Niche Brewing with Fun Ingredients

I recently had the pleasure of attending a beer tasting fundraiser that a friend of mine, Tanya, held for the Mid-Michigan MS150 coming in July.  She's an amazing person who does an astounding job of fundraising (to which you can donate here).  Actually, while she does do great fundraising, what's really astounding is her ability to inspire others to raise funds as part of her team, thereby multiplying her impact. (This is Tanya and her dad who rides with her.)

I've tried fundraising many times before and its no easy task, but what's even more difficult is being charismatic and energizing enough to get other people to follow your vision and not just donate, but commit the time, energy, and passion to raise money as well!  That's the piece that I always struggled with, and that's something Tanya excels at.


But all of this is an aside and long-winded introduction on our way to the tasty beers that Tanya introduced me to at her fundraiser.  She had a wide variety of Michigan beers for everyone to try, which was really great for me, because I like beer.

Many of the beers we tried, I have enjoyed many times before (oh hello, my old friend, Hopmouth), but what was more surprising to me is that she had some beer that I had not enjoyed before!

A brewery that opened in late 2007 in Traverse City, Right Brain Brewery, was that beer.

Tanya had growlers of their Ancho Chili Dutch Double Chocolate Porter, 3 Chinook IPA, and Chi Organic Pale Ale.  And because Tanya is so impossibly cool, when the fundraiser was finished and these beers remained leftover, she let me take them and give them a good home.  I love trying new beers, particularly niche beers like the Ancho Chili porter or the Chi Organic.  These are not beers I would drink on a regular basis, and in fact I am not likely to drink again, but they are delightful and a blast to try.

For those curious:

• the Ancho Chili porter was a dark and hearty porter.  It almost had a stout mouthfeel to it, rather than the more traditional porter (which is usually a bit less hearty), but then it had a flavor you were not expecting... yep, that's the chili pepper.  It warms your mouth after a few seconds of tasting the porter flavor.  Then it warms your throat and finally your stomach.  I can't say I disliked the beer, but it wasn't for me.  I did drink about three pints of it just to make sure.  
• The Chi organic pale ale is about as opposite of the Ancho porter as you can get.  It is intensely light, almost airy, with a mellow Chi tea aftertaste.  And there's the rub for me...  I do not care for Chi Tea.  Or any tea.  To me, this wonderful pale ale was totally ruined by the Chi flavors.  I still have this beer, so I am planning to try it several more times (just to make sure).  
• Now, the 3 Chinook IPA by contrast was my favorite.  No surprise since I am a big IPA fan, but the flowery chinook flavors came through very strong, despite the bold, underlying pale ale.  The malty  flavors supported the bitter hops very well.  I immediately polished this growler off without further research or delay.

As a homebrewer, this raises an interesting challenge for me.  I would very much like to be able to experiment with crazy ingredients like Chi tea or Ancho chilies, but I am not very likely to consume (or sucker others into consuming) all three and a half to five gallons of an Ancho chili beer that a typical homebrew recipe makes.  I've already tried a failed experiment with a coffee stout that was for all practical purposes undrinkable, and resulted in many bottles being dumped.

I've seen online where some folks will brew a base pale ale and then "mix" in the alternate ingredients into smaller fermenting containers (taking a five gallon recipe and splitting it into five separate one gallon brews).  I suppose that might work, but having tasted both side-by-side, I doubt that the Chi organic pale ale was the same basic ale recipe as the 3 Chinook IPA.  Perhaps, but I doubt it.  I'm going to do some experimenting with this.  I'll attempt to do some brewing in half to one gallon batches that can be scaled up to full batches if I like the results.

But in the meantime, I highly recommend stopping by the Right Brain Brewery if you find yourself in Traverse City.  Their brewer, John Niedermaier, is doing some great work and brewing some very interesting beers... even if a few aren't my favorites, they might be yours.