I have really good news for everyone. We will be making 5 more pilots the next couple of weeks. We looked at the permitting process in order to determine when construction would get under way and decided that we should be able to slide these pilots in for our fan base. All of the ideas are experimental and I am very excited to start production on them. I spent the majority of Tuesday writing the recipes and spent the majority of Wednesday picking up raw materials for their production. I discovered some very special grains at Southern Brew Supply that I will mention as I write about each of the pilots.

            The first pilot that I am going to brew is an Imperial Oatmeal Rye American Brown Ale (what a mouthful). Joe and I have been kicking around the idea of making this for a couple of months now but since we have the time to do it, we will be producing it finally. It has 9 different grains in it. The base malt is Canadian two row, which I like because it is a lighter colored base malt so that means that I can use more specialty grains and pack more flavor into my beers. I will be using malted rye, chocolate rye and caramel rye. Out of all of these different ryes, the one that I found the most interesting was Thomas Fawcetts Cara Rye. If no one had been standing around the shop on Wednesday, I would have taken a whole bag of the stuff home to snack on and pour milk over in the morning. This stuff tastes like spicy cocoa Rice Crispies. I could not get enough of it but I had to finish pulling all the ingredients so I was forced to put it back and move on. The flaked oats in this beer will be over 10%. This will give it a nice silky mouthfeel in addition to the spicy rye character. There is also some chocolate malt in the mix as well and a very small percentage of roasted barley (.2%). Just enough roasted barley to put the flavor at threshold so that when you drink it, you will wonder what you are tasting at the end of the flavor profile. There is one more grain that I put in there that will remain secret. I am obsessed with it and I can’t let my secret get out. There will be 4 different hop varietals in this beer. They include Northern Brewer, Willamette (I like Willamette in my American brown ale), Ahtanum and Simcoe. One of the hops will be implemented as a first wort addition. I will be pitching our house ale yeast, Thames Valley, for fermentation. This beer will be 9%ABV at 88.5 IBU’s. It will more than likely be too dark for a standard American Brown Ale but just right for an Imperial American Brown Ale. I can’t wait to smell the mash on brew day.

            Next in the list of new pilots is a Mayan Chocolate Imperial Stout. The base malt will be Thomas Fawcett Maris Otter. It also has the standard roasted malts of an imperial stout with chocolate malt and roasted barley being pushed to the forefront and a smaller addition of black malt. This beer will also feature Fawcett and Hugh Baird cara malts (I love both of these maltsters because their specialty grains have so much flavor). Also in the grist bill, I will be using extra dark munich and some flaked barley for added body. The hop bill is simple and incorporates UK First Gold and UK Fuggle. The interesting part is the spice and chile additions that go into the secondary. They include ancho and pasilla chiles. The ancho is a standard chile that is used quite a bit in chili powder and it is not as hot as the pasilla. The pasilla chile has smoky notes and I will be using more ancho than pasilla because I don’t want the beer to be too smoky or too hot. I will also be adding Madagascar vanilla beans, threshold levels of cinnamon and raw cacao nibs. Once all of these things have been extracted in the secondary, the beer will be racked to a keg for carbonation. I will be using our house ale strain for this beer as well (Thames Valley). This beer will be about 11%ABV and will weigh in at 80 IBU’s. It should be a great beer for Fall and Winter. I am brewing this as a nod to Mayan/Incan worship and love of chocolate and it will be nothing short of decadent.

            I recently had the pleasure of tasting Southern Tier’s Pumking and I must say that it is one of the best pumpkin beers that I have ever tasted. I am still trying to figure out how they got that butter crust aroma and flavor into this beer but I think that I am getting close. My third pilot will be an Imperial Pumpkin Ale. I have been making a pumpkin ale for 13 years now and this will be my 13^th batch. How suiting for Halloween. I took my existing pumpkin ale recipe and embellished it to make it weigh in at 9% ABV. Brewing this beer is a ritual for me. I always anticipate the smell of the pumpkin and the spices and the wonderful Fall weather that accompanies the production of this beer. I was considering using pumpkin pie pumpkins but then realized that if I am going to ever try and pull this off commercially then I will have to use canned puree that has no preservatives or additives. It will take around 930 lbs of pumpkin to make one 15 bbl batch of this beer and I personally don’t have the means to process that much pumpkin at the brewery. I will be using 10 lbs of puree for a 5 gallon batch. The grist bill has pilsner malt for the base malt addition with generous proportions of light munich malt and cara malt(just discovered how tasty Hugh Baird Carastan at 35 degrees Lovibond is and yep that is what is going in here). The hop bill is simple with Hallertauer Hersbrucker being the only hop that is used. My spice additions will be made into a potion (basically a homemade pumpkin pie spice extract). I will be using large amounts of Madagascar vanilla beans and modest to small amounts of cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and cloves. There might be another secret ingredient in here if I can find what I am looking for but I can discuss this with you later based on my findings. I will be using 1056 American Ale for fermentation (I bought all the Thames Valley that Brian had so I was forced to find an alternative). This beer will be 9% ABV and have a total of 27.6 IBU’s. It will be perfect to sip while you take your kids trick or treating and equally as good with Thanksgiving dinner. I can smell it now…yum!

            The fourth beer is a joint effort between Joe and me. It will be a classic Saison with some spices and local grapes (scuppernongs). The grist bill consists of pilsner malt for the base with white wheat and flaked wheat as well. I will also be using Hugh Baird’s Light Carastan which by the way is a great cara malt. It is very subtle and has a clean sweetness. We will also be using cane sugar as a kettle addition to increase attenuation and the overall dry feel of this beer. So far I plan on using sweet orange peel and possibly some other spices at threshold. A portion of the grapes will go into the kettle and the rest will be added to the secondary. I will be using East Kent Golding, Styrian Golding and Saaz for the hop additions. We will be using 3724 Saison yeast for fermentation and it will be conducted at 85 – 90 degrees F. The beer will then be moved into the keg which will act as a tertiary (secondary will be on grapes) and stored at 70 degrees for an additional 4 weeks prior to cooling and carbonating. This should be a great experiment that will erase the line between local wine and beer. This one will be 6%ABV and will be hopped to 29 IBU’s. I hope that there is some of this still lying around when spring comes. It should be a great gourmet way to beat the oncoming heat of summer.

            The final beer in our line up of experimental pilots (notice that none of these are BJCP…I was beginning to get tired of the stuffiness of all that jargon anyway and I am a recognized BJCP judge…time for some creative freedom) is a beer that I like to call Bleeding Heart Brown Ale. It is along the lines of an Imperial Southern Brown Ale with some twists and turns. I wanted this beer to be so malty that it was chewy so I made some interesting decisions on the grist bill. Half of the base malt will be Canadian two row with the other half being munich 2. This will give a very forward malt impression alone but I am not done yet. I also threw cara 80L at the grist bill and some chocolate malt for color and flavor. I will be using 1968 Special London and if you aren’t aware of it, this is a very malty yeast strain that flocculates out and looks like chunky peanut butter when you harvest it to pitch into multiple batches (on a commercial scale of course…also great for cask conditioned beers). The hop bill consists of Styrian, East Kent Golding and Willamette. So here is the catch, I am going to use tea in this beer. There is a seasonal tea that Celestial Seasonings makes that is called Sugar Plum Spice Holiday Tea. It has hibiscus, roasted barley, roasted chicory, rosehips, chamomile, plum, ginger, roasted carob and cardamom in it. I am going to put the whole box in after the boil is over and let it sit on the tea while I run through the counter flow heat exchanger. I made this beer for the first time about 10 years ago and it was wonderful to say the least. The rosehips give the beer a redder tint than any normal brown ale would have thus the name Bleeding Heart. This beer will be 5.6% ABV and is set at 23 IBU’s (Southern Brown Ales are typically lower in gravity…this might not be an Imperial but feel free to call it anything that you want…hopefully interesting at least). This will be a social beer and the aroma and flavor profile will remind you of Christmas and winter without being overbearing on your senses or palate.

            Thanks to everyone that responded to my post on Beer Advocate. We are both anxious to mash in for the first time on our new Premier Stainless equipment. I am also looking forward to feedback on these new pilots. You guys have been great about giving me feedback about our other pilots and I am hoping that these pilots will show everyone that we can take it to the next level at will.

            It is time for me to start putting all these new pilots into the fermenters. If you would like to stop by then just email or call me and I can tell you what days I will be brewing. I know that I will be brewing the Imperial Oatmeal Rye American Brown Ale this Friday (9/26/08).

            Take care,

            Wayne Wambles

            Head Brewer

            Cigar City Brewing