Euro Beer #69: Jenlain Ambrée on the Train

I am gonna finish this shit if it kills me. So what if this trip happened 8 years ago. . . So what if we have been back to Europe since this trip. . . This is the project I started. And I am gonna finish. At least you don't have to stare at that Total Wine post anymore. I know you have been here since May, just waiting for me to blog. Well the summer is over. Here it is. #Waybackwednesday

Aix-en-Provence—>> Barcelona (again)

Just like Jester King. Not really. 

Then we had one of those amazing French meals you always read about. First course: grilled cheese from train cafe. 

And I guess this was the dessert course.

Are we in Spain yet?

Jester King Coquetier

You motherfuckers thought I wouldn't make it, huh? Well here it is: Your daily press release-ish. This one from the ladies and lads of Jester King. NEW BEER! ISO! LOVE YOUR LABELS! It's a beer that may or may not taste like a cocktail. Sorry beer doofuses, no collaboration on this one. Just a normal old JK beer with 10+ ingredients. Is that Patrick Beach on the label????

We’re pleased to introduce Jester King Coquetier. Brewed with cubeb peppercorns, anise seed, lemon zest, and lemon juice, Coquetier is inspired by the woody, herbal, floral, and citrus character of the traditional New Orleans cocktail Sazerac. Lemon zest recalls the cocktail’s traditional garnish, a thin sliver of lemon peel resting on the rim of the glass. The beer was aged in French brandy barrels, as the cocktail originally called for Cognac brandy.

Coquetier was brewed in April of 2014 with Hill Country well water, barley, rye, hops, cubeb peppercorns, anise seed, lemon zest, and lemon juice. It was initially fermented in stainless steel with a mixed culture of microorganisms consisting of brewers yeast and native yeast and bacteria harvested from the air and wildflowers around our brewery in the Texas Hill Country. It then spent seven months continuing to slowly ferment and mature in 600 liter French brandy barrels. It was then refermented in bottles, kegs, and casks for another three months prior to release. Coquetier is 7.5% alcohol by volume, has a finishing gravity of 1.005 (1 degree Plato), and was 11 IBU and 3.2 pH at the time of bottling. The label art was created by our in-house artist Josh Cockrell. Finally, the French brandy barrels, after first being used by us to impart spirit character into Coquetier, are now in our barrel room as neutral oak vessels containing 100% spontaneously fermented beer.

Coquetier will be released at Jester King when our tasting room opens on Friday, April 24th at 4pm. It will be available by the glass, as well as to go in 750ml bottles ($18, limit 4 per customer per day). Approximately 4,500 bottles are available. The price point for Coquetier is slightly higher than some of our previously released barrel-fermented beers, due to the extra cost associated with bringing in special barrels from overseas. At this point, we do not anticipate Coquetier being available beyond Jester King, aside from a few special events.

Jester King First Anniversary Party

Only one year old and already planning a big party:

We’ve put together a very special beer list for the event that we feel is truly one of a kind. The beer list is a reflection of our philosophy, which is to serve unfiltered, unpasteurized, naturally conditioned beer that embraces nature and the world beyond cultured brewers yeast.

Beer List

Boxer’s Revenge Wild Ale (Casks & Gravity Kegs)
Das Wunderkind! Sour Saison (Casks & Gravity Kegs)
Barrel Aged Sour Black Metal Imperial Stout (Gravity Kegs & Draught)
Barrel Aged Wild Commercial Suicide Dark Mild (Gravity Kegs & Draught)
Wytchmaker Farmhouse Rye IPA (Draught)
Mad Meg Farmhouse Provision Ale (Draught)
Le Petit Prince Farmhouse Table Beer (Draught)
Noble King Hoppy Farmhouse Ale (Draught)
Black Metal Farmhouse Imperial Stout (Draught)
Thrash Metal Farmhouse Strong Ale (Draught)
Bonnie the Rare Berliner Weisse (Draught)

Rare guest draughts, casks and gravity kegs from De Proef, Mikkeller and Ridgeway as well as Bavarian gravity kegs.

Very Special Mystery Guest Keg

Our anniversary party also reflects our philosophy in that we’re using it as a platform to promote other local, artisan businesses. The following local businesses will be in attendance sampling and selling their wares:

Buddha’s Brew
Id Soda
Cuvee Coffee
Texas Tea
Baby Zach’s Hummus
Austin’s Best Soup
Confituras Small batch, locally sourced jams, jellies and preserves
Jaymee Luu Jewelry

We expect a few additional local businesses to join us as well. We’ll keep you posted. For any local, artisans wishing to participate, please e-mail events@jesterkingbrewery.com or call 512-584-9990.

During the party, music and entertainment will be provided by:

The Vintage 15
The Jake Levinson Band
Clyde & Clem’s Whiskey Business
Megan Le Fay (Tarot card reading)

Tickets to our 1st Anniversary Party & Market are $20 and will only be available through online, pre-sale. The price of the ticket includes entrance to and use of the brewery grounds, parking, a spot on any or all of the tours and a souvenir glass. The sizes of our free sample pours will be reduced from our normal tastings so that guests can sample all of the nearly 20 different artisan beers we’ll have available.

Tickets are available for purchase. Congrats JK!

JK's Van

This is just the start. This is fun. Beer should be fun.

Next Jester King and Mikkeller Collab Update

At it again. Last night JK posted of an update on their blog. I think they had told us before that they planned on brewing a TX version of Mikkeller’s Beer Geek Brunch, with smoked malts and chipotle peppers (lot of smokiness). But now they've given us an idea of when that would happen — November.

With all that smoke, it kind of kills the idea of beer geek brunch. Not that it won't be a good beer. I love smoked beers, especially with chipotle smoke and heat (Remember their Chipotle Porter ? Sooo good). Maybe they should figure out a way to make a Beer Geek Brunch with migas. There you go guys. Run with that.

Jester King Stuff

First, this past Friday JK brewed their latest session beer, a Berliner Weisse:

. . . a sour, very pale wheat beer, fermented with a combination of saccharomyces (standard beer yeast) and lactobacillus (souring bacteria).

Love that style. Can't wait to see how it turns out.



Then, today JK tweeted that they are bottling Drink'in the Sunbelt, their collaboration brew with Mikkeller.

Jester King / Mikkeller Drink’in the Sunbelt to be Bottled Apparently UPDATED

*UPDATE, from Jester King Jeff:

We dry hopped it yesterday. We'll bottle it in about ten days, then it will take two to three weeks to bottle condition.

Drinkin'in the Sunbelt in bottles. Sounds good. I hope these show up before summer really starts slammin' us.

h/t: Beernews.org

Jester King Starting Tasting Room Hours and Tours

People have been waiting for this day. From Jester King:

This Saturday, May 14th, and every Saturday thereafter (unless you hear otherwise), our brewery and tasting room will be open to the general public from 1-4pm. $10 gets you a tour and a souvenir glass to take home. Of course, we'll also have some of our beer available for sampling (for which your souvenir glass will come in handy), though we're actually struggling a bit to keep up with production right now, so the selections this week may be somewhat limited. We'll have a keg or two of Wytchmaker and a bit of Black Metal, which we're hoping will be enough to get us through the day, and should be, provided that we're not descended upon by droves of thirsty fans the moment we open the gates. Just to be safe, we're limiting attendance to 100 guests, but we're expecting a pretty light turnout the first time around, so we're not anticipating that this will be a problem.

RSVP here.

Now pair this with a visit to Thirsty Planet and Barber Shop and you got yourself a nice little daytrip. Just saying.

Whip In is 25

And they are throwing a 4 day party. Sounds right. Plenty of music and this:

w/ $2.50 draft BREW SPECIALS from
(512) BREWING
FRANCONIA
INDEPENDENCE
JESTER KING
LIVE OAK
RANGER CREEK
REAL ALE
SAINT ARNOLD
THIRSTY PLANET

Draught House Firkin Fridays On the Horizon

Draught House will be tapping a Moylan's Hopsickle cask this afternoon. Sounds fantastic. They also have casks of Great Divide Espresso Oak Aged Yeti and Southern Star (Creme Brulee) Buried Hatchet Stout coming down the pipeline.

Also, while you are there you can grab an Independence Rood and/or Jester King (Mikkeller) Drink 'in the Sunbelt.

 

 

Jester King: Wytchmaker Rye IPA Bottles

The guys from Jester King are out at CBC (some of them at least) this week, but that is not stopping them from releasing bottles of Wytchmaker Rye IPA to the thirsty masses. More of this too:

Jester King + Mikkeller: Drink’in the Sunbelt

Hello, it's Monday and you probably already know about this.

Craft Austin: All the beer news you want, but already know!

Jester King Black Metal Bottles

From JK:

AUSTIN, TEXAS -- A small number of Black Metal 750ml bottles will begin making their way to Austin retailers tomorrow, and to those throughout the remainder of the state starting next week. The official statewide release of both Wytchmaker and Black Metal 750ml bottles will take place in approximately two weeks, once the current batches have fully conditioned. Cheers!

Jester King + Lovejoys

Check it out at Facebook.

New Jester King Website

Looking good. Simple, clean, no flash, nice graphics. I love that word . . . graphics.

Draught House is Killin' Me

As I said before, I'm on a beer budget right now. Then Draught House goes twitter crazy and puts these beers on:

Jester King Brewery Night @ Zax

From Zax:

Zax Restaurant at 312 Barton Springs Rd. is pleased to announce that we have partnered with Jester King Craft Brewery to host the Jester King Craft Brewery kick off party at Zax Restaurant on Wednesday February 16, 2011 at 6:00. Come on out and meet the brewers. Enjoy the great food at Zax, paired with a variety of delicious Jester King Beers, and keep the commemorative logo glass. Featured Jester King Beer will include Wytchmaker Rye IPA, Commercial Suicide Oaked Dark Mild, and Boxer’s Revenge Farmhouse Provision Ale.

I plan to attend. I really want more of the Boxer's Revenge.

Jester King's GRAND Opening

Shit was slamming at the Jester King Grand Opening. And it got even more mobbed after this.



As they say, this is where the magic happens.

They had the biggest event I've ever seen at a brewery. The lines were long, but not horrible. The food smelled great, but I did not have any. We brought goldfish and graham crackers for the kid, I stole some of those. The beers, which I had, were great (stop using that word). I had a couple glasses of the Boxer's Revenge. Really enjoyed that one, want more. A Black Metal and Rye IPA were had as well. A lot of bike and car enthusiast were there adding to the crowd. Facial hair enthusiasts too.

JK: Boxer's Revenge Release

From JK:

AUSTIN, TEXAS -- Jester King Craft Brewery is very pleased to announce the debut of Boxer's Revenge Farmhouse Provision Ale this Saturday, January 29th at the brewery's Grand Opening Celebration.  Boxer's Revenge is the first of three authentic farmhouse ales brewed as part of Jester King's year-round lineup.  The others are Das Wunderkind!, a farmhouse "table beer", and Cocksure, a hoppy, amber farmhouse ale inspired by the French tradition of bière de garde.  Das Wunderkind! and Cocksure will be available in the coming months.  

All three of Jester King's year-round farmhouse ales are aged in oak wine barrels with wild yeast after undergoing an initial fermentation with French farmhouse yeast.  After aging, the individual barrels are blended to taste.

Boxer's Revenge is inspired by the hearty "stock ales" or "provision ales" produced by some of iconic farmhouse breweries located along the Franco-Belgian border and named in honor of the stalwart workhorse in George Orwell's Animal Farm.  It combines delicate notes of tropical fruit, citrus and spice from the primary French farmhouse yeast with tart, rustic, earthy notes from the Brettanomyces.  A final dry-hopping with fresh Cascade and Centennial hops adds yet another layer of depth and complexity. 

Following Jester King’s Grand Opening Celebration, Boxer’s Revenge will be available on draught at a small number of accounts throughout Texas.  In the months that follow, it will be released as a regular, year-round offering in both kegs and 750mL, amber, champagne-style bottles.  Please see the attached information sheet about Boxer's Revenge.

1600 Bottles Like This

More here.