Grey Mountain Ale

Last night Sam and I bottle our third batch of beer, an English Bitter which we finally decided to call "Grey Mountain Ale". (A fourth batch will also be ready for bottling in a few days.) There were more ingredients used to create this beer than in our previous two or the one that is soon to follow. This ale will have a darker, golden hue to it, slighltly lighter than the nut brown ale we made last. There are three different kinds of hops used in this English bitter recipe, one with an alpha acid rating of 6.2%, almost double what we have typically been using. This beer will definitely taste more "hoppy" than most beers and finish with a stronger bitter flavor.

In light of the Lenten season that is upon us, we decided that "Grey Mountain Ale" would be an appropriate name with respect to the season and to the type of ale itself. If you remember, the "Grey Mountain" is the great mountain from Lewis' novel, Till We Have Faces, where Pysche is sacrificed to Ungit, the goddess of the land of Glome. In the story, we see a young, beautiful, compassionate girl, that is even portrayed as possibly being perfect, who is tied to a tree at the top of the mountain as a human sacrifice. It is a time when sin is running rampant through the land, it is a time of drought and suffering; it was indeed a bitter time, and most of all for Pysche's oldest sister.

What Pysche's oldest sister really needed, and what we seek to do more thoroughly in Lent, is to seek out our own sin and repent of it, to seek to place our trust in the Lord again in areas where we have been failing to, to spend more time praying, more time fasting, more time in Scripture, and to remember the greatness of the sacrifice that was needed to cover our sin. As the season comes to a close, we will climb up the mountain, and if we see with faith, we will realize what no one else has suspected . . . Pysche is alive, and not only alive but the true God of the Mountain has made her His Bride!