PARROT TALK

Green Parrot Session Ale is Launched

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GPS Green Parrot Session Ale says "move over" I've arrived.

The Green Parrot Bar, the iconic Key West saloon that  has become as recognizable to Keys travelers as The Hemingway House or The Seven Mile Bridge has collaborated  with Maine’s craft-beer pioneers, the award-winning Shipyard Brewing Co, to release Green Parrot Session Ale. 

Green Parrot Session Ale tap handle
The official launch is scheduled for Thursday, August 28th, at 9 PM,  at The Green Parrot Bar as well as being offered as part of Labor Day weekend’s Key West BrewFest 2014 at The Signature Tasting Festival on South Beach on Saturday, August 31st from 4 to 8 PM. 
Jeff samples the first taste of Green Parrot Session Ale
 Pictured Above:GP partner Jeff Sorg gets ready to quaff the first GPS Ale
in the friendly confines of The Green Parrot Walk-in cooler
The Green Parrot Bar’s unique appeal, spread mostly by word-of-mouth,  has had it’s near-cult status  fueled for decades by an irresistible combination of   it’s dive-bar credibility, it’s friendly, seasoned  bartenders, and of course, it’s award-winning live entertainment, all of which have merged to make The Green Parrot one of the most consistently popular bars in Key West.  . 
The front of the famous Green Parrot Bar
Our Corner Saloon
So when the time had come for The Green Parrot to produce it’s own brand of beer,  the search began for a brewery that possessed  the vision, the skills, the history, and most importantly, the passion,  to craft a beer  fine enough to bear The Parrot’s name.

The birthplace of Shipyard Brewing Co. in Main

The birthplace of Shipyards Brewing Co., Federal Jack’s in Kennebunkport, MainePlayboy magazine, in naming The Green Parrot one of it’s “Best Bars in America”, said, “The search for the definitive Key West saloon ends at The Green Parrot” and, in the same lofty spirit, we believe the search for a  Green Parrot Beer ends at Shipyard Brewing Co and Green Parrot Session Ale.What Shipyard has created for The Green Parrot is an easy-drinking, “English-style Session Ale”,  a  fitting  reference to it’s balance and hearty English ale yeast presence and it’s session- friendly,  quaff-able  4.15% abv”.

With it’s clean toasted biscuit malt base and a mild spicy hop balance, it is very much in line with golden English milds, and the hopping is quite “European” with the Czech hop variety Saaz, and the German Hallertau off-shoot Saphirboth of which carry mild spicy/earthy character.-

Jeff Sorg and Mike Haley make the hops tea

Shipyard Brewmaster Mike Haley explain the making of the hops “tea” to Jeff

Jeff sorg in the trenches of the brewing process

Jeff in the trenches

english malt to start the processBritish MaltGreen Parrot Session Ale being tasted in Kennebunck

Our first tasting was held overlooking kennebunk harbor

Our tasting room in Kennebunkport was the deck overlooking Kennebunk harbor

From the first day Green Parrot partners Pat Croce and John Vagnoni met  Shipyard’s affable and able founder,  Fred Forsley last February, the planets seemed to line up for the creation of a Green Parrot beer worthy of it’s name.  
 
It became quickly obvious that Pat and Fred  were kindred spirits  and over a whirlwind weekend of lunches, dinners, and of course, beers, goals were discussed, plans laid,  and arrangements soon made to  bring Vagnoni and Parrot partner Jeff Sorg  to Maine to meet Shipyard brewmaster Mike Haley and begin the  work of designing a Green Parrot beer.  A few brews later,  a brewers-choice  recipe was approved and, less than six months from the intial meeting, kegs of Green Parrot Sessions Ale had  arrived at The Green Parrot Bar in Key West.
The first official group tasting on the bench  of a Root Beer Barrel made with Green Parrot Session Ale

 

The first official tasting-party for aRoot Beer Barrel made with Green Parrot Session Ale.