Cheers!
Richard.

Thought I’d share with folks… Cheers!

Richard.

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

Apparently not…

That’s right folks, our little homebrewpub in our basement managed to snag Best Microbrewery of 2010 in SF Weekly. A true honor for us considering we’re not selling any beer yet.

Best Microbrewery – 2010
Elizabeth Street Brewery

Every month or so, Richard and Alyson Brewer-Hay invite friends, neighbors, and beer lovers in general to drop by their Noe Valley home and sample the brews they’ve been cooking up in 5- and 10-gallon batches since 2003. A few years back, their rumpus room was converted into a pub for the reality program. This friendly wood-and-brick nook, decorated with framed photos, armchairs, a dartboard, and many many beer bottles, is the ideal setting to enjoy free samples of Quincy’s Winter Warmer porter; Auntie Ben’s unfiltered, ultrahoppy IPA; Mummy’s Double Honey ale; or Daddy’s Chocolate Milk, a rich and creamy stout crafted from four varieties of malt, including chocolate. Brewing updates and information on the next open house are available via the ESB Web site or Twitter: @ESBale.

2010 has truly been a surreal year for the ESB. The 21st Amendment collaboration brew we made that took gold at World Beer Cup and now this.

My commitment and promise to all the folks that have enjoyed a beer at ESB over the past few years is that this will not be distracting, nor will it take away from the ultimate goal: a true family brewpub in San Francisco.

Thanks for your continued support and we can’t wait to welcome you into our wee homebrewpub over the Summer.

Cheers!
Richard.

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.

Enjoy!

Cheers,
Richard.

So now, yet another reason for me to A) play with my MacBook Pro editing tools and B) get back to work on finalizing that business plan, I give you my crude but fun highlight reel of yesterday’s appearance on NBC.

Cheers!
Richard

You already saw what happened on the first day.

DAY 2
We took Friday off from the Great American Beer Festival but that pretty much meant that we just drank beer in other places. Namely the Denver Chophouse & Brewery and Falling Rock Tap House. I had already seen the Chophouse and Brewery in Washington D.C. earlier this year and they are pretty similar. However, I’m always a fan of a brewery that puts its serving tanks right behind the bar in full-view. Here is a quick tour of Denver Chophouse & Brewery:

I didn’t want to be the dork who got the video camera out at Falling Rock so you’ll have to forgive me. Just know that the beers there are superb. It gives Toronado in SF and Gingerman down in Austin a good run for their money. I enjoyed a Russian River Brewing Sanctificaton, an unbranded cask milk stout and an Elysian Jasmine IPA. We then met with up Allie’s Uncle Mike and headed over to see the Colorado Rockies v St. Louis Cardinals. Even though we’re die-hard San Francisco Giants’ fans, even I couldn’t deny that the Rockies played a great, tight game that was ultimately won in the bottom of the 9th, in part by some pretty clutch pinch-hitting by Jason Giambi. Final score was 2-1. Followed by some pretty cool fireworks:

DAY 3
This was the moment of truth. Our first ever beer brewed on a professional system, entered into our first GABF. We were excited. We were going to get there early and get in line so we could try as many beers as possible on our last session in Denver before leaving for the airport. For those unfamiliar, there are two separate sessions on Saturday – a members only afternoon session from 12:30 – 4:30pm and then another evening session starting an hour later. We were signed up for the afternoon session because that is also when they announce the GABF award winning brews of the year. We showed up to the convention center at 11:50am. I decided to take a video from the front of the line to the rear. It took over 5 minutes…

The same goosebump-inducing entrance greeted us as we ascended the escalator. This time, the pipers were out in full force. Both here…

And inside the GABF, here…

Allie and I were determined to try some Dogfish Head beer before the awards were handed out (I’m so dorky I was fired up that Sam Calagione himself poured our samples for us) so by the time we got over to the ceremony, we had missed the announcement of the first 4 categories. What we didn’t realize for another 25 minutes is that we had already missed the announcement of the winners of the Pro-Am category – in which our Elizabeth Street Bitter had been entered. The build up was all washed away rather flatly to be honest. Allie had gone to the loo, and I recognized another homebrewer who had a beer in the Pro-Am. “We’ll get them next year, eh?” he said… “Oh, did they already announce? Who won?” I asked, non-chalantly. “No one I knew, but I hear the beers are great.” They were. Two were incredibly hoppy IPAs (so much so that I had to drink Allie’s for her) and the bronze went to a very well rounded Belgian.

So that was it. We spent the rest of the afternoon consuming as many rare beers as we could get our hands on and trying to find Shaun O’Sullivan and the 21st Amendment crew who had wonderfully won a bronze medal for the smoked porter… I had to stand on tip-toes to see he and Nico accept the medal but I think I must have been the loudest cheerleader in the crowd. It was great to see other local, favorite brewers win medals – golds to Magnolia, Marin and Bear Republic to name just three! The full list of winners can be found HERE. Interesting stat… of the 3,308 beers entered at the GABF this year, 234 of them were awarded medals. Meaning 93% of entries didn’t receive an award. Stiff competition indeed.

All in all, it was an experience I’ll never forget – and one that I want to be a part of again and again. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again… I can’t thank you enough for the support you’ve all given us over the past 6 years. One day we hope to be serving you our ales on a daily basis and entering our own beers into the GABF… encouraging other homebrewers to brew on our system and enter beers into the Pro-Am tournament.

2009 has been another step in the right direction for the Elizabeth Street Brewery and I like to think that there are much bigger ones to come in the very near future. Watch this space.

Cheers!
Richard.

This coming week though, all of us in San Francisco will get the opportunity to enjoy their live performance, get our hands on their highly anticipated new album “Come Home To Me” and – for lucky ESB customers – have the opportunity to win an exclusive, limited edition bottle of a variation of our Daddy’s Chocolate Milk that we’re naming after their last album: “Light, Sweet Crude.”

How do you win this bottle? Pretty easy:

1. Attend the CD release show on Thursday, August 27 at Cafe Du Nord
2. Purchase a signed copy of the CD at the event
3. Bring that CD to one of our open houses in the coming months as proof of attendance

There will be only 50 of these bottles produced. We will number each one. Bottles will be ready for pick up next month.

In the meantime, can’t wait to see you guys on Thursday night. Here are the particulars:

The Famous CD Release Show/Benefit
August 27, 2009
with “20 Minute Loop” and “Billy & Dolly”
Doors 8:30 pm, $10, 21+
Café Du Nord (2170 Market St., San Francisco)

You can RSVP to the event on Facebook HERE.

Cheers!
Richard.

I’ll be live-tweeting the brew on our Twitter feed: @ESBAle.

We’ll be grabbing a couple of pints upstairs in the Mezzanine loft when we’re done brewing. Heads up – the Giants host the Phillies on Saturday evening (first pitch at 6:05pm) so the pub promises to be getting pretty busy as the afternoon goes on.

For those new to the 21st Amendment Brewery, you can access directions by clicking HERE.

Cheers! Hope to see you Saturday.

-Richard.