Microbrewed Adventures Page 9
Steve Hindy. Courtesy of Brooklyn Brewing Co.
When Steve has time to relax and enjoy a beer, he reflects “on the days when I would come home from selling beer and crack open my own homebrew. We’re extremely proud that the Brooklyn Brewery is a part of New York City’s community. It warms my heart whenever I see one of our trucks rumbling down a Manhattan avenue.”
The beer’s success, along with the establishment of a craft beer distributing company, allows Steve and Garrett to pursue their passion for making several unique styles of beer. Their seemingly slow and deliberate growth has provided a means to offer consumers diversity and flavor, especially with skillfully brewed beers such as Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout, English-American-style Brooklyn East India Pale Ale, German-style Brooklyner Weisse and Belgian-inspired Saison de Brooklyn and Blanche de Brooklyn, as well as seasonal brown ales, Oktoberfest lagers and Monster Mash Barley wine ales.
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BROOKLYN’S ORIGINAL CHOCOLATE STOUT
Steve Hindy shares his original recipe. A robust roasted malt and barley character rounds off the combination of English and American hops. The balance is reminiscent of cocoa with a pleasant hop finish. The result is simple, straightforward and deliciously inspiring. This recipe can be found in About the Recipes.
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In the fall of 1994 on a trip to East Coast, Steve and I sat down to discuss specialty beers and beer distributors. We had concluded with disappointment that most beer distributors have little knowledge about providing beer drinkers access to microbrewery beers. This was a time when several microbrewers in America were beginning to grow quite rapidly. Most mainstream beer businesspeople perceived the growing phenomenon and popularity of microbrewed beers as an overnight success.
As we enjoyed our Brooklyn beers, we both agreed that it takes a lot of time and patience to be perceived as successful. No one is really that interested in all the hard work and failures that come before success. Admired for his product, passion and creativity, Steve was once told by a very successful Coca-Cola ad manager, “If you stick with this for ten years, with a little luck you’ll become an overnight success.” Big-beer businesspeople are really only interested in trying to establish models based upon apparent success in order to apply those models to their own future growth for growth’s sake. They have never figured out that there is no model to be built, except for the ones of individual persistence, dedication and enthusiasm for beer quality and diversity. True and successful microbrewers have always put quality, diversity and the people who will enjoy their beer first on their list of priorities. Sales are essential for a brewery, but selling beer for the simple sake of selling beer usually dooms a dispassionate brewer. I’ve seen this happen over and over again.
Psychographic Resonations
The Magic Hat Brewing Company
WHILE SOME BREWERIES don’t like to paint themselves into a corner nor put themselves into a box, there is at least one brewery that you might say presents themselves as the box. But they’ll let you determine what’s inside. As if reaching into a magic hat, you’ll take out surprises, delights and joys with every plunge, every adventure, every indulgence and every pleasure. “We believe that the people who enjoy our beer don’t really need to be told ‘what’s in the box,’” explains Alan Newman, the full-bearded, energetic founder of the Magic Hat Brewing Company.
“So who is the poet, the artist, the contrarian, the joker, the gamesman at Magic Hat?” I ask Alan after taking a step inside their virtual address at www.magichat.net. Without any hesitation whatsoever, Alan shoots back, “I am!”
Taking a cruise with the brews of Magic Hat, one is taken on a journey, swirling, turning, breaking out, double-taking and becoming entranced. “You get to choose the level of involvement you have with Magic Hat. It could be the messages under our bottle caps, the beer, the label, a pilgrimage to the magic brewery, the website, our community,” explains Alan, the grand wizard.
“The fact that we are in Burlington, Vermont, is really not that relevant to Magic Hat. The community we want to embrace and reach out to is not geographic, it’s a psychographic community we are trying to resonate with,” Alan continues, knowing exactly what direction he is taking the beers that seem to be mystically brewed at the Magic Hat Brewery. “We are not Burlington. We are not northern Vermont. We are not about New England.”
He explains that in a sense they and the people who enjoy Magic Hat beer are night people, grown adults; of the stars and the moon. Magic Hat beers are an adult beverage for an adult community. Like the Nike “swoosh,” Magic Hat has its little crescent moon embedded in a bursting magical eight-pointed star.
Alan Newman, founder of Magic Hat
The original Magic Hat head brewer, Bob Johnson, was a talented homebrewer. Alan was looking for something new to develop. Bob was a friend, and it took only a few sips of his homebrew to evoke the excited question, “What the hell is this?” Alan was not a passionate beer enthusiast. “I drank beer,” he admits, “but I never really got into the tastes of microbrewery beers…until I noticed the beers Bob was brewing at his kitchen sink.” One magic taste led to another, and soon thereafter, in 1994, Alan founded the brewery. Beer drinkers recognized the magic, and their appreciation for the “elixirs” has continued to grow.
Now head brewer and brewmaster Todd Haire is brewing up elixirs at Magic Hat. Todd, too, got his start in homebrewing. Originally from Texas, he eventually migrated to Vermont. How did he learn? I asked. “I learned by making mistakes. I love to teach people, because I never had the opportunity to really have a mentor or be taught. Teaching people about brewing is one of the great joys I have with this job.”
Todd loves his job. “We have an open palette to experiment,” he says. “We’re encouraged to be as creative as possible with what resources they have available.”
I often ask brewmasters that if they had a moment to relax with a beer and reflect, what beer it would be and where that beer would take them. Todd gushed, “I’d definitely have our 10 percent–plus Thumbsucker Imperial Stout. We started this high-priced product (our “Humdinger” series) as a barrel-aged beer. Thumbsucker goes into Bourbon barrels in which our barley wine had aged for three years. It all began as a homebrewing experiment and my wife and I often reflect on how it all started. People’s response to this beer is fantastic. I can’t help reflect and appreciate how much depth the Thumbsucker has and how maturing really creates flavor nuances. These beers aren’t ready until they are ready; the alcohol complexity changes with time.”
Todd goes on to tell me that they also brew a Braggot, a strong, 10 percent–plus ale brewed with one-third honey fermentables, saying, “We keep bees outside the brewery in a small apiary. The 15 hives provided over 300 pounds of honey we used in this year’s barrel-aged Braggot.” Chamomile flowers were also added, and the ale was eventually aged in French oak.
In the near future they will be blending Cabernet grapes, pomegranates and blueberries into a Belgian Flanders–style brown ale infused with a fruity-producing Brettanomyces yeast culture and aging it in used Cabernet wine barrels.
Number 9, their most popular beer. Label courtesy of Magic Hat Brewing Co.
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MAGIC BOLO #9.1
With an apricot aroma and smooth, fruity flavor, this is a year-round drinking beer, low on lupulin but high on smoothness. Recipe details were shared by the brewer at Magic Hat and adapted to a homebrewed-size recipe. This recipe can be found in About the Recipes.
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Todd recalls one of their most unusual brews: “We made a bottled garlic beer, also flavored with rosemary and horehound. It was an elixir for our Halloween bash, ‘Night of the Living Dead.’ We put one clove of garlic in each bottle. I didn’t reminisce too much about that beer.”
As we finished our conversation, Todd had one final bit of wisdom: “Things that ferment have such great taste.”
I’ve had the pleasure of having almost all of the elixirs presen
ted to me and getting to choose the order in which to try them. It was like beginning a journey into a secret and mystical universe, where up is down and east is west. As I gazed into the foamy head of each brew, I could appreciate where those bubbles come from as they slowly rise to their surface. To say that these beers have personality would be an understatement. I asked Alan, “So if there is one beer that epitomizes all that could be in a Magic Hat, what beer would that be?” He knew the answer: “That would be #9. It’s a beer that brings it all together, a low-hopped ‘not quite pale ale’ with this wonderfully evocative apricot character. It comes through much more in the aroma than in the flavor. It’s very distinctive and it’s our best-selling beer.” And I mentally noted he concluded his description with “yet undefined.” It’s not your typical fruit beer.
I am realizing the addiction that can build for Magic Hat beers. It draws you farther and farther into the matrix of what Magic Hat is all about. Alan reminds me that it’s not necessarily all about the beer. Yes, you must have a world-class beer. That’s what Bob Johnson started, and now head brewer Todd Haire carries the scriptured tradition forward. Great beer is your “entry card” to play as a brewery. Alan says, “We strive to resonate with our customer. Connecting emotionally drives success.”
The Magic Hat Brewery is not just a brewery, it’s a community. Visit with a beer or stroll into the mystical at www.magichat.net.
A Mindset for Sustainability
Otter Creek Brewery & Wolaver’s
Organic Beer
COMFORTABLY NESTLED in the northern Vermont community of Middlebury, the popularly acclaimed Otter Creek Brewery has enjoyed a passionate following among beer drinkers since 1991. Every season celebrates the rites of brewing and Otter Creek beers. Now under the leadership of Morgan Wolaver, the brewery continues to brew Otter Creek brands in addition to Wolaver’s Organic Beer.
Morgan says, “The first thing Otter Creek beer fans told us was, ‘Don’t change my beer.’ Some even insinuated that we might use tofu in fermentation.” Morgan knows not to mess around with a good thing, yet he confided, “Organic products and sustainability is an umbrella for a mindset advocating environmental caretaking, energy efficiency, proper processing of wastewater and supporting organic farmers.”
Morgan recalls, “Back in high school my chemistry experiment was brewing beer.” Before I could ask the obvious question, he added, “Yes I drank it.” But his first intention in starting a business was not so much about beer as about advocating and practicing sustainability. He had traveled quite a bit while working in the oil industry as an oceanographer. There were lots of opportunities to taste great beer while working in England. Morgan expresses a passion for sustainability and reveals that it was an odd quirk of serendipity that caused him to embrace beer: “I tasted some organic beer from overseas. It didn’t taste good at all! Rather than discourage me, I was inspired. I asked myself, ‘Why couldn’t one brew great organic beer?’”
Morgan Wolaver
Morgan Wolaver and Steve Parkes. Courtesy Otter Creek/Wolavers Organic Beer.
With the expert help of brewmaster Steve Parkes, he set out by contracting with six American microbreweries to brew his beer. Steve, a veteran brewer whose focus has always been on quality control, guided the brewing of Wolaver’s Organic Beer in California, Colorado and Chicago and at Otter Creek. Before moving to the United States in 1988, Steve brewed in very small-scale breweries in England. He’s been brewing in America ever since. In high school, Steve reflects, “I wanted to do biochemistry, but when I began my coursework at Heriot-Watts University in Edinburgh I realized that the blending of science and art manifested itself in brewing and an end product. Now, every day I consider it an honor to get up, go to work and make beer.” Steve has had brewing endeavors with such successful brands as Oxford Class in the mid-Atlantic area and Red Nectar in northern California. He says, “What has been great about Wolaver’s and Otter Creek is that I never needed to be sold on the idea of ‘organic.’ The whole concept of sustainability meshes perfectly with craft-brewing ideals. We need to be supporting the people who support us in the long run. And now that we’ve made a commitment to organic farming we are already seeing an improvement in the quality of ingredients such as organic barley. Currently all New Zealand hops are organic and we’ve found a few varieties we really like such as New Zealand Hallertauer and Saaz. Cascade hops are the only organic American hop available right now. We use organic oats in our stout and organic raw wheat grown 10 miles from the brewery in our Wit Beer.”
Succeeding in growing beer drinkers’ appreciation of Wolaver’s ales from 27,000 cases to nearly 70,000 cases in a short while, Morgan and Steve soon realized there was quality and a lot of opportunity with Otter Creek. Morgan bought the brewery in 2002. They have continued to grow the reputation of the small craft brewery.
Steve Parkes
Morgan Wolaver and Steve Parkes. Courtesy Otter Creek/Wolavers Organic Beer.
“‘Organic’ is value added,” Morgan says adamantly. “Organic grains look like healthier malt. One of the premises we try to instill in all of our organic beers is complexity. The wine industry would go broke if they had to have consistency. It’s a plus for the wine industry; why can’t it be a plus for brewers and their beer?”
Asked about the difference between the two brands brewed at the Otter Creek Brewery, Morgan emphasizes that Wolaver’s beers are bigger beers, being “bigger interpretations” of the classic American microbrewed styles such as IPA, brown ale and Belgian-style wheat (wit) beer. Their beer drinker’s table of beers include Wolaver’s Brown Ale, India Pale Ale, Pale Ale, Wit Bier and Oatmeal Stout.
Otter Creek brands offer beer drinkers in the Northeast a selection of light and dark ales as well as German-style light, amber and dark bock lagers. Morgan notes, “The pale ale is the closest we come to competing styles between the two brands. Generally the Otter Creek brands are not as ‘big’ as the Wolaver’s brands.”
When I asked Steve about his thoughts after having a few relaxing beers, he reflects, “It is so satisfying to get up every morning and go to work and make beer. There’s a tremendous amount of satisfaction when for example we received a call on our toll-free number printed on our six-pack cases, from a customer who left a message, ‘I love your beer. Thank you.’” Steve most appreciates beer fresh out of the brewer’s tank or tap, but realizes that this is not always accessible and notes, “I like hops, but I like balance in beers where I can taste a crisp malt character as well as delicate fermentation characters.”
Where do Morgan’s favorite beers take him when he finds time to relax? “A good, well-balanced pale ale with a good hop finish really is my usual preference. It doesn’t seem to matter what mood I’m in. When I’m able to relax and appreciate what the beer is telling me I think about getting away fishing, hiking and generally appreciating the outdoors.” He adds that he often thinks about small-time farmers, slowing down, decompressing and appreciating home.
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WOLAVER’S ORGANIC OATMEAL STOUT
This recipe shared by brewmaster Steve Parkes has been adapted for homebrewers. Caramel, nutlike and cocoa character accents this wonderfully balanced stout. Oatmeal provides body and a velvety texture. Adequate hops accent its thirst-soothing personality, while Cascade aromatics endure throughout the experience of this organic oatmeal stout. The recipe can be found in About the Recipes.
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And as a final thought, “Being a good citizen is a big part of where we’re going.”
THERE ARE many other great microbreweries across America making extraordinary beer. Beer festivals are a good place to find out what is new in beer and to try new flavors and brewers’ new adventures. I also recommend going to full-service beer stores that offer a wide variety of local and regional craft and microbrewed beers. In many states that are microbrew friendly you’ll be permitted to embark on your own adventure by putting together your own selection of mixed six-packs of beers. Mi
x a six of stouts or a six of bock beer. Seasonal six-packs from favorite breweries become an anticipated annual adventure for many. See how many different types of beer you can select for a mixed case. Just as you taste wine from a particular region, you can organize your own tasting of great regional beers, and at far less cost than a case of great wine…. For starters, check out these two websites for more info on beer festivals and what’s new in beer: www.realbeer.com and www.beertown.org.
CHAPTER 5
On the Road with Charlie
AT LEAST ONCE A YEAR I try to take a beer adventure. Sometimes it’s to Asia, Europe, Africa or down to South America, but more often than not I’m right in our American backyard encountering local beers with both hands at the ready. I’ve gone from North Dakota to Tennessee, the deep South, down East, the far West and all the way up to Alaska, tasting for the love of beer.
You might consider it part of a fairy tale or an evang-ale-cal passion I have to spread the word about the beer-wonderful world of flavor and diversity. Each trip is organized with the indispensable help of my association assistant Mark Snyder, who plans the details of every moment of the itinerary. But as beer is often a catalyst for digression, so is each trip. Every beer journey becomes a microbrewed adventure of meeting friends old and new; beers wonderful, mystical, complex and creative. Nowhere on the planet can you travel 100 miles and encounter so many different beers of such exquisite quality. It all becomes a blur sometimes. The line between homebrew, microbrew and craft brew evaporates. The journey simply becomes all about the beer. It’s a journey I’ve taken often and look forward to each time. The following stories recount some of those classic moments on the road in pursuit of the ultimate beer.