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Late April-mid May Beer Releases

Happy Spring greetings all!

Here are our upcoming beer releases from April 26th through Mother’s Day (May 12th):

Friday April 26th: annual release of Señor Smoke Scotch Ale! Our “Wee Heavy” style ale returns at both locations this Friday at 3! Señor Smoke has a bit of smoked malt added to the grain bill to complement its heavy caramel-malt profile and weighs in around 8% abv. Rich, strong and malty, Señor Smoke shall help fully ring in the warm breezes of Spring (hopefully!). This could be the best batch of Señor Smoke yet (I am excited about it!). Sláinte!

Friday May 3rd: annual release of La Chingada Caca Maibock for our 4th anniversary party! OMG has it been four years?!? Indeed it has and on Friday May 3rd starting at 3pm at both locations we celebrate our fourth birthday! Maibock is one of my favorite lager styles and appropriately the hallmark characteristic of La Chingada Caca is an excellent balance of malt and hops. A strong Munich malt character with an appropriate level of hop bitterness and flavor/aroma for said balance. Come on by the Westport Brewhaus or E. Wash Taproom to celebrate with us!

Friday May 10th: debut of Norsepeeps Nordic Saison for the 2nd anniversary party of our Taproom at 1444 E. Wash! Wow how time flies as it’s already been almost two years since we opened our beautiful taproom on Madison’s (way) burgeoning E. Wash craft beer corridor. I’m excited about Norsepeeps and it will have a definitive Nordic character as we’ll be using a Norwegian yeast strain called Kviek that is quite hot in craft brewing circles these days. This wonder yeast can ferment at up to 98 degrees (that’s rather unprecedented) and should lend some rather nice farmhouse ale esters to go along with ground Cardamom and orange zest (spices used for Swedish Glögg). Norsepeeps will be on tap at both locations at 3 and also we’ll have our friends the Jolly Frog food cart on hand at our E. Wash taproom from 5 to 8 slinging their fine Mexican cuisine. Should pair nicely with Norsepeeps, La Chingada Caca, Señor Smoke, and our other sumptuous selections.

Sunday May 12th (hopefully): return of our acclaimed ESB Grainne’s Special Bitter at our E. Wash taproom for Mother’s Day! We just brewed GSB yesterday (brew day went well) and fermentation is happily underway so hopefully it will be ready for Mother’s Day. We’ll also have live music that day starting at 4 with our buddies Geoff Bradshaw and Mark Felten performing public domain blues, folk, and original tunes.

Meanwhile hopfully AUSOM Triple IPA will be released some time within this late April-mid May time frame (as it’s been fermenting rather slowly for the past few weeks). More on AUSOM (hopfully) soon!

Skål!

Jim

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March Beer Releases!

Frozen Tuesday morning greetings all,

First: I’m looking forward to the end of this savage winter too!

Meanwhile upcoming beer releases for March:

This Friday 3/8 features the return of our popular namesake Golden Ale Kölsch at both locations at 3!

Then mid-March features the release of two stouts:

Friday 3/15 the Ides of March: the annual release of the Parched Rider Coffee Stout at both locations at (you guessed it) 3! This annual beer is a collaboration with our good friends Let It Ride Cold Brewed Coffee and has been very popular since its first release in the fall of 2016.

Then Sunday 3/17 St. Patrick’s Day: debut of Ceiliúradh Irish Stout at our Taproom at 1444 E. Wash at 3! We’ve only brewed this beer once before three years ago and I’m looking forward to having it return on St. Patrick’s Day. We’ll also be having live music at 4pm: the debut of our quarterly Tunes & Tales Singer Songwriter series hosted by our excellent house singer/songwriter Jourdan Hines and Mary the singing bartender!

Friday 3/29 (probably): release of Saccharifice German Pilsner! It will be double dry-hopped with two newer German hop varieties: Hüll Melon and Mandarina Bavaria so expect the likes of honeydew melon and tangerine in the aroma/flavor profile coupled with that elegantly clean German pilsner malt. Saccharifice is our new beer release for March as we’re releasing at least one new beer for each month in 2019.

Cheers!

Jim

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February Beer Releases

Frozen Friday greetings all,

First: both of our warm & cozy locations are open at 3 today for the start of the weekend. Come on by!

Meanwhile upcoming beer releases for February:

Wednesday 2/13: return of our acclaimed GRAINNE’S SPECIAL BITTER ESB at both locations at 3!

Friday 2/15: return of the popular JANETHAN Robust Porter at both locations at (you guessed it) 3!

Wednesday 2/20: debut of GLUTEN TOLERANT The LESSER Wheatwine at both locations! This batch of Gluten Tolerant Wheatwine (first released in 2016) has been unfortunately affected by the Polar Vortex in terms of reaching the robust ABV target of 10% or more (too cold in our little brewery) so this batch is being called Gluten Tolerant The Lesser and will finish out at around 9% ABV. That said: we shall release no (Wheat)wine before its time and it is turning out pretty well! Tons of caramel malt flavor/sweetness with a bit of spicy wheat aromatics followed by 69 IBUs of balancing hop bitterness.

Friday 2/22 (probably): release of SPIRITUAL BOYFRIEND IPA! It features (Texas) grapefruit zest and is double dry-hopped with Galaxy and Azzacca! Should be right juicy. Spiritual Boyfriend is our new beer release for February as we’re releasing at least one new beer for each month in 2019.

Cheers!

Jim

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Tasting notes: Bourbon Barrel-aged Geronimo Imperial Stout

Hello all,

OK I kegged BB-aged Geronimo this afternoon and am sipping on a dram as I write this.

Aroma: a bit of Buffalo Trace bourbon up front with oak from the barrel to go along Geronimo’s complex dark roasted malt profile (along with some caramel maltiness and dark fruit esters). Smooth and complex!

Flavor: very similar to the aroma with fairly significant hop bitterness in the finish to go along with a bit of booze as it is 10% ABV and bourbon barrel-aged.

Additionally I’m getting some cola-like notes as the bourbon melds with the dark roasted malts. My goal all along is to have the bourbon barrel character to complement, not take over, this rather excellent batch of Gerinomo. Initial tasting notes lead me to believe that we have! SO I happily report that it is TOTALLY ready for its release TOMORROW (Friday January 18th) at 3PM at both locations!

Also stay tuned for the release of a limited amount of bombers of BB-aged Geronimo next week (we’re shooting for Thursday 1/24).

Cheers!

Jim

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Happy New Year -AND- January Beer Releases!

Hoppy New Year everyone!

I hope all had a good holiday season and I’m happy to report that we have a lot of good beer to look forward to in January.

For starters on Friday January 11th our namesake Parched Eagle Golden Ale Kölsch returns on tap at both locations at 3PM! The last batch in the fall didn’t last very long and the batch currently fermenting is showing much promise. Our official “lawn mower” beer, our Kölsch is good for drinking at any time of year with its well-balanced combination of subtle aromas and flavors adding up to a light yet full-flavored light golden ale.

Then the following Friday it gets (much) bigger:

On Friday January 18th we proudly have our first beer release party of 2019: Bourbon Barrel-aged Geronimo Imperial Stout! The people have spoken and our answer will come on Friday the 18th as this is the first bourbon barrel-aged version of our popular Imperial Stout Geronimo! It’s been aging in a Buffalo Trace barrel at our Westport Brewhaus since December 3rd and is coming along VERY nicely. By the time we release it on the 18th it will be deliciously barrel-aged for 45 days. Expect a beautiful mix of dark roasted malts/roasted barley, caramel malts with dark fruit esters and significant hop bitterness in the finish with complementary bourbon aroma and flavor to go along with warming alcohol notes! Also stay tuned for updates on the possibility of a limited release of bombers of Geronimo on or around the 18th! Meanwhile it will be on tap at both locations at 3pm on the 18th.

Next up on Friday January 25th the two versions of our flagship Hop-Bearer IPA will be on tap at 3PM at both locations for our Hop-Bearer Smackdown party! It’ll be the original (“classic” or “OG” to some regulars) version double dry-hopped with Citra and Amarillo hops “against” the version double dry-hopped with Mosaic and Amarillo that we first released last September. Votes will be tabulated and Hoppy New Year!

Then on Tuesday January 29th a very special beer that we released last February will return on tap: Jamie the Magnificent Eisbock! In December 2017 we collaborated with our good buddies the House of Brews to brew an Eisbock in honor of our dearly departed comrade Jamie, who died in January 2017. Jamie was a lover of big malty high ABV ales and lagers so an Eisbock seemed like an appropriate beer to brew in his memory. That batch turned out great and the batch currently fermenting (which is the non-collab Parched Eagle version) is fermenting quite nicely!

Looking ahead to early February is my birthday party that will be on Tuesday February 5th at our Taproom at 1444 E. Wash and will feature a “little” beer called Gluten Tolerant Wheatwine.

Meanwhile we have some damn good beers on tap currently at both locales (including Rökig Öl Rauchbier, Decemberfest Munich Dunkel, and Sweetness Imperial Sweet Stout) so come on by!

Cheers,

Jim

 

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