Imperial Stout

We've been meaning to brew one for a while. The first beer we ever made was a stout from an old courage recipe circa 1970. Its the only beer we've remade time and again in exactly the same way. Most of our beers recieve little changes and additions evolving and improving all the time but the stout we thought perfect from day one and have never messed with it. I very often as a little tradition have a stout every Saturday after the bar closes if ive been working. I really like our stout a lot.

I've been spending a lot of time looking at historical recipes recently. I find them a good way of trying to get into brewers heads of the time. Often i see things i wouldnt do and it casues me to rethink things and look at things afresh. Looking at old recipes or any recipes really is a bit like looking through someone elses eyes which definitely forces me at least to think in different ways.

One of the things ive seen and wanted to brew for a while is the 1914 Courage recipe found here.
As we have a new packaging tank (O2 levels prepack are at an alltime low :) more on that in a future blog maybe) We were able to split this batch into three and make seperate additions.

Version 1 of this beer is simply the recipe found in the link, rich unctuous, a classic British imperial stout. Version 2 and 3 have ingredients added to enhance and compliment the flavours already there in the original beer. We're not telling what they are though but would be interested to see if people can guess.

We're launching this beer at the excellent Indyman Beer Con this year and will have all three versions on over the weekend. Come say hi and maybe we'll find a prize for whoever guesses the right additions.

Head of production, Chris JJ Heaney will also be doing a talk on our cuvee beers in the cellar that weekend at some stage. We'll be sampling every beer from 2013-2016 and discussing both religion and science. There may or may not be incense and or religious iconography.

Rainbow Project 2016

 

VIOLET

 

It was disappointing for us that were unable to work with our assigned partners at Panhead Brewery in New Zealand, but issues with communication, arising we are told from there recent sale to the Lion group made the process of collaborating on this beer within the given timeframe not possible.

Due to scheduling conflicts and time constraints we were unable to brew the beer at the time we would have liked, but we feel confident that as well as tasting great for the launch, the Royal will age exceptionally well, building additional character and an enhanced flavour profile over time.

Partizan Brewing are proud to announce our beer brewed as part of this year's Rainbow Project. Violet was an exciting colour for us to work with and sparked lots of ideas and potential conceptual directions. Eventually, we found ourselves fixated firmly on the assignation of purple as the colour often associated with royalty in numerous cultures around the world. We looked at beers brewed to celebrate the Coronation year, and although this could have referred to a number, we settled on a barleywine - a big beer that would allow richness and complexity, with boozy notes that seemed appropriate for a celebratory drink!

We began to think of other references to royalty that might pair well with this and the subject of noble rot arose - the fungal growth that appears on the skins of wine grapes, thinning the skins and perforating them, allowing a raisin-like drying that increases sugar concentration, ultimately suited to producing a rich and complex wine such as Tokay or Sauternes. 

We chose to add concentrated Riesling juice to our fermentation, resulting in a nuanced sweetness and vinous character in the final beer. We were delighted with the results and trust that the finished article would be fit for the table of any king!

We hope you enjoy!