February 2013 Towle Farm Update

Portsmouth Beer Week seems like a perfect time to share an update on the construction of our new brewery at Towle Farm in Hampton.  Here it is!

Despite three weekends of snow storms, work continues at an impressive rate.  I can't say I envy the work crews out there, but I certainly appreciate the work they've been doing under such cruddy conditions.  The building is far enough along that our brewing and packaging staff recently went out to the site for the first time to see the progress and walk through their new work space.  They were pretty amazed and excited.

One things they're excited about is our new brewhouse, which is being built right now.  It's a four vessel, 100 hectoliter (~85 barrels) system from top German firm, Krones.  This powerful piece of machinery is from the same Combi Cube line as the system Founders Brewing recently installed, though theirs is a bit smaller.  The new technology will greatly increase our consistency and quality, which is vitally important when brewing and packaging beer.  There's so much to say about the system, that it'll get its own post once it arrives on our shores.

Otherwise, here are a few updates and photos from our builder's representative and project manager, Clark James.

-The warehouse is almost fully enclosed, save for the overhead doors and interior partition separating it from the bottling area.

-The panel crew has been working to affix insulated panels to the exterior of the building.  The building won't actually be yellow.

-The roofers are progressing with insulating the sloped roof, and have installed membrane ("TPO") on much of the flat roof.

-Masonry has been completed on several of the interior block walls, and the masons have begun installing the stone veneer on the exterior on the front of the building.

-We hope to start framing in the brew pub within two weeks.

That's not all:

We're working with the folks at Applecrest Farm, a local orchard, to revitalize the Towle Farm Orchard.  Many people have asked if we'll make cider.  While it might be fun, I believe we'd need a winery license and that isn't remotely on our radar right now.  On the other hand, we will have a pub at Towle Farm, so I can certainly imagine many more culinary uses for the fruit, than fermentory ones.

Smuttynose is lucky to have two beekeepers on staff and we'll be able to use their skills on our new beerhives!  The bees will arrive at their new home at Towle Farm in April.  Clark, who is one of the beekeepers, says we've got Italians with Carnolian queens.  If you're asking about mead, the same answer to the cider question applies here.  

Construction began with the warehouse.

If you were in our pub, this would be your view of the brewery.

Snow can't stop the Harvey Construction crew!

The main entrance is in the lower left-hand corner of this shot.  
The offices are just above on the second floor.

Here's a cool night time shot, looking straight down the fermentation cellar.  

The backside of the warehouse is closing up.  Note the barn on the right.

If you'd like up to the minute views of the new brewery, check out our webcam at http://www.towlefarm.com.

Smuttynose and 2013 Portsmouth Beer Week

According to the Brookston Beer Bulletin, there are nearly 100 beer weeks in America, but ours runs from February 24-March 4.  We've seen beer awareness in the Seacoast grow a great deal since we tapped our first keg of Shoals Pale Ale at the Stockpot in June, 1994.  Back then, we had to try and explain why our beer was different than cold, yellow and fizzy.  Now, we've got a region full of craft beer drinkers and we're very excited to celebrate the beer culture that's finally taking root here.
  
Bill Harris has worked very hard to put together this slate of events.  Thanks to him, we'll be tapping some rare barrel-aged beers, showing some love to some of our favorite accounts and debuting Noonan, our new Black IPA.  We're pretty excited and our brewers, bottlers and sales folk will be out during the week, drinking and making merry with you all.  We hope to see you at one of these awesome events.

 

Saturday 2/23: Seacoast Winter Beer Festival at The Gas Light, Two sessions plus VIP, please visit http://seacoastwinterbrewfest.com/ for more information.  
            The 2BeerGuys and Seacoast Beverage Lab have reunited with the Gas Light to host the Seacoast’s only winter beer fest.  This year’s edition has brewers set up on heated space on their famous deck, as well as the third floor, where last year’s fest was.  The VIP session begins at 11am while the first session starts at noon and runs to 3pm.  The second session runs from 4pm-7pm.  We'll be featuring 2011 Scotch Ale and 2011 S'Muttonator, so make sure you have a hearty lunch!

Sunday 2/24: Rolling Out The Barrels with Smuttynose, Sam Adams and WHEB at RiRa from 3pm-5pm.

            RiRa will be pouring, Big A IPA and three year old, a barrel-aged variant of one of our most prized Big Beers, Baltic Porter, while bearded Smuttynose staffers will be there to schmooze.

Monday 2/25: Smuttynose Wine Bar Takeover at the Black Trumpet, starting at 6pm. 

            Chef Evan, Denise, Marion and RJ open their doors and draft lines to debut our newest collaboration beer: Bloom!  Bloom is a Belgian golden ale brewed with edible flowers grown by the Trumpet’s staff at Meadow’s Mirth Farm.  If that’s not cool enough, you can also try recent Short Batches Durty and ParadoX as well as a 2010 Baltic Porter aged in bourbon barrels.  Each beer will also have a food pairing curated by a Smuttynose staff member.  Foodies won’t want to miss this chance to take over one of Portsmouth’s most beautiful dining rooms.

Tuesday 2/26: Smuttynose Rare Beer Tapping and Pairing at The Thirsty Moose, from 6pm-8pm

            2012 Really Old Brown Dog, bourbon barrel-aged Robust Porter and bourbon barrel-aged 2010 Wheat Wine will join Finestkind IPA, Old Brown Dog, Robust Porter, Shoals Pale Ale, and Big A in the largest draft account in Portsmouth.

Tuesday 2/26: The Return of the IPAs at TJ’s, from 8pm-10pm

            Portsmouth’s own hop-stravaganza returns for a second year to TJ’s.  We’ll be featuring our double IPA, Big A, and Paradox, our very limited session IPA brewed with experimental hop 01210. 

Wednesday 2/27: The Blue Mermaid, The Third Annual Smuttynose Vs. J. Lohr Beer vs. Wine Dinner, reception beer at 6pm

            This annual event includes passed appetizers and four delicious courses, each paired with a Smuttynose beer and a J. Lohr wine.  At the end of the night, diners will choose the winner, so please help us stack the deck!  Our beers for the night are: Star Island Single, Old Brown Dog, 2012 Homunculus, 2012 Scotch Ale and a cask of 2013 Baltic Porter aged on cocoa nibs.  For more information, please call the Mermaid at (603) 427-2583.

Thursday 2/28: Fun With Firkins at the Coat of Arms, featuring Smuttynose, Throwback and Moat Mountain, from 6pm-8pm

            We’ll be pouring Finestkind IPA dry-hopped with experimental hop 01210.  Fellow Granite State brewers, Moat Mountain and Throwback will also be on the beer engines for your drinking pleasure.

Thursday, 2/28: Belgium Comes To Portsmouth!  The Gas Light, from 8pm-10pm

            Beer Week returns to the scene of the Seacoast Winter Beer Fest!  2012 Zinneke and 2013 Gravitation will be pouring as part of the Gas Light’s collection of Belgian treats.  Alpo, their beer buyer, can really assemble a beer collection, so you won’t want to miss this!

Friday 3/1: WXGR Gourmet Lounge, a live broadcast cooking show, featuring Rudi’s and Smuttynose, Rudi’s in the Square, from 6pm-8pm

            Rudi’s chef will demonstrate how to cook two dishes, incorporating a Smuttynose beer into each.  The Gourmet Lounge is open to the first 70 people who show up.  These lucky folks will be able to enjoy Durty and bourbon barrel-aged 2010 Baltic Porter on tap. 

Saturday 3/2: Art²: Artisanal Beer and Locally-Themed Art, Opening Reception, at 6pm

            We’re teaming up with the fine folks at Sam Adams and the Press Room to open a crowd-sourced art event.  The call has gone out to the Seacoast to create locally-themed or -influenced art, which will be on display (and for sale) at the Press Room for the entire month of March.  A bourbon-oaked Finestkind cask will be on the bar for your drinking enjoyment along with bourbon barrel-aged 2010 Baltic Porter, bourbon barrel-aged 2010 Wheat Wine, and 2011 Farmhouse Ale.  $1.00 from each pint goes to (H)EAT, a local organization that helps local families bridge heating and food deficits.  if you want to submit art work, please email the Press Room's Tristan Law at tristanklaw (at) gmail (dot) com.

Sunday 3/3: A Day of Rest and Liver Recovery

Monday 3/4:  We’ll probably go to lunch at Portsmouth Brewery

Short Batch: ParadoX, a session IPA

We brewed another IPA in the Short Batch Series; this one is called ParadoX.

ParadoX is a beer of the moment.  It's a session IPA, brewed with an experimental hop variety (01210, it's really lemony) and a portion of New England grown malt.  Our brewing staff has wanted to brew one of these for a long time and just about everyone in the company has been waiting to drink one. So, why'd we do it now?

Way back in late 2012, David Yarrington, our intrepid Director of Brewing Operations, was approached to brew an anniversary beer for Mohegan Sun's Sun Wine Fest's 10th anniversary (we've got the whole craft beer crossover thing covered here too), he called up one of our hop brokers to inquire about an experimental variety he'd smelled at hop harvest last fall.  Despite there being only 5 acres of this variety growing in the whole world, we were able to get enough pellets to brew ParadoX.

The Sun Wine Fest, which took place January 25-27 at the Connecticut casino, only needed about two barrels of the batch, so we've got the rest to ship out to beer lovers.  We've saved you the ticket price, but you also missed on the chance to eat some incredible food and meet some really talented chefs.

ParadoX is light bodied, loaded with lemony-citrus hop flavor and very drinkable, but you don't have to take my word for it, here are a few reviews:

Man Drinks Beer
The Boston Globe's 99 Bottles

We'll tap the beer and have 22 ounce bottles for sale ($9 each) at Smuttynose during tours the weekend of February 8. You can reserve spots for our tours on the "Visit Us" section of our website. Shipments to our wholesalers begin the following Monday, February 11.    For our home market, ParadoX will be featured on tap at three February events:

February 14 7pm-9pm Strange Brew, Manchester, NH 
February 25 6pm Black Trumpet Early Bloom event, also pouring Durty, Bloom and barrel-aged    2010 Baltic Porter, Portsmouth Beer Week
February 25 8pm-10pm IPA Night at TJ's, Portsmouth Beer Week

Vital Stats:

5.3% abv   40 IBU
Malts: North American 2-Row, English Pale Ale, Aromatic, Valley Malt C-60
Hops: Bittering- Bravo, Flavor-01210, Dry Hop- 01210
Yeast: American Ale

Production:  30 barrels (100 1/6 bbl kegs, 28 cases)

Food Pairings:  Paradox would be good with certain types of seafood and maybe some salads, but you're going to want to just drink this one on its own.

Here is a list of most of the accounts where you can find ParadoX.  Please remember that we don't know when the accounts will get their beer, or when they'll make it available, only when it leaves our warehouse.  For more information, please contact the account of your choice.

New Hampshire Draft
    Strange Brew, Manchester
    Biederman's Deli, Plymouth
    Popper's at the Mill, Newmarket
    Rudi's, Portsmouth
    The Press Room, Portsmouth
    TJ's, Portsmouth
    The Black Trumpet, Portsmouth
       
New Hampshire Bottles
    Bert's Better Beers, Hookset
    The Beer Store, Nashua
    Barb's Beer Emporium, Concord
    Ayotte's, Hudson
    Brewtopia, Keene
    Route 13 State Line, Hudson
    Portsmouth Provisions, Portsmouth
    Cigarette City, Seabrook
    Johnson's Market, New Durham

 Maine Draft
    The Black Birch, Kittery
    Pi Men Miyake, Portland
    Nocturnem Draft House, Bangor
    Novare Res, Portland

Vermont Draft: 2 logs, destination unknown

Massachusetts Draft
    Armsby Abbey, Worcester
    Plan B, Springfield
    Deep Ellum, Allston
    Meadhall, Cambridge
    Atwood's, Cambridge
    Bukowski's, Cambridge
    Christopher's, Cambridge
    Independent, Somerville
    Sunset Grill, Allston

Massachusetts Bottles
    Julio's, Westboro
    Table and Vine, Springfield
    Spirited, Lenox
    Liquor World, Somerville
    Craft Beer Cellar, Belmont
    Gordon's, Watertown and both Waltham locations
    Blanchard's, Jamaica Plain, West Roxbury, and Allston

New York Draft
    Cole's, Buffalo
    The Tap and Mallet, Rochester
    The Ruck, Troy
    The Bier Abbey, Schenectady

Connecticut Draft
    Gingerman, Greenwich
    Mikro, New Haven

Rhode Island Draft
    Julian's, Providence
              

Calling All Artists!

It's just under a month until 2013's Portsmouth Beer Week begins.

This year, we're teaming up with Sam Adams and Portsmouth's hallowed Press Room, to put on a crowd-sourced art show, Art ²: Unique Beer and Unique Art, but we need you to create the art.

One part gallery show and one part beer event, Art ² kicks off on March 2, with vintage, rare and unreleased beers, live music and most importantly, your Portsmouth-themed or inspired art.

Submitted works will remain on the fabled brick walls of the Press Room, for sale, for the entire month of March and a portion of the proceeds will be going to (H)EAT, a local non-profit.

What type of art? Photography, painting, prints, ceramics, sculpture and any other medium. If it has to do with Portsmouth and the surrounding area, we want it in the show. For more details, please email Tristan Law (TristanKLaw (at) gmail.com). All entries must be submitted by February 28th.
 
On behalf of all three parties, we hope you can channel your inspiration into something artistic, preferably by the 28th and participate in the show.

2013 Gravitation

2013 Smuttynose Big Beer Series Release #1: Gravitation

 

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 alcohol and can be seen as analogues to triples, which are also light bodied and colored but can be quite sweet and as strong as 10%.  Dubbels can be simply described as Belgian brown ales; they exhibit a rich, malty flavors, spicy yeast notes and typically range from 7%-9%.

With alcohol contents as high as 12%, “Quads” are the richest of the rich and the boldest of the bold and Smuttynose Gravitation is no exception.  Deep chestnut colored, with rich malt flavors reminiscent of brown sugar, Gravitation isn’t just sweet and boozy.  The use of imported Belgian malts and a special ester-producing Trappist yeast contribute the unified fruitiness that defines this beer.  The prominent malt character and strong alcohol make Belgian-style quads an excellent candidate for aging, as long as you store your bottles upright in a cool, dark space.

Food Pairings

Gravitation is a hearty and hefty beer, so it’ll pair well with foods that are intensely flavored and heavy.  Earthy foods like wild game and blue cheeses stand up to Gravitation’s intensity by playing against the sweet malty character.  If earthy isn’t your thing, seek out dishes that are fatty, tart or a combination of the two; foods like pork belly, mushroom ragout or rabbit with kriek, a classic dish of Belgian beer gastronomy. 

Stat Box

11.3% ABV 

25 IBU

Starting Extract: 21.3° Plato   Finishing Extract: 1.9° Plato  

Malts: North American 2-Row, Cara-Red, Aromatic, Special B, C-60, Wheat

Hops: Willamette

Special Guests: Demerara Sugar, Dark 2 Belgian Candi Syrup

Yeast: White Labs WLP-500 Trappist Ale

Production Size: 200 barrels (6200 gallons)

2013 Gravitation will begin shipping January 15.

Smuttynose Short Batch #18: Durty

Smuttynose Short Batch #18: Durty

Smuttynose is proud to introduce our eighteenth Short Batch Beer, "Durty," a brown IPA!

There's no denying that IPA is king of the craft beer world right now.  The style is getting so popular that even the big brewers are attempting their own versions, while IPA sub-styles, like session IPA, double IPA, white IPA and black IPA, continue to be created and defined.  Brown IPAs combine the caramel and nutty-biscuity flavors of a brown ale, with an American IPA-sized does of hops; it's pretty straight-forward, but pretty delicious.

On to the beer...Durty is a big beer (8.4% abv, 55 IBU) packed full of big hops.  We've used Polaris, a new German high alpha variety for bittering, followed by American hop icon, Nugget, for the flavor additions and finally, a boatload of Simcoe post-fermentation for dry-hopping. The malt selection isn't too different from Old Brown Dog, but it's a bit heavier on the nutty character and dark cocoa notes.

Durty will debut at Smuttynose on Saturday, December 15 from 3pm-5pm (unless you join us for a tour that day).  We hope that this time change will allow more of you to come to Portsmouth for Durty, and other Short Batch releases.

This will also be our first Short Batch to appear in 22 ounce bottles, each of which are bottle-conditioned.  Bottles will retail for $9 and there will be a remarkably small amount (25 cases) of off-premise distribution in New Hampshire and Massachusetts.  They will ship from Smuttynose on December 17 and be available at a very minute number of beer stores (see below).  If you'd like to know when these accounts will have the bottles, we suggest you contact them directly, as we don't know when they take deliveries from our wholesaler.

Vital Stats

8.44% abv   55 IBU

Malts: North American 2-Row, Munich 10L, Chocolate, C-60, Brown

Hops: Bittering- Polaris, Flavor- Nugget, Dry Hop- Simcoe

Yeast: American Ale Yeast

Batch Size: 106 logs, 69 cases


New Hampshire: Top Shelf Brews (Hampton)
                               Hampton Falls Village Market (Hampton Falls)
                               Johnson's Market (New Durham)
                               The Beer Store (Nashua)
                               Bert's Better Beers (Hookset)
                               Barb's Beer Emporium (Concord)
                               Ayotte's (Hudson)
                               Discount Beverages (North Conway)
                               Portsmouth Provisions (Portsmouth)

Massachusetts:    Table and Vine (West Springfield)
                                Craft Beer Cellar (Belmont)
                                Liquor World (Somerville)
                                Kelly's (Dalton)
                                Spirited (Pittsfield)
                                Domaney's (Great Barrington)
                                Liquors 44 (Hadley)
                                Ryan and Casey (Greenfield)
                                Yankee Spirits (Sturbridge)
                                Julio's (Westboro)

                                Bogie's Beer and Wine (Beverly)
                                Redstone Liquors (Stoneham)
                                Blanchard's (Jamaica Plain)
                                Ball Square Fine Wines (Somerville)

*We haven't quite finalized all the case allocations for the Boston area yet, so there will be a few surprise drops.

Brown, Belgian and Bourbon-barreled: welcome Zinneke to the Big Beer Series!!

Zinneke

2012 Smuttynose Big Beer Series Release #6

"Zinneke" (pronounced zinn-eh-kuh), Smuttynose's new Belgian stout and Big Beer Series release, will begin shipping to wholesalers on November 12!   

This relatively new sub-style combines Belgian, American and English influences to create a beer whose total is more than equal to the sum of its parts.  Here’s how Zinneke breaks down and adds back up.

Part 1) Start with a strong stout.  This is the Big Beer Series after all… 

Part 2) “Belgianize” it by altering the grain bill and fermenting the wort with a Trappist yeast strain. We backed off the heavy caramel and roasted malts to create a more complimentary flavor profile for the yeast, which contributes fruity esters and leaves a light body for deceptive drinkability.

Part 3) Put some wood on it!  10% of the batch was brewed early and aged in bourbon barrels for 10 months.  Why? because it adds complimentary vanilla and toasted oak flavors to what’s already there.  Think of it as an infusion of awesomeness!

These three parts combine to create a beer with dark color and light body with prevalent flavors of dark fruits, vanilla and toffee, while subtle chocolate flavors appear in the finish.

This deep brown-colored beer has lots of dark fruit flavor and a nice chocolate highlight in the finish.  We'd suggest pairing it with creamy desserts, roasted vegetables and rich, roasted meats, like duck.

What in tarnation is a "Zinneke?"

The name of our new beer is endearing Brussels slang that originally described the mongrel dogs that lived around the River Zenne during the Middle Ages.  The multi-cultural residents of Belgium’s capitol city, have since reappropriated the term as a tongue-in-cheek nickname for themselves.

 

TRIVIA: Zinneke began life as Short Batch #10: Belgian Stout in September 2010, but like several other of its series-mates, it has graduated to a larger release.

Vital Stats

8.4% abv 50 IBU
Starting Extract 18.9° Plato

Finishing Extract 3.75° Plato

Malts: North American 2-Row, Carawheat, Munich 10L, C-120, Chocolate, Roasted Barley, Brown
Hops: Magnum, Glacier
Mojo: Dark #2 Belgian Candi Syrup

Yeast: WLP-500 Trappist Ale Yeast

Batch Size: 200 barrels (6200 gallons)

Here Come The Hops!

Monday, October 29 marks the anticipated return of our award-winning Big A IPA!  After a five month hiatus, The Great British Beer Festival award-winning double IPA returns for a limited engagement.  We can only brew 100 barrels a month from October through January, so supplies of twelve ounce four packs and kegs will be limited, but available, throughout our distribution.  Tell your local beer store or beer bar that you need to see for yourself why the New York Times named Big A the top IPA in America and Men’s Journal picked it as one of the top 25 beers in America!

Here are the vital stats:

9.7% abv  120 IBU

Malts: North American 2-Row, British Pale Ale

Hops: Bittering: Magnum and Cascade

            Flavor: Magnum and CTZ

            Dry: Cascade, Nugget, Sterling, CTZ

Recommended Food Pairings:
Vietnamese, homemade guacamole, spicy scallops, tandoori chicken and spicy biryanis