As we settle in to what may be another year of below-average rainfall here in California, brewers need to be concerned about how far they stretch their local water supplies. Not only for their own bottom-lines, but for the good of the planet.
Brewing takes a LOT of water. The average water-to-beer ratio is 7:1 — that is, every barrel of beer requires SEVEN barrels of water to brew.
Patrick Delves and the crew at Seismic Brewing Company in Santa Rosa decided to do something about that.
Delves, Director of Sustainability and Logistics, recently told craftbeer.com that he believes they can achieve a 2:1 ratio “by combining innovative technologies and industry best practices.”
The epicenter of Seismic activity in Santa Rosa.
Wow. How exactly will they do that?
Literally from the Ground Up
Delves showed me around the brewery recently, illustrating how every square inch of the 13,000 sq. ft. facility was designed for maximum efficiency.
The brewhouse itself was made in America, which saved on the costs and environmental effects of shipping. All piping was done by hand and is thoroughly insulated to save energy. The floors are sloped, to maximize drainage and increase workplace safety.
Without getting too sciency, during the brewing process, glycol, a coolant, needs to be chilled, and liquid CO2 needs to be vaporized. Seismic’s brewery features a unique parallel heat exchange system that does both simultaneously, further reducing energy usage.
As wort boils in the brew kettle, approximately 10% of the water is typically lost to evaporation. The brewery features a custom-built condenser above the kettle which captures the steam and converts it back into water.
The entire brewery is powered by Sonoma Clean Power, which harnesses geothermal energy from local geysers.
But, Seismic’s (not-so) secret weapon in reducing water consumption is the Cambrian EcoVolt MINI.
Say who-what now?
Basically a large shipping container in the back of their parking lot, the EcoVolt MINI removes roughly 99% of contaminants from the brewery’s wastewater, which they then reuse for other brewery functions.
And those sloping floors and the kettle condenser? The water recovered from those processes are also piped to the recycling system for reuse.
All this has reduced their water-use ratio to about 4:1. But there’s one last hurdle to overcome to achieve their water-use goal.
Removing the “Ick” Factor
“We had showcased some of the reclaimed water before at events to show what we were doing. For the [California] Craft Beer Summit [in Sacramento], I really wanted to take it to the next level, which was brewing with that water,” said Delves.
Seismic did a comparison tasting at the Summit— two beers, same recipe, one made with city water, and one with recycled water.
“Christian Toran, our head brewer, is good friends with their brewmaster, Wes Deal. As soon as we shot the idea over to them, they were all for it. We all sat down and talked about what kind of beer we wanted to do.”
Would it be the industry workhorse, an IPA?
Science!
“No, we want the water to be showcased here. That’s how we landed on this bastardized Helles/Pale American Lager. Not much in the way of malt, not much in the way of hops, just let the water speak. Just create these really clean, crisp styles, and show people that there’s really not that much difference [in the water].
What I noticed between the two beers was the beer brewed with recycled water was much crisper and had a little more linear acidity to it. The city water brew had a little bit plusher mouthfeel, a little bit more well-rounded on the palate.”
The response at the Summit?
“I’d say roughly 60-70% of people preferred the recycled water beer. Which was really encouraging, actually. When you made that big reveal to people and you’d get that ‘Aw, no way!’, you could see the wheels were turning. Very rewarding.
Really, we all drink and bathe in some form of reclaimed water. It’s just getting that ‘ick’ factor out of people’s heads.”
Since brewing with recycled water is a legal “grey area” in California, there are no immediate plans for future brews. Seismic is instead focusing on working with the state legislature to help clarify existing regulations.
If clarification includes a packaging disclaimer indicating the beer was brewed with recycled water, would that be a deterrent in the marketplace?
“It’s tough,” says Delves. “If you’re putting that on the side of a package and you’re not explaining it too much, that again gets back to that ‘ick’ factor. We’ve shared this beer with a few people at different festivals, and inevitably you get a few that go ‘What are you brewing with?’ And you have to say, ‘No, really, it’s okay.’ It’s just an education thing.”
Future Shocks
Aside from the recycled water project, Seismic’s beer-style tent is pretty big. Since starting operations in May 2017, the core lineup has leaned toward the standard styles — kolsch, pilsner, a couple of IPAs, and an Oat Pale Ale.
“Using German hops like Mandarina Bavaria and Callista and Ariana. What’s awesome about these German aroma varieties is that they bring all these Pacific Northwest qualities — floral components, tropical components, citrus,” says Delves. “But you’re still able to maintain some of that nobility, some of that grassy, spicy quality, and sometimes that can shine through in some of these beers.”
In the meantime, look for Seismic’s beers mostly in the North Bay, although they plan to “shake up” more of the Bay Area and beyond in the near future.
Sorry guys, couldn’t resist recycling an old joke.
Meat was smoking, music blaring, and beer finally flowing at Armistice Brewing Company’s recent soft opening party, to which yours truly was fortunate enough to snag an invite.
It was quite amazing to note the transformation in the couple of months since my last visit, when they were well in the throes of construction. The ladders, power tools, planks and dust have given way to tables, stools, and gleaming new taps.
And lots of happy people.
In fact, the crowd and the music in the bar area got to be a bit much for us oldsters, so we ventured upstairs to the chill space dubbed the Framily Room.
The long, low padded benches were a perfect spot to watch the mix of families, younger folks, and even a black Lab hanging out at the long communal table. The mobiles, plants, and bamboo-shaded lights hanging from the whimsical ceiling add additional lightness.
This might become my hang-out space.
Siblings slingin’ suds.
And oh yes, the beer. I had a quenching Saison, and a dank yet smooth DIPA. But for me, the star was the Oatmeal Stout. Smooth and creamy, with a hint a peanut butter. Fantastic as-is, but it would star in a beer float.
It all paired well with the tasty smoked meats (and veggies), provided by Armistice by way of the El Sueño food truck. The line was long, but worth it.
Doors are now open at Armistice, and they will be daily — Noon to 10pm Sundays-Thursdays, Noon to Midnight Fridays and Saturdays. So you Marina Bay folks (and anyone else) in the mood to party after a tough work week, you’ve got your place.
Great people, great beer, great space, what’s not to like? Check these guys out, and tell Alex and Gregory Dean says hi. I’ll be back soon!
Aww, such a cute living wall! Can’t wait ’til it’s all growed up. Note the ordering window.A cool place to chill with the Framily.May this scene be repeated again and again and again…
It happened to be a big day (one of many more to come, I’m sure) when I arrived at Armistice Brewing, Richmond’s newest brewery.
The giant French doors leading out to the beer garden were going in, the last step before their final Alcoholic Beverage Control inspection the next day.
“Can’t open the doors if they aren’t there!” said Alex Zobel, who along with Gregory Zobel make up the sister-brother team behind Armistice.
Other inspections are still to come, of course, but once they get their ABC sign-off, they can finally start brewing. [UPDATE: they did, and they are.]
The first batch will be a pilsner, a clean beer with few ingredients that will help them detect the idiosyncrasies and dial in the specs of their new (to them, via Mill Valley Beerworks) three-barrel brewhouse, shoehorned in the back of their smallish space at the end of a business park in the Marina Bay district.
The Zobels have done a clever job of allocating what remains into three distinct areas.
(Much, much) before…
The front door opens to the main taproom, which incorporates wood planks reused from a now-razed barn on the family’s former Napa property, where the siblings bonded over homebrewing while caring for their ailing mother.
The rest of the wood used throughout, both inside and out, is sustainably harvested and locally sourced. Uber-locally sourced, as in El Sobrante.
The bar top will be made from long oak planks “with rustic, uneven edges because, you know, that’s less work for us,” they say. And the communal tables will likewise be made of similarly milled and finished cedar and redwood.
All that wood, along with the exposed ductwork, concrete floors and pendant lighting (with LED filament bulbs, no less) will give the main bar area a sort of rustic/industrial vibe. According to Gregory, the taproom “will be the most ‘bar-like’ of the three spaces; dark, high top stand up bars, TVs, loud music, etc.”
and after (almost).
A three-barrel system equals very small batches, and with 15 taps, expect a lot of them, rotating often (their license doesn’t allow for guest handles). They will run the gamut of styles, although Alex and Gregory are self-admitted hopheads so at least three to four will be of the hoppy variety.
“We’ve won a lot of awards for our Saisons and we are really excited and actively working towards starting a cask ale program with beer engines and cellar,” says Gregory. “Eventually we’d like to get in to Brett beers and other sours, but we will have to wait until we obtain another unit so that we can keep the clean beer separate.”
If the bustle of the taproom isn’t your scene and you want something a bit more subdued, head upstairs to what the Zobels call the Framily Room, a brighter, more relaxed space with wood floors, expansive windows, and a mix of lounge and communal seating. You can read, work on your laptop, or simply enjoy the fresh beer you just ordered along with views of Point Richmond from the redwood standing bars along the outer walls.
Back downstairs, through those giant French doors to the right of the bar, is the outdoor beer garden, which “will be filled with communal redwood tables and also features an ordering window so you don’t have to go inside to order,” says Gregory. Since he and Alex are the only two employees for the immediate future, there ain’t no table service. But good craft beer patrons are a patient lot, as it is usually well rewarded.
Soon to support fresh pints. And contemplation.
Sustainability also reigns in the beer garden, as the outer walls are made from repurposed plastic pallets “that we’ve attached plywood over and filled with soil. We are drilling holes into the side of the wall and planting succulents to make a living wall,” says Gregory.
Although they won’t have a kitchen, nearby food choices will be plentiful. Food trucks should be a common sight as a cooperative kitchen is elsewhere in the complex, or you can grab some food to-go at the shopping center across the street.
The generosity and collaborative spirit of the craft beer industry was in full-effect during my visit, as the guys from Benoit Casper stopped by say howdy to check on their progress, crowlers in hand. They, along with Armistice and East Brother Brewing, form the now-trifecta of the Richmond brewing scene. (Perhaps we’ll see a Richmond Ale Trail in the not-too-distant future?)
Armistice Brewing Company is beyond easy to get to, just off the Marina Bay Parkway exit off I-580, so check them out once they open the doors. Assuming all goes smoothly with remaining construction and permits, they hope to have the taps flowing sometime in the early Summer.
I bid my adieus to Alex, Gregory, and the Benoit-Casper crew as the shop talk continued. May it be just one of many, many collegial gatherings to come.
I’m a Craft Beer Enthusiast (CBE). That means indie (ugh, hate that word) all the way. Ownership matters! Down with Big Beer!
“Dude, Heineken just bought 50% of Lagunitas!”
To be determined…
Okay. Um, I’m fine with that. Just a partnership, right? Trying to open up some distribution channels, make some inroads into some new markets. That’s fine. They’re long since past the days of being the neighborhood nano, right? They’ve hit a ceiling where they are, and this is the next step in their evolution, right?
I love Lagunitas. It was so West Marin. So un-marketed. So idiosyncratic.
So, um, indie (sorry).
Don’t get me wrong. 99.999999% of people who heard Heiny bought half of Lagunitas knew they’d buy the other half at some point. I mean, duh.
But I didn’t think it would happen so quickly. And apparently I never really came to grips with the ramifications of that eventuality.
Basically, what am I supposed to do now?
If I want to keep my CBE cred, I need to disown Lagunitas and everything it now stands for. They’ve committed the ultimate sin and gone corporate. I should dump the remaining bottles of Waldos I have in the fridge and burn my logo t-shirt, preferably in front of many passers-by and TV news cameras, in the ultimate display of disgust of yet another Craft Brewer selling out to The Man.
But. I just. Can’t.
Aside from putting out some phenomenal product, Lagunitas is special.
I mean, c’mon. Tony Magee’s wake-n-bake ethos exudes from every pore of every product they produce.
Brown Shugga — a giant bandage on a brew that went completely wrong, which ended up making the whole body stronger in the long run.
Lagunitas Sucks — a bandage on the bandage that somehow gave the body bionic powers.
Plus, I have my own emotional ties to that special piece of ground in Petaluma.
A couple of years back, I was a student in Sonoma State’s inaugural Craft Beer Appreciation Certificate Program, which consisted of a 12-week course of study. Instead of being taught in some stuffy, boring classroom on campus, it was held in the employee break room at Lagunitas.
Jay Brooks was our instructor, and for that first course, he lined up an astounding array of speakers and presenters.
I mean, seeing this parade of the architects of the current craft beer movement lay down their vast amounts of knowledge on you week in and week out, how is the place NOT going to be magical?
Plus, just the vibe there was special. It was just … funky. The brewer’s loft, where we had orientation and a few class sessions, was a stoner’s basement with taps, complete with gnarly couches, paneling on every visible surface, and marijuana bags on the walls. The taproom was a clubhouse. The patio was your cool friend’s backyard.
This is corporate??
Everything about it screamed anti-establishment.
And now they’re a part of it. And I have to deal with it.
But really, this comes down to WHO actually bought them.
If this had been another ABInBev purchase, it’d be a no-brainer. As much as it would pain me, Lagunitas and I would have to part ways.. End of discussion.
But Heineken? Here’s where it gets complicated.
As an American beer drinker, I’m very aware of what ABI is trying to do to the American craft landscape. Buy up well-performing, receptive mid-size breweries that are easy to scale up, take the brews national with their existing brewing and distribution networks, and undercut local competition with their economies of scale, all the while completely obscuring their ownership of these former craft brands.
Heineken, I just don’t know. The two parties are definitely saying the right things — Lagunitas will remain and independent entity within the company, all employees will keep their jobs, and Magee is still running the show while now serving on Heineken’s board.
But is Heineken as predatory as ABI seems to be? Will they use the Lagunitas brand to make inroads into and eventually dominate emerging international craft markets?
I honestly don’t know. I’d like to think not, but that’s the part of me that so dearly wants to continue to love Lagunitas as much as I have in the past.
For now, the Waldos are still in the fridge, the shirt remains unscorched, and I’m still holding on to my CBE card.
But time will tell whether or not Lagunitas really Sucks.
I’m not one for hyperbole, but I’m a bit giddy these days because I just got to interview a craft brewing legend.
Okay, he might think that a bit grandiose. How about pioneer? Trailblazer? Sherpa?
Whatever, doesn’t matter. Don Barkley has been in the craft brewing game since before there was one, when he convinced Jack McAuliffe in the late 1970s he could use some help running America’s first true new small brewery since Prohibition — Sonoma’s New Albion Brewing Company.
Try as they might, they could only make the venture last until 1982. McAuliffe and Barkley then took the equipment north to Hopland and helped found Mendocino Brewing Company (MBC), the nation’s first on-site brewpub, in 1983.
With brews like Red Tail Ale and Eye of the Hawk, growth followed quickly. But by the mid ’90s, like many breweries at the time, MBC faced a challenge. They needed to expand to keep up with demand, but didn’t have the money.
Enter India-based brewing conglomerate United Breweries (UB), which purchased MBC in 1997. Their deep pockets allowed MBC to expand their own facility, and, UB’s recently established brewery in New York allowed them the possibility of nationwide distribution.
Barkley helmed MBC’s brewing operations until 2008, when the promise of being closer to his ailing father brought him to his current home at Napa Smith.
You’ll find the Vallejo taproom under a big V.
The brewery was purchased in 2013 by R.S. Lipman Company, a Nashville-based owner of several wine, beer, spirit, and mixer brands. Seeking to expand capacity, Lipman recently moved Napa Smith from its initial home in a business park south of Napa to a former Sears distribution center in northern Vallejo, just off Highways 29 and 37.
[BTW, although the official taproom Grand Opening is still about a week away as I post this (May 20th), the soft opening is well underway. Stop by and say howdy. Look for the giant palm trees in front.]
The combination of Vallejo’s new brewery and Lipman’s Nashville facility, currently home to their Hap & Harry’s brand of ales and lagers, will allow them to eventually take Napa Smith nationwide. Just as with MBC, Barkley will be managing breweries across the country.
Speaking of Barkley’s former employer, United Breweries made recent headlines when founder Vijay Mallya was arrested in London amidst business fraud charges. His extravagant lifestyle in the face of these charges is well documented.
I recently spoke with Don at Napa Smith’s new brewery about New Albion, working for United Breweries, craft-beer sustainability, and Vallejo’s possibilities.
The Beerverse: By the time you finally convinced Jack McAullife to be his assistant at New Albion in the late ‘70s, I imagine he pretty much had the brewery fashioned together by then?
Don Barkley: To some degree. There was continuous improvement at New Albion. Everything was absolutely built from scratch, that was one of Jack McAullife’s fortes — knowing how to make beer, then actually putting it into practice by building the equipment, putting it together and making it a functioning brewery.
I’ve been [thinking about] him the last couple of years with the addition of a lot of people doing really tiny, tiny little breweries — a barrel, barrel-and-a-half, even half-barrel breweries, thinking “What in the world are these people thinking?” And then of course I had to stop myself and say, “Wait a minute! New Albion was only a barrel-and-a-half per batch!”
Don Barkley (far right) chatting with friends in the new taproom, about a week before opening.
BV: At least they have some templates to go by. You guys had to figure it out as you went.
DB: Pretty much. There was no equipment anywhere at that point.
BV: Were Fritz Maytag (Anchor) and Ken Grossman (Sierra Nevada) good resources for you guys? Did you interact much with them?
DB: Fritz Maytag was a great supporter of what we were doing at New Albion. Ken wasn’t really in the business yet, although he did come by and take a peek.
Fritz was a great help. Once Jack had made a malt bin, we would go down to Anchor to get our malt. All the malt we used for brewing for a long time came from Anchor. Fritz and the whole Anchor gang were pretty interested in what we were doing at New Albion.
BV: What was it like working for United Breweries once they took over at MBC? Were they very hands-on or did they let you do what you do?
DB: They definitely were hands-on. They put a little over $4 million in [the brewery expansion] project which was enough to get it finished, and installed not only the Managing Director but also the CFO on-site. Both of those guys came from the brewing business so they understood brewing and how to make and sell beer in India.
There may have been some cultural differences in learning how to sell beer in the U.S. market, but as the Master Brewer at the Mendocino Brewing Company, I was certainly held in high respect. But I certainly learned a lot in regards to record-keeping and watching the pennies and all that.
The only thing that probably was a little different was the fact they were from a different culture. Making beer around the world is always the same, but selling beer in a different culture is a different type of thing.
How ’bout some shuffleboard with a side of education?
BV: Did you have much interaction with Mr. Mallya himself?
DB: Vijay came to Mendocino once a year for the shareholder meeting. He was aloof to say the least.
BV: With nearly 40 years in the industry, you’ve seen a lot of cycles, expansions and contractions. The last few years of growth have been astronomical. There’s lots of wringing of hands lately about what the short term will bring. Your thoughts?
DB: My gut feeling right now is that we’re on the tip-top of the wave. With the amount of capacity coming on, with all the small breweries that have expanded in the last couple years into 100-barrel, 150-barrel brewhouses, those people [already] in the marketplace and those trying to get into the market, we’re going to see some fall-out. It’s starting right now as far as I’m concerned.
BV: The Speakeasy shut-down caught a lot of people by surprise. Hopefully they’ll find a find a new buyer. [Editor’s note: interview was conducted before the buyer was announced.]
DB: Hopefully they will, and maybe draw back a little bit and regroup.
But I think as far as small brewpubs and that kind of thing, I think there’s still room for a lot of that, as far as community establishments. But getting out into the marketplace, there’s almost too much beer right now, too many products to select. You end up with more beer on the supermarket shelves sitting there longer, which is not good for beer at all.
I think we’re pretty much topped out as far as this wave. So we’ll have a bit of a slump as all this capacity comes on and people try to figure out how to sell it all. Then we’ll start to have price wars going on. When you get into the price war business, then those who don’t know how to run a business will start to have a bit more of a problem surviving.
Ah, that new brewery smell…
BV: On to brighter things. When did the Vallejo facility come on-line?
DB: We actually moved in in December. On December 1st, we had everything out of our original Napa location. We actually made our first batch of beer in the first week of January, so it took about a month or so.
BV: Were you guys offline for a while? Did you brew elsewhere or just stock up your accounts to cover the outage?
DB: We were offline for about six weeks. We made sure our production was proper, our finished goods inventory was high, our distributors were full of beer, and said, “Okay, let’s go!” It took about two weeks to move the equipment and put it back together.
BV: You’re completely out of Napa now, correct?
DB: Yes. We were in the Napa facility for about 8 years.
BV: Was Napa Smith just starting when you were brought on?
DB: It had not existed before I got there. I got there and basically sourced all the brewing equipment and installed it, and in a fairly short time was able to make some beer. We made our first batch in April 2008.
BV: Any plans for a satellite taproom or some other future presence in Napa?
DB: We have planned to keep a presence in Napa. We are looking for the right location, downtown if possible.
BV: It must be an exciting time for you guys.
DB: The move to Vallejo has allowed us the opportunity of opening up the production side and be prepared to make more beer. That’s a really good thing for us.
BV: Any thoughts of a Vallejo collaboration with new neighbor Mare Island Brewing?
DB: I think as we go along [we’ll look into it]. We haven’t [reached out yet] because we’ve been trying so hard to get ourselves up and operating here. It’s a whole new game for us. And Mare Island, from what I understand, they’re planning on starting to brew at their facility in May, as well.
We hope to do something with Mare Island in the future. We’ll see how it goes.
Taproom with a view.
BV: Outside of the core beers, will you be doing one-offs and other taproom-only brews?
DB: We’ll have some taproom-only, and we’ll do our one-off program now that we’re in our new space. We’ll be looking at bringing new beers in about every six weeks or so. Two days ago we made a Cascadian Dark Ale. It’ll be BLACK.
And of course, because we’re involved with Tennessee, Robert Lipman makes and sells as part of his product line a Bourbon called Old Hickory, and every once in a while they dump a bunch of barrels…
BV: I was just gonna ask if there was going to be some barrels coming your way…
DB: We do have some Bourbon barrels, yes, and we just put some Hoppageddon into a Bourbon barrel. That’ll sit in there for about six months.
BV: Note to self — “come back to Napa Smith in six months.”
DB: You’ll definitely want to. Hoppageddon is such a lovely beer, anyway. Out of a Bourbon barrel it’ll be really, really nice.
So we did that recently, and we’ve got our wheat beer which we just launched last year. It’s basically a hoppy wheat, obviously no [bittering hops], only aromatics. That’s really a nice wheat beer and we’ll have it out full-steam in the summertime. Really, really lovely.
And we’ve got another special beer that I think we’ve got on tap right now, and that’s called TrHOPic Thunder, and so it has a lot of tropical papaya and really interesting flavors from the hops. We’ll be playing around with a lot of really fun beers.
BV: It must be nice to have the room to do that.
DB: That’s right, and have a really nice little taproom to feature it in.
We made our Golden Gate IPA specifically as an IPA that … a few years ago, we were just so tired of big, high alcohol, super big IPAs, we said, “Let’s make something that’s just really, really nice.” It’s gotten so sophisticated and so delightful lately.
It has just gone crazy throughout San Francisco, obviously, with the name. It’s a 6% IPA, a nice big hoppy thing but not trying to blow you out of the water, just a real, delightful, sophisticated flavor.
BV: There’s something to be said for balance, absolutely.
DB: Well, that’s part of my forte, here. Have that balance. Never forget the malt!
Fresh taps for even fresher beer.
BV: Is canning in your future?
DB: We’ve had a lot of requests, especially from the Sonoma Raceway. They would LOVE to have our beer over there. We could do it on draft, but the real source of sales would be cans. We’re playing with the idea of doing cans, but all in good time.
We’ve got a brand new Kosme filler, though, so the beer is getting into the bottle in superb character right now. Our air pickup is absolutely nil, so we’re really, really happy to finally have a filing machine that can get the beer into the bottle and really know that that beer is going be good down the line.
BV: I read in Ken Grossman’s autobiography that, in the early days, the bottle fillers probably gave him more headaches than anything else.
DB: Yep, yep, absolutely. You can make the best beer in the world and have it in your fermenters, but if you can’t get it into the bottle, you have a big problem! It won’t last!
You see it out in the marketplace, now. There’s a lot of great beers, and you want them to be better, but you [can] just tell the age on them, maybe they weren’t filled the way they should have been. It’s a disappointment.
BV: Working at Mendocino must have been good training for you to coordinate brewing on both sides of the country. Are you brewing Napa Smith in Tennessee yet?
DB: We have not started to actually produce product there. We’ve done some trial batches, and we’ve just installed a lead brewer in that facility and he’s getting used to making some of our other products.
Robert Lipman is contracting a particular beer he brewed at Yazoo Brewing [in Nashville] called Hap & Harry’s, ale and lager. Right now we’re concentrating on making those beers for the Nashville market and beyond. As our new lead brewer gets the facility well under his belt, then we’ll probably start making some Napa Smith beers there.
Your starting lineup.
BV: Is that a new facility there, as well?
DB: Yes, it’s about a year old or so.
Having brewed at Mendocino in both New York and California, there are nuances that are pretty involved to get the product to taste as similar as possible.
BV: Dealing with different water sources…
DB: That’s a huge component. If you’re in one place and you know what your water’s doing, it’s a whole different ballgame if you go somewhere else and all of a sudden your calcium and every other ion in that water is off. Sometimes just the equipment itself requires some unique approaches to do the same thing you’re doing in California.
BV: Do you plan to eventually brew and distribute some Tennessee product out west?
DB: Maybe. As we’re going along we might do some Hap & Harry’s. We have made the lager and ale in Napa and sent it back to Tennessee for some trial runs and also to help their production gap as they ended production at Yazoo Brewing and started at the new Tennessee facility.
BV: Finally, hazy beers. Yea or Nay?
The reason there’s hazy beers out there is that people don’t have their brewing process down. In theory, haze should not affect the flavor of a beer at all. I’ve had and made myself some wonderful hazy beers. But with a good, tight brewing process, there’s no reason to have a haze in your beer at all.
Unless you’re making a wheat beer. Then, of course, style dictates you’ll have some haze. But the beauty of a beer is watching it sparkle in the sunshine.
I can drink a nice, hazy beer as long as it tastes good and has a reason for being, other than just being hazy.
Thank you, Don. It was nice for you to spend some time with me while in the middle of getting the new taproom up and running. As I mentioned, the doors are now open. Have a pint or two and enjoy the new surroundings.
I would like to begin by stating, unequivically and for the record, that I am not, repeat NOT, an employee or paid shill for the Sierra Nevada Brewing Company. Nor do I even know any employees or paid shills. Although there is plenty of evidence to the contrary (here, here, here, here, here, here, and here), this blog is not any kind of mouthpiece for, nor is it affiliated with, SNBC or any of its subsidiaries, distributors, relatives, acquaintances, or pets.
Now, with all of that being said, Sierra Nevada, will you please stop making beer, at least for a little while?
Seriously, how am I supposed to catch up? This is completely unfair to every other brewery on the planet. You’ve no doubt heard the expression, “so much beer, so little time”? How can I try the jillion other brews out there, let alone write about them, when you keep cranking out so much product? Not to mention, my wife is starting to get angry that I’m taking more than my allotted beer space in the fridge.
At long last, have you no sense of decency?
Case (literally) in point, I just brought home the latest Beer Camp sampler, AND the Terra Incognita, the collaboration with Boulevard Brewing in Kanas City. I just polished off the latest Southern Hemisphere Harvest Ale not long ago, which was fantastic, with an almost prickly, peppery hop bite. Just amazing. Oh, and I forgot about the Ovila Golden Ale I just had, which was nice drinking, Belgian-sweet, smooth, and immensly satisfying.
And now I hear about a special brew, the DevESTATEtion, to memorialize the loss of this year’s barley harvest? Really? Couldn’t you have just let it go, at least this year? And the Flipside Red Rye for Fall? And Tumbler?
Please, I’m begging you, take a little time off. I’m sure you could use it, what with the big construction project in North Carolina. Doesn’t a nice, loooong vacation someplace tropical sound just perfect right about now? Bring along a few cases of the Kellerwies, or the Crystal Wheat. Those would go down great sitting on a beach somewhere.
Enjoying the end of the work week with a glass of Dogfish Head’s Chicory Stout. Wow, there’s a lot going on here. Swirl the glass and it smells deep and roasty, like you’re walking in to a coffee shop. Pours black as night, no light getting through this.
But it’s the palate that’s so interesting. Yes, you get the typical mocha, dark chocolate, and coffee notes. But there’s an intriguing spicy pepper streak right at the tail end of the finish which makes this very unique. Kind of reminds me of one of those hokey chili beers I tried oh so many years ago. Really unusual, and quite memorable.
And, at 5.2% ABV, it’s rather easy sipping for a DH brew. It’s a nice winter warmer, without the heaviness. Well done.
BTW, to wrap up the Sierra Nevada portion of the program, I did finally partake of the 2012 Northern Hemisphere Harvest Wet Hop Ale, and it was phenomenal. For those who might think this Wet Hop thing is just a marketing gimmick, it does make a difference. The hop notes are so bright, clear, and distinct, it’s amazing. The freshness gives it that little extra snap, and gives the beer such a dry finish. Wonderful stuff.
BTW II — when you get a chance, check out East Bay Beer. If you live in the area (or even if you don’t), this is a great resource local beer happenings. I just recently discovered it and it is tremendous. Very well written, as well.
