Sutro Stewards guide Amy Kaeser shows of some of the flora of the mountain during a recent Beers Made by Walking hike.
Posted on 09/03/2015 6:37:11 PM PDT by nickcarraway
"Whoa! Let's hope there's no DEET in that," says Phil Cutti, brewmaster at Headlands Brewing, biting into a paper-thin seed pod with overwhelming notes of bug spray.
Scratch that plant off the list.
Our group of nine is eating and smelling its way along a forested path to the top of San Francisco's Mt. Sutro, searching for something cool to use in a to-be-determined experimental Headlands beer. As we try everything from minty-sweet hummingbird sage to little tannic dust balls that look misleadingly like blueberries, I keep a close eye on Cutti, trying to figure out where he's going with this. So far, he's inscrutable.
Cutti is the last of nine commercial brewers to make this trek as part of the Bay Area debut of Beers Made by Walking. The program's goal: Get beer makers out into nature, teach them about native plants, and encourage them to brew place-based beers.
"I'm inspired by the experimental aspects," Cutti says. "That's the romanticized part of being a brewer. I'm really drawn to that."
Limited batches of these trail-to-tap brews will be poured at an event in October, and hike organizers plan to open the beer-themed walks to members of the general public soon.
This whole project isn't as out there as it sounds.
Anyone who's seen a Budweiser commercial knows two things: They will never be loved the way puppies love Clydesdales, and "hops" are a crucial beer ingredient. But before the bitter green cones started showing up a millennium ago, beer got its bite from herbaceous plant mixtures called gruits. We're talking your yarrows, your junipers, your mugworts.
Hike organizer Amy Kaeser, one of our edible-plant guides — because, no, we don't have a death wish — points out the native varieties of these old-school additives during our walk. She's the conservation manager for the Sutro Stewards, a nonprofit that propagates 4,500 native plants to rehabilitate and maintain the forest.
Some seeds, berries, and leaves are edible straight off the bush, while others need to ripen or be processed first. It's complicated, and this is the point at which I should warn the more YOLO-y readers not to go it alone.
Early in our hunt, we round a switchback and find a bank of fire-orange flowers with dark green leaves. Kaeser starts picking. Each part of the nasturtium plant — leaves, petals, and berries — has a different level of black pepper spice. Cutti kneels to snap a few pics.
Could this be it? I wonder.
"I like the idea of doing something with the nasturtium, like a saison," Cutti says. "But that's going to be done by a lot of people."
The other participating breweries have had weeks to think about their concepts. Sirwisa Brewing Collective's Ian Dunbar-Hall, for example, says they're thinking "sage saison" and may try to sour their beer with local "bugs" (brewspeak for yeast and bacteria).
David "Zambo" Zamborski, head brewer at 21st Amendment, has even started planning for 2016.
"I may do something next year with a bunch of the invasive species, so as to be helping in some way," he says.
While foraging on Mt. Sutro is technically verboten, when it comes to invasive species, the Sutro Stewards yank those things like a creepy New Zealand prime minister nearing a waitress' ponytail. So whatever he chooses, Cutti will have to work fast.
Fortunately, with signature beers named for hiking destinations such as Point Bonita and Hill 88 under his belt, Cutti is no stranger to the trail. And he's done his share of adding odd ingredients to batches of homebrew. (A particularly tasty honeysuckle wheat comes to mind. So does a disaster involving lavender.)
"You have to really be careful with lavender. It tasted like being in the shower — a true shower beer," Cutti says of the soap-flavored flop, unintentionally sparking a conversation about how amazing it is to drink cold beer in the shower.
Toward the end of our hike, our group reaches the sunny, dry bald spot at the crown of Sutro. We've tasted or smelled more than two dozen plants and seen breathtaking views of the city. But I'm no closer to discerning what Cutti's thinking.
A week after our walk, I can't take it anymore. I call up Cutti.
It turns out that inspiration struck before we even left the trailhead parking lot, he says, thanks to a yerba buena tea Kaeser made for the hikers.
Luckily for Cutti, his neck of the woods is carpeted with the fragrant mint.
"There are so many varieties up here on Mt. Tam — three or four or more," Cutti said. "So, I may be doing something in the mint family. But I'm still brainstorming."
Sutro Stewards guide Amy Kaeser shows of some of the flora of the mountain during a recent Beers Made by Walking hike.
Nasti Brew!
It's chock full o' nastis!
No matter what flavor they put in to their craft beer it will still taste like hops overkill.
That’s it. My reactionary side is finally driving me to light beer made by corporations. This craft thing has really run aground.
Last year I did a wet hops with my own hops. Tasted like grapefruit juice.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.