Here Comes Fall!

Greetings fellow beer enthusiasts! It has been a long time since I have posted because Tyler is the "unofficial" blogmaster general and I am usually tied up in the brewery plus..... my typing skills are only rivaled by 5 year olds!!. So, here it is 1 day 'til October and and we have a whole bunch of new brews to let you in on.
First off the Oktoberfest beer is on and smooth as silk. With an upfront Munich flavor the maltiness is caressed with some noble Czech Saaz hops. OH Yea!! This beauty is honey in color with a very drinkable body followed by a kiss of hops. A true lager with unparalleled smoothness.
Speaking of smooth we just put on the Milk Stout which has 30 pounds of lactose, a milk sugar, which is an unfermentable sugar which leaves a percieved sweetness on the tongue. If one is lactose intollerant please do not imbibe! However, if you like a well balanced "sweet" stout your ship has come in. Big chocolate and roasty note followed by a swift sweet note.
On the other side of the sweetness scale is our third and final offering our Hop Harvest 2. This is our second "wet" hop beer for the year. This baby has 120 pounds of wet Simcoe hops added throughout the entire boil. 75/45/30/15/10 & 5 minute additions plus a whirlpool and hopback addition. This one is the real deal. It took all our brewing skills to finagle the hops into this beer but worth the effort. The Simcoe hops give the beer a huge citrus note very reminescent of grapefruit. It is not just for breakfast anymore!! or something like that. This one is for true hopheads. Enjoy! Cheers! Todm

You like the big beers huh?

So the Killer B lasted about a day. We have our last vintage beer the '06 Wheatwine on tap now. It went on last night after the Killer B so there is only a little bit hanging around. Most likely it will kick today, just an FYI. This is the wheat wine that was judged last year that gave us a silver medal at the GABF for the Wheatwine category. Toffee sweetness the main flavor and the 11.5% abv is so very mellowed it tastes like a 4% session beer.

The cask has changed over to Oatmeal dry hopped with Columbus as well.

Cheers,
Tyler

Killer B

Hello,

Well the vintage Barleywine seemed to go over well. The half barrel keg we had lasted all of 3 days! Now we have a '06 Killer B on. The Killer B is a braggot which is a beer where a good chuck of the fermentable sugars come from honey added to the boil. This beer comes in at 10.5% abv with a sweet toasted oak nose medium body and lots of residual sugar on the palette. The years of ageing of this beer helped out a lot.

Cheers,
Tyler

Harvest Time

Hello all,

Well harvest time has started here at the Portsmouth Brewery. The Moat Mountain Weiss is gone but we have replaced it with our Hop Harvest I. This beer uses the locally grown east coast hops in it. they are a Fuggle derivative, which is a British style of hops. The grower did his doctorate research on organic and sustainable growing with his focus on growing hops. He said that he can trace back this hop variety to the original hops the pilgrims brought over with them on the Mayflower. So in turn this beer is a mellow version of a hop harvest. It has a very floral nose with a nice resin backbone on the palette. If I had to compare it to anything I would say it is almost like an ESB (extra special bitter). So I am going to have to say it is a Extremely Extra Special Bitter. EESB, HA!

The Double Wit has left us as well. But our Double Alt aka the Alternator isn’t ready yet. So we busted out some vintage stuff for you all. Right now we have an '07 Barleywine pouring. The dark fruits flavors of plums, raisins and figs are nicely present on the nose and palate. The 11.5% abv has mellowed out amazingly leaving an hint of vanilla in the post nasal aroma (the aroma after the swallowing). It is amazing what a year can do for a beer. It will cost you $6.00 for a bubble glass of it and since it is a very limited amount we are not filling growlers of this bad boy. So you are going to have to come in to have a taste of this one and I promise that it will totally be worth it.

Cheers,
Tyler

Hefe bier

Just wanted to let you know that we put on our Hefewiezen. I think that we have gotten a handle on the new yeast strain too. There is a nice banana note on the nose while the beer comes off with nice clove spiciness on the palate. Very nice bier!

Cheers,
Tyler

Cask bier/MBAA

Sorry about the Licorice Root cask. Apparently it was taped this weekend while Tod, Zack and I were in Portland at the MBAA meeting, and it was hit hard. We just pulled through the Kolsch dry hopped with Spalt which is very nice. Its earthy and spicy all at the same time.

The MBAA meeting was a great time up in Portland. We saw some great speakers talk about more efficient ways to clean hard piped equipment. We learned about the hop harvest and saw all the equipment used for this. Plus a great lecture on the correct way to taste/critique a beer. Plus the night life wasn’t bad either. If you get up there make it to Novare Res. It’s a great beer bar and has every beer you could ever want. Well except for Kate ☺

Cheers,
Tyler

Hey O!

Hey all,
The 5 C’s has kicked and been replaced with the Bottle Rocket IPA. Mmmmm good old stand by, glad to see her back! The cask has changed over to Kolsch with licorice root, and no it doesn’t taste like Sambuca. The licorice root gives it a woody and spicy character to the beer.
And to clarify a bit on my last post on the Kolsch bier (correct spelling this time!!! JA!) Is a fall beer for us, since we send it to GABF (in Category 40 German-Style Kolsch). But if you go to Cologne, Kolsch is brewed year round and is so freaking crisp and tasty you’d probably wanna move to Köln ( in German of course) foreva!! PS Thank you Tod for your input!

On the brewers table added to the blog, I know that there is the menu on the website, but it hasn’t been updated in a while. I will get on that and light a fire under someone’s butt.

That’s it for now
Cheers,
Tyler

Kolsch beir, ya!

Hello all,

I take a day off and look what happens!

So the Blueberry kicked, so you are going to have to wait for next year if you missed it. But to keep you all happy (you too NFLBrew) we are getting the Kolsch into a serving tank this morning. So we are going to have our first fall beer of the year on. For those who dont know about the Kolsch style it is a German ale that is traditionally made in the Cologne region of Germany. It is an ale that is fermented at slightly cooler temps then our other ales and then we lager (cold age) the beer. This makes it a nice a fruity version of a German style beer, but still having the crisp clean finish you expect from a German beer.

The Cask changed to the 5 C's with Nugget. I have yet to try it but when Tod pulled it though yesterday he had to have a glass of it because it was that good.

And just a heads up the 5 C's is getting low so if you haven’t had a chance to get some, GET IN HERE!

Cheers,
Tyler

Oatmeal Stout is ON!!!!!!!!!!!!

HEy all,

I just pulled through the Oatmeal Stout that is going to GABF. Is is so tasty, you need to come in and give it a try. And i forgot to mention that we are sending out hefewiezen to Denver this year on my last post. The hefe should be on soon. Great time to get to the Portsmouth Brewery if you ask me!

Cheers,
Tyler

GABF right around the corner

Hey all,

I am doing some prep work for this years GABF. Filling bottles/kegs that are going to be sent out to Denver. The list of beers this year is, Bluebeery, Kolsch, Dunkelwiezen and Oatmeal Stout. Tod is heading out to Denver this year, he was asked to Judge this year too. That means that I will be here manning the fort and keeping the beer flowing. Wish us luck!

PS the cask has changed to the 5 C's dry hopped with Warrior. I haven’t even pulled it thought the line yet so it is going to be super fresh and delicious tonight.

Cheers,
Tyler

There ya go

Boo ya!

I want to congratulate Anonymous for the correct answer for the 5 C's question. The hops used for the 5 C's are Columbus, Cascade, Centennial, Chinook and Crystal. Cluster was a great guess too though. But Cluster is more catty then Simco with a high co-humulone level, which comes off as a very harsh bitterness in the finished beer. OMG Cluster is such a 90’s hop!

And I thought we could keep it under the radar about what went on with the 4 musketeers. But if you do a goggle search for "Kabert" I am sure you will find it interesting.

Cheers,
Tyler

The 5 C's IPA, can you name them all?

Hey all,

I wanted to let you know that our bottle rocket has been consumed at a record pace, keeping in tune with the way that the summer has been flowing. But we do have the 5 C’s IPA on tap right now so you can still get you IPA fix. It is has a much more citrus nose and taste then the Bottle Rocket and finishes slightly dryer too. It should be a suitable replacement for the Rocket. Plus it is named after the 5 diffrent hop varities that start with the letter C and we happen to use in this beer. Let me know what you think!

Cheers,
Tyler

PS Hope you had a great summer and welcome to fall!