19 Feb 2015 The Spice of Life…
You guessed it. Variety!
One of the things (maybe the biggest thing) I’ve enjoyed about brewing at a smaller scale brew pub is the wide array of beers and styles we’re able to produce and therefore make available to you all. Since most of the beer we make is sold straight over the bar at the pub and we’re not necessarily trying to meet the demand of a large off premise market and compete for shelf space in stores, we’re a little more able to make that variety. We do have a couple flagship-like beer but nothing we make really all the time. That’s not to say that we don’t have mad respect for all of our production brewery brethren. Nay, we probably wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for the help of some of those guys and gals!
Of course our smaller size helps out a lot also because, let’s face it, there is a lot less risk if there is less beer at stake. We make about 8 to 9 barrels of beer at a time (250 to 280 gallons). We’re usually able to get through that in a timely manner and if, heaven forbid, something doesn’t come out quite the way we’d hoped, we just send it on over to Ian in the distillery and he makes delicious Bierschnapps out of it!
Anyhow, that’s my round about, rambling way of getting to my point of letting you guys know about some new beers available and some upcoming beers we’ll have for you very soon.
Just recently put on draught, which some of you may have already seen and/or tried are a couple beer in our Lady’s Arm Wrestling series. Lumber Smack Sally’s Double IPA has returned and is better than last years. It’s a big hop forward (obviously) oak aged banger that’s a little deceptively strong. We made this in honor or Kate’s (also our head chef) wrestling persona.
Next up is Black Mamba’s Imperial Schwartzbier. Admittedly a bastardized American version of a traditional German black lager, this beer fits Mamba’s personality quite well. It’s dark and mysterious with an American hop bite that’s bigger than you might think (and a little scary). Black Mamba was the champ at our last arm wrestling competition and she collaborated with us to make this beer in her honor. It features all German malt and a big charge of Citra and Centennial hops.
A few beers to look forward to include a dark strong Belgian style ale inspired by our Canadian friends at Unibroue we’re tentatively calling 3 Guns, and a traditional German Hellesbier that’s we’re really excited about (thanks for the help, Chavez!) That Irish Stout Greg told you guys about earlier is coming along nicely for St. Patty’s day and the Coconut Porter I mentioned earlier is tasting oh so coconutty and will be available not too long from now. Also look for a Biere de Mars to be available soon that we made with French hops and French Yeast.
Last but not least, Greg and I cooked up the third installment in the I.P.Awesome series yesterday. This one features a good amount of British Golden Promise malt and a crazy amount of American hops, namely CTZ, Citra and Centennial with a little New Zealand influence thrown in in the form of Motueka hops.
Hope to see your faces through the fishbowl!
~Russell