Saturday, December 15, 2012

The Dark Tower's Graf Beer

The guys at Brewing TV gave me a nerd'gasim when I punched in the video for episode 68. I like to pretend that youtube is a VHS player, sometimes I have to adjust the tracking with a little buffering.

Graf is being made.

The beer mentioned (on what page of which book?) in The Dark Tower series by Steven King. The inspiration for Devil Driver's "Forgiveness is a six gun" and the influence behind Nitch's main tattoo, The Gunslinger is a fictional character much like Jesus. His trials and tribulations, along with his apostles, has changed the lives of many. His quotes ring around the web and stem off into hundreds of different mediums. Destiny willing, some of the blessed followers have taken the tart, apple based brew from the pages of King's mind to the hands of the believers.



Graf is a strong hard cider or apple-based beer widely consumed in In-World. The specifics of the beverage are not mentioned (except to say that some varieties of graf are weak while others are eye-wateringly strong). 
Modern homebrew aficionados have created a huge variety of graf recipes (usually calling it "graff"), originally inspired by the Dark Tower series (as there is no known historical beverage called 'graf'). They share in common the idea that graf is a malted, slightly hopped cider however many recipes also add a number of spices and/or adjunct fruits. Some recipes have a relatively small malt contribution (being almost entirely cider) while others could be described more as apple beer (with large amounts of malt and only a small amount of apple). 
Graf is said to taste tart, light and refreshing with a deceptively high alcohol content.



Home-brewer's Gunslinger Graff
Nothing more beautiful then turning Science Fiction into fact!

The Home-brewing forums have packs of recipes currently in circulation and Reddit.com has whole forums of conversation regarding the brew from all angles:  is it a cider or a beer, will it work or wont it, what spices could be added, what yeast or grains, and the ultimate knowing of rather graf was plucked from the space between King's ears or existed in a distant past.

Nitch has listed Graf or Graff or simply "that strange amber apple pie brew" as one of her Home Brewing musts. You will be updated when it happens.

Long days and pleasant nights



1 comment:

  1. Aaawwwwwrrrr.............NOW, y'see, cully? Y've wakened me THIRST! (CURSE the currsed BALL an' th' THINGS it shows......) I'll haf't send Musty down t'th 'Rest, with a note to send that i'jut buy up here with a fresh keg!

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