Retribution is the embodiment of patience, craft and perseverance. But, waiting 6 months to try our experimental blend was perhaps the ultimate exercise in these virtues. The resulting 15.5% abv 60/40 blend of Retribution and Colossus was nothing short of divine. Such an extraordinary beer requires extraordinary packaging. The bottle labels were printed on a 100 year old Chandler & Price platen press (similar to a Heidelberg) named “Bessy” by Gilah Press in Baltimore using specially selected paper to convey the handcrafted precision of the beer.

Because the labels were “crafted printed”, they do not have pre-applied adhesive, making them unusable in our automated bottle labeler. But, in the true spirit of our craft, our creative director and brewery staff numbered, applied the labels to the bottles, and wax sealed them by hand to complete packaging worthy of our Divine Retribution.

We put our hearts and souls into this beer, and it is BEYOND AMAZING. Only 168 bottles of DIVINE RETRIBUTION series #1 were produced and they will be hitting the shelves of select retailers today, so grab one of these extremely limited edition bottles before they’re gone! Oh, and in answer to the inevitable question this post will spur, YES, there will be a DIVINE RETRIBUTION series #2. What we will blend with Retribution in series #2, however, is the real question. Enjoy.

Craft be cherished…Rules be damned!

Dave

To answer some questions, we will be releasing this soon in 22oz bottles.  But, we will only have about 156 of them.  Stay tuned here at the blog to hear when (and where) they are going.  It will be posted here first.

I will be posting some more info on Divine and some other beers later this week (no promises though as Baltimore Beer Week is putting a strain on my time and liver)…

Cheers,

Dave

And we will be debuting our newest addition..RETRIBUTION, our Single Barrel Imperial Stout.  We aged this beer 6 months (192 days) in Heaven Hill bourbon barrels, then bottled each barrel separately..no mixing.  We will have approximately 168 bottles per barrel and 20 barrels.  Each bottle will have which barrel it came from on the label (see pic at right).  Some barrels have strong notes of chocolate, some of bourbon, some of the wood sweetness and some of vanilla.  Each barrel is unique.  If you like bourbon barrel stouts, I think you are going to like this.

Here is a video from last year, just to jog your memory…

Hope to see you there!

Cheers,

Dave

ps – did I forget to mention our surprises? Well, you are just going to have to be there to find out….

http://mybeerbuzz.blogspot.com/2011/08/duclawretribution-imperial-stout.html

Just to give an update of what is going on:

1) H.E.R.O., our home brew competition beer, a Chocolate Peanut Butter Porter, is being brewed today and schedule to release in 22oz late August

2) We should be submitting for label approval to the ATF for our October 22oz seasonal(s), that I think is going to knock your socks off.

3) Mad Bishop, our Oktoberfest, will be packaged in 12oz bottles soon and to hit liquor stores in mid August.  Yeah, it is getting crazy when you Octoberfest has to be out in August.

4) And we have been finalizing our surprises for the B.A.M. Octoberfest this year.

5) I will be posting the lineup sometime in August, so stay tuned.  It is looking like next year’s line up is going to be pretty freakin’ awesome.

6) We have two more 80bbl fermenters and a bright beer tank coming in late August to add about a 30% bump to our capacity, and that is not a moment too soon.

Also, I just wanted to thank everyone for drinking the beer and pushing us to do it more extreme, more cool, more session-able, more crazy, more retro and better than ever before.  We wouldn’t exist, or be able to do all of our the crazy stuff if it wasn’t for all the support out there….

Cheers!

Dave

100 of you will receive a free DuClaw Brewing Company T-shirt in the mail soon, and you are:

Rondy M. Reeves, Jr.
Michelle Strain
Leslie Kelley
Jack Krabbe
Kelsey Rada
Jim McDonald
Jeanelle Faith
Shane Sondergard
Nicholas Rudolph
Roy Fisher
Chelsey Garner
Matthew Tress
Lauren Ladner
Kim Segermark
Thomas Phillip Bethke Jr
Nicole Terwilliger
Tom Webster
Erin Buckland
Will Morse
Christopher Graham
Robert Janssen
Sean Mooney
Mark Roberts
Christopher Bonsall
Brian Kasabula
Michael Fortier
Michael Brady
Jessica Swift
Anthony Pepeta
Rachel HaAhn
Zachary Price
Dane Wittig
Jerry McGee
Robert M Stone
Steven Haller
David Hartogs
David Hamelink
Mindy Snyder
Cory Watson
Ryne Kimlick
Diana White
Kelvin Henderson
John J. Buffington III
Jason Tidwell
Alicia Bowers
Michael Bazzell
Tom McGrath
Mark Heflin
Brian Twardowicz
Kim Sheridan
Jason Reeps
Brien Hebb
Marc DiLonardo
Joshua Cummings
John McCormack
Gary Lehnhoff
Karen Law
Ryan Hofherr
Jennifer Gareis
David Ashby
Aaron Semler
Bryan Jon Zajchowski
Steven Kern
Dominic L. Cantalupo
Susan Stone
Mike Pezzica
Heather Stover
Cesar Diaz
Noah Linebaugh
John Shepard
Nicole Hospelhorn
Sharon Hooker
Stephen Rau
Andrew Rohrbaugh
Christine Johnbrier
Daniel A. Blonarowycz
Cristy Michel
Danilo Rodriguez
Beth Czyryca
Vincent S Brando
Chris Meyers
Daniel Hoerr
Bryan Fishback
Scott Fessler
Jessi Miller
Stefan Shoemaker
Thomas Olszewski
Andrew Stumpf
Greg Reinbold
Christopher Penuliar
John Dicken
Lisa Umbel
James Skrakowski
Chuck Coleman
Andrew Walton
Maggie Vierra
Marcia Barr
Ian (sorry Ian, you didn’t give us your last name)
Pamelyn Burke
Stephen Hannibal-Lockely

Congratulations, everyone!

And of course, one of you has earned the jealousy of the rest…
(imagine drumroll here)
Our grand prize winner, and owner of a new kegerator is…

Joshua Green

Yay, you!

Another big THANK YOU to everyone that entered the contest. Stop back here (and our Facebook page) often for news on upcoming beers, events and contests. Cheers!

• Max’s Taphouse (Baltimore, MD): Wed. 6/22 @ 5pm
• Frisco Taphouse (Columbia, MD): Thurs. 6/23 @ 7pm
• Alewife (Baltimore, MD): Fri. 6/24 @ 5pm
• Alonso’s (Baltimore, MD): Mon. 6/27 @ 6pm
• JD’s Smokehouse (Baltimore, MD): Wed 6/29 @ 6pm
• Racers’ Cafe (Balt. Co. MD): Thurs 6/30 @ 6pm
• Firestone’s (Frederick, MD): TBD
• Mahaffey’s (Baltimore, MD): Tues. 7/5@ 6pm
• Judge’s Bench (Ellicott City, MD): Fri. 7/8 @ 5pm
• T-Bonz (Ellicott City, MD): Sun. 7/10 @ 10AM (Pints & Pancakes)
• Mt Airy Inn (Mt. Air, MD): Wed 7/13 @ 6pm
• The Falls of Mt. Washington (Baltimore, MD): Thursday 7/14 @ 6pm **UPDATED**

The first time you show up to one of these, on the date listed, we will give you a ‘Passport’. For each event you attend, you will get a stamp on your passport. The top 5 people (or so..) with the most stamps*, will receive a ‘I survived the Colossus World Tour’ T-shirt. More details will be in a email we will be sending either today or tomorrow. If you are not on our email list, this is your time to sign up (plus all the other free stuff we give away!)

So get to these events, cause when Colossus ends at these places…it ENDS.

Cheers,

Dave

* God help the person that attends all of them.

1) This is our 2nd batch of Colossus. The first batch brewed in 2006, was initially released in litre bottles. Then last year we released the remaining beer from that batch in 22oz bottles. So those bombers last year, were already aged 4+ years.

2) The alcohol is not higher this year than before. It is the same as the previous batch, 21%.

3) The beer was brewed in early November of 2010, and sat in the fermenters for 4+ months. It’s primary fermentation was almost 4 weeks long. Just to give you a reference, most beers have a primary fermentation of a week and have a total time in the tanks of 30 days +/- .

4) Due to the long time in the tanks, and higher production requirements we are seeing, we won’t be able to brew Colossus again until we get a new, bigger facility.  We are working on that as I type..

5) 22oz bottles will be shipping to retailers next week.  The price is set by the retailers, but expect it to be a few dollars higher this year per bottle.

6) Starting Wednesday the 22nd, we are launching the Colossus World Tour.  If you want to know details, stay tuned to this blog. Better yet, subscribe!

Finally, we came across this blog post about Colossus and high gravity beers from Keith at A History of Drinking. I believe he does an excellent job, not only of describing Colossus, but high alcohol beers in general.

And remember..Drink Colossus slowly, it doesn’t want to carry you home.

Cheers!

Dave

ps – If you missed the release video catch it here

And I can also tell you this:  You won’t see this beer for another two years.  Why, you ask? Production capacity has been hit.  We simply do not have the tanks available to make it after this.  That is, until we get a bigger facility….

Cheers,

Dave

Cheers,

Dave