Steel Bender and NMDSBC team up to create Spring of Deception Maibock

After six years, the Dark Side Brew Crew and Steel Bender have finally collaborated on a seasonal beer.

We woke up way too early (for me, anyway) Tuesday morning on a proper German weather day and trekked over to Los Ranchos to team up with director of brewing operations Bob Haggerty on creating the lightest (in color) beer that we have done with a brewery. Spring of Deception Maibock was born out of present and past discussions, partly from when Franz Solo worked part-time at Steel Bender prior to the pandemic.

Using an ample amount of New Mexico Genie Pilsner malt, plus some Vienna malt from Proximity, and just enough Magnum and Hersbrucker hops, we fired up the Steel Bender pilot system (“Amelia”) and got to work. Our day was not unlike home brewing on a larger scale using human power for stirring the mash, graining out, a bucket for vorlauf, and a copper rod with markin

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