MCKINLEY PARK — When Brandon Surprenant bought his house, the self-proclaimed “beer dork" planted a hops plant in his backyard.
Over the next five years, the Cascade hops — known for their citrus and pine notes in popular pale ales — grew large and full, sprawling from one end of his yard to the other.
A 45-year-old graduate of Chicago’s Siebel Institute, Surprenant grew the hops to make his own home brews and enjoyed the way the plant decorated his property. It wasn’t until he visited Michigan’s Hop Head Farms and sampled their hops that he realized his batch — born and raised on the South Side of Chicago — could compete with the best of them.
That’s why he decided to donate the year’s hop harvest — all 23 pounds — to his friend and fellow beer geek Phil Zelewsky, head brewer at Moxee American Kitchen and Madmouse Brewery, at 724 W. Maxwell St. in University Village.
"I knew they were good and just wanted someone to make a good beer with them on a level I can't," said Surprenant, who frequents Moxee for dinner with his wife and conversation with his longtime buddy. "Phil's the man."
The brewery will soon release a harvest ale made with Surprenant's hops. The brew will be called “Backyard Harvest."
Zelewsky was grateful for the batch. As lead beer maestro of a budding brewery, he doesn’t have the dough to buy elite hops, which could cost between $12 and $14 a pound.
“They were really the best homegrown hops I’ve seen,” Zelewsky said.
To anyone unfamiliar with the jargon of the country’s ever-growing craft beverage movement, a harvest ale is a beer brewed with fresh hops. If hops aren’t used within 48 hours of harvest, they start to dry out.
Surprenant and a group of friends harvested the hops Sept. 27 and drove three sacks of them to Madhouse Brewery, where they’ve been brewing ever since. The process takes about two weeks between harvest and the first pour.
Though you could typically brew 1,000 gallons of beer with the 20 pounds pulled from McKinley Park, Zelewsky is making 100 gallons to make Backyard Harvest’s aroma particularly “hoppy.”
“These particular hops just smell like grapefruit juice. Wonderfully pungent," he said. “We’re going for as much aroma as possible. ... It’s certainly the most fragrant beer I’ve ever made.”
Zelewsky expects to finish the beer within the week and scheduled a release party, where you’ll be able to enjoy a glass poured straight from the brewery’s serving tank.
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