Sierra Nevada Brewing sells its beer in all fifty states, and has sold increasingly more over the last few years. Not surprisingly, there have been rumors circulating for some time about them building a brewery farther east, in such places as Tennessee and Virginia. It seems they had also identified a site in Black Mountain, North Carolina, which is near Asheville. Sierra Nevada had been considering building there “a beer facility and retail outlet that would employ as many as 140 people.” According to ABC Channel 13 in Western North Carolina, “[t]he company requested an interchange at Blue Ridge Road and Interstate 40. The Black Mountain town board asked the state to build it in hopes of luring the business but, it was not approved by the North Carolina Department of Transportation.” No word as to why the state would turn down the request.
Beer Birthday: Crazy Dave Heist
Today is also the 55th birthday of “Crazy” Dave Heist, former owner of Hoptown Brewing in Pleasanton, California. Dave was brewing at Santa Cruz Aleworks for a time, but is now happily retired, at least for the time being. Join me in wishing Dave a very happy birthday.
Out in front of The Bistro in Hayward at the 2008 Wood Aged Beer Festival. From left: Jeremy Cowan, owner of He’Brew, Judy Ashworth, Dave Heist, and Zak, also from He’Brew.
“Crazy Dave” at the Mammoth Lakes Bluesapalooza in 2007.
Kenny Gross and Dave last year at the Bistro’s Wood Aged Beerfest.
Damaged Lagunitas Brewing Equipment At The Dock
You may recall that earlier this month, the Lagunitas Brewhouse [Was] Destroyed At Sea. Lagunitas owner Tony Magee, through his Twitter Feed, just posted a number of new photos of the equipment as it arrived at the Port of Stockton this weekend. I’d say my usual “enjoy,” but it’s a little on the painful-to-see side.
The Lauter Tun at the Port of Stockton.
The most-damaged side.
A close-up of the damage.
And this is a shot of “the crane what done it,” that is smooshed the brewhouse lauter tun.
And yet another damaged piece of equipment.
Mastering The Lagunitas Butterfly Bottle Opener
Curious how to properly use a butterfly beer opener? Not to worry, Lagunitas has your back. Watch and learn, grasshopper.
Lagunitas Brewhouse Destroyed At Sea
Ouch. As many of you probably know, Lagunitas Brewing is in the process of installing a new 250-barrel brewhouse, but there may be a bit of a delay. Apparently the brewhouse was on its way to California, tied down on the top of the deck in the Caribbean, when a storm hit the cargo ship. As it “rolled back and forth by more than 40 degrees a crane came loose from its chains and crushed the brewhouse. The 30′ diameter lauter tun caught the blunt of the attack, and appears to be a total loss.”
Lagunitas Sucks Holiday Ale
No, that’s not a judgment call on my part. I love Lagunitas. But that is the name of their new seasonal ale for 2011; Lagunitas Sucks Holiday Ale. They’re calling it that because the new beer is a temporary replacement for their popular — and usual holiday seasonal — Brown Shugga’, which they won’t be able to brew this year due to the installation of their new 250-barrel brewhouse.
From the press release:
It is a sad day at Lagunitas when we have to tell you that our favorite seasonal — Brown Shugga — will take a year off and come back in full force in the fall of 2012 after the installation of our new brewhouse.
A brand new beer that’s sure to please is our “Lagunitas Sucks Holiday Ale”….. it’s our BrownShugga’ substitute.
This beer is a Dry-Hopped ‘Cereal Medley’ of Barley, Rye, Wheat, and Oats…. full of complexishness from the 4 grains, and weighing in at 7.6% abv, it is mondo-dry-hopped for that big aroma and resinous hop flavor.
The entire project has a self-deprecating air about it, including the label notes, which are always written by Lagunitas founder Tony Magee. To wit:
This sad holiday season we didn’t have the brewing capacity to make our favorite seasonal brew, the widely feared BrownShugga’ Ale. You see, we had a couple of good years (thank you very much) and so heading into this season while we are awaiting a January delivery of a new brewhouse we are jammin’ along brewing 80 barrels of IPA and PILS and such every 3 hours. A couple of months back we realized that since we can only brew a mere 60 barrels of Shugga every 5 hours, that we were seriously screwed. For every case of Shugga’ brewed, we’d short 3 cases of our daily brews. The new brewhouse will help insure that this kind of failure never happens again. It’s a mess that we can not brew our BrownShugga’ this year and we suck for not doing it. There is nothing cool about screwing up this badly and we know it. Maybe we can sue our sorry selves. There is no joy in our hearts this holiday and the best we can hope for is a quick and merciful end. F*@& us. This totally blows. Whatever. We freaking munch moldy donkey butt and we just want it all to be over ….
My guess is that the new Lagunitas Suck Holiday Ale will be so good that we’ll all forgive them and Santa will not bring them all a lump of coal this Christmas. They do seem to be appealing to Santa’s better nature but putting a yummy-looking Santa cookie on the label. Perhaps they’ll leave some of them out on Christmas Eve so when Santa comes down the brewhouse chimney, he can eat himself.
Bistro IPA Festival Winners 2011
Family commitments kept me from attending this year’s Bistro IPA Festival, but owner Vic Kralj was kind enough to send me the list of the winners. Craig Cauwels’ IPA, from Schooner’s in Antioch, California, was chosen best in show at the 14th annual IPA Festival yesterday at the Bistro in Hayward, California. The full list of winners is below.
- 1st Place: Schooners IPA (Schooner’s Grille & Brewery)
- 2nd Place: Aroma Coma (Drake’s Brewing)
- 3rd Place: Hops On Rye (Fire House Brewery)
- Honorable Mention: Head Hunter IPA (Fat Heads Brewery & Saloon)
- People’s Choice: Aroma Coma (Drake’s Brewing)
Beer Birthday: Ken Allen
Today is also the birthday of Ken Allen, former owner of Anderson Valley Brewing. Ken sold the brewery and retired to Belize, at least during part of the year. Join me in wishing Ken a very happy birthday.
Owner Ken Allen, former AVBC salesman Ed Chainey, me, Ralph Woodall, from HopUnion and Ken’s former wife.
Celebrator publisher Tom Dalldorf (whose birthday is also today) with Ken at the 2006 Boonville Beer Festival.
Ken, with Larry Bell, from Bell’s Brewing, along with Ed and Carol Stoudt, from Stoudt’s Brewing, at the Craft Brewers Conference in Austin, Texas, in 2007.
Ken with new Anderson Valley Brewery owner Trey White at last year’s CBC in Chicago.
Beer In Art #124: Rasmussen Ximenes’ The Last Supper
This week’s work of art is by a Brazilian artist who now calls Petaluma his home. Rasmussen Ximenes painted The Last Supper as part on a local contest entitled ArtSlant, in which it was a second round winner. Feeling the pride of his new home, he included the local brewery’s beer in his painting: Lagunitas IPA.
I saw the original painting recently, which is temporarily in the offices of Lagunitas in Petaluma. Though, as you can see below, the frame has now been painted purple.
You can read more about Ras Ximenes, a.k.a. Moco, at his web bio and also see more of his work at his gallery.
Q&A With Jack McAuliffe
Last week, you may recall, I had the opportunity to spend some time with Jack McAuliffe, founder of the first modern microbrewery in America; New Albion Brewery. That was the week after the annual Craft Brewers Conference, which was held this year in San Francisco. At CBC, the elusive Jack was in town for his first appearance at a public beer event in a very, very long time. He was going to do a Q&A session along with a short talk by Maureen Ogle, author of Ambitious Brew, and Jack’s daughter, Renee DeLuca, who writes online at the Brewer’s Daughter. As an amateur beer historian, and lover of the subject, seeing the man who built the first microbrewery from scratch back in 1976 was simply something I was not going to miss. I arrived early and got a chance to meet Jack for the first time. Needless to say, it was a great treat.
Jack and me at CBC.
After a talk by Jack’s daughter Renee on social media, Maureen discussed “The Long View of the Big Picture,” lessons learned from failed breweries and what the ones who survived did to keep going. Then the session was turned over to jack, who answered questions from the audience for a good half hour. I recorded Jack’s Q&A and you can listen to it below. Enjoy.
