Brookston Beer Bulletin

Jay R. Brooks on Beer

Socialize

Beer Making Is Marvel Of Industrial Chemistry

By

copper-kettle
In June of 1933, just as Prohibition was in its death throes, that month’s issue of Popular Science magazine ran a two-page spread entitled Beer Making Is Marvel Of Industrial Chemistry, illustrated by Benjamin Goodwin Seielstad. It’s great fun to see it all laid out the way it’s done here. It seems like they were laying the groundwork for the return of brewing in America.

beer_making_1

There’s not a great deal of text accompanying the chart, but here it is in its entirety, from page two of the beer making chart:

With the removal of national restrictions against the manufacture and sale of beer, American brewers are again in action. Their operations represent one of the most extensive applications of modern industrial chemistry. More than 2,000,000,000 pounds of malt, 650,000,000 pounds of corn and corn products, and 41,000,000 pounds of hops are a part of the vast consignment of raw materials that experts will turn each year into beer. On these pages, our artist shows how the transformation is accomplished in one big, and now active, American brewery.

Beer is the fermented product of malted or sprouted grain, usually barley. Its manufacture requires the conversion of the grain’s starch into fermentable sugar, and the transformation of this sugar, by fermentation, into alcohol and carbon dioxide gas. During the process, the beer is given its characteristic bitter flavor by the addition of hops, the yellowish-green cones or catkins of the hop vine.

Malt, the principal raw material, has previously been produced by steeping, sprouting, and drying barley. Germination develops an important enzyme or digestive fluid called diastase, capable of turning the malt’s starch into sugar. Since this task does not exhaust the enzyme’s power, additional starch in the form of corn or rice is often added at the start of the brewing operation. Subsequent steps from the mash to the final product are explained in the drawings. The color of the finished beer depends upon the raw materials; natural malt yields a pale beer, while caramelized, or heat-treated, malt gives a dark beer.

beer_making_2

Beer In Ads #333: Ballantine Green

By

ad-billboard
Thursday’s ad is from 1949, a Ballantine ad that’s all green, in honor of St. Patrick’s Day. My initial thought is that it was printed in a magazine that wasn’t full color but instead used spot color, in this case black and green. But it works pretty well. And I love the slogan: “A flavor you will find in no other beverage.”

Ballantine-1949-green

Triple Rock’s 25th Anniversary

By

triple-rock-check
Monday marked the 25th anniversary of Triple Rock Brewery & Alehouse’s opening in 1986. Triple Rock was the third brewpub to open in California, the fifth in the U.S., and the only one still owned and operated by the original founders — John and Reid Martin. I stopped by this afternoon to join in the celebration and partake of the special beers that brewmaster Rodger Davis whipped up for the occasion.

P1030346
The Triple Rock truck was running again and parked out front.

P1030327
Davis re-created Batch No. 1, the first beer Triple Rock brewed.

batch-no-1
The first beer John and Reid brewed was a pale ale created on Christmas Day in 1985. Rodger altered the recipe slightly to account for different yeast and varied the amount of hops.

P1030331
Several former Triple Rock brewers stopped by for the party, including Shaun O’Sullivan, co-founder of 21st Amendment, whose first brewing job was at Triple Rock.

P1030336
AT 5:00 p.m., co-founder John Martin tapped a firkin of the Batch No. 1 that current brewmaster Rodger Davis dry-hopped and aged for a beer that was both historical and modern.

P1030343
Founders, and original brewers, John and Reid Martin, with their latest brewer, Rodger Davis, toasted the first 25 years with a beer bridging the past, the present and their future.

P1030344
John Martin with Shaun O’Sullivan, Reid Martin, Homer Smith (owner of the local homebrew shop, Oak Barrel, where the Martins bought all the ingredients for their first batch in 1985), and longtime beer salesman Ed Chainey.

Congratulations to John and Reid Martin. I hope to try the next anniversary beer 25 years from now.

Beer In Ads #331: Budweiser, Andrew Jackson 7th President

By

ad-billboard
As today is Andrew Jackson’s birthday, for Tuesday’s ad I dusted off this 1908 ad for Budweiser in which Olde Hickory features prominently. The ad’s headline reads “1908 Budweiser is ‘Liquid Bread’ / ‘Liquid Life’ The Natural Drink of America / Andrew Jackson 7th President of the United States.” Below the drawing of Jackson on horseback in battle, the text suggests he drank only beer. “All his life,” begins the ad copy,” he drank the generous creative juices of the malt.” They don’t write ’em like that any more.

Bud-1908-Jackson

Guinness Ad #59: The Toucan Be Enjoyed Together!

By

guinness-toucan
Our 59th Guinness ad shows the iconic toucan carrying two trays. One, of course, has Guinness on it and the other a tasty meal. The slogan, using a play on words, is “The Toucan be enjoyed together!” Nice to see food and beer being suggested, but it’s a little funny to see it being presented as something unusual, or at least as a combination that wasn’t obvious. You mean I can eat AND drink beer?

Guinness-snacks-2

Celebrate Triple Rock’s 25th Anniversary Monday

By

triple-rock-check
Geez has time flown. Twenty-five plus years ago you weren’t even allowed to operate a brewpub in the State of California. Finally in 1983 that finally changed, thanks to some hard work and a lot of meetings. Shortly thereafter, the first two brewpubs in California opened, Mendocino Brewing and Buffalo Bill’s. The third opened 25 years ago come this Monday, March 14, 1986. It was started by the Martin brothers — John and Reid — who had both homebrewed in college. It originally opened under a name you may not be familiar with: Roaring Rock. Unfortunately, the folks from Latrobe, Pennsylvania, who brewed Rolling Rock, thought the name was too close to their own, and so the Martins had to pick a new name. Eventually they settled on Triple Rock Brewery & Alehouse.

Triple-Rock-Opening-Day-2
Triple Rock when it opened in 1986.

This Monday, March 14, 2011, Triple Rock will be celebrating the 25th Anniversary of opening its doors. Here’s what will be going on at the brewpub all day long:

In celebration Rodger has re-brewed “Brew #1,″ the first beer ever made in the Triple Rock system. Reid & John originally brewed it on Christmas Day 1985. On March 14th we will be pouring Brew #1 (a Pale Ale) all day for just $1.75 a pint (the original price for a pint in 1986). We will also tap a hopped-up cask version of Brew #1 at 5 pm. Kind of a “2011 hopping meets 1986 cask ale” beer. Come by and try both of them!

The kitchen will be serving some old-school items, such as our original Muffaletta sandwich. But no, you’re not going to have to go to the “window” to order your grub, like you did in ’86.

John & Reid will preside over the tapping of the cask, and maybe go for another round of arm-wresting (John lost to Reid at the Festivus celebration last Dec.) Join past & present TRB brewers, staff, and long-time regulars to toast The Rock’s 25 years of making beer!

We’ve also created a special anniversary tee-shirt that pays homage to our original name, ”Roaring Rock Brewery”. There will be just one small print run of this shirt, so you should get yours before they’re gone. But, if you are up on your trivia of the early days of Roaring Rock/Triple Rock — you just may win one!

Triple-Rock-25th