Bryan & the guys at Weird Beard have been friends of ours for years now and when the opportunity to brew together came up it was an absolute no-brainer. With a shared passion for heavy music and horror films, Luke & Bryan settled on the perfect date for the brewday – Friday 13th!
We chose to play to Weird Beard’s strengths in both dark and hoppy beers, but couldn’t quite decide which to go for, so we went for both and brewed a Black IPA (a favourite style of Pierrick’s). This being an excuse to brew something really fun though, we put a bit of a twist on the recipe and sour-mashed it. To really get the best out of the grain bill we used a healthy amount of Carafa & Chocolate malts, but nothing roasted in the actual mash, instead sparging through Black malt to extract all the colour, but none of the burnt flavour.
With the wort on point, it sat to sour for two days before the boil and the introduction of the hops. For this, we took literal bucket loads of Lukes favourite American hop – Simcoe and topped it up with a Weird Beard staple – Sorachi Ace.
The delicate souring and liberal hopping combine perfectly with the speciality malts to give an almost cold-brew coffee like vibe to it. Think one of the punchy North African varieties full of cranberry and bramble notes and you’re most of the way there.
The final brew will be coming at you around Halloween time weighing in at 6.4% ABV, so keep an eye out for Knight In Sour Armour in your local respectable bar or bottle shop.
