Collab: Over the Bay IPA (Green Bench Brewing Co.)

We recently collaborated with our friends at Green Bench Brewing Co., to create an IPA that is sure to satisfy your thirst.

Over the Bay IPA (7%) was brewed with 100% Pilsner Malt and hopped with Citra, Azacca, and Pekko. Green Bench Brewing Co. recently posted on their Facebook page "This beer is super fruity, with a touch of pineapple and mint flavor/aroma."

From the brew day about 3 weeks ago: Casey Hughes (Coppertail Brewing) and the guys from Green Bench Brewing Co., Khristopher Johnson and Dan pose, prom pic style to celebrate their new collaboration brew.

Grab a pint of two of this tasty treat next time your over the bay at Green Bench Brewing Co.

Seasonal Relief, it's back to save you from your relatives.

We know that you love Aunt Maude, but sometimes you just need a little relief from the holiday season and all that it brings with it. So to help a little, we sent bottles of Seasonal Relief to our distributors yesterday and earlier this morning so that you can drink up to get through the season. You should be seeing these vessels of salvation on your favorite retailers shelves soon.

Seasonal Relief is a Baltic Porter, 8.5% ABV, and features elderberries and goji berries that pair perfectly with the rich, malty and toasty flavors of this beer.

We will have Seasonal Relief available for purchase on draft and depending on the demand, we may have bottles as well. You will be able to find this out in the market at many of your usual/favorite beer retailers. Let us know where you find this treat, tag us on Facebook or Instagram or just post a comment/photo below.

Cheers!

Teri

Brewery Update 21 – Limited Bottle Release

We finally got our bottling line working.  Now that we can bottle our beer we have two releases to tell you about:

The Core 4 on display at Craft Beer Cellar, Brandon.

First, we released our first six packs into distribution this week.  Our core four: Free Dive IPA, Unholy American Trippel, Night Swim Porter, and Wheat Stroke Wheat Ale are in bottles and already popping up around town.  We’ve heard reports that they’re on sale at ABC, Craft Beer Cellar Brandon and Total Wine.  Our six packs are only on the Tampa side of the bay for now, but within the next 30 days we hope to offer them on the St. Pete side, too.

Seasonal Relief, Baltic Porter

And, tomorrow, Sunday the 21st we’ll do our first limited bottle release ever at the brewery.  We’ll release around 150 bottles of our holiday beer called “Seasonal Relief” in 750ml bottles.  It’s a Baltic Porter brewed with Goji berries and fermented with true lager yeast.  Rich and roasty with hints of fruit and 8.5% alcohol, it’s sure to put you in a festive mood.  We’ll sell it during our normal tasting room hours starting tomorrow at noon.  Priced at $10, limit two per person.   Spread some holiday cheer.

Also, in case you can’t make it to our tasting room we’ll send a very small number of these bottles out into distribution on both sides of the bay.  Keep an eye out.  They may pop up in stores right around Christmas.

Other cool stuff on the horizon:  Our Cigar City Collaboration Russian Imperial Stout, Sabotage, is almost ready for release.  You’ll probably see it some time in January.

When is your tasting room going to open?  Our new tasting room is scheduled for a late February opening.  Our temporary tasting room is currently open 7 days a week.  4pm to 11pm Monday through Thursday.  2pm-midnight on Saturday.  Noon to 7pm on Sunday.  Come on by and grab a beer.

When can I buy your beer outside the Tampa Bay area?   We don’t know.  We’ll keep you posted here and on social media as our distribution footprint expands, though.

Thanks for all your support in 2014.  We wish you a holiday season filled with peace, love, and great beer.

Cheers!

-Kent

Brewery Update 20 – Let There Be Beer!

MMMMMM. Whole leaf hops (and Casey.)

2 years of hard work, 20 somewhat monthly blog updates and we’re finally here: The Finish Line.  Or, maybe it’s the starting line.  This week we release our first shipments of beer to local bars.

The first emotion to wash over me is relief.  We definitely hit our share of delays and set backs and at times it seemed like it would never happen.  It would have been easy to give up.  I’m glad we didn’t.

My second emotion is gratitude.  There’s so much to be thankful for.  I’m thankful for the team we’ve built at the brewery.  It has taken a lot of people, pulling together toward the same vision to make this brewery happen.

Also, thank you to all the people who have supported us along the way – all the good people we’ve encountered at beer fests and pop-up tastings who’ve talked beer with us, the people who have followed us and encouraged us via social media, the other local brewers who have been so generous with their time and advice.  The local craft beer scene here in Tampa really is an amazing and supportive place.

And, my last emotion is pure excitement for this next chapter.  Let there be beer!

Speaking of the beer, to celebrate the release of our core lineup we’re planning a Coppertail Launch Tour.  At each stop our beer will be on tap.  We’ll drink some beer, give away some swag, and Casey will slow dance with you.  (Or you can just talk brewing with him.)  Come on out and help us celebrate.

Coppertail Launch Tour Dates:

Aug. 21 – The Independent, Seminole Heights. 6pm – 9pm
Aug. 25 – New World Brewery, Ybor City. 7pm – 10pm
Aug. 26 – The Dirty Shame, Ybor City. 7pm – 10pm
Aug. 27 – The Stein and Vine, Brandon. 7pm – 10pm
Aug. 29 – The Pour House, Downtown. 7pm – 10pm
Sep. 2 – Mr. Dunderbaks, North Tampa. 7pm – 10pm

What about the tasting room, you ask?  Good question.  We’re installing our tap system this week and racing the clock to open the door to our temporary tasting room by the end of the month.  A more permanent tasting room will open around Novemberish.  We’ll be sure to announce it on social media when it opens.

They love beer... so should you.

Thanks for checking on us and we look forward to drinking a beer with you soon!

– Kent

Label Sneak Peek – Night Swim Porter and Wheat Stroke Wheat Ale

We just got a couple more label drafts back from our artist, Evan B. Harris.  As I mentioned in the last article on this topic, working with Evan has been really fun.  It’s always exciting to see what he comes back with as a visual after we’ve communicated the idea behind a beer to him.  He never draws it the way we imagined it, but his way always turns out better.  (I guess that’s why he’s the artist and we just make beer.)

We told him that our porter is called Night Swim because something about it feels like a dip in the warm gulf waters at night.  I’m not sure why, but it works in our heads.  We hoped it would work in Evan’s too. Here’s what he came back with for a label:

A couple caressing a miniature boat in the water at night while smoking a hobbit pipe and pouring beer down a shark’s throat.  Makes perfect sense!   Somehow, it does seem to capture the right feeling.

And, finally, we asked him to work up something for our wheat ale, Wheat Stroke.  We mentioned to him that we thought it would be a great outdoors in the heat beer – the kind of beer you’d want after going running on the beach, or hanging out in the sun.

Evan’s interpretation:

One runner guy being refreshed by a conch shell wielding mermaid while a pelican with headphones serves as an impromptu ice chest.  Again, we loved it.  I’m not sure if that runner guy is going to sell any beer, but the illustration is fun for us to look at.

So that’s what our bottled beer will look like.  We’re working hard to try to get them on shelves near you this fall.  We hope you’ll recognize it when you see it.

On the brewing front, we are officially brewing on the big system now.  There’s a brew going on in the back as I type.  There have been quite a few hiccups (a leaky vessel here, a faulty part there) but it seems that we’re getting all the kinks ironed out of the system as we go along.  We still think we’ll have some kegged beer made on the big system out in the market by the end of July.

In the coming days we should have a pretty good idea of what our tap handles will look like, too.  We’ll get sneak peeks of those out to you soon.

Cheers, and, as always,  we appreciate you checking in on us.

– Kent

Label Sneak Peek – Unholy Trippel and Free Dive IPA

We’re on track for a first brew on the new equipment by the end of this week.  And we’re moving full steam ahead with bottle label development.  We just got two label drafts back from our artist and we’d love to share them with you.

We aim to create labels that stand out from the others on the shelf.  We really don’t care if they appeal to everyone’s artistic taste as long as they look unique and distinctive.  We wanted to find an independent artist who could create artwork that would complement the hand-crafted and off-beat nature of the liquid inside.  We found exactly what we were looking for and more when we linked up with artist, Evan B. Harris.

Instead of just illustrating what we’ve dictated to him, Evan has become a true collaborator on the visual identity of our beer.  Plus, he’s been great fun to work with.  We contact him with an idea like, “Our Trippel is a little too easy to drink and high alcohol, so we call it Unholy Trippel.  Can you create something for that?”  Then he comes back with illustrations like the one below:

Blammo!  One unholy looking monk-like figure complete with totally unrequested stowaway rat band and Coppertail sea-monster.  We love it and we can’t wait to get these on the shelf.  (We already put this one on T-shirts)

Our IPA clocks in at just under 6% alcohol with low bitterness and huge amounts of hop aroma.  It’s our hot day, out on the water IPA.  We call it Free Dive.  Here’s what Evan came up with:

One free diver with a lobster on his head sitting in front of an underwater TV, eating octopus, while a partying fish and puking seahorse hang out nearby.  Makes perfect sense, right?  Not sure why, but somehow, it feels right.

We should have early drafts of a couple more bottle labels by the end of the week.  Stay tuned for more sneak previews.  We look forward to getting these bottles on a shelf near you this fall.  Thanks for checking in on us.

Cheers!

-Kent