San Francisco Bay Area Friends

"Friendship makes prosperity more shining and lessens adversity by dividing and sharing it." ~Marcus Tullius Cicero

June 10: After a morning of organizing Big Buddy (my trailer), I met my former coworker buddy Ann at her home in San Leandro. She took me to lunch at Horatio's on the waterfront, and we had a lovely view of the marina while enjoying our seafood-themed brunch. Then we walked it off by circling the marina. Ann is from Michigan, and with me being a Wisconsinite, we mentally surfed that Midwesterner wavelength. It was fun catching up.

After a thorough review of SF Bay Area maps, it was off to Foster City where I lived when I worked as a financial systems COBOL programmer in the 1980's. Met up with some of my old pals who still live in the area. Camped near Steve's house. Steve and his girlfriend Jennifer cooked up a feast of marinated grilled chicken, strawberry spinach salad, and asparagus. I provided the beer and root beer for the feast. Aggie and Dan brought their kids Rachel and Sean, and also fruit salad and cheesecake. (No we didn't eat their kids - somebody had to take the photo!) It was really fun to reminisce about our youth and former careers.

L to R: Aggie, Dan, Teri, Jennifer and Steve

The next morning Jennifer and I went on a power-walk tour of Foster City, then I drove to Hayward to visit Tom Dalldorf at the Celebrator Beer Newspaper offices.

P.S. Thank you to Tom for letting me plug into his wireless and spend several hours working on photos and blogs.

A Visit to Triple Rock, My Old Home Brewery

"People don't take trips. Trips take people." ~John Steinbeck

L to R: Teri, Karen and Jerry
June 8-9: Drove from Sierra Nevada to Auburn, California to visit Jon’s Aunt Karen & Uncle Jerry. Parked on a flat spot a block away. Aunt Karen did my laundry and I had Uncle Jerry’s homemade chicken soup for dinner, then blogged 4 posts and went to bed. Up at 7:00 am and off to the Edelweiss with Jerry and Karen for a hearty breakfast. A gas fill-up and then on my way to Berkeley. It was Saturday morning without traffic so I made good time.

Parked at Trumer Braueri for the day/night, and Brewmaster Lars Larson came out to greet me. It was chance he was there, and I got a quick tour of his expanded Briggs brewery and a photo. Lars is happy making a lot of Pilsner these days, but his background includes brewing ales at Bridgeport in Portland, Oregon. And you know how serious and kinda scary Lars looks in Trumer’s ads? He actually smiles a lot and is very friendly in person.

Lars Larson at Trumer Brauerei

Then I had an hour to kill, so I arranged the trailer (Big Buddy) as a mini-office so I can work on trip planning tonight.

My old boss, Reid Martin picked me up for lunch. Reid and his brother John opened Triple Rock under the name Roaring Rock in 1986. It was the first brewery in California to have serving tanks, possibly the first brewpub anywhere to have them. (Hey everybody, if I get your stories wrong, just email me the correct version and I’ll update the associated blog post.)

Reid’s seven-year old daughter Kendall joined us for lunch. She was more interested in my dill pickle than her unsauced chicken wings. My green chili-mushroom burger with salad was great. So were Christian Kazakoff’s ales, especially the stout.

Triple Rock was déjà vu for me, as it looked almost exactly the same as when I was Head Brewer there in 1989-90, but not quite. Reid and I caught up on what’s been happening while Kendall mastered her crayon technique. It was great to see Reid. I appreciate that he and John gave me the opportunity to work for them in 1989, as Triple Rock really launched my brewing career. Every good thing I’ve done since then has stemmed from the training and experience I gained at Triple Rock. It was fun to notice that Brewer Christian Kazakoff’s Titanium Ale was completely different from my original recipe that I developed in 1990. Such is common with brewpubs and successions of brewers. It’s still a great name and slogan… Titanium Ale: Strong yet Light.

L to R: Grant, Teri, Kendall, Reid
Grant Johnston, Brewmaster at Black Diamond joined us after lunch. Grant was my buddy back in my Berkeley days. Local homebrewer and beer friend Dave Suurballe and his wife Honoria also joined us. Reid was kind enough to take care of our bill, and he gifted me a t-shirt. We did exactly what beer was designed for: We sat there and chatted and enjoyed each other’s company for several hours.

Grant and I commented that at the beer festivals and professional conferences where brewers run into each other, it seems we never have enough time to just plunk down and enjoy a few beers over a few hours of conversation. The same topic had come up with Rod Kucera of Mia & Pia’s in Klamath Falls. Thus, part of the impetus for my trip: To sit with none of the pressing requirements of our hurry-up world; to sit with nothing better to do than drink a few pints and enjoy a few hours in good company. After all, what could be better than that?

L to R: Teri, Grant, Dave and Honoria

Pink Boots at Sierra Nevada

"Maps encourage boldness. They're like cryptic love letters. They make anything seem possible." ~Mark Jenkins

June 8: Sierra Nevada has a few tanks bigger than this one. Chris Barlow, Scott Jennings, and I spent most of the day in the pilot brewery. It's a neat 10-barrel system, exquisitely designed to exactly mimic their 200-barrel system. Exact may be too exact a word, but by golly they get it close. Scott runs the pilot plant, and Chris normally works on either the 100-barrel or the 200-barrel system, but they tag-teamed on four back-to-back Celebration batches today. Scott came in at 4:00 am. I didn't.

After a nice lunch in their pub, I followed Terrence Sullivan and Jim Mellem around for most of the rest of the day. It takes that long to see everything (and ask a million questions) because the place is pretty huge. They have lots of nifty lab equipment and I think Jim knows how to work all of it. Gil Sanchez and I swapped tales about MBAA, mountain climing (him), rock climbing (me), Leinenkugels, and Milwaukee where Gil worked for Miller for 20 years. (I drank lots of Leinies and Miller while attending college in Wisconsin). Then Steve Dressler topped off my day by gifting me two cases of Sierra Nevada beer. Life is good!

Cousin Peter in Chico

"We all have big changes in our lives that are more or less a second chance."~Harrison Ford

June 7: I drove all day to Chico, California. Found a good radio station on the way, FM 107 Classic Rock. I haven't had time to figure out the laptop in the van or dig in a tub for some cassette tapes, so when driving I am currently the great radio channel surfer. I'm in the marathon portion of my trip, so sometimes I just have to drive and not sweat the music.

This is my husband's cousin Peter who lives in Chico. We had a great breakfast at Sins of Cortez. I had the cornmeal and blueberry pancakes. Don't know how my face got a fingerprint on it, but its on both photos.

Cousin Peter has long legs. I'm 5'5" tall. Betcha can't guess that he's one foot seven inches taller than me. Add it up. Peter is a special-cases social worker, a martial arts instructor, and a heck of a nice cousin.

The Creamery/Klamath Basin Brewing

"Writers and travelers alike are mesmerized by knowing of their destinations." ~Eudora Welty

Lonnie Clement is pretty proud of his brewery and pub. He has reason to be. Lonnie and his partner Del began as homebrewers, then upgraded to professional status, brewing on a 2 barrel system on weekends, selling the kegs, and working all week at their "day jobs."

I met Lonnie in 1998 when Steelhead opened a brewpub in Fresno, California. My owners bought the old Red Tomato brewing system in Sacramento, planning to put it in Fresno. Then they decided to buy and convert an existing Rock Bottom brewpub instead. One of my duties as Steelhead's Brewmaster was to sell off the equipment they no longer wanted. Lonnie was the buyer of this 15-bbl JV Northwest system.

In those days there was a lot of brewing equipment for sale, and Lonnie was on a budget. I knew my boss wouldn't drop his price, but Lonnie was beginning to look elsewhere. I like a win-win situation whenever possible. The solution was elegant: The boss got his full price, and Lonnie got a bonus that didn't cost the boss any extra money. The bonus was three weeks of training for Lonnie and Del at Steelhead in Eugene. When I visited Lonnie on June 5th, he told me he uses his Steelhead training and my operations manual all the time. I was happy to hear that.

Their brewpub opened two years ago and Lonnie's been trying to get me to visit since then. I was impressed with his place. Some extra investor money gave these two hard-working guys the opportunity to create a show-piece brewpub in a small town. Lonnie had 11 great beers on tap when I was there.

With both Mia & Pia's and The Creamery: Who woulda thunk that Klamath Falls was such a great beer town?

Mia & Pia's Farmhouse Brewery in K-Falls

"Don't rule out working with your hands. It does not preclude using your head."~Andy Rooney

June 6, 2007: After a tender good-bye with my husband Jon, a refreshing shower at Bend Athletic Club (curtesy of Gary Fish), and a small delay in Bend to repair the trailer's heater and replace the van's rear shocks, I was on my way to Klamath Falls, Oregon.

Ron Kucera of Mia & Pia's Pizzeria and Brewhouse met me at their brewpub. He kindly placed a sample of his two-year old barleywine aged in a Jack Daniel's barrel in front of me. After a tour of the premises and a few small samples, I followed Rod out to his family's brewery. It's located at the farmhouse his parents bought 40 years ago. In those days they ran a dairy farm with 135 head of cattle. In 1987 Rod's parents opened Mia & Pia's Pizzeria. Rod was a professional bull rider on the rodeo circuit back in those days, but everyone knew he loved beer: his nickname on the circuit was "Suds."

In 1995 Rod and his dad were returning from an equipment auction in Salem. The radio kept advertising the KLCC Brewfest in Eugene. Fortune interceded and Rod convinced his dad to stop in. Rod went to a talk about the microbrewing industry there and the speaker mentioned old dairy tanks being used in breweries. The Kuceras had switched from dairy to beef cattle so they had a lot of old tanks sitting around. Rod asked, "What do breweries do with old dairy tanks?" The rest is history... within 1.5 years Rod & Jodi had their own beer at Mia & Pia's. When I was there they had 12 great beers on tap.

Out at the farm, Rod's mom served us big bowls of steaming beef stew. Jodi served her famous corn bread on the side (recipe below). Rod served his Pilsner.

It was quickly clear that the Kuceras truly represent the entrepreneurial spirit. Rod showed me his homemade modified dairy tank brewhouse - he'd taught himself how to weld stainless. He showed me the equipment he'd bought at auctions and installed. He showed me the grassy area where they'd hosted a wedding and planned to host more. He tied up the hop vines on twine twisted with his cordless drill. He showed me the piglets. He showed me his solar panels and the Jack Daniel cask he got from the local screaming eagles at the airbase. The cask he had aged his barleywine in.

I helped out a little: I taught Rod how to blog. You can catch his new blog at http://www.miapiabeers.blogspot.com/.

That night Jodi and their kids Kelsey and Clint met us in town for dinner. Back at the farm, I parked next to the hops for the night. The next morning Rod's mom made breakfast: Eggs, ham from their pig, pancakes, and Jodi's fresh blackberry cobbler. I took the cobbler to go. Rod gave me a growler of his delicious Pilsner for the road. Later I shared that Pilsner with Jon's Aunt Karen in Auburn. Ain't life grand!

--

Here's Jodi Kucera’s Farm Journal Cornbread Recipe:
Sweet, moist, simple… and delicious.

2.5 cups flour
1 cup cornmeal
1 cup sugar
2 tsp salt
4+1/4 tsp baking powder
3 eggs slightly beaten
2/3 cups (10 tbsp) butter, melted
1+2/3 cup milk

Grease a 9” x 13” pan
Bake 25-30 minutes in a 400 degree oven.

Pink Boots at Deschutes

“Let your dream lead you.” ~Henry David Thoreau

Well I didn’t sleep so good, what with the instant replays of fishtailing trailers in my head. But then I had a great day...

I spent the morning with Jake Harper (photo above) who runs the 50-barrel JV Northwest brewery at Deschutes Brewing Company in Bend, Oregon. Jake is a marathon runner, and his long legs come in handy when he is running up and down two sets of circular staircases on three floors managing four brews at once. He’s been there 8 years, and he knows that brewery well. Luckily Deschutes Black Butte Porter is Jake’s favorite beer, because he makes four back-to-back batches on a regular basis. Jake works the first shift, and Chris the second.

After lunch I got a tour of the 130-barrel German Huppmann brewery, then the packaging line, the wastewater treatment plant, the warehouse and the lab. Everything is just as spiffy and wonderful as you would expect it to be from a good-sized regional craft brewery that takes the quality of its beer seriously.

And they seriously were more than happy to show me everything. Jake even let me suction out the hop back with a big built-in wet-vac hose. I tried to get my uniform dirty, but only my pink boots got a little dirty. Other than the sprial-staircase running, the 50-barrel system is very user-friendly. The 130-barrel system is automated so a brewer couldn’t get marathon fit running that one. The two breweries are in the same large building, so I got to go back and forth a bit.
After work, owner Gary Fish and Brewmaster Larry Sidor took Jon and I to Deschute’s original brewpub in downtown Bend. They replaced their original 12-barrel system with a shiney 10-barrel JV Northwest system about 8 years ago or so. I think they wore out their original brewery, brewing 7,000 barrels there the year before they opened the 50-barrel brewery.

The brewpub had about 16 beers on tap, including cask beer. They even had their original Bachelor Bitter on cask, which was a real treat. The medium-rare mushroom burger and fries were excellent.

All in all it was a most excellent day, and everybody I met at Deschutes was exceptionally nice. I have a feeling I’m going to meet a lot of exceptionally nice people on this trip. Pröst!

P.S. Thank you to Mia & Pia's Brewery in Klamath Falls, Oregon. Rod & Jodi Kucera let me take over their computer for a few hours so I could catch up on emails, photos, and blogs.