NABC Beers and Brewing

A brief glance at the specs …

Black & Bluegrass Saison will be available in 22oz bomber bottles in April, with limited draft concurrently.

Roger A. Baylor, NABC

NABC Black & Bluegrass Saison

You can’t drink Black & Bluegrass in striped pants, but you can enjoy it alongside the many great meals prepared by creative kitchen minds at eateries throughout the Louisville metro area. It is Wallonian-style farmhouse ale, brewed with lemongrass and black pepper.

Malt: Rahr Pale and white wheat, Castle Aromatic

Sugar: Blue Agave Nectar

Hops: German Hallertauer Magnum

Spice: Toasted black pepper and lemongrass

Yeast: House Belgian Ale

ABV: 6%

OG: 15 Plato

IBU: 18

Color: 6.2 SRM

A brief glance at the specs …

We’ve feminized our Tripel, which will be available in 22oz bomber bottles in May, with limited draft concurrently.

Roger A. Baylor, NABC

La Diable Tripel

Patience is the key and virtue is the lesson from this malt bomb devil of a Belgian-style Tripel.

Malt: Rahr 2-row

Sugar: Sucrose

Hops: (German) Perle and Tettnanger, (Czech) Saaz

Yeast: House Belgian Ale

ABV: 8.5%

OG: 18 Plato

IBU: 33

Color: 5.7 SRM

…  is out and about

NABC’s signature Black Lager is on tap at both Bank Street Brewhouse and the Pizzeria & Public House for consumption in-house, or carry-out sales in growlers and bottles. The first 22-oz bomber shipments have gone out to wholesalers in Indiana and Kentucky. A very limited amount of draft will be made available to outside accounts.

Bonfire of the Valkyries is NABC’s full-bodied and clean Black Lager with medium smokiness. It is the ideal accompaniment to all smoked meats, oysters on the half shell, cabbage soup, kielbasa and freshwater trout. Or, just have a few glasses while you’re burning away the hours until Ragnarok. It won’t last long, so get some.

Roger A. Baylor, NABC

NABC ConeSmoker is coming soon

Once again, the annual batch of ConeSmoker has been brewed by Ben Minton at NABC’s original R & D Brewery, and in a few weeks, it should be ready for release.

The inspiration for ConeSmoker dates to the late 1990’s. One night I poured BBC American Pale Ale into a glass used previously for Bavarian-style Schlenkerla Rauchbier, or maybe the other way around, and an idea for Smoked APA was born.

Roger A. Baylor, NABC

There have been more than a few variations over the years, but lately, we’ve been sticking to the template below.

Malts: Weyermann Rauch, Vienna, and CaraHell malts; Rahr Pale and Simpson Dark Crystal

Hops: Summit and Nugget for bittering, Cascade and Nugget for flavor and aroma

Yeast: House Ale

IBU: 65

OG: 16 Plato

ABV: 6.8%

Color: 13 SRM

Coming in March

On Tuesday and Wednesday, all that was missing in NABC’s R & D Brewery at the Pizzeria & Public House were heaping platters of succulent Schweinehaxe, as Ben Minton was busy brewing our first-ever Bavarian model Doppelbock, formulated with an enticing whiff of smoked malt as a knowing nod to the Franconian tradition. Think Bambergator.

The fermentation will be slow and easy, so the release of Propagator Doppelbock will not come until March. Maybe we can arrange pork knuckles by then, or rinds, or something from a hog. As we wait, here are the specs.

Roger A. Baylor, NABC

Malts: Weyermann BoHo Pils, Melanoidin, Rauch, CaraFoam and Simpson’s Coffee (brown) malt

Hops: German Hallertauer Magnum

Yeast: Andechs Lager

IBU: 20

OG: 18.5

ABV: TBD, but expect 7.5% – 7.9%

Color: 11.8 degree SRM

You can view and print the 2012 NABC beer release schedule PDF here or download it here.  

… is returning in 2012

One of the major themes of my year in beer was a growing preference for session-strength pints.

“Session” is a topic that has been discussed here many times in the past, and I always like to follow the trail backwards in time to Lew Bryson’s pioneering advocacy: The Session Beer Project.

Hence, the gorgeous specimen pictured above: NABC Smoked Abzug. I hasten to add that currently, the only place on the planet where this beer is on tap is the keg box in my home garage, so don’t get any ideas.

Former NABC brewer Jared Williamson originally formulated Abzug as a low-gravity lager (California Common yeast) with a short maturation curve; it was our first attempt to produce a session-strength golden lager for serving at our two on-premise locations. We’ve since started using Bavarian yeast to brew Bat Out of Helles, which will be the inheritor of the Abzug notion.

Later, Jared came up with the idea of lightly “smoking” his Abzug, thereby creating a lower gravity version of something resembling Bamberg’s Spezial. The last keg of it is in the garage, and with around nine months of down time, the liquid is now a brilliant “bright” amber, and as MASH’s late and lamented Colonel Potter might have said, there aren’t enough O’s in smOOth to describe it. The Weyermann smoked malt is beginning to fade in intensity, but it’s still present. The flavor is clean and delicious, and at less than 4% abv, you can have a few without hitting the floor.

Look for the next batch of Smoked Abzug in October of 2012. It will be available on draft at the Pizzeria & Public House, Bank Street Brewhouse, my garage, and selected Cavalier Distributing accounts in Indiana that opt for NABC’s forthcoming “session tap” program. As always, stay tuned.

Roger A. Baylor, NABC