So Figgin’ Yummy – 15 lbs of Black MIssion Figs

Well, I guess I’m F**ng Forty. Not sure how that happened so fast, as I distinctly remember turning 21.. which felt, well, not not as long as 19 years ago! Given that it is not every year a girl jumps into the next decade of life, I thought I would celebrate by brewing my first beer on our production system. (note- although I’ve home-brewed for over a decade, I had never brewed more than 10 gallons at a time.)

I knew right away that I wanted to brew a dark beer with lots of chocolate and figs. After brainstorming with Annette on the recipe, we decided that a Baltic Porter would be a great base for the rich chocolate and fruity figs. We also decided to use a British Ale yeast, in order to really bring out the fruity / raisin-y notes in the beer.

I brewed this beer in early October, and it has been fermenting / resting / aging since then. Feel free to take this with a grain of salt (since I am heavily biased), but this beer has been well worth the wait. It is figgin’ delicious!!

Here are a few more details on this beer:

• 15 lbs of black mission figs went in near the end of the boil. Indulgent? Yes… but so worth it!
• Lots of cocoa powder went into the boil, and additional cocoa nibs went into the secondary.
• The dashing RJ (who you might know from White Gate Farms and/or Black Trumpet) gave us some cayenne peppers, which we dried and then put into the secondary.
• The beer is a beautiful dark brown / light black color with undertones of red.
• The nose on this beer is amazing. It is very figgy / fruity. The figs come across more like raisins, and the chocolate is also very present in the nose.
• Once you take a sip, the chocolate stays with you from the very front to the very end on your palette.
• The heat from the pepper is very subtle. The heat comes through at the end and lingers just a touch, but not too much.
• We recommend drinking this beer with dessert or as your dessert . Since it clocks in at about 8% alcohol, you will want to serve in more modest sized glasses (~10 oz instead of a full pint.)
• The beer is more malty than hoppy (33 IBU).

All in all, we hope you love this beer as much as we do!

p.s. I typically don’t share my age with everyone, but, as many of you know, we love our bad puns and couldn’t resist naming the beer figgin’ forty.

p.p.s For those of you not familiar with the John Eddy song Forty (and aren’t offended by foul language), you might want to check out the song which inspired the name for the beer ? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ffaPjasnyU

p.p.p.s Here is a photo of me below figgin’ up the beer. I don’t look a day over 39, right?

Figging up the Fabulous Figgin’ Forty!