Modern Times Announces 2015 Bottle Release Schedule

From Modern Times:

January
City of the Sun
7.8% ABV
If you’ve come by the tasting room recently, you’ve probably tasted City of the Sun. It’s our Mosaic/Motueka stunner: dry, bitter, and loaded with tropical, melony hops. West Coast through and through, but featuring an aggressively fruit-forward hop character, City of the Sun is hitting 22oz bottles as a preview before a canned seasonal in December.

February
City of the Dead
7.5% ABV
A burly export stout loaded with our bourbon barrel-aged coffee beans. We’ve had great success with Black House & Monsters’ Park dosed with barrel-aged coffee, but we wanted to design a beer from scratch specifically to feature these beans. Full-bodied and a touch sweet, City of the Dead will be explosively aromatic & saturated with barrel-aged coffeecharacter.

March
Protocosmos
7% ABV
A new IPA chock full ‘o Galaxy, Ahtanum, and Centennial hops. The focus here is squarely on the tropical fruit sexiness of Galaxy: a new wave Australian variety that combines elements of Citra & Mosaic, with a hint of grassiness for balance. Ahtanum and Centennial will add a zesty citrus component.

April
Black House w/ coconut & cocoa nibs
5.8% ABV
Probably our single most requested beer in the tasting room. The chocolate & coffee of Black House makes an awesome base for intemperate quantities of coconut & cocoa nibs, which make the whole thing taste like a ridiculously decadent chocolate bar, but drier and more like beer.

May
Mount Remarkable
5.5% ABV
A beer we did for our 1st Anniversary Party that was quite popular with everyone in attendance. Mount Remarkable is a crisp, refreshing lager dry-hopped with Australian Helga hops. Floral, herbal, and complex, Mount Remarkable will walk a fine line between hoppy lager and IPL.

June
Mega Black House*
10% ABV
An imperialized version of Black House loaded with our house-roasted coffee. Thick, chewy, and bursting with coffee aroma & flavor, Mega Black House is a complex sipper that showcases the brilliant interaction of dark roasted malt and light roasted coffee. Fans of Monsters’ Park w/ coffee will love this.

July
Universal Friend*
7% ABV
Another tasting room regular. A robust saison brewed with Pinot Grigio grape must (i.e. juice made from wine grapes). Universal Friend is fermented with our house Lomaland Yeast Blend, balancing the fruitiness of the wine grapes with the earthy, rustic character of our saison yeast. We’ve brewed Universal Friend with Pinot Grigio, Chardonnay, and (very recently) Merlot must, all to excellent and noticeably different effect.

August
Fortunate w/ grapefruit zest
5% ABV
Yet another tasting room winner. The hoppy, tropical aroma & flavor of Fortunate Islands is the perfect canvas for grapefruit zest, which we make by hand-peeling a zillion goddamn grapefruits and adding only the oily skin to the beer. It’s insanely labor intensive, but the poppin’ fresh grapefruit character can’t be beat. No better time for this beer than August.

October
Lost Horizon
8.5% ABV
A modified version of the big, aggressive American double IPA we brewed last year. Leans toward the piney, sappy, citrusy end of the spectrum. Dry, bitter, and fragrant as hell.

November
Monsters’ Park
12% ABV
Our hulking, cantankerous imperial stout. Sporting a huge roast/chocolate profile, this beer is as aggressive as it is complex, offering layer upon layer of robust malt flavor & aroma. This release will be about half the size of the 2014 release because it’s a massive pain in the ass to brew.