The End of Summer

I love the changing of the seasons. For some reason Fall has always been my favorite season and as a brewer I get excited about this time of year. I know a reprieve from the hot weather is on the horizon with that comes all the fall seasonal beers. Granted, it is certainly still summer here in Sacramento, the 101 degree day yesterday was a painful reminder of that. Despite the current hot snap, activity in the brewhouse is starting to feel like Fall.

One last summer brew, our new Brewhouse Lager, is to be released in about three weeks. It is a light lager brewed with domestic Pilsner Malt, German Munich and Carafoam malts finished with Tetnang hops. We are trying a new lager yeast strain in this batch from Augustiner instead of our normal lager yeast so we are excited to see how it tastes compared to our normal pilsner yeast.

Independence Ale is all but gone, there is one keg left at the Oasis that will likely run out this week. Oktoberfest is in the tank and the bigger beers have been brewed for our Great American Beer Festival entries. Smokey's Imperial Red is the beer most people are interested in, especially now that Independence has just about run out. It has been brewed but needs another month or so to age and be dry hopped over and over again. And again. It should make an appearance towards the end of September and will be one of our GABF and Alpha King entries.

B900 is the same recipe we brewed last year for our 900th batch at our original location. It is an ordinary bitter brewed with floor malted Maris Otter malt, English caramel malts and East Kent Golding hops. Very flavorful but low alcohol beer, great for drinking lots of without getting smashed. I am going to brew it next week and it doesn't take long to ferment and condition. Look for it in about three weeks from the date of this post.

We also have a nice selection of some guest beers right now at Town & Country. As I write this we have the last keg of Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA on line and I just tapped a keg of Sierra Nevada Harvest Ale this morning. There are some other treats lined up, keep an eye on the blog for some more special guest beers coming soon!

Cheers!