Kettlehouse Brewing’s Fresh Bong Water filtered with orange peels
Alas, summer is nearing its demise. The days are getting noticeably shorter, the nights a little cooler and the rivers a tad shallower. My girlfriend even had to go back to work today for pre-school year meetings. Yikes. Not that I’m complaining too much though, football is right around the corner.
But if you love summer and don’t want to see it go away, there’s a bit of a reprieve over at Kettlehouse Brewing on Myrtle Street. On tap is Kettlehouse’s usual Fresh Bong Water Pale Ale, but now it’s infused with fresh orange peels through the Randall. The Randall, pioneered by Dogfish Head, is a filter that takes beer from the tap and flows it through a capsule that’s generally filled with hops. In Kettlehouse’s case, they’ve filled the Randall with orange peels to impart just a little something extra into Fresh Bong Water.
I had my fair share of pints of this over the weekend and it makes for a great summer beer, even as the days grow shorter.
- Matt Pritchard
Great Northern Brewing Co. teams with String Cheese Incident keyboardist on new beer
Great Northern Brewing Co. is working with Kyle Hollingsworth, keyboardist for the String Cheese Incident and member of the aptly named Kyle Hollingsworth Band, to create a new beer for the upcoming outdoor concert series on Aug. 4 and 5 in Whitefish.
Hollingsworth, who is a homebrewer himself, helped Great Northern come up with a pale ale infused with earl grey tea leaves, which gives the beer a “distinct herbal citrus aroma and a crisp finish.” Great Northern is brewing a 20-barrel batch for the concert series, but if you can’t make it you can get the recipe here.
The Great Northern Outdoor Concert Series takes place Aug. 4 and 5 in Whitefish. Keller Williams will headline the show on Aug. 4 and the Kyle Hollingsworth Band will headline Aug. 5. Doors open at 2 p.m. each day and the headliners are slated to take the stage at 7 p.m.
Here’s a video on the collaboration. Just to warn you, it’s a little cheesy (pun intended):
- Matt Pritchard
Big Sky Brewing Co. Space Goat
Big Sky Brewing Co. has a far out take on one of their staples.
Cleverly called Space Goat, the beer is a variation of Scape Goat brewed with galaxy hops. That may sound familiar from another excellent beer that Flathead Lake Brewing Co. put out over the summer, Galaxy Pale Ale. Galaxy hops are an Australian variety that bring heavy doses of citrus flavors to beer. The difference can really be tasted in Space Goat, imparting pineapple and grapefruit and a burst of hops into Big Sky’s traditional pale ale.
Space Goat can only be had at the taproom in Missoula and there are no plans, at least for now, of bottling the beer. It’s in limited supply (around four to five kegs left) and it’s been pretty popular, so don’t wait. Plus, it’s free to taste.
- Matt Pritchard
Glacier Brewing Co.’s Wildhorse Island Pale Ale on horizon
Polson’s Glacier Brewing Co. is prepping a new American Pale Ale at the request of its customers called Wildhorse Island Pale Ale or Wildhorse IPA. Dave Ayers says it should be ready in the first part of 2011 on draft and hopes to bottle thereafter.
“It will be a hoppy answer to all the requests I get for an IPA,” Ayers said in an e-mail.
To go along with the beer, Glacier Brewing is looking for a photo of Wildhorse Island to possibly use in the label design. If you have one you want to share, send it to info@glacierbrewing.com.
- Matt Pritchard