We recently decided to make a beer named ‘Velvet Stout’ in honor of our 1000th brew. Based around the smoothness of a balloon of cognac and a nice Cuban cigar or ‘stogie’ if you will, this beer was brewed out of the need for us brewers to have our own late night celebratory sipper.
We didn’t quite know what was to come of this beast, all we knew was that it had to be smooth, suitably warming for a winter session and approachable. We considered a raft of different beer styles, but settled on a smooth and dark sweet stout as our base.
As we set about making the beer we soon learned GABS was around the corner. Knowing GABS and knowing it’s our one chance in the year to really let the hair down, we thought why not jazz up our celebratory Velvet Stout and bring it’s true origins to life. Next thing you know Chris is handling fresh cut Cuban and Australian tobacco, Andrew’s sourcing French oak barrels and Ben’s blending tea leaves. We had made good on our original inspirations of Cigars and Cognac and before you knew it Velvet Stout had put on a few festive kilos, shed its old coat and grown into ‘The Smoking Jacket’.
In making the beer one of the less conventional elements to The Smoking Jacket was the use of Cuban and Australian tobacco. With this came the potential for nicotine in our beer. Although we anticipated the levels would be negligible, we wanted to err on the side of caution before we made it available to the public. As a result, we sent some samples away for testing. Unfortunately, these results were not received in time for the GABS deadline and we decided to showcase a ‘Censored’ tobacco-free version of The Smoking Jacket at the festival. This cognac infused oak aged beer tastes glorious, true to its original promise. So get down to the festival, put your feet up and enjoy.
And as for the Uncensored Smoking Jacket, we plan to share this dark mysterious beauty in the Beerhall soon.
