BehindTheCraft

I wanted this to be a piece telling you how great a time I had with Brenden and Jeremy.  I wanted to talk about the war phone and record run time on the line.  It was going to be about how down to Earth they were and how it’s true that a beer mimics it’s brewer and vice versa.  I probably would have wrote something about how we talk about nearly all of their beers in the show and how they got their names.  I’m sure I would have mentioned something about tailgating before flights and Sidekicks and Forklift Drivers naming beers.   But that’s all in the show and you can listen to it in all of it’s awesomeness.  No, this write up is instead a love letter of sorts.  An explanation of why my Two Brothers trip meant so much to me and why they will always be one of my favorite breweries.  So, yeah, prepare for the lovefest.   I had my first Two Brothers somewhere around 2004-2005.  It was a Domaine DuPage and it was unlike anything I’d ever had before it.  There was something about the malty balance that satiated my thirst for something with a good body and soft sweetness.  Toffee and caramel prevailed but never overwhelmed me.  It was the kind of beer that would go well with a steak or a salad or a burger or desert or fish or even a ham sandwich.  Or, you could just have it on it’s own.   After that introduction, I made it my duty to seek out anything they made.  While this is commonplace for most today, at that time, I’d never really developed a love for a single brewery.  I was amazed at how no matter the style, Two Brothers presented it to me in a way that I could understand the beer.  It may sound cheesy, but they made beer that was perfect for my palate.   As my journey into the craft beer craze deepened, my love for the brewery never waned.  Rare was it to find my fridge with less than 12 beers and even more rare would be for 4 of them (those 6 packs weren’t there for decoration!) to not be a Two Brothers.  They were my home base.  My “Old Faithful”.  Enough so that I can still associate seasons with the beer that went along with them-   A Dog Days meant it was summer time and the grill was on with some baseball playing in the background.  A Northwind meant I was grilling in snow and a Bitter End bottle on the counter the next morning meant I needed just “one more” before the night was over.   The thing is, with Two Brothers, they weren’t just an appearance in my life. They were more like a textbook footnote that carried a short story with each I opened.  I’m always more than willing to give a brewery’s portfolio a chance, but at the end of the day, there is only a small handful that I will drink any that are within reach.  This isn’t a bash on those that I haven’t, but a serious endorsement for those that I have.   So there you have it.  An explanation of my love affair with a brewery that kicked off my desire for craft beers.  Now go grab your favorite Two Brothers, scroll back to the top of this page and click play so you can see how good of a time I had.   Visit their Website HERE Follow them on Twitter HERE Like them on Facebook HERE Check in on Untappd HERE Find their beer near you HERE

Paul is standing on the other side of the bar watching me set up my recording equipment.  I’m not sure if he can see it in my face, but I’m currently suffering from one of the first hangovers I’ve had in years.  Having flown in the previous morning to a raucous Chicago homecoming that included me doing two shows with a night capped off in a bar playing Kung-Fu until 2am,  I find myself doing whatever I can to push through the fog in my head.  I’m going through a sound check when a train passes on the Purple line that the distillery backs up to, causing my sound meter to rise and the bar I’m set up at to vibrate softly.  Paul smiles and says “Yeah man, you get the whole experience here…”   It all started from a piece of family history.  Prior to World War 2, Paul’s family had owned a brewery in what is now the Czech Republic. His Grandfather, the lone family survivor from the Nazi takeover, was never able to reclaim the brewery.  It was after his Grandfather’s passing in 2008 that Paul decided it was his time to take over what was once a family legacy and open what would come to be know as FEW Spirits.   Wanting to open a distillery is one thing, finding a place at a rather full table in the industry is another entirely.  Coming from a creative background that included playing guitar, owning a record label and designing custom guitar pedals, narrowing his focus to bourbon would prove to be the perfect marriage of spirits and rock and roll.  What he did next is the process that separates him from the rest and why FEW is what it is today.   Do not let your wife come home and find you with 3 grand of bourbon on the dining room table.”   Paul is all about reverse engineering.  He likes to find a sweet spot where he can carve his own niche and build from there.   For most, this involves market research and some trial and error.  For Paul, it meant going out and purchasing enough bourbon to fill his dinning room table.  While his wife wasn’t the most pleased woman in the world, the results helped him find just what he was looking for.   “When trying that much bourbon, you realize they all have something going for them.” Paul explains.  So rather than searching for the good and the bad of each bourbon he tried, he instead focused on finding a sweet spot that he could build from. It was less about “What can I do better?” and more “What can I do differently?”   I’m a big fan of breaking the rules, but I like to know the rules before I break them.”   While you won’t find any of their awards hanging on the walls, the results speak for themselves.  The accolades that FEW has collected in it’s short 3 years range from but aren’t limited to ‘Craft Whisky of the Year’ by Whisky Advocate and the highest rated Gin in 5 years from the Beverage Tasting Institute. Paul has proven that his process works, even if some purists don’t agree with it.   In order to yield those different results, FEW effectively “breaks” their equipment by using it for something other than it’s initial intention.  Making Bourbon in German Pot Stills is one of those equipment “breaks” and it’s because of this Paul finds himself telling others that his Bourbon doesn’t taste like Kentucky Bourbon for a reason-It simply isn’t.   Craft is what the consumer makes it, not what we say it is.”   When I bring up the difference between craft distillers and mass producers, Paul’s answer not only defines FEW but happens to be one of the best definitions of craft I’ve come across-“I don’t really like calling us a ‘craft distillery’.  Trying to say we’re a craft distillery and someone like 4 Roses is not is bizarre to me.  There’s more craft in 4 Roses than an awful lot of products on the market.  To me the defining line of craft is where the intention is.  Is your intention on the product? Is the intention on the profit?  Where is your intention and how are you acting on that intention?”     In the end, FEW is all about creating an experience for their customers by being a part of their lives. “It’s about fathers and legal aged sons enjoying a drink.  If we cared about profits, we’d be doing something different.” Paul explains with a chuckle.  “I’m the world’s luckiest guy!  I have a great family and make whiskey for living.  I work two blocks from home and I love what I do and when I go to sleep at night I know that it’s been a day well lived.”  I don’t know about you, but that sounds like a hell of an experience to me.   Visit their Website HERE Follow them on Twitter HERE  Like them on Facebook HERE Find their spirits near you HERE

I first heard of Sketchbook from the owner of Few Distillery in Evanston, Paul Hletko.  We’d scheduled a show together  (check back for that in 10 days!) and I was trying to figure out how to make the most of my Chicago trip and squeeze one more in.  Unsure of the area, I reached out to Paul who immediately informed me of a brewery where one of the brewers had won the Sam Adams Longshot Competition.  If that wasn’t enough to sell me, the fact that it was a block away from where I’d be doing my show with Few closed the deal.   Fast forward a couple weeks later and I’m stepping off the Purple Line in Evanston.  With my carry on in tow, I made my way to their alley entrance off of the corner of Main and Chicago.  The orange door marking the entrance was impossible to miss and the thought of a beer and cover from the cold front that had moved in that day had me opening the door into what I would find is more than a nano brewery, but an idea brought to life.   When homebrewers Cesar Marron and Sean Decker set out to create Sketchbook Brewing, they wanted to focus on creating something small with an emphasis on community involvement, educating the consumer and promoting sustainability.  It’s an easy thing to say but to do it they’d need the same thing everyone else does to bring an idea to life-money.  Seeing as how community was a focus, they turned to the social funding site-Kickstarter.   Their campaign was a successful one.  Already having roots in the Evanston area and hot on the heals of Cesar’s Longshot Victory (make sure to listen to the show for this experience alone) for his gratzer, Sketchbook Brewing took in an amazing $15,000 in it’s first 5 days.  With the buzz surrounding their campaign and added support from the community, they were able to extend their goal to $25,000 which allowed them to purchase a cold water tank and heat exchanger to reduce their footprint and conserve energy.   Keeping with the sustainability and community involved theme, they decided to open as a Community Supported Brewery.  Much like you’ll find in brew pubs and nano breweries throughout the US, Sketchbook offers a growler program that allows 300 members 1-2 growler fills a month for 6 to 12 months depending on their plan.  Some of the benefits at surface value are easy to pick out, your grains are paid for in advance, a certain customer flow is guaranteed and your waste is minimized through growlers.  For Sketchbook though, it allows them to focus on educating their consumer.   When I asked Cesar about the biggest difference for him from homebrewing to running Sketchbook he laughed and said “I can’t select who is going to taste my beer anymore!”   A lot can happen from the time it leaves the tanks to the time it makes it into your glass and by running the growler program, they’re able to keep their hands on the beer a little longer which assures them that when someone drinks a beer from them, it will be as close to their intention as possible.   With a brewery portfolio focused on sessionable, flavor filled and style focused beers, they’re able to educate the consumer by giving them a beer they can finish a 64oz growler of. While the idea of a 64oz growler of a 12% barleywine may appeal to some, you can include me in that list, it’s hardly an educational piece if you can’t remember what it tasted like or if you could only drink half while it was still fresh.   Sketchbook Brewing is committed to the idea of staying small.  Community, education and sustainability is in everything they do and they don’t plan on leaving that behind any time.   It’s not about getting bigger for them, it’s about staying smaller, which is why they’d rather open another 7 barrel Sketchbook in another part of town or a different state.  Who knows, maybe in a few years you’ll have one in your neck of the woods.   Before I left, I had to know where the name came from.  When asked why Sketchbook, Cesar Marron responded that a Sketchbook is typically a small and intimate house for ideas.  This one just happens to have an orange door on it.   Visit their Website HERE Follow them on Twitter HERE  Like them on Facebook HERE Check in on Untappd HERE Find their beer near you HERE  

I’ll never forget the first time I tasted someones homebrew.  It was 1997 and I had stopped over at a friends house in Louisiana driving back to school from New Orleans.  We went out to his back porch where an old fridge sat, surrounded by buckets.  Opening the fridge, he handed me a bottle with a half scraped off Sam Adams label.   “It’s my dad’s hobby.  He makes beer when he’s bored.”  My buddy grabbed an opener from the fridge and popped the tops off of both.  At this time I was really only drinking whatever I could get my hands on so I wasn’t going to turn a beer down.  I was just skeptical.  I mean, how good could a homebrew really be?  Tipping the bottle back, I took my first swig and my eyes opened wide “Dude!  This…This tastes like beer! And he makes it at home?!”   Flash forward 17 years and I’m standing in a kitchen with Rob Fink.  There’s a 55 pound sack of Maris Otter leaning against the cabinets and he’s getting his home made grinder ready for 18 pounds of it.  There’s some Minutemen playing on an iPad and I can see the steam coming off of his Mash Tun out side.  There are some papers with his water profile on them to my right and I’m sort of taking it all in and that’s when I see it.   A Bodem Coffee Grinder.   It’s odd what can impress people, but seeing that grinder sitting there with a drip cup next to it, I realized that Rob was all about capturing flavor.  Most folks go the Mr Coffee route.  It’s easy and there isn’t really a whole lot of thought that goes into it.   To use a Bodem and a drip cup though, that takes time.  It’s the opposite of instant and there’s a small labor of love that has all kinds of rules.  It’s a flavor rabbit hole of sorts that I stopped falling down after getting a french press.  Rob went further though and if this was his process  to get his coffee just right, I couldn’t imagine what doing a brew with him was going to consist of.   Just about every professional brewer I’ve met got their start in their backyard or on their stove top.  With the craft beer scene explosion taking place, homebrewing has taken on a mind of it’s own as well.  I’ve seen home set ups that not only rival nano breweries but some brew pubs as well.  Still though, at the end of the day, you can have all the equipment you need to pump out thousands of barrels per year, if your process isn’t sound, your beer will show it.   Having been involved in homebrewing for 8 years, it’s his love of the process that separates his end result from others.  When we decided on a brew day and what we were going to be brewing (an imperial ESB that most of my friends found to be too boring to brew), Rob took to researching the history of the style.  From the recipe all the way down to the best water profile for a traditional version, he dug as deep as he could to come up with the best recipe for his beer.  And we’re back to the rabbit hole again and that willingness to go further than others.   Throughout the day, I was able to experience his process by not only brewing with him, but by trying some of his beers.  Now, I could use this spot to talk about each of them, but with Rob being a Cicerone I feel that there’s nothing I could say that would do them justice except for one of them.  It’s always interesting trying someones homebrew.  I’ve had my fare share of both good and bad homebrew and while I will continue to drink much of the beer my friends make, it’s very rare to come across one that I would consider buying from a store shelf.   When I drank Rob’s Imperial Pumpkin Ale, I understood immediately another twitter users comment’s regarding Rob and why he urged me to go sit with him.  This wasn’t just some regular, really good home brew.  This was the real deal.  I took my time drinking his aptly named “Pumking Killer” not because I wanted to make it last but because I couldn’t believe how great it was.  This wasn’t just someone playing around, this was a beer that not only would easily sell if it were on a shelf, but a beer that would sell out from store shelves!   When we were wrapping everything up, I couldn’t help but wonder where this guy is going to end up in a few years.  Everyone has plans and his is a solid one that will undoubtedly lead him to a production brewery.  He posses the knowledge and the skill set as well as the desire to one day possibly own his own brewery.  With all that said, at the end of the day I believe it will be his humility that will push him to his end goal.  For Rob, a mistake isn’t a set back, it’s just fuel for the torch to help him discover what’s at the end of the rabbit hole that is process.   Make Sure to Follow Rob on Twitter HERE Check out some of his work with WTOP HERE   Spread The Word:

There it sat in the dimly lit store that had long closed for the night.  It was so close we could almost taste the contents.  My focus shifted from bottle on the other side to our reflections in the window.  There were eight of us left and we weren’t going to let our night end until we had at least one more taste.   A familiar glow lit one of my cohorts faces from below and a big grin formed on his face.  “This way!” he exclaimed, walking with purpose behind us all and down the street.  “It says they have some at a bar over here!”  Like a pack of hyenas, we chortled and laughed down the street making our way to what, we hoped, would be the end to our search…   Both Robert and Sonat Birnecker were career academics living in Washington DC when they decided to open Koval.  Born from the love of the idea of working with their hands and creating something scratch, they decided to take money they’d saved to buy a house and purchase a still instead.  The next step to bringing their dream to life was finding a home for the still.   Having grown up in Chicago, Sonat reached out to Aldermen to see if they could find someone who not only was welcome to the idea, but would help guide them through the political machine that is Chicago.  47th ward Alderman, Gene Shulter, was more than up to the task.  With open arms, Gene welcomed them to the Ravenswood neighborhood and helped introduce them to a developer who had the perfect space.  Now all they had to do was make a product people would be interested in.   When you’re married with children, convincing your wife that you’re heading out to the bar with your friends for a little imbibing is pretty much a no-go.  A dinner group that meets once a month though is a little easier to sell.  The intended results are still the same, it just goes by a friendlier name.  It was at one of these dinner groups that I had my first taste of Koval.   When we chose Big Jones as our place of meeting, it wasn’t just the deep south family style cuisine that attracted us there.  They also have a Bourbon Society and an incredible menu to choose from.  When going over the drink list that night, I came across a name I’d never seen before -Koval-Lion’s Pride White Rye.  Seeing as how it was Rye and from Chicago, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity.   I still remember the glass being placed in front of me.  The smell was light and other than a slight film left behind while swirling it, one could easily mistake it for water.  That first sip was a game changer for me.  The spice from the rye played with my tongue just enough to let it know it was there but it was the finish that got me.  It was clean.  There was no burn, there was no unng, there was only…warmth.   I grabbed the attention of the table and passed the glass around with an emphatic “You gotta try this!”.  The look on the face of those who got to try before it was gone said it all.  We spent the rest of that dinner talking, not about the food, as great as it was, but about this white whiskey that we would eventually finish.  Armed with smartphones and a name, we headed out into the night searching for another bottle and wondering aloud as we walked the streets “How could a white whiskey taste so…clean?”   Robert Birnecker has helped set up over 70 distilleries in the US and Canada over the past 5 years.  He comes from 3 generations of Austrian distillers and is the Adjunct Distilling Professor for Siebel.  Having never truly left academia behind, Robert now finds himself teaching workshops to future distillers.  His refinement of the distillation process doesn’t end with the product, Robert also has a hand in the automation technology and design.   When I told Robert and Sonat about my experience I’d had 4 years early with my friends, he explained that the reason their spirits come out so clean is that they use only the “heart cut”.  There are three parts that make up a spirit, the head, the heart and the tail.  By taking only the heart cut, you’re left with a clean spirit.  This is a process not used by many because you’re then left with the extra product.  Koval sees this as an opportunity and actually re-purposes the head and tail to use for gin, vodka or a liqueur.   Our dinner crew made it’s way south on Clark Street.  We were getting close and we could feel it.  “Acre!  It’s gotta be at Acre!” the one in front said, quickening up the pace.  You’d have thought we believed if we didn’t get there fast enough that they’d run out of it.  We were truly in a “one more until it’s gone” mode.  Trying anything else at that moment would have been unfair to it’s maker.  The comparisons would have only drawn the ire of our group.   Opening the door we pushed through into the half empty bar and restaurant.  Mutterings could be heard among us “Is it here?”, “Do they have it?”.  Turning from the bartender with a dejected look on his face, our guide shook his head no.  Then a sly grin crept across his mouth as he opened it to speak “But they do have some Koval Millet.”   Koval currently has a wide assortment of heart cut spirits coming out of their distillery on Ravenswood.  They’ve moved down the street since they opened, having expanded their operation and have picked up 20 employees along the way (one of which makes some damned good home made caramel).  Robert and Sonat may have left academia to open Koval,  but they’ve kept their academic approach.  From educating future and current distillers in process to teaching consumers about flavor profiles with their single grain spirits,  Koval will always be apart of the heart of craft distilling in North America.     Visit their Website HERE Follow them on Twitter HERE  Like them on Facebook HERE Find their spirits near you HERE  

Dude is such a great descriptor that can mean so many things to so many people.  To me though, it’s a moniker bestowed upon only a few.  You see, I do this weird thing where, when meeting people, I try to imagine what character they’d play in a movie.  Now, I’ve seen a lot of movies, but my character reference is usually broken down by movies I’ve watched more than the average person.  The Big Lebowski is one of those movies and to be able to play The Dude, you have to have a very unique personality.   Upon my arrival at Goose Island,  I was directed to the conference room where I could set up for the show and told that someone would be with me shortly.  Wheeling my suitcase and bags I’d been lugging around with me through Chicago from my early morning flight, I entered the room and started pulling out my mixer and mics, never really giving a thought to what was on the table.  It was once I finished setting up that I took a second to look over the beauty before me.   There, spread out across the table, was a lineup of all of their Vintage Ales and 2014 Bourbon County varieties.  Truth be told, I thought it was just set up for me to take pictures or maybe they had a meeting coming up with someone of importance.  There was never even a thought in my head of what was about to take place.  As I began to test my levels, Sam(antha), the communications manager for Goose Island came in and we began talking about her time there and how much she enjoyed working Goose Island.  It was during this conversation that Brett Porter walked in.   Brett is only slightly shorter than myself with a very “matter of fact” disposition.  It’s almost as if everything could be “Oh Well, I guess we can do this”  while giving you a grin that let’s you know he’s doing exactly what he wants to be doing at that moment.     Standing to shake his hand, he looks at the table, then me, then back to the table and says in that “Oh Well” way- ”Well, my day just got a whole lot better.”   In that moment, I realize two things- 1)Holy mother of God.  These beers were for us to drink!  2)I’m going to be drinking them all with the Dude who made them.   Tours always lead before the beers, and Goose Island is about as impressive of a brewery as it gets.   Brett explains everything in that “ho-hum” way of his from how much he LOVES his Buhler Grinder to the efficiency of their barrel steam cleaner to the tanks he helped design that house Matilda.  He’s not just invested in the beer.  This brewery is his playground.   The drive from the brewery to the barrel warehouse is a short one that takes you through the industrial section of the west side of Chicago.  Before leaving, he points across the street, making sure I take notice of their old barrel warehouse.  ”Wait until you see where we moved to.  You can see the curvature of the Earth in that place.” he tells me.   When you first step foot into the 134,000 square foot warehouse, you don’t really know where to look.  It’s a cavernous place where the amount of barrels within eye shot is nearly overwhelming.  The only way to capture the full size in a picture would be to use a panoramic shot.  Walking around I begin to imagine what goes into keeping the football fields worth of barrels up to snuff.  It’s a massive undertaking and Brett is quick to introduce the guys that keep it clean while giving them shout outs for the work they do.   With plans to create a tap room, learning center and host events, this is a massive space that just becomes easy to get lost in.  Looking around, I begin to realize that this is the future of Goose Island.  And with the staff they’ve amassed at Goose Island, this isn’t about being the biggest barrel program out there, but the best.   Before we leave, I catch Brett just surveying the place with that grin of his.  He’s right where he wants to be, but that’s just my opinion, man.     I’ve started something new here.  Below is a playlist that breaks the show down by all the beers that we tried a couple of tangents we broke off to.  Feel free to listen all the way through or if you happen to have one of the Vintage Ales or Bourbon County variants from 2014, skip right on to it to hear Brett explaining the beer.  Visit their Website HERE Follow them on Twitter HERE  Like them on Facebook HERE Check in on Untappd HERE Find their beer near you HERE Our Pairing Coming Soon  

Making my way through the front door, one can’t help but notice the massive riveted metal plates with a bomber girl hand painted on it.  It hangs there, just above the tasting bar born from pallets and opposite the 20 barrel brewhouse.  The two are separated by only  a red stripe that acts as an imaginary fence, separating the brewers from the drinkers.   In the back of the brewery among the tanks were large stacks of cans and a crowd formed around a canning line.  A figure broke from the pack and made his way towards me.  Having been around military for the better part of my life, the gait of someone who’s marched is a familiar one.  This man approaching me was Veteran, Brewer and owner of Heritage Brewing -Sean Arroyo.   After a quick introduction, Sean informed me that Wild Goose was in the house that day to install their new canning line.  Now, I know from talking to brewers how important of day it is to get something like this going.  There’s something special about packaging your product en masse and I offered to come back, but Sean wouldn’t have it.  We’d scheduled our time, he was going to hold himself to it.  He offered to take me on a tour of their brewery and then let me wander around for photos while they finished some things up before a break, then we could sit down and talk.   Walking through Heritage with Sean, the first thing that stands out is the uniformity of everything.  It’s always impressive to see how breweries make use of their space, but this was something else.  Everything was spotless and almost show room like.  When I point this out, Sean informs me with a chuckle “We have a bit of an obsession with our power washer.”  Making our way past their tanks, we head out the back of the brewery and across the street to their packaging and barrel house.   Massive stacks of their Kings Mountain and Freedom Isn’t Free take up the majority of space in the warehouse.  With stacks of grain lining the back wall, my focus goes right to the barrels that are lined up opposite of the cans.  Lined up 12 across and 3 high, it’s nearly impossible to not notice they’re all from Catoctin Creek which is up the road a ways.  When I ask about it, Sean informs me that they have a deal with Catoctin Creek to be the sole purchasers of  their Rye barrels.  A big deal in the ways of securing barrels for a smaller brewery and even more important considering the Rye is not only local, but Organic.   One of the focuses at Heritage is not just staying local, 92% of their beer is local sourced, but staying in the USA for all of their ingredients-100% of every beer is a USA product.  And staying local isn’t the only thing, they use all organic base malts as well, which is why those barrels are important to them.  While it’s not the easiest route, they work hard to get their hops and grains from local growers and even any of the add ins like fruits or even peppers and bacon (yeah, I said bacon!) for some of their one off bottled beers.   The local focus is not only important for the beer, but also the area.  Heritage Brewing exists mainly in part to them running a kickstarter that reached out to the folks of Manassas.  Sean, who got his start as a homebrewer while serving in the military, wanted to find a place for his family in Virginia to root down and call home after developing a love for the state while stationed in Quantico.  He reached out to the folks of Manassas to make sure there was not only a market but a desire for them to be there and the fulfillment of their kickstarter campaign proved just that.   Heritage now employs 13, mostly of which are veterans.  They have a strict hiring process that is multi-phased and allows them for eventual profit sharing.  The goal for this is wanting to invest in guys who want to stick around for a long time, which is understandable considering they built the brewery with their bare hands, from the steam fittings to the glycol pumps to and all the way down to the pallet bar.   This brings me back to the moment when I’m walking around the brewery, taking pictures while waiting for Sean to get another break from the canning line installation.  All I can think looking around is how this isn’t for show.  These guys are the real deal.  The massive Garrison Flag that lines the tank wall is a piece of pride for them.  The Minuteman insignia that makes up their logo isn’t something to be taken lightly.   As I’m moving around the brewery, taking photos, Sean approaches me.  I’m taking some artsy photos of the cans that are going to be the first ones to go through the line.  I turn to him and ask him how cool it feels to have all this.  To have his beer about to go into the the cans we’re in front of.  “These cans mean a lot to us.  It’s not something we really talk about, but we had these printed on 9/11.  That was a day that really changed our lives and was a reason we joined up.”   *It’s important to point out 1% of all of their profits go to charity.  This past Veterans day, they did a collaboration where 100% of their proceeds went to the Aaron Grider Foundation.  They also had “buy a vet a pint month” where you could purchase a pint for vets.  These guys are the real deal and if you get a chance to come by, please make sure you thank them for more than just their beer.”     Aaron Grider Foundation HERE Visit their Website HERE Follow them on Twitter HERE  Like them on Facebook HERE Check in on Untappd HERE Find their beer near you HERE Our Pairing Coming Soon

I always end up with a “moment” every time I do a show.  Sometimes it’s captured while recording and I’ll make note of it so the listener can look for it.  Others take place when the microphones are off or while we’re touring a facility and I get to write about it.  Then, there are those that happen that will always be between me, the beer and it’s maker.  If I’m lucky a trip to a brewery will provide me with all three.   There are 4 moments that stand out to me with this one and I’d like to share 3 of them with you.   The story of how Dan Westmoreland got his start with Anhueser Busch is one you don’t hear happening much these days.  While slowly getting into home brewing, Dan found himself with some questions and figured that the best place to get answers aside from the library was from a pro.  So armed with a name and a phone book, he called up the Brewmaster at the Williamsburg Brewery…   Flash forward 35 years, I find myself following Dan around the same brewery he phoned that day.  Dan has an infectious enthusiasm that wears off on you.  It’s real and shows through as almost a child like giddiness as we make our way through the facility.  It’s just as we step off the packaging floor and into the QA room that I have my first moment.   When dealing with a production scale of this size, consistency is king.  The amount of testing that goes into every product that finds it’s way out the door of the Williamsburg Brewery is mind boggling to me.  From being in constant touch with the water treatment facility in town all the way out to those born on dates you see on the side of the can, everything is monitored to maintain that the experience remains the same every time.   It’s while we’re walking through the QA area though that I see some cans sitting in glasses of water with covers over them.  I don’t know why this one thing of everything in the QA area piqued my interest, but it did.  Noticing, Dan smiles and points while saying “That’s to test the cans.  We place them in deionized water overnight and send that water up to the tasting room where it’s checked daily.”   While it makes complete and perfect sense, this is mind blowing to me.  It’s the first point in my visit where my perception of the beers coming out of this brewery begins to fold on itself.  Look, I came into this with an open mind, but I’ve never once thought about any of these beers as anything other than a drinking beer.  Maybe it was the remains of my beer elitist shell coming off of me, but the idea that the experience means so much to them that they essentially drink can water for irregularities, blew my mind.   Making our way past the QA room and into the innards of the brewery, Dan pushes some doors open and we’re met with a cool rush of air.  On either side of us sits the barrels where the beers are lagered.  The tanks hold 1500 barrels and they are lined up from one end to the next.  It’s an incredible site when you think about all the beer within eye shot.   Dan is explaining the aging process to me when we walk up to a what looks like a big colander that’s mated with an old school lottery shuffler.  There, inside, sits strips of Beachwood. “Each one of these strips is cut to a particular depth, width and length in order to provide the greatest amount of surface area.  Now, while yeast doesn’t have hands, it definitely loves to get up and close an personal with these strips.  It’s all about the happy yeast, Brendan!”   Dan is smiling and talking about happy yeast still as we head off towards another set of doors.  It’s here that the second moment takes place.   I find myself in a room that can only be described as something reminiscent of a missile silo.  The massive round structures that stretch off into the darkness above are numbered.  Stepping through a doorway I look up and there, stretched above me is the bottom of a 5000 barrel fermentor.  It’s then that the scope of production really begins to settle in.  With the average size of yearly production for breweries I’ve done show’s with coming in near the 5000 barrel a year mark, I stand below one of twenty that are  housed in this “room”.   Then it happens.  While Dan is pointing out an electronic message board that is attached to tubing that makes it’s way up and into the fermentor he starts to get excited.  I’ve heard this excitement before.  It’s no different from a home brewer who just got a new wort chiller or a nano brewer who has gone all electric or a micro brewer who just got in a 60 barrel bright tank.   His excitement isn’t so much about the equipment itself  in so much as it is about the refinement of the process.  It’s another tool that will help him consistently create the beer that he not only wants to make, but drink as well.   “Happy Yeast! It’s what it’s all about!” Dan nearly sings as he continues the tour.   After some more touring of the innards, I find myself standing in the brewhouse control room.  It instantly reminds me of my trading days with screens lining the wall.  Numbers and colors flash while some of the brewers keep their eyes on the boil.  The outlines of kettles are the only thing that really make any sense to me.   It’s funny to think that back in the day they had to do everything on this scale but by site and phone.  There was a point where Dan would call over to another brewer to let him know he was sending beer his way.  The automation of it all has been a defining factor in the consistency of the beer.  Not that it hasn’t always been, but it’s now down to where they can essentially have a finger on every little process from a centrally located area.  While it’s made it easier, it’s also made it much more efficient and in my opinion, I think it shows.   As we leave the brewhouse, I can feel Dan’s excitement picking up again.  Going back to that phone call Dan made to the Brewmaster 35 years earlier, he tells me how he was invited to come on down to the brewery for a personal tour.  I’d ask later on what he remembered from that tour, and one of the things that stood out most was where our tour was ending.   The Tasting Room.     This speaks volumes to me.  It was the final thing that changed my mind about the beer being brewed by Anheuser Busch.  Dan wasn’t just keeping the yeast happy or tasting can water or getting excited for new equipment that helped him create a more consistent beer which meant keeping the experience the same so he could sell some beer.  He was doing it so he could drink it.   At the end of the day, what more can you ask for from the guy tasked with making the beer you drink?     Visit their Website HERE Follow them on Twitter HERE andHERE Like them on Facebook HERE Check in on Untappd HERE Find their beer near you HERE Our Pairing Coming Soon  

Just throwing this on here because I think it’s kind of funny.  This is what I do when tasting a beer-I record it and just let go then I’ll take it and write out the parts that work best for me.  Anyway, I thought I’d share this with you guys because I pretty much have an orgasm while drinking this beer.  No, I’m not stoned and I haven’t even had a beer to this point.  Not sure how long I’ll let this one stay up here but will probably keep it in the review.   Sorry for all the popping, this recording was never meant for others to hear. 

In the Shaw neighborhood of DC is a statue of Duke Ellington. He’s seated upon a music note playing a piano that, as it curls behind him it stretches off into the sky. A master of his craft, Duke was a creative genius who created original music through multiple layers while somehow mastering the ability to fit all their complexities into 3 minute segments, just short enough for the old 78 rpms they’d be played on.   The varying degrees of depth being molded into such small and easy listening time frames is an amazing thing when you think about it considering the medium.   Located just a stones throw from the Duke tribute sits a small, 5 barrel brewpub that has something of a Willy Wonka Factory feel to it. With an unassuming front, the building it’s located in sits in the shadows of the historic Howard Theater. Sidewalk patio seating and big windows that look into a rustic dining area, it’s more than possible that you could walk right by without thinking that it’s any more than a bar.   Stepping through the front door, you’re greeted with murals that depict fermenters coming to life and Gatling gun wielding chipmunks sitting atop the Capitol building while two lazer eyed pandas battle to the death. Throw in a few barrels right in the middle of the seating are and a tribute to the Shaw neighborhood on the opposite wall and it almost feels as though you’ve fallen into a Dali rendition of a brewers dream. Making your way to the bar in the back, you’ll pass their cheese counter that you calls to be paired with a growler fill or perhaps for that late night snack you’ll crave after a night at their bar. Speaking of the bar, it’s a continuation of the dreamscape stretching to a seemingly never ending place. Looking through the windows that line the wall behind the barkeeps you can see the brew-house and barrel room-the soul of the brewpub.   Sitting at the bar and going over the menu is when it really hits you though.  The usual cadence for folks when trying a new spot out is to look at the ABV portion of the menu.  It doesn’t matter if you’re a refined beer connoisseur  or Johnny six pack-to a man, or woman, that number with the percent sign next to it is usually the major and often defining influence when it comes to choosing a beer for the first time.  And if that’s what you do when you go over the beers on tap at Right Proper, boy are you in for a surprise.   Nate, the brewmaster for Right Proper got his start like most others-homebrewing.  A man who hates to pigeon hole beers by locking them down to a style, Nate gets his jollies by making big flavored beers that are balanced with a small alcohol count like the Lubitsch Touch-a light smoked ale that comes in at a very sessionable 4.7% that is easy drinking yet eye opening with an incredible secondary smoke that wisps it’s way to the front of your palate after the beer has already made it’s way down your throat. With a focus on high fermentation characteristics, Nate looks to bring you “delicate beers with really good personalities”.  Right Proper is changing how you look at balance by reestablishing the fulcrum between flavor and alcohol and making it a teeter totter that allows you to experience complex beers at very session friendly levels.   It’s almost enough to make you wonder if Duke himself wouldn’t extend that smile a bit further when thinking about the layers of complexity being fit into a glass that allows you to listen to it over an over again because of that take on balance it’s achieved.   Visit their Website HERE Follow them on Twitter HERE Like them on Facebook HERE Check in on Untappd HERE Find their beer near you HERE Our Pairing Coming Soon  

This was a weird show.  Not weird in a bad way, really, just weird in that it was something that I’d not experienced before.  Typically, when I talk about not editing a show, it’s because I liked how I screwed something up and I ended up keeping it in for some comedic relief.  But that’s not what happened here.  No, this was unedited because, well, there was nothing to edit.   The idea of DC Brau started when Brandon Skall, then working for a distribution company, recognized a hole in the DC market for a production brewery.  With it having been 60 years since since Heurich had closed their doors, he took it upon himself to fill that gap.  Armed with knowledge of how to move beer, he reached out to his friend, Jeff Hancock, to set the wheels in motion.   While Brandon had been refining his skills on the sales and marketing side, Jeff had been cutting his teeth in the same industry, just from the other side of the bottle.  Having started out as an apprentice at Franklin’s in Hyattsville, Jeff found himself brewing out in Ann Arbor, MI at Grizzly Peak  andArbor Brewing.  Wanting to move into a larger production brewery roll, Jeff found himself back in the DC area,  working for Flying Dog Brewery when he got the call from Brandon.   In 2009, Brandon and Jeff began creating small batches to take out to the folks they were raising capital from.  The idea wasn’t to sell people a beer, but to sell them on an idea.  A brand they could be a part of.  After 2 years of pavement pounding and door knocking, DC Brau pushed their first beer out of their brewery.  Now, 3 years later, you can’t step inside a DC eatery or bar without seeing a DC Brau beer on tap.   Not only is their logo, the outline of the Capitol building with 3 stars embedded below their name, one of the most recognized in the DC area, but they’ve expanded their reach by collaborating with such breweries as Stillwater, Epic and Ska, while keeping it local by working with places like Meridian Pint and Pizza P.   For all of this to take place is an achievement in itself, but for it to all happen over 3 years is truly amazing and a testament to not only their product, but to how well the two compliment one another. Visit their Website HERE Follow them on Twitter HERE Like them on Facebook HERE Check in on Untappd HERE Follow their Instagram HERE Find their beer near you HERE Stay Tuned For Our Pairing HERE

“We gotta earn our place at everybody’s table every day. There’s a lot of good beer out there and you’ve got to totally bring it and no one person can do this by themselves.”-Garrett Oliver.   I’m just going to throw this out there-  The days leading up to the Brooklyn show were spent with me pouring over interviews that Garrett Oliver had given.  I never do that.  Hell, I’ve made a point of it to go out of my way to NOT drink a beer from a brewery that I’m doing a show with so that way it feels more “real”.  I’m passionate about delivering a genuine experience when it comes to doing this show and have stayed true throughout, but this was my chance to sit down with THE Brooklyn Brewery brewmaster- Garrett Oliver, one of the most well known brewers in the US.   I mean, this man edited the Oxford Companion to Beer!  I wasn’t walking into this one blind.  I was going to be ready.   The whole drive up I went over questions in my head and prepared myself for a show that was going to knock the socks off of anyone who listened.  People would tune in from anywhere and everywhere to hear Garrett talk about what goes into running the most thorough bottle re-fermentation programs in the industry.  We’d talk about Brooklyn 1 and 2 and their Ghost Bottle Program and how they were specially trained in bottle re-fermentation by Bert Van Heck of St Bernardus.  We were going to talk about movies and music and play in a field of hops and be best friends forever.   But something happened.  Something completely and totally unexpected happened that opened my eyes up and made me really think about where this whole craft craze is coming from and what Behind The Craft is about.  I had what could be called a “moment of clarity” that didn’t in so much as alter my view, but reinforced it on a grander scale.   Jimmy Valm, the Production Manager for Brooklyn Brewery, whom I had met a couple months earlier at SAVOR in DC, met me at the front desk of the brewery.  You couldn’t ask for a better front man.  Clad in a his black Brooklyn button-down and wearing a worse for wear hat that has seen the innards of one too many mash tuns, Jimmy greeted me with a half hug half  bro-shake like we’d known each other for years.   After getting our timing down, we made our way to the taps on the first floor of the brewery where he poured me out a Ridgy-Didge to start the tour.  Now, Jimmy has one of those smiles that creeps up from the corner of his mouth and it’s shroud in the brewer’s beard so it can be hard to notice if you’re not looking right at him, but throughout the entirety of the tour, you can’t help but notice how excited he gets, and you can hear the smile in his voice. It was like a friend showing you a new toy that he wanted you to play with because he knew how much you’d appreciate it.   We made our way to the packaging area which was rife with activity around their bottling line.  The funny thing was, they had their fancy custom one of a kind GAI line opened up and were pulling bottles off the line to be filled by hand with their gravity filler.  Here I was, in a brewery that pumps 70,000 plus barrels (they do another 200k+ out of a facility upstate for their perennial and seasonals) a year out of their door and they were bottling the same way a brewery that does 2,000 barrels a year would be.   It was incredible watching it all happen right there.  I don’t know what I expected walking in there, but it certainly wasn’t this.  Jimmy, knowing we had to be back up to the office for the interview would stop seemingly random people to introduce me to them while taking the time to ask them how their day was going or if they needed anything.  It was all so fast, but genuine.  It was amazing watching him work and cater at the same time.   I felt like I could have done an entire show with Jimmy just walking around the brewery.  I was disappointed when he informed me at the end of the tour that he wasn’t going to be joining me for the show.  He had to head back down to the production floor so the folks joining me could come off.  After introducing me to Mike, Molly and Rob, he gave me another bro-bear hug and was out the door.   The rest of what followed is in the show (I mean, I can’t write everything out!) but I’d be remiss if I didn’t at least take the time to introduce you to the great folks that took the time to sit with me and answer my odd questions over the course of an hour.   There is the well traveled Barrel Manager, Molly Browning who was hand bottling at the gravity filler as Jimmy gave me the tour.  Molly made her way to Brooklyn via work at breweries in Europe and Japan. While quiet throughout the show, her patience, know how and reserved confidence lets the barrels play their tricky ways out.  She has some great ideas that Garrett is more than excited to see come to fruition in the near future.   Then you have Rob Lemery, the Head Cellarman who still homebrews and made his way to Brooklyn through sheer determination, hard work and by just paying attention to the “little things” that were happening in big ways.  By following the breweries additions, he timed his resume and just kept knocking until he made his way in.  A guy who, like Jimmy, knows not just everyone throughout the brewery but what songs they can play on the guitar, Rob is a guy you want to go get a beer with after making the beer all day.   And then there’s Mike .   Mike Steinschneider is the Packaging Supervisor.  Now, mostly guys who work on the bottling line or anywhere near it are looking for a way to get to the beginning of the brewing process, not the end.  With the packaging line being the most mechanical part of the brewery, there is never an easy day.  Mike is the most zen person I’ve ever met in his position and I like to think that because of this, the beer leaving the Brooklyn line has one last touch of cosmic-karmic love coming from a guy who finds joy in tweaking what needs to be fixed while at the same time dancing to the clanking sound of the bottles and the “thunk” of the corking machine.   I could talk about Garrett Oliver, the Brewmaster behind Brooklyn, but you probably already know about how he got into brewing because wanted to have the beer that he enjoyed or maybe you’ve even read his book on beer or heard of how he took the risk and a 70% pay cut just to have his arms scalded in his first week of work but still made his way back to the brewery.  The dude is a legend and there’s nothing I can tell you that is going to make it any more valid than it already is (he does answer some pretty cool questions in the show about movies, art and homebrewing though).   I walked into Brooklyn expecting things to be more corporate, more sterile in environment.  What I left with was the same overwhelming feeling of family and a happiness that only comes from being apart of something so much bigger that I’ve found in breweries a tenth the size.  At the end of the day, it’s not about how much you put out, but the quality of the product that reaches the consumers.  Brooklyn achieves this by not just having a great Brewmaster in Garrett, but by having a team that believes in the process.  Because, like Garrett said, “In order to be the best, you’ve got to bring it, and no one person can do it by themselves.”   Visit their Website HERE Follow them on Twitter HERE Like them on Facebook HERE Check in on Untappd HERE Follow their Instagram HERE Find their beer near you HERE Stay Tuned for our Beer Pairing  

Leesburg Market Station is a small collection of shops and restaurants located just off of Market and Loudoun in the town of Leesburg, Virginia.  Tucked into the southern corner, on the first level, there is a small storefront with a patio nearly surrounded by hop trellises and an overhang that provides just enough cover from the elements.  Through the windows that look out onto the patio you can see the makings of a one and half barrel nano brewery that grew from kickstarter known as Crooked Run Brewing.   Jake Endres, owner and brewer of Crooked Run Brewing got his start on a Pale Ale kit he received for his 21st birthday.   The political science major slowly began to move over into all grain recipes and dived full on into home brewing after reading Brewing Classic Styles.  Upon graduating college and stepping out into a thin marketplace for jobs, Jake took it upon himself to step out on his own and give it his all towards turning his 5 years of homebrewing into an actual business.  After researching Kickstarter campaigns and visiting breweries, the then 25 year old fired up his funding and went all in.   Now, at 26, Jake is one of, if not the, youngest owner of a brewery in the state of Virginia.  His concentration on coming up with a direction and dimension for each of his beers while keeping simple is what’s powering his beers forward.  Having done over 30 different brews, he’s now doing larger scale beers out of the contract brewery, Beltway Brewing, in order to distribute his beers to a wider audience.  His Dark Belgian Tripel, The Shadow of Truth can be found throughout the DC proper and Northern Virginia, and is the whole reason I sought him out after having a glass at the Big Hunt in DC.   In this show you’ll find us talking about how to get a kickstarter campaign up and running, why Jake likes to keep brewing simple and some pointers for the home brewers out there looking to make their dream of running a brewery a reality.  Make sure to take a moment to check out his blog as well, which offers a great insight into the path of this young and upcoming brewer who has big plans for the future.     Visit their Website HERE Check out Jake’s Blog HERE Follow them on Twitter HERE Like them on Facebook HERE Check in on Untappd HERE Find their beer near you HERE STAY TUNED FOR PHOTO’S

Adroit Theory

*THIS EPISODE IS LONGER THAN MOST.  THE LAST 20 MINUTES IS A RETURN VISIT WHERE I WAS ABLE TO SIT WITH THE OWNER TO TALK ABOUT THE BUSINESS PLAN THAT WENT INTO CREATING OLD BUST HEAD AND HOW THEY WERE ABLE TO BUILD A SUSTAINABLE AND EFFICIENT BREWERY.* The drive to Old Bust Head is an easy one.  Just hop on 66 from Beltway and head west.  It’s a flat and simple drive with a lot of time to think and very little to look at, that is, until you hop off on 29 south and pass through the construction.  Suddenly you’re greeted by green fields and rolling hills that as you come over the crest you’re given glimpses of the mountains out west.  Turn off 29 and onto 215 and you become engulfed in these massive fenced in areas that have horses running around them.  The drive alone is pretty cool, but it’s the destination that makes the journey worth it.   Knowing that Old Bust Head was a relatively new brewery, I was immediately caught off guard by the grain silo sitting outside of the brewery.  I’ve been to many a brewery and a silo is something that is usually saved for places pumping out at least 7500 barrels.  It’s an investment in not only the equipment, but also in the grain that would be stored there.  This wasn’t going to be just some start up brewery and after walking in and taking the tour, I was left with my jaw on the floor.   Old Bust Head is an absolute model of efficiency (play the “efficiency” drinking game while listening to the show for bonus buzz), planning, sustainability and proper capitalization.  With the installation of 3 geothermal wells, LED lighting and heat return systems throughout the brewery, the mindset is much different than your flash in the pan type of brewery.  With the investment alone of the wells requiring close to 8 years before a return is realized, Old Bust Head, by design alone, has become a model for not just future breweries to take note of, but for businesses of any kind that are interested in sustainability and energy return.   “But Brendan”, you’re thinking, “That’s all fine and dandy, how does the beer taste?”   Well, I guess you’re just going to have to head out there to find out!  With the taproom opening in the coming weeks and production starting to ramp a bit, it’s only a matter of time until the big stores come calling for multi thousand cases.  With the brewery set up to be able to double production in the coming years, I wouldn’t be surprised to see them expanding past the 20k Barrel mark in the not too distant future and selling to a wider market than just Virginia.  That alone should speak volumes in regards to what I think of their beer.   But if that isn’t enough, I will say that this is a great beer to have food with.  Charles, the Head Brewer for OBH, has a long pedigree that includes brewing for Abita, and it shows with the way he’s able to dry out the front in order to let the flavor sit in the back.  With his ability to make staple beers taste this good, I can’t wait to see what he has planned for the one offs.  If they’re anything like his Xxxxxxxx Xxxxx, that I was privy to trying, we’re all in for a great treat.     Visit their Website HERE Follow them on Twitter HERE Like them on Facebook HERE Check in on Untappd HERE Find their beer near you HERE

I’d love to sit here and write about all of the World Beer Championship medals that Port City has won.  I’d love to talk to you about how they’ve been able to nearly double their production on a consistent basis year on year since their start in 2009.  I’d love to talk about what the Pineapple means, or how you can’t walk into a store in the DC metro area without seeing a 6 pack of their Optimal Wit.  I could go on and on about how absolutely phenomenal their special batches are and talk about how much I love the Colossal 1 which is one of the best Imperial Stouts in the DC Metro area.  Hell, I could even probably get you all excited about their Derecho Common, which was featured in Esquire.   I could tell you about their broken bottling line or bring up something about a 6 foot snake or pineapples or serial killers and clowns and smoking cigarettes with Obama on Mars.   I could talk about all of that.  But it’s in the show.  All of that is in the show and you can listen to it to your hearts content.   Naw, I’m going to spend a couple minutes talking about how awesome it was that I got to spend a day with them at their brewery while they teamed up to recover from a broken bottling line the previous week.   When I pulled up to Port City Brewing Company in Alexandria, which is  just South and West of DC, I could hear the familiar clinking sound of a bottling run.  Knowing that this was supposed to be an “easy” day for them so we could all sit down, I instantly became concerned.  As anyone in the industry knows, bottling is, well…not fun.  And while having to make a return trip to a brewery because something came up pushing my visit back to another date can suck, sitting down for a show with a bunch of brewers who just finished a long unscheduled day doing a double palate of bottles makes a reschedule all the more enticing.   The thing is, they didn’t reschedule me.  They actually asked if I wouldn’t mind sticking around until they were done.  Man, am I glad I did, and it wasn’t just because I got to eat some awesome pork chops and kielbasa that Allison happened to prepare and grill up for everyone.  As awesome as that was, my favorite part was sitting at their in brewery picnic tables while  they took turns rotating off the line to eat. On a typical bottling day, they all sit down together when the job is done, family style, to have lunch and shoot the shit.  With this particular day being so impromtu, they fought through it.  I thought it was amazing how each of them didn’t complain about having to be on a bottling line or how much it sucks when something breaks down.  Each person that sat with me said the same thing-”Man, I wish we were all eating together.” Or-”This is one of my favorite days, getting  a chance to eat with everyone.” Sitting there with each of them as they plowed through the food, all I could think was that they weren’t plowing through it because they were hungry or how great it was, they were slamming it down so that they could get back out there with the rest of their crew.  It wasn’t about them.  It was about the group as a whole.  A big working machine, pumping out great beer.  Everyone working together.  Beer will always mimic how the brewery is run, in my opinion.  Port City is a family and their beer reflects that in so many ways.  the strength in flavor, consistency and just enough personal side bars to keep people guessing is what will not only propel them forward, but keep them in the industry for long time to come.  Visit their Website HERE Follow them on Twitter HERE Like them on Facebook HERE Check in on Untappd HERE Find their beer near you HERE

There are times where, if my drive back is long enough, I’ll listen to a show to gauge how it went and what I would have done differently.  This is a lot different from sitting down and editing, because I’m not paying as much attention to what is being said in so much as how it sounds.  On my way back from Hardywood in Richmond though, I had a funny visualization of the 4 brewers I had just sat down with and it all spawned from Nick exclaiming that his “desert island” movie would be anything by Wes Anderson.   I thought about how fitting that choice really was and this whole vision came into my head of the Hardywood Brewery set up as one of those elaborate doll house stages that Wes does so well.  It’s easy to picture once you’ve sat down with them all.   The shot would have to start at Brian’s office.   The camera would pan up to Brian’s office door, where it would have to have Head Brewer emblazoned over a frosted glass door. He would standing behind his desk, stroking his thick, yet neatly trimmed beard while intently looking through recipe’s.  A soccer ball would be in the corner, next to some boots adorning his team colors from when he played in New Zealand.  A book would be in plain view-”The Joy of Homebrewing” to show how it all started for him.   Brian would grin, noting to the audience that he’s found the recipe he’d been searching for and the camera would follow him out and into the brewery.  He’d walk up to Ken to talk to him about the yeast strain they’d be using.  Ken would be in a lab coat with protective goggles and he’d be wearing shorts with huge rubber work boots.  He’d be in something of a lab and have posters showing the many breweries he’s traveled to and on a hot plate in the background a pot of his special goulash would be slowly bubbling over.   The camera would slowly pan away and past a long row of barrels then past a bunch of fermenters and by some of the volunteers bottling and packaging on the line.  It would keep going until it gets to the Mash Tun, where we would find Nick and Justin.  Nick would have a green trucker hat on.  His large mustache reminding us of a younger Sam Elliot as he looks over the control board and Justin, the baby face of the group but none the younger would be pouring some hops into the kettle.   Now, when you listen to the show, you’ll have something fun to envision while each of them speaks.  If you ever get a chance to head down to Hardywood and meet them, let me know what you think of my vision.  Maybe yours is different.  Either way, just make sure to enjoy their great beer. Visit their website HERE Follow them on Twitter HERE Like them on Facebook HERE Check in on Untappd HERE Beer Advocate Ratings HERE

Have you ever had gone to a party where you don’t know anyone?  Let’s say it’s a really nice place too and you feel a bit under dressed as well.  That weird feeling where you’re wondering if or how you’ll even be able to fit in is such an awkward feeling.  Then, one of the hosts brings you a drink and cracks a joke and your a bit more at ease.  That’s similar to how I felt walking into the enormous space that is Blue Jacket.   Housed in a former World War 2 boiler factory, it’s easy to get lost in your surroundings.  With the building clad in glass and several stories high, the light reflects off of the tanks housed on the multiple levels and the noise sort of gets lost in the open ceiling above.  It truly looks like more of a playground than it does a brewery.   Now, when I do shows, it’s very rare for me to sit with an entire brew crew.  Sometimes it’s because of production schedules and others it’s just because there is only one brewer at the establishment.  So you can only imagine my surprise when Owen informed me during my tour that I’d be sitting down with all three of the guys who brew at Blue Jacket.   Having never done a show with 3 brewers, I wasn’t sure how it was going to go.  I mean, that’s a lot of personalities and when you’ve never met the guys, it can be a bit intimidating trying to work your way into a clan like that.  The moment I hit record though, my fears were placed at ease.   Sitting with Bobby, Josh and Owen for this show has to be one of my favorite experiences to date.  This wasn’t like being with a bunch of guys who work together, it was like sitting down with a group of brothers who really enjoy being around one another, and it was truly a privilege to do this show with them.   So sit back, turn up the volume* and enjoy show 16 with a bevy in hand.   *Disclaimer-Mad props to Owen from Bluejacket for noticing the issues I had with the sound about 15 minutes into the show.  He somehow saw me fidgeting with my mic volumes and turned the mic just enough to pick up Bobby for the rest of the show.  I apologize for the audio jumping around prior to this easy fix and I promise to get more mics in the future!*

From the gravely parking lot to the old grain elevator casting a slight shadow over the former cooperage turned brewery, everything about Burley Oak Brewing just feels right from the second you turn onto their lot. Located 5 miles west of Ocean City in the small town of Berlin, Maryland, Burley Oak is a brewery that focuses on two things- balance and beers they like to drink. While I could spend all day talking to you about the balance of their beers, which is really only understood once you try a couple of beers at their front of brewery tap house, these guys look for the balance of community as well. And not just the craft beer community. Burley Oak makes great beer. You don’t have to take my word for it, go look them up on beer advocate or check them out on untappd. Hell, if you’re ever in Ocean City, or anywhere within a quick and safe drive to and from the town of Berlin, which is 5 miles west of OC, stop in at their tap room and take notice of the folks in there. Hell, I was there on a Monday and it was busy from the second I walked in to the moment I left. No, I don’t need to hype the beer. Instead I want you to know about their community involvement. A lot of people outside of Maryland or the Mid Atlantic coast don’t know about how big of a farming community the area is. Burley Oak has fully immersed itself into this culture by pairing up with a local farmer and spending the last 2 years coming up with a way to grow and harvest a barley that can be malted. This is huge in the sense that they’ve created a way to produce a crop that is typically a cover crop into a cash one. By spreading the word and workign with local farmers, Burley Oak hopes to help change the enviornement by not only adding in a highly disease resistant crop but by also giving farmers something they can use to help stop runoff in the winters and help future crops by keeping nutrients in the soils. The end goal here is to create something of a self sustaining environment where the farmers can grow the grain at an affordable price to the brewers while protecting their lands at the same time. An added bonus is that the farmers also recieve the spent grain for their livestock that the brewers can then bring back to them. Hell, at some point, you may be able to have a steak and a beer where everything on the table came from the same farm, all the way down to what the cow ate. Not just stopping at the enviornmental level, Burley Oak set out and succeeded in changing the serving laws in Maryland for craft beers. Starting with the change in legislation out of Berlin back in 2011, Bryan Brushmiller teamed up with Flying Dog to write the new laws to allow tap room service in the state without a restaurant liscence. Yes, they make great beer. It’s undenabile. Their love for Wu Tang and having 6 chickens in their back yards makes them all the more likable. It’s what they do within the community though that makes them complete. If you ever get the chance, make sure to stop in. I’m sure the tap house will be full, but I’m also willing to bet you’ll see Bryan with his hand on someones shoulder talking to them about what’s going on in town. If it wasn’t for the beard, you’d think he’s just another patron out having a good time with the rest of them, just having a beer that he  likes. Visit Their Website HERE Follow them on Twitter HERE Like them on Facebook HERE Follow them on Instagram HERE Check out the Beer Advocate Ratings HERE

One of the things that I love about going to a baseball game in the summer time is the beer.  Now.  I’m not talking any good old craft beer, I’m talking about peanuts and crackerjacks beer.  I’m talking overpriced Old Style in the bleachers at Wrigley.  I’m talking that stale and chewy taste you get when you drink the last sip of a warm beer that’s been sitting in front of you for a few minutes because if you don’t drink it out of the plastic cup it comes in within 98 seconds, it’s warm.   The only reason it tastes like peanuts is because it’s been unintentionally dry hopped thanks to the guy next to you flicking his shells in your beer.   YEAH!   That’s the ticket.  There’s nothing like a beer at a ball park.   Now, imagine the same scenario.  Just replace that Old Style with a craft beer from a local brewery.  Not only that, replace it with a specially made for the ball park beer.  A Helles Lager even.   It’s light but it doesn’t have that bread like finish that makes you wanting to drink more only to mask the taste of the previous sip.  It’s crisp and finishes off slightly dry which allows you to keep pace with the temperature build and before you know it, it’s time for another.  And Another.  And probably one more (remember to consume responsibly or uber your way home).   Atlas Brew Works has done this exact thing for the Nationals in Washington DC.  Their 1500 Helles Lager is just an example of the great beers they’re making in their brewery over in the  in North East DC hood of Ivy City.  Whether it’s their Home Rule IPA or District Common brewed with Czech Saaz hops, Atlas is producing beers with a simple thought in mind.  Let’s make em simple and let’s make em taste great.  The Rowdy Rye is such a phenomenal example of this. Coming in with 61 IBU’s and at 6.2% the rye is never overpowered by the sweetness of the hops.  Instead, they balance one another out, leaving the imbiber with a great swath of rye flavor over the middle of the tongue.  It’s an experience of flavor.  Not a sledgehammer of rye on your palate.   Sitting down with Justin and Will, we talked about everything from the home brew start to their days at Vandy together all the way out to selecting the space, equipment and just coming up with new beers and who they’d do a collaboration with.   If you’re in the DC area, make sure you stop on by, as they keep their door pretty much open to walk in growler fills as long as you’re willing to wait out whatever it is that they’re doing.  And oh…if you happen to be throwing a big shin dig, they do kegs as well! Check out their site HERE! Follow them on twitter HERE Follow them on Instagram HERE Like them on Facebook HERE Check out our Your Craft Moment (coming soon)