Posts Tagged ‘Odell Brewing Co.’
This past weekend, in preparation for our upcoming release of Mountain Standard Reserve ’10, A Double Black IPA, we filled a couple Subarus with brewers, beer and camping gear, and set off on a little trip through the hop growing regions of Palisade, Montrose, and Paonia Colorado. With these small artisan farmers growing high quality Organic Hops right here in Colorado, we could not pass up the opportunity to meet the growers, visit their fields, and enjoy some beers with the fine folks who work to produce the ingredients we use to craft our beer. We stopped by a farm we have selected hops from before; Glenn Fuller’s Rising Sun Organic Farms, www.coloradoorganichops.com to see his mature Cascades. We made our way to Montrose to meet with Randy at San Juan Hop Farms, www.sanjuanhopfarms.com, and were very impressed by his beautiful Chinooks. Lastly, we visited the new kid on the block… or rather a new school teacher on the block… Hippie Chicks Organic Hop Farm in Palisade. Julie, with the help of her volunteer Hippie Chicks, is in her first year and is already off to a beautiful start. We were so impressed with her operation that we decided to set up our sleeping bags right in her field and wake up amidst the hops to Palisade’s “Million Dollar Breeze.” We are really looking forward to working with Julie and the Hippie Chicks’ hops in our beers. Check out their story and photos of their “girls” (read: hops) at:
http://hippiechicksorganichops.tumblr.com
And… If you ever find yourself in Palisade, make sure to check out the delicious offerings at Palisade Brewing Co. and Peach Street Distillers… Those Palisade Peaches aren’t bad either. So, after spending the weekend walking through Glenn, Randy, and Julie’s fields of high quality, mature hops we selected beautiful Chinook and Cascade varieties that we contracted from each grower for this and next year. We will be using these hops in our upcoming Mountain Standard Reserve ’10, Double Black IPA. Our motivation with our Mountain Standard Reserve offering is to brew an inspiring beer that uses ingredients from Colorado craft farmers, whenever supplies and quality permit, as well as to support these local craft farmers and ensure the sustainability of hop farms throughout Colorado’s western slope. We had a lot of fun picking these hops and having a beer with these growers, we hop(e) you enjoy our upcoming Double Black IPA which will use these special hops!
♦Posted in Blog Home Page, Mountain Standard Reserve '09, Single Serve Series, pilot ♦ 1 Comment »
Our Woodcut #4 Oak Aged Lager provides a toasted oak nose filled with dried apricot, pineapple and raisin along with a warming vanilla character in the finish. Woodcut #4 provides an exceptional base for showcasing the importance of hand selected, hand coopered, medium toast, American virgin oak barrels. By choosing a double Marzen style lager, we as brewers were able to develop a beer that showcases the caramel malty characters of a Marzen, along with the clean warming alcohol character only an 11% lager can provide. The nose of this beer is rich in complexity, providing pineapple, dried apricot, raisin and a pleasantly soft muskiness. Toasted oak overtones balance these aromas with a light cedar quality. As the warming alcohol coats the palate a soft vanilla lingers on the tongue imparted by the medium toast virgin American oak. As this lager warms in the glass, notes of caramel, raisin, brown sugar and a not-so-sweet plum emerge. By aging this beer in American virgin oak barrels at both barrel room temperatures and lagering temperatures, we were able to extract the intricacies of the oak along with the cleanness of a well-brewed lager. Woodcut #4 pours a brilliant maroon with a rich white head and prominent lacing.
For those of you living up in the north country, in the land of 10,000 lakes, we recommend pairing this complex beer with your freshly caught Walleye, lightly seasoned and grilled with bell peppers, caramelized onion and mushroom, lakefront el fresca style, with your favorite friends and family…or just nice people who love great hand crafted beer, good food, and listening to you re-tell how you caught that evenings Walleye again and again and again. And if you want to send some Walleye our way now that we are sending our Woodcut #4 your way, we wouldn’t mind!
Cheers!
♦Posted in Blog Home Page, Distribution, Single Serve Series, Woodcut Series ♦ No Comments »
We love hops here at Odell Brewing Co. We also love experimenting with how we can add these beautiful little green flowers to our beers to achieve new and previously unobtainable hop flavors and aromas. We have been using whole leaf hops in our hop-back for years. As most people know the hop-back is a traditional English brewing vessel originally used to aid in the clarification of wort by running the post-boil hot wort through a bed of hops on the way to the heat exchange. We re-appropriated the traditional hop-back to serve as a means for adding more finishing hops for our IPA, 5 Barrel Pale Ale, St. Lupulin Extra Pale Ale and other special hop-forward releases. So, what are we experimenting with now on our pilot system? How can we fit more hops into our beers through new and unique additions? How about whole flower hops in the mash tun! Our most recent pilot brew, a Double IPA, provides a totally new hop schedule possibility for us, not only with the hop additions in our mash tun, but also with each addition thereafter. If you want to experience a progression in hop flavor and aroma, be sure to stop in the tap room when this beer is tapped. We will announce the tapping of this beer to our fans and followers on Facebook and Twitter, so hop on!
♦Posted in Blog Home Page, pilot ♦ 5 Comments »
