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| Our Ingredients |
One of the truly wonderful results of the craft-brew revolution is the increased availability of more diverse high quality ingredients. The mega-brewers use a high proportion of rice and corn in their beers instead of barley malt. Why? Because it's cheaper and generally produces a thinner, less flavorful beer. Even the barley malt they use is designed to meet this goal. The mega-brewers use malt from 6-row and specially hybridized 2-row barley because it has more of the enzymes needed to convert the other grains to sugar. Unfortunately these malts are also high in protein and husk tannins, and don't provide the malty palate that is desirable in lager beer.
We follow a different path. Most of our base malts are made from derivatives of the "Hanna" strain of two row barley from Germany and the Czech Republic. In our opinion, this is the best and most appropriate barley for the types of beer we make. This is the barley malt that allowed the brewers in Pilzn to create the pale beer revolution more than 150 years ago and gives German beers their rich malty taste at lower alcohol levels. The Pilsner malt we use has a darker color than most, produces rich, malty beer, and is low in protein, so it produces a naturally clearer beer. We build our amber and dark beers with darker, richer and more flavorful base malts as well. We don't skimp on the specialty malts either. Many of our beers use two or more base malts and up to six specialty malts. These malts are more expensive - roughly 25% more than the standard malts used by other craft brewers - but we feel they are necessary to get the flavors and malt character we're looking for.
We use a lot of hops. Not because we like massively bitter beers, but because we believe that multiple hop infusions during the brew process result in smoother bitterness, more interesting flavors, and a better balanced beer. We also find that our naturally soft water brings out the best from hops - smooth and flavorful bitterness. We usually make four hop additions while brewing a batch. We also look for the best, most appropriate hops for the beer we're making. If that means the hops come from the Czech Republic and cost 50% more, fine.
| Brewer's Notes |
What's Brewing - July 2
We're just finishing putting Bobtoberfest into tank, where it will sit until early September. It tastes a little rough right now, but that's expected, and underneath the roughness is a really good beer. We'll probably bottle a little more than last year - 120 cases vs 90, and we'll have more available in keg.
I've been planning for brewing Sandy Paws in about a month. We're going to try a slightly different mash regime to try and reduce the unfermentables a little. We're also going to see if we can make a really big beer this time...
We did a trial batch of Pils using Floor-malted Pilsner Malt from the Czech Republic. It has a little more straight malt flavor without the grassy element in our standard Pilsner Malt. The beer we like the best was a blend - about 40% Floor-malt and 60% standard, so we'll be looking to get that into the mix. I don't think that most people will notice much of a difference, but I think it makes a better beer.
What's Brewing - May 7
We had an issue in the brewery last week, where the fermenter holding IsarWeizen wouldn't hold pressure. As a result we ended up with about 50 cases of under-carbonated IsarWeizen. It's delicious, just not enough fizz. At any rate, we'll sell it cheap at the brewery for the next month or so. In the mean time we've gotten the tank fixed (pin-hole leak in the piping) and have another batch of IsarWeizen fermenting along in it.
We've had lots of visitors at the brewery in the last couple of weeks. One of Lisa's bosses in California came for a couple of days, and Sarah of IsarWeizen fame stopped by this week to help us brew a batch. It's nice having the company, but it can get a little confusing at times as well.
What's Brewing - April 6
We've been playing with a few of our recipes a little - probably not enough for most people to notice, but they are changing. Schwarz is going to lose a little black malt and a little smoked malt and gain some intermediate malt that will keep the color, but lighten the roasty flavor and add a little more malt to the palate. We've finally been able to acquire the British Crystal Malt that I like to use in Coastal. We haven't been able to get it for about a year. The result is a smoother but still rich Coastal. I've been experimenting with Dunkel ever since a German brewer told me it was too roasty. I've now gotten the roast out, but now I'm trying to add some toast. Stay tuned. No changes to Pils except that we brewed an experimental batch using authentic Czech Floor-malted Pilsner Malt. While we blended most of it into a couple of other batches of Pils, we held out some for comparison purposes. Some time in May we'll sit down and compare the two to see if it's worth switching (the floor-malt stuff is 20% more expensive).
We'll start brewing IsarWeizen next week, and will dedicate one fermenter to the beer for next couple of months. Once we've built up a good supply we'll see how fast it sells before brewing more. One thing about ales is that it only takes a couple of weeks to make rather than a couple of month, so we won't have any long term shortages!
What's Brewing - December 21
A lot has happened since my last entry. We are back to having full availability of all our beers and we've added a number of new outlets in both Portland and Yamhill County. We've also added another person to the staff. My daughter Lisa has joined me. Lisa is a aspiring winemaker and will be helping me out when she isn't making wine. She's already been a huge help around the brewery, and I'm looking forward to working a little less than the current seven day a week schedule.
I'm still figuring out the Oregon beer market, but I have learned that the fall is seasonal beer time. Bobtoberfest flew out of here, and Sandy Paws was a big success as well - 130 cases bottled and sold within 2 weeks! I expect to spend more time and effort on the seasonals next year, maybe even see if we can get in the Holiday Ale fest...
December will be a record month in terms of production - 42 barrels. Certainly that's not sustainable with the equipment we have - I'd be really happy with something in the high thirties. We now have Hugo (our Bock) mainly in lagering tank and are working on brewing Smokey Bob - a Rauch Marzenbier that should be released in mid-March.
What's Brewing - October 20
My how time flies... I'm back brewing like mad. I'm surprised how long it's taking me to refill all the lagering tanks. I probably won't have them all full until around Thanksgiving. We had a huge response to Bobtoberfest - we sold all 100 cases in a week and a half! Sales have been strong enough that, combined with our glycol chiller fiasco, we have almost no beer left at the brewery - just a little Pils and Schwarz. We're bottling Pils and Dunkel next week, and that should help a bit... Next up is Sandy Paws - a Baltic Porter. It won't be quite as big as last year's monster, but will still tip the scales at 6.3% alcohol with lots of malt and roasty character.
I'm currently looking to slightly change my labels. They'll still be smaller than most, but they will be more easily readable from the front. I've also done some experimenting with shipping. So far, so good. I hope to have that option available in time for Christmas...
What's Brewing - August 30
I'm still having issues with the glycol chiller, so I decided to get a new one. I haven't been brewing as much as I should because I'm afraid the the damned thing will die again and I'll lose a bunch of beer. The company I ordered the chiller from hasn't gotten back to me as to when the new chiller will be ready - not a good sign. Hopefully we'll have it up and running by the end of September...
I've decided that I'm not going to sell my larger kegs to retail customers for the time being. Why? Well, for one, I never know when I'll get the keg back. Plus I usually provide the CO2 and tap, and you won't know when that's coming back either. Add to that the fact that I don't have enough beer to do even a decent job of getting visibility in Portland, and I'm convinced. The other thing is that in most cases where I provide a big keg, the customer orders way more beer than they need. If I can talk folks into using multiple mini-kegs, they can at least bring back the ones they don't use.
I just got the new Bobtoberfest label back from the label designer. I really like it. Unfortunately for me, we're bottling Bob tomorrow, and I'm probably at least a week away from having labels printed and ready. Just means a little more work using the manual labeler.