The Year of the Squasatch

Squasatch: -noun (skwos- ach)
A joint Ventures of Squatters and Wasatch breweries. Produced by the Utah Brewers Co-op.

In the next few weeks your gunna be seeing some new stuff from Squatters. The return of soon to be classic and a new label from the Utah Brewers Co-op.

The first to be released will be Squatters Hell's Keep, a Belgian Golden Strong Ale. Hell's Keep was originally released earlier this year at Squatters brewpub, Jenny Talley had created this beer as a seasonal/limited release. It was such a hit that they decided to move the production over to the Utah Brewers Cooperative facility so they could take care of the massive bottling project. Hell's Keep is 7.75 ABV and will come in a 750 ML bottle.

Next comes the highly anticipated Hop Rising Double IPA. At 9% ABV this is a big beer with big IBU's, 85 to be exact. Thanks to copious amounts CTZ (Columbus, Tomahawk, Zeus) and Bravo hops. You may remember Hop Rising as a Pale Ale from Squatters Brewpub. The name was transferred over to the co-op to use for this 2IPA. The new Hop Rising should be out around the first week of August under the Squatters brand.

The Summer of the Beers just keeps-on-keep'n-on. Cheers!

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

Hell's Keep

With out a doubt Jennifer Talley has turned Squatters into the place in Utah for authentic Belgian style ales. Her latest offering is Hell's Keep a Belgian Style Strong Ale. Beer dorks and artist have been waiting moths for this one. Some for the beer itself and others for the "subjective" label that won the label design contest.

Personally I saw a lot of good artwork done for this label, but William Swartzfager artwork really looks nice on the bottle.

Poured into a tulip: a lightly hazy honey/orange with a dense 3 fingers of white foam, which fade into a moderate sized cap. The nose is lemony coupled with dusty-oak and a wild yeastiness.
The taste starts with dry apricot and pear followed by spicy malty grains. The end is lemony with notes of straw and wheat. The finish is nice and dry with a lite champagne like carbonation.
This beer is very crisp and refreshing. Just so easy going down and incredibly light on the palate. The the 7% ABV doesn't have any burn and is well hidden.

The only problem is I can see with this beer is it's deceptive ABV. it's so lite and unnoticeable It'll catch up with before you know it. Hell's Keep is bottle conditioed and served in a nice wax dipped champagne style bottle.

Another rock-solid offering from Squatters, probably the best to date. If this one finds an audience(which it should) we could see it distributed state-wide. But for now you will only be able to enjoy it at Squatters Downtown and Park City Pubs starting tomorrow 3/17. Cheers!

Squatters Label Contest Winner

After some 57 entries William Swartzfager of Salt lake City is the winner of Squatters' Hell's Keep Label contest. This particular piece was chosen by Jenny and her staff due to it's uniqueness and it's total deviation from anything Squatters has ever done before. The artwork above is not the final version, but you get the idea.

Hell's Keep was bottled yesterday and is now in the "warm room" for re-fermentation and then will be stored for conditioning. Hell's keep is expected to be released March 17th.

Congrats William!

Here are some other contest entries.