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.

Leave it Sierra Nevada Brewing to figure out a way to release their fresh hop beer, Harvest Ale, not once, but three times throughout the year. The regular harvest ale, which they’ve been making since 1996 — and which was released in bottles for the first time last fall — will continue to come out seasonally right after the harvest in Yakima, using Cascade and Centennial hops. But in May they’ll release another Harvest Ale, known as Southern Hemisphere Harvest Ale made with freshly picked hops from New Zealand. Then, at some point during harvest season, they’ll also do a separate bottling of Harvest Ale, using hops grown in the hopyard adjacent to the brewery. This version will be called Chico Estate Harvest Ale and will only be available in very limited quantities, determined by the yield from their own hops.

From the Press Release: Sierra Nevada, the pioneer of fresh hop ales in America, has expanded its Harvest Ale Series with the release of another ground-breaking product introduction, Southern Hemisphere Harvest Ale. This marks the first time in known history that a fresh hop ale has been available in America in the spring since hops are harvested in the fall in the northern hemisphere. The inaugural ale will debut in early May. To make this project happen, Sierra Nevada traveled to New Zealand to harvest fresh hops, and then transported them from the southern hemisphere to Chico where they were immediately used in brewing. Like their award-winning Celebration Ale, the fresh hops in this beer are dried right after being picked then shipped immediately to Chico for brewing, so that they retain their peak aromatics and flavors. Freshly harvested hops are richer in hop oils so they impart more hop aroma and hop spiciness into beer. “We love fresh hop ales, but until now fresh hops were only available here once a year – during the fall hop harvest,” said brewery owner and founder Ken Grossman. “So we journeyed to the southern hemisphere to catch their hop harvest, which occurs during our spring.” The result is the North-by South fusion of fresh-picked New Zealand Pacific hops with the finest North American malts. Southern Hemisphere Harvest will feature fresh Pacific Hallertau, New Zealand Motueka and New Zealand Southern Cross hops, all from New Zealand. The introduction of Southern Hemisphere Harvest gives Sierra Nevada three fresh-hop ales in their Harvest Series. In addition to Southern Hemisphere Harvest, Sierra Nevada produces Chico Estate Harvest in late summer and its original Harvest Ale in early fall.

Chico Estate Harvest is one of the very few estate harvest ales produced anywhere in the world today. All the hops in the beer are grown organically on the premises at the Chico brewery. The brewers pick the hops themselves and then take them directly to the brew kettle, without being dried, just after picking so they retain nearly all of their natural oils and resins. It is made with Cascade, Centennial and Chinook hops. Until now, this beer has only been available in draft. Starting this year, Sierra Nevada will bottle it on a very limited basis (Chico only this year) with plans to expand its availability as they expand their Chico hop field in the coming years. The cornerstone of their Harvest Series is the beer that started the modern-day fresh hop ale phenomenon in America, the original Harvest Ale. Created in 1996, Harvest Ale features Cascade and Centennial hops from the Yakima Valley in Eastern Washington. These hops are harvested and shipped as “wet,” i.e., un-dried hops—the same day they are picked—to their brewery in Chico where the brewers eagerly wait to get them into the brew kettle while their oils and resins are still at their peak. Representing the journey following the hop harvest around the globe, the Harvest Series includes hops sourced from new regions and brewed using new methods in an effort to maximize the oily, resinous qualities of the hops from each harvest as they transported them to the brewery in Chico, California.

 
It will be fun to compare the two that come out around the same time. It’s too bad we won’t really be able to compare all three, but the Southern Hemisphere Harvest Ale will not be fresh at the same time as the other two, but ces’t la vie. That’s the point of fresh hop beers; here today, gone tomorrow.
 

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.
 

Sacramento Brewing will be serving up their Spring Brewmaster’s Dinner on April 23, beginning at 6:30. The dinner will be five courses and the cost is $50. It will be held at their Town & Country location. Call 916.485.4677 for reservations. I’ll probably see you there.

The Menu:

Dinner: 6:30 PM

First Course

Fresh wild Alaskan ivory salmon with spicy pecan butter

Beer: India Pale Ale

Second Course:

Robollita (Italian bean soup)

Beer: Nut Brown Ale

Third Course:

Arugula & spinach salad with sun dried tomatoes, dry salami, and baby mozzarella

Beer: Hefeweizen

Fourth Course:

Seared breast of duck with mushroom cannelloni and golden marsala sauce

Beer: Red Horse Ale

Fifth Course:

Beer poached pear strudel served with Brussels Blonde reduction sauce

Beer: Brussels Blonde

Peter Hoey, brewmaster at Sacramento Brewing (on left), at the GABF Brewer’s Reception last year, along with Rich Norgrove from Bear Republic and Arne Johnson of Marin Brewing.

 
4.23

Sacramento Spring Brewmaster’s Dinner

Sacramento Brewing Co., Town and Country Village, 2713 El Paseo Lane, Sacramento, California
916.485.4677 [ website ]
 

I’ve known Tom since he was still at the beer distributor he founded, McCormick Distributing, which then, as now, promoted craft brewers and better imports. Tom has also worked as a consultant, with Wolaver’s and Real Beer, and now runs the ProBrewer website. But these days his primary job is running the California Small Brewers Association. Happy birthday Tom.

At the CBC banquet with Nancy Johnson, director of the GABF.

Tom with Greg Koch, co-owner of Stone Brewing, after a CSBA meeting in San Diego last year.

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.

Golden West Brewing, who is the parent company of Chico-based Butte Creek Brewing, issued a press release today that they have created a new division within the company, dubbed Blue Marble Brewing. This new division will be launching a new organic brand beginning next month with the release of Blue Marble Organic Pilsner. According to the press release, they “are in negotiations with a key nationwide retailer to create a nationwide platform for the selling and marketing of this exciting new brand.” PR-speak aside, presumably that would be a chain like Whole Foods, to hazard a guess.

I love getting good news, especially after the day I had yesterday. Peter Hoey, the head brewer at Sacramento Brewing sent me the news last night that his wife had delivered. Please join me in congratulating Peter and Britany Hoey as they welcome the newest addition to the Sacramento Brewing family. Lorelai Elisabeth Hoey was born Tuesday morning. Mother and daughter are “excited, tired, & nervous all at the same time,” but doing great. They’re home now getting settled in.

Particulars:

Original Gravity: 9 pounds, 3 ounces
IBUs: 20.5 in.
Style: Girl
Release Date: January 29, 2008
Label: Lorelai Elisabeth Hoey

Papa Peter holding his new daughter for the first time. Now that’s something you never forget.

Peter and Britany set to take Lorelai home from the hospital. Notice how well-rested they still look?

Most rye beers that I’m aware of use only around 10-20% rye with the rest being the more traditional barley. I’ve always liked that little something that rye adds to the beer and was in heaven over ten years ago during that year or so when it seemed like almost everybody was making a rye beer. These days, rye beers are a bit more on the rare side, though there’s still a few hundred being made in North America.

There is also a German style of beer, Roggenbier, which uses at anywhere from 25-65% rye malt, depending on whose account you accept. The German Institute says “half barley malt and equal portions of wheat and rye malts” are used while the BJCP guidelines say “Malted rye typically constitutes 50% or greater of the grist (some versions have 60-65% rye). Remainder of grist can include pale malt, Munich malt, wheat malt, crystal malt and/or small amounts of debittered dark malts for color adjustment.” Nothing against the BJCP, but I’m more inclined to to accept the version of the German Beer Institute since it’s an association of German breweries and related institutions.

So those are the common rye beers, what about using 100% rye? Well, probably the first and foremost reason you never hear about all-rye beers is that it is so difficult to brew with. Rye has no husks, like barley does, and that means it’s extremely difficult to sparge (which is spraying hot water on the spent grain) as without the husks it turns to a thick porridge or concrete.

There was a Irish brewer, Dwan Tipperary Brewing, who closed a few years back, who made a beer called All Rye Beer or All Rye Paddy at least once. But there’s no information as to whether it really used 100% rye malt, apart from that suggestive name. I’ve also come across an account of a homebrewer making an all-rye beer. MoreBeer’s forum also has a topic dedicated to why this is a difficult task.

So perhaps I should change the title to the world’s only currently made commercial example of a 100% rye beer, but it doesn’t sound very sexy that way, now does it? At any rate, Bear Republic Brewing in Healdsburg, California on Friday, debuted what they believe to be the world’s first 100% rye beer. I was on hand to try some of the first keg of their new Easy Ryeder and talk with the brewers about it.

But let’s talk about the beer itself first. It had a dull copper color, slightly hazy, with a decent tan head. The nose was a little restrained, with some bready aromas, a touch of hops and, naturally, some rye character. But it was surprisingly smooth, mild and very drinkable, an easy ryeder indeed. I was surprised to learn it was 5% abv because it seemed more like a session beer to me, and I would have guessed a little lower than that. I thought the rye flavors might overpower the beer, but that’s not the case at all. It is light and refreshing throughout with just enough hop character (at 30 IBUs) for balance. It finishes with just a bit of rye flavor lingering, before dissipating quickly and cleanly. Again, I think my expectations were that if beer with just a fraction of rye tends to give it strong rye flavors and character, that with all rye it would be even more so, but that wasn’t really was not what happened. Instead, they managed to create a unique, ultimately very drinkable beer that in temperament seems closer to a wheat beer, but with the more barley-like flavors of rye.

The beer went through several trials before getting things right. To combat the wort turning to concrete, they had to watch the temperature fluctuations much more closely than usual (no more than 3-5 degrees or it turned to stone), and with bags of rice hulls added to make up for the lack of husks in rye malt. It was, of course, difficult to get the malt to break down and early test batches, if they didn’t become concrete-like, were still very thick and viscous and even hard to remove from the lauter tun at all. Even so, the first test batch that yielded drinkable results was the color of bad gravy, having a dull gray tint to it from all pale rye malt. Apparently it tasted fine, but who among us wants a beer the color of dishwater? Twenty-five pounds of chocolate rye malt was then added to give it the much more appealing color it exhibits today. The hops they used are Chinook and Saaz. It took four tries to get it right, as there really aren’t any manuals for tis kind of beer. Was it worth all that effort? I think so, as the results are quite tasty and in some ways different from anything else I’ve tried. It certainly must have been a learning experience and it’s interesting to see that it is possible on a commercial level to use only rye. It’s quite an achievement, and if you love rye — or just brewing innovation and creativity — you owe it to yourself to get up to Healdsburg to try this new beer.

Bear Republic brewers Rich Norgrove, Jode Yaksic, Peter Kruger and Ray Lindecker. Jode, according to Rich, had the most to do with creating the Easy Ryder, from doing the research, test batches and coming up with the name.

According to Renewable Energy Access, an online newsletter focusing on renewable energy, Sierra Nevada Brewing “has commissioned the first phase of what will be one of the country’s largest private solar installations. This commissioning comes on the heels of the installation of four 250-kilowatt co-generation fuel cell power units, also one of the largest fuel cell installations in the United States.”

They already produce some of their own energy with their 1-MW fuel cell plant. With the addition of this new project, which should be completed some time later this year, they will be close to owner Ken Grossman’s stated “goal of providing 100% of our energy needs with clean on-site alternative energy generation.”

I’m not entirely convinced of their claim of combating global warming, but Anderson Valley Brewing announced that they have begun brewing real ales and have added a beer engine to their tasting room, and that’s certainly good enough news for me.

From the press release:

Anderson Valley Brewing Company (AVBC) proudly added to their award-winning line of handcrafted beers, “Real ale”—a natural ale created in a traditional and environmentally-friendly style. Real ale is a beer that highlights Anderson Valley Brewing Company’s continuing efforts to make high quality beers in an environmentally responsible manner. Real ale is:

• * A truly “organic” ale with only four natural ingredients: malted barely, hops, water and yeast and absolutely no additives.
• * Served at 10-13 C degrees via a human-powered “hand pull” it’s naturally cool, resulting in far less energy being used for cooling.
• * Naturally carbonated through the yeast’s effervescence — no additional carbon dioxide is added.
• * Reducing packaging by using casks which can be reused for up to 20 years.
• * Created using solar power which provides 40% of Anderson Valley Brewing Company’s annual energy needs.

Though Real ale is environmentally responsible, the traditional method of brewcrafting also results in a more robust, stimulating, and fresh taste that can’t be found in traditional brands. Real ale’s unique flavors and aromas are partly due to the process of fermentation.

While a great many breweries remove yeast before the beer reaches the glass, Real ale differentiates itself by retaining the yeast in the container from which the beer is served. Though the yeast settles at the bottom of the cask and isn’t poured into the glass, the yeast is still active in the cask where the process of fermentation continues until ready to serve. Real ale is currently available in Anderson Valley Brewing Company’s visitor’s center.

 
In other Anderson Valley news, they will be having a special event on February 2 to celebrate their 20th Anniversary. And the 12th annual Boonville Beer Festival will take place in 2008 on May 10.