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I like running and science and I have no idea what I'm doing with my life. So I'm writing a blog or something.

Monday, October 2, 2017

Call me Ishmael, the award-winning brewer

Guess who entered her first homebrew competition and placed?

That's right: it was me!

This past Saturday was the 5th Annual Monterey Bay Oceanographic Homebrew Competition.  Entrants were from MBARI, NOAA/UCSC, MBA, and MLML* (though I was the only person from MLML there this year- had to represent the MoLa MoLa Brew Club!).

The beer I entered was a 5.3% alcohol content grapefruit IPA I called the Ishmael Pale Ale.  Here was my description:

"Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul... then, I account it high time to brew a beer as soon as I can.  But for a whaling voyage, what a fine, hoppy brew, an India Pale Ale is; one that can be drunk on the first and last day at sea.  And shipmates- lest ye fall ill of scurvy- citrus be your friend; for in this beer I add that queer fruit from Barbados, the grapefruit." -Herman MelvAle

So pretty much I catered to the maritime nerds out there, which may have been lost on a few scientists (like the one who asked me what an "Ishmael" was), but I though I was pretty clever.

Here is a photo of all of the entries:

None of the beers were bad- most were pretty good (I would have been happy if I had brewed any of them- even the pilsner which turned out to be just PBR in a growler- but I was impressed at first since pilsners are hard to brew!).

The winner was Get Your Tiny Hands Off Our Public Lands! (which was an absolutely delicious Northeast style IPA- I voted for it), followed by Kitten Mittens, and then I got third place with my Ishmael Pale Ale.  Which I know I got for merit alone since I knew no one there to stack the votes (well, aside from myself and Kevin, but based on the number of voters, I doubt we swung the vote one way or another).  Considering we had some issues cooling the wort quickly, and I tried to siphon into the bottling bucket with a broken siphon at first, which definitely caused some oxygenation of the beer at a point where you don't want oxygenation, I am very pleased with the result!

If you're curious, the grapefruit flavor was added via a tincture of grapefruit zest and peel in vodka, dumped into the carboy two days before bottling.  Kevin did all of this since the beer was fermenting at his place, which was a HUGE favor considering he doesn't really like grapefruit (thank you, Kevin!).  The dregs of the bottle tasted the most grapefruity, so I may try inverting (gently) a bottle before drinking it next.

There were also a lot of dogs at the event, which is always a plus in my book, including this incredibly soft one who looked like a bear:
She posed for me because Kevin was holding a sausage, but still.  Speaking of Kevin and meat, he drank some of the beer after eating a spicy Vietnamese beef stew and said it was amazing, so apparently I made a great beer to pair with spicy foods.


*MBARI: Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute
NOAA: National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Association
UCSC: University of California at Santa Cruz
MBA: Monterey Bay Aquarium
MLML: Moss Landing Marine Labs