soggydogbrewing

[soggydogbrewing]

Saint Arnold

I’m a homebrewer.

I got sucked into the glorious hobby/obsession about two years ago and brewing has been a focal point ever since. As of May 8th, 2017, I’ve brewed somewhere around sixteen gallons of beer and two of mead, and this includes a few breaks in between brewing when life got in the way. 

I love beer. Rephrase: I love good beer. I was never impressed by the watery, flavorless offerings of the Big Beer pilsners; they only served to act as the vessel for bad decisions and trouble in high school, college, and grad school. too many games of beer pong, kings, or flip cup makes it all too hazy for comfort. I’m always open to any opportunity to be competitive - this can sometimes be my downfall - and thin, watery beers were appropriate for this end. 

I have always liked Sam Adams. When I was in college, I loved getting the sampler packs and enjoying different flavors and styles. I particularly fell in love with the cream stout, which was the first stout I tried beyond Guinness; it was so smooth, creamy, and sweet. It tasted like chocolate milk and I was hooked after the first bottle. Cherry Wheat was my go-to for a long time because it tasted to fresh and juicy compared to the skunk-piss water my friends enjoyed. 

During my foray into uncharted territory, I was vaguely aware of what beer was made of (grains, water... maybe something else) but never gave a second thought about barley, hops, yeast strains, or water profiles until my best friend Ashley called me one night and told me all about this bar a new boyfriend of hers took her to. She was extremely excited about this particular beer from Belgium - it was made with raspberries and was sweet and tart and tasted more like a wine, I needed to try it asap! So off we went to The Abbey in South Beach and my mind was blown. There was beer from England, Belgium, Germany, and they even brewed their own Trappist-style beers to serve in house. They had an entire menu dedicated to their beers. All of this was completely new to me in 2008, and was a completely foreign concept to Miami, home of mojitos, cuba libres, and fruity vodka cocktails. The descriptions of the beers stood out to me, too: raisins, brown sugar, roasty coffee, dark chocolate, toffee, cloves, stonefruit, smoke... my experience here was like opening a treasure chest I didn’t even know I had been searching for. I was hooked.

The beer Ashley was gushing over turned out to be Lindemans Framboise, a sweet lambic from Belgium. It was one of four Belgians I tried that night, along with Chimay blue, Delerium Tremens (8.5% abv, whoa!), and St. Bernardus abt 12, which was my favorite beer for years after. I also had Sam Smith’s nut brown ale and St. Peter’s cream stout, both of which were ridiculously enjoyable and hit a huge reset button on my palate regarding what “good beer” could be. We returned to The Abbey many times after, but this first visit was truly the catalyst for my continually evolving love for beer.