North Coast Doubles Their Square Footage

January 9, 2015 By Jay Brooks

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The local paper near Fort Bragg along the North Coast, the Ukiah Daily Journal is reporting that “North Coast Brewing Company expands,” adding a “[n]ew location will house brewery overflow.” North Coast Brewing apparently has leased a new warehouse, effectively doubling the size of their footprint, which “will increase North Coast Brewing’s storage by 10,000 feet, which is about equal to the brewery itself.” According to the Daily Journal:

18661 Old Coast Highway, in Fort Bragg, the former location of Mendocino Sports Club and Circus MECCA, will be a temporary storage facility for finished beer before being trucked to a their larger distribution point in Petaluma, according to Doug Moody, Senior Vice President at North Coast Brewing Company. The brewing company signed a 10-year lease for the property.

The move gives them greater flexibility in managing their product flow, much of which is immediately trucked to a storage facility in Petaluma because they’ve run out of room in Fort Bragg. The brewery, now in its 27th year — part of the class of ’88 — is, like many well-established breweries, growing by leaps and bounds and is hoping to remain in Fort Bragg. They’ve been trying to buy a part of an old mill site formerly owned by logging giant Georgia Pacific, but they haven’t yet been able to come to terms. If they do, you can plan on seeing a bigger single space that would “include a 200-seat performing arts center, restaurant and [North Coast] reestablishing brewery tours.” Even if it was approved tomorrow, it would likely take another three years to open the doors of a new brewery, but I for one would love to be there for the grand opening.

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The current brewery in Fort Bragg.

Help Rebuild Belgium’s Hof ten Dormaal

January 7, 2015 By Jay Brooks

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Yesterday, January 6, was a dark day in Tildonk, Belgium, located in the Flemish Brabant, near the center of the northern part of the country. Tildonk is located in the municipality of Haacht, and that whole area has less than 14,000 people, so it’s a fairly small village. It was also home to a true farmhouse brewery, Hof ten Dormaal. The small brewery made a wide variety of beers, including a range of Belgians, sours, wild beers, a barrel-aged series and a number of experimental beers, too. I say “was,” because yesterday starting around 6:45 a.m. there was a fire at the brewery which completely destroyed the farm brewery, and the “bottling line, warm chamber and a big part of the stock (another account mentions thousands of bottles) are completely lost.” The brewery originally came from Montana, and was installed in 2009. The following year, they added a bottling line. Fortunately, the brewhouse and fermenters appear to have been spared, and, more importantly, no one in the family was injured.

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During last year’s Brussels Beer Challenge, I had the pleasure of visiting the brewery, meeting André Janssens and his family, and tasting many of their beers along with my fellow judges. It’s out in the open countryside, a beautiful rustic setting. We visited the brewery, the tasting room, but spent most of our time in the garden, opening and enjoying the beer made right there at the farm.

The farm grows cereal and keeps cattle, and is “99% self-sustainable.” The farm grows its own hops and malt, their water comes from a well on the property and they make their energy from rape seeds grown in their fields. Yeast is the only ingredient they buy for brewing. They feed the leftovers to their livestock. Perhaps you’ve had their beer, it is imported by Twelve Percent Imports and available in California, along with Illinois, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Maryland, South Carolina, Washington DC, and Wisconsin.

Here’s a short video showing part of the damage to the brewery and the farm buildings.

It didn’t always look like that, of course. Below are a few of my photos from my visit last November. Happily, there’s already an effort underway to return the once-picturesque brewery to former glory. A GoFundMe campaign has been set up and is soliciting donations. If you love good beer, please be generous.

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Outside the farmhouse brewery.

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I loved these tiny clay shields on the brick wall outside of the farmhouse.

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From the gate outside looking in to Hof ten Dormaal.

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Cafe seating on a patio outside the tasting room of the brewery.

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Inside the tasting room, local artwork hangs on the wall above wooden kegs aging beer.

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Owner and brewmaster André Janssens leads a tour of his brewery.

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Hof ten Dormaal’s brewhouse.

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The courtyard garden, surrounded by the family home, farm buildings, and the brewery.

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Some of the Brussels Beer Challenge judges posing in the courtyard.

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Again, if you love great beer and want to help support it, this is a great way to help out a family and their farmhouse brewery. Please donate to help rebuild the brewery through Go Fund Me and definitely go visit the brewery the next time you’re in Belgium.

UPDATE: Sam Vanderstraeten, the creator of the GoFundMe campaign posted some Day 2 photographs showing more of the destruction wrought by the fire.

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Winter Brews Festival In Concord January 24

January 6, 2015 By Jay Brooks

On Saturday, January 24, from Noon to 4 PM, the Brewing Network‘s 6th annual Winter Brews Festival will take place at Todos Santos Plaza in Concord. The beer festival will feature over 50 breweries and proceeds will benefit the Coral Reef Alliance. Sandwiched in between the weekends of the final NFL Playoffs and the Super Bowl — so you won’t miss a game — the annual event will showcase dozens of award-winning craft breweries, including local favorites, 21st Amendment, Drake’s, Heretic, and Lagunitas, as well as some great new breweries like Calicraft and The Rare Barrel.
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Live music from Ralph Woodson and Purple Haze will set the mood for an afternoon of great beer and a worthy cause. Sponsors of the event include The Hop Grenade Taproom & Bottle Shop, the 21st Amendment, Drake’s Brewing Company, Hop Tech Homebrew and White Labs, and proceeds will benefit the local environmental non-profit, the Coral Reef Alliance.

Tickets are now on sale and are $40 pre-sale or $50 at the gate and include unlimited pours and a commemorative glass. Designated Drivers pay only $5, however this is a 21 and over only event. The event, which will, for the first time, take over the entire Todos Santos Plaza, is conveniently located just two blocks away from the Concord BART station, making it easy to get to and from the festival safely. For more information on the event, and to purchase tickets, please visit: www.BNbrewfest.com.

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Beer Giants Still Giant

January 3, 2015 By Jay Brooks

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The Wall Street Journal had a piece on the beer business entitled Beer Giants Cultivate Their Crafty Side which I can’t read in its entirety because I don’t have a subscription, but it did include a chart showing the current state of affairs in the beer industry.

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Shifting Suds. “Independent brewers are selling more beer,” but given this comes from the Wall Street Journal (which is all about BIG business) they can’t help but add “but their shipments remain small compared with the big beer brands.”

What the Wall Street Journal forgets to mention is that Anheuser-Busch was founded in 1852 and didn’t hit 1 million annual barrels until 1901, when they were 49 years old. Sierra Nevada took only 35 years (or less) to reach 1 million, and Boston Beer needed even less time, reaching their first million barrels 1996, meaning it took Samuel Adams 12 years.

Patent No. 2967107A: Continuous Fermentation Process

January 3, 2015 By Jay Brooks

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Today in 1961, US Patent 2967107 A was issued to Kenneth H. Geiger and John Compton, assigned to John Labott Ltd, for their “Continuous fermentation process.” According to the application the “invention relates to a novel continuous fermentation process for the production of potable beer.”

Figure 1 is a schematic illustrating a type of fermentation vessel which may be used in carrying out the process of the invention indicating typical fittings and controls.
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Continuous fermentation processes have already been utilized in connection with the production of industrial grade alcohols, and the desirability of continuous fermentation in the production of potable beer has long been recognized in the art. The principal obstacle to the adaptation of existing continuous fermentation methods to the production of potable beer has been the inability of such processes to provide adequate control of flavour. As is well recognized, the control of flavour is of paramount importance insofar as the production of potable beer is concerned.
The present invention provides a continuous fermentation process in which the control of flavour is readily achieved, and in which a number of additional advantages are to be found in addition to those important ones which might normally be expected to fiow from the conversion of what has previously been a batch operation into a continuous one.

Figure 2 is a schematic fiowsheet illustrating apparatus used for carrying out the process of the invention with one yeast propagation vessel and two alcohol producing vessels in the product formation stage.
US2967107-1

According to the present invention, potable beer is produced by the yeast fermentation of a fermentable carbohydrate which is carried out in stages. A first stage is provided in which aerobic conditions favourable to yeast growth are maintained, and a second stage is provided in which anaerobic conditions favourable to carbohydrate attenuation are maintained. Preferably according to the invention, the yeast concentration in the second stage of the process is maintained substantially constant at a concentration which is in excess of the maximum level normally obtainable or commonly used under batch fermentation conditions. This level of yeast concentration is maintained by separating at least a portion of the yeast from the efliuent of the second stage and recycling it through the second stage.
Operating in this manner, the first stage of the process serves primarily as a continuous yeast propagator under predetermined aerobic conditions while the second stage which may be, and preferably is, carried out in a series of separate series connected vessels serves primarily for ICC attenuation of the fermentable carbohydrates to alcohol under predetermined anaerobic conditions. For convenience hereinafter, we refer to the first stage of the process as the yeast propagation stage and the second stage as the product formation stage.
The inherent advantages of the continuous fermentation process described above are manifold, and of substantial practical importance. For instance, the growth rate of yeast and feed rate of fermentable substrate are equillbrated and controlled under steady state conditions in the first stage, so that the extent or rate of metabolism unconnected with yeast cell growth and/or reproduction is not critical. The maintenance of any predetermined high yeast concentration in the second stage is independent of flow rate, while, provided a relatively high concentration of yeast is present in the second stage, the rate of product formation will be for all practical purposes independent of yeast growth and, provided the substrate is satisfactory, almost entirely dependent on total quantity of yeast present and temperature.
Because the process of the invention makes for more efiicient substrate utilization, less is used for yeast production than in normal batch fermentations.
Furthermore, a very rapid fermentation is possible, with a holdup time appreciably less than in other conventional fermentation systems, batch or continuous, without concommitant adverse eifects on the quality of the product.

Figure 3 is a general schematic fiowsheet illustrating the process of the invention as it would be carried out using four separate vessels in the product formation stage.

Who Owns What

December 30, 2014 By Jay Brooks

As the year’s winding down, I noticed this article from Booze News from last week entitled America’s Fastest Growing Beer Brands. While the article itself offered few insights, I noticed a graphic depicting which beer companies owned which brands. The graphic was taken from a Gizmodo article that ran a little over a year ago about Who Actually Owns Your Favorite Beers. I added one or two to ABI’s stable of brands, but otherwise a year on it’s still fairly accurate. If there’s any that need to be added, or changed, let me know in the comments and I’ll see what I can do.

I think you can see the chart full size here. If not, try here instead.

Big Brands Continue To Slide

December 16, 2014 By Jay Brooks

For the last several years, sales of some of the major beer brands have been slipping, and not just the sub-premiums or secondary packages but even once mighty flagships. 24/7 Wall Street has a new list of some of these brands, characterized as Beers Americans No Longer Drink. Using data from Beer Marketer’s Insights, here are seven brands that have lost significant sales, at least 20%, between 2013 and 2008. The negative number following the name is how much sales are down in that six-year period.

Miller High Life -21.2%
Budweiser -27.6%
Milwaukee’s Best Light -40.6%
Milwaukee’s Best -57.0%
Miller Genuine Draft -58.3%
Budweiser Select -61.1%

Some additional analysis and reasons for the decline, according to 24/7 Wall St:

Another key factor in the weakening sales has been price dynamics. “Beer prices were increased more aggressively over the last five years than wine and spirits,” Shepard said. Many people in the industry believe that, as a result, some customers replaced buying beer with the now relatively less expensive wines and spirits, he explained.
Several other products were also gaining at the expense of big brand-name beers, Shepard noted. While some customers have been moving to wine and spirits, others were switching to imported beer, particularly Mexican imports. Indeed, in the five years through 2013, shipments of Mexican brands Dos Equis and Modelo Especial more-than doubled. Similarly, he added, “Some [drinkers] are moving to craft [beer]. Clearly, there’s been a trade-up in the industry.”
Craft beers have largely bucked the overall downtrend in beer sales. From 2008 to 2013, shipments of craft beer rose by 80.1% to a total of more than 16 million barrels, or 7.6% of the U.S. beer market. While the craft beer category now outsells Budweiser, it remains a relatively niche market. For comparison, the nation’s top-selling brand, Bud Light, shipped 38 million barrels in 2013, accounting for 18% of all beer shipped.

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