Firehouse Brewery & Grill brewmaster Steve Donohue has been one busy man. Donohue, and assistant brewer Jason Gutierrez, ended 2011 with a collaboration beer for Beer Revolution and have started 2012 by expanding their bottled beers. Donohue's popular One Tun Imperial Stout, or OTIS, as its better known as, is joining his well regarded Hops on Rye (HOR) on the shelves of your favorite craft beer retailer.
What's in a Name?
One Tun Imperial Stout, or OTIS, as it's better known as.
Despite what he may say, Donohue is pretty good with coming up with names for beers. One Tun Imperial Stout, named so because it literally requires 2000 pounds of malted barley to brew this behemoth, is also an exercise in wordplay (ton and tun). If you don't know how much a ton of barley looks like, just ask Gutierrez how many tubs of spent grain he had to wheel out. The "imperial stout" is in there because the beer is a Russian Imperial Stout. Simple enough.
If I may be allowed to break off onto a tangent, when brainstorming ideas for a label, I always thought it would've been cool to have an ax on the label somewhere. Not only would it have been a reference to the "firehouse" name (nevermind there is nothing "firehouse" related at all to the brewery), it would've been a nod to the movie Frailty. But in the interest of branding, it was a better call to have the look remain consistent with Hops on Rye.
Bottling When You Don't Have a Bottling Line
One guy does all the work and the rest of us watch, just like government work.
In case you haven't been to Firehouse Brewery & Grill, they're a brewpub. They have several of their beers on tap as well as a few guest taps. There's also a restaurant where you can order food, lots and lots of TVs for you to catch "the game", and lots of plaid (or very little, depends on your viewpoint) to go around. What they don't have is a bottling line.
For this Donohue relies on the services of Ron Gregerson. Gregerson owns and operates several mobile bottling lines that allows him to service key areas of the craft beer industry on the west coast of the United States. Each system is self-contained and comes in 2 main parts: a bottle labeler and a bottle filler. Gregerson and his team supply the bottles and the individual breweries supply their own lables.
If all goes well, the labeling, filling, boxing and palletizing of 17 – 20 BBL (barrels) will take just a couple of hours. If there are hiccups, the job will take a little more time, obviously. On the morning of the OTIS bottling, there were a few hiccups. There were issues with some hoses, a few bottles with improper fill levels, and a few leaks here and there. Yet with the help of several friends, nearly 3 pallets worth of OTIS was bottled and is now ready for public consumption.
One Tun Imperial Stout, 10% ABV
OTIS pours out a very dark brown, essentially black, with a brown colored head. The aroma is malty with roasty, black coffee and light fruit notes. The flavor is of deep roasted barley, a touch of burnt malt character, dark chocolate, black coffee and hints of toffee. Hop flavor is resiny, hop bitterness is medium-high. The beer is full-bodied with medium carbonation and a dry finish with some roasty astringency. For a 10% beer, OTIS is ridiculously smooth. I can kinda feel the alcohol but I can't really taste or smell it.
I Can Haz OTIS?
Right now, the one place you are guaranteed to find bottles of OTIS is right at Firehouse Brewery & Grill. Post No Bills in Sand City has some in stock, and I believe Beer Revolution should have some as well. The plan is for BevMo, Whole Foods, City Beer and other retailers to carry the craft beer as well, but Donohue self-distributes and he'll get the beers to where they're wanted as soon as he can. If you can't find them at you local craft beer retailer, ask for it!
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I’ll ask around for OTIS. There was plenty of bottles HOR to be found along the Peninsula, so looking forward to taking a bottle of OTIS home.
Good people! Good beer!
I can’t wait to get a hold of a bottle of this. Way to go Steve!!!