Brookston Beer Bulletin

Jay R. Brooks on Beer

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Russian River Named Brewery of the Year by Malt Advocate

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Russan River Brewing Co. of Santa Rosa, California was named brewery of the year by Malt Advocate. The announcement was made today with the publication of the latest issue of the magazine. Malt Advocate is primarily a magazine for the whisky enthusiast but they do cover beer, as it does contain a considerable amount of malt, after all. The Malt Advocate Whisky Awards are given each year in a variety of categories including brewery of the year. This year marks the 12th year awards have been given by the magazine. Previous winners include Stone Brewing, Deus Brut des Flandres, Victory Brewing, and New Glarus Brewing. Congratulations to Vinnie and Natalie at Russian River.

John Hansell, Publisher & Editor of Malt Advocate, had this to say about Russian River Brewing:

Beer without boundaries. I’m not sure if the Russian River Brewing Company has a motto, but this one would certainly work. One glance through their beer portfolio and you’ll understand why: Supplication, a brown ale aged for 12 months in pinot noir barrels, produced with sour cherries and wild bacteria and yeast; Beatification, a blond ale aged in New Belgium Brewing Company’s La Folie Barrels for 22 months; Pliny the Elder, a high-alcohol, high-gravity, super-hopped double IPA. Their list of beers seems endless, restricted only by how many hours a day brewing craftsman Vinnie Cilurzo (pictured) is willing to brew, and not willing to sleep.

Vinnie first started brewing Russian River beers at the Korbel Champagne Cellars in 1997, and there is indeed a wine influence in many of the beers he produces today—both in his production methods and flavors. Since 2003, he has been producing his cutting-edge beers in downtown Santa Rosa, California. Within the past two years, he has already garnered many awards and accolades from the beer industry. It’s time that the rest of the world discovers his beers. He doesn’t make much, so it will make his already scarce beers even more coveted. But in the long run, we will all benefit.

Russian River beers transcend styles and marry cultures. Truly, beer without boundaries.

New Bottling Line for Lagunitas

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I dropped by the Lagunitas Brewing Co. today on my way back from a photographic trip to Cotati. I was quite literally “in the neighborhood.” I recalled that Lagunitas was planning on being closed during the month of January and would be installing a new bottling line. So I figured I’d stop in and see if either owner Tony McGee or sales director Ron Lindenbusch were around. Happily, both were in residence so we chatted for a few minutes before Tony gave me a little look-see at the new line that’s being installed.

Bottles on the new line as engineers work to install everything.

Tony shows off the combination filler/bottle washer. It was made by Italian manufacturer BC Technologies. Apparently they’re doing a lot of business with smaller brewers who cannot afford Krones’ new pricing. Other breweries recently having installed a BC bottling line inclue Saint Arnold’s, Dogfish Head, Avery, Lost Coast and Rogue.

Tony explains how it works and how he can trick it into thinking there’s a bottle on the line.

Having tricked it into thinking there’s a bottle on the line, it got to work and sprayed a jet of water in an effort to clean the imaginary bottle.

It looks like it will be finished and up and running in another week, at most. In another part of the brewery, two new 300 BBL fermenters have been installed and one more is on order. Tony reports that sales of Lagunitas beer was up 23% last year, with their tasty IPA accounting for 70% of the business.

The fermenters out back. There is now room for five more along the back wall of the brewery.

Stone Old Guardian Barley Wine Delayed

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Stone Brewing, formerly of San Marcos but now in their new facility in nearby Escondido, California, have announced a slight delay in the release date for Old Guardian Barley Wine. Instead of Januar 31, the seasonal beer will now be available on February 27.

Stone gave the following aditional information regarding the change in release date:

We originally announced that the 2006 Stone Old Guardian Barley Wine would come out on January 30th, however that has changed! Seems that a new brewery kinda got in the way…The 2006 Stone Old Guardian Barley Wine will now hit shelves on Monday, February 27th so change those calendars!

Your tastebuds are counting on you to check the Stone website and memorize the distribution list so you can treat them to yet another Stone Special Release. This beer is one to age in your cellar, beer ‘fridge, or someplace cool (50ish), upright, and dark.

Don’t forget about the Stone Old Guardian Barley Wine Specialty Glasses. The wallop of malt character matched with a Stone-esque amount of hops immediately tells you the Old Guardian is no standard barley wine. The Specialty Glass designed for it is equally distinctive, with a sharp angular profile that immediately tells you that this too is no standard goblet. You have no excuses to drink it out of anything else.

Always worth waiting for, Stone’s Old Guardian has consistently been one of the best bottled barleywine-style ales available.

This has been previously announced, but the 10th Anniversary Celebration has been scheduled for September 9. I still haven’t made it to one of these brouhahas yet, but perhaps this year ….

Stone also sent the following press release regarding the 10th Anniversary Party:

Are you an early riser, or an afternoon type of person? Since you’re all invited to the Stone 10th Anniversary Celebration & Invitational Beer Festival on Saturday, September 9th you need to start deciding now which session you’ll be attending. Here’s why: for this year’s event we are breaking the event into two different sessions (like last year).

Our annual event will once again be benefiting some very Worthy, local charities: the Boys & Girls Club of San Marcos, Palomar Family YMCA, the Surfrider Foundation, and Fight ALD!

Since this is our 10-year bash, we are planning on having the most guest breweries we’ve ever had, tons of great food, homebrewed sodas, and lots, lots more.

Glen Hay Falconer Foundation Announces 2006 Events

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The Glen Hay Falconer Foundation announced today two events for 2006. The foundation honors the memory of iconoclastic brewer Glen Falconer, who died in a tragic accident in 2002. He brewed at Wild Duck Brewery in Eugene, Oregon. The foundation raises money for scholarships so that worthy brewers can attend the Siebel Institute in Chicago.

The dedicated group of individuals that made the past Brew Fests so successful is already planning for the fourth annual Sasquatch Brew Fest on Saturday, June 3, 2006 in Eugene. Mark your calendar and check out the festival website created and maintained by Doug Fuchs of Flying Ink Media.

On July 28, the Foundation will produce the second annual Sasquatch BrewAm golf tournament at McMenamins Edgefield. Pair up with celebrity brewers for a morning of beer and golfing camaraderie, as the Sasquatch BrewAm is unlike any other golf tournament and is designed to appeal to beer-loving golfers of all levels. Stay tuned to the festival website for more information.

I’ve never attended either event, but have heard glowing reports about both from friends who have participated. Plus, it’s a very worthy cause. Glen was a great person and is very much missed by everyone who knew him.

Ben Franklin in the Bay Area

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For the 300th Anniversary of the birth of Ben Franklin, which was January 17, the Benjamin Franklin Tercentenary teamed up with the Brewers Association to create a special beer to honor the occasion called “Poor Richard’s Ale.” A contest was held to choose a winning recipe. The winner was Tony Simmons of Brick Oven Brewing in Pagosa Springs, Colorado. The style was roughly that of an Old Ale or a Strong Scotch Ale. The recipe was then given out to all the Association members. Sadly, only 99 brewers made the beer, which I actually thought was a nifty little idea. That’s less than two breweries per state or about 7% of the estimated 1,368 American breweries currently operating today. Oh, well. Happily, four of those are in the Bay Area and they all got together at Half Moon Bay Brewing yesterday to taste their efforts.

The four brewers (from left to right) were Dave McLean, of Magnolia, Shaun O’Sullivan, of 21st Amendment, Emil Caluori, of Steelhead’s Burlingame brewery, and Alec Moss, of Half Moon Bay Brewing.

All four more or less followed the recipe but each deviated slightly due generally to necessity or availability of ingredients. Because of that, it was quite surprising how differently the four beers tasted given such small variations in ingredients. Even their color and head retention varied widely, as you can see below.

From left, Poor Richard’s Ale as imagined by Steelhead, 21st Amendment, Magnolia and Half Moon Bay.

The beers’ alcohol content came out pretty close with a range of 6.6-7% abv, with one each at the outside range and the other two at 6.8%. It appeared that Emil followed the recipe the closest and his at least resembled what I pictured a beer of the late 1700s to look like, cloudy and dully colored. Shaun did not use molasses and Dave used a roasted malt rather than Special Roast or Black Patent and Alec substituted Special B for the Special Roast. He also only used about half the corn the recipe called for.

Steelhead: Emil’s had that wonderful cloudy appearance with the dull brown ruddy complexion with dry malt aromas. It had very mild flavors with discernable sweet molasses, great mouthfeel, and a clean finish that boasted just a kiss of the hops at the end. This was a very drinkable beer, thirst-quenching and made it easy to imagine drinking tankards of this brew sitting outside at a wooden table on a cobblestone street in colonial Philly.

21st Amendment: Despite the forgotten molasses, Shaun’s version had a sharply sweet nose and bright golden amber color. It had crisp, clean flavors with some hoppy bitterness and a lingering finish. Also a very mild-bodied ale, it had just a touch of dry sourness lying pleasantly underneath and nipping at your taste buds. Also an excellent beer, it nonethless felt like it would be more at home in modern Philadelphia.

Magnolia: Dave’s use of roasted malt gave his beer the darkest complexion of the four. It was the black of a starless night sky with a thickly rich tan head. It also had a roasted nose with sweet aromas (the molasses?). Mild and silky smooth flavors with lactic chocolate and coffee notes from the roasted malt that would have reminded Franklin of the local milk maid, I imagine. After all, he was fond of the ladies. The finish is mostly clean with hints of the roastiness staying behind to taunt you.

Half Moon Bay: Alec’s take had dark brown color that was streaked with bright red wherever the light hit it. The nose was sharp and clean, with hints of peppery spices. Also boasting excellent mild flavors and a clean finish, this too felt like a modern interpretation.

None of the beers hinted at their above average alcohol content and could be enjoyed by the tankard or pitcher. And while there were similarities — all were mild, for example — what distinguished them was their differences. I might have expected those differences to be more subtle but in the end that would have been disappointing. As it was, it was more like great jazz bands doing their own arrangement of a old standard. Nobody wants to hear Woody Herman, Stan Kenton or Duke Ellington’s versions of “Take the A Train” all sound the same. What makes them magical is their differences. This was a great deal of fun and my only regret is that there weren’t more brewers who made their interpretation of Poor Richard’s Ale.

After the tasting, we hung out for a little while longer, enjoying a pint of this and that. It was a beautiful day on the coast with cool breezes and a warming sun that seemed more like spring than January. So with the doors wide open, we enjoyed the day as Ben Frankin might have: with good company, good conversation and a good ale.

Alec, and the rest of, listen as Shaun tells a story about the good old days on radio during a visit to see Alec’s brewhouse.

Sharing stories over a pint in the brewhouse. Form left, Alec’s assistant brewer, Dave McLean, Shaun O’Sullivan, Alec Moss and Emil Caluori.

Half Moon Bay Brewing

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This afternoon I drove to Half Moon Bay Brewing for a tasting of all four of the Bay Area’s examples of Poor Richard’s Ale. It was the first time I’d been to Alec Moss’ new brewery. Alec used to be the head brewer at Golden Pacific Brewing and then briefly he brewed at Redbird Brewing in San Carlos. Since I was there for another tasting, I didn’t get a chance to try all of his beers, but the IPA I had was excellent. It had great hop character but was pretty well restrained (especially for a West Coast IPA) and nicely balanced. Not quite an English-style IPA but milder than many modern American IPAs. You could drink a lot of these sitting in their outdoor patio facing the beach watching the sun set on the California coast.

Alec Moss, head brewer at Half Moon Bay Brewing Co.

Marin Brewing Names New GM

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Marin Brewing Co. of Larkspur, California announced today that Jennifer Procopio will become the new General Manager of the brewery. According to the press release, “she’s been running the show unofficially for a while now.” Join me in wishing her all the best in her new position.

Beer Mapping Project

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Using the new Google Mapping API technology, the Beer mapping Project is setting out to map all of the brewpubs and breweries in America. They’ve also begun work on city maps that include beer bars and beer stores in addition to breweries in brewpubs. San Francisco / Bay Area is already done and it looks great. They’ve divided the lower 48 into six regions. They’re also looking for help in spotting errors. Take a look at your area and see if you can help them make the map as accurate as possible. It’s a very worthwhile project, in my humble opinion.

Heineken Light? Do We Really Need Another Light Beer?

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heineken-white
Heineken announced today that it is set to launch its Heineken Premium Light brand nationwide after a “successful” test launch in four states last year. For years they resisted this and in fact that was the reason Amstel Light was created. For the big beer business, light beer is only the category that has shown much growth in recent years. Since our economy is built on naked growth without regard to consequences, the last few years have seen the introduction of such useless products as Corona Light, Rolling Rock Light, Sam Adams Light and Edison Light.

What nobody ever talks about, especially not in the media, is the fact that the caloric difference between a regular beer and a light beer is virtually insignificant. Not to pick on them — the numbers are about the same for all brands — but a 12 ounce bottle of Budweiser is 145 calories while Bud Light is 110 calories. That’s a difference of 35 calories, which is the caloric content of an average size orange. Big freaking deal. The way light beers are advertised you’d think light beer had almost no calories. Even if you had an entire six-pack you’d only “save” 210 calories, or a little less than a cheese omlette. An entire category of goods — light beer — has been built on nothing. The dietary benefits are all but illusory but the propaganda machine called advertising pounded home the opposite message for years and years. And the viewing audience, with a gullibility that knows no limits, swallowed it without question. So ask most people if light beer is healthier or better for you and they’ll reply with a confident “yes.” But that’s just a magnificent success by advertising of convincing people of something that’s simply not true or at best, is greatly exaggerated. Every time I see someone drinking a light beer I can’t help thinking “another duped fool.” Of course, most people who drink light beer probably don’t care about how bad it tastes because it’s unlikely they can taste the difference.

Ironically, the man who invented light beer, Joe Owades, passed away last month in Sonoma County. He created light beer for Rheingold Breweries in the 1960s and they marketed it as a diet beer. It failed. He then took the recipe to his next job with the Meister Brau brewery where they did reasonably well with it. In 1972, Miller Brewing bought Meister Brau and released Miller Lite, which neither tasted great nor was less filling. But as they say, the rest is history. I’d met Joe a couple of times. He was a nice man, and I’m certainly sorry about his death, but the hard truth is he was no friend of the craft beer industry. He believed that ale yeast was defective. Of course, the majority of craft beer is ale. So according to Joe, most craft beer is defective. Now to my knowledge he never explained how a naturally occurring living organism like yeast could be defective but such was his disdain for beer not mass produced.

But Joe’s legacy is one, I believe, that has helped to ruin people’s taste for flavorful beers. By selling people a more watered down product, the popularity of light beer fools people into believing that it is a healthy product that is good for them. But like most, if not all, mass-produced beers it is loaded with chemicals. As Garret Oliver put it, mass produced beers are “highly engineered food product[s], the equivalent of Wonder Bread, Twinkies, and Kraft slices.” So the end result is that people’s perception is that light beer, virtually unflavored, is the taste of health, diet and trendiness. So actual real craft beer that has few, if any, added chemicals and is loaded with flavors is perceived as unhealthy, fat-creating and by extension uncool. This certainly won’t give craft beer’s paltry 3.5% market share much of a chance to rise.

So while I think regular Heineken is undrinkable swill, a Heineken Light will almost certainly be even worse, which is frankly quite hard to believe. That Heineken is perceived as a “premium” beer is yet another amazing coup for the propagandists. The millions they’ll spend to convince clueless America that Heineken Light is a really good idea will no doubt succeed in further damaging the quest to increase the demand for better beer.