MAKE IT Oil of Aphrodite Imperial Walnut Stout

“This is a recipe that not only showcases our experimental nature but also our local nurture and inspiration,” says Brad Clark, co-owner and brewer at Jackie O’s Brewery (Athens, Ohio). This imperial walnut stout is brewed with black walnuts grown at Integration Acres, a pawpaw farm in Athens that also milks goats and makes cheese.

This beer is also brewed with Belgian candi syrup and hopped with Pacific Northwest hops to “create a sweet and rich springboard for deep nuttiness.”

ALL-GRAIN

Batch size: 5 gallons (19 liters) Brewhouse efficiency: 80% OG: 1.100 FG: 1.024 IBUS: 40 ABV: 10%

MALT/GRAIN BILL

11 lb (4.9 kg) American 2-row 1 lb (454 g) chocolate malt 1 lb (454 g) Special roast 1 lb (454 g) Crystal 120 1 lb (454 g) white wheat malt 8 oz (227 g) Munich 8 oz (227 g) Vienna 8 oz (227 g) black malt 8 oz (227 g) oats

HOPS AND ADDITIONS SCHEDULE

0.25 oz (7 g) bittering hops [15% AA] at 90 minutes 0.25 oz (7 g) bittering hops [15% AA] at 60 minutes 0.5 oz (14 g) Williamette [5% AA] at 30 minutes 4 oz (113 g) black walnuts (chopped and roasted for 15–20

minutes at 350°F/177°C) at 30 minutes 1 lb (454 g) D180 Belgian dark candi syrup at 30 minutes 0.5 oz (14 g) Williamette [5% AA] at 15 minutes

YEAST 1 packet American Ale yeast DIRECTIONS

Mash the grains at 148°F (64°C) for 45 minutes. Boil for 90 minutes, following the schedule for hops and other additions. Chill to 65°F (18°C) and pitch the yeast. Ferment at 65°F (18°C) for 3 days then let the temperature free rise to 72°F (22°C) until the beer reaches final gravity.

BREWER’S NOTES

Place the chopped and roasted black walnuts in a muslin sock before adding them to the boil. Suspend the sock in the kettle, keeping the walnuts off the bottom of the kettle. fermentation. When they go into bottles, they’re labeled with the tagline: No kettles were soured in the making of this beer.

“The whole point of us investing money into a specific souring room and equipment is that we don’t want to kettle sour,” Clark says. “We feel that kettle sours have a total lack of complexity. Instead, we’d rather create nuances over time with various bugs and fermentation vessels.”

The Jackie O’s sour room currently holds about thirty sour projects, using about twenty barrels per project. “We have several different sour-base beers, eleven different mixed-fermentation saison projects, collaborations…the list just goes on and on,” Clark says.

One of those projects is the return of the Dynamo Hum, a framboise that’s been on a multi-year hiatus. “We’ve had four different vintages of this beer out of the brewpub over the years,” says Clark. “I’m so excited to blend, add raspberries, and bring it back.”

Clark says he’s constantly trying to push his barrel-aging program to make it more exciting and innovative, and to stay relevant. “Now that it’s expanding, I have more capacity to blend, dial things in. I have more ability to improve our quality and release beers that a lot of people never even knew we were doing outside the tasting room.”

When these barrel-aged beers leave the Jackie O’s tasting rooms, they’ll be available to the state of Ohio and very select counties in Kentucky. “Ninety-eight percent of our beer is sold within the state,” Clark says proudly. Last year, Jackie O’s brewed 13,000 barrels and intends to brew 17,000 in 2017, all for Ohioans. That Ohio pride is obvious not just in the brewery’s distribution network, but also over and over again in its business model.

“We’re trying to take a long-term, sustainable approach to our business,” Clark says, “and that happens locally. A lot of people don’t know just how committed we are to the Athens community.”

That commitment starts at the breweries, where 300 solar panels provide just over 50 percent of the brewery’s energy production. At Jackie O’s Pub, there is an onsite bakeshop that supports a menu sourced from within 30 miles. At both brewpub locations, the pizzas, meat and cheese boards, and other specialty items such as Reuben Egg Rolls on both Jackie O’s locations’ menus are created with vegetables from the brewery’s 22-acre Barrel Ridge Farm on Angel Ridge Road, 5 miles southeast of downtown Athens. The expanded menu at Public House includes burgers, sandwiches, tacos, and O’hooley’s Fish & Chips, with an entire vegetarian section, too.

“We’re trying to make good, healthy, and responsible food,” says Clark. “Okay, I guess it’s not healthy all the time.”

It might not be healthy all the time, but the menu at Jackie O’s is local all the time. “Our focus is supporting community farms, creameries, and orchards,” says Clark. “We are a family-centric business—we take care of our staff family and our extended family of vendors and customers.”

“We really love what we do, and we all really love Athens,” Clark continues. “We don’t take ourselves too seriously, but we take it with great seriousness that we get to make beer in a place we enjoy with our friends.”

“The whole point of us investing money into a specific souring room and equipment is that we don’t want to kettle sour,” Clark says. “We feel that kettle sours have a total lack of complexity. Instead, we’d rather create nuances over time with various bugs and fermentation vessels.”