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.....