Forgive me followers, for it’s been 14 days since my last post… but I’m back with two very different expressions of hops, both of these beers will be released later this week.
Batch 1600 pushes modern hop saturation to a level that honestly wasn’t possible or practical a decade ago. New hop concentrates and advanced products let us go beyond the theoretical solubility limits of beer and pack in huge amounts of hop oil into a beer. The result is layers upon layers of pomelo, candied pineapple, mango, and peach while somehow keeping the beer smooth, saturated, hefty, but dangerously drinkable (for 9+% ABV).
Then there’s Little Secret. Back for the first time in nearly two years, this old school West Coast Pale Ale is built with Cascade, Simcoe, Citra, and Nugget plus the secret Midwest staple ingredient: a dash of crystal malt. Big citrus, pine, and a firm bitterness in the finish. Welcome back old friend!
Modern hop excess in one plus a reminder in the other that (strategic) bitterness still rules. The last pic is just a pint of our light lager, Plein Air, our collaboration with @decaturbrew , it’s a fantastic beer for this sunny, warm afternoon.
#churchforbrewers
There’s something truly magical about that first hop charge hitting boiling wort. Not the isomerization. Not the chelation of unstable, trace metals. Not the polyphenols helping precipitate proteins. Not even the foam-positive iso-alpha acids that come later. It’s that first wave of aroma. A brief, rising burst of spice and flowers and herbs as a pile of noble hops meets boiling wort destined to become lager.
#brewdaysarethebestdays
Today while the rest of the team made case upon case of Dank Meme cans, I brewed a beer that hasn’t been seen in our tanks since 2024: Little Secret. 🤫
This is one of those unique, very old school Triptych recipes that never translated great on our current brew system. So it took a bit of a hiatus while I really stripped everything back in the recipe, focused on the elements that I think made it a successful beer previously, and took another stab at it. Bitter, malty but not sweet, more pine and grapefruit than dank or tropical… I’ve been waiting for these sensibilities to come back into vogue and I think we’re there. 🤞
#brewday #oldschoolcool #comingsoon
It was a great day for some decoction mashing of lager plus the canning our collaboration brew with the good folks at @decaturbrewworks and @decaturarts !
#brewdaysarethebestdays #canningrun
Today was a busy day of #churchforbrewers. I stopped over to see my friends at @blindpigbrewpub and watch a group brew involving the @buzzbrewclub . Then I snuck back to Triptych to check on a forced fermentation and verify the main batch of beer was going in the direction that I intended. And then in the taproom, I had the pleasure of running into Jared from @pinkpinebrewing and nerding about water, rice, and other brewing things. Another fantastic weekend is in the books, bring on Monday!
It has been a busy Friday.
Somehow I ended up running the canning line this morning, which is not where I usually spend my day. The upside is that I got to chase down and fix a pile of lingering, but intermittent malfunctions that had been hanging around for far too long.
Today’s beer was impossible to ignore too. Bright fuchsia in the cans, this Prickly Pear Gose definitely hits the spot on a warm day.
A lot of packaging work is invisible once the beer hits the shelf, but there are a lot of qualitative checks packed into a run like this. Watching seams closely. Keeping an eye on fill consistency. Shaking cans to monitor dissolved oxygen. Constantly checking that the beer going into the package is the same beer I want you drinking later.
Also got to spend part of the afternoon with Adam (+dad) from @gnosisbrewing which made the whole rest of my day a little more fun.
Some days the job is emails, spreadsheets, labels and tax paperwork. Sometimes it is getting covered in beer and fixing the canning line.
#livingthedream #canningday #alwayswatching
It’s a beautiful spring day at Triptych. Patio hops are hoppin’, another batch of Imperial IPA is spargin’ and kegs of Dank Meme are fillin’. But best of all, is the feeling that Friday is just around the corner…
#brewday
Join us on April 25th starting at 3pm for Kölsch service! Start a coaster, take a seat and we’ll keep cold, crispy, 200mL pours of 𝘊𝘩𝘪𝘱 𝘐𝘵 𝘖𝘯 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘎𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘯 coming until you say stop.
