This past weekend we actually managed to take a small amount of time off and get out of the brewery.  Upon walking back into the brewery just after sunrise Monday morning, there was an amazing sense of calm and peacefulness.  Could only a day and a half away from work really have done that much good for our psyche?  Whether or not this serenity hung around, or was all in our heads it was a great way to start a weeks worth of work.

Over the course of the day, it slowly began to feel like a farm brewery again.  “That’s weird”, I thought.  The cold room is close to 50 degrees instead of 36.  After a quick inspection to see what is going on, it turns out the gasket around the door has cracked a bit, but could that really be the cause?  A quick call to our local refrigeration guy Bob and we’d have someone out in no time to inspect it.  So off we went to keg our newest IPA.

Quickly, we noticed the brite tank was a bit our target temperature as well.  Starting to sense a pattern?  We were!  Time to check the main glycol chiller outside.  Turns out, that quiet in the brewery wasn’t just a clearer head.  It was our three phase power converter which runs our glycol chiller and cold room not working.

First thing first, inspect the beer inside each tank.  The IPA we had brewed on Thursday had clearly fermented as was evident by the thick slurry of fermentation blowoff we had to clean off the floor before we started kegging.  Two batches had already passed active fermentation, and one had yet to begin – but is a notoriously slow starter and hadn’t crossed any critical temperature thresholds yet.  All seems ok.  So get the converter up and running and lets keep calm and keg on.

Even with the converter back up, the glycol chiller is still on the fritz.  So while we wait for the new pressure switch to arrive to correct the problem all we can do is keep telling ourselves in whatever way possible that everything’s going to work out just fine.  What’s the point of sharing this with you?  Well, there couldn’t possibly have been a more appropriate time to release this beer.

We’ve had interest in this particular hop (oooooh mysteries!) for a long time and finally found enough to brew a single-hop IPA with it.  And we love the results!  The big alpha acid and oils in the hop produce bright stone fruit and woody floral aromas with a tropical, watermelon and light resin flavor to round it out.

So if you want some of this juicy IPA for yourself, head to one of the following locations this week and ask the bartender for “Some Vague Reassurances Everything’s Going To Be Alright.”

@ The Corner, Litchfield

Birch Hill Tavern, Glastonbury

Cask Republic, New Haven

Craft 260, Fairfield

Eli Cannon’s, Middletown

Krust Pizza, Middletown

Lucky Taco Cantina and Taproom, Manchester

McLaddens Irish Pub, West Hartford

McLaddens Irish Pub, Simsbury

My Place, Newtown

Parrot Delaney Tavern, New Hartford

Prime 16, New Haven

Prime 16, Orange

Stanziato’s, Danbury

White Horse Pub, New Preston

Widow Brown’s Cafe, Danbury