Blue Boots + Sunshine = Awesome Weekend!!

What a weekend?!?! Not only did the temperature creep over the 50 degree mark, there was plenty of sunshine to help alleviate those of us afflicted with seasonal affective disorder!! Plus, Blue Boots IPA is back on tap. All in all, a good recipe for success!

Like I mentioned, Boots is back for a short engagement. The hoppiest installment yet, I promise! We are using our new method for dryhopping, and it's working out better than I had hoped...chinook, centennial and nugget hops were used in this batch, and I have to say, I believe it's the hoppiest beer in Massachusetts...and maybe New England! (Calm down, Alchemist fans...I'd love to put Boots up against Headdy Topper, just to see the difference. Ok, so maybe the second hoppiest beer in New England! John does make great beers up there in Waterbury, VT)

Speaking of IPA's...we will be unveiling a new IPA at the Pretty Things Beer and Ale Project Social on March 31st. Get ready...tickets are 25$ for the event. I've seen the food menu and I know what Dann and Martha are bringing for beer. Looks to be a kick ass event! Can't wait to see everyone out and about.

Beer update: Steamer is now on tap. A California Common style beer, we ferment this lager at warmer temps. This gives the beer a mildly fruity and crisp taste. Fairly hop forward, too. We dryhopped Steamer with Perle hops and it's clocking in at 5.9% abv...

Catch you later...I'm going outside to play! PLB, Boog

Updates...cables, EBF, new beer and stuff...

What's up, y'all....sorry about the delay in blogging(because, I know you hang on my every word), but my cat-5 cable busted last week and we just got around to replacing it! Anyway...after a long, long Saturday at the Extreme Beer Festival in Boston I'm here to report that I have tried not one, but, TWO beers made with bacon. Yes, that's right bacon. I even tasted a beer called key lime pie. A beer made with lime, marshmallow, and graham cracker. It tasted it exactly like you think it would. Well, the best part of the festival was seeing all of our friends from the likes of Smuttynose and Cambridge Brewing and finally checking out Lord Hobo. Scuba Steve and our manager C-Mack were a ton of fun to hang with. Not to spill the beans, but we came up with our own extreme beer at exactly 6 p.m. on Saturday. It will be on draught June 1...details to follow.

Notes:

40-Love is flying out the door! Feedback has been favorable and the beer has definitely hit its stride. Good carbonation let's a little bit of the strawberry aroma escape and it also has just the hint of strawberry in the finish.

Blue Boots IPA was made yesterday. Most finishing hops ever. I said ever. Stinky, stinky beer. Get ready.

Weizenheimer is pouring. A super dry wheat beer that tastes great. In fact, I'm having one right now. Shhhh, don't tell.

Wee Heavy Weekend...our scotch ale looks to be on tap for the weekend. Big malt. Can't wait to have this one with our ploughman's platter.

Speaking of Europe...If you haven't seen the Irish music up close and personal on Sundays, I highly recommend it! This place goes nuts from 3-6. In fact, we are making stout earlier than scheduled in honor of the crew playing the tunes!

That's all I have at the moment, kids....but now that I have my cable back-beware! PLB-Boog

Beer socials, big beers, strawberries, guest kegs and random

As the storm of the century rages outside (yeah, right!), I'd like to take the chance to update everyone as to what is happening around here!

STRAWBERRY UPDATE- So, I've been cornered more than once by customers politely asking when 40-0 is going to be ready. I tasted it today and the strawberries have added a slight tartness and just a hint of fruit in the nose. Scuba Steve and I will transfer this beer Thursday in hopes of having in on tap Saturday night. Did I mention that we will be dry hopping (dry berrying, actually) this beer with 30 lbs. of macerated strawberries in the hope of turning it red? This is gonna be wayyyyy cool!

MORE BIG BEER?- Because an Imperial Stout, Barley Wine and a Double IPA aren't enough!! Get ready for the annual return of our sexy friend, Maggie! Maggie's Wee Heavy is exactly what you think it is...a big, bold, luscious Scotch Ale. Clocking in at around 7% abv, she won't be super boozy;just super delicious.

BEER SOCIAL- A room full of people enjoying beer, good conversation, tasty grub and live music? Sound good? I thought so...I can't spill the beans just yet. But, when I get the ok, I certainly will let my thoughts be known. The one thing you need to know is that Dann and Martha Paquette from Pretty Things Beer and Ale Project will be our guests! How cool is that? I can't wait to hound Dann and follow him around the room asking him all sorts of questions...hehe. Sorry in advance, Dann!

GUEST KEGS- In the next few weeks we will be featuring a few more guest kegs as we play a bit of catch up in the brew house. All of those big beers required longer fermentation and conditioning time, so we weren't able to brew as much. We will have local kegs from Dan and Ben up at Element and some 1/2 barrels from Pioneer and the People's Pint. I've also been promised some Bigfoot Barley Wine and Troegs Nugget Nectar....wahoo!!

We've got our 2010 hops in, so that means Blue Boots on March 1st. Take that! Later...PLB, Boog

Weizenheimer time...

After 3 weeks of off the hook big and experimental beers, I think that today is a good day to revisit an old fave.A manageable grain bill and an easy hop schedule makes for a happy brewer! Weizenheimer is boiling right now and that gives me a sec to throw out an update! Of course you know that the Weiz is a wheat beer. And, it goes without saying that you know that the beer consists of 60% malted wheat to 40% malted barley. 15 IBU's and our house yeast strain complete the package, but, you all knew that, too.;) If all goes as planned, this beer will be fairly dry. It will be a nice compliment to all of the high abv beers we've been throwing at you! PLB- Boog

Friday Night and the Feeling is Right....

The weekend is nearly upon us and we're in a giving mood! We will showcase three new beers, starting at 5 p.m. tomorrow. The Imperial Stout, Rabble-Rouser Barley Wine and Brewster Court Pale Ale will all be on tap! Seriously. The Imp Stout is an intense 10.5% bitter chocolate treat, while the Rabble-Rouser is our big, bold and hoppy interpretation of an American style Barley Wine. FYI, this beer is out of control...I can't wait to see what people think! Last, but not least, is Brewster Court Pale. Different than our flagship NPA; we utilize more malts and crazy hop additions that make this beer taste kind of like an IPA, but not really. I must say that we showed restraint in the hop profile. Our mantra was...pale ale, pale ale, pale ale. Easy to say, but hard to adhere to! Dry hopped with Columbus and Nugget hops, it smells d-lish. See you tomorrow!!! PLB-boog.

First Imperial sighting...shh, don't tell.

Ok, here we go...first two gallons of the Imperial Stout on tap tonight at 5. It's still early in the conditioning process, but I really like the idea of sampling this beer periodically just to see how it matures. My first impressions are of bitter chocolate, hints of plum, cocoa and just a touch of, I think, vanilla? I was searching for the oak and port in this sample but couldn't find it. Man, it's tough tasting Imperial Stout at 9 a.m.!!! Come on down and have some and let me know what you think! Cheers! PLB-Boog.

Strawberry Cream Ale?!?!

So, we've been talking about making this beer for little over a year now. The original concept came from my assistant, 'Scuba' Steve, to add 60 lbs of strawberries to a beer style that is uniquely American and originated on the east coast. I said, "right on, let's do it!". The idea being that we'd present this beer on or around the fortnight that Wimbledon was happening...strawberries and cream...get it? The name of the beer was going to be Forty Love (40-0). Genius!(Well, at least we think so.) The timing just didn't work out for us to brew this beer for that time of year. We already had Graduation on tap the month before and we thought that back to back fruit beers would diminish just how unique both beers were. Fast forward to 2010. The strawberries we ordered were still resting comfortably in their cryogenic state;90 lbs of them, in fact. We have an open fermenter. We have grain and hops. We have extra yeast. Hmmmm. Long story short, Forty Love is being brewed as I type this. Instead of Wimbledon as the tie in for this beer, we will now be shooting for a Valentine's Day unveiling. Darn, aren't we smart? For the beer geeks out there-you know who you are- the grain bill is German Pilsner, American 2-row Pale malt and Belgian Cara-pils. Saaz and Strisselspalt hops. 18 IBU's. We're going to use our Chico yeast strain on this baby. Lager yeast could be used, too. But, this style calls for a warm fermentation and since we will be making our Steamer in a few weeks, I just figured ale yeast would be better. 60 lbs. of strawberries will be added into the fermenter at knock out, and 30 lbs. of macerated strawberries will be used in the dry hopping. I really hope it turns the beer a hue of red....we'll see! See y'all soon! PLB-boog

Big Beer Update!

Ok...so, the Imperial Stout and the Barley Wine have been made. Probably two of the highest abv beers we've ever produced. The Imp stout is a hearty 10.5% and the Barley Wine (tentatively named Rabble Rouser) is slowly creeping up on that number. Looks like we have a hearty batch of yeast in the house! The Imp is going to be transferred into a conditioning tank with a couple of oak spirals soaked in a yet to be determined substance. Probably port, but we'll see. Typically we would condition this beer for a few months before serving it, but I'm gonna be racking off a gallon or two every couple of weeks to serve, so we can see how this beer is aging. It won't be mentioned on the beer board, so ask the bartender...wink, wink...nudge, nudge. As for the Rabble Rouser, when it finally ferments out, we will dry hop it with some Centennial, Chinook and (hopefully if I can get my hands on some) a new hop called Citra that is pretty awesome. This will give the beer that hop aroma I like and add a little balance, too. FYI, this beer is over 100 ibu's!!! Look for the schwarzbier this weekend and maybe a new mild....wahooooo! cheers, kids! plb-boog

Our quest for world dominance!!!!

Greetings from the brew house! Now that I have hacked my way onto the website, be prepared for the daily onslaught of info and updates from the brew universe!!! I just dryhopped 5 gallons of Oatmeal Stout with fresh hazelnuts and vanilla beans for tonight. We are calling it Oatmeal Kooky (cookie, get it?)! Stop down and have a pint or two.... P(eace) L(ove) B(eer) boog....