Max and Jo
In one of our first notes, centered on the heritage that inspired Brouwerij DuBois in the first place, I mention my grandparents, Max and Jo Miller, who were farmers in Southwest Iowa. They were special people in my life, practically legendary. They adopted my mom, my aunt, and my uncle and raised them in a bit of an old-fashioned, rural American lifestyle. The stories, the pictures, and even the humans who occupy my memories, albeit in a bit of a shroud of mist, are indeed foundational in our goals for this brewery.
Grandpa was a conservationist, having been interviewed by the Washington Post about efforts in the region to improve stewardship of the land on which our farmers toiled. He was upright, hard working, and well-respected in the surrounding communities. He never failed to pitch in or lend a hand. He farmed corn and soybeans, raised cattle, hogs, and chickens all in varying degrees and during different periods. One of my fondest memories was riding with him in the tractor one hot day as he plowed or seeded or sprayed or some other necessary facet of farming that was certainly not the most important thing for me that day.
Grandma kept the house. She made breakfast, prepared dinner (the midday meal we in the South refer to as lunch), and cooked supper. She baked, bought, and cured the necessary foods. She picked, cleaned, cellared and canned the fresh produce from the garden. She knit and sewed much of the clothing worn by all five members of the house. And she certainly had her farm chores to accomplish as well. On top of that, she worked here and there at various other positions including at the local telephone company as an operator.
Both Grandma Jo and Grandpa Max have passed away, but their legacy continues. After Jo died, Grandpa moved into town, where he remarried a widow who, along with her late husband, had been a family friend for years, my aunt and her family moved into the farm house. The land surrounding it stayed in the family after Grandpa passed, and just last year, my cousin Misty and her husband Brandon bought a large chunk of it, keeping the tradition alive on Grandpa Max’s old farm.
Max and Jo is a Saison that we brewed in honor of them. Misty and Brandon kindly shipped us a couple of boxes of corn that they had harvested and dried, and we used that as a portion of the grist for this beer. This iteration clocks in around 7.4% ABV, perfect for a nice medium-bodied ale designed to both refresh the drinker and take the edge off after a long day in the fields.
We bottled a little bit of this, not much, just so that we could share with some friends and family back home. But we intend to make it again here and there, as a reminder of the hard-working American farmers that helped build this country, and the sweet souls that helped build me.
