The Belgian Missile Crisis

It's one thing for Sam and I to like our homebrew. It's an entirely different story for other people to like it. We realized this pretty quickly after moving to Louisiana. Our friends and family from Louisiana have a much different taste palate than in Colorado. If our beer is to be successful, then our brews need to cater to the audience.

The first batch of beer that Sam and I brewed in Louisiana was a Belgian wheat ale. The recipe was made to be smooth (adding fresh orange zest and coriander), easy to drink (the least amount of hops in any batch to date), and light in color. Sam surprised me with a label for the beer bottles.

I'm sure you are curious as to why it was named the Belgian Missile Crisis. well, after brewing this batch, we pitched the yeast and capped the airlock on the carboy. The purpose of the airlock is to let carbon dioxide out of the carboy, while not letting air in during fermentation. This particular batch of yeast was extremely active. The fermenting beer bubbled up into the airlock and clogged it. From this point on, all of the carbon dioxide had no way out of the carboy. After a few hours of this buildup, EXPLOSION! I came home from work to an airlock that was MIA, a giant brown spot on the ceiling where the beer gushed out of the carboy, and streaks of beer caked on the walls, shelves, vacuum cleaner, and other contents of the closet.

It took a while to clean up, but I believe all of the hassle was worth it. We planned on bringing this beer to Bayou Beer Festival in Houma, Louisiana. It was a great festival, and we definitely plan on attending next year as well. After an impromptu brewing party at our house a few nights before the festival, we got a preview of how big a hit this brew would be. Our friends nearly wiped our fridge clean. The few bottles we had left, we took with us to Houma. It was great to see people try our beer and immediately ask us where they could purchase it. Some people even showed up for seconds, bringing friends with them.

Sam and I were not the only homebrewers there. We made friends with a group from Chalmette, LA. They are planning on opening their own brewery, 40 Arpent, in the next few months. I'll always encourage my friends to drink local beers, but these people were friendly, passionate, and had great beers. I like to say we knew them before they were famous.

I apologize to my family and friends who did not get to try this batch of Belgian Missile Crisis. This will definitely be brewed again in the near future. Like I said, it's important to find a beer that your customers enjoy. I was excited and surprised at how quickly we ran out of it.

Next time you try this beer, you might have to drink it at our house though. For those of you who are new to Sam and Taylor's homebrewing adventures, then next post you will get to hear about our new brewing toy at home. Until then, Cheers!