Firestone Walker is releasing their first India Pale Ale under the name Union Jack. It’s a double dry-hopped IPA and will be released today in bottles and on draft. It will be available through California and in parts of Nevada.

From the press release: The technical specifications of Union Jack are 7.5 percent alcohol by volume and 70 IBUs. “Union Jack is an American-style India pale ale that represents a flavorful twist on our British brewing heritage, as well as our singular focus on pale ales,” said Proprietor David Walker. “It also echoes some of the intensity exhibited by our recent limited-edition beers.” The India Pale Ale style originated in 18th century Britain, when brewers learned that loading their beer with extra hops helped it survive the long voyage to the colony. The hops acted as a preservative as a result of their antibacterial and antioxidant properties. Union Jack is double dry hopped, resulting in an intense and complex hop profile that is enhanced by fermentation in the brewery’s Firestone Union oak barrel brewing system. Citrus and apricot aromas anticipate long, fruity flavors that finish with an assertive hop bitterness. Given Matt’s skill as a brewer, I can’t wait to give this a try.

Today is Tomme Arthur’s 34th birthday. Tomme is Director of Brewery Operations for Port Brewing and the Lost Abbey. One of the rising stars of the San Diego brewing scene, Tomme is justly famous for his terrific beers, like his Cuvee de Tomme. Plus, he introduced washoes to the brewing community. Join me in wishing him a happy birthday.

At GABF in 2005. Jeff Bagby, brewer at Pizza Port, Tomme Arthur, and Eric Rose, brewer at Hollister Brewing Co..

Pulling a cork on one of his Lost Abbey beers at last year’s GABF.

Today is Tom Nickel’s birthday, who turns 35 this year. Tom was a brewer at Oggi’s in San Diego and now owns O’Brien’s, one of the best beer bars in San Diego. Happy birthday Tom.

Tom Nickel (third from the left) at OBF with John Harris from Full Sail to his left and Tom’s former girlfriend Becky on his arm. I can’t recall now who the fellow is on the far left.

Tom in the dunk tank to raise money for the brewer’s guild the night before OBF at the brewer’s dinner.

Tom Nickel and me at GABF in 2005.

I was down in San Diego Sunday through Tuesday for a CSBA meeting and finally had a chance to see the new Stone Brewery, along with their World Bistro & Gardens in Escondido on Monday for the very first time. The place is very impressive from top to bottom and seems very well-thought out at every stage. The food was pretty tasty, too, especially the deep-fried garlic mashed potato balls. Yum.

Stone’s gleaming new brewery during our tour by new head brewer Mitch Steele.

Co-owner Greg Koch toasting the end of a great day, in front of his Stone World Bistro & Gardens.

For more photos from my Stone Brewery and the World Bistro & Gardens tour, visit the photo gallery.
 

As I mentioned yesterday, on Sunday I flew down to San Diego for a couple of days to attend a CSBA meeting. My first stop was to visit Tomme Arthur at Port Brewing’s new production facility, which they bought a little over a year ago from Stone Brewing. I wanted to see what they’d done to the place and also sample Tomme’s wonderful beers at the source.

The lobby of the brewery has been fashioned like a ship with portholes looking into their conference room.

The original paintings from the Lost Abbey’s beautiful labels hang behind the tasting bar.

Aging beer in wooden barrels line the brewery and are fit into nooks and crannies throughout.

Tomme’s daughter Sydney, who’s just over a year-old, came to work.

Tomme Arthur and Sydney in front of aging beer destined to be in future bottles of the Lost Abbey.

Brewer Eric Rose’s new brewpub, Hollister Brewing, in Goleta, California (just outside Santa Barbara), got a nice write-up in the L.A. Times today in their food section. Really the piece was about Santa Barbara’s beer scene and included Telegraph Brewing, Island Brewing as well as Firestone Walker (which at one point the Times referred to as Walker Firestone), but Hollister got most of the attention. Also, I discovered Santa Barbara brewers don’t like a lot of hops. That should come as a bit of a shock to Eric Rose, whose IPA in the past has been fairly loaded with the stuff. All kidding aside, it’s nice to see some attention paid to craft beer by the LA Times, which is the fourth largest newspaper in the U.S.

For eight years, Eric Rose was the head brewer at Santa Barbara Brewing. And life was good. But Eric, like many brewers, dreamed of opening his own place one day. That day was Sunday, when his Hollister Brewing opened its doors to the public for the first time.

Situated in a modern strip mall setting in Goleta, a high-tech suburb of Santa Barbara, the new building, brewery and restaurant was built from scratch. I was in Santa Barbara over St. Patrick’s Day weekend (the missus had business that took her there for a long weekend) and hooked up with Eric for my regular column in Ale Street News, the Left Coaster. I’ve always liked Eric’s beers and feel like he often doesn’t get the recognition he deserves, despite winning awards for his Belgian-style beers and hoppy west coast IPAs. Rose is installing a brand-new 10bbl system and will offer twelve of his own beers — all of them organic — in a wide range of styles along with eight guests taps featuring his friends’ beers. After he’s up and running, he also expects to start doing some barrel-aged beers in small quantities.

Also from my Ale Street News column:

His new brewpub, named Hollister Brewing Co. for the street in the Santa Barbara suburb of Goleta where it’s located, will be something of a Gastropub among chain restaurants. They’ll serve reasonably priced upscale food made for all-local ingredients prepared by the former chef from Bouchon, one of the most well-respected local restaurants. The menu will feature eclectic brew food with homemade sauces, specialty pizza and six daily lunch specials to cater to the high-tech industry nearby.

As Rose tells me, “there used to be a time when you had to choose between being green and good taste.” But now that you can have both, he believes more people will make the responsible choice that gives them both great taste and the feeling that they’re doing the right thing, too. Organic beers have truly come of age. So far in the first few days he’s getting some good reviews from locals and the local paper, the Santa Barbara Independent has written favorably about the opening. I’m really looking forward to tasting what Eric will be brewing at his new venture. If you visit Santa Barbara, be sure to stop by his new place and give it a try.

From the Independent article:

Located at the northeast corner of the Camino Real Marketplace in Goleta, the new brewery is replacing Camino Real Café. The three looked at a number of different locations, but decided on the Camino Real Marketplace because of the activity surrounding the area. “It’s a very important part of the Goleta Valley,” Rose said. With traffic being generated by a movie theater, Home Depot, Starbucks, and Borders, the trio envisions the brewery as another option for older college students and researchers to enjoy a nicer beer, as there is nothing of the sort in Goleta. The brewery has “enough TVs to make sports fans happy,” but is low-key enough that it isn’t a sports bar, Rose said.

Hollister Brewer Eric Rose in March.

Harbor Distributing (One of five regional beer distributors owned by beverage giant Reyes Holdings) is one of the largest in Southern California, distributing throughout Los Angeles and all of Orange County. And it just got bigger. I got an anonymous tip today that Harbor bought Gate City Distributing. Effective March 1, Harbor will be taking over the territory previously serviced by Gate City, which includes Riverside and much of the Inland Empire area. Harbor is one of the biggest Miller distributors and also carries several other popular brands such as Coors, Corona, Heineken, Guinness, Labatt’s, Newcastle, and Sierra Nevada. Consolidation is rarely a good thing for the small craft brewers.

I got an e-mail today with the sad news from an old friend, Matt Jamieson, who called on me when I worked as the beer buyer for BevMo. He used to work for Karl Strauss Brewing in San Diego.

Yesterday, Karl Strauss passed away in Milwaukee at age 94. Born in Germany, and a graduate of Weihenstephan, Strauss worked for Pabst for decades before retiring as a vice-president. In 1989, along with cousin Chris Cramer and Matt Rattner, Strauss founded the San Diego microbrewery that bears his name. It was San Diego’s first one and today the company operates a brewery and six brewpubs. The brewery website has a nice tribute up and the San Diego Union-Tribune also has an article about Karl Strauss.              Karl Strauss as a young man.

My good friend, Lucy Saunders, author of the new fantabulous book, Grilling with Beer, will be signing her new book this Saturday, December 16, from 2-4 p.m., at Pizza Port in Carlsbad, California. If you’re in the area, stop by and say hello, buy a book or two or three — they make terrific Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa or Winter Solstice presents — and have some great beers at Pizza Port.

12.16

Grilling with Beer Book Signing
Pizza Port Brewing, 571 Carlsbad Village Drive, Carlsbad, California
760.720.7007 [ website ]
 

I got an e-mail from Tomme Arthur yesterday, letting the cat out of the bag, so to speak, on his Brewer’s Blog. I don’t think he was planning on it being a secret, but it is just getting started. From the few posts there so far, it looks like it should evolve into a fascinating peek into Tomme’s mind and the work and thinking that goes into running a brewery and building a brand. If you love his beers — and you’d be a fool not to — you will undoubtedly enjoy his musings, as well. I’m looking forward to following along.

Although blogging may take time away from his Washoe practice which, as Dave Keene can tell you, he clearly needs (yes, that sound you heard is the gauntlet being thrown down for a rematch).

This is a good trend, I think, of commercial brewers having their own blogs to let their customers behind the curtain to see how the process goes of working at, building or running a brewery. There are now several professional brewers with a brewer’s blog. Below is a list of the ones I know of. If you know of any others, please let me know as I think it’s high time I added a new category of links just for them.
 

Brewer’s Blogs

• Nico Freccia & Shaun O’Sullivan’s The Beer Guys (21st Amendment)
• Tom Baker’s Brewer Confessions (Heavyweight) [Note: may be closed]
• Dave Yarrington’s Brewer’s Notes (Smuttynose)
• Fal Allen’s Brewing in Singapore
• Fred Bueltmann’s Bringing Beer to the People
• Matt Van Wyk & Andrew Mason’s Flossmoor Station Blog
• Stone Brewing’s Greg’s vBlog
• Chad Kennedy’s Laurelwood Live
• Tomme Arthur’s Brewer’s Blog (The Lost Abbey)
• Laurelwood’s New Brewery Project
• All the Brewers at Saint Arnold’s Brewhouse Blog

Beer Chef Bruce Paton’s next beer dinner has been announced, and it should be another great one. This one will feature beers from Port Brewing, including some from the Lost Abbey. Brewmaster Tomme Arthur will be there in person to discuss his beers. It’s another four-course dinner and well worth the $65 price of admission. It will be held at the Cathedral Hill Hotel on Friday, October 20, beginning with a reception at 6:30 p.m. Call 415.674.3406 for reservations. Please make your reservations by October 11.
 

The Menu:

Reception: 6:30 PM

Beer Chef’s Hors D’Oeuvre
Wipeout IPA

Dinner: 7:30 PM

First Course

Duck Pozole Terrine with Citrus Herb Salad

Beer: Red Barn Ale

Second Course:

Roasted Corn Soup with Gulf Prawns and Heirloom Tomato Salsa

Beer: Cuvee de Tomme

Third Course:

Duet of Lamb

Beer: Lost and Found Ale

Fourth Course:

Flourless Chocolate Cake with Chile Ancho

Beer: Angels Share Barrel Aged Barleywine

Two of the beers that will be served at the Port Brewing Beer Dinner.

10.20

Dinner with the Brewmaster: Port Brewing Beer Dinner

Cathedral Hill Hotel, 1101 Van Ness Avenue, San Francisco, California
415.674.3406 [ website ]