Coastal Brew Day Blog

RUSSIAN IMPERIAL STOUT   The Imperial Stout, over the last few years, has become one of the most popular styles in America. Almost every craft brewery, regardless of size, seems to have at least one on their roster. Imperial Stouts are also some of the biggest and baddest beers available, with alcohol content ranging into double figures. This beer is always complex, bold, and malleable. Imperial Stouts have so much going on that they really allow the brewer to get creative with adjuncts and aging options. Many times these are the base beers for new school pastry and coffee stouts, as well as countless bourbon barrel aged stouts.  Originally brewed in the 18th century by Thrale's Anchor Brewery in London, England, it was famously made to export to Catherine the Great of Russia as another boozy option in the cold Russian Winters. The "Imperial" moniker was bestowed upon the style after it was given a royal warrant of trade by the Russian government. Since then, the Imperial

Ginger Pale Ale   Around these parts we don't drink all that much soda (or pop, or cola, or whatever you call it where you're from), but the one thing that we do enjoy is the occasional ginger ale. Effervescent and refreshing, the spicy ginger dances on the palate in ways that evoke colorful and exotic destinations. Ginger is almost always the star of whatever show it happens to be in, regardless of food or beverage. So we decided to us it in a beer. Our Ginger Pale Ale is less of a ginger beer style beverage, and more of a lighter beer infused with fresh ginger. We wanted to make a warm weather beverage as interesting as the fizzy NA drink that we enjoy so much. We use copious amounts of fresh ginger, peeled and ground up in a food processor, to give fresh spice and flavor to a very generic beer, transforming it into an all-star drink.  The ginger root has been used for medicinal purposes for thousands of years. In India, Ayurvedic medicine has implemented ginger in several wa

SUMMER ALE  It's that time of year again, the time of year where the beer you drink has a direct effect on the rest of your day. When the weather warms up, you want something cold and refreshing, something that you can feel okay about pounding down at the beach, or at a picnic. This probably isn't that beer. This Summer Ale isn't quite as crisp and crushable as many others, but it has elements that most beers these days don't. This Summer Ale is more of a night time beer than a mid-afternoon pick-me-up. It is slightly heavier and far more aromatic than most others, and that is due to the inclusion of chamomile during secondary fermentation.  Chamomile is renowned for its floral qualities and pleasant flavor. Used as a tea, the aroma of chamomile has a soothing property to some and it is often used by herbalists as a sleep aid. It should be noted that there has not been sufficient evidence for any medicinal uses for chamomile, however preliminary research is being done t

HABANERO PALE ALE Okay, listen. We all know what a Pale Ale is, that isn't the point of this beer. This beer was designed to incorporate just a little spice and a whole lot of flavor into an original concoction that we could pair with food or enjoy by itself. We had always wanted to do something with hot peppers, and our first try was a grand disaster. We dumped it after primary fermentation in a move that was both heartbreaking and educational.  That initial effort was a Hefeweizen that we dropped a bunch of habanero peppers into. It turned into an astringent, undrinkable mess. So we went back to the drawing board and rebuilt the beer. We nixed the idea of a Hefeweizen being the base beer and went for something different. We looked at this beer as a chef would look at a dish. We wanted balance. Spicy and sweet, bite and body. We took an approach to the peppers that was very different than the first try as well. Instead of dumping a furnace of heat into the beer, we decided to unlo

  Altbier   In the long history of German brewing, several distinct characteristics have become clear. First, German beer is distinct. The rich traditions of Bavaria, the Rhineland, Hamburg, and Berlin have worked in concert to develop traits that make German beer instantly recognizable in the vast world of beer. Among those great brewing cities, Dusseldorf, in the western part of the country, stands as tall as any other great brewing locale due to its famous beer, called Altbier.  “Alt” is the German word for old, and this old ale has a tradition that dates back over 100 years. Altbier is traditionally top fermented, like English ales and many American craft beers, however, unlike those styles, Altbier was aged during the winter months in ice caves, creating a clean lagered finish that English ales generally lack. Altbier is usually more heavily hopped than other German beers, which rely on aromatic hop additions to create the floral and spicy nose so common in Bavarian lagers. A

SCOTTISH EXPORT ALE   The world of Scottish beer has been woefully underrepresented in the American Beerscape. Craft breweries will occasionally unleash a Wee Heavy into the world, but for the most part, Scottish ales have been left in Scotland.  We've been know to dabble in the Scottish arts, ourselves. Our Wee Heavy is a favorite of ours, and the famed Scotch is a well regarded treat in these parts (and we like to throw telephone poles like large weirdos, too), but we have never made a normal Scottish pub-style ale. That's essentially what the Scottish Export Ale is. A burlier cousin of the English ESP and Irish Red, this beer is a malt forward, moderately strong beer that acts stronger than it really is.  Scottish beer is generally placed into one of four categories. The lightest is called a Light (TONS of metaphor there), then comes a Heavy, the Export, and the biggest of all the Wee Heavy. Scottish Export Ales, like those from Belhaven and McEwan's, are generally reddi