Gumbo Family Quartet on the Bank Street patio tomorrow night (Wednesday, April 27).

Wednesday update - GFQ is going to set up inside BSB for dry music ... don't let the weather keep you from coming down.

It's An Evening With The Gumbo Family Quartet, and it's tomorrow night at BSB.

As if the music weren't enough to entice, now hear this:

The "last" keg of C2 for the year (some will return during future Gravity Heads) will be on tap to celebrate Jared Williamson's birthday (26th), plus a pin of Extra Ordinary will be served via gravity pour. Talk about opposite sides of the spectrum.

Come and get some -- music and beer. I'll be there once I'm done with class.

Enthused recap: C2 Beer Dinner at the Eiderdown.

The Eiderdown's C2 beer dinner was held on Wednesday evening, with a collaborative menu created by Chefs Morgan and Lehman, and matched beers from the three collaborating breweries. Here's a brief recap from a satisfied customer -- me.

Schlafly's wide-ranging Scott Shreffler introduced his brewery's gently fruity Kolsch, which was paired with Smoked Duck + Mushrooms + Tomme Crepe. Ideal.


O’Fallon Black Hemp Ale was the choice to accompany Seared Skate + Fennel, Basil, Spinach & Hazelnut Browned Butter. The ale might be described as an almost black American Brown, with a hint of characteristically nutty hemp. And to think skate used to be considered a garbage fish!

The undisputed highlight of the evening, and a flavor combination that I can still savor in my memory a full two days later, was Roasted Fiedler Farms Pork Shoulder + Blue Cheese Biscuit & Green Peppercorn, with a huge goblet of C2. The pork was marinated in red wine, and the ale in wine barrels. Words fail me on this one, except to add that if there has ever been a textbook example of the merits of pairing upper echelon food with top shelf craft beer, this was it.

For dessert, we enjoyed NABC Thunderfoot alongside Chocolate + Duchesse de Bourgogne Ice Cream. The trencherman's glow was much deserved by this point.

Hats off to Scott and Jared Williamson for introducing the beers, to the chefs and kitchen staff for the exquisite cuisine, and to James and the Eiderdown/Nachbar experience for carrying the banner of food and beer in Germantown.

If you couldn't tell by my gushing ... it was a very good evening.

It's almost here: C2 beer dinner at Eiderdown (Wed., March 23).

After waiting seemingly forever for a taste of C2, the product of last year's collaboration between brewers from New Albanian, O’Fallon and Schlafly, there have been several chances since January to nip at this once in a lifetime treat -- Smoked Belgian Dark Strong, aged in Port and Cabernet barrels, and infused with figs.

But only now comes the beer dinner, to be held this coming Wednesday, March 23, at Eiderdown (983 Goss Ave., Louisville, KY 40217). The four courses will feature kitchen collaborations between the chefs from Eiderdown and NABC, and the price will be in the range of $44 per person.

Note that you'll be getting meal-sized, 11-oz portions of the four beers served:

Schlafly Kolsch
Smoked Duck + Mushrooms + Tomme Crepe

O’Fallon Black Hemp
Seared Skate + Fennel, Basil, Spinach & Hazelnut Browned Butter

C2
Roasted Fiedler Farms Pork Shoulder + Blue Cheese Biscuit & Green Peppercorn

NABC Thunderfoot
Chocolate + Duchesse de Bourgogne Ice Cream

I'll be there. Call 290-2390 to reserve.

C2 collaborative beer dinner at Eiderdown on Wednesday, March 23.

As previously hinted in the strongest possible terms, but not officially confirmed, there’ll be a C2 collaborative beer dinner at Eiderdown on Wednesday, March 23. Beers from each of the three collaboration partners will be served alongside the signature C2, the four courses will feature kitchen collaborations between the chefs from Eiderdown and NABC, and the price will be in the range of $40 per person.

The beers: Schlafly Kolsch, O’Fallon Black Hemp, C2, NABC Thunderfoot

When more detailed information is forthcoming, I’ll post again. Until then, learn about Eiderdown at Facebook.

Limited appearances of C2 out in the world.

We waited seemingly forever for a taste of C2, the product of last year's collaboration between brewers from New Albanian, O’Fallon and Schlafly.

C2 is a once in a lifetime treat, a Smoked Belgian Dark Strong aged in Port and Cabernet barrels and infused with figs. It took a long time to make, and was priced accordingly.

NABC released small amounts at both locations during N.A.B.Cieged 3, and it was tapped in Indianapolis for the Winterfest last weekend. We'll let more C2 out of the bag during Gravity Head (starts February 25), and Jared Williamson will be cellaring a small amount for use during future Gravity Heads.

Here's what I know about who else has received C2. Forgive and correct me if I've missed anyone, and remember that with the exceptions noted below, you'll have to ask them when they plan on tapping their kegs.

Sergio's World Beers
Holy Grale
Louisville Beer Store
Nachbar
Eiderdown

Release events are being planned now. On Friday, February 5, Louisville Beer Store will honor Firkin First Friday and the Trolley Hop by tapping its C2, along with a firkin of Henna, Jared's Black IPA, and believe me, those are two very good reasons to be there on Friday night.

Eiderdown C2 allotment will be part of a beer dinner, featuring a beer each from the three collaborating breweries as well as C2. Taking the collaboration concept one step further, the kitchens at Eiderdown and NABC will be collaborating on the menu.

Events at the other C2 locations are being planned by Josh Hill of NABC and Schlafly's local rep, Scott Shreffler.

C2 recipe specs ... not just yet, but very close to release.

All the way back in March, NABC's Jared Williamson reported on the second in a series of collaborations, one destined for a circuitous path from concept to palate:

Jared's C2 brew day report.

Now, as the release date draws near, Jared is back with more details.

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C2: Smoked Belgian Dark Strong Ale


C2 is a malt-forward bomb of a beer, with the batch split into various wine casks for aging. Two of the wine casks are Missouri-built, and spent five years in Napa Valley aging Silver Oak Cabernet. The other two wine casks are Kentucky-built and have been at the Huber Winery in Southern Indiana aging various Ports for the last 12 years.

Once fresh fig season arrived in September 2010, a portion of figs were smoked and then the figs were split up and added to one of each of the two varietals of wine casks. The barrels have aged eight months total, and the batch will be blended back together in early January to age a short time together before being packaged for draft.

C2 will be released in mid-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

ABV: 10.7%

IBU: 20

Draft C2 has a label.

I'm not at liberty to discuss a release date. You'll just have to stay tuned.

Here's what NABC plans to take to the Great Taste of the Midwest.

Following is what I've submitted on behalf of NABC to the Great Taste of the Midwest for inclusion in this year's program. The festival takes place on August 14 in Madison, Wisconsin, and is a must-visit at some point in your beer drinking career. This year, we're being placed close by The Livery, Schlafly and O'Fallon so as to enable a "collaboration corner" and feature cooperative projects brewed during the past year.

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NABC Beer Descriptions, for the Great Taste of the Midwest 2010 official program

(Includes both descriptions and details about NABC collaboration beer placements. *Recipe notes provided for collaborations brewed at NABC)

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At the NABC station, C02 pour:

Elector, Elsa von Horizon, Hoptimus, Thunderfoot

Cask-conditioned NABC (pin at the NABC station; tapping time TBA):

2008 Port-aged Bonfire of the Valkyries

Cask-conditioned NABC (firkins at the real ale tent):

Beak’s Best and Community Dark

Collaboration(s) casks, to be tapped at Collaboration Corner, not the real ale tent:

*NABC/The Livery Oaked Le Douche Mentale & Scotch pin conditioned Le Douche Mentale

Malts: Castle Pale, Castle Biscuit, Simpsons Medium Crystal

Hops: Wet Fuggles, Nugget, Fuggle, Cascade

ABV: 8.5%

IBU: 75

*NABC/O’Fallon/Schlafly C2 Smoked Belgian Dark Strong Ale

Malts: Castle Pale, Weyermann Rauchmalz, Castle Biscuit, Briess Smoked, Castle Aromatic, Castle Special B Mash hops: Mt. Hood, Crystal Kettle hops: Magnum, Celeia Yeast: Belgian Chouffe O.G. 1.097 or 24.3 Plato ABV: 10.4% IBU: 35 Color: 14.8

Collaboration Notes:
The Livery also debuts its 5th anniversary beer, Imperial Dark IPA (NABC’s Jared Williamson helped brew it) at its station, and O' Fallon debuts C3, the third collaboration series beer with O’Fallon’s, NABC and Schlafly, at its station.

Main NABC beer descriptions

Beak’s Best

Malts: Simpsons Golden Promise, Simpsons Medium Crystal, Castle (Belgian) Aromatic and Special B

Hops: Double hopped with Cascade pellets, finished through hop-back with whole cone Cascades

Yeast: House London

OG: 1.059 or 14.75 degree Plato

ABV: 5.3%

IBU: 35

Color: 10.3 degree Lovibond SRM

American bitter & soul liniment
NABC’s session-strength American Bitter is named in honor of globetrotting historian and educator Don "Beak" Barry, and in 2003 it was the winner of the "Louisville Magazine Best Of" award for Louisville area microbrews. Like its namesake, Beak’s is fond of traveling (albeit in kegs), lending itself to refreshing contemplation.
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Bonfire of the Valkyries

Malts: Weyermanns Rauchmalz, Simpsons Black, Castle Aromatic, Castle Special B

Hops: Czech Zatec (Saaz)

Yeast: Common Lager

OG: 1083

ABV: 8.5%

IBU: 5.1

Color: 46.2 SRM

Burning away the hours 'til Ragnarok
Although it’s probably somewhere in the German brewing playbook, we couldn’t find the rule prohibiting the higher-gravity crossing of Black Lager with Smoked Lager, so we brew Bonfire each year in autumn and let it age until release just before Christmas. For the Great Taste, Bonfire has been aged in JW Lees ’08 Port pin.

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Community Dark

Malts: Special Pale, Dark Crystal and Chocolate malts

Hops: Double hopped with EK Golding

Yeast: House London

OG: 1.046 or 11.5 degree Plato

ABV: 3.7%

IBU: 12.5

Color: 25 degree Lovibond SRM

Inside is what counts
Inspired by traditional English Mild, the style that fueled the workers who made the Industrial Revolution, Community Dark is revolutionary in its own way: Dark-colored but light-bodied, and a session ale suitable for New Albany’s emerging downtown renaissance.

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Elector

Malts: Special Pale and Simpsons Medium Crystal

Hops: Triple hopped with Chinook pellets, finished through hop-back with whole cone Cascades

Yeast: House London

OG: 1.074 or 18.5 degree Plato

ABV: 7.5%

IBU: 62

Color: 11.9 degree Lovibond SRM

Makes democracy pointless
Excessive hopping rendered moot the original modest plan to brew a traditional winter warmer, but the resulting hybrid was delicious and redefines the Imperial Red style category. The first batch of Elector was brewed on Election Day, 2002, a mere two years after the nation’s electors (most recently) made democracy pointless, and we persist in thinking that an Elector in hand is worth two Bushes in retirement, any election day, any old time at all.

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Elsa Von Horizon

Malts: German Pilsner, German Munich

Hops: Hallertauer Mittelfruh, Tettnang

Yeast: Common Lager

OG: 1.100

ABV: 10%

IBU: 80

Color: 5.4 SRM

Bekämpfen sie und ich beiße sie
It is deceptively simple. A Pilsner rich in noble continental hops is brewed to the strength of Maibock and beyond, and then even more noble hops are added to the recipe for balance and bite. Not even the Germans try it, and we consider this shyness as implicit encouragement to innovate. Elsa is a proud member of NABC’s Brewers’ Best Friend Series, along with Malcolm and Jasmine. They’re assertive, loyal specialties named for our brewers’ canine chums.

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Hoptimus

Malts: Special Pale

Adjunct: Pure, free-range sucrose

Hops: 4 additions of high alpha Nugget, 1 late addition of Cascade, finished through hop-back with whole cone Cascades

Yeast: House London

OG: 1.097 or 24.25 degree Plato

ABV: 10.7%

IBU: 100

Color: 6.9 degree Lovibond SRM

Made of sterner stuff
“Vicariously” is for rank amateurs and subpar international lagers, because Hoptimus lives vivaciously through itself, and is best consumed in the prime of youth, when its bold hop character is at its snarkiest and most blatantly unrepentant. Hoptimus has been named “the beer most likely to be preferred by the most interesting man in the world, if he really were the most interesting man in the world, but he isn’t” by Publicans Monthly magazine.

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Thunderfoot

Malts: Special Pale, Simpson's Roasted Barley, Simpson's Dark Crystal, Flaked Oats

Adjunct: Pure free-range sucrose

Hops: Quad-hopped with Northern Brewer and Willamette

Special treatment: Dried tart cherries fall into the hopback, and medium-toast American oak chips and dried Bing cherries go into each keg for aging. One year later: In your glass.

Yeast: House London

OG: 1.106 or 25.2 degree Plato

ABV: 12%

IBU: 84

Color: 72.7 degree Lovibond SRM

Ultimate urban renewal
There can be no doubt that Thunderfoot actively renounces the art of the gentle tweak, the mild revision, and the imperceptible hint. Rather, Thunderfoot advocates palatal renewal the old-fashioned way – complete, irresistible and certain. 20 months old; brewed January, 2009.

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

C2 brew day photos.

Photos by Jared Williamson. Starting at the top, Dave and Brennan mash in ... malt sources ... Kyle contemplates doughnuts ... Dave adds a dose of hops. For a brew day report, go here.

C2 collaboration to be brewed Monday, and celebrated with a firkin of C1 at the Public House.

It's a big day on Monday at NABC's traditional garage brewhouse at the Pizzeria & Public House. A rare C1 firkin is being tapped, and C2 is being brewed.

To refresh sodden memories, the "C" series is an ongoing collaboration between Schlafly, O'Fallon's and New Albanian. C1, a Dry-hopped Smoked Rye Pale Ale, was the first such joint effort, and has been spotted at both NABC locations, and at selected locations throughout metro Louisville, since being released to near universal acclaim earlier in 2010.

Scenes from a Sneak Preview: Schlafly/O'Fallon/New Albanian Collaboration

Precious little C1 remains, but among the reserves is a cask-conditioned firkin, dry-hopped with Cascade and Ahtanum hops, and racked before the oak aging that tastily modified the kegged version. We can expect the firkin to taste the same, yet different. We also can expect it to deplete quickly.

Brennan (from Schlafly's) and Dave (of O'Fallon's) will be joining Jared for Monday's C2 brew day. As yet, the recipe is being kept close to their vests, but I’ve heard snippets of the following: Belgian-style Dark Strong Ale, smoked, aging, Norton (official state grape of Missouri) barrels, and figs. Put it all together in a final configuration, and the release still will not come until late autumn at the very earliest.

C2 will be double batched, with two brew days for the price of one: 6 a.m. – 2 p.m., and then 4 p.m. - Midnight. The C1 firkin will be tapped near the end of the first session, evidently to provide sustenance for the second.

The collaborative brewing troika has set a May brew date window for C3, which will be brewed at O’Fallon’s in Missouri, and released in summertime, prior to C2.

Finally, remember that I’ll be pouring Jolly Pumpkin ales during Monday night’s Office Hours with the Publican, which will take place in Prost at 6:30 p.m., although we might duck into the brewery to meet the brewers, watch their work, and convey samples.