When we were planning what to brew before we opened we had a very good idea of what styles of beer we would be brewing. We decided that our year-round beers were going to be our Saxon Sons Pilsner, Smoke & Dagger and Hoponius Union. The Pilsner was supposed to be the only lighter beer in our core offerings.
However, a
lmost as soon as we opened we ran into problems that made us reevaluate our plans and make changes. This happened starting with our very first brew. Our pilot batch, now known as Red Tape Lager, was a small batch that was never intended to be made again. When we opened, the only other beer we had ready was our Saxon Sons Pilsner. The first batch of Smoke & Dagger was one week out, and Hoponius Union was two weeks out. The plan was to sell what we had of the Red Tape while our other core beers were still conditioning.
Then, almost immediately, we sold or had commitments on our entire stock of Red Tape and it seemed like people wanted more. We still had no idea how well our other beers would sell. Because we brew lagers it takes a month until we can keg off a batch. When our other beers were released it quickly became apparent that our Red Tape and Pilsner were competing with each other as our lighter offering; no one wanted both.
It was now too late just to discontinue the Red Tape and continue with the original plan for our Pilsner to be our lighter offering. The result is that Jack went back to the drawing board to find a middle ground between the two offerings. The result was our new Jabby Brau Session Lager. It is only 4.5% abv and combines a subtle American hop profile with a clean malty finish. As defined on Beer Advocate, “The purpose of a session beer is to allow a beer drinker to have multiple beers, within a reasonable time period or session, without overwhelming the senses or reaching inappropriate levels of intoxication.” This philosophy guided the creation of Jabby Brau, which we feel better represents what we want from our lighter beer.
