THIS WAS A two-gallon beer, but I haven’t bothered with scaling it up. Somehow, I don’t think it makes any difference. This beer was so unusual, and so specific to our relatively small corner of the world, that I am presenting this recipe more for the record than in the expectation that anyone will ever make it. Not you, gentle reader, and not me; even if I tried to match it, everything would be different. It represents the versatility of beer — once you have the basics, you can take beer pretty much anywhere you want go. We also created a five-gallon version of this Perfect Keg brew, using commercial two-row barley and malted wheat but still fermented by our wild yeast.

For me, the most interesting flavor wrinkle with my Perfect Keg brew was the keg itself. The bottled version of this beer worked very well, but I thought the kegged version gained a lot of complexity from the oak keg itself. After the keg is seasoned with whiskey, adding yet another flavor note to the oak’s vanilla, I think it might be great for crafting a midpalate, mid-dark ale — or better yet, a barley wine. Ah, the possibilities.

GRAIN BILL

5.5 lbs Home-malted two row

8 oz Home-roasted two row

10 oz Fundamentalist francophone honey

(Total 6 lbs 10 oz)

HOPS BILL

0.4 oz Nugget (15 minutes)

0.4 oz Cascade

Dry-hop with 0.4 oz of Cascade in secondary fermenter.

YEAST

Madawaska Magic Saccharomyces Bayanus–Cerevesiae combo (about 6 oz)

Method: See Dog’s Tongue Porter.