Devils Backbone Brewing Company

Happy New Year from all of us at Devils Backbone Brewing Company.  The new year holds much promise and I am looking forward to it.  We will be rolling out our first kegs of Eight Point IPA and Vienna Lager from our "Outpost" production brewery Mid-January and have lots of events to celebrate.  Check our website for the events near you. 

Also in January our collaboration with Heavy Seas Brewing Company of Baltimore Maryland will commence it's first stage with the 8.5 barrel pilot batch of our joint "black pilsner" here at Devils Backbone brew pub.  Growing up in Maryland and having spent most of my brewing career in the greater Baltimore / DC area, I have long been a fan of Heavy Seas Brewing Company (formerly Clipper City Brewing Company) and have know it's founder Hugh Sisson for years.  I was extremely honored when Hugh inquired if I would be interested in doing a joint project and of course the answer was yes.  Hugh founded Maryland's first brewpub "Sisson's" which was the first brewpub I ever visited (Legend in Richmond was the first brewery), and it was Clipper City's (now Heavy Seas) first brewmaster who inspired me to choose the UC Davis Master Brewers Program as my formal brewing education.  Anyway, to make a long story short, I've been influenced greatly by Hugh Sisson and his impact on craft brewing and I'm so happy to have the opportunity to work with his brewing team at Heavy Seas.  I was put in touch with Heavy Seas Brewmaster Ernesto Igot and the brainstorming began on what beer to create.  Both Ernesto and I have a lot of respect for lagers so it was quite natural to decide to design one jointly. Ernie initially suggested a dark lager similar to the Xingu black lager from Brazil but I found that was too similar to the Schwartz Bier we brew several times a year here.  I am personally a big fan of crisp hoppy pilsners so we compromised and decide to merge our tastes together and design a "black pilsner".  We designed it to have subtle dark malt notes without being too heavy and balanced by the pronounced noble hop character of a pilsner.  With both our breweries doing multiple black versions of previously paler beer styles this approach seemed to satisfy our collective tastes and fill a niche neither of us have done before. The Heavy Seas gang will be coming down here on the auspicious day of Friday the 13th this January to brew the first run with us on our 8.5 barrel system.  The DBBC crew then will be heading up to Baltimore a few months later to scale it up on their 50 barrel brewhouse.  Expect to see the pilot brew available here at the pub and finer beer bars around central Virginia starting late February.  The production run out of Heavy Seas should hit the taps and shelves this coming spring.  If you haven't had a Heavy Seas beer I encourage you to pick some up.  I especially enjoy their ever popular & hoppy "Loose Cannon" ale and their multiple award winning "Marzen Lager".

Happy New Year,

Jason Oliver - Head Brewmaster