Anheuser-Busch InBev Acquires L.A.’s Golden Road

September 23, 2015 By Jay Brooks

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This morning, Anheuser-Busch InBev announced they were acquiring Golden Road Brewing, located in Los Angeles. The Wall Street Journal confirmed “Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed,” and that the “acquisition is expected to close in the fourth quarter.”

From the press release:

“The energy and passion of the beer community is what drew me into this industry and with Golden Road we wanted to help develop the craft beer market in L.A.,” said Meg Gill, ‎president and co-founder at Golden Road Brewing. “Our team worked hard to build Golden Road from the ground up and we are proud of the growth we’ve achieved in such a short time. California is an exciting and competitive market for beer and I see endless opportunities in partnering with Anheuser-Busch and their incredible distribution network to bring our beers to more people.”
As the largest craft brewery in Los Angeles County, Golden Road expects to sell approximately 45,000 barrels of beer in 2015 and can be found in more than 4,000 retail locations. With a brewery focused on draft and can production, a pub in Los Angeles and a new tasting room downtown. Additionally a new tasting room, opening in 2015, second production brewery and pub in Anaheim will be operational by the fourth quarter of 2016. Its core brands – Point the Way IPA, Wolf Among Weeds IPA, Golden Road Hefeweizen and 329 Days of Sun Lager – represent 95 percent of volume. Along with the core beers, Golden Road brewers are constantly experimenting with the freshest ingredients through a collection of rotating, seasonal and limited-edition brews, most notably the Custom IPA Series, a line-up of diverse, hop-forward IPAs.
“Golden Road’s commitment to making great beer, their pioneering spirit and the passionate beer culture built within the company is what appealed to us,” said Andy Goeler, CEO, Craft, Anheuser-Busch. “Their focus on giving back to the community and impact on the Los Angeles craft market in four short years makes Golden Road a strong addition to our craft portfolio.”
Golden Road Brewing will join Goose Island Beer Company, Blue Point Brewing, 10 Barrel Brewing and Elysian Brewing as part of Anheuser-Busch’s High End Business Unit’s portfolio. Anheuser-Busch’s partnership with Golden Road Brewing is expected to close by the end of the fourth quarter of 2015. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

Meg and me at the opening Gala for SF Beer Week in 2011.

Several major news outlets have picked up the story, including the L.A. Times, The Wall Street Journal, Fortune and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

And here, co-founder Meg Gill talks about the deal in a video.

Patent No. 3207606A: Continuous Fermentation Process For Beer Production

September 21, 2015 By Jay Brooks

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Today in 1965, US Patent 3207606 A was issued, an invention of Rees Philip Williams, assigned to Brewing Patents Ltd., for his “Continuous Fermentation Process for Beer Production.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this summary:

This invention relates to the manufacture of beer, and more particularly to the fermentation of Brewers Wort.
The present invention stems from the discovery that a continuous through flow of liquid is compatible with a sutficient period of dwell time in each phase of fermentation to enable that phase to be carried out in isolation from the other phases, and the object of the present invention is to provide a process for the continuous fermentation of wort, with the attendant advantages of relatively smaller vessels and a higher production rate.
The process of the present invention makes use of the same materials and the same times and temperatures as are used in the conventional batch processes, but with the advantage that there is a continuous through flow of the materials from one end of the apparatus to the other.
This continuous through flow has very considerable advantages. Firstly, it is relatively simple to make the apparatus in a closed state so that once it has been rendered sterile, and if sterile materials are used to feed it, there is no further possibility of infection arising. The apparatus can be used continuously for relatively long periods so that cleaning operations are reduced. The beer produced can be checked and correction of activity and temperature can be introduced while the process is in action. Above all, relatively very much less space is required for a continuous flow apparatus to produce for example 168 barrels of fermented beer in one week.
The process accordingly comprises a first step of continuously forming in a first phase a mixture of sterile wort and yeast and keeping said mixture at a temperature and for a period of time both selected to ensure yeast propagation and the onset of fermentation of the wort; a second step of passing the resultant mixture continuously to a second phase and keeping the mixture at a temperature and for a period of time both selected to ensure completion of the fermentation; and a third step of continuously passing the fully fermented wort to a third phase in which it is allowed to settle.
The process does not involve a new kind of fermentation with novel stages of working or novel chemical reactions. On the contrary, the conventional reactions are carried out with the conventional materials for the conventional periods of time allowed in batch operation, but the entire process is carried out with continuous through flow. It has not hitherto been suggested in the art to select comparative volumes for the vessels to give the required relative dwell times for the various phases of fermentation. It is well known to those skilled in this art that the times and temperatures of the conventional operation cannot be altered to any great extent and it is probable that batch operation has continued to be vused for fermenting the wort, in spite of the inherent disadvantages of batch operation, because it was not throught possible to carry out the process as a continuous process.

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Dan Gordon To Re-Open Original Gordon Biersch Brewpub

September 21, 2015 By Jay Brooks

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You probably saw the news last week that CraftWorks Restaurants and Breweries was closing the Original Gordon Biersch Brewpub in Palo Alto. It turns out that was only half of the story, the half from CraftWorks who was looking at an underperforming location with no sense of its history. Much more interesting is the other half of the story, in which a partnership will be re-opening the brewpub in February of 2016 under the name “DG’s GB,” for “Dan Gordon’s Gordon Biersch.” The group includes Gordon Biersch co-founder Dan Gordon, Oliver Gordon — Dan’s son — along with one of Gordon Biersch’s earliest employees from the very beginning (in fact employee #2 after Dan and Dean on the founding team) Steve Sinchek and his wife Lisa Sinchek. Sinchek also owns and operates two successful restaurants in the area, and they’ll be extensively renovating the 27-year old brewpub, licensing the GB name from CraftWorks. DG’s GB will be unique to the brewpub chain and the plan is to offer a one-of-a-kind experience in Palo Alto where it all began.

The Palo Alto Gordon Biersch brewpub when it opened in 1988.

Dan gave me a call at home yesterday during halftime to get me up to speed on the rest of the story, that while the Palo Alto Gordon Biersch is closed now, it won’t be forever, and the grand re-opening should be in just five months, give or take, from now. They’re basically going to gut the inside, installing a new bar on the left-hand wall of the inside, with hightop tables and communal dining. The new menu will be farm to table, with locally sourced ingredients wherever possible. There will still be Dan’s signature garlic fries, of course, but I’m more excited about a new menu item they’ll be introducing: fresh-baked Bavarian pretzels that will be made in a special oven outside.

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An early press shot of Dan and Dean taken at the San Jose brewpub circa 1990.

Brewer Tom Davis, who used to brew at Palo Alto in the early days, will use the smaller brewpub brewery as both a training brewery and for R&D, to create small batch experimental and seasonal beers that will be unique to DG’s GB. They’ll offer twelve beers, brewing four rotating ones there exclusively for the Palo Alto brewpub, with the rest of the lineup produced at the San Jose production brewery, which has been making their beer since it opened in 1997.

The brewers from the production brewery will take turns on the smaller brewhouse, and will be given an opportunity to come with their own experimental recipes. Each one of these will be a one-off, and the series will be known as “Tank 21,” since there are twenty tanks at the production brewery. If one proves popular enough, it may show up later as a new package in wider distribution.

But by far this is my favorite old shot from Palo Alto.
Dan: “Gee, opening a brewery restaurant… Do you think that’s a good idea?”
Dean: “I guess we’ll know if we’re still around in 10 years.”

27 years later, I guess we know.

Patent No. 3207605A: Production Of Beer

September 21, 2015 By Jay Brooks

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Today in 1965, US Patent 3207605 A was issued, an invention of James R. A. Pollock, assigned to Brewing Patents Ltd., for his “Production Of Beer.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this summary:

The present invention relates to the production of potable beers and in particular to a process for the fermentation of wort in a semi-continuous manner which results in fermented wort becoming available in batches for further processing.
Processes for the continuous fermentation of wort are known and these processes are capable of producing beer at a very high rate as compared with conventional processes in which batches of wort are fermented with yeast in fermentation vats. Continuous fermentation processes have the disadvantage that they must be continued in operation over weekends and holidays, if the maximum economic advantage is to be obtained from them, and this in turn means that extra storage capacity must be installed in the brewery to hold the excess beer that may build up at such periods.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a brewing process which can readily be shut down when further supplies of fermented wort are not required, but which can at the same time produce beer at a rate comparable to that of known continuous processes.
The present invention provides a process for the production of beer which comprises adding unfermented wort to a body of yeast and either wort or fermented wort, which is subjected to sufficient agitation to maintain the yeast evenly dispersed through the wort, the unfermented wort being added at such rate either continuously or in separate small quantities that at the end of a predetermined time the body of fermenting wort is fermented to a desired degree of attenuation, at least a major part of the fermented wort then being separated from the yeast. Preferably the process is carried out under conditions such that the fermentation stage is completed in about 16 hours, so that a batch of beer may be produced each working day.

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Patent No. 3054676A: Process For Producing A Cereal Adjunct For Use In Brewing

September 18, 2015 By Jay Brooks

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Today in 1962, US Patent 3054676 A was issued, an invention of Albert J. Hardgrove and Howard J. Lauhoff, assigned to the Lauhoff Grain Company, for their “Process For Producing A Cereal Adjunct For Use In Brewing.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this summary:

It is an object of this invention therefore to provide an improved cereal adjunct which can be efficiently handled and employed directly in the mashing step without pre-treatment. It is also an object of this invention to provide a method for producing such adjunct.
It is a further object of this invention to provide an improved cereal adjunct which will produce a higher product yield in the normal brewing operation.
It is another object of this invention to provide a cereal adjunct which can be efficiently utilized in any modern automatic brewery apparatus designed to handle materials necessary in the brewing process.
It is another object of this invention to provide an improved pre-gelatinized cereal adjunct for breweries which has less bulk than other similar type adjuncts, thereby reducing shipping costs, and requiring less storage space.

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Patent No. D178808S: Bottle

September 18, 2015 By Jay Brooks

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Today in 1956, US Patent D178808 S was issued, an invention of Theodore Rosenak, assigned to the Blatz Brewing Company, for his “Bottle.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this, and only this:

The ornamental design for a bottle, as shown.

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Gordon Biersch Closes Original Palo Alto Brewpub

September 16, 2015 By Jay Brooks

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When Dan Gordon and Dean Biersch opened the first brewpub in downtown Palo Alto in 1988, it was one of the few to focus on lagers, and one of the few to focus on fine dining, or at least a step up from the usual pub fare found at most brewpubs at the time. In 1999, two years after opening a production brewery in San Jose, the brewpubs were sold to a restaurant group which today is known as CraftWorks Restaurants and Breweries, headquartered in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and includes the Rock Bottom brewpubs as well as Gordon Biersch. Dean Biersch retired and went on to open the HopMonk Taverns in Sonoma County while Dan Gordon continues to run the production brewery in San Jose.

Today, September 16, CraftWorks announced that they had closed the brewpub on Emerson Street in Palo Alto, as of the close of business on Tuesday, September 15, and apparently “apologizing for short notice.” Unfortunately, there’s no additional information, or indeed any mention at all, about the closure on their Facebook page, website or on the parent company’s corporate website, which hasn’t updated their press releases since 2011.

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The Gordon Biersch brewpub on Emerson Street in Palo Alto.

NOTE: It turns out this was just half of the story. Read the other half, Dan Gordon To Re-Open Original Gordon Biersch Brewpub.

Patent No. 305227A: Beer-Chip

September 16, 2015 By Jay Brooks

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Today in 1884, US Patent 305227 A was issued, an invention of Bernard Rice, for his “Beer-Chip.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this summary:

This invention has for its object to produce a beer-chip which is free from resinous and other similar matters; and to this end it consists in making the chip from a sheet or strip of veneer cut from a log, beam, or plank previously steamed, as herein more fully described.

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