Now that dry January is behind us, we can finally ring in the New Year with some great new beverages. This past month we released two new beers; our Cherry Vanilla Porter, Cherrihelion, and our latest hazy IPA Hazeotrope. Let's take a minute to break these beers down.
Beer Breakdown
Beer Breakdown
First, let's look at Cherrihelion. This beer was a suggestion from our very own cook, Bob (you've probably seen him working away in the kitchen preparing delicious food). He thought a dark variant of our summertime favorite, King Balaton's Sirius Mittens, would be tasty and we agreed! The base of this beer is a porter, similar to our Empirical Porter. To that base we added 12 quarts of Red Tart Cherry Concentrate from Coloma Frozen Foods (located in Coloma, MI). The cherry was added post fermentation and allowed to ferment out (thereby increasing the alcohol content). Once the cherry had fermented out, we added vanilla to help round out the tart flavor. The vanilla gives the beer a nice balance of tartness and perceived sweetness. Once we transfer this beer into kegs, we will throw a keg or two on our nitro tap for a little added mouthfeel.
Now, what's up with the name? The name is derived from Perihelion, which is the point in the Earth's orbit where it is closest to the sun:
The Perihelion and Aphelion
This year the Perihelion fell on January, 2nd. As this beer was released in the month of the Perihelion, we decided it would be fitting to name it as such (with a Dimes slant of course). We hope you enjoy!
Next up we have Hazeotrope, our newest hazy IPA. The grain base of this beer is fairly simple with the preponderance being 2-row brewer’s malt. The hops we selected for this recipe were Idaho 7 and Michigan Chinook (from Top Hops Farm in Goodrich, MI). Idaho 7 is the featured hop in Turbidium. So, if while enjoying Hazeotrope you feel yourself getting Turbidium vibes, your palate is on the right track. Now let’s get to the name. Hazeotrope is a variant of the word Azeotrope. Well, what the heck is an azeotrope? Here is what wiki says:
“An azeotrope or a constant heating point mixture is a mixture of two or more components in fluidic states whose proportions cannot be altered or changed by simple distillation.”
If you’re interested, here is a fun little video on simple distillation:
Ok, well what the heck does that mean? Basically, an azeotrope is a mixture of two or more components that cannot be separated by means of simple distillation. How is that relevant? A very common azeotrope is ethanol and water (see above)! In fact, the most ethanol you can yield from simple distillation is about 96% which equates to 192 proof.
So there ya have it folks, a little more background information on a few of our latest delectable libations.
Cheers!