More flavorful fall beers

Well, Fall is beginning to turn into winter and soon we'll be focused on making some stronger imbibments to keep the chill away, but right now we're rolling in Pumpkin Wheat, Maple Porter, and cider.

Kevin's back in the mix after the whole wedding/honeymoon/I need to pass my grad school classes excuses and we're going to roll out some more UBU soon, some nice IPA's, Juniper Red Ale, and maybe something oaky; we don't know.

We're looking for some things to keep us going when Ben's up and coming baby starts taking up all his time, so there may be lots of uber-strong, long-lasting one time releases in the near future. Cellar 'em if you got 'em!!

Since Ben started roasting his own coffee, we are looking at making another Java Stout soon as well. Nothing like staying awake so you can drink some more, we say.

All the froth for your Fall!

Well, we've been brewing a lot here at Natsmile Ales and since it's the fall season, we're rolling out some fuller and more off-the-wall beers that make you want to curl up with a pint when the cold hits.

First off we have a Maple Pumpkin Wheat, a spin off of our usual Black and Blue Wheat that's great with a meal or on it's own.

I CAn Has IPA? has made its triumphant return to the pub just in time for the chill. It's got 5 malts and three hop varieties making it complex and full of both malt and hop flavor. This one just has to be tried.

Our first Wee Heavy, a Scottish Ale called Jamil's Wee, is also on tap, and at 8.5% it's sure to turn your cheeks red this season.

Coming up is a big maple brown ale and the return of Juniper Red Ale.

So stop by and have a pint with us, play some Japanese pool, and maybe a hot game of dice, you never know.

One last thing--it's not really beer, but Natsmile will soon be rolling out our first-ever cider, which is lower in alcohol but fun to make and a different pint that's worth a try. What's Autumn without cider, after all?

BJCP Beer Judge Here we Come!!

Head Brewer Ben is on his way to Raleigh, NC to try his hand at becoming a BJCP certified beer judge this weekend. 60% of people who try fail the first time, but that's probably because they didn't watch The Big Lebowski for a week straight like Ben did.

You scoff, but he got through both college and grad school that way. He'll pass, if the Dude abides.

We've got cream ale in the works, as well as an old Favorite, NataliESB on tap right now. Up next is a slap in the face of the hop crisis Double India Pale Ale. Shall we use Magnum, Simcoe, or Nugget hops? All three? Whatever we decide we promise it'll kick your face in.

We're also making an interesting beer for Summertime Brews Fest right here in Greensboro called Mountain Brew. Half Mountain Dew, half beer. This is either going to be horrible or kind of alright. You know if we weren't up for experimentation we might as well be (Earmuffs!!!) fucking Budweiser!

So keep drinking, keep checking in, and keep supporting craft beer!

Beer, Babies, and Barleywine

As you might guess from the title, Head Brewer Ben is getting ready for a new addition to the family. What does that mean for you, Natsmile Ales patrons? Why, lots and lots of great beer!

The brewers will be working as around-the-clock as possible to deliver you all the variety and abundance of beers you've come to expect. Once the new year and new baby hits, things may slow down, but we'll keep our fingers crossed on that one.

Thanks to everyone who came out to the first annual Natsmile Ales Cookout at the Brewery. It was a huge success which completely demolished our kegs of Cream Ale and Strawberry Wheat. We exposed a lot of people to our beers for the first time, and exposing ourselves to people is what we're all about here at the brewery. ;)

On tap right now is a big brown ale that's full of caramel and coffee flavor with a 6.24% ABV kick. Coming up real soon is an English Special Bitter, or ESB, that's hopped exclusively with Fuggles to balance the big Maris Otter malt profile. Next up is a Cream Ale, an IPA, and then a big bad Barleywine to be laid down should there be desperate dry times once baby Boven hits the scene.

Summer Beers!

Like Will Smith says, summertime's a natural aphrodisiac and we here at Natsmile Ales have the beers to make the ladies swoon. Our Strawberry Wheat is making them woozy while our cream ale is the perfect ending to a lawn well mowed.

Be on the lookout for more fruit-infused wheat beers, cream ales, and crisp, refreshing pale ales as the thermometer shoots up.

Coming soon- Our Logo

Natsmile Ales has employed the help o f renowned artist and director Rick Boven to create our new logo and masthead. As soon as the prints get scanned, we'll have them up for you. They are exciting, though, let me tell you.

Alright, there has been some news in the last month or so. Ben judged in his first BJCP national competition. He drew smoked and wood-aged beers. Whew. It was a great experience nonetheless and worth the experience.

We've got Kevin's baby almost ready, and two bottles of the UBU have been sent to the 2008 US Open. We'll see.

Our first summer beer, a strawberry wheat fermented with two pounds of strawberries per gallon, will be on tap soon for our Summer Gathering at the brewery. We've also got a great IPA on tap that we're tempted to call 'Grapefruit is for Breakfast!' which showcases carared malt. Ubu is also around as always this season, and coming up is some of Jamil's cream ale which will also be showcased this at the brewery's fling. Please email bovenb@gmail.com for tickets.

We accidentally made Malt Liquor!!

Well, we set out to make a cream ale using a recipe from our good friend Jamil. To make a long story short, we made it a little too strong. While it's very delicious, it technically ended up fitting into the malt liquor category. That's right. We now have an entire keg of 40 oz'ers. It's actually really good, at just over 6% ABV, a little sweet with a nice hop bite thanks to a bunch of Crystal hop flavor. Definitely one that will become a regular in the rotation as the weather warms.
We also have Natsmile Stout, a blend of American malts with English hops that produced a chocolaty and delightfully bitter pint. Good times.
One of our flagship beers, NATALIPA, is going to be back real soon and due to an unprecedented popular demand, our Juniper Red Ale, which was thought to be a one-offer, is making a triumphant comeback in a couple of weeks. It's made with Juniper berries to give it a piney, slightly sour flavor. Stay tuned for more details as they unfold!

p.s.- If you drink our malt liquor accident, this girl will totally dig you.

Update from the brewery

Whew. First, what beers are around?

Well, Our Chocolate Raspberry Stout is on tap right now, but running out fast!

Next up will be NataLIPA, which is of course a different blend of malts and hops every time until we get it just perfect, like our namesake. (shameless plug to score points with the wife)

Next weekend we will unveil our first clone in quite a while, UBU Strong Ale based on the Lake Placid Brewery's flagship beer. Ubu is a very hoppy red ale. We had to use substitute hops as two out of the original recipe's three varieties were unattainable due to the crisis. Should turn into beer, though, by our calculations. (The squirrel we hired from the temp agency to run across the keyboard while our promash program was running came highly recommended) This is a beer made for a friend of the brewery to see what will work at his wedding. (Yes, Natsmile Ales is a friend with benefits. Walk of shame totally included.)

We will be brewing a stout this weekend. It's a combination of a bunch of different flavorful American malts and classic English hops. Most recipes usually go with American malts and hops or English malts and hops, but we here at the brewery embrace all beer making countries. If we had a more eloquent marketing department we would come up with a catchy name, but we'll probably just call it Natsmile Stout.


p.s.- Seeking marketing intern. Please forward resume to bovenb@gmail.com

Take a tour of Natsmile Ales!

These pics are not in order and are a long time in coming since I'm drinking the batch you're seeing in these pictures six weeks later, but it's my all-grain brewery up and running. These are by far the best beers I have made in the year and a half that I've been brewing. I've brewed a Black and Blueberry Wheat since then that turned out pretty well and a Bell's Best Brown clone as well as something I call 'Little Brother Brown Ale" (A Northern English Ale) from the second runnings of the Bell's clone that registers at 4.2%. It's got brown sugar as a key ingredient along with DME, so we'll see how that works.

Chugging along in All-Grain Land

I just made my third (and consequentially fourth) all-grain batch and I am loving this method. I made a Bell's Best Brown Clone and had such a thick wort going even after I got my 6.5 gallons for the boil I decided to keep three gallons of it and boil up a second batch (called Little Brother Brown; a Northern Brown Ale) on the stove while the original beer cooled. Long story short, I now have ten gallons of beer fermenting in my beer fridge, a 5.9% American Brown Ale and a 4.2% Northern Brown Ale. It only took an extra hour (out of an already 6 hour day) to make a weaker, session beer at the same time as my original recipe. I will probably do this a lot more when making barleywines or Imperial anything. I still have a ton of beer left over from the wedding, but I can't stop brewing. My Pumpkin Ale will be bottled on Sunday and a Black and Blue Berry wheat the next week. My Porter is at its peak flavor and in another week my first all-grain, the American Pale Ale, will be fully carbonated. That beer is by far the most commercial tasting beer I've ever made, so if it's any indication of what All grain can do, I can't wait to have a few batches to let people try!!!

Wedding Beers A Go-Go

Wedding Beers a go-go
Current mood: lethargic

Well, I've finished all the beers that I made for the wedding [even the apricot is carbonated now] and here's the list-

Garden Wedding Cream Ale
HopESB
Apricot Wheat
Black and Blue Wheat
Child-Sized Cherry Wheat
Juniper Red Ale
Brown Ale
Bell's Two-Hearted Clone
Make Mine A Double IPA
Sweet Wheat

It was not easy saving some for this long [the Brown, HopESB, and Black and Blue Wheat are at least three months old] but now there's 10 homebrew selections available. There are some gripes, of course; the Juniper and Apricot have some diacytel issues, but some surprises, too. The Sweet Wheat was awful when I tasted it; over the top cloying sweetness, but it really mellowed out in the bottle and now it's quite unadventurous but enjoyable as a lawnmoweer beer. All in all, it's been great fun and when I get back, I'm going to get an all-grain system and perfect the HopESB, as I think that's the soon-to-be flagship beer in my stable.

Just made my first porter a few days ago and it's now bubbling away in the airlock. I was very careful to keep this one in the fridge set on low, so it's maintained a 62 degree ferment the whole time. I liked the looks of this recipe because it called for a whole bunch of things that I needed to use up anyways, and the secondary fermentation takes 20 days, so I don't hav to mess with it until well after the honeymoon. Up next is that HopESB, a Cherry Stout, and a Maple Brown Ale.