BetterBeerBlog

This month on the Session, BetterBeerBlog friends Gail and Steve from Beer by Bart pose the topic, “Will travel for beer”. They want to know about our beer trips, good and bad, in every little detail. If you’ve never traveled specifically for beer, where would you like to go, who would you like to go with and what would you drink?

Sammy and I talk about this all the time. Relatively speaking, we are pretty new to the world of craft beer. I had the domain “BetterBeerBlog” registered, posted a few beer reviews, and then didn’t do anything with the website for months. Believe it or not, we’ve been at this for less than two years. What a couple of years it’s been though! We’ve drank a lot of good beers, a handful of great beers and even a couple of bad ones (can’t win them all). We’ve been blessed to have met such really cool people in our short time in the craft beer world and, surprisingly, have been able to do some traveling as well. Which brings us back to the topic at hand, traveling for beer.

Around the time of our first year anniversary, my wife and I decided to go on a trip to commemorate the event. Our initial plan was to attend the Northern California Homebrewers Festival (isn’t my wife the coolest wife ever? Yes, I’m biased, I know…). Specifically, we wanted to attend the Sean Paxton Homebrew dinner. It’s one of the many highlights of the trip and sells out early. By the time my lazy ass got to booking the trip, the dinner was sold out. A bit dejected that our original plans fell through, we decided to drive south and visit San Diego instead.

Excited by our new found destination, Sammy and I planned our trip. I left the sight seeing and hotel accommodations to my wife while I researched what breweries to visit. I planned the majority of our trip through www.beermapping.com. I found that website to be a great resource for deciding which breweries to visit. If anything, it helped us plan our days. I’m not sure about how anyone else travels but we left a lot of flexibility in our schedules in case we received some hot tips from any locals.

Because I dislike Los Angeles and LA county in general, we usually travel I-5 at night. I like to avoid LA traffic as much as possible and traveling at night is the best way for me to avoid that nightmare. Besides, if you’ve ever traveled I-5, it is not the most picturesque freeway so it’s not like I’d be missing much traveling at night.

Here’s a list of the places we hit up in wonderful bullet point form (If I’ve linked to them, it’s because I’ve written about them.):

• Pizza Port Solana Beach
• Lost Abbey/Pizza Port
• Alesmith
• Toronado (yes, there’s a San Diego version)
• O’Briens
• Churchill’s Pub & Grill
• Stone Brewing
• Holiday Wine Cellar

I can’t believe I didn’t get to finish the Stone recap or the Holiday Wine Cellar spotlight. Stone has a phenomenal location while Holiday Wine Cellar has a mighty fine wine collection and a very good beer collection as well. Holiday Wine Cellar was a local suggestion which is why it is important to leave a little flexibility in your schedule.

As fun as it was to visit some of these places, we just couldn’t hit all the breweries and bars we wanted to. When we return (it’s not a question of “if” but “when”), we will have Green Flash and Alesmith on our list of breweries to visit while Ritual is a beer bar we didn’t get the opportunity to try.

San Diego does not suck. All I can say is while beer may be the reason you visit San Diego, it will not be the reason you want to stay. San Diego has awesome weather, great people and great places to visit. Sammy and I compared San Diego to all that is good about the Bay Area. It has the arts, niche neighborhoods and hills of San Diego, the laid-back, beach attitudes of Santa Cruz and the technology centers of San Jose. Of all the places we’ve gone to so far, San Diego induces the least amount of homesickness.

The idea of traveling near or far for beer is not new. People have made careers out of it, written books about it and plan their yearly vacations around it. A huge part of traveling for beer is for the beer. You never know where you’ll find the next “hidden gem” or reacquaint yourself with a personal favorite. Most importantly, you never know who you’re going to end up meeting. I must sound like a broken record at this point but the people we’ve met because of craft beer have been nothing short of awesome (Well, there was that one couple at NHC…). If anything, the beer is the reason for travel but the people is why we return.

Have beer? BetterBeerBlog will travel.

This week on Hopinions, Mario asks the questions, “Why do we hide out [sic] love of the buzz?” Are beer geeks really puritanical about alcohol? Are we all just reformed college freshmans or are we one drink away from “Whooooo beeeeeeer!!!”? Read on to find out.

From: Mario at Brewed For Thought

I ran into a mild dilemma last week.  I was drinking the Mateveza Yerba Mate IPA for my Beer of the Week and considering all of the aspects of the beer that I thought would be important.  Considering this is a beer brewed with a natural stimulant, yerba mate, I felt I needed to address the effects of this special ingredient.  This is where I ran into my dilemma.

It seems as if we, as craft beer drinkers, dismiss the pleasurable effects of alcohol too often.  We warn each other of strong brews, we talk about the benefits of more sessionable beers, but we seem to hide any happiness we might gleam from the effects of the alcohol.

Now that I was drinking a beer that had an additional ingredient that affects the mental state, I almost felt guilty for wanting to comment on the unique effects this beer was having on me.  It was a good buzz. It put a smile on my face. In fact, I may have enjoyed the buzz from this specific beer as much if not more than I enjoyed the actual beer.

So that brings me to my question,  Why do we hide out love of the buzz?  It’s apparent we enjoy drinking beer and the effects, as beer festivals, tastings, etc are full of smiling faces. Does this journalistic stoicism help us distance ourselves from the “less desirable” beer fans of the world? If we were to let it slip that we do enjoy getting drunk, would we find ourselves god forbid, on the same level as Budweiser drinkers?

My name is Mario Rubio, and I like the buzz I get from my beer.

From: Peter at BetterBeerBlog

I’ve often seen Mateveza Yerba Mate beer on the shelves of my local BevMo but I’ve never bought it. Lately I’ve been doing my Beer(s) in Review with a series of beers focusing around a style, theme or brewery. If I do pick up a single, it’s usually for myself and not necessarily for review. On the heels of such fine beverages as B to the E, Molson’s Kick or Moonshot, I’ve unfairly dumped Yerba Mate in the category of gimmicky caffeinated beers. Brewing with exotic ingredients is nothing new, just look at the Belgian brewing tradition. After reading your description, I’ll have to check out Yerba Mate.

It’s nice that you can admit you have a drinking problem, it’s the first step to recovery. Back to the question at hand, I don’t know of a single craft beer lover who doesn’t, at the very least like, the effects of alcohol. It’s not that we’re trying to downplay it more than it is a case of “duh, of course there’s alcohol in this. It’s beer. It wouldn’t be beer without it”. It’s an accepted part of the deal: you drink beer, you get drunk. Every smiling face at a beer festival is a silent testament to our enjoyment of alcohol.

Unlike coffee or tea, alcohol is demonized to a large extent in this country. There’s an inheirent danger that comes with drinking alcohol. Neo-prohibitionists and conservatives are attacking the alcohol industry from all angles and the last thing we need as a collective group of responsible craft beer drinkers is to provide any more ammunition to these people by running around yelling, “Whooooooooooo! I’m druuuuuuuuuuuuuuunk-ah! Let’s go streaking!”. Or worse, add to the list of alcohol related fatalities.

We’re not in freshmen in college anymore. We have nothing to prove, or gain, from by yelling from the rooftops that we’re hammered.

I am not a teetotaller. I like to get drunk, I love to get drunk. Getting a good beer buzz is part of the reason I drink beer. Alcohol is my vice of choice. When I’m at home, I can feel free to indulge to my heart’s content. When I’m out in public, I make sure to have a designated driver with us or ready to pick me up when the phone rings. As people who want to further the cause of craft beer through our blogs, we have a responsibility to set the example. We need to show that we can enjoy our favorite beers responsibly. Whether or not we like it, we are in a position where we people judge us not only by our words but by our actions. Drink as I say, not as I don’t just doesn’t cut it.

From: Mario at Brewed For Thought

I think you mean “Drink as I say, not as I do.” And I’m not saying we should run around like college freshmen, reaking of vomit and stale Natty Ice. In fact, my wife won’t go back to Boonville with me because in her one trip, some guys grabbed her by the shoulder at 1:30 and screamed in her face, “WOOOOOO BEER!”  I’m not even saying we need to change our behavior. We were both at Beerfest in Santa Rosa and I really enjoyed the atmosphere, including the lack of fights, “woo”-ing, and drunken stupidity.

One thing I did want to talk about that you mentioned was the idea of Neo-Prohibtionists.  I find this to be amusing. If anything, our society is moving in the direction of being less prohibitive. Despite recent California propositions, lifestyles previous shunned by society are being recognized more and more around the country. The movement for the legalization of marijuana is eyeing a 2010 ballot as a potential opportunity for full legalization of that whacky weed. Sure, alcohol is being targeted as a source of revenue in a time when our governments are swimming in debt, it’s always been that way in many societies, not just the United States. You can always count on people to lean on their vices in hard times, so might as well increase the tax on alcohol, tobacco, etc.  I don’t believe anyone is giving serious thought to the banning of alcohol by any means.

From: Peter at BetterBeerBlog

The idea of banning alcohol doesn’t necessarily have to be an outright, overt ban. If you raise the cost of doing business to levels where it’s unprofitable or not worth the time and effort, you will have succeeded in banning something without actually banning it, Neo-Prohibitionist in origin or not. Just because other societies have taxed alcohol and tobacco doesn’t mean it’s fair to do so. Our goverment’s and elected officials inability to balance a checkbook doesn’t mean they should look to industry to bail their asses out of the fire. The idea of legalizing marijuana is more of a sign of desperation out of our government than it is a barometer of progressivenss. I have no doubt that if we were in times of plenty that the legalization of marijuana would even be a topic of discussion.

Semantics aside, a quick trip to any beer festival will easily show that people are not purtitanical at all about their love of alcohol. The ubiquitous, “Whoooooooo!” is a Twitter-sized variation of a love song seronated to beer everywhere. Boonville, a brewers festival if there ever was one, has it’s share of craft beer lovers, aficionadoes, connoisseurs and geeks who all celebrate their love of alcohol by stumbling back and forth from campsite to campsite in search of the next beer.

As champions of craft beer, I think we may have to watch what we do but it doesn’t hurt to let out a “Whooooooooooooooooo beeeeer!” every so often.

Sammy and I spent our Tuesday night celebrating the 50th birthday of our friend John Watson. John is a Grandmaster 2 level BJCP judge. What this means, simply put, is that John knows his beer. I first met John at the More Beer homebrew store up in Los Altos where he was teaching a BJCP prep/study group. Ever since then, we’ve seen him at the various Bay Area beer festivals and homebrew competitions. John is a soft-spoken man who loves his beer and gives back to the craft beer community by teaching others how to appreciate beer.

To help celebrate his birthday a group of us, mostly homebrewers, all headed toward the mean streets of Sunnyvale to Firehouse Brewery & Grill where we had dinner and threw back a few pints. Firehouse brewmaster Steve Donohue was there to play host to our little group of homebrewers and craft beer lovers. He was even kind enough to pour his Hops on Rye (HOR), Velles Baltic Porter (Velles being the name of the beer) as well as the last little bit of his Belgian-style tripel.

I’ve always stated that beer is a social beverage. The best beers often become that much better when you are able to share them with other people who can really appreciate them. It’s the truth. Even though it was his birthday, John was kind enough to whip out a vintage 2005 bottle of Samuel Adams much coveted Utopia beer. For those who aren’t familar with Samuel Adams Utopia beers, here’s a little background.

Weighing in at over 25% ABV (probably around 27%), Sam Adams Utopia beers hold the title of  “World’s Strongest Beer”. Utopia is a high gravity beer brewed with a wide variety of malts and hops with a “touch of maple syrup”. They then ferment the beer with two proprietary yeasts (one of which is a champagne yeast, I believe). The final product is actually a blend of different beers, some aged for up to 13 years, that came from bourbon, sherry, Madiera, brandy and Cognac. They didn’t mess around with this beer and at a MSRP of $100/bottle, you shouldn’t either.

Utopia, Samuel Adams, 27% ABV

To enjoy a Utopia is to enjoy all of it, especially the bottle. The bottle is copper colored and shaped to resemble a copper brew kettle. The “Sam Adams” name is on one side while a portrait of Paul Revere (why Paul Revere and not Sam Adams?) is hidden behind two “doors”. The bottom of the bottle lists what year it was bottled and what bottle number you have. The Utopia we had last night was from 2005 and was #01824. Beneath the lid is a crown cap.

Utopia pours out a light caramel brown in color with no head. The beer is too high in alcohol to even hold a head. Even before putting the beer to our noses we can already smell the alcohol. Despite the high alcohol level of the beer, the Utopia had the most amazing aroma. It was a mix of caramel with maple syrup undertones as well as some oak notes, vanilla, slight spiciness and a walnut-like sherry character. Because of the volatility of the higher alcohol, the aroma never faded and remained strong long after the last drop ws consumed. It’s hard to nurse a 1-ounce pour but we all tried our hardest. The Utopia had the most amazing malt flavor that was composed of caramel, brandy, slight bourbon, walnut and sherry. You would think that a 27% beer would be a hot beer but that wasn’t the case. Instead, I was treated to a luxurious and velvety smooth mouthfeel with a noticeable but not hot or harsh alcohol warming. As I said, the beer is flat and it was about medium-high in body.

Utopia definitely did not disappoint. I would purchase a bottle, or more, of this beer just to hold on to for special occasions. I think this beer is that special and I only hope the positive experience I received carries onto every bottle. While I could drink this beer alone, this is definitely a beer worth sharing with good friends who can understand and appreciate this beer.

Happy Birthday again, John! Thanks for bringing out the Utopia and sharing with us. There are more pictures from his dinner that you can see on my Facebook page. Won’t you be my friend?

Now that Beer Connoisseur Magazine (BC) is officially online, I just wanted to take a moment to officially announce that I am their West Coast blogger. I am both proud and excited to be a part of the inaugural efforts to get this magazine up and running.

To answer the most obvious question, no, BetterBeerBlog is not going away. If anything, I have plans in the works to help improve the content on this site as well. The lion’s share of my writing will still be for BetterBeerBlog but I’ll be contributing to Beer Connoisseur as well. So expect to see the same sort of content on here that you are accustomed to seeing while the stuff I write about on BC will have a different slant on it.

For the most part, I will still be my own “boss”. I get to write about topics I feel are BC-oriented (not so much with the homebrew topics) and I keep my own schedule. I do have an editor of sorts though who goes overy my work. It’ll be a slightly different experience as I’ll have an editor to answer to. It’s all part of the deal though and if I have any future inclinations to write professionally, then having an editor and deadlines is something I’ll have to get used to.

The ironic part of this whole adventure is that I have never considered myself a “beer connoisseur”. In fact, people would often call me that and I’d correct them by asking them to call me a beer geek instead. If you know me personally or have hung out with me for any given amount of time, you’ll know that I am anything but “snobbish” about my beer. I am still not snobbish about beer. My goal with writing for Beer Connoisseur is to bring light to the Bay Area brew scene on a national level. I believe that we have an excellent brew scene here and it’s time the everyone else were to know.

That being said, if you are reading this and are in the craft brewing industry, shoot me an email (betterbeerblogATgmailDOTcom) if you have event you would like me to cover or promote. I can do so either here on BetterBeerBlog or on Beer Connoisseur, depending on the nature of the event.

In any case, thank you for coming to BetterBeerBlog and reading what I have to say about the craft beer world. There are a million other voices in a million other blogs, all of them dying to be heard amongst the crowd. Know that I truly appreciate the time you spend here and the comments you leave.

Mabuhay!*

*In tagalog, my second language, mabuhay loosely translates to “long live”. We often use this when toasting and in that instance it is the equivalent of cheers or prost.

I decided to wrap up all the social events in one post. Mainly because I will be linking to photogalleries of the shots we’ve taken to the specific events. The other reason is that I don’t really need to recap a social event. We all know what we’re there do to: have fun! Drink beer! Talk to friends!

2009 NHC Pro Brewers Night

2009 NHC Club Night

2009 NHC Closing Dinner

Closing Dinner

Okay, I lied. I wanted to leave this as just a photo recap but I couldn’t leave the Closing Dinner without a few of my thoughts. First off, a big thanks to the Mad Zymurgists for being kind and gracious hosts and letting myself and Sammy stay at their table during the dinner. While Sammy and I are loosely (very loosely, more like on their email distribution list) affiliated with the Sudzers homebrew club, we were without a table that night. Instead of going freelance and getting a table to ourselves, we were able to stay at their table. Thanks again!

Second, a big congratulations to Greg Robles for taking a Silver at NHC for his Vienna lager. Once his name was called, our table erupted and we were all quite happy to see our table represented. If you were there, you’d have noticed the unofficial “duel” going on between homebrewers Greg Strong and Jamil Zainasheff. Both homebrewers took home a lot of hardware that night but Greg earned his as well. Here’s a link to the complete list of winners.

Seeing as NHC was over a little over a week ago, the memory is a little fuzzy. I don’t even think I can properly recap the dinner and pairings with any justice. If I tell you the food was good, would you take me at my word? Argh, I can’t resist… must… list thoughts… using… bullet… points….:

• Salad - Asian noodle salad paired with Mother Hefeweizen. Okay, I’m not entire sure if the name of the beer. I do know that all of our beer was supplied by Rogue Ales. I would’ve never thought of using ramen noodles in a salad before. Most of the salad’s ingredients complimented and echoes the flavors in the hefeweizen. A good pairing here. I believe Sean Paxton used a lot of beer to create the salad dressing as well.
• Entree - Pork with Rogue’s American Amber. This was an exquisite piece of pig. Very flavorful, very tender and juicy. The pork was soaked in 20 gallons of brine created with a Rogue beer called “Charlie”. The beer, a hoppy American Amber, was an okay pairing. I don’t know if the beer really improved upon the flavor of the pork, if anything, I remember the beer being a little too bitter for the entree.
• Dessert - Chocolate mousse with TCHO chocolate paired with Rogues Imperial Stout. What an awesome dessert. The mousse was light and served in a bittersweet, dark chocolate shell. The mousse was smooth and creamy yet light on the palette. It was an extra treat to top off the mousse with bits of TCHO cacao nibs and Hugh Baird malt. Very nice touch! As much as I liked this dessert, and its accompanying beer, I was expecting more. Chocolate and stout is, in my opinion, a fairly easy pairing to make, almost boring really. I was really hoping to have seen something new and different with the dessert pairing. I was hoping to get “Wowed” but my expectations fell short. Like I said, it was an excellent pairing, just a little expected.

The rest of the dinner was comprised of giveaways and going through the entire list of NHC medalist. It was a pretty drawn out affair but if you won, it was totally worth the wait. As I mentioned earlier, it was a duel between Gordon Strong and Jamil Zainasheff to see who could bring back the most hardware. In the end, I think Gordon edged out Jamil because Gordon was the receipient of the Ninkasi Award from Samuel Adams. Basically, he had the most points.

So there you go, my recaps of the 209 NHC is finally over with. Feel free to comment on the photos in the gallery or to leave a comment below in case I got my facts incorrect.

One of the pitfalls of being a beer blogger is that I often blog when intoxicated. This poses a few challenges in that by the time I am ready to blog, I am tired and all I really want to do is sleep. Sometimes I give into this urge to sleep. As a result, my posts are delayed more than they should’ve been and they loose their relevance with each passing day. Short of not drinking, or cutting down my sleep to just 2 hours a night, I blog when I can.

Sammy and I found out about the BJs Belgian Beer dinner last week. We basically walked into the Cupertino BJs and happened to see a big poster near the front desk promoting the event. I wondered why they only promoted in this manner but they seemed to get a lot of people in and out of their doors that it works for them.

I don’t think you could’ve just walked into BJs that night and got a seat at the dinner, well, I suppose you could’ve but I was told it was by reservation. If you’ve been to the Cupertino BJs, they held the dinner in the semi-outdoor room. I call this room the semi-outdoor room because it has the comforts of the inside dining area except that you are able to open up these “garage” doors to let the outdoors in. It’s actually a pretty nice setup. I think the entire room was booked for the event but it was only half filled. At 50% capacity, there were about 40 people attending the dinner.

Apertif - Brugse Zot, Brouwerij de Halve Maan, 6.0% ABV

The apertif, or alcoholic beverage served to stimulate the digestive system, was Brugse Zot from Brouwerij de Halve Maan. Translated as Half Moon Brewery, Brouwerij de Halve Maan is the only brewery located in the picturesque Belgian city of Bruges. The legend of Brugse Zot according to their website:

To welcome Maximilian of Austria to their proud town, the people of Bruges organised a colourful parade of merrymakers and fools. When they asked him at the end of the day to provide money for a new madhouse he replied : ‘Today I have seen nothing but fools. Bruges is already one large madhouse !’ Since then the people of Bruges are called ‘Brugse Zotten’ (fools of Bruges).

Brugse Zot pours out a clear gold in color with an off-white head. Sweet pils malt aroma with slight spice and fruit notes. The flavor is very similar, pils malt sweetness, lots of fruity character with a slight, white peppery spiciness. The beer has a medium-low/medium hop bitterness. It is a medium-bodied beer with medium-high carbonation that dances on the palette. It’s a refreshing beer to start with that is reminiscent of Leffe Blonde.

First Course - BJs NitWit with Thai Shrimp Lettuce Wraps

BJs NitWit is their example of a Belgian style witbier. Nitwit pours our a cloudy, pale yellow beer with “whitish” hues to the yeast in suspension and is topped off by a pillowy white head. Noticeable spice note with a strong phenolic aroma that reminds me of ginger. I’m picking up hits of orange as well as the sweet, wheat malt notes. NitWit has a slight sweet wheat malt flavor with a soft spiciness. The corriander becomes more apparent as the beer warms up. The body is light and the carbonation effervescent.

This beer pairs well with the Thai Shrimp Lettuce Wraps on multiple levels. The ginger phenolic I picked up in the aroma echoes the ginger used in the dish and the slight spice character mimics the garlic and onions in the wrap, while the mango bits compliment the sweetness of the beer. Something that became more apparent as the beer warmed up was the coriander connection: NitWit is brewed with coriander seeds while the dish has cilantro (which is what coriander would be if it were allowed to grow up).

Second course - Monks Cafe Flemish Sour Ale. 5.5% ABV (Brouwerij Van Steenberge) with Sesame Chicken Salad

Brewed by Brouwerij Van SteenBerge exclusively for Monks Cafe beer bar in Philadelphia, this Flemish Sour Ale is quite a treat. This beer has an acetic sourness (similar to vinegar) indicative of the style that kept in check by a savory malt sweetness that has a caramelized raisin toast character. The beer pours out a reddish-brown in color with a white head. Monks Cafe has a malt flavor that is like toasted wheat bread with caramel flavors and hints of sweet, sweet raisins in the beginning, which is followed by a tart middle, and finished by an medium-low/medium intense acetic or vinegar-like sourness. This beer is medium-low in body with a spritzy level of carbnation.

I was surprised by how well this combination worked. Once of the things that can make Monks Cafe a difficult beer to pair with is its vinegarish sourness. The crunchy, sweet noodles of the salad, coupled with the savory, grilled flavors of the chicken and sweetness of the oranges serve as a compliment to the sweet malty flavors of the beer. There’s a slight vinegar sourness to the salad already because of the light dressing that is echod in the beer. If anything, the sourness of the beer lingers on the tongue that serves as a palette cleanser readying you for the next bite.

Palate Cleanser - Petrus Aged Pale, Brouwerij Bavik, 7.3% ABV

Interesting backstory on this beer. I first ordered this on a trip to The Trappist. I was amazed by the flavor (of which I’ll describe in a little bit) and was “nursing” this beer. I leave my beer with my wife for a moment, I think I’ve either gone to the restroom or I’m talking to someone there (I can’t really remember). When I return, my glass is completely empty… thanks to my wife. She thought I didn’t like the beer and decided to polish it off for me. Thanks babe!

Petrus Aged Pale pours out a clear, dark golden color with an off-white head. I can pick up some oak notes in the aroma along with a muted tartness. Unlike the aroma, the tartness is readily apparent in the flavor. While the Monks Cafe had an acetic sourness, the Petrus Aged Pale has a sourness that leans heavily more toward the tart side, similar to real, unsweetened yogurt. I’ve also heard it described as lemony. It’s quite a prominent feature of the flavor profile and I’m loving its enamel destoying tartness. With virtually no hops, this beer is balanced by a light malt sweetness.

Course 3 - Poperings Hommel (Brouwerij Van Eecke), 7.5% ABV with Southwestern Pizza

This was an interesting beer that defied my ability to describe it. This was definitely the most hoppy beer of the evening. It wouldn’t be until I did some research for this blog post did I realize that this beer is a Belgian IPA. The hop bitterness was medium-high but unlike it’s American counterparts, the hop bitterness seemed supressed, almost earthy in nature. By comparison, American IPAs are big bright beers with bold flavors and an agressive bitterness. This beer was the opposite of that but could still be considered an IPA. Make much sense? There was an earthy, yeasty character that has some fruit notes and a balanced malt character that could almost be biscuity. When I first tried this beer, I immediately thought of Houblon Chouffe, which also happens to be a Belgian IPA.

This beer was paired with BJs Southwestern Pizza. Talk about an odd couple. The pizza had all these spices and flavors of a southwestern flair. I think they might’ve even used a barbecue sauce instead of tomato sauce for the pizza. If I remember correctly, there may have been a little bit of heat (spice) as well. Surprisingly the Poperings Hommel paired pretty well with the pizza. I think the funkiness of the yeast complimented the cheese while the sweetness in the sauce spoke to the sweet in the malt. What really drove home the pairing was the interplay between the spice of the Southwestern flavors and the muted intensity of the hop bitterness. In my personal experience, you can treat spice heat with beer in two ways: match the intensity of the heat with sweet, or you can match the heat with the hop bitterness. I happen to prefer the latter method, there’s something to be said about fighting fire with bitterness.

Course 4 - Gulden Draak (Brouwerij de Van Steenberge), 10.5% ABV with Old-Fashioned Pot Roast

From the same brewery that brough us Monks Cafe earlier in the evening, we now have Gulden Draak, a Belgian Dark Strong Ale. Gulden Draak pours out a dark brown, almost caramel color, hazy with a beige colored head. This beer has a definite malty aroma that has some toasted bread notes, caramel, Munich malt qualities along with medium fruity esters that were reminiscent of dates and raisins. There was also a definitive alcohol presence in the nose. The flavor echos that of the aroma with the inclusion of toned down, spicy yeast notes. This is a medium-full bodied beer with medium-high carbonation that warms the throat as it goes down without any burning harshness.

When paired with the meatloaf, I felt this beer overpowered the meatloaf a bit. I can see how the intention was to compliment the savory, meaty flavors of the gravy with the sweet maltiness of the beer but the alcohol of the beer was present in the finish and I felt that was a distraction. While not very loaflike, the meatloaf was pretty good. The gravy was savory and rich while the potatoes balanced the richness of the meat and gravy. Not a bad pairing but it wasn’t my favorite.

Course 5 - Troubadour Obscura (Brouwerij de Musketiers), 8.5% ABV, with White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Pizookie

I was pretty excited to try this beer. I had never heard of it before and obviously never tasted it as well. I wish I could give you more information about this beer but we left the beer information sheets we had at dinner at the dinner. Troubadour pours out a hazy caramel color with tan head. Initial aromas are subtle. Slightly sweet, strong roasted malt character, not too hoppy. There was a slight spice character in this beer that I attribute to the alcohol. This was a medium bodied beer with medium carbonation with much less alcohol heat than the Gulden Draak. What surprised me the most was how this beer reminded of a classic German Rauchbier, the phenolic character I picked up in the aroma and flavor was almost smokelike.

As with the beer, I have never had a pizookie before. If you’ve never had a pizookie, it’s like a really big cookie cooked in a pan used to make personalized pan pizzas with a couple of scoops of vanilla ice cream on top for good measure. This was another pairing that I feel didn’t quite hit the nail on the head. I felt the pizookie overwhelmed the Troubadour. Maybe it was the slight smoky phenolic character of the beer but I felt sweetness of the beer, when paired with just the cookie tip-toed the line between being balanced and overwhelmed. When you throw a bit of ice cream into the mix, the pizookie dominates the beer. We didn’t have enough Gulden Draak left but I would’ve wanted to try Gulden Draak with the dessert. I think Gulden Draak would’ve had the legs to stand up to the sweetness that was the White Chocolate Macadamia Pizooke. Likewise, it would’ve been interesting to see how the Troubadour stacked up against the meatloaf.

Verdict?

At the end of the night, Sammy and I both left feeling full and satisfied. For the most part, each of the pairings worked, event the dessert pairing to a certain extent. With beer and food pairing dinners suddenly becoming all the rage, it was refreshing to see a dinner that was both interesting and affordable. It’s not too often you can find a 5-course, 7-beer dinner for only $30. That’s a bargain.

I do have a few critiques. As much as I enjoyed the food, I think it would’ve been more interesting to have created a custom menu for this event. If you’re going to take the time to import all these good beers, take the time to create a custom menu along with it. I am willing to buy the argument that they paired the beers with food that was already on the menu as a way to keep costs down. I am also willing to accept that they wanted to show these beers can pair with “off the shelf” food as well. Just wishful thinking on my part. Then again, had they done that, I don’t think I’d be writing about how affordable this experience was.

At the end of dinner, after all of our fellow diners had left, Sammy and I had a chance to talk to Michael Krohmer, General Manager and shareholder of BJs. He said they had been doing these events for about two years now and that their first events had very low turnout. What impressed me most about these events was that Michael said they had distinguished brewers such as Vinnie Cilurzo come out and talk about their beers. Really?! Vinnie came out to talk about his beers at a BJs beer dinner? What? You only had 12 people show up? Huh. We’ve come a long way since then.

In any case, Sammy and I both left the dinner very satisfied and very full. So much so that I am only finishing this post today. Oh well, so much for relevancy! If you were there, I’d like to hear what you thought of the dinner.

This month’s Fermentation Friday is hosted by the Brew Dudes. They ask a very simple, yet confounding question: How do you beat the heat of summertime brewing?

Brewing in the warmer, often hot, temperatures of the summer months has been an issue with not just homebrewers but all brewers since, I don’t know, the history of brewing (one could argue). The issue with brewing on hot days is temperature control. One of the most obvious issues with brewing on a hot day is cooling down your wort fast enough. Back when I used to use and ice bath, it would take hours and bags and bags of ice to finally cool the wort down enough to be able to pitch your yeast. Brewing in the evenings helped out some but it was still an issue. On the other end of the spectrum and not to much later after cooling, fermenting too hot will wind up with a lot of yeast character you may or may not want in your beer.

Traditionally, the Germans have avoided the issue of brewing in the summer heat by not brewing in the summer heat. They would brew their beers in the fall, winter and spring completely avoiding the summer altogether. The very idea of storing their beers in cool caves, or lagering, during the warm summer months to consume in the fall is well documented. The Belgians on the other hand have decided to just go along with the heat and brew year round. As a result, their beers often have a huge estery profile and tons of yeast character.

As a homebrewer, the cheapest (and arguably most fun) way of beating the heat would be to brew with it. Worded slightly differently, I could brew seasonally. I could brew Belgian-style beers during the summer to take advantage of the warmer fermentation temperatures needed for those styles. Instead of fighting mother nature, I could just roll with her flow.

Of course I can get stubborn as well and just fight it. I managed to pick up a spare fridge my local homebrew store wanted to get rid of. I slapped a temperature control unit to it so I can accurately control what temperature I want my fermentation to be as well. By having a spare fridge with temperature control, I am able to brew lagers during the summer months. When not in use, I simply unplug the machine to save energy.

Truth be told, when faced with the brewing options I do have, I tend to brew seasonally. Even though I may be restricted somewhat to what types of beers I can brew with I feel this is how brewers did things traditionally. Often times we (people in general) try and force the issue too much or bend things to our will. This can cause unnecessary grief and harm when there doesn’t need to be.

If you didn’t see me at any of the Saturday morning sessions, there’s a good reason: I wasn’t there. Yep, I slept in. Didn’t mean to, wanted to get my money’s worth but the body said, “Oh hell naw, back to bed for you”. So there I was, snug as a bug in a Hilton.

BRUTal Brewing with Dave Beechum (of the Maltose Falcons)

I readily admit that I wasn’t originally planning on attending this session. I mean, Methode Champenoise? C’mon, isn’t that just bottle conditioning? Good thing I attended this session because this ended up being one of the most interesting sessions of the entire conference.

To answer my own question, methode champenoise is bottle conditioning but different. It’s a technique developed in the Champagne region of France as a way for the region to compete with the other wine producing regions. Apparently the wine from Champagne wasn’t “all that and a baguette of chips” (doesn’t make sense when you read it, but…) so they needed a “gimmick”. What they ended up producing was the sparkling wine which now bears the name of the region: Champagne.

Here’s some lingo you’ll need to know:

• Brut - Dry
• Riddling - Forming a hop plug by turning the bottle upside down and gently dropping the bottle on it’s head while rotating the bottle.
• Disgorging - Shooting out the compacted hop plug.
• Dosage - Topping the bottle off.

Well, how does this relate to beer? There are a couple of Belgian breweries that are offering/marketing some of their beers as Bruts, of which Mahler Brut is but one. Very simply put, a Brut (with regards to beer), is usually a Belgian Golden Strong ale with Champagne complexity. Brut beers are dry and highly carbonated, anywhere between 3.5 - 9 atmosphere (By comparison, your typical bottled beer will average 2.5 atmospheres) and around 10% ABV. Typically made from a lot of pils malt and augmented with a healthy dose of sugar, expect an O.G. of 1.085 and a F.G. of less than 1.010. These beers are low hopped because the high levels of carbonation accentuate the bitter flavors.

Well, all these numbers seem fine and dandy but how will this help your average homebrewer. Well, let me try and simplify it all. Brewing up a Brut beer is basically adding another step to your normal bottling process. First, brew your Belgian Golden Strong ale as you normally would except pitch a lot of yeast. Save some of this beer for later use. If brewing a 10 gallon batch, save about 5 for later. I’ll try and explain ina bit. When it comes to bottling, use anywhere between 2-3 times the priming sugar your normally would. Dave Beechum recommends priming with a simple syrup formula of one part water to one part sugar. Normally you’d let the beer ferment right side up but if you’re a lazy homebrew like many of us, bottle condition the beer upside down. Here’s the important part, pick the bottle up about an inch out of the box, twist it slightly, then drop it back in. You do this to dislodge any yeasts clinging to the side of the bottle and to, hopefully, compact the yeast into a yeast plug in the neck of the bottle. This is not exactly riddling but it’s close enough for our purposes. Now comes the extra, slightly complicated, extra step.

On bottling day, you need to set up your bottling line like a factory assembly line. First, prepare and ice bath in an approximately 4″ deep pan. The ice bath will be a mixture of acetone and dry ice. As it was explained to me, this particular combination gets as cold as -40°F. I’ll explain the significance of this in a little bit. With your bottling stations set, here’s what your basically do. Take on of your bottles and make sure the yeast has settled quite snugly in the neck of the bottle. Gently place the bottle neck side down into the ice bath. At -40°F, you will freeze the beer right above the yeast plug in about a minute. This is important as without the ice formation, it will be messy trying to get the yeast plug out. Once you have that little bit frozen, uncap your bottle in such a manner that the bottle cap is pulled toward you. What’s supposed to happen next is the release in pressure will shoot the yeast plug right out of the bottle. You have just degorged your beer. Depending on a variety of factors, you may loose a lot of beer or you may not. This is where the extra beer you saved will come in. Quickly top off the bottle taking care to leave about a 2-2.5 fingers worth of head space. This is the dosage part. Cork the bottle, cage it. You’re done!

It may sound complicate but when demonstrated, it’s actually not that complicated at all. I’m looking forward to trying this technique for a future beer and I have Dave Beechum and the Maltose Falcons to thank.

Chocolate and Beer with Timothy Childs (TCHO founder), Jeremy Wanamaker (TCHO brewmaster) and Roger Davis (brewmaster of Triple Rock)

This was another unexpected surprise of the conference. What I fully expected to see was an informercial for TCHO chocolates, taste some TCHO chocolate bits paired with beer. Well, I was only half right.

Timothy Childs, in addition to resembling Kiefer Sutherland, is the founder of TCHO (Technology CHOcolate, that’s how they got their name). He is attempting to move TCHO chocolates from a commodity to a premium brand by making better chocolate. They all say this, I know, but TCHO focuses on educating the chocolate farmers he works with. In their opinion, and I happen to agree, if you empower the farmers with knowledge to improve their product, you will have a finer chocolate in the end. Sounds simple enough but I guess no one else was helping out the farmers. I’m sure you can find all the marketese on their process, ideals and other stuff online so I won’t go into much more detail. I must say that Timothy is a very good public speaker. Even when he was messing up, it didn’t seem like it. He worked the room well.

Jeremy was the next speaker and, unlike Timothy, was not a good public speaker. Then again I suppose you’d be hardpressed to find a brewer that is exceptional at public speaking, Sam Calagione notwithstanding. Truth be told, I don’t quite remember what Jeremy spoke about. All I remember is what happend next.

TCHO’s business at NHC was to pimp out not only their chocolate and ideology but a very specific product geared toward homebrewers: cacao nibs. Cacao nibs are basically, as I understand them, crushed cacao beans. What a homebrewer would do is take a bag of nibs, put them through a coffee bean grinder set for a coarse grind. Take the resulting grinds, throw ‘em in a hop bag, and “dry hop” your beer with them, or whatever technique you normally would use to add additional flavors to your beer.

The big “ohmygodthisisblowingmymind” moment is when they poured us a taster of, I believe, a kölsch from Drakes Brewing. It’s a kölsch, not too bad. They then brought out another kölsch that was “dry hopped” with the TCHO cacao nibs. Ohmygodthisisblowingmymind. The beer looked like a kölsch, light in color, except that it was slightly hazy making it look like a bright witbier or a hefeweizen. The aroma was what you would expect from a kölsch but there was this big, chocolate aroma. Really trippy. Then I drank it; wow. I picked up this big, chocolate flavor but it wasn’t chocolate sweet. Despite all this chocolate, you could still taste the base beer. It was awesome. Don’t be surprised if you see chocolate kölschs in future homebrew competitions. It really was an unexpected yet exceptional beer. Normally you’d expect chocolate in a porter or stout but this was very, very nice.

At the end of the session, they handed out small bags of TCHO nibs but there wasn’t enough for everyone. Good thing I sit up in front as I was able to get my hands on some nibs. I am going to attempt to brew a chocolate beer this summer using those nibs, not sure what style yet but I’m not thinking of a porter or a stout. They also handed out the recipes for the kölsch, porter and stout they poured. I was worried that the last day of NHC would be a little lackluster until the beer dinner but these past two sessions were quite the diamonds in the rough.

Ingredients 5-10 with Tomme Arthur (Port Brewing/Lost Abbey)

This was the final session of NHC for me. Truth be told, I was never quite sure what to make of Tomme. To me, he comes off a little standoff-ish and unapproachable. I’ve spoken to him briefly a few times and each time he seemed like he couldn’t wait to be rid of me. In any case, I’ve seen Tomme sit in on Sam’s (Calagione) and Vinnie’s (Cilurzo) sessions as well as be in the Going Pro Panel. In each instance, he has been very business like. I guess he’s one of those “once you get to know him…” sort of guys. In any case, his presentation completely changed my perception of the guy.

Just like Sam (Calagione), Tomme is very much against the Reinheitsgebot. He finds it very restrictive and if you take a look at brewing history, you’ll see that the Reinheitsgebot (enacted in 1516) is only a small part of that. People all over the world have used various ingredients in making their beer, or variations of, and we shouldn’t be limited to just 4 ingredients. Tomme likens the Reinheitsgebot as the “tidy whities” of the beer world. Hilarious.

Tomme views the beers and work he does with Lost Abbey as story telling. As cliché as this may sound, he believes his beers are flavor driven and refers to his beers as Belgian-inspired as opposed to Belgian-style. Tomme just doesn’t brew with interesting or unusal ingredients for the sake of brewing with something weird. He won’t brew with an ingredient unless it can add value to his beers. They have to help tell the story he wants to tell through his beers.

Tomme’s session is titled “Ingredients 5-10″, on the surface it looks like he’s just going to be talking about additional ingredients you can use in you beer like raisins or spices or other stuff like that. I couldn’t have been more wrong. Ingredients 5-10, Tomme explains, are (mostly) not physical ingredients but more concepts you can apply to your homebrewing or brewery. Through the illustrative power of bullet points, I will explain:

• Ingredient 5: Mind - The mind is the first ingredient. When formulating a recipe, a brewer needs to think outside of the box. Special and spectacular beers don’t just happen, someone worked to make it happen. The mind is crucial in conception all the way through execution.
• Ingredient 6: Time - Time is an overlooked component in brewing. All to often we are told that fresh beer is the best beer. As Tomme says, “fresh beer is good but aged beer is better”. With that in mind, Tomme will brew his beers with the knowledge that once their sold, they’re good but if you let them sit a bit, they’ll get much better.
• Ingredient 7: Collaboration - Collaboration is important to a homebrew or professional brewer. By working out of your comfort zone in a collaboration, you will be pushing yourself and your abilites to new levels. If you’re brewing with someone less experience, this is a good time to get fresh perspective on things and to teach. If you’re brewing with someone who has a ton of experience, hopefully you will be learning a few things in the process. While all these reasons are valid, collaborations are fun! At least they can be.
• Ingredient 8: Philosophy - Every brewer should have a philosophy. Lost Abbey views their beers as “liquid art” and brew accordingly. How do you view your own philosophies?
• Ingredient 9:  Technique - Technique can be an ingredient in of itself. Further explained, there’s only so much flavor you can get from you beer with your most basic brewing process. Using different techniques yield different results and can augment the flavors of your beer. Not convinced? Why do you dry hop? Why do you decoct your mash? Why not boil your beer longer instead of using superheated rocks to boil your wort? Different techniques affect a beer’s flavor. Use the right technique to attain the flavor profile you are looking for.
• Ingredient 10: Oak - Tomme has an extensive oak barrel aging program. Wood is a return to a more traditional brewing process, imparting its own set of flavors and with its own set of quirks.

I can honestly say that I gained a greater respect for Tomme Arthur after NHC. Understanding his philosophies and beliefs regarding brewing can give you great insight to the person he is. I never thought he had much of a sense of humor but the guy is a cut up. He’s not a LOL kind of guy but he does have a very sharp wit and dead pan sense of humor (or is it dry?). You would think that a man as artistic as he is would be all about the craft and art of his beers but at the end of the day, Tomme never looses sight of the fact that he is running a business.

I wish my notes were better as Tomme served up different beers to illustrate each of his “ingredients”. I think I ended up as drunk during this session as I was during Pro Brewer’s night. Now that’s saying something. If you didn’t make it to Tomme’s session, you definitely missed out. What a great way to end the NHC, session-wise at least.

It’s a little late but I’ve been swamped on all fronts. Here are a handful of events coming up this week, tonight actually, that you may be interested in:

Gordon Biersch SommerBrau Tapping

Gordon Biersch has tapping events, quarterly it seems, and while these beers may have already been available on bottle they’re finally going on-tap in the brewpubs. The Gordon Biersch (San Jose) location is having their tapping from 6pm - 8pm tonight. From what brewmaster Dan Satterthwaite told me last I spoke to him, they should have about 4 draft lines going to avoid the long lines and long wait from their last tapping event. Here’s more information.

BJs Belgian Beer Dinner

This dinner is only at their Cupertino location so I don’t think you’ll find it on their website. I’ve posted the information for this event before so click here to see the full menu (scroll to about halfway down the page). Here are the specifics though:

Who: BJs in Cupertino
What: Belgian beer dinner
Where: 10690 N. De Anza Blvd, Cupertino , CA 95014 map
When: June 23th @ 7pm
Why: Why not?
Cost: $30/person

Mayfield Brewing Company

MBC is having a tasting of their beers over at La Folie in San Francisco. Owner/brewmaster John Alderete will be there to answer any question you may have regarding the Iconoclast line of barrel aged beers. While they do serve food at La Folie, this is not a beer/food pairing event. I spoke with John yesterday and this may be your last chance to try their beers as they are nearly sold out. The 2008 vintage is still weeks away so get ‘em while they’re hot. Not sure why he won’t say but MBC beers did very well at the California State Fair with all three beers winning medals. Great job John! Additional event information if you need it.

Who: Mayfield Brewing Company
What: Beer tasting event
Where: La Folie, 2316 Polk St., San Francisco, CA 94109 map
When: June 24th, 5:30pm - 8:30pm
Why: Because they’re good.
Cost: Purchase individual bottles.

Hopefully I’ll see some of you at a couple of these events! Speaking of events, if you’re planning/hosting a beer event, shoot me an email and I’ll be happy to post the information. Leave our contact info in the comments section below and I’ll get back to you.

Cheers!

I suppose I owe my readers a bit of an explaination regarding my last post. After all, when I lead in with, “With the exception of some bullshit that happened during Pro-Brewers night…”, I’m bound to pique the interests of a few people. So, here it is.

Even now I’m a little reluctant to write about it, not quite embarassed by my actions but a little reluctant. Well, I’ll leave it up to you to decide if my course of action was prudent or not. At one point during Pro Brewers Night Anchor Steam decided to give away 1.5L magnums (big bottles) of their Our Barrel Ale, or OBA. My wife Sammy, short in stature but big in tenacity, is able to receive a bottle which she sets down at the table Firehouse Brewery is pouring from. I am there talking with Deb, Steve’s (Firehouse brewmaster) wife when this woman standing near me swipes the bottle from the table. She then accuses me of stealing her bottle of OBA and that she’s just taking back what’s hers. We argue, I call Sammy over, the guy at BJs comes up with a compromise: I get one of the BJs shirts if we open the OBA bottle so everyone can have some. Sammy, the kind woman that she is, agrees and before I can say anything the bottle is open.

At this point I am pissed, I am livid. Instead of causing a scene, I take a long walk to try and calm down. Truth of the matter is, I don’t even really care about the beer. What I am really pissed off about is that I am accused of stealing, I get stolen from, and the compromise is that we have to share our beer with the people who stole it from us. That is BULLSHIT. By the time I am calm enough to return, we don’t even have an empty bottle I can put on a shelf to remind me daily of this disappointment.

Now that’s off my chest, I can resume my recap of NHC Day 2.

Extreme Fermentables with Sam Calagione of Dogfish Head.

Oy. Sammy and I woke up, as with many other people, with a bad hangover. Despite my headache, I was only a few minutes late to my first session: Extremem Fermentables with Sam Calagione. Here’s the big, take-away from Sam’s session: the Reinheitsgebot is an antiquated form of art sensorship. He even made us repeat this outloud. This feat alone is a true testament to the man’s charisma; he was able to get a room full of hungover NHC conference attendees to be interactive.

Sam sees himself, and the brewers of Dogfish Head by extension, as artists who have decided to use beer as their canvas. A leisurely glance at the portfolio of Dogfish Head beers can confirm, at the very least, they have an artistic spirit when it comes to their recipes. Admittedly their worst brewer, Sam is responsible for conceptualizing their beers before handing off the general idea to his head brewer to source the ingredients and brew up on their Sabco pilot system.

I am sometimes awed at how Sam is able to hold a room. He spoke for a few more minutes sharing with us some of the funnier moments behind the creation of certain Dogfish Head beers. For example, the “Minute” beers are all continuously hopped over the course of the entire boil. Standard brewing practice would be to add the bulk of your bittering hops in the beginning and your flavor hops towards the end. While everything these days is all computer controlled and automated, early attempts at “automation” included the use of a repurposed, vibrating table top football game or a brewer having to stand there and add hops continuously for the duration of the boil. The original idea for this technique was inspired by a cooking show Sam once watched where the chef added black pepper throughout the entire time it took to cook a meal. The reasoning was to add a layer of depth to the food that a one-time addition could not give.

A 20 minute video showing the origins of their Palo Santo Marron beer played for the remainder of the session. While I found this video interesting, I really came to see Sam talk and not watch some video I could’ve probably found on the Interwebs someplace. I must admit that Sam does an excellent job of selling the idea that Dogfish Head is like homebrewing but bigger. He is a consummate salesman always pimping his beers out. I can appreciate what he is doing over at Dogfish Head but the session was a little disappointing because it felt like one of those paid advertisements you see on TV late at night.

Funkification, a 100% Brettanomyces fermented mind dump with Vinnie Cilurzo of Russian River

In this session, Vinnie broke down the barrel aging program at Russian River. What makes their barrel aging program different from another brewery is their inclusion of different types of yeasts such as brettanomyces, lactobacillus and pediococcus. Here are my notes on this session:

Sanctification was poured during the brettanomyces portion of the session.

• Sanctification is 100% brettanomyces, although I think he mentioned they do take out 20% of the beer to spike it with lactobacillus and pediococcus after primary fermentation and then blend it back together. Sanctification is then bottle conditioned with fresh brettanomyces.
• Rules for Funky Beers
  • Be patient
  • Don’t look or taste everyday
  • Can’t be a control freak
  • Be natural
  • Listen to your beer. It will tell you when it’s done.
  • Making something drinkable is a success
  • Make 2 of everything
• 100% brettanomyces is relatively easy. Just brew your beer as usual and pitch brettanomyces.
• Brettanomyces is not a wild yeast

Beatification is a result of 100% spontaneous fermentation, aka “sonambic” (Sonoma lambic).

• Beatification is tart but the flavor remindsme of green raisins
• Fairly simple recipe, 60% barley/40% wheat
• Sour mash - Mash tun is opened up overnight and the natural bugs in the brewery are allowed to take root and sour the mash.
• Aged hops
• Resulting somanbic is then aged and blended together to make a consisten product
• Beatification is then bottle conditioned with a wine yeast

Vinnie is actually from wine making family and some of his techniques and ideas seem to come from that experience. For the homebrewer making funky beers, the plastic ale pail we all used in the beginning would make a perfect vessel for sour beers because of its porous nature.

This talk was a vast improvement over my first session as Vinnie laid down principles of how we could scale this process down for the homebrew environment.

Keynote Speech with Ken Grossman of Sierra Nevada

This was an entertaining keynote speech where Ken Grossman pretty much ran through the humble beginnings of Sierra Nevada and then contrasted it with the Sierra Nevada of today. While it may take some time to find it, you can probably find the complete history of Sierra Nevada online, no need for me to repeat it here.

What I will say though is that the brewing sciences have come a very long way in such a short amount of time. In today’s climate, homebrewers have access to pretty much the same sort of raw ingredients and materials professional brewers have. Back when Ken used to own a homebrew shop, homebrewers used liquid malt extract from a can, sometimes hop flavored, to make their beers with. The liquid yeasts that are so ubiquitous today would’ve costed you hundreds of dollars 30 years ago. Fresh hops? Forget about it. Hops used to come in pink wrapped bricks that were often send to 3rd world contries as an additive to keep bread from spoiling. Even then, those pink bricks were of aged and dry hops, a far, far cry from the relatively fresh whole, plug or pellet hops we can get today.

Needless to say, we are spoiled by today’s technological advancements. Instead of learning to weld as Ken did to fabricate the equipment he needed, we can just search on Google for brewing equipment for sale. It’s ridiculous to see how far Sierra Nevada has come, how far the craft brewing industry has come and how far the homebrewing community has come over the years. Knowing where you’ve come from gives me a better appreciation of where the craft beer industry and homebrewing industry will be going. The beers of the future, as cliché as it sounds, are built from the beers of yesterday. I am excited to see what the future holds.

Mead Panel - Moderated by James Spencer featuring Charlie Papazian, Byron Burch, Curt Stock and Harod Gulbransen

Didn’t take too many notes but here are my bullet points:

• The best mead has been aging for at least one year. It’s possible to make a mead that’s only 7-8 weeks old but you really have to work
• Only one person does a full boil that lasts for only 2 minutes, just long enough to skim off solid particles in the honey.
• Generally speaking, adding fruit to “secondary” results in more fruit character. Adding during primary yields more subtle notes. Spices can be added much later down the line, easier to add more, can never remove
• You are able to resweeten your meads
• People get grumpy when they don’t get their meads. Maybe they should consider moving to the front of the room and shutting up

Going Pro Panel - Moderated by Justin Crossley featuring Sean O’Sullivan, Tomme Arthur, Vinnie Cilurzo, John Pinkerton and Keith Lemcke with Ken Grossman

I tried to take as many notes as I could but then I’d be missing something someone would be saying. I must say that Justin did a great job as moderator keeping the panel going, keeping the questions coming and managing time.

• Ken Grossman was a late addition while Keith represented Seibold Institute
• Vinnie believes that niche brewing has a future
• However much money you think you’re going to need, it won’t be enough. Make sure to get enough capital, roughly $1M minimum.
• Don’t skimp out on the brewery floor.
• Have a good relationship with city officials, it makes things easier in the future
• Actual brewing makes up only 5% of your day, 95% is the business of brewing
• Think carefully of the type of brewery you will want (production, brew pub) as each has it’s own set of pros and cons
• Think and plan for the future. Sean laments the type of liquor license he has as it prohibits him from self distribution
• Think about the area you will be starting your brewery in. Lack of a sustained brewery presence may be an indicator the area isn’t ready for a brewery