This is a winter-warmer, done in the style of Pyramid's Snowcap or Redhook's Winterhook. It's a big beer, with 3/4 lb. crystal malt, 1/4 lb. chocolate malt, 9 1/2 lbs. golden liquid malt extract, 3 oz. Willamette, and fermented with the same Wyeast 1728 Scottish ale yeast used for the Christmas beer. The label is inspired by the stark, snowy days of November, and the bare Winter-time deciduous forests of Nebraska. I saw Jeremy Irons play the lead in Shakespeare's "The Winter's Tale", and I've never forgotten the cool blue lighting used in the Stratford-Upon-Avon set.
I paired the the winter imagery with an equally stark poem. My Uncle Bob is the "knarled tree" in the story. At age 14, my parents were both dead, and I felt overwhelmed and lost. Bob was a rough, harsh character, with lots of crazy ideas in his head, but he was literally the only one among my aunts and uncles who reached out to me. His tales of my parents were like those Greek myths of fierce strength and tenacity, and kept me clear about who I could be. I didn't have my father and mother, but I had their stories, and that kept me whole. Thank you Uncle Bob for providing the windbreak this sprout needed to survive.
Brewed October 2008.
