So I made a new friend at the Craft Brewer’s Conference this year: Chad Yakobson. Chad is studying a subject near and dear to our heart: the wild yeast Brettanomyces. He’s bright guy with a passion for beer related micro-biology. I’ve learned more about Brett from him than just about anyone around and his input has helped us make better Brett beer. In addition, Chad has been documenting his thesis on a great blog . Check out the killer photos of his plates. I am totally dorking out on that stuff. Nice work Chad.I’m calling him ‘Dr. Brett’ from now on.
On to the beers. My first real encounter with Brett was about 5 years ago in Denver at the Great American Beer Festival. They crew from Flying Dog had been toying with 100% wild yeast fermentations of their Gonzo Porter. Now, let me just say right off the bat that in the world of commercial beer THIS IS CRAZY! Brettanomyces is still classified by most folk as a beer spoiler. If you tell a wine maker that you hang out with Brett they will tell you not to even think about visiting their winery. Anyway, my friend Casey Huges from Flying Fish drug me over to their booth and shoved the beer in my face. “Drink it!” he said. He was right on the money…the beer was fruity, complex beyond belief, and wonderful. It blew my mind. Long story short we started toying with small batches of secondary fermentations with brett (Cherry Dubbel), and then eventually 100% (Dr. Drie). I knew we were on the right track when the Victory crew started making Wild Devil, a 100% brett fermented IPA.
We currently have two entire racks of barrels just for ‘wild’ beer and are using 3 different strains of this yeast to produce a wide array of great beers that run through our ‘Sour Tower’ here at the brewery. Be sure and ask for a taster of some crazy beer the next time your in. I’m sure you’ll find it interesting and you may even dig it as much as I do.
Man do I love my job.
Hey Gang, I’ve got a mug club party planned for this coming Saturday. We have a magic keg of Raison D’ Extra from Dogfishhead that will be on tap just for the mug club from 2:00p.m. until 5:00p.m. (or until it’s gone, which could be pretty quick). This is last year’s vintage of an incredible un-gettable beer and you will dig it for sure if you like HUGE brown beers of the Dogfish variety. I’ll be around giving tours and we’ll raffel off a few Hot Brewery Prizes. Light snacks…you all know how much we like to eat! The summer draft lineup is full swing with Cannibal, Saison, and Hefe on tap so make a plan to stop by and have a mug with us. Cheers!
We are packing up for our annual trip to the venerable Brewery Ommegang. Every summer they host and event called Belgium Comes to Cooperstown which is, in my opinion, the best beer festival east of the Mississippi. This year the VIP tickets sold out in 15 minutes! A big group of us are caravanning up from Philly and I’ll keep you posted on the haps.
Check out this cool video 
about fun stuff to do in Delaware. Cameo appearance by Brian Finn Head Brewer of Iron Hill Wilmington
Well the 2010 Iron Hill Twilight Criterium has now drawn to a close and I am happy to report that it was another great year of BBQ, Beer, and Bike Racing! In spite of the early rain, the course was in great shape and we had a blast watching the riders ‘go fast / turn left’ It was great to see everyone out for this killer annual summer event…and to share a beer with more than a few of you. I did hear some folks joking that it would have been a lot more entertaining if the course were wet…you know, lots of slipping sliding. The pro racers seemed plenty pleased about the dry track.
This was the sixth annual race. Overe 20,000 spectators lined the streets of West Chester to watch professional cyclists compete around the .8-mile circuit course starting and finishing right in front of the brewery (I even got to go on stage!). In addition to the Pro Men’s race, the schedule of events included an Amateur Men’s Criterium and an Elite Women’s Criterium. Also taking place was the popular West Chester Dental Arts Kids’ Race, which attracted over 400 participating children this year…most in much better shape than me!
It looks like we will be sponsoring for at least the next five years. Right on, ‘cause it was a blast. Check out the photos.
Hey Gang, I just found this in my ‘Draft Bin’ I HAVE to post it ’cause of the great photo of Bob. Nice.
The annual Bradywine Valley Craft Brewer’s Fest at Iron Hill Media is in the can. Sorry to those of you who couldn’t get tickets…we sold out before the day of the event again! Media Youth Center is the benificerary of this fine event. The weather was great (not too hot).
Here’s Bob pouring Double IPA from 6 Liter bottle. (I can barley lift ‘em empty!) Check out all of the folks trying to get some of his sweet, sweet love. Every time he lifted it into the air the crowd went nuts!
Yesterday we installed a new 20 barrel fermenter at the Iron Hill Mapleshade location…more to come!
Beer week is over…and my liver is recovering nicely. Tons of awesome events, but check out this great review of Groundhog Baltic Porter over at the Beer Geek Blog. Nice photo of Jean and Dave too.
Friday June 11th we will be hosting the Iron Brewer Tapping Party. Every year we host a special homebrew competition with our local homebrew club B.U.Z.Z. to see which Homebrew Master can brew up a great beer with some of our ingredients. This time around our winner was the one and only Dave Hausman. He will be on hand for the awards ceremony and official First Tapping of a firkin of his very own Groundhog Baltic Porter. The tapping will be at 6:45pm followed by presentation of the official Iron Brewer Trophy. We will be serving some 3 liter bottles of R.O.S. (Super Secret Really Old Stuff from our cellar) Come meet Dave and try his beer. Light snacks will be served. A complete Winners List along with blow by blow highlights is available over here at the West Chester Blog. See you Friday! (check out the pic of Dave adding hops. Nice!)
Round 3! This Wednesday night we will be hosting Master Chocolatier Christopher Curtin from Éclat Chocolate here in West Chester for a Beer and Chocolate pairing Happy Hour. Christopher and I will be giving out complimentary samples of our beer paired with his world class chocolate from 5:00pm-7:00pm in the bar here at Iron Hill. Stop by to learn about chocolate….and to taste this incredible pairing!! I can’t wait!
