The Desert Breweries - Part 2

As my second day in Palm Desert began, I stepped outside to enjoy the moderate temperatures that settle in to the region overnight and to plan the trip over to Joshua Tree.  While a couple of posts about the park are still to come, we’ll fast forward to the evening when I sought out the other brewery in the area – Coachella Valley Brewing, which I visited on my way back to town after a day in the desert sun.  On their website, the brewery goes by the acronym CVB, which is the shorthand I’ll use in this post. 

To the west, 148 miles or so away, is Los Angeles.  In the city, the road is called “the 10” or “the Santa Monica freeway,” but here in the valley, the smog from the coast finds its destination on Interstate 10.  Freeway imagery is the theme at CVB, from the tap handles to the beer signs.  Calling upon Siri to navigate, I found the place pretty easily, including the twists and turns of the last mile when I arrived at the now ubiquitous office/industrial park that the brewery calls home.

CVB is the older of the two breweries I visited in the desert, and despite the suburban exterior there is a sense of place about the interior: you stroll through the barrel-aging program and find yourself in the taproom, where you’re greeted with an extensive tap list that is so exhaustive it’s displayed on two chalkboards.  With such a wide range of selections to choose from, it was challenging to put together a flight, but I began to decode all the offerings to pair them up properly with the experiences of the day.

I chose beers ranging in color from amber to golden at CVB.  They had a lager, which seemed appropriate for the 110+ degree temperatures I had been out in all day.  Then there were a couple of saisons, a style I like to add for a little variety.  Right in the middle of the board I had sat in front of was a list of several fruit beers – and those became the centerpiece of my flight.

This interest in fruit beers probably stems from Shiner’s Ruby Redbird I had a few summers ago – red grapefruit and ginger were used as adjuncts; and then DePeche Mode , which I tasted at Mother Bunch in Phoenix.  Since it was the summer, I’d already had a couple of peach beers during this trip, so the CVB offering was one of the four beers I chose in this flight.  I also tried one of their IPAs, which is table stakes for Southern California breweries.

It was a good selection of beers – I’ll highlight two of my choices with the description of the beers from the CVB website:

• Phoenix Vienna Lager:  Phoenix dactylifera is the genus name for the date palm tree, long cultivated for its edible sweet fruit.  This beer is brewed with German Pilsner, Vienna, and Carapils malts, and locally-grown Medjoul dates, which are added to the boil.  Subtle German Noble hop bitterness provides balance and crisp flavor, with notes of toffee, dates, and figs shining through to the finish.  Phoenix is fermented which Mexican lager yeast, and lagered for an additional 60 days…a uniquely Coachella Valley flavor.
• Windfarm Belgian Seasonal:  One of six core beers, this seasonal is named after the massive wind farms in the north end of the Palm Springs I-10 corridor stretching out towards Cabazon.  This beer accentuates big bubblegum flavors from the Belgian yeast strain and equally robust and tropical flavors from the large hop additions during the boil – and even more after fermentation – giving the Windfarm a huge aromatic zestiness.

As I enjoyed my flight, I realized that there was a steady happy hour crowd building at the brewery, it was really hot there, so it’s natural that you could build a good following with some air conditioning and decent beer served cold.  However, the pours these folks were ordering were unusual, so I asked about them.

They were served in those large 22-ounce pedestal lager glasses, like you get at west coast public golf course clubhouses.  They were rimmed with red margarita salt, and then the beer was mixed in with Clamato juice.  At this point, I don’t remember the name of this concoction – but they must have served six of them while I sat there. 

The one local I was chatting with – an anesthesiologist from Las Vegas who spent his week here in Palm Desert, flying home on the weekends – raved about it as he enjoyed one.  He and the bar staff were interested in what we were doing at Hawksbill Brewing and then filled me in on the history of the place and their local beer culture.  A good chat and a great experience, much as I’d enjoyed at all the breweries so far.

Soon enough, it was time for me to head on out to find some dinner, so I walked out into that blazing sun and was soon on my way.  

The Desert Breweries - part 1

After checking in to the hotel in Palm Desert (and setting the room temperature on the thermostat), I began gathering thoughts for some things I might like to do out here.  I had a plan to spend a day at Joshua Tree National Park – those posts are coming up later this week – but I also was thinking ahead to Friday in LA when I would give a presentation to my MBA reunion.  I decided to go find a haircut, and then to find a local brewery afterwards. 

Except for the face-melting heat in the desert, the haircut was unremarkable.  My next stop was LaQuinta Brewery, which is the newer of the two breweries in the area, founded in 2013.  When I arrived, I noticed a barrel-aging program – but even the beers that had been laid up in casks were older than Hawksbill Brewing!

During these brewery visits in San Diego and now the desert, I had begun to notice how the locals interact with the business – the local trade is very important to our brewery as well, and we are starting to understand what that will mean to our culture and to our success.  Here at La Quinta, the website promises a “laid-back, desert style” and I wanted to know what that was like.

It wasn’t the Eagles (here I could throw in my line from The Big Lebowski, mind the f-bomb, of course); instead the music in the background had a pop-metal sort of vibe.  Behind the bar were the guys who had dialed that sound in, so I struck up a conversation, telling them about my story and listening to them tell me theirs – how they started, how they built the business and menu.  There was a decent crowd of 20 or so folks in, it being around the happy hour.  

For beers, as the photo shows, I kept to a monochromatic selection, mainly due to the desert heat.  I also tried to stay with a session idea, ABVs between 5-6%, although I made an exception with the IPA it tried there (these descriptions are from their web site):   

• Heatwave Amber:  Toasty malt character with a hint of caramel, this bee is slightly darker than your typical amber ale.  Generous amounts of Warrior hops provide the bitterness while Centennial and Chinook hops provide aroma.
• Bloody Hot Summer (Seasonal):  Nothing beats this beer on a scorching hot day in the Coachella Valley.  We’ve infused a pale wheat ale with just the right amount of blood oranges, producing a fantastic thirst quenching beer.  This brew is seasonal, so it dries up with the temperatures drop!
• Poolside Blonde:  A light maltiness provided by the Pilsner and Vienna malts.  Light straw in color, it has a moderately bitter finish.  A true palate cleansing ale.
• Even Par IPA:  This India Pale Ale is brewed with three of the most sought-after hops in brewing – Citra, Simcoe, and Mosaic.  The result is an explosion of floral, tropical, and fruity flavors.  While this “aiming fluid” may not help you shoot even par, it will certainly make you feel like you did!

The Even Par IPA advertised an IBU of 85 based on the high alpha/aromatic qualities of that hop bill.  At Hawksbill, we designed our IPA to be around 55 IBU, significantly lower than this to emphasize our malt-forward style, but we do use Citra as part of the hop recipe.  Despite the added bitterness, theirs was refreshing and on-point, but ours held up by comparison as well; both meet the objectives of the requirement to have an IPA on tap.

After finishing my flight, I drove back to the neighborhood near the hotel for dinner.  I began to understand something about the community – Palm Springs and Palm Desert are winter playgrounds, but here I was, in the middle of it, in July.  At least after dinner, around 7:30, the temperature had already cooled off – to 106!

San Diego Breweries - part 2

Continuing today with a couple of the breweries I visited in July during my Southern California vacation.  After spending Saturday evening with Mark and Nancy, my plan for Sunday was to look up Tony and Elizabeth, who live up in the north part of the city.  I mapped a route to their place and found two breweries on the way, with the plan to wrap up the second one and head directly to their house – even though our plans changed and we met in San Diego’s Little Italy instead.

Longship Flight and beer list.

My first stop was a new brewery, Longship Brewery, less than one-year old.  The brewery uses a Viking theme to emphasize their exploration with flavors and ingredients, and there is a lot of Viking paraphernalia around.  Like many of our Northern Virginia establishments, this one was located in an office park - it was a little hard to find, but they had plenty of space to operate a 20-barrel brewery.   

I tried a flight of four there, but enough time has passed that I don’t remember all of them.  I do remember two, however; in line with their spirit of exploration, they were two beers I might not have chosen otherwise (these descriptions are from their web page):

• Funeral Pyre Smoked Porter – smokey and spiced, this dry porter has a sweet smoke aroma and flavor.  Like all our beers, the flavor is pronounced, but not overpowering.  Brewed with allspice, this porter is a unique blend of smoke, malt, and spice.
• Topaz SMASH – this juicy, hazy IPA is our first expedition with the new Topaz hop.  With an amazing grapefruit and passion fruit aroma, and a bitter linger with just enough malt to maintain a balance, this hop experiment does not disappoint.

I wore my Hawksbill Hopyards polo shirt during these visits, and it was a conversation piece at both of the breweries I visited.  In San Diego, they acknowledge the brewery community whenever they have visitors from other operations.  At Longship, they gave me a tour of the place – and we spent a few minutes talking about the Topaz SMASH and why they tried it, acknowledging that it was a work in progress.

Tasting room at Green Flash San Diego

For my next stop, I had decided to make a stop at Green Flash Brewing.  Now that’s a recognizable name to Virginia craft beer fans, because Green Flash was one of the first California operations to open on the East Coast, in the Hampton Roads/Virginia Beach area.  Others have joined them now – Stone in Richmond is among the first to come to mind – it’s a topic I may have more to write about in the future, but for now we’ll get back to the Southern California vacation.

Scale of ops at Green Flash - 1 of 4 rows.

Like Longship, Green Flash is in an industrial park, but they have a much larger space, and they need it due to the scale of the operation.  There were several food trucks outside, and plentiful space for picnics.  The overall arrival experience reminded me of Kansas City’s Boulevard a few years ago (blog post here) – and I’m not even sure if I went in the main entry, as I had to navigate some corridors to get back to the tasting area.

Once I was inside, I took in all the offerings, which were plentiful; eventually I figured out that having 15 or more beers on tap was table stakes for all these breweries!  I made my selections for a flight of four, and settled in for the tasting.  My hopyards Polo came up in conversation again, and the tap room manager offered me their new East Coast IPA as a sample. 

The Green Flash flight -
coincidentally monochromatic.

There was a lot about the business to take in at Green Flash, maybe a few thoughts that we could take away and use to guide how Hawksbill Brewing will develop over the years.  

1. There is a clear benefit from longevity, these 10-year-old plus breweries are all holding their own and expanding – if we make it that long, that might be an option for us.
2. Green Flash bought Alpine Brewery, another operation in San Diego County, but they kept the recipes and branding separate – this is another expansion model that could come into play, should we be so lucky.  
3. I was still not sure what to make of the fact that there are 140 breweries in San Diego (3-million population), and several of them have the same scale as Green Flash – that’s one brewery per 22,000 people (approximately Page County’s population), so maybe we got that part right, who knows?

Clearly, I was immersed in thinking about the business, but it was time to get on the road to meet Tony and Elizabeth.  I asked for my check, but found that I had received an industry comp.  That was a nice touch, Green Flash!

San Diego Breweries - part 1

Thorn Street Tap List

In the months since we opened Hawksbill Brewing, I’ve had a couple of road trips.  Now that I own a brewery, I’m taking the time to check out the local action in the places I visit.  Although I didn’t post on my May trip to Columbus, Ohio, there are 34 breweries there, and I went to four.

That’s an abundance of breweries, but it doesn’t compare to what’s happening in towns on the West Coast.  The industry continues to explode there, and even the brewery visits Mary and I made during our last Northern California vacation couldn’t prepare me for what I found in San Diego.  According to this list from San Diego.org, there are 140 breweries in San Diego county, give or take!

I knew that my friends Mark and Nancy had a couple of breweries within an easy walk of their place.  In fact, there was one right next door – Thorn St. Brewery, so after our catch-up conversation and the tour of their new place, we took a walk over to check the place out.  Dogs are welcome in a lot of these places, so we took Dax with us – he’s a good boy and knows the ropes.

As we arrived, there was a food truck outside, so we grabbed a bite and went in to find a place to sit, ending up in the back room where the brewery infrastructure is.  We paused to check out the offerings and put together a flight of eight to share – enough time has passed that I can’t remember all the selections, but I’m pretty sure the three below were included (descriptions from the brewery’s page):

• Cocomotive Coconut Porter – This robust porter tastes like a fresh macaroon dipped in a delicious malty beer.  The base recipe is a smooth strong porter, slightly less roasty than a stout but with plenty of chocolate overtones.  Organic coconut is oven roasted and steeped in the finished beer.
• Red Headed Hop Child – This west coast style is a complex blend of rich toasted malts whose sweetness pairs well with the citrus, pine, and tropical notes from the Centennial and Simcoe hops.
• Thorn Street Pale Ale – A sessionable classic American Pale Ale that strikes a balance between its 2-row barley and caramel malts with the bitterness of the super high alpha acid Warrior hop.  Late addition of Cascade and an additional Cascade dry hop rounds it out very nicely.

Mark and Nancy live in the North Park neighborhood of San Diego.  It seemed to have been developed as an early 20^th Century suburb, with many bungalow-style homes, some California contemporaries, garden apartments, and in-fills.  With so many breweries in town, it was an easy walk through the neighborhood to Modern Times North Park tasting room, where we enjoyed the scene and more beers (I'm pretty sure I had the Farmhouse Saison), before calling it an evening.

There’s one final takeaway from the too-short visit to North Park:  a few thoughts about neighborhood brewing from the Thorn St. web site.  They describe North Park as a neighborhood where “…folks pride themselves on walking or riding their bike to get locally produced food, where people devote large parts of their property to growing their own edibles, where people love gardening, fishing, and of course, brewing their own beers…Reduce your carbon footprint, eat local, buy local, produce something local, be self-sufficient as much as you can, smile, and please try to leave the world a little better than you found it…”

That’s not too far from what we’re trying to do at Hawksbill Brewing, come to think of it.

David's Georgia Breweries Field Trip

A few weeks back, David mentioned that he and Heather had a road trip to Atlanta coming up.  Then he said he had reached out to a couple of breweries to see if he could visit.  They were receptive, so off he went - and then last week we got some photo updates.

His first stop was Red Brick Brewing, which was one of the first craft breweries in Georgia.  Here's a photo of him standing with the 100-barrel brite tanks.  For comparison, we have a 10-barrel brite at Hawksbill Brewing!

Among the other lessons learned from this first visit was that the serving laws for breweries in Georgia are very different from what we have here in Virginia.  Our law is much more favorable for entrepreneurs who want to start these businesses.  I understand that there are changes on the horizon in Georgia though.

Two other breweries he visited were Dry County and Southern Sky, where he worked on a brew day for a 7-barrel batch.  He says he learned a lot from the experience, and he's already shared some of that insight.  Between he and Kevin, they've already got some adjustments to the workflow in mind.

At Dry County, he had the chance to have a look at a 5-barrel brewing system made by Alpha Brewing Operations, who built ours.  Plenty of good insights from that visit, too.

A key takeaway from all this?  Hawksbill Brewing Company has joined a community of people who are very welcoming and always ready to share insights about craft brewing.  It's part of what makes the adventure fun - and eventually, profitable.  Every step forward is important to us at this critical stage!

Checking In @atlasbrewworks

It had been a little more than a year since we visited Atlas Brew Works, March 2015, in fact.  That time (post here) we went for a birthday happy hour, and when we went last weekend it was for the same reason - and it was hosted by the same people, our friends Kathy and Brendan.
That previous post shows the old tasting room layout that they were using back then - a very informal space adjacent to the brewing and fermentation vessels.  Now they've relocated and expanded things, so there is a well-lit formal bar with a menu board that provides substantial details on every beer style currently offered.

During this visit to Atlas, I tried full pours of two of their beers, Ponzi and Saison des Fetes.  On our previous visit I’d had Rowdy, so I’m including the descriptions of all three of these beers below:

Ponzi – “A criminally hoppy American IPA made with five different hop varietals.”  An American IPA hopped with criminal disregards.  Featuring generous additions of Cascade, Chinook, Centennial, Mandarina, and Ahtamun hops, followed by hints of Munich malt, Ponzi’s aroma writes checks that its flavor cashes.  If it seems too good to be true, you’re probably drinking Ponzi.

Saison des Fetes – “A warming winter Belgian ale straight from the farmhouse to your fireside.”  This is a beer to celebrate.  Our winter Saison balances spicy French hops, aromatic European malt, and a unique Belgian yeast.  Welcome to the farmhouse.  Settle in, warm you firkles by the fire, and drink in the festive season.

Rowdy – “Both fun and aggressive, Rowdy is a hop forward rye ale full of flavor.”  Made with three varieties of hops and a generous amount of specialty malts, Rowdy offers a complex flavor and aroma that is both aggressive and fun.  The addition of malted rye to the grain bill lends a peppery and distinct character to the beer which complements the bitterness and floral notes of brewhouse hop additions.  Finally, this copper-hued ale receives a liberal addition of dry hops in the fermenting vessel, imparting citrus aromas and a crisp, clean finish.

Atlas is a great place to get together for an impromtu celebration and our friends Kathy and Brendan really know how to host in that space.  We hope to achieve a similar atmosphere when we open Hawksbill Brewing next spring!

Atlanta Brewery Visit - 5 Seasons Brewing

In Monday’s post, I mentioned that I travelled to Atlanta for a conference last week.  As it happens, this was the same annual conference that took me to Kansas City a few years ago, and just like that last time I was traveling with the same work colleague, and we were able to fit in a little bit of recreation by visiting a local brewery.  

In Kansas City, it was Boulevard Brewery – which remains one of the best brewery visits I’ve ever had; in Atlanta, we went to 5 Seasons Brewing, more a brewpub set-up but convenient to where we were staying.

The story of 5 Seasons is a good one.  Their founder/brewers have been working in the industry for several years, and one of them traces his track record back to Colorado in the 1990’s.  

Now they have three locations in Atlanta, so there’s a lot to be said about their timing in starting up 5 Seasons – opportunities we need to be on the lookout for as we get Hawksbill Brewing started in Luray!

I tried two beers during our visit:

Hopgasm IPA:  (From their website) This is a West Coast IPA, and traces back to the brewer’s time in Colorado and California.  The rest of this info comes from the menu:  It invites you with a nose far more intriguing than most IPAs.  We use five different hops, including Simcoe and Amarillo, which give an incredibly rich bouquet and a pleasurable mouth feel.  It has a solid malt backbone and sumptuous aftertaste that will make you want multiple Hopgasms.

Two Pence Porter:  (From a BeerAdvocate review) This porter is clear and dark, with ruby highlights.  All of the rich dark malt expected, with a proper dose of hops and none of the objectionable aromas or flavors that plague lesser porters.  Plenty of dark chocolate and coffee in the nose.  Lingering dark malt flavor with a light touch of smoke and spicy English hops.  Creamy smooth with near perfect carbonation.

I was quite happy to fit in a little beer tourism during this trip.  Our stop at 5 Seasons formed a nice diversion after we had finished setting up our trade show booth.  I think I’m going to try and keep this tradition up!

Visiting @sevenarrowsbrew in Waynesboro

It's been a year or two since I was down in Waynesboro, a town I enjoy visiting because that is where the southern entry to Shenandoah National Park is, and there are some really good hikes there in the Park's Southern District.  On Saturday I was running Virginia Craft Brewing errands run, so I passed through on my way back to Luray.  While some of my Waynesboro favorites are Rockfish Gap Outfitter and Scotto's Pizzeria, I've been tracking the opening of Seven Arrows Brewing, and made sure I had the chance to stop in for a visit.

Now, I mentioned the day was spent out on Virginia Craft Brewing errands.  I started out with a drive to Richmond, because Hawksbill Hop Yards had been invited to participate in an all-Virginia beer planned by Stone Brewing's outpost there.  I delivered 15 pounds of our dried Cascade hops to David at Piedmont Hops, who was organizing the hops bill for Stone.  After delivering the hops, I set course for Waynesboro.

A check of Seven Arrows' web site shows that they opened in 2014 - the founders are Melissa and Aaron, who pursued this dream after he achieved a diploma in brewing at Miller-Coors' Shenandoah  Valley operation and she completed an MBA at James Madison.    They’ve written a compelling mission statement:  To uphold superb quality at all levels of production and satisfying all our customers.  Stay aware of the impact of taste, look, and feel of a good beer as well as its cost impact to the market.  Provide value to our customers who are concerned about a quality product that is offered at a reasonable price.

So, after having learned about them during my own market research for Hawksbill Hops, I thought I would stop by on my way through town.  They're in a little office park on the west side, so I pulled in to get a flight after a quick lunch at Scotto's.

They had a generous tap list, covering several styles, and organized around four standards, a seasonal, and seven rotating beers.  I chose a custom flight, and five beers were offered to me based on their IBU ratings:

• Harvested Apple Lager
• Caretaker Kolsch
• Fallen Timbers Oktoberfest
• Ashen White IPA
• Eventide IPA

These days, I do spend a little bit of time savoring a flight, and as I was taking notes about these, the bartender came by to chat about the beers.  I was particularly interested in knowing about their use of local ingredients, and he told me that local hops had been part of the lager I tried.  We also talked about how Seven Arrows is part of the Shenandoah Beer Works Trail, which has a farm to tap promotion this fall.

The beers I tried lived up to the brewery's mission statement - "taste, look, and feel" were solid on these offerings, and from the first presentation I could tell I was looking at good quality.  To my palate, two of the beers really stood out, so I'll highlight them specifically:

Harvested Apple Lager – they make this with cider from the Pacific Northwest.  As I tasted this dry lager, I could detect the apple aromas and a slight flavor of them in the beer.  The IBUs were only 12, so they underscored everything else going on in the beer rather than driving the flavor. 

Ashen White IPA – this beer was hopped less than the standard IPA they have on tap.  The malt bill for this includes wheat, a style that has been growing on me since I visited Boulevard in Kansas City a few years ago.  Overall, my favorite beer of the day.

I was really glad to have made the stop.  These were good beers and it seems like trying a flight there from time to time would introduce new ideas and flavors.  I'll look forward to a future trip!

New Hampshire and Maine Breweries Tour - Part 3 (final)

My flight at Stark Brewing Company.

Today’s post will wrap up the series on the breweries we visited during our vacation last week.  As she had in May 2014, when Mary and I last visited Northern California on our vacation, she indulged my desire to make random stops at breweries we encountered along the way.  The previous posts were about well-known brewers like Anheuser-Busch and Maine Beer Company; the three I’m writing about today fall within the brew pub category:  Stark Brewing in Manchester, NH; The Liberal Cup in Hallowell, ME; and Cambridge Brewing Company in Cambridge, MA.

Stark is located at the north end of the
old mill district.

These were definitely in the random stops category, opportunities for us to take a break from the driving portions of our trips and have a sit down, local lunch.  I’d rate them all a success on that basis.  It turns out they all had their unique take on the “local” aspect of it.

Stark Brewing Company was the first of these stops.  We took a walking tour of Manchester, which has a famous mill district that has been redeveloped into a mixed-use area downtown, and the brewery is there at the north end.  Opened in 1994, the brewery rebranded as Milly’s Tavern in 1999, and recently returned to the use of the old name.  They’re currently working on adding a distillery to the operation – the installation was underway when we made our stop.

We had a great visit and the current brewer gave us a tour of the place.  Afterwards, I got a flight to sample the beers while we had a nice lunch, and the owner and staff chatted with us a bit about the operation.  Soon enough, it was time for us to get on the road.

Street scene in Hallowell, MA, home
of The Liberal Cup.

After our visit to Acadia National Park, we got on the road back to Boston on Saturday so that we could catch our Sunday flight to DC.  Once we got far enough along, it was lunch time, and we did a quick Google search for nearby breweries, finding The Liberal Cup.  Our drive there took us past the Maine State House in Augusta, by surprise, and then we found ourselves in another quaint New England town, Hallowell, which is where the Liberal Cup is located.

Their goal since opening in 2000 has been to operate as a traditional pub, albeit one that happens to have a 7-barrel brewery down at the end of the bar.  They try to make sure that there are always six or seven beers on tap, and of course they offer the typically generous portions of pub grub, which was part of our objective.  I had another flight there, very surprised to find a couple of lagers mixed in with the ales and porters!

The final stop was at Cambridge Brewing Company.  We decided to take a walk out from the hotel we were staying at to visit some familiar haunts – Mary went to graduate school there and I’ve had a few consulting projects in the neighborhood.  Things have really grown up in the Kendall area, certainly driven by the economic engine that MIT provides, and this brewery has benefited as well.

It was the end of our trip, and it was a Saturday evening, things were just getting started when we were there, early evening.  Rather than lingering over a flight and dinner, we made a quick choice about what to eat, and then I had an IPA to go with my meal.

With these three visits, we had managed to tally five breweries in all during the Vacation 2016 tour.  We missed some good ones that truly would have been good stops – Allagash and Smuttynose are among the well-known names that come to mind.  Still, I’m quite happy to have been able to check in at three categories of breweries:  Mega-international, craft production, and brew pubs; and I sampled some really good beers during all of that.

I brought back some good ideas and observations that I hope we can make part of Hawksbill Brewing as we prepare to break ground on the leasehold improvements and order our brew kitchen.  All that will start soon – we’ve got a busy summer ahead!

New Hampshire and Maine Breweries Tour - Part 2

In the tap room - beers on tap and the bar.

After our A-B tour, and a stop to visit friends in New Hampshire, we began making our way up to Acadia National Park, which was the ultimate destination for our vacation trip.  As I mentioned yesterday, Mary had agreed to indulge me on a few visits to breweries on the way, so I had set my sights on Maine Beer Company, in Freeport, Maine, as one of the stops.

When I first began homebrewing a few years ago, Maine Beer and Boulevard were among the earliest craft breweries my fellow enthusiasts introduced to me.  The emphasis on "craft" was most apparent with Maine Beer, embodied in one of the quotes on their web site:

No tours are offered, but the production brewery
is visible from the tap room.

"We told ourselves if we couldn't do things right then we wouldn't do them at all."

Boulevard, which I toured (link here) in Kansas City in December 2014, similarly demonstrates what you can do if you stay committed to your values and aspirations.

As a result, the experience at Maine Beer brewery emphasizes a number of sustainable features to the design of the building and production area - solar arrays for power, and interpretive signage to introduce and educate visitors about other green features in use.  For a consulting professional who works on real estate and facilities, like myself, these are all great features to see in practice.

This commitment and messaging continues with the beer.  There is a solid history on their web site about experimenting with hops - see this link; also here is a quote from that page that presents a  mission that any craft brewer could adopt:

Here's the flight I chose at Maine Beer
Company - four 5 oz. tulips.

"The Hop Program developed as a way to experiment with new hops and new hop combinations, and also incorporate different styles of beer.  It is important for us to keep learning and growing as a brewery, and the Hop Program allows us to do that.  Never standing still, and always moving forward are some of the goals we aim to accomplish through this series."

We can get Maine Beer in Virginia, and my local in Bethesda also offers the pint bottles.  Peeper, Lunch, and Mean Old Tom are some of the varieties I've sampled.  For my flight, I chose Peeper, Pilot 10, a tiny beautiful something, and Beer IV -  a couple of pale ales, a hoppy lager, and an IPA (Beer IV) from the Hop Program.

The beers were good, just as expected.  The crowd in the tap room was steady, but leaned a bit more on the hipster side than I might have liked, but I can't complain.  

New Hampshire and Maine Breweries Tour - Part 1

Fermentation vessels - there are four stories
of these!

Mash tuns and boil kettles.

Mary and I are just getting back from a week of vacation in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and  Maine.

While I am still getting the photos downloaded, I wanted to get started with a few blog posts from the trip - as we did during the 2014 vacation to Mendocino, Mary indulged me with a few brewery stops, so I'll start with those.  I already posted about seeing the Anheuser Busch Clydesdales, so why not begin with the brewery tour there in Merrimack, NH.

These are new ale fermemters to be installed
at the brewery.  The jacketed tanks are
stored upside down, pending construction.

Anyone who visits this brewery can get on a tour to see the high points, and I had done that before - actually this is one of two A-B breweries I've toured, the other one is in Tampa - but Mary and I decided to take an upgraded tour behind the scenes into the production areas.  But first let me detour into a personal history with Anheuser Busch.

As the team and I have been making progress on Hawksbill Brewing Company, I only recently remembered that one of my first job offers after I completed my undergrad was with Anheuser Busch.  The Tampa brewery is near USF, where I got my bachelor's degree, and I got a referral for a quality assurance spot there back in 1988.  I actually got an offer from them, and really considered taking the job, which included two cases of beer per month as part of the compensation - we learned that it's still a standard part of the package these days, too!

The A-B hops demonstration garden.

The job I took during that job search was with a government contracting firm based in Billerica, Massachusetts, not too far south from the Merrimack brewery.  During a two-week orientation trip I went up for a brewery tour on my free Sunday.  During our trip this time, I remembered how much things had changed - everything but the tasting room, that is, it was pretty much what I remembered!

One of the automation screens.

After a short overview of the history of the company (light on details of the current A-B Inbev situation, focused a bit more on the branding we Americans know so well), we went off on our tour of the plant.  They even suited Mary and me up in safety gear!

We visited the grain room, mash tuns, boil kettles, and fermentation spaces during the trip.  The vessels are typically in excess of 700 barrels, and this is a 24/7 operation, so they really go through the ingredients.  The grain bed in one of the mash tuns shown above is four-feet deep!

We also had a look at the control room and quality assurance areas.  As you can imagine, with a plant this size, there is a lot of automation.  I have a highlight photo here - there is also software that keeps an inventory of the hops on hand, and automatically compiles the hops bill for whichever recipe is being brewed on a given day.

One of the canning lines.

Part of the bottling line.

After we stopped in the fermentation room, we had a taste of Bud Light pulled right from one of the tanks.

We learned that the tanks we could see in the room were less than one quarter of all the ones in this brewery - the fermentation building is four stories tall, and each floor is essentially laid out the same way as the one we saw.

Our tour guide Katherine, along with the flight I sampled.

After all of that we checked out the bottling and canning lines.  I remembered that the team at Boulevard were particularly proud of their line, which was being upgraded when Eric and I visited.  I've also seen the line at Port City in Alexandria...but the scale of these two breweries doesn't hold a candle to what they had at A-B.  The operation stretched in both directions as far as the eye could see, bottles on one side, and cans on the other.

To close out the tour, we went down to the tasting room for some samples.  In addition to the A-B brews that everyone is very familiar with, there were some from the new acquisitions to be tried.  I selected their Red Bridge Gluten Free, Oculto (aged in Tequila casks), the Blue Point Summer Ale, and the Blue Point Blueberry Ale.

It was a good sample, and I was very impressed with the Gluten Free offering as well as the Blueberry Ale - given the scale of the brewery, it seemed that making a product like this wouldn't be economically feasible.  That's a discussion for another day, though: the impact of the craft beer industry and how this company is responding - remember that the Devil's Backbone acquisition is still fresh, and A-B was an early investor in Red Hook.

It would be easy for me, an aspiring craft brewery operator, to be negative about this company that is so dominant in the industry.  But that isn't the impression I was left with after the tour, and besides, I couldn't feel that way about them given the history and fond memories I have of them.  They have a key role to play in the beer industry, they're a true leader, even if you can't call them "craft" - and they do everything so well, there is a lot that we can learn from them.

I recommend the tour for anybody who happens to be in the area.  It's well worth the stop, and the upgrade is only $25 if you want to check out behind the scenes.

Visiting @MotherBunchBrew in Phoenix

Mary and I are on vacation this week, and while I hope to be able to make some posts to the blog from the road, I thought I might do a quick write-up about the brewery I visited a couple of weeks ago in Phoenix:  Mother Bunch Brewing Company.

The brewery is in an old grocery
(photos from their web page).

I was in town to participate in a trade show, giving a short talk and then networking in our trade show booth.  Back in 2003, I’d had a great project with Maricopa County that meant I traveled there three or four times for a week each trip, and I ended up at the same hotel as I used to go to back then – one of my favorite business hotels, in fact, although that is probably more due to familiarity than anything else, but it’s nice and the service was very good.

After we had packed up the booth, I had time on my hands, and as fate would have it, I was traveling with my trusty sidekick Eric (I posted about our trip to Boulevard Brewing in Kansas City here).  He had family in town and planned to meet them, but when they showed up we talked them into driving over to Mother Bunch.  It turns out they knew the place and were happy to accommodate.

Nice daylighting and an ample bar.
(Photo from their web page.)

Mother Bunch is one of the more interesting brewery names I’ve come across, and as it turns out, the name honors a local woman there.  They have a portrait hanging in the tasting room, but there’s not much about her to be found on the internet.  In addition to a 7-barrel nanobrewery, they have a full bar and a restaurant.

Since I had been sampling local IPAs for most of the week (Four Peaks and Sleepy Dog), I ordered their Saison de Peche, made with local seasonal peaches.  The other guys went with the IPAs.  I checked in on Facebook and also Untappd – there was an immediate “like” from the Facebook post, and we were soon invited back to the brew kitchen.

They were wrapping up a collaboration brew with BlastedBarley, another brewery in the area.   They used the visitor’s recipe on their system – I’m sorry I won’t have the chance to taste it.  After a quick visit in the back, Eric and I returned to the bar to finish our pours.  I had a second taster of the Grapefruit Wit.

A couple had joined the bar scene, by coincidence they were in town from Falls Church, VA.  We had a good visit, and I invited them to check out Hawksbill Brewing on Facebook, which they did (we’re still planning a fall 2016 opening, by the way).

All in all, we had a good time checking out Mother Bunch.  I really liked the Saison, we share an inspiration to use locally grown ingredients.  I had been wanting to try something with peaches in it, and Saison de Peche checked the box very well.

Now it’s off to Massachusetts, New Hamshire, and Maine.  Hopefully we will get a few brewery stops in on the trip.  We’ll see!

Visiting Swover Creek Farm Brewery

On Thursday I found myself out in the Valley on brewery and hops business – I’d scheduled a meeting in Winchester but it was moved to Woodstock.  From Winchester I had planned to visit my friend Jonathan up in Lucketts Mill, but I canceled that due to the longer drive after Woodstock.  Instead, I took a drive over to Swover Creek Farm Brewery.

The last time I went to Woodstock, I didn’t make it.  Mary was with me and we were on the way to the new Woodstock Brew House, but we hit a buck that totaled the car.  We hadn’t ventured back since then, although I’d still like to go check out the brewery.

Over the last few years as I have gotten involved with the hop yard and now that we are beginning to plan the brewery, I met the proprietors of Swover Creek.  They have a hop yard on the property and were early members of the Old Dominion Hops Co-op, and they eventually moved forward opening a farm brewery on the property.  It’s a pretty inspiring story that matches my aspirations.

With time on my hands, I checked both Woodstock and Swover Creek and found that Woodstock wasn’t open until 4pm, but Swover Creek opened at noon, so I decided to take the drive out to Swover Creek.  This neck of the woods also has a favorite vineyard of ours, North Mountain, which I written about before – and they are growing hops as well, but whenever I am there, I remind myself that the big mountain to the west is North Mountain, and that’s West Virginia.  It’s close enough that you could almost reach out and touch it.

Once I got there, I ordered a flight, highlighted by the Red Clay IPA and the Coffee Stout (on Nitro!).  There were a couple of locals in the tap room, so I struck up a conversation with a few of them (I was in my farm shirt with the logo, which I have found opens doors in the industry).  They were useful contacts that I hope to have a chance to talk with further.

Proprietor Lynn was in the tap room and offered a brewery tour, which I gleefully took advantage of – they also shared some farm-made andouille sausage and zucchini relish that I couldn’t resist.  I learned their story of starting with a half-barrel system and growing to the current 3.5-barrel system that fills the brew kitchen – the story is on their web site, which is linked above.  Obviously, there was a lot of perspective to be gained to an aspiring brewery operator!

I took away some good lessons from the visit and shared them with my partners at Hawksbill Brewing, David and Kevin.  Very helpful insights that are going to help us stay on track as we continue to make our own progress on this journey!

Now back to the tasting - so far I've found that every one of the Virginia breweries I visited have at least one memorable offering, and Swover Creek was no exception.  The Red Clay IPA came highly recommended by the brewtender, and I was not disappointed.  But an even more pleasant surprise awaited with the Coffee Stout (on Nitro!) - it's a style that is trending right now, and I am quite fond of it, but also there is this technique of using nitrogen gas during tapping.

I'll do some research for a future post, but it is said that using Nitro was pioneered by Guinness (who doesn't love a Guinness?) but we are finding it used more and more by craft brewers in Virginia and nationally.  Heck, we're even using it during our pilot brews - by coincidence we just did a Coffee Porter pilot and put a 5-gallon keg on nitro! 

All in all, I had a lucky day.  My business meetings went well, and time will tell if they were successful.  But the real luck came because the meeting moved and I had some found time - and I had an opportunity to meet some great people at an up-and-coming farm brewery!

Visiting Hopkins Ordinary

We took a little drive over to Sperryville on the weekend – I wanted to show Mary one of the craft breweries over there.  This one is located in the basement of a bed and breakfast called Hopkins Ordinary.  We’d stopped by once before, in the summer, so I could deliver some hops from Hawksbill Hop Yards to them.

There is a second brewery in Sperryville called Pen Druid – we’ll hit that one sometime this winter, and I’m sure she’ll enjoy it as much as this one.  One of our discoveries was the addition of a new beer garden on the grounds there, complete with tables and a firepit.  That’s where we decided to do our tasting.

They typically will have a good range of offerings on tap at Hopkins Ordinary, and many of the beers include a local ingredient or two.  I think everything that was available during our visit used local malt procured from Copper Fox Distillery, and the saison used local persimmons.  The offerings on tap were:

• Little Devil Blonde
• Fallen Fruit Saison
• Stoney Man ESB
• Wildflower Honey Brown Ale
• Smiggy’s Wee Heavy Scottish Strong Ale
• Innkeepers IPA

We had a nice time sitting outside by the firepit.  Looking forward to more adventures over on that side of the mountain – they’re neighbors, after all!

Visiting @2witchesbrew in Danville

Back in March we were still just planning the hop yards, and I sent some marketing feelers around to a couple of the breweries across the state.  2 Witches down in Danville was one of the earliest enthusiastic responses I received - and we kept in touch throughout the growing season.

The 3.5 barrel system at 2 Witches

Finally, when the hops were ready, the folks down there told me they'd like five pounds of Cascade - which I gladly reserved for them while I figured out the logistics of delivery.  This was a complex matter for me, for a couple of reasons, which I'll describe later in the post.

Part of what makes a small hop farm worthwhile is the relationship you get to build with the brewers who will use your hops.  In the case of this brewery, I was excited because I consider Danville, way down there in Virginia along the NC border, to be home territory, since my parents were born and raised in Eden and Stoneville, less than 10 miles away.  The response from the brewery was warm and welcome, so I looked forward to completing the sale, and I will make sure that everything works out satisfactorily for them.

On tap at 2 Witches

Having been down US 29 a few times before, I was looking forward to revisiting some of the landmarks along the way - the gentle rolling hills and fields between Warrenton and Charlottesville, crossing the James River at Lynchburg, etc.  I'd forgotten the distance, but that really wasn't a problem; as it turns out I was part of a mad rush until Charlottesville because of the UVA - Notre Dame game that was happening in the afternoon.

At last I arrived at the brewery.  They've got a good space in an old industrial warehouse area, and they've been able to improve it with some outdoor areas on the old loading docks and a new garden.  In fact, the brewery is also a winery, so there were a couple of rows of vines planted on the grounds.

While ordering a flight, I talked for a bit with Alex, the brewer, while we completed our business.  The name of the brewery originates with a family photo of two very cute young girls in witches costumes.  Those women are now part of the business, working on the winery side.

I mentioned my family connection and we discussed the Miller Coors brewery in Eden.  Alex is taking brewing classes there, so he was familiar with the town.  He's heard rumors that a nano will be starting up downtown there soon - something to look forward to on future visits.

The flight I enjoyed at 2 Witches.

I mentioned the logistics challenges on this delivery - so as a wrap up I'll write about that.  When I received my lab results from Virginia Tech, they advised that I move anything that didn't sell quickly into the freezer, so I did just that after a week.  I had about 12 pounds left at the time, and that's what I froze - subsequently delivering a two pound order to Tin Cannon, and a five pound order to Hopkins Ordinary, keeping the hops frozen during transport and until delivery.

Knowing the distance to Danville, my first thought was to figure out how to ship them, but I decided the risk to quality from a thaw cycle while they were en route was not acceptable.   I decided I would drive down with them - I could ensure they were in good condition and have an enjoyable time visiting the brewery as well.

I also enjoyed a flight of the on tap offerings while I was at 2 Witches.  There was a good range and balance with a couple of wheats, a brown, and two pale ales on tap.  Alex told me that they will use the hops I delivered to dry hop an ale that's currently in primary - you know, that's something we can be proud of!

Returning the Favor @pendruidbrewing

Pen Druid's soft opening on July 31.

 A few weeks back, we had visitors from a couple of breweries out at the hop yards - Pen Druid Brewing, who were on the verge of opening over the mountain in Sperryville, and Tin Cannon, who operate in Gainesville, not too much farther away.  I put up this post - we really had a great day at the farm visiting with these folks and learning that much more about the Virginia Craft Brewing Industry.

Flash forward a few weeks, and here we are with the Pen Druid Brewing soft opening on August 1 - neighbor Dan and I trekked over to have a look around and try some truly crafty beers!  David couldn't join us for the visit, since he and Heather were up in Frederick for a race, but we'll make a plan for a follow-on visit soon.

Enjoying the vibe with the Pen Druid team!

I first learned about this team back in May, during a visit up to Black Hops Farm in Lucketts - somehow I missed posting about that road trip.  I met with Jonathan up there and he showed me around the operation - again, lots of collaboration and creativity going on, and that's an aspect of this whole thing that is really growing on me.

That's really the theme of this brewery, as you can see on the tap board from our visit.  Dan and I sampled all three of the offerings, and got a little tour of the place as well.  We tried the 10 oz. pours of all three beers - doing an "ABV ladder," starting with The Mild Child before progressing through Janis' Southern Wrecker and Suzerain.

Creativity in chalk.  I think Pen Druid is a
good example of what craft brewing is all about.

I'd like to highlight that last one - over the last few years, in my home brewing experience, I'd seen kits that offer combinations of beer and wine, and I had thought I might give one a try over the summer.  That didn't work out for me because of the hop yards schedule, so I was pleased to have a chance to try the one these guys had worked out.

They obtained a chardonnay barrel from one of the nearby wineries and aged this Saison in it.  From the process, this beer picked up some wonderful flavors that are complex and delicious - but still respect the summer's heat - so they are very refreshing.

These barrels are part of the creative process at Pen Druid.

The brothers walked us through their plans to experiment with several beers this way.  There's even a sherry cask in the inventory, and Dan and I agreed we'd look froward to that one!



It's terrific to have this new brewery so close.  I'm looking forward to future visits - and perhaps some collaborations with hops from Hawksbill Hop Yards!

Congrats guys!