Attention fans of Chai of the Tiger, which hit the tap lines at BrickHouse Brewery in Patchogue for the first time last fall.
It’s 2016, and you can now drink Chai of the Tiger morning and night.
OK, so we’re not advocating drinking beer at breakfast (at least not Monday through Wednesday), and please trust that BrickHouse isn’t brewing anything non-alcoholic.
What’s happening is this:
BrickHouse and Roast Coffee & Tea Trading Company have done a little trading along Main Street. Roast sent some chai the BrickHouse’s way, and the brewery gave up some of its barley.
Roast is brewing a Chai of the Tiger tea; BrickHouse is brewing a Chai of the Tiger ale.
“Now you can responsibly start and end your day with a Chai of the Tiger,” said Paul Komsic, the BrickHouse brewmaster.
“I just thought it was a cool idea, on both ends of Main Street having two totally different drinks that stem from the same concept and mindset,” he said. “And it’s just nice to show people these are business on Main Street working together.”
Both the tea and the beer use chai, Cara malt (barley) and vanilla.
The tea recipe is the brainchild of Stephanie Ozegovich, Roast’s creative assistant.
“I heard the name and heard the characteristics of the beer, and recreated it as a tea,” Ozegovich said. “The chai for the red color and spice, caramel, barely and steamed milk to recreate the foamy head, like a beer, and cinnamon as well.”
“I didn’t know that Barley tea was a thing people did,” said Roast manager Tiffany Rivera.
This is Roast’s and BrickHouse’s 12th collaboration, and the second year Brickhouse is offering Chai of the Tiger.
Komsic, who describes the beer as a chai tea and vanilla bean red ale, said he wanted to offer an alternative last year to beer drinkers who might favor pumpkin beer.
“We did it toward the end of pumpkin season, trying to show people they didn’t really want pumpkin; they just want spice,” he said. “We wanted to show people there’s other things out there.
“As soon as people took one sip they stopped asking about pumpkin.”
Chai of the Tiger should be available on tap at the Brickhouse by next Thursday.
These are Roast’s special fall drinks, available today:
• Caramel Pecan Breve
• Chai of the Tiger
• Pumpkin Pie
• Maple Mocha
Photo: (L-R) Stephanie Ozegovich, Tiffany River and Paul Komsic at BrickHouse Brewery in Patchogue on Tuesday. (Photo: Michael White)
