Smuttynose Brewers Notes

Robust Porter Recognized Again As Good Food!

2012-01-23T16:35:00.003-05:00

We're pleased to announce that Robust Porter has won its second consecutive Good Food Award at the 2012 awards ceremony on January 13 at San Francisco's historic Ferry Building. The ceremony was hosted by Alice Waters, founder of Chez Panisse and pioneer of farm-to-table cuisine. The Good Food Awards recognize tasty, authentic and responsibly-produced American foods across eight categories;

2012 Big Beer Series Release #1: Baltic Porter

2012-01-04T14:39:00.001-05:00

Shipments Begin January 9!!! It's finally Baltic Porter time. Sure, it's a few months late, but this was the best we could do with a surprisingly busy production schedule. How busy? Here are a few numbers for you. With the same amount of tank space as in 2010, we sold and shipped 37,556 barrels of Smuttynose beer this year, which reflects 28.6% growth from last

12/20/11 Expansion Update

2011-12-20T13:57:00.001-05:00

This will probably be the last expansion update before Christmas, but a lot has happened and I wanted to share it with you. We got confirmation that the tanks are in production at JV Northwest and should be ready in mid- January. Nearly all the concrete has been poured for the floor. The support joists have yet to be cemented into place, though that'll happen soon. These

Smuttynose Expansion update 12/14/11

2011-12-14T15:56:00.001-05:00

Eureka! That's big! The first step of the second phase of the Heritage Avenue expansion began yesterday with this massive diesel-powered vacuum. As you can guess from looking closely, we now have a debris-free roof and a few employees that thought they heard a jet engine when leaving the building for lunch.

The Smuttynose 2012 Big Beer Series

2011-12-12T11:07:00.001-05:00

Without further adieu, here is the 2012 Big Beer Series line-up: January- Baltic Porter March- Really Old Brown Dog May- Wheat Wine Ale June/July- Homunculus September- Scotch Ale October- Stout (possibly Imperial, possibly something new) December- Gravitation Astute readers will notice that two of these releases were carried over from the 2011 schedule. Due to increased demand

Expansion Update 12/7/11

2011-12-07T17:23:00.000-05:00

The last few days at Smuttynose have been as busy as usual, but all brewing, bottling, kegging and cleaning has had a new soundtrack: the sound of a jackhammer and a concrete saw. You're looking at the future home of a custom-poured concrete pad that will be home to trench drains and LOTS of Smuttynose beer In our last newsletter, we posted pictures from our warehouse of cleared-out pallet

Bottle Fail

2011-12-06T15:36:00.000-05:00

The time has come for another blog post and this one isn't fun to write. In all our communications leading up to the Satchmo (Short Batch #13) release, we told you all that we'd be releasing a limited amount of caged-and-corked 750ml bottles that would be sold exclusively at Smuttynose. We were very excited about this opportunity; we even visited Allagash during their Ghoulship release to see

Smuttynose Short Batch #13: Satchmo

2011-11-16T14:47:00.000-05:00

"Satchmo," is a collaboration between Smuttynose and Portsmouth's Black Trumpet Bistro. It's also a collaboration between two fungi, brewer's yeast (sacchromyces cerevisiae) and black trumpet mushrooms (craterellus cornucopioides). Why on earth would you put mushrooms in a batch of beer? The answer is simple... Dave is so skilled at sacking the 'shrooms, he doesn't even need to look

Gravitation: A Powerful Attraction

2011-09-12T17:18:00.001-04:00

2011 Smuttynose Big Beer Series Release #6 Belgium is known around the world for its six unique abbey breweries. Inside the monastery walls, Trappist monks oversee production of rich, fully flavored beers that range from light in body and alcohol to strong, rich and dark. These sacred beers are known by the names enkel or single, dubbel and tripel. Singles are the lightest in both color and

Harvesting Farmhouse Ale

2011-09-08T14:24:00.000-04:00

2011 Smuttynose Big Beer Series Release

The Homunculus Cometh

2011-07-18T16:13:00.005-04:00

The Homunculus Cometh!2011 Smuttynose Big Beer Series Release #4 Homunculus, the newest addition to the Big Beer Series portfolio, is also the first beer to move up from our single-batch, draft-only Short Batch Series. Inspired by “Houblon Chouffe” from Belgium’s Brasserie d’Achouffe, our beer was first brewed in 2007 and was called “The Gnome.” This was a great name for an individual,

Smuttynose Short Batch #12: Noonan

2011-07-15T10:55:00.000-04:00

These days, new beer styles and sub-styles seem to pop up every few months, especially if you include barrel-aged variants. The Black IPA has enjoyed a current wave of trendiness but there's nothing new about the style. The first batch of Black IPA was brewed on December 4, 1994 by Greg Noonan and Glenn Walter, at the Vermont Pub and Brewery in Burlington, VT. Despite a West Coast attempt to

Mermaid Madness with Dixie von Trixie and Mayor McSmutt

2011-06-14T15:42:00.000-04:00

Coney Island has long been home to the off-beat, the unusual and occasionally, the tawdry. Just down the list after sideshows, the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Championship, and the home turf of The Warriors, you'll find that Coney Island is home to the annual Mermaid Parade. The Mermaid Parade, to quote Wikipedia, "is a lively and welcoming ocean-themed event open to everyone." From what I can

Hello, My Name is Joe.

2011-05-03T14:41:00.000-04:00

Joe Grotto, by the Smuttynose Swamp We'd like to welcome Joe Grotto to the Smuttynose Sales Staff. He'll be taking the reins as our Eastern New England Field Manager, overseeing all things Smutty in Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Eastern Massachusetts. Joe's experience on the other store of the retail counter, should prove valuable and we can't wait to see what he does. Since he's only

What's Golden, Malty, and Frequently Seen With Goats?

2011-04-29T11:34:00.000-04:00

Nearly three months after its brew day, Smuttynose Maibock is bottled and conditioning in our warehouse. Maibock is the third Big Beer release of 2011 and marks the second time we've run 22-ounce bottles on our new filler. This year's release tips the scales at 8.7% abv and will begin shipping out the week of May 9. Maibock was decoction mashed just like every other year and this

The Infamous Smuttynose Axe Murders

2011-02-27T22:17:00.000-05:00

If you've joined us on a tour of Smuttynose, or read some portions of our website, you've probably heard us mention the Smuttynose axe murders. We don't really get into the story because we'd rather talk about beer, though we do sometimes mention the Anita Shreve novel, The Weight of Water and the film of the same name, which uses the murders as a narrative device. Shreve wasn't the first

2011 Imperial Stout and a few other notes

2011-02-23T08:30:00.000-05:00

We're sad to say that the release of our 2011 Imperial Stout, the second release in this year's Big Beer Series has been pushed back. Shipping will now begin on March 14. This is a part of our marketing ploy to compete with Guinness. Also, I want to remind you that it's not too late to sign up for the The Big Beer Series Subscription. Some newer subscribers have asked which beer will be the

A few of you may be missing something...

2011-02-22T16:26:00.000-05:00

...and boy do I mean a few. A rare outtake from the Hanami label shoot. That giant lizard finally won. Hanami Ale, our spring seasonal release, has been discontinued. We've had one or two emails asking for release dates, but being discontinued doesn't lend itself to scheduling a release date. Instead, we decided to extend Winter Ale season and begin Summer Weizen earlier (we just bottled

Portsmouth Craft Beer Long Weekend Celebrates Locally-Brewed, World-Class Beer

2011-02-21T14:02:00.000-05:00

A significant portion of Portsmouth was built by beer. Frank Jones Brewery, once the largest in America, left a long-lasting imprint all over town and exported large amounts of its beer to the UK, before the blighting hand of Prohibition swept through the Seacoast. By 1950, there were no local breweries in operation. Cut to 1991: After a few decades of dormancy,

2011 Barleywine

2011-01-27T15:19:00.000-05:00

We'll be shipping out 2011 Barleywine, the first release of the 2011 Big Beer Series. Here are some ramblings about the beer. I hope you enjoy them a fraction as much as you will enjoy the beer itself. The history of Barleywine is the subject of much discussion; consensus has yet to be reached on the origins of the name or the style. One thing we do know is that Bass brewed “No.

You Thought Your Homebrewing Hobby was Out of Control...

2010-11-24T14:22:00.000-05:00

This Thursday, after you're full of turkey and stuffed with stuffing, gather the family around the old boob tube and tune into the Discovery Channel at 8pm. Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage, from Mythbusters, will be hosting a one-hour special that tells the narrative of the 25th World Championship Punkin' Chunkin'. American Chunker, our chunkin' team will be on the show, but you'll have to tune

Beer Dinner at Nosh

2010-11-19T13:01:00.000-05:00

December 12 at 5:30pm, Nosh Kitchen Bar in Portland, Maine will be hosting a Smuttynose Beer Dinner. The four course menu is loaded with delicious, meaty treats and each course is being paired with one of our Big Beers. Peter Egelston, Smuttynose's owner and founder, will be in the house that night, along with a number of our staff. We'd love to meet you, so please join us. One of the best

The Mermaid Speaks!

2010-11-15T15:10:00.001-05:00

I recently sent a questionnaire to Miss Dixie Von Trixie, the model found on our Star Island Single label. If you're like me, you've often wondered where that flame-haired mermaid came from. Here's a peak beyond the flipper! Name: Amanda Suter (aka Dixie von Trixie), Dixie is my stage name as a burlesque performer. Occupation:Vintage clothing dealer, graphic designer, burlesque

Smuttynose Baltic Porter; 2010 Big Beer Series #8

2010-11-11T16:50:00.000-05:00

Baltic Porter is out in stores and bars now, so it seems there's no better time than the present to share some information with the blogosphere. Smuttynose Baltic Porter 23° Plato40 IBU9.02% ABV Malt: Cargill 2-Row, Munich 20L, Weyermann Carahell, Crisp C-120, Baird’s Carastan, Crisp Chocolate, Crisp Black Hops: Sterling Yeast: White Labs Old Bavarian Lager The most

New York City Craft Beer Week Part 3

2010-10-25T17:36:00.000-04:00

Here's the final installment of Pat Fondiller's NYC Beer Week account. You can almost feel the tired seeping form the screen. Part #3 Tuesday evening I was back at it with NYC’s Puck Fair hosting Smuttynose as their NYCCBW brewery. I spent the evening with the Union Beer crew headed by Joshua Tussin and Bar Manager Collin and a lot of great Puck Fair patrons. We shared

New York City Craft Beer Week Part 2

2010-10-21T16:06:00.000-04:00

When Pat last left off, Freaktoberfest, had kicked off the events of the week and Pat was just getting started on along week of beer-vangelism and Dave was getting down to the city to join the revelry. This section is full of fantastic foods, so if you're hungry, go grab a slice of terrine or some baba ganoosh. Part 2 On Saturday, I was joined by Smuttynose

New York City Craft Beer Week Part 1

2010-10-18T14:30:00.000-04:00

Pat Fondiller, our man in the Big Apple has written a three-part account of his experience at New York City Craft Beer Week. Craft Beer Weeks take place all over the country from hotspots like Philadelphia, San Francisco to areas where craft beer's profile isn't as wide, like Charlotte and St. Louis. Area grocers, bars, restaurants, breweries and other food and drink centric entities band

NH Brew Fest

2010-09-29T15:01:00.000-04:00

This weekend, we'll be pouring Smuttynose beers at the New Hampshire Brew Fest on the grounds of RedHook Brewery here in Portsmouth. In addition to being a beer festival in our hometown, the event is a fundraiser for the Prescott Park Arts Festival as well as the New England District of the Master Brewer's Association of the Americas. The Prescott Park Arts Festival is a summer-long program of

Smuttynose Short Batch #10- Belgian Stout

2010-09-13T10:49:00.000-04:00

If you had eight freshly-emptied whiskey barrels, what would you do? This is the situation we found ourselves in after we packaged the Ry(e)an Ale. Sawing them in half and turning them into planters was definitely not an option, so we had to think of a new Short Batch beer. We didn’t want to do another barrel-aged version of an imperial stout but it was

Champion Firkin Friday!

2010-09-07T15:42:00.000-04:00

If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound? We've all heard this philosophical quandry and yet the answer is still profound: the tree doesn't make a sound. Well, after Big A IPA was named the Best American Beer at the Great British Beer Festival, we thought it would be best to make a sound in our own town. This Friday, September 10, our friends at the

Vunderbar! Short Batch #11

2010-09-01T11:39:00.000-04:00

Guten tag! Short Batch #11 is kegged and ready for delivery! Here are Dave's notes about the beer: Ah, Vunderbar. So simple. So elegant. The impetus of this beer was two-fold. The first part stemmed from drinking a snot load of Sam Adams Noble Pils this spring. Great beer. The other was a visit by Cornelius Faust from Faust Brewery in Germany. He brewed a

Isles of Shoals

2010-08-25T10:14:00.014-04:00

The Isles of Shoals are a group of islands and tidal ledges about ten miles off the coast of the New Hampshire-Maine border region (Portsmouth, where we are located, is right on the Piscataqua River, which forms the border between the two states). There are nine islands in the chain, five belonging to Maine and four to New Hampshire. The islands have a long history, serving as seasonal fishing

Harvesting Pumpkin Ale

2010-08-11T09:59:00.004-04:00

Smuttynose Pumpkin Ale is shipping out to all of our wholesalers and is filtering its way out to retail accounts as we speak. Yep, it's shipping in early August and I can assure you, we're still amazed how early Pumpkin season begins each year.On the production side of things, we're in the middle of autumn and starting to plan for Winter Ale. The beer buying public is very fickle about when

Bikes, Ballistics, and Beer

2010-08-04T15:20:00.006-04:00

Craft brewing has never been a particularly competitive community. Breweries tend to help each other out, sharing tips, tricks, ingredients, and pints with each other. In my mind, this is the most unique and best thing about our community. Despite the harmonious nature of our “industry,” we’ve decided to put our support behind two competitive endeavors; one involving spandex and muscle power

Smuttynose Short Batch Gaps

2010-07-07T15:34:00.010-04:00

One of the most intriguing things about the Watergate tapes from Nixon's Oval Office is the 18.5 minute gap. Very few people probably know/knew what was originally on that section of tape. Most everyone else thinks the 18.5 minutes had vital evidence that would have implicated Nixon in the scandal surrounding the break-in. I guess the point I'm trying to make is that incomplete records do

Smuttynose Short Batch Series #9--Rouge d’Shire

2010-06-15T15:14:00.004-04:00

Charlie, our barrel master is funky. Not intergalactic, Atomic Dog funky. Funky like smelly-feet funky. And the man makes funky beer-beer with wild yeasts and bacteria. Sour beers, tart beers, crazy beers. Charlie is a special one to say the least. The initial premise to Short Batch #9 was to make another soured beer that would take less time than the

Strawberry Short Weisse

2009-08-27T09:37:00.003-04:00

Oh, the exciting and ever unpredictable world of sour beers! Bugs - they’re not just for fly fishing anymore. We’re a bit late entering into this aspect of the brewing world, but I like to believe that our pace of experimentation is mindful and deliberate. Or we may just be a bit slow. That being said, we’re about to send out our first sour beer: Strawberry Short Weisse. This started as an

Dave’s Spring News

2009-05-08T09:03:00.003-04:00

It’s early May and we’re just getting our heads clear from our annual jaunt to the Craft Brewers Conference. This year’s host was the fine city of Boston so there was plenty of Smuttynose flowing throughout town. Luckily the week went without incident and we managed to lose Judi just that one time. We return to blistering weather where we hit 95 degrees in April. Thankfully, we have this year

Schmutzig Hopfen Weisse, our newest Short Batch

2009-01-30T10:24:00.004-05:00

Last fall I received an invite from Dave Brodrick to help celebrate the marriage to his beautiful wife, Iris. Dave (of Blind Tiger renown) asked me to brew a beer for the event. Happy to oblige, I tossed around the idea of several different styles but kept coming back to late-addition hoppy beers. I knew I wanted a session beer for the wedding and had recently been enjoying the Brooklyner

2008 Scotch Ale & Really Old Brown Dog

2008-10-25T23:00:00.004-04:00

Well, it looks like we’ve made it through the Summer of Sans Hops. We received our first shipment of 2008 harvested Cascades last week and it was almost enough to make this old brewer cry. The initial reports are of a bumper crop and it looks like we’ve turned the corner on the hop shortage. Of course the prices haven’t come down yet, but I guess expensive hops are better than no hops. Even

Working through the Hops Shortage

2008-09-12T10:13:00.002-04:00

So it seems that the experiment with strategic hopping of our Big A IPA worked out well. I think that beer came out great and we’ve been hearing real positive feedback. I’ll be heading down to the Publick House in Brookline for the 5th Annual HopHead ThrowDown this Saturday to personally see how the Big A stands up to this countries best DIPA’s. Man, do I ever stop working? It’s tough, but

Big A IPA - 2008 Edition

2008-03-31T15:24:00.004-04:00

It’s Big A IPA time of year again and the fearless brewers at Smuttynose have thrown both caution into wind and a vast amount of their ever dwindling supply of hops into the kettle (and fermentor, and bright tank) for your (and our) lupulinic enjoyment. This was our first beer which required a different approach because of the current hop shortage. Typically we would contact our supplier and see

Baltic Porter - First Edition

2008-02-06T18:11:00.001-05:00

2/6/08 - Baltic Porter - I gotta say that it's been a while since I've been this excited about the upcoming release of a new beer. This is our first attempt at a Baltic Porter and it's been tasting great out of the fermenter. Huge body with lots of fruit notes balanced by dark roasty goodness. We've even been getting hints of licorice which I find intriguing.Our decision to add this beer to our

Short Batch - Smutt-a-Roni

2007-09-01T18:17:00.001-04:00

Smutt-a-Roni (first sampled summer'07)Smutt-a-Roni is a wild rice beer, the recipe of which we stole from the Portsmouth Brewery, which in turn stole from Mike Luparello. Mike is the finest brewer I know currently living in a yurt. He's also a veteran of the Baja 1000. I don't know how that's relevant, but I think it's cool. Anyway, he used to brew at the Portsmouth Brewery and remains both an

Short Batch - Brett & I

2007-07-31T18:15:00.001-04:00

Brett and I (first sampled late '07)"Brett and I" is a beer brewed in homage to the great Down East humorists Marshall Dodge and Robert Bryan (with Tim Sample getting the honorable mention.) If you haven't listened to the "Bert and I" tapes, go ahead and call LL Bean for your copy. They'll give you a good idea of the daily insanity of living in Northern New England. Of course that begs the

Really Old Brown Dog - First Edition

2007-07-26T18:09:00.002-04:00

7/26/07 - Really Old Brown Dog - As many of you know by now, our friend Olive Francis, the Old Brown Dog, passed this winter. The original photo for our brown ale label was taken when Olive was quite young and so last fall Peter and Joanne had some new pictures commissioned. The photos were taken out on one of Olive's favorite beaches and with her favorite easy chair. The desire to use one of

Short Batch - The Gnome

2007-01-30T18:20:00.001-05:00

THE GNOME (first sampled in early '07)In the fall of '06 I met Chris Bauweraerts from the Brasserie d'Achouffe at an MBAA meeting in Brooklyn. Having seen one of possibly many Smuttynose logos that are generally strewn throughout my attire, he thanked me for advertising his brewery. After bemusingly accepting his thanks, I had to inquire if he had mistaken me for someone else. But he said no, the

Wheat Wine

2006-12-29T18:08:00.001-05:00

12/29/06 - Wheat Wine - The word for this year's Wheat Wine is smooth. Smoother than butter on a baby. Smoother than Reagan in a scandal. Smoother than Charlie in a camel hair coat in Jimmy LaPanza's Lounge. Well, maybe not that smooth.Of course, last year's Wheat Wine certainly received much attention and seemed to be well regarded. Perhaps it was the 4 month delay in release which built up

Big A IPA - 2006 Edition

2006-07-18T18:07:00.001-04:00

7/18/06 - Big A IPA - It's the Return of the Son of the Killer Kielbasa. That's right, Stash Wojciechowski is back from winter training and ready to compete in the Alpha King Challenge. After working with our Lucha Libre friends in Oaxaca he meandered north to sample the great west coast hop offerings. Ever alert, looking for the edge, that minute detail that'll set him apart. How will he fare?

Farmhouse Ale - First Edition

2006-04-01T18:02:00.001-05:00

4/1/06 - Farmhouse Ale - Like almost every other brewer who read Phil Markowski's book "Farmhouse Ales" last year I decided that it was time for Smuttynose to try its hand at a saison. An interesting style considering that in reality the guidelines are so broad. There are some classic examples, as well as some interpretations that are becoming so. We began, as all good brewing should, with

Imperial Stout Returns

2006-03-15T18:00:00.002-05:00

3/15/06 - Imperial Stout - After a one year hiatus the Imperial Stout is back in action. We figured that after catching a bit of flack for its absence we'd have it return with a bang. We bumped up the starting gravity from 20° P to 24° P. This allowed the beer to finish just over 10% ABV. Like this year's Barleywine, we've decided to play with the hop character, specifically the dry hop presence.

Barleywine

2006-02-01T17:52:00.002-05:00

2/1/06 - Barleywine - Ye Olde Barleywine. Once again we were interested in playing with the hop profile of this beer. Last year we ended up dropping the IBU's to 80, which we found to be just about right. The aspect we decided to play around with this year was late-addition hops. I've always loved having that bouquet of fresh hops, especially in a beer of this size whose malt profile adds so much

S'Muttonator Doppelbock

2006-01-10T17:51:00.001-05:00

1/10/06 - S'Muttonator Doppelbock - S'Muttonator is once again back on the shelves and perhaps a bit is in the old belly, eh? It's been interesting trying to be creative brewing a style that has a fairly narrow interpretation in terms of historic examples and modern guidelines. My first real knowledge of this style was drinking Optimator. I love that beer. I used to drink three or four while

Scotch Ale

2005-11-01T17:50:00.000-05:00

11/1/05 - Scotch Ale - The Scotch Ale this year is completely unaltered from last year's incarnation. We just didn't see a need to change anything. That being said we will most likely be putting the Scotch Ale on hiatus next year. I guess I'd consider this fair warning if you'd like to cellar a few bottles to tide you over. I know some of you don't want to hear that, but it's just part of the

A Note about our Wheat Wine

2005-09-15T00:05:00.001-04:00

The much-anticipated debut edition of Smuttynose Wheat Wine, brewed and bottled early in 2005, was delayed until September due to problems stemming from the federal label approval process. The Tax and Trade Bureau (formerly ATF) rejected our original label approval application, claiming that use of the word wine in a beer name would confuse and mislead the consumer and retailers. We didn't agree

Wheat Wine - the First Edition

2005-08-24T17:49:00.002-04:00

8/24/05 - Wheat Wine - Smuttynose Vs. The Feds: or how our heroic brewers spent the summer stickin' it to the man. We finally convinced the bureaucrats that Wheat Wine isn't actually all that confusing, in fact it's fairly straight forward. For those of you who haven't heard, we brewed the Wheat Wine in April and have been waiting on label approval since. The governments intention was that

Big A IPA - 2005 Edition

2005-05-31T17:48:00.001-04:00

5/31/05 - Big A IPA - After being forced to smell the glove at last years' GABF by judges who declared the Big A just not big enough, Stash decided to see if he would like a true West Coast style Double IPA and went about reformulating. The first thing to change was the malt bill by losing the Belgian malts, which was felt to be too close to the Barleywine in character. The malt additions were

Barleywine

2005-02-01T17:46:00.001-05:00

2/1/05 - Barleywine - Barleywine Time! Easily my favorite beer. We were quite happy with the 2004 version and receive a bunch of positive feedback from ya'll. The Celebrator was also in agreement as they ranked our beer with the best of the barleywines they tasted last year. We sent some more bottles out this year and though I haven't seen the issue I believe we have once again been well ranked.

S'Muttonator Doppelbock - First Edition

2005-01-20T17:44:00.004-05:00

1/20/05 - S'Muttonator Doppelbock - S'Muttonator had been released and is probably lurking in your local liquor store ready to butt heads. Watch out, though, don't ram it home 'cause this sucker's 9.6% ABV and right now they're going down pretty smooth. This is the first new release in the Big Beer Series since the Big A IPA in 2002, and I'm glad to get the ok to put out some new distinct beers.

Scotch Ale

2004-11-01T17:42:00.002-05:00

11/1/04 - Scotch Ale - Once again this beer changed very little. We just can't mess too much with it or Shag will give us a right thumpin'. The only difference, again, was a slight increase in the smoked malt profile. We upped it from 1.5 to 2%. It's still a very subtle smoked character, but comes out just enough to add a bit more intrigue.Malt:Pilsner Malt10L Munich35L CarastanChocolate

Big A IPA - 2004 Edition

2004-08-30T17:41:00.002-04:00

8/30/04 - Big A IPA - Well I guess Stash got tired of Sy and Paul laughin' away at him on their lawn chairs (rumor has it he's the one that kicked in the trailer door) and so the Polish purveyor of prodigious potables decided to up the ante by revamping his Big A IPA. 6.6 percent alcohol? Please, try 9. 70 IBU's? Stash figures 100 will do just nicely, thanks. The malt bill has pretty much stayed

Maibock

2004-04-30T17:40:00.000-04:00

4/30/04 - This year's Maibock is about to hit the shelves and it's not even May yet, how about that. The production gods must be smiling down on the Smutty boys. We once again pulled off the double decoction and are quite happy with the results. The difference from last year was a matter of color. We were trying to lighten it into the golden range, by dropping some of the specialty malts. We went

Barleywine

2004-02-20T17:35:00.001-05:00

2/20/04 - This year's Barleywine is a showcase for the subtlety of the S-hops: Simcoe and Santiam. These hops were featured in all the additions except for the dry hops, where we used Horizons. You gotta love the smoothness of the bittering character of those Simcoes, even at 90 IBUs, which by the way was a slight drop from last years 100 IBUs. We loved the malt profile from last year so that

Imperial Stout

2004-01-20T17:38:00.002-05:00

1/20/04 - This year's Imperial Stout was perfectly presented recently down at Redbone's Stout and Porter Festival. We poured a firkin which had been maturing for over a month and had included an extra plug of dry hopping. Beautiful beer. Great nose, big silky body, long legs, wow. I know what you're thinking: dude, you gotta get out more. And, of course, you'd be right. The alcohol content on

Scotch Ale

2003-12-18T17:33:00.002-05:00

12/18/03 - Scotch Ale. This year's Scotch Ale is in stores and bars as I'm typing this (of course), but my delay on this round of notes (besides the rigorous QC regimen I maintain) is that the recipe from last year needed very little adjustment. The only thing we played with was the smoked malt percentage. We still used German Rauch Malt, from Durst, but upped the amount from 1% to 1.5%. It's

Octoberfest

2003-10-10T17:32:00.002-04:00

10/10/03 - Octoberfest. Well, the Octoberfest is now upon us and that means another chance to decoct. We've pretty much managed to dial in this procedure here (if Dan would only hit those conversion temps!) It's amazing how much color and character comes from even a single decoction, which is what we used this time. With a mixture of Belgian Aromatic and Munich malts making up 30% of the grist, I

Pumpkin Ale - The First Batch

2003-09-16T17:32:00.002-04:00

9/16/03 - Pumpkin Ale. After many years of success of the Portsmouth Brewery's Pumpkin Ale, as well as Kevin Love's petulant insistance that we corner the market, we decided to capitalize and brew our own version of this squash beer. I know what you're thinking: squash!?, in a beer, are you kidding? But, alas, no, I am not kidding. In fact, it turns out the elder Americans would use pumpkin as a

Big A IPA - 2003 Edition

2003-06-23T17:30:00.002-04:00

6/23/03 - Big A IPA. The Killer Keilbasa has unleashed another fine IPA on us this summer. Nice job, Stash. This beer marks the first full cycle of Big Beers that I've overseen during my tenure here at Smuttynose. Luckily we were able to sample the whole lineup at The Barley Pub, in Dover, NH, thanks to Mr. Scott Mason and staff. I hope ya'll managed to head over there. For the most part I

Maibock

2003-05-08T17:29:00.000-04:00

5/8/03 - Maibock. Ah, May (or mid-May), time for the Maibock, or as I like to refer to it, The Decoction Redemption. If you peer back into the foggy mists of last fall, you may or may not remember our last attempt at mashing in the Teutonic method: the Octoberfest. We couldn't get a good temperature mix after the first decoction, made some bad choices to compensate, and, dern it, the whole thing

Barleywine

2003-02-18T17:27:00.000-05:00

2/18/03 - Barleywine. Ya gotta love brewing at a time and place in beer history when you can say, "Man, those 80 IBU's just weren't enough!" I'll take all the blame - on the first batch of the Barleywine I wimped out. However, for the second batch we did bump the hopping up to a respectable Big Beer level of 100 IBU's. The grain bill (except for the 2-row pale malt) was all done with Belgian

Imperial Stout

2002-12-17T17:25:00.000-05:00

12/17/02 - Imperial Stout. Oh, man, the name alone gets me salivating. The big daddy, the high muckity-muck of dark beers. Visions of how brewers get their skewed views from too many late nights dipping tasters and testers into cauldrons of this black addiction. Lucky for me making these beers isn't nearly as difficult as waking up after drinking a few. I had the pleasure of working with Chris

Scotch Ale

2002-10-28T17:21:00.000-05:00

10/28/02 - We're bottling our Scotch Ale today and I'm real pleased not only with how it turned out, but with brewing a beer associated with a country that developed a Wee Heavy. I honestly don't have a lot of experience with this style of beer, but I've always wanted to brew a smoked beer and figured this was my chance. When I worked at the Twenty Tank Brewery in San Francisco, we brewed a

Octoberfest

2002-09-09T17:18:00.000-04:00

9/9/02 - Octoberfest- First of all I'd like to apologize about not updating the site with information on the final two batches of our IPA. We were just flat out trying to keep up with demand this summer (thank you kind Smutty drinkers!) The changes were subtle and had to do with hopping ratios and fermentation temperatures. If you have questions please feel free to email me.And so we move forward

Big A IPA - The First Edition

2002-05-31T17:09:00.000-04:00

5/31/02 ~ Corresponding with the release of our newest Big Beer, Smuttynose Big A IPA, I'd like to welcome everyone to our newest section of the web site. I've received several inquiries for descriptions of our seasonal releases and so thought directing people to our home page would be the easiest way to accommodate everyone.When we decided to release an IPA, we were unsure of the direction we