Our annual Imperial Stout is due out in the next couple days. This was a collaborative brew with the guys from Mountain Sun. It is a huge beer, with everything but the kitchen sink thrown in for complexity. Enjoy in moderation!
We are nearly out of our Schwarzbier, and it’s cousin the Vanilla Schwarzbier.
For hop-heads we have the Arson Amber, a very citrusy/piney beer with subtle caramel flavor. In the works is another Amber with the balance more on the malty side.
Our latest treat in the works is the rarely brewed Pumphouse Pilsner. Just brewed last week, this beer will take a great deal of time to reach its perfection, so be patient!
Also look for some small run batches here and there, such as a Bourbon Barrel aged Scottish Ale, a Cherry Oak Doppelbock, a special tart Belgian, and whatever else we can dream up! Cheers!
The Wildfire Wheat is set to return to our year ’round line-up in the next couple weeks, replacing the Firestorm White. The White will still be brewed occasionally as a seasonal, especially in the summer months. The resurgence in popularity of the Wildfire Wheat took the decision out of our hands!
Have you seen the great line-up of speakers for our beer tasting series? Yowzers we got some experts! Tickets are moving fast, so come on in and pick up yours today.
We’ve got an exciting line-up of seasonal drafts available right now, with more in the works.
We’ve brought back the Wildfire Wheat into the rotation, using my favorite hop bill, including a good dose of Cascade hops in the middle of the boil to give a nice grapefruit aroma.
We’ve also put on the only two lagers that we’ve brewed this year: the Incinerater DoppelBock and Bellows Schwarzbier. The Doppel is a huge beer with lots of malty sweetness and a significant punch of alcohol. The Schwarzbier (”Black Beer”) is a very dark colored beer that is medium to light in body. This is one of my favorite styles of beer, because you get good coffee-like dark malt characteristics without having the heavy body, sweetness, or high alcohol that usually accompany stouts and porters.
For the hop heads we’ve got the Ignitor XL on, which is our old Igniter Pale Ale with 50% more malt and hops. It falls in at the lighter end of “Double IPAs” making it more drinkable than most.
We’ve been working hard to keep lots of exciting and delicious choices for you! Heck, I even worked on Thanksgiving and Christmas day so that we wouldn’t fall behind your thirst! Cheers!
Brewers Blog: 11-28-2009
On behalf of the brewers we would like to say Happy Holidays. We have had the chance to catch up in the brewery and brew some new Seasonal Beers. These beers are elevated in alcohol and command respect. They are suitable for the colder months but carry a warning tag: Moderation.
On December 1st, we will release a new Imperial IPA called Igniter XL, a larger version of our old Year ‘Round beer. This beer is almost amber with thick “XL” body and a big hop delivery in aroma and flavor. In mid-December we continue with another big release of Bourbon Barrel Aged Shockwave Scottish Ale. The process of barrel aging is simple: take one used bourbon barrel from Stranahan’s Denver Whisky and Shockwave beer and let it age for 2-4 weeks. The result is a vanilla, bourbon-laced version of Shockwave that adds more layers to this sweet and smoky brew. On December 31st, we will release Incinerator Doppelbock, our award-winning dark lager that has not been brewed in over four years. It is malty, formidable brew with sweet caramel flavor. By mid to late January we will roll out the 2009 Backdraft Imperial Stout. This beer is our dark and mysterious friend that gently morphs into new beings by slight alterations. This year it is going to be a little sweeter with the addition of Belgian chocolate and honey malt. It will be aged with oak chips to give vanilla and coconut flavor to this raisin-cherry like stout with a sour cherry version to follow. Beyond that we will most likely sneak in a new Belgian beer, Survivor Cream Ale and more fruit beer.
One final note we will be getting together with Left Hand and Oskar Blues breweries for a Homebrew competition that will take place in late February. Best of Show beers will be brewed by the brewery and winning homebrewer on our 10 bbl system. The winning beer will be entered in the Pro-Am category at the Great American Beer Festival. It is a new category that supports the homebrewer’s interest in craft beer, which allows brewers and their fans join forces in battle. It will be a great chance for a talented homebrewer to get taste of professional brewing and if all goes well you get to “take the walk” to receive your medal. Look for more info in December on this blog or on our website and good luck.
Cheers,
David Mentus
Head Alchemist
Our next offering takes the already complex Striketeam Stout, and pairs it with whole sour red cherries! The tartness of the fruit adds a nice layor to the stout, with the fruit flavors complementing the roast/chocolate flavors extremely well.
Today we got a whole bunch of cleaning done. Scrubbing, polishing, sweeping, and mopping.
We also racked four barrels of Scottish Ale onto American Oak. It typically takes about six weeks to get the full infusion of flavor from the wood, but additional aging can continue to change the characteristics. I can’t wait to start the sampling process! Cheers!
Our newest seasonal will be available tomorrow, Monday the 9th. It is a “West Coast” style Stout, that features lots of dark malts, oats for a silky texture, and milk sugar for extra body and a bit of sweetness. The ample hops add a nice balance to the roasted barley and black malts. Also look for an Extra Large Igniter Pale Ale to debut in the next weeks.
The Red Alert is back on after too long of a wait! We also have a new Pumpkin “Gaarden” seasonal on. A hint of pumpkin flavor with spices and a dry finish. Look for the StrikeTeam Stout to debut in the next week or so. Cheers!
Hindenburg Light.
-Kolsch Style Ale, stop complaining we don’t have the wheat and give this a try, promise you’ll like it.
Blakberry and Raspberry Blonde Ale.
-A delicious berry blend to close out the last days of summer.
And
The Hotshots Harvest Ale.
-Only a few kegs left! Help us finish it off.
First off, I have to apologize. We’re going to be out of the Red Alert for about a week. This saddens me as much as it does you, but there are some things in life that are out of our control.
The reason that we’ll be out isn’t that we forgot to brew the beer, or that our fermentation vessel ruptured and spilled the beer all over the floor, but because the batch we have ready now isn’t quite right. Usually the Red Alert is a full-bodied, malty ale with distinct toffee and light chocolate flavors that give a complexity to the sweetness in the finish that is delightful. Our new batch is the same color, uses the same ingredients, and followed the same basic procedures that we’ve always used for the Red Alert, but it isn’t the same. This beer continued to ferment beyond what is normal for this ale, and produced a drier, lighter-bodied beer, with less malty sweetness, and slightly more alcohol. It doesn’t taste bad, there are no “flaws”, but it isn’t the Red Alert that you and I know and love.
Consistency is one of the greatest challenges to a professional brewer. Our raw ingredients can vary in a number of subtle ways, from different sizes and color of the kernels of malted barley, to differences in the aroma in our hops, based on what side of the field they were grown on. Temperature fluctuations outside can affect our processes yielding minor differences. The fact that yeast are living creatures living complex little life cycles can be the greatest variable to attempt to control. These and a host of other vectors for change can make it extremely difficult to produce the same beer every batch.
It would have been easy for us to sell our new batch of beer as the Red Alert, but all of our loyal customers would know the difference. So instead, we’ll brew two new batches this week to get caught up, and do everything that we can to get some fresh beer ready for you. Our “Hot Shots” Harvest Ale is nearly gone, so I’ll make sure I savor the last of our fresh-hopped amber. Our new Firestorm Witbier is also quickly becoming a favorite of mine. It is light enough that I can have several while watching the ball game without getting myself into trouble, but has enough flavor that I don’t get bored with it even after four or five pints. In fact, I’m going to start my beer travels right now.
Hope to see you soon, and happy drinking!
Stephen
Assistant Brewer