I came up with the idea for this beer
about a year ago. It was meant to be something that would combine the two
aspects of our philosophy - the local agricultural side and the spirited use of
unconventional ingredients side. I asked Evan to plant some for me and he was on board. Unfortunately the crop did not turn out, and we didn’t end up with
much of use. I got a little impatient and decided to brew a first draft with
blue corn meal I purchased online for a first run test, brewed 11/18/2012.
The basic premise of this beer is to throw off the conventionality
of light colored beers and brew something with bold and abundant flavors. Of course,
there are IPAs, an abundantly flavored pale ale, but by in large this cross
section of beers seems a little thin. Corn as an ingredient is sometimes used
in these beers to lighten them further. The base sugar in corn, dextrose, is 100%
fermentable, so the flavor you taste when eating an ear of sweet corn does
not translate into a sweeter beer, but a more alcoholic one. Thus, it creates a
very dry and neutral tasting beer. The challenge for this beer then is to use
the corn in ways that brings out its flavor while still remaining somewhat true
to the base style.
In the same way that the inner part of bread tastes different than the crust, raw corn meal tastes different than a toasted corn tortilla. A complicated chemical process called the maillard reaction is
responsible for this difference, as well as many of the varied flavors we enjoy
in conventional beer. When you cook a starch or sugar, you are producing new flavors.
The ultimate goal will be to incorporate those toasted corn flavors, which of course
are distinct from toasted barley, wheat, oats, etc.
This beer is obviously a work in progress. One of my hopes
is to smoke whole ears of corn, both to toast them, and to impart an added
dimension of smokiness into the final product. If a lightly colored smoked blue
corn tortilla beer doesn’t change some minds about light beer, I don’t know
what will. I’m also toying with the idea of incorporating roasted bell peppers
somehow, but my gut tells me vegetable beers are a whole other can of worms.
