While looking to get some cherrywood smoked malts on a recent grain order I stumbled across a specialty grain I hadn’t come across before — oak smoked wheat. Reading up on it I came to learn that the grain was almost exclusively used in an old, and almost extinct style of beer — a Grodziskie.

“Grodziskie, a smoked wheat ale, is considered to be the the only beer style native to Poland. Named after the city where it was brewed, it is sometimes known as Gratzer (the name the Germans gave the city of Grodziskie when they took over). This style was popular across much of Poland and northern Germany during the 19th Century and into the 20th up to the first World War. Thought to have been born sometime in the 14th Century, this beer style disappeared in the 1990s when the last brewery in Poland producing it closed.” from Beervana

So this upcoming Friday we’ll be giving it a whirl. Last year we brewed sMOOked – a smoked lager – with the smoky flavor coming 30% of the grist being beach wood smoked malt, so it will be interesting to see how a 100% smoked wheat with a hefe strain will compare…stay tuned for the results.

As opposed to the last time we did this (back in October) giving almost no time for people to actually plan to get to them, here is somewhat advanced notice for all you planners out there that want a shot at tasting some of our delicious brews…

Copper Mine Pub Fermentation Meet Up

• Copper Mine Pub – North Arlington, NJ
• Tuesday, February 7th at 8pm
• Cost: FREE (but buying a few pints from the hosting bar is always recommended)
• Sampling: Wee Heifer’s Fruitcake (2011), Blackhorn, Gingerbull Cowkie
• Come hang out  and talk brewing as we pour some samples along side some other NJ brewers
• Tap list, upcoming events and more: Copper Mine Pub

Beer & Dessert Pairing

• Williams Club – New York, NY
• Thursday, February 9th
• Cost: Private Club Event – contact Tapped Craft Beer Events for more info
• Pouring: Gingerbull Cowkie
• The Drewery will be on hand pouring our beers and answering questions
• Want to set up a cool tasting like this for your own group featuring Bolero Snort brews? Check out Tapped Craft Beer Events

Hoboken Chili Cook-Off Fundraiser

• Elks Lodge – Hoboken, NJ
• Saturday, February 25th from 2pm to 6pm
• Tickets: $20
• Pouring: There’s No Rye-ing in Basebull AND Blackhorn aged on Ancho Chilis
• Meet the brewers, enjoy lots of different beer and chili and support a great cause
• Click here for more info and ticket information

Stay tuned for more updates as we get them on the schedule!

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of bumping in to John Fortunato of BeerMelodies.com down at our good friends’, New Jersey Beer Company, during their tasting hours (side note: their Wee Heavy is back on tap and I’d highly recommend filling as many growlers as possible to pair with your holiday feasts – check their Facebook/Twitter for tours/tasting hours).

While sampling the pilot batch of Big Man – an Imperial Black Rye IPA – that Matt and I brewed a few months back – we got to chatting and set up for John to come hang out and share some beers during last week’s brew day. Good times were certainly had and he has since posted a number of reviews of the beers we drank that day to his site.

Beer Melodies is self described as “A libationary ode and discourse on the vagaries and complexities of premium beer and ale sampling, fraught with wit, perspicacity, and genuine appreciation for the subject” rating beers as follows (in full here)

Introducing…sort of…Blackhorn – our flagship Black IPA!

The beer itself was originally conceived back in February 2011 for the NewJerseyCraftBeer.com launch party in March (check out our previous post about it here). While the beer has and continues to receive rave reviews – people always ask about the name. Manolete was one of the greatest bull fighters ever (or at least according to Wikipedia) and the ‘black magic’ was for his ability to school countless bulls in the ring. However, even we couldn’t get it right (note the two “T”s on everything about the beer thus far…womp womp) so how should we expect anyone else to.

At some point we would love to do legend’s name justice, but for ease of ordering at a crowed bar or going for the latest badge on Untappd, Blackhorn it is.

Don’t worry, while its also a bit of a mouthful to say, our other launch flagship will remain untouched – There’s No Rye-ing in Basebull is just too good to pass up, plus we couldn’t bare Jimmy Dugan‘s disapproval.

Stay tuned in the coming months to find out exactly when you’ll be able to snag a pint of Blackhorn and There’s No Rye-ing in Basebull at your favorite bar – cheers!

Back in October Fall Pasture took 1st in the final of four qualifiers – securing a spot in the championship round. As we mentioned last week, our latest and greatest pilot creation – Gingerbull Cowkie – a holiday spiced brown ale – would be our entry in the finals. GBC beat out the 15 other competitors who had advanced to the finals to take the crown! Not only securing a name on the wall at Union Hall but giving Andrew and I the opportunity to brew the beer with the guys over at Sixpoint!

We are really looking forward to collaborating with them and launching the one off. With their rig tied up for Beers for Beasts until March we should be looking at a May release. GBC is definitely trends to the cooler and merrier time of year so we’ll see if GBC, another Bolero fave, or some other crazy concoction hits the mix…stay tuned for more!

Nothing beats a happy hour featuring some Bolero Snort brews – at least not in our humble opinion. The Bucknell Alumni Club event held back in July was a first for us – rather than providing a few bottles of beer for a guided tasting per our norm with Tapped Craft Beer Events – we were in charge of the entire happy hour. Both Andrew and I were on hand pouring from the jockey box and answering a bevy of questions from the group.

Guests were treated to their fill of our flagship There’s No Rye-ing in Basebull and our occasional IPA offering, Longhop for a full hour prior to sitting down for a walk through of 5 different beers – led by one of Tapped’s great hosts, Charles –  after which they got to help finish lightening our load (empty kegs are always easier to carry than full).

Check out the full recap here.

We still have 22 days until the shortest day of the year – its a sad prospect to know the warm summer days are still so far away, so we figured we’d look back at one of this summer’s great events – Tapped Craft Beer Event’s Summery Tasting in a Speakeasy.

When Matt & Emily asked us to provide some samples we had just finished tweaking the recipe for Cross Bull-ination – a wit beer brewed with honey and dried hibiscus flowers – and thought it would be just the type of refreshing brew for the mid-July event. Guests of the event were some of the first to try what became a bigger batch of beer for our founder’s wedding brews and described it as “unlike anything anyone there had had before; lightly carbonated, rose-pink, and bursting with flavor.”

Hit the jump to read the full event recap.

 What a chance to check out our latest holiday creation? Then come join us in Brooklyn at Union Hall for the Knights of Bruklyn Championship Round. It all comes down to next Wednesday night, December 7th – the first, second and third place winners along with the People’s Choice from each of 4 preliminary rounds will be facing off to take top honors – and a shot at brewing their winning beer on Sixpoint’s pilot rig.

The Drewery took 1st back in April at the first qualifier with our flagship “There’s No Rye-ing in Basebull” and our signature seasonal “Fall Pasture” took 1st in the October round. I will be entering our new creation, “Gingerbull Cowkie,” a malty brown ale with some specialty malts and spicing to taste just like eating a gingerbread house. The Drewery has yet to make his final decision but it’ll likely be a Vanilla Porter or an Old Ale – either one will surely be a treat.

Festivities get under way around 7pm and the beer will surely go quick. Winners announced around 8:30pm or so. Come hang out, try our beers and others (and some really fantastic beef jerky) and cheer us on! Hope to see you all there!

Union Hall – 702 Union St @ 5th Avenue – Brooklyn, NY 11215

RSVP over at the Facebook event.

Last year’s Oktoberfest was our first public tasting where we poured the first version of COWserALE. This year COWserALE is now rum barrel aged, wax sealed and clocks in at over 8% so we figured that might be a bit much for Sunday day drinking at an event running from 1pm to 4pm so we opted to bring our staple seasonal, Fall Pasture (a mere 7.9% – .1% does make a difference) to the party instead. Pouring along side our pumpkin ale was the latest batch of Longhop recently cut down to a more sessionable 5.1%. A few bottles of Calfuccino (just bottled the morning of the event) also made an appearance for a few lucky attendees to sample.

It was great having the Bolero Snort flowing along side other seasonal greats like Southern Tier Pumking, Weyerbacher’s Imperial Pumpkin and Sixpoint Autumnation to name just a few. Make sure to check out Queen Anne Wine‘s great inventory of craft beers online (they ship) or if you’re in the Northern NJ area stop in and say hi to Jerry and crew.

We look forward to cooking up another special batch for the 2012 event – see you all next year!

Love craft beer but unfamiliar with Untappd? You shouldn’t be. In just over year they have taken social networking for the craft beer world by storm – allowing just mobile website check-ins (much to my dismay as I personally signed up in November 2010 and didn’t have a phone capable of checking in until February of this year) – but now have a native app for both the iPhone and Android that allows you to check in your favorite brews, upload pictures and earn some sweet badges.

Being huge fans of the site wanted to help celebrate their big one year anniversary and ultimately decided to brew not one but TWO special batches of beer for the NY Party held at Rattle N Hum on October 22nd.

Attendees of the NY Party were able to sample the specially bottled The Bulls & The Bees – an amped up version of Longhop brewed with local honey – and on tap all night was Manolette’s White Mana – our signature Black IPA aged on vanilla beans just for this event. Both Bob and Andrew were there sharing beers and a good time was had by all with some of our friends from Tapped Craft Beer Events, Brew York and From My Mellin stopping by for a pint.

Full info on the festivities can be found here.