March 2011

Join us at Short’s on Friday, December 16th, for a very special holiday concert by Seth and May. Short’s is delighted to welcome home our longtime friends for this one of a kind concert.

Seth and May are Michigan-based contemporary folk performers who have recorded and performed extensively both as a duo and as solo artists. They have released albums together and as solo artists, and have worked with other artists affiliated with the Earthwork Collective

Having spent much of 2011 in Ethopia raising money for new schools, Seth and May returned to Michigan and began work on their recently released record entitled “New Flower.”

- SBC Event Staff

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We are delighted to announce our new holiday endeavor to bring some cheer to families in Michigan that may be really struggling this holiday season. Ourselves and @Core3 Solutions have teamed up with Volunteers of America and the Women’s Resource Center in Traverse City to treat as many families as we can to a great holiday! Please check out our website MIHolidaySpirit.org to see how you can help.

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The 2011 batch of one of the most sought after Short’s Brews, Cup A Joe Coffee Creme Stout (ABV 6.5%), has been released and should hit store shelves and taps within the next couple weeks. This is only the third time that we’ve released Cup A Joe in bottles.

Cup A Joe dates back to Joe’s home brewing days. His early home brew logs indicate a “Java the Stout” was brewed sometime in November of 2000. Later, Cup A Joe was the first stout ever brewed at Short’s Brewing Company. Our records indicate that the first batch was brewed on March 8, 2005.

Cup A Joe is brewed with locally roasted fair trade espresso beans from Higher Grounds, a coffee bar and roastery located in Traverse City, Michigan. This year, 80lbs of ground espresso were used to brew three batches. That’s approximately 1.5oz of coffee per gallon!

Cup A Joe is a true Coffee Cream Stout, in that we add powdered milk sugar during the brewing process to give it a slight creaminess throughout. We describe Cup A Joe as follows:

A brew uniquely different from most coffee stouts, we cram Higher Grounds roasted fair trade espresso beans into every facet of the brewing process. Prominent aromatics of malt, espresso, and cocoa are abundant and create a flavor robust with big malt characters fused with cream and coffee. The perfect morning night capper.

Cup A Joe is a cornerstone of our stout series, and it goes on tap each November during our annual Brewski Bash party. This year’s Brewski Bash will take place on Saturday, November 26th at 8:00 p.m.

- Jon Wojtowicz, Short’s Beer Liberator

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Joe Short brewed a series of 13 imperial beers in 2007 that yielded some of the most popular and fantastic specialty brews in our lineup,including India Spruce Pilsner, Woodmaster, Bloody Beer, Black CherryPorter, Soft Parade, Publican Porter, Good Feller, and Ginger in theRye. All beers from the 2007 series were hand bottled in 750ml bottles and came with a collectable card that was numbered and autographed by Joe Short. At the time, it seemed that Joe’s investment in brewing these outrageous beers, which he’d dreamed upand written recipes for but in some cases had never brewed before, was crazy! Looking back, however, the Imperial Series was a big part of what put Short’s on the map. Beer drinkers from around the country heard about these delicious and totally distinct beers and wanted to try them.

Ginger in the Rye is just the latest in our effort to bring back the 2007 series beers. It is a Rye Munich Weizen Ale with approximately 2 oz of fresh ginger per gallon and an ABV of approximately 7.0%. Below is an excerpt from the original narrative written by Joe about this experience brewing Ginger In The Rye:

Making this beer was definitely one of the top 3 worst brew days I have ever had. I have always been reluctant to use rye malt without a lautering aid in fear of a stuck mash. I went ahead and brewed itanyway and got myself into a seriously stuck mash. The rye seemed towork like a giant glue stick in the mash tun. I thought if I proceeded really slow I could cheat the inevitable “stuck” mash, but I could not. I tried everything. No method other than waiting for gravity to pull the slow trickle of sweet wort from the grain bed would suffice. I had to rig up a special heating unit under my sparge water tank to keep it warm through the duration of the slow transfer of liquids. I was hungry, tired and ornery as hell. Eventually, I cut off the flow of wort into the kettle and boiled it hard and long.

I used the Weihenstephan yeast strain, which happens to be the most preferred yeast for making wheat beers by German Brewers. It was the first time this yeast strain had entered our facility. I thought it would work well for the rye and Munich malts I used. Toward the end of fermentation lost and lots of ginger was shredded and added to the fermenter. Ginger is a magical rhizome rich with healing powers thathas been used since ancient times. The volatile oils and phenol compounds are the active components which are great for relief of nausea and motion sickness. It was also used as a cough suppressant and digestion aid. It is one of the earliest spices known in Western Europe and is said to be a spice used against the plague. Nineteenth century bars and taverns kept small containers of ground ginger available for sprinkling into beer. I find it adds a nice spice and balance to the beer, giving it a pleasant finishing “zing” and complimenting the character of the beer as a whole. I think you will too.

Some of the artwork on Joe’s original collector card is shown, as well as a picture of Summer (one of our employees) with a huge piece of ginger that was ground up and put into this year’s batch. We hope you enjoy it!

- SBC Brew Staff

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UPDATE: This position has been filled. Thanks for everyone who applied!

Short’s is seeking a full time Administrative Assistant. This employee will work at Short’s Elk Rapids Production Brewery. He or she will work under the supervision of upper management and help with office work. Duties and responsibilities include: general office coordination, coordination of calendars, data entry, assistance with media updates, interaction with employees and visitors, answering and directing phone calls, mail, filing, assisting with special events, among other duties. We are seeking a candidate who is very computer literate, has great writing ability and problem solving skills, has relevant educational or work experience, and is able to follow oral and written instructions. Experience with database management and/or HTML would be considered highly beneficial.

If you wish to apply for this position, please email your credentials (resume and cover letter preferred) to employment [at] shortsbrewing [dot] com.

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Were you at our Halloween Party? Do you wish you had been? Photographer Mike Murphy (michaelmurphyiv.com) took some great
pictures of the event and allowed us to post them to our Flickr page. Check them out here.

-SBC Event Staff

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