We wanted to have Evan Rouse on this weeks episode of Cincy Brewcast not because he is the head brewer of Braxton Brewing Company… but because he is an incredible homebrewer. As you’ll hear when you listen to the show once it goes up today on iTunes (or as you’ll read in the show notes tomorrow morning) we talked extensively about homebrew competition…which we intended. What we didn’t intend or expect was the fantastic surprise we received from Evan when he strolled into the studio, growler in hand with a big smile on his face…
It’s new beer time from Braxton!
Where’s the Saison?
When we first started talking about Braxton Brewing Company, and started hearing about the teams beer preferences, there was a recurring theme that kept popping up – Saisons. In fact, at an early media preview event we were served a few of Evan’s homebrew beers that we were told would become Braxton recipes and one of them was a fantastic 6.6% abv saison. Needless to say, the love of the Saison from the team, and the fantastic example that we tried left a lot of people sad when Braxton didn’t launch with one.
Saisons are “typically” Spring beers, so it was reasonable to assume that we wouldn’t see one until next year… but not ones to let anyone tell them what to do, Braxton is making theirs… in the fall. Like… this fall… as in… now.
The Wait Is Over!
Add it to your calendar, Cincinnati – This Friday they will be tapping their newest beer! The Braxton Saison is called Level in the taproom.
The beer, and this is my tasting notes here… is clean and refreshing. It’s dry with a wonderful fruity character that sits on top of the familiar spice of Belgian yeast character. This beer is a salute to quality brewing, to make a beer that finishes this clean and dry allowing the yeast to showcase what it does is a skill that not everyone possesses, and my hat is off to the Braxton team for what they’ve crafted with this one.
The taproom will be hopping, these events have been extremely popular so far.. This city loves few things more than new beer!
Rolling Out The Barrel
We’ve seen hint after hint after hint on social media from the team down at Braxton, and Evan let some of the news that ties in with the Saison come out last night. Their new Saison, Level is currently tucked away in barrels (there’s a white wine version that sounds incredible). It’s part of a busy release schedule to look forward to from them, including a new version of Trophy with Galaxy Hops – There is a massive IPA that was their collaboration with Widmer Brothers – and also “Something Big” Stashed away in some bourbon barrels. All this plus their Firkin Fridays and a series of Kickstarter collaboration beers that numbers somewhere in the 20’s makes for a lot of different things for you to taste in the Covington brewery deemed the “taproom of the future”.
So…. listen to this weeks brewcast, I’ll throw a link on here when it’s posted. Evan talks a lot about the Saison and about some of the new stuff they have coming!