Admittedly, this post has absolutely nothing to do with beer but I had to share with folks anyway. Allie’s birthday is later this month but we enjoyed her birthday present a little early this year as we both went up over Napa in a hot-air balloon. Considering my intense fear of heights, I thought I handled it rather well. I must confess for the better part of thirty minutes when we were at our highest (2,500 feet up), my legs were truly jelly. Apart from that though, it was great!
All,
As most of you know by now, yesterday the ESB was featured on NBC Bay Area as “Best Secret Spot” in the Bay Area. It was pretty funny to have TV cameras in the pub for a second time in the past 5 years… as I’ve been telling my wife since the spot aired on local TV yesterday morning, in the immortal (but paraphrased) words of Roy Scheider… “We’re going to need a bigger pub.”
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.
All,
As we dust ourselves off after another blow-out Super Bowl party at the Elizabeth Street Brewery, I need to give you all a few updates.
Firstly, thanks to the brewers who contributed to such a great event last weekend. Bryan, Patrick and Gabriel made unbelievable homebrews that I’m still getting great feedback from. Thanks too to the Cherry Voodoo team who brought a great collection of their beers for us all to try. Great stuff! We also served a cask of Imperial Jack and the “smaller” ESB it was based on Elizabeth Street Bitter (aka Grandpa Jack). I brewed both with the 21st Amendment crew in their brewery.
You can learn more about what Bryan is doing at Clara Street Brewing by checking out his blog. The Cherry Voodoo guys also are online here and here.
Strong Beer Month
Check out this pretty neat article out of the SF Guardian talking about the Strong Beer Month in general with a great one-line review of Imperial Jack: “Imperial Jack. This extra special bitter practically sings “Hail Britannia” on your tongue while waving the Union Jack.”: ARTICLE.
SF Beer Week
We’ve already established that I have the best wife on the planet – look at the pub she built for me in our home for proof. However, this Valentine’s weekend she is outdoing herself. According to Shaun O’Sullivan at the 21st Amendment, the guys at Fatted Calf are making some exclusive sausages for the “Brewers Sunday Tea” at the 21st Amendment on Valentine’s Day using our collaboration beer Imperial Jack as the beer ingredient. It’s happening from 11:30am – 3:30pm. Brewers from 21st Amendment, Elysian, Stone, Dogfish Head & Ninkasi will all be there and we’ll all be eating beer sausages containing our Imperial Jack. The reason Allie gets wife of the year is that it just so happens that this weekend is our annual retreat to Amador county with friends/family. She has told me to stay behind so I can attend the event and enjoy the beers/sausages. That is how I’m spending my Valentine’s Day. Care to join me?
Tonight however, Allie and I do get to enjoy each others company for a night out on the town. Homebrew Chef, Sean Z. Paxton, will be delivering a collaboration dinner of the highest caliber:
Acclaimed Homebrew Chef Sean Z. Paxton participates in San Francisco Beer Week to create a spectacle for the senses, pairing 8 innovative courses with 9 beers from Paso Robles’ Firestone Walker brewery and Belgium’s De Proef brewery ‘Signature Series”. Each collaborative course will showcase the playful & intricate flavors, textures and balance found in these remarkable beers and foods in a memorable, relaxed setting.
Learn more about it here. Hope to see you tonight!
For a full break down of the schedule of remaining events for SF Beer Week, please click HERE.
Pirate Cat Radio – Sound Bites podcast
Finally, the podcast episode I participated in with Bryan Hermannsson of Clara St. Brewing is now up on iTunes. It’s the Sound Bites podcast and it’s the most recent episode. (Dated 1/28/10).
Hope to see you out and about this weekend for the grand finale of SF Beer Week. Until then…
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.
The New Year got off to a pretty incredible start for us here at the Elizabeth Street Brewery. We were invited to brew a strong version of our ESB at the 21st Amendment Brewery for their Strong Beer Month coming in February. Each year, 21st Amendment and Magnolia get together and brew a dozen or so “strong beers” to be served during the month of February. This year, our very own strong version of Grandpa Jack (Elizabeth Street Bitter) will be on tap for folks at 21A.
Introducing Imperial Jack
Getting to brew on such a large system twice in just a matter of months was a true honor and amazing opportunity. Brewers Jesse and Shaun had the idea of doubling our ESB recipe from the GABF last year to create an “Imperial ESB”. A bitter that will boast an A.B.V. of around 8.5%, the beer had almost double the grain bill of our last batch (went from 550lbs of malt to 1,036 lbs). We knew we were onto something special from the very beginning.
Richard & Shaun get ready to brew Imperial Jack at the 21st Amendment
Shaun and I mashed in and the sparge went off without a hitch. Unfortunately, I had to take part in a conference call for my day job during the boil so Shaun handled the majority of the hop additions before I rejoined him for the end of the boil and the grain clean-up. Jesse tagged in for Shaun for the end of the brew when we added the yeast and transferred the wort to the fermenter. All-in-all it was a great day and I can’t wait to brew on that scale again sooner rather than later. Here are some highlights from the day:
Imperial Jack recipe snapshot
Shaun adds hops to Imperial Jack
Imperial Jack Transfers to Fermenter
Yeast blow-off after 1 day in fermenter – we’ve got a wild one here!
VIDEO: Adding yeast to the fermenter
VIDEO: Transferring Imperial Jack to the fermenter
Imperial Jack will be on tap beginning February 1 at 21st Amendment Brewery. See you there!
All,
Just a quick update to let you know that we’ll be opening up the doors for 4 hours on Saturday from Noon – 4pm. We’ll be serving 3 beers for your enjoyment: Daddy’s Chocolate Milk, Quincy’s Winter Warmer and we’ll be pouring – for the first time ever – Grandpa Jack Ale in honor of my late Grandfather.
Feel free to stop by for a taste or two during the 4-hour window this coming Saturday. Can’t wait to see you.
All,
I had to share this video of me tapping the last 3 gallons of the Elizabeth Street Bitter brewed at 21st Amendment for the GABF Pro-Am earlier this Fall. I debated putting this video up because it proves that I have absolutely no idea what I’m doing. The beer, on the other hand, was superb. It was a great privilege to brew on their system and I can’t wait to do it all over again. For now, sit back and enjoy a comedy of errors from the back yard at the Elizabeth Street Brewery.
Cheers!
Richard
Well, gang. I’m typing this from our “pub garden”, with the Sunday evening NFL game about to start. Our kids are playing here in the backyard and I’m wondering if the last three days in Denver really happened. Thankfully, I have the video footage to prove that it did.
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.
Well gang,
We made it. Our first day of our first ever Great American Beer Festival was indeed a memorable one.
As we approached the Convention Center (a short 2-block walk from our hotel) the energy was building and more and more beer bellies were coming into view. A wonderful site. The line for the regular entrance wrapped all the way around the massive convention center. Luckily, because we’re American Homebrew Association Members we had special tickets stamped “VIP” that allowed us to enter in a different entrance… There were a lot of VIPs I guess:
Although the line was long, the wait was not and before we knew it we were ascending the escalator about to enter the main beer hall…
After a quick tour of the hall, we made our way to the Pro-Am booth. Thursday was the only day that our Elizabeth Street Bitter was going to be on offer. Because we brewed it at the 21st Amendment, and the beers were laid out in alphabetical order by brewery, we were beer # 1. So there was a constant stream of folks trying our beer, and (thankfully) nodding in approval from what we could see…
After that, it was a blur and a whirlwind. Highlights included:
- Brian Yaeger signing my new copy of Red, White and Brew
- Charlie Papazian signing my original copy of the Joy of Homebrewing
- Stan Hieronymus signing my original copy of brew like a monk
- A pretzel necklace
- Oh, the beers. Lots of beers. Too many to mention. We must have had anywhere between 40 and 50 beers (1oz pours) and I can remember only one not being up to snuff. Amazing to find so many good beers in one place.
- Silent disco dancing
- Cheese steaks
- More beer
After the conference closed, Allie and I headed out with 21st Amendment’s Shaun O’Sullivan and, in a roundabout way (the Falling Rock was far too busy to get into), we found ourselves at The Wynkoop Brewery with Bruce Paton the Beer chef, and Nicole from The Trappist in Oakland. Schwike(sp?) also joined us who has also brewed on the 21st Amendment system (an English mild). We closed out the night with a nice selection of ESBs and IPAs before heading back to the hotel.
All in all, a great night. Can’t wait to do it all over again tomorrow afternoon.
