which is the first time I have done so at a Brewtopians event.  The challenge for this month was a local ingredient challenge proposed by our friend (and amazing brewer) Bobby C.  My victorious brew was my Smoked Habanero Imperial Stout (aka the FuckMonster . . . Dan’s name for it).  Dan in fact shares part of the victory here having been involved in the initial planning for the beer as well as having been kind enough to smoke the Habanero peppers (while he was also smoking other eats for this past year’s Thanksgiving extravaganza).  I have said in the previous post that this is probably my most extreme brewed beer to date.  Rating in at 11% ABV and having powerful smoked flavor as well as an intense blast of habanero heat, this is not you’re dad’s old canned domestic beer.  Seeing the reaction as all the people tried this brew was great.  It was a mix of people who really just couldn’t handle it to others who were blown away and amazed at the complexity.  I felt very proud about the who thing.  Besides getting gloating rights from this, I also get to declare an upcoming Brewtopian challenge (I haven’t decided on one yet . . . maybe a broad Belgian Beer Styles brews.  I am open to suggestions if anybody has any).

So yeah, a great time on Saturday.  Thanks to all my friends who shared the day’s enjoyment.  And to the folks who cheered for my Smoked Habanero Imperial Stout.  I came out of the who event terribly happy.

~ by Nathaniel on February 8, 2010.