Believe it or not, a Climax double IPA

For a brewery that embodies feet-on-the-ground English and German styles and approaches, this may seem a little like entering the forbidden zone: making big beers in double-digital alcohol content fused to a wall of hops.

For Climax Brewing, actually, it's just a Second Coming.

For the first time since launching his Roselle Park brewery in the mid-1990s, Dave Hoffmann will come out with a double IPA, a beer that reflects Garden State beer enthusiasts' continued lust for towering ales that happily swarm the palate with hops. (No craft beer drinker these days is out of the loop on double IPAs. The style dates to 1994 and started getting traction six years later. A lot American craft beer trends are like the weather – they go west to east. This style is one of the biggest in that vein.) 

The beer was brewed last week as Climax's inaugural offering in a rebranding effort, a new series called The Second Coming (yes, there's some wink-wink, nudge-nudge innuendo to that name). It's targeted for a late-March/early-April release at Barcade in Philadelphia. (Dave's is the process of organizing that event; he expects to have it available at Barcade in Brooklyn and Jersey City afterward.)

Dave's no stranger to high-gravity beers. But in his time as a brewer, such beers have been a style he was been inclined to hold at arm's length, unless it was doppelbock time, or another special occasion.

Or a business decision like now.

At 80 IBUs, the new double IPA's alcohol content will be second only to the barleywines Dave made to mark his brewery's 10th anniversary in 2006 and 15th in 2011. Those brews clocked in at 11.5% ABV. (A Russian imperial stout made last year was 8.7%, in the same ballpark as his doppelbock.)

"We just checked the gravity – it's only been fermenting for maybe five days," he says. "So far it's like 8.2 percent alcohol now. I'd like to get it to ferment out a little bit more, so it's going to probably be between 9 and 10 percent. 

"It's a lot lighter in color than my regular IPA. It's straw leading into an amber color. It's going to have a decent malt backbone to it. It's not going to be one of those super hop bombs that everybody makes lately.

"It's going to be real hoppy, but there will be enough malt backing it up. It'll be a little dry, but it's still going to be balanced and easy to drink for how strong it is. The first taste you get is like orange marmalade, then it leads into tangerine notes. There are no double IPAs out there that taste remotely close to what this tastes like."

Dave at a 2008 Oktoberfest in Toms River

The tangerine notes come from the use of Newport hops, a recent American cultivar that's a high-alpha bittering hop. "It's been around maybe five years, but not a lot of people use it," Dave says.

The other four hop varieties are: First Gold, Galena, Cluster and Centennial.

Dave intentionally steered away from hops that would impart a resiny signature in the beer. "Everybody and their brother makes one of them," he says.

Climax Brewing launched as a production brewery in the winter of 1996, after being stalled from a 1995 opening, on the heels of the Ship Inn (Milford) and Triumph (Princeton) brewpubs. The holdup resulted from the government shutdown amid the duel between the Clinton White House and the Newt Gingrich-led House of Representatives.

Climax's signature has been ales and lagers that speak to English and German leanings – traditional IPAs, brown ales, ESBs under the Climax label, and helles, hefes, doppelbocks and maibocks under labels that bear Dave's surname, Hoffmann Lager Beer. (Dave is German by heritage: both of his parents are German.)

Those styles not only reflect Dave's preference in beer, but also speak to how his business developed from a homebrew supply shop in the Cranbury-Roselle Park area to a 4-barrel brewery in his dad's machine shop in Roselle Park. (Dave's a machinist by trade.)

The new double IPA, Dave says, comes at the urging of distributors, bar owners and the desire to reach fans of big beers. The latter group cuts a large swath across the craft beer spectrum and overlaps younger and older craft beer demographics. Dave's Russian imperial stout, called Tuxedo and named in tribute to the brewery's jet-black cat, followed a similar course. 

"Everybody wants these big, strong weird beers, so that's what I'm making," he says. "I don't know what the next one's going to be. It might be a big, hoppy, West Coast red ale or something. I like Red Seal Ale; it's real hoppy, but it's nice and good and easy to drink. So, I might do an imperial red ale, a West Coast imperial red ale."

The double IPA isn't all that's new at Climax.

Reacting to the recent change in New Jersey craft beer regulations, Dave has opened the brewery to tours and tastings on Friday evenings and retail sales during all brewery hours. His first open house was Feb. 22; he also plans to trick-out the brewery to better accommodate tour guests. 

Tours are practically de rigueur at production craft breweries, but they've always been something Dave skipped: too little bang for the buck from selling two six-packs or filling two growlers per person, the former New Jersey limit, he says. Last fall's law change cleared the way for production breweries to retail kegs and cases directly to people and pints of beer to tour guests.

"From now on, I'm going to be open on every Friday from 6 'til 9 for tours and tastings. I usually have four beers on tap when I do open houses," he says.

FOOTNOTE:

•It's getting to be maibock time. Dave's 2013 incarnation comes out in April. He also brews at Artisan's brewpub in Toms River and will tap a batch of hybrid oatmeal/foreign stout at the end of this week or early next for St. Patrick's Day.

•The video was shot in summer 2011, when Climax added 12-ounce bottles to its packaging.

A Belgian sour brew from Climax

Okily-dokily, there are some new brews coming out of Roselle Park ...

Wait, that's the wrong Flanders.

Not Ned.

The Flanders coming from Climax Brewing is a brown ale, a tart-but-malty 8% ABV offering that owner Dave Hoffmann is sending out the door in 22-ounce bomber bottles as a new label in its signature series of beers.

The Flanders brown comes on the heels of a Russian imperial stout (Tuxedo)
that hit taps and store shelves in the bomber-22s this spring and will make a return in the fall. Also coming is a rebranding this summer of Climax's hefeweizen, a beer the brewery has produced for practically all of its 16 years in business.

If you know Dave, and especially his beer preferences, then a sour beer may come as a pretty big shocker. His stock in trade has always been balanced beers that hail from more familiar European traditions – ESB, helles, nut brown ale, and an English IPA, to name a few.

But when you hear the name Dave gave the beer, Incompetent Scholar, you may not be surprised that Climax is widening its style reach.

Featuring a braying jackass on the label – created by Toms River illustrator/commercial artist Gregg Hinlicky, the guy who has turned out all of Climax Brewing's label art – the name is joke-riff on beer fetishists, those geeks who like to hump the leg of beer styles (especially the less conventional styles) and prattle on about them, waxing horrific about looks, aroma, Brussels lace, effervescence, and so forth.

But there's no satire to the beer itself (but there is some pride on Dave's part, following the logic that a good brewer can make any kind of beer).  Dosed with German Select hops, the beer's meant to be, and is, an inviting Belgian brew that intentionally understates the pucker factor (read: wild yeast or pedio-infects, no; acidulated malt, yes) and side-steps the use of candi sugar.

"It's got that nice malty taste going on; there's still some caramel malts. I didn't put candi sugar in it because I freakin' hate candi sugar," Dave says. "I don't want people getting hangovers from my beer. This one you won't get a hangover from ... the alcohol comes from the malt.

"It's slightly sour, slightly tart, but it's pleasant, nice and easy to drink," Dave says.

Speaking of the hefeweizen, Dave is honoring his longtime affiliation with Gregg Hinlicky by renaming the brew, Hysterical Hefe Weizen Ale, and giving it a label that features Gregg's visage in a self-portrait caricature.

Gregg's name may be unfamiliar to a lot of folks, but some of his work shouldn't be. He did the murals for Basil T's brewpub in Red Bank and some other shops in that Monmouth County bayshore town, plus Artisan's brewpub in Toms River (which used to be a second Basil's location). He was also among the select commercial artists to illustrate Joe Camel (a mural of Joe once graced Eighth Avenue and 42 Street in Manhattan).

A longtime craft beer enthusiast, Gregg has painted portraits of brewers, including Garrett Oliver of Brooklyn Brewery and the Trogner brothers (of Tröegs fame), not to mention Dave and several others.

And now Gregg's celebrated in a beer label.

Artisan's Oktoberfest and Ramstein kegs

On a hot summer afternoon on the last day of July, brewer Dave Hoffmann was turning out a fall seasonal beer at Artisan's Brewery and related this item:

The Toms River brewpub's 2010 Oktoberfest is set for Friday, Oct. 8. (That date is a correction from what we previously posted. Beer writer Kurt Epps, who also serves as emcee for the event, wasn't available for the original Oct. 1 date, so Artisans moved things to the 8th.)

Artisan's (now into its eight month removed from its former name Basil T's) draws a big crowd with this multi-course beer dinner, of which, as you can guess, the house-brewed fall Märzen (which Dave was working on) is the centerpiece.

Dave says he's putting Artisan's Oktoberfest beer on tap on Sept. 18, the same day that the 2010 Oktoberfest kicks off in Munich. (In the past, he has waited a week or so.) This year, by the way, marks the bicentennial of Germany's Oktoberfest, which as we all know originated as the commemoration of the nuptials of Crown Prince Ludwig and Princess Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen.

Meanwhile, up in Butler, the folks at High Point Brewing are gearing up for the debut of the 2010 edition of their Ramstein Oktoberfest. The 2009 version of the brew scored the top rating from BeerAdvocate, and it's annually been a hot-ticket seasonal for the brewery.

As is its tradition with the Oktoberfest brew, High Point will tap a ceremonial oak keg during its September open house and brewery tour. That's set for 2-4 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 11. By the way, next Saturday's August open house (2-4 p.m. Aug. 14) will feature an imperial pilsner that's worth the trip to Butler. Bring your growlers.

Also, last month High Point signed on with keg-supplier MicroStar to gain greater control of its draft beer operations. It's a key business step and probably best explained this way: Say you own a brewery and you own all your of kegs, and you have to wait for returns to fill new ones. There isn't always a happy balance to what goes out and what comes back for cleaning and filling, so signing on with a supplier ensures kegs are available to get beer to the marketplace and keep business on track.

High Point relies heavily on its draft beer side, since the brewery puts only three of its many beers in 12-ounce bottles (Blonde, Classic Wheat and Winter Wheat), even though it has plans to begin bottling some seasonal brews. Consider, too, that the brewery's business was up 30 percent last year. Given those factors you can see why striking a deal MicroStar matters.

Cheers.

Beer events, east and west

Saturday plays host to a pair of beer events: the 2010 edition of the only beer festival in New Jersey to feature exclusively Jersey-made beers, and the first mug club dinner for the rebranded Artisan's brewpub in Toms River.

Once again aboard the USS New Jersey at the Camden waterfront, the Garden State Craft Brewers Guild holds its 14th annual festival, from 1 to 5 p.m. (Call 866-877-6262, ext. 107 for ticket availability; price is $40. The event is rain or shine, and there's parking available at the garage opposite the aquarium, but be prepared to pay.)

New blood
The guild festival features only Jersey-made beers, and the profile Jersey beer is rising. Last year saw the addition of Iron Hill to the lineup, and this year will see another new brewer – New Jersey Beer Company. Plus, Trap Rock Brewery and Restaurant in Berkeley Heights has rejoined the guild, so look for brewer Charlie Schroeder's beers to be served as well.

Check out past festivals here, here and here.

A quick heads-up about the weather ...

Saturday is going to be scorcher in the low to mid-90s, with some upwardly creeping humidity.

Plus, it gets hot on the deck of the ship. So the rules of drinking beer in the heat apply: keep a bottle of water handy, and not just for rinsing your sampler glass. Stay hydrated. (It could be worse. Last year, it rained nearly the whole time.)

Meanwhile, on the opposite side of the state in Toms River, Artisan's Brewery & Italian Grill holds its 2010 mug club dinner, featuring a flight of brews from Dave Hoffmann and a buffet prepared by Chef Steve Farley. (Things kick off about 6 p.m.)

Last year, Steve served some killer fried chicken à la the lemon-brined chicken recipe made famous by Thomas Keller and his Napa Valley, California, restaurant Ad Hoc. Steve also plated some great Italian sausage sans the casing. You can expect another satisfying spread on this year's buffet.

Beer-wise, Dave has an über-banana hefe-weizen on tap. You can catch the banana aroma from 20 paces on this brew. It's quite tasty, and it's joined by a dunkel weizen on tap. Backing up those are a red ale and West Coast IPA.

The 2010 mug club dinner marks a change for Peter and Pete Gregorakis (pictured).

Back in January, the brothers rebranded their brewpub Artisan's, retiring the old name, Basil T's, and putting to rest some of the confusion that ensued after the Original Basil T's in Red Bank spun off the Toms River location many, many years ago.

Basil T's, the Oktoberfest in Toms River

Aside from the brewpub's name change, the news out of this year's Basil T's Oktoberfest observance in Toms River (held Oct. 2nd) is the return of Tom Paffrath, the guy who made the beer before Dave Hoffmann took over as brewer. (Tom is the guy hoisting the mug.)

Tom's tenure followed that of Gretchen Schmidhausler, who as we all, know tends the kettles and fermenters at the original Basil's in Red Bank.

Tom handed the brewing duties over to Dave several years ago, after his parents' deteriorating health meant he needed to spend more time with them. Now, Tom's coming back to lend a hand, since Dave also owns Climax Brewing in Roselle Park, and sometimes it gets a little tough to be in two places at once. (Case in point, toward the end of September, Dave was shuttling between both locations in a week that saw him get virtually no time off.)

Besides Toms River, you may encounter Tom at J.J. Bittings in Woodbridge, where he'll also help out, now that brewer August Lightfoot has opted to step away from the grind of a one-man brewing operation.

Meanwhile, if you went to this year's Oktoberfest, then you took part in the last fall festival under the Basil T's-Toms River banner (and enjoyed emcee Kurt Epps' wit, and the charm of the Dirndl Mädchens). Come the start of 2010, the original Red Bank location will have the Basil's name all to itself.

Artisan Brewery & Italian Restaurant will be the new name in Toms River, something that's worth having a big bash for. And that's not a swipe at Red Bank, either.

It's just that the folks in Toms River, the brothers Gregorakis, have worked hard to establish their own identity, relying in part on Dave's beer and Steve Farley's kitchen know-how, all while sharing the Basil's handle with another restaurant that has different ownership and no connection at all (as in the two are not a corporate franchises).

That's not necessarily an easy thing to pull off, when you consider maybe only the beer geeks and diehard patrons were the folks armed with the knowledge to parse the two Basil backstories.

In any case, the Gregorakis brothers are excited about the change, and we hope they kick the new chapter off in style.

And, if you missed this year's Oktoberfest, well there is always next year's ... at Artisan.

See more photos from the night here.

Beer in Woodbridge

PubScout Kurt Epps has a report on the 2009 Central Jersey BeerFest.

We didn't make it up to Woodbridge this year, owing to a prior commitment. Looks like the festival at Parker Press Park is building on its momentum from the past two years.

The news from Kurt's post is August Lightfoot will be leaving as brewer at J.J. Bittings brewpub.

Speaking of brewpubs, Basil T's south will be changing its name. The restaurant and brewery in Toms River will soon be known as Artisan.

The new moniker will be good for the establishment. It allows for genuine separation from its similarly named progenitor in Red Bank. (A lot of folks who have been around the craft beer culture in New Jersey for some time already knew about the two Basils, the history and the eventual different ownership. But there are new recruits to the beer culture ranks practically every day. So you could say the shared name was a bit confusing.)

Plus, Basils in Toms River ably moved beyond its founding roots long time ago, and gained in brewer Dave Hoffmann, who, as many know, also owns Climax Brewing in Roselle Park, a cornerstone on which to help build the new identity. It's been awhile since that happened.

(And if you've been in the brewpub latley, you know it has been undergoing some remodeling. The work should be done by the start of October.)

The future is bright. Like a fresh pint of beer.

Helles-raiser

Some news out of Climax Brewing …

We caught up with Dave Hoffmann on Saturday as he was filtering the maibock that’s going on tap this week at Basil T’s in Toms River, where Dave is the hired-gun brewer.

First things first. We got a preview taste of that Perle-hopped maibock (we had the not quite carbonated, but still quite good, version); the beer’s malty and rich (6.7% ABV), with some signature toasty and caramel notes that don’t overwhelm.

Dave’s been tweaking this recipe here and there for a while but feels like this rendition, with a lighter munich malt than past versions, nails it. So much so that Dave’s thinking about doing a maibock next year under his Hoffmann lager label for his Climax brewery.

And speaking of Climax – and that news tidbit – Dave says his Hoffmann Helles is now a year-round beer.

The beer has always done well for Climax, and Dave says that for a while he’d been thinking about moving it from the seasonal lineup to the flagship brew list. What sealed the deal was a March beer feature (à la the NCAA tourney’s final four) in the Star-Ledger in which the helles was hailed a winner. Dave says he’s been super-busy since then, working to keep the helles in kegs and on store shelves in the signature half-gallon jugs he uses for bottling. He’s had to put his four original 10-barrel fermenters back into service (despite the 10-barrel capacity, he maxes them out at 8 barrels for production purposes).

It’s good to be busy.

Oompahs and umlauts

Some scenes from Basil T’s Oktoberfest dinner last Friday in Toms River, a winning combination of food and beer.

Oh, and the Mädchen servers bringing the dinner courses and beer were pretty delectable, too. Good job on the night. Danke schön.

(FYI: The pictures open large, and if you're one of the people who asked for a photo, just pull whatever you want off the page and save them to your drive.)

If this fest celebration gets any bigger, they’ll have to get a big tent and move it to the parking lot, where the Firehouse Polka Band can turn up the heat.

Last year’s crowd of 50-plus doubled this year, and, alas, some forlorn folks learned the event had sold out.

Think next year. Plan early.

The huge jump in turnout – in a troubled economy, no less – tells you a few things: Great beer, great food and a great time don’t take a back seat.


THE RUNDOWN
Credit for Friday’s menu goes to Chef Steve Farley and brewer Dave Hoffmann, who was obviously enjoying a celebration of his deutscher roots:

Light touch
The opening culinary salvo for the crowd's reception: Bavarian shrimp cocktail paired with Barnegat Light, an easy drinking lager.











Side pocket
The night's appetizer: German ravioli – Steve’s translation of Schwäbische Maultaschen – with veal and vegetables, demi-glace and crisp caramelized onions.

Whatever you want to call it, Dave gave it high marks, with a favorable comparison to his mom’s.

Maultaschen goes well, by the way, with Dunkel Hefeweizen. If you know Dave’s wheat beers, you know they skew toward banana aromas, not clove.

This one was a tasty steppingstone toward the night’s featured beer.

Teaming up
Hey, BMW and Rolls Royce have a joint venture, so why can’t you pair the best wurst you can find in New Jersey with an India Pale Ale, the British origins of which beer writer and emcee Kurt Epps traced for the night’s crowd.

The weisswurst, bratwurst and bauernwurst came from Schmalz European Provisions in Springfield (Union County). And of course, no one passes on the chance to riff on the best/wurst line. Just ask Kurt. And that IPA, well if this weren’t Oktoberfest …

Roll out the barrel
After a Munich-style ceremonial tapping of an Austrian oak barrel – the coopering was courtesy of Roger Freitag – the night’s Märzen flowed, a hearty match to the smoked pork loin and spätzel.

(With Dave's heritage, you'd expect nothing less than a topnotch fest beer, and he does not disappoint, with either of his versions that New Jerseyans can get their hands on. His toasty-rich Climax Brewing version, eponymously named Hoffmann Lager Beer Oktoberfest, has been out for a while now. Basil's put the pub's Oktoberfest on tap at the end of last month. Both go quickly, so grab your stein.)

Finishing touch
Black forest cake and a pumpkin porter closed the night. That porter rocks, by the way, and was one of our take-home beers.

Wind-up
Basil’s does Oktoberfest right. So maybe that tent isn’t a bad idea.

Prosit!

ADDENDUM:
Basil's makes The Star-Ledger ... Columnist Paul Mulshine (he's the fellow sitting on the far right in the photo above right) filed this for Tuesday (10/7). Thanks for the mention, Paul.