This Saturday, April 6, we will tap the first annual edition of The Brewster, an IPA brewed to raise awareness and funds for the Pink Boots Society, a non-profit organization educating and advocating for women in the professional brewing industry. This year’s brew was spearheaded by our tasting room manager, Lia Garcia, who offered up some thoughts on what this beer and this organization mean to her…
The interwebs are a-clutter with an endless list of lists, which can take away some of the shine of being included in one. But then there are lists that rise to the top of our list of reliable sources. Chief among them are the ranked collections put out by Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine. In the past few years, this well-done periodical has evolved into the biggest beer publication in the country in terms of readership and distribution, behind strong reporting, comprehensive articles and deep dives into the flavors, aromas, textures and production of ales and lagers. So when we found out our Feral barrel-aged blonde ale, The Swindler, was included on Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine‘s prestigious “Best 18 Beers of 2018” list, we were instantly elated. That elation transmorphed into downright slap-happiness when we read the kind words the members of their illustrious judging panel put into print about this beer, which we already loved, and now hope others will come fall in love with as a result of this top-notch industry honor.
“There’s no shortage of wild ales on the market today. We’ve come to accept there will be an acidic quality, bits of funk, and general effervescence that piques the interest of our tastebuds. So when a beer such as the Swindler comes along, what with its perfect balance and delicate yet powerful flavors from time spent in California wine barrels, we can’t help but raise an eyebrow in admiration as a big, happy grin spreads across our face. The Brettanomyces is more funk than barnyard, and the carbonation is so robust that you could think it’s a glass of champagne. Each tiny bubble brings to the surface bright lemon, a variety of herbs, and a sweet, earthy, vanilla note. A splash of bracing acidity at the end of each swallow gets the salivary glands working double time and the brain clamoring for another sip. The swindle here is that if you’re with a group, there’s never enough to go around.”—Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine
Read MoreTo celebrate the 40th anniversary of the legalization of homebrewing in the U.S., we’re sharing a scaled version of the recipe for our American Stout, The Volcanist. Big on roast and dark-chocolate notes with nicely balanced evergreen hop bitterness from Cascade hops, it earned us a bronze medal at the 2016 Great American Beer Festival in the American Stout category. We enjoy it immensely and hope sharing this recipe with you allows you to do the same. Use the blueprint below as a guideline. By no means is it intended to help you clone The Volcanist. Everybody’s equipment and ingredients will vary, but this is a good starting point. If anything, we’d love for our homebrewer fans to brew this once, then tweak it to their liking to create something that is ideal for their palate. We invite you to make it your own and hope you’ll share the results with us via social media or direct emails.
In 2015, the Brewers Association added a new category to the world’s largest annual brewing competition, the Great American Beer Festival. That style, “Session IPA,” comprises India pale ales coming in under 5% alcohol-by-volume. Societe Brewing was proud to take the first gold medal in that category with its “Really Small IPA,” The Coachman. Crafting a low-ABV IPA is very difficult. With less body and balancing alcohol, many come across as wimpy, watery or unappetizingly out of balance. It took a great deal of thought and tinkering to get ours just right, and it was an honor to be recognized on the industry’s largest stage for that accomplishment. And it was even more satisfying this weekend when The Coachman struck GABF gold in the Session IPA category again, cementing its status as the best beer of its style in the country.
Around here, we’re very selective about every ingredient that goes into our beer, but none so obsessively as when it comes to hops. We offer numerous IPAs, but each has its own distinct character thanks to the blends of hops that form the basis for their flavors and aromas. In 2014, our brewing team desired to learn as much as possible about the sensory aspects of individual hop varietals, so they developed a recipe for a single-hop IPA and began producing the beer on a continual basis, utilizing a different hop each time around. Dubbed The Bachelor for the way it played the (hop) field, that single-hop canvas has provided our brewers a crystal-clear interpretation of the 30 varietals that have rotated into its makeup. Detailed records of each hop’s assets (and even some of their shortcomings) have been kept from day one. That stockpile was an invaluable tool in 2017 when our brewers set out to construct a new, contemporary IPA called The Fiddler, which would fall in line with the storied likes of The Pupil, The Apprentice and The Coachman IPAs.
Thanks to all of you, we have enjoyed six incredible years being part of San Diego’s amazing craft-brewing scene. To celebrate, we toyed with ideas for grandiose events spanning multiple days and a multitude of (overly) complicated initiatives, but in the end we decided that saying “thank you” to our fans was paramount, and that doing so should be simple and straightforward. And that’s what this year’s anniversary festivities will be all about. Beginning Wednesday, June 6 (6/6…get it?, we will have special-edition glassware on sale for $10 each (that includes your first beer). These fine-looking collectibles fit nicely with the specialty glasses we’ve produced for each of our preceding anniversaries. Adding to their worth is the fact we will take $1 off of every beer that we pour into SOCIETE 6 glasses from June 6 to 30. This even applies to our Feral ales and, extra-special bonus, these glasses hold more than our standard tasting-room glassware, so this equates to quite the multi-week economic coup.
May 3, 2018 marked a significant moment in the history of our brewery, as co-founder and brewmaster Travis Smith took the stage with Societe colleagues Kevin Schmaltz and Mike Boggess to accept Societe’s first-ever World Beer Cup gold medal in Nashville, Tennessee. That heavy metal was earned by The Thief, a wine-barrel-aged Feral ale rested on Grenache Blanc grapes our brewing team hand-processed with our friends at Escondido’s Vesper Vineyards. Inoculated with Brettanomyces and our house blend of pleasantly-invasive microorganisms, it took top honors in the Mixed Culture Brett Beer category thanks to its balance, exotic flavors (earthiness, spice, vinousness) and a complex, distinctive funk. All too often, award-winning beers are hard to come by, but we are happy to report that we still have a respectable inventory of 500-milliliter, corked-and-caged bottles of the winning vintage (2017) of The Thief available in our tasting room. Stop on by and get a taste of this milestone beer while supplies last!
Her patch of land may be a bit obscured from the heavily-trodden thoroughfares, the ways and culture of her and her community less understood than those of the mainstream. Nevertheless, The Baroness has ascended the social order, earning her nobility through a deep-seeded devotion to heritage and artisanship. She is proud of where she comes from and weaves her homeland’s history into each barrel of golden elixir she spins into thirst-sating wondrousness from the friendly confines of her feudal domicile. She sees it as a means of telling the story of her people, a lot far too often mistaken for being soft, simple or lacking ambition. She and her neighbors may be soft-spoken, but there is structure and intricacy in their delicate nature…beauty even. This is what she conveys in every glass.
Visitors to our tasting room will notice a brand-new version of a long-time beer, our single-hope lager, The Bachelorette. This comely, perpetually-unattached femme fatale has brought on a new beau, and he’s at the heart of our new offering, The Bachelorette with Simcoe “Shake.” What, pray tell, is “Shake,” you ask? ‘Tis a valid question and one that can be adequately, nay, expertly explained by Societe co-founder and brewmaster Travis Smith…
With a name like Wine Enthusiast, one might expect the publication to focus solely on the liquid exports of vineyards, but this national magazine and online outlet pays close attention to all adult beverages, including spirits and, yes, beer! They’re astute enough that they even keep tabs on little guys like us. In fact, one of our beers, The Savage Feral Dark Ale with Cherries, made it all the way to #14 on the Top 25 Beers of 2017 list in their annual best-of issue. As one can imagine, we were touched and elated. Here are the nice things Beer Editor Lauren Buzzeo had to say about this beer (that we happen to be pretty keen on, too).
Societe The Savage Feral (American Wild Ale; Societe Brewing Company, CA). This blended-barrel ale is matured in wine barrels and aged with cherries. A beautiful and well-balanced sour, it pours an expected reddish-brown color, with a light head that falls somewhat fast. The nose packs some punch, with assertive notes of sour cherries, sweet oak, plum sauce, balsamic and vanilla bean, alongside shadings of pepper and baking spice. The palate is full but lifted, with bright acidity and vinous tones to counter the rich chocolate-dusted cherry and sweet wood flavors. This savage is worth seeking out. 92 points
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