During Thanksgiving week, my friends Mike and Brian joined me at the Spoetzl Brewery in Shiner Texas for their “tour.”  This article at wikipedia gives a nice update on the history of this brewery (the oldest independent brewery in Texas).  Another interesting fact (I thought) was that the Spoetzl Brewery is owned by the The Gambrinus Company (in San Antonio).

I use the word tour very loosely here … this is the first brewery I’ve ever been to where the tour was completely restricted.  No Photos, we went into a small area where the original kettles were and looked through some windows.  A complete letdown in my mind. I had all of this wonderful hype in my head about this tour … dud.

The people, however, were very nice.  They also had a very nice selection of their beers available for “sampling.”  If I remember correctly, we were given 5 tokens to use on any of the beers they had on tap.  I obviously had to sample the Shiner Bock at its home (see picture).

The other thing we noticed about this brewery is that they do use some cereal in their beers — I thought they were an all-grain beer, but they either use rice or corn … I couldn’t figure out which.  Maybe that’s why they wouldn’t let anyone take pictures.

My two favorite beers of theirs: The Old-Time Alt and the Holiday Cheer weren’t available at the Brewery — however, we found them at another restaurant in town.  Win!

If you are in the area it is worth a visit … but I’m not sure it’s worth a detour.

Beer Mentor

Yes … I am still alive and kicking!  You may have had your doubts due to the paucity of posts … but I will get this thing rolling!  I had two big goals this summer: 1) get moved to San Antonio, Texas … done! 2) take my Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP) exam … done!

Neither of these were easy and I’m still experiencing fallout from the move!  However, the BJCP exam is finished.  In February of this year I searched on-line for a place I could take the BJCP exam–wow, is that difficult.  There are only so many sites who can schedule an exam and the exam has to be proctored … so the pool of available tests at that site is also small.  I found a site in Albuquerque, New Mexico in August (the 21st to be exact).  I called and was able to get on the waiting list.  Thankfully, a few people dropped out and I was able to move up the list!

It ended up being a great experience!  The test was very hard–probably the hardest test I’ve taken since my Master’s degree comprehensives.  Three hours of writing mixed in with blind beer tasting.  Yes.  The test is as hard as they claim.  It will test your knowledge!

The test location was at La Cumbre Brewing.

Yep … that’s my friend Mike.  This was also the site of the judging for the New Mexico State Fair.  I had the pleasure of judging some beers for 2011 NM State Fair Beer Competition the same weekend I took my test.   The test host homebrew club was the Dukes of Ale … everything was well set up, well presented, and thoroughly enjoyable.  Mike was a test proctor (nationally certified Beer Judge) and we both judged for the fair.

Back to La Cumbre for a minute.  If you check the recent GABF results–you will see that they medaled (2 Golds and a Silver!).  Way to go!  Their beer was excellent…if you are in the area, definitely stop by the brewery–you can drink right on premises.  Just be careful where you park! LOL!

I won’t receive my test scores for a couple of more months.  I also combined this weekend with some Mountain Biking!

Enjoy!

Beer Mentor

Recently … ok, last week … I had the fortune of passing through Paso Robles California.  Kind of funny — I lived in this town as a kid back in the late sixties/early seventies when my dad worked at Camp Roberts.  What’s special about it besides that? :o)

It is the home of Firestone Walker Brewery.

Started by brothers-in-law 15 years ago (at the Firestone Vineyard), they’ve quickly made a name for themselves as Regional Craft Brewers winning several GABF and World Beer Awards.    They also happen to make my favorite American beer: Union Jack IPA.  This is a fantastic (award-winning) version of a West Coast IPA (but definitely balanced…so maybe not completely west-coast)!

But on to the brewery!  My friend Bobby and I had the pleasure of “Tim’s” company as our tour guide walking around the brewery!

Tim did a great job–super nice guy, knowledgeable, and answered our 1 million geeky questions.  We saw the inner-workings of the brewery … and, yes, they do use the double-barrel fermentation system … and keg it!

They have the same issues as other successful breweries — they are cramped for space — from fermentors, to lagering tanks, and places to store their wonderful firkins.  I think Tim told us they would be expanding in the near future …

After the extensive tour, we retired to the tasting room where you can sample all of the beers they sell (plus some you can only get at the brewery).  Can you pick out the beers on this sign you can only get at the brewery??

If you have the opportunity and are in the area, I highly recommend stopping in at Firestone Walker.  All of the staff are super, the beers are great, and the location is excellent!

Enjoy,

Beer Mentor

Today was a blast!  Just to refresh your memory, here were my plans for today (and how they panned out):

1) Tour Clipper City Brewing Company (Heavy Seas Beers).  More on this later in this post.

2) I wanted to tour Stillwater Artisanal Ales.  Obviously, I wasn’t paying close enough attention to this one–the Stillwater brewer is what’s called a “Gypsy Brewer.”  He uses other folks’ breweries (and routinely collaborates with different brewers).  To substitute, I decided to sample some of his beers while in Baltimore (and did so at Max’s Taphouse — more on this place in another post).  I also bought a couple of the Stillwater beers at a place called “The Wine Source” (and a few more beers as well … <smile>).  If you need a beer/wine/spirit, this is the place to visit in Baltimore!

3. I had a couple of the Stillwater collaboration beers at Max’s (Stillwater/Max’s 25 to one, Stillwater/Mikkeller Our Side (cask conditioned! WOW!), and Stillwater/Struise Outblack – yum, too!)  I will have another post about the Stillwater beers.

4. Finally, I went to The Brewer’s Art for dinner–plus had a couple of their beers.  This will be another post (they are #71 on the All About Beer Growler list).

Ok, back to the Heavy Seas tour … one word: Great!  My friend Brian and I showed up for the 1100 tour … of course we got there at 1015 and they don’t open until 1030 (could you tell we were excited?)  We almost missed the place … very low-key entrance.

They unlocked the doors at 1030 and when we walked in … score!  They had a nice bar area set up to sample their beers.  You paid $5 for the tour–that bought you a glass and 5 tokens.  Each token could be used for a 4oz pour.   We sampled their Gold Ale, Pale Ale, Maerzen, Dubbel Cannon (Belgian-style IPA), and the Hang Ten (Weizen Dopplebock — 2oz pour).   They were all very solid beers, right to style, and were a nice kickoff to the morning.  They also have one called “Plank I (Old Ale)” which is a new beer for them … had a little sample of that (bought one–think it will definitely get better after some cellaring).

After our tour, we met the owner (Hugh Sisson).  His office space is right where the tasting room is … that’s the kind of brewery I like!  He was kind enough to take a picture with us, but he must have been distracted …

As far as the tour goes, it was excellent.  Our tour guide was enthusiastic, knowledgeable, and gave us the grand tour.  Here are a few random pics!

You can see my friend Brian in this last picture leaning over their Hopback.  Their brewery is in one giant warehouse — so you can tell from the pictures that all their operations are crammed in there together.  They just worked a deal to expand another 10,000 square feet.  You can tell that all the people we interacted with really liked working there.  They also do a lot of specialty brews (a lot).  All the kegs in the picture below are specialty brews — the close up is a “6 Hop Double IPA.”

Finally, one of the cool things touring an active brewery–you get to see the fermentors kicking stuff up!  I will post the link to one of the videos soon.  They only have one brew kettle so they are running their facility 24 hours a day, 5 days a week.  Sure seems like people like their beer!  And I can see why …

Enjoy!

Beer Mentor