Bier 2 Cellar Collaboration May 31 2014, 0 Comments

I first met Jake Austin, brewer and co-owner of Austin Street Brewery, at Novare Res a few years ago when my wife interrupted the anniversary celebration of Jake and his wife Catherine.  I was embarrassed, but it forced two anti social homebrewers to start a conversation.  Luckily they didn’t hold it against us, and since that date we have been friends discussing homebrewing and beer on a nearly daily basis.  Over the years of tasting each other’s batches of homebrew, I have watched Jake far eclipse my homebrew abilities and just brew better and better beers.  I think we both realized a while ago that beer would become our livelihood, I went the bottleshop route and now Jake has gone the brewery route with the opening of Austin Street Brewery.  Jake was instrumental in opening Bier Cellar and I can safely say we wouldn’t have opened our doors if it wasn’t for Jake’s help.  Amazing to think of all the conversations we had being beer geeks on the outside looking in we are both now part of this world that we love so much.

So naturally when we went looking for a partner to help us brew a beer to celebrate our second anniversary I humbly begged Jake to brew one with me.  I am happy to announce Austin Street Brewery and Bier Cellar are collaborating on Bier 2 Cellar, an IPA that will be bottle conditioned with brettanomyces, a yeast near and dear to both Jake and my own drinking heart.  Our goal is to create a beer that is delicious fresh, but if aged will express more dry, funky brettanomyces character.

So beer geeks, you want the beer geeky details?  The grist will be made up of Pilsen malt and White Wheat malt to give a bit more mouthfeel.  It will be hopped with a bit of Nugget hops for bittering, but the star of the hop show will be the boatload of Azacca hops giving aromas and flavors of pineapple, orange, grapefruit and tropical fruit.  When Jake asked what hops I wanted to use I didn’t hesitate, Azacca is the dominant hop in both Victory Hop Ranch and Oxbow Grizacca, both beers I absolutely love.  The beer will be fermented with American Ale yeast but then bottle conditioned with Brettanomyces Claussenii, my favorite of the brett strains.  Yup, I have a favorite brett strain, don’t all 7th level beer nerds?  Brett C. is known for its pineapple, fruity notes, which should compliment the Azacca hops beautifully.  We are shooting for around a 6.5% abv.

We are hoping for this to be ready for around our anniversary on June 2.  Bottles will be available through our bottle shop and at Austin Street’s tasting room.  I personally cannot wait to pop a bottle to celebrate two years of getting to work my dream job, bringing good beers to my favorite people, our customers.