For Harpoon brewers, it's all a barrel of fun

Generally, brewers at regional commercial breweries such as Harpoon have to aim for consistency: Each batch of Harpoon IPA or UFO hefeweizen must taste the same as the previous batch. It's an exacting science -- customers are expecting certain tastes -- so there's no improvising.

At its Windsor, Vt., plant, Harpoon lets its brewers go crazy.

The Harpoon's 100 Barrel Series beers, which, as the name implies, are limited to single 100-barrel batches, are made in small quantities and sold until the beer runs out. At this gleaming facility on 10 acres of rolling hills on the Connecticut River, also the site of the Harpoon Championship of New England Barbecue last month, creativity flows like. . . well, like beer.

'Part of brewing is experimenting and researching styles," says Al Marzi, Harpoon's vice president of brewing operations. 'Our brewers take pride in making IPA consistently." But they also missed the opportunity to experiment and formulate new recipes.

So the company came up with a concept whereby every couple of months a different Harpoon brewer chooses a style, develops a recipe, and brews the beer -- from ingredients to the final filtration -- at the Windsor plant. The system celebrates the individual brewers and lets them experiment. 'We needed a professional creative outlet," says Rich Doyle, cofounder, chairman, and CEO of Harpoon. Once the beer is bottled or kegged, it's sent to retailers and also sold at the Windsor brewery's store so barbecue championship attendees can buy it; some styles perfectly suitall manner of smoky pork.

The 100 Barrel Series is released in 22-ounce bottles (larger than the 12-ounce six-packs of the brewery's other products).There's a different label as well, an elegant design with a cream-colored background; the style of beer and the brewer's signature appear in black type.

'I don't put any restrictions on them. They can use any yeast they want, any malt they want," says Marzi, who has brewed an oatmeal stout, an alt beer, and a maibock for the series. 'They're like kids in a candy store."

Jaime Schier, who made a Wit beer for the series using coriander and curacao orange peel, says Marzi and Doyle's attitude is 'as long as you think it's going to be good, go ahead."

At a brewpub, where the beer menu changes periodically, says Brett Simmons, 'you have the opportunity to be really creative. But when you work at a regional brewery," the brewer says, 'some of that creativity is lost." He made the 100 Barrel Smoked Porter, and his voice is charged with enthusiasm as he talks about making 3,100 gallons of a beer with a recipe he's just concocted.

So far, six Harpoon brewers and two guest brewers have come up with11 styles of beer for the series. (On retail shelves right now is a wheat wine -- it's called wine, but it's really a strong wheat ale -- conceived by guest brewers Jason and Todd Alstrom, founders of beeradvocate.com; the beer was formulated with the help of Harpoon brewer Todd Charbonneau.)

While they like the excitement of producing new beers, brewers admit that they also find it a little terrifying because they don't have the ability to make a test batch first. 'You really don't know how it's going to taste until it's done and your name is on the label," says Scott Shirley, one of the head brewers at the Windsor plant.Harpoon's other facility is in Boston.

'I'd be lying if I said I wasn't stressed with each batch," says Marzi, who has been happy with everything that's been made so far. Marzi emphasizes that tastings are done throughout the brewing process, so ifa batch really doesn't work,consumers never taste it. 'It's never happened," he says. 'We'd have to redo the batch."

Sometimes the brewing process presents unexpected challenges. Shirley, who has already made a Scotch ale (a strong, sweet, full-bodied brew) for the series, is just putting the finishing touches on his interpretation of a Belgian raspberry ale, or framboise. Due outin the next couple of weeks, the beerused 4,600 pounds of raspberry puree. After brewing, Shirley says, 'there was raspberry everywhere." When the beer was filtered, the red puree clogged up the opening at the bottom of the brewing tank. A process that usually takes onehour took four.

'Hopefully, it will be a light, refreshing, end of summer beer," Shirley says. 'Hopefully, it'll be bright red with a lacy pink head."

But there's no way of knowing. The day Schier brewed his Wit beer 'was a great day," he says. 'And it was an even greater day about three weeks later when I tasted it and it turned out exactly like I wanted it to."

Soon though, brewing for the 100 Barrel Series won't be quite such a roll of the dice. Windsor will be installing a test facility where brewers can experiment with20-gallon batches before their recipes go into full production.

There may be a downside to that safety net.  Sean Cornelius, who has brewed a Belgian-style abbey ale and a drink he called Union Street Revival Ale for the series, likes the riskier system. Testing first, he says, 'takes a little of the excitement out of it."