A local craft brewery has concocted a new brew that it hopes will take flight when a Canadian military airshow demonstration team performs in Columbus.
ZwanzigZ is brewing up a special beer to welcome the Canadian Forces Snowbirds, who will perform at an airshow at Columbus Municipal Airport on Wednesday night as part of the inaugural Birds & Brews aviation event.
The beer, called Formation Fermentation, is an India Pale Ale made with pale malt and pilsner malt from Canada.
The beer will be for sale at Birds & Brews from 4 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the airport, an event that is free and open to the public. One pint of Formation Fermentation can be purchased at the event for around $5, said Kurt Zwanzig, co-owner of ZwanzigZ. Six packs will cost $10.
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“I have an immense amount of respect for the pilots who do these airshows,” Zwanzig said. “The airshow is very exciting. If there is ever a time to brew a beer for a special event, it would be this. These people are coming all the way from Canada to do a show in our community.”
Zwanzig, who is an aviation enthusiast himself, said the motivation behind the special beer was to make a beer for the community and commemorate the Snowbirds’ visit. His passion for aviation has, in part, fueled his interest in the event.
“I’ve been a pilot for 20 years,” he said. “I did my training at the Columbus airport in 1999, and I’ve been flying ever since.”
A beer honoring aviation
Formation Fermentation uses three different hop styles, including Mosaic, Simcoe and Amarillo and will be brewed with lactose and will be light in color, said Mike Rybinski, brewmaster at ZwanzigZ. Around 90% of the malts in the beer are Canadian, and the hops are from the United States.
“It’s an IPA, but it’s not like your everyday IPA, meaning it’s not going to be bitter,” Rybinski said. “It’s got some lactose in there, which does not ferment. It’s going to have some upfront sweetness, but it’s going to have that hop aroma and hop flavor you’re used to.”
Beer is typically brewed from cereal grains from malted barley, although wheat, corn or other ingredients can also be used. The majority of beers are brewed with hops, the flowers of the hops plant, which can add bitterness or other flavors to the beer.
There are different varieties of beer, including lagers and ales, Rybinski said.
Lagers take 28 days to ferment and ales typically take seven days to ferment, Rybinski said. Formation Fermentation is an ale, but it takes around two weeks to make because of the “dry-hopping” process the beer goes through.
“When it’s finished fermenting, you open up the top of the fermenter and you dump in some more hop pellets,” Rybinski said. “What that does is that it contributes more hop flavor and aroma without the bitterness. The bitterness comes in the kettle when you’re actually boiling (the brew). We don’t use any hops in the kettle during the boiling process. We put a little bit of hops in at the very end when we turn the steam off, but the contribution of bitterness is very low.”
The base malt is Canadian pale malt, with some added Canadian pilsner malt, he said.
“IPAs are very popular with the craft beer drinker,” Rybinski said. “That’s what they seek out the most. We’re trying to get the best of two worlds here. We want to satisfy the beer geek who wants a hoppy beer, but we’re also trying to appease the every day drinker whose not used to a very bitter beer.”
Birds & Brews
The Canadian Forces Snowbirds, a squadron with a traveling show team of 24 Canadian military personnel, will headline Birds & Brews at the Columbus Municipal Airport on Wednesday night. Besides the Snowbirds, there will be a U.S. military flight demonstration, parachute jump from a C-130 aircraft, children’s activities, and a beer garden, among other activities.
Based in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Canada, the Snowbirds typically perform in nine Canadair CT-114 Tutor aircrafts, which were used by the Canadian military as a pilot-training aircrafts from 1963 to 2000.
The aircraft are approximately 31.9 feet long, 9.3 feet tall and have a wingspan of 36.5 feet. During a performance, the Snowbirds typically fly at speeds ranging from 115 miles per hour to 370 miles per hour.
Columbus is one of 11 U.S. cities hosting the Snowbirds this year.
Zwanzig said it’s very exciting for Columbus to be hosting the Snowbirds.
“It’s fun to come and watch these things,” Zwanzig said. “Once the engines start and the planes take off, you get to watch these guys do their routine. I’m impressed by the discipline and the coordination and the skill of these guys. But the noise and speed and when you watch these guys flying so close to each other, you are thinking, ‘How can they do that?’”
ZwanzigZ started bottling the beer on Monday in anticipation of the event. Zwanzig said the beer will continue to be produced as long as there is sufficient demand for it.
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The Canadian Forces Snowbirds, a squadron with a traveling show team of 24 Canadian military personnel, will perform on Wednesday at Columbus Municipal Airport, 4770 Ray Boll Blvd.
The event, called Birds & Brews, will be held from 4 to 8:30 p.m. and is free and open to the public. Besides the Snowbirds, there will be a U.S. military flight demonstration, parachute jump from a C-130 aircraft, children’s activities, a beer garden, among other activities.
Visit columbus.in.gov/airport/programs-events/birds-and-brews/ for more information.
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Formation Fermentation is an India Pale Ale made with pale malt and pilsner malt from Canada.
The beer includes three different hop styles, including Mosaic, Simcoe and Amarillo and will be brewed with lactose and will be light in color. Around 90% of the malts in the beer are Canadian, and the hops are from the United States, said Mike Rybinski, brewmaster at ZwanzigZ.
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