One of our most popular 2011 experimental concept brews, Raisin Apollo, is hitting store shelves around Michigan. It is a double IPA fermented with golden raisins, which we describe as follows:
Enticing hop aromas of pine and freshly cut grass boldly emit from this marmalade colored brew. Subtle sweet flavors are accentuated and complimented by the raisins, leading into a hoppy mandarin orange citrus blast. The finish is dominated by high alpha hops, so the mouth dries slightly and bitterness begins to resonate profoundly. 9% ABV.
The idea for Raisin Apollo was conceived by Curt Guntzviller, the lead production brewer at our Elk Rapids facility. While researching hop varieties, Curt discovered a relatively new, high alpha strain called Apollo. Curt had wanted to brew with raisins for awhile, and figured their sweetness would help balance the increased bitterness of this super hopped brew. After pitching his idea to our brew team, Curt was given the green light to brew Raisin Apollo at our Pub last winter.
Raisin Apollo has a boil time of 90 minutes, which is relatively long. During the boil, Curt added hops 6 times in order to extract the pleasant citrus characters and intense bitterness of the Apollo hops. The first batch of Raisin Apollo brewed in Bellaire had roughly 5oz of golden raisins per gallon of beer.
The first batch of Raisin Apollo was served exclusively at our pub and at a handful of beer festivals. The response was so positive that we decided to put it on the 2012 bottling schedule. On January 9, 2012, just over a year after Curt brewed the inaugural batch of Raisin Apollo, we brewed three batches of it in Elk Rapids to be bottled and distributed throughout the state.
We hope that you enjoy this new beer! As quantities will be very limited, we apologize to anyone who would like to try it but is unable to find it.
– Jon Wojtowicz, Short’s Beer Liberator
