Firestone Walker

This should have been written and posted about two weeks ago, but I am lazy, I mean busy, yeah.  One of my buddies from UW got married the other week in Paso Robles, which at first meant two things: an awesome party and wine.   A little trip to the beer mapping project and my eyes lit up, partying, wine and awesome beer!  So when I got their on Thursday, I took myself on a little pilgrimage to Firestone Walker.

First off, Firestone is "as in Firestone tires," one of the founders is of the Firestone family that made tires and up until recently I guess owned a pretty successful winery. The brewery has nothing to do with the tires other than the family member (they aren't owned by some big company if that matters to you) and I think some other company owns the Firestone Tire name...anyway...

Even though they don't advertise weekday tours, a few emails later, and bam, I got myself a tour.  No, I do not feel bad about using the fact my email address ends in "brewing company" to my advantage.  The one thing that really stood out at FW, was the brewing process they use for some of their beers.  My description can't do it justice, so check it out on their site.  Of course I didn't take pictures of the interesting part, the only one I took was of the bottom of their fermenter...

Bottom of some huge fermenters

I was also at the brewery a week before one of their special releases, Parabola, so I had to ask if there was any way to try it.  I did get to try it, but in no way was it special treatment.  The beer that was going to be released in a week, but had already been on tap at the brewery for a week.

The tasting room was rather simple, but a place I could hang out at on a daily basis.  The brewery's main beers are pales and ipa's, but they do know how to make some other good stuff.  Double Barrel Ale is their main beer and one of the beers made in the union system, so their most popular beer spends time in barrels while most other breweries put something in a barrel, limit it and sell it for $$$.  FW is dedicated to their craft in a different way than any other brewery in the US, it takes a lot more work to mass produce with the union system.

Tasting Room

I also went on a winery tour...talk about a fish-out-of-water experience, but that is a whole different post that will never be written.

Fort Collins Brewery Trip

Anymore, any sort of vacation I go on turns into a beer finding/brewery visiting/drinking adventure.  This past weekend is no exception and the weekend trip to Denver took a one day detour into Fort Collins.  The post is going to run kind of long because I need to cover 4 breweries and a lot of beers (25 to be exact).

New Belgium

First stop in the morning was New Belgium.  A note to anyone that wants to go there, you need a reservation for a tour and they seem to fill up well in advance (I checked the day before and they were booked 1 ½ weeks out, 8 or so tours a day).  Even without a tour, the tasting room is cool and three beer samples costs a grand total of zero dollars.  The tasting room has the feel you would expect from New Belgium, there is bike stuff everywhere including all of the chairs/stools which are made from old bike wheels.  Beer-wise, I am documented as not being a Fat Tire fan, but New Belgium makes some tasty stuff.  The only beer that was new to me was their Dark Heather Saison, the others I tried are more common, Trippel, Mothership Wit and Blue Paddle. Here are some shots of the tasting room and the New Belgium Airstream in the parking lot.

Tasting Room

Chairs Made from Old Bike Wheels

New Belgium Airstream

Odell’s

Stop number two was at Odell’s, probably not a house-hold name since they don’t distribute into Idaho, but they are pushing 21 years old and know how to make a good beer.  Both Odell’s and Fort Collins Brewery are great examples of how well the craft industry is doing as Odells just went through a big addition/remodel and FCB is about to open what looks like an awesome new facility down the street from Odell’s.  Got on a tour at this stop and even though there isn’t much difference between most breweries, I still like to go on tours to pick up new ideas or justify the ways that I am doing things.

 Odell's Grain Silo

Sampler Tray

The beers were good, although I thought that their big beers and one-offs were a noticeable step down from their year-round line (which I really enjoyed).  A great place to check out in Fort Collins, hopefully some of their beers make it this way.

Equinox

The newest brewery to Fort Collins, Equinox opened about a month ago downtown Fort Collins.  This stop was both the quickest and most valuable stop of the day.  Not only did I get to meet up with and talk to some guys I went to Siebel with (see next section), I got a change to talk with the owner/brewer and had a great talk about getting the TTB license.  They had a great range of beers, all different enough that there was something to appeal to everyone.

Funkwerks

I didn’t actually get to check out Funkwerks, as they are not an operational brewery yet, but wanted to give them a shout-out anyway.  Two guys (Gordon and Brad) I went to Siebel with are in the process of starting an Organic Saison Brewery in Fort Collins.  I met them at Equinox, had some beers and talked about our respective projects.  Great to see those guys again and can't wait to start drinking my way through all the bottles of beer they gave me.

Black Raven Brewery

I was told that I had to check out Black Raven Brewery before I left Seattle and I don't need an excuse to go try some beers, so I went. The brewery is located in Redmond in a business park, similar to a ton of breweries that I have visited. On the outside, the brewery was not much different than most, but on the inside, wow. The best tasting room I think I have ever been to. I'll get back to that though, first the brewery itself.

Black Raven is a production brewery, but at this point most of their sales are done on the premise. As far as I could tell almost all of their equipment was brand new, starting with the 15 bbl brewing system. I had a good talk with one of the owners/head brewer, I was able to touch on new subjects that concern me as I move forward and left with great ideas and tips. It still amazes me how different every brewery owner's story is and what they found to be most difficult in starting up. I think I am in a great position having heard so many points of view, but at the same time it is scary because there are so many different things that have slowed other breweries progress down. Here are some shots of the brewery:

New 15 BBL Brewing System

Part of the tasting room and the racking area

The most impressive part of the brewery is the tasting room. They spared no expense in building the tasting room, artistic wooden tables and Raven themed artwork on the walls. Probably seats 30 and they don't serve food, although you can bring in outside food. The tasting room extends beyond the front room/bar, has some seating along the walk-in cooler (which you don't notice is the cooler) and then there is some seating in the back essentially on the brewery floor. They did a great job of making it a nice place to come and drink a beer and not just a brewery. Black Raven, along with some other breweries, have really changed my thinking about a tasting room and there will be a solid tasting room at PBC.

Tasting Room

Of course I had to take a seat at the bar and enjoy the sampler, a nice mix of traditional styles with a specialty beer to top it off. Their IPA was by far my favorite followed by the Brown Ale. The other beers were well made beers, but didn't blow me away. The specialty beer was a Belgian Brown, which was actually my least favorite, but always enjoy new and different beers. I hope to make it out their again when I am back in Seattle and like seeing all of these new places getting started.

More Brewing/Kegged Pilot

I have spent quite a bit of time over the last few weeks at Schooner Exact brewing, learning and drinking. Mostly just brewing, but with brewing comes drinking when the end of a long day is near. We brewed a triple batch of their IPA between Monday and Tuesday. They have a few 30 barrel fermenters and a 10 barrel brewing system. The two batches on Monday took forever, tons of little shit went wrong, people came in to visit and we started putting back some beers a little earlier than we probably should have. 13 hours later we had 20 barrels in the tank.

Tuesday in comparison was really chill, the single batch went smoothly then I tagged along on some deliveries. We stopped at a Georgetown Brewery and Two Beer Brewery on on way out, awesome places. Georgetown has been brewing on a 60 barrel system for a year now that is awesome. Amazing to see what can be done in only 7 years as a company, if I got to that point in 15 I would be stoked. Two Beers, who I wrote about a long time ago here, has a new location. It is a 7 barrel system with a cool tasting room. Like most places, it gives me ideas, but isn't quite what I am trying to do. It amazes me how cool the whole industry, most everyone is friends and help each other out if they can. Boise doesn't have the brewing culture that Seattle has, but who knows what can happen in the next few years. The rest of the deliveries were not the norm of a delivery afternoon as we chilled at some of the stops and had pizza and a pint, then some coffee, then another pint. If all delivery days were like that I would never have time to make beer, but it was a nice treat after cranking out 3 batches in a day and a half.

I was finally able to carbonate and keg the Pale Ale pilot batch that I made a while back, also meaning I drank some. First off, this is the farthest off target I have been when making a batch of beer, not in terms of taste, but gravity etc. I attribute this to not knowing the system when I designed the beer. The beer I thought would come in at around 5.5% clocked in at 6.8%, a bit boozy for a Pale. The beer has grown on me as I had some more last night, but it is not going to be an immediate PBC offering. It is very sweet, even though it fermented to a very low terminal gravity. Combine the sweetness with the pungent aroma of the Columbus hops and you have a beer that is interesting, but probably not one for the masses. Since I have a lot of this beer, I will get as many people as possible to try it and give me feedback. Getting someones real opinion is always tough because people usually try to be nice, but I want to know if people don't like it.

Took an IPA sample, it tasted alright and I like its potential once I get some dry-hops on their for a few days.

I am making another pilot batch tomorrow I think, I just need to sort out what I am going to make. Right now I am thinking about doing another Pale Ale iteration. More to come on that front.

Brewing on a "Real System"

Although my home brews are real beer, I can't call my equipment a "real system."

Friday morning started out a lot like my tenure at Boeing, early, but had a much different feel to it, brewing. I met Matt, one of the owner/brewers at Schooner Exact, a little before 6 AM and got the chance to help him brew a 7 barrel batch of their Gallant Maiden Hefeweizen. I am not going to give away the secrets to their beer, but it is a German Hefeweizen as opposed to the American Wheats that I have made in the past. It was a long hot day in the brewery, but it was great to get some work in on a real system. It was a lot better atmosphere to ask questions and share my thoughts compared to the other times that I had been at the brewery. As we went through the day, I could ask questions as they popped into my head and Matt shared multiple "things I would do differently" as he came across them. The experience really reinforced my level of brewing and brewery planning knowledge.

I will be brewing a 1/2 barrel batch of my Pale Ale on the pilot system at Schooner Exact this Wednesday. I am trying my best to keep the recipe tweaking at a minimum, so this one will be almost the same as the last Pale I made for my presentation. I am certain the beer will improve compared to previous batches because I will get to use a temperature controlled fermenter.

I need to remember to write down all of the genius beer names that I come up with, so here's one: Jackalope Belgian IPA, well I am not sure about the style (never made a Belgian IPA before), but I want to make it some sort of hybrid style of beer because of the nature of Jackalopes...hoppy as a jackrabbit and the reddish-brown of an antelope... This might need to be a seasonal or ale of no return, but I think this could be a really fun one. Any style ideas out there for "The Jackalope?"

Monday 6/22 Update

I think I am a good week or two away from some Monday updates with some real substance. I have a trip to Boise starting tomorrow that will give me a lot of time to make contacts in Boise and get the ball rolling a little more. I probably should make a list of what I need to get done, because it could easily turn into an unproductive trip. I have two informal meetings I am working on setting up with prospective investors. Not really asking for money at this time, but a time to let them in on my plans and where I am at. Of course there will be beer there and a great time for me to practice my pitching skills and beer education talks.

I have some initial logos done, but it still needs some work and because of that I wont post it on the blog. As soon as I get something I like, rest assured it will be on here that day. The biggest problem that I am having is that I cant really pinpoint what I want. I will show what I have at my meetings to get feedback and ideas. A few rounds of revisions and I will have something.

I stopped by one of Seattle's nanobreweries last week, Gilligan's Brewing, and had a talk with one of them. They have an interesting concept going. They are not full-time brewers and do everything on nights and weekends as more of a hobby, but do sell their beers. The set up that they have in no way will turn a profit, but it gets them into the market none the less if they want to expand in the future. I need to go down again when the Seth Gilligan is there because he knows the answers to some of my questions (licensing etc for a small operation). Once I go down again with a camera/flip cam I will do a full post about the brewery.

I brewed last week and wrote a post on it, but since I didn't finish it and post it yet, it will be scheduled to come up either tomorrow or Wednesday.

All for now...

Half Acre Brewing

What is the best thing to do when you are unemployed? The responsible people out there probably think "look for a job" and the practical people think "drink." You know what is awesome about being a brewer, you can do both. I did a little multitasking today by visiting Half Acre Brewing, drank some beer and talked with some brewer, which may or may not help me get a job at some point.

Half Acre is another relatively new brewery in the Chicago area, the beer has been around Chicago for about two years, but the brewery just started making beer in Chicago this month. They started out having their beer contract brewed in Wisconsin, but are only distributed in the Chicago area. The brewery is in a cool old building, but at this point, everything beyond the actual brewing equipment is very much a work in process. They are still building some things like their mill room, wall in their boiler and finish their front shop area. They aren't putting in any sort of pub at this point, but will be selling beer and merchandise on site.

Quick rundown of the equipment, they have a 15 bbl three vessel system and seven uni-tank fermenters (three 15 bbl and four 30 bbl).

Hot/Cold Liquor Tanks, Three vessel brewing system

Fermenters

While I was there, the guys were obviously busy trying to get everything up and running and aren't really set up for tours, but it was great to see a brewery at that stage in starting up. Once again the tour brought up a lot of ideas about starting out, one being location. Rent is a lot cheaper in industrial parks, but there could be some benefit to being in a more visible location. Is the "cool" building/location worth the extra money? I guess that will depend on my goals for the brewery, so we'll see. A location like they have could eventually morph into a pub, restaurant, who knows. Even though I am not going to be in Chicago, I am curious how things develop for the guys at Half Acre because it seemed to be very similar to what I would like to do.

Flossmoor Station

I wrote about my visit to Three Floyd's a few posts back and mentioned visiting Flossmoor Station as well, now that I have regained a some motivation, I have decided to tell everyone about it.

That Saturday (2/28) Matt and I hopped on a train to Flossmoor, Illinois and met Uncle Tom for lunch at Flossmoor Station Brewery. The brewpub is literally the old train station in Flossmoor. Just imagine living in Flossmoor and commuting to Chicago by train everyday...delicious beer would be at your fingertips every time you got off the train on your way home. Anyway, I have to thank Tom for calling the brewer ahead of time and telling him that we were coming and I was a student at Siebel, we got quite the tour. Checked out the 15 bbl system that can be seen from the restaurant, went downstairs and got to check out the serving vessels and the bottling machine. Considering Flossmoor Station is an old train station and they had little control over the layout of everything, they seemed to make good use of what space they had.

The timing of the visit was also lucky/cool because the head brewer, Matt Van Wyk, is on his way out of Flossmoor to be the head brewer at Oakshire Brewery in Eugene, Oregon. Generally speaking, I have a dislike for anything in Eugene (going to UW will do that), but I will have to go check out the brewery down there. Matt was an awesome guy, very informative and could be a great contact out west, so I can't hold it against him that the brewery he is going to happens to share a town with a certain university. I have not had any beer from Oakshire, but will be sure to do some reviews when I get the chance to try them (Matt made great beers at Flossmoor so I am sure they will be excellent). The day we were there was also the first day on the job for the new head brewer, Bryan Shimkos. Another great guy that I was glad to be able to meet and talk to.

Me and the brewers, Bryan (left) and Matt (right)

The topic of bottling came up and as luck would have it, they were planning on bottling the next day, so I volunteered to come down again and help them out. Great chance for me to get some hands on experience with bottling and I am sure they didn't have any complaints about free labor (I did get some beer and food out of it, so it wasn't totally free). Being a small brewpub that happens to bottle beer, they didn't have a very big or very automated bottling system. It was a four head filler that you had to manually put the bottles in and take them out, about as basic as it gets these days. It took us about four hours to crank out about 75 cases (900 22oz bottles) of their Pullman Brown Ale (award-winning beer, pretty darn good if I say so myself). The closest comparison to bottling beer that I have experienced before is putting numbers on soccer jerseys. It is cool at first, but quickly becomes mind-numbing. Or simple put, shitty job, but someone has to do it. I can only look forward to the day when I want to start bottling (actually I would like to can) and don't have enough money or volume to put in an automated line, just wait, I'll be asking for help.

4-Head Bottling Machine

Between a great tour, two meals, a ten beer sampler at 11 am (plus more beers while working) and some hands on work, I had a great experience at Flossmoor Station and can only hope to run into or work with those guys again.

Goose Island - Fulton Street

Tuesday afternoon class field trip...eat your heart out.

This class sponsored drinking event was a tour of the Goose Island production facility. Walking in we were treated like kings...free beer (that is really all I need to feel like a king, free beer). This was the first brewery tour of this magnitude that I have been on with such a behind the scenes look at how things are done. After we got our beers to start the tour, the first thing I realized was what signifies that your are a successful brewery...two floors. This would make more sense if I had taken some pictures, too bad I didn't bring my camera. I will illustrate with words. The brewing vessels are so big that there is an upstairs to monitor what is going on in the brewing vessels and a downstairs that has all the piping and stuff (less glamorous than upstairs). I am sure this is tiny in comparison to Miller and such, but it was big anyway. I mentioned they have a four vessel system and they actually use it the way it is suppose to be used, non-stop brewing.

The head brewer and an assistant brewer were the tour guides, but we really had free reign over the place. They took us around and talked about different aspects of the brewery and packaging answering questions and didn't mind if we needed to briefly leave the group to refill our beers. I am not going to go into too much detail about everything, but it was an awesome tour and great facility, something to aspire to (15 years or so).

For those that might actually see these beer in the future, we got to sample two of the beers in their new Heritage Series. The Juliet and Sophie, both barrel aged Belgian beers that should be great when they are released. Juliet actually had some flavor problems, but that flavor defect should go away with more aging (I'll spare you the technical brewer talk). Be on the look out for these in a few months if you are into Belgians.

I will eventually get a post up about Flossmoor Station, ideally Saturday before the Night of the Living Ales.

Three Floyds

Half of our (Matt, Paul, Tom and I) Saturday brewery adventure involved visiting Three Floyds (FFF from now on) in Munster Indiana. We jetting over there from Flossmoor Station (post coming later this week) to catch their weekly tour. They are in an industrial park in Muster, so pretty far out of the way, but that didn't stop the place from being packed. When it comes to FFF, I find them to have what I call a cult following. Not the "drink the cool aid, comet chasing" cult, but that cult movie crowd, not your mainstream blockbuster watching crowd. There is probably a much better way to describe it, but I don't have it. To me this can be seen in the artwork for their labels, the decorations in the pub, the destination the brewery in the middle of nowhere Indiana and the way the brewery is maintained. They definitely picked their target and went for it, not a bad thing, just not necessarily for me.

As far as FFF goes, I enjoy some of their beers, but wouldn't say that they have a stellar line up. Their beers in my mind are generally "big beers" with a lot of hop characteristic and not necessarily to style, once again, not a bad thing, just what they chose to do. As far as the brewery and the tour, I came away very unimpressed. They did give us $1 Alpha King Pale Ales during the tour, which no one could complain about (unless you were looking for free beer, but even then, come on, $1). Number one complaint about the tour was the presentation and information. FFF gives one tour a week and the guide we had to me acted like he had already given six tours that day, he didn't really give a shit. For one hour a week I feel that a brewery could get someone to talk to 30-40 people in a way that would make people excited to be there. In general, the tour didn't give people the basic understanding about the brewing process that you would expect when at a brewery. Refer to my post about Two Brothers and go on their tour if you would like to know what a good brewery tour should be.

The brewery itself was the second thing that left me unimpressed. It wasn't that they were lacking space or state of the art equipment, because the place was huge with great equipment. The facility came across the same way as the tour guide, don't give a shit. As we discussed this point when leaving, Matt mentioned that it seemed like they were a big brewery that didn't want to act like a big brewery. True, they aren't a big brewery in the grand scheme of things, but as a business, they aren't a garage brewery anymore. Even if you don't want to be a corporate brewery, cleanliness and organization are just good business practices. To me it comes down to another life lesson that I learned from a movie, "Act as if" (Boiler Room for those scoring at home). I will leave it at that.

The pictures I took don't convey the overall vibe of the place and my video camera died mid-recording, but I put in some unnecessary media anyway.

60 bbl Fermenters, the foam in the bucket and on the floor is yeast coming from the fermentation

Me with the Alpha King, we went strait to the symphony after this that is why I look classy and not like a bum brewing student

Thanks to uncle Tom and Paul for coming and helping facilitate the brewery tour, especially getting us back to the train with plenty of time to spare (15 seconds maybe).

I know I will continue to drink FFF beers when I have the chance, but I just can't get over the fact that a brewery that has been given so much hype and praise in the beer community would be such a let down in person.

Goose Island - Clybourn

At lunch today we got a quick tour of the Goose Island Brewpub on Clybourn. Being a quick tour wasn't a problem because what you can see from the restaurant is pretty much the entire thing. I think I say this about every brewery I have blogged about, but once again it was really cool. Not cool in the same sense as many of the other new breweries that I have been to recently, but cool because of how old (relatively) the equipment and facility are. They are still making beer on the original 10 bbl system put in 21 years ago at Goose Island, with slight modification and jury-rigging of course. Right now they produce about 700 bbls a year, which is very small compared to the over 100,000 bbls at the Goose Island production brewery. We are taking a tour of that facility at some point, so more details about that later. Most of the 700 bbls are consumed on the premises, while some is taken up north to Goose Island Wrigleyville (they also brew up there as well). The facility could really use some updating, some remodel is going to happen since they resigned their lease for another 5 years, but not necessarily to the extent I am sure the brewer would like. Although the brewery is a testament to being able to make great beer without the most state of the art equipment. Here are two pictures I snapped today, quality is kind of crap, oh well...

2o bbl fermenters

Mash/lauter and Brew kettle

For those who looks at these brewery pictures and think that they all look about the same, you are right, but I am fascinated by them and will continue to post them. Think of it like a car enthusiast who turns their head to stare at a Bentley Continental GT as it drives by, even though they have seen Bentley's before. It is sort of the same. On that subject, did you know a new Continental GT and a 15 bbl brewing system cost about the same amount of money. Which would you choose? I say, give a man a beer he will be wasted for a day, teach a man to brew he will be wasted for life...hmmm, maybe that isn't the best saying.

I may have said it was a short tour, but that wont stop me from writing a lot. Like I said, this is the original Goose Island Brewery, so they used to produce more beer here. Up until recently, they still had some cask accounts, but due to joining the Craft Brewers Alliance they can no longer distribute out of the Clybourn brewery. Redhook (one CBA member) had a distribution deal with Anheuser-Busch and part of the CBA deal involved using the AB distribution, so all of the distributed beer comes from the main brewery. The brewpub doesn't actually make the year round beers (Honkers, 312) at the pub, those get sent in from the other brewery as well. They always have 14 beers on tap, so they do make plenty of beers. Every Thursday they release a new beer in the pub, for those scoring at home that means they make at least 52 different beers a year. That would be a lot of fun to be able to experiment with that many beers.

Another cool thing they often do while making a "big" beer, is follow that with a "small" beer using the same grains. Without going into too much detail, when you make really strong beers, a lot of grains are used. Usually you don't get all of the fermentables out of those grains, so by running another mash/lauter on those, you can get another "small" beer from the grains. Then of course they change it up from then on so it isn't just a weak version of the "big" beer. Cool way to experiment with other hops, yeasts etc while keeping costs down.

That's three posts in three days, probably wont get anything new up until the weekend.

Two Brother's Brewing

By virtue of pure laziness, meaning not posting about my visit to Two Brothers Brewery right away, I am going to be able to combine two different events into what will probably turn into a sweet, but lengthy post. Both are Two Brothers related, so it is almost like I planned it.

Two Brothers Brewery Visit ~

I had a good pace of brewery visits going (three in one week) and have since trailed off, probably because there aren't too many more breweries that are close. This post is about the biggest brewery I have visited to date, Two Brothers Brewing in Warrenville.

The brewery tour at Two Bros was easily the best small brewery tour that I have ever been on (I can't compare this to Guinness or Heineken because those two tours will knock your socks off). The guide had a well prepared, fun presentation for the group of about 25 people. It is tough to call it a tour, because we really just stood in two different spots and listened to him talk, but good none the less. He covered all of the basics while going into enough depth that I was probably one of the only people who really understood everything he was talking about. I'm not trying to brag, but he did say somethings that I had just learned last week and I am in a brewing school. I have some pictures below and the captions will talk a little more about what is going on at Two Bros.

Bottling machine in the foreground (140 bottles per minute), Fermenters/Bright Tanks in the background

100 bbl fermenters

Now I have a little video clip I took while in the brewery, it is the new high tech gadgetry that was suppose to blow you away, but I can't figure out how to do any video editing on my computer. Hopefully a future clip will have some text pointing things out, maybe some music or me doing a little voice over. Technology has gotten the best of me this time, so I will do a quick narration before the clip. The first tanks are up close on the fermenters, then I pan over to the 50 bbl, three vessel brewing system (mash, lauter and brew kettle) with a brief cameo from Tom, Gloria and Brendon (Thanks for taking me out there). The door in the corner leads to the mill. Then it pans back over the fermenters and the rest of the brewery space (tons of kegs).

Not going to win an Oscar for cinematography for that one, I will work on it in the future. A few things that I want to touch on more, the mill and the brewing system. They have some cool things going on with the mill that you can't see on the video. Their grain silo for the base malt is located outside at the other end of the building. Instead of weighing out the malt and carrying it into the mill, they can input the amount of malt they need and it will be pumped into the mill on a screw conveyor. Note: a base malt is one that makes up the majority of the grain bill for any beer the brewery, it is generally a two-row barley and will be used as the base for all (there are exceptions) of the beers made at the brewery. The malt is then milled along with the specialty grains and pumped (another screw conveyor) up to the grain hopper above the mash. From there it is dropped into the mash when necessary. I really like the concept of the automated screw conveyor to bring in the base malt, but they still need to work on a method for the specialty malts which are hand measured and carried into the mill. I have been thinking about grain use and storage in a brewery for a while and have a similar concept in mind, but could end up using the idea for the base malt because of the volume that needs to be move and stored. Since specialty malts are used in relatively small quantities, my thoughts are to have them stored in hoppers above the mill room with a feed system into the mill. That is a short explanation of my vision, but the idea is point-of-use for all of the malts. Should also help with inventory control and involves a lot less moving of the 50 lb malt bags. I guess the imaginary...I mean industrial engineer in me will never die, probably not a bad thing though.

Leads me to my next topic, the brewing system. I mentioned that they have a three vessel system, comparatively Metropolitan and Emmett's used a two vessel and large breweries will have six vessels. The name of the game with brewery vessel quantity is capacity, the more vessels you have the more beer you can make because you have dedicated vessels for different operations. There is little reason for a small brewer to have anything more than a two vessel system. I don't really agree with Two Brothers needing a three vessel system, but they are getting to be a pretty big brewery and could need the capacity down the line (I also don't have the financial analysis that should have been associated with that decision). What really caught my attention with the three vessel system is that they are mash, lauter, brew kettle/whirlpool, where other brewers that I have talked to said that the brew kettle/whirlpool is generally the bottleneck (I know I haven't talked about the whirlpool portion of the process, but trust me it is important). There are plenty of ways to increase capacity (or think you are), but unless you are focused at the bottleneck then you are really just wasting money. It is very early to worry about any of this because even with a two vessel system you can make a lot of beer and still not have to brew everyday. I guess my point is that making a great beer is important for a brewery to be successful, but if you want to make a profit there are a lot more things to think about. I am not trying to knock Two Brothers, because they are obviously a successful brewery and make great beer, but there is always ways to be better.

I am getting to be very long winded...but wait there is more

Two Brothers Beer Tasting ~

Between the brewery tour, drinking at home and a beer sampling at Brasseri Jo I have been able to sample a good portion of the Two Brothers beer portfolio. Here are some of my thoughts on the various beers I tried:

After the tour, we got to choose 3 different beers to sample. I kept it hoppy and sampled their Heavy Handed IPA, Cane and Ebel Hopped Up Red-Rye and Cask-Conditioned Bitter End (I will go into cask-conditioning another time). I enjoyed the Heavy Handed and Bitter End, but just couldn't really get into the Cane and Ebel. If you haven't had a rye beer before, they are an acquired taste (one that I am yet to acquire). The Cane and Ebel is one of their more popular beers, so I will have to give it a second chance sometime.

On Monday, when I actually started writing this post, I was typing with the help of the Bonfire Dunkel Weiss. This is one of the beers from their Artisan Series, similar to what I mentioned in an earlier post as the Payette Brewing "Ales of No Return." So a small batch, one-off beer that is only available in bombers (22 oz bottles, bombers just sound way cooler). I thought this beer was more along the lines of an American Dark Wheat than a traditional German Dunkel Weiss, but still tasty.

Thanks to a heads up from Cindy via Greg, Matt and I went to Brasseri Jo on Tuesday for a Two Brothers beer tasting. As the name might suggest, it was a pretty swanky french restaurant. Since I am such a nice guy, I went ahead and treated Matt to the tasting. Could have been the best dollar I have ever spent; we got to sample four beers, got appetizers, heard from Jason Ebel (Owner/Brewer) and at the end had the chance to pick the brains of Jason and a guy who runs Windy City Distribution. A lot of the information and ideas that came from those conversations will come in a subsequent post about distribution. The first beer we had was their flagship Domaine Dupage, a french country ale. I could see why it is their most popular beer because it had a lot of flavor but was very drinkable. We also had their Northwind Imperial stout and two more beers from their Artisan collection, Red Eye Coffee Porter and Bare Tree Weiss Wine. Red Eye was a solid coffee beer that Matt really enjoyed. We also got to try their 2008 Weiss Wine right out of the bright tank, it wont be released for a few more weeks which was really cool. We also picked up a 2001 Weiss Wine to drink alongside the 2008 when it comes out, so look for that post in a few weeks.

All in all I think that Two Brothers makes great beer and has a great facility. If you made it through this post, congratulations, I think I already forgot what I wrote about at the start. Funny to think how getting me to write a paper is school was like pulling teeth, let me write about beer and you can't shut me up.

Emmett's Ale House

I had written what I thought was a pretty funny intro to this post dealing with NASCAR, in the end I decided that NASCAR really has no place in this blog (no matter how cool I think it is), so I deleted what I had started. NASCAR will make a cameo in a post though (besides this one), so be prepared.

As mentioned in the above post (which as I write this hasn't even been created, weird huh), I visited two different breweries in the suburbs this weekend. Today I ate lunch at Emmett's Ale House in Downers Grove. It was your standard brewpub, good food, good beer, good atmosphere. If it matters (I think it does), I had a delicious buffalo burger with blue cheese and bacon, that is a tough combination to beat. If you haven't had a buffalo burger try one, I think they dominate traditional beef burgers (sorry dad, its true). Sorry for the digression...beer. They had a decent line up of I believe six beers at the time, of which I was able to sample five on their beer paddle (yes, it was actually a paddle with five beer samples on it). I was a fan of the Red Ale they had and it paired with my meal nicely.

The area they had their brewing equipment was very small, especially for having a two vessel brewing system and 3 fermenters. For the second time in a week I found a brewery who had a fermenter that was bigger than their mash/lauter/boil capacity. It was a 15 bbl system and one of their fermenters was a 45 bbl fermenter, so they have to brew three times to fill that fermenter (If you just wondered if I used a calculator to do that math, no, I am able to that sort of math even after a few pops). Maybe I mentioned this in the last post about Metropolitan, but that is a very interesting concept that I had never heard before. It will be something worthwhile to look at as I start to price different equipment and the overall business plan. Once again I got a few pics that are below. I didn't actually talk to the brewer or get to go inside the room, so these pictures are both from the windows in the pub.

2-Vessel Mash/Lauter Tun and Brew Kettle, 15 bbls

Fermenters, one on the left is 45 bbls, others are 15 bbls. Rail on the lower left is the steps to the brew kettle, very small brewery

If you think having pictures in the blog is high tech, just wait until the next post, you could be blown away.

Metropolitan Brewing

After class today I took a trip to check out the facility at Metropolitan Brewing in Chicago. First impressions - very cool brewery. Metropolitan is a newer brewery, they have only been in their facility for about 6 months, brewing there for the last 2. They run a two vessel 15 bbl mash/lauter tun and brew kettle with four 30 bbl fermenters, so they have to do 2 brews in a row to fill a fermenter. Doug and Tracy the owner/operators of Metropolitan Brewery were really cool and had no problem showing me around, answering my questions and of course getting me some beer samples. The brewery is in an awesome old building and they have enough space to easily expand their capacity with some more fermenters. Here are a few pictures I took:

Mash/Lauter Tun and Brew Kettle

Fermenters

If you notice the white sheet in both pictures and the weird looking metal thing above the Mash/Lauter Tun (it is a bull), those are there because a theater group in the area has been putting on a production called "BEER" in the brewery. The area in front of the fermenters is the stage and there is seating off to the right of the picture. I might try to make it up to a show and will be sure to give a review of it if I do.

You cant really see it in the picture of the fermenters, but each one had a name on it. Doug said the names are all characters from the original Star Trek or something like that, which got me thinking, it I were to name fermenters, what would I do. I think I would have to name them after the members of the Wu Tang Clan. Just think about rolling into a brewery and seeing "Ghostface Killah" "RZA" and "Inspectah Deck" on the tanks, awesome. If Wu Tang with the likes of "O.D.B" or "Masta Killa" is too much, then I would resort to Seinfeld characters. I think "Art Vandelay" "Cosmo Kramer - The Ass Man" and "Hennigans" have nice rings to them as well. Hennigans also would be a great name for a Scotch Ale for that matter. Enough of that...

Some brief information on how they started things up: They spent last summer brewing batches multiple times a week on their 6 gallon home brewing system. This test beer was taken to beer festivals over the summer to get their name out and get feedback on their beer. Once they got their financing in place, they got a new 15 bbl system out of China. They already had their recipes dialed in from the summer and have been cranking out beer for the last few months.

I am very interested in the direction they took with the brewery though, starting with lagers. Not a lot of craft brewers make lagers, but I think if you can make a solid lager there is a bigger market for them than ales. The big problem with making lagers is they generally take twice as long as ales to go from brew day to kegging. So you need more fermenters to put the same amount of product through the door, that leads to more wip, money tied up in inventory...I'll stop now, you get the point. This is something I need to learn a little more about, but I really want to work on making a great lager. It is a whole different topic, but I did find out that the water in Boise is very suitable for making light lagers, I'll see what I can do.

Anyway, Metropolitan Brewing makes some solid lagers and have a really cool facility, so those in the Chicago area should be on the lookout for their stuff (only draft right now, they said bottles are coming soon).

Two Beers Brewery

Two Beers is another one of the local start up breweries in Seattle, but has taken yet another approach to starting. Two Beers is out of a storage unit and produces beer on a 1 barrel system, yet makes some really good beers. From what I have found out from visiting the brewery a few time to pick up some growlers, the small operation but working on expanding. The small scale brewery allows for a good deal of experimentation to perfect the beers without having the risk of making a huge bad batch of beer. The brewery has already one some awards at local beer festivals so it seems like the game plan of Two Beers could work out pretty well. It has also done a good job getting into the best beer bars to get the name out, but I think they are at the point where a larger system is necessary to keep up with demand and expand to other areas in Seattle. I will probably have to revisit the brewery as they expand and see how things are going.

I like the idea of the small scale at the beginning because of the flexibility and it also allows the brand to get established before large sums of money are sunk into the equipment for a 15 bbl or larger brewery. At the start, I would rather have to brew 3-4 times a day on a 1 bbl system to keep up with demand than to brew a 15 bbl batch and have to struggle to find customers. Having a small system along side of a larger system would also be beneficial when trying new recipes, especially the Ales of No Return Series. I expect to start with some sort of 1-3 bbl system and once PBC has a presence in the market and capital can be raised, then move up to a 15-20 bbls system.

Laughing Buddha Brewery

The Laughing Buddha Brewery is one of those recent start-ups here in Seattle. The brewery started sometime last fall, but didn't really get up and rolling until this spring. I visited the brewery in May, right after they got some great publicity on the front page of the Seattle Times Business section. From what I can tell, they have been rolling ever since.

They started off with a 15 bbl system and brew 4 different regular beer. They sell their beers to various draft accounts as well as to beer outlets in 22 oz bombers. An interesting thing that is available in the Seattle area is contract bottlers. On the given bottling day, an outside company comes to the brewery with all the necessary bottling equipment and does the bottling for that batch of beer. This would be a great service to have for a start-up, but I doubt the availability of such a service in Boise. This has allowed L.B. to sell their beers directly to consumers and grocery stores without the need for the capital investment in a bottling line. I am sure they plan on having their own bottling at some point, but it sounds like this works out nicely right now.

The two owner operators are former home brewers who left well paying corporate jobs to start LB. from what I have found out, they started with about $100,000 in cash and have built there brewery since. I don't know if they have other small business loans on top of that, because I don't think they could have gotten their equipment with only $100,000.

The niche that Laughing Buddha is going for is the Asian beer market. They use different ingredients that are generally used in Asian cooking. I have sampled three of the four beers and I am impressed with what they do. Their mango-weizen is a very tasty beer.

I could see PBC using a very similar start-up model. I like jumping in with a 15 bbl system off the bat, if there is the money to get that. 15 bbls allows for some good brewhouse efficiency and enough capacity for a lot of beer for the first few years. The bottling with have to be quite different though. A bottling line would be nice from day 1, but that will have to be examined based on the amount of start-up cash and physical size of the initial brewing space.

Breweries Popping Up Everywhere

Over the last year or so, I have noticed tons of small breweries popping up throughout Washington and Oregon. The same is true of lot of parts of the country, the craft brewing market is certainly not slowing down at all. The thing that puzzles me is the lack of breweries opening in Idaho and more specifically Boise. I am not mad by any means because there are benefits to being one of the first commercial brewery in Boise (the brewpubs are excluded because their beers are generally not available in other bars and grocers). I guess maybe I am questioning the market in Boise, I certainly think that there is a great market for craft beers, but are other prospective brewery owners seeing something I am not? As of 2000, there were 20 breweries in the state (including brewpubs) which actually puts Idaho #9 in the breweries per capita (1 for every 62,000 people). If Alaska is any proof (1 per every 32,000), there is definitely room for some more in Idaho, especially if they brew some tasty beverages. All of the start-ups that I am seeing around Seattle are serving as good motivation. Six different breweries (that I know of) have started up in the Puget Sound in 2008 (during a big hop shortage too). I will be sure to visit and blog about as many of the Seattle breweries as I can. Not sure where this post is going, but with all of these breweries popping up, I just don't want to be the last one to the party. Just need to remember to take my time, learn as much as possible and do things right from the start.