Choc to unveil new beer
Choc Brewing announced this week they are working on a new beer, a spin-off of their award-winning Signature Belgian-Style Quad.
That’s right, you read the label correctly. Choc is in the process of aging its Belgian Quad in French oak barrels. It will be the first time Choc has aged a beer on oak. Once the beer is ready, they will release only 1,080 numbered, corked-and-caged 750-ml (25.4 oz.) bottles, which will be the first time Choc has bottled in that fashion. Here’s an update on the beer from Choc’s Zach Prichard:
“It is a little too early to give a completely accurate taste description since the beer is still changing. We have been tasting it periodically over the last four weeks and every time it changes. We are waiting until it picks up a little more of the earth and spice notes of the oak before we bottle it. We are shooting to have it on the shelf by mid-January 2011.”
I thought of a couple questions as I was typing this post:
1. Why 1,080 bottles? Seems rather arbitrary.
2. Is the 11% OAQ the strongest beer Choc has ever brewed?
I’ve forwarded these questions along to Prichard; will let you know. Either way, mark your calendar for January and be prepared to camp out at the liquor store as if it were Black Friday.
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Questions answered:
1. Choc is brewing 1,080 bottles because the style of the beer puts certain demands on the brewing process and limits the amount of beer that can be produced. That’s the easy answer. The more sophisticated answer is very technical and is probably only completely understood by brewers and advanced home brewers. I think I have a relatively decent grasp of the concept based on Zach’s explanation to me, but it’s best we leave it at that.
2. The original Signature Belgian-Style Quad is 11%, so, in the end, that was probably a dumb question on my part. Ha!
Thanks Zach!