Beard of Zeus

Origin Story

Another exciting brand new beer on tap at the pub that is a continuation of our experiment to maximize efficiency in wort extraction when making some of our biggest beers in Elk Rapids. This new beer is called "Beard of Zeus" and is essentially a super hoppy American pale lager or to put it simply, India Pale Lager (IPL). Similar to ControversiAle and Stellar Ale, the Beard of Zeus is made entirely with a single hop variety called Zeus hops. Zeus hops are a relatively new American hop variety that gets it's notoriety for being a high alpha strain (think Apollo hops in Raisin Apollo), which provides excellent bittering ability, but also some incredible aromatic qualities. Unlike ControversiALE and Stellar Ale, Beard of Zeus is a lager, so there is a significant difference in overall body and mouthfeel, along with an interestingly bitter finish due to the clean absence of any other contributing flavors found earlier when tasting this beer. A small amount of bitter orange peel was also added to provide some subtle sweet flavors and enhance the amazing aromas of the Zeus hops by giving them some citrus compliments. As mentioned in the beginning of this email, Beard of Zeus is the third attempt at practicing maximum wort extraction when we brew beers in Elk Rapids that require a double mash in (aka beers that use twice as much grain). Considering that double the grain would allow us to fill two kettles worth of wort when we are only looking to fill one, we are inevitably left with some final runnings that will either be wasted or require us to come up with a clever way to use them (if you have the ability to reference old emails, revisit Snozzleberry Griffen or Mmmkay). In this instance, the brewers took the remaining final runnings from this year's batch of Peaches and Cream Ale and decided to make it into a lager where we could showcase Zeus hops, to see what this variety had to offer. When talking to one of our head brewers in Elk Rapids, Curt Guntzviller, about his thoughts on Zeus hops, he said it best by commenting on their overall "dank" nature in the beer. The first batch of Beard of Zeus was brewed on 7/27/2012, as a new experimental beer used only on draft at the pub and for a few select beer festivals, which was quickly followed by the second batch only 9 months later in April, 2013