Pictures

It occurs to me that if I am going to go on brewery tours from time to time, I need to bring a camera and add more photos to my blog. You would think that being an ex-professional photographer, having a camera with me always would be natural....but, no, I don't even own a digital SLR camera (forget about using film, if I am too lazy to shoot digital pictures). I need to bring my brother on excursions, he has a decent camera, has similar tastes in beer, and provides an excellent sounding board when tasting. See our experience at the Lager fest.

Boulder Beer Company

Stopped into the oldest microbrewery in Colorado today. The Boulder Beer Company opened in 1979. The Pub is their full service restaurant and bar fronting their brewery. It is small and cramped but clean despite its worn and somewhat dated decor. It feels like a college bar, which it is, and has a nice ample patio that more than doubles their capacity (a must in Colorado).

Boulder Beer company has the reputation of not very good beers amongst people I have been talking to lately, so I went to see for myself. I have never been to their facility. I have had their flagship beers, Singletrack Copper Ale and Buffalo Gold which are served at most Old Chicago Restaurants (they have a strategic partnership with Rock Bottom Brewery (owner of Old C) and are also distributed coast to coast. Their distribution map looks like a snake throughout the United States, Washington to California, through the southwest up diagonally to Minnesota, across all of the Great Lakes States, splitting eastward to New York and MA (and adjacent states), and southeast down the Dixie Highway to Florida. I guess almost no one has an excuse not to try this beer.

My first taster was that of a Pass Time, a traditional English Pale Ale....emphasis English.

This beer is unlike what you usually get when ordering a pale ale. The sweet flavor emphasizes the malt which is unusual, or has it been that long since I had an English Pale Ale? I might be tempted to call this under hopped, but I think, rather, most examples are probably over hopped or an "American" Pale Ale mislabeled simply as a Pale Ale. It is drinkable, and these days falls into what I would call a session beer. I also tried Cold Hop, their current seasonal, hoppier and stronger than Pass Time, perhaps an Export version of Pass Time (but not an IPA), still smooth, balanced.

I next contrasted their Sundance Amber Ale and their Hazed and Infused Dry Hopped Ale. I asked the barkeep if these were the same beers with different hop schedules (and the Hazed is unfiltered, hence the name).. The barkeep denied it, but I don't believe him. Even the ABV listed for both are the same....this makes for an interesting question, is it wrong to make two of the same beers with differing hop schedules and sell as different beers? I would probably prefer an acknowledgement of the sameness by calling it out in the description. Hazed and Infused is a good beer, but it still doesn't overwhelm with hop bitterness, aroma, or flavor comparatively to other big beers. It is listed as 38 IBU's (International Bittering Units), that is low....this beer is all about the dry hop (addition of hops in the primary or secondary fermenter, imparting a strong and fresh hop aroma).

A girl all of 22 sat down next to me and ordered a "hazed" and proceeded to text away....a couple of guys are in for the afternoon Rockies game, a good lunch crowd is on the patio. A couple of regulars sit at the bar. The girl's nasally voice is killing me, but she smells nice, and she is drinking a real beer on a Thursday afternoon, making the experience palatable. This is starting to sound like a Sheryl Crow song.

The last comparison of beers I tried was Planet Porter in bottle vs. casked. The Planet Porter is one of the original recipes from 1979. When I asked for a porter, and when he moved to open the bottle.....I told him to stop. I don't want to try a bottle of anything when I am in a tap room. He asked, "Do you want to try it on cask?" I can't believe he didn't offer it up before, duh, yeah. A Porter, in my opinion should be on cask, served slightly warm....the comparison was more of a contrast, the porter in the bottle was carbonated and tinny, the cask was warm and smooth.

I guess the cask wasn't listed on the board as it is newly tapped. I am a cask fan, I like dark or heavy beers served this way (but not exclusively). At any rate, if your local establishment has a beer on cask, try it in a taster, and compare with their normally produced and served product. Ask for a free taster...if they don't give you any or want to charge for the taste, there is something wrong with them. You are just trying to find a beer that you will be happy with.

The difference between the same kind of beer from a standard keg and cask is sometimes astounding. Technically, they are the same beer....but served differently. For full disclosure, I am pro-keg, even though I bottle my own beers. I think beer tastes better on tap. Someday, I will buy into a keg system, but I like the portability of bottles for my beer. Cask beer is pumped by hand from a beer engine into your glass. The cask vessel is usually small (a firkin or quarter barrel) and cask offerings are only good (and available) for a day or two at a time because unlike modern kegs, the cask pumps air into the cask, rather than CO^2. It is wise to ask when a cask was tapped to ensure that it is not more than a couple of days old.

I was just about to leave and they announced a tour. I almost never pass up a chance to go on a tour, even at breweries I frequent, as it is nice to look around at the equipment and see real beer being made up close. I never expect the information from the tour guide to be entirely accurate though. This tour was more informational and showed a number of locations in the brewery more than I expected.

The thing that you notice about the brewing facilities at the Boulder Beer Company, is that like their pub, things are old (twenty five years old to be exact). This brewery facility was built in 1984. Although the 50 barrel system's mash tun and kettle are copper and the facility upstairs was clean, they are the old-school, built into the floor variety, and they don't spend a lot of time shining them up. The downstairs (fermentation and storage) was a little gritty and all the concrete surfaces were stained with mildew from years of humidity. The fermenters were wrapped in foil surfaced insulation, which made them look duct taped together. This is a stark contrast to newer breweries bright, clean copper mash tun and exposed double walled stainless steel conical fermenters.

Years of modifications and expansions in this brewery result in a maze of areas and equipment and a preference of function over form. This brewery was built when no small brewery model design was available. They were the prototype of the small brewery and seem to have made changes over time on the fly. Perhaps it is the MacEyver in me that likes this. The tour ended in their banquet room with samples of all of their current offerings, and some free swag. All in all, the tour, the tasting, and the free swag all exceeded my experience at many other breweries. My favorite tours, though, are those impromptu offerings when I happen to be able to talk to the brewer in person (usually small places) and he/she invites me in after learning I am a brewer myself.

I realized after I left the brewery that I forgot to pay my tab.....crap...the free beer at the end obviously threw me. I went back the next day to pay and apologize profusely. The barkeep was not the same guy, but I had him promise to pass my apology along (with the payment and tip). I hope he got it.

My impression of the Boulder Beer Company is that they don't specialize in fancy beers that knock your socks off, although some of their offerings are hoppy and/or strong. Their beers are more basic, and I hate to say it, maybe not entirely memorable. That is not saying that the beers are not good; they are, and they consistently win medals at the GABF. They do stay true to the defined styles, and as a result they are not attention grabbers. Even their Hazed and Infused (which is a great name and their best seller at their pub) seems subdued and tame (a good term instead of tame is mellow) compared to the big beers of the day.

I enjoyed these beers, and can drink a few. Maybe these types of beers were built into the Boulder Brewing Company brewery's DNA as the brewery was born when just making good beer was the most important thing, maybe the only thing, necessary to grab your attention.

The Origin of the Species: Beer Guy Pt. 3

The College Years

I graduated from high school one half a semester early and went straight to college, like, the very next day. I thought I knew what I wanted to do and I wanted my past to end right now, and my future to start yesterday. In a lot of ways, I am still the same. I am no good at waiting for things to happen. I would probably race right into my grave if I knew where it was going to be.

There is nothing like going away to college for the opportunity to reinvent yourself. If I was smart (or wise), I would have taken that opportunity, but I was/am not. So the beer guy goes to college.

As you can guess, I drank a lot of beer. I attended Central Michigan University, a moderately famous regional party school, and got my degree in broadcasting and communications. As a child, I suffered from a lack of creativity and exposure to the world of careers. Everyone in my family worked for the auto companies. Broadcasting was the most concrete thing I could study that was fairly opposite of working for an auto company. The craft beer movement was in its infancy in other parts of the country, and brewing beer never even occurred to me as a real career. In retrospect, I would have been better served if it had.

I can only remember a few things of actual coursework I learned in college:

1. Libel is written, slander is spoken (Broadcast Law, thanks to Peg and Shari and associated hand movements in study sessions)

2. The destruction of the island state of Thera might be the basis for the Atlantis legend (Near East to Alexander history course).

3. I was the person to the left or the right of successful broadcast types in Dr. Pointdexter's intro to Broadcasting or whatever class (something like you or the person to the left or right of you will not make it in this business, and I didn't).

4. The definition of the term self reflexivity in film (from Broadcast Critique) is films about or within a film.

An interesting list, but hardly a stalwart of information. Most of learning in college is social anyway.

So, on beer. There wasn't much to do in the middle of Michigan (literally Central Michigan, put your left index finger in the soft part in the middle of your right palm. That is where Mount Pleasant is, home of the Mighty Central Michigan University Chippewas (Ojibiwa)) except drink beer. We were too poor to drink anything else. Rich kids went to State, smart and rich ones went to Michigan. Since I was involved with the student run radio and television stations, I had an exposure to a lot of different people with different interests, musical influences, backgrounds, beliefs, religions, and upbringings. There certainly wasn't any need to join a fraternity or sorority when you ran with this crowd unless you disliked diversity. It was the exposure to this rag tag collection of people that taught me so much more than I could have gotten from any of my classes. I have become unafraid to try new things or experience things from different perspectives, and have come to expect diversity in the foods I eat, the music I listen to, and the people I choose to interact with. So it is, and should be, with beer.

I recently was asked by a person what my all time favorite beer was. I couldn't think of one beer that was in my mind best. Beer, like life is contextual. On a beach in Mexico, I want a Corona. Overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge, I crave Anchor Steam. Off the slopes? a Breckenridge Avalanche Ale. After lawn mowing? Pabst Blue Ribbon. With good friends, more than one traditional English Brown Ale like Newcastle. The list goes on and on with me, but I digress.

At this particular college there were only two things to do on a weekend night, go to a party or go to the bar. I preferred the bar, and most Fridays would start at Sir Richard's Pub, and anytime any decent music act was in town, I was at The Foolery. Both were downtown, and subsequently, I moved closer to downtown to be able to walk to these venues. Every Friday after our daily television news program, we would hit the pub for the worst burgers (greasy and salty) and cheap beer. This place didn't even have a kitchen, they cooked the burgers behind the bar in some modified toaster oven contraption that oozed grease. I have no idea how the health department allowed that (or if the health department knew) and marvel that they didn't burn the place down. But these burgers were a couple of bucks. The pitchers of Busch were also $2....$4 for a pitcher (and not a small one) and a burger was right up our alley. We drank a lot of that. After a while, I got snobby at The Pub as they also served Moosehead in bottles for $1. I think that I was the only one who ordered them. That was usually my first beer of the evening, and then on to Busch beer pitchers for the remainder. We went to The Pub so regularly, that the whole front of the bar was ours, and the bouncers finally assumed that I was 21 by my sophomore year, aged 19.....which made me frequent there even more. The place I am told went through a couple of remodels and name changes before closing some time in the last decade. But it was The Pub, among the carved up picnic tables, the suit of armor that we always put lit cigarettes in face plate of the helmet, and those shitty burgers that I started to choose, at the very least, to start the night with what passed as a premium beer product.

College was a whirlwind of experience, and the story for me isn't so much about beer as it is about people. Some of my favorite people I met in or attended college with, including my wife. Retrospectively, I can see where if I did run into the craft beer world and homebrewing at this time, I might have changed course on my career. But that wasn't until a few years later in Ft. Collins. Next time, The Fort Collins years.

Check out Part I and Part II of the Origin of the Species: Beer Guy series.

Love the Beer You're With.

I saw an article about a new brewery in Fort Collins called the Horsetooth Brewing Company and checked out their website . Although I was excited at the prospect of a new brewery, the article seemed premature as the company is newly incorporated, and does not have a location, equipment, permits, licenses, or investors yet. They do have a business plan, a really nice logo, Facebook, and Twitter Accounts, and a blog. I'd say, they are about 12 weeks ahead of Skeptical Brewing Company (my fantasy brewery) at this point. Still, I hope that they get to the point where they can make some beer, but it seems such a long road, perhaps years before they get there. The Mountain Sun Brewery(2 locations in Boulder, Colorado) opened a pub near my house called The Vine Street Pub (17th Avenue and Vine Street) over a year ago with the intention of it being their third brewpub. They are just now going through rezoning hearings, and don't expect to have brewery operations going for another 12 months. (zoning and permitting is my original line of work, and it takes more time than anyone seems to plan for).

Fort Collins, Colorado is a beer mecca. I moved there in 1993 when my wife got accepted to graduate school (for the first time). Back then, there were 3 breweries (New Belgium, O'Dell's, and HC Berger) and 2 brew pubs (Coopersmith's and Dimmer's (I think)). There were 4 breweries if you include the Anheuser Busch plant north of town. HC Berger and Dimmer's didn't make it, but others have come along. I haven't been up there in a long time and need to go.

I wonder how many other breweries and brewpubs are in the planning stages right now? With so many people out of work or with reduced work schedules it would seem that a lot of people could be planning breweries. Conventional wisdom is that beer sales are recession proof, but beer sales actually fell late last year when the economy tanked. However, the craft beer market continues to grow. The Denver Business Journal recently reported that Oskar Blues Brewery in Lyons, Colorado has increased production by 84% this year, and the people at Great Divide in Denver tell me that they are in the process of adding 20% to their capacity. According to the Brewer's Association, overall, the craft industry is up 9% this year.

Still, I haven't seen or heard of many openings of new breweries. If they do, perhaps we won't see them until this whole messy recession is over, or the planning will stop when we all get jobs. If you see a new brewery in your town, check them out. As the old saying goes...."Think Globally, Drink Locally". If you are lucky enough to travel, seek the local brewery or brew pub....remember, if you can't be with the beer you love, love the beer you're with.

Drinking Stone IPA

My friend left me a few beers to sample after our brewing session last week. I felt that the least I could do is share my experience of them. I had a quiet afternoon reading in the garden as the girls played with my wife in the front yard. The time was precious, but the afternoon was a little warmer than ideal.

One of the bottles was Stone IPA. Most Constant Readers know I have been softening my stance on the IPA (India Pale Ale) recently, finding that I do not mind drinking hoppy beers as much as I thought. I still have problems with anything labeled with the Imperial or Double moniker, though.

The India Pale Ale (IPA) style originated as an export beer for the then British Colony, India in the 19th century. The beer was made extra strong (other beers when talking about export strength they mean made more strong to withstand exporting) and additional hops were added. Hops serve as a preservative and the additional alcohol content allowed the beer to age rather than spoil on the long hot voyage via sailing ships around the Horn of Africa. Today the IPA has been adopted and adapted by a number of American craft breweries and excellent examples of the style can be had in most areas of the country.

Stone Brewing Company, out of San Diego, is known for their aggressive beers including Arrogant Bastard Ale, Ruination, and Stone IPA. I have tried all three, and have learned to just keep my mouth shut when someone waxes how they are great beers. They probably are, but the Arrogant Bastard (Imperial Russian Stout) and Ruination (Double IPA) are a little too rough and tumble for me, so I know better than to order one for myself. Stone's IPA are these guys' little brother, being a little brother myself, I can relate to it.

Anyway, upon opening and pouring Stone IPA into my standard beer glass, it hits you before you get it up to your nose....fresh hop aroma. Lots and Lots of high quality hops in this sucker. If there is an aspect of hops I like the best, it is the aroma and this IPA does not disappoint. It smells grassy, musty, like early morning in the meadow. Please excuse my descriptive language, it is the bullshit of beer tasting that chaps my posterior, too.

The bottle is also noteworthy as well. It is unusual to see an American producer with painted on labels (it is common to see in Canada). I think that this treatment is beautiful, but it is a pain in the ass for homebrewers as the label will never wash off. The label is green and white with a big ugly gargoyle (Stone's trademark, and in this case, ugly is cool) on it bordered by barley and hops.

The 12oz beer sits in my glass with a small head, perhaps 1/2 inch and some room to spare (pint sized glass). The head is an off white and a thin foam (not dense) that begins dissipating rather quickly. It does leave a nice lace foam on the glass wall as you drink it down, which is a nice effect. The color is a deep gold or light copper, which is lighter than a lot of IPA's, which probably indicates less darker crystal malt than most.

I can only taste hops with a little background bitterness. It is not to say that this beer isn't bitter, but the fresh hop aroma and flavor makes the bitterness take a back seat. The beer is medium bodied but has no malt flavor and a hint of alcohol warmth as you go along. The hops are grassy at first taste and become slightly citrusy as the glass warms.

This is a hoppy beer, but I find it smooth and drinkable. I am not sure I would call it a beginner's IPA, but would any IPA fit that bill? I likely enjoy it as the hop flavor/aroma outweighs the bitterness. Listed as 6.9% ABV (Alcohol by Volume), it is something I should have only one (pint) or two (bottles) of at a time. It ruins your taste of any other beer. It would be good, I think, with a seafood dish perhaps where the flavor of seafood is more prominent (fishy?)....don't quote me, as I am no expert on food and beer pairing. It could be that I was hungry when I drank it.

Seth and Uncle Marvin

I met Seth and Uncle Marvin at the Brekenridge Brewery's Blake Street Pub today. Seth was in from Seattle and Uncle Marvin was local. They got a flight of the taster glasses of beer.

Seth is a beer guy, and despite living in the heart of Seattle (near Lake Washington) he likes balanced beers and lighter beers like hefeweizen's.

Uncle Marvin liked Brek's Agave Wheat. The Agave (cactus, I believe), gives it a nice tang. I turned Seth onto the Ballpark Brown (one of my favorites), but he was a Summer Bright (Lager) fan. I am more of a fan of Left Hand's Polestar Pilsner (also on tap as a guest beer at the Brek pub downtown). See my experience at this year's Craft Lager Festival.

I found it interesting that he thought that beer in Seattle was over hopped. I haven' t tried enough to make that determination, but I like balence in my beer. I expect someone from Seattle to be accostomed to the local styles and prefer them. I guess not.

I have found that I enjoy hoppier beers more now than ever, but I would never want them exclusively. More as a curiousity, or an occassional. I would rather have a traditional English Brown Ale, like the Ballpark at Brekenridge. Does knowledge of beer lead to a like/desire for hoppier beers, or just an acceptance of them?

I just don't think that they are the end all, be all, of the beer world. Where do you stand?

Brew Day

I am always tired after a brew day. Today is no exception. It is a long day of cleaning, watching and waiting for water and wort to boil, stirring, rinsing, and dumping, and cleaning again. I enjoy the process though, and it would seem that the enzymes and yeast have the real work. It was nice to have something to do, and have something else to focus on.

Today was an unremarkable brewing day, but it wasn't without its differences and problems. My friend has been wanting to brew with me for a while, and he was able to obtain freshly dried Cascade hops from a friend's harvest. It is always nice to brew with someone new. We brewed my standard red ale recipe, but we upped the hop schedule a tad to celebrate our hop bounty.

Now, I regularly use "whole" leaf hops in my system with no problems, and prefer them to pellets, but these hops clogged my system's strainer making for a messy last half hour of trying to strain and remove the cones from the boiled wort. My only idea as to why is the possibility that "whole" hops from the brew store come somewhat pulverized to leaf form. These hops were "whole" cones. I also wonder if by not shredding or pulverizing the cones, if it makes the hops somewhat less effective. The aroma from the nice fresh hops was nice, though, and I hope it translates into our beer.

Interestingly, we achieved a slightly better mash efficiency than I usually do. I can not pinpoint what exactly was done differently in process, but the grains came from a different homebrew shop, and therefore the grind was different. I am convinced that I need to invest in a good mill of my own.

Right after a stainless steel conical, yeah right.

I use glass carboys for fermentation. I someday would love to purchase a nice stainless steel conical fermenter, but they cost something in the order of $700 or more, and one of my kidneys probably isn't worth that much. It would be nice to be able to harvest or dump yeast from the bottom of the cone, or to test the gravity using a valve, but I would miss watching the yeast ferment the wort. It is always nice to watch the wort clear and the hot break to settle out, and watch the first strands of or globs of yeast appear at the top (ale), then bubbles, then an active raucous foam. Meanwhile, the yeast in suspension clouds and swirls in the wort, like a storm on Jupiter. The airlock begins to bubble away releasing the carbon dioxide, and the smell of beer or bread is in the brewery.

And over periods of a few days to a week or two, the transformation happens. Each day there is something different to see; the color changes, the bubbling slows, and the foam on the top dissipates. The yeast falls to the bottom and the beer clears slowly from the top to the bottom.

As I said, I will miss my glass carboys if I ever can upgrade, but it will be nice to not have to split a 12 gallon batch to two carboys. I don't know if I will be able to resist popping the top from time to time to sneak a peak at my boys at work.