Survey of the month!

Take a second to vote on our survey of the month, as it directly affects your beer at Natsmile. Last month's winner, a Rye Pale Ale, is ready to roll out in about a week, and this month we're thinking spring with a fruit-infused brew. Let us know what you think!

Trial run on the new brewing system!

Well, even with the new baby we couldn't resist sneaking in a beer on Natsmile Ale's brand-new three-tier brewing system. The picture here shows the gist of it, but since Kevin didn't show up until 2:30 (you just can't find good help) most of the work was done in the dark.

This thing is sweet. We couldn't use it to its full potential as our kettles need some modification, but basically, for those who've never brewed (shame on you) water is heated in the top kettle, sent to the mash tun in the middle, then an hour or so later, the sweet wort is sent to the bottom kettle where hops are added and boiled away.

The inaugural brew was a Rye Pale Ale, which is loaded with Willamette, Cascade, and Centennial hops. The spicy rye plays off the high doses of low alpha hops to bring a complexity to your mouth that should probably be illegal.

We love brewing for you, so come on by and drink some of this stuff so we can have an excuse to make some more!

American Stout is now on tap along with a malty ESB and our huge Maple Baltic Porter. Judging by our brewer's reactions to the stout, it may not be around for long, so drink up. Cheers!

Say Hello to our newest Brewmaster!!!

This is Elijah Paul (Eli). He's the newest member of Natsmile Ales. We've hired him based on his merits and well, let's just say it, his stunning good looks. Cheers!

Happy New Beer! (Er, Year!)

Happy New Year to everyone from the folks at Natsmile Ales!

Helping us celebrate the new year and our first-ever Maple Porter is the Porter Elementary School's Porter Panther. Looks like a great bottle label to us!

At 9.2%, this porter packs a wallop but the big Maple flavor is very deceptive. This is definitely a one-and-done pint. It's got over 3 gallons of the sweet stuff per barrel, which was added during every stage of fermentation to really weave the maple into the beer.

There's a wee amount of the last of our fall beers on tap with Pumpkin Pie Wheat and the inaugural hard cider is sticking around too.

Juniper Red will be back on tap very shortly. We've split the batch and kept half as a regular Irish Red in case Berries N' Beer isn't your thing.

Coming up in just a little while is another split batch. This time it's an American Stout brewed with Simcoe and Centennial hops. Half is going to be left alone, but the other half is getting infused with dark Espresso Roast coffee to create a Java Stout. (You're welcome, Dusty.) Look for our stouts in mid January.

Up next is a super hoppy and spicy Rye IPA. Rye adds a big spicy, black pepper kick to the beer and when you hop it with a variety of hop known as Magnum, well, say goodbye to your taste buds for a few weeks.

Ben's going to be a daddy real soon, so updates may not be as frequent for a little while (not that they are right now) but it shouldn't affect the output of beer, especially with Kevin coming into his own as Assistant Head Brewer at Natsmile. We'll see what kind of beers he comes up with throughout the year. Cheers to the New Year's!

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.