Ideas A-Brewin’

Over the past few weeks, the braintrust and brewers at the Boatyard Brewing Company have developed a few experimental ales that are going through a series of taste-testings.

Sunset Amber: All of our tasters kept clamoring for us to make an amber ale.  So we sat down a created our Sunset Amber.  We used a pale ale base malt with additions of brown sugar, chocolate malts, and caramel malts.  As with many BBC ales, we tossed in a bit of rye to add a hint of spice.  The wort was boiled using a hops profile containing both Cascade and Chinook varieties.  This ale was fermented with an American Ale yeast and produced an ABV of 7.9%.  We really like this one!!

Kalamazoo Cream Ale: This ale was dreamed up on a hot spring day.  We focused on our efforts on creating a light-colored ale that would be easy drinking and lower in alcohol.  What we created was a complex collection of base malts, flaked barley, corn, and lactose.  We used Cascade and Saaz hops with an American Ale yeast to finish it up.  As primary fermentation was ending, we found we hit the mark with taste and an ABV of 5.0%.

Last month we introduced you to Kay-Lips-O Chocolate Milk Stout and Channel Crossing Belgian Wheat.  We sponsored a few tastings around Kalamazoo and offered these two new ales.  Both ales were very well received, but the chocolate milk stout was a huge hit.    According to Ed Smith of Kalamazoo, “The chocolate milk stout is the best beer I ever had.”  Thanks Ed,  we like your attitude.