Capt Keith's Beer Blog

My Assistant Beer Guru, Sam Wynne, and San Antonio General Manager, Lucas Mobley, just got back from Bend, Oregon and it looks like they got to check quite a few breweries.  The most recognizable of them all would have to be Deschutes brewery.

Deschutes is one of the largest craft breweries in the country. Based out of Oregon, they sell most of their beer on the West Coast.  They got their start as a little brewpub in 1988, but since then have blossomed into one of the biggest users of whole cone hops in the world.  Their flagships Mirror Pond Pale Ale and Black Butte Porter are some very fine examples of their respective styles, and Obsidian Stout is the best selling American made stout. Only Guinness outsells it in this country.

Above is the old brewhouse, which is still in use, but mostly for the smaller batch brews.

Where the magic happens

These mash tuns are where full scale production takes place.  To maximize production each of these vats have beers in varying stages of the process.

Here, hundreds of pounds of malted and milled barley are being mixed with hot water (150+ degrees)  to get the mash started.  That skinny layer of dark roasted grain around the outside is enough to make this beer black as night.

Filtration and fermentation

One of the wildest things about large scale production breweries is always the bottling line.

You cant go see a brewery without drinking some of their brews, and outside of Texas they are allowed to have their own pubs.

Plenty of rare brews pouring here at the pub

Most of their beers are named after local landmarks.  Mirror Pond Pale is named after a local pond, Red Chair is named after the oldest ski lift on Mount Bachelor, Inversion IPA is named for the dense fog that sweeps through the mountains, Black Butte Porter is named for a local mountain, and so on.  Many of their smaller batch beers don’t make it far from the brewery, and in the case of their 22nd Anniversary beer Black Butte XXII and Nitrogen pressed Abyss 2010, they don’t even make it out of the brewpub.

2007, 2008, and 2009 vertical of The Abyss

They checked out a few other local breweries as well.  Silver Moon is a cozy little pub, that distributes around Oregon.  Their porter and ESB were a big hit.

Silver Moon Brewing

Boneyard Brewing is one of the newest breweries in Bend.  They make some tasty brews, and have even done a collaboration beer with Three Floyds out of Munster, Indiana.  They don’t send their beer out of Bend…..yet.

Guard Dog at Boneyard Brewing

10 Barrel Brewing also has a few pubs around Oregon, this one served a great Cabernet Barrel Aged Old Ale called Double Woody.

It sounded like Lucas and Sam had some fun and got to try some new brews.  They bring back word that The Abyss by Deschutes Brewing is getting very close to TABC approval for Texas distribution this year, and that they have a few cases allocated for the Moth and some Saucers if this happens.  Keep your eyes out for this brew that currently sits as BeerAdvocate.com’s #4 beer in the WORLD.  We’ll keep our fingers crossed!

Sam is off to World Beer Festival next. January 22nd in Columbia, SC….. Tough job.

Finally heard back from the boys that went up to Denver for the fest and it sounds like they had a blast.  Sam put together quite a weekend for our beerknruds.  They all met up on Friday morning to head on out to Avery Brewing in Colorado.  Ted Whitney, Avery Sales Manager and friend of the Saucer, set us up with a party bus to get everyone to Boulder and back safely.  They call this mythical bus “Hop 1″.

Stretching their legs after climbing out of Hop 1

From there they began a VIP tour of the brewery that started things off in the Barrel Room where the wildest of Avery’s brews spend most of their time.  Whiskey, Wine and Rum barrels from all over the flock to this room and wait patiently to be filled with tasty beer.

Beautiful barrels

Augustus raises his glass...

Whats a barrel room without drinkable beer?

From there the tour proceeded to the rest of the brewery where the beer is actually made.  Avery is growing so fast they are about to bust out of their building.  Fermenters have taken up alot of the parking and more parking is going to be cannibalized soon to add even more.

Glycol jacketed fermenters

New canning line

They have started to can beers for Colorado, hopefully we will see them in our neck of the woods soon.

Tanks squeezed in everywhere there is a spot

Then on to the taproom tor drink more beer!  I’ve heard about lots of exciting brewpub-only releases, the highlights being Beast from the Wood (Oak Aged Beast), Missionary Man (Reverend Quadrupel with Guava Puree) and a Brettanomyces finished IPA.  There were lots of beers to choose from and some of the happiest bartenders alive.

Back on Hop 1 to get back to Denver for the fest.

Party on the bus!

All the cool kids sat in the back on the floor

After the day trip to Boulder it was time for the fest!

Austin, Charlotte, and Memphis/Cordova ready for the fest!

1oz Tasting glasses ready to be filled

People with beer as far as the eye can see

There were many beer celebrities pouring brews and taking pictures and Sam was lucky enough to snap some pics with some of my favorite beer folks.

Sam Wynne in the front and Sam Calagione (Dogfish Head) in the back

Steve Grossman (Sierra Nevada) and Matt from Raleigh

Garrett Oliver (Brooklyn) with the traveling beer bandit Augustus

Charlie Papazian, founder of GABF and American Homebrew Association

Matt with Kevin Brand, brewmaster of Austin's (512) Brewery

Cheers!

That's Amos in the middle, assistant brewmaster for Texas' only Gold Medal winning brewery in 2009, Uncle Billy's - Austin, TX

The bear left his wallet inside the fest

The next morning, still alive, the gang made its way to see  Todd Usry at Breckenridge by the ball park where he hosts his annual Saturday Brewers’ Breakfast.  Just great food made with Breckenridge beer, and best of all, free beer!

Saturday morning at Breckenridge Brewers Breakfast

Today GABF kicks off in Denver.  This fest has come along way since its inception in 1982 in Boulder with only 22 breweries representing a mere 40 beers.  (reminds me of our upcoming Austin Beer Festival 10/16) Ten years later 7,000 fans of craft beer descended upon the Denver Merchandise Mart with 150 breweries and 500 beers.  Over the next few days an expected 49,000 people will be able to sample from 455 breweries.

Look for this big blue bear peering into the window and you will know you’re there. Also look for Sam Wynne – he’s my Flying Saucer Ambassador. 

Look for Sam Wynne (photo taken in Bruges enjoying some Moule Frites & Westmalle Tripel)

This year Flying Saucer began a new reward program for our faithful BeerKnurds who make multiple trips around the Ring of Honor and we are sending 19 of them with 10 plates or more (and a friend) to Denver to choose from over 2,200 beers at the festival, the largest selection of American Craft Beer ever assembled.  Sam Wynne, my assistant Beer Guru and Certified Cicerone, will be traveling with BeerKnurds from Fort Worth, Raleigh, Memphis, Charlotte, Addison, Columbia and his home store Austin while they attend the king of beer festivals.

Not only can you visit massive beer festival, but Denver Beer Week has a host of special events that began September 10th and will continue to continue until Sunday the 19th. Why can’t all beer weeks last 10 days?  There is an open house at Great Divide and Sam also set up a brewery tour at the Avery Brewery in Boulder on Friday to warm up for the fest that night. On Saturday Breckenridge Brewery’s Blake Street location opens their doors for their famous Brewers Breakfast that is always a blast.  It will be a fun filled weekend for all 40 of these faithful BeerKnurds , and I look forward to hearing their stories. (SAM – take pictures!!)

I raise my glass to Charlie Papazian, creator of GABF,  and to all those who have paved the way for the advancement of craft beer. Every day, those of you who chose to drink better beer help us carry the torch for the craft beer movement and for that – I thank you.

Emmanuel “Manu” De Landsheer, owner of Malheur told me the story behind his small, artisanal brewery. His family has been brewing beer since  the 1600′s in Bougenhout, Belgium near Dentermonde. The original brewery was called Sun Brewery. In the brewery’s tasting room, the walls are adorn with historic photographs of each family member working in the brewery or the hop fields.

All of their beers were living ales – sour ales.  They grew their own hops, they used the well water and their yeast was of the wild atmospheric sort. Over the years, the well water became contaminated with nitrates and the landscape changed as well. The beer was not the same, so they halted brewing and began bottling for others. Today, they are no longer bottling but they do maintain a distribution company as well as an import-export company. In fact, they are the #1 exporter for Westmalle Trappist.

Manu resurrected the brewery and called it Malheur, which produced its first beer in 1997. It was Malheur 4 and it was 5% abv. Malheur is a French word that translates to “misfortune” – maybe that is a strange name for a brewery – maybe not. Apparently, students from the University gave this name as a class project & Manu described it as “hard times or positive disaster” It could be fitting, since it took almost 400 years to evolve into what it is today – through a series of disasters that turned out a positively unique artisanal brewery.

The US imports the 10, 12, Brut and Dark Brut from Malheur. 2000 saw the birth of 12, which is a terrific Dark Belgian Ale (Quadruple). I think Manu called it a brown ale. I tasted it on draft at the brewery and it will rival St Bernardus Abt 12. It’s THAT good.

In 2001, Malheur’s first Brut beer was made. This fantastic beer endures 3 months of bottle fermentation at cave temperatures. After the first three months, they angle the bottles in specially designed racks while turning the bottle clockwise over the course of two weeks – called method champenoise.  When all the yeast settles, they freeze the top portion of the bottle and the extra cO2 built up from secondary fermentation blows this sediment out of the bottle. Afterwards, they cork it, add the wire cage and glue the foil on by hand.

The ingredients are pure and no shortcuts are taken. No sugar or adjuncts are added. The beer quality speaks for itself and if you haven’t tried one yet, most Flying Saucers have Malheur. Bring a friend and share a bottle – this will ease the sting of this high end beer’s price tag.

Lucas, Manu, Sam & me – with a 12 in hand.

Fresh Hops

I had an opportunity to visit with the good folks at Sierra Nevada recently and had a fantastic time. We’ve been selling their beers for the past 13 years or so and this was my first time to visit the brewery. It is not easy getting to Chico, CA, but the trip was well worth it.

Sierra is almost if not entirely off the grid. They have one of the largest privately owned solar panel systems in the world. They have a very well equipped R & D brewery where I was able to taste some experimental brews from their fermenters: a Saison, Hefe-Weizen and a Pilsner. I believe this was their original brewhouse that was outgrown and put to good use.

In the picture above, I am about to toss in the rest of the 110 gallons of fresh “wet” hops into their brew kettle. When you drink the Harvest ale (if there is any left), you should smell and taste the hops. They spare no expense making their beers and it was a real pleasure meeting Ken Grossman and his fantastic team.

A trip to Belgium is a must for any beer enthusiast. The year 2005 was the “year for beer” and I was told by one of our hosts that 100 years ago, Belgium had 1500 breweries. Now they have 150 or so independent breweries. So, I set out to find some of the best.

We set up camp in Brussells and then headed south to Chimay. It was a nice drive past Waterloo and despite my lack of navigation skills, we made it on time to meet Fabris (shown in the picture). He was a great host and everyone we met at Chimay was very happy to be there and to meet us.

Chimay is a Trappist brewery and is located inside the Scourmont Abbey and was founded in 1863. Chimay brews and sells 3 different ales; The Premiere (Red) – 7%, Tripel (White) – 8% and Grande Reserve (Blue) – 9%. The beer is sold to raise money to maintain the Monastary and to aid charities supported by the Monks.

Seventeen monks were at the Abbey and I caught a glimpse of them in prayer. I was told that visitors rarely get to go inside the prayer hall – I felt honored. Inside the brewery, I was surprised to see that almost everything was fully automated. They have a red, blue and white button to press for each brew. I assume recipe secrecy has something to do with this. The brewery has a lab inside and each beer is inspected, measured and tasted at different stages of the brewing process and before it leaves the Abbey.

After a primary fermentation, the unfiltered beer is shipped in large tankers to the bottling facility nearby. I was told that the travel in the tanker helps mix things up a bit to further the process of fermentation. At the bottling line, the beer and more wort or sugar is added to continue fermentation in the bottle. When the bottling line is on, Chimay bottles approximately 35,000 beers per hour. Then the beer is packaged in crates and sent to another room to continue (bottle) fermentation for several more weeks.

Their yeast strains are protected and samples are frozen and stored in off-site vaults in two seperate cities. Chimay is one of SEVEN Trappist Breweries in existence today. They also produce wonderful cheeses for personal consumption and retail markets.