Beetroot Beer. Wow! |
But how? Thanks to my mate Google (he's such a pleasant fellow) I let my fingers do the walking. But unlike my terrible attempted gag to relate to a Yellow Pages ad from yesteryear my ambition to brew a beetroot beer wasn't terrible. In fact, it was wonderful. I had fight and determination, just like Dexter himself to get the job done. What I didn't anticipate was the blood-like mess I'd encounter.
Blood spatter look-a-like? |
Well, rock back and forth actually- back and forth, as the beetroot slid across the many edges of the grater. It was at that moment I had genuinely thought that I was in a Colombian hospital where the victims of shooting crimes were being prepped for operations. So messy was this that I had fears that when the Australian Securities and Investment Commission were finished with Eddie Obeid they be after my blood, too.
Dexter would be proud |
To think that this was only one beetroot I grated? I had to do another! Fair Dinkum! Back and forth I go like a yo-yo in grating the second. While grating I actually imagined what the beer would be like. Well, the colour anyway. I mean, I knew it was going to be sort of red but really did wonder how deep a colour it would be?
It was some ways away before I'd actually find out, so in the mean time I grabbed a small pot, put some water in it and dumped the grated beetroot in it. Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn, and caldron bubble. It sure as hell bubbled alright. I boiled it for about 10 minutes, just enough time for me to finish another of William Shakespeare's works.
I then let it cool down, then strained the liquid into a container to remove the solids. The container was then placed in a cold water bath, something I almost experienced during my recent winter trip to Minnesota. I guess it was one of those things where I wished I had a fire extinguisher, since I know that a blast of that would cool the beetroot liquid just a touch faster.
The Beet is cool |
Still, patience is a virtue and so with that I prepped the keg. Cleaning is paramount in brewing and I am very anal when it comes to that. When the beetroot juice was cool enough I simply poured it into the keg, which was followed very soon after with the American Wheat beer I brewed. I then sealed the keg, put it in the fridge, set the C02 tank on and let it carbonate. A few days later out come what could only be described as Dexter Morgan's Blood Beer.
Although the whole experience was a complete and utter mess it was certainly something I was looking for. I may have basterdised the beetroot, but in its name I have glamourised it and have made it so, so cool. So cool that Steve McQueen's ghost whispered that he wanted one. It was a home brewed beetroot beer that has made everyone say 'wow'. I like that.
dannbrew@gmail.com
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