Thrash Metal

Behold! This week Jester King Craft Brewery shall release unto the world Thrash Metal Farmhouse Strong Ale, the greatest creation mankind has ever known. This beer, if we can even dare to call it a beer (the TABC says we can’t) contains over 5,000 lbs of hops per barrel, and emerges with a whopping 93% alcohol by volume. Well, okay, none of that’s actually true, except for the part about us releasing a new beer called Thrash Metal Farmhouse Strong Ale, and the TABC saying that we can’t call it “beer”. The rest is just the sort of stuff we thought craft brewers were supposed to say to impress the geeks. What Thrash Metal actually is is a golden colored, high gravity (O.G. 1.074) ale, brewed with pilsner, wheat and caramunich malts, along with a good dose of American hops and fermented with Jester King’s farmhouse yeast, finishing at 9% alcohol by volume. It is a hop forward beer with dank, resinous hop flavor and aroma, balanced by lightly kilned malt flavors, farmhouse yeast esters and a bit of warming alcohol.

Thrash Metal Farmhouse Strong Ale is an homage to thrash metal music, which often fuels us during our daily chores at Jester King. If you were to drop in on us unannounced one day (which we kindly request that you do not), it wouldn’t be unusual to hear songs from bands like Kreator, Overkill and Exodus echoing throughout the brewery. Although we consider Thrash Metal a sibling beer to Black Metal Farmhouse Imperial Stout, unlike Black Metal, it won’t be part of our regular lineup. Thrash Metal is a limited release/occasional rarity from Jester King that we’ll only brew when the mood happens to strike us, and to be honest, we’re not sure if or when that’s likely to happen again. We’re very happy with the way the beer turned out, but this sort of thing just isn’t as exciting to us now as it was when we first started working on it, especially given some of the other projects that we now have planned.

As you can see from the full name of the beer, we had to edit out one of the words. Federal and state regulations prohibit us from using words that refer to the strength of the beer. However, the stylistic designation we chose for Thrash Metal is rooted in centuries of tradition during which brewers around the world have made special, strong ales and labeled them as such.

Thrash Metal will be available on draught beginning this week at select locations in Austin and on Saturday, December 17th in our tasting room. In the coming weeks it will be available on draught at select locations throughout the state, followed soon thereafter by a wider release in 750ml bottles, naturally conditioned through re-fermentation in the bottle.

Consider yourselves forewarned! Or, you know, just try a glass or pick up a bottle if you happen to see it around and you think it sounds good.

On a side note, the folks at Craft Austin asked us to let you know that they’re currently conducting their annual readers’ poll for the winter edition of the Austin Beer Guide. If you’re interested in voting, here’s the link.