And our 2021 inaugural beer is here!
This past weekend (1/17/21) we brewed the Hoppy Pilsner that we have grown to love over the past few years. Drawing inspiration from Highland Park Brewery (Timbo Pils, specifically) we crafted our own recipe because it was just that damn good.
This started off as West Coast IPA / Pilsner hybrid, and while it was tasty upon inception. It wasn’t at all a Pilsner. As we grew and were able to craft better and more nuanced recipes we refined this into what it is today: A delicious Pilsner with some new age hop flavors. Delicately balanced with German noble Hops (and some Czech hops, because why not?) and American “hype” hops this beer just works.
The concept is simple enough, but between water chemistry and balancing hop flavor profiles, it was tricky to get right. We feel that we have hit it perfectly the last couple attempts. This is a mainstay brew that we come back to multiple times a year.
With all that said, this batch had a twist. I (Rob) had made a Kveik ale a few months back, Kvasir, if you can recall. The recipe was really basic my intention was to make a “pale ale” or a “IPA” style but let the yeast do most of the heavy lifting. The beer itself turned into a guava bomb and was a hit with everyone who tried it. It immediately made me want to play with Kveik a bit more. Omega Yeast developed a Kveik strain that could ferment at 80-95F and still ferment a Pilsner clean. This is all a very long winded way of saying: We used Omega Yeast Lutra on this beer.
Saaz, Tettnang, Loral, and Nelson went into this batch. The same hop combo as last, except instead of Nelson we used Strata. It is currently cold crashing in the fermentation chamber after being fermented at 92F for 4 days. Hoping to package it this weekend.
We just received some more hops to play with: Citra, Sabro, Strata, and HBC-630. HBC-630 is not one we’ve used before, but it is supposed to have some raspberry notes along with tropical fruits. So it sounds pretty great for a Saison or Hazy IPA. That will most likely happen sometime next week, also with a new Omega Yeast Strain; Sundew.
I’d like to thank you for reading this far. This is where I would like to address the “fun stuff” in the title. We recently got some new glassware! 16oz Libbey glass, to be exact. We are going to start a new sale in the coming weeks, for those of you who requested an old glass and didn’t get one, you are first on my list. We are going to have 4 different beers this time to choose from. Here is what we have so far:
1. Hoppy Wheat Ale
2. West Coast IPA
3. Gose with Blackberry, Raspberry, and Vanilla
4. Stout with Hazelnuts and Vanilla
Buy a glass and get two beers to sample. We only ask you donate $10 to the cause.