Sweet Birthday Baby – Launch 5th March
With Sweet Birthday Baby launching at Shackleton in Salt River next week, I remember what inspired this brew in the first place.
Last year I had one of those rare beers that changes your whole outlook on what a great beer is. It was back in April at our little homebrew club; The Garage Project. We were brewing the first test batch of what would later go on to become Without a Concern. Andrew had brought along a sour beer for the occasion courtesy of our good friend Cuan from the UK, who in turn had been sent it from the States – this beer had traveled! It was The Problem of Other Minds by a brewery from New York state called Hudson Valley. I knew very little about Hudson Valley at this point, but would go on to develop a rather unhealthy obsession with them!
The beer itself was a Sour DIPA with blackcurrant puree and vanilla beans, hopped with Mosaic. I’d never tried anything like it before. I’m a huge fan of sour beers and obviously a massive fan of IPA’s, and here was this beer marrying a love for both, into one! The last time I had a similar moment was the first time i tried a hazy IPA.
After lot’s of research into the style I developed a recipe to brew our own with raspberries and blackberries. This beer has it’s origins deeply rooted as a NEIPA, but with added lactose to increase the body, that is perceived to dry out more from the sourness. As with a Hazy IPA, it has huge whirlpool and dry hop additions and then a whole load of fruit is thrown in. We first brewed this recipe as The Garage Project mid last year and we were very happy with the results. Since then I have upped the body, fruit content and hops slightly and I’m super excited to share this beer with you. I hope your reaction is the same as mine!
Sweet Birthday Baby was supposed to be released to celebrate my wife’s birthday earlier this month. But as with all things in beer (and life in general) shit happens and it will now be released on 5th March, which as it happens is the mid point between mine and her birthdays! It’s also around the time of The Garage Projects other two members birthdays, Graham and Andrew! Which is rather fitting as without these two and without The Garage Project, this beer would have never come to life!
Yet again we contract brewed this beer at Shackleton Brewing Company in Salt River and this will be the venue for our launch party on Thursday 5th March from 5pm. We have a limited supply of cans, that you can buy on the night, or pre-order for collection on our online store here. For more information you can check out the events page on Facebook here.
I hope you can join us in all the birthday celebrations and I can’t wait to hear your thoughts on this beer. Cheers, Mike
