My good friends at NJ Beer Co and Bolero Snort have allowed NJCB to post the information first about a new beer coming out from NJ Beer Co and Bolero Snort. Bolero Snort is run by Bob Olson, a homebrewer and he partnered up with NJ Beer Co to brew a small batch of a beer in honor of The Big Man, Clarence Clemons. Here’s some information below
I asked Bob and Matt, President of NJ Beer Co, a few questions and here are the answers.
Mike NJCB: I’m stoked. What’s the beer? What style, tell us!!!
Bob Olson: This brew is a Tribute beer for Clarence Clemons. He represented the spirit and soul of NJ and Matt and I wanted to put that into a beer. We started with Manolette’s Black Magic BIPA (one of my more tame beers), scaled it up and added some rye – so it is an Imperial Black RyePA and should come in around 9% ABV providing fermentation goes as expected. Chocolate malt and caramels give it a nice body with some roasty/coffee notes to go along with some spiciness from the rye. Centennial hops all the way through and it clocks in at over 100 IBUs. We are still undecided between dry hoping with Centennial or another varietal. The beer should be ready in a few weeks at the NJ Beer Co tasting room! Some of you may have tried the Black Magic IPA, at the NJCB Launch Party at Copper Mine Pub a few months back or at Get Real NYC.
M: So, can we purchase this from NJ Beer Co?
B: Depending on its success, the beer may either head back to the tasting room again (ie more small batches) or could go full production in limited release. Come try it for yourself and let us know your thoughts.
I also spoke to Matt Steinberg about the beer and he is excited about it. Here’s what Matt has to say about working with Bob on this awesome project.
The NJ Beer Co family are huge Springsteen/E Street fans and have been pretty bummed about the music world’s loss. When one of our Facebook fans (Aaron Hordych / Facebook.com/HopticalAllusions) suggested a black rye IPA memorial ale in response to a post about the Big Man, it got the gears spinning. Having been looking for an opportunity to brew with Bob, I immediately thought of his excellent Manolette’s BIPA and approached him about doing a kicked-up variation of that beer. I really enjoyed getting my hands on a homebrew system again, it’s a joy I’ve neglected in order to get NJBC off the ground and I missed it. As for the brew, I wanted something rich and spicy, dark and bitter, with a little bit of craziness to try and do justice to the art that Clarence Clemons brought to E Street. If the wort is a good indicator, I’m really looking forward to the finished product here.
The release dates will be public on Bolero Snort, NJ Beer Co’s Facebook and Twitter pages as well as here on NJCB! More details as they come out, so stay tuned, New Jersey! There will not be any growler fills of this extremely small batch beer, just some tastings. Stop on in and try it.
I hope you all are as excited as we are about the NJ Beer Co/Bolero Snort collaboration!