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Shorts Anniversary Ale 2006/2007 Part One

	Percentile
	95
	overall

An American Strong Ale brewed by
Shorts Brewing Co.
Bellaire, Michigan USA

bottled
available

on tap
unknown

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Ratings Average Score Seasonal ABV Style Pctl Serve in Advanced
33 3.81/5.0 3.76/5.0 Special 11.5% 78.5 Trappist glass P Stats

Commercial Description:
Actually this one is our second Double IPA, brewed to celebrate the survival of our second year in business. It was brewed on March 7th 2005. I remember it being what I call a ¾ high gravity batch. A ¾ batch is simply using the first three quarters of the wort extracted from the mash. This was the bulk of the beer recipe. We used four different malts at a weight of our regular IPA (the Huma) for our base and boiled the wort for two hours, instead of one hour (to further strengthen the recipe by evaporation). Throughout the boil, we added two different high alpha hop varieties, and lots of them. It was only appropriate to hop the hell out of this beer. Hoppy beers are our trademark. The original gravity stuck around 20.8 plato and finished around 3.4 plato, resulting in a beer in the high 8% ABV range. Hop bitterness was calculated at 240.72 IBU’s. This beer still exists and is apart of our growing vintage beer collection. Anniversary Ale 2006 My first real example of being “crazy” really coming into play. The Start of this 4 part beer was initiated on March 20th 2006. This is hard to follow so stay with me. It began as a triple brewed, triple hopped, and triple boiled Imperial IPA. What I was trying to achieve was a super high gravity full batch of beer. Since my mash tun could not accommodate the amount of grain required to get the original gravity I wanted, I used multiple mashes. These mashes start at regular brew weight, 450 lbs. I take the first half of the most concentrated runnings and save them in a holding tank. The gravity of the final (last of the first runnings) stops at 8 plato. The final runnings of the first half (8 plato and less) gets saved in a different tank. So we have just split the worts from the first mash. This is done a second time, with the exact same mash ingredients. The first half (down to 8 plato) is saved with the first half of the first mash. And the second half of the second mash is saved with the last half of the first mash. So now we have 2 tanks full of wort. One is super high gravity and the other is low gravity. The low gravity batch of wort is transferred into the kettle to heat for a third mash. Yes, the third mash was made with all wort, resulting in a super high gravity 3rd mash runnings. Ultimately, we ended filling the kettle full of super high gravity wort. This was the bulk of the Anniversary Ale 2006. The reason I say it was a four part is because the fourth part I tried to push with the left over worts I had from the final runnings of the third mash (The mash which was mashed in with wort and not water). This was foiled however due to the lag time the wort sat idle. So we scrapped the 4th mash due to potential infection. So now we have a kettle full of super high gravity wort. I boiled that basterd for over three hours, and put a total of 62# of high alpha hops. I put a stand pipe in the kettle to accommodate all the hop trub for knock out. It was about a foot too short. The K.O. was a bitch because the entire hop kept clogging the heat exchanger. This resulted in poor aeration of the wort, resulting in a struggled fermentation. However after a struggled 2 month fermentation the beer turned out amazing. Most of it is being aged in bourbon barrels. There is one control ½ barrel. The public will see this released on our 3rd birthday party. April 28th 2007. This beer was scheduled to be released on our 2006 anniversary, but it was not done in time. So I brewed the Anniversary Ale Part Duex.

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yjb (108), Bloomington, Indiana, USA

3.4	Aroma	Appearance	Flavor	Palate	Overall
3.4	7/10	3/5	7/10	4/5	13/20

Jan 10, 2008
favorite of the anniverseries, but still not as good as the rest of short’s beers. the bourbon hides problems of the other versions... not bad, but not great

Rogueone (365), I F&ckin’ hate those guys from, Ohio, USA

3.8	Aroma	Appearance	Flavor	Palate	Overall
3.8	8/10	4/5	8/10	3/5	15/20

Jul 28, 2008

Bottle shared at Columbus Tasting 11: This is the kind of beer that makes me equally appreciative of the quality of Shorts brews and also the fact I don’t live near it. This brew has bourbon in the nose, along with brown sugars, dark fruits, raisin, and some tobacco. Flavor is some vanilla, sweet bourbon, brown sugar, and a very faint hop presence. A tad on the syrupy side, finishes warm and bourbony.

jimbowood (720), Athens, Georgia, USA

4.6	Aroma	Appearance	Flavor	Palate	Overall
4.6	10/10	5/5	8/10	5/5	18/20

Jul 25, 2008

bottle. Holy crap! Bourbon aging is awesome. Like bourbon co. Stout in the barrel aging. Excellent American strong ale.

General_Gao (2509), Iowa City, Iowa, USA

4.1	Aroma	Appearance	Flavor	Palate	Overall
4.1	7/10	4/5	9/10	4/5	17/20

Jul 11, 2008

12oz bottle purchased at the brewery. Wow. Big aroma of bourbon, burnt toffee, vanilla, dark fruits, and light molasses. Bourbon/vanilla dominated the nose. Poured a clear red-orange color. Almost brown. Head was thin and tan. Sweet and full bodied with very low carbonation. Slick, oily mouth feel. As with the aroma, bourbon and vanilla dominated the flavor, but caramel and light sprucy hops also emerged. There was also a fair amount of citrus fruit. Almost barelywine-ish with marmalade and bourbon twists. If you’re a bourbon fan, you will probably like this one. Despite the "over-bourbonation", I liked this one.

BlackForestCO (521), Fort Collins and Black Forest, Colorado, USA

3.7	Aroma	Appearance	Flavor	Palate	Overall
3.7	8/10	3/5	8/10	3/5	15/20

Jul 6, 2008

Bottle shared by mentor, thanks Paul! Poured a burgundy-garnett color with a thin tan head that faded to a fine ring. Aroma of sweet caramel, moderate fruitiness including grape and raisin and some spicy bourbon oak. Sweet, moderately spicy bourbon entry with some caramel malt and toffee leading into a lightly bitter, spicy bourbon oak finish with some hints of vanilla. Slick and oily with some bitter bite, this could be very good with a couple more years on it.

Crosling (1644), Loveland, Colorado, USA

3.9	Aroma	Appearance	Flavor	Palate	Overall
3.9	8/10	4/5	7/10	4/5	16/20

Jul 5, 2008

Burgundy color. Beautiful nose of bourbon barrel (vanilla, coconut, whiskey), along with some spice character from the yeast and some complex malt components of caramel and toffee. Flavor has a lot of strength and definition. Very hoppy with a lot of bitterness. Lots of taste overall, with caramel, toffee, oak barrel and a lot of hops. It’s a nice ale.

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