Fermentables. I make awesome krauts by the gallon, using a wide array of vegetables. But just recently, I've discovered adding fresh horseradish root puts it to the upper decks. The stuff is awesome for pork chops, hot dogs, brats, sausages, and any version of BBQ that you'd like to go on about. It's also perfect for pairings with beer as well as roasted beasts. But some beers are even better than others with it, such as this Belgian style concoction I made in the spirit of "Radical Brewing," just before New Year's: "Dark Honey Pumpkin Cran Apple Cider-Ale, with kraut (cabbage with fresh ground horseradish), for which I used dark Malt, Clover honey, Pumpkin mash, and Cran Apple cider. And of course there were various spices in the mash.
I've been trying to think of a shorthand name to distinguish the ale, but I'm not repeating the recipe just yet, so there's no rush... maybe Hudson Valley Saison Cider-Ale v.01.
I was going for a French-Belgian ish-esque sour Farmhouse, Saison flavor, and it worked pretty well, if a little sweet for my taste at this point. Perhaps a few more weeks in the growler would have helped bring that sweetness down a bit. However, when paired with these highly sour krauts I'm kicking out, you've got a no hitter (yes, that's baseball metaphor number 2).
The Cider-Ale had a thin but sweet finish, after a giant frothy head, and a very mild hoppy aroma. I can't recall 100% the hops I used, but pretty sure it was the Chinook, which retained nice aroma and flavor in spite of all these errant flavor profiles form various forms of sugar.
When used to wash down this fermented cabbage-horseradish sauerkraut mixture, this Belgian Farmhouse on-the-Hudson style Ale is something worth writing home about.... and maybe Indonesia too via Blogger.
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