We brewed the second batch of beer of 2012 on March 9. It was the first Daddy’s Chocolate Milk batch of the year. A favorite among folks that have been enjoying our beer since the beginning, DCM (also known as Super Bowl Stout once a year) is an English Sweet Stout made with Maris Otter, chocolate, black and Carafa malts and a combination of cluster and UK Golding hops. This “session stout” lives up to its name with a rich and creamy finish. Unfortunately, it cannot be enjoyed by the lactose intolerant due to the lactose – an unfermentable sugar – that we add during the boil.

The brew was relatively stress free and, with just two brews on Molly (pictured above) in 2012, we’re already starting to hit our stride.

However, no brew day at ESB would be complete without some kind of drama. This time we experienced a tear in the wort chiller (second time I’ve had this happen in 7 years) so went into a bit of an immediate panic given the situation. Thankfully, Twitter came to our rescue:

URGENT: any homebrewers near Noe Valley? My wort chiller just ruptured. Need a quick chiller fix. Crap.

— Richard Brewer-Hay (@ESBAle) March 9, 2012

@ESBAle Drain half into another sanitized pot. Cool both with the bathtub method + triple the ice bags. Cc/ @McClure_SF @jrizzo

— local brewing co. (@localbrewingco) March 9, 2012

It had been over 5 years since I had used an ice-bath to chill the beer down to the right temperature for pitching the yeast so I could be excused for the brain-fart. It was great to get immediate help from folks via Twitter all the same.

Like every beer we plan on brewing this year, the ESBrew 2012 Batch #2 had its own soundtrack and inspirational beer. This time, I listened to Bruce Springsteen’s new “Wrecking Ball” album on a continuous loop throughout the brew and drank Marin Brewing Company‘s San Quentin Breakout Stout for inspiration. One of our favorite stouts here at the ESB – and my wife’s favorite local beer.

For all the pictures from the brew day, check out the Elizabeth Street Brewery Flickr page.

The Famous Podcast – Episode 3
A reminder that one of our favorite bands, The Famous, has launched its very own podcast bringing you the best in craft beer, country music and NASCAR. Each episode includes a beer update from yours truly.

Here is episode 3:

You can also subscribe via iTunes.

Cheers!
Richard.

We’re back up and running here at The ESB and kicked off the year with our first #ESBrew2012 on March 3, 2012 with a brand new recipe that I hope will be a nice addition to our selection of beers. We’re calling it Bluesbreaker’s Black.

#ESBrew2012
This will be our brewday hashtag on Twitter for the duration of the year. I am committed to chronicling each of our brew days this year here on the blog and on Twitter @ESBAle. We’ll also maintain a photo journal on our ESB Flickr page and, from time to time, we’ll also upload videos to our ESB YouTube channel.

Bluesbreaker’s Black IPA
Bluesbreaker’s Black is our latest brew here at The ESB. It was inspired by 21st Amendment’s Back in Black IPA and Sierra Nevada’s Ruthless Rye IPA. It is definitely a work in progress but an exciting one to be sure. It’s a 27 lb grain bill for a 12-gallon yield. 3 lbs of rye are included and we use a combo of Warrior and Cascade hops during the boil. More info on the beer as we dial it in.

The name of the beer – Bluesbreaker’s Black – comes from the music played during the brew. Throughout the brew day, all that was played was blues music performed by British artists like Eric Clapton and John Mayall. Primarily the beer was brewed to John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers. One of my favorite bands. Music plays an integral part of the process with every beer we brew. Every beer has it’s own soundtrack.

The Famous Podcast
We’re huge fans of The Famous here at The ESB and have been following their musical escapades for as long as we’ve been brewing. They play regular shows at The Russian River Brewing Company in Santa Rosa (the next show is on April 7 at the home of Pliny The Elder). They started their own podcast last week and in addition to playing all manner of traditional country music – and highlighting NASCAR so far – they also want to chat about beer so I sent an update to the show talking about Bluesbreaker’s Black… something I hope to do on a regular basis over the coming months.

We look forward to keeping you up to speed on developments here at The ESB. More importantly, we look forward to sharing and brewing the beers with you all.

Cheers!
RBH

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.

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.

Cheers!
Richard.

Feel free to stop by for a taste or two during the 4-hour window this coming Saturday. Can’t wait to see you.

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.

We have bottled our first ever pilsener which tastes good but not great… need to figure out how to tweak for better results. I’ll save some for you regulars, the next time we’re open.

With regard to email: for some reason, none of my outbound emails have been reaching their intended recipients. I am in the process of fixing that, but will resend emails using my personal account because some of you have been awaiting responses for a number of weeks now.

Looking forward to beating this thing and getting back to brewing soon.

See you at the ESB soon I hope… don’t forget, we’re also your home for the NFL once the Fall rolls around. We get every NFL game in the pub throughout the season (Miami Dolphins getting precedence over all other games of course).

Cheers!
Richard.