Triangle Brewing Company
Encyclopedia
The Brewing Company & Brewers
Triangle Brewing Co. (TBC) is a microbreweryMicrobrewery
A microbrewery or craft brewer is a brewery which produces a limited amount of beer, and is associated by consumers with innovation and uniqueness....
owned and operated entirely by business partners (and high-school friends) Rick "the Brewer" Tufts and Andy "the Bloke" Miller, who have recently resettled in Durham
Durham, North Carolina
Durham is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. It is the county seat of Durham County and also extends into Wake County. It is the fifth-largest city in the state, and the 85th-largest in the United States by population, with 228,330 residents as of the 2010 United States census...
, North Carolina
North Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
from Connecticut. Andy Miller had extensive local restaurant management experience, and Rick Tufts apprenticed at Flying Fish Brewing Company
Flying Fish Brewing Company
Flying Fish Brewing Company is a small craft beer brewer founded in Cherry Hill, New Jersey in 1995 and opened for business in late 1996...
and was an avid homebrewer
Homebrewing
Homebrewing is the brewing of beer, wine, sake, mead, cider, perry and other beverages through fermentation on a small scale as a hobby for personal consumption, free distribution at social gatherings, amateur brewing competitions or other non-commercial reasons...
long before founding a new brewery
Brewery
A brewery is a dedicated building for the making of beer, though beer can be made at home, and has been for much of beer's history. A company which makes beer is called either a brewery or a brewing company....
. TBC began selling beer on July 4, 2007 and is the only microbrewery in Durham. The arrival of a microbrewery in Durham is arguably part of the current downtown art, building, and cultural Renaissance.
About Triangle Beers
TBC did not plan to be cast as a Belgian styleBelgian beer
Beer in Belgium varies from pale lager to lambic beer and Flemish red. There are approximately 178 breweries in the country, ranging from international giants to microbreweries..-History:...
brewery when they developed their first beer, the Belgian Strong Golden Ale; rather, they wanted to enter the market with something notable and different. The stated goal of TBC is to produce balanced, full-flavored, yet highly drinkable Belgian and American style ales. So far, TBC is distributing across North Carolina, primarily in the Triangle Area (Durham
Durham County, North Carolina
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 223,314 people, 89,015 households, and 54,032 families residing in the county. The population density was 769 people per square mile . There were 95,452 housing units at an average density of 329 per square mile...
, Orange
Orange County, North Carolina
Orange County is a county located in the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of the 2010 census, the population was 133,801. Its county seat is Hillsborough...
, and Wake
Wake County, North Carolina
Wake County is a county located in the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of the 2010 census, the population was 900,993 making it North Carolina's second most populated county...
Counties) but as far as Asheville
Asheville, North Carolina
Asheville is a city in and the county seat of Buncombe County, North Carolina, United States. It is the largest city in Western North Carolina, and the 11th largest city in North Carolina. The City is home to the United States National Climatic Data Center , which is the world's largest active...
and Charlotte
Charlotte, North Carolina
Charlotte is the largest city in the U.S. state of North Carolina and the seat of Mecklenburg County. In 2010, Charlotte's population according to the US Census Bureau was 731,424, making it the 17th largest city in the United States based on population. The Charlotte metropolitan area had a 2009...
. TBC brews
Brewing
Brewing is the production of beer through steeping a starch source in water and then fermenting with yeast. Brewing has taken place since around the 6th millennium BCE, and archeological evidence suggests that this technique was used in ancient Egypt...
using the four all-natural, traditional ingredients of beer
Beer
Beer is the world's most widely consumed andprobably oldest alcoholic beverage; it is the third most popular drink overall, after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of sugars, mainly derived from malted cereal grains, most commonly malted barley and malted wheat...
: water
Water
Water is a chemical substance with the chemical formula H2O. A water molecule contains one oxygen and two hydrogen atoms connected by covalent bonds. Water is a liquid at ambient conditions, but it often co-exists on Earth with its solid state, ice, and gaseous state . Water also exists in a...
, yeast, hops
Hops
Hops are the female flower clusters , of a hop species, Humulus lupulus. They are used primarily as a flavoring and stability agent in beer, to which they impart a bitter, tangy flavor, though hops are also used for various purposes in other beverages and herbal medicine...
, and malted barley
Malt
Malt is germinated cereal grains that have been dried in a process known as "malting". The grains are made to germinate by soaking in water, and are then halted from germinating further by drying with hot air...
. The use of adjunct grains and spices
Adjuncts
Adjuncts are unmalted grains used in brewing beer which supplement the main mash ingredient , often with the intention of cutting costs, but sometimes to create an additional feature, such as better foam retention.- Definition :Ingredients which are standard for certain beers, such as wheat in a...
is limited to particular styles where they are a traditional ingredient or enhancement rather than an adulterant
Adulterant
An adulterant is a chemical substance which should not be contained within other substances for legal or other reasons. Adulterants may be intentionally added to more expensive substances to increase visible quantities and reduce manufacturing costs or for some other deceptive or malicious purpose...
. TBC does not pasteurize any of its beers - the only preservatives are the hops and the alcohol
Ethanol
Ethanol, also called ethyl alcohol, pure alcohol, grain alcohol, or drinking alcohol, is a volatile, flammable, colorless liquid. It is a psychoactive drug and one of the oldest recreational drugs. Best known as the type of alcohol found in alcoholic beverages, it is also used in thermometers, as a...
itself. While TBC's brews can be served alone, one main belief of the brewery is that beer
Beer
Beer is the world's most widely consumed andprobably oldest alcoholic beverage; it is the third most popular drink overall, after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of sugars, mainly derived from malted cereal grains, most commonly malted barley and malted wheat...
can be better than wine
Wine
Wine is an alcoholic beverage, made of fermented fruit juice, usually from grapes. The natural chemical balance of grapes lets them ferment without the addition of sugars, acids, enzymes, or other nutrients. Grape wine is produced by fermenting crushed grapes using various types of yeast. Yeast...
as an accompaniment to food. So far, TBC has produced only various ale
Ale
Ale is a type of beer brewed from malted barley using a warm fermentation with a strain of brewers' yeast. The yeast will ferment the beer quickly, giving it a sweet, full bodied and fruity taste...
s, and has no current plans for lager
Lager
Lager is a type of beer made from malted barley that is brewed and stored at low temperatures. There are many types of lager; pale lager is the most widely-consumed and commercially available style of beer in the world; Pilsner, Bock, Dortmunder Export and Märzen are all styles of lager...
s. TBC also produces a small amount of cask ale
Cask ale
Cask ale or cask-conditioned beer is the term for unfiltered and unpasteurised beer which is conditioned and served from a cask without additional nitrogen or carbon dioxide pressure...
in firkin
Firkin
A firkin is an old English unit of volume. The name is derived from the Middle Dutch word vierdekijn, which means fourth, i.e. a quarter of a full-size barrel.Nor need you mind the serial ordealOf being watched from forty cellar holes...
s for use at special events. Although TBC currently has no bottling or canning capacity, as of the beginning of Summer, 2008, TBC is hand-filling and bottle-conditioning
Bottle conditioning
Bottle conditioned beers are either unfiltered so the final conditioning of the beer takes place in the bottle, or filtered and then reseeded with yeast so that an additional fermentation may take place.-Priming:...
its Golden Ale and Imperial Amber for distribution to select stores.
List of Beers
- Triangle Belgian-style Golden Ale is the TBC's flagship beer, and continues to be brewed year-round. It is 8% ABV, fermented at warmer temperatures than the other aleAleAle is a type of beer brewed from malted barley using a warm fermentation with a strain of brewers' yeast. The yeast will ferment the beer quickly, giving it a sweet, full bodied and fruity taste...
s to further develop the significant yeast complexity, lightly filtered, and uses TBC's proprietary Belgian yeast strain. - Triangle American-style Xtra Pale Ale is the TBC's second year-round beer, meant to be a session beer at 4.5%. It is a straw-colored, hoppy American craft brewery style of Pale AlePale alePale ale is a beer which uses a warm fermentation and predominantly pale malt. It is one of the world's major beer styles.The higher proportion of pale malts results in a lighter colour. The term "pale ale" was being applied around 1703 for beers made from malts dried with coke, which resulted in a...
, using Washington grown Palisade, Centennial and Magnum hops. It uses the TBC's proprietary American yeast strain. - Triangle Belgian-style White Ale is the TBC's Summer seasonal offering, a wheat beerWheat beerWheat beer is a beer that is brewed with a large proportion of wheat. Wheat beers often also contain a significant proportion of malted barley. Wheat beers are usually top-fermented...
that is totally unfiltered, made with white wheat, with limited use of hops and incorporating the traditional spices - orange peel and coriander. 5% ABV. It uses TBC's Belgian yeast. - Triangle Belgian-style Abbey DubbelDubbelThe dubbel is a Belgian Trappist beer naming convention. The origin of the dubbel was a beer brewed in the Trappist Abbey of Westmalle in 1856. The abbey had, since 10 December 1836, brewed a witbier that was quite sweet and light in alcohol for consumption by the paters. The new beer, however,...
is a seasonal offering of another complex, yeasty beer, at 7.2% ABV. The style is characterized by a large head, moderate maltiness, fruitiness, and warmth from the alcohol content. There has been a bourbonBourbon whiskeyBourbon is a type of American whiskey – a barrel-aged distilled spirit made primarily from corn. The name of the spirit derives from its historical association with an area known as Old Bourbon, around what is now Bourbon County, Kentucky . It has been produced since the 18th century...
-barrel-aged version. It uses TBC's Belgian yeast. - Triangle Imperial Amber is a heavily hopped Double Red ale, around 90 IBUs, and is 8.2%ABV. It uses very high amounts of malt to balance the very high level of bitterness, resulting in the high alcohol content as well. It uses TBC's American yeast.
- Triangle StoutStoutStout is a dark beer made using roasted malt or barley, hops, water and yeast. Stouts were traditionally the generic term for the strongest or stoutest porters, typically 7% or 8%, produced by a brewery....
is a winter seasonal in the Foreign Stout style using chocolate and other dark roasted malts, resulting in a deep ruby color appearing almost black, and flavor notes similar to coffee. It is 5.6%ABV. It uses TBC's American yeast. - Triangle Mild AleMild aleMild ale is a low-gravity beer, or beer with a predominantly malty palate, that originated in Britain in the 17th century or earlier. Modern mild ales are mainly dark coloured with an abv of 3% to 3.6%, though there are lighter hued examples, as well as stronger examples reaching 6% abv and...
is a British-style seasonal using domestic and imported malts to get at the complex nutty flavor of the style, meant to be a session beer.