Camino De Santiago beer

  

Possible label

Welcome back to Off The Hinge!  First off, I want to report back to you about the Lemon Fractal Ale.  The first sip exploded with lemongrass in a not so satisfying way.  I was totally bummed out, but I was not about to give up on this brew.  Sharing a sample with Steve, he was reminded of our One Night in Bangkok beer.  A light bulb came on, why don't I toast some coconut shavings and dump it in the keg?  That should balance out the strong lemongrass flavor, but  that by itself just would not do, so I decided to get mad and add the coconut with some of JB's Whiskey that was aging on oak chips.  I dumped all that into the keg.  It is much better now!  Sometimes you dig for gold and come up with a pearl...

There are so many wonderful beers out there and I have been thinking about how to make ales that have a purpose and are not just pretentious.  I was walking to work a while back and thought about my trek through Spain and out of the blue I had a beer-like epiphany of sorts...  How can I take my experiences and turn them into a liquid journey?  I wanted to design a beer that encompassed the flavors I experienced on the Camino, so that my friends could taste this brew and maybe conjure within them an imagination of what it was like walking across Spain.  After some light introspection, I came up with an Idea, "The Soul Searcher Porter."

Why Porter?  This is a double entendre.  First, in a more idealistic approach, "Porter" is someone who carries things.  Being that I carried my rucksack across Spain, I figured it fitting for this brew.  Second, I loved Eastern Promise the Baltic Porter I made some time ago.  Now that the base recipe was decided on I had to think about the flavors of Spain.  

My Camino family and I ate figs and blackberries on the trail, and I also recalled a fig/blueberry Baltic Porter that Burnside Brewing made last year.  This beer was quite tasty, so I decided why not substitute blackberries for blueberries?  That was not enough to satisfy my idea of Spain, so I decided to pick up some Spanish Tempranillo and soak it in dark toasted oak chips.  A 20-25 mile hike a day called for wine in the evening and Spain is famous for its full bodied and flavorful Tempranillo Wine.  I think the flavors of the wine will work well with the dark fruit and dark berry.  I have not decided yet, but I may add some coco nibs and coffee to secondary?  Thanks to Bradley for reminding me about coffee, how could I forget such a wonderful drink!  There was plenty of coffee and chocolate intake on this trip, so it makes sense for me to do it.

You are rarely alone on the Camino, with that in mind I invited a few friends to partake in this brew session.  I wanted to thank them all for there help!  I also want to thank all the friends I made on my Journey!  I will never forget any of you!  That is it for now, I will probably do another post on this with more of the technical side and explain the experimental 3 gallon batch that was born out of this... Remember to drink good beer responsibly and be merry.  

Salud!