It's the day that Philip Maple, Tobin Turney, Brett Baker, Bob Maple, Bradley Sueflohn and Fred Thibodeaux have waited for --- for a while. If you follow craft beer in Florida, you know that Wicked Barley Brewing Company opened the doors of its beautiful, brand-spankin'-new brewpub on the banks of Goodby's Creek in Jacksonville in late July. Right around that time, the brewery's federal Brewer's Notice issued, giving the crew the green light to start brewing its own beer for sale. Since opening, the brewpub has served guest beers on its 20 taps (an impressive list, by the way), but that's about to change.
On Saturday, Wicked Barley will takeover its own taps and offer its "Naughty Ales" for sale to the public for the first time. I'm not sure who's waiting more for this -- the Wicked Barley guys or the local Jax craft beer crowd. After tasting a number of the beers at the two preview/free sampling events earlier in the Spring, this writer is anxiously anticipating what promises to be an epic tap takeover (yes, "epic").
Not only has Wicked Barley been brewing its beers, ciders, and meads in-house, it also has begun operation of its canning line. So, what do you do once you get to this point? Well, throw a huge Release Party, of course!
Celebrate with Wicked Barley, starting at 11am on Saturday, October 22, when it taps its house beers, ciders and meads, and releases a new food menu. The brewery's Left Leg Lager and Drink Me Copper Pale Ale will be available in cans to-go. The beer garden grill will be fired up for food specials. Meet the brewers at the beer garden tent (they might even have some energy left, or they'll be running on pure adrenaline). Co-founder/Brewmaster Philip Maple summed it up: "Things are ridiculously busy, but we are excited to finally have our core business out in the open."
I got a sneak peek at the tap list and the new food menu. The beer list features the Wicked Barley core house beers along with special treatments and pilot batches which are still being tested. So far, it looks like this (subject to change):
Drink
Me Copper Pale Ale: 4.5% ABV Session pale ale; dry hopped with over 3 lbs of hops
per barrel
Left
Leg Lager: 5.1% ABV German Style lager; crisp, easy to drink
Oktoberfest
Lager: 5.1% ABV; malty nose, easy to drink
The
Eradicator First Coast IPA: 7.4% ABV;
dry hopped over 2 weeks
BrierWood
Brown Session Brown Ale: 4.8% ABV; easy to drink, basically an all-day beer
with lots of body and aroma
Belgian
Pumpkin Ale: 7.4% ABV
Left
Leg Lager aged on fresh toasted coconut
Oak
Aged Treatments: Eradicator IPA, Belgian Pumpkin Ale, and Drink Me Copper Pale
Ale
Raspberry
Berliner Weisse: 3.4% ABV
Rootbeer
Mead: 6.5% ABV (yes, you read that
right; it may be the first one of its kind)
Orange
Blossom Mead: 6.4% ABV
Mimosa
Mead: 6.4% ABV
Fresh
Strawberry Mead: 6.4% ABV
WB
House Cider: 7% ABV; brewed with Orange blossom honey, with a nice blend
between sweet and dry
WB
tart cider test/pilot batch: 7% ABV (still tweaking the recipe)
Firkin
tappings of once-only-released beers hourly at the bar
Pilot
beers released throughout the day
Whew!
The food menu also has some updates, and you can still get favorites like the house fries, Wicked Burger and Smash Burger (the burgers are pretty awesome, by the way; I speak from experience). Items new to the menu include: Italian Beef Sandwich, Wake & Bake Bacon-n-Egg Sandwich, Fresh Grilled Shrimp Salad and Smoked Chicken & Apple Salad.
After the party's over, these guys aren't resting, as the brewery intends to release additional new house beers on tap next week. Growlers aren't available yet, but look for them very soon.
Wicked Barley Brewing Company is located at 4100 Baymeadows Rd, Jacksonville.
Get ready to house party, Jacksonville! It's OK to be Wicked; in fact, I encourage it!
Congrats to the guys at Wicked Barley Brewing Company! If you haven't been there yet, be sure to put it on your "list." I'll be there taking a ridiculous number of photos and carrying two battery chargers (that "clear plastic bag" thing really works!).
Cheers!
Til next time,
Linda
Linda Johnson, Certified Cicerone®
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