Road Brewer

Road Brewer is BACK!

2011-04-10T20:52:00.000-07:00

Yes, the Road Brewer is back, but just a little. I've got a lot of catching up to do with you and no time to do it! This photo was taken on March 27, 2011 (two weeks ago), and I'll explain it below. Catching up... Spent a year (2008-2009) as a beer clerk at Belmont Station, one of the West Coast's premier bottle shops. When I helped folks find a long-lost beer I felt like a beer detective; When I matched folks to a new beer they loved, I felt like a beer matchmaker. It was a fun job and I adored my fellow beer geeks that I worked with. I not only learned a lot about what customers ask for and look for in a beer on the retail side, I added to my mental beer database: After 20 years as a professional beer judge and thus judging beers blind out of plain glassware, I had no mental connection between a beer's label and it's flavor. At Belmont Station, I finally made the connections via my employee discount. Let's just say most paychecks never made it home in anything but liquid form. Then in June 2009 I crossed over to the supply side of the beer business at Country Malt Group (Great Western Malting). I'm sure many brewers make the sign of the cross and pray they'll never have to go over to the "dark side," but I love it! What other job will pay you to visit breweries and talk about beer? After 19 years as a brewmaster, I'd seen every inch of the inside of my brewpub fishbowls. Being the Road Brewer in 2007 whetted my appetite for brewery adventures and meeting brewers all over the country. And brewing on their systems with them. Somehow all my life experiences have lead up to this point. Plus, when I was brewmaster for Steelhead, and in the thick of hiring and training brewers for the new brewpubs we were opening, I got a taste for teaching brewers, and I loved that too. As a supplier of malt and hops to breweries of all sizes, it is the smallest new breweries who need my expertise and help. Since I get a paycheck already, I don't have to charge consulting fees from our customers. I just give them all the free advice they want. My sales job keeps changing and expanding, and the Pink Boots Society (and Barley's Angels) and my wonderful husband keep me very busy when I'm not at work. However, at some point I hope to have time to revive the Road Brewer Project on a more regular basis. I am definitely visiting brewers and breweries, and I'm taking photos. I just haven't had time to write about them. In the meantime, I hope to toss you a big bone once in a while. For example, right after the Craft Brewers Conference which was held in March in San Francisco, I had the opportunity to brew at Triple Rock as a Guest Brewer. 21 years ago I quit my job as Head Brewer at Triple Rock to go to Steelhead Brewing Company. This year is Triple Rock's 25th anniversary. I was the 2nd Head Brewer in 1989-1990, and the third person to be in charge of operations. Co-owner John Martin had the brilliant idea to invite all of Triple Rock's head brewers back as guest brewers. Current Head Brewer Rodger Davis and I corresponded via email, and Rodger basically allowed me to write a recipe for any beer I wanted. I thought about reviving an old Triple Rock recipe, but decided it would be more fun to stretch my envelope-pushing muscles. So I designed a beer that I believe had not been brewed before: Porcini Porter. Triple Rock's Blog: http://triplerock.com/?page_id=12. My photos from Porcini Porter brew day http://photobucket.com/Triple-Rock-3-27-11. The beer was designed to be malty, but it ended up with lower gravity and therefore much drier than desired. Nevertheless, because I only hopped the beer to 45 IBU, I am hoping that it is still a balanced beer with yummy earthy mushroom character. Since this beer was brewed two weeks ago, it should go on tap at Triple Rock this week. You can call Triple Rock and ask if it is on tap yet: 510-843-2739. So cheers! I'm back. Not often, but if I am lucky enough to find time to guest brew, I will try to post here. Thanks for tuning in! Folks in the Photos top-to-bottom: Teri, Rodger Davis, Todd Ashman, Reid Martin, John Martin.

It's A Wrap

2008-04-06T03:57:00.000-07:00

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." ~Mark Twain

If you're just discovering this blog for the first time, keep in mind that blogs are listed chronologically from bottom to top on each page. If you want to read my roadtrip adventures in order, and you only want to read about the trip and none of the pre-trip plannning, then click on June in the right column, and start reading at the bottom of the page. (There are 29 posts for June, so it's a long page!) Then go on to July, and so on down the list of months.

If you've followed my progress across 12,656 miles traversing the United States and back; if you've vicariously brewed with me at 38 breweries, and visited an additional 33 with me; if you've camped with me in a brewery parking lot next to railroad tracks in Berkeley and inside a beer warehouse in Brooklyn; if you've fought the trailer as it fishtailed on a windy highway and been thankful for a cold beer at the end of the day; then you have taken this trip with me in your imagination.

Thank you for joining me on the journey.

When I began my trip in June, I thought I was leaving on a three-month trip, not a five-month trip. I didn't actually realize how big our nation is, as I had never driven across it before. I was both excited and nervous, knowing I would be driving alone. I felt trepidation at leaving my beloved husband behind, even knowing I had his blessings.

What! Was I nuts?

Maybe I was inspired. I knew the trip would demand my best and would require all the organization and determination I could muster. I had high hopes that I would find the discipline necessary to keep this blog going as long as possible.

You gave me feedback. You loved reading my adventures. You kept me going on the blog, as I felt a responsibility to finish so you would know the entire story. That's better than I had ever done with a trip journal or diary. Previously, once I got home, life resumed and I never finished writing about the last few days of a trip. Somehow your support encouraged me, or at least I felt an obligation to you, my faithful readers.

Now it's your turn. Take the torch and drive with it, as far as you can afford to go. Map out your own road trip. Make your connections, put on your "big boots," and go.

And try to write, so we can enjoy the journey too!

Yours truly,

Teri Fahrendorf
Portland, Oregon

P.S. If you are looking for my website, the link is www.terifahrendorf.com.

Trip Statistics

2008-04-03T23:34:00.000-07:00

“Give me a woman who loves beer and I will conquer the world." ~Kaiser Wilhelm

The watercolor painting at left is one I painted in 1996. The same holds true today – everybody wants beer made with love.

Home safe and sound! Thank you to everyone!

After 19 years as a professional brewer and 17 years as Steelhead's Brewmaster, I quit my job to embark on this 5-month, 13,000 mile road trip of brewing adventure and beer exploration. From Eugene, Oregon to Maine and back in 139 days. (I went the long way - see map at upper right.)

Road Brewer 2007 Trip by the Numbers:
In ascending order...

Number of Accidents: 0
Number of Canadian Provences driven through: 1
Number of countries driven through: 2
Number of miles per gas & auto expense dollar: 2.6
Number of weeks of conjugal visits with husband: 5
Number of miles per gallon: 8.4
Number of pounds gained: 11
Number of women brewers I visited at their brewery: 12
Number of weeks on the road: 20
Number of women brewers and former women brewers I either visited on trip or saw at the GABF: 26
Number of US states driven through: 30
Number of short brewery visits: 33
Number of breweries brew-with or job-shadow: 38
Number of gas tank fills: 68
Number of breweries visited or brewed with, total: 71
Number of days on the road: 139
Number of posts from beginning to end of this blog: 151
Number of business cards handed out: 1,050
Number of gallons of gas: 1,504
Number of dollars spent on gas only: 3,950
Number of dollars spent on gas & auto/trailer expense: 4,787
Number of miles: 12,656
See below for gas & road expense details.

Starting Odometer: 116312
Ending Odometer: 128968
Total Miles: 12,656

Listing of Gas & Road Expenses:
6/04/07 - Departed Eugene with full tank
6/05/07 - $280.00 - Van Rear Shocks
6/06/07 - $75.00 - Gas
6/07/07 - $74.41 - Gas
6/09/07 - $39.75 - Gas
6/10/07 - $ 6.00 - Bridge Toll
6/12/07 - $66.12 - Gas
6/14/07 - $72.12 - Gas
6/17/07 - $66.90 - Gas
6/17/07 - $62.86 - Gas
6/19/07 - $64.60 - Gas
6/20/07 - $42.19 - Gas
6/20/07 - $64.35 - Gas
6/22/07 - $59.23 - Gas
6/22/07 - $67.72 - Gas
6/24/07 - $34.93 - Gas
6/27/07 - $35.99 - Oil Change
6/27/07 - $47.83 - Gas
6/28/07 - $34.86 - Gas
6/28/07 - $51.13 - Gas
6/29/07 - $72.61 - Gas
6/29/07 - $66.27 - Gas
6/30/07 - $65.55 - Gas
6/30/07 - $59.19 - Gas
7/01/07 - $79.17 - Gas
7/03/07 - $64.52 - Gas
7/07/07 - $54.90 - Gas
7/10/07 - $66.24 - Gas
7/14/07 - $53.11 - Taller hitch stinger & side-view trailer mirror
7/18/07 - $76.17 - Gas
7/20/07 - $ 4.98 - Motor Oil
7/18-22 - $16.45 - Illinois Highway Tolls
7/22/07 - $40.44 - Gas
7/24/07 - $73.75 - Gas
7/27/07 - $44.32 - Gas
7/29/07 - $ 6.50 - Toll Bridge to Canada
7/29/07 - $78.02 - Gas
7/30/07 - $62.23 - Gas
7/30-31 - $11.45 - NY Highway Tolls
7/31/07 - $66.30 - Gas
8/02/07 - $46.79 - Gas
8/17/07 - $63.66 - Gas
8/17/07 - $50.00 - (Gas sponsored by Magic Hat)
8/17/07 - $31.95 - Gas
8/21/07 - $19.88 - Oil Change
8/21/07 - $83.99 - Transmission Fluid Change
8/21/07 - $15.00 - Propane tank refill
8/21/07 - $ 2.71 - Trailer tail lights
8/21/07 - $60.84 - Gas
8/21/07 - $43.01 - Gas
8/21/07 - $ 6.95 - ME and NH Turnpike Tolls
8/22/07 - $25.00 - (Gas sponsored by Magic Hat)
8/23/07 - $ 5.00 - Parking in Portland, ME
8/25/07 - $65.91 - Gas
8/22-25 - $ 7.10 - ME Turnpike Tolls
8/22-28 - $ 2.00 - NH Turnpike Tolls
8/30/07 - $61.52 - Gas
9/01/07 - $25.00 - (Gas sponsored by Magic Hat)
9/01/07 - $ 1.45 - MA Turnpike Tolls
9/01/07 - $39.86 - Gas
9/04/07 - $90.00 - Ferry from CT to Long Island, NY
9/08/07 - $ 7.00 - Subway from Brooklyn to Manhattan, NY
9/08/07 - $ 8.50 - NY Turnpike Tolls
9/10/07 - $20.00 - Gas
9/10/07 - $45.00 - Gas
9/10-14 - $ 8.35 - NJ Turnpike Tolls
9/12/07 - $64.20 - Replace 400 Watt 12-Volt Inverter
9/12-14 - $14.50 - PA Turnpike Tolls
9/14/07 - $55.32 - Gas
9/16/07 - $4.50 - Delware Memorial Bridge Toll
9/16-18 - $8.00 - DE Turnpike Tolls
9/18/07 - $54.86 - Gas
9/20/07 - $7.75 - PA Turnpike Tolls
9/20/07 - $57.56 - Gas
9/20/07 - $67.90 - Gas
9/20/07 - $64.04 - Gas
9/23/07 - $47.48 - Gas
9/24/07 - $15.00 - Propane Tank Refill
9/24/07 - $60.26 - Gas
9/25/07 - $55.55 - Gas
9/28/07 - $4.00 - RV wastewater tank dump fee
9/28/07 - $10.50 - KS Turnpike Tolls
9/28/07 - $56.78 - Gas
9/28/07 - $66.86 - Gas
10/01/07 - $46.01 - Gas
10/01/07 - $61.82 - Gas
10/02/07 - $53.47 - Gas
10/02/07 - $70.28 - Gas
10/04/07 - $35.99 - Oil Change
10/05/07 - $52.63 - Gas
10/15/07 - $53.79 - Gas
10/15/07 - $39.68 - Gas
10/15/07 - $31.50 - Gas
10/15/07 - $43.24 - Gas
10/16/07 - $45.70 - Gas
10/16/07 - $34.24 - Gas
10/17/07 - $32.35 - Gas
10/17/07 - $63.22 - Gas
10/18/07 - $58.00 - Gas
10/18/07 - $64.50 - Gas
10/18/07 - $33.00 - Gas
10/20/07 - $42.50 - Gas

Miles driven: 12,656
Gallons of gas: 1,504.266
Gas expense: $3,950.31
Other auto/trailer expense: $836.86
Gas & auto/trailer expense combined: $4,787.17

About 2.6 miles per gas & auto expense dollar
About 8.4 miles per gallon

Additional Costs Not Accounted For Above:
1. Muscle tone.
2. Strength.
3. Stamina.
4. Strong Joints.

Why? I was a van-potato when driving, and a blog-potato the rest of the time. I'm making up for it on the rowing machine now that I'm home.

Just thought you should know the whole truth about the costs of a nearly 5-month road trip like this!

Arrive Home in Eugene, Oregon!

2007-11-03T18:43:00.000-07:00

"The discovery of a new dish does more for human happiness than the discovery of a new star." ~Anthelme Brillat-Savarin

October 20: Jon worked this morning, so I occupied myself at the BrewCraft apartment that he and the visiting out-of-town managers shared. BrewCraft USA has a huge reference library and two of the cheese books from it were sitting on the coffee table. I've been curious about cheese making for some time.

Sounds funny considering I am allergic to cheese. (Makes me feel bad but doesn't kill me.) Jon is a great cheese taster, and I can have just that - tastes. What can I say? I love fermenting stuff and cheese is fermented too.

I became entirely engrossed in this book, "Home Cheese Making," by Ricki Carroll (right). I devoured it sitting in my pajamas on the sofa. What else was there to do in a hotel-ish apartment with no TV when it's raining and my van and trailer are over at BrewCraft?

I'm from Wisconsin and I'm definitely making cheese curds soon. No recipe specifically for cheese curds in this book, but I emailed Ricki's staff and I've got a recipe now. I'll be chronicling my cheesey (and other delectables) adventures in my e-newsletter, so if you want the scoop, please sign up for the newsletter.

Note: The first Road Brewer Ramblings went out on November 2nd. If you missed it and want a copy, be sure to sign up for the newsletter, and then email me that you want me to send the first one that you missed. (teri @ roadbrewer . com)

Jon returned at 2:00 pm. We went to the Old Country Sausage Company, (German deli with homemade sausages) for sausages and Franziskaner Hefe Weisse for lunch. Both sausages and bier were great. We got some of their Black Forest Ham to take home. It was excellent and rather dry, more like a prosciutto than our watered-down American ham.

We drove around the NE quadrant of Portland so that we could figure out what neighborhoods we liked. We want to live within easy commute distance for Jon, but not too far away from downtown where my job might be. We liked the Alberta District and Beaumont Village. As we drove around we noticed zero "For Rent" signs. Jon commented that maybe it's illegal to put them up. We found out that Portland is such a tight rental market now, that there are almost no rentals. Here's a link to the Portland Oregonian article on the rental market.

Drove home in a drizzle. I thought it appropriate to end my trip following Jon home in the rain, as he had followed me to Bend in the rain. Bend was the first stop on my trip. Once again I had plenty of "head time" as the radio was broken and it's a two hour drive from Portland. I reflected on now that my trip was ending, my summer vacation as the Road Brewer was also ending.

Being the Road Brewer was such an awesome rush. The sun was always shining and I was some sort of odyssey-roving female brewing quasi-superhero in an adventure story. (Okay the sun was always shining because it was summer.)

But something is different from when I was on my 5-month road trip. In Oregon I'm just another Oregon brewer. Nobody here will think of me as the Road Brewer first. Here I'm just ordinary Teri, formerly of Steelhead. And what's with those pink boots? She never used to wear those!

We got home at dusk and immediately invited our favorite former neighbors, George and Alice, over for Sunday dinner. I hadn't cooked in awhile so I was into the idea, in spite of just walking through the door. I started a loaf of bread dough to rise overnight, and was happy to sleep in my own bed. See website for final numbers and statistics from the trip.

On Sunday morning we quickly unloaded both the van and the trailer as Jon's plan was to drive both back to Portland after dinner Sunday night. We live on a narrow alley and there's no room here for Big Buddy at all. Everything in the van and trailer got chucked in the garage, just piled up on Jon's desk. (See photo at top of page.)

Now, while we were all off enjoying the road trip (you vicariously), Jon switched jobs, started his new job two hours away on September 10th, and found some friends in Eugene that needed a place to live.

When I was home briefly in August, the house was as I'd left it: our home on one side of the duplex, and our offices and a graduate student studying for her masters degree on the other side. (Chelsea is a friend of Jon's mother and is from Jon's home town in Michigan.)

Our other friends and their baby needed a place to rent while their new house is being built.

Thus Jon moved both our offices, our second "project" kitchen (hey if you live on both sides of a duplex, you use both kitchens), 1.5 bathrooms of stuff, all the stuff in that garage, and about a million books over to our side of the duplex. Then our friends and their baby moved into that side.

Lest you think these are large duplexes, this side (the bigger side) is 890 square feet. Jon did a good job of jamming it all in.

Unfortunately there's no place for me to unpack. Until we move to Portland, I am camping at home more than I was when I was on the road. Everything in the house has been rearranged (in order to jam it all in) so I don't know where anything is. Just found some CDs the other day, so for the first time since Denver I have music.

The photo above left is from a small room off the garage. You don't want to see our living space as it's a bit cramped, but I'll describe it. Our small living-dining room now contains two desks (one for the graduate student), a sofa and loveseat, a 36-inch dining room table, four bookcases, a coffee table, four chairs and three rocking chairs. There's not much room to walk and I use the kitchen table for my laptop office.

Now you're thinking we were nuts for inviting our old neighbors over for dinner. At dinner Jon sat at the kitchen counter and George sat on the loveseat which was pushed up to the table. He and Alice don't mind because they know the food and the company will be good. I served fresh bread hot out of the oven, rosemary roasted potatoes (three kinds of potatoes from Idaho brewer Penny Pink's garden), lemon-grapefruit-garlic chicken thighs slow-cooked in the crock pot, and marzipan cake from the German deli for dessert.

After dinner Jon departed for Portland. He took the van but managed to find a business down the street that let him park Big Buddy in their gated lot for a month.

On Monday I faced our crowded house alone after our graduate student left for class. The reality check was this: a small desk in our bedroom covered in bills. Jon paid the bills while I was gone, but it is my job to double check his payment and file the bills into tax-appropriate folders. (Photo at right.)

First you're a sun-shiny superhero, then you're a bill filer.

Thank you for joining me on the journey!

A Visit to BrewCraft USA

2007-11-03T18:04:00.000-07:00

"Every man has his gift, and the tools go to him that can use them." ~Charles Kingsley

October 19: Today I spent the day at BrewCraft USA. My husband Jon Graber is the new Operations Manager here. They just moved into a new warehouse near the Portland airport. BrewCraft sells home brewing, winemaking and distilling equipment, ingredients and supplies to homebrew shops all over the country. Above is a photo of Jon standing with some pallets of goodies about to be shipped out.

And let me tell you about the goodies! What a fun place to walk around. It feels like a football stadium full of tall stacks of all the goodies you could want.

Canned grape juice and extracts from all the grape-growing regions of the world for winemaking. Sacks of malted barley, hops and yeast in the cooler for beer making.

Plus little bottles of interesting extracts for making homemade liqueurs for Christmas gifts. Corks, crowns, corkers, crowners, foil cork covers, labels, books and equipment such as grape crushers, malt mills, "water purification" stills, and carboys of all sizes including squat carboys in plastic baskets for winemaking.

Jon's office is in the front of the building, but sometimes he needs to get paperwork to the warehouse guys in the back. (He actually works all over the building.) He found a little bike at Goodwill to speed across the warehouse to take care of business. He can put paperwork or small parts in the basket. I told him he needs silk hop vines to decorate the basket and he agreed.

I spent most of the day looking up rental companies online and checking Craig's List for house rentals. I couldn't update my blog because all my photos are on my laptop and I couldn't plug into BrewCraft's secure network.

I did unload the beer that I've been collecting on my trip. I separated out one bottle of everything to share with Jon once we move to Portland. That makes up about 2/3 of this stash.

Somehow I managed to fit all 14 of these cases shown at right either under one bench seat or under the trailer's table. I collected them from whichever among the 71 breweries I visited that was able or willing to share with me.

I couldn't put any beer in the van because the van got too hot. The trailer stayed a lot cooler because of the vent on top and the high ceiling (compared to a Chevy Astro Van).

About 1/3 of this beer is made up of mix-and-matched six-packs for my continuing brewery visits. I've been dropping off a mixed-six pack at each of my stops. The craft breweries gifted me bottled beer to go so I could spread the wealth, and the brewpubs bought me meals. It's been a very special trip!

I also unloaded the Stranahan Whiskey barrel. We put it in a corner of BrewCraft's warehouse. No sense bringing it home to Eugene just to move it back. Jon plans to enlist Wyeast to brew a Porter into it, in exchange for getting some of the whiskey-aged Porter back. Sounds like a win-win to me.

Tomorrow I will finally be home from my trip: 139 days!

Drive: Baker City, OR to Portland, OR

2007-10-30T09:42:00.000-07:00

"We are made to persist. That's how we find out who we are." ~Tobias Wolff

October 18: Tyler made me a cup of tea and we sat in his kitchen and chatted beer. Being able to relax with other brewers and talk shop has been one of the many highlights of my trip. We checked the weather reports on the Internet often as the segment of Highway 84 between La Grand and Pendleton, Oregon, would be one of my toughest driving segments of the trip. Winter has arrived just as my summer vacation is drawing to a close.

There was snow on the side of the highway, and heavy winds plus rain and sleet. Just what I expected. Once I was past Pendleton I could relax a little.

The terrain is more varied here than it has been for most of the drive since I left Denver. I've been putting lots of miles on the van as you can see by the number of gas fills on the trip totals list on my website. At this point I am definitely like the horse that smells the barn at the end of the day and wants to go home.

In the photo at left, you can see a big logging truck moving toward me as my windshield wipers go. Yup, back in Oregon!

A little past Pendleton and Highway 84 hugs the south bank of the mighty Columbia River. In ancient times during the ice age, a glacier blocked the river upstream until a huge lake grew behind the ice dam. When the ice dam broke, such a huge serge of water flowed through the river's original small channel that it carved out the Columbia River Gorge. You can see one of the bluffs on the Oregon side of the river in the photo at right.

Yes I took these photos while driving down the highway. I felt my journey drawing toward a conclusion and I wanted to document some of what I saw from the road.

I arrived at Jon's work, Brewcraft USA at the end of the work day, one day earlier than originally planned. I had a lot of long driving days this week, but I was really ready to get back and see Jon.

BrewCraft USA bought F.H. Steinbarts Wholesale a few years ago, then sold the brewery wholesale side to Brewer Supply Group. Now BrewCraft just wholesales to homebrew shops.

BrewCraft just moved into a new warehouse in August, and a floating manager from out of town, Ginny, has been there to help with the transition. Ginny's husband, Rob, was visiting so Ginny, Rob and Jon & I went to the McMennamin's Edgefield complex for dinner at the Black Rabbit Restaurant.

If you've never been to a McMennamin's establishment, you're in for a visual treat. The McMennamin brothers employ a whole cadre of artists to embellish to their hearts content. As we waited to be seated, I glanced up and noticed this sprite peering down at me from a water pipe elbow up near the ceiling. If you go there and want to see it, stand at the entrance to the Black Rabbit Restaurant, turn around and look back down the hallway and look up to your right.

Rob was quite impressed with Edgefield as most visitors are. I often describe it as "Disneyland for Beer Drinkers." Not only is it visually strange and fantastic, there's also a brewery, a winery and a distillery on site, a movie theatre where you can sip beer while you watch, and many small and unique pubs, taverns, cafes and restaurants, so you can take your pick of where you want to imbibe.

Then it was back to the apartment that Jon has been staying in since he started his new job. We left Big Buddy and the Astro Van parked at BrewCraft tonight.

A Visit to Barley Brown's Brewpub

2007-10-29T21:08:00.000-07:00

"The only true happiness comes from squandering ourselves for a purpose." ~William Cowper

October 17: Slept in till 9:00 or so. Penny made me tea and toast while I took a shower. She gifted me a cute little basket of homegrown potatoes from her garden including a mutant russet with three appendages. It was cold, windy and wet out, but we ran out to the brewery equipment boneyard in her driveway so I could assess the equipment that came with her new 4-bbl unitank fermenters.

Idaho has more Mormons per capita than Utah, and Penny said having a 12-foot or so tall copper combi-tank in her driveway had worked well to keep her neighborhood relatively beer-friendly.

The "combi" tank was bizzare. The top half was 2/3 liquor back and 1/3 mash tun. (Divided like pie pieces.) The bottom half was the kettle. I'm not sure how you could add hops, since you couldn't open the side-manway on the kettle without dumping boiling wort all over yourself. It's a steam system and Penny currently doesn't run steam. I wasn't too sure about that piece. I asked Penny if she could crane it into place on her brewery roof and shine spotlights on it so folks would see it like a beacon from the freeway.

The heat exchanger and small plate-and-frame filter showed much more promise. I recommended getting the heat exchanger cleaned and set up first so she could reduce her lengthy brew day by two more hours.

Then I took off west toward Oregon. A lot of southern Idaho is relatively flat, but the section of Idaho and Oregon between Boise and Baker City has huge rolling hills. I drove beneath the storm clouds and Oregon loomed sunny in the distance.

This part of Highway 84 is famous for wild horses. Most of them are dark brown with black mane and tail, and those are the wild horses I've seen before. I saw two mottled lighter colored horses among the dark ones today.

You can usually tell the wild horses because they stand together, often head-to-tail, as if they are looking out for cougar or other predators. Tame horses usually graze alone, either unaware or unconcerned about predators that may be lurking. I saw what looked like several wild herds on my drive today.

Ah, Oregon! The sun shines brighter, the air smells fresher, the music swells... Okay, no music since Colorado as Jon broke my radio antenna while trying to fix it. However, the point is that Oregon is awesome and I was so happy to cross the state line and see cars and trucks with Oregon license plates again. Although now I'm not so special, am I? Since I have Oregon plates too.

Cell service has been mostly non-existent since I left Denver, so luckily for my GPS system, I knew right where to go. I pulled into a vacant store's lot a street back from Barley Brown's, and went to put on a bit of makeup in the trailer.

As I locked the trailer, Barley Brown's Owner, Tyler Brown, walked up with a big smile on his face. He said it would be best to move Big Buddy to his house, so he rode with me the mile it took to drive there. I got a full tour of Tyler's house. Then we walked back to the brewpub.

Barley Brown's has been open for about seven years and Tyler remembers my first visit back then, because I was the first brewer to come and visit him. Baker City is a long way from most Oregon cities. In fact the nearest large airport is in Boise, Idaho. A lot of Oregon brewers didn't realize that Baker City had a brewery for a long time. It didn't help that the Oregon Brewers Guild, of which Barley Brown's is a member, put their "blow-up" map of Portland right over the eastern part of the Oregon map, effectively covering up Baker City and literally knocking Barley Brown's right off the map.

Tyler's parents used to run a Mexican restaurant at this location, but when a real Mexican family came to town and opened a restaurant, that was it for the Browns' Mexican place. Tyler still serves the old Chicken Fajitas recipe, and in fact the Mexican family comes in and orders it almost every Sunday, telling Tyler, "Your chicken fajitas are better than ours."

When the family's Mexican restaurant went under, Tyler, a homebrewer, convinced his parents to sell him the restaurant so he could open a brewpub. He contacted tank manufacturers, but JV Northwest wouldn't even give him a quote, saying, "Baker City is too small. You'll never make it."

That spooked Tyler enough to downgrade his equipment expectations from a 7-bbl system to a 4-bbl system. Elliot Bay manufactured the brewing equipment, and Tyler has proven he's no flash in the pan. He's limited by his small equipment now, and wishes he'd followed through on his original intention to buy a 7-barrel system. He's got a lot of fans in Boise and the distributors there want his beer. I told him, "If you upgrade, I'm pretty sure Penny Pink would be interested in your brewhouse."

It's been fun for me to connect people throughout my trip. Several people have told me that what I am doing is cross-pollinating the industry. The funny thing is that "Teresa," my given name (Teri is short for Teresa) is Greek for "Little Harvester," and somebody once told me that the little harvester is a bee. So I'm a bee, cross-pollinating the brewing industry. I like that!

Tyler keeps the business in perspective to his family life by only opening for dinner. Barley Brown's hours are 4:00-10:00 pm. Having one shift makes the busy restaurant easier to manage.

Tyler's brewer, Shawn Kelso, has a day job across the street at the paint store, so pretty much everybody works nights here. Shawn was in the middle of his work "night" and joined us for photos and beers. At the top of this page, Shawn (L) and Tyler (R) stand in front of the blue tape wall.

Because a lot of the brewery photos for this blog have been taken with everybody lining up on the brewhouse steps, I thought it would be funny if Tyler and Shawn lined up on their brewhouse steps too. As you can see in the photo at right, they only have two steps! The mash tun is in front of them, and the kettle is behind them. You can see the second wall of blue tape behind them.

What are those stripes of blue tape? See photo below left for a close up. At the beginning when Tyler was both brewing and running the restaurant, he wanted to keep track of each beer and which tank it was in. So he wrote the beer name, the date, and the starting gravity on a piece of blue tape and stuck it on the fermenter.

When Tyler transferred the beer to the bright tank, he moved the piece of blue tape too. Once the beer had been kegged off, Tyler wanted to make sure that he wouldn't forget to pay excise taxes, a new experience for a restaurateur, so he stuck the blue tape on the wall. Now there are two walls with blue tape labels on them.

Here is an example if you are trying to read the labels above: the 4th label down on the right is TURMOIL beer, brewed in 2004 and was batch number 246. It happened to be test batch #2 of that beer, and had a starting gravity of 1.066.

Barley Brown's doesn't filter its beers, but they've won a lot of fans. I especially liked their Whiskey Brown Ale, which is made with rye malt and Bamberg rauch malt. Even Paul Shipman of Redhook stopped in and tried the beers. Tyler recalls Paul saying, "I'm going to call my overpaid Brewmaster in Seattle and tell him that a little brewer in 'Podunk' Oregon is kicking his ass." That cracked me up!

One of the signature items on Tyler's food menu is the Mad Pasta. I tried it seven years ago when I visited. It's a curly pasta with chicken and alligator smothered in spicy marinara sauce. You read that right, Alligator. You're wondering where a restaurant in eastern Oregon would source alligator meat? Tyler tells an interesting story about that.

There are natural geothermal springs that feed a few creeks in Idaho. The water is so warm that they farm-raise trout there and the trout grow super fast. Unfortunately the trout create a lot of refuse, so somebody came up with the bright idea that alligators could live in the warm water.

So they put alligators in the geothermal creeks to eat the trout refuse. The idea was to sell the alligator skin for leather goods. The meat is a small byproduct. So, Tyler is buying farm-raised alligator meat from Idaho for $14.99 a pound wholesale. And his customers love it. (I tried it -it has the texture of chicken with a fishy flavor.)

Since I'd already tried the Mad Pasta before, I had the Chicken Fajitas tonight. They were good. After a full round of beers and a full tour of the brewery, Tyler gave me a lift back to his house.

I planned to sleep in my trailer because they have a dog and I'm semi-allergic, but it was so dang cold out I was certain my battery would go dead in the night (and therefore my mattress pad heater) and that I'd move inside anyway. Therefore I slept in the spacious basement guest room that Tyler offered me. He said their old dog never went down there anyway.

Pink Boots at Uinta and at Portneuf Valley

2007-10-26T17:45:00.000-07:00

"Hide not your talents; they for use were made. What use is a sundial in the shade?" ~Benjamin Franklin

October 16: Today was an insanely long day. Lots of things contributed to that. One was that my one day delay out of Denver meant I could only spend two hours at Uinta. Another was that today was the only day that Penny Pink would be brewing at Portneuf Valley Brewery and she wanted me to help her troubleshoot beer flavors that might be attributed to production and equipment changes. Another thing was that I really wanted to get home to see my honey.

I met Uinta's President/Sales & Operations Manager/Owner-Partner Steve Kuftinec at 8:30 am. Steve gave me a tour and I commented that Uinta had one of the best laid-out brewery buildings that I had seen. The production process went counter-clockwise and everything was completely logical. Steve told me that the building had been purpose-built for Uinta.

When Uinta opened their current location they only planned to have a tasting room. However, the first day the taproom opened, 40 people showed up at the door expecting a brewpub and wanting to order lunch. How can you say "no" to that kind of business? Uinta quickly installed a kitchen and now they are open for soup and sandwichs for lunch and early dinner.

Steve showed me the brewery offices upstairs and commented that CEO Will Hamill was the mastermind/genius that helped build Uinta from the new kid on the block to its current place as the largest craft brewery in Utah.

Steve introduced me to Cellarman/Lab QC guy Eric Baumann who was in the middle of a DE filter, Production Manager Kevin Ely who was busy planning the brew schedule, and Russ Webster. I'm not sure who has the title, "Brewmaster," but I think Kevin has it.

Steve told me that brewer James Smith was looking forward to my visit. I loved the title on his business card. It said, "James Smith, Passionate Brewer." I brewed with James briefly, then we sat in a quiet office where he could keep an eye on the brewhouse through the window and we talked shop for awhile.

James still homebrews because Uinta is a production brewery and not a brewpub so there's not much room for experimentation at work. He's got some beer in a wooden barrel at home and he wants to do more barrel aging. I told him about the crazy-fascinating lactic and brettanomyces beers I've tasted on my trip, and we talked about whiskey distilling, which James is also interested in.

The interesting thing about James' passions, is that he was raised Mormon. He said his mom had a little trouble with the brewing at first. She asked him, "You don't drink much, do you honey?" James said some Mormons didn't like that he was a brewers, and others thought it was interesting. All levels of reactions, just like the rest of life.

I really had a great time with James and wished I could have stayed longer, but duty and the road were calling me. Steve gifted me a mixed six-pack on my way out the door. In the photo at the top of this page, L to R (zigzagging up and down): Teri, James, Eric, Kevin, Will and Russ. Steve took the photo rather than be in it. He claimed he had "a face made for radio."

I took the photo at left of some autumn-tinged aspen trees in Idaho as I zipped up Hwy 15. Utah had lots of mesas, which are flat lopped-off high areas in the high desert.

I drove nearly straight north to Pocatello, Idaho. Penny Pink is the Brewmistress and Owner of Portneuf Valley Brewing Company there.

In the photo below, Penny and I are standing in front of her three-vessel brewhouse and one of her 2-barrel fermenters. Penny prefers the title Brewmistress over Brewmaster. She says it's just one more thing to "throw 'em off guard," along with her name (Pink) and height (taller than me). If you've read her entertaining posts on the Brewers Forum, then you know how funny she is.

Penny must be one stubborn woman. She just won't quit no matter how hard it gets. (That sense of humor comes in handy here.)

She's got the smallest commercial brewing system that I visited on this trip. Her batch size is 2 to 4 barrels, depending on the fermenter, and it takes her about 11 hours to brew it. That amount of time was just recently lowered from 14 hours by an equipment upgrade.

I had plenty of time while driving to ponder how brewing could take that long, and I couldn't quite figure it out. As I watched Penny's wort take about three hours to get to a boil, and then take about three hours to cool down and run off to the fermenter. Ah ha. I see now. If you are fighting your equipment, you could be in for a verrryyy looonnnnggggg day.

We discussed various things Penny could try. I checked emails during the run-off. (Maybe we should call it the walk-off because it took so long!) Finally the day was done, about 11:00 pm, and we sat down with Penny's son, Jeremias. (Not a typo. It's an old fashioned spelling for Jeremiah.) Jeremias is Portneuf Valley Brewing's art director, and his t-shirt designs are very popular.

We went through every single beer. I was so tired I had a hard time articulating my impressions.

I followed Penny to her house and parked in front. I told her I planned to sleep in a little tomorrow.

Drive to Salt Lake City, UT

2007-10-26T17:26:00.000-07:00

"It is a mistake to try to look too far ahead. The chain of destiny can only be grasped one link at a time." ~Sir Winston Churchill

October 16: A very long driving day. It took me almost 11 hours to drive from Denver to Salt Lake City. It was uphill to Cheyenne, Wyoming. Then west across a snow-covered high desert landscape. Freakin' cold out there. Winter is here!

The sun was shining but the fresh snow proved that I made the right choice to not drive yesterday. The sun was definitely not shining up here yesterday. I took the above photo at a rest stop along some continental divide (those things are everywhere in the Rockies). Big Buddy and the Astro Van (my 28.5 foot "rig") look like toys next to that semi-truck.

Hwy 80 across Wyoming is long and boring and windy. I was surprised at the severe lack of windmills. I snapped the photo above either before or after Salt Lake City. I thought Wyoming needed more of these things.

Pulled into Unita Brewing Company's parking lot at 7:40 pm, just after the restaurant staff had gone home for the day. It was dark and Unita was in an industrial neighborhood. Luckily I had the turkey and roast beef on rye sandwich that my sister made for me. I had it for dinner with a juice box. Fine dining in Big Buddy!

Visit Family in Denver

2007-10-26T13:22:00.000-07:00

"I would rather have a mind opened by wonder than one closed by belief." ~Gerry Spence

October 15: If you thought I was stalling on finishing the blog because I didn't want my amazing summer road trip to end, you'd be right. I am already in the thick of whatever is constituting real life for me now, so on with the story...

I had planned to drive from Denver to Salt Lake City on October 15th, but the cold and rain in Denver foretold a winter storm in the Rocky Mountains, thus my departure was delayed by one day.

In the meantime, I am lucky to have my sister in Denver, so I stayed with her and her family. In the photo above, Dad (Jan) takes Jake (L) and Max (R) and Ginger (only nose is showing) to City Park to play soccer.

It's hard to capture a decent photo with two boys and a dog playing buckets with a soccer ball in the rain, but I did capture a moment of goofy boyhood bliss (right).

I stayed out of the cold and wet for the most part, and was able to chronicle my GABF adventures, of which there were many. Laundry and homework were also done.

Heidi made a stunning yet healthy homecooked dinner, as is her habit. The boys fished any remaining games they hadn't played out of my game bin and we played Quoridor. I slept in the trailer so we didn't have to blow up the big airbed and make it again.

Thank you to Heidi for gifting me $50 for gas!

Pink Boots at the Great American Beer Festival

2007-10-14T17:39:00.000-07:00

"Never discourage anyone who continually makes progress, no matter how slow." ~Plato

Photo above, L to R: Carol Stoudt (Stout's), Jenny Talley (Squatter's), Natalie Cilurzo (Russian River) and Teri show off their pink hair streaks and clothes in honor of October's Breast Cancer Awareness month.

October 11 - 13: Thursday was the first day of the festival. My first responsibility was to be on time for the "Women in Brewing" live radio broadcast from the festival. Carol Stoudt and Jenny Talley were my fellow panelists. Tom Dalldorf and Carolyn Smagalski were the hosts of the half-hour program. (Photo below, L to R: Carolyn, Teri, Jenny, Carol and Tom.)

Afterwards Jon and I had a brief intermission to taste a few beers and say "Hi" to a some brewing friends at the festival. Then we were off to the basement of the Marriott Hotel where Broomfield, Colorado's KROC homebrew club was having their big annual meeting. KROC stands for Keg Ran Out Club, and by hosting their meeting during the GABF, KROC has been very successful in getting GABF Judges and other beer industry luminaries to speak.

I had a small role at the meeting. My job was to introduce one of the speakers, Lucy Saunders, the beer and food writer who just published her 5th cookbook, "The Best of American Beer and Food: Pairing & Cooking with Craft Beer."

Lucy had arranged for luscious chocolates to be sent from Madison, Wisconsin. She also arranged for New Holland Brewing Company of Holland, Michigan to send their yummy Poet Oatmeal Stout for the beer and chocolate pairing. The pairing was great and I stayed up way too late watching the entertaining procedings.

Friday after the Alpha King Challenge judging, I was on duty at the festival at 5:30 pm at the new "You Be The Judge" booth. This is the first year they are doing this, and judging by the number of people lining up, it's already a success.

The photo at left shows me showing three visitors how to judge an American-style Imperial Stout.

Two GABF judges at a time have a one hour shift. We judge a beer with festival goers and explain to them how the judging process works. Each group got about 15 minutes, depending on if there were people in line.

The festival was so noisy that I almost lost my voice talking loud enough to be heard. I hope next year the booth has sound-proof glass around it, like at the Food & Beer Pairing Stage, and I hope they put four Judges on duty at a time. It is very hard to explain a little about your career, your background, the GABF judging process, and then judge a beer with visitors and show them how to fill out comments sheets, all within 15 minutes!

The folks who visited me really enjoyed their time and were most grateful for my explanations. Some of them had dreams of becoming professional brewers or owning breweries someday, so I also had to fit a bit of career counseling into our time together!

Then Jon and I wandered through the Midwest and Pacific sections looking for interesting beers to try. After the fest closed down we headed to the Stewards' Party, where the Stewards let us taste any of the beer left over from the competition. We ran into many old brewing friends and stayed up too late.

Saturday, our friends Scott and Krystyna met us at the festival. Jon watched the awards ceremony, something I've done for the last 17 years. Not being associated with any brewery this year freed me up to 1.) Skip the awards ceremony and 2.) Not be tied to a brewery booth. Therefore I took my two friends in tow to show them some of my favorite beers. The lines are shortest during the awards ceremony, so it was a great time to get some tasting in.

After the awards, I grabbed Jon and headed for "Michigan" in the Midwest section of the festival hall. I wanted Jon to taste the beers from Short's Brewing Company in Bellaire. Jon is from Michigan, and most West Coast brewers mistakenly believe that the Midwest is a craft beer wasteland.

We west-coasters think we invented Craft beer. Wait! We did. (OK, Anchor, New Albion, Cartright's, Sierra Nevada, Grant's and Mendocino Brewing Companies mostly did.)

Joe Short is brewing some of the most cutting-edge beer that I tried on my long journey. I tried his "Nicie Spicie" beer last July at the Michigan Brewers Guild's annual Summer Beer Festival. Joe was kind enough to smuggle in two bottles of his Nicie Spicie so Jon and fellow Judge Mark Dorber from Suffolk, England could try it too.

In the photo at right, L to R: Jon Graber, Teri and Joe Short.

After Joe brewed the beer, he spent all his free time during the next two days zesting lemons and oranges into his open fermenter. Then he cracked four kinds of pepper into it: Telecherry, green, white and pink pepper. Two days later he racked the Nicie Spicie off the zest and spices. The beer was juicy citrus with a nice pepper bite.

Other interesting beers Joe had at the festival included a Spruce-tips Imperial India Pilsner, a Licorice Stout, and some super hoppy fun beers that I forgot the names of. He entered 19 beers into the festival. It took so long to write up the descriptions that he missed his opportunity to bring draft beer. "Oh well," said Joe. "No problem. We'll just bottle everything up on our little Meheen bottler and serve from bottles at the fest." So that's what Short's did.

One of the most fun things about Joe is the stories he tells about brewing his beers. He's breaking all the rules, having a blast, working his butt off, and making knock-your-socks-off extreme beers.

He told us a long story about his challenge to make a 35-degree Plato Triple IPA for Short's first anniversary. He used 65 pounds of hops in 7-barrels. The wort was so strong he could hardly get the yeast started and the beer took four months to ferment out. Needless to say it was served a year later at Short's second anniversary. He aged some of the beer in different wooden barrels. He dry-hopped one Bourbon barrel of the IPA with fresh grapefruits. Sam, Vinnie and Tomme must be proud!

After the Members-only session ended, we went to The Cheeky Monk, a new Belgian bistro, for dinner with Scott and Krystyna. I had the pork tenderloin medalians with a cherry sauce, served with draft Duchesse de Bourgogne. It was a great combo.

It was a cold and rainy evening. A perfect evening for a nap before the post-fest festivities. Jon napped but I was either over-wired or over-tired and couldn't sleep. I had a cheese headache from eating pizza at the Stewards' party last night. Dairy is a bad idea for me, as I am allergic to it. Not in a deadly way, but in a painful-for-several-days way.

At 10:00 pm, Jon headed up to the Judges Hospitality Suite and I tried to sleep but couldn't. Jon called me at 11:00 pm and said, "Come up here, it's a really nice party." So I did.

Last week when I was at Stranahan's Colorado Whiskey Distillery I'd come up with the idea that the GABF Judges really needed to try Stranahan's because it is so good. Chris Swersey gave his permission, and all four Stranahan guys were there, and kind enough to bartend and pour tastes and drinks of their delightful libation.

I wanted to take a photo of Jesse Graber in his big white cowboy hat, along with fellow Judge Brad Kraus in his gray cowboy hat and nifty new snap-front cowboy shirt embroidered with hops and barley. Jesse left just before I could get the two of them together, so I grabbed Markus Stinson, brewer at Elysian Brewing Company. Brad (left) and Marcus (right) posed for my cowboy photo at right.

Because of the cold and wet storm sweeping Denver, I'd already decided that I would not try to drive across the Rocky Mountains to Salt Lake City tomorrow. Rather, that I would wait until Monday when the weather was due to clear up and warm up. Therefore, Jon and I stayed at the party until two in the morning. Then I slept well.

Judging the Great American Beer Festival

2007-10-14T12:52:00.000-07:00

"When love and skill work together, expect a masterpiece." ~John Ruskin

October 9 -12: My judging responsibilities began on Tuesday at 5:00 pm with the Judges Orientation. Christopher Bird (Brewmaster at Altech's Lexington Brewery) and Dr. Gary Spedding (Owner/Analyst at Brewing & Distilling Analytical Services) both of Lexington, Kentucky lead the annual sensory review. This year's review focused on the aroma and flavor of alcohol in rising concentrations in the same control beer.

Wednesday morning at 8:45 am, the Judges assembled at their assigned tables. Back in the 1990's, for many years I was the only woman Judge in attendance. I am happy to report there are several women Judges now. The above panel of seven Judges was remarkable (and exciting) as the women Judges outnumbered the men. I am wearing black, and going around the table to my left the judges were: Carl Kins, Gwen Conley, Keith Villa, Sue Thompson, Finn Knudsen and Carol Stoudt.

How does one become a GABF Judge? It helps if you are a professional brewer and have previously won a GABF medal. Brewers outnumber all other Judges, but non-brewing judges may include beer writers, suppliers to the brewing industry, and former professional brewers.

If you are a professional brewer, have judged homebrew competitions, have passed the BJCP (Beer Judge Certification Program), have taken formal sensory education courses, and you have a good palate and a friendly disposition, you may apply to become a Judge and get on the rotating judge roster. Contact GABF/World Beer Cup Judge & Competition Manager, Chris Swersey through the Brewers Association to find out what the current requirements are.

If you think it's hard to become a GABF/WBC judge, Chris tells us it's even harder to become a GABF/WBC Steward! I've been judging since 1991, and some of the Stewards have been at it longer than I have. In the photo at left, Steward Jim Fixari carefully carries a tray of neutral-plastic cups marked with random numbers and filled with beer samples to one of the judging rooms.

The Judges taste the beers blind and never see the bottles or cans that the beers were poured from. At the end of my judging on the last day, I was able to take the photo below of the Steward's Staging Area. Chris gave me permission to take the photo, but I wasn't allowed to enter the room. Judges are never allowed into the room.

There is a key word and philosophy that all the Stewards and Judges are almost rabid about, and that word is Integrity. The GABF is the highest-regarded beer festival in the world because its integrity is impecable. Everyone involved in this competition is passionate about and committed to absolute integrity in every way.

That's not to say that we don't enjoy ourselves, because we definitely have a good time. It's a lot of fun to meet and work with the other judges, who are some of the top movers and shakers in the industry. It's also fun to see the same Stewards year after year, although as judges we don't generally get to know the Stewards as well as we do our fellow judges.

Judging runs 8:45 am - 5:00-ish on Wednesday and Thursday prior to the GABF, and from 8:45 am - 12:30 pm on Friday. I say 5:00-ish, because if the judging day runs long and the discussions get lengthy, the Judges and Stewards are committed to staying and working "as long as it takes."

This year 107 Judges judged over 2800 beers. My judging sessions were mostly within normal hours, but I heard from other judges who judged till 1:00 pm in the morning session, and until 7:30 pm in the afternoon session. Makes it a bit hard when you are an exhibiting brewer and have to set up and pour at your booth during the Festival!

In the evenings or when there's free time away from the Judging and the Festival, many of the Judges congregate at the Falling Rock Taphouse at 1919 Blake Street. In the photo above right, Judges Dick Cantwell, Jon Graber, Christopher Bird, and George Reisch relax and enjoy a pint at the Falling Rock.

After my last judging session ended Friday at 12:30 pm, I took a taxi over to the Falling Rock where I slammed down lunch and got settled to judge the Alpha King Challenge. The AKC is sponsored by Hop Union and probably a few other companies. The challenge is to brew an extremely hoppy beer that is also balanced. There were over 90 entries this year, versus about 60 entries last year.

The Alpha King Challenge was first presented by Three Floyds Brewing Company in honor of their extremely hoppy beer which is called Alpha King. I was put on a panel of three Judges, and the all 12 or so Judges were sequestered in the basement "Cigar Room" at Falling Rock. We judged about 14 beers, and put two beers forward to the final round. I only judged the first round. We put an aromatic and well-balanced bitter Imperial IPA forward, as well as a dark beer with excellent balance and a chocolate malt character.

Falling Rock was packed, as is usual for Friday afternoon of the GABF. The winners were announced an hour or so later, but I only heard the first two winners. First was Pliny the Elder from Russian River Brewing Co., and second place was Two Hearted Ale from Bells Brewing Company.

Jon joined up with me there, and Christine Jump interviewed me for a live podcast for her website, http://www.craftbrewcast.com/. It was noisy and crowded outside on the patio at Falling Rock, but hopefully the sound turned out.

Then Jon and I walked to the festival at the Colorado Convention Center. I had a 5:30 pm appointment at the "You Be The Judge" booth. More about the festival in my next post...

Visit Family & Friends in Denver, CO

2007-10-09T12:35:00.000-07:00

"That so few now dare to be eccentric marks the chief danger of the time." ~John Stuart Mill

October 6-9: Part of the fun of staying at my sister's house is the opportunity to do things that are not part of our usual life, such as sleeping on an inflatable bed, helping a six- and an eight-year old with their homework and in Jon's case, supervising the meticulous deconstruction of a stereo and cassette player that no longer worked. (Daddy Jan had started the deconstruction project, but retired to his study where he is working on his PhD in Global Information Systems.)

In the photo above, Jake keeps things tidy while Max channels his inner Luke Skywalker with a radio antenna light saber, and Jon pretends to be a robot with a tape-player mouth. In the photo at right, Jon channels his inner Dr. Strangelove with CD laser magnifiers.

My sister is a fabulous cook, so the diet will have to wait until I get home from the trip in eleven days (on October 20th). We babysat on Sunday night so Heidi and her husband Jan could go out to dinner, a rare treat. We taught the boys a new card game, Coloretto. (Cameleon would be a better name for it.)

On Monday we went to visit an old buddy from Eugene, Oregon. Scott Kelly and his girlfriend, Krystyna live in a brand new subdivision called Highlands Ranch. Part of the old working ranch is still working, and Scott showed us their Buffalo herd and some horses.

Krystyna is originally from Poland and is working toward her Registered Nurse degree. Scott is retired from the Navy and works in the pro shop at the local golf course. Krystyna is also a great cook and she had a feast prepared for lunch, including stuffed chicken breasts, mushroom gravy, boiled red potatoes and salad.

The photo at left was taken on their patio. Scott and Krystyna did a good job of getting their very active miniature greyhound, Nova, to behave and pose for the camera.

We didn't have enough time for a hike, so Scott took us on a scenic drive. We stopped on top of the hill that gives Highlands Ranch its name.

A large picnic area occupied the flat top of the hill, and Scott said very few people know it's there. Off the backside of the picnic area are some lovely rock outcroppings overlooking a huge private golf course. The photo below is of Jon & me and you can see the private golf course behind us. Scott hopes to meet the owner someday. He'd love to be invited to one of the private fund-raiser golf tournaments that are held there.
From the other side of the hilltop we had a great view of downtown Denver, about 20 miles away, and the new Denver Tech Center, which is about 12 miles away.

Then back to Heidi's house for dinner, homework, more games with the boys, and more blogging for me.

On Tuesday afternoon we left Heidi's house and moved to the Denver Mariott - City Center, the official hotel of the GABF (Great American Beer Festival), where Jon and I will be judging America's finest beers for the next three days.

Pink Boots at Flying Dog

2007-10-09T11:22:00.000-07:00

"The world is but a canvas to our imaginations." ~Henry David Thoreau

Photo above, L to R up the steps, Back Row: Larry Pomeranz, Dustin Jamison, Kurt Randall, Nick Oscarsson and Matt Brophy. Front Row: Jaroed Sarmiento and Teri.

October 5: Jon dropped me off at Flying Dog at 9:00 am, as arranged with Flying Dog's Marketing Manager, Chris Rippe. I had to wait for Chris to arrive (he was in the middle of a new puppy crisis at home), and luckily he lived nearby.

Chris brought me to Lead Brewer Kurt Randall, who was busy wrestling with a homemade 750 ml bottling machine where he was bottling Flying Dog's open source Doppelbock. What is an open source beer, you might ask? It is a commercially made beer where the recipe has been published by the brewery in advance of release so that any interested homebrewers can brew it too. Here is the link to Flying Dog's open source blog and recipe. Kurt's bottles were on their way to the GABF, which is less than a week away.

I liked the name "Open Source" as it appeals to homebrewers who are also computer techs. There are other open source commercially-made beers out there, such as the two collaboration recipes that I made with Wisconsin Dells Brewery and New Holland Brewery earlier in my trip. Click on these links to see the recipes for Wisconsin Dells' Imperial Stout or New Holland's Road Brewer IPA.

Kurt brought me to brewer Nick Oscarsson, who was in the middle of his first brew of the day. What a great coincidence that today was the day that Flying Dog was brewing the whiskey wash for Stranahan's next door! The wash is a 100% malted barley beer, but it is brewed without hops. When you don't use hops, you don't have to boil for the normal full time, and we didn't. The whiskey wash is fermented with a proprietary "turbo" yeast, and with a little help it ferments the wash all the way down to nearly bone dry.

At the same time that Nick was brewing the new batch of whiskey wash, a previous batch of whiskey wash was being filtered by Larry Pomeranz. Nick let me taste the filtered wash. It tasted like you'd think it would: cold, slightly carbonated, and dry instead of sweet but the balance was due to a very thorough fermentation instead of hops. Very interesting!

Nick also showed me Flying Dog's new 20-gallon pilot brewery. I was impressed with the home made glycol jacketing on the two tiny cylindroconical unitanks. Nick said they tested the system with Road Dog, one of their more popular beers, to see if the test batch would turn out anything like their regular Road Dog. They were pleasantly surprised to find that the 20-gallon system's beer matched their 50-barrel system's beer very nicely.

Soon each of the brewers will have the opportunity to brew a Belgian Triple on the new pilot brewery. They'll do a comparative tasting of all the Triples, and will collectively decide upon the Belgian Triple recipe that they'll brew on the big system. Very democratic!

For those who don't know, Flying Dog started as a brewpub in Aspen, Colorado. I remember their first year at the GABF when then-brewer Dennis Miller brought 21 beers in cornelius cans to the festival. Eventually the brewery moved to Denver, and currently it occupies the equipment and space built for the former Mile High Brewery. A few years ago Flying Dog leased out its restaurant space to the Blake Street Tavern, and now Flying Dog concentrates on what it does best, brewing creative "gonzo" beers for broad distribution.

As is my habit, I wandered down to the laboratory where I picked the brain of former Coors lab & QC guy, Rob Allington who is Flying Dog's Director of Quality.

Then Matt Brophy gave me the backstage tour and told me about his job as Head Brewer of both Flying Dog's Denver brewery, and its Fredrick, Maryland brewery. He's a busy guy. The Fredrick brewery sounded very impressive. It's a lot bigger than the Denver brewery.

Then Matt brought me, Nick and Kurt to lunch next door at the Blake Street Tavern. I had the grilled ahi salad and it was good. I was quieter than my usual enthusiastic self because of my sinus infection. The brewers didn't mind and we enjoyed lunch with pints of Snake Dog IPA.

My husband Jon picked me up in the early afternoon, and we returned to my sister's house and took naps.

Pink Boots at Odell & Liquid Poets Meeting

2007-10-08T17:39:00.000-07:00

"It is not enough to have a good mind. The main thing is to use it well." ~Rene Descartes

Photo above, L to R: Top Row: Brendan McGivney and Jake O'Mara. Bottom Row: Jeff Doyle, Phil Fraser and Teri.

October 4: I awoke with a sinus infection, but there's not much one can do when one has a full schedule planned. Jon drove us to Fort Collins and dropped me off at Odell Brewing Company while he visited the local homebrew shop. Jon works for BrewCraft USA now, and they are wholesalers of homebrewing supplies, distributing only to homebrew shops.

Production Manager Brendan McGivney gave me the brewery tour and the topic of Odell's future brewhouse expansion came up. I recommended he call Troegs as I was impressed with Troegs' hybrid BrauKon and JV Northwest brewhouse. Brendan turned me over to Lead Brewer Jake O'Mara who was finishing the first brew of the day and heading into the second brew.

I spent a few hours with Jake. The Odell brewers are very friendly and relaxed. I felt quite at home and had fun snapping lots of photos. Normally I don't take many photos because it seems intrusive, but it didn't feel that way here.

Marketing Manager John Bryant brought in sandwiches and my husband Jon joined me on the patio for lunch. The weather was beautiful: sunny, breezy and a perfect temperature.

After lunch I wandered down to the lab where I chatted with Microbiologist PJ Goudreault about all the nifty lab equipment he'd bought used from the University. He's also found a few pieces on Ebay. I really love it when a production craft brewery takes labwork seriously.

Then I wandered over to where Jeff Doyle was managing a fussy filter on a very tall 12-meter DE filter. I admired his in-line carbonation set up, and told him about the "umbilical cord" CO2 transfer hose we used at Steelhead to "close the loop" between a Fermenter and Bright (Serving) Tank. He liked the idea, but all equipment and procedures must be approved by Brewmaster/Owner Doug Odell.

Doug came by just then so we discussed the "umbilical cord" idea, and he told me about the 5-barrel batches I had just missed out on helping with. They'd brewed a 5-bbl batch of strong ale yesterday, and they were brewing an experimental batch of something new tomorrow.

Odell has some really neat things going on. Besides making good flagship ales, their 5-barrel series allows the brewers to get creative. They take turns brewing on the 5-barrel pilot brewery.

Today they'd be tapping their "Hand Picked Ale" at 4:00 pm. Most of the hops were grown locally. Of course some hop pellets went into the boil, but they put 11 different varieties of local Colorado leaf hops in the mash tun and used it for a hop back. The leaf hops came from the local University's hop yard, as well as Doug's yard at home and from the decorative hops growing in the beer garden.

Today was the second time Odell had organized a release party for one of their 5-barrel series beers. They had a good crowd gathered in the tasting room, and three local musicians entertained the folks with Grateful Dead tunes, blues, and bluegrass. They played mandolin, guitar and tuba, among other instruments. Doug gave a speech about the new release at 5:00 pm.

I visited the release party but was still busy in the brewhouse with second shift brewer, Phil Fraser. Phil's a quiet guy but he smiles a lot. The second and third brews of the day were the IPA, and Phil let me pour some of the three 32-gallon pails full of whole leaf hops into Odell's big custom hop back. Photo at left is of the hop back. Photo below right is me pouring in hops.

When I'm brewing at a brewery I try to dress in "neutral colors," which means I won't wear one brewery's t-shirt when I work at another brewery. However, because I worked for Steelhead for 17 years, I felt a Steelhead shirt was essentially neutral, so I have been wearing either my white jumpsuit or a Steelhead t-shirt for most of the blog "pink boots" group photos.

A man of few words, Phil smiled his broad smile, placed an Odell long-sleeve t-shirt in my hands and said, "Here. Put this on. You don't work for Steelhead anymore." So I popped the Odell shirt right over my Steelhead t-shirt.

Then it was time to try the Hand Picked Ale and relax a bit. Jon joined me in the bar and John Bryant got us a few beers. We enjoyed the ambiance for a bit, then drove to Coopersmith's Brewpub for dinner where we both had Buffalo burgers. No time to dawdle as I wanted to be back at Odell to set up for my evening gig by 6:45pm.

The members of Fort Collins' local "Liquid Poets" homebrew club were already gathering in Odell's community room. Jon helped me bring in my two giant tubs of busted and gnarly old brewery parts. My collection was dubbed by one of the members of the American Brewers Guild course who saw it the "Brewers House of Horrors."

Local homebrewer, Ted Manahan (who used to brew with the "Heart of the Valley" homebrew club in Corvallis, Oregon, near where I live) had invited me to speak to the Liquid Poets club. He asked me if I planned to give a PowerPoint presentation. Ha ha! I'm driving, brewing, blogging, and I definitely didn't have a PowerPoint presentation prepared!

However, I told Ted, I have a practical brewing Show & Tell class that I gave to the new brewers at the American Brewers Guild in August, if he thought the Liquid Poets would like that. Great, said Ted. So that's what I did. I gave "The Walter Swistowicz Memorial Class in Practical Brewing" show & tell in Fort Collins.

I cracked a bunch of jokes, and I talked about safety and showed everybody my beautiful 18-year old burn scars from my brewing accident in 1989. (Who needs a tattoo when you've earned a massive scar like that?) Everybody enjoyed the show. Then I spoke about my amazing trip, but how do you condense a life-changing experience like this into a sound bite? Today (October 4th) marks exactly four months on the road for me, as I departed Eugene on June 4th.

I gave away a Steelhead sweatshirt as a door prize if anybody could guess how many breweries I'd have visited by the time I got home. Nobody got the correct number of 71, even though I'd had it listed on the current blog post. 73 was the closest somebody guessed, and he was happy for the prize.

The Liquid Poets had a full agenda for the rest of the meeting, and we departed for the 1.5 hour drive back to Denver to my sister's house. In the photo above I am showing off a corroded pump seal.

Pink Boots at Stranahan's Colorado Whiskey Distillery

2007-10-08T10:42:00.000-07:00

"Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest." ~Mark Twain

October 3: Today was Jon's birthday, and being a big fan of whiskeys, I arranged for him to join me for my distilling day at Stranahan's in Denver. We arrived at around 10:00 am and Head Distiller Jake Norris showed us around as we waited for Distillery Manager/Partner Jess Graber to arrive.

Jon gave Jess the Pretty Prairie Rodeo shot glass that we'd picked up in Kansas for him. A quick discussion of grandfathers and ancestors established that Jon and Jess are 4th or 5th cousins, both descended from the Peter Graber clan of Mennonites that emigrated to South Dakota in the 1800's from Russia. Then after "The Children's Blizzard" of 1888 the clan moved to Pretty Prairie, where some members left the Mennonites and joined the Swedenborgen church.

The whiskey wash was ready to go in the primary still (the copper still on the left in the photo above). Stranahan's wash is produced by Flying Dog Brewery next door. George Stranahan is an investor in both places and his name was perfect for the reinvented top-shelf American whiskey that Jess wanted to produce.

The wash is not regular beer. It is a special high-gravity recipe jointly developed by Stranahan's and Flying Dog. I saw the wash and it is darker in color than the final whiskey. Of course it contains no hops. By paying Flying Dog to produce the wash, it frees up Jess and his crew to concentrate on distillation and barrel aging.

Stranahan's currently produces one whiskey, called Stranahan's Colorado Whiskey. It uses a process unlike other American whiskeys like Bourban and Tennessee whiskey. Stranahan's uses a custom-designed still that incorporates both the pot of Scotch whisky distilling and the column of American whiskey distilling.

Stranahan's primary and secondary pot+column stills were custom made by Vendome Copper & Brass Works of Louisville, KY. Head Distiller Jake Norris drew up the diagram (photo left) of "How to Reinvent Whiskey 101."

In the photo at the top of this page, L to R: Clarke Boyer, Jake Norris, David Nice, Jess Graber, Teri and Jon.

The whole crew was on board today because the original plan was to have both a primary distillation going, and a bottling of one of Stranahan's new line of whiskeys, called Snowflake. The Snowflake line (named because no two are ever alike) consists of Stranahan's regular whiskey that has been finished in special barrels prior to bottling. The plan was to bottle the Port-finished Stranahan's today, but bottling was postponed in order to work out a haze issue.

Therefore only the primary distillation happened today, and the crew went to work ripping out the old barrel aging shelves in order to replace them with forkliftable steel wine barrel shelves.

The old-style shelves are the kind I saw when I toured Woodford Reserve in Kentucky (photo on left). The new shelves are the kind that most breweries with barrel aging programs use (photo below right).

Jess gave us a full tour and told us his 30-year background in home-distilling. Jake also had a home-distilling background, and each of them independently came up with ideas for a combined pot & column still for the kind of whiskey they wanted to make.

Stranahan's uses new oak barrels like Bourbon does, but because the wash is fermented long enough and filtered prior to distillation, the wash contains less impurities and no bacteria in comparison to other American whiskey washes. This purity along with a specially humidified aging room allows the distillate to age more quickly and efficiently in the barrel.

Jess took us to lunch next door at the Blake Street Tavern. After lunch we had a tasting of five Stranahan whiskeys. The control sample was Stranahan's standard 2-year old whiskey. I had been skeptical of a whiskey that was only two years old, but when I tasted Stranahan's last year during the GABF, I was amazed.

This tasting completely convinced me that two years is the perfect age for Stranahan's Colorado Whiskey. In my opinion, the 2-year old Stranahan's starts sweet like a Bourbon, but finishes dry like a single malt scotch. It's perfect.

In addition to the regular 2-year old, we also tasted a 3.5 year old (which is not currently available), but the finish was more like a Bourbon, so the unique "Colorado Whiskey" profile was missing.

Then we tasted three of the Snowflake series, the Port wood finish, a French Cabernet Franc finish, and a local Colorado red wine finish. Of the three, I personally preferred the Cabernet Franc finish, but I really liked the standard 2-year old Stranahan's best. Photo above left is Jess and Jon enjoying the tasting.

A few weeks ago, after I'd set up the day at Stranahan's with Jess, I'd asked Jon what he wanted for his birthday present. A bottle of Stranahan's, of course! But Jess beat me to it and gave Jon a bottle of Stranahan's for his present. So I asked Jon what he wanted for his present from me, and he asked for a Stranahan's barrel. Since Stranahan's only uses their new oak barrels once, Jess has a continuous supply to sell. At $80 F.O.B. Stranahan's, I thought it was a good deal.

Jake, Jess and Jon wrapped a barrel with several layers of cling-wrap, and they loaded it into my Chevy Astro van right behind the driver seat. I'll be driving Jon's barrel all the way back to Oregon. Boy, it sure makes the van smell good!

Visit to Gella's - Liquid Bread Brewery & Drive to Scott City, KS and Denver

2007-10-07T14:48:00.003-07:00

"To freely bloom - that is my definition of success." ~Gerry Spence

October 1-2: Before leaving town, we searched for a Pretty Prairie shot glass. We found one out at the Pretty Prairie Links golf course. It was the last shot glass souvenir left over from the annual Pretty Prairie rodeo, the largest night rodeo in Kansas. (The rodeo was started in about 1937 by Jon's grandpa and great-uncle.)

We didn't want the shot glass for ourselves, but as a gift for Jess Graber, Owner/Distiller at Stranahan's Colorado Whiskey in Denver. We'll be visiting Jess in a few days. When setting up the visit, I found out Jess's father's family also hails from Pretty Prairie. Turns out Jon and Jess are fourth or fifth cousins. Their ancestors were Mennonites who emigrated from Russia, and prior to that from Switzerland.

After the shot glass hunt, we drove to Hays, Kansas, to visit Gella's Diner and Liquid Bread Brewery. Took us awhile to find the joint. Everybody in Hays knew the place, but they kept putting us a block off.

We asked for Brewmaster Gerald Wyman as we ordered a very nice pan-fried potato chip-breaded Walleye fish & chips. After lunch and a full sampler set of Lb (Liquid Bread) beers, Gerald gave us a custom tour.

Gerald and his partners opened Gella's/ Lb two years ago. Gerald was a very advanced homebrewer, and he spec'd the deluxe JV Northwest system himself.

I appreciated some of Gerald's extra whistles and bells that I'd never had, like a thermometer on his grist case, and an extra zwickle (sample port) and glycol jackets on the cone of one of his 10-barrel fermenters for yeast propagation.

A few days ago I posted a photo of several rubber boots. That photo was taken just inside the door of Gerald's brewhouse. He normally requires anyone who wishes to enter his brewhouse to doff their shoes and don a pair of brewhouse-only boots. We got the VIP tour and got to take the tour in our street shoes. Gerald told us he'd mop the floor right after our tour to get rid of any street bugs we might have tracked in.

Gerald designed his fishbowl set-up with glass walls between every section. Most brewpubs have the brewhouse and fermenters in one room, and the serving tanks in a separate walk-in cooler. Gerald's brewhouse was separated from the fermentation room by a glass wall. I believe his fermentation room, with five fermenters, had positive air pressure. Even his walk-in cooler was completely encased in glass. Spent grain buckets were removed from the premises through a back door from the brewhouse to the alley. The design was completely logical.

Gerald and his partners spent a fair bit to fix up their historical building downtown. The popular restaurant and kitchen were as spacious and well-laid out as the brewery.

After lunch we continued on to Scott City, Kansas, where Jon's father's cousin, Dick and his wife Joy Barton live.

Barton was Jon's grandmother's maiden name, and it is also his middle name. The Barton marker in the photo at left was carved in Kansas limestone, which is quite yellow compared to the white limestone of southern Indiana and Kentucky.

(Photo at left, L to R: Dick, Joy and Jon.)

We had a nice dinner and afterwards Dick entertained Jon with stories about Pretty Prairie and Jon's dad while I read a magazine.

The next day, before driving to Denver, we went to look at Dick's 1936 International Harvester pickup truck. Jon's great-grandfather (Dick's grandfather), David Barton, bought the truck in 1938 and wore it out by the 1950's.
At that point the truck was abandoned in a field. Dick's brother Don (Cousin Don who cooked the chicken and ham in the concrete culvert pipe grill-pit), rescued the truck and restored it. Dick bought it from Don two years ago and fixed it up further. The shiny red truck just got a new coat of paint so Dick could drive it with his fellow Shriners in local parades.

After visiting Jon's great-grandfather's truck, we headed out on the highway toward Denver. Jon drove while I wrote blog texts. We arrived at my sister, Heidi's family's house in Denver by dinner and had a great time playing with our nephews before bedtime.

Drive to Kansas City International Airport & Pretty Prairie, KS

2007-10-07T14:14:00.001-07:00

"Sow good services; sweet remembrances will grow them." ~Madame de Stael

September 28-30: Drove like crazy from Columbia, Missouri to Kansas City, Missouri's International Airport to pick up my husband, Jon. Got there a few minutes late but Jon still had lots of hugs and smooches ready for me. Then he took over the driving and we used the computer for GPS navigation.

Got to Pretty Prairie, Kansas at about 9:00 pm. Our GPS routed us down the Kansas Turnpike through Wichita, then across to Prairie Crossing Bed & Breakfast. Jon's mom and two brothers were already there. Prairie Crossing is a hunter's lodging B & B, with several impressive 10-point whitetail buck mounts and other outdoorsy decorations, including an indoor Koi pond. Prairie Crossing B & B is famous for huge homemade breakfasts.

Many of Jon's kin on his dad's side of the family were gathered in Pretty Prairie for his dad's Memorial Service. Jon's father, Ken Graber, grew up on a wheat farm that had been in the family since 1907. Jon's Uncle Curt sold "The Home Place" in 2002.

Saturday's Memorial Service at the Swedenborgen chuch was lovely with beautiful flowers and lots of people hugging who hadn't seen each other in many years. Jon read the Eulogy that he'd written in January, and it brought tears to our eyes again. Afterwards, the community put on a lasagna lunch in the church basement.

Then most of the relatives went over to Uncle Curt's house to watch the Kansas State football game against Texas. Some relatives wore purple, others orange, and we all enjoyed tasting a few of the beers that I've collected along the route.

That evening, Jon's Kansas relatives put on a huge dinner feast in Uncle Curt's yard. Cousin Don had roasted a few turkeys and some hams in an in-ground grilling pit he'd made out of a 4-foot long, 16-inch concrete culvert pipe dropped straight down into the ground. He'd wanted a 16-foot diameter pit because he already had the 16-inch manhole cover. The meat was moist and delicious.

After dinner Uncle Curt handed out gift booklets to Jon, his brothers and cousins of our generation. The booklets contained the history and some old photos of "The Home Place," as written by Curt's wife, Aunt Jean. (Photo above: L to R: Jon, Uncle Curt, Joel, Ron and Jay.)

The next day, Sunday afternoon, Jon's brother Jay took us all on a ride to see what he'd done with his father's share of the old farm property. Jay is an avid hunter and we were impressed with the improvements Jay had made toward expanding wildlife habitat.

Jon's mom and brothers left to catch their flights. Later, Jay and Jon's mom Tina called as their flight had been cancelled. They drove all the way back to the B & B, and we spent another night there. After another fantastic breakfast, they drove east toward Kansas City in their rental car, and we drove west toward Scott City, Kansas.

Drive to Columbia MO & Pink Boots at Flat Branch

2007-10-07T13:44:00.000-07:00

"Trust men and they will be true to you; treat them greatly, and they will show themselves great." ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

September 27-28: Drove to St. Louis RV Park in order to dump my trailer's wastewater tanks. Followed the manager's directions to the freeway on-ramp. I passed through a neighborhood where the old brick houses were boarded up and some of them were falling down. Got to thinking, why do people generally view old falling-down farmhouses and barns as picturesque or quaint, yet if the building is an urban residence or business that's falling down, we think of it as blight?

Drove from St. Louis to Columbia, Missouri. Met up with Flat Branch Brewing Company's Brewmaster, Larry Goodwin and his assistant Kyle Butuson (photo above, L to R: Kyle, Teri and Larry).

Larry had already started his brew of the day. Larry attended the American Brewers Guild several years ago after a long career in quality assurance in the petroleum industry. Flat Branch is about the third brewery he's worked for, and he's been there for eight years.

Flat Branch has an 8-barrel brewery with four open-topped fermenters and about 20 conditioning and serving tanks. This allows Larry the opportunity to keep a dozen beers on tap at all times and I tried all of them. Larry's Chili Beer takes advantage of the open-topped fermenters. On about the 2nd day, after the yeast is in its logarithmic growth phase, Larry drops in 50 pounds of scrubbed raw Anaheim chili peppers. The chili aroma and flavor are there, but with only a hint of heat. Very nice.

Larry joined me for dinner and I tried an interesting Caesar Salad, where the romaine lettuce had been grilled first. Strangely smoky but I liked it. Larry lent me his pass for the parking lot across the street and I parked there overnight.

The next day I spent the morning trying to catch up on my blog. I was getting plenty behind. The kind folks in St. Louis had kept me busy till bedtime each night, so even if I'd had Internet access there I'd have been hard pressed to keep up.

After lunch, I finally got on the road late, at about 1:00 pm.

Trip Update and Statistics.

2007-10-03T19:11:00.000-07:00

Photo above is of the collection of rubber boots just inside the brewhouse door at the Liquid Bread Brewing Company in Hays, Kansas.

--

I am typing and counting up trip facts and statistics as my husband Jon pilots the van west across Kansas.

As of this point in the trip, I’ve handed out over 800 “Road Brewer” business cards to folks I’ve met along the way. I reordered business cards along the route twice, and just broke into my new box of 500 cards. Who’d have guessed the interest in my road trip (the Road Brewer project) would be so high?

Departure was June 4, 2007. Arrival home will be October 20th, for a total of 139 days (4 months and 19 days). I had planned to stretch out the post-GABF portion of my trip into early November. However with Jon’s new job, we need to pack up the house and move to Portland, Oregon. Plus I miss home, need to find a job, and write the book!

So therefore I shortened my route from Denver to go through Utah and Idaho before getting home to Oregon, arriving home less than a week after I leave the Great American Beer Festival in Denver.

As of October 20th, the official “end” of the trip, I will have visited a total of 71 breweries. I will have “brewed at” or job-shadowed at 38 breweries, plus had shorter visits to 33 more breweries.

Now, lest you fret that the adventure and the blog will end on October 20th, please be assured that the Road Brewer project will continue! I plan to continue to visit and brew with breweries in Oregon and Washington, and already have invitations from several.

Even after I am employed full time, I plan to keep the project going. It would be fun to expand it to radio and television (the Food Network?). Who knows what the future may bring.

You can express your support for the Road Brewer project by signing up for my e-newsletter at this link. Newsletters will arrive sporadically at first, but eventually may be sent 4 to 6 times per year. The opt-out link is at the bottom of every e-newsletter. Thanks!

Here are the trip facts and statistics as of September 28, 2007:

Miles driven: 10,116
Gallons of gasoline: 1,216.077
Gas expense: $3,124.38
Other auto/trailer expense: $800.86

2.6 miles per gas & auto expense dollar
8.3 miles per gallon

Total Breweries: 64 (As of September 28th) 33 Breweries brewed with and 31 Breweries visited only.

For the following calculations I used the “64 Total Breweries” figure:

Miles per brewery: 158.1 miles
Gallons per brewery: 19.001 gallons
Dollars per brewery: $48.82 for gas only

If I use just the 33 breweries where I brewed all day… my husband doesn’t want to know these numbers!:

Miles per brewery: 306.5 miles
Gallons per brewery: 36.851 gallons
Dollars per brewery: $94.68

I did not record all gas prices, but I believe my highest gas was $3.799, and my lowest gas was $2.599 per gallon. Please see the homepage of my website at http://www.terifahrendorf.com/ for a full list breakdown of the above expenses.

Pink Boots at Anheuser-Busch

2007-10-02T22:38:00.001-07:00

"The sole advantage of power is that you can do more good.” ~Baltasar Gracian

September 26: I awoke to the sound of helicopters landing on the roof of one of the buildings. It was one or more of the Augusts or some other high level executive arriving for an early morning meeting.

My contact at Anheuser-Busch, Brewmaster George Reisch, met me at my trailer at 8:30 am and walked me up to the Clydesdale Stables. On this trip I am mostly visiting breweries that invited me, and George had invited me to visit Anheuser-Busch. I felt bad that A-B was the only large national-brand lager brewery I was visiting on this trip. Dr. David Ryder had invited me to visit Miller in Milwaukee, but with relatives in the Milwaukee-area, I just couldn’t schedule Miller in.

At the Stables I met with Jim Poole, General Manager of Clydesdale operations. Jim and I talked about my trip and he gifted me two Budweiser shirts and two Clydesdales baseball caps.

Then Jim had an extra special gift for me – a Clydesdale horseshoe. He shook my hand as he handed it to me, as though I was receiving an award of some kind. I found out later that it is very rare to be given a Clydesdale horseshoe. My friend, George Reisch, has been working for A-B for 28 years and never got one. Employees rarely get them. Only visiting dignitaries get them. I guess that means my role as the west coast's unofficial craft beer "Goodwill Ambassador," is now official!

It’s a huge steel horseshoe, worn a bit on the front edge, as it’s a real horseshoe that was worn by one of the Clydesdales. I measured it later: 9 inches across at the widest part, and 8.5 inches long at the tallest part. You can see me holding it in the photo at the top of this page.

Jim led the way to the center of the round stables barn where two restored antique horse-drawn beer delivery wagons glowed with bright red paint beneath the skylight. He opened the stall of “Big Jake,” the largest Clydesdale they have. Clydesdales average about 18 hands (6 feet) high at the shoulder. Big Jake is 20 hands (6-2/3 foot) tall at the shoulder, which put the top of his head well above seven feet. He’s not just larger than other Clydesdales in height. Big Jake is a barrel-chested draft horse and he’s big and strong in all dimensions. Jim is justifiably proud of his big horse, Jake.

Big Jake is now the largest horse I’ve ever seen and petted. The previous record holder for me was a black Shire draft horse I met at the Young’s Brewery in London, England in 1984. That horse was 19 hands (6’4”) tall at the shoulder. Back then, Young’s delivered beer around London each Wednesday morning with their horse-drawn beer wagon, just to hold onto tradition. Now Young’s Brewery is no longer in London. I hope they kept their horse program and just moved it to the countryside.

You can tell by these photos that Big Jake’s head was about the size of my torso. His strong muscular neck is also about the size of my torso. Jim told me that Big Jake loves attention. Big Jake didn’t stand still as I held the rope to his halter for the photos. I was careful to keep my pink boots out of range of his huge hooves. Big Jake kept nuzzling my face, trying to steal kisses, but I was too shy to plant one on his dinner-plate sized nose.

Then Clydesdale Secretary Robin McNabb took me to visit Scott Smith. Scott’s official title is Scheduling & Administrative Coordinator of Clydesdale Operations. That means he’s the horse traffic controller. They’ve got five teams of horses on the road at all times. Altogether A-B has about 48 horses that are used for appearances, and another 200 in their breeding program, including studs, brood stock, and colts too young for yoke and collar training. The Clydesdale program is aware of a colt that looks like he will grow as large as Big Jake is. Big Jake is 3 years old, and Clydesdales continue to grow until they are 7 years old. They live to about 18-20 years. Currently Big Jake can only pull a single horse wagon. He is too large to put into a team because teamed horses must be the same size. They are hoping the colt finishes out at Big Jake’s size.

I met the Budweiser dalmation dogs, then George picked me up and we walked to the RPB, not to be confused with PBR. The RPB is the Research Pilot Brewery. I’ll just call it the pilot brewery. There we met with Jane Killebrew-Galeski. Jane is in charge of the RPB and all the young eager brewers working therein. George departed and Jane led me on a tour. A-B is careful that each guest is escorted at all times.

Photo at right was taken in one of the RPB fermentation rooms, L to R: Jane Killebrew-Galeski, Teri, Adam Goodson and Hannah Burnett.

The pilot brewery is a complex 9-barrel gravity-fed brewery that takes up nine floors in a narrow tall building. Every piece of equipment in the building recreates the exact processes and outcomes that occur in “The Saint Louis Brewery,” which is the big brewery onsite.

We started on the top floor where the raw materials come into the process. Some of the floors looked like they could be out of any well-designed small craft brewery. Other floors duplicated processes that small breweries do not use.

On one floor there was an interesting stainless steel thing made up of two long rectangular air ducts. One duct went straight up and down, the other came in at right angles, but it took a few dips that gave it a wavy look. Jane said that sterile air is passed through the post-boil wort to draw out additional sulfur pre-fermentation. The wavy looking air duct’s wave acts like a sewer trap and prevents splashed wort from running backwards into the air duct.

Another process that craft breweries generally don’t use is the step where Polyclar is added. It’s an additive that helps make A-B beers extra clear and bright. The Polyclar doesn’t stay in the beer, it gets stripped out along with any yeast and chill haze the beer contained.

The RPB building also had a large learning center on one floor where lots of young brewers worked away at shared computer monitors. A-B is very strong on education and taking responsibility, and these young folk were working hard at learning and “owning” the projects they were assigned.

When Jane graduated from U.C. Davis nearly 30 years ago, the A-B Research Pilot Brewery was just being built. Jane's dream and the dream of all her classmates was to run the RPB at Anheuser-Busch. Jane didn’t land that job upon graduation. She ended up at PBR instead of RPB at first, but she didn’t give up on her goals. Now Jane is “The Woman.” Brewing is a man’s world, and it’s exciting that Jane never gave up and got what she went after. You go girl!

Photo at left was taken in the RPB cellar, L to R: Tom Moritz and Andy Havens and Teri.

Jane walked me over to “The School House.” Early in the brewery’s history, this building housed the elementary school that Adolphus or August or one of the early A-Team attended. It was across from the brewery in those days, and the street that ran between the school and the brewery was a city street. The original brewery and school now form the heart of the A-B complex.

We entered through the school’s front door, which Jane normally never uses, and we saw a few busts of the early A-Team and some antique photos of the land that the A-B complex now occupies. It looked like three buildings on a barren plain in Texas! Now the land is filled up with a myriad of buildings of various heights.

I was ushered into a sterile white-walled conference room with Jane, George, a man named John Serbia, and Kristi Zantop who used to work at Alaskan Brewing Company in Juneau, Alaska. John wore a crisply pressed white business shirt and tie, and I could tell he was all business. He asked me a few open-ended questions, and for the second time today I misinterpreted the questions.

Earlier, when Jim Poole, G.M. of Clydesdale Operations asked me what my favorite brand of beer was I answered, “My own.” I know it’s a trite answer, but as Brewmaster of a brewpub, in other words a big fish in a very small pond, I get to make certain decisions. If I didn’t like my own beer I would change it. In my opinion, if I answered that any other beer (other than my own) was my favorite beer, then by gosh I shouldn’t be a brewpub Brewmaster: I should go to work for that other brewery! Then Jim rephrased the question, “What Budweiser brand is your favorite brand?” Oh. Oops.

Well that’s just what I felt like after giving John Serbia long answers to his questions. I practically gave him my life story. A serious guy in a suit deserves a thorough answer, right? Then I realized I’d misinterpreted his questions, and that he just wanted to know how I lined up all my contacts to visit during this trip. Oh. Oops.

After the meeting I asked George, “Who was that guy?” Oh, just the Vice-President of Brewing. Oops.

Not to worry George admonished! We’re off to lunch, then to the 220. We took an elevator to the executive lunchroom, walked past it and entered a small private dining room. Four place settings were ready, each with a brightly printed menu sitting atop the plate. The other two guests couldn’t join us, so George and I enjoyed a beer and food pairing lunch that he and the chef had designed.

George is an expert on beer and food pairing, and lately customer education of beer and food pairing has constituted a large part of his job. A-B is about to publish a huge new cookbook full of recipes using beer, beer pairing suggestions, and lots of gorgeous photos of food and glasses of beer. (The Budweiser logo and beer labels are tastefully absent from most of the food photos, I am thankful to report.)

George is all about flavor. He designed beautiful display boxes full of quart plastic jars of raw materials, and hired a fulfillment center to create and ship truckloads of these boxes. A-B is very big on consumer education, and the distributors order these boxes to educate their sales reps and consumers on beer ingredients.

The more the average person knows about brewing ingredients and how beer is made, the higher the percentage of consumers that appreciate beer, and the more that beer will be valued as a gourmet beverage. With malt, hops and energy prices going through the roof (and being in short supply), it becomes imperative that beer is valued and priced nearly equal to wine. Many small breweries’ very survival in the coming years will be based upon whether this scenario happens or not.

After lunch, George took me on the back-stage tour of the brewery, cellar, and packaging areas. I was impressed with the can lines. If I remember correctly (I don’t take any notes and I'm writing this seven days later), the 12-oz. cans flew through the lines at over 1,600 cans per minute, and the 16-oz. cans at over 1,300 cans per minute. They were a colorful blur.

The brewhouse is still in the original building. It’s a gravity-fed brewery on several floors, with many kettles and mash tuns. There is a large central skylight looking down several stories. The center of each floor is cut out, as you can see by the photo above right.

George said, in the old days they planned ahead: They moved kettles, mash tuns and tanks between floors by lowering them or raising them through these cut-outs in the floors. Plus the cut-outs allowed the natural light to get to each floor.

George also took me up inside the clock tower. He checked his watch. He didn't want the bell to bong while we were up there. Photo above left is the exterior. Photo below right is the interior.

After the tour we went to “The 220.” I checked my watch. It was around 3:00 pm. Apparently 220 referred to the room that the sensory panel used to meet in. We entered a sumptuously appointed conference room with stained glass window inserts and a carved malt and hops motif on the ceiling.

George showed me the adjacent staging area before the sensory panel began. The staging area had five dishwashers. The sensory panel members are so serious about having neutral glass, that once the glasses are washed (with unscented soap and tons of rinsing of course), they drip dry and are stored in the dishwashers.

In the center of the conference room was a large mahogany-colored conference table surrounded by plush leather office chairs. A specialized computer monitor sat in front of each spot except one. I sat at the non-monitored spot. Today they would taste Budweiser from each of the Anheuser-Busch breweries all over the world, and they invited me taste with them.

I told George that these beers would probably have subtler differences than I am used to tasting. After all the style is so similar – they’re all Budweiser malt-and-rice-lagers. George said, probably not so subtle differences between them. George was right, there were definitely differences between the Budweisers, in fact larger differences than I was anticipating. However, the differences were certainly subtler than the differences between two IPAs produced by two microbreweries, for example.

As the tasters filed in, George introduced me and I gave each my “Road Brewer” business card with my route map on the back. George had done a lot of advance legwork prior to my arrival and everybody seemed to know who I was. Wearing pink boots everywhere was probably a dead give-away.

The group consisted of all men wearing crisply ironed shirts and ties, Kristi Zantop who I’d met earlier, and me. I was a bit wary, having had the experience in 2001 and 2002 of judging the Australian International Beer Awards with a lot of large brewery bigwigs who just didn’t know what to make of a young(ish) female brewer/judge.

The atmosphere in the A-B sensory room was decidedly different. It was a relaxed atmosphere of friendly people, joking and welcoming, who were there to do a serious job. I felt accepted and relaxed into the banter. Okay, I was still nervous. But nobody was trying to make me feel out of place. My nervousness was just me.

After the sensory panel George walked me to my trailer where I made phone calls to get the directions for tomorrow’s drive. When George picked me up an hour later, he gifted me a mixed case of A-B beers and two 750 ml bottles of their 2007 Brewmasters Reserve.

Please notice I didn’t say that George gifted me a mixed case of A-B products. I have a pet peeve I’d like to air here: I hate it when brewers (or any brewery employees or distributors) call their beer “product” or their brewery a “plant.” We’re not making widgets here; we are brewing and fermenting beer. Let’s not forget that! All beer is brewed and fermented, no matter what size the brewery is.

I wasn’t listening for whether or not A-B’s employees called their beer “product” or their brewery a “plant,” but if they did, it was at the same or a lesser rate than those words are used at a large craft brewery.

In fact, I hazard a guess that A-B people are coached to avoid words like “product” or “plant.” Let’s all take a play from the A-B playbook, and if you ever catch yourself telling someone how passionate you are about your “products” or your “brand,” stop and repeat the sentence like this, “I am passionate about the beer that our brewery brews.” Heck, write it on the blackboard a hundred times if you have to.

Beer, with its history and tradition, is so much richer than that grim industrial image allows, and language is key to how consumers perceive any “product.”

OK, off my soapbox now. (And if I am guilty of the offending words, feel free to point that out.)

George picked me up and we drove to Schnuck’s Gourmet Market. (Pronounced schnook, like the name you call the Yiddish guy who cheated you at penny poker.) George’s wife Kathy, daughter Veronica, and daughter’s boyfriend Drew joined us.

Schnuck’s had asked the A-B distributor to set up a beer-food pairing dinner. That’s not so uncommon, but beer dinners normally take place in fancy restaurants. This was the first time that George had heard of a beer dinner being held in a grocery store. George thought it was important to get this idea out to the craft brewers to use, as there are gourmet grocery chains (like Whole Foods and Wild Oats) all over the USA.

You might wonder, why would a Brewmaster at Anheuser-Busch care about small craft brewers finding new exposure outlets? Well, if you knew George, you wouldn’t wonder. George has been working as a brewer for A-B since 1979 when he graduated from the University of Wisconsin at Madison. He is a fifth generation Brewmaster, but his lineage did not brew at A-B. George’s great-great-granddad opened the Reisch Brewery in Springfield, Illinois. George’s great-grandfather, grandfather, and father all worked there. I’m not sure when it closed its doors, but it didn’t survive the 1960’s and 70’s.

In the early days of the Craft Brewing Movement (Revolution to us who lived it), when the MBAA or any other brewing group dominated by old-style lager brewers pooh-poohed the microbrewers and equated them as no better than homebrewers, George took it personally. He told me that every slight he heard against a small craft brewer felt like a slight against his father and forefathers,and all other small family-owned breweries like Reisch Brewing Company.

George showed an interest in brewing at an early age. His father taught him to homebrew in the early 1970’s when it was still illegal and George was in high school. (FYI: President Carter legalized homebrewing in 1978. Thank you Jimmy!)

George tells the story that when he entered college, he wrote to Anheuser-Busch and told them that he intended to work for them someday. He took a combination of coursework at UW-Madison, with his first two years geared toward Chemical Engineering and his final years geared toward Food Science. All designed to give him the education he needed to become a professional brewer. (There were few brewing courses at Universities in those days.)

In 1979 George traveled to A-B for an interview, and was shocked when his interviewer pulled an old faded letter out of his drawer, unfolded it and showed it to George. Indeed, it was George’s letter. The interviewer said, “We’ve been waiting for you.” George has been with A-B ever since.
Tonight George was the Master of Ceremonies at Schnucks. He’d already worked with the chef to design the menu and beer pairings. He spoke to the wait staff with last minute instructions on how to time delivery of the beers and the glasses.

Two beautiful “Bud Girls” showed up and greeted the guests as they arrived. The 9-table dinner was sold out at $10 per ticket. I can guarantee you that goodwill was the only profit from this dinner, as the food, beer and labor costs were certainly higher.

(Okay, another pet peeve of mine: I wish A-B would feature its women brewers in its ads and at special events instead of nameless Bud Girls. I think putting a true feminine face on beer is more beneficial toward attracting women into the profession. Think about it: before you can have a woman brewer, you must have a woman beer drinker! I don't know which large brewery's advertising department belched out the Swedish Bikini Team, but those platinum-wigged women never inspired me to drink a single beer. The Bud Girls don't make me thirsty either.)

George was in his element at Schnook's, teaching the guests how to pour a beer down the middle of the glass but only filling the glass 1/3 full. He twisted his tilted 1/3-full glass to show us how to gauge the Belgian lace effect. He admonished us to sip, taste, and then sip again, allowing the flavors of the beer and the food to mingle in our mouths. “Beer is the servant of food,” George told us. He gestured with his hands as he described how a beer served with cheesecake mingles and creates a cheesecake smoothie in your mouth.

Afterwards George brought out the chef and the rest of the Schnuck’s staff for their well-earned applause. He handed out a take-home gift to everyone: a Reidel beer glass that he and the Reidel designers had created, with the Michelob logo on it. I hope my fancy Reidel beer glass makes it all the way back to Oregon! I’ve got it wrapped up in the two Budweiser Clydesdale shirts in my trailer.

After the dinner was over, George hooked me up with A-B National Retail Sales Draught Training Manager (and Elvis Impersonator) Scott Seggi who gave me a ride back to my trailer. (Who comes up with titles like that one?)

Before I finish my Anheuser-Busch post, I have to tell you the joke that I learned there:

“How do you know when you’re really retired?”
“When August the 3rd and August the 4th are just really nice days at the end of summer.”

Pink Boots at Schlafly

2007-10-02T22:10:00.000-07:00

“Life is a pure flame, and we live by an invisible sun within us.” ~Thomas Browne

September 25: I disconnected my van, left my trailer in the Secure Lot at Anheuser-Busch and drove to Schlafly's in the Maplewood neighborhood of St. Louis.

Schlafly’s Maplewood brewery is a distributing craft brewery as well as a large brewpub. I met with Head of Brewing Operations, Otto Ottolini. Otto is acting Brewmaster at the Maplewood location, and Stephen is acting Brewmaster at Schlafly’s downtown Tap Room location. They don’t seem to use the title Brewmaster anywhere.

Otto hooked me up with brewer Matt Peterson, and I worked with Matt on the brew while Otto worked on other things.

Otto is famous for being an engineer-McGyver type. He’s the kind of guy who makes changes to a brand-new Krones bottling system, and then when he tells Krones what he did to their bottler, they don’t void the warranty, instead they send him a check and incorporate Otto’s changes into future systems! (Stephen Hale told me this story. Otto is too modest.)

I especially appreciated Otto’s elegantly designed chain-disk grain and grist conveying systems that he custom-designed for each of Schlafly’s two breweries. They are like cablevey systems, except chain-disks don’t break because of their metal chain links.

Otto and I enjoyed lunch at the bar. Then we grabbed all the brewers and some of the other production people and took the photo at the top of this page in Schlafly’s Conference/Tour room. Left to Right: Neal Curtis, Jason O'Neal, Jacob Simmons, Matt McFarland, Teri, Joe Davis, Eric Roy, Otto Ottolini, Brian McBride, and Matt Peterson.

I’d met brewer Joe Davis back in 1998 when Steelhead bought a Rock Bottom in Fresno, California. Joe Davis had been Rock Bottom’s assistant brewer, and he continued with Steelhead as assistant brewer. Now nine years later, Joe is happily employed at Schlafly’s in St. Louis.

After we took the photo, Otto gave me a full tour of Schlafly’s Maplewood brewery. Surpisingly, Otto and I are both interested in astrology and the development of wisdom, so we briefly showed each other a few interesting astrology websites and talked about the life experiences that bring wisdom.

Otto left in the afternoon to have an early dinner with his small daughters and get some sleep. He was due back at the brewery at 11:00 pm to begin the graveyard shift. I plugged in my Ethernet cable and blogged for a few hours. No blogging time in the evening in St. Louis! There’s no wireless Internet at A-B.

Stephen returned wearing his casual-style Utili-Kilt and we enjoyed dinner in Schlafly’s Maplewood brewpub. Stephen and his Utili-Kilts were featured in the local newspaper’s fashion section along with a few other Kilt-wearing men.
Owner/Partners Dan Kopman and Tom Schlafly joined us at various points during our dinner, along with Chef Scott Smelser.

Photo above right, L to R: Teri, Scott and Dan. Photo below left, L to R: Brewer Bill Joslyn, Teri and Tom Schlafly.

After dinner we drove to Schlafly's downtown Tap Room so Stephen could continue the cellar tour – with refreshments. The basement/cellar there is extensive. Schlafly expanded from the original building to a second building in 1999, and the cellar runs underneath both buildings. Stephen said you could see the sky from the cellar before the restoration began.

We went down in the huge modern utility elevator. Stephen gave me a taste of his wood-aged barleywine. He also had some bourbon-barrel aged Imperial Stout, and he gifted me a 750 ml bottle of it.

Then we took small samples of a 12-year old Geuze that John Isenhauer had brewed back at a now defunct brewery that was in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois. Schlafly’s had bought some equipment and kegs when the brewery closed, and one of the kegs was partially full of Geuze. Stephen decided to keep what was left. I’m glad he did, because I got to taste it and I thought it was great.

Since Stephen only has a tiny amount of John’s Gueze left, I recommended he try to culture it, or at least mix some with flour and see if he can make a sourdough starter with it. Sourdough “yeast” actually has lots of bugs in it, including Lactobacillus, and I suspect that wheat flour and malted barley attract the same kind of microflora. In fact, a lot of Belgian beers use raw wheat, so why not make a sourdough starter with Gueze culture?

Stephen and I took our Gueze samples and headed up to the third floor of the building where Sara was teaching a life drawing class. Stephen gave me a tour of the third floor offices, and when Sara could take a break, we asked one of her art students to take a photo of the three of us in front of Sara’s large painting of a beer glass.
Then Stephen gifted me a generous mixed 2.5 cases of Schlafly beers, and helped me complete some important errands, like filling the tank with gas and finding out where I can dump my very full RV wastewater tanks.

We pulled into what I called, “Hip Hop Happy Gas,” where all the folks filling their tanks left their car doors open and their stereos cranked up. Normally I don’t drive at night, and I never would have picked this gas station on my own, but the gas price was the cheapest of my trip at $2.59 a gallon.

Then Stephen took me to a downtown RV park to see if I could use their dump. I was surprised to find it was a very nice RV park filled with large expensive RVs, all on their way to somewhere else. We met the owner and a manager, Jim and John. It turns out that the St. Louis RV Park was modeled on the RV Park that used to be in San Francisco, where the new baseball park is now. As far as they knew, this was the last RV park located downtown in a major US city. Jim and John said to come on by Thursday morning, the dump is only $4.00, and they’d be happy to give me directions to Hwy 70 headed toward Kansas City Airport, which would be my next stop.

After these errands, Stephen brought me to his and Sara’s house, gave me a tiny glass of delicious homemade Limoncello straight from the freezer. I’ve put the recipe on my website for you here. Then he gave me a tour of their antique home that Sara has put her artistic touches on. I especially liked the Mediterranean colors, different swaths of color in each room. Sara used bright acrylic paint over a flat ivory base. The effect is a textured juicy warm tropical fruit medley, each room reminiscent of the exterior walls of Italian palazzos. Yummy!

Finally, with directions in front of me, I drove straight back to A-B’s security gate. 11:30 pm again! Once back in my trailer, I called my husband for our nightly one-hour chat, and got to bed late again.

Drive from Bloomington, IN to St. Louis, MO

2007-10-02T20:52:00.000-07:00

“Hidden talent counts for nothing.” ~Suetonius

September 24: Blogged in the morning at Jeff Mease’s big dining room table in Bloomington, Indiana. As usual, had to get creative with the Internet connection. Hmmm. Couldn’t log into their home wireless system because I got an error message. Hitchhiked on a neighbor’s unsecured wireless until it dropped the signal. Then ran my spare Ethernet cable to Jeff & Marie’s router. However I can get connected for free while on the road, I’ll do it!

Jeff’s girlfriend Marie and I plotted out my route toward St. Louis. Jeff was gone to a meeting with a canned tomato producer (for pizza sauce) in Northern Indiana. We decided it would be nicer to drive on country highways rather than Interstate 70, especially as I-70 had tons of big semi-trucks on it.

The highways I drove were not heavily trucked, but apparently not very direct either. Normally, after listening to the GPS yell at me for a while, “OFF-ROUTE: RECALCULATING,” the GPS software will get with MY program and reroute along the highway I am already on. Not today. I cranked up the radio so I couldn’t hear the incessant demands. Then I turned off the computer. It was a very long drive through lots of small towns, past acres of corn and soybean fields, and it seemed to take forever.

Eventually I turned the computer back on and booted up the GPS software. I only had a USA map. No map of Kentucky, Indiana, Missouri or Kansas because my original plan when I left on June 4th was to return along a more northerly route. Sometimes you have to go with the flow. I ask for good directions on both my departing and arriving ends of each driving segment, which I write down on a big yellow pad. Then I watch my progress on the GPS software (DeLorme) map graphic.

I crossed the Mississippi River into St. Louis proper just before dusk. The first thing that struck me was the smell – kind of sulfury and kind of sour. Sauerkraut! St. Louis smells like sour kraut. The second thing I noticed was that the highway splits and then rejoins. All the highways are crazy here. They merge left, merge right, split, resplit, and rejoin all over the place.

The third thing I noticed is that St. Louis drivers are selfish and rude. Use your blinkers all you want! The drivers will ignore it. Doesn’t matter if the merge or split is about to bounce you off onto a highway or exit you don’t want. Doesn’t matter if you’re driving a 30-foot rig and could run them off the freakin’ road if you weren’t so nice! They tailgate each other and crowd into your desired lane, ignoring your blinkers and preventing you from changing lanes. By the time I arrived at the brewery’s exit, I was ready to run some little cars right off the highway.

Even in the heat of traffic I can become philosophical, as traffic is a lot like life. Transitions are tricky. When you’re driving down the highway with your destination far away but straight ahead, it’s very clear that the road you’re on is the right road. When you get to the place where you have to transition, you must decide which road to take and you don’t want to miss your turn or exit. Backing up, U-turns, and “do-overs” are not an option.

The same thing happens with your career. Working at Steelhead was like driving cross-country on Highway 70. Once I was no longer at Steelhead (and metaphorically on Hwy 70 for the next 1,000 miles), my choices expanded exponentially and I realized my final destination might have changed.

My original destination had been to be the Brewmaster for a brewpub in a community where I could afford to buy a house. I did those things and expanded my goals to include building five brewpub breweries for Steelhead.

But now… What were my new dreams? Did they even include brewing beer?

Life doesn’t come with internal GPS. There is no little voice that automatically says, “Off-route, recalculating” in your ear. The closest thing humans have to internal GPS is our intuition or gut instincts. I know of two ways to turn on my inner GPS: The “sit quietly and meditate until you hear the still small voice within” technique doesn’t really work for me. I prefer to take an action that forces me out of my own comfort zone. Trust me when I tell you that this trip has forced me out of my comfort zone almost every day.

Part of my purpose in taking this trip was to visualize clearly what my final destination would look like. Being between jobs (and therefore in transition) means I have to figure out which road is the right road. It’s a tricky transition and I want to make the right decision. Remember: No backing up, U-turns or “do-overs.” Choosing the right road means knowing exactly what final destination I want.

This trip has been excellent for rekindling my passion and motivation as a brewer of craft beer. I’m still working out my future role within the brewing industry and I’m still developing the vision of my final destination. At some point in the future, I will let you know what that is. Please stay tuned!

In St. Louis I transitioned smoothly off the highway onto 13th Street, but did not transition so smoothly onto Lynch Street. My directions were missing 12th Street, which connected them, so I ended up lost a few blocks away from the giant Anheuser-Busch complex. The brownstone townhouses in the neighborhood looked like they’d been fixed up recently, and it looked like a very nice neighborhood. Later I found out that the neighborhood rehabilitation was a recent phenomenon, and had been mostly active for the previous six years.

George had me set up with security and I called them from my cell phone. They found me a few blocks away from A-B and I followed them in through the security gate. I parked in their “Secure Lot.” I’d be curious to see their “Unsecure Lot.” This whole place is as secure as the Pentagon! The photo above is of my little rig in front of one of the newer buildings. And this is just one of many brick buildings, and definitely not the biggest one!

All of the security officers are ex-cops, and they’re definitely the nicest ex-cops you could ever want to meet. Officer Rob directed me where to park my rig, then gave me a ride to the Security Building where he showed me where the women’s locker room and shower are located.
I gave my “Road Brewer” business card to Officer Rob and Officer Jeff and they both said, “Oh, we know who you are. We checked out your blog already. Can we go with you on your trip?” Then Officer Jeff made me some name badges to wear when onsite, and we swapped stories about our burn scars.

I called Schlafly’s Chief Brewer Stephen Hale and his wife Sara Hale and they picked me up outside of A-B’s security gate. Stephen arrived in his dress Utili-Kilt (short for utility kilt). We went to the Schlafly Taproom in downtown St. Louis. Stephen gave me a little tour of St. Louis along the way, and I thought downtown looked very nice. I explained that my father’s family hails from Washington and St. Louis, Missouri, and my paternal grandfather worked for Brown Shoe Company here in about 1920. Stephen drove past the old Brown Shoe Company for me. The architecture on the old buildings downtown was very nice, and Washington Street has been totally jazzed up into a happening nightspot.

Stephen explained that it wasn’t always this nice. The 1979 Kurt Russell movie, “Escape from New York” was filmed in this neighborhood, because back then the broken down industrial buildings were the best visual example of post-industrial collapse. Now you probably couldn’t afford a loft condo in the neighborhood.

At Schlafly’s I ordered a sampler of all 18 beers, each glass half-full. Then Stephen and Sara and I shared a whole bunch of appetizers, and they were very good. Schlafly’s beers are straight up: No cutesy beer names here. Just “Schlafly” and then the style name. And they are very good at styles here.

Stephen and Sara gave me a tour of the Tap Room’s brewhouse, and then the extensive basement cellars. Sara was one of Schlafly’s first woman brewers, so I added her to my Pink Boots Society list. Sara is an accomplished artist, and she’s very involved in Schlafly’s design department now.

After the tour, Stephen & Sara dropped me off at A-B’s security gate. Oops! 11:30 pm already, so the outer gate was locked with a chain and padlock. I called A-B security and they sent an Officer over in a security truck who let me in.

A Visit to Bloomington & Upland Breweries

2007-09-28T08:24:00.000-07:00

"Goodness is the only investment that never fails." ~Henry David Thoreau

September 23-24: Drove from Lexington, Kentucky to Bloomington, Indiana. As I drove the limestone showing through where the highway was cut changed from shale-like to granite-like. The clouds were beautiful, numerous and fluffy white, just like they were in Kentucky. More of the trees were turning brown, with many leaves falling from the trees and tumbling across the highway in front of me. Across southern Indiana I found a lot of Country Music radio stations and had to keep searching for classic rock.

I arrived at the home of Bloomington Brewing Company's Owner/Partner Jeff Mease in the early afternoon. We connected right away and talked our heads off about brewpubs and restaurants.

Jeff got his start in the restaurant business by dropping out of college at 20 and starting his own pizza delivery company. He learned quickly at the College of Hard Knocks, and grew his pizza company to a regional (citywide) chain of five Pizza Express companies. More locations than either Dominos or Papa Johns has in Bloomington, a vibrant college town of about 80,000 people.

Jeff is very progressive and is passionate about sustainability. He's got one emission-free electric delivery vehicle, and plans to get another one within a year.

The photo above, at left and at right show Jeff, his electric delivery "truck," and me in the driver seat. I didn't actually drive it, but I can tell you it was a fairly quiet ride. The truck's top speed is about 20 miles per hour, and it is licensed to go on any city street with a 35 MPH speed limit or less.

In 1994 (not sure of the year as I memorize the info - I'll repost the correct answer later), Jeff opened Lennie's restaurant with his then-wife. Later he added the Bloomington Brewing Company and pub next door.

I asked Jeff if he had problems as a restaurant owner, selling beer to other restaurants. He said a few but not many. It helps that Jeff is a huge supporter of the local restaurant association and has built solid, positive relationships with the other restaurant owners.

Plus he's low key with his brewery signage in Lennie's. You may notice in the photo at the top of this page that the name "Bloomington Brewing Company" is not listed anywhere on the external signage. The tap handles are plain black without logos.

We went to the brewpub for dinner. It's connected to Lennies. Lennies has a more upscale feel, and the brewpub has a casual feel. While we enjoyed our beers and dinner, Brewmaster Floyd Rosenbaum dropped in. Photo at left is of Floyd and Jeff.

After dinner we wheelied in the delivery truck over to Upland Brewing Company to visit Lead Brewer Eileen (Ale-Leen) Martin. Eileen has 15 years of professional brewing experience. It just amazes me that there are women brewers out there with that depth of experience that I never heard of. Eileen had heard of me. I make a lot more "noise" out in the brewing world (writing articles, this blog, etc.) than she does.

Eileen is a petite blonde with a self-deprecating sense of humor and a lot of passion for brewing. (Photo at right.) Eileen spent most of her brewing career in Louisville, Kentucky. She's been at Upland in Bloomington, Indiana for the last two years.

Eileen gave me the full tour of Upland's brewpub. Upland is currently the largest brewery in Indiana, producing 5,000 barrels a year in bottles and kegs.

I was shocked to see how the management/owner team at Upland refused to separate the brewery and kitchen space. It wasn't just the serving tank cooler sharing space with lettuce and chicken breasts; all the brewery space was shared with the restaurant and kitchen. The staff's "break table," was right in the middle of the brewery. I can't blame Eileen; she's as much in favor of separate spaces for restaurant and brewery production as I am.

Eileen produces a full spectrum of beer styles and sent me packing with a beautiful 750-ml bottle of wood-aged Blueberry Lambic, refermented in the bottle. Then Jeff and I electrically motored back to his house.

Jeff recently bought a 69 acre farm with his ex-wife and current partner, Lennie. (She's now happily remarried.) I think it's great that Jeff and Lennie have a healthy post-divorce business partnership.

Jeff has big plans for his future farm(house) brewery and country restaurant. He wants to produce organic food for the restaurant, and some barley and hops for the brewery. We brainstormed "energy independence" for the project as well as other sustainability issues. We talked until 1:00 am. That's how much fun we had talking and brainstorming!

The next day I blogged from Jeff's big farmhouse-style dining room table until it was time for me to motor off to St. Louis, Missouri.

Shameless Plug for the Great American Beer Festival

2007-09-28T07:54:00.000-07:00

I'm a big supporter of the Great American Beer Festival. Steelhead sent beers and served them on the festival floor every year I worked for them. If you've never attended this event, plan your vacation time to do so someday.

I first attended the 1988 festival. Watching Brewmaster Mellie Pullman get up on that stage and accept her medal helped inspire me to "Go Pro" with my homebrewing hobby that same year.

I've attended every year since 1991 as a professional, and I've judged every year since 1991 (except 2004, the year Jon and I got married). There are too many extranous events to attend them all, but if you are as big a beer geek as I am, you will get a lot out of attending as many events as you can.

With Judging and the Judge Orientation & Reception, the GABF lasts five days for me. (Tuesday - Saturday.) If you want to catch me, you can try these public events. I may wear my pink boots (no promises). See my complete Itinerary for more details.

Thur Oct 11
5:30 - 10:00 pm: GABF Festival
7:30-8:00 pm: Women in Brewing Interview (at Festival on Center Stage)
10:00 pm: Introduce Lucy Saunders at KROC meeting

Fri Oct 12
1:00 - 3:00 pm: Alpha King Challenge - Judge (at Falling Rock Tap House)
5:30 - 6:30 pm: You Be The Judge (at Festival booth E1)
5:30 - 10:00 pm: GABF Festival

Sat Oct 13
12:30 - 4:30 pm: GABF Members Only Session
1:15 - 3:00 pm : Awards Ceremony
5:30 - 10:00 pm: GABF Festival (I never stay past 8:00 pm on Saturday night.)

The festival itself is a snapshot of what is happening in each region of the country. You could do your own "Road Brewer Tour" by attending all four sessions and concentrating on a different region each session. Or if you are a big fan of a particular style of beer, study the free booklet and taste every example of that style that you can find.

In my opinion, the very best session to attend (to avoid the crowds) is Thursday night. However, if you want to see the Awards Ceremony, Saturday's day session is THE session to attend. And while all the brewers are crowded around the Awards Stage, the booths are nearly deserted so it's also a great time to taste the beers without any crowds.

In order to attend the Saturday day session, you will need to join the AHA (American Homebrewers Association), as only members, brewers, and the press are allowed to attend this exclusive session.

The numbers are impressive this year, as they are every year. Here is 2007 by the numbers:

408 - Breweries on the festival floor (24 more than last year)
1884 - Beers on the Festival floor (Yikes! 230+ more than last year)
474 - Breweries in the competition (24 more than last year)
2832 - Beers in the competition(422 more than last year) updated 9/14/07
75 - Style Categories being judged (6 more than last year)
107 - Judges from 7 countries(4 more Judges than last year)
Avg number of competition beers in each category: 37 (2 more beers than last year)
Category with most entries: American Style India Pale Ale, 120 Entries(Same category last year and 26 more entries)

Click here for the GABF website. Book your plane and hotel, buy your tickets. GO!

P.S. My old pride and joy, Steelhead Brewing Company, was listed in the October 2007 (current) issue of Playboy magazine in the Stephen Beaumont article on "Top Ten Brewpubs in College Towns." Tom Schlafly told me the news. Yay!

September 30 Toast to Michael Jackson

2007-09-28T07:33:00.001-07:00

Friday September 28: I'm posting this from Columbia, Missouri where I am four brewery posts behind. I want to remind all my kind readers that there will be a Worldwide Toast to Michael Jackson on Sunday, September 30 at 9:00 pm EST / 6:00 pm PST. Many brewpubs, taverns and breweries are taking part with charity events.

Click here to read about the Toast, and find out where local events will be held. There is a scroll-down list in the right column at this link. At the bottom of the page of this link are comments where establishments also list themselves.

To add your public toast to the scroll-down list, the website asks you to "Post your local toast on Upcoming; add the "MJBeerHunter" tag to have it distributed here."

I apologize for getting behind in my posts: I did not have Internet access in St. Louis. Today I pick up my husband Jon at the Kansas City airport to join my family for a weekend Memorial Celebration in honor of my beloved Father-in-Law, Ken Graber, so if I don't get completely caught up on posts right away, please check back.

Thank you for your patience and understanding!

A Visit to Alltech's Lexington Brewery, Alltech, Analytical Services & Woodford Reserve Distillery

2007-09-22T13:29:00.000-07:00

"What we hope ever to do with ease we must learn first to do with diligence." ~Samuel Johnson

Photo above, L to R: Jim Larson, Ursula Thielen and Christopher Bird.

September 20-22: Overslept my alarm clock. Easy to do with the earplugs in. Wrote up my directions and hit the road hard. Today's drive from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania to Lexington, Kentucky took me about 11.25 hours. Fortified myself with Diet Dr. Pepper, Peanut M 'n M's, and a big peanut butter cookie. My drive took me through parts of four states: Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, and Kentucky. Just missed the tip of Ohio where Hwy 64 passes from West Virginia into Kentucky. I left at 9:45 am, and arrived at about 9:00 pm. Long day!

Arrived at Ursula Thielen's home in good shape but wired. Ursula's boyfriend is fellow brewer Christopher Bird, formerly of Goose Island and the Siebel Institute. For the last several years Christopher has been Brewmaster at Alltech's Lexington Brewery.

The next morning (Friday), Christopher gave me a tour of his brewery. In the photo below Christopher is shown in front of a display wall of Bourbon barrels that had been used to age and flavor his Kentucky Bourbon Ale. Christopher has a very nicely laid-out 20-barrel system producing 3,600 barrels a year. He makes three beers (Kentucky Light - a Kolsch, Kentucky Irish Red, and Kentucky Bourbon Ale - the red aged for 6-weeks in Bourbon barrels), all available only in Kentucky, and 60% consumed in Lexington.
This area of Kentucky is Bourbon and horse racing country. Lots of beautiful horse farms with horse barns that look like they could be churches.

The next tour of the day was at Alltech. Alltech is a multinational fuel and feed company based in Lexington. The owner, Dr. Pearce Lyons, emigrated with his wife from Ireland and founded this company in 1980. Alltech currently has offices in 80 countries. I toured Alltech's extensive headquarters. Dr. Lyon's wife designed the impressive building. The DNA double-helix is a motif here. The photo at right shows the smaller of two wooden double-helix staircases.

Alltech was on my tour circuit because I mistakenly believed that it still ran a brewing and distilling school. At one time Christopher, Jim Larson, Dr. Gary Spedding, and a few other brewing industry professionals worked for the Siebel Institute brewing school in Chicago. A complication arose when conflicting deals were inked. Somehow Lallemond ended up with the Siebel Institute, but Alltech ended up with Siebel's instructors. That was a long time ago. About five years ago Alltech sold its entire Alcohol Division, including its brewing and distilling school, brewing enzymes and yeasts, and any other brewing products to Lallemond.

Christopher brought Alltech's brewery online and continues there as Brewmaster. Gary Spedding departed after the Alcohol Division was sold and created his own company called, "Brewing & Distilling Analytical Services." He's busy helping breweries and distilleries of all sizes to "keep it clean!"

We visited Gary in his laboratory (photo at left). Gary was kind enough to give me the full tour, and showed off his nifty laboratory equipment.

I believe the only other former Siebel instructor currently working for Alltech besides Christopher is Jim Larson. Jim has a long and colorful history in the brewing industry, having worked in brewery engineering for Rainier and various G. Heilmann breweries all over the country. Jim gave us a tour of his current project: fermenting biomass, cellulose, and corn solids to energy.

Okay, it's not quite as easy as all that, but Jim runs a pilot plant designed to wring ethanol from whatever sources of waste or crops he finds efficient and expedient to wring fuel from.

At left is a photo of Alltech's proposed Biorefinery project. Jim and facilities tour guide Doug had my head spinning with the possibilities that Alltech's founder Dr. Pearce Lyons and his scientists have ingeniously cooked up.

Now, lest you think that this Alltech information is too far off the brewing map, please keep in mind that Dr. Lyons began as a brewing yeast research scientist. He just discovered other purposes for brewing yeasts and enzymes. In addition to alternative fuels, Alltech is involved with animal feeds, especially with increasing animal nutrition through enzyme enhancement. This is where Christopher's fabulously beautiful and intelligent girlfriend, Ursula Thielen comes in.

Ursula hails from Chicago and has an undergraduate degree in Biology with all the animal science coursework required by a Pre-Veterinary program. Ursula's father is a big-game hunter, and a few years ago Ursula accompanied her dad on a South African wildlife safari. Suffice to say she held her own. It's hard to picture Ursula, a petite young blonde, as a big-game hunter but I get the feeling she's strong enough to hold her own in just about any situation. I think she'd make a great brewer!

In fact both Ursula and Christopher are enrolled in the graduate program in Brewing & Distilling at Herriott-Watt University through its distance learning program. You go girl!

Ursula and Christopher took me to a local joint for lunch where I ordered a side of fried green tomatoes, since I'd never had them. They were breaded and fried, and reminded me of eggplant, although the flavor was fruitier than eggplant.

On the way to somewhere, we dropped into Village Liquors in Lexington where Christopher's friend, Ed Bullen, is the Beer Steward & Buyer. Some of you might remember Ed from when he was a brewer for Hops Restaurant Bar & Brewery in Tampa, Florida. Ed lives in Lexington now, to be near family. He's stocked Village Liquors with an interesting supply of USA and imported beers. Ed says "Hi" to his old brewing pals, and says he misses brewing like crazy. The photo at right shows Ed in front of his aisle of beer.

The next day Christopher took me to nearby Woodford Reserve Distillery. I'll continue this post later when I have time, but here are the photos. I'm sitting at Panera Bakery using their free wireless and my laptop's battery is about to die...

OK, I'm back. We drove to the Woodford Reserve Distillery and had the full tour. The photo below is of the top-half of a very tall cypress wood fermenter. The grain is in there along with the "wash" or wort. If I remember correctly, the grain is 72% corn, 18% rye, and 10% malted barley. We watched the fermentation bubble away. It was a lopsided fermentation, with more bubbles coming up on one side of the tank, so it looked like the mash/fermentation was turning over and over.

From there we went to the distillation room. If I understand it correctly, the whole mash/ wash/ contents of the fermenter are transferred into the first pot still. Woodford Reserve is the only Bourbon maker that uses the Scotch-style pot stills. It takes about 4 hours for the first distillate to come out of the first pot still and get transferred to the second pot still. All together, the future-bourbon goes through three pot stills, one after another, spending four hours in each still, for a total 12-hour day of distilling.

The three stills are shown in these photos are all three of Woodford Reserve's pot stills.

Then we were off to the big barrel shed (photo below left). Carolyn, our tour guide instructed us to "smell the Angel's Share." Yum! The barrels are moved into place by rolling them, and taking them up on an elevator, then rolling them across the beams and into place. They were not in any particular order by date. Most barrels are ready after about seven years, give or take. If the Master Distiller wants to retrieve one, he has to roll a few back and out of the way to then roll out the one he wants. They take samples by drilling two 1/4-inch holes on the butt-face (top and bottom), and allowing gravity and air-intake to trickle an ounce into a glass. Then they deftly pound a 1/4-dowel piece in to plug the holes. I didn't see this demonstrated, but I did see some dowel plugs in some of the barrels.

After our tour, I ran ahead to the front of the line to taste my half-ounce pour. In my haste I didn't notice that my camera had slipped from my grip, and I left it on the bus. I quickly sipped my taste and ran out to where Christopher waited in the car. He had a 1:00 pm appointment to give a tour, and we were a long drive from his brewery. Just as we left I discovered my missing camera, so I asked the tour guides to look for it on the bus and call me when they found it. We got the call about two minutes later, but we were on a mission to get Christopher to the brewery on time.

While Christopher worked tour magic, I worked on computer and Internet tasks, like this lovely blog that everyone is enjoying so much. Christopher gifted me a case of his Kentucky Bourbon Ale. Then it was back to Woodford to retrieve my camera, then Christopher dropped me off at a Panera Bakery to use their free wireless Internet. Once my computer battery ran dry, Christopher picked me up and we relocated to Ursula's house where Christopher grilled us hamburgers for dinner.

The next morning I repacked the beer cases I'd been collecting into mixed 6-packs so I am ready for my next future brewery visits.

Ursula has two dogs, named Max and Molly. After I finished my shower, as soon as I opened the bathroom door, Max, a stocky Jack Russel Terrier, yelped and bolted for the bathtub. Over the edge of the tub he scrambled and there he stood, in the wet tub, licking the water at the bottom. He's a character!

Christopher was thoughtful and brought me a blueberry muffin for the road, and off I went, headed for Bloomington, Indiana.

Pink Boots at Troegs & Visit to Appalachian

2007-09-22T13:13:00.000-07:00

“The farther behind I leave the past, the closer I am to forging my own character.” ~Isabelle Eberhardt

September 19: Last night I rebelled against my own schedule and stayed up reading a novel until 3:00 am. Sometimes you just have to do that. Slept in and after my shower and a nice chat with Lauri Lebo, I got on the road toward Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, which was about 15 minutes away.

Troegs Brewery Sales & Communication guru Ed Yashinski was my contact at Troegs, but he was so busy getting ready for a Beer Dinner in Philadelphia that saw him only once.

Troegs is owned and operated by two brothers, John and Chris Trogner. Chris was out of town on a sales trip. John gave me the grand tour and then set me loose with brewer Chris Brugger for a few hours.

“Brugger” is really enthusiastic about Troegs’ BrauKon brewhouse. From what he tells me, among the German brewing equipment manufacturers, BrauKon seems most willing to work with Americans regarding our propensity for using huge quantities of malt and hops. Thus Troegs has an appropriately oversized mash tun and a hop jack. Interestingly, the Germans told Troegs that hop jacks are illegal to use in Germany. If you add hops after the kettle, you would have to label that beer as, “Beer Flavored With Hops.” I liked Troegs’ intelligently designed five-vessel brewhouse that combined new automated German BrauKon vessels with their manual JV Northwest system.

I walked around a bit to observe what the other crew members were up to. Troegs recently took over a new section of their building after the local hospital moved their storage to a larger unit elsewhere. John is enjoying the sudden luxury of space by experimenting with wood-aged beers, including a brettanomyces beer.

At about 3:00 pm, John had hamburgers cooking on a grill off the dock. The crew has had a crazy production push the last two weeks, and he wanted to reward them with a barbeque. (Photo below.)

We sat on stacks of pallets and enjoyed burgers and pulled barbeque pork and a few beers. Most of the crew was done with their shift. It was a hot sunny afternoon and we tried to stay cool in the shade of a small beer festival canopy.

I tasted several beers, including Troeg’s famous “Mad Elf,” at 11% ABV (alcohol by volume). The starting gravity was 22 degrees Plato – and that’s before the cherries were added. Troegs’ Mad Elf is so popular that they began brewing it in August in order to satisfy demand. John assures me that demand will not be completely satisfied this year, in spite of beginning production so early.

After the barbeque respite, the brewers and I lined up for the photo at the top of this page, L to R: Brooks Miller (whose wife had just begun labor, with first baby due tomorrow), John Trogner, Chris Brugger, Andy Dickson, Teri and Whitney Thompson.

Most of the crew departed right after that. I worked on emails while Whitney finished up the paperwork on the third and final brew of the day. It was nice to hang out with another woman brewer again. I was the first other woman brewer that Whitney had ever met. I added her to my Pink Boots Society list and we counted up the women brewers: Whitney was the 34th woman on the USA portion of the list. (There are six women former boots-wearers on the Emeritus List and eight women brewers on the International List.)

After work, at 7:00 pm, Whitney took me to nearby Appalachian Brewing Company where we met up with Chris Brugger. Appalachian's Head Brewer Jonathan Reeves and Assistant Brewer Jeff Jerman (photo right) set me up with a sampler set of all 18 beers that were on tap tonight.

They don’t brew all 18 here: Appalachian has two additional locations: a 7-barrel system in Camphill, PA and a 10-bbl system in Gettysburg, PA. (Yes – that Gettysburg.) This system in Harrisburg was huge, and Jonathan gave me the quick tour. If I remember correctly (and I rarely take notes, so I have to memorize the information, often under the influence of good craft beer), the system here had a 30-barrel brewhouse and they just took delivery on a whole bunch of 125-barrel fermenters. That’s pretty aggressive for a 2,500-bbl per-year distributing brewpub.

After our Appalachian beer sampler, Whitney, Chris and I moved upstairs to "The Abby," Appalachian's Belgian bar. We ordered some Oktoberfest seasonal dishes, grabbed a couple of Belgian beers, and moved to the patio.

Whitney’s boyfriend, Larry Horowitz, brewer at Iron Hill Brewery in Philadelphia joined us. The photo above shows the four of us posing and “doing the Garrett.” Left to Right: Teri, Whitney, Larry and Chris Brugger. After lots of laughs, it was time to head back to the brewery parking lot where I was camped for the night.

Had to wear earplugs as Troegs’ neighbor is a trucking company. Semi-trucks idled their motors and came and went all night. It sounded like a truck stop but I slept through it all.

Drive and Visit the World's Largest Beer Can Collection

2007-09-21T06:39:00.000-07:00

"It is best to do things systematically, since we are only human, and disorder is our worst enemy." ~Hesiod

September 18: Worked on computer work at Dogfish Head. Finally left about 4:00 pm. That gave me a sunset view drive west from Milton, DE to York Have, PA. Yes, I am finally heading westward, and like a horse at sunset, I know where my home is and I want to go there.

As I drove from Oregon to Maine, beginning this trip on June 4th, I've watched the corn grow taller along my route. Now I am watching the corn stalks dry out, fall down, get burned down, or turned under. Driving from Vermont down to Connecticut I've watched the Fall colors pop out on a few trees here and there. Now I'm seeing the pumpkins along the road.

I drove from Delaware into Pennsylvania, and as soon as I entered Lancaster County, the air reeked of manure. Not the city of Lancaster, just the countryside. This is Amish and Pennsylvania Dutch territory. I drove across Lancaster County of Route 30, before it turns into a freeway. I saw five Amish buggies, each different from the others. One was open and held an old man, old women, and two children. The blonde-haired black-bonnetted little girl turned around as we were all stoped for a traffic light. I waved at her and she waved back. All the other buggies were closed with roofs, and a few had glass windows. I wondered if Amish teenagers have to get a buggy driver's license when they get 16? They need to know the rules of the road just as much as any other driver.

I continued westward as the sun set. I passed a big field of yellow large-leafed plants being harvested by an extended Amish family, kids and all. It was a field of tobacco. The Amish are considered hard workers. They seem to work from sun-up to sun-set, rain or shine, and can put up a whole building in about a day.

I passed a highway entrance marked, "Oregon Pike," and I thought, Oh wouldn't it be nice if I could zip onto that highway ramp and be home in an hour? I miss home.

I arrived at the homes of Jeff and Lauri Lebo well after dark. Luckily they had given me good directions as I sure don't like driving after dark in strange territory. I pulled up the darkened driveway and saw a soft glow through the windows of the big house, reflecting off the colorful beer cans lining the walls. A teaser for what was to come. Jeff stepped out of the house to greet me.

Jeff's father worked for American Can Company for 40 years. Visiting his father's place of employment as a child, Jeff developed an attraction for the colorful utilitarian storage vessels. Jeff began collecting beer cans at 14, and stored his steel and aluminum treasures in his mother's attic. Once he and Lauri got engagaged, Jeff began drawing up designs for a house to display his cans. He poured the foundation the week of their wedding. Jeff and Lauri built "the can house" themselves. It's a big house in the country right next to the little house they live in.

As you can see in the photos on this page, nearly every inch of wall space is used to display Jeff's 56,000+ can collection. I asked Jeff if he has documented each can in a computer database or something, and he replied that he keeps track of which cans he has, by knowing which cans he doesn't have yet. In other words he has nearly complete sets of every variation of every beer can ever made anywhere. OK, maybe not every single can in the world, but he's working on that.

The photo below was taken in the guest bedroom, "The German Room." The sliding display walls are typical of the house, and there are up to two levels of sliders in front of the actual wall. The guest bed in this room is parked in the middle of the room and not pushed up against the wall. You wouldn't want to squish a can with your pillow, and you need to be able to see each can.

There are five can rooms upstairs, as well as a bathroom. Every room on the first floor contains cans on the walls except the bathroom and the big country kitchen. The kitchen contains an antique squat-sized coffee can collection. Jeff must be good at math: All the cans are displayed on exactly measured shelves. Cans of similar build and height and width are displayed together by country and brewery. There are no gaps, so I know he measured well!

By day Jeff is a landscape contractor. Jeff is also a professional musician who records under the moniker "Jefferson Pepper." His CD "Christmas in Falujah" is available on Amazon.com, and he is in the middle of his next musical project, a 3-CD set called, "American Evolution."

Lauri is also a passionate artist; she's a journalist by trade and an author. Her book, tentatively titled, "The Devil in Dover," will be published in Spring of 2008 by The New Press, an alternative non-profit press out of New York. While she was an investigative journalist, Lauri documented the "Intelligent Design" legal case in Dover, Pennsylvania. She travelled to and researched the many Creationist "Empirical Evidence" pseudo-scientific Museums in the south, and was duly inspired to get her first tatoo at the age of 42: of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. (May his noodly appendages reach out and touch you!)

Lauri and Jeff are shown in "The Scandinavian Room" below.
While enjoying the colorful can-filled ambiance of "the big house," Alan Edwards, Brewery Sales Rep. for Appalachian Brewing Company joined us. I especially liked Appelachian's malt-driven "Jolly Scot" beer, which was named after an old Pennsylvanian beer. The photo at the top of this page was taken in the "Big Can Hallway." L to R: Jeff, Lauri and Alan.

We all stayed up too late, chatting around the big farmhouse table that Jeff made from old barn siding. The "Can House" looks like an old antique farmhouse, but it's actually new, built by Jeff and Lauri themselves. It incorporates lots of old barn siding so it looks old, but it was designed just for Jeff's can collection. Now, that's what I call dedication!

Pink Boots at Dogfish Head

2007-09-18T10:54:00.000-07:00

"Live neither in the past nor in the future, but let each day's work absorb your entire energies, and satisfy your widest ambition." ~Sir William Osler

Photo above, L to R: Andy Tveekrem, Jon Talkington, Teri, Brent Baughman and Bryan Selders.

September 16-18: Drove from Mount Laurel, NJ to Milton, DE, where Dogfish Head has their production facilty. Milton has a population of about 1,400 people, with 2,000 more houses going up outside of town soon. Milton is a really cute little town. I drove down Chestnut Street to get to the brewery and there were lots of cute old houses along the way.

Lead Brewer Bryan Selders met me with a mixed six-pack and got me set up in their parking lot. Bryan also let me into the brewhouse so that I could work on the Internet for awhile.

Then I walked down to one of the two good restaurant/bars in town, called Irish Eyes. There I met up with Bryan, Dogfish Head's National Sales Manager Claus Hagelman, and Jim Boyd who is General Manager at the Rehoboth brewpub. Jim will also be G.M. for Dogfish Head's new restaurant that will go into the production brewery in about a year. Some of you may remember Jim Boyd from his hoppy Yakima Chief days. (Photo above, L to R: Bryan, Jim, Claus and Teri.)

The next morning I joined brewer Brian Connery in the brewhouse. Brian has brewed all over the country including stints in San Francisco, Colorado and Las Vegas. Dogfish Head's brewhouse office is a well air-conditioned room with the largest process monitors that I have seen so far. Brian told me that he's seen larger screens at Coors in Shenandoah.

The photo above shows Brian monitoring six processes on two giant screens at once. And the brewhouse office is at the top of an ivory tower inside the big old cannery that Dogfish Head occupies. I kid you not.

The brew ran into a spot of trouble when the cold liquor back sent some ice crystals into the heat exchange, and I got to help by monitoring the flow meter and reporting back to the brewhouse office via walkie-talkie.

After hanging out in the brewhouse for most of the day, and seeing how the hops are added to the boil using the "Sofa King Hoppy," I wandered around to visit other departments.

Cellarman Jon Talkington demonstrated dry-hopping a 200-barrel fermenter using the "Me So Hoppy" unit and CO2. These Dogfish Head boys are very clever. Oh, and "Dogfish Head" is named after some headlands on the coast of Maine where Owner/Mastermind Sam Calagione spent his summers as a child.

Then I hung out with QC Supervisor Chad Collier in the lab, or should I say "labs." Chad demonstrated a nifty $32,000 testing machine that sucks up beer through a straw and spits out a receipt with O.G., F.G., Calories, and other information printed on it. (Chad, if you email me the name of this machine, I will post it here.) We tested my Calorie Calculation formula against the machine and Chad was impressed with how close the numbers were.

We discussed the importance of brewpubs and other small breweries doing basic labwork like HLP (Hsu's Lactobacillus & Pediococcus media). Click here for my pre-publication Brewpub HLP Lab Manual. Chad showed me some nifty machines that may be cheap enough for a brewpub to afford, including the Spectrophotometer and the Bio-Illuminator. Very cool!

A few weeks ago "Joe Sixpack," also known as freelance writer Don Russell, interviewed me for his article on Collaboration Brews that will be published in the Philadelphia Daily News and in Draft Magazine. Don arrived in the afternoon and Brewmaster Andy Tveekrem gave us the detailed tour of Dogfish Head's facilities. Dogfish Head is in a continual state of expansion, and Andy leads all the brewery expansion and construction projects. (Photo at right is of Sam Calagione and Don "Joe Sixpack" Russell.)

A contingent of eight Canadians, all employees or owners of Toronto's famous Beer Bistro arrived and Sam gave them his VIP tour. Chef/Proprietor Brian Morin and his staff had driven about 12 hours from Toronto to Milton in order to convince Sam to come to Toronto to do a beer dinner at the Beer Bistro.

Sam was so impressed with their passion and perseverance that he hosted a mini beer dinner for them at Dogfish Head's Rehoboth Beach brewpub. "Joe Sixpack,"Andy Tveekrem, and I joined the boisterous bunch upstairs. I rode with Sam, which was a treat, and we talked about marketing, Steelhead, and Michael Jackson.

Sam was instrumental in arranging the world wide Toast to Michael Jackson that will occur on September 30th at 9:00 pm EST, 6:00 pm PST. Be sure to get a pint or bottle of something that Michael could appreciate in your fridge so you are ready for your toast that Sunday night!

Upstairs at the brewpub is where Dogfish Head's distillery is. Sam and General Manager Jim Boyd showed me their homemade system. I just love little distilleries. I tasted the Chocolate Vodka and it was good.

The tables were set up in a T-shape. Andy and I sat across from Brian and "Tweedy" from Canada. Tweedy wants to become a professional brewer. Andy and I were happy to have him pick our professional brains and we filled him to overflowing with all the advice he could handle.

We tasted most of Dogfish Head's standard beers, like the 60-minute IPA, and some of the unusual beers, like the Midas Touch with 1/3 honey, 1/3 Muscat grape juice, and 1/3 malted barley. We also tasted a very smooth and silky Chicory Stout, and Chateau Jiahu made with honey, hawthorn, grapes and malt. The food was good and I managed to drink moderately in spite of the strong beers that were served.

Claus Hagelman gave me a lift back from Rehoboth Beach to Milton. The night was warm and humid. Claus drives a classic 1968 Buick Riviera. It's a big car and with front and back windows down, there's a huge open space where the air can flow in. Riding in a big Buick like that makes you step back in time and enjoy the ride for the sake of the ride. Claus espoused his marketing philosophies and I enjoyed his input.

The next day I worked on scheduling my trip, photos and this blog until about 4:00 pm. A big Thank You to Dogfish Head for letting me take over a corner of their brewhouse office (and trip the brewers with my ethernet cable) in order to work on the Internet. Dogfish Head also gifted me a mixed case of their yummy strong beers, including a big bottle each of Fort (with raspberries) and Chateau Jiahu. Sam himself signed a hardback copy of his book, "Brewing Up A Business" for me. I can't wait to devour every word!

Weekend in Mount Laurel, NJ

2007-09-18T08:58:00.000-07:00

"One must have a good memory to be able to keep the promises one makes.- Friedrich Nietzsche

September 14-16: Drove from Stoudt's in Pennsylvania all the way back to New Jersey again. Like I said, it's best to visit breweries during the work week, and relatives on the weekend.

My cousin Gail lives in Mount Laurel with her husband Tom and daughters Michelle (16) and Allison (11). The last time I visited them was in 1996 when Gail was pregnant with Allison. Gail's dad, my Uncle Fritz lives about two miles away.

In the photo at the top of this page, L to R: Teri, Fritz, Tom, Allison, Gail and Michelle.

Gail is a Real Estate Broker and Instructor at Long & Foster Real Estate in nearby Moorestown, and that's where she had me meet her. I followed her to her house and backed my rig up her driveway. Even did a decent job of backing up.

Gail grilled giant t-bone steaks for dinner and we enjoyed them with some craft brewed beers and sodas that I had picked up in Maine. Then I packed my overnight stuff and went to Fritz's house to stay with him for two nights.

The next day Uncle Fritz, known as "Popsie" to the girls, was kind enough to chaufeur us to the local Mount Laurel Fall Festival. It was smaller than I expected, with lots of booths staffed by local real estate and dentist's offices. Gail (photo left) was stationed at the Long & Foster booth handing out free helium balloons.

Allison ran off to join her friend Olivia on the kiddie rides. Do you know those rides where there are round twisty-cars that go around like a ferris wheel, but each of the cars spins and each car contains four people? Well, they didn't have that. Instead they had a single twisty car and four kids were spun in place. I wonder if the operator hand-cranked the ride or if it ran off a lawnmower engine? All the rides were tiny versions of standard County Fair rides. It was sort of comical, yet economical, as $5.oo bought a kid all the rides they could stomach.

More than bored with the booths and too big for the rides, Michelle and I went in search of food. Not as much choice as I'm used to on the west coast: No Thai noodles, burritos, enchaladas, or Indian curry. Just hotdogs, sausages, softserve ice cream, sno-cones, and hamburgers. The longest line had the most interesting food: Crab cake on hamburger bun and deep-fried oreo cookies. The oreo cookies tasted like greasy chocolate doughnuts. Now you know.

I played the usual games with Michelle, Allison and Olivia out of my game bin. I told Jon on the phone that when Olivia grows up she won't need to drink coffee. Both 11-year olds had more energy than ten adults, but especially Olivia. Then I tried to work on photos and my blog. Not easy among the chaos of Michelle and Allison and four of their friends.

Back at Popsie's place, Uncle Fritz (photo at left) and I attempted to wade through about 150 or more old black and white photos that his mother had left him ten years ago. I wrote names on about eight before we gave up and enjoyed some dark chocolate together.

Uncle Fritz lives alone. His wife, Gail's mom, has Altzheimers and lives with Gail's step-sister three hours drive away. I could feel Uncle Fritz's sadness. It's very hard when your beloved wife of 52 years no longer remembers who you are. All I could offer Uncle Fritz was a little company for a little while. I wish I could have offered something more. He was very sweet, and in addition to offering his whole day up to act as chauffer for us girls, he gifted me $100 toward my gas expenses. Thank you Uncle Fritz, XOX!

Back at Gail's house, I repacked my trailer and hooked it back up to the van. After we had our fried chicken and watermellon lunch, we said our good-byes. Gail asked if it's going to be another 11 years before we see each other. I said I hope not - you guys come and visit me in Oregon! Then I drove south toward Delaware.

Pink Boots at Stoudt's

2007-09-16T08:37:00.000-07:00

"Dive into the sea of thought, and find there pearls beyond price." ~Moses Ibn Ezra

September 12-14: Basil T's Brewpub & Italian Grill had a very nice bathroom with a shower upstairs in their offices, so I was able to catch a shower there before I left.

My 12-Volt invterter had broken, so since my van and trailer were disconnected, I drove off in search of a new inverter. An inverter has a cigarrette-lighter plug that leads to a box, and on the box is a standard 3-prong household current outlet. I run DeLorme GPS Street Atlas on my laptop while I drive, and with a working inverter I can keep the computer battery charged. I found Automotive Electronics in Red Bank and bought a 400 Watt unit.

Rehooked my trailer to my Astro van and soon I was on the road to Pennsylvania. Thank you to Gretchen Schmidhausler for gifting me a Basil T's t-shirt.

Adamstown, Pennsylvania is in the middle of Pennsylvania Dutch territory. That means the folks there are mostly of German heritage. (Dutch is a misnomer for "Deutsch," which is German for "German.") Also there are lots of Amish folks of various sects in this area.

I arrived at Stoudt's midafternoon on a beautiful breezy and sunny day. Head Brewer John Matson got me hooked into electrical, and then Carol Stoudt arrived. Carol showed me around the expansive grounds.

Stoudt's quite a family enterprise. Carol and Ed started the brewery in 1987, and Carol was the boots-on Brewmaster for the first two years. Ed is an entrepreneur and has been Chef/Owner of Stoudt's restaurant since he was 22 years old. John Matson is their son-in-law, married to Carrie, Stoudt's Art Director. Son Eddie is Sales Manager and he's engaged to Jodi Andrews, a very experienced brewer who used to work at Boston Beer Works. Daughter Elizabeth is the Head Baker in the bread department, and she also administers the weekend Antique Shows. Even the grandkids get involved, helping where they can.

After the tour, Carol set me up with several beers to taste. Then we went up the street to "Stoudtville," where Eddie and Jodi live. Stoudtville is an actual town just up the street from Stoudt's large complex. It was Ed's vision to develop a European-styled village where the homeowners lived upstairs and had shops on the first floor. Ed's vision was a bit ahead of its time, and he needed cash for a brewery expansion, so now other developers are continuing the exapansion of Stoudtville. Most of the residents are second-career folks or semi-retired, and their shops may be open every day or just on weekends when most of the antique-hunters and tourists visit. There seems to be more antique shops per capita here than anywhere I've ever seen. Carol says its because the local folks are so thrifty they never throw anything away, and they fix the old stuff and keep it in good condition.

We visited Jodi at home, above her vintage clothing shop. Jodi (photo at left) began collecting gnomes when a friend of hers who owned a tavern in Boston gave her a LaChouf gnome. It's been gnomes ever since.

After tours of my trailer, we settled down with the whole family and a few grandkids outside on the new patio for dinner. Ed is famous for his steaks. He's so particular about his steaks, that he won't allow any one else to cut them. Carol laughs as she explains that they can only go away for ten days at a time, because Ed has to be back to cut the steaks.

The next morning I met up with Ed in the kitchen to watch him work his steak-cutting magic. Ed cuts the "chain" off the tenderloin, which many steak restaurants don't do. He also cuts the tendon sheath off the sirloins, so he's got the tenderest sirloins around. Photo at right is Ed cutting and weighing the steaks. When Ed and Carol do go away, like to the upcoming GABF in Denver, Ed vacu-packs the steaks and cryo-preserves them on ice in the cooler.

The first night I had the Filet Minon for dinner, and the second night I tried the Sirloin, and I have to agree: Ed knows his steaks. They were tender, juicy, and perfect at Medium-Rare.

After cutting steaks, Ed and I went to their house in downtown Adamstown where Carol whipped up a batch of her famous sourdough pancakes. Ed is a big believer in sourdough. He claims he lost 30 pounds on his beer and sourdough diet.

In the afternoon I hung out with the brewers. In the photo below, L to R, Top Row: Gary Gagliardi, Teri, John Matson and Matt Krasst. Bottom Row: Brett Kintzer and Joe McMonagle.
We tried plenty of beer my first night at Stoudt's. (I held off on starting "Happy Hour" too early on the second night.) In the photo at the top of this page, Ed is pouring their wood-aged Fat Dog. Their big bottles are rare and tasty treats. Photo at top of page, L to R: Ed, Jodi, Teri, Carol and Eddie.

On the second morning before my departure, I was able to spend some time in the bread bakery with Elizabeth. (Photo below.) Elizabeth is a self-trained bread baker, like myself. She has an instinct for it, and knows how much liquid to add be squeezing the flour and poking the dough. There is a very nifty bread mixmaster in the bakery. It's much slower than your standard huge Hobart restaurant kitchen mixmaster.

Elizabeth says she likes to start her day by mixing up some dough and she came in early that day and had some loaves proofing for when I worked with her. All of her breads use a sourdough culture that Ed procured from a restaurant friend in New York. I was told the culture is over 100 years old. It is the same sourdough culture that Carol used in her sourdough pancakes.

As soon as we got there, Elizabeth heated one of the three ovens to 450 degrees. She scored each loaf with distinctive cuts, and she put sunflour seeds on the Multigrain loaves and flour on her Rye loaves. The Beer Bread goes naked except for a wheat-patterned score cut into the top. With these distinctive cuts and toppings, the customers (and gift shop employees) can determine at a glance what type of loaf it is.

Elizabeth deftly popped each of the loaves into the oven and filled the oven right up. She shut the door, set the timer, and hit the steam button. Steam filled the hot oven and hissed out around the door's edges.

At this point the dough had been kneaded in the machine to the right texture. Elizabeth plopped a big wad in front of me on the wooden work table. It looked like about three gallons of dough! It was all Beer Bread dough, and she had put crushed Crystal malt and Scarlet Lady ESB beer into it. She handed me the table scraper and told me to cut off two pound hunks of dough. That's me in the photo below following directions. Elizabeth is in the background transferring finished loaves from the oven to the rack.

Elizabeth showed me how to roll the dough for the first rolling. It's all done by hand, and you roll the dough like you're rolling up a wet beach towel. She threw plastic over the loaves and we let them rest for 20 minutes, then we rerolled them longer and thinner. Elizabeth said I was a pretty decent roller. (My loaves were a bit too long at first, but we fixed them.) After the second rolling, we transferred the loaves to wooden boards covered with cornmeal, six to a board. Elizabeth put all the boards on a rack, and then they were rolled into a big proofing box to rise. Elizabeth favors a three-day proof at a cool temperature (36-38 degrees) so that the loaves can develop their sour flavor.

Believe it or not, we were so fast and Elizabeth is so organized, that I only spent just over an hour in the bakery!

After my bread baking experience, I rode with Carol back to their house for a shower and sourdough pancake and eggs breakfast with Ed. Whew! A full foodie experience at Stoudts' in Adamstown!

Then it was back to my trailer, pack up, and head back to New Jersey to visit relatives for the weekend. You probably already figured this out: I try to schedule breweries during the week when the brewers are working, and my relatives during the weekend when they are not working.

Pink Boots at Basil T's Brewpub & Italian Grill

2007-09-11T18:10:00.001-07:00

"In attempts to improve your character, know what is in your power and what is beyond it." ~Francis Thompson

September 10-11: OK, I overslept. What can I say? Aunt Pat is such a party animal - she hardly goes to bed before midnight!

Then I realized I'd better do some laundry, and...

Michael and Ellen helped me plan the next driving section of my route. This is not as easy as it seems. On the west coast, if there is a highway, anybody can drive on it. Not so on the east coast! There are highways called Parkways, and sometimes only passenger cars can drive on them.

Because of the trailer I am towing, I can only go on the Parkways where commercial trucks can drive. Finding out which are which is not as easy as it should be. It's not on the maps and the Internet is not always accessible.

Michael called about four New Jersey state police offices and they kept passing the buck and telling him to call some other police department. Finally he called the local AAA office and we got the answer.

FYI: I know for sure that in NY a van and trailer cannot drive on the Bronx River Parkway nor the Hutchinson River Parkway. In NJ I couldn't travel on the Pallisades Interstate Parkway.

One funny thing with this situation, is that when I used my DeLorme GPS system that runs on my laptop, there is no option to force it to avoid these routes. Therefore the bloody system kept yelling at me all the way from Brooklyn to Scarsdale, and half of the way from Scarsdale to Red Bank, NJ. (And if you go to Basil T's, you want the one in Monmouth County, not the other Red Bank in New Jersey.) There is another Basil T's brewpub in Toms River in Ocean County that is not related to this one.

Luckily you can drive on the Garden State Parkway with a van and trailer, although I didn't see very many semi-trucks. It must cost a ton of money to ship stuff from New York to New Jersey because the truckers have to go so far out of their way.

Found Red Bank easy enough, but Basil T's is lacking in their signage. I finally spotted the brewing tanks as I rounded a corner, zooming right past the entrance to their parking lot. No left turn allowed and I was suddenly routed back over the river I just came over. It's not so easy finding a place to turn around when you're towing a trailer.

So what signage does Basil T's have besides tanks showing through windows? A letter "B" on the awning. That's it. That and a very cool photo of an Italian deli with an old bicycle and wine bottles, but how the heck would you know what that photo means? It's on a huge back-lit sign out front - with no words. If it weren't for those brewing tanks I never would have found the place. Luckily lots of locals know where Basil T's is - it's a very popular restaurant. They also apparently know this snazzy photo is "sign language" for Basil T's.

Parked across a few parking spots while I called Brewmaster Gretchen Schmidhausler to see where I should park. (It's a small lot.) Manager J.J. had me park in the corner in one parking spot, and disconnect the van and park that in the next parking spot. Luckily business is quiet for about one week between the busy summer season, and the busy rainy and winter season. It didn't look so quiet to me, but I didn't get kicked out of the parking lot either.

J.J. is a personable young manager, and he was most helpful in getting me set up at the bar with their ethernet cable. Basil T's free wireless Internet is more than spotty - it hardly registers. With a good ethernet connection, I blogged for several hours with some beers and lots of football fans to keep me company. Then I had a delightful lemon-caper-chicken dish and a glass of Sauvignon Blanc.

The next morning, I met Gretchen at 8:30 am to brew Basil T's 1000th batch of beer. Today is a milestone for me too: Basil T's is the 50th brewery that I have visited on my trip - the 27th I've brewed at, and I've also visited 23 others.

Because of the timing for Gretchen's GABF entries, she couldn't brew something wacky or unusual for the 1000th batch, just her regular Maxwell's Dry Stout. She's already won two GABF gold medals and one bronze medal with this Stout. She's hoping for another gold.

Most of the beers I've participated in brewing along the way I will never taste. However I will be attending (and judging at) the GABF this year, so I plan to visit Basil T's booth and taste Gretchen's 1000 beer that I was witness to.

I'd like to take a moment to clarify something. When I wear pink boots at a brewery and "help" them brew a beer, I'm actually not doing the brewing. Sometimes I participate very little. It depends on how automated the system is, and how much the brewers feel comfortable letting me help. I'm mostly there to observe, ask questions of them, and answer their questions. It's more about an interchange of brewing information and techniques. Generally I job shadow one or several people during the day. I find it fun to hang out for a little while in each of the departments. Every brewery has a specific way to "skin that cat," and far be it for me to tell another brewer that they should brew with my procedures on their system!

The interchange of ideas and brainstorming of solutions has been mind-expanding for me, and hopefully will turn out to be career-expanding for me as well. I think most all the brewers I've visited have found these conversations at least enjoyable, and hopefully a few found my suggestions helpful and on-target for solution finding.

So, Gretchen mashed-in her 1000th batch of stout, assisted by Leo the resident handyman and all-around most-helpful guy. I watched and tried not to get in the way.

That's not as easy as it seems. Gretchen works on a Pub mono-block system. Pub is on record as saying the Basil T's installation was installed into the smallest space they've ever put a system. Her combination brewhouse and fermentation room take up 10 x 20 square feet. There are walk-spaces that are 3-inches wide. I kid you not. Luckily several glass walls are actually glass doors, and they open to allow passage if needed.

In the middle of the afternoon Ale Street News editor and publisher Tony Forder dropped in to say, "Hi" and have a beer. Photo at top of page, L to R: Tony, Gretchen and Teri. Former brewer and owner of Heavyweight Brewing Company, Tom Baker, joined us for a beer. (Tom is in the photo at the bottom of this page.)

After Gretchen put the beer to bed in one of the four fermenters, she wrote on it with dry-erase marker. See photo above right.
While Gretchen worked on a few things in the brewery, I wandered around and took pictures of Basil T's impressive mug club mugs. They are up to over 1,300 mugs now, and they're shooting for 2,000 mugs before May 2008. They're already out of room behind the bar, so if the owner, Vic, reaches his goal of 2,000, then they will have to remodel the bar!

Their mug price is so cheap, I can't imagine that anybody in Red Bank wouldn't be a member. For $24 a year (for 2007), you get to keep the mug (you get a new mug each year), plus you get about 4 extra ounces, so instead of $5.75 for 16 ounces, you pay $3.75 for 20 ounces. And there are special "mug nights" where the price of a 20 ounce mug of beer drops to $3.00. The photos below barely register the impressive impact the sheer volume of matching mugs make on the bar scene.

At the end of the day, while Gretchen did "clean up," I borrowed a spot at a desk upstairs and actually connected to the upstairs wireless router. I spent several hours in the afternoon (and after dinner) finally catching up on blogs and photos. Yes!

Gretchen left for a few hours after work to go home, shower, and check her dogs. Gretchen is a newlywed - only three months. Unfortunately her husband Kevin couldn't join us for dinner.

Gretchen and Tom Baker returned at 5:30 pm, and we had a lovely early dinner next to a window beneath a beautiful mural in the dining room. Basil T's really is a classy Italian restaurant. We enjoyed several of Gretchen's beers with our meals and laughed a lot.

Then with Gretchen's award-winning Maxwell's Dry Stout in our hands, we posed for the photo below. L to R: Teri, Gretchen and Tom Baker. Unfortunately Tom's wife Peggy had a work committment and couldn't join us. Peggy contacted me a long time ago when I first announced this trip on the BA Brewers Forum. Even though her and Tom's brewery, Heavyweight Brewing Company, is now defunct, Peggy wanted to make sure that I was coming through Red Bank to visit Gretchen. I had met Gretchen as a GABF Judge, and I had definitely planned to visit her. After some late night blogging up in Basil T's office, I headed out to my trailer to talk to my husband to get an in depth rundown of how his first two days at his new job have been. I sure miss him! Good night.

Weekend in Scarsdale, NY

2007-09-11T17:43:00.000-07:00

"Live so that you wouldn't be ashamed to sell the family parrot to the town gossip." ~Will Rogers

September 9-10: Woke up early and began to rearrange the beer I've collected in my trailer. One bottle of everything is heading to Oregon so I can share it with my husband. The rest I repack into mixed 6-packs that I will distribute as I continue on my journey. Hopefully every brewer that I visit will find something special that they can't get locally in their gift 6-pack from me.

Ellen made a lovely Sunday morning breakfast of scrambled eggs, turkey bacon, and a very nice cinnamon coffee cake. Then it was time for Valerie to dress up in a fancy black party dress and head off to another local Bar-Mitzva party. I guess boys can invite girls to their Bar Mitzvas. The theme of this party was rock and roll. While she was gone I taught her twin Brian several games from my bin including Cathedral, Quoridor and Loot. That was fitting because yesterday when he was off partying at a Bar-Mitzva I taught the same games to Valerie.

Then I spent a few hours going through a stack of old photos with my Aunt Pat (photo above). She's my father's eldest sibling and is still pretty feisty at 88. As we went through the photos, I wrote on the back of each photo who was in the photo, and where and what year the photo was taken.

We called my Pop when we were finished to see if we were supposed to send the photos back to him or if Aunt Pat was supposed to keep them. He said we weren't done with our homework: we had to put all the photos (about 40 of them) into chronological order and slide them into a little photo book. We did, and now Aunt Pat has a small picture book of her life story to show to any and all visitors.

Then it was time for the weekly Sunday dinner at Ellen's mother's house. I got there a bit late because Michael's brother, Peter and his wife Denise showed up at the last minute after being away for the weekend. We literally had 30 minutes to visit. Peter asked me a few questions about my trip and I pretty much spoke at top speed for most of the 30 minutes. I hadn't seen Peter and Denise since 1996, so it was nice to visit, even if briefly.
Ellen's mother is a charming woman with a charming house. Ellen's brother "Uncle Bill" joined us for turkey, mushroom pasta, veggies and salad. Photo above, L to R: Michael, Bill, Ellen, Valerie and Brian.

Photo below, L to R around the table: Ellen, Valerie, Brian, Mother, Teri and Michael.

Back home and time for bed. School for the kids tomorrow. I planned to get up at 7:15 am and get ready for the next leg of my trip.

Morning in Manhattan & Drive to Scarsdale, NY

2007-09-11T13:38:00.000-07:00

"Go to your bosom. Knock there, and ask your heart what it doth know." ~William Shakespeare

September 8: I'd left a phone and email message last night with Jon's cousin, Cathleen, who lives in Manhattan. She returned my call about 8:30 am this morning, just as I was checking my email messages.

In the middle of Brooklyn Brewery's warehouse in the middle of Brooklyn, I found an unsecured wireless network available, so I "borrowed" it. Nice to have an office right in my trailer!

Cathleen told me which subway trains to take to catch up with her on the edge of Central Park. We went for a nice brisk hike past the folks camped since yesterday trying to snag free tickets to the last "Shakespeare in the Park" of the summer. Then we walked around the reservoir. I'd never been to Central Park. It's a very spendy neighborhood. I really liked it! If I lived in New York City, I'd be lusting after some digs nearby. (Photo of us in Central Park above. Note Manhattan skyline in the background.)

After our hike, Cathleen treated me to lunch at a trendy bistro called "Nice Matin." She picked the place because it had a great beer menu. How thoughtful!

During our walk, Cathleen had told me what her favorite beers were: Several brands of imported lagers that come in green bottles. She's a foodie, so I thought I could turn her on to some more interesting beers. Since she already liked bottled beer, I ordered two draft beers from Belgium. (Photo of us at lunch below.)

Cathleen enjoyed our Wit and Belgian Golden ales. But she was intrigued by the Saison DuPont stories I told her; how it played a role in Jon's and my courtship. Since we were talking too much to eat quickly (okay, that was me), we ordered the bottle of Saison DuPont to enjoy with the second half of our meals. Cathleen liked the Saison DuPont best of all. Score!

After lunch I got a quick tour of the apartment Cathleen shares with her son William, and then I took the train back to Brooklyn.

Back at the warehouse, I got the trailer and van road-ready, then the warehouse manager directed me as I backed my rig at an angle out of the warehouse. Whew! I did it. I sure didn't want to have to disconnect the trailer to push it out.

The drive from Brooklyn to Scarsdale, New York, was like a roller-coaster ride. My knuckles were white from clutching the steering wheel; the lines painted between the lanes were 50% closer together than they are on any freeways in California or Oregon, so I had the added thrill of wondering when that semi-truck in the next lane would shear off my trailer mirror-extensions. The highways seemed to be under construction so the lanes were rerouted with sharp turns that wove in and out of what should be the road's shoulder. The van and trailer bounced up and down over the bumps of the road's zig-zag transitions. They sounded like a squeeky bed.

Arrived in Scarsdale in good shape. Not me - the van and trailer. My cousin Michael expertly backed my rig into his narrow driveway. I met his twin children, Brian and Valerie, both 13, whom I had not met before. The last time I saw Michael was when he and Ellen were married in 1984. They have an extended family, as Michael's mom, my Aunt Pat also lives with them. Michael grilled big juicy BBQ ribs for dinner, Ellen made home-made German potato salad with vinegar and bacon, and we sat down to a fine dinner.

Brian missed the feast. He was dressed to the teeth and off to a Bar-Mitzva party, a type of event that happens quite often in Scarsdale. The Bar-Mitzva's theme was Monte Carlo gambling, and I don't think Brian missed our little feast one bit.

Pink Boots at Brooklyn Brewery

2007-09-10T16:47:00.000-07:00

"Our imagination is the only limit to what we can hope to have in the future." ~Charles F. Kettering

September 8-9: Ah yes, he's still the champ: Nobody can do "The Garrett" as good as Brewmaster Garrett Oliver can. Point proven in the photo above.

After my shower and mash-in at Southampton Publick House on Long Island, I was off for Brooklyn. I took the photo at right while just driving into Brooklyn. I liked the pink graffitti heart on the back of the semi-truck!

I arrived at Brooklyn Brewery without incident. Garrett had a parking spot all picked out for me in their warehouse. He rode with me as we circled the block, waiting for a big truck to leave after loading up with Brooklyn's beers. Garrett had me pull straight in, between the rows of kegs.

The photo at left shows where I was parked for two nights. The warehouse got really hot at night, so luckily the warehouse guys were able to hook me up, and I had electricity so I could run my trailer's air conditioning. If not for Garrett, where would a nearly 30-foot Road Brewer rig park in Brooklyn?

Garrett gave me a full tour of the premises. The detail at right is the old carved concrete ceiling in the delivery entryway of the warehouse.

Garrett set me up with a full line-up of all his tap beers, plus his famous (or soon to be famous) "Local One," a medium-bodied Belgian-style beer. Garrett didn't shoot for any particular Belgian style with this beer. In fact, Garrett likes to ride the line between American and British with his straight ales, and he likes to be a little un-style-able with most of his beers.

I had generous pours in front of me, and I'd skipped lunch, so I was feeling pretty good by the time we jumped in Garrett's car to head to Manhattan for dinner.

Garrett only learned to drive about ten years ago. When you grow up in Manhattan, you hardly need to have a car. Garrett must have attended the "Italian Taxi Driver School of New York Driving." He's good in a scary way. Many years ago I attended the "Wisconsin Country-Bumpkin School of Small Town Driving," so I would never attempt the professional driving moves that Garrett was able to pull off. I took the photo at left as we drove across the bridge into Manhattan.

Garrett took me to The Spotted Pig, a highly popular dive foodie bar where Garrett's buddy, Mario Batali is an investor. I think Garrett knows every famous food, beer, and wine person in New York City. Garrett's beer was on cask so we ordered glasses of that and some Local One too. Garrett suggested the Gnudi, which were like Gnocchi, but stuffed with cheese. I said let's go easy on the cheese as I'm allergic to it. We ended up with several cheesy dishes but I didn't make a fuss. Sometimes in the name of gorgeous and delicious food you have to suffer with allergies just a little.

After dinner Garrett suggested we walk to the Blind Tiger, one of his favorite New York beer bars. (Photo at right.) We enjoyed 4-ounce tastes of a very strong English beer that had been aged in a Port wood barrel.

At that point I was hankering after a sour beer, and Garrett surprised me with an oak-aged Belgian-style sour red ale made in Italy. Who'da thunk it?

I took a photo of the bottle's label so I could remember it. I wanted to recommend it to Chip Hardy, the proprietor of Eugene's multi-beer "The Bier Stein." The name of the Italian oak-aged sour Belgian was "Panil Barriquee." The photo turned out as blurry as I felt, so I'm not posting it here.

The next morning I meandered across the street to the brewery and met up with Tom Villa who was about to mash off the single brew of the day. Then I hung out with lab guy Dan Peterson. Christopher Basso was busy with Brooklyn Brewery's current Intern, Kristoph, who was visiting for 5-weeks from Weihenstephan's brewing school in Freising, Germany.

Some of the guys brought sack lunches, but Garrett will often do a lunch run to fetch lunch for himself and the other brewers. His call today? Half-pound hamburgers from the famous Peter Luger Steak House. Wow! Yummy. And filling.

After lunch I took over one of the computers in Brooklyn's offices upstairs to work on my blog and emails.

Popped down just as all the brewers were about to head home. They'd already changed out of their work uniforms. Kristoff took the friendly photo at left and the photo at the top of this page.

Garrett helped me figure out my route to Scarsdale for tomorrow, and also told me about the closest train/subway station.

Soon it was 6:00 pm and time and time for the weekly "Brooklyn Happy Hour." (Photo below.) It was slow at first but heated up quickly. Garrett stuck around for a few hours, a rarity for him, and the other brewers came back to hang out for awhile.

Brooklyn Beer's Happy Hour is a happening Friday night hot spot for this up-and-coming neighborhood. Folks of all stripes and tatoos bring their babies and their thirst for $3.00 pints of Brooklyn's best.

Where else in Brooklyn could you get a pint for $3.00? After the crowd and noise surpassed my tolerance level, I retired to the peace and quiet of my trailer in the warehouse across the street and read a book.

Thank you to Garrett for gifting me a mixed case of Brooklyn Brewery's beers.

48 Breweries Visited So Far!

2007-09-07T14:46:00.000-07:00

“You never know till you try to reach them how accessible people are; but you must approach each person by the right door.” ~Henry Ward Beecher

Lots of people have asked me, "How many breweries have you visited so far?"

I haven't had time to count them up until just now. This count includes Southampton but none beyond that. My statistics are:

Breweries where I "brewed" or job shadowed a brewer: 25
Breweries that I visited but didn't hang out all day: 23

Total Breweries: 48

48 breweries, and each has something unique for me to see or taste. Lucky me!

Pink Boots at Southampton Publick House

2007-09-07T10:36:00.000-07:00

"There is no shortage of good days. It is good lives that are hard to come by." ~Annie Dillard

Sept 4-6: Departed Newtown around noon and drove straight to the ferry at Bridgeport, Connecticut. The photo at left shows my van & trailer first in line 3. Photo below left shows the view off the back of the ferry. I wrote blog posts on my computer during the 75 minute crossing.

Drove straight over to Southampton with no incidents. Brewer and Regional Sales Rep Spencer Niebur met me at the Southampton Publick House bar, and had me park in their parking lot across the street.

Then Spencer was kind enough to take me on a sunset drive. We saw giant estates, a beautiful white sand beach (Spencer said it was rated one of the top three in the nation), and a great view of the sunset over one of the marshes where all those famous Long Island ducks feed. Photo at left is the beach, and photo at right is the sunset.

I can see why "The Hamptons" are so popular with the rich and famous. The area is just beautiful. The houses are cute, the shops are trendy and expensive. The restaurants are good. (Everything I ate at Southampton Publick House was outstanding.) And the beaches are stunning.

After my tour, we went back to Southampton Publick House and Exectutive Chef Carl whipped us up some items he is working on for future Beer Dinners. Our first course was Blue Crab on half an Avocado, served with Southampton's Double White, an extra strong Belgian Wit. The entree was Pork Loin marinated in Southampton's IPA. After grilling, it was dipped in honey and maple syrup then put under the broiler to carmelize. This was served on top of mashed sweet potatoes and winter greens with a maple-honey sauce. This entree was designed to be served with Southampton's Pumpkin Ale, but instead we had it with their Grand Cru, which was full-bodied and robust with a caramel sweetness.

The next day Spencer was busy with sales calls all day, so I worked on photos, blogs, and figuring out how to set up an email newsletter system with Constant Contact. Later in the day I got the photo below of Spencer (left), Assistant Brewer Evan Addario (center) and me in front of the kettle. I had hoped to go on sales calls with Spencer, but because it was right after labor day weekend, a lot of the owners of local restaurants and pubs were out for the day.

For lunch Spencer recommended the Caeser Duck Wrap. The famous Long Island duck (a particularly meaty wild Mallard) was marinated in Caeser Dressing before grilling. It was so good and filling that I didn't even eat dinner that night.

On Thursday morning, the day of my departure, Brewmaster Phil Markowski brewed his Espresso Stout. I got to mash in for a bit myself (photo below left). Phil and I are in the photo at the top of this page.

Phil and his wife are from Connecticut and recently moved back there with their three small boys. That gives Phil a huge commute when he works in Southampton. Phil also keeps busy commuting to the two breweries that contract brew some of his unique Belgian-style beers. One is in upstate New York, and the other brewery is in Pennsylvania.

Southampton is unique among contracting breweries. Instead of just contracting those other breweries to brew Southampton's recipe, Phil actually goes there and brews his recipes on their systems with them. Brewing at three different locations keeps Phil busy. Luckily Spencer and Evan can help him in Southampton.

Other unique features of Southampton Publick House are that the brewing equipment is installed on cement pillars in the basement, which brings the tanks up to eye level of the restaurant. This gives the brewers a little bit of space below the brewhouse vessels.

Southampton's beers are also unique. Phil prides his beers on being eclectic and I agree. He offers a blend of European and American styles, often in the same beer. For some of his classic styles, Phil has pushed them just a little farther. Hence his 7.2% ABV Belgian-Wit-style Double White.

I used to think that Oregon was cutting edge in the beer business. This trip has really changed my mind about that! I hope to bring some of the unique and interesting beer variations and techniques I've seen on this trip, home to Portland. Oregon makes lots of fabulous and interesting beers, but they are not the most unique beers out there today. Maybe I'll get lucky and in my next job I'll be involved in a brewery's wood-aged beer program. You never get what you don't ask for, so I'm putting the good vibes out there for this!

After mashing in, Phil gifted me with a mixed case of his 12-ounce beers, and a mixed case of his very special 750-ml Belgian-style beers. Sorry, I'm saving the big bottles for when I next see my husband Jon, so I'm not sharing any of them.

Thank you to Brooklyn Brewery for letting me borrow a computer in their office to write and post this blog.

P.S. I have given away approximately 600 business cards so far on my journey. I only have 200 left, so I just ordered 500 more. I still have two months to go on this 5-month road trip.

100th Post: News From The Road

2007-09-05T16:24:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the 100th post on this blog. Here is some news from the road…

1.) The bad news first: Some of you may already have heard that beer scribe and craft beer champion, Michael Jackson, died last week of Parkinson’s Disease. Google “Michael Jackson beer writer,” for more information on Michael and his remarkable career as everybody’s favorite beer writer. Here is one link: http://lifeandhealth.guardian.co.uk/food/story/0,,2161923,00.html

2.) The Pink Boots Society list of women brewers worldwide is growing every day. As of this post there are over 30 USA brewers and six international brewers listed. Please email any information you have about women brewers not listed here. Thanks!

3.) I’ve been collecting visitor statistics on this blog since August 13. The last full week I have statistics for is the week of August 27 – September 2. You might be interested to learn that during this period of time…

Unique visitor count was 856 during this one week of time!
Average time spent on this blog was 8 minutes 45 seconds per visitor.
Visitors are coming from the USA only at this time.
44% of visitors are typing in the URL directly.
30% are coming from search engines (mostly Google).
26% are coming from links on other websites.
63.2% are new visitors that have not visited the site before.

4.) Bust magazine (published out of New York) recently interviewed me and some other women brewers listed on my website for an article on… Women Brewers. The article will appear in their December-January issue. (Looking for a Christmas stocking-stuffer for yourself or a woman who loves beer?) The freelance author, Aimee Dowl, who interviewed me told me that the magazine is aimed at women who like to create and do things for themselves and who want to read about other strong women. She also interviewed some women homebrewers for this article, and there may be directions on homebrewing your first batch of beer.

5.) Aimee Dowl, who interviewed me for the Bust Magazine article above, asked me about my plans for after the Road Brewer trip ends. I thought you might be interested in my plans as well, so here they are:

a. My husband and I will be relocating to Portland, Oregon, so I will be looking for full-time employment as a brewer there.

b. While I am looking for a job, I will be fleshing out my blog into a book. The book will have additional information about the breweries and brewers that I visited, and it will have lots of maps, website URLs, and contact info for each of the breweries. If you know of a publisher that may be interested in publishing a beer adventure book, please drop me an email.

c. Also while I am looking for a job, I plan to continue to put on the pink boots and brew with brewers in Oregon and Washington. I hope to do this one day per week, so you can be assured that the Road Brewer’s adventures will continue. There are over 70 breweries in Oregon now (Steelhead was number 11 back in 1991), so I’ll have more than enough opportunity for adventure just in Oregon.

d. I hope to develop a radio show about beer, beer styles, and beer & food pairing.

e. Once I land my Portland brewing job, I plan to keep this Road Brewer blog going with whatever interesting brewing and beer adventures I can think up. Therefore, please stay tuned…

4.) In order to keep the dialog going with you, my dear readers, I want to begin an Email Newsletter. My plan is to send an email newsletter to the subscribers every 10th post on the blog, or quarterly, or whenever it is not too often nor a hassle to my subscribers.

The newsletters may include additional info not found on the blog, updates on the book and radio projects Pink Boots Society news, and other beer-related bits that I find interesting. Subscribers may unsubscribe at any time. Sign up box is at the top-right edge of this blog. Please sign up. Thanks!

Thank you to Southampton Publick House for letting me tap into their wireless network to update this blog.

Labor Day Weekend in Newtown, CT

2007-09-05T15:51:00.000-07:00

“Never trouble another for what you can do for yourself.” ~Thomas Jefferson

September 1 - 4: Slept in a bit in my trailer in the parking lot at Cape Cod Beer Company. Then blogged a bit, then hit the road. Some of the trees are just beginning to turn their Fall colors. Arrived in Newtown, Connecticut before dinner bearing three growlers of Cape Cod Beer. They were a big hit with my relatives.

My cousin, Joanne lives in a section of Newtown called Sandy Hook. Her daughter Lori is five years younger than I am and is married with three nearly-teenagers. Met the kids, two for the first time. The kids went to bed early - their first week of getting up early for school had exhausted them. Us grown-ups stayed up a bit too late playing various card games from my game bin.

L to R in the Photo above: Kurt, Kevin, Teri, Kirsten, Eric, Lori and Joanne, all in front of Big Buddy, my trailer.

Up at 7:00 am on Sunday morning and off to the big semi-annual flea market. Found a nice bedside table for Joanne. She's a good bargainer and got the price reduced from $75 to $40. After all the fresh air, sunshine, and antiques we could stand, Lori gave me the driving tour of Sandy Hook and Newtown.

I worked on my trip for a while – this is the part where driving could get very dicey! The next leg of my journey brings me to Long Island, NY via a ferry from Connecticut ($90 one-way for my van-trailer combo). Then I drive from the Hamptons-section of Long Island to Brooklyn, NY. Then from Brooklyn to Scarsdale, NY where other relatives live, and from there down into New Jersey.

While Lori and her husband Eric worked on dinner, I taught the kids several new games from my collection. Of course we stayed up too late again.

Monday morning we were up at 7:00 am again in order to get good seats for the big Newtown Labor Day Parade. We departed at 8:00 am, lawn chairs in tow as we wanted to get good seats. Many folks began lining up their chairs along the parade route the night before. We should have brought the card games because we had nearly two hours to kill as we waited for the parade to begin at 10:00 am.

It was a festive parade that lasted two hours. There were four bagpipe bands in kilts and half-a-dozen Fife & Drum bands in Revolutionary War-type uniforms from all over the state. Every local school and church marched in the parade.

All three political parties (Rep, Dem, and Independent) marched. Several high school marching bands, a band of ex-high school band marchers, the governor’s horse patrol, the governor and all the other state and local politicians, and my personal favorites, the Shriners on their mini-scooters and in tiny gas-powered cars. (Photo above left). It was a really good old-fashioned New England-style parade!

Lori and Eric's oldest son, Kurt, nearly 13, rode his skateboard in the parade. He and the other skateboarders are collecting money for a new skateboard park. Everyone but Kurt is in the photo below, L to R: Kevin, Kirsten (twins), Eric, Joanne and Lori.

Monday was not only Labor Day, it was also Joanne's birthday. We all thanked her for arranging the parade for her birthday! Eric grilled filet minon steaks, Lori made Joanne's favorite carrot cake, all decorated with candles, and the kids had surprisingly good voices when we sang, "Happy Birthday." After cake they regaled us with some Brittany Spears song on the Karaoke machine.

Tuesday morning I overslept. Joanne wanted to take me to the Diner for breakfast, but instead I took a shower while she got breakfast sandwiches to go. Lori came home from work and we chatted nearly too long. I remembered the time just in time, and they had me follow them to Hwy 25. Then I was off to Bridgeport, Connecticut, where I would take the ferry across to Long Island, NY.

Thank you to Southampton Publick House for allowing me to use their wireless Internet to work on this blog.

Pink Boots at Cape Cod Beer

2007-09-01T09:59:00.000-07:00

"Be bold and mighty powers will come to your aid." ~Basil King

August 31: One of the most fun things about working at a small brewery all day is that I get to see and experience a wider variety of tasks.

Today I spent the day with the kind folks at Cape Cod Beer Company. (They have really been taking care of me!) Todd and Beth Marcus began their microbrewery in 2004 when the brewpub where Todd brewed stopped brewing beer. The beautiful copper-clad brewery just sat there.

Then Todd made a deal to lease the brewery from the restaurant and begin self distributing his beer under the name Cape Cod Beer. When the restaurant went under, Todd bought the brewing equipment and moved it to a commercial location. Cape Cod Beer will produce 2,400 barrels this year, seven barrels at a time. Photo at right is me mashing in two bags of pre-milled malt for the first of two batches of Cape Cod Red that Brewer Brian Flagg made today.

This is one of the hardest working breweries I have visited on my trip so far. Owner/Brewmaster Todd Marcus and Brewer Brian Flagg regularly put in 16-hour days. Photo at left is Brian acid-washing the yeast for the second batch. Cape Cod Beer acid-washes their yeast every time they repitch.

Not only did Brian brew two batches of Cape Cod Red today, he also filtered a double batch of Cape Cod IPA through the plate and frame filter. I had to catch up on blogging, so I spent a good portion of the middle of the day in Sales Guy Blake Decker's office on my laptop. Blake not only takes orders and delivers the kegs, he also fills his own kegs from the Bright Tanks.

The whole family gets involved in this Mom & Pop brewery, including Beth's pop, Jim Melvin. (Beth's mom Barbara volunteers family duty babysitting the two boys.) Photo at right is of Jim restocking the growler cooler. Jim was busy on his feet all day, washing and filling growlers, and waiting on customers. Today was the Friday before Labor Day Weekend, and the crowd was non-stop in the gift shop, buying t-shirts, hats, but mostly getting their growlers refilled and buying more and more growlers.

All of Cape Cod's beer is sold as draft, whether kegs to retail accounts, or growlers to beer fans who come from all over the Eastern Seaboard to buy Cape Cod Beer's "A Vacation in Every Pint" beer.

At the end of the day Todd took me with him on a few keg deliveries to local accounts. Cooperage is a bit tight, so they mostly clean and fill kegs as soon as they come back. There are virtually no dirty, empty kegs sitting around waiting to be cleaned. The kegs we delivered were the kegs that Todd cleaned, sanitized and filled this morning. Photo at left and right are of Todd making his deliveries in his Dodge Durango. (An improvement over using Beth's Chevy Venture minivan that Todd made deliveries in back in 2004.)

Todd and Beth gifted me a really nice 16-oz coffee mug with their logo on it.

After the end of the day, an old brewing friend of mine, Jim Migliorni, picked me up to bring me to his house for dinner. Jim (photo below) is now a middle-school teacher on Cape Cod, but he used to be the Brewmaster for Heartland Brewing Company in New York City.

Jim made a splendid dinner of local Quahog Clams (pronounced co-hog), devilled with some chorizo sausage and green and red peppers. After that appetizer we had spiced chicken over spaghetti.

Jim and I had fun catching up. He pretty much disappeared from the brewing radar when he quit Heartland and moved to Cape Cod. If any old buddies want to get hold of Jim, just email me and I'll forward you his email address.

All this socializing keeps me up late at night, but my husband is three hours behind me on Pacific Standard Time, so I still get to talk to him each night. Now that he is between jobs for a week, he is busy condensing and packing all of our things for our future move to Portland, Oregon. We used to be spread out over two sides of a duplex. Now we are condensed into less than one side of the duplex. He tells me I won't even recognize our place it is so jam-packed. Yikes! It will be an interesting move, no doubt.

Just as I was packing up to leave, Todd gifted me three growlers of Cape Cod Beer, and a very special, 1 out of only 200 bottles of his Bourbon Barrel Aged Strong/Old Ale. I'm saving that one to share with my husband Jon.

Thank you to Cape Cod Beer Company for letting me tap into their Internet to update this blog.

P.S. This great-looking, hard-working 7-barrel brewery is now for sale, and Cape Cod Beer is upgrading to a new 15-barrel system. Call Beth at the brewery for more information.

News From The Home Front

2007-09-01T09:52:00.000-07:00

September 1, 1:00pm - I interrupt the chronological nature of this blog to give you the news. (FYI: I am in Hyannis on Cape Cod in Massachusetts and will depart shortly for Sandy Hook, Connecticut.)

A few things have happened behind the scenes on my road trip. One, is that we had a fantastic Lunar Eclipse last week. This photo was taken by a friend of mine in Eugene. The west coast had the best view of this eclipse. My writerly friend (and fellow Wordo) Jerry Oltion is a professional science fiction writer and amateur astronomist. He took this photo without a filter, so the moon really did glow blood red (or orange).

Additional news from the home front is that my Aunt Bonnie, who I visited on June 22, passed away suddenly of pancreatic cancer. She wasn't feeling well when I saw her, and was diagnosed within a week of my visit. Here is my post from Colorado Springs, Colorado. Aunt Bonnie is in the middle of the two photos. My mom is handling it the best she can, but she is now the sole remaining sibling out of her family of five siblings.

Finally, my husband Jon Graber had to make a career decision this week, and chose to change jobs to a new employer. He will begin his new job as Operations Manager for BrewCraft USA in Portland, Oregon on September 10th. That means as soon as I get home we will be hunting for a place to live in Portland, and my job search is now focused on that city. Luckily for me, Portland has more breweries than any other city in the world. Anybody have any leads on a brewing job in Portland that would start in November?

Thank you to Cape Cod Beer for letting me use their Internet connection to update my blog.

Drive to Hyannis and Coastal Cape Cod

2007-08-31T12:27:00.003-07:00

"What people say you cannot do, you try and find that you can." ~Henry David Thoreau

August 30: Up at 7:15 am, showered and at Allison's kitchen table by 8:00 am blogging away. Former brewer and old friend Jim Pericles stopped over at about 9:30 am with fresh tomatoes from his garden. Jim and I had a great time catching up for an hour, and I forgot to take a photo. Oops! Jim now works in the biotech industry.

Then I blogged, packed, worked on photos and did a load of laundry. Finally at 3:00 pm, Allison said, "You have to leave or you'll never get to Cape Cod by 5:00 pm." So I drove off, a can of diet Dr. Pepper in hand.

Arrived at Cape Cod Beer Company in Hyannis, Massachusetts just as a few dedicated homebrewers were showing up. Owner/Brewers Todd and Beth Marcus had set up a little reception for the local homebrewers and regulars to meet me.

In the photo above, L to R: Beth Marcus, John Brinkerhoff, Teri, Bruce Malin, Carl Layman, Paul Smith, Jim Migliorini and Todd Marcus.

We hung out and talked beer & brewing, drank Cape Cod beer and ate snacks for a couple of hours. Everybody was really nice. It was fun to see my old friend Jim Migliorini who is a also a former professional brewer. Jim is now a school teacher on Cape Cod.

Time was flying as usual on this trip, and as the sun threatened to set we hopped in Beth's car, Todd jumped in their new 20 foot antique Winnebago (affectionately known as "Winny-bagel" or "Brave Little Toaster" or "BTBTA: Brewery To Beach Transit Authority") and drove to the beach at Sandy Neck on Cape Cod.

Here at Sandy Neck, people can drive cars and RVs on the beach. We don't get to do anything like that back in Oregon. Before driving your vehicle on the beach, you have to "Air Down" or deflate the tires to 18 PSI. This keeps the vehicle from getting stuck in the sand, and it keeps the beach ruts from getting too deep. Photo at left and right show the Marcuses and their sons Jake and Harry deflating the tires on the car and the camper.
A second cool thing you can do on the beach at Sandy Neck (besides just driving on it) is that you can park your self-contained RV on the beach Thursday night, and just leave it there for the weekend. That way you get a good parking spot before the place crowds up. After work on Friday you pack up the car, go back to your camper on the beach, and there you are for the weekend.

Another cool thing, which we can actually do on the Oregon coast, is that you can have a bonfire on the beach. The photo at right shows our lovely campfire built in a shallow dug pit.

Everybody set up camp when we got there and Todd fired up the grill. We enjoyed hamburgers and hot dogs as we watched the moon rise over Cape Cod Bay. It rose rather quickly through the long fingers of gray-blue clouds, surrounded by the black star-speckled sky. The moon was just off of full. It's bright sepia color and tall oval shape reminded us of an old-fashioned hot air balloon rising into the darkness. It cast a lot of light over the beach. We could see cars and self-contained campers in both directions.

After the Marcuses dropped me off at my camper at the brewery, I pulled in front of the entrance in order to plug in my extension cord. Not sure why, but I haven't had electrical in the trailer the last several nights.

It was already midnight, but my husband Jon wasn't home from his job at Wyeast Laboratories in Hood River, Oregon, three hours away. I left a message and worked while I waited for his return call. I pulled my printer/scanner off the table under my bunk, moved the stuff that is "stored" on the bench seats while I drive, and tipped the table up sideways. That gave me access to the cases of beer that I have been collecting on this trip. I pulled most of the bottles out of the cases/12-pack carriers as I was a bit short on 6-pack carriers. Then I repacked the beers for future brewery gifts.

I packed one bottle of my Steelhead Root Beer into each 6-pack. I'd bought several cases of it before I quit my job at Steelhead. Then I packed five different beers into each 6-pack carrier. My goal was to set up a bunch of mixed 6-packs. As I travel, I try to gift these mixed 6-packs to breweries in such a way, that the receiving brewery is getting beer they normally can't find in their geographic area, and the giving brewery's beers are "distributed" by me to brewers outside of their distribution area. Very fun for all the brewers and breweries involved.

Finally an hour or so later, my husband called. We worry about each other and talk on the phone at least once a day, and always before bedtime. Tomorrow is a big day for him. Stay tuned for details...

Thank you to Cape Cod Beer for letting me use their Internet to work on blogs and emails.

A Visit to Harpoon and Redbones

2007-08-31T11:04:00.001-07:00

"Frugality without creativity is deprivation." ~ Amy Dacyczyn

August 30: Slept in a bit and daydreamed in Allison's luxurious guest bedroom. After lunch Allison and I took off in her car with her little GPS direction finder. I am happy to report that my laptop-driven GPS unit is just as dopey as Allison's small portable unit. They all make a few mistakes and announce the turn just as you're passing it. They're still handy; you just have to go around the block once in a while.

We parked at Harpoon Brewery and walked to Commercial Lobster, a local's fish market and tiny restaurant. Allison bought me lunch. She ordered the coconut shrimp and I had the Clam Strip Roll. It comes with a side dish, fries, cole slaw, or vegetable. The vegetable was steamed beans and that's what I got. We were entertained by a sunburned woman who told herself a lot of jokes and laughed out loud at them. I didn't see any cell phone cord or ear set, so I'm pretty sure she had an invisible companion we just couldn't see.

Walked back to Harpoon where Sales Operations Rep Seth Cohen awaited us. Seth and Quality Control Manager Jaime Schier tag-teamed on giving Allison and me the back-stage tour. Above right is a photo of brewer Charlie Cummings adding hop pellets to the whirlpool.

At left is cellarman Drew Martinez working on his DE filtration. I hadn't seen any contraption like Drew is wearing before, so I asked him about it. Normally a filterman wears a Hepa-filter face mask, but Drew is wearing a motor on his back that pumps filtered air into his face mask, creating a positive displacement of air. That way the DE (diatomaceous earth) cannot get into his mask or his lungs because it is continually blown away by the positive air displacement.

I also found another woman brewer for my Pink Boots Society list of women brewers. Katie Tame was formerly employed in biotech. Like most of us nutty brewers, she took a pay cut to follow her dream and work in a brewery. Katie is mostly employed in the lab now, but I noticed her black rubber boots and asked her about them. She said she is moving slowly toward production. You go girl!

Seth Cohen gifted us a mixed case of Harpoon beer, and then it was off to Redbones for the evening. Redbones BBQ in Somerville is a craft beer institution in the Boston area, and if you are looking to taste a lot of great beer in one place, Redbones is where you should go.

I met owner Robert Gregory back in the early-to-mid 1990's when he was on his history-making beer tour of the Pacific Northwest. (Robert - please tell me the exact year of your first Northwest Beer Festival.)

Back then, I met Robert at Steelhead in Eugene where I was Brewmaster. Robert must have asked to see the Brewmaster or else the bartender just pointed me out as I got off shift. I remember sitting at Steelhead's bar discussing NW beers with him, and he told me of his idea to bring Pacific Northwest craft-brewed beers to his BBQ house in Somerville. I gave him the names of several people who could help him including Larry Bausch of Pink Cadillac Pins & the Pint Post, and John Maier of Rogue. (Yes, I go back a very long way in the brewing industry.)

Larry and his wife Carol, who worked for Redhook at the time, were instrumental in helping Robert set up the logistics to get his NW Beer Festival off the ground. That year Robert was kind enough to fly me to Somerville for the first NW Beer Festival Brewers Dinner. I gave a little speech and met lots of wonderful East Coast brewers who I have remained in contact with ever since, like Will Meyer, Tod Mott, Horst Dornbusch and Jeff Charnick.

Allison and I arrived at Redbones a little after 4:00 pm. I knew that Robert was out of town on vacation (very unfortunate), but bartender Dolly told us that Robert was picking up our tab. How nice of him! Photo below shows Redbones equal-opportunity tap handles. All appear to be hand-carved narrow wooden handles without brand markings. Each beer gets an equal-opportunity masking tape label.

I had hoped that some of the Boston-area brewers and former brewers that Seth and I had emailed (and other Boston-area friends) would be able to join us at Redbones upstairs bar. For the first hour Allison and I had plenty of time to catch up and taste many of Redbones' 24 draft beers. Then Seth Cohen and Jaime Schier bicycled over from Harpoon and we had a really good time. Photo at top of page, L to R: Jaime Schier, Teri and Seth Cohen. Notice the "dial-a-beer" behind us. If you just can't decide which of Redbones' 24 taps to try, just spin the dial!

Allison and I tried the fried oyster appetizer and then a platter of pulled pork, pulled chicken, and jerk beef with four different barbeque sauces. Whew! Watch out for the spicy jerked beef, especially when paired with the extra hot sauce. At about 8:00 pm, we followed the GPS directions back to Hopkinton.

Thank you to Cape Cod Beer Company in Hyannis for use of their Internet connection.

Pink Boots at Portsmouth and Drive to Hopkinton

2007-08-30T09:50:00.001-07:00

"I am careful not to confuse excellence with perfection. Excellence, I can reach for; perfection is God's business." ~Michael J. Fox

August 29: Today I brewed at Portsmouth Brewery, the sister brewery to Smuttynose. Tod Mott has been Head Brewer there for four years. I've known Tod ever since I met him at the first Redbone's Northwest Beer Festival, which must be more than 12 or maybe even 15 years ago.

In the photo above, Brewmaster/ Owner Peter Egelston leads a worshipful Teri and Tod in honoring a graduated cylinder and hydrometer full of wort. If ya can't be silly on a blog, where can ya be?

Tod came to Portsmouth with a lot of brewing experience under his belt (and a lot of beer fans who love his beer), so Peter was very happy to bring a brewer of Tod's caliber and reputation on board.

Tod has made some nifty changes to bring Portsmouth Brewery into the modern age.

Portsmouth is a JV Northwest 7-barrel system built and installed in 1991. The brewery is built on two levels, and it's crammed into a pretty tight space. Somehow Tod and his Assistant Brewer, Tyler Jones managed to brew over 1,000 barrels last year, which means four batches per week all summer long.

One of Tod's upgrades is shown below right - a stainless chute for the spent grain. In the photo, recent American Brewers Guild graduate and current Portmouth Intern, Bart Ugorowski, is shown pulling the spent mash.

Photo at left, L to R: Tyler, Bart, Teri and Tod.

Although Portsmouth doesn't have a silo, Tod lessened the heavy grain burden by installing a chain-vey system and lowering the mill half through the floor so the 50-55 lb bags only need to be lifted about knee high. This scenario makes milling and mashing in a lot easier than it used to be.

Still, I say, "Get a silo!" You can read my opinions and dramatization of small efficient (and inefficient) grain handling systems in my 1993 article on Grain Handling here. You'll need Adobe Acrobat to download and read this article.

Portsmouth gifted me a t-shirt and a 22 oz. bottle of Tod's Blueberry Ale, made with real Maine blueberries.

Shortly after lunch I packed up my stuff and followed Tod out to Smuttynose where I revved up the minivan and trailer and followed Tod out to the highway.

Off I drove, heading south toward Hopkinton, Massachusetts, the starting place of the Boston Marathon. That's where my 7th grade friend, Allison lives with her family. Photo above shows Allison and me enjoying her backyard cabana.

Pink Boots at Smuttynose

2007-08-30T08:58:00.001-07:00

"Make it a rule of life never to regret and never to look back. Regret is an appalling waste of energy; you can't build on it; it's only for wallowing in." ~Katherine Mansfield

August 27: I followed Tod out to Smuttynose where he loaded up the red pick-up with grain and hops for the week. Everyone here wears a uniform, so I changed into mine.

I worked with Dan Schubert on the brew, J.T. Thompson and Charlie Ireland in the cellar. Judi Keene collected yeast off the 200 barrel IPA fermenters. Executive Brewer Dave Yarrington kept things flowing smoothly. The photo above was taken in front of Smuttynose's colorfully painted horizontal ex-dairy conditioning tanks.

Photo above, L to R: Charlie, J.T., Teri, Judi, Dave and Dan. Missing from photo, Head Brewer
Greg Blanchard.

Dan brewed a couple of batches of Old Brown Dog today. This beer is named after Peter Egelston's beloved dog, Olive, who he got shortly after opening the Portsmouth Brewery. Smuttynose has beautiful photos and artwork on all of their beer labels, which were arranged by the talented JoAnne, Peter's significant other. I didn't get a chance to meet JoAnne, but I sure enjoyed the fruits of her artistic talents.

In the afternoon, when J.T. got off his shift, he joined me in Smutty's tasting room and tasted all their beers with me. I left at about 2:30 pm, in order to blog and go through emails in the afternoon.

This photo at right shows Smutty's employee basketball hoop. I thought it was a clever use for the silo supports.

I've noticed a few trends among breweries in New England so far, but there are plenty of exceptions to these trends: One is that they call 1/6-barrels logs. I like that. In Eugene we call them "one-sixth barrels" or sometimes "cornies." I think calling them "logs" fits the size and shape of these tall, skinny kegs well. Another trend is that many breweries produce predominantly English-style ales instead of lagers like I found in the Midwest, or American-style ales, like we have back home on the West Coast. A third fairly common trend is that New England brewers are less likely to use their own proprietary yeast strain, and more likely to use the Ringwood yeast strain.

Smuttynose gifted me a pink zip hoodie and a 22 oz. bottle of beer.

A Day Off in Portsmouth, NH

2007-08-30T05:10:00.000-07:00

"Language exerts hidden power, like a moon on the tides." ~Rita Mae Brown

August 26: Slept in a bit and dug through my load of emails. Found a whole bunch of emails that my computer had sent to my "spam" folder. Oops! Sorry about the late replies.

Met Portsmouth Brewery's Head Brewer, Tod Mott, and his wife Galen in the pub in the afternoon. We tried a bunch of Tod's beers and had some really nice appetizers, including maple and bacon wrapped scallops. (Photo above, L to R: Teri, Tod and Galen.)

Then I followed Tod and Galen in the brewery's red pick-up truck to their home in rural Maine. We sat outside and admired the country twilight and enjoyed cocktails and appetizers. Then we moved to the screened-in porch for a lovely simple dinner of Italian sausages with grilled peppers and onions.

I got lost on the way back to Portsmouth. The country roads in Maine don't always have road signs or names. After several miles I turned around and luckily was able to find Tod and Galen's house again. Then I followed Tod to the highway, and it was all clear sailing from there back to the brewpub.

Drive: Falmouth, ME to Portsmouth, NH

2007-08-26T12:22:00.001-07:00

"Vigorous let us be in attaining our ends, and mild in our method of attainment." ~Lord Newborough

August 25: I enjoyed breakfast with the Leavitt family and their friends this morning. Then I blogged until about 4:30 pm. Once my laptop battery ran out of juice in my trailer, I went hunting in Pete's antique empty house to find a 3-prong outlet. Found one upstairs in the boy's bedroom. Sat on a little red step-stool and used a regular-sized stool for my table. Blogged until my butt hurt sitting on the tiny hard wooden step-stool. Then sat on a pillow. Each time I blog, I have to be creative about how I connect to the Internet and where I set up my "desk."

Drove to Portsmouth, New Hampshire to the Smuttynose Brewing Co. Brewmaster/ Owner Peter Egelston met me there and I packed an overnight bag and left my van-trailer behind for three nights.

Peter lent me Smuttynose/Portsmouth Brewing's red pick-up truck and I followed Peter into the picturesque old town section of Portsmouth. Peter is also the Brewmaster/ Owner of Smuttynose's sister brewery, the Portsmouth Brewing Co. The brewery owns the building, and they use the second floor apartment as an office. Lucky for me they have a spare bedroom there that Peter lent to me for three nights.

Photo above shows Peter and me enjoying dinner and a pint at Portsmouth Brewing Co. I was hankering for a hamburger and Peter tried the daily special, which was wild boar chops with a wild mushroom demi-glace and roasted pears. Portsmouth Brewery has a really creative menu.

Afterwards Peter walked with me around town so I could get my bearings. Portsmouth is bordered on the north by a river, and beyond that river is Maine.

Pink Boots at Allagash and Visit to Shipyard

2007-08-25T11:53:00.000-07:00

"Creativity is allowing oneself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep." ~Scott Adams
August 24: I arrived at Allagash just as their new 120-barrel fermenter was being moved inside the big roll-up door. I quickly introduced myself to Brewmaster/ Owner Rob Tod and Head Brewer Jason Perkins. I didn't want to miss any of the action so I got myself into a safe position to snap a few photos. Below are four photos of two men on forklifts, one forklift on each end, standing the fermenter up. A big steel red scaffold was attached to aid in manipulation.

Once the excitement of standing up the fermenter was over, Jason gave me a tour of the brewery. Then I worked with brewer Dee Dee Germain as she managed two back-to-back brews of Allagash White, their Belgian-style Wit and most popular summertime beer.

Photo at top of page, L to R: Rob, Teri, Jason and Dee Dee in front of the new tank.

I had fun talking shop with Dee Dee. I've really enjoyed discussing beer and brewing with women brewers on this trip. It's been a great opportunity for me to meet other women brewers, because I only knew a few before this. In the past I think I've been too busy with my responsibilities at conferences or judging events to seek out other women brewers to talk beer and brewing. I hope to partake of more girl-beer-chat in the future.

[Note: If you're a woman brewer (or you know of one), please see if your (her) name is on my list of women brewers, which I am calling the "Pink Boots Society." If not, please email me with your (her) name, brewery, etc., so I can add you (her) to my list. Thanks!]

Because of the tank delivery and installation, it was an untypically light day at Allagash. Rob bought ice cream sandwiches from the ice cream truck for everybody. They tell me Rob does that a lot. It started at their old location next door, which they just moved out of in April, because it got so darn hot over there in the summer.

Allagash has had a very busy year: They have doubled their production from 5,000 to 10,000 barrels per year in the last two years. They are nearly out of space in their new facility, and have to begin planning the next expansion almost immediately. That makes Jason a really busy guy, as his family is expanding and their children will double from 1 to 2 this month!

One of the highlights of my day at Allagash was in the early afternoon when Jason and Dee Dee invited me to join them on a barrel tasting of their three oldest wood-aged beer barrels. Jason drew out the beer with the glass wine-thief, and released a portion into each of our glasses. We tried one batch of the employees' favorite beer, Curieux (pronounced "curio"), and two samples of what is tentatively known as Gargamel; one with Raspberries and one without. Each of the samples was completely unique with Beligan yeast character, sourness and vanilla notes. The Gargamel had been aged in red wine casks from California, and I thought that was a great idea for the flavors and styles of beer that Allagash produces.

Afterwards, Jason opened a bottle of Curieux that had been blended with 20% un-wooded Triple. The dilution gave the beer just the right balance. It was a delightful blend of vanilla wood and Belgian character. I wouldn't have guessed that putting a Belgian Triple into a Jim Beam bourbon barrel would have worked so well. That's why it is wise to experiment.

Jason and Dee Dee gifted me a mixed case of Allagash beer for my collection. The lucky brewers on my route west of Allagash's distribution range will enjoy the benefit.

At about 2:30 I departed for Shipyard Brewing, down in Portland's old marine district, which is very close to where Gritty's is located.

Shipyard is a very big brewery, and it took a little while for the employees to track down Brewmaster/ Owner Alan Pugsley. Alan gave me a full tour of the extensive facilities including the finished beer warehouse expansion they are in the middle of.

Gee, is there any brewery in this country that is not either in the middle of an expansion, planning an expansion, or that has just moved into newly expanded facilities?

Shipyard owns its complex of buildings and a few other buildings nearby. The warehouse expansion is needed because Shipyard sold a portion of their complex to a hotel group that will put up a business-style residence hotel. Alan says Portland's nearby waterfront development has increased the value of Shipyard's land, and it made sense to sell a portion of it to finance further expansion.

Shipyard is the largest Peter Austin Brewing Systems brewery in the U.S. (Alan - please correct me if I am wrong.) In the photo above, Alan is standing in front of his twin 50-barrel brick-clad direct-fire brew kettles. The sweet wort is split up as it is transferred from Shipyard's 100-barrel mash tun.

Alan has several sizes of open-topped fermenters, from 100-barrel to 300-barrel. As we walked through the maze that is the four floors of Shipyard's brewery, Alan showed me two different sets of 300-barrel open-topped fermenters. The 100-barrel fermenters are round/cylindrocal, but the 300-barrel fermenters are square.

The photos below are of the exterior and interior of some of the 300-bbl fermenters. The photo on the right shows one tank, not four. The tank's side walls are supported by crossbeams across the top.

I asked Alan if the tanks have some kind of a CIP (clean in place) system, and he pointed to one of his brewers walking by and said, "There's the CIP system right there." The tanks are scrubbed and sanitized by hand, just like Gritty's tanks are.

I looked for signs of automation in the brewhouse and found a high-low level controller in the grant. Spent grain removal was also automated. I looked at the glycol lines as we walked by a fermenter, and there was a valve cracked open to trickle. I didn't see any thermocontrollers, either digital or analog on any of the fermenters, and I believe Alan when he tells me that Shipyard is basically a giant version of Gritty's extremely manual system.

Most of the automation was reserved for the darkly-lit packaging area, where Alan had recently had a bulk glass depalletizer installed. Hand-bottling is not an option at Shipyard. Ed Stebbins had guessed that Shipyard produces 60 brands of beer. Alan estimated it at 80-100 brands of beer, both in bottles and in kegs. Shipyard contract brews beer for lots of smaller companies. For example, they produce Gritty's 12 oz. bottles. (But not Gritty's 22 oz. bottles or kegs.)

Therefore Shipyard has to dedicate tons of warehouse space to packaging materials for all those brands of beer. Thus the recent addition of the bulk glass depalletizer. They just don't have storage room for 80-100 brands of pre-pack glass!

We wound our way through the maze back to Shipyard's extensive visitor center and gift shop. Alan gifted me a mixed case of his beer and a mixed case of his Capt'n Eli's Soda Pop. I thought the Ginger Beer was excellent. What I liked best about the Capt'n Eli soda I tried (Ginger, Root Beer, Lemon-Lime and Blueberry) was that they were not too sweet.

Shipyard had other soda flavors, but those are the ones I tried. The Lemon-Lime had more lime character. I wonder if it would make a good Marguerita mix? (Who says sodas are only for kids?) Retired to the Leavitt household, where Pete and Marie's Rhode Island friends were also visiting for the night. After our fabulous "lobsta" dinner steamed in ocean water (see August 22 post for photo), the four boys settled down to a movie and the adults settled down with cocktails outside. The weather was great and we all stayed up a bit too late and probably talked a bit too loud. You know how it goes when you're having fun! (Photo above, L to R: Christy, Marie, Pete and Geoff.)

Pink Boots at Gritty McDuffs

2007-08-25T10:55:00.000-07:00

“Seek first to understand, then to be understood.” ~ Stephen Covey

August 23: Those of you who haven't visited Portland, Maine may have heard of Gritty McDuffs. Those of you who have already been there are on a first name basis with the brewpub. You call it Gritty's.

Brewmaster/Owner Ed Stebbins got me parked and situated in the busy waterfront/ working port area of Portland. As we walked back to Gritty's I noticed the sign in this photo. Every metal sign like this that I saw was bent. I think people want to steal them in a big way. Maybe Gritty's should print up a bunch identical metal signs and sell them in their merchandise area?

Ed handed me off to Assistant Brewer Jon Shaw for the day. Head Brewer Andy Hainer had the day off. Jon mashed in Gritty's popular pale ale, known as Original Pub Style. Gritty's has one of the first Peter Austin brewing equipment systems that Alan Pugsley made famous.

Gritty's brewery was probably the most labor-intensive and least automated brewery I will see on my trip. There are no digital or analog temperature control units on the 7-barrel open-topped fermenters. The brewer draws a sample of beer, takes it's temperature and if the beer is four degrees over target, the brewer cracks open the ball valve on the glycol line and "trickles" in glycol for 60 minutes or until the correct temperature is reached. This process is repeated for each fermenter and conditioning tank. A similar manual check and correction is used for every procedure in the brewing process at Gritty's. You definitely have to stay on your toes in a Peter Austin brewery!

Ed's partner Richard Pfeffer joined us for lunch. In the photo at the top of this page, we are standing in front of Gritty's brick-clad copper brew kettle. Photo, L to R: Ed, Teri, Jon and Richard. Local retired bricklayer Lance Brown popped in looking for Andy during the day. Lance did the brickwork on all the Peter Austin brew kettles installed in New England. The bricks are curved, not straight, so they look very nice encircling the kettle.

Gritty's is losing Jon Shaw in three weeks. He's going back to school for his college degree in business. Jon might rejoin the brewing community after graduation, or he might open a brewpub of his own somewhere. Best wishes, Jon!

After the Original Pub Style ale was tucked safely in its open fermenter, Ed took me to The Great Lost Bear, an institution in Portland since 1979. Mike Dickson is also an institution. Ed told me Mike's been a bartender and cellarmaster at the "Great Lost" for about 25 years. Photo above left shows Mike and me in front of one of Great Lost Bear's banks of tap handles.

While Ed and I sat there enjoying a wide variety of Maine beers, in walked Alan Pugsley of Shipyard Brewing and Peter Austin brewing equipment fame. Alan invited me to see Shipyard, the largest Peter Austin installation in the U.S. When he told me he had 300-barrel open-topped fermenters, I scheduled a visit for the next day. (Photo at right, L to R: Ed, Alan and Teri.)

On the way out the door I almost smacked into Kevin Watson, Brewmaster at Stone Coast Brewing Co. Kevin used to work at Hales Ales in Seattle, and he looked very familiar. I had just tried Kevin's Imperial IPA 840 at the bar, and I thought it tasted like a Pacific Northwest imperial IPA because of it's big malt backbone. We quickly reintroduced ourselves. The Great Lost Bear appears to be a great place for finding lost comrades in good beer!

Drive: Manchester, NH to Falmouth, ME

2007-08-25T08:58:00.000-07:00

"Words are like sheepdogs herding ideas.” ~Daniel Dennett

August 22: Spent most of the day in the lobby of the Super 8 Motel in Manchester, New Hampshire using their free wireless Internet connection and updating my blog.

Then drove to Falmouth, Maine, where former brewer Pete Leavitt lives with his family. I arrived in time for a late grilled chicken dinner with Pete, his wife Marie and their two boys. I stayed with the Leavitts for three nights while I visited breweries in nearby Portland.

The above photo is from Friday night, August 24. The Leavitts were visited by their Rhode Island friends, Geoff Greene, Christy Chase and their two boys. (That makes four young boys in the house. Yikes!) As you can see the grown-ups are enjoying a feast of Lobsters that were steamed in ocean water. Pete and Marie know a thing or two about good food! (Photo above, L to R: Geoff, Christy, Pete and Marie.)

Pete was my Assistant Brewer at Triple Rock Brewing Co. way back in 1989-90. After brewing at Triple Rock and its sister brewery Twenty Tank, Pete attended the Siebel Institute. Then he went on to consult and later opened three locations for Sunday River Brewing / Stone Coast Brewing Co in Maine and New Hampshire. He left brewing about ten years ago, spending time in semi-conductors and wholesale gourmet foods.

Now Pete's smack dab in the middle of an exciting new project: He will open a gourmet foods retail store in early October called Leavitt & Sons Specialty Grocery. Pete plans to sell anything delicious that is smoked, cured, fermented, or aged. That includes all my favorite foods like good beers, wines, cheeses, sausages, and imported yummies like truffle paste. I even got to taste some of the samples Pete and Marie are deciding upon. Yum!

After dinner Pete showed me his business plan. On Friday morning he took me to see the building. De-construction of the interior is currently underway, with reconstruction occuring in September.

Pete located Leavitt & Sons in a stand-alone white building at the corner of Route 1 and Depot Road in Falmouth, an upscale neighborhood of Portland. It looks like a great location with lots of drive-by traffic.

The photo at right shows Pete with the "& Sons" part of Leavitt & Sons. Jake (far right) starts First Grade next week and he's very excited to learn math so he can run the cash register. Jake tells me he can't wait to get his new business cards. He's only six years old. I wonder what his title will be? Jimi (in front) is three. Jimi smiles a lot and isn't too concerned about his business cards just yet.

Pete's got great plans for the store including a show kitchen that will prepare take-home gourmet lunches and dinners. If you like high quality food and beverages, get yourself to 37 Depot Road in Falmouth, just outside of Portland, Maine starting in October.

Drive: Bar Harbor, ME to Manchester, NH

2007-08-22T12:15:00.001-07:00

"Do something. If it doesn't work, do something else. No idea is too crazy." ~Jim Hightower

August 21: Blogged and worked on photos at Jon's brother's house in the morning while Jon took the van to get the oil and transmission fluid changed and checked the air in the tires. The trip has been a bit fast-paced for me to do that while driving between breweries. Jon picked up big chunky lobster salad sandwiches for lunch on his way home.

After lunch we headed south toward Highway 1 down the Maine coast. The photo at left above shows the new (left) and old (right) bridges over the Penobscot River in Bucksport, Maine. We didn't stop at the observatory because we had a long drive ahead of us.

Drove across bridges in many small Maine towns. Our view often looked like photo below right.
Then we determined we had enough time to stop for a nice dinner at a brewpub, so we pulled off the highway at Portsmouth, New Hampshire and looked for the Portsmouth Brewing Company.

At the beginning of this drive I'd finally set up my laptop facing the driver (Jon), running my DeLorme GPS software that I haven't had much luck running. We used that to find the Portsmouth Brewing Co. That sure helped as we arrived just as it was getting dark.

Portsmouth is a super cute old historic-looking town, so there were not a lot of parking places available. Luckily it was Tuesday and not a weekend, and we finally found two metered parking spots on the street where we could park our van-trailer combo.

At the pub Jon ordered the vegetable salad sandwich and I ordered the beef and chorizo chili, both good. We shared a nine-beer sampler set (photo left) and agreed that our favorite was the IPA. I will be spending a day here with brewer Tod Mott next Tuesday. Tod is a friend of mine and it is no surprise to me that he would make a well-balanced Pacific Northwest-style IPA.

Jon and I wished we could spend more time exploring quaint, cute Portsmouth, but it was dark and we still had to get to the Super 8 Motel in Manchester, New Hampshire. The photo below right was taken with no flash. The church's white tower was all lit up.

We used the GPS software to navigate our way out of town. It's not perfect, but it works OK. Mostly Jon used it to look at where our GPS location was on the plotted line to our destination. We parked the van-trailer in the Super 8 parking lot and brought a bottle of Ommegeddon up to the room to share. This motel is five minutes from Manchester Airport and they have a free airport shuttle, which Jon will take tomorrow morning.

Coastal Maine Cruise on the Andromeda

2007-08-22T11:27:00.000-07:00

"There is only one success - to be able to spend your life in your own way." ~Christopher Morley

August 20: During this entire trip, I've been corresponding with lots of folks via email. Some are friends, some are strangers to me but will become friends. Lots of people have helped me out with ideas of what to do and where to go. For most of my trip I have had to forgo the scenic route in favor of the quickest route. I've also had to forgo the sight-seeing and touristy things that most travelers enjoy in favor of sticking to business and visiting only brewers and breweries. Since I am with Jon for a few days visiting his family, we did a little sight-seeing with help from our family and friends.

One of those friends is fellow brewer, Bill Jenkins, Brewmaster at Big Time Brewing Co. in Seattle. You may have noticed a photo of Bill on my post about the Washington Cask Festival last March. Bill grew up in Maine and got me in touch with his parents, Julie and Bill Sr. who live in Southwest Harbor in another part of Mount Desert Island. Jon and I headed to their house on this clear and sunny morning.

The Jenkins took us to Bass Harbor where they dock their 32 foot powerboat. The Andromeda is no ordinary waterski-type powerboat. It is a pleasure cruiser built on a lobster boat hull with sleeping quarters and a "head" below deck. Jon took the photo at the top of this post of Julie, me and Bill.

Bill got out his navigational chart books and his laptop-powered GPS navigational charts. We motored slowly over to Swans Island. Jon is really into boats and powerboats so he kept Bill company in the cabin.

Bill let Jon steer the boat for awhile (photo above right). He even let me steer for awhile. I tried to avoid running over any lobsterpot bouys, but the tide dragged me off course a bit and I ran one over but it wasn't harmed.

Mostly, Julie and I sat in the back of the boat enjoying the fresh air and sunshine. The wind was low and the waves were small. It was the most beautiful day for a pleasure cruise. We saw thousands of lobster bouys and several working lobster boats hauling up their catch. We watched the eider ducks dipping into the waves and one lost butterfly flying in no particular direction. Bill and Julie showed us two lighthouses and we all had a marvelous time.

Jon and I wanted to be back at his brother's house by 2:00 pm, and Bill timed the ride perfectly to be docked back in Bass Harbor by 11:45 am.

Then the Jenkins took us to Bass Harbor's Thurston Lobster Pound for a lobster lunch. (Photo above left.) The lobsters we ate there were probably the freshest either Jon or I had ever eaten. The whole time we were there, we watched the lobster boats arrive to unload their morning's catch. There seemed to be one boat waiting while the previous one unloaded at the dock. We watched five boats unload. How fresh can you get?

On the way back to Bill and Julie's house, we stopped at Southwest Harbor's little liquor store. In Maine they sell beer as well as wine at the liquor stores. Just to the right of the front door was a huge selection of New England, local, and imported beer. Who would have guessed that a seemingly small provincial town like Southwest Harbor would have such an excellent selection of beer? Photo of one of the shelves above right.

Jon and I got lost and found an all-organic market in a tiny old fashioned roadside store and picked up a pint of Maine's famous tiny wild blueberries. They have a much more intense blueberry flavor than Oregon's beautiful but less flavorful giant cultivated blueberries.

My buddy Carolyn came home from YMCA camp and we spent several hours playing games from Aunt Teri's game bin. Joel and Carolyn picked fresh chives and garlic from their garden and Joel cooked up chive-garlic hamburgers for dinner. It was a pretty full day.

Visiting Family in Bar Harbor, Maine

2007-08-21T09:05:00.000-07:00

"We don't know who we are until we see what we can do." ~Martha Grimes

August 18-19: We had a fabulous time visiting Jon's brother and his family on Mount Desert Island. On Saturday they took us to the top of Caddilac Mountain, the highest point on the island. It was super windy. My hair flew in my face and I could hardly see where I was walking. Afterwards "Uncle" Jon and Joel went to the Lobster Pound to pick up five softshell lobsters for dinner. Out west we would call it a seafood market or store. In Maine they call it a Lobster Pound. Sounds like you buy your pet lobster there, like the Dog Pound. We had a fabulous dinner with fresh lettuce and tomatoes from the garden.

On Sunday we went to the company picnic for Jackson Laboratories, which is where Joel and Lindsay are genetic research scientists. It was raining, so the picnic was inside the new cafeteria. Some researchers had booths set up demonstrating the part they play in genetic and medical research. We looked at some of the booths and saw lots of specially bred mice: some obese, some naked with no fur, most of them cute, and all of them genetically very unique and special. Then Joel and Lindsay showed us their offices and gave us a tour of the new exercise center and some of the buildings.

After the picnic we changed clothes into something more casual and drove to the mainland and around the bay to Acadia National Park, to Schoodic Scenic Byway and Schoodic Point Park. We spent a good bit of time watching the waves crash as the tide slowly returned. Carolyn, the six year old had a great time digging in puddles and enjoyed the wave spray. It was a lovely sunny day.

Below is a photo of me at the farthest eastern point on my trip. It is interesting to note that only eight days ago I was on the beach in Oregon at one of the farthest points in the continential USA. We can be such jet-setters today without even trying.

On our way home from Schoodic we stopped in at a restaurant facing a quiet little harbor. coastal Maine is full of hardworking seafolk and the boats in the harbor were a picturesque assortment of working lobster boats. In fact there must be one million or more lobster pots attached to bouys along Maine's rugged coast. We saw hundreds of them everywhere we looked.

After a long drive home to Bar Harbor area in the dark, us "grown ups" stayed up to watch "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen," a great fantasy film by Monty Python's Terry Gilliam. I'm a big fan of Terry Gilliam's work, and "The Time Bandits" is one of my top three alltime favorite movies.

Drive: Salisbury, VT to Bar Harbor, ME via Burlington

2007-08-21T08:20:00.000-07:00

"Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men's blood...Make big plans, aim high in hope and work." ~Daniel H. Burnham

August 17: Today was a very long driving day. We visited with Steve, Christine, their children and David Sohigian in the morning. Dave showed me how to collect visitor statistics on this blog and my website. Dave is an old Eugene, Oregon brewer. He was the first Brewmaster at Fields Brewing Company. He's a high-tech guy in Portland, Oregon now.

After coffe and tea, Steve gifted me a mixed 6-pack of Otter Creek's beer, and we drove north toward Burlington.

We arrived at American Flatbread just in time for lunch. I showed Jon around the place because I am really into what they do with fire. The most prominent fire-feature is the primitive wood-fired oven that dominates the larger dining room. Photo below shows Jon and I with Owner/Brewmaster Paul Sayler in front of the oven. Paul treated us to salad and a big flatbread, and Jon got to try all of Paul's traditional beers. On the way out the door Paul gifted us with a 22-oz. bottle of Wheatwine brewed by Smuttynose Brewing Co. Talk about spreading the wealth!
Next was a quick stop at the Vermont Pub & Brewery so Jon could see the brewery and pub. Partner Steve Polewacyk loaded us up with Growlers so that we'd have plenty of fresh beer to drink with Jon's family in Bar Harbor.

Then it was off toward Maine. Everyone had advised us to take Hwy 89 south to Manchester, NH, and then head north. However, Jon and I decided that we couldn't really drive very fast on the freeway with the trailer anyway, so we might as well drive the more direct route across Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine on Hwy 2. That's what we did.

The photo at the top of this page (rock-lined highway) was taken in Vermont. The photo below (white birch trees) was taken at a rest stop in New Hampshire.

The photos make it look like the weather was sunny and fabulous, but look carefully at the clouds in Vermont. A huge pelting rain storm caught up with us in the late afternoon and we ended up driving with the storm for the second half of our long drive.
It was a very long drive. The storm slowed us down as we had to pull over twice when we couldn't see the road anymore. We finally arrived in Bar Harbor at about 10:00 pm. Jon's brother Joel, his wife Lindsay and daughter Carolyn live outside of Bar Harbor. We stayed for four days and actually never saw Bar Harbor. I hear we mostly missed a bunch of t-shirt shops and saltwater taffy stands.

We stayed up too late and kept Carolyn up too late, but since it was Friday, we did it.

Practical Brewing Class at the American Brewers Guild

2007-08-21T07:02:00.001-07:00

"To tell the truth is revolutionary." ~Antonio Gramsci

August 16: Drove to Salisbury, Vermont where Steve Parkes, Brewmaster at Otter Creek Brewing Company lives and runs his American Brewers Guild course. (At left in photo above.)

Normally Steve's course is a distance learning course (ie: over the Internet and supplemented by DVD-video classes). However, sometimes Steve needs to update his video classes, so this summer he and wife Christine McKeever took on the task of hosting a 5-week live class for about 20 new brewers. Steve invited a bunch of his friends, professional brewers, to teach classes and I scheduled my trip around being there to teach.

I arrived a little after noon. All was quiet as Salisbury is a very small town. I found the electrical outlet in the barn, hooked up my extension cord, attached my laptop to my printer and went to work in my portable office in the trailer, which is the booth-like table beneath my bunkbed. It got hot so I turned on the trailer's air conditioner, which runs only when I'm plugged in via the extension cord. It was awfully quiet outside and I wondered when Steve and his students would return from lunch, or whatever field trip fellow instructor David Sohigian must have brought them on. Hmmm. No time to worry about that. I've got to prepare my class.

I called my class the "Walter Swistowicz Memorial Class in Practical Brewing," in honor of one of my favorite instructors from brewing school. I researched and wrote a biography of "Swiss," so that the students could learn what an incredible brewing career he had. Then I wrote a quick synopsis of my career, and stated that I had pretty big boots to fill!

My class was at 4:00 pm, so once I printed the final draft of my class outline at 3:45 pm, I turned off the noisy air conditioner and went looking for the classroom. It was unnervingly quiet outside. Were the students parked on the other side of the house/building? Hmmm. Where is everybody? I walked around the big house, went into the office, checked out the student's Bier Stube/bar, but only found the family dog. Then I went into a panic.

Because my cell phone service provider is AT&T, I haven't had cell service since I entered Vermont so my cell phone was useless. I used Steve's office phone to call his cell phone. No answer. Greg Noonan had taught a class at 9:00 am so I called him next. Greg told me the course was taught at the Marriott Hotel. Yikes! Nobody mentioned that. Just then Steve called me on his house phone and I answered it. I got directions and Steve poured beer for the students to keep them occupied until I could get there.

Quick! Unplug the trailer. Crank the foot pad down and disconnect the Astro van. Lock up the trailer so nobody steals it. (OK, that probably wouldn't happen in Salisbury, Vermont, but imagine my panic if somebody did steal it.) Quick! Pack all my class props in the van and don't forget the class outline. Anything else? Quick! Drive to Middlebury, Vermont and find the Marriott.

OK, so it didn't happen so quickly. Began my class about an hour late, but I told the students I planned it that way so they'd have a chance to relax and drink beer. Hey, I'm a professional! I can't look flustered in front of the students, at least not too flustered.

My 5-part class was on:

1. Safety,
2. Helpful Gadgets,
3. Show-and-Tell of busted, worn and ready-to-replace parts,
4. Brewing Articles online, and
5. "The future belongs to those who know what they want: Know what you want. Then go get it."

The class laughed at my jokes and seemed to enjoy my Show-and-Tell oriented class. The students were a passionate, curious bunch and I enjoyed teaching them. They told me I was the only instructor to drink a beer during the class. Really? Steve's Otter Creek Wit seemed to go so well with examining rusted and corroded brewery parts.

My husband Jon arrived right after the class ended. He had flown on a red-eye from Portland, Oregon into Manchester, New Hampshire and then rented a car to drive to Salisbury/ Middlebury. After a stop at the ABG office and at Otter Creek Brewery he tracked down the class.

Steve, Christine and Dave Sohigian broke down the classroom and loaded it into Steve's car. Then we went to a pub in Middlebury that had four Otter Creek Beers on tap. Steve and Christine bought us dinner and we followed them back to their house in Salisbury. Rehooked the Chevy Astro van to the trailer then called it a night.

Fly Back to Vermont

2007-08-21T06:52:00.000-07:00

"Learn as much by writing as by reading." ~Lord Acton

August 14: There is no direct route from Eugene, Oregon to Burlington, Vermont. It always requires at least two stops along the way. Luckily I didn't have the middle seat on all three flights, so I was able to work on my blog posts on my laptop.

August 15: Spent the whole day blogging. Between yesterday's and today's work I was able to get nine posts up, which is about 15-18 hours worth of work. It was cool and breezy today and felt like Fall, a big change from a week+ ago when I was in Burlington and it was hot and humid.

Greg grilled chicken and asparagus for dinner. He has really been taking care of me. The above photo is of the sunset view over Lake Champlain from his house.

Three Days at Home in Eugene

2007-08-15T15:41:00.001-07:00

"To love is to receive a glimpse of heaven." ~Karen Sunde

August 12-13: The title of this post is, "Three days at Home in Eugene." If you read between the lines that means, "Three nights in my own bed is all I'll get over the course of this 5-month trip." Yikes!

Well I'd better make the most of my visit to Eugene - besides the mundane stuff of looking at, paying, and filing bills. (OK, Jon writes the checks while I'm gone, but I still have to go through them and file them.) So, besides all that boring everyday stuff that everybody does, Jon and I were invited Sunday night to dinner at the house of our former neighbors and excellent friends George and Alice Recker. (Photo above was taken by George. In photo, L to R: Alice, Teri and Jon.)

George is a retired professional symphony trumpet player and university trumpet instructor, and Alice teaches middle-school band. Together they run one of the friendliest, fish-catching-ist, and best-eating gourmet fly fishing guide services in Oregon. If you hanker for a professional fly fishing guide who gently floats you over the rapids in their homemade wooden McKenzie Drift boats, and then cooks up an amazing meal at camp for you, Doublefish Outfitters is who you ought to be booking with. They specialize in trips on the Deschutes, McKenzie and Willamette Rivers.

Not only do we love George and Alice because they are amazing and fun human beings, we also like hanging out with them because they enjoy good food, beer and wine. Tonight's menu was some wild-caught steelhead, lightly smoked and grilled. A steelhead filet may have an orange tint like a salmon filet, but the similarity stops there. Steelhead is actually an ocean-going trout. It's flesh is milder tasting than salmon. I would call it delicate yet firm and flavorful.

Part of the special treat is that steelhead is not available at the fish market or in any stores. You can only eat it if you catch it yourself. Or if your favorite ex-neighbors invite you over to share theirs. Mmm mm! Afterwards Alice tested out a new blueberry cobbler recipe on us. Alice is the prep-cook and outfitter of the fishing expeditions. George is the man driving the boats. We are happy to let Alice try out recipes on us any time!

On Monday I had a mess of errands to do all over town, but one thing I really wanted to do was visit my former stomping grounds, Steelhead Brewing Company. After I quit, Ted Fagan stepped up to the beer production plate. Ted is ably assisted by Tim _____ and Ian Fuller. (Tim, email me your last name and I'll update this.)
I had lunch with the "boys," just like in the old days, except this time I had the full sampler set of all Ted's current beer. Ted filled me in on the latest happenings at Steelhead. Not much has changed, not even the menu, and I'm proud to report Ted, Tim and Ian are doing just fine without me. (I attribute that to my top knotch training, of course!)

In the photo above, Ted and I are in front, and Tim is behind us.

A New Yorker Sees the Oregon Coast for the First Time

2007-08-15T14:34:00.001-07:00

"History never looks like history when you are living through it." ~John W. Gardner

August 11: The day after conference we met up with Brooklyn Brewery's Brewmaster Garrett Oliver at 8:30 am. Garrett had never seen the Oregon Coast, having only got as close to it as Portland. Our plan was for Garrett to follow us all day in his rental car as we lead him on a "Saturday Highlights Tour." From Corvallis, we headed west.

Jon had called the Rogue Brewery in Newport, Oregon, trying to connect with Brewmaster John Maier and his lovely wife Stacey, but they were out of town with their new curly Labrador retriever puppy. Jon did connect with Rogue owner Jack Joyce, who hooked us up with Marketing guy Jim Cline, who was waiting for us when we arrived.

We walked through Rogue's red-painted former silo entrance, and Garrett was immediately shocked to find that customers of all stripes must traipse through part of Rogue's fermentation cellars to arrive at the merchandise room and restaurant. The potentially slippery-floored entry is either a foolhardy liability waiting to manifest, or a brilliant way to hook lifetime consumers of Rogue's beers. Either way it is a total-immersion experience for a neophyte beer-tourist visiting his or her first brewery.

Jim met us in the bar and took us on a tour of the brewery and museum room, which I hadn't seen before. (Photo above, L to R: Jon, Garrett, Teri and Jim.)

Rogue is famous for owner Jack Joyce, who is famous for never having bought new equipment: Ever. Jim report that Jack's a bit teary-eyed lately as the current dearth of used equipment on the market has forced even Jack to bite the ol' bullet and pony up for some brand new fermenters. Brewmaster John Maier can't be too disappointed about that! The good news is that Rogue is poised to bring even more diverse beers of John Maier's fertile beermagination to Rogue's ever-expanding marketplace.

After a nearly full tasting of the myriad of beers on tap and some yummy appetizers, we intrepid three hit the curvy coastal road at half-throttle, heading south. (This is my 8th blog post today as I'm trying to catch up. Can you tell I'm hitting the "purple prose" stretch?)

Thank you to Jim Cline at Rogue who gifted us two 22-oz. bottles of Rogue's special label beer.

From Newport we drove south to Yachats (pronounced YAH-hots), where we pulled into a beach-access parking lot. Instead of visiting the beach, we grabbed small grocery bags and tramped up the highway to a stretch of undeveloped coastal forest. Jon had experience foraging for wild mushrooms here. Garrett is a complete gourmand and is a big fan of wild mushrooms and we thought it would be fun to give Garrett an Oregon mushroom-hunting experience.

We spent about an hour in the woods, but who's checking time when you're enjoying the snap of twigs and crunch of dry leaves underfoot in a small slice Oregon's primeval wilderness. Altogether we came up with about four Lobster mushrooms, and about five early Golden Chanterelles. Then back to the car to continue southward.

Next stop was my favorite beach, which I call the Hobbit Trail Beach. We ambled down the gently sloped trail about a mile, enjoying dappled sunlight on wild rhododendrons and alder trees. We admired sparse patches of the lichen called Old Man's Beard, and walked through the scary Grimm's fairytale part of the forest. Then the trail forced us down some sandy steps. We bent low under heavily-intertwined shrubbery: The part of the trail that gives it the name Hobbit Trail. The sandy trail dug deep into the surrounding soil structure, the dark intertwined shrubs grew sparser until we arrived, blinking, in bright sunshine, and there around a bank of soil and sand was a small wide beach and the sparkling ocean.

We didn't have a lot of time to explore, so we walked left along the water's edge to the headland, then returned along the base of the cliffs. It really is my favorite beach, and I'm so glad to have visited it today as I haven't been able to visit it in about a year.

After an even steeper, creepier, almost cave-like section of the Hobbit Trail uphill, we returned to our cars and drove south about a mile to Heceta Head Lighthouse State Beach. We didn't have time to hike up to the lighthouse for a free tour, but we showed Garrett the exact section on the beach where we'd had our wedding in 2004. Back to the cars with a quick stop at the next big overlook so Garrett could see the scenic north view of Heceta Head Lighthouse and the Lighthouse Keeper's house.

Notice Garrett's jaunty New York blazer in the photo below. Could this well-dressed guy look any less like he's a local? Of course Garrett will no doubt snap a photo of me looking like a complete hick when I visit him at his brewery in Brooklyn in September!

Onward toward Eugene. Just one quick traditional stop at the Gingerbread Village Restaurant east of Mapleton on Hwy 126. The place is decorated in country kitsch, with somebody's collection of cheesy collector's plates lining all the walls from windows up to ceiling. On the way to our table, we passed two pimply teenagers just as the waitress brought their malted shakes. (I am not making this up!)

Garrett looked around as we seated ourselves and said, "Well, I can honestly say I've never been in a place like this before."

I told him, "It's sort of like a family-owned Denny's. The kind of place that has chicken-fried steak on the menu."

Laughing, Garrett pointed out an apron displayed on the wall. Beneath the picture of a gingerbread man was this saying, "He's the perfect man: He's rich, he's sweet, and if he makes you mad you can bite his head off."

The Gingerbread Village Restaurant is no village. It's a stand-alone restaurant in the middle of the woods along a stretch of a small country highway. I drove past it for years before finally stopping in to see what was there. Now it is our traditional stopping point on our way home from a day at the coast.

We each ordered a small gingerbread. It is served warm with a dollop of softserv ice cream on top. It used to cost 95 cents for a small order. Now it is about $1.50. Garrett said, "I could have had a lot more of that!" But it was time to hit the road.

We got back to Eugene without further ado and Jon set about connecting the Teardrop to his car. Garrett and I left for a quick car tour of downtown Eugene with a stop at the Fisherman's market for fresh Dungenes crab. We did a drive-by sighting of Steelhead and Ninkasi Brewing Companies. No time to stop in to chat or for a beer!

Then a lovely dinner with crab, beer, wine, bread, and grilled potatoes. We were able to get us on the road toward a Perseid meteorite shower campout and get Garrett on the road toward his red-eye flight out of Portland by 7:30 pm. Busy day!

Master Brewers International Hop Symposium

2007-08-15T13:26:00.001-07:00

"When you drink the water, remember the spring." ~Chinese Proverb

August 8-10: At the end of his workday, Jon drove me to Corvallis, Oregon to attend the MBAA (Master Brewers Association of the Americas) International Symposium on Hop Flavor and Aroma.

Of course I had to open this post with an impressive hop photo (above). Our symposium visit on Saturday to the Goschie hop farm allowed me to take this picture of long, ripe hop cones backlit by bright late-afternoon sunlight. This year represents the 103rd year of harvesting hops at the Goschie farm in Silverton, Oregon.

After receiving our name tags from registration, Jon and I connected with some of our brewing friends at the Welcome Reception at the LaSalle Center on the Oregon State University campus. Photo above, L to R: Garrett Oliver, Teri, John Harris, Alan Sprints, and Darren Gamache, a hop grower from Gamache Farms. He may be the first hop farmer I've actually met, which is very cool.

The presentations of the conference were held in a large university lecture hall with tiered stadium-style seating. An experience typical of the conference is shown in the photo at right.

This was the first of perhaps many special-topic symposiums that the MBAA plans to host on a bi- or triennial basis.

My home MBAA district, District Pacific Northwest, worked very hard on this conference. I'm sure I am not listing everyone I should, but I know that Tom Shellhammer, Karl Ockert, Larry Sidor and plenty of others put in many hours of Herculean effort to bring it about. The symposium/conference went very smoothly. Tom kept us moving along toward the next presentation with well-timed chimes on his handheld xylophone. The weather was beautiful as only Oregon can be in the summer: Sunny, dry, pleasant but not too hot, and no moquitos. Gee, I love Oregon!

However, the conference was not quite what I expected: I understand that the unique requirement of attracting an international clientel dictated an extremely scientific bent. But I was disappointed in the near complete lack of practical information on specific hop varieties as concerns flavor and aroma. Especially the newer hop varieties developed for commercial production with the last 3-5 years.

None of the hop suppliers even had a hop catalogue on them. I'm a brewer. I just wanted some serious information on the names of hop varieties available commercially today, and what flavor and aroma profiles I could expect when brewing with them. That's what I attended the syposium for, but that's not what I got.

What I did get was an opportunity to attend a major professional beer event so that potential employers would remember that I am looking for a job in October when this trip is completed. I also got to connect with brewing contacts I hadn't seen in a long time, meet new brewing contacts, and reconnect with brewers I have met on this trip or will meet later on this trip. I also got a few small hop gems; I plucked them right out of the air wherever I could find them.

My favorite hop gem and the most practical of all the presentations was put on by Tom Nielsen of Sierra Nevada. His topic was entitiled, "Character Defining Aromatics of Key Hop Varietals." The highlight was tasting about ten different versions of Sierra Nevada Pale ale that were bittered with German Magnum, then flavor and aroma-hopped with various specific hop varietals. It was enlightening to taste the different beers, and represented exactly what I wanted to find at this symposium.After two days of mostly scientific yawners (sorry, I'm a practical brewer!), we hopped on the Hop Bus and headed north to visit OSU's own test hop fields, and then the hop fields at the Goschie farm. The Goschie family and friends put on a heck of a BBQ feast for us, which included a roast pig and some of the sweetest, freshest corn-on-the-cob I've had in Oregon. I continued to meet new brewing industry contacts and some of those folks invited me to visit them while on my Road Brewer journey.

Photo at left shows brewers Brian Hunt, Garrett Oliver, and Colin Kaminski inspecting hop cones at the Goschie farm. Photo at right shows me smelling an experimental hop with a very long number instead of a name.

My Support Team at Home

2007-08-15T11:56:00.001-07:00

“One word frees us of all the weight and pain of life. That word is love.” ~Sophocles

August 7: Up at 4:45 am to catch my 7:10 am flight, which was then delayed for two hours because of storms in Chicago. That put the whole day of flying into a rush to catch connections. There is no quick and direct way to fly between Burlington, Vermont and Eugene, Oregon. Then it was sweet reunion time with my patient and loving husband, Jon Graber.

Please indulge me as I tell you about my husband, without whom this trip would not be possible...

Jon is a strong, determined, assertive guy who is also even-tempered and sentimental. The best of tough and tender in one compact package. These photos are from our wedding on the Oregon Coast in July 2004. I couldn't celebrate our recent third wedding anniversary with Jon on the appropriate day because I was on this trip, so we celebrated it today with grilled steaks and beers I'd brought home in my suitcase.

Did you know that Jon is also a Brewmaster? That's how we met. He was Brewmaster at Mt. Hood Brewing Company located on the south side of Mount Hood, the Cascade mountain nearest to Portland, Oregon. We met probably ten years before we started dating. It was such a non-event that neither of us remembers it. Now Jon is Marketing Manager for Wyeast Laboratories.

Over the years Jon and I grew to be friends. Then at the 2002 Oregon Brewers Festival we had a charming experience where Jon drove me to my Teardrop camper at about 2:00 am. It was parked in front of Full Sail Brewmaster John Harris's house, and Jon suggested we pick up some eggs at the Plaid Pantry 24-hour market on the way there. The Teardrop had a full kitchen, so at 3:00 am, there we were sitting on John & Jane Harris's front steps enjoying the omelets that Jon had cooked up for us, laughing and having entirely too much loud fun on that hot July night.

Then a month later my Eugene head brewer, Jamie Floyd got married at a special place near the Oregon Coast. It was a "bring your tent" wedding with lots of space for camping and a big bonfire. Jon asked me if I was going and I said, "Of course I'm going! Jamie's my brewer. I wouldn't miss it for the world!"

Jon told me, "Can we go to the wedding together? I want to tow your Teardrop with my truck."

I said, "What's your electrical connection? Mine is 6-prong round."

We swapped email photos of our electrical connections and Jon found the appropriate adapter to tow my Teardrop. I've told this story to lots of people and the men always laugh, "What a line! I want to tow your Teardrop!"

I didn't know there would be a midnight bonfire so I hadn't brought a lawn chair, but clever Jon brought a lawn loveseat. Where else could I sit? He told me later he knew he had a chance with me when he pet my hair and I melted. The next day on the way to my house we stopped at my favorite beach for a walk.

As Jon was leaving my house after dropping me off and disconnecting my Teardrop trailer, he shook his adapter at me and said, "I'm taking my adapter with me because I don't want you playing with any other boys with big trucks." Then I knew for sure that he liked me and we've been inseparable ever since. (I am not making this up. This is exactly what he said.)

After three years the fairytale is still alive and well, and we are determined to keep it that way. Sometimes on this trip it's been hard to be apart for weeks at a time, but we talk on the phone each night for about an hour. If anything, longing has kept us from taking each other for granted, and has kept the honeymoon going.

The photo at right is of a Haarika that we used during our wedding ceremony. A Haarika is a traditional Finnish communal beer-drinking vessel made of birch. Sahti is often shared in it in the Sauna. Our Finnish beer friends gave it to us. Instead of a "Unity Candle," Jon and I each designed and brewed a beer for our wedding at Steelhead. These beers were blended in the Harrika at our wedding and we each took a drink. I made White Pearls Pale Ale and Jon made Honey I Do Brown Ale.

Being an older bride (44 years then) and being married to my one and only was a joyous occasion. The photographer caught the fun photo below of me jumping into Jon's arms after the minister declared, "I now pronounce you husband and wife."

Here's to having a strong support team at home. I love you Sweetie!

A Visit to Vermont Pub & Brewery

2007-08-15T10:35:00.000-07:00

“Genius is 1 percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration.” ~Thomas A. Edison

August 6: The first thing I did today was go back to Magic Hat so I could meet Brewmaster Todd Haire in person and thank him for the $100-worth of Shell gasoline cards. We had a nice time chatting and then he gifted me a 6-year old champagne bottle of his Chaotic Chemistry wood-aged barleywine and a pound of vanilla beans. My husband Jon already has ideas for using those vanilla beans.

Then I visited Greg Noonan’s Vermont Pub & Brewery. Head Brewer Russ Fitzpatrick (photo above) was hard at work in the basement brewery. He gave me a full tour and then I enjoyed lunch with Greg’s partner Steve Polewacyk. The menu was extensive and the beers covered a broad range of hoppy and not-so-hoppy ale styles and a sour-mashed lager.

I was disappointed to miss Greg’s Spuyten Duyvil, a wood infused sour red Flemish ale. Greg painted the awesome artwork for the beer, of a Devil making a sour face and spitting out his beer. He calls it his pièce de résistance. If you visit, be sure to look up to see Greg’s painting/sign hanging over the bar. (Photo of Greg's painting at left.)

In the afternoon I headed for the local laundromat to pick up my bundle of fresh laundry. Greg cooked up a lobster feast for us including corn on the cob and grilled green peppers (photo below).

We enjoyed it with some of the beers I’ve been collecting and Greg regaled me with stories of brewpub ownership and some of the lessons he’s learned over the years. Afterwards I packed for my early morning flight, and stayed up too late, of course. It is easy (and fun) to stay up too late when Greg Noonan is your host.