7th of July Party

My friend hosts an annual crab and clam party every year on the first Saturday after the 4th of July. I have attended several events and it is always a good time. Then, starting in 2006, my friend found an old coke dispensing fountain in a friend's attic and was surprised to find it still worked. The machine takes room temperature liquid (think old-fashioned kegged soda) and quickly super-chills it and dispenses it from one of five taps. My friend's immediate thought, now I can request some Wallace homebrew to serve at the party.

So, in 2006 we tried the system out. My friend found some 5-gallon corny kegs on sale cheap on eBay and together we brewed a red ale and an English pale ale. Both recipes were extract-based. Then we hooked them up to the coke machine and started fiddling with carbonation. Several problems became evident. Unlike bars and most homebrew kegging systems which keep their kegs at serving temperature, the coke machine takes room temperature beer and super-chills it. Given that gases dissolve in liquid at different rates for different temperatures, this proved to be problematic. We eventually got it right, after drinking half a keg of beer over a month or so, and things were great. The party went off well and people liked the beer, especially the English pale ale.

So, 2007 rolls around and my friend wants to up the ante. This year we made four kegs of beer (that's right, 20 gallons). We kept the English pale ale from last year, and added a West Coast pale ale for comparison. I also suggested two of my favorite recipes, a clone of Samuel Smith's oatmeal stout and a smoke amber ale. Again, we had the same problems of adjusting the CO2, or that was my friend excuse for drinking a third of the smoke amber (I am pretty sure that was his favorite, so I don't buy the excuse for a second). An impromptu survey conducted of party beer drinkers revealed the following facts/opinions:

1) The oatmeal stout was great, which surprised many people because it is a dark beer on a hot day. This was my favorite of the bunch, and the first keg to be drained completely.

2) People thought the smoked amber was very different, but really liked it, and several were surprised at how quickly the keg drained (it was finished second, most likely due to my friends CO2 "tests").

3) People rated the West Coast pale ale much higher than I thought they would. The beer, while clean tasting, seemed a bit plain to me. But, several people said the hops cut through the Old Bay seasoning on the crabs very well, which made it an ideal complement to the meal.

4) The English pale ale was enjoyed too, but it seemed the least favorite of the homebrews.

In addition, my friend bought a bunch of bottles of Amstel Light and dumped them into a keg and pressurized it. This was the last tap of the coke machine. Not surprisingly, this was the only beer left at the end of the party, with the English pale ale keg draining just after the fireworks show. My friends comment, "Next year I will tell those light beer drinking friends to bring their own and WE will brew another beer; one that has TASTE."

I look forward to it . . .