New Belgium Brewery (A curiosity piece)

New Belgium brewery has been on my mind lately; mainly due to stuff I have read about them lately. I am not sure i have much of a conclusion for my thoughts, but I will proceed anyway. Maybe writing out my thoughts will help me....

First, I will describe my personal history with New Belgium beers. I say personal history because I have been drinking their beers since I was old enough to buy beer back in 1997, living in Texas. I always really liked their beers; especially their lesser known Sunshine Wheat, Trippel, and some others that we don't quite have out here in Tennessee yet. Even their Fat Tire had a strong appeal beyond just the fact that there was a bike on the label (I was working at a bike shop at the time - their's was the preferred of the "bike associated" beers back in the day.) Fast forward about 6 years and I moved to Tennessee, where I have been since. New Belgium Beers have only recently been available here, and really just 3 standard brews and a seasonal are available. And they have stormed onto the scene. Neon cruiser bikes are everywhere (even bike shops), there are frequent specials on New Belgium Beers, and they have quickly infiltrated about everywhere that serves beer. I sort of think this is a good thing. Only that where my friends and I used to bring back cases of New Belgium beers from trips and such, now I sometimes feel like I am settling for a Fat Tire when there are no other decent craft beers within easy access.

This summer, I visited the New Belgium brewery. It was no less than breathtaking. The culture is closely guarded and the facilities are second to none. They are very active in their community and they had many different beers to sample. Essentially, they have made their brewery a beer mecca and their beer one that is often celebrated. They have become America's "cool" brewery.

So two bits of information that I have read lately are interesting to me. The less interesting is that they are looking for a beer ranger in North Carolina. Maybe it has already happened, but they are on the verge of hitting the Atlantic (Just a year or so ago, they wouldn't even cross the Mississippi). The other bit of news is that the couple that founded New Belgium are getting divorced. My source for the info (a trade magazine) stated that the divorce should be final by the end of October (now). The wife part of the relationship is taking over the company and the husband is letting go of his involvement.

That is interesting to me in several ways. The biggest, though, is that the husband, Jeff Lebesch, is the person who started the brewing and came up with their flagship Fat Tire Beer. Now, I am not going to pretend to know how the company has progressed since then as far as management, direction, or whatnot. I also have no idea what has transpired to take things to this point (and I have no interest, especially on a personal level), but I do question the focus when the original beer master leaves a brewery. Jeff hasn't been in charge of production for a long time, that is known, but still.....

It is no secret that Kim Jordan, the other half of that founding couple and now CEO, knows the business as well as Jeff. But it is also obvious (from interviews, etc) that her focus is on the culture and the employees and such as much as on beer. I think these things are important, but it all has to start with the beer. And I do feel like some of the quality of the beer has been lost in the last year or two. Granted, I may be all wrong about Kim's role in that and maybe the quality is one of the things she is looking to improve upon in the coming months and years. But these things are clear: they are expanding very quickly, the beers they are expanding with first are not their best beers (in my opinion), and their ubiquity seems to be pushing them to the realm of Sam Adams, a beer that is everywhere but mostly just a fall back when there is nothing else worth drinking. To successfully distribute so widely, a beer has to cater more to the average beer drinker, which essentially precludes it from having any significant character....

So anyway... as I mentioned, I am speculating that Kim Jordan may not be the best for the brewery and that losing the originator of the beer may also remove the original passion from the brewery. I hope I am wrong. But my hope is waning. I am curious to see what happens in the coming years, and I am curious to see who will take the "coolness" crown if New Belgium loses it.

Some Yeast Work and Brew Preparation

November will be a (relatively) busy month for me when it comes to brewing beer. I plan to brew 4 five gallon batches in the next week or so, and then eventually (in probably about 2 weeks) I will be bottling around 200 beers. My kegs are in good shape for a bit from brewing about 4 weeks ago (currently serving my special bitter and my cappuccino stout), so these new batches are meant more as an experiment. Sort of along the lines of the Yazoo Hop Project, I am making 4 different pale ales. Mine won't be dry-hopped IPA's like the hop projects, but they will each share the same grain bill, much like the Hop Project series does. The difference, though, is that instead of trying different combinations of hops to find that perfect recipe, each of my pale ales will be brewed with just one type of hop. The purpose of this "experiment" is to learn more about a few different hops.

The hops I have acquired for this series are:

• 4 oz Centennial (this one has a higher alpha value, so less will likely still be more)
• 6 oz Crystal
• 6oz Willamette
• 6oz Perle

I am looking forward to having 4 different hopped beers to compare and learn about.

A year ago, a project like this wouldn't have been very affordable. Hops were expensive and in short supply. This year, however, in case you have been in a hole or just don't follow the hops market, there is a surplus of hops and prices are sometimes 1/4 of what they were last year. So what does that mean? It means that I can use 4 times the hops! Or maybe just that I can do a single-hop pale ale series. At any rate, this should be fun.

Along the same lines, brewing 4 batches of beer can be pretty expensive for a homebrewer, so I am trying to maximize efficiency wherever I can, but without cutting corners. Often, in the quest to save a buck (and speed fermentation), I re-use my yeast by pouring new wort on top of a yeastcake from a previous batch. This requires planning so that I am racking the first batch the same day I am brewing my second.

For this series of four batches, I intend to do a similar thing, but I am planning to have two batches going at a time. So to still use one vial of yeast, I am making a starter. But not just a typical start. I am doing a 2-stage start to try to multiply the yeast some before pitching. At any rate, it should be good and primed to do some munching when it gets into the primary.

As a part of the starter preparation, I made some standard wort with some dried malt extract and poured some off for the starter, pouring the rest into standard beer bottles to store for future yeast care. Not a difficult process, but sanitation is of utmost importance. I ended up with 8 bottles of extra wort and some wort for my starter. Once it cooled, I added the yeast. Let's hear it for procreation!

Victory Brewing Company

I am spending this week in Pennsylvania at the ol' homestead, with my parents and sister. It is always nice to go home for a few days and drive around the old roads and run and ride on the old trails and smell the old smells and see some old friends. It is also a good thing to try some new beers. Since I was last in town, it had come to my attention that the Victory Brewing Company is a paltry 27 or so miles from my parents house (much closer as the crow flies as that 27 miles is all on back roads). So my sister and I decided to head that way to check it out.

Our visit wasn't at a time when tours were available, but the brewpub and restaurant were fully active. And they had no less than 15 different beers on tap. I think that easily more than half of them would be considered high alcohol in Tennessee. Now I am not one for samplers, as I think that to really pass judgement on a beer, at least one (and usually 2) pints of a brew are required. But this time, with limited time and opportunity, I went for a 5-beer flight. Their flights are drinker's choice, so my choice was 5 beers that I can only get at the brewery, and the bartender served them up.

• Yakima Twilight - this was an IPA that was brewed wth 4 different hops from the Yakima valley. Decent taste, though I think that I like their hop devil better. Interesting, nonetheless.
  
• Scarlet Fire - this was a smoked marzen, and boy did it taste smokey. Again, interesting, but not a session beer for me.
• Brewmeiseter's Pils - Definitely tasted like a pilsner. Very dry, though. This one didn't have a description in the "book".
• Kolsch - very drinkable, and I have never been much into the Kolsch style. So really, I don't know if that means it wasn't a very good Kolsch? But it worked for me. An enjoyable beer.
• Wild Devil - this one was interesting. Essentially, this is the hop devil, but it was brewed with 'wild' yeast. And the "wild" taste was there. I think I like the regular Hop Devil much better, but it was interesting to be able to taste what "wild" adds to the flavor.

So after the taster, my sister and I ordered dinner. I ordered the smokehouse burger (which was superb, by the way), which I only mention because I ordered a beer that was suggested with that burger. I got their Storm King Stout.. on cask. 9.2% goodness on cask poured in all of its strength and glory. It seriously took 10 minutes for them to pour the beer and deliver it to me because of the time required to pour me an imperial pint, settled, filled, and ready to drink. After that one it was apparent I wasn't driving home.

Victory was the only true production brewery I visited on this trip (so far?), but wasn't the only opportunity to try new beers. On Monday, while visiting a friend, I was served a Milk Stout and a (American)Pale Ale from the Lancaster Brewing Company. Both were very good beers.

On Tuesday I met a friend at a a pub in Kennett Square called the Half Moon. They have quite the beer selection, but it took one gance at the three cask beers on tap to determine that I would be drinking the Yards ESA (English Style Ale?). The first one was so-so, but that was because it was probably the first beer pulled that day (I later determined) because it was warm and a little off-tasting. My second, though, was fresh and spot-on. A very good English Bitter style ale. My favorite variety of beer.

Later that night, I also enjoyed an Iron Hill IPA. Iron Hill is sort of the local brewpub that makes decent beer and has decent food. I would compare them to the Big River or Blackstone of Nashville (Boscos being a step above).

The trip isn't over, but the remaining time is dependent on what the Chesapeake Bay port of Rock Hall has to offer... Hoping it will be good...

Cheers...

Fine Homebrewed T-shirts

I don't wear too many different shirts. And many of the shirts I wear on a regular basis are brewery shirts. This isn't a bad thing, but then I thought one day -->> "I try to brew and drink my own beer most of the time, and I prefer my own beer to most others, so why am I wearing others' t-shirts?"

So, I am proud to introduce my own homebrewed t-shirts. I recently finished my first small run of branded t-shirts with the help of my friend Doug, who has a screen-printing setup. The mens shirts are printed on some uber-soft smoke-colored shirts and the womens are printed on brown relaxed-fit women's shirts (unfortunately, the shirts aren't as soft as the men's - I'll do better next time).


I currently have the following available: 2 women's medium, 1 men's medium, 3 men's large, and 1 men's XL.

These are available for the paltry sum of $10 (plus $3 if it needs shipping out of Nashville).

If you want one, shoot me an email (troy [at] mybrewing.com) and I can reserve one for you...

Beer Pouring Again

I kegged two batches last night. And tonight I am drinking pints of both. That's one thing I love about kegging: very little waiting. Essentially, once the beer is cold it can be drinkable if you choose to carbonate it quickly. The other option is to put it on CO2 and wait 2-3 days, but 20 minutes of attention will fix that.

The method: Lay the kegs down on their sides while connected to the CO2 (turned up to maybe 20 lbs) and periodically (or constantly) roll/shake the kegs around. You should be able to hear the gas moving into the kegs. Keep doing this until the you don't hear much CO2 moving. Then you are done. Turn your pressure back down and put the kegs back in the fridge. They should be ready to go. The biggest problem is potentially over-pressurizing the beer, but if that happens, it will settle itself out soon enough.

Cheers!

Brew Kettle.

Wow!

Two Empty Kegs

I am running a little behind in homebrewed beers, but I will be re-stocked soon. With a summer trip and brewing beers for a few occasions, my home supply has been limited. This was obvious to my friend Kevin when I saw him at the store and he saw store-bought beer in my grocery bag. Not a great sign for a homebrewer (or at least for me).

But fear not, I have two beers on the horizon (both in their secondary fermenters). I have another in my steady line of attempts at a proper English ale, and I have an American Amber (but fermented with the English ale yeast). The bitter was hopped with some UK Challenger and UK Kent Goldings (including a little for dry-hopping), but the main difference was the flaked maize I added this time. Many of the traditional English bitters use maize to round out the taste, so I thought I would try mimicking their technique. I have high hopes for this beer.

The amber ale was inspired by the trip I recently took and the enjoyable amber ales I consumed while traveling. This is my first attempt at this style, so I used a recipe formulated by perusing a number of different standard amber ale recipes for grain concentrations and such. The hops I used were what I had around and amounted to 2 ounces of Northern Brewer for bittering and 1 oz. of Pacific Gem for aroma. Pacific Gem is not a typical aroma hop, so this should be an interesting beer.

In case no one has put 2 and 2 together, I typically prefer the easy-drinking milder beers. I like the occasional bigger, highly hopped, or higher alcohol beer, too, but what I really enjoy is that beer I can drink every day and not grow tired of it.

Oh. And I updated my beers on hand on the sidebar.