Week 47- Thanksgiving in Shanghai

     The week in the brewery was a bit slower than last week since we celebrated Thanksgiving in Shanghai and we brewed 3 batches the previous week. I tasted the Barleywine from the bright beer tank (BBT) and I'm very excited to release this beer. When we brewed this beer we used some imported Gula Malacca sugar from Malaysia. If you're unfamiliar with Gula Malacca it's a palm sugar that has a very subtle coconut-lime characteristic. It comes in a little roll and is brown in color. It's an amazing sugar and I thank Kent for introducing me to this sugar and giving me some samples he brought back from his travels. I was lucky to find a few stores in Shanghai that had some stock so I cleared their shelves for them as I needed to use around 8kg for this batch of beer. I've settled into calling this beer Bare Knuckle Barleywine and we'll tap a keg this upcoming week. We'll pour Bare Knuckle Barleywine into a wine glass and charge standard prices for a smaller pour since it's limited release and premium octane at 10.2 % ABV. I find the beer to be deceptively smooth considering the alcohol content and think the Galaxy dry-hop note shines in the nose of the beer. I hope our guests enjoy the fruits of my labor and come back when we release the barrel aged version for Boxing Cat's 5th year anniversary in April! Another special brew in process and we're releasing next week is our Double Chocolate Chili Stout. I brewed this beer with Jesse who is moving back to Seattle in a few weeks time. He'll be joining the family business at Harmon Brewing (http://www.harmonbrewingco.com/) so it was only fitting that we brewed a beer together before he left China. Jesse and I met in February 2011 over beers and we've become great friends and he's been a great supporter of Boxing Cat Brewery and the local craft beer scene. The idea to let Jesse pick a beer style was natural and I walked him through the process of creating a recipe based upon our desired flavors. We essentially collaborated on this beer and spread the word via social media and noticed Beer Advocate retweeted our post to their 327,000 followers. Sweet Sauce!! Jesse had a good time and we put him to work in the brewery. Jesse adding some of the green gold going into the kettle.....

     The finished beer has definite chocolate notes from the dark cocao nibs along with a very slight chili note in the finish of the beer. I suspect some people won't even notice the chili heat as our goal was to have a little flavor flash present where people questioned themselves what they were tasting in the finish. The beer is on the heavier side for a stout and will tip the scales at 7.3% ABV. We used a few different hops in this beer including Styrian Golding and Nelson Sauvin while targeting the IBU's at 45 to help balance the beer. We'll tap the first keg at Yong Fu on Friday for a going away party for Jesse. The name for this beer is Split Decision Stout. This is a boxing term but also reflects the time Jesse has spent in China and his decision to return to the states. He has enjoyed China and part of him wants to stay here but the opportunity to help the brewery back home is fantastic. The craft beer scene in the US is exploding and it's a good time to be involved with an established brewery in the Pacific Northwest. I'm sure Jesse will visit us in Shanghai down the road and I look forward to brewing another beer with him once he gets his brewing boots "wet". Maybe I'll even brew stateside with him when I visit the region in 2013.......

     We kept the brewhouse warm this week as we brewed Right Hook Helles and Mosaic Ale. The decision to brew Mosaic Ale for a second time was easy as it sold very well earlier this Fall. The issue was that I only had enough Mosaic hops for this last batch until the new crop arrives. We'll rebrand this beer as we originally brewed it for Yakima Chief (global hop company) and the China Brew & Beverage 2012 trade show in Beijing. The new name will fall in accordance with our boxing theme and the beer should pour at our shops just before Christmas. A keg of Mosaic Ale that was destined for Brau Beviale in Nuremberg never left Hong Kong so our Cantonese friends poured this beer the other evening. The beer was well received and it's nice to get more people tasting Boxing Cat beers!

    Thanksgiving was this past Thursday and each Boxing Cat location had a huge turkey dinner feast with 2 separate seatings. I attended the late seating at our Sinan Mansions location with friends and we enjoyed ourselves immensely. The food was fantastic and it was great to see so many familiar faces in the festive spirit. The highlight for me was the turkey and also pairing our Spiced Pumpkin Ale with homemade pumpkin pie. Needless to say they worked well together and I had a second helping of pumpkin pie!

I hope everyone else had a wonderful Thanksgiving with friends and family!

Until next week.......
   

Winter Beers are Coming!!

   
     This week has been incredibly busy and included a few fun surprises. It started off fairly normal but I was introduced to a traveling brewer from The Celt Experience in Wales (www.celtexperience.com) and some new "plans" started evolving rather quickly. I was able to meet Tom Newman Monday night as he popped by the Sinan Mansions location along with Frank Li from Just Beer. It was nice to meet a traveling brewer in Shanghai and get to know a bit more about his recently launched "Celt" products in the local market. I could tell Tom was very excited to be in China for the first time although he was fighting some jet lag. Tom was thoroughly impressed with the Mikkeller beer collaboration, Bruce ChiLee IPA (http://www.jingdaily.com/) The Chinese Green Chili flavor was intriguing and something entirely new to him. We tucked in a couple of pints before he decided it was time to get some rest since he'd been awake for nearly 24 hours. The next day I received a message from him to see if we could do a collaboration brew while he was in town. His schedule for Friday was wide open so I managed to re-arrange our production schedule a bit and squeeze in a 3rd brew of the week. A new collaboration beer was being born right away! We arranged to meet up the following day to discuss some ideas for the brew and decided upon a Red Ale with some juicy & fruity notes from American hops. The beer would have a sexy red hue and carry a vary distinctive flavor & aroma by blending a few different US hop varieties. The alcohol would be a bit higher but not over the top so we settled on a beer of 5.8% ABV. I gave Tom an insight to the US hops I had in stock and he was very surprised while being intrigued with one particular variety he had never used; Mosaic hops. So we put together a recipe based upon our ideas and arranged the brew for Friday. Game on for a new collaboration beer!

     Meanwhile back at the brewery we had just brewed Southpaw Winter Warmer for the first time since Winter has arrived and more importantly the Fall Seasonal, Spiced Pumpkin Ale, was going fast with Thanksgiving approaching. Hopefully I have timed everything well so the transition is seamless between the two seasonal selections. Of course there are a few other beers in production to help fill the gap if needed; Double Chocolate Chili Stout and our first Barleywine as well. In addition 400 liters of King Louie Imperial Stout aging in bourbon barrels since March is tasting mighty fine so I'll move that beer from wood in the next week or two. Yes, I've been a busy brewer and some fun beers for the impending cold season are on the horizon.

     So back to the collaboration beer- Tom and Frank arrived to the brewery early Friday morning and we begun mashing in our hoppy red ale. It was nice to have some visitors to the brewery and talk shop with Tom during the day. His brewery is also very simple in design although it's a bit bigger at 65 hl in brewlength. The idea is that we'll brew 10 hl in Shanghai and Tom will brew the same recipe when he returns to his brewery in Wales. We'll pour the beer at both BCB Shanghai locations and he'll have enough volume to pour in Wales but also get some into the greater London market. Awesome!

     We evaluated the wort during the brew day and nailed the color and flavor specs we targeted. I pulled some Mosiac hops for Tom to check out and he was blown away by the tropical fruitiness of this hop variety. The massive note of pineapple was fantastic! The blend of hops we have chosen for this brew will provide some excellent flavor and aroma to this beer while the malt backbone can stand up to the 80 IBU's targeted for the finished beer. Needless to say we're both excited for this beer!

     The beer specs:

• Malts- Pilsner, Vienna, CaraAmber, Wheat and Roasted Barley
• Hops- Chinook, Centennial, Mosaic and Citra
• Parameters- 15 Plato Original Gravity, 80 IBU's, 5.8% ABV, 35 EBC in Color

This is a picture from the brew day. Not sure of the name as it might be called different on each continent.....

     I'll post some tasting notes as the beer ferments. In the meantime we'll brew some standard products in the brewery next week to maintain inventory of Right Hook Helles and TKO IPA. Some new beers are pouring at each shop including "Catcher" Rye IPA. This beer was brewed last year for Mark & Cate for their wedding on 11/11/11. We brewed the beer again this year to comemorate their 1st year wedding anniversary. It's tasting great and gives us with 3 IPA's available- TKO IPA, Bruce ChiLee IPA and "Catcher" Rye IPA. I hope you hopheads enjoy these while they last.....I know I will:-)

Until next time.....