Steph’s New Brew Review: Jabby Brau

Steph’s New Brew Review: Jabby Brau

Jack’s Abby Brewing Jabby Brau, a 20 IBU 4.5% ABV Session Lager

Appearance Clear pale golden color; fluffy white head; moderate lacing left behind.
Aroma Bready and biscuity with hints of floral, grassy hops.
Taste Malts up front with toasty, bready notes; hops then shine offering floral and herbal notes; slight lingering sweetness of caramel that is quite pleasant.
Mouthfeel Medium bodied; medium carbonation.
Overall This year-round offering from Jack’s Abby is clean and fresh. This beer is crisp, refreshing and extremely well done. Not much else to say. A truly wonderful beer. I had the pleasure of visiting this brewery a year ago, and I can’t wait to go back!

Jack’s Abby Brewing, located in Framingham, Massachusetts, was founded by the three Hendler brothers, Jack, Eric, and Sam in January 2011. Jack started out as a homebrewer and  earned a diploma in brewing technology in May of 2007, after which he worked as head brewer at a popular Boston brew pub.

The Hendler farm is a source of fresh, local ingredients for the Jack’s Abby brews. The beers in the annual “Mom & Pop’s Harvest Series” use ingredients from the farm.

For example, the recipe for Wet Hop Lager includes family hops and the Pumpkin Crop Lager uses seasonal pumpkins and squash.

The name “Jack’s Abby Brewing” honors both Jack’s wife, Abby, and the traditions of the European monks who brewed in abbeys. Inspired by the brewing tradition of using local ingredients, strict standards of traditional German brewing, and the innovation of American craft brewers, their goal is to create delicious beer, specifically lagers. All Jack’s Abby lagers are unfiltered and preservative-free.

Recently, they have decided to create a new 5.5% ABV Extra Pale Lager called Hopstitution. The base beer will always remain the same, but a new batch every 4-8 weeks will use new hops. The first release of Hopstitution XPL will be on Thursday, December 5th featuring the experimental high alpha hops, HBC-344, HBC-291 and HBC-462.

Jack’s Abby’s flagship beer, Hoponius Union, has a 97 point “world class” rating from Beer Advocate magazine. Smoke & Dagger, a schwarzbier and smoked porter in one, won two medals from the Great International Beer Festival in Providence, Rhode Island, and a Bronze medal at the 2012 Great American Beer Festival.

The bottle for Jabby Brau reads,

Deep golden in color, this lager balances Pilsner and Munich malt with aromatic American hops. This beer starts hoppy but finishes unexpectedly malty with very low bitterness. Impressively flavorful and drinkable, we dub this beer a ‘Session Lager,’ as we once again brew a lager in a beer style of its own. Jabby Brau uses local soft red winter wheat from Four Star Farms.”

Wanna pick this one up? You can purchase growlers and bottles at the brewery, or use their Lager Locator to see if Jack’s Abby beers are available near you!
Check out… this video from Jack’s Abby showing the bottling of Jabby Brau!

If you have a beer you think we should review, let us know!
And as always, toast our check-in on Untappd, and let us know what YOU think!

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