We just tapped a firkin of Sorachi APA. Sorachi Ace is a new (to us) Japanese varietal of hop. Our friends at North Country supplies were just as excited as we were about this hop, and hooked us up with a bunch to play around with. Sweet! To test the Sorachi-y waters, we dry-hopped half a dozen firkins of Ironbound with an inordinate amount of our new hop. The result? A super lemony pale ale with nuances of cedar and vanilla. What a beautiful miscreant of a hop! Look out for an all Sorachi beer (belgian pale? biere de mars? saison?) to hit the taps within the next month or so.
Also, our oak fermented, 100% Drie Brett pale ale, Dr. Drie is on tap for your funkified pleasure.
-Jean

Hey Gang! Thursday from 5:00pm until 7:00pm (ish). I’ll be hanging out at the bar for a little mug club happy hour action. We’ll put out a few apps and tap our new Funky Beer: Dr. Drie. In addition we will be doing a beer and cheese tasting so you should come by and check it out. In addition I plan to dig into my secret stash of R.O.S. and pour super secret beer too (I’ve got a couple of 3 liter bottles of beer-you-can’t-get-beer).

This pairing is one of my favorites: Cypress Grove Humbolt Fog and our award winning Saison du Hill

It is April fools day, I know…but this is a real deal event! In honor of the day of pranks come beer it up.

Here is the official Dr. Drie description:

Dr. Drie

The second in a series of 100% Brettanomyces fermented amber ale. A tribute to Armand Debelder master blender and former master brewer of beautiful Lambic style beers at Drie Fonteinen. Armand’s family has been offering stunning products since 1953. In 2009 he announced that they would no longer be brewing but only blending. A sad day indeed since Armand’s artful touch in the brew house allowed him to make beers worthy of Heaven. We’ve managed to lay our hands on a very special strain of Brettanomyces that seems to be found only in the family brewery at Fonteinen. We used it to barrel ferment this beer.

Dr. Drie is un-endingly complex, explosively fruity with aromas of caramel, sour cherry, and oak. The finish is dry with a touch of vanilla. Much like a certain master rapper, Dr.Drie is East Cost G-Funk for sure. Sur lees

 OG: 1.054   Color: 11   IBU: 25   Alc by Vol: 5.0%

Hey Gang,

Just so you know, we are putting our award winning Cherry Dubbel on tap in celebration of the Valentine’s holiday. Stop in for a pour and a little complimentary chocolate pairing! In addition, Saison AND Harvey’s Sunshine Pils will both be on tap tonight. I love Friday!

From the deepest, darkest depths of the infinte abyss arises an ale so dark and so intensley hoppy, that it had even us, your fearless brewers, scrambling to get it on tap before we got sucked into the darkness that is India Black Ale. Okay, okay… Enough threatrics. Our India Black Ale is back on tap today! Woo-hoo! For those of you who weren’t quick enough to taste the last batch back in April, our IBA is essentially an IPA brewed with just enough de-bittered black malts to make it black. The dark malt does impart just a touch of roasty/chocolateyness that really goes great with the huge citrusy/piney hop presence. That’s pretty much it. We will be serving the IBA on tap and on our hand pump until it’s gone.
-Jean

“It’s like, how much more black could this be? And the answer is none…None more black.”- Nigel Tufnel

Er, I mean, Happy New Year! Well, actually I mean both! This past year has been a great one here at IHWC. We’ve brewed a ton of great beers (Chuck’s Beard, Mahalo Apollo) begun a killer barrel aging program (10 currently filled and more on the horizon… Hooray for barrel racks!), and hosted some exciting and innovative new events (Saison-a-Thon, Gathering of the Gourds). And what a better way to celebrate/ ring in the new year than roll out a massive hop bomb of a double IPA.
Ladies and Gentleman, I am pleased to introduce West Chester to the only beer too hoppy for superman… Kryptonite! Brewed with over 3lbs of hops per barrel, and weighing in at 9.5%, this copper colored ale has intense grassy, citrusy, herbal notes, and weighs in at 100 IBU. This is easily the strongest hoppy beer brewed in this fair borough! That is until Malthra the Destroyer (American Barleywine) hits the taps in a month. Come on! You didn’t think we’d let Hopzilla rule the monster themed hoppy beers forever, did you?
-Jean

Can you hear the roaring in the distance? Can you smell the hops in the air?
Something tells me that the ‘ZILLA will be making it’s devastating return to our humble village sometime after lunch today…
Stop in for a pint!
-Jean

Tuff Ghost is our newest saison, Røde, fermented and aged entirely
in a used merlot barrel. This is what we imagine Røde tasting like had
it of been brewed a couple hundred years ago this time of year at a
farmhouse in Belgium (oh yeah, and with futuristic American hops!). Who
needs stainless steel and temperature control? We filled the barrel
with unfermented wort, added a pound of incredibly aromatic Danish
heather honey, and then pitched our super secret yeast blend. The
resulting beer is a harmonious confluence of lush oaky vanilla notes
layered with spicy rye and bretty/black-peppery yeasty phenolics with
hints of bright american hops interwoven throughout. The finish is
long and slightly bitter, with a touch of tartness right at the tail
end. Come in and try this beer along side Røde for a truly unique
contrast.
Tuff Ghost will be available for your drinking pleasure tomorrow, Nov. 6th, just in time for our Wine vs. Beer dinner. Larry and I will be at the brewery all day/night (working and then enjoying the fruits, er… beers, of our labor at the dinner) so stop by and say hi!
-Jean

That’s right…it’s that time of the year. We should have it pouring by about 5:00 p.m. Come and get it!

Hey gang! The new batch of our hoptastic hop onslaught of an IPA just went on tap this past Friday! Nothing is finer than a fresh pint of this hop monster. Come and get it!

We dry hopped this batch 3 seperate times with 3 different variatels of hops. Here’s a pic of me feeding the beast 2 lbs. of Centennials…

Check out the web traffic our American IPA is getting over here. Nice!