Winter is coming

Ok, I have a confession to make.  I've never brewed beer.

*gasp*!

I've brewed several varieties of wine and I've brewed cider.  However, I've never actually brewed beer.  Fortunately, the other contributors to this blog have, so we have plenty of experience to cover the beer topic later.

I bring this up, because I've decided what my first beer should be, if and when I take the plunge into beer brewing.  As I sit here, I'm sipping a chilled Samuel Adams Winter Lager.  It's fantastic.  I've had a love affair with this beer since last winter.  Even at Utah's unreasonable $11 per 6 pack, I find extra room in my wallet for this beer.  I really wish they would brew it year-round.

So I've decided that my first beer brewing extravaganza should be a recipe as close to Sam Adams Winter Lager as possible.  I have no idea what that recipe would be, though.  So let's read the label!

"For centuries, brewers have crafted ..." blah blah blah " ... This rich and hearty dark lager is one of the finer pleasures of a winter evening."   Well that gives us a clue to start with.  Rich and hearty dark lager.  If we look below the "Winter Lager" logo we see: "A Dark Wheat Lager Brewed With Winter Spices".  Well that's somewhat more informative.  So we have ... wheat ... lager ... dark ... spices.  Well, slightly informative but not even close to what we need to know.

I visited the samueladams website and did obtain more information.  But conveniently, I'm not the only person who enjoys this brew.  Someone else wanted to homebrew this masterpiece as well!  Oh google, how I love thee.

So here's a link to the recipe:
http://www.byo.com/stories/recipes/recipeindex/article/recipes/113-spice-herb-a-vegetable-beer/1374-sam-adams-winter-brew-clone-the-replicator

This was apparently printed in the October 2001 copy of "Brew Your Own Magazine".  How convenient!  I feel a little bit late to the game though, looking up the recipe a whopping 8 years later.  I would copy the recipe verbatim, but well... copyright issues and what-have-you.

I'm somewhat excited to start a batch, but unfortunately I probably won't be able to get to it for another couple of weeks.  I still have cider in the primary fermenter, and I'll be out of town next week.  In the meantime, I guess I'll just continue drinking the real thing!  Cheers!