With Epsilon being released during Austin Beer Week, we have now reached the end of the “yearly cycle” of Black Star Co-op beers. I started brewing on our new system about this time last year starting with such fun beers as Double Dee, Low Esteem, and our first Irrational beer, Moontower. I’ve brewed 57 times this year and produced 18 different recipes. Here’s a list:
High Esteem
Low Esteem
Hubris
Double Dee
Dubbel Dee
House Brown
House Brown 660
Recalcitrant Dockhand
Cantankerous Dockhand
Rebellious Dockhand
Vulcan
Vector
Rover
Elba
Able
Waterloo
Epsilon
Moontower
Do you have any favorites? Are there beers you’d like to see more often? Are their recipes you just don’t think worked? Comment on this post; let me hear you!
The first 6 months was spent getting comfortable with the equipment, trying different ingredients, and establishing our processes. The second 6 months was a honing of our recipes and processes. I’d say that this year was spent throwing beers at the wall and seeing what stuck. After getting our standard “Rational” beers established, each beer was brewed to have a bigger, more irrational brother: High Esteem–>Hubris; Double Dee–>Dubbel Dee; Recalcitrant Dockhand–>Cantankerous Dockhand; Vulcan–>Vector. Additionally, our seasonal Irrational beers had different techniques involved to make brewing life interesting. Moontower was the first high gravity, 10%+ abv; Rover used 200lbs of honey and Belgian yeast; Waterloo kicked off our well-recieved sour series of beers (including Able and Rebellious Dockhand); and Epsilon began our barrel-aging program as well as being the first “smoked” beer.
One of the benefits of being in a brewpub brewery is that you can be whimy! On a whim, we ordered 20 lbs of fresh-of-the-vine Citra hops and loaded Hubris up with 2 swollen sacks of hop wet hop cones. One of the benefits of being in a co-operative brewpub is that I can work with the membership to design and make our beers. Elba was the first Member-Owner designed beer and was so good that it stuck around for 6 batches! And finally, I hope all you homebrewers are planning to enter a beer into our first Member-Owner Homebrew Competition. The winner will help brew their recipe and have it aged in whiskey barrels.
What are the plans for our next year? Well, that partially depends on you, the Member-Owners. Please comment on this post and let me know what your thoughts are. For me personally, I’m interested in taking the beers that we made these past 12 months from good to GREAT BEERS!
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Iain says:
I loved the Hubris. You may not be able to get wet hops very often, but when you do…
Jeff says:
Yeah, the wet hops were great! I’m thinking Hubris will make a return every now-and-again, but instead of wet hops, we can just use a special single dry hop…like Falconer’s Flight or Simcoe, you know?
Steve Randall says:
Isn’t this the time of year to brew Old Blevins?
Jeff says:
Possibly! I was thinking of oak aging a portion of Triple Dee…perhaps that’s Old Blevins.
sean ludera says:
love the chance to help out in the brewpub by winning a Member-Owner Competition. hope to see more next year…
Lee Simmonds says:
I loved the Moontower – possibly the best beer in town of that style – not that any of the beers are to any specific style which is what I really like about the beers at Black Star
Tiara says:
I absolutely loved the Rover (and I’m typically a dark beer girl)…would love to see it more often…I’m already planning on taking a large supply home next time you have it available. I’m also very happy about the Double Dee and the Moontower. Bravo!
Ryan says:
Moontower.. absolutely love that brew. I can’t wait to see it back on tap!
Michael Zakes says:
Rebellious Dockhand! I bought a growler specifically for it and only got one refill
Jeff Young says:
You know, I happened to find an extra keg of RebDock in the cooler…perhaps it will make an appearance at a certain birthday party…(same with Moontower? I don’t know…)
Michael Zakes says:
hmmm, please keep me posted
Michaela Barrett says:
Seconded. My husband and I are just getting into beer drinking and Rebellious Dockhand was a scrumptious introduction.
that guy says:
Dubbel Dee was my hands down favorite this year. I found myself stopping by to grab a pint to satisfy a craving more often than I should have.
Jeff Young says:
Glad you liked it! Look for that one again after Rover comes out in the Spring.
Ivan says:
Good stuff… looks like a ptrtey good pace you are on. We'll work on that publication deal. Its bound to happen… or you could just write a guest post on Bite and Booze. Would that count?