Friday, January 27, 2006

NABC's Thunderfoot Imperial Stout to be released for Gravity Head 2006.


In yesterday's Publicanista! blogletter, I mentioned Thunderfoot Imperial Stout, a creation of NABC brewers Jesse Williams and Jared Williamson that will be released for Gravity Head on Friday, February 24.

There'll be some top-quality Imperial Stouts on board for this year's Gravity Head, among them Bell's Batch 7000 (12% abv), Great Divide Oaked Yeti Imperial Stout (9.5% abv), and Rogue XS Imperial Stout (11% abv).

Furthermore, I was excited to learn yesterday that brewmaster Brian Reymiller of Browning's Brewery in Louisville is cask-conditioning an Imperial Stout (circa 9% abv) for Gravity Head.

You may recall the single varietal East Kent Goldings ESB that he provided for last autumn's Lupulin Land Harvest Hop fest; it was a very faithfully tended cask ale, which bodes well for an Imperial Stout similarly rendered.

In late December, Jesse and Jared squeezed in the aforementioned batch of Thunderfoot Imperial Stout (circa 10% to 12% abv). Here are some specifics.

Malts: 75% Simpson's Golden Promise 2-row; 10% roasted barley; 5% dark crystal malt; 7% sugar and 3% oats.

Hops: Northern Brewer in the boil, the Northern Brewer, Willamette and Cascade (four further additions).

Yeast: The house London ale yeast.

Intriguingly, dried tart cherries were added to the hopback, and dried Bing cherries (and oak chips) put into the Brite tanks.

It's yet to be seen what the cherries will do for the finished stout, which has matured startlingly from week to week since being brewed, but Thunderfoot is rounding into something very promising, and it should be a worthy match for the other Imperial Stouts booked for Gravity Head.

And as you may know, the Curmudgeon just adores Imperial Stout.

End of January update: "Gravity Head 2006: Reality ABV" advance orders preview.

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