Looking For Towle Farm Updates? Look No Further!

As many of you know, on August 16, we officially broke ground on our new brewery at Towle Farm after four years of hard work and planning. Over those four years, we've had a large number of inquiries about our new brewery but, until recently, we didn't have much to say.

Now that Smuttynose mark II is underway, we thought we'd let you all check in at your own leisure, through the magic of a webcam; just click on this link.

The cam is mounted on a pole just south of the historic barn and points directly at the front of what will become the main entrance to the brewery.  The silver tank you see on the back of the site is the collection vessel of our waste water treatment system.  If the camera were able to turn to the right, you would see the farmhouse, which will be transformed into a 95-seat restaurant pub.  You can see the house in its current location, as well its original basement in the photo below.  The basement has been filled in and leveled out so that we can build our fermentation cellar in its place.

Once the exterior of the building is complete, we plan to move the camera inside and aim it one of our production areas, to keep the content dynamic.  Until then, we hope you enjoy watching our progress!

*We'd like to send a special thanks to Mike McCormack of Sebectec, who installed and maintains the camera.

Smuttynose Short Batch #7, Redux: Strawberry Short Weiss

Smuttynose Strawberry Short Weiss, our take on a Berliner Weisse, is lightly tart, refreshing and incredibly drinkable.  It's also one of our staff's most beloved beers.

We'll be releasing bottles exclusively at Smuttynose on Thursday, August 9 between 5pm and 7pm in our tour nook.  Bottles are $15 each and we've chosen a four bottle limit to try and spread the beer around a little better.  Kegs begin shipping on August 20.

As the name implies, this style is indigenous to the German capitol and serves as a sharp contrast to traditional Bavarian weizen beers.  Traditional Berliner Weisse are highly carbonated, served in special wide-mouthed, bowl-shaped glasses and are packaged without flavoring.  The beer's light body and tart flavors are the result of a partial lactic fermentation.  The lactobacilli consume a portion of the wort sugars, creating lactic acid.  This accounts for the tartness and lightness of body, since the bacteria can consume sugars that brewers yeast can't.  We've chosen to add strawberries to our beer as a nod to the Berliner custom of offering a shot (mit Schuss) of either raspberry or woodruff syrup to the glass of beer.

So, why are we calling this a redux?

Our first Berliner Weiss was brewed in the winter of 2008 just as the "ice storm of the century" glazed a very large portion of the Northeast.  New Hampshire was hit particularly hard, with 400,000 customers losing power, including Smuttynose.  Our plan for the beer was to divide the batch in two, a small lactic fermentation and a large, traditional yeast fermentation that would then be blended back together.  Thanks to poor timing, we lost power right as the yeast batch was at the peak of fermentation, causing a massive temperature spike which filled the beer with headache-inducing fusel alcohols.  The large yeast portion had to be dumped, leaving only seven or so barrels of bacterial ferment.  Running a clever bootleg, our brewers added a healthy slug of ale yeast to complete the fermentation while bags and bags of organic strawberries followed a few weeks later.  The batch was kegged off and distributed with little fanfare. 

When our packaging manager asked about revisiting this for his wedding beer (Congratulations, Chris and Emily!), everyone who remembered the first batch got really excited.  We hope you'll get to try it and see why.

Cheers,

The Smuttynose Team


Strawberry Short Weiss Vital Stats

Starting Extract: 8˚ Plato
Finishing Extract: 1˚ Plato
5 IBU   3.7% ABV

Malts: North American 2-Row, Wheat
Hops: Saaz (for both First Wort and Whirlpool additions)
Yeast: WLP-300 Hefeweizen Ale
Other Ingredients: Natural Strawberry Puree, Lactobacillus

Batch Size: 27 barrels  (30 cases of 750 ml bottles, 121 5.2 gallon kegs)