I'm baaaa-aaack

I wonder if anyone even gets that subject line reference anymore?

Well, though I was sad to leave Germany, I'm happy to be back in the States, this time for good.

I've also been terrible about getting this blog updated, so I'll type a few lines in the middle of a cleaning cycle here at the brewery.

So much is happening, I don't even know where to begin.  First off, I tapped the Summer Night Saison last Wednesday, and I'm very happy with the results.  Sweet, spicy and very tasty. 

Second, I experimented with a new dark beer--a recipe of my own design--which I called the "Heimkehr Dunkelweizen".  This is a black wheat beer which looks heavy but is surprisingly light.  Using our weisse strain of yeast, this black beauty has a bit of the banana/clove characteristic of our KK Weisse.  Well, it seems you liked it too, as it sold out very quickly.  I will brew this one again this month, and you can try it again in early August.

Thirdly, I'm happy to report that our distributor has secured us two tap handles at the WI State Fair.  You'll be able to try our Envy IPA and our Nut Brown Ale at Benno's at the fair.

Last Friday, I brewed up a batch of our August seasonal, "Givum Helles".  This is a Munich style lager.  Essentially, this style of beer was Munich's answer to the Czech Pils which was sweeping Germany by storm and was making German brewers nervous.  To regain market share, the Germans developed their own style of a pilsener which leaned more toward the malty side, rather than the traditional hoppiness of a Czech pilsner.  This style was called Helles which means light-colored.  The beauty of this beer is its simplicity:  two types of pilsener malt and two German hops--Tettnang and Hallertauer.  This is also my trick-of-the-trade beer, as it provides a vehicle for ensuring I have enough lager yeast for the Oktoberfest brews coming later next month.

Finally, and if that weren't enough, you will find us at the Milwauke Firkin Fest this coming Saturday.  I'll be tapping cask-conditioned versions of our Dunkelweizen, Saison and a returning favorite--the Toasted Coconut Brown Ale.  Can't make that fest?  Worry not, as we will be at the Milwaukee Brewfest the following Saturday, July 28.  Details will follow.

Back From Reality

Time files.
 
Cliché?  Yes.

But how true it is.

After an event-filled ten days back in the States and the Brewery, I find myself being Mr. World traveler again. 

Backing up, I flew back to America on a Wednesday.  After getting back to Greenfield at about 3:30 pm and mowing the 18” tall grass in my back yard, there was no time to relax.  My boss sent me an email saying that he’d be at my doorstep at 5:00 am on Thursday for a business trip to Minnesota.  I tried to assure him that my presence was not necessary, and he assured me that it was.

He won.  (He signs the checks!)

So, our quick seven-hour drive Northward,  three hour meeting, and seven hour drive back yielded some very encouraging results, which I’ll write about at some future time.  Among the positives was the opportunity to chat with my boss on less of a business level and more as peers.  I am lucky in that we’re all striving for the same goals.  Too many people tolerate an adversarial relationship with their employers, and that’s unfortunate.  We’ve found a nice balance of mutual respect and everything seems to move smoothly as a result.

Finally, it was time to get back into the brewhouse and start brewing up some ales.  Not only did I get the fermenters all full, but we also pulled off a very successful Brewmaster’s Reserve “Tour of Europe” Dinner.  Chef Ron never fails to amaze me when he’s allowed to play fast and loose with a menu.  When I’m at a point where I can connect to the Internet for a good length of time, I’ll post some photos and descriptions of the event.

I flew back to Frankfurt last Friday, arrived at 8:30 Saturday morning and stayed at the airport.  I then flew back out at about 2:30 pm to Rome with a layover in Amsterdam.  My wife and son took a different flight to Rome and our flights landed within 30 minutes of each other.  We took a shuttle to a bed and breakfast and spent an “interesting” evening on the Italian hillside overlooking the Mediterranean Sea.  An early morning taxi ride took us to the Port of Civitivecchia, just outside of Rome.  From there we boarded the RCL ship, “Navigator of the Seas” for a seven-day Mediterranean cruise.

Our first port of call on Monday was Messina, Sicily, where we booked a shore excursion to the active volcano, Mt. Etna and the ancient city of Taormina.  Sicily has an interesting history which dates back to the pre-Roman times.  Throughout its history, the island has been occupied by the Romans, Byzantines, African Muslims, Normans, and Germans until its final liberation by the Americans.  You can see many influences of these occupations in the architecture.
As I write this on Tuesday, we are spending a day at sea before reaching Athens, Greece.   While I strive to make this a beer-centric blog, it would seem that more than half of my time in Europe is spent in wine country.  I will report, however, that there is Stella Artois on draft on the ship which is tasty.  I will also sheepishly note that I’ve had a couple of “oilcans” of Foster’s Lager from Australia.  An Aussie once said to me, “You know that Foster’s is Australia’s biggest export beer. 

There’s a reason for that…”

More to come.

Loosening the Reins

Many of you have met my assistant, Natalie, who has done an admirable job being my eyes, ears and hands in the Brewery while I’m away.

I must admit, I’m a bit of a control freak in the Brewhouse.  When I arrived at the St. Francis Brewery in June of 2009, I inherited an assistant who helped me learn the procedures that were in place at the time, and how the equipment worked.  From there, I modified those procedures and made the brewing operations my own.  As time went on, the necessity of an assistant diminished, and I had to let him go.  Fortunately, he moved on to bigger and better things and has become a fine brewer in his own right.

When the opportunity for me to study brewing in Europe presented itself, I knew that having an assistant would become a necessity once again.  Only so much can be done remotely, and I needed a physical presence in the brewhouse.

Enter Natalie.
 
Nat has an engineering background.  Like me, she decided that she wasn’t happy with her initial career path.  Unlike me, she came to this realization at a much earlier age than I, and that is to her great benefit.  I can honestly say that she has transitioned well into our little family, and I’m proud of the work she has done.  It is now with great confidence that I can leave the brewery for weeks at a time knowing that the sky will not fall in my absence.

I decided it was time to give her a gift.

A few months ago, she gave me a bottle of a beer she had homebrewed—an English Best Bitter.  It impressed me, as I’m a bit of a sucker for English Ales.  There was some room in the Seasonal schedule so I offered Nat the opportunity to take the lead on this one.  We ramped up her recipe to a full-scale commercial batch.  The June seasonal is all Natalie—she devised it, brewed it, fermented it and will be serving it tomorrow for our Mug Club.

So, if you’re a Mug Club member, stop in to the tapping at 7 pm Wednesday.  Everyone else can try theirs on Thursday.  Let us know what you think.

Where Do I Start?

Well, it's been a crazy couple of weeks here in Europe. 

Mrs. Brewmaster decided we're going to see as much of Europe as we can while we're here, so she's been our travel agent.  Having visited Rome and Ireland, as well as several German cities, our next excursion was a week in Vienna. 

Quite frankly, I'm not a good long-term vacationer.  I start to get a little antsy at about day four, so I questioned the length of this Vienna trip.  Appreciating my consternation, we pulled out a map and found that we would be two hours by train to Prague and ninety minutes from Budapest.  So, three days into our Vienna trip, we booked a 2-day side trip to the Czech Republic and a day trip to Hungary.

I'll comment on all three of these trips in a future post.  For now, let me just say that every place we've visited is a gem in its own right. 

The day after our return to Oberstaufenbach, we were treated to a visit from some friends from the States.  I was in a quartet with Matt for 10 years, and was put up with by his dear wife Cori for much of that time.  They did some whirlwind sightseeing and they're headed back to the States tomorrow.  I'll be following them back a day later to get back into the brewery and get some tasty beers brewing.

Mayday! Mayday!

So, May 1 is a pretty big deal here in Germany. 

According to the always factual Wikipedia: 

In April 1933, the recently installed Nazi government declared May 1 the "Day of National Work," an official state holiday, and announced that all celebrations were to be organized by the government. Any separate celebrations by communists, or Bolsheviks were banned. After the World War II, May 1 remained a state holiday in both East and West Germany. In communist East Germany, workers were de facto required to participate in large state-organized parades on Mayday. Today in Germany it is simply called the "Day of Labour" ("Tag der Arbeit"), and there are numerous demonstrations and celebrations by independent workers' organizations.

Our little village of Oberstaufenbach tends to keep the politics out of it and make it more of a fair, hence the flyer that arrived at our door last week:

Mrs. Brewmaster is over in the states for a conference, so mein Sonne and I decided to check it out.  While it was no Summerfest--what can you expect from a population of 250!--it was nice.  They had a beer tent set up-- €2.20 (about $2.92 US) for a half-liter of draft pilsner.  We were first treated to the Village Choir:

Next, the Mayor gave a short speech about "Tag der Arbeit" but I found my thoughts drifting toward the wonderful aromas that this bad boy was churning out:

The black box in the center holds burning logs and a series of cut-outs in the sides of the box exposes the pork rolls to the heat.

Mikey and I treated ourselves to a plate of Rollbraten mit Brot, and it was absolutely delicious:

It was a great day.  Sunny, not too hot, no humidity and no bugs.

Here are a few more photos of the event:



On Guinness, Whisky and Dublin in General

So, the family and I just completed day three of a six-day sojourn to the Emerald Isle.

We flew in last Thursday afternoon, caught the shuttle to our hotel, grabbed some dinner and a handful of tourist brochures and decided what we were going to do.  Once we got to the room, there was only a king sized bed, though our reservation was for two doubles.  A quick check of my wife's "Gold Club" status netted us a two bedroom suite on the top floor for no extra charge.  Bonus!

We've had good luck with the hop-on/hop-off bus tours that many major cities offer, so we opted for Dublin's.  Also, we booked a tour of Dublin's South Coast which we're seeing Sunday morning.

So, between yesterday and today, we've toured Guinness, seen the Book of Kells at Trinity College, toured St. Patrick's Cathedral and have eaten at The Porterhouse and Mssr. McGuires--two brewpubs that were recommended to me by a former Irish Brewmaster boss.  I also tried my first authentic Shepherd's Pie and Jameson Whisky.

Here are some observations:

1.  I don't really like Guinness.  I didn't like Guinness back in the States.  Everyone always said, "you have to try it in Ireland--it is so much different."  Well, they're right.  It is different.  And, I still don't like it.  However, the brewery tour is the bomb, if for nothing else than the display on cooperage.  I highly recommend it.

2.  I'm not much of a spirits drinker, but Jameson whisky is absolutely delicious.  Reminds me a lot of the Basil Hayden bourbon I enjoy from time to time back home.

3.  On an individual basis, the Irish are a wonderful and friendly people.  On a crowded street, however, it's every person for themself.

4.  When the sun is out, the weather is warm.  As soon as it clouds up, the temp drops like a rock and you may be subject to short, sporadic bursts of rain.  Thankfully, they have all been short-lived.

5.  There are Seventeen Centuries of history here, but a lot of it has been forgotten or ignored, as Ireland was not a part of the Roman Empire.  The pagans were washed from history and the Vikings replaced a lot of the history with their own. 

6.  St. Patrick and Johnathan Swift are two interesting fellows about whom I will be investigating further.

Anyway, here is my largely superficial synopsis of Dublin.  More to follow.

A Pretty Good Day

I met Bernhard at 6:00 this morning for a chance to visit the Bischoff brewery.  However, all play and no work makes Scott a lazy brewer so we set off first for Best Malz in Kreimbach-Kaulbach to pick up Bernhard's monthly grain purchase.

I learned I have it pretty easy in St. Francis.  I call Briess Malt.  They deliver a truckload.  The truck has a liftgate which drops a pallet of malt to the floor, and I pallet-jack it where it needs to go.

Not so in Germany.

We pick up the malt, bag by bag.  These are not the easy 50 pounders that Briess carries.  These are 50 kg which equal about 110#.  We wheel them into the truck and take them to the brewpub.  From there, I off-loaded the bags while Bernhard wheeled them, two at a time, into the brewpub basement.
 

As I mentioned before, Bernhard doesn't brew with a huge variety of grain.  It was basically Pilsener, Wheat and Munich.  Nothing like the 30+ varieties that I keep on hand, but the Germans like to keep things simple.  During the trip, we chatted about craft brewing in Germany.  The city where Bernhard's main brewpub is is Kaiserslautern.  It's about the size of Green Bay, and they do have a soccer team.  In fact, "K-Town" was one of the host cities during the 2006 World Cup.  Bernhard said that there used to be over 30 brewpubs in K-Town, and now there's only one.  I asked why there was such a decline, and the answer was a familiar one.  There was much consolidation as the brewpubs and craft breweries were bought out by mega-brewers.  Then they started shutting them down, one-by-one.  This is exactly what happened in America's brewing history.  With any luck, Germany will experience the craft brewing Renaissance that America is seeing now.

Once the grain was in place, it was time to head on out to Winnweiler to visit the Bischoff Brewery, which owns the brewpub where Bernhard brews.  Unfortunately, their Brewmaster--as well as much of their staff--is on holiday, so I didn't get a chance to meet him.  However, I did get to tour the brewery.

They brew 95 hectoliter batches, roughly 2500 gallons or 80 barrels--More than 10 times the amount we brew at a time.  Here are a few photos of the "sudhaus":

Here is the mash tun, lauter tun and brewkettle.  I was impressed with the amount of copper.

The insides were immaculate, and that says a lot about the brewery operations here.

From there, we headed to the fermentation area but along the way I saw the "Hefereinzucht" or yeast banking area shown in the photo below.  This is where they propogate huge amounts of yeast for brewing.  Several vessels prop and store the different strains they use.

Next, I saw the "business end" of the fermenters.  In the next picture you will see a series of cones coming through the ceiling above.  The fermentation tanks, about 15 in all, protrude through the ceiling and attach to the piping to take the finished beer to the filter room and then to the bright tanks where the beer is either sent to the bottling line or kegging line.

When we were through at Bischoff, we headed back to K-Town to the brewpub because I had brought some St. Francis beer to share with Bernhard.  When several of the Pub staff saw that I was bringing bottles out, they flocked, so a bunch of us tried out the Kolsch, Weisse, E.S.B. and Scotch Strong Ale.  Now I get nervous bringing beer from the States.  When I am doing some informal bottling of single bottles, I just fill them from the taps into sanitized bottles and cap them off.  Then I wrap them in bubble wrap and store them in my checked baggage on my travel day.  This is probably not legal, but the TSA has inspected my bags in the past and has not seemed to mind the 2-4 bottles that I bring along.  However, quality control is out of my hands as soon as I close my suitcase.  Of the four, three made the trip just fine.  I did taste a bit of diacetyl in the Weisse, so this was not the best representation of that beer.  However, the staff and Bernhard didn't seem to mind.  The general consensus was very favorable.  Bernhard prides himself on his Weisse, and he said that if he doesn't taste banana, it's scheiss!  Thankfully, SFB's weisse is not short on banana esters!

On that note, my day with Bernhard had ended.  On Thursday, my family and I head to Dublin until the 17th, and then I leave from Dublin to head back to the States.  I look forward to trying Guinness the way it was meant to be tasted, and perhaps a nip of whiskey.

Until then.....