It’s been a great year folks! Thanks so much for your loyal support and interest in what we’re doing, clearly all of this would be impossible without your willingness to buy our products and we’re grateful for your patronage.
We’re wrapping up the year with brew #319(#1888 overall). That puts us exactly 20% above last year’s 266, about the same amount of growth that we’ve done every year since 1997, but this marks the first time that we’ve increased output over 1,000 barrels(31.1 US gallons) in a year. As we begin our 10th year, it’s likely not the last time!
We’ve got a TON of interesting stuff in the tanks right now, including the upcoming (planned for February release) Pils which is tasting just great. This year’s twist is that we’ve gone back to the Chief’s “roots” and borrowed German Lager Yeast from our friends at High Falls Brewing Company(Thanks Dave!). Their brewery is a truly unique place that is a relatively integral(if unsung) part of growing up in Upstate New York. We got the full behind-and-above-the-scenes tour and all I can say is WOW. Here is a photo of “Hobo” Mike wearing a beardnet while we toured the brewery.
Amongst other claims to fame, they have what was once the world’s largest kettle at 1,000 barrels- which they fill and boil 5-7 times per day(To put that in perspective, more or less the same amount of beer that earlier on in this post I was so proud to have brewed in a year….in ONE DAY!). I highly recommend a visit for anyone who finds themselves in the Flour City. Anyway, they gave us a pitch of their nice, clean Lager Yeast from one of their 400 gallon brinks and it took right off, even quicker than others that I’ve used in the past. One of the 400 gallon yeast brinks at High Falls:
It’s been since last winter that we’ve run a lager fermentation, and I just love having them in the cellar alongside the Ales to give perspective on how broad the world of beer is.
In just one row of fermenters we’ve got the Pils(very angular, zesty hoppy), Winterizer(Dark Belgian Holiday Ale, flavors of Orange and Clove), 2 batches of Flower Power(fruity, very stinky hoppy), ‘Zilla(good old ‘Zilla, caramel and citrus), and drumroll please…… a Golden Sour Ale (puckering and effervescent), our first attempt at an American Wild Ale (tons more info on this beer coming). In the barrel rack we’ve got a whole batch of Old Habit slumbering in the wood alongside of a couple more surprise revelations. A lot of very divergent beers, each to be loved in a unique way.
So, you know about the impending releases of White Gold, Pils and Old Habit. You know that we’re playing with different ways of fermenting beer, and you know that we’re having fun(maybe too much?). What you don’t know is what we are doing for our 10th anniversary. Well, did I mention good old ‘Zilla? In a lot of ways, CascaZilla has become our flagship. Apricot Wheat still sells a bit more, but Zilla is the one that we all bring home from the brewery year ’round and enjoy thoroughly. It’s the sort of beer that I really missed when we moved back here from the SF Bay Area, and really pushed to get into production way back when too few Northeast brewers were making assertively hoppy beers, not really the case anymore. It’s the first seasonal release that you all refused to let us retire, and forced into the permanent lineup. ‘Zilla is emblematic of what we’re trying to do here at IBC, make beers that are inspired by other great beers but have a unique twist(or two). So, without further ado, I am proud to announce that “10″ will be an Imperial American Extra Strong and Special Double Red Ale. The recipe is based on a doubling of that for CascaZilla plus some other fun stuff thrown in for good measure. We’re brewing it the first week of the new year, coinciding with the arrival of our first pallet of fresh 2007 crop US Hops (It will have really heavy-handed amounts of Amarillo, Chinook, Crystal and, of course, Cascade) and the exhaustion of the LAST BATCH of our Double IPA. It should debut as the next new Excelsior! beer right around Valentine’s Day. It will not be subtle.
Speaking of THE LAST BATCH of Double IPA, tomorrow’s cask-conditioned session at Pixel will be the LAST PIN of the LAST BATCH of it. Dryhopped excessively with Fresh NY hop flowers, it’ll be a great way to celebrate the new beer year. Did I mention it will be your LAST CHANCE to try this beer in this format? 7pm Thursdays.
