A few years ago, if someone was to tell me that Idaho Falls, Idaho was a must visit spot for craft beer, I’d have laughed at the notion. However, as the craft beer revolution unfold before our very palates, more towns like Asheville, Astoria, and now Idaho Falls are putting up a good fight to liberate libators of the dud suds. Granted, there’s a lot of work to be done, and the battle is uphill. It was evident from the tap selection at pedestrian establishments like Appleby’s that the conglomerate macrobrewers still have a stranglehold on people’s options and perception of beer. One good thing about macrobeer and big scale craft beer, is you can often count on invariability. The Blue Moon White, Widmer Hefeweizen, and New Belgium Fat Tire I drank at Appleby’s were all certainly clean, crisp, and as I expected them to be. You’d be hard pressed to find one of these beers on tap and be a sour or butter bomb (save for somewhere that doesn’t move the beer quickly enough, stow it properly, or neglects keeping taplines clean). On this first evening in Idaho Falls, I was satisfied knowing that there would be a lot of different beers in the week ahead. Not just the flights of beers to judge, but at the Mountain Brewers Beer Festival that would be the highlight of the week. Further, my roommate for the week, Shawn Kelso of Barley Brown‘s, brought growlers of his hop-forward craft beers that I prefer to most.

Judging at the North American Beer Awards

At the conference center of Idaho Falls’ Red Lion hotel, panels of beer judges, including myself, worked through what would be 149 flights and nearly 1,200 beers. Following a truncated first evening of judging on Tuesday, the real legwork began Wednesday at  a.m. Many folks not in the know might perceive beer judging as a drinkfest; one that is fun, easy, and cool to do. But judging beer, as anyone who is a seasoned BJCP (Beer Judge Certification Program) student knows, is hard work that requires arduous note taking, advanced sensory awareness, adequate communicative skills, and the innate ability to discern an array of characteristics and off-flavors in an objective and categorical manner.

To be honest, my beer judging experience coming into this year’s panel was rather limited, though I was working from a mostly hermeneutic consistency standpoint. This means I have, for some time, analyzed beer in a manner that is consistent and involves coherent explanation. Basically, I’ve critically tasted a boatload of beers with the objective of identifying the characteristics that substantiate each one. I’ve been involved with a few BJCP courses and have come to appreciate the range of interpretations one person’s palate can hold over that of the next. Still, the majority of my critiquing of beer has been at homebrew competitions and in various round tables with other beer-minded folks.

In the room was a smorgasbord of varying experience levels when it comes to critical analysis. To be honest, I would have to rate myself somewhere in the middle. I view this experience as a stepping stone toward further enhancing my ability to characterize and methodologically understanding what defines a beer as more than simply “good” or “bad.” In the room was accomplished brewers like Pelican’s Darron Welch, Widmer’s Ben Dobler  and founder Rob Widmer, to name a few. These are folks I respect deeply when it comes to quality, consistency, and dedication to their trade. They each have a practical scientific and theoretical understanding of brewing, from boiler to bar top, that I’d be safe to say dwarfs my own. Still, from my vantage point, the hermeneutics behind me probably tasting more brands of beers critically than the average brewmaster could have added an interesting element to the equation and outcomes. I was nonetheless approaching this experience humbly and with much to learn.

Discussing the elements that qualify and quantify beers is a great way to learn and enhance your palate and perception. The average beer drinker likely knows a badly skunked beer when she tastes it, but the nuances of ingredient play and subtle off-flavors like diacetyl and DMS are probably not on everyone’s mental checklist. Most folks, even those who train themselves in the ways of objectiveness, are still swayed by marketing, especially attractive and beckoning labels on beer. The great thing about beer judging is trying a brew in a bare-bones environment where the appearance, aroma, taste, mouthfeel, and overall impression are what dictates your feelings about the beer. There’s also the biases each judge and taster brings with him to the table. For someone who really doesn’t enjoy the bitterness of an IPA or the sourness of a lambic, it is quite important for him to be cognizant of these feelings as personal preferences, and to develop the ability to discern quality in accordance with fixed style guidelines.

Wednesday June 2

The first full day of judging at NABA began early. While 9 a.m. typically is a good time to begin your day, it’s not, at least for me, the ideal time to begin ingesting alcoholic beverages. So, it’s safe to say, it was hard to get going. At my first table of tasting beer with alcohol (the night before I judged carbonated soft drinks and non-alcoholic beer), I was  joined by brewer Rudy Borrego of Snake River Brewing in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, Todd Campbell of Pelican Brewing, a few NABA folks, and a nice woman named Michelle from Ball Corporation, world’s leading suppliers of rigid metal and plastic packaging products and services (among many things, Ball makes cans for beer). Local homebrewer and NABA volunteer named John was also in the panel. A friendly man, John provided me with a little insight to the goingson in Idaho Falls. “There’ s really nothing here for young adults” he commented “It’s boring.” John was content living here and enjoyed the quiet life. I figured that by the end of the week, I’d be ready to return to Portland where there’s no shortage of great beer and progressive artistic culture. While waiting for our first flight to arrive, John spoke of the two malting facilities in town. Anheuser-Busch and Grupo Modelo (makers of Corona) were two imposing structures visible from highway 15 as we approached town. Talking with John and folks from AB and Modelo, the grain of Idaho is a matter of local pride. The region boasts some of the best and widely abundant barley harvest and malt production in North America. Interestingly, John mentioned that Idaho Falls has more beers per capita than any other city.

At 9:30 a.m., our table received a flight of entries for the brown porter category (10A). Being a preliminary round, it was our table’s mission to find the three best representations of the style and advance them to another round. By 11 a.m. we were working on Irish Reds (category 8D). And, at noon, the hotel staff catered in food. It would turn out to be the same offering each day, cold cuts, not something I as a vegetarian was too enthusiastic about. Still, there was beer, a lot more beer.

After the break, three more categories would find their way to groups I was assigned to. After meeting an assortment of mostly friendly and interesting people, and laboring through Belgian Wits (16A), American Pale Ales (6c), and  liver-bending Wood Flavored Beer (18c), the work day had commenced. As interesting as evaluating myriad beer styles, was the side conversation of folks. Gathering an understanding of these Americans’ backgrounds and lives. One gentleman offered an idea for a beer blend consisting of Anchor Old Fog Horn and Pyramid Apricot that I will have to try someday soon.

After Wednesday’s judging was complete, Shawn and I retired to our room to relax and unwind. A spot of  Barley Brown’s Turmoil Cascadian Dark Ale was surprising well received by my body after this full day of sipping. Soonafter, we headed over to Idaho Brewing near downtown to attend a private party being thrown for NABA judges. This wonderful event included a spread of free food, a live band, and a variety of free beer from different Idaho breweries. Of all the tasty craft beers available, my preferred brew of the night was Lost Continent Double IPA from Grand Teton Brewing in Victor. Despite troubling weather reports, the evening stayed dry and relatively warm. This made for a nice relaxing experience on the brewpub’s deck that featured a beautiful pink sunset.

Thursday June 3

Morning seemed to come sooner Thursday than it did the morning before. Perhaps the second Double IPA and nightcap were not the wisest of decisions. A 9 a.m. panel featured a sizable number of American Pale Ales (6c), followed by Strong Pale Ales (6E), German Pilsners, and a medal round flight of Brown Porters. Again, this education experience was filled with getting to meet new people like Tony Savoy, the brewer-owner of Flyers Restaurant and Brewery on Whidbey Island in Washington. I’d actually met Tony before at festivals, but never got to talk to him much though I have greatly enjoyed his beers. I really enjoyed judging with him and learning more about his brewing background that involved a stint at Skagit River in Mount Vernon, Washington.

Near the end of the judging day around 4pm, Andy Shaw of Grupo Modelo, a local guy who has been involved with NABA since its inception back in 1997, announced a barbecue that he was hosting at his home. I was quick to see that Andy was a charismatic presence at the event and most of the returning judges where friendly with him. Andy arranged a taxi shuttle to bring groups of people to his home about three miles from the Red Lion. Here, Andy and his wife graciously provided an amazing spread of food coupled with some of Andy’s impressive homebrews. On tap he offered a stout, Bavarian hefe, and perhaps the hit of the night, a pale ale brewed exclusively with New Zealand Nelson Sauvon hop, that emitted a wonderfully floral gooseberry and chive aroma. Matt Beamer from Squatters Brewing of Salt Lake City, Utah also provided tasty bottles of their Hop Rising Double IPA and their Saint Provo Girl Pilsner.

Around 7 p.m., I was quite tuckered  and ready to call it a night. So, back to the hotel to catch some of the NBA Finals on television and rest up for the next morning. On Friday a bit more judging would continue before the NABA medals would be doled out at 5 p.m.This was going to be the home stretch for the judging. However, the Mountain Brewers Beer Fest on Saturday, I knew, would likely be the biggest beer event of all.

To be continued…

Posted under beer awards, beer events, beer news, beer reviews, places to drink beer

Billion dollar Energy Drink company uses deep pockets to go after Vermont microbrewery.

A buzz around the American craft beer community has revealed an ugly truth stemming from the pits of corporate America. We heard about it on the social networking site Facebook where several friends and brewers have reacted.  Morrisville, Vermont’s Rock Art Brewery has been issued a cease and desist order from Monster Energy Drink. Monster, who would appear is living up to its name, is marketed and distributed by Hansen Natural Corporation, a NASDAQ listed company of Corona, California. Hansen Natural Corporation recently announced a distribution agreement with Anheuser-Busch in the United States. The letter from the corporate team at Monster claims there is confusion generated by the Rock Art’s seasonal barley wine named “Vermonster” created a couple years back to celebrate their tenth anniversary.

Rock Art began as a two person operation twelve years ago by husband and wife team Matt and Renee Nadeau. Today, the business remains a modest microbrewery operation that employs seven people and distributes to five states outside of Vermont. On the other hand, Hansen Natural who owns the Monster energy drink is a publicly traded company with a reported gross sales for the second quarter of 2009 of $345.8 million, up 6.7% from $324.1 million in the same period last year. According to reports, Monster sold a cool $1 billion worth of the energy drink last year.

Not only does the multi-million dollar Monster mega corporation want the mom and pop outfit Rock Art to stop using the word “Vermonster,” but they also expect the brewery to compensate it for its attorneys’ fees. This is all at the hands of the Goliath energy drink’s lawyers.

If you’d like to contact Hansen’s Energy to voice your concern for Rock Art, email them at http://www.hansens.com/contact/

Prost!

Posted under beer news

New Glarus Brewing Company located in the Wisconsin town of the same name is a brewery whose reputation speaks for itself. Founded in 1993 by husband and wife team Dan and Deb Carey, the brewery has evolved from a makeshift dairy farm brewery into a world class operation that is a must visit for true lovers of hand crafted beer. Bolstered by a word of mouth reputation and an unbridled passion for what they do, New Glarus produce a spectrum of beer styles that have garnered the acclaim of the international brewing community. Perhaps most notable of New Glarus’ repertoire are the Belgian and Germanic beers that add to the rich European heritage of the area. The brewery’s Wisconsin Belgian Red is a tart and sweet kriekbier brewed with whole Montmorency cherries, Wisconsin wheat, and Belgian roasted barleys is a little slice of heaven tucked away in the rolling hills of the Dairyland.

The Careys followed their inner calling to produce beers unlike any in North America near the beginning of the most recent craft beer resurgence. Alongside several beer geek favorites, the brewery has found itself inevitably adhering to the Midwestern palate. The household standard known as Spotted Cow, a sessionable farmhouse ale brewed with flaked barley and Wisconsin malt. With a sweet, crisp flavor profile, this brew is today Wisconsin’s #2 most consumed draught beer behind Miller Lite. It is fit for the thirst of the blue collar public after a long day of hard work.

While most folks are encouraged to take advantage of the self-guided tours 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily, we were fortunate enough to set up a private tour with Dan himself. A walking brewing encyclopedia, Dan was so down to earth and unpretentious, it was quite refreshing to meet someone so accomplished with such a down to earth approach to people while maintaining the highest standards of his craft. While most folks refer to head brewers as brewmasters, Dan really is that, graduating at the top of his class as the valedictorian of Siebels Institute of Technology‘s brewing program in 1987. He could have used his knowledge and powers for self-adulation, but from talking to others around him and from our own experience, it was evident that his primary focus was to make the best beer possible while bringing people together in the process. His hard work and focus is the reason why New Glarus is so well known around the world despite not being well promoted or sold outside of the state of Wisconsin. He attributes others to his success and humbly strives to expand his palate and the palate of others. If only more brewers were like Dan, the brew public would be a better place.

Here is an interview we conducted with Dan Carey of New Glarus Brewing, a undeniably true American original.

What inspired you to open a brewery in New Glarus, Wisconsin?

Dan Carey: Well, I’ve worked in the food business all my life. I’ve studied brewing at UC Davis. I graduated in 1983 and I’ve worked for other people, and I was working for Anheuser-Busch in Fort Collins, Colorado. My wife (Deb) is originally from Milwaukee and she really wanted to come home to Wisconsin. So, we thought about building a brewery in Wisconsin, and we looked at different areas around the country because in 1993, in your area (Portland, Oregon), there was already a lot of breweries. There was probably twenty breweries in the Portland area, and maybe a handful in Seattle. So, we looked at three areas. We looked at Bellingham, Washington, we looked at Atlanta, Georgia, and Madison, Wisconsin. The reason we looked at all of those places is because there wasn’t a lot of breweries, there was a well educated population with kind of chauvinistic buying tendencies-”buy local, local ingredients, local products.” We thought Madison was a really great market, but we didn’t want to live right in town, so Deb drew a radius around Madison of thirty miles around town and said “Go find somewhere to live.” So I came out here and drove around, and found New Glarus and thought this was a really cool little town. It reminded me of when I was an apprentice brewer in a small town near Munich that was a lot like that. So we packed up like the Beverly Hillbillies and moved to Madison, moved to New Glarus. I am originally from the city of San Francisco, and I really like it here. It’s very peaceful.

How’s the winters treat you being that you are from California?

DC: I like the cold. I like the cold more than the heat. And really, it’s not as bad as people think. Like when it’s really really cold…I think last year the coldest it got was about 4 below at around 5 o’clock in the morning. It’s not really that bad. We used to live in Montana and I remember one day it was like 52 below, no wind, just perfectly still…so, it’s not that bad. I like it. I like the cold weather. Deb says it keeps the whiners out. I don’t mind it at all, it’s a small price to pay.

How did the Belgian style beers like the Wisconsin Belgian Red made with Montmorency cherries and the Raspberry Tart become beer geek staples for New Glarus?

DC: Well, only about three percent of our beers are the fruit beer. We don’t make a lot of it. We’re known out of Wisconsin for our fruit beer, but in Wisconsin, it’s a small part of our business. And where the whole idea for that came from is that I was an apprentice brewer at a small brewery near Munich-the Ayinger Brewery-I think people know that brewery. When we were there, we went on vacation to Belgium and we went to visit breweries around Brussels. I really liked the Liefmans and Lindemans fruit beers. It took about six years of pilot brewing and homebrewing to make a recipe that really worked. It’s a unique process. It’s not really how other people make fruit beer. It kind of all came together, and that was one of the reasons we built the brewery. But it’s not really a huge seller for us. People outside of Wisconsin think about us as fruit beer brewers, but…  We actually have a Lambic beer that we are making. It’s still in the fermenter and we’re going to transfer it. We have two 3,000 gallon oak tanks and we’re going to transfer it into them. We’re thinking about making a gueuze, a framboise, a cherry, and maybe an apple or grape. It’s a traditional spontaneous fermented sour beer. That’s still very young, but we can go out and taste it later. It’s not there yet, but it’s showing potential.

I spoke with Karl Ockert, brewmaster of BridgePort Brewing, during the bottling of Stumptown Tart (Marionberry beer aged in Pinot Noir casks), and he said he had spoken with you about regarding getting ideas for a tart beer. He said “Dan told me ‘You can ask me about anything in the brewhouse, just not about the Belgian Red.’”

DC: It’s true. And as far as brewers, Karl is one of my closest brewer friends. We went to brewing school together about a hundred years ago. So, I’ve known Karl forever. It was funny when he called me about that because the other thing that he did tell you is that when we first started, people in Wisconsin mainly like a sweeter beer, so he used to tease me about the fruit beers saying “oh, you don’t use any hops in your beer.” Now here he is making a fruit beer. Next time you see him, you have to remind him that he used to give me such grief about “oh, you don’t use any hops in your beer.” Now here he is making a fruit beer.

Seems like a lot of people are coming around. It would seem now that you were ahead of the curve as far as Belgian-style beers are concerned. When you were doing it early on, there wasn’t a lot of other brewers doing it.

DC: That’s the funny thing. When I read about such-and-such a brewery being the first to make sour beers in whatever 1996, or 1998…And I am thinking: we were making sour beers in 1993. When we first opened we were doing sour beers. So it goes. We don’t have a marketing wing or whatever.

How far are your beers distributed? Is it Wisconsin only?

DC: Yeah, only Wisconsin. We try to stay small.

How did you develop the yeast for your Belgians?

DC: It’s a blend, a bacterial fermentation. Our yeast is a standard ale yeast but it’s a souring fermentation. So it’s more akin to like a Rodenbach type of a beer. But, like I said, we’ve got a Lambic that’s started with two types of Brettanomyces, an ale yeast and a couple of different bacteria. That’s only going to be sold out of the brewery, though. That will be a kind of secret series where we only do a small amount-200 barrels. We’ll bottle it up and sell it out of the gift shop. That’ll be out this summer probably.

So this new series, this is different from the Unplugged series?

DC: Yeah. It’s a step up from that. It’s called the R+D Series because about a year ago we hired Randy Thiel. He was the brewmaster at Ommegang. He’s now our lab manager. So he and I are working together.

What is your production size?

DC: We’ll go through about 80,000 barrels this year, maybe 85,000.

It was seem evident that you are a destination for craft beer geeks. What is the most unique place a visitor has traveled from to see your brewery?

DC: As you know by now, we are out in the middle of nowhere. We had a guy from Nigeria, a brewer, from Tusker Brewery. That’s pretty wild. Lot’s of people have come from Switzerland because this is a Swiss town. There is a brewing group, they have a master brewer’s class in Madison. They give seminars and there are people from all over the world like Japan, Japanese brewers, Australian, New Zealand. That’s probably the farthest away-guys from New Zealand, Australia.

Being a brewery that only has distribution in Wisconsin, how do you attain worldly acclaim?

DC: I don’t know. Because we don’t really advertise. If you notice, we’re not in the trade journals. We don’t have pictures in…I think you guys must know a lot of that come from press releases. People like me go to or do beer dinners, beer shows or tastings. We really don’t do that. We’ve always just tried really hard to make the best beer that we can and hope that things will follow from that. So…I don’t know why. But I would hope that the beers speak for themselves. Because, one thing that I think we do really well is we make a whole range of beers all the way from a light lager, an American style lager, all the way to a Lambic and everything in between. And we try really hard to make all of them really good. I think that with this age on the Internet that things can travel very quickly. We have two draft horses, two big Fresian draft horses. They are huge, huge horses. They used to live out here, but now they are at the new brewery. When we were wanting to get them here, we had actually bought the horses and didn’t realize that the village would have a problem with it because we’re out in the country. All of a sudden, the village said “You don’t have a permit to keep these horses.” So it was this big fight. These guys in town who make swords, armory in town. They make swords and helmets for…whatever. They are all into kind of medieval things and they thought (the horses) were really cool.  They would come to the meetings. A lot of people were behind us. It was kind of a big fight. Finally we won. They gave us a permit to have horses in the village limits and I was over in Bamberg (Germany) at this little random brewpub. I was sitting there just by myself. It wasn’t a beer festival or nothing. I was just drinking beer, and this guy walked up to me in lederhosen and stops and looks and me and says “I heard the village okayed the horses. Good job.” And he said it in perfect English. This was at this little brewpub with a five hundred year old brewery in Bamberg and it made me laugh because here I am kind of hiding out as far as you can be from New Glarus and somebody recognized me. And I said “How did you know this?” And he said “Oh, I saw it on the Internet.” The power of the Internet-the world is very small.

Do you have a sense of what the microbrew community in Wisconsin is all about? Is there a Wisconsin Guild, club or something of this nature here?

DC: Of course there’s homebrew clubs. The biggest one is in Madison, the Brewers and Tasters Guild, and they put on a beer festival every year that is a lot like the one you guys have in Portland (Oregon Brewers Festival) down by the river. This one is by Lake Monona, which is a big lake by Madison. It’s called The Great Taste of the Midwest. It’s really cool. All of the Midwest breweries are there. There’s…I don’t know…maybe 5,000 people. It’s a one day festival. That’s a big deal and a lot of fun. There is a brewers guild, but they mainly deal with political issues. Wisconsin is changing a lot, a lot like the rest of America. One thing about Wisconsin, it’s this little island and people on the coast don’t really know that much about Wisconsin. It’s flyover country. Everybody’s kind of heavyset. It’s a little bit dull, they eat Velveeta cheese and they’re not very sharp and they vote Republican. But Wisconsin is a little island of progressiveness. In fact, I think Wisconsin had a socialist governor for a really long time. It’s a very progressive state that has been historically progressive. The people in WIsconsin are very highly educated. They’re very well traveled but it’s like this secret little place that nobody knows about. People are very open minded but they are parochial in their buying habits. When we first came here, Miller Lite was by far the biggest seller. Every bar had Miller Lite. But that’s changing. Portland’s been not like that for twenty years. You walk into any pub in Portland and you can pretty much have a whole genre of beers. And that is starting to happen here in Wisconsin. Since we started, we’ve seen people’s palates become much more adventurous. People in Wisconsin have generally liked a sweeter tasting beer, but that’s changing. It’s changing very rapidly. Everybody in Wisconsin is of German ancestry, so one of the problems with having Pilsners is that when people want a Pilsner, they will buy Spaten or Paulaner. When you make a Pilsner here, you’re competing against people’s perceptions of what a beer should be. For example, we make a range of weissbiers-heavy weissbiers-and we’re considered on Ratebeer.com as doing well with our wheat beers. Our wheat beers are a little bit stronger than German wheat beers. When you make a German beer, you don’t start at the starting line, you start about ten yards back because the perception is always a little bit skewed. Let me give you an example. I read an article where someone wrote in to Wine Spectator, I think it was, saying “We were just over in Tuscany and we had this red wine sitting in a veranda overlooking the vineyard and the wine was just absolutely the best wine we’ve ever had.” So we bought a case, and we brought it home, and it’s not that good. So we were wondering if something happened while the beer was in the hold of the airplane. Could the change in altitude have screwed up the wine? Then we realize, “Hello! You’re sitting in a 500 year old vineyard  with a castle in the background eating fresh oven-baked pizza! Of course the wine tasted wonderful! So, you have to deal with people’s perceptions. When you make a Germanic-style beer, you have to be better just to be equal. So, our weissbiers are generally a little bit bigger than what you would find in Bavaria. So then people say “Yeah, that’s just like the beer in Bavaria.” But they don’t realize that it’s about four degrees Plato heavier. But it’s their perception. As another point to that, I had a beer that was a bourbon barrel stout at the Great Taste of the Midwest where someone said “Here, taste this.” I thought “Oh my god. This beer is absolutely the best beer I’ve ever had. It’s just wonderful. Wow.” And the brewer was like “Well, you like it so much, here, take a bottle.” Cool, so I took a twelve ounce bottle home, put it in the refrigerator. Okay, it’s Friday night, I’m gonna drink my beer. I brought it out, let it sit on the counter for thirty minutes. Got it 55 degrees, just perfect, open it. I got about half way through the bottle and I thought “You know I don’t think I can drink any more of this. It’s just too much.” But the one sip was like “Wow!” That’s the other problem with beer-drinkability and complexity. Drinkability is one thing and complexity is one thing. They both have their merits. This stout was eminently complex but lacked drinkability but you go to a beer like Coors Light or Bud Light and I can drink it because it tastes like water but I really don’t want to. In the middle is where, I think, you find the best beers. Often those are the ones that the beer geeks don’t often note. Because to drink beer, you have to be in the environment and there has to be more to it than just drinking beer.

What exactly is the thought behind your Unplugged Series and how did it come about?

DC: In order for a brewery to be a viable entity, it has to be profitable, there’s no question about it. When we brew beers, we don’t particularly push one over another. But some beers sell more than others. That’s not our fault because we don’t advertise. We have like zero advertising budget, I mean, look around. We have none. So, certain beers sell over others and it’s the lighter beers that sell. Most people don’t like the taste of beer. They gravitate toward the lighter beers and they sell. When that happens, you are in danger of losing the respect of the geekdom. Two things happen. One, I like to brew different kinds of beer. I like to brew different beer styles. Beer geeks like different beer styles. So we said, the further we go toward the light styles of beer, we have to bring it back in balance by making beers that are kind of interesting and relevant to the beer geeks. It’s a good learning experience for us because it helps us become better brewers. The idea behind the Unplugged was having no concern for marketability of the beer. So, it’s sort of a personal statement and the term “Unplugged” means like when Neil Young…when you go to a Neil Young concert and hear “Southern Man” and whatever, but if you go and hear him play at a little half moon bay in California in the middle of nowhere, and he’s with thirty people in the audience, he’s playing whatever strikes him. That’s the idea behind the name “Unplugged.” It’s whatever strikes us to make something interesting. When we first started making it, we made the Double IPA and everybody’s making double IPAs. So then we said, “We’re really gonna do our own thing.” So we went off in our own little world and made our own beers. For example, I made a beer called Bohemian Lager, and, well, it’s not double, triple anything. It’s not 400 bitterness units. It’s not 25 degrees Plato. It’s just a beer, but what’s unique about it, we made it will real undermodified Moravian barley and Saaz hops. It’s a triple decoction. It’s fermented in unlined oak tanks. It’s krausened. It’s a real traditional old fashioned Bohemian lager like was brewed before the fall of Communism. That was kind of cool because when you drink it, it’s not like this rush of Cascade hops or alcohol or whatever, but its not something that you normally see. We try to do things that are a little bit different, a little bit weird to shock people. So, to make a Bohemian Lager and say this is an extreme beer, it kind of makes people think “well wait a minute, this is a Pilsner. How can a Pilsner be an extreme beer? It’s not 100 bitterness units. It’s not dry hopped with ten pounds per barrel. Why is it extreme?” Well, nobody makes beer like that anymore. So, in other words, what I am trying to say, it is a way to experiment and really be outside the box. Not the “outside of the box” as defined by…

Extremism.

DC: Exactly.

If you are New Glarus, what is Old Glarus?

DC: Good question. Glarus is a canton of Switzerland. The Swiss are kind of a unique people. They were having hard times in the 1840s and the government of Glarus sponsored some families to move to America because this was the frontier. The set up a homestead this area. So they came over and built the village of New Glarus from Old Glarus, and those families still live here. This has very strong ties to Switzerland. There’s a lot of Swiss people who live here. A lot of immigrants come here from Switzerland. In fact, a lot of the old people still speak and old dialect of Swiss. It used to be that Swiss people would come here to study the language because when they came here, the Swiss that was spoken had sort of stopped growing. So they have that old “Methinks thou ist..” Kind of like a Biblical English type of Swiss. It’s kind of like that town in Central Washington, Leavenworth with that sort of Bavarian look. It’s somewhat like that. These people are the original Swiss families that moved here 150 years ago. They are the great great grandchildren of those people. They came here to start dairy farms.

That’s all the questions for now, Dan.  Thanks so much for the interview!

DC: Okay. Why don’t we go taste some beers and walk around this brewery and then we’ll go over to the new brewery because the new brewery is pretty much state of the art.

Following our sit down question and answer session with Dan and the original Riverside brewhouse, he led us back to the facility’s laboratory where he lined up and impressive assortment of year-round offering, one-offs, and Unplugged series brews. He asked “Which ones do you want to try?” Without hesitation I replied “All of ‘em.” Then we went down the line and quaffed away as he graciously described each brew. Here is what he had to say:

Totally Naked: A summertime favorite in Wisconsin. Dan describes it as “a very light beer, but a hard beer to make that shows the whole range. It’s a light American lager, like 8 bitterness units.” As for adjunct, this beer’s malt bill is made up ten percent of corn. Dan says “When this beer comes out in the summer, the Bud Light drinkers take to this beer. It’s for those people who really want to join the microbrew movement but can’t stomach an IPA.”

Spotted Cow:  “Our number one selling beer. It’s unfiltered, light, sweet, kind of fruity ale.” You will find this beer at most taverns in Wisconsin.

Stone Soup: “An abbey single.”

Berliner Weiss: “It’s a Berliner Weiss. Kind of sour, tart, easy drinking beer.”

Dancing Man Wheat: From the Unplugged Series. “This is a summer hefeweiss.”

Cracked Wheat: Also an Unplugged brew, Dan says “I’ve never had (Three Floyds) Gumball(head), but I’ve heard it somewhat compared to Gumball. Brewed in open fermenters, this is about 30 bitterness units and dry-hopped with Amarillo, so it’s pretty wild.”

Fat Squirrel: “A nut brown ale.”

Hearty Hop: A Wisconsin-style IPA if ever there was one. “The West Coast IPAs are very bitter. Ours is purposefully not. It’s dry-hopped and it’s aromatic, but it’s a little bit more malty. People here are like ‘Wow. It’s nice not to be kind of slapped in the face with hops.’”

Coffee Stout: “You know, a coffee stout.”

Imperial Saison: “It’s pretty wild. That’s our new beer that is made with ginger, corriander. It’s a lactic beer made with a special yeast strain from Belgium that is very much like apricot.

After our little tasting session with Dan, we headed up the road to the brand new production facility.It is projected that a tasting room and beer garden will be open to the public some time this summer. There at this one of a kind, state of the art brewery, the friendly, were shown around by Scott Noll, a charismatic facilities manager for the company. Scott informed us that New Glarus is currently cranking out 1,000-1,400 barrels per week, of which about half is kegged and the other half bottled. A new filler acquired from New Belgium of Fort Collins, Colorado fills bottles at an alarming rate and a state of the art automated kegging line fills about 63 kegs per hour. “I was a Bud Drinker” admitted Noll “I’d drink a Spotted Cow here and there. But since being here for the past three years, I’ve become a beer snob.” The attitude and work ethic the Careys exude seems to be infectious. “Everybody here is instilled with the idea of doing the best possible job they can and getting better all the time.” he said. “They really care about their employees and in turn we feel the same way. I make a living wage at New Glarus and can take care of my family.” He continued “It costs less for me to insure my family here than when I was in the army.”

After a spectacular day in the presence of great folks and great beer, we reluctantly headed out of town and left with the kind of feeling that very few breweries can resonate. New Glarus is a one of a kind brewery founded by folks who never forgot where they came from and continually pursue new and inventive directions in which to take their art.  -AD

“He who works with his hands is a laborer. He who works with his hands and his head is a craftsman. He who works with his hands, his head and his heart is an artist.”
-St.Francis of Assisi (from the New Glarus website).

Posted under Beer personalities, brewpubs

Last time we left off in our interview with Rob Widmer, we were talking about Widmer’s relationship to Craft Brewers Alliance and Anheuser-Busch (now owned by In-Bev). Here we continue and touch on the history behind Widmer’s relationship with the Oregon Brew Crew and their Collaborator series. We also get some insight to the latest trends in craft brewing.

Perhaps the problem many craft beer folks have with large breweries like A-B is the marketing of their products. Obviously, business is the bottom line, but on one hand they slight craft brewers for producing foofy, hoppy, fruity, fancy beers, crazy brews. On the other hand offering alternative brands like Belgian wits, fruit beers, and a “craft” line-up under alternative labels like Michelob amber etc…

Rob Widmer: It seems schizophrenic. It’s funny. Within that company, I think they’d admit that, too. They’re trying different things. We do crazy stuff here, and we’ve tried different things, and we market. It’s the business side.

Do you like Budweiser? Do you drink their lager?

RW: The only beer that I don’t really like are the ones with some infections that really bother me. But I kind of see it as “the right tool for the right job” and there’s some times when Bud tastes great and I’m happy to have it. I mean, I drank a lot of it when I was in college and even before then. So, I don’t have any problems with (Budweiser). As long as the beer is well made and clean… Honestly the beers that I have troubles with are a lot of the very expensive imported beers, big beers that are old, beat up. I am very much a fresh beer person. I definitely agree that there are some beers that benefit by some aging, but I’m always amazed by these vertical tastings of IPAs and things. To me, it’s like that beer died and people are oohing and ahhing over the horrible oxidated notes.

Tell us a little about the Collaborator series and how that came to fruition.

RW: It’s a very cool thing. Kurt and I were members of the Brew Crew before we were commercial brewers. We sort of lost contact with them but became kind of reacquainted in the mid-90s. Back then you couldn’t get a snack pack yeast when you were homebrewing. They weren’t available then. So we always had yeast and guys would call and say “I am going to swing by this weekend, can I get a container of yeast?” So we’d say “Sure, just bring us a couple bottles of the result” because we were curious of seeing what our yeast was capable of doing. Some of the beer that came back was awesome. And we thought “we’ve got to do something with these beers” and that is where the project was born.

And you are celebrating the Celebrator’s 11th Anniversary this fall.

RW: I tell you, all the brewers, and it has been a couple dozen of them in the last eleven years, every one of them said that going through the project was one of the best things they’ve done since they’ve been brewing. I thnk part of it, just being homebrewers, some of your friends thing “ah, that’s a nice hobby. your beer is good” and you sort of labor in obscurity. For the Collaborator brewers, they can come in, sit at the bar with their friends and get pints from their handle and say “This is my beer.” All of a sudden they’re legit, and their friends are like “Wow. You are for real” and everyone of them says they’re just so proud.

Have you tried Michel Brown’s pumpernickel bread beer that was voted for the recipe for the 11th Anniversary Collaborator?

RW: No. That is going to be interesting. The guys were figuring out how much bread that would be. So, we’ve got some work to do.

Are you going to put bread in it?

RW: Well, we are going to use some. But they’re afraid it just wouldn’t work (on a large scale). The whole project is about craziness. But they were looking at what the ingredients in it are. Maybe we can get the rye and stuff like that. So, we’ll work with the brewer to make sure he’s happy. There was a ton of rye bread.

Next topic: innovation. There’s lots of trends coming down the pipeline such as Belgian-style beers, extreme beers, and black IPAs as well as all kinds of experimental hop beers. What do you think of these trends, and are there any you are looking ahead to developing?

RW: The black IPA for the Collaborator project, the Cascadian dark ale…we actually entered it into the GABF. It was an awesome beer. But that was one that didn’t really fit any one style. I think that’s very cool. As for the whole Belgian crazy, we’re pretty pleased with our new Belgian golden and have given it a pretty prominent slot in the W Series. What we’re currently kind of pumped about, and it’s certainly not a new style, is the Summit hops in Drifter. We just think that its such a different hop. The character of it is so unusual. That is obviously why we are giving it a lot of effort. It’s been a lot of fun to sample people on this. It sort of taught me that almost every beer drinker likes the flavor and aroma of hops, they just don’t like the bitterness. (The Drifter) has a very intense flavor but is very smooth.

What about the name “The Original Drifter Pale Ale”?

RW: The name “Drifter” connotes that it is easy drinking. But the “Original” part…we really do think that there really isn’t another hop that gives that character. I took some to the Brew Crew and people loved it because it is so unusual and delicious. But I’ve had Budweiser drinkers who have had it and are like (makes disgusted face). The way we’ve run our business is by getting people to sample the beer. I’ve been present when a lot of people have tasted our beer. Usually you get (makes contemplative) “that’s good.” But when someone goes “Wow!”, you can’t fake that. And I’ve seen that a lot with this beer. It’s a subconscious thing and you can’t fake it. I’ve seen it from beer geeks and I’ve seen it from casual beer drinkers. We’re very pumped up about it of this.

It’s one of those beers that you either love or can rub you the wrong way.

RW: Jeff Alworth (Beervana Blog) said it was kind of catty. We’ve done a lot of sensory training here and when you get that pure compound, I can definitely get it. I don’t wanna say I like it, but I am all over this (beer).

I see it as kind of oniony.

RW: A lot of our guys on the taste panel taste it as oniony. For me, Cascades have always been my favorite hop. We use it on Broken Halo, Widmer Hefe…it’s in Sierra Nevada, Mirror Pond, all that, but this could very well be my favorite. I’ve just always like the character of Cascades.

…Stay tuned for part 5…

Posted under Beer personalities, Oregon beer

Posted under beers on film

Happy 25th Anniversary to the Widmer Brother! Today is the actual anniversary date, so raise a glass to Oregon beer history, and the brothers for keeping it real for a quarter century. Today they will be rolling back prices in the Gasthaus to circa 1984.  To celebrate its milestone, Widmer Brothers will be releasing a commemorative 25th Anniversary limited-edition brew, a double alt dubbed 84/09. Though inspired by the brothers’ very first offering, Widmer Alt, 84/09 will provide drinkers with a whole new beer experience at a whopping 9.8% ABV. The 25th Anniversary 22 oz bottle will be available in 12 select West Coast markets in May.Check it out!

Widmer Brothers is the largest brewery in Oregon, and the 11th largest brewery in the United States.  Here is the third installment of our interview with Rob Widmer. When we left off last, we were asking Rob about sustainable and organic beers.

What’s your take on certified organic beer? Is this as important than locally sustainable?

Rob Widmer: If it was doable, I’d be all over it. At the same seminar we were talking about earlier, one of the local hop farmers was talking about water usage and his efforts to grow hops organically and it sounded like a nightmare for the guy.  He said he did know how he would ever be able to make any money growing organically.  He said he could lose his entire crop in a week if things went wrong. I love the idea behind (growing hops organically) and we’d certainly be all over it, but both hops and malted barley are produced separately with lots of plagues. That said, there’s another hop farmer we’re working with who is forth generation, and she was saying that her great grandfather was growing organic because they didn’t have all the stuff back then that they have today.  So she’d trying to figure out how he did it so she can do it.

Switching gears, let’s talk about Widmer’s expansion of the brewing facility across the street from the Gasthaus.  This is prevalent news for you.

RW: It related back to the organic growth we were having.  It mainly related to storage. We were out of fermentation tanks and we also took the opportunity to put in a new kegging line. Our old kegging line was a mistake. It was never a very good machine. Our own in-house engineering team ended up completely redesigning it because it was just never designed very well. The two remaining miserable jobs at the brewery was on the keggin line because it was pretty physical. The guys really had to muscle the kegs to palates. The new kegging line involves two robust that do all of the heavy lifting. So, as I was mentioning earlier about breakthrough gadgets that make your life easier, those are one of them. No more injuries or beating people up. It got to the point that we were running so often that we were using temporary labor because those guys were tough to schedule.  But now, robot…never sick, always happy, lift the kegs like crazy.

You have named your new brewery after your father Ray.  His passing this past year must have been difficult for you.  Tell us what sort of an influence he had on Widmer.

RW: He was a pretty simple guy who was raised on a farm.  His job was selling farm machinery but he was a handy guy. He could fix a car with a hammer and some duct tape. He was that kind of guy. Both Kurt and I are sort of gearheads and we got that from him. Instead of having somebody else fix something, he’d just fix it. I guess fortunately for us, when we started, he was retired and bored stiff. He was just a working guy.  He liked to fish and camp but he wasn’t a golfer. He was a pretty simple guy. As he described it, he came down to see what we were doing and we put him right to work. He stayed there until about a year ago when he passed away and he was still working on the bottling line in December. So, it was great, but as you can imagine, it wasn’t all roses, working with your brother and your dad. But in the end it was very cool.We certainly would have had a much tougher go without our dad’s involvement.

Is Kurt your only sibling?

RW: No. I have two sisters. One has been in Germany most of her life and the other lives here in town. But neither of them are really involved in the brewery.

Your merger with Red Hook made big news in the brewing community. How did your relationship with Red Hook and the idea to merge come about?

RW: Well, we both had the same relationship with Anheuser-Busch. In the 90′s we realized that distribution was a key. We’d always used kind of a patchwork of distributors as we’d brew. What we came to realize is that Anheuser-Busch distributors were just really good. And mostly, when it came to taking care of the beer and the concern of beer quality, and it is really important in that system. It may sound hokey, and people sometimes might not believe it, but the Busch family and specifically August III was just a fanatic when it came to beer quality.  (August Busch III) put into place these regulations that if you were an Anheuser-Busch retailer, there was this laundry list of things that came down to ensuring that Budweiser was taken care of. With our relationship, we were under that halo. So our beer was always taken care of…rotation, making sure it was always refridgerated. In a lot of system, the philosophy hoped for these ideals, but it happened great…if not…eh…But in the A-B system, you could very well lose your job if you didn’t do these things. Lots of guys were gone.  People lived in sheer terror of old beer and mistreated beer. It is so key. A good example of how bad it can be is over in Germany where the beer in the breweries is excellent, awesome. German brewers are the best in the world. But so often, the beer out in the marketplace is beat up. It’s gone around the bend. And it is because their distribution system there. It is just amazing to me. German brewers must know it because they’re out there drinking beer at the pubs and buy it in bottles. A lot of it is crap because they don’t refridgerate at all. It’s not a European thing to refridgerate. So, the beer is warm-stored and it gets beat up. The distribution network in the United States is far superior, and within that, A-B’s system is head and shoulders better. Having said that, there has been a major change, that you guys are aware of. But still, it’s hard to wrap my brain around that. It’s no longer the Busch family running it and already, I see it as relaxing standards because there is a cost of the demands that August Busch put on his beers and the relaxation has hurt those standards. Maybe they were excessive at times, but I’ve always appreciated that obsessiveness with beer quality. It’s kind of like if you were going to have heart surgery and you’d want a guy who is absolutely nuts about doing heart surgery versus somebody who is like “Ehhh…close enough.”

There are some obvious bad feelings about Anheuser-Busch in the Oregon craft beer community.

RW: Oh, absolutely.

Was there any conflict internally for you guys in signing on, despite the quality control and distribution advantages?

RW: The reality is that our beer was better for it. I think the problem that people have with it is separating the business of beer from the beer. You may not like Bud, Miller, or Coors, but all those beers are made by guys who really care about what they are doing. They’re passionate brewers and those beers are all very well made. You may not like that style, but there’s no denying that those are high quality beers. I think that a lot of people don’t like the business side but it’s kind of like a quirk in our society that people like to root for the underdog, but once you are on top, we love to see you go down in flames. The same people who have a problem with A-B, Miller, Coors, or whatever, well, they drive Toyotas, they use Microsoft software, they have Dell computers, they wear Nikes…It’s like, wait a minute, those are pretty good brands. Why is it that you have trouble with the big beer brands? I think it’s because beer is very emotion to people, but I think it really boils down to separating the beer from the business of beer. It’s a brutally competitive industry just like everything else is, and A-B is a fierce competitor. That’s another thing that August III was about: take no prisoners. When he took over, they weren’t the king like they were at the end. He built that. I don’t think you do that without being kind of ruthless, you know. But that is sort of the American way. If you’re not growing, you’re falling back. Look at what’s going on with the basketball players right now (March Madness in full swing). Those games are awesome to watch, ’cause those guys are putting everything they’ve got into it. I think that’s the way that A-B runs their business.

Posted under Oregon beer, beer events, beer news

Just caught wind that Goose Island is now available in Oregon, California, and Arizona. According to Sally Murdoch, Goose Island’s PR person, the Bourbon County Stout will make its way into stores Mid-November. From what we at Brewpublic have heard, the disappearance and reappearance of Goose Island beers is connected to the breweries relationship with the Craft Brewers Alliance.  The Alliance was formed by Widmer and Redhook in 2007 and has a minority stake ownership by Anheuser-Busch (now owned by In-Bev of Belgium).  Here’s the press release from Goose Island:

Chicago, IL, November 5, 2008 . . . Goose Island Brewing Company has been celebrating the annual release of its Bourbon County Stout since it was first created 16 years ago by brewmaster Greg Hall to commemorate the 1000^th batch at the original Chicago brewpub. As 2008 comes to a close, Goose Island has yet another reason to celebrate; thanks to larger distribution capabilities, the brewer is able to make the massive imperial stout, the first of its kind, available to beer connoisseurs throughout Oregon, California and Arizona. The beer begins shipping today and is scheduled to hit shelves of better grocery stores and beer specialty shops in the three states by mid-November, 2008.

When Bourbon County Stout was first crafted, Hall brewed an imperial stout in four-year-old bourbon barrels, where it aged for one hundred days. The 2008 batch kicked things up a notch by aging for 10 months in 16-year-old barrels. This process allowed the liquid to pick up its charred oak, chocolate, vanilla, caramel and smoke flavors. With an alcohol by volume of 13% and a shelf life of five years, the finished product is clearly not for the inexperienced drinker; Hall developed Bourbon County Stout for seasoned craft beer drinkers and high end spirit connoisseurs who appreciate beers that come along once in a great while. Like a fine wine, the flavor of Bourbon County Stout evolves as it ages over five years, thereby lending a different flavor and experience for the drinker, no matter when he chooses to enjoy it.

“Until now, beer drinkers didn’t have access to massive imperial stouts in stores,” Hall said. “We set out to change that. This year, thanks to our commitment of increasing our barrel-aging capacity in our? brewhouse, we are proud to say that we can bring Bourbon County to more?beer enthusiasts than we ever imagined when we brewed the first small batch back in 1992. We think Bourbon County Stout will definitely make some memories and new fans this holiday season.”

Described by some as “a great cigar beer,” Bourbon County Stout is dark and dense. The flavor is so intense, Hall says, that only the most decadent chocolate dessert can stand up to it.

Posted under beer releases

Last Week, Blitz Bar opened a second location in Southeast Portland in addition to the company’s Pearl District pub.  Similar to the Pearl bar, the Southeast spot at 2235 SE 11th Avenue (Between Hawthorne and Division at Sherman) offers a clean, open environment with foosball, billiards, several flat screen televisions, and a decent tap selection.  With several humdrum tap offerings sponsored by In-Bev/Anheuser-Busch taking up the coolers, there were still at least five to ten desirable craft beers on tap at last visit.  Trumer Pils, Rogue Dead Guy, Shock Top Wit, New Castle Nut Brown, New Belgium 2 below, and Lagunita’s IPA were the best they could offer, but the beer isn’t the real selling point here (too bad, because we’d go every day).  It’s the atmosphere.  Fresh particle-boarded walls and booths clad the brewpub-esque atmosphere.  Friendly staff and decent food make Blitz comfortable enough.  Sports coming out of every corner of the room (if you are annoyed by

televisions at a relatively high volume or a jock mentality, don’t go here). The beer selection was a little disheartening when attempting to drink through a full game, but the place offers a full bar with lots of liquor, if that’s your bag.  For the beer enthusiast, it wasn’t amazing, but for the sports fan who likes to go out and catch a game, Blitz is smokefree and immaculate.  A comfortable set of couches in the back side of the bar offer views of a projection mega-screen television.  Overall, we found Blitz nothing to write home about, but definitely worth checking out.

Posted under places to drink beer