Brain Fever - Assorted Thoughts and Articles

"Rebel Duke"

May 13th, 2018

"Man, you should brew your own beer!"

My friends consider me a beer connoisseur. It makes sense, not only is Belgian blood running through my veins, I've shared my opinion - solicited or not - on every beer that has been drunk in my vicinity, and I've even started my own nonprofit company that brings craft beer and innovation technology together. And you know what, I do know my beers! I know which beers I like, and why I like them. I can tell you which beers pair well with other kinds of food (you should have a La Trappe Tripel next time you have some Nova Scotia oysters - trust me), and know plenty of the history behind lots of beer varieties.

Nevertheless, I've always brushed off comments like that with a simple "yeah, that would be fun to do one-time", or "I'd love to, but I don't really have the equipment, time, or [insert any excuse]."

The truth was two-fold: although I've known the basic steps of brewing, I felt I never knew the process well enough in detail, and secondly, it's a lot easier to comment on something, than to actually do it. In Belgium they say "the best captains are standing on the docks" just like the best coaches can be found on their couch with a beer in their hand watching their team miss out on the playoffs. Brewing my own beer? While everyone knows me as the connoisseur? What if it sucks? What if I couldn't get a brew right? Surely, I'd lose all my beer snob privileges?

And then, Julie got me a home-brewing for Christmas. Damn, now I had to show up... 

I was also quite anxious to try it out! She got me a kit with the ingredients to create a Dry-Hopped Gose beer. "A what now?" you might say. Well, for those who aren't as into beer as I am, a Gose beer traditionally is a fruity and light beer originating from the German city of Goslar, that can be most easily described as a wheat beer (like Belgian Witbier or German Weisse Bier) with a sour twist. Gose beers often use more than just water, barley, and hops (but spices like coriander and even salt), and therefore a Gose brew is a bit of a rebellious Teutonic drink, as the beer does not adhere to the 1516 Reinheitsgebot (or purity law) that limits the allowed ingredients for beer in Germany.

From the get-go, I decided to adopt that rebellious spirit and add more ingredients to the recipe. As Goses are perfect summer patio beers, I figured clementine would be a nice additional touch.  

The kit came in a large cardboard box with all the essential tools and ingredients for the beer. Like an IKEA package, but with hops instead of screws. Even though the recipe called out that anyone who can make oatmeal can also brew beer, the process will eventually destroy any kitchen, and test the nerves of even the most headstrong among us. So just like an IKEA package really.

At the end of the day, brewing takes a number of steps and long waiting periods in between. I'm not going into all the steps here. Basically, you're juggling grains, hot water, thermometers, several plastic tubes, and more throughout the mash (as said with added clementines), the sparge and the wort, the boil, the fermentation - this is when you allow the bacteria to run wild thus creating the sourness - and finally the bottling.

During the weeks this process took, there was that nice familiar craft brewery scent floating through our house. I'm not sure if Julie appreciated that part of the brew process as much, but I guess she just enjoyed watching my excitement as I was klutzing my way with somewhat sterile jugs and bottles.

Throughout most of the process, my hopes were not very high. Mostly because of the thick floating residue and upper mold layer in what was to become my beer. Well, no bacterial fermentation without mold, and no clarity without proper filtering equipment I tried to tell myself. At least the aroma was right: whenever I lifted the airlock from my gallon sized glass fermenter the scent of hops and citrus filled the room. My rebel drink was getting somewhere!

Rebellious beer isn't the only significant thing in Goslar's history.

The UNESCO protected town in Lower Saxony, together with its wealthy silver mines, was an important city in the Holy Roman Empire under Frederick I (1122-1190), better known as Barbarossa.

Barbarossa fought many wars in Italy against Lombardy and against the Roman armies of the Popes to solidify the Emperor's rule in the vast and fragmented empire, and was aided by his cousin Henry the Lion, Duke of Saxony. However, over time Henry - one of the most powerful German Princes at the time - felt his time and resources were better spent in securing his own Eastern borders than aiding the emperor. When Barbarossa requested Henry's aid once more in 1174 to invade parts of Italy, the Duke requested a particular prize in return: the city of Goslar.

The Emperor refused and went to war without the help of Henry the Lion. Barbarossa's invasion turned into a disaster, and the Emperor blamed his cousin for failing to support him. The Emperor branded the Duke a rebel, formally stripped him of his titles and lands, and invaded his cousin's territories in 1180.

With many of his allies deserting him, the Duke had to surrender in 1182. Henry was exiled several times, but in 1189 the Emperor went on a crusade to recapture the Holy Land. The Duke saw his chance to return to Saxony, raised an army of loyal troops, and laid waste to the cities who had abandoned him in his fights against the Emperor a decade earlier.

Eventually, after many battles - some in favor of the Duke, some in favor of the Emperor - Henry the Lion, the Rebel Duke made his peace with the new Emperor Henry IV, son of Barbarossa, and lived out his last days in Lower Saxony.

Henry is now the subject of legends, romantically remembered as one who fought as an underdog against evil. And also fought alongside a lion against a dragon, but that is a story for another time...

Back to my beer!

Of all the steps I undertook to create my own take on the Gose beer, the bottling was probably the messiest: building a gravity powered contraption of kitchen stools, the refrigerators, and a plastic tube that was just not long enough. Long story short: after lots of clean up I had six pints bottled and stored. The final waiting game could begin.

The very last step before enjoying your own beer, is refrigerating the beer to desired temperature for about a day. When I took the beer bottles from their dark confinements, the amount of floating debris almost made me gag.

Damnit!

"Ah well, let's put them in the fridge anyway. We'll see what we do with them." The next morning, I was happily surprised that the cool temperature had naturally shifted the beer, and all the residue had fallen to the bottom of the bottles. Turns out, that is very normal for unfiltered beers. Yeah, clearly, I still didn't know everything about beer.

With my own rebellious take on an already rebellious German beer recipe, originating from a city with such rich history, I obviously could only think of one name for this custom brew: Rebel Duke.

The bottles were all bearing my custom-made labels, created in PowerPoint using the Lion-shaped logo of my nonprofit, and the beautiful painting of Henry the Lion humbling Emperor Barbarossa by Philipp von Foltz.

I popped the first bottle, carefully poured it, and took a hesitant first sip. "Damn this is refreshing, and good!" I don't know if drinking your own beer gives you a biased preference for it - I'm sure it does - but I'll tell you, in that moment it was the best damn Gose I'd ever had!