Last month Russian River Brewing collaborated with Italian brewer Agostino Arioli, who owns Birrificio Italiano, to brew one of his beers, La Fleurette, there in Santa Rosa, California. I was there on the brew day (and documented the process in photos), and was eagerly looking forward to tasting the results. Saturday it was tapped and I went up Tuesday to try it. Because the beer was conceived in love, I got a growler of the beer to bring home to share with my wife, the love of my life.

La Fleurette in my garden, among the roses. It was cloudy golden amber and produced a pillowy white head. It had aromas of peppers and a honeyed sweetness, with surprisingly few botanicals. It was light and very refreshing. The mouthfeel was silky smooth, liquid velvet with a touch of gritty pepperness. The honeyed sweetness dominates the flavor profile. The finish is very clean, with only a gentle spiciness lingering after.

Vinnie told me that when they racked the beer, it was all pepper and little else, and it’s been changing quite a bit ever since. Apparently, the flowery aromas I think I expected more of have been coming and going. I believe they’ll be pouring it at the Boonville Beer festival this Saturday, so I wonder what it will be like then. It’s definitely worth seeking out, if you get a chance.

James shoveling barley at the new brewery, only days away from its first brew. I also stopped by the new brewery to see how things were progressing. Vinnie was in the brewhouse, cleaning everything and preparing for the first brew, which should be any day now.

Today is iconoclastic brewer Brian Hunt’s 51st birthday. Brian owns and operates Moonlight Brewing in in Sonoma County, California, as a one-man show. If you’ve never had his “Death and Taxes,” “Twist of Fate Bitter,” “Bombay by Boat,” or his fresh hop ale, alternately called “Homegrown” or “Greenbud Ale,” then you’re really missing out on some of the most unique and wonderful beers around. Plus, Brian is one of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet. Join me in wishing Brian a very happy birthday.

Hildegard van Ostaden, Urthel’s brewster, one of only two female brewers working in Belgium, and Brian.

Brian in his hopyard, with Russian River’s assistant brewer Travis, and Vinnie Cilurzo.

Shaun O’Sullivan and Vinnie Cilurzo with Brian at the Bistro in Hayward, California.

Today is Christian Kazakoff’s 37th birthday. Christian is the head brewer at Triple Rock Brewery in Berkeley, California. I’ve gotten to know Christian much better since we shared a room for a week in London two years ago to attend the Old Ale Festival at the White Horse on Parson’s Green. Besides being a terrific person, he is also a stellar brewer and puts on the Bay Area Gravity Firkin Festival each April. Join me in wishing Christian a very happy birthday.

Christian after a sleepless night setting up before last year’s Bay Area Firkin Fest at Triple Rock.

Caroline and James Costa, who’s working on opening his own brewery, with Christian Kazakoff and his girlfriend, Jodi, at the Toronado 20th Anniversary Party last August.

Christian at Fuller’s in London, along with Shaun O’Sullivan from 21st Amendment Brewery and our tour guide Derek Prentice.

Lagunitas Brewing of Petaluma, California, is a big exponent of local ingredients, though usually food. But now they’re trying to make a portion of the beer locally, too. Lagunitas has planted a 1/3 acre test plot in nearby Marshall, California, right on Tomales Bay. I’m not sure about the weather at that location — with fog and wind — but I certainly admire the effort. They’re planted two hop varieties, Emperor and Pathetique (really Nugget and Cascade, but Tony Magee renamed them since they’re not being grown in the Pacific Northwest — and apparently he’s a big fan of Beethoven). If all goes well, they plan on developing five acres at the same location. Obviously, this won’t meet all of their hop needs, but I think it’s great that brewers are looking to grow their own hops and take a greater ownership of what goes into their beer. Now if we can just pull out all those grapes and get hops growing again in Hopland.

The Lagunitas Hopfields.

 
UPDATE 4.18: The Marin I.J., my local paper, also did a nice story on the new Lagunitas hopfield, in which they quote yours truly.
 

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Vinnie and Natalie Cilurzo, while attending a Slow Food event in Torino in late 2006, befriended Agostino Arioli, who opened one of Italy’s earliest craft breweries. His brewery, Birrificio Italiano, makes a unique beer, La Fleurette, whose varied ingredients include flowers, black pepper and orange blossom honey. Agostino is in California this week for the world Beer Cup and the Craft Brewers Conference which begins next week in San Diego. But yesterday, he was in Santa Rosa visiting his friends at their brewery, Russian River Brewing. The plan was to brew his La Fleurette beer at Russian River, trying to approximate it as best they could using a different brew system. I spent the day documenting the brewing process. There are three galleries and approximately 54 photos of brewing the La Fleurette and the story of the beer, too. Start with gallery one and follow along as I present Brewing La Fleurette at Russian River. At the end of each gallery, there’s a link to the next part of the story, through three separate pages. Enjoy.

Agostino Arioli, from Birrificio Italiano in northern Italy, with Vinnie Cilurzo and Travis Smith, at Russian River Brewing.

The beer included two kinds of dried flowers, violets and roses (shown here).

At the point during the boil where dry-hopping normally occurs, the flowers are added along with orange blossom honey and black pepper.

For many more photos of the La Fleurette brew day at Russian River, start with Part 1.
 

According to a story by my friend and colleague, Brent Ainsworth, in today’s Marin I.J., Iron Springs Brewery in Fairfax will be shutting down operations on August 15 of this year, due to a protracted struggle with their landlord in which the rent was to be raised by 53% in this down market.

The 5th annual Bay Area Firkin Gravity Festival was held yesterday at Triple Rock Brewery in Berkeley, California. Some of the stand out beers for me included Pizza Port’s Imperial Red, 547 Haight St., that Jeff Bagby brewed for the Toronado’s 20th anniversary, 21st Amendment’s Rye, Drake’s Wheatwine, Speakeasy’s Stout, Half Moon Bay’s authentic English-style brown and an interesting California Common from Oakland’s newest brewery, Linden Street Brewing.

This year, nearly thirty casks of real ale were available for sampling.

Triple Rock GM Rachaal with Ken Kelley from North Coast Brewing.

For many more photos from this year’s Bay Area Firkin Gravity Festival, visit the photo gallery.
 

Iron Springs Pub & Brewery, Marin’s newest craft brewer, may also be its latest casualty. Their lease is up this August and despite trying to negotiate in good faith to exercise the first of two five-year extensions since last September, their landlords won’t budge on a 60% rent increase. On Monday, the landlords — two wealthy local brothers—rejected a final offer. Now the case is set to go to binding arbitration, but barring a miracle it doesn’t look good for Iron Springs remaining in their present location.

And that’s a damn shame. Not only do they make some terrific beers, but in less than four years Iron Springs Brewing has become the eighth highest revenue generator in the town of Fairfax, and number three in terms of giving back to the community financially. Maybe I don’t understand business very well, but we’re in a recession right now, the real estate market is in freefall, our economy is tanking. That doesn’t strike me as the right time to gouge someone with a 60% rent increase. I’m told that there have been other ways in which the landlords have not dealt fairly, withholding information or not being completely truthful about aspects of the property, and while I can’t corroborate those they seem entirely consistent with this type of short-sightedness. The Plaza where Iron Springs is located once boasted full occupancy, including a large Albertson’s grocery store across the street, all owned by the same family. The grocery store has been empty two years and other tenants are likewise now gone with several more on their last legs. It would appear greed is destroying an entire town.

If you live in northern California—or are planning a visit to the Bay Area—make sure you stop by Iron Springs and show your support this spring and early summer, before it’s too late.

The famed Iron Springs AmBREWlance, which may need saving itself one day soon.
 

Dan Gordon, of Gordon Biersch Brewing in San Jose, California, has just released their newest seasonal beer, an authentic unfiltered Dunkleweizen.

He stopped by the Celebrator offices the afternoon before we scheduled our most recent blind panel tasting for the April/May issue with beer in hand so we could taste the new beer.

It’s an unfiltered authentic Bavarian-style dunkleweizen, delightfully dark and murky. When first poured, it had that wonderful pillowy head that juts out above the top of the glass with a small dimple in the center. It tasted great and makes the case against too much filtering, because so much more of the flavors come through. It would be terrific with hearty dishes, say German cooking. This will be Gordon Biersch’s spring seasonal and will be the first of a program of four seasonal beers per year. It’s one of the best new beers they’ve made in a long time, though Gordon explains it’s been one of his favorites for a number of years. He used to make a draft-only version from time to time before deciding to package as Gordon Biersch transitions to four seasonals per year. It’s easy to see why he loves it. Having spent a little over a week in Bavaria last fall, I enjoyed this style in a variety of circumstances, and oftentimes dunkleweizens are filtered for bottling. That this delicious beer isn’t makes it one of the more exciting new releases in a while.

On Tuesday, my friend Pete Slosberg and I headed up to Russian River Brewing to take a look at how the construction of the new brewery was coming. He had just returned from four months living in Buenos Aries, Argentina, but now that he was back he wanted to enjoy some good beer. So he picked me up and we drove to Santa Rosa to visit Vinnie and Natalie Cilurzo.

Natalie took us over to the new facility, which is about three weeks away from completion. I took a bunch of photos at the construction site, as I’ve done in a few other breweries lately. I thought it was just me who likes to see pictures of brewing equipment, but based on the comments and links I’ve gotten whenever I post brewery photos I think I’m not the only one after all. I’m starting to think it’s a perverse kind of brewery porn that we ooh and ahh over brewing equipment in all it’s magnificent glory. I’m just glad to know I’m not the only deviant.

Pete Slosberg and Vinnie Cilurzo in the old brewery.

At the new brewery, used wine casks stacked in the barrel room.
 

For more photos from our visit to the new Russian River Brewery still under construction, visit the photo gallery.
 

William Brand is reporting that Don Barkley will be opening a new brewery in Napa, which will be called Napa Smith Winery & Brewery. Supposedly beer from the new brewery will debut in late March at the Napa Valley Mustard Festival, which suggests things must be pretty far along at the new brewery.

Barkley was the the assistant brewer at New Albion Brewing back in the late 1970s. New Albion was, of course, the first modern microbrewery in America. When they stopped brewing in the early 1980s, Barkley bought the brewing equipment and used it to found Mendocino Brewing.

Don Barkley last summer reminiscing about working at New Albion with Jack McAuliffe, while accepting an award for lifetime achievement on behalf of McAuliffe, who started New Albion Brewery.

A little over a month ago, I stopped by Lagunitas Brewing in Petaluma, California to see how the installation of the new brewhouse was going and took some photographs of the new equipment. I had an opportunity earlier today to stop by again on my way back from an impromptu trip to Russian River Brewing with my good friend Pete Slosberg (but more on that tomorrow). Pete had never been to Lagunitas, whereas I have been there many, many times, so I figured a quick detour to see the brewery was in order. They’re about a week away from the first water test and it looks far closer to completion than my last visit.

The new kettle door adorned with an etching of one of the brewery logos.

All of the pipes are now attached, which includes seven miles of wiring.

Owner Tony Magee shows off the new hop dosers to Pete.