Satan’s Seed Will Again Spawn at 2021 Frigid Digits Winter Beer Fest

21 Aug Satan’s Seed Will Again Spawn at 2021 Frigid Digits Winter Beer Fest

by Mark E. Lasbury for Indiana On Tap

I stopped in at Centerpoint Brewing in Indianapolis a couple of days ago only to find some demonic alchemy taking place. Greg Ortwein and Mike Orkey were down from Deviate Brewing on the northwest side to revive the Satan’s Seed collaboration from 2019. But low and behold, this year’s collaboration includes even more talent for the brew. Alongside Rick Smith, John Yarnelle, and Jon Robinson from Centerpoint and Greg and Mike from Deviate were Jereme and Josh Grissom of The Brothers Grissom Brewing.

Collab day underway for Deviate, Centerpoint, and The Brothers Grissom. image credit: Walter

Josh and Jereme are well known to central Indiana craft beer fans. They are homebrewers extraordinaire, with many medals under their belts and thousands of fans from their experiences pouring at Brewers of Indiana Guild festivals. All together this was a bunch of wicked good brewers working to make a wicked beer.

Satan’s Seed made its debut in February, 2019 at Winterfest, Frigid Digits Winter Beer Fest and then in a bottle release. That first iteration of the imperial stout came as both apple brandy barrel and Blanton’s bourbon barrel aged variants and both went off at a whopping 19.9% ABV. Well, they’ve decided to get even more devilish for 2021.

Everybody in the collab. got together and decided to shoot for an even 20% ABV this time, with a huge grain bill to ensure a big body. Mike got on his computer to show me the barrels they have chosen for this year and they make my mouth water even now. One variant will be blended beer from rum, coconut rum, and spiced rum barrel aged Satan’s Seed, while the other will be a blend of four bourbon barrel aged portions – Wild Turkey, 4 Roses, Buffalo Trace, and Heaven Hill.

With the beer being brewed this week and fermented over the next 14 days or more, there will still be plenty of time for these beers to age in their barrels before they are blended for the final products. Look for them to be ready in early February, just in time for Centerpoint Brewing’s yearly outdoor brewfest – Frigid Digits. The date isn’t set yet, but it will likely be in the 2^nd Saturday in February again in 2021.

I asked Jon about how this beer is a representation of Deviate and Centerpoint. He said, “Satan’s seed fits the ideals of both Centerpoint and Deviate for two reasons; Number one, its absolutely not normal for a beer of this magnitude of ABV and complexity, which fits right in to the philosophy at Deviate. Number two, it also takes a lot of planning, number crunching, and process control capabilities, which we pride ourselves on at Centerpoint.” He followed up by describing how Satan’s Seed fits into the Frigid Digits Winter Beer Fest by saying, “They’re both are abnormal, a 20% BA Imperial Stout, and an outdoor winter beer festival. And, of course, you need something to keep you warm while standing outside in the middle of February in Indiana..”

I’m no meteorologist, but I can predict that a few days next February are going to feel unusually warm; downing some of Satan’s Seed could warm anybody up. Hell, it might bring back the dead; I’m willing to give the devil his due.