Past
Stories
Admiral Maltings
Booze sales is a fun job... but the reality is that it can enable (if not outright promote) a pretty unhealthy lifestyle. Hopping from bar to bar... having drinks and eating pub grub. Sitting on a stool or in your car most of the day. I have lived that lifestyle for 6 years. When COVID hit, the bar scene went into hibernation. Most of my existing business dried up and I honestly wasn’t hustling as hard as I could/should have been. I began questioning my old sales tactics in light of our current economic environment. Due to the slowing of on-premise business and my inability to pivot... I was laid off.
As I went through all the normal emotions you’d expect... I decided to focus on picking up some positive habits and try to slow down some of my bad ones. I’m exercising a bit here at home thanks to a new stationary bike. I’m communicating more openly with my wife, Tamara, about our finances. I’m brushing and flossing more frequently. I’m trying to make time to meditate. As part of this effort to improve I’ve also accepted a new part time job that is much more labor-intensive than I’m used to.
@admiralmaltings in Alameda makes local malt for brewers and distillers using organic and/or sustainably grown California grain. By supporting NorCal farms they help our local economy/food systems and decrease the carbon footprint of their malt. The malting is done using traditional methods which enhances flavor but also requires a lot of physical labor. If you’re a brewer... imagine raking out your mash tun all day, every shift. That’s what I just signed up for and I have the blisters to prove it.
I’m really excited to be working for Admiral. The crew there have been incredible and I think the work they do is important. Come check us out someday and if you are a brewer hit me up for some info. Using local craft malt in your beers is good for our economy, our farmers, and the environment. Plus it might help me get to full time.
Fox Tail Fermentation
I am constantly inspired by my friends Felipe and Wendy. As they are slowly get their project @foxtalefermentationproject off the ground, I joined them for a brew day down in San Jose making their signature beet beer.
Felipe is a professional brewer over at @fortpointbeer and Wendy is a food guru making all kinds of awesome ferments. You might remember them from the Homebrew Market at @carnivalebrettanomyces last year.
Be on the look out for big things from them.
Redwood Hill / Capracopia
I had to rush to Sebastopol... a town in West Sonoma County that is already on edge as they wait for orders to evacuate. Wildfires are close. Several roads around the farm were blocked off by police to prevent non essential traffic. The need to move quickly, however, was not the fire caused by lightning strikes last week. Another storm is said to heading their way and Scott Bice, owner of Redwoodhil Farm - Capracopia , said he can’t run his equipment if lightning is in the area .Capracopia is a goat farm with a few different streams of side revenue including flowers, olive oil, and the most well known amongst my friends... hops. It’s hot and humid... and every gust of wind makes you look toward the sky for signs of dark clouds. Hundreds of bines sway in the thick smoky air. A firm tug will snap the line above and a quick snap of some shears will free the bottom. We toss the bines on the back of Scott’s off-road vehicle and we drive it over to his harvester. No signs of lightning, yet, so Scott kicks on the generator and the giant comes to life.
We picked 4 bines of comet, a cross breed of English and wild American varieties. They smell of overripe pear and cut grass. I intended to grab an equal amounts of Chinook but Scott noticed another variety was ready that he hadn’t expected. Cashmere... a cross between Cascade and Northern Brewer... was ready now and has a great aroma of peach gummy rings and cantaloupe. We decided to grab for bines.
As I loaded my trash bags full of wet hops into my car, destined to be paired with oak aged wild saison, I was relieved when Scott said he’d like to work together on some future projects. It was refreshing to hear someone speak of the future with hope.
LEAKY BARREL CIDER
Recently my friends at Leaky Barrel Cider Company announced that their most recent release “Alrighty Then” would (most likely) be their last. To celebrate all they had accomplished, the folks at Redfield Cider Bar & Bottle Shop in Oakland poured every one of their releases. It was a packed house all night and a fitting farewell.
Founded by the Yarger brothers, Leaky Barrel make natural cider with minimal intervention, aged in oak and using our local apples of Sonoma County. They are advocates for the expansion (and return) of cider apples in Northern CA during a time when Gravenstein orchards are being ripped out and replanted with wine grapes.
All good things come to an end... but I suspect the Yarger brothers have plenty more adventures to embark on. Check out this video I put together of the event. If you see any Leaky Barrel bottles or cans on the shelf buy them now. They won’t be around much longer.
Brewbilt Manufacturing
Our focus on quality is not limited to sourcing the best malt, hops, yeast and fruit we can afford... it also extends to brewhouse equipment.
We are a long ways from opening our own location, but it’s important that we make contacts and build relationships with the people and companies we hope to work with for years to come. So with that in mind it’s been a pleasure getting to know Jef Lewis from @brewbilt_mfg .
Located in Grass Valley, North East of Sacramento CA, Brewbilt specializes in building some of the highest quality brewing equipment in the industry using American steel. After brewing on the pilot system they built for a Charlie Johnson at @roninfermentationproject and sitting in on a brewday on Charlie’s main system... I have been totally impressed with the quality and craftsmanship Brewbilt puts into their work.
Already well known here in California with customers such as Device, Yeast of Eden, and GhostTown, I’m looking forward to seeing more breweries across the US and (maybe even around the world) learn about what they have to offer. Be sure to follow them on Instagram and Facebook.
Someday we hope to have a 10bbl system to call our own with all the bells and whistles (and a koelschip) but for now I’m happy hanging out at Ronin and learning more about what these systems are capable of.
[The video in this section is owned by Brewbilt Manufacturing.]
EFFIGY BREWING
Outside Santa Cruz, CA I joined some acquaintances and a lot of strangers for a bonfire at an apple orchard. I’d like to thank I left having converted a few to friends.
My buddy Ben Ward is operating a beer project called Effigy similar to AltBrau... releasing beers through friend’s licenses and doing collabs to introduce proof of concept to the market. Once a year he gathers his friends at this orchard and everyone writes down their troubles and concerns, folds them up, puts them in a figurine, and burns it. Effigy.... makes sense now, right? This year it was a piñata of the main character from the movie “Boss Baby” but everyone just kept calling it Trump.
As we sat around the fire... watching the baby burn (never thought I’d get to say that)... we shared some beers amongst the brewers, cider makers, hop farmers, and friends who came out.
Olly Olly with
Good Beer Hunting
We’re a few hours late on our schedule, but I suspect that was a rather loose guideline from the start. Andrew Thilboldeaux has been warming up, preparing for his performance inside a dimly lit room full of mostly strangers, taxidermied animals, and vintage furniture in front of a crackling fire. There are no instruments to hide behind. Nothing separating himself from his audience. Andrew creates abstract soundscapes on a laptop and uses his voice as a live layer… minimally lyrical and intensely emotive. This is not the type of music I’m normally into, and I suspect others in the room are in the same boat. To be honest…Andrew doesn’t look the part, either. His large build, shaved head, long beard, and casual-country attire conjure images of indie rock frontmen or rambling blue grass performers. This is not that. His music is abstract, his voice and motion of his body are part of his greater performance art. In this intimate setting amongst industry colleagues, where you can sense we all want to make a good impression, his vulnerability is not only appreciated but indicative of how I imagine we all feel. I know that to be true in my case. (Full Blog)
Ronin Fermentation
One of my goals with AltBrau has always been to be transparent regarding my growth and my experiences in the beer industry. I always try to show some vulnerability and allow room for doubt or discussions regarding ethos. Every so often I have someone reach out and let me know that they, too, seek to have real interactions with beer lovers and fellow brewers. Charlie Johnson from Ronin Fermentation Project was one of those people.
Charlie Johnson has a long history in the beer business, and now he's ready to launch his own brewery... again.
I recently spent a couple days with Charlie up in the woods of Northern CA along the Nevada border in the Lost Sierra outside of Truckee and Reno. We had some beers, I hung out with his dogs (Skadi, Loki, and Yogi), and we recorded a podcast surrounded by the deer living in the neighborhood. Charlie is a man with many trials and tribulations. He always makes for a great hangout.
Antidoot Wilde Fermenten
From our feature over at Good Beer Hunting…
”A new tradition is taking shape.
Carnivale Brettanomyces is Amsterdam’s annual wild and sour beer festival that welcomes brewers and drinkers from around the world. In recent years, brothers Tom and Wim Jacobs invite a few lucky beer makers to Belgium for a group brew day following the festival. (That’s Wim in the brown T-shirt above.) The whole thing goes down at a farm in the Flemish countryside called Antidoot, where the brothers create their highly regarded natural wine, cider, and wild ales.
They were joined this year by amateur and professional brewers from Switzerland, Sweden, France, the United States, and Germany. The recipe consisted of organic European malts, hops from Wim’s father-in-law’s property, and hay from a piece of land recently acquired by Tom to expand the farm. We layered the hay in the lauter tun and steeped it in the koelschip along with some of the hops.
The use of the koelschip in the summer months is rather unorthodox, and some of the puritanical brewers and blenders we lovingly refer to as “The Lambic Police” have objected. Nevertheless, the quality of the beers coming from Antidoot is undeniable. Sometimes it’s worth bucking tradition.”
