Nearly six years ago Devon and I launched a website called DrinkCraftBeer.com. While we had big dreams, we never thought that years later we’d be releasing a beer we brewed in collaboration with one of our favorite brewers, Chris Lohring, Owner/Founder/Brewer of Notch Brewing, maker of Notch Session Beers. So come join us on April 28th at The Lower Depths to find out what happens when Drink Craft Beer starts to make craft beer!

Drink Craft Beer & Notch Brewing Coffee Milk Stout Release Party

Where: The Lower Depths (476 Commonwealth Ave, Kenmore Square, Boston, MA 02115)
When: 11:30am - 3pm
What: Hang out with Devon & Jeff from Drink Craft Beer and Chris Lohring from Notch Brewing to drink our collaboration beer, DCB & Notch Coffee Milk Stout. We’ll be buying a round for some of the early comers and we’ll be giving away a free commemorative Drink Craft Beer / Notch Brewing 20 oz mugs to the first 40 people to order the beer.

RSVP on Facebook and then check out the complete photo album from our days at Kennebunkport Brewing Company!

Want to find out how this beer happened? Read on!

April 5th, 2012 - 3:45am

It’s 3:45am and not even the cup of strong coffee I’m holding is going to wake me up at this hour. We haven’t quite reached early morning, in fact this is still the middle of the night. The sky is black and sunrise is hours away. From craft beer people like us you might expect that this is the end of a crazy story. Far from it! This is actually the beginning of a very early Thursday...and I have to pick up Devon by 4:30am to stay on schedule!

Backstory

You may be asking, “Why are Devon and Jeff torturing themselves in this way?” and, to be honest, at this moment I’m thinking the same thing. We’ve got a good reason, though. It all started a couple of months ago when Devon and I came to the realization that we didn’t want to simply write about craft beer; we wanted to be a part of making it. The problem? While we homebrew, and have created more than a few delicious beers, we aren’t brewers on a professional level. Also, we didn’t want to compete with all the great people that we write about (that’s some stiff competition!). This brought us to a very intriguing idea: let’s work with brewers whose lineups we enjoy to put out beers that they otherwise wouldn’t make. A true collaboration beer! We’d stay true to their core style but put the Drink Craft Beer twist on it. It was genius!

If you’ve followed us on DrinkCraftBeer.com, our Twitter or our Facebook over the past year or so then you know that we’ve become quite friendly with Chris Lohring. Chris is a veteran of the New England brewing scene and a very talented brewer (for background, read our interview with Chris Lohring). Over beers at Atwood’s Tavern in Cambridge, MA (a couple rounds of Notch Cerne Pivo)  we made the case for a Drink Craft Beer / Notch Brewing collaboration beer, the idea being a coffee milk session stout. Notch brews only session beer (beer under 4.5% abv) and often draws on historical European styles for inspiration. Our thought was to take the Milk Stout, a traditional English beer right up Chris’ alley, and add some coffee. A true breakfast stout! Coming in at slightly under 4% abv, this would be a brew that you can have one or two of with breakfast and still have a productive day. Maybe it was the Cerne Pivo speaking, but Chris agreed to the plan and we had ourselves a concept! With further refinement, we finalized that we’d do this as a part of the Notch Brewing Cask Series, to be served in and around Boston, MA.

April 5th, 2012 - 4:00am

This brings us to where I left off...it’s the middle of the night and I’m driving to pick up Devon. Chris brews the Notch Cask Series at Kennebunkport Brewing Company (KBC) in Kennebunk, ME, where he apprenticed in the early days of his career. Devon and I live in Boston and we have a 7am brew time, which means we have to be on the road early if we’re going to be on time!

April 5th, 2012 - 6:45am

Well we made it to Kennebunk and run into Chris at H. B. Provisions while we’re grabbing a coffee (triple espresso, please) and an epic breakfast sandwich. Our brewmaster is here! Together we head over to the brewery and meet up with Mike Haley, Head Brewer at KBC and the guy who is so graciously allowing us to take over his place of work for the day.

Shortly after 7am we’re mashing in, with a little help from Mike who is an expert on this sometimes-quirky brewing system, and the day has begun. Shortly after, the grain and hot water is in the mash tun and we have some time before the next step. For those who homebrew, you probably think we have a little time right now to rest...wrong! At this point we have to measure out hops, lactose sugar (this is what makes it a milk stout) and yeast (by the pound!). Also, the unenviable task of cleaning casks falls to Chris, as they are his casks and he has told us multiple times about his rule: whoever dry hops a cask should have to clean it out. We watched him for a few minutes and, after smelling what came out, have to agree! Folks, when you get to drink a dry hopped cask beer say a word of appreciation to the guy or girl that has to clean it out afterwards! That is a gross job!

After an hour or so of the grain and hot water doing their thing, we get to move the wort (this is what you call unfermented beer) to the kettle to be boiled. Chris tells us that KBC’s mash tun is especially tricky to deal with because its dimensions make it prone to sticking if you’re not careful...so we make sure Mike is on hand to help, just in case, as we sparge and run the hot, sugary, viscous liquid over to the kettle.

April 5th, 2012 - about 11am

From here on out the process is very similar to homebrewing, to be totally honest. It’s just on a much bigger scale as we’re brewing 5 barrels of beer (FYI: a barrel is 31 gallons). The wort is in the kettle and it’s coming up to a boil. Also, we have to dispose of the grain...just like in homebrewing. Except today we used 280 lbs of grain, and now it’s soaking wet. I was the lucky one who got to scoop it out. Like I said, it’s just like homebrewing. Just way bigger!

During the boil, we add the hops, both bittering and flavor additions, as well as the lactose sugar. Aside from giving this style of beer its name, the lactose is there for another very important reason. The yeast that ferments sugar into alcohol (turning wort into beer) can’t consume lactose. At the same time, it has a very low sweetness to it. The purpose it has in beer is to give some extra body and a smooth mouthfeel. With this being a session beer, we thought it would be the perfect complement and offset the bitterness from the coffee. Once the boil is done, we whirlpool the beer for about an hour and, while that’s going on, run upstairs to the restaurant and grab a quick lunch. After that, it’s just a quick chilling of the wort and we run it into the fermenter where we’ll add yeast and let them do their thing for about a week. Then we call it a day.

April 11, 2012 - 6:00pm

Making a cup of coffee isn’t hard. Many of us do it every day. I do it several times per day, in fact. Making fifteen gallons of really good coffee? Now that’s a challenge that neither Drink Craft Beer nor Notch Brewing was up to! Luckily, just down the street from where I live is a fantastic coffee shop, called Wired Puppy, that makes delicious coffee. Earlier this week I’d talked to Wired Puppy owners Donna Vaillancourt and Robin Reid about sourcing our coffee from them. They were eager to get involved and I soon found myself in the Wired Puppy cafe on Newbury Street in Boston trying several different roasts and beans that they had available. For the Drink Craft Beer & Notch Brewing Coffee Milk Stout, we settled on a light roast Colombian bean. It had just enough roast and acidity that it would stand out against the beer, but a great dark fruit character that would help it meld with the lactose sweetness of the brew.

[Full tasting notes for our coffee from Wired Puppy: Our current lot of Colombian is from the La Esperanza farm; located in Trujillo of the Valle del Cauca.  Trujillo is part of Colombia's Central Cordillero (Range).  The coffee is grown at elevations of 1450 to 1650 meters (where top qualities are found).  Here temperate equatorial climates and moisture produce high density, aromatic and flavorful beans.

The coffee comes to us Certified Organic of course but also Rainforest Alliance certified.  This helps ensure the biodiversity of the coffee ecosystems as well as social fiber of the farm. The area is the meeting place of many rivers which in turn flow to the Cauca River; which winds North into the Caribbean Sea. The plentiful water sources make the area ideal for sugar cane farming also.

The cup is well balanced, with aromatic fruit tones, underlying milk chocolate, and the richness that Colombia is famous for.]

Tonight, the night before we put the beer into casks, I find myself picking up three buckets each full of five gallons of coffee. Now, if you’ve ever tried to drive with several buckets of coffee, you’ll know that the one thing they want to do more than anything else is tip over. I rig up my seat belts in ways that they were never meant to be used and prepare for a stressful drive to Maine tomorrow.

April 12, 2012 - 8:15am

Well, we’re back in Kennebunk, ME. It’s a week from when we were last here and the beer is now fermented and has been transferred by Mike and his team to a conditioning tank. It’s time to figure out the final blend ratio of coffee and beer, then we’ll put it all into casks. Today is the last day we’ll see our beer before it’s served at bars around Boston.

We carefully combine measured amounts of coffee and stout to taste. We want to get the blend just right so that neither coffee nor beer overwhelms the other. After getting the ratio perfect, we line up the casks and get ready to fill each one assembly line style. For each cask, we need to add a precisely measured amount of coffee, priming sugar (to carbonate the beer), extra lactose (a traditional English move we’re told) and, of course, beer.

Over the next hour we each take turns adding the ingredients. To make sure everything is evenly blended in the cask, we do something else traditional...we play soccer with each cask. You may ask what I mean by this? Well, with the kegs on their sides, two of us roll the cask back and forth using our feet. It may not be high tech, but it works...as long as you don’t knock over any of the buckets of sanitizing solution or accidentally bend a low-hanging pipe in the brewery!

After the last cask is topped off with beer, Chris hammers in the final plug and we’re good to go! We add labels to the casks, stack up all thirteen in the conditioning room and head back to Boston. Next stop for our beer? The distributor and then bars all over the Boston area, including the first tapping at Lower Depths in Boston, MA on Saturday, April 28th for brunch!

Are we going to do this again? You better believe it! I wonder who we’ll brew with next? Do you have any suggestions?

Where Can You Try the Drink Craft Beer & Notch Brewing Coffee Milk Stout?

On Saturday, April 28th both Devon and myself from Drink Craft Beer will be with Chris from Notch Brewing at The Lower Depths in Boston, MA for a brunch release event! Like we said, this is a beer that you can have a couple of with breakfast and still be ready for the day. So why not come have some beer for breakfast with us?!

From 11:30am to 3pm we’ll be at The Lower Depths while they tap the initial cask of the Drink Craft Beer & Notch Brewing Coffee Milk Stout. Pours will be only $5 and the first 40 people to order will get their beer in a commemorative 20oz Drink Craft Beer / Notch Session mug! Also, get there early as we’ll be buying a round for some of the early birds!

Where: The Lower Depths (476 Commonwealth Ave, Kenmore Square, Boston, MA 02115)
When: 11:30am - 3pm
What: Hang out with Devon & Jeff from Drink Craft Beer and Chris Lohring from Notch Brewing to drink our collaboration beer, DCB & Notch Coffee Milk Stout. We’ll be buying a round for some of the early comers and we’ll be giving away a free commemorative Drink Craft Beer / Notch Brewing 20 oz mugs to the first 40 people to order the beer.

RSVP on Facebook and then check out the complete photo album from our days at Kennebunkport Brewing Company!

To get the story from Notch Brewing, read Chris' blog post!

Home-made crispy beer battered onion rings and tasty beers make a great combination for any gathering.  I used an American brown ale for this recipe, because the sweetness of the onion pairs well with the rich and roasted malts of the beer.  Accompanying this dish is a horseradish cream sauce, but all dipping sauces are welcome.  If you’d like a thicker batter on your onion ring just dredge in flour and batter a 2nd time before adding to oil.

Onion Rings
1 Large Vidalia Onion ½ Inch Rings
1 12 oz Brekle’s Brown Ale
2 Egg Yolks
2 Egg Whites
2 Cups All Purpose Flour
1 TBSP Salt
1 Tsp Sugar
1 Tbsp Paprika
Oil for Frying

Horseradish Sauce
2 TBSP Horseradish
1 TBSP Dijon
8 oz Sour Cream
3 oz Brekle’s Brown Ale
1 TBSP Chopped Chives
Salt and Pepper to Taste

Cooking Instructions
1. Add all dry ingredients together
2. Add beer and egg yolks and whisk
3. Slowly whisk in dry ingredients into wet until you have a thick batter
4. Refrigerate for 1 hour.  Whisk egg whites and then add to batter after refrigeration.
5. Prepare sauce by adding all ingredients and mix together
6.  Heat 3 inches of vegetable oil in a pot to about 350 degrees
7. Dip onion rings into flour then beer batter and add to the hot oil.
8. Cook for 2 minutes on each side or until golden brown.  Only Add a few at a time so your oil tempurature does not go down
9. Dry on a paper towel

Enjoy!

Chef John

The latest brewer to be a part of our 5 Questions series, Idle Hands, is also one of the latest additions to Drink Craft Beer Summerfest: A Celebration of Farmhouse Ale! On July 13 & 14 we'll showcase 70+ Farmhouse Ales and summer beers from 25 New England breweries! Get your tickets now!

One of the best things about craft beer is that the beer is made and the companies are run by people who care about what they do. Also, many breweries are local or regional companies which means it's made in your area. All of this lends itself to one of my favorite things about the industry: you can actually know the people that brew your beer and run the companies that produce the brew that you love!

With that in mind, we've launched a series of articles where we'll talk with people from the craft brewing industry and ask them a series of five (or sometimes more) questions so that you can get to know these fine people a bit better.

We're happy to introduce Chris and Grace Tkach, the founders and husband & wife team behind of one of Massachusetts' newest nano-breweries, Idle Hands. While we've seen a few nanos open in the past year in the Bay State, Idle Hands focuses on Belgian-style beers with their flagship Pandora Belgian Pale Ale. They've also recently released their Belgian-style Trippel, Triplication, to bottles and, if you're lucky, you've been able to find their other beers, Cognition and Patriarch, on tap at local bars in the Boston-area. So let's meet Chris and Grace!

Drink Craft Beer: How did you get into craft beer?

Chris Tkach: That is a very difficult question to answer as I can’t really remember a time when I wasn’t into craft beer. It’s been a part of my life since I was legally able to buy beer (and maybe even before that!). In undergrad at the University of New Hampshire, we would always have a “secret” keg of Sam Adams, etc. at our parties. My friends and I would also attend the Harpoon events (Octoberfest, Brewstock, etc.) while we were still in school back in 1995-96. Incidentally, I may still have a Harpoon Octoberfest pint glass (yes, they used to give out real glasses) from 1995 kicking around.

Grace Tkach: I was in my junior year of college and got sick of drinking warm 40s. I moved into the smaller bottle formats (a la Chimay) so I could finish a beer while it was still cold.

DCB: What was the turning point (a beer or moment) that made you love craft beer?

CT: I’ve always loved craft beer but I think what keeps me interested in it is the constant variety and flavors of beer that is on the market. I’m a foodie at heart and love experiencing different flavors, aromas and textures. I also love an underdog and every independent craft brewer that I’ve ever met has an interesting story to tell about their brewery and how they fight the good fight against the flavorless macro swill that is out there.

GT: After having a Chimay with Chris on our first date, I realized I found a guy willing to pay for the better, expensive beers so I kept with it and haven’t (and can’t) go back. However, every once in awhile I’ll sneak in a Bud (not!).

DCB: You walk into a magical beer shop with every beer currently available. You can put together one six-pack. What do you walk out with? Only one beer can be from your brewery.

CT: Ah, the variation of the “What’s your favorite beer?” question. I usually respond to this with “the one in my hand” because there are just too many great beers out there to narrow it down. I tend to change my mind frequently but here are some all-time favorites:

1. Blanche De Bruxelles – By far the most interesting Wit out there. I can drink this stuff forever.
2. Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale – A classic in its own right, I look forward to its release every year.
3. Cambridge Brewing Cerise Cassée – Incredibly complex and always amazing.
4. Smuttynose Wheat Wine (aged) – We had vintage kegs of this at our wedding so it brings back fond memories.
5. Goose Island Matilda (aged) – This beer develops great brett character after its been sitting for a year or more (or at least it use to).
6. Hacker-Pschorr Hefe Weisse – Absolutely amazing fresh, right from the brewery.

GT:

1. Idle Hands Craft Ales Triplication – It’s 9%. Enough said!
2. Blanche De Bruxelles – If I can’t have the Idle Hands wit, I’d at least like to look at a mannequin piss while drinking this buttery wit forever (as long as I don’t imitate him!).
3. Franziskaner/Ayinger/Hacker-Pschorr Dunkelweiss – Straight from the German tap, preferred. All Germans accepted.
4. CBC Blunderbuss Barleywine – It’s fun to say and drink!
5. Smuttynose Wheat Wine (aged) – 2008 vintage. I didn’t get enough at it from our wedding in 2009.
6. Water – Otherwise, I would be dead.

DCB: What would you be doing for a career if you weren’t in beer?

CT: Well, since Idle Hands is still a part-time job for me, I still have another career which is in software/website development. This is the job that actually pays me where the brewery doesn’t. Grace likes to kid that I have a part-time job that pays me (software development) and a full-time job that doesn’t (Idle Hands). She couldn’t be more accurate!

However, if I weren’t as responsible as I am, I could easily see myself being a ski bum in Colorado or Utah. I would be working construction during the summer and flipping burgers at night during the winter so that I could fuel my love of skiing and outdoor winter activities.

GT: Professional triathlete/scuba diver/skier who is sponsored by Idle Hands Craft Ales. Then I can drink beer for recovery and I would not feel guilty.

DCB: What do you drink when you’re not drinking craft beer (or beer at all)?

CT: Oddly enough, I drink less beer now than before Idle Hands began operations. I guess like anything, when you are surrounded by it all day, you tend to seek out other things. Given that, I drink a lot of coffee and water but I do enjoy a nice jammy Zinfandel particularly when it’s paired w/ a nicely grilled steak. I still haven’t found a suitable beer pairing substitute for this favorite meal. When I do, I’m going to brew it and call it Zin Killer!

GT: Water and Gatorade. If red meat is involved though, always a red wine.

DCB: Where do you see the craft beer industry going in the next year? And, in that vein, can we get a sneak peak at what new to expect from you in the coming year?

CT: It’s obvious that the industry will continue to grow for the immediate future. However, we are starting to see a lot of “money” people enter into the brewing side of the business because of the impressive growth over the past couple of years. This trend can be good and bad. Good because the industry as a whole can’t grow without external funding but bad because, as soon as the person who is financially in control of the brewery is motivated purely by ROI, decisions may be made that will compromise the quality of the beer and the integrity of the brewery. 

So I’m cautiously optimistic that we aren’t going to see a repeat of the late 90’s but the potential is definitely there. It’ll be up to the craft beer consumer (who I think is much more educated now) to weed out the authentic brands/breweries who are passionate about the product they put out from the ones that are just marketing companies making a money grab by releasing some cleverly positioned product.

As for Idle Hands in the next year - we’ll continue to brew our mainstays (Pandora) and also release a new beer every few months as we rotate through our portfolio and brewing one off test batches here and there. We have a few sour projects going currently, but there is no timeline on when those will be ready. We’re already planning for a small expansion in the Fall that will move us out of the “nano” level but that’s all I’m going to say about it right now as it is very preliminary.

GT: Hopefully we’ll see more of the industry growth in our pockets! Of course, I will still be wearing the dress pants that I wear today in my day job because someone needs to pay for insurance and it’s frankly hard to be HR for your husband.

DCB: What’s your “Last Supper” of food and beer? Pick up to three dishes and the beers that you think go best with them.

CT: The concept of pairing food with beer is something that helps to spur what we do at Idle Hands. As a foodie, we’ve had elaborate beer dinners at home with close friends. Here’s a combination of plates/pairings from various dinners from the past. Note: You need to borrow my good friend, an amazing chef who takes inspiration from some of the best!

Appetizer: Poached quail egg in butter sauce with smoked bacon paired w/ McEwan's Scotch Ale

Entrée: Dubbel Braised Duck Legs on a bed of smashed sweet potatoes paired w/ Unibroue’s Quelque Chose

Dessert: Various stinky cheeses paired w/ Double Happiness Nuptial Ale (the beer I brewed for my wedding)

GT: I can’t go there, the idea is too tough to handle. But I can guarantee there will be some big beers like in my six-pack so I at least think I end up in heaven.

DCB: Thanks for your time, Chris and Grace! For the rest of you, if you want to try some of the beers from Idle Hands, they'll be at Drink Craft Beer Summerfest: A Celebration of Farmhouse Ale on July 13 & 14, 2012. Get your tickets now!