Flash - Ultra Fuel Cook-Off

Once upon a time, there was a young newlywed couple who liked to tip back the occasional celebratory pint after a good run.  She was from the old country where beer was an integral part of life and most meals.  He was from "back east" where beer was what you drank by the tray-load at 50-cents a glass, but had traveled and studied the ways of the Trappiste monks in the old country.

Alas, when they arrived in beautiful BC, Hefeweizen was not in the vocabulary.  Doppels, tripels and any old-world beer, for that matter was not available at the friendly state-run liquor store.  Necessity being the mother of invention, the newlyweds decided to brew their own beer. 

And brew they did!  Under the watchful tutelage of a renoun brewmeister, they carefully concocted their brew and lovingly mixed the ingredients in small copper kettles.  The result was a dark ale, about 8% alcohol with a clean sherry-like taste and a crisp finish.

Before long, the high-test Tinsel-Jackson Black Gold Ale (or "TJ" as it came to be called by connoisseurs) was the toast of softball teams, rugby leagues and other live-hard, play-hard communities from the Yukon to White Rock and from Tofino to the Alberta border.  As legend has it, TJ was the most popular U-Brew beer in British Columbia for many years.

While the prospect of having oceans of inexpensive, tasty suds in the fridge at all times sounds may sound like Nirvana, every silver cloud has a dark lining.  For the newlyweds, it meant buying a completely new wardrobe to accommodate their rapidly-expanding girth. 

So, in the interest of keeping the family budget in check and the focus on athletic performance, the recipe was tucked away in a far corner of the Internet where it has sat for over a decade. 

Until now.

My research has turned up that most of the copper kettle U-Brews in the lower mainland of BC have gone bust.  However, West Coast U Brew remains, albeit in a newer location close to Commercial Drive in East Vancouver.  They have 48-liter kettles and still allow folks to brew their own brews from scratch ingredients  (vs a kit, which IMHO, kinda sux and defeats the artistic purpose.)

This event has a limited number of participants.  I am looking for at least 3-5 fat asses who would like to split a kettle of TJ and maybe another specialty brew.  The more the merrier, but the field is limited by the number of kettles at the U-Brew.

Like a Duathlon, the agenda for this event consists of two (2) disciplines: 

• Leg 1 would require being present some weeknight to mix the ingredients (about an hour) and to celebrate at a local brewpub afterwards (probably the rest of the evening) to debate the potential outcome of the brew, politics, religion and whatever else comes to mind.
• Leg 2 would be a few weeks later when the brew is done.  It would also consist of an hour to bottle the brew and the rest of the evening to test and dissect the meisterwork from the perspective of the brew-master.

I have proposed a date for this event, but will move it around to accommodate the majority of those who are interested.

I recommend the following reading for anyone who is interested in participating in the event:

• beers at West Coast U-Brew
• Belgian beer (from Wikipedia)
• the TJ brewing experience and recipe

A kettle at West Coast U-Brew holds 48-liters.  A kettle of high test TJ will run about $150.

Interested?  Questions?  Thoughts?  Just add a comment below.  If you have a favorite recipe you'd like to try, please note it in your comment.  (I need to share it with the U-Brew dude to see if he has the ingredients and to get a price on it.)