Kick Back

Origin Story

We have a new heavily hopped lager* on tap at the pub, that isn't so new. In fact, this beer was actually made back in the fall when we were experimenting with a custom brew getting made specifically for Shanty Creek Resorts. You may recall that the original concept brew that was created for Shanty Creek to help celebrate their 50th anniversary was a hoppy lager aged on toasted Spanish cedar chips. Initially Shanty thought that a hoppy beer would be an ideal style for their clientele and the cedar concept was thought of by Joe Short, who wanted to give this beer a signature twist that would also embody a portion of Shanty's identity by incorporating an ingredient that signified a prominent feature that cuts across their property, the Cedar river. Having never dabbled with Spanish cedar or even wood chip aging before, this was a totally new avenue for Short's when it came to adjunct incorporation. When you age a beer in oak barrels that had been used for making Bourbon, the wood has already been charred on the inside, to impart color and flavor into the spirit that had been placed in it. Also, thanks to the common use of oak barrels for making Bourbon, the brewer already has a good idea of the type of flavors that it will lend to a beer aged inside of it. As for the cedar chips, they would need to be charred or toasted by hand and due to our unfamiliarity with using them, it would really be a matter of guessing how much would be needed in order for enough cedar flavor to be detected in the beer. Long story Short's, the cedar ended up being very effective and lent prominent flavors of char and woody qualities to the first attempt at Lakeview Lager. This version was poured on tap at the pub and offered to Shanty Creek, to gain some feedback on what folks thought of this first attempt. Most pub tenders who had an opportunity to try this version would probably recall that the vote was fairly unanimous and everyone felt that the cedar effect needed to be taken down a notch. Therefore, the brewers decided to simply brew the original version of this hoppy lager, this time without the cedar chips, and just blend it with the original batch of Lakeview Lager to mellow the overall wood effect (Lakeview 2.0). Unlike the first batch of Lakeview, the brewers dry hopped the second version, allowing big hoppy aromas to also help take the edge of the distinct woodiness of the original beer. Needless to say, the blended version of Lakeview turned out to be quite good, being very different from most heavily hopped beers, as well as uniquely distinguishable from other wood aged beers. Pretty much ending up in a category of its own. Unfortunately, by the time this second version was finished, Shanty had changed their mind and decided to go in a different direction requesting a straight forward black lager, to appease the massed with a flavorful easy drinking beer, in which they would appropriately name Black Diamond. Though all was not lost from these early experiments with the Lakeview Lager. The original unblended batch, with it's intense wood qualities, got featured at this year's Great American Beer Festival to many curious beer drinkers delight. The second batch of this heavily hopped lager that was not aged on cedar chips, but dry hopped, was thoroughly enjoyed by the brewers, so much that they decided to brew it again and feature it as it's own Short's brew, properly named Kick Back.