On the horizon

It's been a little while since I've posted here, must be seasonal affect disorder...
I'm probably sure you're like me and very ready for this winter to quit dragging its butt and move on, especially with the forecast for more snow.

Anywho, with that out of my system, we have some nice things coming up on our horizon that we're really looking forward to. We had a great tapping last night of our Saison & Garfunkel, which I really like as a nice transition into warmer weather.

We're admist fermentation of our .357 Magnum Imperial Pilsner, which is making a second debut. It's a big beer, hitting around 12% abv, and it's chugging along right now chewing thru all those sugars and should be finished up in time for our Pre-Dark Lord day party on April 29th. The rumor I've heard is that the party will be outside on our back porch with a live band. We also have some really great beers that we'll be releasing for that day only, so come on out!

Also in our fermenters is another batch of the HiFi Rye, which we will be putting directly and totally into barrels, so we'll have to be patient and wait until this fall to enjoy it (which might actually be rather difficult...)

And the last beer-horizon that we have coming is our Alt bier, that we're brewing next week and should be ready toward the end of April. With the glimmers of sunshine that have peaked out, I'm getting excited about drinking this beer on our back porch with warm winds and sunny skies, birds and budding trees........I'm really ready for this winter to be over....

Cheers!

Saison and Garfunkle Tapping March 22nd

We are having a tapping on March 22nd, at 8pm for our Saison & Garfunkle Belgian saison. This saison was a small collaboration with an eatery in the Wicker Park area of Chicago, so we wanted this beer to be easily paired with food.

The initial idea was a saison with citrus flavors, so we took notes and went to work on a test batch. Pleased with the test batch, we moved to the large system. The amounts of spices translated to 3#s of peppercorns, 1.5#s of fresh rosemary, and the peels from 20#s of clementines on the 15bbl system. This beer also did all of its fermentation above 80F, peaking at around 88F. What we have as a result is a very aromatic, freshly citrus beer with all the great characteristics of a Belgian farmhouse ale. The ABV on this brew is a hefty 8.3% so don't let the delicacy fool you.