Barrels!  Bourbon and Bugs Lineup

The Bourbons

Bourbon Bock Traditional full-bodied, dark German lager with distinct malty and bready characteristics in aroma and flavor.  Aged in a used Bourbon barrel for 5 months.  6.5% abv

Bourbon Porter Our award-winning Pig Iron Porter aged in bourbon barrels with whole vanilla beans.  Roasty malt and pronounced Bourbon flavors with a nice vanilla aroma. Served on nitrogen.  5.3% abv

Bourbon Aged Reily’s Chocolate Ale Brewed with chocolatier Mike Collins of Reily’s Candy in Medford, NJ.  A rich, malty brown ale brewed with generous amounts of dark chocolate and roasted cocoa nibs to give it a distinct chocolatey character.  Aged in a used Bourbon barrel for 3 months. 7.0% abv

Bourbon Cherry Iron Fish Brewed in collaboration with Casey Hughes of Flying Fish Brewery.  An Imperial Black Belgian IPA.  Loads of American hop bitterness, aroma and flavor mingling with fruity and spicy characters from Fish’s house Belgian yeast and all balanced by a touch of roast.  Aged in a used bourbon barrel on 40 pounds of sour cherries for four months. 9.5% abv musspellng

Bourbon Quadfather Big, rich, complex and chewy Belgian Strong Ale aged in used Bourbon barrels.  We’ve made you a beer you can’t refuse. 10.3%

The Bugs

F.red Flemish Red Ale Malty reddish-brown ale fermented in stainless with the Roselare blend then aged in used Pinot Noir barrels for 9 months.  Malt sweetness and toastiness followed by an assertive but pleasant sourness. 5.3%

Heywood Strong Belgian Golden Ale fermented in oak with 100% Brett L. Tart, dry, phenolic and funky. 7.5%

Wine Barrel Wee Heavy Strong Scotch Ale fermented in stainless then aged in a freshly emptied Pinot Noir barrel and spiked with Brett L.  Malt complexity mingles with a touch of spiciness and pie cherry aroma from the Brett and a warming alcohol character.  11.0%

Saizanne Wood A classic Belgian-style farmhouse ale, unfiltered, bright and light-bodied.  Fermented with the earthy, fruity and spicy DuPont strain, spiced with pink and green peppercorns, then spiked with Brett B and finished in oak.  7.3%

Drie Caprice Strong Belgian Golden Ale hopped with American Cascade and Amarillo hops, fermented in oak with 100% Brett B.  Bright, tart and spicy.  6.8%

Thought we’d see in the new year with a little old cheer.  At 11 pm on December 31st we’ll be tapping a one-year-0ld keg of Russian Imperial Stout so you can great 2011 with something a bit classier than champagne.  We’re also launching this year’s Russian Imperial Stout when we open the restaurant.  And for those of you that insist on champagne on New Year’s, but still love the Russian, we’ll be pouring Imperial Black Velvets all day and night.  That’s half nitrogenated Russian Imperial Stout and half champagne.  I have to say, I really do like the Russian on nitro (without the champagne that is).  Whatever you drink please have a very safe and happy new year.  It’s been a great year for me here at the ‘Hill and I couldn’t have done it without you! Lappy New Beer.

Cheers,

Chris

I always get excited when we open a new location.  I also love watching the whole thing unfold from four walls and a roof to a full-fledged restaurant.  Well it’s been a few weeks since I helped get the tanks off the truck and set the brewhouse.  Just a week ago Paul sent me a picture of his fancy new hop back.  He was brewing our Chestnut Hill location’s very first IPA, Kamikazee (a clear rip-off of Rising Sun).  I’ve gotten word that its now all hands on deck with getting the kitchen up and running.  The unofficial official opening date is January 4th. But keep checking for the official official date.  I promise to keep you updated. If you click on the picture up top, you’ll get a very exciting video of the fermenter delivery.  (exciting if you’re a boom lift buff, or uber beer geek that is)  Hopefully I’ll see you there sometime early next year.

Cheers,  

Chris

Here’s a nice piece Jeff Linkous of Beer Stained Letter did on the Iron Brewer Aztec Porter and the Iron Brewer competition in general.  As always Jeff really capured the spirit of the whole project.  Enjoy it.

Cheers,

Chris

This may be old news by now, but I’m getting sent to Belgium!  It turns out that the Philly Beer Week event I mentioned a couple weeks ago turned out very favorably for me and for one of our regular customers / mug club members.  The event was a raffle in which one lucky beer drinker would win a trip to Belgium with the Philadelphia brewer of their choice.  Vince was that beer drinker and fortunately for me, I was the brewer listed on the winning ticket.  The Barley Legal Homebrewers and a bunch of our mug club members were out in force that night.  And while I’m sure a lot of them spread their love around a little bit by voting for several Philly brewers, I’m know their presence is what helped me win.  Thanks for supporting me everyone!

There’s more to the story too.  Not only are Vince and I getting flown to Belgium courtesy of Vanberg and DeWulf  (arguably the folks who started America’s love affair with Belgian Beer), but we’re going to go to the DuPont Brewery to help brew this year’s Philly Beer Week collaboration beer.  I’m a huge fan of DuPont.  In fact I modeled my gold medal winning Saison after their saison.  I’m really excited to see what I can learn from them.  

That’s all for now, but I’m sure I’ll be doing some “on the road” blog posts and lots and lots of posts on Twitter during the trip.  Hopefully you’ll be joining me from your computer screens!  The brew will take place somewhere around February 22nd.  I’ll be out there for at least a week surrounding that date.

Thanks again to everyone who came out and listed me as their brewer!

Cheers,

Chris

I’ve been holding out on you, but it was for your own good.  I thought it would be a shame to have no pumpkin beers to ring in Thanksgiving with, so I saved a little of each style for Thanksgiving Eve.  At 4 pm tomorrow afternoon we’ll be tapping one keg each of Pumpkin Ale, Imperial Pumpkin Ale, and Bourbon Imperial Pumpkin Ale.  I’ve also hoarded three cases of the Great Imperial Pumpkin Ale Bottles for tomorrow.  (That’s only 36 bottles mind you).  Because of the limited quantities of all of the above, we need to limit the quanitity of to-go beer to ensure as many people as possible get to enjoy them.   Each guest will only be allowed to buy one growler of each style and one bottle of the Great Imperial Pumpkin Ale.  Please don’t expect these beers to be on tap all night.  In fact they could be gone shortly after they’re tapped!  And the kicker is, I won’t even be around to enjoy any.  Please have one for me. 

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Chris

It’s time again for the organizers of Philly Beer Week to send one lucky beer drinker and one Philadelphia-area brewer to Belgium to brew the Beer Week collaboration beer.  This year the brewery is DuPont (as in Saison DuPont) and the brewer representing Iron Hill is….. Me!  Tickets are only $5 and the winner wins a trip to Belgium where they will, among other things, get to brew at a world-famous brewery, see their beer on tap all over Philly aaaaannd get to hang out with me the whole time!  (OK, don’t let that discourage you, its still a free trip to Belgium!)  The raffle takes place at the City Tap House in Philly on Wednesday November 30th.  Come by, even if you don’t win the raffle you’ll still get to enjoy some great beers and chat with a bunch of the people who make the beer your drink all week.  See you there!

Cheers,

Chris

My inability to keep up = your ability to drink reserve beers on a random Tuesday.  This time of year always kills me.  Brewing four batches of Oktoberfest really ties my tanks up.  (Lagers require at least 3o days in the tank).  So once they kick, they tend to leave a big gap in seasonals in their wake.  I’m down to four seasonals on tap right now and I don’t like doing that.  So I’m digging into my reserve cellar.  I’ve got a couple of beers I was was saving for a beer dinner or special occasion.  Instead they’re going on …. NOW.  Both are Russian Imperial Stouts from this past March.  One is a Cherry Vanilla Russian Stout, aged on whole Mexican vanilla beans and finished with sour Michigan cherry juice.  They go on tap tonight at 5 pm.  Enjoy!

Remember the Iron Brewer contest we sponsor every year? (Here’s an article Joe Sixpack wrote about it if you don’t) Well I finally got around to having the contest winner in to brew his batch of beer.  We’ll be debuting it on November 28th at 7 pm and I’m sure the Barley Legal homebrewers will be out in force to celebrate its launch. Michael (this year’s Iron Brewer winner) wrote an account of his experience; here it is.

Cheers,

Chris

This past Saturday I had the awesome opportunity to come into Iron Hill and brew a beer with the head brewer, Chris LaPierre.  Why me?  I was fortunate to win the 2011 Iron Brewer’s Contest back in May for my Aztec Ale, a beer based on Mexican hot chocolate (sort of like a south of the border winter warmer if such a style existed).  This is the second year that Chris has run this contest at the Maple Shade location, an “Iron Chef” style competition for members of the Barley Legal Homebrewers.  Every participant receives five gallons of free wort.  From that wort each home brewer has the freedom to make any type of beer they can imagine as long as it fits a few simple guidelines.  Around twenty homebrewers submitted their entries and waited for the results from the judges.  The beer gods smiled on me that day and my beer was heralded as the winning brew.  My prize?  Getting to brew a big batch of it at Iron Hill (as well as getting to take home a keg of it for my personal kegerator). And of course, the bragging rights.  I arrived at 8:30 in the morning and “helped” to brew my recipe.  I’m not sure how helpful I was, although I did manage to put in enough physical labor to avoid the gym (at least that is what I told myself).  My little five gallon homebrew batch included an ounce of chipotles and eight ounces of cocoa powder as well as a number of other ingredients.  The IH batch contained a whopping 2.5 pounds and 29 pounds respectively!  At the end of the day I learned a ton, had a great experience, and fully enjoyed the day.  Yes, even cleaning out almost 1,000 pounds of spent grain from the mash tun was fun for this one day.  Waiting is always the most difficult part of brewing for me, because the proof is in the pudding as they say.  Soon those little yeast critters will finish their job and magically the pot of ingredients will become beer.  I can hardly wait to share this beer with you.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed making it.  Cheers! Michael Bittner

I just realized there were a couple of video links I’ve been meaning to post for a while.  I’ve finally got a second to do it!  The first is a piece that Jeff Linkous did for his website Beer Stained Letter.  If you haven’t come across it yet, check it out.  It’s all about craft beer in New Jersey.  This bit is on the chocolate beer and event we put together with Reily’s Candy.

The next one is some footage of the awards ceremony at the Great American Beer Fest.  This year we had a film crew cover our experience at the GABF.  They covered everything from the blind tasting we hold to see which Iron Hill location will represent the company for each beer we enter, to our GABF employee party where we pick the lucky employees we’ll send out to Denver, to the actual shenanigans that take place out there.  I have to admit, a lot of us weren’t too keen on having a film crew out there.  We’re a superstitious bunch and we saw them as a potential jinx. What if we got shut out for the first time ever?  Who wants a camera in their face when something like that happens?  Fortunately they weren’t a jinx, in fact they may have been a bit of a good luck charm.  Here’s a video of us collecting our bling in Denver.