Hoppy Holidays

With Christmas quickly approaching and the New Year looming shortly after that, we here in the Lompoc empire decided to explore the possibility of revamping our year round lineup. It comes as no surprise that tastes have changed since we opened in 1996. Back then, Amber Ales and Pale Ales dominated brewery taplists across the country and IPAs were the "extreme" beer du jour. For Northwest beer drinkers, IPA has become the standard style, a beer that pleases both those new to craft beer and the hardcore beer geek. With this in mind we've begun working on a reworking of our hoppy beer lineup to bring it in line with changing tastes. Don't worry, our flagship C-Note will remain unchanged but we'll be adding a new Imperial IPA to the mix.

With the growing popularity of hoppy beers across the country, and the growing number of breweries (the Brewers Association lists over 700 breweries in planning in addition to the 1,927 already in operation) some of the more sought after hop varieties are becoming hard to come by. Some of the more popular "new school" hop varieties (Simcoe, Citra, Amarillo) are particularly scarce in most parts because they are trademark protected and grown exclusively by a few select growers. This shortage can become a serious problem for breweries when they can't get a hold of the necessary hops for a popular beer (see Laurelwood's decision to discontinue their popular Workhorse IPA). On the flipside, these shortages force brewers to become more creative in their hop usage, either by creating entirely new beers, or using different hop blends to mimic a similar flavor.

That being said, we come back to our new Imperial IPA. Some may recall a beer named Peregrine Imperial IPA we've brewed for the Sasquatch Brewfest the last two years. Our new Imperial will be based on the original Peregrine but without Simcoe hops. I've taken it as a challenge to create a blend of hops to mimic the characteristic pine and tropical fruit notes of Simcoe using hop varieties we have in adundance. I'll be brewing a series of test batches using different hop blends. The first batch, which I transfered to a brite tank yesterday, will be on tap starting next week and uses Columbus, Chinook, and Cascade along with generous amounts of Perle. Come in to any of our pubs next week and let us know what you think. Until next time, Hoppy Holidays and cheers!

-Zach

It's Always Darkest Before the Dawn

As many of you may recall, every January we release a big coffee stout named Black Dawn. It just so happens that's the beer I'm brewing today(and my perennial favorite). Originally designed as a series meant to feature different coffee varieties from different roasters in the same base stout, the logistics proved somewhat challenging, so we retooled the concept into an annual release. Black Dawn I featured coffee from Lone Pine Roasters in Bend, and last year we used a coffee blend from Ristretto Roasters here in Portland. We enjoyed last year's version so much that this year we've decided once again to pair with Ristretto for our coffee, but with a different twist. In the spirit of our original concept, we'll have three different versions of Black Dawn featuring three different Ristretto coffees. I'll be hosting a release party at New Old Lompoc on January 13 that will feature all three versions of Black Dawn III, plus Black Dawn II, and 2009 Pre-Dawn Imperial Stout(the base beer for Black Dawn I). We'll have taster trays available so people can sample all five beers together.

As I write, the pre-boil gravity sits at 1.065, which should produce a starting gravity somewhere around 1.070, resulting in a beer weighing in between 7.5-8% ABV. The grain bill is a complex and large one involving nearly 600 lbs of grain, and featuring Golden Promise, NW Pale, roast barley, brown, chocolate, Special B, Caraffa, and Midnight Wheat malts along with toasted barley flakes. A healthy dose of CTZ hops will provide the bittering to balance the sweetness of such a large beer while Oregon Willamette hops will round out the boil. Black Dawn III will use our house American ale yeast for fermentation. After fermentation is complete I will run the cold pressed Ristretto coffee inline to the brite tank during the transfer.

Time to get back to the brew, I've got 600 lbs of grain to bail out of my mash tun! Make sure you mark your calendars for January 13th because this event promises to be a unique tasting experience. Until next time. Cheers!

-Zach