Many of you probably know we released Scratch #31 last week, the Citra of Brotherly Love IPA, for last week’s Philly Beer Week (PBW). Loaded with Citra hops, which are new to us, this beer is like a tropical hop explosion. If you like a hop barrage, you’re going to like this one. It’s currently on tap at the brewery, but due to limited production, we only have six-packs of the Citra for sale. We also oak-aged a few barrels of this brew for Philly Beer Week firkins, which I can personally attest were terrific as well. I read that there were 1000 events for PBW this year, and it seemed like we filled firkins for most of them! We could’ve done even more, but if you viewed the barrel geyser video earlier, you know the beer gods giveth but they also taketh away. Anway, the oak brought on vanilla, coconut, and oak (duh!) flavors, enhancing the “IPA of the tropics” feel of the beer, and showing off just what fresh oak can do to a 7.5% hop monster. (read more…)
June 17, 2010
May 30, 2010
May 27, 2010
Physics Lesson
Beer held at a constant temperature and pressure will absorb a set amount of carbonation. As temperature goes down, it will absorb more, up and it can’t hold as much. So, what happens if a slightly carbonated beer is put in to a sealed barrel and the temperature hits 90+ F?
So, there went some of the portion of Scratch #31 (aka “Citra of Brotherly Love IPA”) destined for Philly Beer Week Firkins. We still have plenty to work with, but it always sucks to see beer hit the ground. #31 is a classic IPA recipe with generous amounts of Apollo, Cascade, and Citra hops. New to us on this go are the Citra hops which are known for their intense grapefruit aroma and flavor. I think you’ll agree that they definitely do the job on giving that classic American IPA citrus aroma. Look for it on tap or on the bar at Philly Beer Week, June 4-12.
May 4, 2010
May 1, 2010
Scratch #29
The bottle conditioning experiment was a success and Scratch #X is now available as Scratch #29. Tests show carbonation at a whopping 3.8 volumes of CO2 in the bottle! (most of our brews are in the 2.5 – 2.6 range)
April 17, 2010
Iron Brewer II
The teams for Iron Brewer II have been formed. The line in the sand has been drawn…ominous music sounds…. Let the games begin! Now to expain; one of my favorite shows of all time is The Iron Chef. I love the idea of putting two chefs at the top of there game up against each other in a Kitchen arena with one common goal: to be creative as possible with one ingredient, all the while being under the gun of only have on hour to pull it off! (i love it!) Borrowing this idea we decided a couple of years ago to try out our version. We took everyone that works at the brewery and formed teams. I tried to mix brewers, homebrewers, sales crew, musicians, creatives, and of course the rest that don’t fit any single category. Those are the wild card ones, they can bring something to the group thats unexplainable, pulling the parts together for a common goal. The goal is to brew a beer with a secret ingredient, label, package, and present with whatever means they come up with while trying to out do the other teams. Judges then will award points for presentation, creativity, and of course taste..
I will unveil the secret ingredient Wed. Trash talking has already started along with brainstorming of team names. (i’ll share as soon as they solidify)
stay tuned for details….duh duh duhhhhhhh
April 12, 2010
Scratch and Splinter
In other posts we’ve talked about the Scratch Beer series being a way for us to explore and experiment. Sometimes it’s a new ingredient that sets things in motion, other times it might be a new (or historic) technique we want to try. Occasionally we’re just thirsty for a particular style. Last week, we jumped in to new territory for Tröegs with the bottling of Scratch Beer #X (“X” because we don’t know where it will fall in the numbering of Scratch Beers). If you recall previous updates, Scratch #X is the barrel-aged, dry-hopped, Tröegian (not-Belgian) IPA. Now we can add “bottle-conditioned” to that list of descriptors. (read more…)
March 26, 2010
Splinter Gold
Nearly 3 years ago we purchased some wine barrels from a PA winery and filled 2 of them with our then current scratch beer, Triple. With the addition of brettanomyces and extended barrel aging Splinter Gold was born. This past fall, we filled our van with wine barrels from Allegro Vineyards in York Co. After careful consideration, we have decided to fill most of them with, you guessed it, Triple. The beer was brewed 2 weeks ago. The wine barrels have been prepped. Splinter gold will begin to take shape late next week. Be patient, last time it took nearly two years.
March 24, 2010
Troggen Roggen
Hey, Scratch #28 is currently on tap at the brewery! As Tim mentioned the other day in his blog post, #28 is a Roggenbier, a pretty uncommon beer style commercially produced by only a handful of breweries. It’s essentially a German wheat beer made with a portion of rye malt, which gives the beer a nice spicy dimension. If you’re familiar with the Scratch beers, you know we can’t get enough rye, so this style was a natural for us.
For our interpretation, we took our Dreamweaver base recipe and substituted about half of the wheat with rye, added a bunch of Munich and Vienna malt, tossed in some spicy and citrusy German and American hops, and fermented it with the Andechs weizen yeast strain. The result is a really flavorful, yet dangerously drinkable German ale that offers a fresh take on the traditional Hefeweizen. (read more…)
March 21, 2010
You gotta have hops!
Quick update on Scratch #x:
After just over a week of us being forced to draw almost daily samples and (gasp) drink them, we’ve decided the beer is ready to rack. So far, we have a gold/light-amber pale ale base with nice hop bitterness, spicy-fruit yeast character, and the barrel-aging coming through as oak, hints of vanilla, toast, and tea. (read more…)
