Coastal Brew Day Blog

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 Bavar...

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 red...