Recipe: Devon’s Bane

As part of our second-annual Homebrew Summer program, various San Diego County breweries have teamed with amateur brewers to produce their homespun recipes on their commercial systems, then tap the resultant beers in their tasting rooms.

Today’s homebrewer-to-homebrewer contribution comes from a pair of homebrewers who have had some fortuitous run-ins with San Diego brewers. Not only did they have the good fortune of garnering the recipe for a Belgian-style golden strong ale from former Pizza Port Solana Beach Head Brewer Devon Randall, but thanks to one of their award-winning beers being judged by a brewer from Mission Brewing, they were able to brew that BGS on that East Village operation’s brewhouse. Dubbed Devon’s Bane, that beer will tap Friday, September 2 at Mission’s tasting room, but you can get the recipe for it right now. Just scroll down.

Check back to San Diego Beer News throughout the summer for more recipes as well as release dates for other pro-am beers. It’s shaping up to be a great summer for homebrewers and beer fans alike, and we’re stoked to have you along for the ride!

I judged the America’s Finest City Homebrew Competition at AleSmith a few months back and was lucky to try some really killer beers. The standout, though, was an imperial stout with coffee and cacao, which my judging partner and I both scored a 44 out of 50. I made sure to attend the awards ceremony a week or two later during that month’s QUAFF homebrew-club meeting and I got to meet one of the brewers behind the beer, Jose. We hit it off and have since brewed a couple beers and shared many more along with Jose’s brewing partner, Mark. When I learned that Mission was chosen as one of the breweries in the Homebrew Summer series, I immediately thought of Jose and Mark. We chatted over potential styles to brew and, considering that summer might not be the time of year for an imperial stout, we decided to brew another of their favorite recipes, a Belgian golden strong ale they call Devon’s Bane. Named for the former Pizza Port head brewer who shared her recipe with them, this is a beast of a beer weighing in at 12% ABV (alcohol-by-volume). It’s a strong one, but it’s light-bodied, effervescent and devilishly drinkable during these long, hot San Diego summer nights.”

Mitch Tastrom, Mission Brewery

Working with Mitch and the team exposed us to the differences and similarities between homebrewing at a 10-gallon capacity and commercial-scale production of seven barrels. For example, we learned about scaling our recipe up to accommodate a larger-volume batch, and how to adapt our recipe based on ingredients readily available for the volume we were brewing. It was quite an eye-opener when you’re used to getting what you’re looking for because you don’t need nearly as much volume. The team was amazingly flexible with our choice of beer and Mitch provided a lot of opportunities to actively participate in every step of the brew day, from milling the grains, to grain-out and clean-up; we got to get our hands on every stage of the brewing process. We are excited to taste the results of our efforts!  We are thankful to Mission and San Diego Beer News for the opportunity to collaborate on this project.”

Mark Zanfardino & Jose Dias, Homebrewers