Woody’s Salted Chocolate Stout is On
Hi There,
Once again, I apologize for not getting a newsletter out sooner. After you read this one, I think you’ll understand. It has been more than crazy around here!
Lots of things are going on in the brewery (at the Louisville Technical Center)! We’ve been working hard to get the first floor of the brewery taproom ready to become our canning and storage room. The first part of January we will be moving our canning operations into that area and adding some automation (depalletizer and handle applicator). We will also add two more 60 bbl tanks to the brewery in early January. And Kristy is busy getting the upstairs area of the former brewery taproom remodeled into an area we can use for private parties, meetings, special events and fun. More on that later. We’re all excited for next year! We have a lot of work ahead of us, but Colin and the brew crew are fired up and ready to go.
Deidrick’s back – but in a new capacity! He’s going to be our brewery representative for the state of Colorado. Right now, he’s learning the ropes and giving us much needed help in the brewery. We’re very happy to have him back.
We’re all quite busy with preparations, but not too busy to plan some fun. While the Big Beers Festival, usually held in Breckenridge each January will not be physically happening again in 2022, we’ve been invited to join them this year in creating our own Big Beers Festival this January (Big Beers, Belgians and Barleywines Craft Your Own). To that end, we have tentatively scheduled the following (final schedule will come out in a couple weeks and be posted on the Big Beers website as well).
Bottle offerings:
- January 6-9: Patty Criek American Cherry Sour. With the addition of cherries, the color is bronze – dark bronze. Wild yeast and bacteria give it that familiar “sour” aroma. The flavor is incredibly complex, with flavors that are created by the combination of yeast and bacteria used to produce the beer – ours is a blend we developed over many years. This beer was fermented and aged in a variety of oak barrels for 1 – 10 years and is a blend of young and old sour beers aged for a time with Wisconsin cherries. A limited number of 500 ml bottles will be for sale.
- January 13-17: Cherry Quad. This beer hints of bourbon, soft alcohol, light (white) peppery spice, dark fruits, and caramel and the addition of cherries adds a delightful hint of cherry. The flavor is malty rich, with dark fruit flavors (dried cherry, prune, dark raisins) and spice. Complex, rich, smooth – and dangerous. The color is dark but held up to the light one can see ruby notes at the edges. This beer is extremely limited and only offered in 500 ml bottles.
- January 20-23, Spring Forward, German Amber Style Lager (1872 Style Marzen). An elegant, malty German amber lager with a clean, rich, toasty, and bready malt flavor, restrained bitterness, and a dry finish that encourages another drink. The overall malt impression is soft, elegant, and complex, with a rich aftertaste that is never cloying or heavy. This Marzen is quite different from the current golden lagers (typically referred to as fest beers), in that it was brewed in the old style (essentially stronger/higher in alcohol) and barrel aged (Marzen were lagered in oak barrels over the summer and became what we now call Oktoberfest beers in the fall). Our Marzen was aged in Laws Whiskey barrels. Most Oktoberfest beers fall in the 5-6% ABV range. Spring Forward is 7.9%.
- January 27-30: Special keg tappings of Black Saddle Russian Imperial Stout 2019, 2020 and 2021.
Special Events (more will be added later):
- January 7th: Special Big Beers beer tasting with the Owner, the Director of BS, our Head Brewer and representatives from Brewers Star, our distributor. This will include beers pulled from our cellar, along with food pairing bites.
TODAY! Woody’s Salted Chocolate Stout is back for a while as a seasonal release! Come in and try this year’s Woody’s. 6.7% ABV, 49 IBUs – Woody’s brings together chocolaty sweetness and dark roasted malts, with just a hint of salt for a very drinkable and enjoyable beer.
Don’t forget that our Blood Orange is currently being offered in a special GABF Gold Medal can – see picture below. They’re black, so if you’re looking for Blood Orange at your favorite liquor store, you won’t see the familiar orange cans – look for the black ones instead. It’s still the great beer you love, just in a black can for a limited time.
I hope you survived Windy Wednesday without damage. Sadly, it blew over our propane heaters. Now, instead of the Chinese hats on top of them, we have French berets. Anyway, I hope you have a great weekend. Kristy and I will be at the taproom on Friday. Hope to see you there.
