Words and photos by Phil Runco, who handles Ocelot’s social media in addition to writing about beer and music.
We kicked things off our 10th anniversary week with a big little beer: Ten Years Gone #1, a Czech-style half dark lager brewed with Philadelphia’s Human Robot and Littleton’s Schilling Beer Co.
Human Robot and Schilling make, in our humble view, some of the tastiest lagers around, and so it was a foregone conclusion in pulling them together to craft a beer that it would be something clean, bottom fermented, and conditioned for months. But should it be light or dark? And, as someone suggested, should it be a robust lager with formidable strength, befitting the big occasion?
On the first question, the answer was… both. We settled on polotmavý, a Czech style of amber lager whose name translates as “half dark.” With regard to the ABV, we again opted to swerve a little. What if we could cram speciál flavor into a petite package? The challenge was set at 3.8% — a strength so low that it is literally out of style.
After some discussion of everyone’s favorite Weyermann specialty malts, the grist locked in: floor-malted Boheman pils, Barke Munich, floor-malted Bohemian dark, Carabohemian, and a splash of chocolate wheat. We gave the wort our hybrid decoction method, and hopped it traditionally, four times during the boil, with Czech Saaz for a balanced bitterness.
Ten Years Gone #1 is full bodied and velvety but not sweet. Its flavors come in waves: darker dried fruits, sweet toasted molasses brown bread, a slight spice. Complexities reveal themselves as the liquid warms. We think it does achieve the desired sleight of hand — an honest effort at deception with true friends.
Ten Years Gone #2 is a 5.3% West Coast Pilsner brewed with two fest friends turned best friends: South Carolina’s Charles Towne Fermentory and New Hampshire’s Deciduous Brewing.
We first got to know Adam Goodwin (Charles Town) and Frank Zagami (Deciduous) pouring at events up and down the eastern seaboard, all of us pretty new to operating our own breweries. And while plenty has changed for everyone since then, at least one thing has remained constant: When you’re behind a jockey box all day, the only thing you want is a crisp lager. So, that seemed like a natural direction for this collaboration to head.
Ten Years Gone #2 was constructed from a light grist — mostly Weyermann pilsner malt, plus a couple bags of the German maltser’s Isaria 1924 heirloom barley for a little color and a little body. A clean canvas for New Zealand and Pacific Northwest hops.
We bittered the West Coast Pilsner with the world’s finest Cascade, Segal Ranch’s High-Oil Cascade, to imbue a hint of grapefruit peel, orange citrus, and herbaceousness. With the encouragement of our collaborators, we dry hopped the beer with Nectaron towards the end of primary fermentation — a new technique for us in the realm of lagers. We then capped the liquid for spunding and a natural carbonation.
The final beer is a bright, fruit-forward crusher. There’s a perceived juiciness from the Nectaron — which absolutely radiates passion fruit, pineapple, and peach — but Ten Years Gone #2 finishes as dry as you’d hope. The bitterness provides structure but doesn’t drag. It is, in a word, harmonious. And it would absolutely slay behind the bar at a Wakefest.
For our next anniversary collaboration, we got experimental with a pair of industry legends. On Wednesday, we released Ten Years Gone #3, a 6.6% IPA brewed with Lawson’s Finest Liquids and Bluejacket.
Is it possible to overstate the influence of Sean Lawson and Greg Engert? Lawson’s provided the blueprint for the last 15 years of IPAs, in addition to setting the standard for responsible, community-minded brewery stewardship. Just as importantly, Sean is a fellow Phan, and his Phish tribute Hopcelot IPA was the reason we first connected many moons ago. Greg, meanwhile, has changed the way people everywhere approach and think about beer, and closer to home he’s built one of the country’s premier beverage programs, which includes our traditional lager and cask ale haven Bluejacket. He was also one of Ocelot’s earliest supporters, and that’s something we’ll never forget.
With this craft conclave convened, we quickly honed in on making an IPA. Because, duh, we all love IPA. And while a single hop exploration was contemplated, we ended up traveling a more adventurous road. Ten Years Gone #3 showcases all new varietals and extracts developed by Hopsteiner and its breeding program.
Following an Alora mash hopping, the IPA’s hot side was all Sultana. Sultana in the boil. Sultana Salvo — a CO2 hop extract that boosts aroma without any bitterness — prior to whirlpool. And both Sultana T90 and Sultana Lupulin Pellets during the whirlpool. All told, we’ve set the table for a veritable pineapple party.
During fermentation, we added SalvoPlus, a cold-side aroma hop extract. Then, for the grand finale, we hit the IPA with an oversized dry hop of Erebus, Alora, and a smidge more Sultana. Introduced last November, Erebus throws off unique notes of blueberry and tropical fruit. And Alora leans towards peachy stone fruit and yuzu. It’s a heady hop swirl.
To provide a clear night for these fireworks, we opted for a simple grain bill — just pale and pilsner malts. That felt appropriate given our company. As did our house ale strain and its Vermont origins.
We look forward to a celebratory sip with Sean and the Bluejacket crew, whether it’s this weekend or our next Phish show.
The fourth collaboration in our anniversary series takes us furthest away from Ocelot geographically and yet closest to our roots. Ten Years Gone #4 is an 8% West Coast double IPA brewed with a duo of California breweries: Long Beach’s Trademark Brewing and San Diego’s OB Brewery.
As you may remember, the seeds of Ocelot were sown during a fateful SoCal trip in 2006, when co-founder Adrien Widman’s brother Seb introduced him to craft beer. It was a casual dip of the toes that quickly escalated into a full baptism. Eight years later, Seb was helping Adrien build a brewery in Dulles. In between, though, there had been a lot of homebrewing. One of Adrien’s homebrew forum friends was a guy named Sterling — who, oddly enough, Adrien had met in a car forum before either had really gotten into beer. Seb, meanwhile, was amateur brewing out west with his buddy Jim. Jim would open the award-winning OB Brewery in 2016, and, during the spring of 2019, Sterling commenced operations at Trademark, which is now primed to open a second location in Torrance.
So, Ten Years Gone #4 is about family — both literal and chosen. Naturally, in uniting these California hop maestros, we chose to make a classic West Coast IPA. And because it’s a big anniversary, we made it a big one. The 8% brew is constructed from a mix of Crisp Malting barleys: a majority of the UK maltster’s exceptionally pale Hana Malt, a minority of its richer Maris Otter.
But this is a West Coast DIPA, so let’s talk about the hops. At Trademark’s suggestion, we first wort hopped with Simcoe for a little extra structure. Then we reintroduced Simcoe during the boil and again at whirlpool, where it was joined by some Citra Cryo. When it came time to dry hop, we got into our bags of Amarillo, Champlain Valley Centennial, and — what do you know — more Simcoe. The end beer pops with passion fruit, pine, and citrus, plus a tad red berry and a hint of florality.
It’s a beer that all of us would have loved in 2006, though none of us would have dreamed where’d we be almost two decades later.
For our final anniversary collaboration, we teamed up with the Matts and punched a ticket to the Shaky Isles. Out today is Ten Years Gone #5, an 8.7% New Zealand double IPA concocted with The Veil and Other Half.
The Matts — Matt Tarpey and Matt Monahan — are old pals, and it would be fair to say they’ve made a hazy double IPA or two in their time. In fact, few brewers if any have done more to innovate the style. So, of course, we made a double IPA with them. What else would we make?
We got the idea early on to hop Ten Years Gone #5 exclusively with Freestyle hops, and our Kiwi mates very graciously gave us access to the top-shelf stuff. After a late boil addition of Motueka, we blessed the whirlpool with an even mix of our hand-selected Riwaka and Mega Motueka, a version of the mojito-y varietal that’s enriched with Phantasm. During primary fermentation, we added Kohia Nelson (a blend of Nelson Sauvin, Rakau, and New Zealand passionfruit) and Super Sauvin (Nelson Sauvin combined with Phantasm — which, perhaps we should have mentioned earlier, is a powder made from Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc grapes). And, finally, we polished off this monster with an egregious dry hop of mostly Peacharine and a little more Motueka.
Ten Years Gone #5 is, to quote our head brewer Jack Snyder, uneconomical. But it sure does sing an aria of drippy tropical fruits, bright citrus, red berry, and peachy stone fruit. And it’s as soft and lush as you’d hope, loaded up with oats and wheat — combined, about 35% of the mash.
Over the top… or just right? After all, one dare not be parsimonious in the company of the Matts.
Saturday is the big day. Saturday, we celebrate a decade of Ocelot. And we’re releasing one more anniversary beer: Ten Years Gone #6, a 12.7% wheatwine aged in Willett wheated bourbon barrels.
We brewed this elegant beast back on August 25, 2023. You don’t forget wheatwine brew days. The mashes are huge. This particular mash contained 1300 pounds of red wheat —Virginia’s staple wheat — from Charlottesville’s own Murphy + Rude Malting… and 25 pounds of their chocolate wheat for good measure. Together, that’s 54% of the beer’s grist, easily surpassing the magical 50% threshold into official wheatwine status. All of that wheat was supported by brown and biscuit malts from Murphy + Rude, plus the English pale malt Maria Otter.
After fermentation, Ten Years Gone #6 headed into Willett wheated bourbon barrels, where it would remain for 17 months. What emerged from the oak is certainly luxurious — the dried fruit and warming richness you’d expect from a barleywine but with a wheaty breadiness, balanced with some subtle oak tannin.
It’s a proper liquid for a proper birthday toast.
Today, Jagjaguwar unveils 𝘚𝘈𝘉𝘓𝘌, 𝘧𝘈𝘉𝘓𝘌, the deeply anticipated fifth LP from Bon Iver. Concurrently, we’re releasing fABLE LAGER, a light lager made in collaboration with Justin Vernon and his long-running project. Due west in Kentucky, meanwhile, our friends Gravely Brewing will debut their own Bon Iver collaboration, a dark cream ale called Sable. The two beers are opposite sides of the same coin, both drawing from the American brewing tradition and each informed uniquely by the album’s bifurcated structure.
𝘚𝘈𝘉𝘓𝘌, 𝘧𝘈𝘉𝘓𝘌 opens with a suite of three solemn and subtly flourished songs. “It kind of runs the gamut from accepting anxiety to accepting guilt to accepting hope,” Vernon has said of the triptych’s arc. These are heavy songs, and thus they came to be released as 𝘚𝘈𝘉𝘓𝘌, – a word used to describe the blackest of blacks and often associated with mourning. Gravely’s Sable matches that stygian mood. Loosely inspired by McSorely’s Dark, the 5.2% cream ale is darkened with Weyermann’s Carafa Special, which lends rich character but is debittered for a smooth flavor. It’s lightened in body, though not visage, by the addition of corn, an ingredient now integral to the nearly 200-year-old style.
The nine songs that compose 𝘧𝘈𝘉𝘓𝘌 need no lightening. Following 𝘚𝘈𝘉𝘓𝘌, closer “AWARDS SEASON,” the dam breaks on the album’s second half, and we’re awash with clarity and joy. “Oh the vibrance! Sun in my eyes,” Vernon beams on “Short Story.” As he told the NYT Popcast recently, 𝘧𝘈𝘉𝘓𝘌 is “windows down, sunshine, everything is peaceful love, I love you.” fABLE LAGER is fittingly luminous. A riff on our Brightside lager, the 4.7% beer starts with the finest Weyermann grains – mostly the German maltster’s slightly sweet pilsner malt. Upon this foundation, we add two all-American adjuncts: flaked corn and toasted rice flakes. Later, German hops animate the light lager with an essence of lemon, herbs, orange citrus, and mild spice. The end result is effervescent, refreshing, and eminently crushable. And what could be more Wisconsin than a German-American hybrid?
We recommend pairing Sable and fABLE LAGER with a 𝘚𝘈𝘉𝘓𝘌, 𝘧𝘈𝘉𝘓𝘌 jam session – and, trust us, this album brings the jams. Jams that amalgamate drum machines and pedal steel, Sunday service and sexy time, the dark and the light. Jams that have somehow led to us making beer with one of the defining voices of the last three decades.
