‘Tis the season to receive beer as gifts.
Now that’s something I can get behind. A few weeks ago I wrote about how The Daily Herald and Scuttlebutt Brewing teamed up to make a beer: Extra! Extra! Ale. The beer is for promotional use only and isn’t for sale (sorry). On Friday, the company handed out the beers to employees as gifts.
Another beer I received was from Scott Wetzel, who owns Fresh Bread Design, a graphic design firm that works with a number of breweries and distilleries. Wetzel gave me a bottle of Fresh Bread Saison, a beer he brewed in collaboration with the guys at Whitewall Brewing.
Simply put, the beer was great. It was a nice spicy saison with hints of citrus and cranberry, which gave it a real nice bitter finish.
Wetzel said that he had wanted to brew his own beer to give to clients and friends with a local brewery for a while. He got to talking to Aaron Wight and Sean Wallner at Whitewall and made an offhand mention of just that and they offered to help.
I’ll let Wetzel talk about it in his own words:
“We decided a Saison was a great choice since it’s so approachable yet complex,” Wetzel said. “After we settled on a French yeast I thought about using orange zest and cranberries in it. It just seemed like it would complement the yeast really well. They agreed and Aaron and Sean came up with the recipe. We met early on a Saturday morning and I was able to be a part of the process from the grinding of the malts to the bottling. They did most of the work but someone had to zest all of those oranges!”
Wetzel said they brewed a 2 barrels worth and that Whitewall is planning to put the beer on tap at some point this winter. I’m glad I got a bottle and may need to stop in for pint.
“All in all I’m really excited to have had an (albeit small) hand in this beer,” Wetzel said. “It’s honestly a beautiful beer and I’m so happy Whitewall allowed me to be a part of the process as well as let us put the Fresh Bread name on it.”
Merry Christmas.
Here’s some other things I found interesting this week:
Don your ugly sweater and head to Snohomish Saturday night.
The folks at Big Dog Distillery are up and operating after a delay due to the mudslide.
I wrote about the newest brewery in Snohomish, Sound to Summit Brewing.
It’s ironic this worth-the-search story on Havana Club rum came out this week, the one that President Obama decided re-establish U.S relations with Cuba.
Hanukkah beer — you knew it was coming. And of course it’s our friends at Schmaltz Brewing that brings it to us.
Here’s some tips on how to shop for the “difficult drinkers” on your list.
I love Anchor Brewing and here’s a fun story on the 40th iteration of “Our Special Ale.”
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