Jared's C2 brew day report.

They were hard at work when I popped my head into the Grant Line brewhouse on Monday afternoon. Here is Jared's report.

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SCHLAFLY ... NEW ALBANIAN ... O’FALLON

C2: Smoked Belgian Dark Strong Ale (to be aged in “to be announced” Indiana and Missouri wine barrels infused with smoked figs)

Yep.

The C-series resumed this past Monday at The New Albanian Brewing Company with the brewing of C2, and a monster of a Belgian beer was made for the little gnome yeast to devour.

Brewed in two batches over 15 hours, with a lunch break at La Rosita’s Grant Line location between shifts, of course, we had a fairly smooth and enjoyable brew day considering we brewed about as big as you can on this system.

Joined by Brennan Greene from the Schlafly Taproom, Dave Johnson from O’Fallon Brewing company, and my intern Kyle Tavares (who helped out for the first batch and brought $10 worth of doughnuts!), we were mashed in by 7:00 a.m. and the brewery was filled with wonderful aromas of the two distinct smoked malts, Biscuit and Special B malts, and two types of mash hops.

A great celebration of a brew day, we did the C-series proud with our collaborative effort. We continued our use of smoke malt from C1, but introduced the Bamberg malt into the mix as well. The smoke and hops will mellow and fade behind the malts, yeast, and alcohol notes. We will look to continue a thread throughout the project and draw on previous beers to inspire and transition the series.

C2 will be a very malt-forward bomb of a beer, with the batch split into various aging vessels. Most will be aged in a mix of Indiana and Missouri wine barrels, which will be announced once they are racked. A few casks will be filled and may pop up at a select event or two later this summer/fall. The barrels will age six months, and C2 should be released around December/January or thereabouts. There are only 8 bbl of C2, so it will be an extremely limited release.

Malts: Castle Pale, Weyermann Rauch, Castle Biscuit, Briess Smoke, Castle Aromatic, Castle Special B

Adjuncts: Belgian dark candi sugar, Brewer’s Crystal, Molasses

Mash Hops: Mt Hood, Crystal

Kettle Hops: Magnum, Slovenian Celeia

O.G. 1097

IBU: currently calculated at 44, will degrade and be around 20 once it’s released

Cheers

Jared Williamson, Brewer
New Albanian Brewing Company