Brookston Beer Bulletin

Jay R. Brooks on Beer

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CBC Brewers Reception

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The BA hosted a Brewers Reception at Stubbs Bar-B-Que in downtown Austin Wednesday night before the official start to the annual Craft Brewers Conference. There was great food and beer from local breweries. Some highlights were the Rye Pale Ale from the Real Ale Brewery here in Austin and a nice barleywine, though I can’t recall who made that one.

A local sign proclaims Austin as Beer Land, Texas.

The reception was held outdoors in this great open space with a stage on one end and bars and buffet tables ringing the area.

Brian Dunn (owner of Great Divide) and his new director of brewing operations, Brit Antrim, with Joanne Carilli from White Labs.

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Steve Hindy (Brooklyn Brewery), Kim Jordan (New Belgium), Dave Keene (The Toronado in SF), Eddie Friedland (former owner of Philadelphia’s Friedland Distributing) and Vinnie Cilurzo (Russian River).

Ralph Olson, the Big Cheese from HopUnion. If you look carefully in between his “Sponsor” and “Exhibitor” badge you can see his officially “the Big Cheese.”

Horst Dornbusch and his wife, Ralph Olson and Jeannine Marois, who puts on the Le Mondial de la Bière.

Charlie Papazian leads a toast the memory of Linda Starck.

Daniel and Julie Bradford and Amy from All About Beer magazine.

The Rolling Boil Blues Band took the stage in the last hour of the reception.

Which got the crowd up and dancing.

Tom Dalldorf does his Pete Townsend impression.

Fantastic Fourth Firkin Fest

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Today one of the most fun festivals in the Bay Area took place, the Firkin Gravity Festival at the Triple Rock Brewery & Alehouse in Berkeley. This is the fourth year for this event and it’s great to have an event like this that spreads awareness of these beers. There were two dozen firkin beers from around California. A firkin is a cask that’s the size of a quarter keg, but measured in British volume, meaning it’s 9 imperial gallons (which is roughly 10.81 U.S. gallons). All the beer was cask conditioned and dispensed using gravity taps rather than hand pumps.

There were some mighty fine real ales there today, not least of which was the one brewed by our host Christian Kazakoff, Triple Rock’s Bad Monkey … No Banana. Some other stand-outs included a cask Pliny the Elder, Firestone-Walker’s Bourbon Barrel Stout and Stone’s Russian Imperial Stout. Iron Spring’s Casey Jones Imperial IPA and Marin’s IPA on cask were both also memorable, as was Grant Johnston’s English-style beer. Farmhouse had a nice cask Porter and Lagunitas put last year’s Gnarlywine to the wood.

Outside Triple Rock in Berkeley.

Triple Rock’s head brewer Christian Kazakoff.

Shane, Steve and Melissa, brewers one and all.

A row of firkins at the fest.

Arne Johnson (Marin Brewing), Christian Kazakoff (Triple Rock) and newlyweds Claudia and Rodger Davis (21st Amendment & Drake’s)

By early afternoon, the alehouse was truly packed. It was a great turnout and nice to see so many people supporting real ale.

Christian again with a trio from 21st Amendment.

Brew Years Eve

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At 12:01 a.m., 74 years ago, beer became legal for the first time in thirteen years. Though it would be eight more months until Prohibition officially ended (on December 5), President Franklin D. Roosevelt kept his first campaign promise by encouraging Congress to modify the Volstead Act and they passed the Cullen-Harrison bill, which FDR signed it into law on March 23. The bill allowed the sale and manufacture of low-alcohol beer (3.2% alcohol by weight/4.0% by volume), along with light wines, too. For brewers, it represented a return to brewing and those that had remained opening making non-alcoholic products quickly retooled. Those that had been shuttered for over a decade had a harder time re-opening, but some did manage it. Ultimately Prohibition did irreparable harm the industry as a whole and less than half of America’s breweries did not survive.

And we’re still waiting for an apology from all the temperance nutcases who thought making alcohol illegal would turn society into a utopia. If anything, it made things much, much worse. Virtually every societal ill temperance nutjobs believed prohibition would fix were only made worse. Instead of a more civil, crime-free world, crime actually increased significantly, not least of which directly is directly attributable to bootlegging and bathtub gin. An entire new enforcement agency was created to deal with all the new criminalized behavior by the Volstead Act, made famous by Elliot Ness and his “Untouchables.” And that was in part because corruption became rampant especially among law enforcement and local officials who took bribes and looked the other way while speakeasies operated with homemade and illegal booze. This corruption in turn made the average citizen’s respect for the law evaporate.

All those people who used to work at breweries, wineries, distilleries along with their salesmen, advertisers, marketers, distributors, delivery men, and on and one were suddenly out of a job, causing much economic harm. It’s no mere coincidence that our worst economic depression took place during this same period of time. In every sense this experiment was ignoble and failed to achieve any of its goals.

Originally, and for many years after, brewers referred to April 7 as “New Beer’s Eve” Although the fortunes of many breweries and the industry as a whole ebbed and flowed, overall the number of breweries continued to plummet until the early 1980s, when the microbrewery revolution began to reverse that trend.

The Brewers Association, a trade organization for small and regional breweries, is reviving the holiday under the name “Brew Years Eve” and encouraging their members to host celebrations all over the country. Their website lists hundreds of events by state

From their press release:

While the full repeal of Prohibition came on December 5, 1933, a modification of the Volstead Act legalized beer with 3.2 percent alcohol by weight (4.0 percent by volume) starting on April 7 of that year. In fact, one of the first public delivery of beer went to the White House to honor Franklin Delano Roosevelt who had won the presidency in part because he favored repeal. From April 7 on, the country’s brewers were back in business and Americans enjoyed legal beer for eight months before wine and spirits were once again legitimate.

Today, brewers bring Americans a lot more than just beer. Since the 1970s, the ranks of brewers have grown to include more than 1400 small, traditional and independent craft beer makers. Each contributes jobs and a variety of local and federal taxes to the economy.

To learn more about the history of Prohibition, here are some interesting links:

Beer Bottle Workshop

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Last Thursday afternoon I attended a Glass Bottle Workshop put on by the California Small Brewers Association. It was held at and hosted by Lagunitas Brewing in Petaluma, California. A few dozen brewers, suppliers and one journalist packed in the party balcony at Lagunitas to talk about beer bottles. First, some interesting facts about the beer bottle industry today.

In 1985, there were 110 glass plants in the United States. Today, that number has dropped to less than half, or 49 remaining glass plants. Of those, 42 of them (or about 84%) are owned by the three largest companies; Owens-Illinris oe O-I (19 plants), Saint-Gobain (14) and Anchor (8). Seven companies own the remaining eight, with Gujarat Glass International owning two and the rest operating a single plant each. Like most modern industries today, consolidation has whittled the landscape of glass manufacturers down to a few giants with a handful of small players hanging on for dear life. Typically, that’s good news if you’re a big consumer of glass but not so good if you’re a small player. Part of the reason for the shakeup in glass makers ocurred in 1992-94, when there was a huge decline in the market, caused primarily when most soft drink companies converted from glass to plastic bottles. Longnecks far outsell the shorter Heritage bottle and twist-offs currenty outsell non-twist off.

The breakdown of glass bottles is currently as follows:

  1. 85% Beer
  2. 17% Food
  3. 9% Beverages
  4. 5% Non-Food Jars
  5. 5% Wine
  6. 3% Spirits
  7. 3% FAB (Flavored Alcoholic Beverages)

Tony Magee (from Lagunitas) and Mark House (from Pyramid) led a round table panel discussion about issues facing small brewers regarding bottles.

Later Magee led a tour of Lagunitas’ new bottling line, installed last January, by the Italian company Sympak.

After some supplier presentations and an open discussion, the afternoon ended with a beer social. Here Dan Del Grande from Bison Brewing enjoys a pint from Lagunitas.

And here’s a story about an O-I plant in Colorado entitled the House of Glass from the Scripps Howard News Service.

The Celebrator’s 19th Anniversary Party

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Sunday was the 19th Anniversary Party for the Celebrator Beer News. It was held at Trumer Brauerei in Berkeley, California from 4 to 8 p.m. There was a really good turnout for the party and a lot of friends and colleagues were there, which was great fun. Also, there was some terrific beer from twenty breweries, some terrific food from brewer Jeremy Sowers Emergency BBQ and three bands. This is just a few of the photos I took at the party, for more pictures, visit the photo gallery.

Greg Koch, co-owner of Stone Brewing, and Greg’s girlfriend Susan, presented Celebrator publisher Tom Dalldorf with a montage poster of Stone Brewing moments in the Celebrator.

Dan Del Grande, from Bison Brewing, brewed the new Reunion Beer, a charity for Multiple Myeloma (a type of bone cancer) by former Pete’s Wicked Ale employees Pete Slosberg, Virginia MacLean and Alan Shapiro.

A perky Kathryn with Judy Ashowrth and Melissa Myers, from Drake’s Brewing.

Party host Tom Dalldorf with Portland beer writer Fred Eckhardt.

For many more photos from the party, visit the photo gallery.

Photo Gallery: 14th annual Toronado Barley Wine Festival

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Saturday was Day One of the 14th annual Toronado Barley Wine Festival in San Francisco. The festival will run until the next Saturday, February 24. But the first day is when the crowd descend and the beers are judged. As usual, I was one of the early arriver’s even though my judging round — the finals — wasn’t scheduled until at least noon. It was great to see so many friends and colleagues and just hang out. I spent the day there sipping barley wine and other beers and left around dinner time.

All of the beers at this year’s festival.

Ditto, this time from the side.

Now that judging takes place across the street, the Toronado’s backroom is available for many more customers.

And this year, a few of the beers were available in the back room, too, to help alleviate the crush at the main bar.

Baron Brewing’s Jeff Smiley and Kate Geiser down from Washington.

Judging the final round of nine barley wines. After all seven judges sampled each of the finalists, we were able to eliminate three from pack fairly quickly. Then two more fell after a lot of discussion. The remaining four were all excellent in their own ways, and haggling over the order was quite spirited, though happily there was no bloodshed this year. We had some difficulty deciding whether or not our potential third and fourth place beers should get a tie for third or one third and an honorable mention. Ultimately we chose a tie because they were both excellent beers but quite different expressions of the style. We had pretty good consensus on which beers we felt should be first and second, but not necessarily the order. Eventually, we talked our way to a decision we were all happy with. (Thanks to Gregg Wiggins for taking a few shots with my camera.)

After the winners were announced, a group of homebrewers gave Toronado owner Dave Keene an award to show their appreciation for his hosting such a great event for the past 19 years.

Back on the other side of the street, I caught up with friends at the bar. Here, Judy Ashworth, Matt Salie (with Big Sky Brewing) and Judy’s daughter Laurel.

Justin and Daniela (from the Brewing Network) and Shaun O’Sullivan (from 21st Amendment).

An accordionist serenaded Toronado patrons in the back middle room.

Former Stone brewer Lee Chase with Susan and Greg Koch (co-owner of Stone Brewing).

Trappist Beers & Chocolate Dinner

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Bruce Paton, the Beer Chef’s, 3rd annual Beer & Chocolate Dinner paired ten Trappist beers from six out of the seven monastery breweries authorized to call themselves Trappists by the International Trappist Association (ITA). In addition to hors d’oeuvres accented with chocolate (paired with Orval and Chimay Cinq Cents), there were four courses. The first course was a delicious lobster bisque infused with milk chocolate and crème fraiche and paired with Westmalle Dubbel and Chimay Premiere. When they started bringing the bowls of bisque into the dining room, the air was thick with the aroma of lobster, but when you tasted it the chocolate really came through as the dominant flavor.

The table I sat at was Chef Bruce’s table, too, so we got some great insight on how he chose the pairings, found the ingredients and prepared the dishes. Next up was breast of squab with sweet potato chocolate flan and natural jus paired with Achel and Westmalle Tripel.

The third course was Angus beef short ribs braised in Chimay with parsnip puree dark chocolate port wine reduction served with Chimay Grand Reserve and Rochefort 8. The beef was so tender you didn’t need your knife. Also, the parsnips were all but completely overwhelmed by the chocolate flavors, which complemented the meat perfectly.

Guests at the dinner, from left. Cornelia Corey and Ray McCoy (Beer Drinkers of the Year 2001 and 2003, respectively), Bryan Harrell (the Celebrator’s man in Tokyo) and Portland beer writer Fred Eckhardt (who pioneered the beer and chocolate dinner way back in 1988)

The dessert course billed was an “Exploration of Chocolate Delights” which in this case meant three very different chocoholic desserts. There was a lemony chocolate cheesecake, a chocolate mousse with white chocolate pieces in it and a strawberry wearing a tasty white chocolate tuxedo. These were paired with Rochefort 10 and De Koningshoeven Quadrupel. The De Koningshoeven is only one of the seven Trappist breweries in the Netherlands (the rest are all in Belgium) though it is better known by its European name, La Trappe. The only Trappist beer not represented was, of course, Westvleteren, which no longer distributes its beer outside the monastery.

Beer Chef Bruce Paton with his two great passions, food and beer. Thanks Bruce for another terrific dinner. Look for a Valley Brewing dinner at the end of April and a Allagash beer dinner in late May.

Bistro Double IPA Festival 2007

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The 7th annual Double IPA Festival was held yesterday at the Bistro in Hayward, California. There were 42 beers that we judged, narrowing it down to four. All four were terrific beers and any one of them could have ended up in first place, though ultimately Ballast Point Point Brewing‘s Dorado was the one we picked. Judging when pretty smoothly and we had a great group this time, including three Brits in town working on a CAMRA book on the west coast.

Judging in the cellar, trying to take the final ten beers and pick three winners.

Ben McFarland, this year’s British Beer Writer of the Year, and Tom Sandham. The pair are in town along with my friend Glenn Payne (who helped start Meantime Brewing) to work on a CAMRA guidebook for British and European tourists coming to the west coast.

The other end of the judging table, with me flanked by Pete Slosberg and Dave Keene.

While upstairs it was raining something firece.

Darn, I forget the woman on the left’s name, but the rest are Dave Keene (owner of the Toronado), Melissa Myers (with Drake’s Brewing) and Ed Chainey (with Anderson Valley Brewing).

Vinnie Cilurzo (from Russian River Brewing), Shaun O’Sullivan (from 21st Amendment) and Pete Slosberg share a Falstaff.

Double IPA Festival Winners

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Ballast Point Point Brewing‘s Dorado was chosen best in show at the 7th annual Double IPA Festival today at the Bistro in Hayward, California. The full winner list is below.