Posts Tagged ‘Merry Ole Ale’
new on tap
Monday, November 30th, 2009
Today our trinity of Winter Seasonal offerings is complete with the debut of Merry Ole Ale, a spiced Winter Ale. Weighing in at an Original Gravity of 1.060 and fermented to 6.2% a.b.v. this brown ale is medium bodied and fairly low in hop but is spiced with cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice for that festive finish that will have you ho, ho, ho-ing and hearing sleigh bells before you know it! That takes us up to 19 Oliver taps @ The Ale House! As soon as we can secure another tap space we’ll be putting up a keg of ’08 Winter Warmer that we squirreled away in a darkened corner of the keg store last year. It should be interesting to compare the two as they are quite different recipes!
Merry Ole Ale on tap now
the sort of friday question
Thursday, November 26th, 2009
Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I hope that your day is starting out better than mine … 6.30am start in the brewery with the added frustration of discovering that one of the door seals on a conditioning tank had developed a leak overnight. I guess it’s a good job that I came in today though, it wouldn’t have been a happy scene if I’d have discovered it after the holiday! It’s fixed now without too much loss (though of course any beer loss is heartbreaking for the brewer). I’ve just got a few hours work to do before my holiday officially starts. I’m making up a solution of isinglass finings at the moment with which I shall fine out a batch of Ironman Pale Ale that I’ll be transferring from FV to conditioning tank. Then I have to crash cool and skim yeast from the Irish Red fermenting in FV8 and I’m done.
So, on to the important stuff! In last weeks Friday Question I asked how many songs I currently have on my i-pod. I thought that this would be a good way of having a “level playing field” as it were … no advantage for the beer geeks (and I use that term with the utmost respect) but of course to no avail. Despite a record number of entries, Mr. Alexander D. Mitchell IV won again! I’m beginning to wonder if Sandy has planted some sort of surveillance equipment in the brewery during one of his visits? Congratulations Sandy, your guess of 23,456 was pretty darn close to the actual figure of 23, 164 (at the time the question was posted). I hasten to add that I don’t sit around all day downloading songs, in fact only 2 of the songs on there are downloads, the rest have been laboriously ripped from my cd and vinyl collection over the last few years and it is still a work in progress!
I’m going to stick with the i-pod song number theme this week, again, in the eternal hope that somebody else may have a chance of winning! So the question is this …. one of my favorite bands is Blur, whose music I’ve been collecting since they released their first single (“She’s So High”) many years ago. How many Blur songs are on my i-pod? As this question will take us into December the prize will be a growler of our Merry Ole Ale which goes on tap next week and a couple of random bottles of English Christmas ales that I’ll pick up over the weekend. Sound good, then guess away my friends, guess away. As usual please enter one guess per person via the comment section below, closest answer wins.
Have a safe and happy holiday.
Steve
seasonal offerings
Tuesday, October 27th, 2009
The Fall/Winter is without doubt my favorite beer making season. I love the winter warmers/barley wines/Christmas ales that come out around this time and of course I love brewing our own seasonal offerings. I’m delighted with the way my first ever pumpkin ale turned out (especially on cask) and it’s been a very popular beer, we’re already down to our last keg! If you haven’t already tried it, be quick, it won’t be around for long. I guess we’ll be doing it again next year and probably doing a double batch (14bbl) so it will at least make it through Halloween and hopefully even Thanksgiving!
Today we’ll be putting the Hot Monkey Love on tap (just as soon as the tap handles are ready). As I’m sure you already know, this cheeky monkey was brewed back in April and weighs in at about 10% a.b.v. It’ll be served in 10oz pours only (trust me, this is one monkey that can kick your ass!) so come along and share the love. The Hot Monkey Love will be on cask soon(see future blogs for details) and its Oak Aged brother “My Monkeys Got Wood” will have a very special release on Valentine’s Day 2010.
Coming up on Friday November 6th is my son William’s 8th Birthday so to celebrate we will be releasing the new 8% a.b.v. “William’s Winter Warmer” at about 1pm, come along, sing happy birthday, and try this wonderful ale. The following week we will aim to release “Merry Ole Ale”, a spiced Christmas Ale (6% a.b.v.) …. it’ll put some color in your cheeks and have you hearing sleigh bells before you know it!
Cheers!