Bloody Beer

Origin Story

Bloody Beer was beer number 8 of 13 from our 2007 Imperial Beer Series Originally brewed on 3/22/07, Bloody Beer was the 290 batch of beer ever brewed at Short'sIt was hand bottled almost 2 months later, over a two day stretch on 5/16 and 5/17/2007, yielding 864 individual 750ml bottles. The yeast used to make Bloody Beer is a California Lager yeast. This yeast is only used to make two other beers at Short's. The pub staple, Village Reserve, and the highly regarded, but infrequently seen, Pistachio Creme Ale. Since opening our production facility, Bloody Beer has been featured as a 12oz limited specialty bottle release 3 times.Bloody Beer was originally described as "Specialty beer fermented with Roma tomatoes, horseradish, dill, celery seed and tellicherry peppercorns", although today's batches use black peppercorns over the tellicherry variety. Each gallon of Bloody beer has approximately 2 grams of dill and horseradish, 4 grams of celery seed and black pepper, and 1.5lbs of Roma tomatoes!! The 2007 Imperial version had a whopping 8.5% ABV, today's batches have been dialed back slightly, but are still an impressive 7.5% ABV Set to hit stores early next week, initial consensus from the few that have had a sneak preview proclaim that this is the best 12oz bottle version yet and the closest recreation of the famous Imperial batch from over 5 years ago.Bloody Beer is one of two original Imperial beers that has been awarded medals at global beer competitions, by getting a Silver at the 2009 GABF for Experimental Beer. (Black Licorice was the other, taking a Bronze at the 2012 World Beer Cup) Below is Joe Short's thoughts about how Bloody Beer came to be:One of the coolest things about beer is its adaptability to foreign ingredients. I am simply enamored with the result of this effort. I have always enjoyed a little American lager in my Sunday afternoon bloody Mary recipe. I have heard of great results from home brewed tomato ales, and I am familiar with using pepper in beer, so making a bloody Mary out of beer sounded fun and delicious. I chose the California lager yeast because it produces great results in our Village Reserve, which just so happens to be a beer perfect for putting in a bloody Mary. Although I have never used fresh dill or horseradish in beer, I thought it was a simple enough application to get the results I wanted by throwing them in and letting the beer absorb them much like making a tea or spicing solution. I chose to go with Roma tomatoes because of their cooking and flavor quality. We used 300 lbs. of the giant red berry in this beer (nearly 2 lbs. per gallon). Tomatoes are rich in calcium, potassium, vitamin A and C. Tomatoes are also a good source of lypocene which is an anti oxidant and powerful inhibitor of cancers and heart disease and is said to be good for your eyes. It's no wonder the Bloddy Mary has been the infamous hangover cure with all the benefits it possesses from the spices; pepper, dill, celery seed and horseradish have rich ancient histories for health benefits fro pain relief, indigestion, colic, fever, stomach ache and inhibitors of food pathogens. The Bloody Mary is said to have been invented by Fernand Petiot in New York in the 1920's. He mixed equal portions of vodka and tomato juice together and with the evolution of a little Worcestershire, cayenne pepper and lemon and American classic was born. The name is disputed to have come from the actual Queen "Bloody" Mary herself. while in power during the mid 1500's she wanted to convert England back to Roman Catholicism by force and executed hundreds of Protestant leaders. However the name actually came to be, I find it useful for the creation of the "Bloody Beer" and the story to go with it. This beer will go great with most anything, especially a big piece of garlic toast, eggs, with host sauce and locally smoked bacon. I encourage you to enjoy it with good company at a BBQ, baptism, brunch, wedding, funeral, political gathering, birthday party, retirement party, polka festival, ballet, or at home in your recliner next to the fire place with the Wall Street Journal.