I've Been Reprimanded.

No, not from my General Manager.  Not from the Owners.

Rather, from my eldest step-son.  Joshua said I do not update my blog often enough. 

Sadly, he is correct.

You see, though this blog is a year or so old, I'm still a relative newbie.  I take a look at the list of followers to the bottom left of this post and see it at a steady 22 +/- followers, so I feel I'm writing to a tiny microcosm of the people who stop in for a beer.  What I didn't realize, is that for every full-fledged "follower", there are several (if not many) of you who silently follow along and soak in the beauty that flows from my mind, though my fingertips and out to the blogosphere.  Ok, maybe that's taking it a little too far.....

To you who actually enjoy the occasional musings from me, I truly appreciate it.  For you I make these promises:

1.  I will update more often.  Or:
2.  I will sincerely feel bad if I don't.

Since my last post, we have tapped the Harvest Strong, and I'm proud to say that it turned out pretty well.  This being my first "conceptual beer", I am honored that many of you who have offered feedback said that it is exactly what I touted it to be.  If you haven't tried it yet, come on it and give it a shot.  Ask the bartender what it is.  Hopefully he or she will give you the full description--as I left a half-page cheat sheet right next to the taps.  If this information isn't provided, let me know and I'll crack some skulls!  What I can suggest is to give it a small sip when it's first poured, but then let it warm in the glass and take in all the aromas.  As it warms, the flavor will change dramatically, and for the better.

As I type this, I am sitting in a hotel room in Virginia Beach with my family for a little R&R and some holiday time with my stepson and his family.  The body's here, but the mind drifts back to St. Francis many times each day.

One of the things I'm gearing up for is this year's Christmas Ale.  Last year, I made the Cranberry Rye.  It went over fairly well.  Most Christmas beers involve some sort of spice.  I'm not a huge fan of spiced beers, and I am loathe to put out a spiced beer so close to the Pumpkin Ale.  That's why I went with a fruit beer last year. 

This year will be different.  I will be putting out a style which I've not brewed commercially before, so it will be a bit of an adventure.  This will also challenge the good patrons of St. Francis, as you all tend to prefer the lighter beers over the darker ones. 

This year's Christmas Ale will be a Chocolate Hazelnut Porter.  I'm planning to brew it this coming Tuesday and it will be tapped December 15th.  I will write more about it in an upcoming post.

Other upcoming posts may include a tale of me falling off the back of a farmer's pick-up truck before 9:30 am on my birthday....

Tapping Tonight

Tonight we will be tapping our Pumpkin Pie Spiced Ale.  This orange-hued ale features five types of malt and a wonderful blend of cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, allspice, ginger and mace.

Tapping begins at 7:30 this evening for the Mug Club.  The rest of you can enjoy this seasonal favorite on Thursday.

Happy Halloween!

A Quick Plug

Most of you know my brewing career began with homebrewing. Over time, many brewer's supply shops have come and gone--the Frugal Homebrewer, the Kettle Moraine Brewing Company, the Homebrewing Depot. It's sad when they disappear.


However, the new kid on the block has quickly become my favorite--Northern Brewer. Once in a while, I would order from their online catalog from their store up in St. Paul. About a year ago, they opened up a store in Milwaukee (108th and Greenfield) and I have had nothing but pleasant experiences with their products and staff.

What's more, the guys at Northern Brewer have been extremely supportive of the craft brew industry as a whole and St. Francis Brewery in particular.

If you've been toying with the idea of trying to brew your own beer, the staff will be happy to put together a nice starter package for you.

Tell them, "Scott sent me".

What is Harvest Strong?

Heck if I know.

This begs the question, how do I come up with recipes? 

Well, for our house beers, I inherited them from the previous brewer.  I did tweak a few here and there, but for the most part, the grain and hop bills are the same.

For the seasonals, often I will search for recipes and when I find one that looks good, I will adapt it for our brewery.  I never copy recipes verbatim.  I'd rather substitute one or more malts, or change up the hop varieties, and come up with something similar, but unique.

My next seasonal, the Harvest Strong, is more of an ideal.  A notion, if you will.  I want to create a beer that encapsulates the feeling of this time of the year--the autumnal colors, the scent burning leaves, the coolness in the air, sipping a spiced cider by your fireplace.  Sort of a romantic air that goes along with my favorite season--Autumn.

The Harvest Strong will hopefully inspire those feelings.  It contains seven different malts, including smoked malt.  It will be a brownish-orange hued ale.  I will use a Belgian yeast strain which will give it some complex, spicy characters.  It will also come in at close to 10% alcohol, so it will certainly warm you on a cold night.

Look forward to sampling this ale mid-November.

What to brew.....

I am often asked, "when are you going to brew the (fill in the blank) again?"

One of the best parts of this job, and there are many "bests", is coming up with our seasonals.  The most popular, like the Oktoberfest, will be annual brews.  Some of the other one-offs are the results of a whim.  The trouble is, there are so many different styles of beer that I love coming up with things that craft brew lovers can't get very often. 

Last November, I sat down and planned out the entire seasonal schedule for 2010, and to this point I have kept to it.  I had not planned on doing the Pumpkin Pie Spice Ale this year.  Instead I was going to feature a completely made-up style of beer, the "Harvest Strong" this month, a Schwarzbier for November and the Christmas Ale for December.

Back to the original sentence, customers are asking me about the Pumpkin Ale.  I have bowed to your requests and am brewing it today!  Should be ready in a couple weeks.  A special Mug Club notice will go out about its tapping.  I've postponed the Schwarzbier and will move the Harvest Strong to November.

It Has Begun!

Actually, to credit a lot of hard work done by a slew of architects, engineers, consultants and our ownership, work on the new St. Francis Brewing Company started months ago.

However, the fruits of their efforts have become visible for the first time, and I couldn't be more excited.

When I arrived at the brewery at seven this morning, I was greeting by a wonderful sight:

Yes, the new brewing equipment has arrived from Colorado.  After a mere ten hours, we got all of the gear into our warehouse.  I will be meeting with the engineers and our brewery consultant tomorrow to go over all of the equipment and start determining how this jigsaw puzzle will come together.

Winding Down/Gearing Up

What a crazy couple of months it has been!

After preparing for my first trip to the Great American Beer Festival, our first Oktoberfest Extravaganza and our first appearance at the Wisconsin Wine and Dine Expo, I finally get a chance to take a breath.

Over the next couple of days, I'll post some photos and notes about these events.

This break will be short-lived, as there are several great things coming up:

A new Brewmaster's Dinner on October 17th.
The St. Francis Sip 'N Taste

AND

The new brewery equipment for our expansion project starts arriving THIS WEEK!

Details on all of these things follow shortly.