Happy Jack

Origin Story

The idea to brew a Scottish Ale came from Tony Hansen, who figured it would be fun to do a really strong version of one of these beers, give it a Short's twist by adding some ginger, but also try to keep it close to a more traditional example by still incorporating ingredients like smoked malt. The name was originally going to be called Hammer Jack. "Hammer" was supposed to reference the high alcohol content and "Jack" was to honor the most noble "Scotsman" Tony knows, the one and only Mr. Jack "Arch" Archiable. However, due to a hot liquor tank malfunction on the inaugural brew day for this new conceptual Scottish Ale, Tony was not able to achieve the higher extraction he was ultimately intending on, resulting in a much lower ABV overall. Hence, the "Happy Jack" was born, and was quite well received at the pub. Since the original Hammer Jack had to be abandoned, the brew guys ended up taking almost half of the original batch of Happy Jack and aged in Whiskey barrels for around 9 months, which was also highly enjoyed by Short's fans who had the opportunity to taste it. Even though the first version of Happy Jack wasn't exactly what Tony was envisioning for Short's first ever Scottish Ale, it was successful enough at the pub and certain featured beer events, that it looks like this will be our Scottish Ale for the time being, allowing Arch the opportunity to be included in a Short's beer name that also happens to be the title for one of his favorite Who songs! Not bad.