We had another dusting of snow again last night and it's getting to feel like winter. To ward the chill off, we at Devils Backbone Brewing Company have several rich and hearty winter brews to last you through the season. Winter is the most interesting time to drink beer!
Currently on tap is our double award winning Baltic Porter "Danzig". Danzig won a silver medal at the 2009 Great American Beer Festival and a gold at the 2010 World Beer Cup. Baltic Porters generally are strong rich black lagers blending English traditions with continental brewing techniques. Most porters are ales (even some Scandinavian Baltic Porters are ales), but most Baltic Porters are lagers making them unique in the porter genus. Being a lager they share characteristic of strong lagers like bocks along with roasty flavors of porter & stout. Danzig is 8.0% abv and around 25 IBU's. It should be on tap until early January. No growlers sold except for mug club members.
Next up will be the return of our popular Scottish-style Wee Heavy "Kilt Flasher". This deep rich dark brown ruby hued beer will help keep the cold out. It comes in at 7.6% abv and 18 IBU's. It uses dark crystal malt, amber malt, pale malt, and roasted barley to create the backbone of this malt forward beer. A long boil caramelizes the malt sugars and adds to the richness. We should tap the Kilt Flasher the week before Christmas and it should remain on tap through most of January. We will be selling growlers of this beer.
We are separating 70 gallons of the Kilt Flasher to age on oak used in the whiskey process at the Bellmont Farms Distillery in Culpeper, VA. The wood aged Kilt Flasher is called "Wood Flasher" and should be tapped in late January - early February. We did this beer last year and the malty notes of the Kilt Flasher Wee Heavy blended with the whiskey soaked oak to form a sipping beer rich in notes of oak, vanilla, and whiskey.
Christmas should see the return of the 2009 Tectonic Barleywine. Tectonic Barleywine is an English-style Barleywine rich in aged flavors. This is last winters barleywine aged for extra smoothness. This is truly a sipping beer coming in at 12% abv and 40 IBU's. Only 60 gallons were saved from last year so no growler sales on this rare treat.
Coming around New Years will be our Belgian-style Dubbel "Dark Abby". Dark Abby is around 6.8% alcohol and 18 IBU's. It uses two Belgian yeast strains (Duvel & Westmalle) and was finished with a red wine yeast strain for dryness. It was spiced ever so lightly with three secret spices. Try to pick them out, I bet you can't. Generally I do not like the darker Belgian-style ales , preferring the paler ones like strong golds, blondes, wits, saisons, and tripels. That said, I've always enjoyed this one because I brewed it to my taste. One problem I have with a lot of craft brewed dark Belgian-style ales are that they are cloyingly sweet and lack the refinement of their Belgian counterparts. I brew mine to finish fermenting very dry so the sweetness is a perceived sweetness coming from the flavorful yeast esters not from residual sugar. The Dark Abby has complex flavors that do not beat you over the head obtusely, rather they are subtle yet seamless.
Dead Bear Imperial Stout will return to the living in January. This will be the third batch of it brewed here and it is bigger and better than ever. The Dead Bear weighs in at 10% abv, with 35 IBU's. The Dead Bear is an English influenced Imperial Stout opposed to the heavily hop American Imperial Stouts. This means the emphasis is more on the chocolate roasted malt flavors than the hops. Personally I think too much hop flavor and aroma in a dark or black beer is off putting and detracts from the malt goodness. The exception of that rule is Black IPA's which I like. What I dislike is an Imperial Stout that tastes like a Black IPA. This beer will warm you! Will will be aging a portion of the batch with the oak from the Bellmont Farms Distillery to be released later this winter.
70 gallons of the Dead Bear will be removed and aged with coffee from Trager Brothers Coffee Roasters of Lovingston, VA to form "Morning Bear" Coffee Flavored Imperial Stout which won the 2010 World Beer Cup bronze medal in the coffee flavored beer category . Look for Morning Bear to wake up on tap late winter.
February will see the first ever release of "Morana Dark Lager", a joint effort between Alastair Reece of C-Ville, Lyle Brown of Fredericksburg, Nathan Zeender of Washington DC, and DBBC's Jason Oliver & Aaron Reilly. Morana is a Czech-style Tmave (dark). It was double decocted and will come in around 5.8% abv, and 24 IBU's. I will post a separate blog about that collaborative brew.
As you can see, there are plenty of interesting beers coming this winter. It is the best time for beer drinking! Cheers and Happy Holidays.
-Jason