Halloween Themed Beer Series

Brewer's notes:

The trend in beer lately seems to be that the most hyped beers are those that taste like something that isn't beer, often times plumbing into the depths of the mainstream consumer's nostalgia. I feel like I've ranted about this before, so I'll keep this short. I generally find these non-beer-flavored beers unpalatable. They run too close to being the liquid equivalent of the candy or dessert, obscuring their inherent "beeriness" and they become, at best, a novelty. Not that there's anything wrong with that -  but I want to retain some of that beery charm. And what better time to walk that line than with Halloween?

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Halloween just might be my favorite holiday. I love the scary stories, dressing up in costumes with my kids, crisp autumn weather, campy horror films, and of course, the candy. So I found a way to work those flavors into 3 limited run variants (I say 3 because Pumpkin Pylon has its own dang page here).

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Caramel Apple Liffey: I had a big batch of Liffey lagering in back and if you've ever tasted a lager released before it was done lagering (as is the case with an incredibly popular American lager that shall remain nameless) , you'll get a green apple character. Liffey was right at that stage to provide a hint of green apple when I pulled some off for this variant. I'd also been making my Wisconsin wife a variant of Brandy Old Fashioned at home where I add in some caramel syrup to apple brandy, which resulted in that caramel apple sucker flavor we all knew and loved as kids. It didn't take much to push Liffey in that direction.

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Peanut Butter Cup Steel Beam: Chocolate Peanut Butter Beer was one of the first requests on our beer suggestion board at Twin Span, and it took me a while to find the right time to produce one, but I eventually got there. Steel Beam is already pretty chocolatey, so it just needed a little nudge in that direction. The peanut butter, however, came from a baking supply company that produces a syrup -- using real peanut butter is a chunky oily mess. Try it with an actual peanut butter cup - they really amp each other up.

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Sour Batch Adults: a beer that tastes like this popular candy has been on the suggestion board for months. And I swore I wouldn't brew it. I just could not think of a way to make something that would actually taste good. The idea took root though and I realized all there really is to it is sour + fruit in a beer that can stand up against such a bold combination. Cherry Pylon has that in spades. 

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Coming up with these beers was fun. Nudging existing beer flavors towards candy extremes is a bit of a trick and a treat. Cheers