The Alchemist Pub And Brewery

Attention loyal Alchemist customers! It is time once again to place your votes in our local “Best of” competition.  It’s sponsored by our local Seven Days newspaper of record for all things Vermont.  There are over 100 categories in the survey, and you must fill out at least 50 to have it count.  As you are filling out the form, you can always refer back and search the database for local businesses you love.

We are especially interested in the following categories…

Category 16:  Best Brewpub

Category 18:  Best Bar

Category 19:  Best Apres-Ski

Category 55:  Meteorologist (Dave Bush of course!)

Category 85:  Web Developer (Moosedog Studios, our very own Robin
Hoover)

Category 100:  Place to get Body Art (Good Ink, our much deserving
tattoo artists upstairs)

Thank you all for your loyalty and support over the years.

That is it for my groveling.

On to the beers.

First of all, disregard my cask Holy Cow announcement on my last blog. It will not be on until August-ish.  Good things come to those who wait…..

I have a double batch of Focal Banger sitting on the dry hops as you read this.  This IPA will be poured at the pub, and at this years Vermont Brewers Festival.  It will be known as Ball n Chain IPA at the fest in honor of my niece’s wedding the same weekend.  I will be at that wedding, and my head chef, Jeff Lang, will be running our tent for the event.  We will also be pouring our annual lager, Your Mother, a German-inspired Pilsner.  This little beauty was fermented with a classic strain of lager yeast,  heavily hopped with Hersbrucker and Opal, and cold conditioned for 14 weeks.  Since half of it will be given away at the festival, it will only be making a BRIEF appearance at the pub.  3.5 barrels of Pilsner does not last long in the summer…..

With an additional fermenter coming online soon, I may be able to sneak a batch of Fluxcapacitor through the system in the late summer.  I will be carbonating and kegging the Wee Wittle Wabbit on Wednesday.  This not so Wee Heavy is stunning, and will sit patiently until 10/10/10, its release date.

I also have a batch of Farmers Daughter aging in the cellar.  I’ve been very pleased with this spring’s string of Belgian-style ales.  This one is no exception.  A little more bitter than past versions, but everything else stayed the same.

Honky , our house white ale, is absolutely at its best these days.  I had one the other night, and the phenolics have settled so nicely into place.  Well balanced and very drinkable.

Menage a Trois  will be on for the next 3 weeks or so.

If you haven’t been in during the last two weeks, I suggest you do.  El Jefe is making an off-season appearance, and it won’t be around long. I give it 2-3 more weeks.

As with all of my beers, the benefits of unpasteurized and unfiltered beer is that you get to taste them evolve over the course of their existence.

Before you know it, I will be brewing Rapture and Ouroboros.  Stay tuned, and stay thirsty.

John

My oh my, it has been a while.  Sorry it has taken so long to get out a new blog.  All kinds of things have been going on here at The Alchemist.  Aside from brewing beer like a madman, I’ve been slowly, but surely, making headway on some brewery improvements.  As I write this, I’ve got a guy in my brewery putting spray foam on two of my fermenters.  On Tuesday, we brought in two additional tanks.  One is a new fermenter, which will give me 33% more capacity. The other is a 7bbl Grundy which will enable us to provide hand-pulled Holy Cow, 7 days a week!  That will come on line around June 1st, just in time for the summer madness.  We will still be offering a rotating cask on Fridays, so, for Fridays and Saturdays, we will have two hand-pulled beers on tap.  I am also in the process of installing a glycol system for chilling my beers.  This will help my beers to be even better, and will take a load of pressure off me for the summer.
All good things, but not something you really care about.  So, on to beer news.

Petit Mutant, and Heady Topper fans should probably come in sooner, than later.  Both will be gone in about a week.  You won’t see Heady for a while, and the next batch of Petit won’t be released until winter.

There is a little bit of Celia Saison left, so if you want to taste the best gluten-free beer in the world, come and get it.  We recently won a Gold Medal at the World Beer Cup for the Celia.  The next gluten-free offering is getting brewed in two weeks, Celia Pale Ale.

I have had MANY requests to bring back the IPA, but it was just too bitter in my opinion.  So I will compromise with making a 25-30 ibu hop bomb to be released some time in May.  We will most likely have a two week gap in our gluten-free offering around the early part of May.

Brecky is back on tap.  This is the second batch, and I changed things up a little.  Instead of 5.5%abv, it is at 7.5%.  This makes a big difference in the final taste, the most obvious is that the new batch is a little drier.  All in all, it is still an incredibly satisfying beer.  Don’t look for it to come back any time soon, it was a bitch to brew, and I always get a terrible yield.  That is the double whammy death knell for any beer.  Should be on through May.

Sterk Wit will be around for a few more weeks. This is one of my favorite batches so far.

Coming down the line are a couple of old favorites.  When the Heady Topper is gone, we will be releasing this years batch of Shut The Hell Up!.  An American mild ale coming in at 3.8% abv.  LOADED with Simcoe hops, and absolutely oozing with the flavor and aroma of pink grapefruit.  As always it will be served in a larger glass so that our employees will have the option of offering their indecisive customers a “nice tall glass of Shut The Hell Up”.  Good stuff….

Menage a  Trois will come on tap when the Petit is gone.  This Belgian-inspired strong golden ale has been aging in my cooler for the last ten weeks. Smooth, delightful, and nicely phenolic.

The new batch of Honky is just about done fermenting, and will replace the Sterk Wit.  Honky is our house white ale brewed in the traditional manner, using coriander and Curacao orange peel in the kettle.  Light and Summery, just in time.

So that is it.  Hope this helps.

Drink good beer…..

Happy Holiday!
Tonight only! we will be pouring a 5 gallon keg of Fourtwenty Framboise.
Two year old, Bacchus base, aged with red raspberry!

Brecky,our oatmeal stout, is on back tap!
batch #1was 5.5% abv
this batch #2 7.5%
thank you for being my all-to-willing test subjects….

Four of my beers will be on tap this sunday at the Blind Tiger Ale House in NYC.
Sterk Wit, Knuckle Dragger, Heady Topper, & Petit Mutant.