The Brewing Lair

Dear Replicator, I recently got to try The Brewing Lair’s BLT. It is a tripel that is surprisingly hoppy and quite delicious. Any chance you could find a recipe and share some tips to brew a beer like this? 
Leland Carey via email

Some breweries are born from meticulous business plans in sprawling industrial parks. Others, like The Brewing Lair in Blairsden, California, feel like they’ve sprouted organically from the forest floor. Tucked away on 30 acres in the Plumas National Forest, The Brewing Lair is as much a destination as it is a brewery, boasting an outdoor taproom, its own 9-hole disc golf course, a 100-acre bike park next door, a stage regularly filled with live music performances, and a vibe that’s pure mountain escapism.

The brewery is the dream of Rich DeLano and his wife, Susan. Their story is one many homebrewers can relate to. “When I met Susan in 2009 I was running out of work as a carpenter . . . and Susan was in need of a new project,” Rich recalls. Susan, who had previously worked for several San Diego-area breweries, quickly introduced him to the world of all-grain brewing. “The first couple of batches were on the kitchen stove, but after the first boil-over, we quickly upgraded to a better setup outdoors on our back porch.”

Before long, the hook was set deep. “I started reading all the books on brewing I could,” DeLano says. “Ray Daniels’ Designing Great Beers became a big part of honing our recipes. After over a hundred batches in our first year together, we decided we would start pursuing the dream of opening our own brewery.” 

That dream, which supplanted an early vision of a goat farm, became a reality in 2012, creating a unique forest haven for beer lovers.

While The Brewing Lair’s tap list often leans toward the hop-forward styles of the West Coast, one of their standout creations finds its roots thousands of miles away in Belgium. The Brewing Lair Tripel, or “BLT,” is a carefully-balanced marriage of Belgian tradition and American hop ingenuity. The inspiration, fittingly, came during Rich and Susan’s honeymoon.

“We loved drinking lambics and gueuzes, but every once in a while craved a hint of West Coast hoppiness,” DeLano explains. “We found Duvel Tripel Hop and Houblon Chouffe satisfied that itch.” The beer from Duvel, in particular, left a lasting impression. “During our honeymoon in Belgium, we found Duvel Tripel Hop in three different single-hop varieties: Citra®, Mosaic®, and Amarillo®. Duvel Tripel Hop featuring Mosaic® was our favorite of the three; it just seemed to play best with Belgian yeast character and our hoppy attitude.”

Upon returning home, the mission was clear. “As soon as we returned to the States we began formulating our own recipe for a hoppier Belgian tripel,” says DeLano. 

The goal wasn’t to create a Belgian IPA, but something more nuanced. “For us, a nice fruitiness from the hops helps to complement the expressive Belgian yeast character.”

Another key element was drinkability, a challenge for a beer style that can easily become sweet and heavy. “We also don’t like a cloying character to the beer,” DeLano notes, “so a free rise during fermentation and a dose of cane sugar help to achieve that goal.” The result is a tripel that is dangerously smooth, aromatic, and complex—a perfect representation of the brewery itself.