pink elephants

the other night, i had a delirium tremens, and with the first sip, everything that i had been learning about belgian beer came into focus. beer enlightenment, it was : a moment of pure beer awakening.

and it kept on going the more i learned about it.

but with that first taste, i grokked :
- drinkability. belgian brewmasters kept going on about this in "brew like a monk" but i did not get it. i got it after the DT. >8% abv but i still wanted more.
- the use of sugar for extra high attenuation
- dextrins may help with body, but so does extra high carbonation
- the allure of a clear beer
- loving your yeast

later, i read that DT is brewed with three different yeasts. i believe it.

like any decent enlightenment, it opened my mind to new and exciting ideas. the next day while at hte beer store, i got a great deal on a pair of new 2.5G cornys, and as i thought about it, i thought of interesting, belgiany, non-english ways that i could use them. i thought about what it means to brew with different yeasts -- it doesn't necessarily mean spiking the beer throughout its life with more sugar and yeast (though someday i hope to try that!). one day i may split a wort in twain, ferment it with two separate yeasts, lager it (i can, now!) separately, and blend it for carbonation.

that is the destination, i think, of my brewing journey : to know so well the behavior of the living components of the process that I can work with them, and with their assistance, guide them in new and interesting journeys of their own to create something unique. along the way i have learned and will learn much about consistency, details, and "how it's done". the rules, in other words. the way the british and the germans do it. but my beer has always desired to be belgian, and the more i learn about "the rules", the more i understand their origins, the more i can bend them to the will of my beer, yearning to be free and delicious.

or something. in any case, i'm armed with expanding knowledge, some experience, decent equipment, and most importantly, creative imagination. i made a number of mistakes on my first truly "belgian" experiment.

mistakes, of course, are the universe's way of revealing new and hidden paths of travel.