Jester King Craft Brewery

This topic has been beat to death on these forums. You should do a search.

 

Was trying to figure this out a couple weeks ago, as I stumbled upon some OG Black Metal in Houston a while back and want to do a side by side once it's not flaming hot outside:
When was the last batch of Black Metal with English Ale yeast brewed? Just trying to figure out how old the beer I bought might be.

 

I did, the search only shows 200 results, leading me to a 68 page JK thread. In it I found a post by Jeff saying it's on the JK blog.

I just looked through 30 pages of the JK blog, and have no explicit answer to Why. I'd think this info would be on the/an OG Black Metal beer page but it's not (http://jesterkingbrewery.com/introducing-jester-king-black-metal-imperial-stout). OG Black Metal isn't even featured on the main beer page. This issue isn't mentioned in the FAQs, which need to be updated.

I'm also thinking the reason is in a thread older than the 68 page one. Based on dates in that thread and the blog. So I can spend more time digging through old BA posts, get an answer here, or just stop being curious about it.
Edit: To be fair, it appears the reason is to make every beer a farmhouse style, as that is one of the brewery's themes. (http://www.examiner.com/article/jester-king-wants-you-to-buy-the-farm), but this has yet to be 100% confirmed by my searches.

 

Jester King wanted to use Farmhouse saison yeast in all their beers to give all their beers a sense of terroir and originality. They also probably didn't want to have to spend extra time keeping 2 viable yeast strains healthy and happy.

Jeff/Ron would say that any number of breweries could brew a beer similar to OG Black Metal.

 

You've hit the nail on the head. Originally they used English ale yeast for their beers but switched to French saison and their own Hill Country yeast which they collected themselves and had a lab isolate the strain(s) they felt worked best. It's what they do, their farmhouse philosophy.

 

AFAIK, the switch was made in late 2011, so any OG Black Metal you have/see around is at least ~1.5 years old. And MY GOD is it good.

 

And damn their yeast is killer, one of my favorite tables at The Festival in Portland this weekend. Salt Lick, Viking Metal, Atrial Rubicus, RU55, etc. How readily available are these beers in your neck of the woods?

 

Down here in Texas, Viking and Atrial haven't even been officially released yet. The other two have seen one release and you can probably find someone to easily trade for it.

 

Salt Lick is pretty easy to find right now in ATX... RU55 will have another release later this year. Viking and Atrial haven't been officially released yet (both and badass, btw). Those are both gonna be brewery only releases.

 

Salt Lick is still around in some places; quite a bit was made. Viking Metal and Atrial Rubicite should be released at the brewery next month. RU-55 was released twice, I think, and another release will be happening later in the summer. That baby doesn't fly off the shelves, but it disappears very uniformly and completely.

EDIT: okay guys I think he gets it

 

Salt lick was....

Alright, he gets it!

 

Salt..

 

Thanks for the information everyone. Atrial and Viking metal will be huge hits when they are released.

 

Trust me: none of us can wait. We are incredibly lucky to have a brewery of this caliber down here in Texas.

 

Is another batch of Uberkind gonna surface soon? I want a bottle to share with someone.

 

Do you still have some?

 

"Prettiest test batch ever"

How'd this beauty turn out?

 

I would assume its not done yet

 

Interesting way to home brew though, clearly Jeff knows what he is doing.

 

I actually had the same Saturday with one of the first Farmhouse's that hit Houston. Super beer.