I know it’s been awhile since our last update but we have been absolutely slammed here at Black Dog Brewing Company.  We’re getting down to crunch time and between meeting with engineers, plumbers, and investors, we’re also trying to brew a little beer.  Not to mention, we’ve been visiting some of our friendly neighborhood breweries in order to “talk shop.”  The good news is that we have plenty of stuff to catch up on.  So grab your favorite brew, take a big deep breath (because it’s Friday), crank up our Brewery Night playlist on spotify, and read on, Dear Beer Drinker.

When we left you with our last update, we were getting ready to brew District 5 Amber Ale.  We have since brewed, fermented, drank, and blown the keg.  The official word on the street is that Shawn has triumphantly blown minds with the finalized D5 recipe.  If you spend much time with me, you know I talk incessantly about how the Irish Red/American Amber categories are completely underrated and passed over.  I believe a great beer is balanced above all else and these beers have the perfect balance of malty sweetness and crisp hop bitterness.  Ultimately, as far as food pairing goes, you’ll be strapped to find a better beer to wash down a burger and fries (or any other pub food for that matter).  Our District 5 Amber Ale manages to check all those boxes while delivering great flavor thanks to Shawn’s crafty use of 5 different malts.  Toss in the fact that it comes in at 5.5% ABV, you can drink a few without having to apologize to all your friends the next day.  The next time we brew this will be on the big equipment so if you missed grabbing a sample for yourself, you’ll have to wait until we open this June/July.

Also in February, we brewed a batch of My Girl Blonde Ale and Shawn’s award winning Oatmeal Stout.  Those two beers are getting ready to come out of the fermenters and into the cold crash phase this weekend.  They should be ready by mid to late next week – right in time for St. Patrick’s Day!  We considered a few names for the oatmeal stout and settled on “Darth Oats” …cue the Imperial Death March.  I’m definitely looking forward to channeling the dark side of the Force and knocking back a few of these.

Finally, our last beer update is a big one.  Next week, we’ll be brewing our initial batch of Kuntz’s Old German Lager!  I couldn’t be more excited as we look to bring this true-to-style, old school, German lager to life.   We’ve been spitballin’ a few ideas and Shawn has a solid plan in place to put together, what I expect, will become a staple beer for us.  More to come next week but make sure you’re following us on social media to get the up to date info.  We might even live stream a few special brewing segments.

Now let’s talk about what everyone wants to know…”when are you opening?!?”  Our target date is still holding for June/July.  I put that little slash in there because ideally we’ll have a couple of closed soft openings for our investors and other stake holders in June, and then an official grand opening for the public in July.  There are a number of time sensitive way points that can’t be completed until we get a little closer but the good news is the brewing area (where the magic happens) should go pretty quick once we get the green light from the state.  So pints up, Friends! We’re in the home stretch.  Oh, and yes, that was Shawn’s first beer.  We have a strict one beer policy when working on sensitive architectural drawings.  Well, I suppose it’s more of a suggestion than an actual policy….