Great Storm Opens Expansion

Great Storm Brewing's Addition

We caught up with Great Storm Brewery after their one year anniversary, and learned they had leased space next door to almost triple their existing space. Tomorrow, after much anticipation, they will be opening their doors for everyone to see their remodeled portion of what will add to the existing tasting room space.The new space for the tasting room will add about fourteen seats along with an arcade game that provides hundreds of different games, a foosball table, and expanded patio. The addition also features a stormy graffiti artist's work on the walls. Although the expansion doesn't add a tremendous amount of space to the tasting room, it leaves an exciting amount available for their brewing operations expansion. Great Storm still has their sights set on a ten barrel brewhouse that will take up the remainder of the available space. Until then, they plan to carry out "on premise" brewing at other local breweries in order to keep up with the ever increasing demand. Lynn of Great Storm said the space is also going to "a very large cold room to accommodate much more beer and allow us to lager."Great Storm will be pouring some exciting beers along side their newly remodeled addition. They will be releasing an imperial gose, the two beers brewed by Brewers Broads, Blue Spruce Juice, their deliciously citra dry hopped "Eight" Wolves IPA, and Warped Rum Raisin Stout. I copied these beers descriptions from their website below.Tap #1 (Nitro): "Eight" Wolves IPA - We started with our regular Seven Wolves IPA but used a different dry-hopping scheme with Citra hops, which aren't used in our regular IPA. The result is a totally differnt IPA, which we serve on nitro for a creamy smoothness.SRM = 5.5, IBU = 45.9, ABV = 7.6%Tap #2 (Nitro): Warped Rum Raisin Stout - Our regular high-gravity, creamy, sweet stout, fermented with oats, raisins, and dark brown sugar, but then soured and aged on American oak. An in-your-face change from our regular dessert stout!SRM = 38.1, IBU = 22.3 ABV = 9.2%*Contains lactose.Tap #3: Gose the Gozarian – Gose (go-zuh) is a nearly lost style from Goslar in Germany. A slightly sour witbier made from the saltwater aquifer there made for a refreshing and unique mildly salted beer that was widely popular for a while, but eventually faded from the beer scene. Only a handful of commercial breweries still produce this beer today.SRM = 4.7, IBU = 10.7, ABV = 6.7%How ours is different: Goses are typically low ABV beers meant to be mild and summery. We bumped up the ABV on ours without increasing the salt for a beer that's true to the style with slightly more heft.Tap #4: Blue Spruce Juice - Our summer spruce beer is back! Made from the state tree of Colorado, the Blue Spruce. Hand-picked, tender, new-growth spruce tips give this dark but refreshing ale Pepsi-like flavors.SRM = 21.1, IBU = 30.2, ABV = 5.3%How ours is different: Spruce tips were a common bittering agent in Colonial America when traditional brewing hops were in short supply. 1759 orders for the Highland Regiment in North America stipulated, "Spruce beer is to be brewed for the health and conveniency of the troops…" Spruce Beer became a style all its own, and eventually found favor back in England. Among its proponents was famous author Jane Austen; it is mentioned in her letters, and in the novel, Emma. We've brought it home again with an updated recipe that uses Colorado Blue Spruce."I… have the great cask, for we are brewing spruce beer again…" - Jane Austen, letter to her sister Cassandra.Tap #5: Love-a-Lot Pomegranate Blueberry Wit - Brewed in collaboration with Brewer’s Republic and the Brewer’s Broads. We started with a single mash and divided the resultant beer into two, and added different fruits. Ours is on Tap #6 below, but the Brewer's Broads chose blueberry and pomegranate for their fruits, resulting in a beer that is Barbie pink with slightly tart fruit tones. A beer to love a lot!SRM = 4.4, IBU = 12.1, ABV = 5.4%Tap #6: Funshine Watermelon Wit - The other half of the fruit wit collaboration with Brewer’s Republic and the Brewer’s Broads from Tap #5 above. We chose watermelon for our fruit, resulting in a milder wit with cool fruit flavor that really stands out. Summer in a glass!SRM = 4.4, IBU = 12.1, ABV = 5.0%Stop by Great Storm tomorrow, check out their new addition, and order yourself a pint of these new beers!- - -Stay updated with our email updates and like us on Facebook. We're also on Twitter and Instagram at @focusonthebeer.