Last night was the official birthday of Manbearpig (after two premature samplings), and the wise brewers of Kung-Fu Bicycle make the decision that the beer is much better suited to the name Excelsior! Here's why:
- A: The half-pound of peated malt really takes center stage in the flavor. While unexpected, peat isn't exactly an offensive flavor.
- B: The decent amount of honey malt lends a really delicate sweetness underneath the peat. Again, not really offensive.
- 3: Despite having predicted 74 IBUs from 6 oz of hops, the bitterness is really not present at first taste. Don't get me wrong, this is a BITTER beer, but most of the bitterness comes at the end of the flavor, and really stays for a good amount of time. There are, however, some grassy and citrus-y (mostly lime) "notes" (I hate saying that) in the hops character, which strongly supports the peat flavor. This is probably the most pertinent time to say this: This beer is not as offensive, as foot-to-your-balls, as we were expecting.
So there you have it. We were planning for highly offensive beer, but because we decided to make the recipe up at the store, there was really no way to control the offensiveness. So, in the spirit of the Al Gore-themed original moniker, we've gone with Excelsior!, which we think is pretty funny anyway. Besides, this kinda sorta realigns us with one of the founding principles of Kung-Fu Bicycle Brewing: to name the beer at the time of brewing. Granted were a few weeks late on that, but better late than never, right?