You may have noticed that we haven’t posted a blog entry since opening. That certainly wasn’t our plan, but we’ve been busy.
Fortunately, we are starting to find our rhythm at Odd Breed. For the most part, we are brewing once a week right now and bottling at least once per week. Even though we don’t have a lot of beer available on draft in the taproom, we are brewing about 2,000 gallons per month. It will take us a few more months before the amount of wort we produce equals the amount of beer we package in bottles and kegs. Our beer takes a long time to produce, and we refuse to rush our process.
We have placed an order for 5 more Puncheons from Italy, which will max out our capacity for Puncheons at our current location. We still have some room for standard size wine barrels, and we’ll be ordering more of those soon.
Many people have asked if we are making any beers with fruit, and the answer is yes. We currently have two tanks that we use for fruited beers, and our first two fruited beers will be ready in a couple months. When we use fruit, we only use whole fruit, rather than concentrate, juice or puree. We also allow the fruit to ferment to dryness, which means that we age on fruit for 6-12 weeks, depending on the beer and the type of fruit used. After fermenting the fruit, the beer needs to condition in kegs or bottles for at least another 6 weeks before it’s ready to serve. Because our fruiting process takes so long, we decided to order two more tanks for use as fruiting vessels.
I’ve received a lot of questions about our bottles, so I’ll address some of the common questions I’ve been getting.Our beers are bottle conditioned and are intended to age gracefully for years. Broken Tail and Tres y Dos should both have a shelf life of at least 5 years. When the bottles taste best is subjective; we make our beers available for purchase when we believe they are ready to consume, but in most cases bottles will improve with age. I believe that Broken Tail will taste best in 3-5 years. For my palate, Dry-Hopped Broken Tail will taste best if consumed within the next 6 months. Our Brettanomyces yeast in the bottle will serve as an antioxidant, preserving hop aroma and flavor longer than is possible with standard IPAs. However, hop flavor will only last so long- eventually the fruity hop flavors will fade and the yeast character will be more dominant. We strongly recommend storing the bottle upright in the fridge for at least 24 hours before opening. Our beers are intended to be highly carbonated, and if they are not cooled to the proper temperature and held at that temperature long enough then CO2 will not stay in solution, which will result in the beer foaming out of the bottle when opening. We use a 100% natural cork and age the bottle on its side during the bottle conditioning process. Unless you plan to age the bottle for a long period of time, upright storage is best because it will allow the yeast to naturally settle to the bottom of the bottle. Occasionally, the cork will be wet under the cap. This happens to other producers like Cantillon because they also use a natural cork. Cork breathes, and a wet cork does not seem to negatively affect the beer. Our next cyber bottle release will be on March 26, and we will have bottles of Golden Eyes and Resin on My Thumbs available.Bottles of Peghead, our collab with Bangin Banjo, will be available at Bangin Banjo in a couple months.
Don’t worry, it’s 100% legal, and it’s delicious! Terpenes are the non-psychoactive flavor molecules responsible for the aroma and flavor of Cannabis, which is a genetic relative of hops. Terpenes are present in all plants. We added terpenes from the strains G-13 and Lemon Kush to a Saison aged for 13 months in French Oak Puncheons. The terpenes contribute complex aromas and flavors similar to that found in our dry hopped beers, yet the flavor is distinctly reminiscent of Cannabis. Resin on My Thumbs has been very well received, and we can’t wait to release bottles on March 26.
February 27, 2018
