We’ve been getting a lot of inquiries these past few weeks regarding what’s going on here at the Elizabeth Street Brewery. The short answer is, “not a lot” to be honest. But that would be selling our efforts a bit short.

Since we invested in the 20-gallon tippy dump system and conical fermenter last Summer, we haven’t done much brewing to be frank. In addition to heightened activity at my day job, the system is currently getting a few minor adjustments to help optimize brewing efficiency moving forward so, as a result, I’ve only brewed three times in the past 6 months.

Like most things I’ve tackled in my life, I’ve always said that the growth of the Elizabeth Street Brewery would be a natural progression. Nothing forced. I need to keep reminding myself of this fact when I worry that we’re not as involved in the “beer community” as we were just 12 months ago. I’ve had to make some difficult decisions to start the year with regard to the work around the ESB. I will not be participating in SF Beer Week in 2012. We’re not throwing our annual Super Bowl Extravaganza here at the ESB next month (for the first time in a decade), and I think I’m also going to take a year off from traveling to the Craft Brewer’s Conference. I don’t take any of these decisions lightly.

It’s not all doom and gloom here though and the new brewery wasn’t the only milestone we hit in 2011. We’re an officially licensed business of California and the business plan has undertaken three major adaptations over the past 12 months also. There are a lot of positives ahead for us in 2012 too. When we do have “Molly” back up and running, we are going to brew. We are going to brew some of the best beers we’ve ever brewed. And we’re hoping you’re going to help us. This Spring, I’ve committed to brewing three beers with people that have never brewed before – tackling recipes of their choosing – and really experimenting with styles and advanced brewing. I hope to carry that into the rest of the year; inviting groups of people interested in the brewing process but not sure where to start. We’ve always said we were a “brewery for the people, by the people” – now we’re committed to being exactly that.

The ultimate goal is still the same – and we’ll never waiver in our commitment – to introduce a craft beer establishment to our good friends and neighbors of Noe Valley. Everything we do has that prize in mind… but until then, we’re determined to enjoy every step of the way. This is definitely a case of the journey being just as important and rewarding as the destination.

So, thanks for sticking with us and we can’t wait to get back to brewing and pouring frothy goodness for you over the months ahead. Until then… Cheers!

Richard, Allie, Addison & Quincy.

In addition to being the Brewmaster of Social Kitchen & Brewery, organizing the San Francisco Brewer’s Guild, and living just a few short blocks from the Elizabeth Street Brewery, Rich Higgins is also a certified Master Cicerone.

He is bringing his knowledge and expertise to the good people of San Francisco starting this month and running through February 13, 2012. You’ve already missed the UK Beer Tradition course but feel free to come over to the ESB for a private session on that in the near future. In the meantime, check out all the other classes and dates below:

World Beer Traditions (http://beertraditions.eventbrite.com)
November 6: UK Beer Tradition
November 13: German Beer Tradition
December 4: Belgian Beer Tradition
January 8: US Beer Tradition

Beer & Food Pairing (http://beerandfood.eventbrite.com)
November 20: Beer & Thanksgiving Food
December 18: Beer & Italian Cuisine from Delarosa Restaurant
January 29: Beer & Superbowl Eats
February 13: Beer & Valentine’s Chocolate & Candy

You can use promotion code “weissbier” to receive a $10 discount for each ticket purchased. Also, discounted 4-class packages are available for a limited time. Tickets cost $55-$65 and are a fundraiser for the non-profit Barbary Coast Conservancy for the American Cocktail.

Classes are on Sundays from 5-7 PM (except the Valentine’s class is on a Monday). I definitely plan on attending a few of these over the next couple of months so maybe I’ll see you there.

Cheers!
Richard.

As some of you already know, a fire broke out at the Radio Shack building on 24th Street in Noe Valley on Saturday, September 10. As a result, 7 residents of that building have been displaced and they need our help. Noe Valley resident (and ESBAle-fan) Catherine Bergstrom is organizing a raffle fund-raiser for the victims to take place on October 6 at the Valley Tavern.

Allie and I want to help in anyway we can so we’ve decided to raffle off a full brew-day at the Elizabeth Street Brewery.

This will include:
- Picking out a recipe of your choice
- A trip to the brewery supply store to get all the ingredients (all paid for by Elizabeth Street Brewery)
- Full brew-day on the new 20-gallon tippy dump ESBAle sculpture – “MOLLY”
- 4 cases of the beer brewed on that day
- 2 brand-new ESBAle T-Shirts
- Special beer-tastings throughout the brewday

We’ll work with the raffle winner on a date that works for all involved.

Raffle tickets will be sold at The Valley Tavern beginning Saturday, September 17th. You can find out all the information about how to help the victims, by clicking on the flyer below.

Cheers!
RBH

I could stop brewing today and I would still owe a lot of people a great deal of thanks for the amazing ride it has been as a homebrewer since 2003. To my wife for putting up with some of the spills, smells, and “mistakes” brewed in our kitchen and back yard; to Griz, Eric, Andre and the whole crew at SF Brewcraft; to Shaun, Nico, Jesse, Zambo and everyone at 21st Amendment over the past 4 years… I could go on – the list is long.

But I don’t plan on stopping brewing anytime soon. In fact, I think I may just be getting started. But as most of you know, I have a day job down in Campbell, CA that sees me drive 110 miles round trip every day. That’s a lot of time in the car. That’s a lot of time wasted that I could be spending on working on the Elizabeth Street Brewery. However, I have a new group of folks to thank. Primarily Justin, Doc, Tasty, JP, Beevo, Moscow and everyone involved with The Session of the Brewing Network.

I used to work for PodShow before joining eBay so I was exposed to a LOT of independent podcasts devoted to any number of topics – including beer – and I’ve subscribed to quite a few of them for a while now from John Foster’s Beer School to Craft Beer Radio. I always found it difficult to listen to them without a beer in front of me. However, now that I’ve been doing this commute for over 3 years now, I’ve made an effort to ignore those cravings and actually make the most of my time in the car… and not just to listen to JP and Tasty burp at 7:45 in the morning as I drive to work.

For those of you interested in beer and brewing specifically, I highly recommend checking them out. I realized as I was driving in to work this morning, listening to an episode that included an interview with Lucky Bucket Brewing Co, how lucky I am to be able to get value out of what would be normally perceived as a repetitive time-sink. 2 hours in the car every day keeps me away from both my day-job duties (social media & blogging for eBay) and my brewing activities at the Elizabeth Street Brewery.

The Lucky Bucket Brewing conversation was perfect inspiration to get me started on a sluggish Tuesday. I hit the ground running at the office, drafted a couple of posts for work and got ready for our earnings call tomorrow and now, during my lunch break, I’m putting together this post for ESB. The irony of having corporate blogger as one of my primary job descriptions means that I don’t have the energy or time I used to have to devote to this ESB Blog. Let’s hope I keep getting inspired on the commute to and from work so that I can get my beer blogging, education and practical output back to a respectable level.

Cheers to the Brewing Network for making me realize that!

-Richard.

We’ve been hard at work behind the scenes here at the Elizabeth Street Brewery. We are now an official LLC and have our sellers permit (for merchandise, etc.) and we have a new 20-gallon brewing sculpture built by the good folks at MoreBeer. We have decided to name her “Molly” after my Grandmother. We named the award-winning collaboration beer with 21st Amendment , Imperial Jack, after her husband – my Grandpa – so it seemed only fitting to name the brewery after her. After all, behind every good man is a great woman.

Transporting her solo home from Concord was quite a rush… particularly once I got onto the Bay Bridge. My buddy Chris helped us set her up at her new home at the Elizabeth Street Brewery. I brewed the first batch on Molly on Sunday, July 10 and it was a 15-gallon version of our stout – Daddy’s Chocolate Milk. The grain bill consisted of 38 lbs of grain…

Considering it was our maiden voyage with Molly, I felt the brew went surprisingly smoothly. After I figured out how to stop the pump from cavitating (as shown in the below video) we were really in business…

Clean-up was a snap too. Mainly because of my two little brewing fairies…

I’m looking forward to assembling our large conical fermenter and brewing a pilsner or lager on there (it’s temperature controlled). Until then… back to beer. Looking forward to pouring for you all very soon.

Cheers!
Richard.

The Imperial Jack, named after my Grandfather (pictured above) and collaboratively brewed with the good folks at 21st Amendment Brewery (pictured below), is back in San Francisco for Strong Beer Month in February. As you may remember, Imperial Jack took home the gold from last year’s World Beer Cup in Chicago in the “Other Strong Ale” category.

Come join us to raise a glass of the award-winning brew in honor of my late Grandpa Jack and his Great Grandson and namesake, Jack Wilson. Baby Jack was born on January 8, 2010 – the same day we brewed this latest batch of Imperial Jack so it’s a celebration of life both new and old. Can’t wait to see you all then so we can kick off strong beer month in style!

What: A TOAST OF JACKS
Where: 21st Amendment Brewery, 563 2nd Street, San Francisco
When: 6 – 9pm, Tuesday, February 1.

Cheers!
Richard.

Thought I’d share with folks… Cheers!

Richard.

Elizabeth Street Brewery’s Richard Brewer-Hay from Chris Spradley on Vimeo.

A Tall, Cold Pint of NightLife
All about how beer is brewed with music by DJ Kramer and Tamo
July 15th, 6:00 pm – 9:00 pm

There’s nothing better on a summer night than a tall, cold glass of beer. Have you ever wondered how beer is brewed? What ‘hops’ are? What the difference between a lager and a pilsner is? Join some of the San Francisco Bay Area’s best microbreweries and beer experts, including San Francisco Brewcraft, MateVeza, Bison Brewing, Social Kitchen and Brewery, Elizabeth Street Brewery and others, to learn all about the art of brewing beer. All of these great beers will be available for sale tonight at NightLife.

Full details regarding the event can be found HERE. Hope to see you there!

Cheers,
Richard.

I’ve decided to brew a wide collection of beers behind closed doors over the coming weeks so we can have some cool and interesting ales to enjoy at upcoming open-houses for friends, family and neighbors. I’ve received quite a few emails over the past 3 weeks from new people wondering what exactly goes on here at our homebrew pub (apologies to those I have yet to respond to) so it would be nice to have beers for them when they get here.

Saturday was interesting because we were technically not open but managed to get a crowd of about 30 people over the course of the day. Good to see old friends and make new ones but again, I found myself distracted from the task at hand. What started out as 10-gallons of American amber ale, in honor of the late Bill Brand (the second time I’ve tried to replicate the B3 Bomber Ale of last year) turned into 5 gallons of extremely strong, hoppy brew. Not sure how to categorize it yet but I have a feeling it’s going to knock my socks off. It was the first time using the PACMAN yeast (Rogue Dead Guy Ale yeast) and because I had two starters (for two 5-gallon fermenters) I decided to throw them both in one 5-gallon batch. My wife – and our dining room for that matter – is not pleased with that decision so far. Extremely active. Again, can’t wait to try this one.

Saturday also marked the first time in 7 years that I had to discard an entire batch of beer. It had been contaminated somewhere between the primary and the secondary and leaving it in the carboys for an excessive amount of time didn’t help. The beer is, quite simply, undrinkable. Therefore, I have the painful task of pouring it away. I’ve only poured 5 gallons so far… it was like crying in the sink. Not ready to do the same with the second keg. To make matters worse, it was a batch of our Daddy’s Chocolate Milk – a real crowd favorite – so I’ll have to get back to brewing another batch of it sooner rather than later.

We’ve been focusing a lot on the behind-the-scenes aspects of the ESB for a few weeks now. Saturday’s brew was, in all honesty, the first batch brewed on site since we welcomed in 2010. With the exception of brewing Imperial Jack at 21st Amendment it was the only beer I’ve made this year. That is all about to change. I need to play with recipes, tweak and challenge ideas of existing beers we’ve been making. We have a whole new group of “customers” coming to the pub and I don’t want their first impressions to be of sub-par ale.

So… look for more brew-day updates in the future – and a lot of them too. Which is good news for you. After all, someone has to drink it.

For now, I say cheers! Can’t wait to welcome you into the Elizabeth Street Brewery in the near future.

-Richard.

Yesterday marked the first day of Strong Beer Month in San Francisco. Hosted by Magnolia Brewpub and 21st Amendment Brewery, Strong Beer Month features 12 unique and special beers available. You can see a full list of the beers here…

Strong Beer Month Menu

I was extremely fortunate to be invited back to brew at the 21st Amendment. Two weeks ago we brewed a strong version of our Grandpa Jack ESB and have named it Imperial Jack. You can read about the brew day HERE.

John Foster of Beer School fame, was invited to brew a beer too. Together, he and I joined the enthusiastic crowd at 21st Amendment last night to officially open Strong Beer Month. Addison helped get things going by ringing the bell. Here is the event, caught on film. Enjoy!

You can read John’s account of last night HERE and check out his pictures HERE.

Cheers,
Richard.