Beer, Beer and More Beer!

2012 Chocolate Bourbon Stout

Today we are brewing the 2012 installment of the Chocolate Bourbon Stout. This will be the third time that Ashley has brewed this recipe. This version will be fermented over the next few weeks and then conditioned with Bourbon until the Christmas Season. It will be a full-bodied Stout with flavors of Chocolate, Roasted malts, Vanilla, Bourbon and Oak. As always the Chocolate Bourbon Stout is sure to help beat away the winter chill with around 8.5% ABV.  We look forward to sharing this special beer with you later this year.

Three Batch Day

This last Thursday was a busy day in the brewery. With final preparations for Parents Weekend underway and the ever present desire to have something to go into the Kegerator next, we brewed three separate batches.

We started the day off by brewing Master Will's India Cream Ale. Inspired by the one and only Master Will himself this is a beer not to be reckoned with. A light unassuming color and body draws the drinker in and when they least expect it they learn the true nature of this beer. Master Will's is liberally hopped with Cascade, Citra and Mt. Hood hops creating a big hop flavor and aroma. This beer has the full hop character of an IPA sitting upon a crisp and smooth light ale body. Cream Ales have Lager like characteristics with a bit more body thanks to the blend of Lager and Ale yeast strains. Be sure to stop by soon to try this wonderful variation of the beloved IPA.

The afternoon brought a special occasion to the Brewery. Morgan was able to brew her fist ever batch of beer.  She chose to brew a Chocolate Espresso Stout. With a large amount of Chocolate Malt and Cocoa Nibs this will be a Chocolate Lovers dream. The addition of Espresso will round out this Dark, Rich beauty of a Stout. Be sure to stay tuned for other batches coming from Morgan.

The third and final batch for the day was a No Boil Wheat. A very simple all Wheat grain bill and the use of a technique called Mash Hopping allowed us to brew this batch in about half of the time. By mixing all of the hops for the beer into the Mash Tun so they could steep in the hop liquid we were able to get enough hop character that we did not need to boil this batch. We were able to transfer straight from the Mash Tun to our Fermenter. The beer cooled over night and in the morning we pitched our yeast. This will be a very hazy Wheat Ale which will be on tap at Parents Weekend in a few weeks.

Stop by the brewery and be sure to try out a few of the current beers on tap. We look forward to seeing you all soon.

Peace

Travis

Che Loco 5

                                               (Yerba Mate in its natural environment)

I'm not really sure what happened to me but the other day I created the most epic post ever and decided to try saving the post and having blogger post it 2 days later for me just to see if it worked. Well Obviously it didn't because I am doing a different post right now.

For those of you who don't know I went to Argentina to visit my Tim my brother who was there for 8 months with his fiance Sylvie. We traveled around Buenos Aires and the North West of the country partly on bikes to Missiones/Apostales (Yerba Mate Mecca). While there I fell in love with Yerba Mate(Mahteh) through Tim who taught me almost everything I know about making a "rico mate". I really enjoy culture and processes and making the perfect mate combines both of those. I won't bore you with the details of making a proper mate, but ever since I traveled there back in August of 2010 I have been drinking mate almost on a daily basis. Naturally my love for mate and my love for beer collided when I brewed my first batch of beer back in January of 2011. The birth of Che Loco happened on the 2nd of January and since then I have never looked back.

Today's post is all about yerba mate and of course beer! Tonight I am racking a Scottish inspired ale onto some french pressed mate with water additions at the proper temperatures to extract all the good flavors of the yerba shrub and leave all the bad behind. This will be the 5th incarnation of Che Loco (named by Zach Ruttenberg one night at Tim and Sylvie's apartment in Portland) "Che" inspired by the revolutionary Che Guevara and "Loco" after the 4 loco craze. Because mate naturally contains caffeine its energizing you while its slowing you down all at the same time. In the past I have created different Che Loco batches that are either too offensive to the "non mate appreciator" and not intense enough for the "mate aficionado". With this batch I hope to get one step closer to the Goldilocks of Che Loco's so I can start creating the same beer consistently for your drinking pleasure. With that said I am going to start racking this beer from primary fermenter to tertiary onto my secret mixture of mate. I will let you know how it turns out! Or even better yet hopefully you will get to taste it soon!

Cheers

Chris