Thursday, September 26, 2013

Thursday, September 19, 2013

Hop Harvest III...?

Hey all,

I just got the call.  Our wet Mosaics are on a plane and headding our way.  We will be brewing the HHIII Friday and Saturday!

Cheers,
Tyler

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Fall is coming...

Hey all,

So with the cold bite in the air this morning, it is obvious that fall is coming soon.  As you can see from the "What's in the Works" section to the left we already have Octoberfest, Hop Harvest I and Hop Harvest II fermenting away.  I know that a lot of you have been drinking other pumpkin ales now for weeks, if not months, and that's what I want to talk to you about now.  I am not sure when the fall seasonal became such a huge seller for all large scale production breweries out there, but in order to capture more of the market the pumpkin ales and/or Oktoberfest bier have been coming out earlier and earlier every year.  I am pretty sure I saw a pumpkin beer display in August this year.  Crazy!

With this being said I wanted to let you guys know how we make our pumpkin beer at the Portsmouth Brewery and how that affects when we release it.  We use locally grown pumpkins from Blueberry Bay Farms in Stratham, NH.  We use 100 pounds of fresh, local pumpkins in each 7 barrel batch.  We think it's vital to use pumpkins that were grown the same year that we brew the beer.  Fresh and local is the best after all!  As you know farming is much like making a fine ale; you can't rush the process if you want to get good results

So long story short, I am making a Pumpkin Ale (as well as a double batch of the Imperial Pumpkin Porter) this year.  But the pumpkins still have a week or so before they hit their perfect ripeness.  So keep an eye out on the in the "What's in the Works" sidebar of this blog to see when our Pumpkin Ale is under way.  It will be worth the wait!

Cheers,
Tyler

Thursday, September 12, 2013

Passport Event this weekend...

--> Hey all,
Wanted to see how many of you out there are making it to the Passport event held at the Strawbery Banke this weekend.  I will be there Pouring a Fruit Gruit cask.  Plus we will be having the new beer of the Kentucky Common Ale making it first look into the world.  This 4.5% abv light bodied brown ale is one of the few true American styles.  This beer stems from the American bourbon makers wanting to have something to drink while they wait for their bourbon to age.  You take a sour mash Rye whiskey malt bill and rather then just distilling it off, you boil it adding hops and ferment it out with an ale yeast.  This beer has hints of the soured malt flavor up front with a malty/spicy mouth feel from the Rye malt with hints of Oak that take over the flavor in the finish.

We will be serving it with some  Cheese puffs stuffed with Goat cheese mouse and topped with a stout/raspberry reduction.  Should be fun to see how the goat cheese flavor and the sour malt flavor play with each over all with the sweetness of the malt and the raspberry/stout reduction smooths it all out in the finish.  Yum.

Cheers,
Tyler