In October 2008, Brian Ewing launched Twelve Percent Imports selling imported beer to New York out of his Toyota Prius. The first beer he imported was Gaverhopke Extra, a 12 percent Belgian ale, thus the name of his distributing company. Ewing began distributing an unusually heavy roster of nomadic brewers and contract brewed beer such as Hoof Hearted from Columbus, Ohio, and Fat Orange Cat Brew Co. from East Hampton, Connecticut. He eventually partnered with Alex Blank to form Twelve Percent Beer Project, a contract brewing facility at State Street Brewing in North Haven, Connecticut. Many of Ewing and Blank artisan brewery clients don’t have a brewing facility or have a tiny brewhouse that can’t support large releases. The Twelve Percent Beer Project allows such breweries to brew at State Street. The operation is like an independent record label when Ewing and Blank help their artists create craft beer then promote them through their distributorship. Today, Peaks and Pints presents an in-house beer flight of Twelve Percent breweries that we call Peaks and Pints Beer Flight: Twelve Percent.
Peaks and Pints Beer Flight: Twelve Percent
Hoof Hearted Maxxx Profitz
6% ABV
Funnier than saying “Hoof Hearted” Brewing are the Ohio brewery’s can art. The cans’ artist, Thom Lessner, met Hoof’s head brewer Trevor Williams in the second grade. Lessner met another Hoof co-owner, Jarrod Bichon in the fourth grade, and eventually met the last owner, Ryan Bichon. They’re all on the same zany page. Hoof Hearted (say it fast) has been “turning tanks like cassette tapes since late 2011,” according to their website. Known throughout the industry for their deft hop-wrangling and nude air guitar prowess, they’re also know for the sour IPA series Maxxx Profitz. The version Peaks & Pints brought in yesterday is money. Brewed with strawberry, pink guava, lemon, Tahitian vanilla, and lactose, it pours a golden color with a slight haze. It hits the nose with guava and tartness. On the tongue, expect guava, strawberries, and cream flavor, with a dry finish.
Fat Orange Cat Baby Kittens
6.5% ABV
Mike Klucznik and his wife, Sheila Mullen, opened farm brewery Fat Orange Cat Brew Co. in East Hampton, Connecticut, on Aug. 13, 2016. The longtime homebrewer Klucznik wasn’t a cat person until he met Mullen’s orange-and-white feline, Billy, whose memory now lives on with the brewery. Fat Orange Cat Brew’s Baby Kittens is a hazy IPA with a tiny hint of sweetness on the nose. Up front Peaks & Pints finds a relaxed medley of fresh citrus, mango, and pineapple. It finishes with a hint of pine and invigorating grapefruit with just enough bitterness to cleanse your palette and invite you back for another sip.
Fat Orange Cat Polydactyl Cat
8.1% ABV
Before they launched Fat Orange Cat, Mike Klucznik worked as a CPA and Sheila Mullen as an American Sign Language teacher. Klucznik’s homebrewing medals began to pile up so they opened the brewery as a place to store the medals — and showcase his talents. Today, Klucznik, as brewmaster, works with head brewer Carla Waclawski to produce a weekly selection of beers, many which take their names from musical or cinematic references Fat Orange Cat hazy double IPA brewed with El Dorado, Mosaic and Citra hops for a sticky body with a soft carbonation and a touch dry. The nose is grapefruit skin, followed by light sweet yellow grapefruit sweetness and bitter.
Abomination Drippy Popsicle Rocket (Rocket Pop)
5.5% ABV
According to Abomination Brewing in Pennsylvania, “The name ‘Abomination’ stems from the fact that for hundreds of years, Germany had a beer purity law, or Reinheitsgebot, that placed strict demands on what was and wasn’t legally allowed to put in beer. This law stifled creativity and forced German brewers to create only tradition styles of beer with little to no variation. It could be said that they would look at what ABC is doing as an abomination to what they consider beer. We look to continue pushing the envelope of beer with new and exciting hop profiles and tweaks on old and new world styles.” Abomination’s Drippy Popsicle Rocket is a fruited smoothie sour with cherry, blueberry, and raspberry that tastes just like the half melted rocket pops we all remember.
Hoof Hearted Peppercorn Dork Club
10% ABV
Hoof Hearted’s Peppercorn Dork Club is a triple dry hopped triple IPA brewed with Galaxy, Citra, and Nelson Sauvin hops. “Dazzling and voluptuous, sporting a 10% tag that will melt just enough of your brain to help you squeeze into your Sunday’s best, this sound and structured body plays perfect host for the dessert portion to this libation’s prix fix offer, the choice nugz selected by our in-house expert,” says Hoof Hearted hype. This highly curated mélange of hops offers notes of white peach, passionfruit, gooseberry and assorted citrus alongside some more nuanced pineapple and the tannic and vegetal spruce tip and dank underbrush.
LINK: Peaks & Pints beer and cider cooler inventory
