Another Iron Brewer update: Tasted, check! Label designed, check!

My Iron Brewer entry, Turkish Delight EESB, has been in the bottle for 10 days now. I’ve been tasting it as it goes (my weakness, I know, but I love to taste the evolution of a beer from the raw product to the finished), and it’s been improving greatly in the bottle. Last night, I brought a few bottles to the monthly HOPS! meeting and it was pretty well received. Some sample comments, paraphrased to the best of my ability to remember:

“When I read the description on your blog, I thought it was going to be a mess. But this is very well balanced. The flavors are there but more subtle than I expected.”

“This is a special beer.”

“You’re a mad scientist.” (to be fair, this one was from a member when I first told him about the beer, but he reiterated it last night)

So I’m excited about the contest, and doubly excited now that my friend (and fantastic artist) @wonderLlama has designed a label for the beer, which you should see to the left. He occasionally posts some art on his Twitter, and is a terrific guy besides, so I definitely recommend following him.

I’m also a little daunted at the expense of printing labels and packing and shipping all this beer but I should have it done by the end of the week.

At last night’s meeting, we also sampled the Belgian IPA that I brewed for the Midwest Brewers Fest at which I will be volunteering with the club. It was less successful, mostly due to the fact that it hasn’t properly carbonated yet. The club will be bringing the beer to the fest for me, and club president Bob Brown took the keg with him to make sure the CO2 levels are correct. If anyone’s a mad scientist of brewing, it’s that guy. Well maybe not a “mad” scientist but a scientist nonetheless; many of the guys in the club are way more well-versed on the technical aspects of brewing than I am. I’m more like an oddball aunt who makes you chocolate chip cookies but when you bite into them there are chunks of candied ginger in there as well.

Also, a little preview: the HOPS! Oktoberfest party will be held at the end of next month. I’ll be doing a post dedicated to that at some point, and most likely will brew something for it as well.  So watch that space (and this one!), as there’s going to be a ton of great beer and food there. Tickets are $30 each, I have a few to sell or they’ll be available through Brown Paper Tickets if they aren’t already.