Basic Brewing Radio interview: Solera Tasting

James and company from Basic Brewing Radio were kind enough to have Mike and I on the show again to taste and discuss the first series of beers pulled from the red wine barrel solera project we started a couple years back--the first variations were all in homage to Brasserie Cantillon.  As always we had a great time, hope you all enjoy the listen.  The streaming file is below.

Streaming mp3

New Columbia Distillers article

John Uselton in front of the raw space that will be New Columbia Distillers in NE DC

I have an article in the current issue (Feb/March) of Mid-Atlantic Brewing News on the arrival of DC's first distillery since at least prohibition (and possibly much further back, as nobody has been able to find evidence of a legal distillery in DC's history).  New Columbia Distillers will be operating out of a warehouse space in the Ivy City neighborhood of NE DC.  The craft distillery's flagship will be it's "Green Hat" gin named after Congress' prohibition era in-house bootlegger George Cassiday, with plans in the works for a barrel aged rye whiskey in the future.  The pair behind the operation, John Uselton and his father-in-law Michael Lowe, hope to receive their showpiece German-built still and mash tun in the next few months and have the gin available this summer.  They will look to the local community for volunteers to assist with weekly bottling sessions.  

A link to the article (page 35) can be found below:
http://mabnonline.brewingnews.com/publication/?i=99217

D.C.'s Brewing Renaissance

Daniel Fromson has an article in today's Washington Post about the current crop of D.C. breweries, ourselves included.  There is a lot to be excited about as the scene diversifies; we have come a long way in the last decade from the pioneering days of rotating draft lines to the unbounded success of local beer.

In the article we also roll out the working title of our project..."Right, Proper".  The name encapsulates our goal of arching towards the highest standards, while still remaining playful and humble.

Below is a link to the article:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/food/in-dcs-brewing-renaissance-every-palate-wins/2012/01/17/gIQAX4nsNQ_story.html

12% Imports article

Brian Ewing at his office in Greenpoint Brooklyn surrounded by some of his favorite things

I have an article in the current (Dec/Jan) issue of Mid-Atlantic Brewing News on Brian Ewing of 12% Imports.  In the last 4 years, Ewing has made quite a ripple in the artisan beer scene with his small upstart; most pointedly in his partnership with Brian Strumke of Stillwater Artisanal Ales and by securing the exclusive rights to import the newest gueuze blender in Belgium in over a decade Gueuzerie Tilquin.  The online edition of the article is available on page 12 through the following link:
http://mabnonline.brewingnews.com/publication/?i=91633

"Tempêst" Smoked Barleywine

The latest installment of my Hyperborea inspired beers is a smoked barleywine.  I realize that I've acquired an increasing de-sensitivity to beechwood smoked rauch malt; the ham-iest versions of Schlenkerla  that used to test my threshold are now right where I'm comfortable.  Peat-smoked malt is a different story; not too long ago I sampled Sunturnbrew from the Norweigan brewery Nøgne Ø which was entirely too peaty-ashtray for my taste, though it is a brilliant idea to brew a beer to celebrate the local legend that the sun "turns" and changes directions on the shortest day of the year.  


The smoked barleywine that inspired my own is the sublime Corps Mort from the idyllic island brewery À l'abri de la Tempête (Shelter from the Storm) on Quebec's Magdalen Islands--one of my pet obsessions that I hope to visit one day.  That beer has a salinity and otherwordliness about it, void of form, that I knew would be impossible to capture, but it was a starting point.  I love open fires in the darker months so the target was a northern, sustaining beer--a hearth beer, for those (like myself) without.


"Tempêst" Smoked Barleywine
OG 1.100 FG 1.022 ABV 10.5% SRM 23


33% Rauch Malt
24% Golden Promise  
19% Munich                   
10% Monastic Honey 
 7%  Caramunich 60     
 5%  Amber Malt           
 2% Crystal 120             


mashed at 158


1.5 oz. Nugget at 60 mins.


fermented with a 2nd generation slurry of US-05


meat-smoke, toffee, leather

The Word is Out

"Sir" Thor Cheston, captain of the ship

I fielded a call from the Washington City Paper's beerwriter Tammy Tuck this afternoon to confirm that I was involved in a brewpub project here in DC, and now the word is officially out.  Here's a link to Tammy's Young&Hungry post:

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/youngandhungry/2011/11/02/bye-bye-brasserie-beck-thor-cheston-sets-out-to-start-his-own-suds-spot/#more-48634

Not a whole lot to add other than it's all really exciting and I'm looking forward to working with Thor, whose integrity, vision, and acumen I really respect.

Orchid Cellar Mead Article

I have an article in the current (Oct/Nov) issue of Mid-Atlantic Brewing News on the Middletown, MD based Orchid Cellar winery that specializes in sweet meads in the Polish tradition. The small, family-run winery is located in a beautiful part of the state cradled between the Catoctin and South mountain ranges and makes for a great autumn outing. The meads are produced by the father/son team of Andrzej Wilk Sr. and Jr. who age all the meads in wine barrels for as long as 2 years before bottling. They offer nine sweet mead variations, including a capsicumel with chili peppers and a rhodomel with rose petals. My 3 favorites were Knight, Monk and Hunter which do a wonderful job balancing heft (16-18% abv), sweetness, and tannin.


the online edition is available through this link.

BrotherFish: Wild Citra Tripel

I very proudly share my March birthday with my longtime buddy Matt with whom I schemed on a celebratory beer for the occasion.  When we met more than 10 years ago I felt like I met a doppelganger, not just 'cause of the birthdate or that we both wore desert trekkers in the early aughts, but more the tantamount fondness for cinema and a budding interest in good beer--and the friendship has since been cemented with a decade littered with hundreds of reels and innumberable beers..Lubitsch, Powell-Pressburger, Preston Sturges, Naruse, Ozu, Billy Wilder, Charles Laughton, Tati, Aldomovar,Victory, De Dolle, Hanssens, Cantillon, Drie, Fantome, Dupont, Thiriez, De Ranke, Russian River, Pretty Things...


Matt and I both have a deep affection for the city of Montreal, and further for it's crowning jewel the Dieu Du Ciel brewpub.  Matt tried a beer on tap at the brewpub during his yearly northern sabbatical last year called L'Herbe à Détourne that he fell for and when we started talking about a birthday beer, that was his immediate inspiration.  L'Herbe à Détourne is a strong, citra hopped tripel that I got to try for the first time this summer out of the tanks at DDC and now know why Matt was so smitten.  Jean-Francois from DDC recently told me the story of the name of the beer which translates to something like a walk on the grass of forgetfulness, which is a brilliant play on the strength of the beer.

When it came to piecing together a recipe my input was to rough it up a bit by adding 25% rye to the grist and fermenting it with a menagerie of yeast wild and tame, and lactic acid bacteria--so was born BrotherFish.  This Piscean brew is by far the most tropical tasting beer I've ever made, lush with guava, pineapple, mango and some light durian funk (in a good way) from the brett and acidity from the bacteria.  It's a beer for escapists, dreamers...Pisces.

Since the main saccharomyces in the beer was a saison strain, primary fermentation was swift and highly attenuative.  In order to get some character from the brett, we left it in secondary for a few months while the brett worked on the more complex sugars, and then dry hopped it for the last week to brighten the nose up before capturing it in bottle for refermentation.

I enjoyed this beer so much I re-brewed a clean version with a blend of the Dupont and Thiriez saison strains to have on tap next to the funky bottle version.


BrotherFish
OG 1.078 FG 1.004 IBU 33 ABV 9.8% SRM 6

65% Pils
25% Rye Malt
10% Munich

mashed at 150

.5 oz Citra @ 60
1 oz. Citra @ 5
1.5 oz Citra @ flameout
2 oz. Citra dry hop


fermented with a 3rd generation slurry of East Coast Yeast Saison Blend, Roselare Blend, and other critters at ambient in the 80's.

fecund tropics, acid, tastes like Gauguin's Tahiti...

Basic Brewing Radio Interview: Brewing Saisons

James Spencer from Basic Brewing Radio invited Mike and I back on the show to talk about saisons in support of the recent BYO article.  It's always a good, laid-back time with the BBR gang and it's a subject very dear to myself and an increasing number of brewers across the country.

Here is a direct link to the episode:

Streaming mp3

Evolution Article and a Shore Surprise

Evolution's headbrewer Geoff Debisschop in front of barrels from their Migration Series

I've got an article about Evolution Craft Brewing Co. in the current (Aug./Sep.) issue of Mid-Atlantic Brewing News, available at the online archive here.  As an addendum to my article, I recently spoke with co-owner Tom Knorr of the Delmar, DE based brewery and am happy to share the news that Evolution just purchased a 40BBL brewhouse and has secured a 20,000+ sq. ft. historic building over the stateline in Salisbury, MD that they will begin expanding into in the next few months.  The building is an old ice house which will comfortably house the production facility as well as a brewpub with plenty seating inside and out.

Bryan Brushmiller goes rustic on MD's Eastern Shore

Just a bit further east out Route 50 from Evolution and just short of the Atlantic shore beaches in the sleepy hamlet of Berlin is Maryland's newest craft brewery Burley Oak Brewing Co., run by brewer-biologist-surfer-by-way-of-Baltimore Bryan Brushmiller.  The Burley Oak team has been working double-time to get everything together to clear their last 2 inspections for a planned launch next month, and was busy conditioning their first commercial batch when Governor O'Malley dropped in with an entourage of 70 this past weekend for a visit.  Brushmiller ran off a keg of his 7 Fingered Farmer IPA for the governor who poured himself a 2nd pint before 11AM.  The beer is named after an enthusiastic local farmer who picks up their spent grain and is a few digits short.

Brushmiller relied on business loans and grants from the State to secure the old 6,000 sq. ft. wood barn with vaulted ceilings that appropriately served as a cooperage in a former life.  Brushmiller homebrewed extensively for the last 3 years, but this is his first professional brewing gig.  He relied on his own construction skills and friends to cobble together his brewhouse from repurposed dairy tanks, complimented with a row of secondhand 8.5BBL copper clad fermentors and a shiny modern 15BBL fermentor with all the mod cons.  I spent an hour with Brushmiller and was glad to hear "coolship, wine barrels, brettanomyces, and saisons" peppered throughout our conversation.  His vision is for a Maryland Farmhouse brewery that works with local producers for grain and hops, and isn't afraid to go "rustic".

With Evolution, and now Burley Oak, Rachel and I's summer trips to the beach down Route 50 are becoming more and more interesting.