Eli pays his debts
So we won a little beer blogger fantasy football league last year. No big deal [subtext: BIG DEAL]. As winners, we were promised a local 6-pack of microbrew. Most of the participants [subtext: LOSERS] paid their dues promptly. Some of them, including Eli “The Delinquent Beer Man” Shayotovich, did not. Eli blogs over at Confessions of a Beer Geek and is also half of Beer Tap TV.
So imagine my surprise when I received this in the mail last week:
Whoa, did Eli come through or WHAT?! It was almost worth the wait. Here’s what was in the box:
- Modus Hoperandi from Ska Brewing
- Steel Toe Milk Stout from Ska Brewing
- Pliny the Elder from Russian River
- Blind Pig from Russian River
Eli, we can now safely say that we look forward to playing with you [subtext: CRUSHING YOU] again next year. Thanks for the beer, we haven’t been able to try any of this stuff yet!
Brewing canceled tonight
Sorry everyone, brewing is canceled tonight. I realize this is highly irregular, since we canceled 2 weeks ago. Rest assured, we have good reasons.
- We have a lot of beer carbonating, not a lot of beer ready to drink
- I am sick
- Joel is lame and can’t make it till later anyway
On the plus side, Jeff has said that a MNB cancellation would give him more time to work on some legal documents that we need to actually get off the ground. And you should know that I did NOT want to work on those documents. Go team Jeff!
Interview with a Brewer: Dogfish Head
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past few years or stumbled across our website accidentally on your way to the new Bud Light Lime site, you’ve probably heard about Dogfish Head. They’ve been taking the craft beer world by storm with their innovative, “off-centered” ales. Their flagship, the 60 Minute IPA, is a continuously hopped work of art, in our opinion.
Which is why we jumped at the opportunity to interview their founder and President, Sam Calagione. Dogfish Head is somewhat of an anomaly. They brew nontraditional beers (such as attempting to recreate a 9,000 year-old recipe), but have gained fairly widespread acceptance among beer circles. Apparently you don’t have to brew a boring pale ale to have success in craft beer. An encouraging tidbit.
As aspiring professional brewers, Dogfish Head makes for a great case study. To read more of our enlightening interviews with professional brewers, visit the archives. Thanks to Sam and Mariah at Dogfish Head for their time, and enjoy!
1) Many of your beers defy traditional beer style categorization. Do you believe you?re on the front-end of a sea change in the way the broader American public thinks about beer, or pushing the outer limits for avid beer drinkers?
We are proud to be be part of the surging craft beer renaissance that embraces a broader definition of traditional than the reinheitsgebot. Long before brewers were making beers with only water, yeast, hops, and barley they were brewing with exotic indigenous ingredients like honey, grapes, sake yeast, saffron and juniper. This is the ancient creative brewing tradition that Dogfish embraces.
2) When Dogfish Head started, was it your goal to be a national niche brand (now distributing in CA), or did you aim more at being a really good local/regional brand?
We always hoped to sell our beers national but we didn?t think we would ever sell as much beer as we are currently selling around the country. When we opened in 95 we were the smallest brewery in the county and our average beer was 9% abv and brewed with 6 as opposed the the ?traditional? 4 ingredients. We are now the biggest craft brewery in the Mid-Atlantic and will make about 100,000 barrels this year. Yet our average beer is still 9% abv and brewed with 6 ingredients. So we haven?t had to change what we do in order to grow ? that shows how experimental the beer enthusiast network has become.
3) What does the process of developing a new recipe typically look like? How many iterations does it usually take?
Usually at least two ? a test batch on our 5 barrel system at our pub, then, if we like it, we extrapolate that recipe up to our 100 bbl production brewhouse and send it out into distribution.
4) The craft beer market and culture has changed a lot from when you started. If you were starting again from scratch today, what challenges and opportunities would be different from when you began?
More competition from great breweries that now focus more or bigger and bolder beers but also more acceptance of these kinds of beer from a broader spectrum of beer buyers.
5) What’s your favorite thing about what you guys do?
As we get bigger we actual take more risks and are more obsessed with quality and consistency as we grow. We brewed a Pale India Ale at our brewpub yesterday with Indian spices and a saison yeast.
6) Does the increase in national distribution of craft beer brands limit the viability of smaller, local/regional brands, or will there always be a place for a local beer culture?
I don?t think so ? hopefully there will always be strong local, regional, and national craft brands in every market.
We build a new hop trellis. And no one notices.
We got fewer compliments than expected on Monday on our brand-spankin’-new hop trellis. Which leads me to believe that beer lovers are insensitive and/or unobservant. Here she is, compliments of Jeanine and her camera:
We built it last Sunday, just in time for our hops to join in the race to the moon. They’re competing against some lesser known Soviet hops, but will probably win considering how fast they are growing.
If you want to build your own hop trellis, it’s surprisingly easy. All you need is a Joel to tell you exactly what to do. Joel is pretty handy with this kind of stuff, which is why we keep him around after outsourcing his primary job functions.
But seriously, we dug some holes and put in the posts with Quikrete. Jigsawed the top boards and screwed them in. Cut the crossbeams with a 45° miter saw and drilled them in. It’s all very manly.
Check these Cascade bines out. They make some lesser brewer’s hops look positively adorable in comparison.
Brewing recap: “We know girls” edition
Despite a rocky start to the day, last night’s brewing turned out quite well. We brewed a batch of our Eye Patch Ale with a few minor tweaks to give it a little more hop character (mostly bittering and flavor). There was a good crowd, including quite a few females. Let’s be honest, there have been Mondays in the recent past with a decidedly male slant.
Part of that is to be expected. Southern craft beer purchasers are overwhelmingly male in demographics (about 71% according to the latest data we’ve seen), but that doesn’t mean that craft beer is only for men. So ladies, keep it up. Keep drinking good beer, and keep brewing with us on Monday nights.
In other news, our experimental double IPA is shaping into a very nice beer. It’s been 5 weeks since we brewed it and we want to give it another week or two to mellow out before serving, but it is already delicious.
We are also getting a sense for our Belgian-style wit beer again, now that the weather is turning. This used to be a big draw for summer crowds, as some of you may remember. We tasted the two-week-old version last night and it reminded us of… a Belgian wit. Which is fine in some respects, but it’s not as distinctive as either the Eye Patch Ale or the Drafty Kilt Scotch Ale. So what has changed? Nothing. It’s the same recipe, but I think our other beers have progressed while we shelved this beer temporarily. It’s a Belgian wit, but it’s not our Belgian wit. Yet. Our launch beers are still the obvious priority for us, but we want to spend some time tweaking this beer over the summer if possible.
Brewing is ON!
Sorry for the late notice. We’re brewing the Eye Patch Ale tonight. Hopefully the weather will hold out.
Stay tuned…
This weather is currently looking pretty dicey. We want to brew if at all possible, but can’t say it’s a definite yet. Check back before you load up the car.
If anyone is driving by Joel’s house today, stop in and give him a hug. He’s scared of lightening.
