MAKE IT Ginger Rye Ale
Aslan Brewing’s Ginger Rye Ale is based on an American pale ale and inspired by the Moscow Moose cocktail. The ginger and rye are present, but subtle. The wild card is the use of lime, which shines through on the finish. This is an adventurous beer and a staple of the brewery.
ALL-GRAIN
Batch size: 5 gallons (19 liters) Brewhouse efficiency: 80% OG: 1.054 FG: 1.010 IBUS: 39 ABV: 5.5%
MALT/GRAIN BILL
10 lb (4.5 kg) pale ale 1.5 lb (680 g) rye malt 8 oz (227 g) Crystal 40 4 oz (113 g) Carapils
HOPS & ADDITIONS SCHEDULE
1.1 g calcium sulfate in the mash 2.7 g calcium chloride in the mash 1 oz (28 g) Chinook at 60 minutes 0.5 oz (14 g) Citra at 15 minutes 4 oz (113 g) grated fresh ginger at
12 minutes 4 oz (113 g) honey at 5 minutes Zest and juice of 1 lime at whirlpool 1 oz (28 g) Citra at dry hop 2 oz (57 g) grated fresh ginger at dry hop
YEAST Wyeast 1056 American Ale DIRECTIONS
Use 1.25 quarts (1.2 l) of water per pound (454 g) of malt. Mash at 150°F (66°C) for 60 minutes. Boil for 60 minutes following the hops and additions schedule. Chill the wort, aerate, and pitch the yeast. Ferment at 68°F (20°C). making a fresh-hopped beer. I used only fresh hops for the whole process, so the bitterness was hard to predict. It came out fruity, mild, complex, hoppy, amazing. The re-creation of that beer without fresh hops has been a three-year [project] that is still being perfected. But it’s about the journey, not the destination, right?”
Dawn Patrol’s balance of malt and hops and its clean, crisp finish make it a great match for many of the brewery’s kitchen offerings. Like its beers, Aslan’s food is completely organic and from a sourced collective of Washington farmers. It includes poutine, burgers, several rice and vegetable bowls, and churros. Every item on the menu is thoughtfully paired with one of Aslan’s beers.
“We believe our brewery is the complete package,” says Haynes. “We hope on some level to be leaders in the organic movement.”
Aslan’s lion logo, in case you were wondering, is not a reference to the famous C.S. Lewis children’s book, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Aslan is a Turkish word that means lion. Aslan’s four owners—haynes, Trosset, CEO Jack Lamb, and Trosset’s brother and Director of Sales, Boe Trosset—stumbled across it when they were writing the business plan.
“When we were deciding how to brand ourselves, we determined that we wanted to have a mascot,” Haynes says. “We liked the idea of a lion—it’s a powerful, regal creature. We wanted to establish ourselves prominently in Washington’s beer and food scenes, be king of the jungle.”
Beyond organic ingredients, Aslan’s tribe is deeply committed to protecting its jungle—well, really, its forest in the surrounding Bellingham area. “A lot of us moved here for the outdoors,” Haynes says. “Personally, I moved here to ski Mt. Baker. We’re just a bunch of outdoor junkies. It was natural for us to associate the brand with the outdoors.”
Aslan became a Certified B Corporation in 2016. (B Corps are for-profit companies certified by the nonprofit B Lab to meet rigorous standards of social and environmental performance, accountability, and transparency.) Also, last year the brewery donated 15.5 percent of its profits to local nonprofits and community organizations, many of which support environmental causes. For every kwh of electricity the brewery uses, a kwh of clean energy will be produced and put onto the grid through Arcadia Power. The brewery is a Downtown Improvement Gardens (DIGS, for short) steward; it captures water from the roof to water its outdoor rain gardens, sunflowers, hops, and raspberries.
From core beers to core values and down to every last detail, Aslan is very much an expression of its owners’ convictions. “We built this brewery with our bare hands,” says Haynes proudly. That was no small feat, either. The historic Mcbeath Building that the brewery occupies had to be renovated before the brewhouse was installed—both to preserve its history and reduce construction waste.
Haynes says people are often surprised about his age. “I just turned 31,” he says. “Our majority owner is 27, our head brewer is 32, and our fourth partner is also 31. It seems our continual drive, credit that to our ages or not, has turned heads with people. The businesses and beer lovers in this community have been very welcoming.”
Next for Aslan is a new barrel-aging facility and tasting room that will open down the street from the brewery’s original location on Forest Street later in 2017. “We believe that at a certain size, you start losing your soul,” Haynes says, explaining that the “certain size” is different for every brewery. For Aslan, Haynes says he and the other co-owners are comfortable with growth as long as they can stay committed to organic ingredients and stay focused on their community. “We are big believers that together we’ll continue to help cultivate Bellingham’s amazing beer scene.”