The bay doors are open, and so are our creative spirits. Something about the weather gets our gears turning to churn out beers that we have never done before.
You may have noticed that we recently put out a couple limited release Milkshake IPA’s (Play the Hits and Strategy Shift). We have decided to make a batch of Play the Hits on the big-boy system so that you can enjoy it the whole summer — although we may have depleted the world supply of Pink Guava in making it. Sorry! We have also been tweaking our Hell Hazed Over recipe, and I think we’ve got it right where we want it. The New England IPA is a juggernaut in the brewing world, and we intend to throw our hat in the ring with one that makes the western ‘burbs proud. Try it out, and then drink another one for good measure. We do. We also hope to put this sucker in a can soon…
So, what goes into tweaking a recipe? That can sometimes be a hard question to answer. It is a delicate mix of taking your opinions from over the bar (or sometimes Untapped…sometimes), and deliberation with our entire staff. At the end of the day it is Mark, Alfred, James and myself who decide what goes where. When we try our finished product, we pinpoint what changes might elevate the beer. More hops? More mouthfeel? Sweeter? More cowbell? It just depends. But we try and only change one thing at a time, which means it can take months to get where we want to be. Every beer you have ever had goes through the same channels, no matter the brewery. So when you drink one of our beers, especially brands like Hopular Kid, Center Line, and Alterior Motive – you are drinking years of contemplation.
Alter Fest is fast approaching (September 28th), and we are getting really weird for it. We plan on having two separate stations where our cellarman James (Catfish) Bigler and Alfred (Alfred) Spencer can offer attendees a glimpse at beer ideas that rarely see the light of day. Here are some teaser ingredients we are playing with; squid ink, coconut water, Yuzu, Currants, and pickling spices. In addition to that freak show, we are going to be pouring vintage barrel-aged beers, as well as some new ones.
Be on the lookout for a new session NEIPA, another round of Dank You (which is different each time, mind you), and Festbier. This is also the time of year we start limbering up for cracking open barrel-aged beers that have been aging since December/ January. We hope you are as excited as are!
Cheers!
-Matt & the Brew Team