Best Of

I had mentioned to @Gargoyle a good explanation of the haze that was provided by the guy who brews M43, here's his words (the group on FB this was posted in was private, but I'm sure he wouldn't mind it being shared here):

I can jump in here and recap the comments Matthew is referencing: The style utilizes hops very late in the brew, and in dry hop during and sometimes after fermentation, as everybody knows. There is haze from that, as the active stuff we're looking for from the hops all come packaged in oil. That haze, while real, is academic to the kind of haze most folks expect with these beers. For Old Nation, we use whole wheat and oat malts and grain, ground right with the barley malt (albeit with a bit tighter gap) and mashed in at the same time. We find that the protein and lipids from those grains bond with the more acidic hop oils to create the semi permanent haze we have in the M43 and Boxer at varying levels respective to overall use of each. Each thing (hop oils and grain lipids) will cause some haze. The bonding that seems to happen between them creates a haze that's greater than the sum of its parts, in short. It's also true that Central European wheat beer brewers, and Belgians in particular, have been adding wheat flour to the boil in order to "fool" drinkers into believing that beer is fresher than it is for a long time. I'm sure that folks do it for this style, too, and the pectin/fruit puree seems like a logical choice as well. For me adding flour - although presenting a short term benefit if a visual result is desired- risks too many conversion, refermentation and non-biological issues downstream, and doesn't seem necessary. I think fruit puree could make sense, if viewed in the context of stretching the style a bit. For me, ON and others have really just started experimenting what the possibilities are just using a grain bill that reflects the softness of the "style", water chemistry, bioconversion/biotransformation of hop oils vs. straight dry hop, and a bunch of other necessary stuff before we can say we've totally nailed it with a straight face. I think we've gotten very close but, thankfully, there are breweries out there like Trillium who are pushing themselves constantly and have a huge amount of variants of the style under their belts to take inspiration from, as we do from great brewers of any style or type. We love this process here and, even though I said I'd never brew an IPA again if I didn't have to, I'm happy to be exploring it. It's a technically challenging style if one doesn't take shortcuts and we're just now finishing the complete scale up to 80 bbl batches on the M43. If we run out of ideas with the dozens of appropriate hop varieties and infinite number of hop/malt variations possible within this style of beer making, I'm sure we'll be next in line to add juice. Flour would still bug me, though. Hope that wasn't too long a response, I just like talking about this stuff!

He also put up a great post he called a "fireside chat" explaining their process in developing and bringing this beer to market. This kind of transparency from a brewery is refreshing considering how many don't give any insight into their operation normally.

360° video of the parade starting area, click and drag to rotate. Recommend full screen and HD.

Just dropped off @cola for his journey back (with last-minute J Riddle & gin from Two James in hand) to his metal tube of death as @Gargoyle was finishing packing his bags. It was an unusually coordinated departure this morning - the last 5 all departed within a couple hours of each other.

Everyone seemed to enjoy the lower-key event this year. Thanks everyone.

Oh man. That was fun. Gotta say, this was the first tasting where I had more beer than tasters. I know a few folks wish they could have been here, you were missed.

Here's what we tasted!

Left to right:
Transient (Bridgman, MI) Juice is Loose
Tree House (Monson, MA) Bright
Trillium (Boston, MA) Double Dry Hopped Melcher Street
Bissell Brothers (Portland, ME) Swish
Witch's Hat (South Lyon, MI) This Guy
Old Nation (Williamston, MI) M43
North Peak (Travis City, MI) Stormy
Griffin Claw (Birmingham, MI) Nawt a Cawp
The Alchemist (Stowe, Vermont) The Crusher

I think the general consensus with these beers fell into 3 groupings (correct me if I'm wrong, tasters!):

Tough to call a clear winner, top 3 contenders
Juice is Loose, Swish, M43

Statistically tied for second:
Double Dry Hopped Melcher Street, Bright, This Guy

Pulling up the rear but still good beers:
Stormy, Nawt a Cawp, Crusher

Thanks to everyone who joined in!