http://cambridgebrewing.com/beer/ This is a feed of our seasonally available beers and cask special beers. en will@cambridgebrewingcompany.com Copyright 2010 2010-09-02T21:35:10+00:00 http://cambridgebrewing.com/beer/description/coming-soon/ http://cambridgebrewing.com/beer/description/coming-soon/#When:21:35:10Z Berliner Kendall and Ourobouros Belgian Black I.P.A. (and maybe the Great Pumpkin...)Friday 9/3 we’ll release this year’s Berliner Kendall, a Berlin-style sour wheat ale developed by (now former) CBC Brewer Kevin O’Leary (sniff!). It’ll again be available straight up, or with a shot of either of our house made raspberry or woodruff syrups. Next week - around the 8th, we predict - we’ll release a new beer. Ouroboros is our black Belgian I.P.A. Yes, we love to confuse and frustrate the traditionalists. Our chief mission, as we’ve always said (and to paraphrase Bono) is to continue to abuse our position, and screw up the mainstream. Expect a black beer with tons of floral hops, Belgian yeasty funk, and very low malt and roast notes. Now, I might as well give it away. Next week, on Friday September 10th, we will officially release CBC’s The Great Pumpkin Ale! Perhaps the most well-loved of our seasonals, we will again be producing it with organic pumpkins from our friends at the Farm School and Wilson Farms. So be here at 5pm Friday the 10th (or 4:45 if you wanna be first) for the Great Pumpkin Ale! More to come, but that’s it for now. Cheers, Will Seasonal Beers 2010-09-02T21:35:10+00:00 http://cambridgebrewing.com/beer/description/jacks-cream-ale/ http://cambridgebrewing.com/beer/description/jacks-cream-ale/#When:18:29:37Z Classic American golden aleFebruary 27th, 2010 marked the date of the Boston Homebrew Competition, hosted annually by the Boston Wort Processors, one of the oldest homebrewing clubs in the United States, and sponsored by your friendly neighborhood brewery, CBC. Out of 361 entries, with dozens of beer styles represented from Doppelbocks to Scotch Ales, Baltic Porter to Russian Imperial Stout, American Double I.P.A. to Flanders Red and Belgian Oude Bruin, one beer was chosen as Best of Show. That beer, surprisingly enough, was a simple Cream Ale brewed by Jack Fuqua of Zionsville, Indiana. The award for Best of Show would be many a homebrewer’s wet dream – to have their recipe produced professionally on a large-scale brewing system and made available for sale to the public. Better yet, the winner would be invited to come to CBC on brewday and participate in the production of this winning beer! After multiple emails back and forth, confirming recipe details, securing the exact ingredients – malts, hops, yeast strains – used in the original brew, Jack flew up to Cambridge and arrived at 6am on July 23rd to join the Brew Crew at the kettle. Scaling up a homebrew recipe of five gallons to the 310 gallons of the average CBC-sized batch isn’t as simple as just multiplying by 60. But we’re pretty sure that Jack enjoyed mixing together the 200 gallons of near-boiling water and 495 pounds of malt with the trusty CBC paddle to make our mash. A combination of pilsner malts from the U.S. and Germany combined to make a pale golden brew that still offered some light but sweet grainy complexity, and the addition of flaked rice in the mash contributed towards a more well-attenuated beer with a creamy body. U.S.-grown Liberty hops offered a gentle bitterness to the finish and just a hint of floral hoppiness to the aroma. Fermentation was carried out with a famous yeast strain, though one which had until now never been used in the tanks at CBC: the famous California Ale Yeast #001, also known as Chico Ale Yeast from the famous Sierra Nevada Brewery in Chico, California. Known for low temperature tolerance and for creating a super-clean beer with little fruitiness or esters, the beer was fermented at 62*F for just under a week, followed by three and a half weeks of lagering at freezing temperatures. The resulting beer is many things at once. It is a marvelously clean, simple, quaffable beer, perfect for knocking back on a warm, late summer day. Give this beer just a little more attention, however, and the complexities of cereal flavors from malt and rice come through, followed by a delicate grassy hop note which just peeks out over this crisp, elegant ale. Some consumers may scoff at Cream Ale as representative only of retro-hip blandness, and find it odd that CBC, brewers of all sorts of malt-based oddities, would choose this beer as a best-of-show brew. As brewers, however, we recognize that quite often the truest test of the skills of a real brewer is not in the biggest, brawniest, over-the-top brew he or she can produce. We’re of the opinion that you could hide a dead cat in most double I.P.A.’s or bourbon-barrel Imperial Stouts. No, a real challenge is in crafting a small batch beer of incomparable delicateness, with nowhere to hide unbalanced bitterness or an out of style ester or phenol. CBC is proud to present Jack’s Cream Ale for your enjoyment, and the Brew Crew personally thanks our new friend Jack Fuqua for sharing his beer with us and joining us for a fun and challenging brew day. Cheers!   Seasonal Beers 2010-08-20T18:29:37+00:00 http://cambridgebrewing.com/beer/description/arquebus/ http://cambridgebrewing.com/beer/description/arquebus/#When:18:27:11Z Summer BarleywineGOLD MEDAL – EXPERIMENTAL BEERS GREAT AMERICAN BEER FESTIVAL 2008 An arquebus was a primitive firearm which came into use in the 15th Century, and was a predecessor to the musket and rifle. A smoothbore with a flared muzzle, similar but more refined and accurate than its predecessor the Blunderbuss (ah, there’s the thematic association, Blunderbuss being our winter barleywine…) it was capable of piercing the strong, full-plate armor worn into battle. So, you must continue to wonder, what is a “Summer Barleywine?” Well, in our continuing quest to change the way people think about enjoying and understanding beer and beer styles, we have created a barleymalt-based interpretation of a dessert wine, meant to be sipped on those sultry summer evenings on our patio. It is also brewed with local Cambridge honey gathered from hives within five miles of our brewery by apiarist Mike Graney (http://www.eatlocalhoney.com), plus white wine grapes of the Semillon variety. Our 2010 release is at once light and drinkable yet it boasts plenty of body, and is smooth despite its heroic 14%abv. Arquebus’ deep golden mien contains complex notes of peach and apricot fruit, wildflower honey, toast and coconut oakiness, and soft, tannin-hinted, white grape notes. Malolactic fermentation in the barrel adds a hint of acidity to balance the sweetness of this beer’s finish. It is served still, meaning without carbonation, to further showcase its winelike character. Aged for one year in French oak chardonnay barrels acquired from the Silverado and Chateau Boswell wineries in Napa, the residual flavors contributed by the wood offer a mellowness of character not provided by stainless steel fermentation, as controlled oxidation deepens its color, enhances its rich texture, and concentrated notes of fruit. Enjoy! Will Meyers Brewmaster Seasonal Beers 2010-07-09T18:27:11+00:00 http://cambridgebrewing.com/beer/description/three-rings/ http://cambridgebrewing.com/beer/description/three-rings/#When:17:15:59Z Belgian Pale AleAnyone who’s patronized the Cambridge Brewing Company for any length of time is probably aware of our brewers’ passion for the great beers of Belgium. CBC is credited with being the first production brewery in America to have created an authentic Belgian beer style, Tripel, and our Belgian-inspired beers have garnered international recognition. The grist for Three Rings consists of Belgian Vienna and Aromatic malts, and it is hopped with German Tettnanger and Spalt and American Cascades. Hop aroma and flavor is emphasized, but remains in balance. The yeast used in fermentation is our proprietary Belgian strain, which gives the beer its signature spicy/fruity/funky notes. Three Rings is a deep gold in color, and it undergoes an extended warm conditioning period before further cold-conditioning. It has the aforementioned spicy, fruity, earthy character, and carries additional aromas and flavors of toasted malt, complex herbal notes, and a dominant fruity/spicy hop character. Its finish is fairly long and dry, with yeast notes and hops vying for space on your palate. This is an interesting, complex, and very drinkable beer, which lends itself quite well to a wide range of foods. From whence comes the name, you ask? Well, it could be that inspiration came from the CBC logo of three beer rings on a beer mat, or perhaps it just references the three ring circus that is life here in the CBC Brewhouse. Regardless, look for this beer to make many regular appearances in the coming months. Cheers! Seasonal Beers 2010-06-01T17:15:59+00:00 http://cambridgebrewing.com/beer/description/hefe-weizen/ http://cambridgebrewing.com/beer/description/hefe-weizen/#When:23:16:06Z Bavarian-style Weizenbier mit hefeQ: What’s cloudy, spicy, fruity but dry, with a spritzy effervessence? A: CBC’s HefeWeizen! For the uninitiated in this intriguing seasonal offering, here’s the lowdown : Hefe Weizen (pronounced heffeh-vite-zen) is a traditional wheat beer from Southern Germany. It’s history may extend as far back as the 8th century AD, as the Weihenstephen Brewery claims brewing took place on its site in the small town of Freising, just Northeast of Munich. It was originally a Benedictine settlement in 725, and there has certainly been brewing there since 1040. Weizenbier has a truly royal heritage, as for several hundred years there existed an ordinance reserving wheat beer for the sole consumption of the royal family. It is above all an excellent summer drink, as its refreshing, crisp palate and high carbonation are exceptional on a hot, sunny day. It is brewed with as much as 50% or more malted wheat, in addition to the usual barley malt, and has a very low hopping rate. A unique, top-fermenting German ale yeast lends a fruity acidity and clove-like spiciness to the aroma and flavor, and the yeast itself, which is not filtered out before serving, contributes to its traditionally cloudy appearance. By the way, Weisse (white) and Weizen (wheat) are two interchangeable terms in regards to naming this style, and the words mit hefe (with yeast) indicate that this is an unfiltered beer. A Note On Lemons: Lemon, or no lemon, that is the question. Brewers being brewers, we feel that our beers stand on their own, and the addition of citrus flavoring would impede our very sensitive palates’ appreciation of this superb brew. Therefore, we would rather not, personally, see wedges of lemon afloat in our glasses of weizenbier. However, many people feel that a touch of lemon complements the refreshing character of this summertime beer, so go ahead and order your Weizen mit-lemon if you like. We won’t hate you for it. Much We intend to brew our HefeWeizen frequently enough to keep it available all summer long, through Labor Day, since we’re just slaves to popular demand. Seasonal Beers 2009-07-01T23:16:06+00:00