Citrusy Farmhouse

When someone asks me what my favorite beer is I often have a tough time answering. My mind goes back to the great beers I've enjoyed and the fun experiences I have had around them: the time I had St. Bernardus 12 with friends shortly after turning 21, and the Westvleteren 12 I brought back from Belgium a few years later; the unfiltered Pilsner Urquell I was lucky enough to enjoy in Prague and the truly terrific bock I stumbled upon at Devil's Backbone; the first Russian River Sanctification I had when my brother introduced me to sour beers and the Cantillon gueuze I consumed after touring their spiderweb filled brewery.  Along with these commercial favorites there are homebrewed beers that come to mind: Scott's NEIPA, Sean's Rye IPA, and Mike's Anna dreg Saison. While all of these beers have been revolutionary, eye-opening experiences for me, Mike's beer was the first one to make me angry: angry that someone had already brewed the perfect mixed fermentation saison.

Knowing very little about the beer, Mike's blog post was not up yet at the time I brewed this beer and his responses my question on ingredients was: "some pale malts, some low alpha hops, some dregs from Hill Farmstead Anna" which wasn't enough to design a clone, especially when I didn't have access to Anna bottles. Still, I set out to brew something similar: a citrusy mixed fermentation farmhouse ale with mild-to-moderate tartness and mild-to-moderate funk.

While my End of a Spark citrusy farmhouse ale didn't give the exact flavors of Mike's it nailed the high citrus, moderate funk, and moderate tartness qualities I was chasing, while also using entirely different ingredients than his.

I took about a case of bottles of this beer to DC Homebrewers annual BBQ and competition hosted at 3 Stars Brewing. The beer was generally well received and even got an honorable mention from the judges!

Note: I had planned to take some pictures of this beer and do a full write up but accidentally took the last few to a blending session (post on that possibly to come). In all, this was an enjoyable beer that I would happily make again.