Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Hellsmoke Porter has been rolled out again at last, with more to come soon. I have two 3-BBL fermenters that I'll start to keg and bottle out of in a few days.

The recipe experiments and tweaks are now done with the Long Island Potato Stout and the Hell Gate Belgian-Style Golden Ale, I'll be brewing a production batch of the latter first, with the former to follow shortly. Both should be available in December and January.



The Belgian Golden Strong Ale style is traditionally named after the Devil or variations thereof (Duvel, Belzebuth, Pranqster, Damnation, Hades Ale, etc.) The deceptively delicate Hell Gate Belgian-Style Golden Ale follows that tradition, and is also named for the bridge that spans the infamous Hell Gate portion of the East River that separates Long Island from Manhattan.

Family obligations will be keeping me from this coming Saturday's International Great Beer Expo at Nassau Coliseum, but Rich Thatcher and the Long Island Beer & Malt Enthusiasts will be kindly pouring some of my Hellsmoke Porter along with the great brews by the group at their table. They'll be having 13 beers on tap!

Here's to the memory of Keith "Shiki" Freeman, an enthusiastic member of the Long Island Beer & Malt Enthusiasts. He was a warm, kind-hearted, generous, and intelligent man who seemed to lived life to the fullest. He will be missed.

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

That batch of Long Island Potato Stout turned out as dry as I had hoped, it will be conditioning and carbonating prior to getting it out in bottles. Word on when and where to follow. I'm looking forward to feedback on it.

The next brew in my experimental stout series will be a true Oyster Stout, using oysters from Long Island's east end. (The Potato Stout used organic potatoes from Sang Lee Farms in Peconic.) I finally got formula and label approval last week from the TTB on the oyster stout, but I'll probably brew it after my equipment takes a brief road trip to Brooklyn on the 18th. (More on that later.) So, it will be another batch of Weizenbock to be brewed this coming Sunday.

Hellsmoke Porter will be heading out in kegs, some bottles after that. Again, word on when and where to follow.

The next meeting of the Long Island Beer & Malt Enthusiasts is tonight at the Black Forest Brew Haus, in Farmingdale from 7:30 to 9:00 PM. Come on down!