What happened to 2009?

 

Taps at at Fitger’s Brewhouse - Duluth, MN

As one year ends and another begins, things have been quiet as far as the physical brewery goes. 2009 has been a year learning and making new friends.

Prior to 2009 most of my brewing knowledge came from the homebrewers circle. The homebrew clubs I belong to are filled with many great brewers from a variety of backgrounds. The club events not only have more beer to sample than you can shake a stick at, but they also include a variety of educational opportunities. One of the best things I did to become a better homebrewer was becoming a beer judge. I attended the BJCP classes not just to become a judge, but more so to learn how to make my beer better. I do have to say, my beer did indeed improve after taking this class.

The Master Brewers Association of the Americas offered a beer trouble-shooting and analysis class in early 2009, which I attended. This two day course went through many fish-bone diagrams gathered over several years documenting the experiences learned by breweries as they addressed flaws in their beers. I have to say I was over-whelmed by the amount of information I pulled away from this class. The documented experiences of the many professional brewers were quite invaluable. Not to mention the new found respect I gained for the large macro-breweries. It is unbelievable the amount of research and funding they provide to the entire industry to keep the quality of ingredients on the up and up.

Another place I was able to learn much from professional brewer’s experiences was at the 2009 Craft Brewers Conference in Boston. I attended numerous seminars given by brewers and other trade professionals. The seminars were quite laid back and allowed time to ask the presenter questions that pertain to your own experience, or lack there of. The social events were also great for getting to know some of the other brewers. From the brewery tours to the beer tasting events, I was able to make many great contacts and have many great conversations.

I wrapped up the later part of 2009 with a chemistry class I took at the Minneapolis Community College. What can possibly be more fun than learning about Avogadro’s number, stoichiometry, molarity, precipitation reactions, enthalpy, thermodynamics, bonding, molecular geometry, intermolecular forces, etc.? Okay, brewing beer is more exciting, but I’ll never look at it the same way. The class was actually quite fun. I also was able to perform many experiments without harming anyone.

What is in store for 2010? I just started the American Brewers Guilds’ Intensive Brewing Science & Engineering program. This will take up a majority of my time between now and July. Some other goals are to short list some brewery sites, purchase some equipment and get the brand and image completed.

I’ll keep you posted.

Lucid Brewing – There’s a new Kid in Town by The Captain’s Chair

A few weeks back I chatted it up with Aaron Masterson of The Captain’s Chair.

Read about our conversation here: Lucid Brewing – There’s a New Kid in Town

Thank you Aaron for the article.

New pilot brewhouse

The order has been placed and the money put down on a new pilot brewhouse. This new brewhouse is still “small,” as its maximum capacity is only 2/3 bbl batches, but since we have not found a brewery location to-date, we are restricted in the pilot brewhouse’s size. On the plus side, this system has pretty much the same features found on a 10 to 30 bbl brewhouse. Its controller is at about the same level of complexity as a controller found on a bigger brewhouse, so hopefully the transition to brewing on a bigger brewhouse will be less painful when we find a brewery location in the future.

Now I have to round up some larger fermenters. By round up, I mean, find vessels that can be adapted to fermenter use, since new or used 1 bbl or smaller fermenters are ridiculously priced. I have a few months to work on the fermenters, since the brewhouse will not be ready until late August.

I cannot wait to brew on the new brewhouse.

Brewers Conference New England Cask Night

Twas another night at Harpoon. This time an offering of 60 cask ales from local New England breweries. My favorites of the night were Well Read Ale, a nicely balanced English Red Ale by Willamantic Brewing and Allagash’s Burnham Road. Burnham Road, a Belgian style smoked strong ale, didn’t have that strong ham bone smokiness, but more of a pleasant hash-like-sneak-up-on-you smooth smokiness. Of course I did not try all 60 cask ales, but from what I heard, all were quite good.

Thanks to Amy from Here for the Beer for typing all of these out!

Allagash Brewing in Portland, ME

• Allagash Burnham Road a Belgian Style Smoked Strong Ale (IBU:35 OG:1.065 ABV:7.4)
• Allagash CBC Barrel Blend a Blend of several barrels from their Wild Barrel Room (ABV:8.5)

American Flatbread Burlington Hearth in Burlington, VT

• London Calling an Original Bitter (IBU:26 OG:9.8P ABV:3.7

Amherst Brewing Company in Amherst, MA

• Graduation Ale a Dry-hopped Golden Ale (IBU:40 OG:14P ABV:5.8
• Super Stout a Cocoa infused Stout (IBU:33 OG:15.5P ABV:6)

Berkshire Brewing Company in S. Deerfield, MA

• Imperial Stout (IBU:30 OG:20P ABV:8.5)
• Lost Sailor IPA (IBU:40 OG:15P ABV:5.9)

Bobcat Cafe in Bristol, VT

• Lincoln Lager (IBU:25 OG:1.043 ABV:5)
• Ripton Red (IBU:30 OG:1.056 ABV:5)

Boston Beer Company in Boston, MA

• International IPA (IBU:47 OG:15.5P ABV:6.13)
• Ungespundet Pils (IBU:30 OG:13.5P ABV:5.27)

Boston Beer Works (Canal St) in Boston, MA

• The Big Gouda a Smoked Lager (IBU:28, OG:18P ABV:7)
• Splendid Splinter a Golden Ale (IBU:25 OG:12P ABV:5)

Boston Beer Works (Fenway) in Boston, MA

• Old Ironsides an English-Style Old Ale (IBU:35 OG:1.064 ABV:6)

Cambridge Brewing Company in Cambridge, MA

• The Colonel a “Vatted Ported” (IBU:55 OG:15P ABV:6.5)
• Spring Training IPA (IBU:40 OG:14.5P ABV:6.3)

Cambridge House Brewpub in Torrington, CT

• Cambridge House IPA (IBU:60 OG:15P ABV:6.4)
• Three Steve Stout (IBU:30 OG:12.5P ABV:4)

Cape Ann Brewing Comapany in Gloucester, MA

• Fisherman’s Tea Party a Barley-wine made with 3 styles of tea (IBU:86 OG:1.089 ABV: 9)

Gardner Ale House in Gardner, MA

• Chair City Pale Ale  (IBU:32 OG:11.5P ABV:4.8)
• Chocolate Porter (IBU:35 OG:12.5P ABV:5.5)

Gritty McDuff’s in Portland, ME

• Black Fly Stout 2001 Gold Medal Winner at the Real Ale Festival (IBU:16 OG:1.045 ABV:4.1)
• Gritty’s Best Bitter 2000 Gold Medal Winner at the Real Ale Festival (IBU:25 OG:1.050 ABV:4.9)

Harpoon Brewery in Boston, MA

• Harpoon IPA (IBU:42 OG:15.8P ABV:5.9)
• Harpoon Summer Beer (IBU:26 OG:12.8 ABV:4.8)

Haverhill Brewery/The Tap in Haverhill, MA

• Merrimack Mild an English Dark Mild (IBU:19 OG;9.4P ABV:3.8)
• Scapegoat Bock a German Dunkel Dark Bock (IBU:26 OG:16.4P ABV:6.6)

John Harvard’s Brew House in Manchester, CT

• The Dark Bootlegger Ale a blend of a traditional Brown Porter and Barley Wine aged in a Thomas Tew rum barrel for 7 wks (IBU:37 OG:16.8P ABV:6.7)

Kennebunkport Brewing Company in Kennebunk, ME

• Taint Town Pale Ale the local favorite (IBU:32 OG:1.048 ABV:4.75)
• Vintange 2008 Prelude Holiday Ale  a traditional strong Enlish Ale (OG:1.078 ABV:7.5)

Lowel Beer Works in Lowell, MA

• Bohemian Pilsner made with all Moravian malt & dry-hopped with whole Czech Saaz (IBU:25 OG:1.050 ABV:5)

Martha’s Exchange in Nashua, NH

• Dr. Hoppenstein’s Double IPA Hopped thoughout the entire brew process from mash-in to cask (IBU:93 OG:1.091 ABV:9.1)
• Revolution Red a medium bodied red brewed with beets and carmalized malts. (IBU:42 OG:1.056 ABV:5.5)

Mayflower Brewing Company in Plymouth, MA

• Mayflower Golden Ale  the moderate mineral content in there water is perfect for this style of beer (IBU:18 OG:10.5P ABV:4.2)
• Mayflower Pale Ale made with Victory Malt, Caramel Malt, East Kent Golding Hops, and Nugget Hops (IBU:40 OG:11.9P ABV:4.9)

Mercury Brewing Co. Ipswich, MA

• Ipswich Dark Ale (IBU:40 OG:14.1P ABV:5.8)
• Ipswich IPA  a cross between an American and English style IPA (IBU:60 OG:14.3P ABV:6.3)

Moat Mountain Brewing in North Conway, NH

• Moat Pale Ale an American Style Pale Ale with a firm bitterness (OG:11.5P ABV:4.5)
• Moat Spruce Brown standard session Brown Ale both malty and bready in body, medium bitterness (OG:12P ABV:5)

Opa Opa Brewing Company in Williamsburg, MA

• Opa-Opa IPA (IBU:55 OG:14.7P ABV:6)

Otter Creek Brewing in Middlebury, VT

• Imperial India Pale Ale has a generous supply of hops throughout the entire process providing an enormous hop flavor (IBU:135 OG:24.5P ABV:11)
• Russian Imperial Stout brewed with double the malts and four time the hops of a regular stout (IBU:65, OG:24P ABV:10.6)

Pennichuck Brewing Company in Milford, NH

• Chief’s Imperial IPA unfiltered and dry-hopped with Centennial, Cascade, and Simcoe (IBU:106  OG:23.3P ABV:10)

Portsmouth Brewery in Portsmouth, NH

• Baltic Porter dry-hopped with Warrior (IBU:38 OG:19P ABV:7.5)
• Saison Prentemps dry-hopped with Rose  Hips and pepercorns (IBU:32 OG:16.75P ABV:6)

Redhook Ale Brewery in Portsmouth, NH

• Triple Nelson made with Candi sugar, Crystal malts, and dry-hopped with Nelson Sauvin in the cask (IBU:40 OG:20.5P ABV:9.6)
• Saturnaleia Double Red rich malty notes of a traditional red and dry-hopped with Amarillo and Centenial (IBU:71 OG:19.5P ABV:8.1)

Salem Beer Works in Salem, MA

• Customs House IPA  full hop character, Cascade & Amarillo, with a supporting background of solid malt (IBU:56 OG:12.5P ABV:6.25)

Sabago Brewing in Gorham, ME

• Boathouse Brown Ale brewed with Caramel, Chocolate and Black malts and hopped with American hops (IBU:24 OG:11P ABV:4.8)
• Full Throttle Double IPA featuring Cascade, Centennial, Chinook, and Simcoe hops and has been dry-hopped for over a month (IBU:85 OG:20P ABV:8.2)

Shipyard Brewing in Portland, ME

• Chamberlain Pale Ale featuring Pale Ale, Crystal and Chocolate malts and Fuggles, Cascade and Tettnang hops (IBU:37 OG:1.050 ABV:5)
• Old Thumper Extra Special Ale from the Ringwood Brewery in Hampshire, England (IBU:35 OG:1.060 ABV:5.8

Smuttynose Brewing Co.  in Portsmouth, NH

• Smuttynose IPA includes Simcoe, Amarillo, Warrior and Centennial hops (IBU:70 OG:15 ABV:6.6)
• Star Island Single spicy, light bodied with drinkablity (IBU:30 OG:13P ABV:5.5)

Thomas Hooker Brewery in Bloomfield, CT

• Liberator Dopplebock chocolaty with notes of figs, raisins and brown sugar (IBU:45 OG:20 ABV:8.4)

Trinity Brewhouse in Providence, RI

• Scotch Ale oak aged in barrels for 8 months (IBU:32 OG:21 ABV:9)

Tuckerman’s Brewing in Conway, NH

• Tuckerman Headwall Alt a German style brown ale (IBU:32 OG:12 ABV:4.75)
• Tuckerman Pale Ale (IBU:39 OG:12 ABV:5.5)

Watch City Brewing Co. in Waltham, MA

• Bitter (and Jaded) ESB in honor of their original beer from 13 years ago (IBU:40 OG1.04)

Willamantic Brewing Co. in Willimantic, CT

• Well Read Ale an English Red Ale (IBU31.5 OG1.057 ABV5.7)

Woodstock Inn Brewery in North Woodstock, NH

• Pemi Pale Ale (IBU:56 OG:1.057 ABV:5.7)
• Pigs Ear Brown Ale (IBU:25 OG:1.054 ABV:4.3)

Brewers Conference Welcome Reception

 

The brewers conference welcome reception was hosted by Harpoon Brewery. Harpoon is conveniently located just a few blocks south of where the brewers conference was held. This is at the end of a day where we spent all day touring breweries. Did I need another beer? Ah, no. Did I have another beer. Hell yeah! Delicious beer it was. We had a great time chatting with other brewers and eating the chowder. Here’s a few pics.

Harpoon's beer bar

The coolest warehouse sound system ever.

Alyssa chats it up with Lyn Kruger of the Siebel Institute and Dave Anderson of Dave' Brew Farm. A startup brewery located near Wilson, Wisconsin.

Harpoon does brew beer here.

Off to Boston for the Brewers Conference

We just spent the weekend at my parents, where we left our son Liam and our dogs (Maggie and Cody) behind for a week of spoiling with the grandparents.

We get into Boston on Monday and plan on hitting a few pubs in Cambridge. We’re staying in east Cambridge, just across the St. Charles from Boston. Our schedule looks somewhat like this:

Tuesday: Brewery tours in New Hampshire during the daylight hours. This includes Cape Ann Brewing, Smuttynose Brewing, Redhook Brewing and Portsmouth Brewery. Okay so all are not in New Hampshire, but you know the saying. “If a bar (brewery) is on the right on side of the road…    …turn in.” In the evening it’s the Welcome Reception hosted by Harpoon Brewery.

Wednesday:Things start out with the Welcome and Keynote Address by Greg Koch of Stone Brewing. Then we’ll hit the BrewExpo followed by a bunch of seminars. I’ll have more on the seminars after we get back home and sober up. The seminars are broken up by some hospitalities. Hospitalites = beer and food. The evening has the Boston Beer Brewery Party in store for us. Guess who is hosting it? Just one guess.

Thursday:More seminars, a members meeting, more BrewExpo. More hospitalies. The evening? MBAANew England Cask Night hosted by Harpoon Brewery. Mmmm.

Friday:More seminars. No hospitalies – like I’ll need another beer. But in case I do, the late afternoon has the Closing Reception. Closing Reception = beer, food and friends. Later in the evening is the New England Brewers Night hosted by Harpoon Brewery. The perfect send-off by the great folks of New England.

Saturday:Catch a ridiculously early flight back to the Twin Cities and pick up our son and dogs from the Grandparents. Then we will begin reflecting back on the conference while breaking everyone of bad the habits that Grandpa and Grandma think is cute.

I’ll not have much time in Boston to blog, but I’ll send out a few tweets on Twitter now and then.

I gotta go, I need to finish the last glass or two of Classic American Pilsener left in the keg before we go.

Beer Geek – Craft Beer Gatekeepers

A beer geek is often the first person to consume a new craft brewer’s beer. A beer geek can be a home-brewer, a beer blogger, a beer cicerone, a beer snob, all of the above, none of the above. If you are reading this, you are most likely a beer geek. Most of the feedback a craft brewer receives is from beer geeks. Beer geeks are at brewery events, at festivals, at tastings, at beer dinners, volunteering, talking your ear off, and so forth. It seems like beer geeks are everywhere.

 

Unfortunate for brewers, beer geeks are not everywhere. Unfortunately for brewers, the beer geeks are only a small fraction of total beer consumers. This is not a total loss. Beer geeks go out of their way to try a new or local beer. They have many social ties like home-brewer clubs, tasting clubs, blogs, magazines, and chat rooms. The best thing about beer geeks is they are passionate about beer and are constantly talking beer with friends, many of whom happen to be macro-beer drinkers. Depending on the craft brewery’s size and styles of beer brewed, you may need this connection to the macro-beer drinker. Why? As I see it, the macro-brewers are losing market share and the craft brewers are gaining market share, so these macro-beer drinkers are, in sense, up for grabs. Sooner or later, a macro-beer drinker will have a gateway-craft-beer experience.

 

I believe beer geeks are one of the leading factors in causing a macro-beer drinker’s gateway-craft-beer experience. Sooner or later, their enthusiasm rubs off on you and the next thing you know, you’re sitting at a beer bar ordering something goofy. And just maybe you like it. That’s kind of how my gateway experience transformed me from macro-beer drinker to beer geek. I used to seek out the on-sale beer, now I seek the new beer, the what-haven’t-I-tried beer and the what-did-so-and-so recommend beer.

 

As a fellow beer geek, I do my share of promoting craft beer. In a recent conversation with a macro-beer drinking friend about how Miller High Life Light taste like water compared to Miller Lite, I recommended comparing Miller Lite to New Glarus Spotted Cow Ale. Another friend asked for advice on some different sour ales. I recommend some to her that I like. Some she liked. Others she described as, “It taste like feet, sweaty feet that have been stomping on cherries and I’m licking them.” Either her experience wasn’t that bad or she has a foot-fetish as she continues to try more sour ales.

 

Beer geeks may not be everywhere. But they’re there when you need them.

Going to Brewing School

The letter starts, “I would like to inform you that you have been accepted into the Craft Brewers Apprenticeship Program, beginning January 18th, 2010.” At this point I stopped reading, grabbed a pint glass, and filled it up. The letter continues on how my acceptance is conditional upon the completion of a “Principles of Chemistry” course and upon the receipt of the down payment. The course wraps up the week of June 21st with a residential week in Sacramento, CA, otherwise the course is distance based. Upon completion of the course, I will be apprenticing at a yet-to-be-determined brewery for five weeks.

Next stop, Minnesota State Colleges & Universities for some chemistry. I am not shocked that my accounting degree did not provide all of the necessary background course-work, but it did provide a bunch, so at least no more calculus courses. This course will be quite different than my accounting degree I received from St. Cloud State University. For instance, I will not be pounding Keystone, Busch Light Draft, Special X, Mickeys or other macro-brewed beer this time. Yes, SCSU was prior to my craft-brewed beer “gateway” experience. Also, I no longer attempt to buy the biggest amount of beer for the smallest amount of cash.

A Brewer’s Dream

Welcome to March in Minnesota, this week was another of below zero temps. Yes, the temperature aided in getting me out of my “I have not adjusted to day light savings” tiredness, but I would rather swill the New Belgium version of below zero. I cannot blame all of my tiredness on the time change though. I’ve been having several nights like last night. I did sleep, but I woke up with about five ideas that were spinning through my dreams, which I promptly wrote down this morning. I find it quite weird how some of my best ideas come to me in my sleep. This does not always make for a good night’s rest, but it is neat to be able to have such vivid ideas that can be written down in much detail the following morning.

Now that Lucid Brewing is a member of the Brewers Association, my wife and I will be off to Boston for the Craft Brewers Conference in April. We are both excited for the event. My wife will be exposed to the dreamy world of craft brewing that keeps my mind going most nights. We will be visiting several Boston and New Hampshire breweries/brew pubs while in Boston. During our whirlwind visit we have absolutely no down time to speak of. By the time we are finished with the seminars, the expo, and other events I will have more haze in my head than a fully roused Bavarian weizen.

Progress on the actually brewery has been focused on the owner/brewer, known as me. I applied for brewing school and for a chemistry class. The chemistry class will aid the technical aspects of brewing and will make the yeast think I am not a complete stranger. The brewing school will be intense and may delay the opening of the brewery, but I feel that not going down this path is downright foolish. I applied for a brewer’s certificate program with an internship immediately following the classes. Let’s hope I am accepted to the program.

Oh yeah, progress has been made on the logo. The logo has been the primary focus of my weird dreams at night. Not by choice, it just is. My wife and I have created several sketch ideas and are working on finding a local artist to bring life to it. It is so cool to see all of the different sketches we have come up with. The evolution of our ideas is as interesting as it is demented. We both have come to realize we have a dark side that at times is coming out in our logo.

Lucid Brewing Exists On the Record

The Minnesota Secretary of State Office has officially assigned a charter number to Lucid Brewing, LLC. Most likely the easiest task I will perform with the state during the start-up phase. The charter number allowed me to get a federal employer identification number from the Internal Revenue Service, an even easier task simply performed online. With these items in hand, I spent lunch on Monday at the bank opening up a business checking account. To my surprise the account came with a credit line and a credit card. I guess this is where good credit comes in handy.

The next couple of tasks are to become a member of the Brewers Association and register for the Craft Brewers Conference. These two items open up a large amount of information for start-up breweries. The convention is being held in Boston the third week of April. I look forward to attending as many of the meeting sessions as possible to learn all I can in one week and to make some solid contacts at the brew expo. I know my head will hurt after this week in Boston, not just from all the knowledge I will collect, but also from all the beer I will drink.

The brewery location search has been getting me quite familiar with city zoning maps and with a few of the friendly folks at several city offices. So far nothing fully meets our current criteria, but there are still many sites to review.

Otherwise, the balance of time has been around the business plan, logo design, and research on a pilot brewing system. I will keep you posted as things move along.