Southern Tier–Chatbrew Special Ale–Chattanooga Beer Week

Here’s a specialty keg coming from Southern Tier called Chatbrew Special Ale.  This beer was brewed for and will be released at Chattanooga Beer Week 2014.  Look for Chatbrew to hit 4.7% ABV.

Update 22 April 2014 From Southern Tier:

The creative process of brewing is often reflected in the name of the beer. We ask questions about famous and iconic places, events, and people. We found something that caught our attention about Chattanooga, something we have not found in any of the research we’ve done for other cities. Unique to the city is a font named “Chatype.” Our in-house designer couldn’t resist using it for the tap sticker and was quite relieved to receive the a-ok from the good folks at chatype.com since the font is strictly for use in Chattanooga. But in the end, so is this beer!

Brewed as a single hop ale, we used Azacca hops for the aroma of tangerine zest, melon and it makes a mildly spicy beer. The flavor is citrusy with tangerine and grapefruit notes and toasted malts. Chatbrew finishes dry with a lingering bitterness. These wonderful flavors, coupled with a relatively mild 5.5% abv make Chatbrew an easy one to enjoy. Not only that, but it’s also easy on the eyes with a slightly veiled (unfiltered) copper color.

ABV: 5.5%
IBU: 56
Color: 11.8°L

We asked our head of R&D and brewer of this beer, Joe Reynolds, for his thoughts on the beer.

First, why use Azacca hops?

JR: “I substituted Azacca hops in one of my favorite pale ale recipes from way back. The Azacca have a wonderfully complex flavor; predominantly tangerine and grapefruit with hints of pear and mild spiciness. The hopping regimen was a bit more intricate as well, opting for a lighter first wort addition followed by multiple heavy late additions to boost the aroma component from the hops.”

How do the other ingredients effect the single variety of hops?

JR: “Using biscuit malt and a small amount of crystal rye really helped back up the strong hop presence. I thought the rye was a nice little nod to traditional Tennessee whiskey ingredients. And to top it off for the win, those spicy rye characters create a nice little synergy with the flavors from the Azacca. This beer would pair well with Thai and Indian cuisine. Overall, a uniquely complex pale ale featuring a uniquely diverse hop.

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