Brookston Beer Bulletin

Jay R. Brooks on Beer

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First Tastes of the Fest

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After the parade on Thursday was the annual media tasting led by Noel Blake. In years past it was conducted before the festival began, but because of the parade this was no longer possible. But that also meant we were crowded around all of the other early festival-goers, which happily turned out not to be as bad as I thought it might be. Noel Blake has been our host of this event as long as I can remember, and he does a great job picking out several representative beers for everyone to sample and also explains what led to his choosing those particular beers.

Noel Blake using a bullhorn so he could be heard telling us about the beer in our glass.
 

Some of the beers we sampled were the following:

Bourbon Barrel Abbey Dubbel. The original goal of OBF was to showcase beers from around the country to educate and expose local consumers to craft beer. So while most of the beer at the festival is either from Oregon or nearby states like Washington and California, there are a few from farther afield. Probably the farthest perennial exhibitor is New Jersey’s Flying Fish Brewery, which has been sending beer to the festival for countless years. This year it was their abbey dubbel aged in a bourbon barrel. Malty and nutty, with some fruity esters and only a hint of the bourbon’s alchemy it was decent lighter dubbel.
 

Not quite open yet, Hopworks Urban Brewery is the brainchild of former Laurelwood brewer Christian Ettinger. They were pouring their Organic IPA, which was made with Amarillo, Centennial and Ahtanum hops. It’s a big hop monster, thick with flowery and citrusy hop aromas and flavors that stick to the roof of your mouth. I also had a chance to visit the brewery, which is still under construction. Look for a later post with photos from the new place.
 

Laurelwood Public House was pouring their PNW Pils, a pilsner with not only traditional Saaz hops but also Brewer’s Gold. It’s so well-hopped that it may as well be a big northwest hop because it’s only reminiscent of a pilsner. Really, it was more of a pilsner on steroids.

 

The TG Triple from Terminal Gravity Brewing in Enterprise, Oregon was one of my highlights for the festival. I’m not exactly sure how to describe it, because there’s no jumping off place to begin since it’s so far from what I think of when handed something called a “triple.” Strong, but not too strong (at 8.5% abv), rich, but not too rich, light, but not too light. It certainly tastes mild for a triple, but that’s not to say it isn’t full of flavor all its own. But really, who cares what it is, what’s important is that it’s a great beer.

 

At the media tasting: Rick Sellers, from Pacific Brew News, Merideth and Chris Nelson, The Beer Geek, and Meagan Flynn (at right) with her assistant, publisher of a new magazine — Beer NW — that will debut in October covering the beer scene in the Pacific Northwest.

Tom Dalldorf, publisher of the Celebrator, Fred Eckhardt, legendary Portland beer scribe, Meagan Flynn and our host, Noel Blake.

 

Mayor Leads Parade to Open Oregon Brewers Festival

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On Thursday, the 20th annual Oregon Brewers Festival began with a brunch at the Rogue Public House on NW Flanders in Portland. Afterwards, Portland’s mayor, Tom Potter, led a parade through the streets of town to the festival grounds at Tom McCall Waterfront Park along the Willamette River.

Mayor Tom Potter with Chris Crabb as the parade begins.

Eventually, after winding through the streets of Portland, everyone massed across the street from the grounds and crossed the street to enter the festival.

The mayor tapped the ceremonial keg and shared the first pint with festival director Art Larrance, and the festival was declared officially open.

For more photos from this year’s Oregon Brewers Festival Parade, visit the photo gallery.
 

Off to Portland

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I’m up waay too early to catch a flight to Portland for the 20th annual Oregon Brewers Festival. I get in at 8 a.m. and then it’s off to the Rogue Public House for brunch before the parade to open the festival at Noon. This is probably my second favorite festival of the year. Time permitting, I’ll try to post photos from the various events surrounding the festival and the festival itself, of course, each day.

Sierra Nevada Bottles Anniversary Ale

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For a long time now, if you wanted to try Sierra Nevada Brewing Co.‘s anniversary ale, you had to drive to Chico and visit the brewery pub, because that was the only place it was available … until now. This year, Sierra Nevada will be offering the 27th Anniversary Ale in bottles. I’ve only been fortunate enough to be in Chico at the right time to try the beer one time, many years ago. It’s great that it will now be much more widely available.

From the press release:

For the first time in its 27-year history, Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. will release its Anniversary Ale in bottles. For years, this coveted beer has only been available in the brewery pub in Chico, California during the fall season when the company celebrates the anniversary of its founding in 1980.

“When we heard people had driven all the way from San Francisco last year to try some of this beer, and how disappointed they were when they couldn’t take some home, we figured it was time to make our Anniversary Ale available to everyone on a consistent basis,” said brewery founder and CEO Ken Grossman.

Despite the pent-up demand, the company has historically only been able to produce its Anniversary Ale intermittently. Yet that hasn’t stemmed interest from devout followers who eagerly anticipate anything new from Sierra Nevada, which has been one of the innovators of the craft brewing renaissance since its founding in 1980.

“Ever since we put out our 25th Anniversary Ale in 2005, the demand to make this an annual beer has increased,” said Sierra Grossman, the company’s brand manager and daughter of the founder. “Since we don’t offer growlers to-go at the brewery, people have been pretty frustrated over the years that they haven’t been able to take any Anniversary Ale home.”

The 2007 Anniversary Ale features prominent usage of Cascade hops– the signature hop used in Sierra Nevada’s most popular product, Pale Ale. It is an American Style IPA with a big, fragrant pine and citrus hop aroma balanced by the sweetness of two-row pale and caramel malt. It finishes with an additional Cascade dry-hopping creating a big hop aroma Sierra Nevada fans will look forward to.

Brestfest ’07

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Saturday was the 7th annual Micro Breweries Battling Breast Cancer Brewfest (a.k.a. “Breastfest“) in the courtyard behind Marin Brewing in Larkspur, California. It’s a festival near and dear to my heart because I lost my mother to breast cancer when I was only 21 (and she was 42). It’s a small, crowded place — especially since it’s become so popular — but it’s worthy cause, as far as I’m concerned. There was a lot of good beer and friends in attendance, plus food, music and some pretty wonderful weather. All in all, a great event.

“Gabby” looking fetching in her pink hat, pouring 21st Amendment’s Watermelon Wheat.

Ken and a colleague, both sporting pink hair, from North Coast Brewing.

For more photos from this year’s Micro Breweries Battling Breast Cancer Brewfest, visit the photo gallery.
 

Hard Drive Crash

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My computer crashed two days ago while running a routine update. The culprit was the hard drive, which has now been replaced. I’ve got my computer back now but I’m still waiting to see if I can get all the data off the old drive. Until then, I’m missing some files that make it possible for new posts to be created. Hopefully, posting will continue again by this afternoon or tomorrow. Thanks for your patience.

Toronado 20th Anniversary Events

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Mark your calendars, and start training your livers for a marathon, because next month, beginning August 9, a three-day celebration for the Toronado‘s 20th anniversary will take place.

First up, on Thursday August 9,a special night of music and beer will be held at Russian River Brewing in Santa Rosa, California. Two bands, American Dog (from Dave Keene’s home state of Ohio) and Broken Teeth (out of Austin, Texas) will perform. On tap, in addition to the usual beers, will be a special anniversary ale created by Vinnie Cilurzo for the Toronado milestone. No word yet on what time the festivities will begin, but I’ll update that information as soon as I get it.

The following night, Friday, August 10, this time at Annie’s Social Club in San Francisco another special night of music is planned. Beginning at 9:00 p.m., Alcoholcaust and The Toronado will present the Toronado’s 20th Anniversary Party and Big Daddy Dave’s Birthday featuring Broken Teeth, American Dog and Infested. Annie’s Social Club is located at 917 Folsom Street at 5th in San Francisco. It’s a free show with no cover.

The big finale will take place Saturday night, August 11, starting at 5:00 p.m., at the Toronado. In addition to the Russian River Anniversary Ale, Tomme Arthur from the Lost Abbey as created a special blended beer for the Toronado anniversary called “Cable Car.” Only six kegs of this beer were made, one of which will be at the Toronado Saturday evening. The remaining five will be bottled as a special release. Also on tap that night will be a special cask version of Anchor’s Porter. It should be an amazing night of beer.

 

The Homebrew Chef’s Latest Creation

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I got the good news over the weekend, the Homebrew Chef, Sean Paxton, has a new apprentice. On Thursday, July 12, at 6:28 a.m., his wife gave birth to a baby girl, their first. She was 8 lbs., 1 oz., and 22 in. Her name is Olivia Rose Paxton. Join me in wishing her and her parents all the best.

Olivia Rose. She already has good taste in beer.
 

Bravo for the Winners

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Okay, I promise that was the last bad Bravo pun, but yesterday at Drake’s Brewing in San Leandro the 2nd annual Single Hop Festival & Washoe Tournament took place. This year, 21 breweries made an IPA using only Bravo hops, following roughly the same recipe. The recipe called for mostly 2-row malt, along with Munich and Crystal 45, though the exact malts was left to each brewery. The 21 breweries used seven different ale yeast strains and nine of them filtered the beer. Hop additions were specified in the directions, though mash and fermentation temperatures were left to each brewery.

I was asked to coordinate and lead the judging, and I took a hedonistic approach, meaning we used a standard of which beer would you buy for yourself and a friend. Since they were all IPAs, we didn’t dwell on style considerations. I divided the judges into teams of three each, and gave each group seven random beers, from which they each chose two to push forward to the final round. We were then joined by Mike Sutton, who works for S.S. Steiner (the company that developed the Bravo hop variety) and chose our three favorites from the six. Sometimes when I judge deadlocks are broken by a simple vote with the beers getting the majority of votes being declared the winner. While I understand the rationale for this method, I do not personally like to use it because it’s my feeling that all of the judges should be satisfied with the results, not just a majority. For this reason, I prefer to use more of a jury-like approach where ten angry men talk it out until all can agree with the results. This approach does tend to take longer, but I think the result is a more well-thought out decision that each judge can feel good about. This year, the winners we chose were:

  1. Bison Brewing
  2. Russian River Brewing
  3. Sonoma Coop’s

The three other beers that made it to the finals were, in no particular order, from Firehouse Brewing, Seabright and 21st Amendment. The Bravo hop proved to be far milder than last year’s Summit hop and overall made for a better-tasting beer. There did seem to be less variation, too, but also Bravo did not have bold signature aromas the way Summit did. That’s not better or worse, just different. It seems like Bravo should blend well with many other hops and should end up being a successful hop over time. Now that’s my idea of a fun afternoon. The only thing that would have made it better is if I could have played washoes.

Washoes,

Beer and Barbecue.

Shaun O’Sullivan, from 21st Amendment Brewery, James Costa, from E.J. Phair Brewing, and Vinnie Cilurzo from Russian River Brewing.
 

For more photos from the Single Hop Festival, visit the photo gallery.
 

Bravo For the New Hop

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Countless new hop varieties are created every year, so many in fact that they are given only a number. A hop has to really prove itself worthy before it actually gets a name. For example, Hop #01046 began its life in Prosser, Washington at the Golden Gate Roza Hop Ranches. During the summer of 2000, a female hop known as Zeus was cross-pollinated with a male known simply as #98004 (whose mother is in effect Nugget hops). Its lineage, therefore, is “50% Zeus, 18.75% Nugget, 25% USDA 19058m, and 6.25% unknown.”

The following year, seeds were collected and the plant was grown in a greenhouse for the next two years, and screened for powdery mildew resistance, along with gender, vigor, and cone type. By 2002, #01046 was exhibiting higher than usual alpha-acid percentages with good resistance and several other very positive attributes. The next year, 2003, #01046 was asexually propagated and rhizomes from the original plant “were dug, divided and planted into multiple greenhouse grown containers.” Eventually, 4,000 softwood-cutting plants were created and then grown at two different locations, the original Roza ranch and also at Golden Gate Emerald Hop Ranches in Sunnyside, Washington. These plants represented the second-generation of the hop plant.
 

 

Over the subsequent three years the hops were grown, sampled, tested and analyzed on a variety of factors. These tests confirmed that the new hop had good resistance to disease, along with exceptionally high yield and high alpha-acids percentages. The hops were harvested and processed into 200 lb. bales, which were tested using the ASBC (American Society of Brewing Chemists) spectrophotometric method and showed “average alpha-acids level of 17.5% and beta-acids level of 3.5%.” The alphas were almost exactly the same as Mom (Zeus) but with much less loss of alpha-acids in storage, a good sign.
 

 

In 2005, third-generation plants were created and a large-scale field test was conducted at the Emerald Ranch. Declared a success, #01046 was re-christened “Bravo” and S.S. Steiner, who operated the hop fields in Washington, filed a patent application. 2006 yielded the first commercially available Bravo hops.
 

 

For every one of these success stories, there are hundreds that never make it. But even getting this far doesn’t guarantee a hop’s success. How it works in the beer is the final and arguably the most important test. So what will it taste like in your beer? Nobody’s certain, though there is a great way to find out. Tomorrow you have an opportunity to sample at least 21 single hop IPAs, using only Bravo hops, made by breweries from around northern California. Drake’s Brewing in San Leandro is hosting their 2nd annual Drake’s Brewing Beer Festival and Washoes Tournament. Each brewery will also be serving some of their other available beers so you’ll have plenty of other beers to sample, as well. But it’s a great educational experience on several fronts. First, you get to try a new hop in its debut in a commercial beer. Second, you can see firsthand how different brewers using different equipment but the same hop and the same IPA recipe can craft 21 beers that all taste distinctively different (at least that was the experience from last year when Summit hop was used at the festival). It should be a fun time. Come join us at Drake’s for a memorable afternoon of beer, food, music and games. See you there.

 

Bravo Hop Characteristics:

Alplha Acids: 14.-17.%
Cohumulone: 29-34% of alpha acids
Beta-Acids: 3-5% w/w
Total Hop Oils: 1.6-2.4% v/w

 

7.14

Single Hop Festival & Washoe Tournament (2nd annual)
Drake’s Brewing, 1933 Davis Street #177, San Leandro, California
510.562.0866 [ website ] [ directions ]

NOTE: The patent filing lists Bravo as #01046 but the photo shows #1046. So far, I’ve been unable to confirm which is correct.