Better Beer Blog

Having the opportunity to go out and visit different places has been a welcome byproduct of authoring a beer blog. It’s almost a certainty that we end up meeting interesting and different people every place we go. This weekend, Sammy and I drove down to Fresno to visit some good friends of ours. While in town, we were able to swing by one of Fresno’s two breweries, Full Circle Brewing Company.

To label Full Circle as just a brewery would be misleading. In fact, beer was the last thing Full Circle made. Homebrewers Don Anderson and William (Bill) McCory started off brewing mead. In fact, it’s their mead that brought Sammy and I to their brewery to begin with.

Full Circle has a sweet mead, an Orange Blossom mead, and a pomegranate mead. We tried samples of the three and brought home a bottle of each. The sweet mead is traditional, it is sweet and easy drinking.

Their orange blossom mead is probably the ugliest looking beverage in the world. In all seriousness, it looks like drain water, gray-ish brown, opaque and thick. Thank goodness it doesn’t taste like drain water. The smell of orange and honey is definitely apparent but the other aroma that caught me off guard was the smell of walnuts, actually, the coating of a wall nut. When you crack open a the shell of the walnut, there is a thin membrane that separates the nut from the shell. That membrane has a particular taste and aroma that I find in their orange blossom mead. I don’t think it detracts from the mead at all but I think it’s an interesting and unexpected flavor characteristic.

Their pomegranate mead is their best selling mead, and for good reason. The aromas and flavors of pomegranate are readily apparent. I even pick up some chocolate notes and maybe a hint of wood. It is sweet and tart but not unbearably so. The pomegranate flavors seem to dominate a little more than the honey. Depending on what you value more, this could be good or bad thing. At the end of the day, this is a good tasting beverage.

Most meadmakers tend to mix honey with water and then add whatever fruit or spices to the must, or unfermented mead, to flavor. Full Circle takes a slightly different approach. Brewmaster Bill McCory told me that when making their pomegranate mead, they basically blend honey with pomegranate juice. The same process goes for their orange blossom mead. If I remember correctly, Full Circle tries to source their honey from local producers.

In addition to their line of meads, McCory and Anderson also have a red wine they produce that is equal parts Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah and Zinfandel. The believe this blending and ratio of blending brings out the best in each grape. I can’t speak first hand about that since we didn’t try their wine.

What we did try was a sample of their pulque. Pulque (pull-keh) is pulque, to describe it any differently would be incorrect. Put another way, maguey is to pulque, as wine is to grapes, as honey is to mead, and as malted barley is to beer. It is the main agent of saccharification. However, Full Circle uses Agave to make their pulque instead of traditional maguey. The result is an interesting beverage with the aroma and flavor of tequila without the harshness of the alcohol

Despite the eight paragraphs preceding this one, Full Circle does brew beer, seven different styles to be precise. They brew a brown ale (5.5% ABV), an 1850 London Porter (5.5% ABV), red ale (5.3% ABV), a Russian Imperial stout (11% ABV), Cluster Fuggle Cream Ale (5.6% ABV), an American Wheat Ale (5.2% ABV) and their Badass Barleywine (11% ABV). Of these seven, we sampled their porter, the cream ale and their barleywine. They were out of the brown ale.

I didn’t take any notes so much of what I am writing comes from memory. Described as an “extra stout porter”, the 1850 porter is moderately roasty but not overwhelmingly so. It is medium-full to full in body with a bit of creaminess to it. Unlike other porters, there is no husky graininess, astrigency or bitterness in the flavor making this a smooth drinking porter. I did notice a slight sourness in the finish. While it is not uncommon to have some optional sourness in a dry stout, it is not normal in a porter. Some historical porter recipes were made with brettanomyces which may explain the sourness but I doubt that would be the case in this example. From another historical context predating the definition of the stout style of beers, English brewers would brew a porter of “stout” body and strength. So the “Victorian Age” 1850 Porter would today be defined as a dry stout, which would explain the sourness. Even though this beer was approximately 5.5% ABV, it was still too heavy for the hot Fresno afternoon and something lighter was called for.

Doing a complete 180 degree turn, I ordered their Cluster Fuggle Cream Ale as well. The cream ale is their best selling product and it’s easy to determine why. Fresno gets hot, triple digit hot. Luckily for us, we didn’t suffer through triple digit temperatures but it was still very warm. In a climate like that, you’ll need a cold, easy drinking beer and the Cluster Fuggle fits the bill. By all standards, it is a good example of the style. Neither the malt nor hop aromas dominate but there is a detectable sweetness in the aroma. The beer is straw colored with a lasting, white head. I don’t remember the malt nor hop flavors dominating, more subtle with low hop bitterness. The slight sweetness is apparent but far from cloying. The beer is light on the palette. By this point in the evening, I have a pretty good buzz because of the porter I drank combined with all the pulque and mead samples prior. Feeling warm, I lament nor ordering this beer first and sticking to it.

Lola, our bartender, mentioned in passing that they have a sour mash available for tasting as well. With our interest piqued, we ask Lola for a taste. While this our first time meeting with Lola, it may also be our last as it was her last night at work. With two other jobs, she didn’t seem heart-broken that she was leaving Full Circle but at the same time, when one of the owners is your father-in-law, I’m sure there will always be a light on for her. Lola returns with the sour mash sample. Not a fan of the sour ales, Lola can’t imagine why we would be into the sour ale. It was initially supposed to be a Red Ale but as with many unintentional sour mashes, infection got the better of the beer. The beer is a reddish amber with no head. There is a detectable sourness in the aroma but not as intense as other beers. The malt and hop aromas are low but that is within the style. I sample the sour ale and am disappointed in the lack of intense sour flavors. I think my palette is busted because I only enjoy strong flavors and this is more of a slightly sour ale. The beer attenuated well and was dry. Not too much residual sweetness left and I don’t recall tasting any strong malt or hop flavors. For whatever reason, Bill felt it best to leave the beer as is to see what would happen. Two silver medals laters, the sour ale seems to be doing just fine. From what Lola says, the beer has mellowed out considerably over the years

Sometime during the evening, Bill shows me his brewery set up. I am amazed at how relatively low tech it all is. Their mash tun is basically a wooden box. Built with a removable wooden lid, the mash tun is built onto a pivoted support system that allows Bill to easily empty the grains by tilting the tun onto its side, locking it in place and then scooping out the spent grains. Their boiler is steam powered. Unlike conventional boilers that are heated from below with open flame, their system relies on a built-in coil where steam is pumped in to bring the wort to a boil. Bill explains that this system is more expensive upfront but the long term savings are great and outweigh the initial cost. Having steam heat the wort also assures that the wort will never scorch. In addition, the bottom of the boil kettle will last much longer. Even the heat exchanger to cool the beer is home grown and was made for less than $1000.

For a special treat, Bill walks me to the back of the brewery and pulls out an old beer sculpture made from old kegs. I am awed as I look upon Full Circle’s first brewing set-up. The entire sculpture is built with metal pipes around a central support system. The mash tun on this system is also surrounded in wood and looses only 1° F per hour. Even in the beginning, on what looks like a, home grown homebrew beer sculpture, Bill was getting favorably comparable commercial efficiencies.

Even though they’ve been a commercial brewery for several years, I can’t help but feel as if the homebrewer in Bill never quite left him. One look around the brewery premises only proves this observation. A lot of the equipment Bill uses to brew were either repurposed from other defunct breweries, donated or built by Bill and Don.

None of the Full Circle Brewery products are filtered either. Bill prefers to let the natural aging process clarify the beers. Proudly he tells me, “None of our beers are two weeks old. I don’t filter because if you leave the beers alone, they’ll clarify on their own. I won’t server a beer until it’s good and ready”.

Yet the most damning thing about Bill is that he still uses 5 gallon corney kegs to serve his beer. In an age where 15.5 gallon kegs are industry standard, I see Bill on his way to change out a few empty taps with corny kegs in hand. I am told by Lola that they’ll eventually be switching the bar opposite of where it currently is and will connect all the taps to the bigger tanks directly.

As the night winds down and people begin to file out of Full Circle, Sammy manages to take a picture with George the Giant. George is a towering man. Standing at 7′3″ in height, he is the world’s largest sword swallowing. All during the night as Bill and I spoke, George was performing various “freak show” stunts on stage. Some of his stunts ranged from the previously mentioned sword swallowing, to spitting fire, walking and then jumping on broken glass. The number of kids and adults sipping on the house root beer was a testament to how relaxed and comfortable the atmosphere at Full Circle is.

Full Circle Brewing Company is old skool. They are the homebrewer who turned pro that never forgot his homebrewing roots. Despite their small size, they are not afraid to dream big. With a pizza kitchen to be added soon, Bill has his eyes set to brew sake next. Not many places can lay claim to having such a diverse portfolio of products. If you are ever in Fresno, I recommend visiting Full Circle Brewing Company. It is an experience unto itself.

Got this in my email sometime last week. I’ve just copied and pasted it verbatim and add in my two cents afterwards.

Charles Bamforth is a brewing scientist. One of the best.

He’s been bothered for a while with a nagging question: why do many people consider wine to be more sophisticated than beer? Is it really better? Healthier? Why do most fancy restaurants have massive wine lists and a few token beer selections?

Bamforth picks apart the complex social, cultural, and scientific histories of both beverages. He has quite a few suprising insights about the (often highly scientific) production of both beer and wine. He’s not seeking to take wine down a notch, but to elevate beer to its proper place, right next to wine, demonstrating just how healthy and complex a beverage it really is.

Want to pick his brain a little? Please join him on Thursday, May 8 at Anchor Brewery Bamforth will discuss his new book: GRAPE VS. GRAIN

The event is free and open to the public.

Charles Bamforth, Chair of Brewing Sciences, UC Davis
Anchor Brewery, San Francisco
May 8, 5:30pm

Before I really got into blogging about beer, I was fortunate enough to have seen Charles Bamforth speak at Xerox PARC over in Palo Alto. I found Charles to be an engaging, charismatic man with a dry, English wit (which makes sense since he is from England). His presentation on Grape vs. Grain was extremely informative and makes a strong case, in my opinion, on how beer is responsible for civilization as we know it.

Now that I am able to reflect on things, I can safely say that Charles Bamforth is one of the inspirations for this blog. I can say his lecture lent a strong hand in forming my own philosophies on beer and it’s place in the culinary world.

Whether your a beer aficionado or wine connoisseur, I fully encourage you to attend this lecture. Bamforth is a wealth of information regarding the brewing sciences and I suspect you’ll have a good time as well. Hopefully I’ll be able to make it as I’ve never been to Anchor Steam brewery either.

Having gone to the Hop Rhizome Festival last weekend and a Double IPA Festival some months ago, I would never have guessed that the brewing industry is in the midst of coping through a hop shortage. At the Double IPA festival alone, we sampled 11 hop-tastic beers and at the Hop Rhizome Festival there were about a dozen more on tap. While I consider myself fortunate to have experienced a lot of good, hoppy beers lately, brewers in other parts of the country are not so fortunate.

An article forwarded to me some weeks back served both to illustrate to me the desperation of the situation and as the impetus for this post. In the most basic of terms, there is a hop shortage. Globally, drought and flooding have produced lower than anticipated yields. In addition, some hop producers have chosen to turn their lands over to grow more profitable crops such as corn to be used in the biofuel industry. All in all, the result is less hops to go around.

Hops are one of the four, primary ingredients in beer with malted barley, yeast and water being the others. Hops act as a bittering agent to balance out the sweetness of the barley. Hops also have wonderful aromatic properties, with some varietals being described as floral, piney, and citrus. In addition, hops have mild, antibacterial characteristics which serve as a natural preservative.

Jim Koch of the Boston Beer Company, known best for their Samuel Adams line of beer, has trademarked the phrase, “Hops are to beer what grapes are to wine”. While there is some truth to that, from a technical standpoint, it’s incorrect. Semantics aside, I understand what Jim is trying to say. The different grape varietals each have their own characteristics and qualities that give rise to the many different types of wines. Each grape holds within itself the soul of a wine, the intangibles that separate the mediocre from the magical. In this regard, yes, hops are to beer what grapes are to wine. Malt gives beer body and substance but hops impart soul, personality, and that certain je ne sais quoi that makes a beer memorable, remarkable and in some instances, life changing.

Major production breweries such as Anheuser-Busch (AB) and Molson Coors have huge contracts in place with existing producers to insure supply in a volatile market. If they are feeling the effects of the hop shortage, they’re not showing it in the form of increased prices of their products.

Mid-sized breweries like the Boston Brewing Company have opened up their personal stores to share with fellow brewers via lottery. I continue to be impressed with how the Boston Brewing Company has repeatedly supported the craft beer industry. Their Longshot Contest is a prime example of reaching out to and involving the homebrewing community.

Smaller production breweries, independent craft brewers and your local brew pubs have been hit the hardest. Without the benefit of a huge contract, they are left to scramble as best they can to source their raw materials.

“I have nine beers on tap right now, and maybe five beers aging. I think somewhere in the late spring the last pint would be served,” Sayler estimates. After that, his brewpub would become just another taproom serving beer produced beyond its own walls.

The hop shortage isn’t the only problem. An increase in prices for barley, glass production and transportation have all affected the bottom line. Brewers of all sizes can only do so much before the buck gets passed on to us, the consumer.

So what’s a craft beer lover to do? Really, the only thing we can do is continue to support the craft beer industry. This means continuing to purchase our favorite beers despite their rising costs. At the end of all things, a brewery is still business and if they’re not making money, they can’t continue to brew the beers we love.

“We can only absorb so many inflationary price increases. We’ve seen it in gasoline, milk, all these different foods that are out there. And after a while people are just going to get concerned about what they can pay,” observes Wolaver. “But I think there’s enough loyalty where they’re not going to go back to the bland beers. Once you’ve had a taste of heaven, why would you want to go back, right?”

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Got an email this morning from Natalie over at RRBC saying they are sold out of their barrel-aged beers. So if you weren’t able to put in an order via their gift shop, then you’ll have to hunt them down at various bars in Sonoma, Napa, and the Bay Area. Of course you could just drive up to Santa Rosa and drink a pint right from their brew pub.

I managed to put in an order for one 12oz bottle each of their Beautification, Supplication, and Temptation beers. The total cost put me over the $50 mark… for 36oz of beer! Incredible! But if you were to think about it, I’d have to pay that much in gas to drive up there, then drive back and that’s not even counting the cost of the beer once you get there. Even then, that’s a high price to pay for beer.

I like to compare beer to wine often and I would say that beer can out-shine wine in two distinct categories: price and consistency. You can go to your local BevMo or Trader Joe’s and find a world-class, classic example of a beer style for under $10 most of the time, imports included. Likewise, the process of brewing beer yields such a consistent product that your pint of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale will taste the same, year-over-year, day-after-day, keg-after-keg.

Then you get a brewery like RRBC that produces barrel-aged beers priced above the $10 price point. If you’ve tried these beers, then you know why myself and many others have rushed to buy their share of bottles before they sold out. Plainly put, they’re good. Very. Good. These are “destination” beers. These are the type of beers you may want to plan a vacation over. Am I over-reacting a bit? Maybe. All that being said, at what point does a beer cross-over from being a “beverage of the people” to a “consumable of the elite”?

In my opinion, wine is a consumable of the elite. It is a beverage, through years of marketing, that has become to represent sophistication, elitism, and often times, snobbery. Wine has “vintage” to explain away an inconsistent product. I would argue that a highly priced bottle of wine is a result not of increased craftsmanship in production but of snobbery. Despite what winemakers may say, the actual process of producing a bottle of wine is far more simple than to produce beer, distilled spirits, or sake. So, if the process is simpler, why is that product more expensive?

Going back to RRBC’s barrel-aged beers, you have a product that is a hundred times more complicated to make than your average beer. In your average beer, a brewer has to adjust four different ingredients to make a basic beer (malted barley, hops, yeast and water). Each element imparts its own unique characteristic to the final product (which is why there are over 70+ styles of beer). If that wasn’t complicated enough, aging in used wine or bourbon barrels is another level of complexity to be dealt with. In RRBC’s case, the introduction of microbiota other than yeast (brettanomyces, lactobacillus, and pediococcus) adds an exponential level of complexity to the brewing process that the brewer must carefully monitor lest these “outsiders” take over the beer and impart unwanted off-flavors. All that being said, it’s easy to see why RRBC charges so much for these products. Simply put, these products cost more to produce because of their high level of craftmanship. I haven’t even begun to mention the increased prices of brewing materials such as barely and hops!

Yet these beers are still cheaper than a comparably praised wine.

So, if you find yourself at an exceptionally good beer bar that has any of these RRBC beers on tap, please, by all means, order a pint… or two… or three. When settling your tab at the end of the night, don’t be surprised by a higher and usual tab. Take comfort in knowing that I will be extremely jealous of you and that I will not be alone.

The great thing about St. Patrick’s day is the whole slew of beer-related articles that come out. Forbes has come in on the act with this article written by Allison Van Dusen about the 8 Healthy Reasons to Drink Beer. And here I thought flavor was just enough.

So far, wine has gotten the lion’s share of attention when it comes to the health benefits of alcohol consumption. While there have been many studies done to show a correlation between moderate consumption of alcohol and a reduction in one’s chances for heart disease, a huge part of wine’s supposed health benefits is mainly built upon the French Paradox, which basically says that despite a diet rich in fatty foods, French people suffer from lower cardiovascular disease because they drink a lot of wine. In addition, resveratrol, a chemical produced by grape skins to reduce fungal infection, has been shown to have cardioprotective properties. Wine is also a decent source of antioxidants. In spite of all this, beer deserves a place next to wine and not behind it.

“Wine is still on moral high ground,” says Charlie Bamforth, chair and professor of the department of food science and technology at the University of California, Davis, “but beer deserves just the same acclamation.”

As you’ll probably deduce from reading the Allison Van Dusen piece and accompanying in-depth article, alcohol is the primary reason cardiovascular disease is lowered by moderate consumption of beer (and all alcoholic beverages for that matter). Knowing this, it’s still not a good idea to go out and do keg stands or do tequila shots by the dozen. As good as alcohol can be for the heart, it’s positive effects are greatly hamstrung by the detrimental effects on the brain and liver.

As I said in my previous post, it’s all about responsible and moderate consumption. Too much of anything, even a good thing, can be bad for you. That being said, here’s the list of the 8 Healthy Reasons for to Drink Beer:

1. Heart Health—A vast number of studies show that moderate consumption of alcohol, including beer, may reduce the risk of heart disease—consistently the No. 1 cause of death in the United States. A 2006 study led by researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and the Harvard School of Public Health found that, among men with healthy lifestyles, those who consumed moderate amounts of alcohol had a 40 to 60% reduced risk of heart attack compared with heart healthy men who abstained.
2. Stroke—Beyond helping you get heart healthy, moderate drinking also may help prevent the formation of blood clots that can block arteries in the heart, neck and brain, according to the Harvard School of Public Health. Those blockages are a cause of the most common kind of stroke, ischemic stroke.
3. Hypertension—Hypertension, which affects about 65 million people in the United States, is linked with an increased risk in heart disease and death. But a 2007 study by Dutch researchers and researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center found a link between hypertensive men drinking moderate amounts of alcohol and a lower risk of fatal and non-fatal heart attacks.
4. Diabetes—Studies have shown that people with diabetes who drink moderately may be able to reduce their risk of coronary heart disease, their biggest killer. Research also indicates that a light drinking habit may help protect men and women from developing Type 2 diabetes. This may be a result of increased insulin sensitivity or anti-inflammatory effects.
5. Cognitive Function—Is beer good for your brain? Research suggests the answer is yes. A 2006 report published in a journal of the American Heart Association showed that moderate drinking may be associated with better cognitive function in women. Likewise, a 2003 study in the Journal of the American Medical Association said that adults over 65 who consume between one and six alcoholic beverages each week have a lower risk of dementia than non-drinkers and heavier drinkers.
6. Bones—Studies have shown that beer may play a role in preventing bone loss and rebuilding bone mass in men and young women—post menopausal women have not been seen to benefit. The effect is believed to be tied to the beverage’s high silicon content. Excessive drinking, however, can lead to a greater number of bone fractures.
7. Staying Alive—A review of 50 studies has shown there’s an inverse association between moderate drinking and total mortality under all scenarios for middle-aged and older adults, according to a 2005 report from the United States Department of Agriculture. The lowest risk of death appears to occur when people consume one to two drinks per day, likely a result of the protective effects against coronary heart disease and stroke.
8. Feeling Healthier—People who drink beer, spirits or wine tend to report fewer instances of ill health than those who abstain, according to a 2001 study published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. The higher the consumption of total alcohol, researchers found, the lower the levels of subjective poor health.

You can find the original article here and the in-depth article here.

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In my continuing efforts to help elevate the status of beer in the public consciousness, I am always on the look out for articles that show beer in a more favorable light than wine. I am not necessarily looking for ways to put down wine more than I am looking for examples where beer shines just a little bit brighter. So imagine my surprise when I came across this article.

To paraphrase the article, drinking alcohol impairs the brain, more specifically, the hippocampus. The hippocampus is believed to be responsible in general memory creation as well as spatial memory and navigation. That means the hippocampus helps your remember things, especially where you are, where you’ve been and how to get to where you’re going. The hippocampus is also one of the first regions of the brain to deteriorate upon the onset of Alzheimers Disease.

While consumption of alcohol affects the hippocampus of everyone, the study suggests that because women are more likely to be wine drinkers instead of beer drinkers, the negative effects of alcohol on the hippocampus have been seen more in women than men. The article implies that heavy consumers of wine, regardless of gender, would be susceptible as well.

The article also goes on to say that beer drinkers tend to have low levels of the compound homocysteine, which is linked to increased risk of cardiovascular disease, bone weakness and breaks.

I take these articles with a grain of salt. Despite the numerous articles playing up the various medical advantages of wine consumption, or even beer consumption for that matter, there are just as many pitfalls. Even one glass of wine a day can increase your chances of bowel cancer by 10%. I guess the point I’m trying to make is to enjoy alcohol responsibly. Drink for pleasure and for flavor. Sure it’s fun to get a little tipsy but it’s never fun to put anyone at risk, even yourselves.

I’ve been busy lately with my freelance design projects and I am admittedly behind on my postings. I do have a few articles in the wings and I plan on getting caught up tonight.