From Dairy to Brewery

Today we welcome our Milk Stout to the taps for our customers to enjoy. Now as we know, historically stout derived from porters in the 18th century, Milk Stout hit its height following World War II. In fact it was common for breweries to tout its nutritional value and promoted it to nursing mothers.Now while we are in no way touting our Milk Stout as a replacement for any of your daily vitamins, we do believe it will hit the spot for the kid in you that wants a more "grown up" chocolate milkshake. Now to make it clear, this beer is in fact brewed with lactose (milk) sugar so if you have an intolerance to this sugar derived from cow's breast milk than I suggest you avoid it. We're pouring this beer exclusively from our nitro tap at the upstairs bar so expect a rich creamy mouth feel with notes of creamy chocolate and subtle roast.


Picture note: The above image is not our Milk Stout, just thought it was a fun picture that conveyed the idea. We won't lace your glass with syrup before pouring, so don't even ask.

Peace, Love and Beer,
Mike

Hefeweizen

Here's one for all you wheat beer drinkers out there, our Hefeweizen is soon to be tapped( most likely this weekend June 26-27). Its a beautiful looking beer with a deep hazy straw color and stark white head. It's very refreshing as it tips the scales at just under 5% ABV and has a devastatingly complex fruit and spice character.Personally I get a nice mix of banana,citrus,clove and mellow bread. Get it while you can as I expect the tank to go down quicker than a Bavarian sunset.

Prost,
Mike

Operation keg kick

This past weekend's American Craft Beer Fest in Boston was a success in my mind as we poured 3900+ beers in under 7 hours of festival time. Accordingly to the festival staff we were the second brewery to run out of beer as we kicked the last drops of Sir Hop-a-Lot around 6:30pm Saturday night, 30 minutes into the last session, with 3 hours still left! We made a lot of good contacts, ran out of business cards and spread Franklin's Nation to crowds upwards 15,000 people over the three sessions.

American Craft Beer Fest

Hey gang I'm heading up to Boston this weekend to pour Franklin's beer at Beeradvocate.com's American Craft Beer Fest and marking the first time Franklin's will make an appearance on the New England beer scene. Boston is a strong craft beer market and already in the few months I've down here inside the Beltway I've had several visits from beer drinkers from these parts. Just trying to further our exposure and make sure that when beer lovers come to the D.C. Metro that we make their short list with the likes of places like the Brickskeller and Churchkey.....I know those are high hopes, but I think lofty goals are the ones most fun to strive for.

Have a great weekend!

Cheers,
Mike

Even white boys got to shout!

We're proud to announce the first beer in the Hippity Hoppity Double IPA series, Sir Hop-a-Lot, has been tapped today. Coincidentally, today I brewed the next beer in the series, Malty Mark and the Hoppy Bunch.

Peace, Love and Lots and Lots of Hops,
Mike

Van Damme

"In an action film you act in the action. If it's a dramatic film you act in the drama." - Jean Claude Van Damme

"At Franklin's when you order food you eat it. If you order a beer you drink it." - To embarrassed to be sited in a public forum guy

So here we go the last of the bigger Belgians you'll see rolling out of the brewery for a while, a Belgian Strong Dark Ale....Van Damme. Why name a beer after JC? Why not? He's Belgian, has a great name and is one of the world's most sensitive action film stars.

Ok, maybe JC hasn't gotten better with age, but his namesake beer has. Its been lagering in the cellar for eight weeks and will no doubt hold up well as I plan on storing some of it away for future vintage releases. At 10.2 % ABV this beer has some interesting depth balancing a large Belgian malt bill including Special Aromatic,Biscuit,Cara-munich malts and over 100 pounds of sugar added to the kettle to help with some caramelized flavors and a lighter body. Abbey yeast from Belgium gives this beer a distinct fruitiness and complexity along with a touch of sweetness.

Like our beer menu states, "enjoy this from a tulip glass,minus the roundhouse kick".

The Hippity Hoppity Series

Volume 1

Sir Hop-a-Lot

I like big hops and I cannot lie.
You other hopheads can’t deny.
If you like ‘em bitter and juicy.
Taste this juicy double.
Hop-a-Lot’s in trouble.

This beer’s got hops!

Well it was bound to happen sooner or later, you know when your adolescence merges with adult hood. In this case its the hip hop music of the 80s & 90s merging with the big bold hop flavors of a Double IPA,thus giving birth to Franklin's Hippity Hoppity Series.

The first installment is Sir Hop-a-Lot, an American Double IPA loaded with hops from front to "back". Despite its clever and witty name, this is a beer that's meant to be taken seriously. To ensure this I employed massive amounts of honorable hops including Warrior, to unleash the fight within and Glacier because SHL is not only hoppy, but cool. This however wasn't enough because I felt the need continue hopping this bad boy with Centennial,Chinook,Columbus and Simcoe. Enough hops already right? Wrong! Its a Double IPA which means its not finished until its dry hopped, so pound upon pound upon pound of hops were added directly to the fermenter. Now this is where a bit of selfish gluttony comes in...I dry hopped it a second time!! That's right,wash,rinse repeat..

So what's the outcome you ask, well its a highly drinkable 8% IPA loaded with the character of peaches,apricots,orange,grapefruit and basically an aroma I wish I could turn into an air freshener. I'm watching and tasting this beer very closely to assure you the customer get the highest quality, but I can not guarantee how much this will yield or how long it will last. Look for it on tap in mid-June but don't be surprised if we're kicking the keg by Independence Day.