Mug club party tomorrow from 2-5. Special beers, tours and prizes.

Just a reminder that we’ll be closing the restaurant today at 1:30 for our annual meeting and celebration.  Se the post a couple of days ago for details.  See you Tuesday!

Cheers,

Chris

Iron Hill will be closing at 1:30 today for our anual companywide meeting, celebration and awards ceremony. Sorry for any inconvenience.

Mug club party this Saturday 2-5. Cherry Vanilla Porter draft, American Oktoberfest firken on the bar. Brewery tours & prizes. Members only.

So we’ve only been open for a month and already our mug club is one of the biggest in the company.  I guess the people of south jersey know a value when they see one.  Well if the loyalty points and the 8 extra ounces of beer aren’t enough for you, we’re going to throw another perk at you.  About once a quarter we throw a little get together for our mug club members and the first one will be this Saturday.  It will give me a chance to meet those of you I haven’t met yet.  We’ll be putting some special beers on for mug club members only, send around some appetizers, raffle off some prizes and be giving brewery tours the whole time.  Who knows, there may be a couple little surprises thrown in on top of it all.  I’ll be pouring the first special mug at 2 pm this Saturday and I’ll be hanging around until at least 5:00.  I can’t say the same for the beer though.  When it’s gone, its gone.

About the beer…..  We’ll have two kegs of Cherry Vanilla Porter.  It’s our award winning Pig Iron Porter aged on whole Mexican vanilla beans and primed with sour Montmorency cherry juice from King Orchards  in Michigan.  Dessert in a glass.  I’ll also be tossing a firken up on the bar filled with an uncategorizable brew.  It will be some of our Oktoberfest, primed with actively fermenting Belgian Tripel wort and dry-hopped with 3 ounces of Amarillo.  All of this of course, is completely inappropriate.  True cask conditioned beer should be ale, served crystal bright from the cellar, not a lager all cloudy from atop a bar.  And of course Oktoberfests shouldn’t have any trace of American hop character or Belgian yeast notes.  Don’t care.  I think it’s going to taste great!  A little Belgian, a little German, a little English and a lot American.

Again these beers are for mug club members only.  If you’re not a member and you can’t live without these beers, sign up!  Ask an existing member.  They’ll tell you its a no-brainer.  See you Saturday!

Cheers,

Chris

English Session Ale is on tap. Light bodied, deep golden hue, mild earthy (Fuggle) hop character and served on nitro.

Just wanted to give everyone a heads up that we will be closing the restaurant (and all Iron Hill locations) at 2 pm on Monday August 24th.  This Monday is the day of our anual GABF party.  A lot of companies have holiday parties in December or January.  Of course we’re too busy hosting your holiday parties to shut down for a day during that season.  But every summer we take a day off to let our staff know how much we appreciate them.  In addition to the great party we throw with plenty of Iron Hill beer, we raffle off one trip per location to the Great American Beer Fest in Denver.  One non-management employee from each of our restaurants will get their airfare, hotel and entrance into the GABF paid for.  (I still don’t know of any other restaurant that sends one of its employees on a paid vacation every year!)  Our staff really gets into the GABF.  Every year a slew of our crew who didn’t win the raffle put up their own cash to fly out to Denver and party with us.  If they get themselves out there and find a place to stay, Iron Hill pays their way into the fest and takes them out for a dinner and night on the town in Denver.  Not a bad deal.  Last year we had about 60 people in Denver representing Iron Hill.  You can imagine what that airplane was like.  Anyhow, this Monday you’ll have to spend a quiet night at home so we can let our staff unwind and see who from each location will be going to Denver with me!

Cheers,

Chris

Good bye India Black. Hello
India Pale.

Hoppy hoppy hoppy.  We hopped this beer at just about every point in the brewing process.  First wort (just as soon as the bottom of the kettle was covered),  at the beginning, middle and end of the boil (just like one of the big three that boasts their “triple hopping”) and finally dry hopping.  But we also managed to squeeze in another whole flower hop addition between the boil and the dry hopping.  This is when a hop back would come in handy.  Well I don’t have a hop back so I used a little trick a friend of ours from San Diego taught us.  Years ago Tom Nickel, previously of Oggi’s and now the owner of  O’Brien’s Pub  told us he used his mash tun as a makeshift hop back.  We tried it for our Hoplicious and were very happy with the results.  Basically we use the same device we use for seperating the wort from the malt as a sort of hop infuser.  Right before knockout we filled the tun with 26 pounds of whole leaf Galena hops, pumped the wort into it, and knocked out into the fermenter from there.  

Anyhow, we hope you enjoy it.  It serendipitously went on tap just hours after the India Black Ale kicked.  Talk about timing!  No hiatus in your hop fix.

Cheers,

Chris

West Coast Gold went on tap late Saturday night.  This beer is golden and light in body but it’s not for the light beer drinker.  This beer is loaded with hops and brimming with a refreshing bitterness.  WC Gold was made with just under a pound of Columbus hops per barrel and dry hopped with 7 pounds of  whole leaf Horizons.  You can see what a mess those made of my cold box.  If you like our Ironbound you need to try this one. 

Cheers,

Chris