Another conversation with Lee

A few weeks ago Nate, Sergio, and I went back to Blind Lady Ale House to talk to Lee. We spoke with him near the start of our homebrew career and he told us that if we ever had a beer we wanted him to try, to bring it in. After our most recent failure we decided it was time to take him up on his offer.

We took our latest marzen in a 22oz and found him speaking with some customers. He greeted us and then poured four glasses, one for each of us. He smelled it, looked up, and said, "that's (messed) up." He didn't even need to drink it to know it was a failed batch. We then had an extended conversation about sanitation and all the various steps in the process that can introduce contamination.

the water
siphon
carboys
cooling process
sugar
yeast
transfer equipment
sanitizer

We went back and reviewed every process of our operation, replacing pieces that were old, returning to our most stringent procedures. We also built a wort chiller from scrap at home depot to reduce the cooling process from overnight to 10 minutes. We recently tested out these changes with our first brown ale which we bottled this past Saturday.

We're excited to see if our changes made a difference. We'll let you know.

-jck

A history of failure

For record keeping purposes, and cause we're honest, this post simply states our recent failures.

#12: red ale V (it was bad)
#13: marzen (it was badder)

And here's to hoping our recent brown ale isn't added to this list.

-jck

Some Serious Failure

Don't worry, we're still alive. And we're still brewing.

The problem is that we're still brewing, but we aren't brewing anything worth writing about.

Truth be told, we're actually brewing horrible beer. We've been doing so for awhile now. I've lost count, but I think it would be safe to say we've brewed at least three bad batches in a row. We thought we had it all figured out. It's got to be the ceramic pot, we figured, because the coating had worn off and there was visible rust inside. Makes sense, right?

Nope.

We got a nice new stainless steel pot and there was no difference. So now we really have no idea what's going on. We even brewed a batch with a friend of Sergio's who has been brewing some good beer lately and he didn't see much wrong with our processes. Our last batch, just to let you know how far we've taken this, was the Marzen that was our second brew ever. We brewed it because we liked it so much and followed our prior recipe to the letter and number. No deal.

So although we are disheartened we haven't given up hope. We plan to swallow our pride and take a bottle of our disgusting brew to Lee, the guy we've blogged about previously who worked at Stone Brewing and now co-owns Blind Lady Ale House in North Park, San Diego. He gave us the green light to bring something in if we ever need help.

If ever there was a time, it's now.

-jck

The 2010 California Brewery Tour Summary

We returned from our brewery tour over a month ago. We came to understand several things about breweries and beer on our trip. The experience, and much of what we learned, has stayed with us.

1. Hops are not everything-Going on a California beer tour means going on a West Coast beer tour. I've grown up surrounded by the West Coast craft beer movement and it is a hop driven movement. That being said, we came to appreciate early on our tour that malt forward beers are good. From our first stop at Eagle Rock Brewery we experienced great malty beer that was often more drinkable and in some ways enjoyable than the hoppy beers we have come to expect. Magnolia had some great malt-forward beers, as did Lagunitas (although they had their fair share of hoppy ones as well), Moonlight, and 21st Amendment. While this was by no means our first experience of malty beer, we came to appreciate the break from the one-and-done hop of many beers on the West Coast.

2. Brewing large scale is often a labor of love-For some reason I ended up asking a lot of business questions on this trip. When we had the chance to talk to brewers and owners I asked questions like: How many barrels per year do you produce? Are you profitable? Can you share your journey from homebrewing to now? What I learned was interesting. Several breweries do not make money. One had been around for five years and did not make money. The owner had to sell his house and his wife still worked to support the family. But they both supported the business because they loved it. It gave me a lot of admiration for these breweries. Beer for them is so much more than a drink. It is an art and they are willing to give a lot to make their art so others can enjoy it.

3. Seasonal beers say a lot about a brewery-Another unique aspect of our tour that highlighted the benefits of being up close with breweries was the chance to peek into the pantry, so to speak. It is difficult to get a sense of a brewery from a web-site or the limited selection you see on the shelf at any given store. When you visit breweries, however, you can take in the entire lineup of beers currently being made and oftentimes the many beers that are now part of their archive. This was no more obvious than at Lagunitas Brewing Company, where there's always a season for a new seasonal. We sampled a couple different seasonals and saw on their shelves many that have come and gone. This was contrasted by North Coast Brewing Company which does not make seasonals at all; they stick to their stock beers and don't venture out much. A brewery like Lagunitas, however, displays creativity and boldness, and while prolific, their quality does not suffer. It says a lot about a brewery and their brewmaster when they are able to consistently offer new and noteworthy creations, season after season.

We had many more beer related revelations on our trip; perhaps the other guys might wish to add to this list. Overall I felt that visiting breweries in person truly did heighten the enjoyment of the beer. Meeting the people, seeing the facilities, and connecting it all with the beer is an experience that reveals new aspects of something old and familiar. It is certainly something I recommend.

-jck

#11 Porter

A couple months ago we tried our hand at our first porter. We had already brewed a successful stout and felt it was time to brew heavy again. After our red ale follys prior to Christmas we made the decision to follow the recipe more closely this time around.

What we got was certainly drinkable, but some bottles still had the slight "off" taste we've been noticing, however I considered it successful enough to write about it. Another indication that it was ok rests in the empty cupboards where the porter once sat.

Like many porters, it was rich and creamy with possible coffee and definite chocolate notes. This particular bottle was had with a smoked andouille chicken sausage, an unlikely pairing that brought out the chocolate flavor. I felt some of the bottles were borderline over-carbonated but many were not. All in all, save the occasional funky off after-taste, it was a nice addition to our FBB line.

-jck