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Last week we talked about how having both the Red Tape and Pilsner as year-round beers tied up our brewing cycle before we decided to brew Jabby Brau. That was just one of the lessons we learned about planning our production. We were also forced to abandon our plan for seasonals as it proved to be unwieldy for a new brewery. We had planned to have one seasonal for each season with a few specialities here and there as we needed them.
Our Copper Legend Octoberfest, which came out at the start of September, was the first seasonal that we brewed under this plan. The problem was we could not tell if our initial batch would last through October. Because we lagered this beer for six weeks, we had to decide whether or not to brew a second batch before the first one was released, if we wanted it for October.
In the end we decided to brew a second batch. By then we learned bars and restaurants had already bought all the Octoberfest beer that they intended to. That’s why you can still get growlers of fresh Octoberfest from our tasting room in December. Thankfully, there are only four kegs of it left now. We were able to learn a valuable lesson while narrowly avoiding a potential disaster.
In response we abandoned the original plan and have moved to a new structure that offers more flexibility in both production and variety. We are now brewing a new specialty beer every month. The intention is to make each batch large enough to last two months. However, to start, we are trying something new and erring on the side of caution with regards to volume.
Our Kiwi Rising, for example, is almost gone after only three weeks. As we gain more experience with the new model we will slowly increase production to meet our two month goal. This means that once things settle we will have three year-round beers and two specialties available at any one time with something new every month.
Originally posted at The Beer Nut:
As we blogged last week, we have started brewing at Jack’s Abby Brewing. Last week we kicked things off with our one-time special brew, Red Tape Lager, and our first core beer, Saxon Sons Pilsner. Our next goal was to brew our other two core beers right away. We brewed the first of these, Smoke & Dagger, last Friday. Tomorrow, we will be brewing the last one, Hoponius Union.
Smoke & Dagger is a smokey, dark lager. It gets its character from a combination of beechwood smoked malt and chocolate malt. We are currently buying the smoked malt from Germany. Ideally, we’d like to find someone local who can smoke the malt we need. Thanks to the growing Jack’s Abby community, we have already received two leads that we are now investigating. If you know someone that would like to smoke 110 lbs. of malt a month, let us know.
For those of you that love a hoppy beer, you will want to check out our Hoponius Union. We are calling it our India Pale Lager. Sourcing many of the hops that we needed for this beer has been challenging, but we persevered with success. Hoponius Union will feature Amarillo, Citra, and Centennial hops. Whole leaf Centennial hops will also be used in the hopback to add to the aroma. What will differentiate Hoponious Union from a traditional IPA is that it will be lagered cold for an extended period of time. The result will be a fresh new take on a classic.
With our core beers well on their way, it will soon be time to brew our fall seasonal, Copper Legends, an Oktoberfest lager. Expect this to be ready at the end of August.
Originally posted at The Beer Nut
This is the blog that I have been waiting to write: Jack’s Abby Brewing is now brewing beer! All of our licenses, permits, inspections, etc. are complete. Our final town inspection was on Tuesday and we celebrated by brewing immediately.
We know that the first brew never goes entirely as planned, often resulting in a taste that can never be duplicated.
For our first brew, we did a single batch of a specialty red lager. This beer was brewed with 100% Dark Munich malt and Glacier hops. We are calling it Red Tape Lager in reference to our dealings with various state agencies.
Yesterday we made a double ba
tch of our first core beer, Saxon Sons Pilsner. This was our first chance to use our hopback. For this brew we used whole leaf Saaz hops in the hopback. As we quickly learned, these were some especially aromatic Saaz with a 9.6% AA. Has anyone else ever seen Saaz this high? This allowed us to add a great aroma to our Pilsner.
Tomorrow we are starting our planned brewing cycle of one batch per week as we get out the rest of our core beers. We are still waiting on pending malt deliveries to determine the exact brewing schedule.
The Red Tape Lager and Saxon Sons Pilsner will be available to sample at the brewery on Thursday, July 21st. We will also be pouring growlers on site. After that, look out for our beer on tap at local bars and restaurants. If you have a place where you’d like to see Jack’s Abby beer on tap, please let us know at info@jacksabbybeer.com.
We would like to thank all of the hardworking tradesmen, family, friends, and supporters who worked around the clock to make this happen. We would also like to thank the Town of Framingham which has welcomed us into the community and supported our project.
