Year Round/Seasonal/Limited Beers

Here is what I would like the PBC line up to look like around year 5 (of course earlier if possible):

Year Round/Core Beers - These are the standard Payette beers available any time in 12 oz and 22 oz bottles (cans?) and on draft. Probably 4-6 beers that will probably be more in line with traditional styles, but would not rule out something more experimental if it worked well. As far as names go, I think these will remain basic such as Payette Porter, Payette IPA and Payette Wheat (again of course, you can't pass up a good name if one comes up).

Seasonal Beers - Not just limited to the four seasons, these are beers that will only be available during certain times of the year. Like the core beers, these will come in all forms of distribution when available. I see these being more on the experimental side in ways to fit the time period when released. I see these and the limited beers the place where the names get a little more fun and creative. No idea how many of these there will be, probably start with one or two and it might grow to six.

Limited Beers - I like to call these the "Ales of No Return." These are going to be "big" or "extreme" beers that as the name would suggest, might only be made once. I say might only be once because I do see some of these sort of turning into seasonal beers, but not included in that series. Beers like the Mountain Man Barleywine, it will be made every year, but that doesn't mean the recipe will be exactly the same every year. Other beers might be really good and come back for an encore, others might suck and are never heard of again. I know what the name says, but come on, people returned from the river of no return all the time. Due to the small amount of beer that will be made, these will be sold in 22 oz bombers with some kegs distributed. These beers generally will be ideal for cellaring (cellaring will be discussed in another post). I anticipate an "Ale of No Return" to be released every six months.

All together I see this putting the Payette Brewing portfolio at about 10 different beers during a given year with the repertoire always growing.

Labels: Since I am nothing close to an artist I don't have any examples for labels yet, but I will try my best to describe what I am thinking. I want to use the general diamond design used for the "55 Pale Ale" and "Dubbel Your Luck" for all of the lines. I figure that the rainbow bridge will be used on one of the bottles, so think of that as I go through what I want to do for the year-round beers. What I want to do is keep the picture the same, but change the picture and the edgers of the diamond to fit the season. With the rainbow bridge one, it is pretty easy to imagine a spring, summer, fall and winter shot of the bridge (they wont have to be from the same vantage point, just the landmark will need to be recognizable as the same). As for the edges of the diamond this could be consistent throughout the line, but maybe skis/poles for winter, raft/kayak paddles for summer. Still need to work on the other seasons, but that will come. The beer itself wont change, but the artwork will about every 3 months (maybe never using the same picture twice?). It might be a stretch to do all this at first, but I think is would be something pretty unique in the artwork/design of beer bottles. The other lines will probably follow the same form, but since they are seasonal and limited, the artwork wont change with the seasons. I guess I need to take a look at the whole marketing thing and make some sort of a plan, right now I am just throwing out my most recent thoughts.

As for the three different beer lines mentioned above, I would like to come up with names for each of the lines as not to just call them year-round/seasonals/limited. I already mentioned "Ales of No Return" for the limited, so throw out any ideas for the other two if you have them.

McCall Music Fest

After a week at The Music Fest in Steamboat, it has become clear that McCall needs to have a yearly music festival in the winter. It was decided while in Steamboat, that Payette Brewing is going to be the beer sponsor of a new music festival in McCall. Here is my quick idea of what it could be and what it could grow into: Base the festival in downtown McCall with idea that it would move/expand to Brundage as the mountain goes through adding a new lodge and homes/condos on site. There are enough venues in McCall for this to work, Yacht Club and Forrester's for smaller sets, then use the ice rink for the headliners. The most important thing to me is to have a set or two on the mountain, nothing better than apres ski. Start this as a weekend thing and maybe grow into a week long festival. As for the music, well my philosophy with PBC is "do what you love," so bring in bands we like listening to, no reason to put on a festival you don't want to attend. Then there is the beer, don't worry about that, I will make sure there is plenty.

I dont see PBC putting on the entire thing, mostly just being in charge of the beer. I see a separate company being formed that puts this on...Sheila??? (Note: I just want to make sure PBC is the beer provider) There is also a place for this in the summer, sponsoring BBR? Being a part of Sorry for Partying and expanding it? Get involved with the summer concert series already being done at Brundage? I just see music (along with outdoor sports) playing a big part in the marketing and target audience for Payette's beers, so why not bring in good music with good beer.

Start commenting on this idea...get that stuff in writing...these things will start happening before you know it.

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.

Session Beer

One of the most important types of beers that I need to start developing for Payette Brewing is a "session" beer. Basically, that is a beer that is low in alcohol (~4%) that can be drank for long sessions without getting too drunk. Although I prefer to make and drink "big" or "extreme" beers, there are times when you don't want one of those types of beers, such as tailgating and Saturday nights downtown. Some people would also call these "beginner" craft beers, which may sound like an insult, but a well crafted session beer is a great way to bring the BMC (Bud/Miller/Coors) into the craft brewing market.

I have experimented with some lower alcohol blonde and wheat beers, nothing has quite been the hit that I am looking for. Come this summer I expect to work on my blonde recipe and maybe experiment with some different lagers that could hit the spot for PBC's session beer. There are many other styles that could be session beers including the pale ale recipe that I have been working on for quite some time, heck even Guinness could be considered a session beer. Here is a link if anyone wants a little more information on session beers: http://beeradvocate.com/articles/653 Stay tuned for more updates on the session beer.

Amber Ale

For some reason this is a style that I have seemed to skip over a lot when making beer, not sure why, but I tend to keep towards the pale ales. So today I am making my second batch of an amber ale. My hope for his batch is to have the biscuit/malty taste of an amber, but I am going to include a lot of the hop characteristics of pale's and ipa's with some fruity/citrusy hops.

Although I have been working on a pale ale being the flagship beer, I want to experiment with some of the other more popular styles as possible PBC mainstays. Fat Tire and Mac and Jacks have found their own dominance in the beer market and there could be room for another. No ideas as of yet for possible names, so suggest em if you got em.

UPDATE 12/29: Kegged and force carbonated this beer. Color is a little on the dark side for an amber and the malt profile is a little lacking. The hop schedule used is great, but it might be a bit on the hoppy side for an amber. The beer also is missing some of the malt base to back up the amount of hops used, so a combination of decreasing the hops and increasing the malts should help this beer out quite a bit. Beer about perfect for ABV (5%) so I will have to tweak the recipe accordingly to increase the maltiness without significantly increasing the ABV.

Bronco Beer

At some point I would like PBC to cultivate a relationship with Boise State, mostly for Bronco football. Much like the relationship BSU has with the Double R Ranch, PBC needs to be the only beer available in the suites at Bronco Stadium. Pre and Post game festivities can take place at the official PBC Tailgate. Whenever I think of this I go back to the game at Ohio State, the tailgate we went to at the parking lot of that apartment building. Ideally it would be a fenced off beer garden with PBC beer on tap. In the area there would be TV's showing all the games, cornhole, redneck golf and probably a bit of beer pong going on. Basically your ideal tailgate. If there was some sort of partnership with the university then maybe this could be in the campus parking lot, if not, then it could be possible to team up with one of the bars on Broadway to get this going. The reason a deal with the university would preferred is the use of the name "Bronco Beer." They might not have a tight of a grasp on their words as UW does, but it would be great to market Bronco Beer throughout Boise during football and even basketball season. Of course the place to start with all of this is getting a good beer on tap up in the suites, then working the university from there. I think that the tailgate would be an excellent way to get the name out in Boise and could also establish a great tradition at BSU games.

Citra Hops

I got the chance to make a test brew using some of the Citra hop that I mentioned in a previous post. The only requirements were that I used 100% Citra hops, then give a sixer to the Issaquah Brewhouse with my brewing notes. At some point the WAHA brewers who are making the test brews will get together and have a tasting of the brews.

I decided to make an American Wheat for the test. I used the same grain bill as the Hefeweizen drank at the BSU tailgate but a different yeast. Should be very similar to an American Wheat made this summer with a different hop profile. It will be interesting to see how this turns out because most wheat beers do not use hops with this much alpha acid. They also generally aren't made to showcase the hops flavors to the extent that this brew should. I used a minimal amount of bittering hops then tried to pile on the flavor and aroma hops. I am excited to see how this turns out in a few weeks, I am planning on kegging what I don't bottle and bring it for Boise to sample. I have no idea what to expect from this beer, but it should be light in color and body, abv around 4.4% and really good.

*To my knowledge the first commercial beer to be released using these hops will be released from Sierra Nevada in January called Torpedo Extra IPA.