OMG! So Good!
As excitement continues to build for Black Dog Brewing Company, we’ve been fielding an increasing number of questions from “when is opening day?” to “how many dogs can I bring into the brewery at one time?” As such, I figured with this update, we’ll address some of those burning questions. I’ll also try to squeeze in some of the most recent pictures, small batch details, and other tidbits. So grab a beer, kick your feet up, and read on.
Question 1 - Are dogs allowed in the brewery?
You know we love dogs, right? Unfortunately, there’s a quite a large risk involved as more than a few dogs begin showing up in the taproom. As much as it pains me to say this and similar to a number of other breweries mentioned in this article on craftbeer.com, Black Dog Brewing Company won’t allow dogs at the brewery. Sorry, fellow dog lovers, but our staff, guests, and investors are expecting us to make the right decisions and the liability if something goes wrong falls directly on our shoulders. We will try to make it up to our furry friends by offering carryout of Good Boy Dog Beer.
Question 2 - Will you have food?
Of course we’ll have food! We can’t expect you to drink delicious beer without delicious food, now can we? As many of you know, phase 1 of our brewery project is getting our beer production up and running with a temporary taproom set up in the brewing area. During this phase, our food options will be limited to our brew boards and food trucks. Phase 2, which consists of getting the big taproom up and running, will feature a full kitchen. I promise we’ll feed you.
Question 3 - are minors allowed?
Not yet. In phase 1, our temporary taproom will be set up in such a way that we can’t legally let minors into the area. Once we have our big taproom up and running, minors will be allowed in the dining area.
Question 4 - When the hell is opening day?
Trust me when I say that we’re working our tails off to bring you beer before the end of summer. Right now, our target date has moved back to mid-September due to some code requirements from the state. The good news is that all of our brewing equipment is on site and we’re ready to rock as soon as we get these minor details worked out. We’ll continue to update progress through our social media (links at the top of the page) so please stay tuned!
on with the show
Now that your burning questions have been answered, let’s get onto some of the other highlights of the past few weeks, namely beer.
We are now coming up on our 15th round of small batch brews, which I’ll get to in a minute. Since our last check in, we’ve done a second round on three beers, starting with Shelby Dog IPA and per the name of this article, OMG! So Good! Shawn added a little something to the malt profile and dialed in our hop amounts for the small batch process and if you like hoppy beers, this is one for the ages. This beer is definitely worthy of our flagship beer status and I can’t wait until it gets rolling on the big system. I was so thrilled that I even went back and made sure the label lived up to the magic liquid that will soon touch your lips. Just for you website subscribers, I am happy to share our Shelby Dog IPA can label prototype.
The next beer in line was Kuntz’s Old German Lager. For the second round of this beer we wanted to go back and adjust the malt profile. For those of you following along at home, this beer is extremely important to me since this was our family’s flagship brew from the original Kuntz Brewery and I wanted it to be just right. Our first swing with the Old German Lager (a couple of months ago) resulted in a great beer, albeit a little too malty (almost Oktoberfest-ish) for an everyday Old German Lager. So Shawn went back to the recipe and tweaked it just slightly and the result this time around was spot on. It has just enough malt for that old world German flavor but not so much that it turns into an Oktoberfest beer. The more I drink this beer, the more I believe we may have a monster on our hands. My original thought was that this would be a seasonal brew but beer drinker interest may dictate otherwise. Either way, we’re looking forward to making Kuntz’s Old German Lager available to everyone and celebrating a piece of our beer heritage with you.
The other beer that has surpassed all expectations is Good Vibrations Belgian Wit. First of all, we knew that this beer would go over well because it’s a popular style and Shawn has been dazzling drinkers with his Belgian styles for a number of years, but again, O.M.G.! We offered it to a few lucky neighbors and the next thing I knew, 5 gallons of Good Vibrations had disappeared. The feedback was amazing with comments ranging from “easy drinking” to “summery,” “citrusy,” and “holy shit!” I think Shawn found that perfect blend of spices that stay subtle on the palate while giving you just enough flavor. Anyway, response was so great that we not only brewed another batch for the 4th of July, but we went ahead and green-lit the production of the Good Vibrations tap handle, pictured. We also spent a fair amount of time (and drank a few Shelby Dog pints) debating over names for the Good Vibrations dog. We settled on “Wilson” and we’ll see how many of you can guess why that name made so much sense…
For our official 15th small batch brew, coming up next week, we wanted to do something a little different than what we’ve been working on. Shawn suggested a saison and that’s our plan. For those not familiar with the style, it’s a Belgian beer, sometimes called a farmhouse beer because Belgian farmers used to brew it as a refreshing summer beer for their workers. Much of the flavor in a saison is derived from the strain of yeast which imparts a lot of chewy, fruity flavors (think figs and plums). Shawn has some great ideas for this brew and as one of my favorite styles, I can’t wait to brew it (and drink it). We’ve been working on some names and we’ll share that along with the label artwork once we’re ready to keg it.
Finally, you may have seen the recent parade of equipment headed into the brewery. It feels like it took forever-and-a-day to get here but I’m happy to say it’s officially all on site, with our last piece of capital equipment delivered earlier this week. Our chiller, clocking in at 12 feet long, 8 feet high, and weighing over 3800 lbs, is an absolute beast. Custom made for Black Dog Brewing Company by Advantage Engineering in Greenwood, this chiller is designed to keep our very delicate fermenting beer at the proper temperature. It even has two circuits, just in case one goes down, which means Shawn won’t have a heart attack and we’ll never have to compromise the quality of our beer.
Alright, I should probably get back to the grind and follow up on all those “opening a brewery” type things but as always, we will continue to update as much as we can so stay close to us on social media and the website. In the meantime, have another beer and we hope to see you in the brewery come September!
Subscribe with your email below and get all the black dog brewing company updates
Subscribe below to get all the latest Black Dog news and updates. Once you’ve signed up, make sure to check your spam folder occasionally. You don’t want to miss out on updates due to an overzealous spam filter!
2 comments on “OMG! So Good!”
Comments are closed.
Where are you located????
Need any help? Retired lilly development engineer. Like to make things. Don’t need much money. Live near Mooresville. Text 317-417-7478. Let’s talk.
Neal