Folksbier & Bitter and Esters Co-brew

May 10

For the club's fourth collaboration with a local brewery, the Brewminaries teamed up with Folksbier located in Carroll Gardens. We used the "exquisite corpse" method to formulate the recipe, a process much like filling out Madlibs!

Folksbier's founder, Travis Kaufmann, provided sheets of paper dividing the recipe into three sections; malt bill, hop schedule and yeast (plus adjuncts). Alex Biedermann, Mike Mas, Greg Badavas and Russell Smith were randomly selected from the club and Bitter and Esters' John LaPolla rounded out the team. Each brewer filled in a section without any knowledge of the other components.

At the end of the process, five random recipes were revealed and the team selected their favorite to brew on Folksbier's system. The winner: a saison with blueberries, named Famous Floating Blueberry. Full details on our recipe are included at the bottom of the post.

The team met up for the brew day at Folksbier on April 28th and Travis walked us through the process as we determined water volumes, salt additions and strike temperatures. It was a very hands-on brew for all involved since much of Folkbier's team was out delivering kegs or were heading home after brewing since 6am.

At the end of the brew we were happy to see that we had hit all of our targets, and wound up with about 30 gallons of beer which is happily fermenting until it reaches terminal gravity, when it will receive dry hop and blueberry additions in secondary.

As in the past, Bitter and Esters is hosting a brewery bike tour on May 21st. Even if you don't have a bike, you're encouraged to meet up at Folksbier at noon to taste the beer! Full itinerary below and sign-up in the link above.

Itinerary:

Meet at Bitter & Esters (700 Washington Ave, BK) @ 11:30 AM
Head to Folksbier (101 Luquer St, BK) @ 12:00 PM
Head to Other Half (195 Centre St, BK)
Back to Folksbier (101 Luquer St, BK)
Head to Strong Rope Brewery (574 President St, BK)
Head to Threes Brewing (333 Douglass St, BK)

Recipe:

Famous Floating Blueberry
French Saison with Blueberries

Pilsner - 60%
Vienna - 30%
Munich - 10%

Bittering - Target
Aroma/Flavor - Kent
Whirlpool - Kent & Fuggles
Dry Hop - Kent

Yeast - White Labs 590 French Saison
Blueberries - 1lb per gallon in secondary

OG - 1.048
FG - 1.002
ABV - 6%