Author: Mike Karnowski

Experimental Forest #3 (for Syd Barrett). The third in our series of tree flavored beers, this is a dank, resinous IPA with copious amounts of fresh spruce tips.
Like our previous releases, this one is all about the 🌲 🌳 🌲. The aroma is dank pine,cannabis and sweet tarts.The flavor is mouth coating spruce resin and ripe pineapple.

Me and the Devil #2 (for Walt Dickinson) 10.1% ABV. Russian Imperial Stout aged on Tahitian vanilla beans and local espresso coffee beans from Penny Cup roasters.
Continuing on with our series of devilish stouts dedicated to people who have sold their souls. This one starts its life as a beautiful historical recreation of a Russian Imperial Stout (circa 1850) and is gently elevated with quality ingredients. Never any extracts or “natural” flavorings.

L’Internationale (for Eliane Radigue) 6.8% ABV. The second in a series of collaborations with 40 breweries around the world, this one is a historical French Biere de Garde. Each brewery brews the same recipe but with its own local ingredients.

Ours is brewed with local Riverbend 6-row malt, raw wheat and aged French Strisselspalt hops. A long 5 hour boil adds some color. Fermented warm with lager yeast then with our coolship sourced Asheville wild culture in oak barrels for 7 months.

New beer release: Me and the Devil #1 ( for Robert Johnson) 10.1% ABV is the first in a series of imperial stouts that we will be releasing over the next year.

The name? That’s just our brewer Mike being melodramatic about adding anything to a beautiful Russian Imperial Stout. Something something about him selling his soul….#yadayada

The beer? It starts as a perfect historical imperial stout then goes to eleven with the addition of #12 per barrel of toasted coconut. What was that Mike? I thought I heard him say something about it being “f@&king delicious”…he’ll never admit it though.

Special Asheville Beer Week bottle release: London Porter (circa 1804) and London Porter ( circa 1834). In conjunction with our upcoming historical beer tap takeover and beer historian Ron Pattinson’s lecture/tasting  we are releasing this pair of super geeky historical recreations of porter from its early days two centuries ago.
The 1804 version (for Martyn Cornell) is brewed with 50% custom made smoked brown malt from Epiphany Craft Malt while the 1832 version (for Pete Brown) is down to 15% smoked brown malt and 2% black malt that was recently invented in 1817. Both beers were aged in oak barrels with Brett clausennii for 8 months for authenticity.
Each pair of bottles come with a tasting pamphlet with all the geeky details.

Imperial Brett IPA ( for Malcolm Young) 8.2% ABV. Fermented with 100% Brettanomyces and dry hopped with Vic Secret, Galaxy and Comet hops.

Beautiful aroma of ripe pineapple and dank hops, the Brett adds some over ripe tropical fruit funk. Complex yet very drinkable.

Original IPA circa 1850 (for Anthony Bourdain) 8% ABV.
What better way to honor Anthony Bourdain than to dedicate a beer that was born to travel. Originally, IPA was brewed to send to English troops stationed in India (that’s the “India” in India Pale Ale).
Pretty much the opposite of modern IPAs that have a shelf life of a few weeks, the original version was aged a year or more before drinking. Brutally bitter when young (160 IBUs) the long aging softened the bitterness and also gave some funk from the Brettanomyces in the barrels.
Our version was brewed with 100% Maris Otter malt and 100% East Kent Goldings hops. Aged in neutral oak barrels with Brett for 8 months. Could easily be cellared for another year or two but is fabulous right now.
Beautiful funk in the aroma battles it out with marmalade notes from the dry hops. Drinkable af with a crisp bitterness that isn’t harsh at all.

Farmhouse Saison (for R.L. Burnside) 6.3% ABV. A mixed field saison brewed with raw oats and wheat, aged hops and fermented with our house saison blend. Aged in oak barrels for a full year with our house Brett blend.
Delicate funk in the nose, fruity and tart. Complex while remaining super drinkable.

Dry Hopped Sour (for Timothy Leary) 7% ABV. Turn on, tune in, dry hop!

Brewed with local Riverbend malt and fermented with a mixed culture. Dry hopped with a ridiculous 5# per barrel of Galaxy/Vic Secret/Citra/Amarillo. The aroma pops with overripe peaches and pineapple, sour but not too sour.

Appalachian/Belgian Dark Strong Ale (for Mariya Oktyabrakaya) 10.2% ABV. A classic Belgian quad brewed with local sorghum syrup from McMurry Farms.

Fitzhugh McMurry still makes small batch sorghum syrup from sorghum that he grows himself outside of Sylvia, NC. The syrup tastes like a mix of molasses and maple syrup and adds a fantastic smooth finish to this strong ale.