Mmmm Friday…
Hell-Bent bottle wax imprinter
Yeast for the next batch of Lemon Wheat
Black Saison
Night out at Victory brewing @victorybeer
Brewing Lemon Wheat this morning
The Hell-Bent crew has decided to put together our favorite beers of 2012. These aren’t new beers in 2012 or even necessarily the best, but they are our favorites of everything we tried, excluding our own beers of course.
We’ll start off with what we think was the most prolific style of the year.
Style of the Year
Saison
The Belgian Farmhouse ale really exploded this year. Everyone had one and there were a lot of good examples of this style which is characterized as a spicy and highly carbonated beer. Our favorites this year:
Ommegang: Hennepin Farmhouse Saison
Brewery of the Year
This brewery made so many good beers this year we lost track of which was our favorite. If we had to pick we would probably go with the Friendship Brew. A black saison. Some other favorites are the Double Stout, the Hop Head Red, Le Freak and the West Coast IPA. It’s tough to go wrong with Green Flash.
Now, onto our personal favorites:
Dan’s Favorites - my tastes lean towards simple pale ales and IPA’s although I recently started enjoying some sour beers. My top beer is in fact a sour saison
Dave’s Favorites: My tastes are all over the place. I love a good beer. My first love were stouts but then I got into all sorts of hoppy beers. Recently I have been exploring Belgians. As long as the beer is well rounded, I’m there.
Gary’s Favorites: My tastes are similar to Dave’s—probably because they’re very much influenced by Dave. I like something that I can sit and drink a few of. Love wet hops, Belgians, and Saisons.
Nick’s Favorites: I like a good pale ale, something I can drink a lot of at one time.
Scott’s Favorites: As the North Carolina arm of our brewery team my tastes lean towards IPA’s. Recently I’ve been trying a lot of Rye beers so you might see them in next years list.
Adam’s Favorites: My tastes lean towards the classics. I like good beers, pale ales & IPA’s. Everything I’ve chosen below represents the best of their style
Kyle’s Favorites: I don’t have access to a lot of good beers in my current locale but I tend to like anything on nitro and I’ve recently been drinking some Belgians. I also make a mean Ginger Jamie.
We hope these give you an idea of some of our influences as well as give you some new beers to try for 2013.
New bottle cap day
The electric brewery is almost done
Enjoying an Origin-ale on Christmas Eve Eve.
Hell-Bent Christmas
Bottling the Black Saison. 100 beers, coming up!
Sly Fox Brewery
Today we brewed our winter beer, a Black Saison. We aren’t huge fans of the overspiced winter beers that are going to be coming out in the next few weeks so we tried something different. The Black Saison will have a traditional Belgian flavor along with a very slight roastiness as well as some peppery notes. This should be ready in about 5 weeks and probably won’t stick around long. Here are some pictures from today’s brew session.
Command Center
Mashing
The start of the Boil
Hops!
Full Boil
Time to Chill
Almost done. 10 Gallons of Black Saison in the fermentors
