Lagunitas Brewing Company

Entrance to the TapRoom and Beer Sanctuary

This past July Bonnie and I took our daughters (the baby and the pup) camping in Northern California.  The main reason for the trip was every two years her family holds a reunion of all the Olson side of her family.  They rotate between a campground near Bodega Bay 30 minutes from Santa Rosa and in Bonnie’s hometown of Coupeville Washington. The last time I we went we spent most of our time wine tasting in Sonoma, as I was nowhere near as into beers as I am today. This time however I made sure to plan a few excursions out to both Russian River and Lagunitas Brewing Company.

The Fermenting Tanks

Out of the two of them it’s safe to say we had the best time at Lagunitas.  The atmosphere in the beer garden was chill with plenty of shade to keep cool from the hot summer sun.  Best of all the place was very dog friendly.  DG had a place to hang out by our table, drink plenty of water and be constantly feed treats provided by the waitresses. This was in sharp contrast to the now very ridged Coppola Winery which we had just come from.  Not only are dogs no longer welcome they no longer sell Skywalker Ranch wine.

Lagunitas currently located in Petaluma, Ca has been around 1993 when it was founded by Tony Magee and gets its name from the town of its original location Lagunitas, Ca.   Lagunitas is best known for their IPA which is simply called IPA which is said to be the best selling IPA in California, I’m not really surprised as it’s delicious.

The Flights

Bonnie and I spent our time in the TapRoom and Beer Sanctuary, with Bonnie enjoying their regular tasting flight while I opted for a lager customized flight made up of eight beers.  My flight covered a wide range of styles, including 2 sprit aged beers (a Port Censor and Bourbon Cappuccino Stout) and several strong hoppy beers.  Out of all of them the standout was the Sonoma Farmhouse Ale.  It was everything I want in a farmhouse ale and very similar to both BeanyTink and Collette. I tried to buy a growler of it but was denied given the amount of time and effort that went into making it.  I craved more of it the entire time I was on vacation and was only satisfied once I got home by pouring myself a test pint of the BeanyTink.

If you ever find yourself in the Petaluma area I highly suggest you make a stop at Lagunitas Brewing Company

Cheers,

SNB

BeanyTink’s Farmstead Ale – The Review

Seeing as how Wednesday’s update was about the brewing of BeanyTink's Farmstead Ale I figured it would be nice to follow it with a review of finished beer.  Once the site is in full swing and my old content is dried up I will no longer be able to do this so with this in mind I sat down over the weekend and cracked open one of my few remaining bottles. 

Once the beers warms any
haze present dissappears

12 ounce bottles poured into a Bruery tulip. The bottle was filled using the BeerGun approximately 1 month ago. Carbonation is still present and white. I’ll have to open up a bottle of Bourbon Barrel Aged Wookiee for comparison but based on the video review that Don did for it I would say the BeerGun method is good for holding carbonation.

Appearance:  The color is a beautiful golden orange, the head fades quickly.  Small bubbles approach the surface overall killer clarity with very slight amount of cloudiness if any.  It could be just minor chill haze as definitely fades away as it warms.  Swirling the glass causes a very small white had to develop which clings to the glass very well.

Aroma:  The nose on this is gorgeous, you detect the brett character as soon as the bottle is opened.   Really nice overall, it’s definitely funky, with slight amount of cattiness, spicy, lemon, maybe peppery with wet blanket notes on it. There is no hop aroma on this bad boy and swirling this beer creates an aroma that is a thing of beauty.  

After some swirling
Better shot of the clarity the beer
possesses

Mouthfeel:  Slightly tangy with nice tiny bubbles that bounce around at tongue with a little bit of fizzle.

Taste: mmm mmm mmm damn this is what I'm talking about.  This is everything that I want in the farmhouse style ale.  A good amount of funk from the brett character. It’s not too tarts definitively crisp and clean with very little bitterness to it.  The hops are definitely not the star of the show it's the brett.  There is an interesting hard to describe taste the very back of the palate.

Overall:  This might be one of the best beers I’ve ever brewed.  I am really impressed with this yeast (the true start here) and I am very glad I bought another vial it while it was still in season.  I’ve already nailed down what I’m going to use it in.  I'm very impressed by the way this came out, it's very nice surprise.  As a person who is very new to using/enjoying brettanomyces in beers I'm amazed at how well the yeast performs.  This is definitely going to be a candidate for my washing yeast experiments. I'm glad I made it I'm glad people liked this because I love it.  Drinking the last bottle of this is definitely going to be that bittersweet.  Definitely the last couple of months is have treated it well and the BeerGun and hold carbonation well.

BeanyTink’s Farmstead Ale

The ingredients

Of all of the things homebrewing has brought me the thing I am most thankful for is all the new friends.  One of the things I’ve been most amazed at is how easily it’s been to get to know other brewers; I think there is something about brewing beer that seems to bring people together. 

Out of this group of people there are a few that I feel very lucky to have met and have the ability to interact with.  One of these extraordinary individuals and BrewBrothers is Daniel Fernandez also known as the feared Beancurdturtle or as I like to refer to him the original beer advocate.  This comes from the fact that Daniel was posting his thoughts and reviews of beer online before the web.

In the pot for 60 minutes at 152

He’s always been very supportive and with his wedding to his fiancé HsiHou coming up I knew I needed to give back to him, so I decided I would launch a top secret beer project for wedding reception.  

Everything fell into place while on a business trip to Mexico. During the flight I caught up on several issues of Brew Your Own, it was in one of those issues I found a recipe for an American Farmhouse Ale fermented with White Labs upcoming platinum series yeast WLP670 American Farmhouse Blend. Seeing as Daniel (along with Shawn) was one of the biggest reasons I’ve developed a taste for sour funky beers I determined this, with some modifications, would be a perfect beer.

From White Lab’s Website –

WLP670 American Farmhouse Blend

Inspired by local American brewers crafting semi-traditional Belgian-style ales. This blend creates a complex flavor profile with a moderate level of sourness. It consists of a traditional farmhouse yeast strain and Brettanomyces. Great yeast for farmhouse ales, Saisons, and other Belgian-inspired beers.

Attenuation: 75-82%

Flocculation: Medium

Optimum Fermentation Temperature: 68-72°F

(20-22°C)

Alcohol Tolerance: 5-10%

Boiling

What is Brettanomyces? Brettanomyces is a type of yeast that is known to impart a funky barnyard aroma and smell. Horse blanket and catty are also common.  A great commercial example that should be easy to find is Orval. I liken brett beers to blue cheese in that they are more of an acquired taste.

Brewing the beer was interesting in that it was somewhat of a modified mash in that the grains were held for 60 minutes at 152F.  Whether or not it was a true partial mash I did end up nailing the gravity.  In total it was in primary for three weeks to give it plenty of time on the yeast before moving it to secondary for an additional three weeks.

In the Fermentation Cube
12 Hours After Pitching

Once kegged and carbed I took it and my picnic basket jockey box to the reception. The beer itself went over well and Daniel seemed to really enjoy it. Saying “Very, very well done.  I didn't get enough only because I was drinking so many other beers. Fantastic Farmhouse Ale with a touch of Belgian funk and nice bittering. Reminded me of Orval, but cleaner and brighter. Thanks a million Scott.”

One last thing I wanted to do was BeerGun and label a few bottle for him to hold on to.  The great thing about the brett is that is should continue to change and enhance the beer over the communing months.

Cheers

-SNB

Completed Primary

BeanyTink's Farmstead Ale
American Farmhouse Ale
Type: Partial Mash
Date: 5/7/2011 (National Homebrewer's Day)
Batch Size: 5.00 gal
Brewer: Scott Bennett
Boil Size: 4.08 gal
Asst Brewer: babyRaptor & Brewdog / Haemon for Cool down
Boil Time: 60 min

Beer Profile
Measured Original Gravity: 1.048 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.011 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 5.15 %
Bitterness: 14.6 IBU
Est Color: 5.2 SRM

Ingredients

Malt
3.00 lb Light Dry Extract (8.0 SRM) Dry Extract

Transferring to Secondary
and Sampling

0.15 lb Extra Light Dry Extract (3.0 SRM) Dry Extract

Grains 152 for 60 Minutes
2.00 lb Corn, Flaked (1.3 SRM)
2.00 lb Wheat Malt, Ger (2.0 SRM)

Hops
0.60 oz Mt. Hood [4.40 %] (60 min) Hops 8.0 IBU
1.00 oz Mt. Hood [4.40 %] (15 min) Hops 6.6 IBU

Other
1.00 items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 min) Misc
1.00 tsp Yeast Nutrient (Boil 15.0 min) Misc

Yeast
1 Pkgs American Farmhouse Blend (White Labs #WLP670) Yeast-Ale

The Label

Let's talk really quick about some of the design elements of the label and the thoughts that went into it.   The label itself is the third in my story label series and the first non-collaborative version of it. As they met on a gold fish forum I wanted it to have a water/pond theme.  The background was part of a larger fish pond computer background found online and trimmed to fit a 5in x 3.5in label.  I decided to include both Daniel’s turtle avatar and the logo from the forum they met on somewhat hide behind them. The nice thing about have it be not a collaborative label was that it gave me additional room for the brew stats.  All of my label Easter eggs are also present.  

 From the label –

BeanyTink’s Farmstead Ale all started with goldfish… a goldfish forum actually when Daniel (Beancurdturtle) and HsiHou (Tinkokeshi) were setup by their friends and paired to be Secret Santa exchangees.

After a period of dating they got engaged and were married on June 3, 2011.  Around this time they also bought a house together.

This beer was created to in part celebrate both of these events.

Balanced and funky with a moderate level of sourness.  This farmstead ale is inspired by the great farmhouse ales found in Europe and brought across the pond.

Cheers

-SNB

The Final Product

La Choulette Framboise

I decided on the night of Bonnie and My anniversary that I needed to get a review on the site sooner than later.  So I went out to the beervault and pulled out one of my newer procurements, La Choulette Framboise, that I picked up at The Bruery Provisions the day before.   While drinking it I used the voice to text feature on my phone to send myself an email with my notes and impressions.

12 ounce bottle poured into a Bruery tulip, served at around 44-50. Label lists it as a French farmhouse ale brewed with raspberry juice.

Appearance: Purple-red with a slight garnet tint in head. Reflective light off the glass is a very deep red color. The frothy head clings well to side of glass with some lace lacing which barely sticks to the side of the glass

Aroma: Slight funky with tart raspberry. Bonnie detects an almost metallic smell, it’s very subtle and only something her super sniffer would pick up.  I can barely detect it, it similar to the difference between stainless steel aged chardonnay and chardonnay aged in oak barrels.  Somewhat of a “clean” smell in the back in my nose, by clean I mean the way a room smells after a thorough cleaning.  Not as much funk as I would've hoped for in a “farmhouse” ale but the aroma is very enjoyable and improve slightly as warms.   Swirling definitely helped bring out the raspberry character.

Mouthfeel: very small bubbles, some twang, bubbles pickle my upper lip. It has a very raspberry juice and champagne feel 

Taste: It’s definitely a raspberry beer, this is by far the most predominate flavor in the beer however it is not overpowering like some fruit beers.  The raspberry is very much in balance in this beer not overly raspberry.  It does have very little funk and is not as complex as I would've hoped

Overall: A decent beer but nothing extraordinary. Still it’s very clean very well brewed.  I went in wanting a nice funky soured beer and that probably clouded my review.  While I’ve stated a lot that I would have preferred more funk I am a lot happier with this beer than if it were listed as a farmhouse saison.  A little too fruity of a beer for what I would like in a farmhouse but to me farmhouse means a beer with a great funky bretty character smell and taste.

Cheers,

SNB

Alpine Beer Company

Drink Alpine beer or go to bed!

The World's Greatest
Unassuming Brewery

Alpine Beer Company was foundered by Pat Mcilhenney back in 1999 and for the first few years of existence had its beers contract brewed by AleSmith (who supplied all the Simcoe for the Karl Strauss version of my BIG IPL).  In 2002 they opened their own small brewery located in Alpine which is 20-30 minutes outside of San Diego over by El Cajon.  In 2008 they expanded and opened a small brewpub in 2010.  Currently Alpine operates out of two units on opposite ends of a small four unit business strip sandwiching a small bookstore that's rarely open. One side is the current production brewery and tasting room while the other side is a small brewpub serving up BBQ. It's also very hard to see at first, in fact the first time I visited I ended up passing it altogether. Currently, with production at full capacity, they are looking to move locations to a bigger space in Alpine.

Quick shot inside the
Brewery / Tasting room

Given their small size they have very limited distribution with only a few accounts in Orange County. Add the fact that when this handful of stores actually gets Alpine in it quickly sells out it wasn’t until this year that I actually got to try any of their outstanding beers.

EH=PH2
Exponential Hoppiness

I had my first taste of Alpine beer at a Bruery event but it wasn’t until one of my guys at work brought me a bottle back from a trip to our Mexicali plant that I really started trying their beers.  Apparently he had been driving back late at night and pulled over in the small town of Alpine looking for a place to eat and grab a beer, it was then that he discovered Alpine Beer Company.   The next day he returned with tales of their beer greatness, a bottle of McIlhenney’s Irish Red and insistence that he had found the new return dinner stop (we’d been hitting up Stone Bistro and Garden till that point).

It wasn’t long after that, that I was able to make my first visit.  I can still remember my first taste of Duet, it blew me away and is by far my favorite of their beers.  To me it is one of the best West Coast Style IPAs I’ve ever had.  The name comes from Simcoe and Amarillo hops “in harmony.” Other exceptional Alpine beers include Pure Hoppiness, Nelson, Hoppy Birthday and the big West Coast Triple IPA Exponential Hoppiness which gets its name from hopping method where each hop addition is double the previous amount.

To me the thing that Alpine has that a lot of breweries don’t is a line of consistently excellent hoppy beers.  If you are a hop head you owe it to yourself to plan a visit to try their beers on site where they are the freshest. 

Cheers,

SNB

Costa del Sol

The Draft Label from 2007

I travel to Mexico often for work so I have a certain affinity for Mexican light lagers, especially on a hot day.  For the most part they are a clean refreshing beer that I would take any day of the week over anything from the macro lagers.  These days I only really drink them in Mexico.

It’s definitely a style I’ve wanted to brew for a while as I have draft labels for my own Mexican style light lager (Costa del Sol) going all the way back to 2007.  I believe I wanted this to be my second brew I brewed on premise but by the time I got around to doing it again I decided to do an oatmeal stout.

The name of this beer has always been Costa del Sol, the name translates to coast of the sun and is taken from a small beachside town from one of my favorite games of all time Final Fantasy VII. It’s funny how some things stay with you.  

The Final Label from 2011

When I started brewing at home I kicked around the idea for a while but nothing really solid came up for 2 reasons. 1) It’s a lager and I at the time, had no way of controlling the temperature in the lager range and 2) the yeast to use for it WLP940 Mexican Lager is a platinum series yeast and only available once a year from March to May.

Filled out in the Shop

I put together a pretty basic malt bill and targeted keeping it under 4% ABV so it could be included in my Scott's Session Series.  Going into AHP I had no idea what hops to use but decided to play around with the hops and put a Northwest feel into to it in honor of my Bonnie, whose birthday I am brewed it for.   To that end I used Falconer's Flight which was released this year by Hopunion to honor the legacy of Northwest brewing legend, Glen Hay Falconer.  It is said to be a blend of Citra, Simcoe, and Sorachi Ace along with experimental hops and numerous other NW varieties.  People have actually been suggesting as a sub for either Citra or Simcoe, but I would caution against using it as an outright sub.

The final product really surprised me as I tasted it along the way I was never overly impressed, it was thin and watery with very little nose. Once carbonation took hold it turned into a completely different beer. It was a hit with my wife and everyone who tried it.  I decided to BeerGun a few bottles for the OC Fair and it ended up taking second in its category. 

Cheers

SNB

Yeast and Hops

Great color, by far the
lightest beer I brewed.

Costa Del Sol
Premium American Lager
Type: Extract
Date: 3/13/2011
Batch Size: 5.00 gal
Brewer: Scott Bennett
Asst Brewer: BrewDog
Boil Size: 4.0 gal
Boil Time: 60 min

Beer Profile
Est Original Gravity: 1.043 SG
Measured Original Gravity: 1.052 SG (Hmm, how did I manage this.)
Est Final Gravity: 1.011 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 4.17 %
Bitterness: 25.7 IBU
Est Color: 4.0 SRM




Ingredients

Malt
Amount Item Type % or IBU
4.00 lb Extra Light Dry Extract (3.0 SRM) Dry Extract 67.80 %
1.00 lb Rice DME (7.0 SRM) Dry Extract 16.95 %

Steeping Grains 160 for 30 Minutes
0.60 lb Pilsner (2 Row) Ger (2.0 SRM) Grain 10.17 %
0.30 lb Vienna Malt (3.5 SRM) Grain 5.08 %


Hops
0.40 oz Falconer's Flight [10.50 %] (60 min) (First Wort Hop) Hops 13.8 IBU
0.40 oz Falconer's Flight [10.50 %] (20 min) Hops 8.4 IBU
1.20 oz Falconer's Flight [10.50 %] (2 min) Hops 3.5 IBU
2.00 oz Cascade [5.50 %] (Dry Hop 21 days in Secondary)

1.00 oz Summit [14.00 %] (Dry Hop 21 days in Secondary)

Yeast
1 Pkgs Mexican Lager (White Labs #WLP940) Yeast-Lager

Other
1.00 items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 min) Misc
1.00 tsp Yeast Nutrient (Boil 15.0 min) Misc 

Beer Trading and The Barrel Aged Yeti Trade

I go into beer trading back in the summer of ’10 as a way of keeping my fridge stocked with my favorite beer Surly Furious which is only available in Minnesota.  My first attempt to set up this quote “Surly Exchange” was a post in one of my homebrew forums targeted at brewers in the Twin Cities, after all it was a nationwide site.  It received no bites but I was redirected to the trading forum on BeerAdvocate.com.   

Instead of posting up an ISO:FT (in search of / for trade) thread for my first trade I sent out a bunch of private messages or beer mails (BMs) to people who had Surly in their “gots.” It took a few days but I finally set something up; a box of requested locals for a box of Surly.  As a new trader I shipped first and after a few weeks a box of Surly was at my first door.  

I've been hooked ever since and trading is a big reason my cellar is out of control. There have been a few times where I've felt I got the worst end of the deal, but I'm sure that is not uncommon. I've really got into BIFs (Beer it Forward) and will talk about the ones I have in works when they come in.

I could go into more detail discussing how to set up a trade, how to package a trade, how to ship a trade, thoughts on extras etc but all of this has been already done better than I could do here and here.

Going forward I’m going to be posting my latest trades and the logic behind them starting with my latest 

FT: 100% Barrel Aged Cuir ISO: Inside.

I sent him this...

In this case I had a beer I was filling to trade and after a specific list of beers I wanted to obtain. In this case I was after 2 Turtle Doves and The Wanderer from the Bruery, Barrel Aged Yeti from Great Divide and Beatification from Russian River.  

I needed the 2 Turtle Doves to complete a hole in my 12 Days of Christmas Vertical, The Barrel Aged Yeti for an upcoming Yeti Tasting,  The Wanderer because I love it and Beatification as I've heard it's an amazing beer.

For I while I had two deals in place; 1 for the 2 Turtle Doves and the other for the Barrel Aged Yeti. Unfortunately what they say is true and a deal is never done till it’s done and unfortunately the deal fell through for the 2 Turtle Doves.  Fortunately everything was set on the other end so I was able to set up a deal for the Barrel Aged Yeti.

... and got his in return

I sent him the 100% Barrel Aged Cuir (the put), in addition I sent him a series of extras (bonus items in the name of beer advocacy). This included Nobility from Noble, a Duff from Mexico, a Bourbon Barrel Aged Wookiee and a Cohiba Cigar (the last two were selected as he mentioned he is a fan of cigars and bourbon.)

In return he sent me the Barrel Aged Yeti (the target) and two bottles of local beer from Ohio breweries I’ve never heard of; Black Jack Robust Porter from The Brew Kettle and Old Man Hopper's India Pale Ale from Rust Belt.  I love trying new things and love both these styles so it’s win-win. 

Cheers

SNB