Beacon Adios

I can look back over the past few years and say without a doubt, everything good that has happened has happened because of beer.

It started quite a few years back, when Ice House was the good stuff...but the obsession didn't really start until Jano invited me to brew with him 6 years ago. I broke his hydrometer while I was "helping" clean up, and thank baby jebus, was invited back. The hydrometer was replaced, and I still continue breaking the hell out of them to this day.

In the course of the past few years, I have met, hands down, some of the most intelligent and kind people that I have ever come across. Lifelong friends bound by the pursuit to create something special with their own hands that really gives meaning to the word "craft" and "artisan" that seem to be used so much these days. Wine, beer, mead, or seeking out and sharing rare beverages from around the world through trading or travel, these guys and girls are what I consider true individuals.


Just a few of the people I idolize with whom I've shared countless pints, shots, drams, tall boys, snifters, boots and mugs with over the years and have influenced my time at Beacon Hill and have encouraged, inspired and helped in countless ways:

Rodney will always be my partner. The brewing thing would have never happened without him. Late nights/early morning zymurlogical feats of strength with my brother. We have brewed a lot of beer together.

I've seen Alejandro turn Big Al Brewing into a reality, and look very fondly back to the days of panicked homebrew accidents in his garage and trying to figure out this crazy piece of equipment called a "pump". He's the homebrewer done good. He is living the dream.

Kevin Davey pursued his dream of making German beer by quitting his sweet plumbing gig, going to Seibel, graduating at the top of his class, and not giving up until he landed a job at Chuckanut where he continues to make world class brews.

Mark Emiley works tirelessly for the "cause". Encouraging and promoting homebrewing in Washington through the Washington Homebrewers Association and the Puget Sound Pro-Am. He is a recent BJCP Master Judge and is rumoured to have bugged the governing powers that be so much, they said "F!ck It" with %) 5060 and passed the bill unanimously to stop all of the late night phone calls. He makes some pretty awesome beer and wine too.

Tim Hayner also works tirelessly for the cause, organizing the first mead and cider clinic, Washington Mead and Cider Cup, and also an amazing judging clinic to help everyone understand these simple yet complex drinks. He's also as sweet as the honey he ferments, genuinely one of the nicest and coolest dudes you will ever meet. He's done so many favors for me over the years, he will automatically receive my first born if I ever have children. Over the last couple years, he has grabbed mead and cider bull by the horns, is promoting the hell out of it and is turning out some of the tastiest concoctions you could ask for. He has the ribbons to prove it. His Golden Mash Padel was a no contest and was very well deserved.

Jerome Seipp, my gourmet heavy metal older brother that I never had. His creativity seems to have no boundaries. Graphic design, brewing, cooking and music. He also works his ass off as arguably the most well respected beer judge out there and takes care of anything judge for WAHA. Our BBQ team is looking forward to him taking his turn in the smoke to knock out some Real, Killer, Puget Sound"Q".

Seattle Ratebeer Crew, Tom, Ben, Brandon, Alex, Bob, Clint, you guys have been responsible on quite a few occasions for an aching head the next morning after your generosity in sharing your beers from the far corners of the world and sparked many bouts of inspiration in brewing. You guys have been a great sounding board with honest critiques on beers that I've made...

Fellow Beacon Hill resident and Bellevue commuter Geoff Kaiser's Seattle Brewing News has grown into a very successful source of beery information for those in and around Seattle, and does a great job of promoting the beer scene. He too is responsible for many aching heads the next morning and providing great feedback , and hopefully it goes the same for him after hitting the taps in the basement.

Bek is my everything. Patient, understanding, kind and beautiful in every way possible . And she will love IPA's at some point, if it is the last thing I ever do....

The dream will be realized at some point. Maybe Beacon Hill someday. For now, it's time for Plan B. Stay tuned...thanks for reading, mom.

Stay thirsty,

Colin

Farewell Jim

I received some surprising and upsetting news today about the untimely death of Brewer Jim Quilter. I was fortunate enough to brew with him for the 2007 Pugest Sound Pro Am, and pick his brain about opening a brewery on many other occasions. He was an extremely kind, generous and funny guy. A true individual who's advice and talks I will greatly miss.

Here's to you my friend, I'm raising a pint and hoping whatever there is in store for us when it's over, you and your Iron Horse will have endless miles of open road to ride, and a pint glass that is never empty. Thanks for the laughs, advice, and let's not forget the beer that has made so many people happy!

Raise a pint for Jim if you have a chance. Slainte!

Pro Am attempt #3

Our Wit beer was chosen by Rock Bottom of Bellevue from the Pro Am to be brewed for the GABF this year. Just goes to show you what an awesome competition the Pro Am is because we didn't even place with that beer. I wasn't going to go to GABF this year, but now it will be the 4th year in a row, and the 3rd that we have a beer in the Pro Am. Brian Young is an awesome dude and luckily RB Bellevue is only a mile away from my work, and luckily Brian likes to get started late, so it will be a late afternoon, early evening brew. I'm pretty happy with the Wit. It's a refreshing summer time beer, good chugability factor, low alcohol, hanging out on the porch passing time sorta beer.

Puget Sound Pro Am

2nd Place for the Fantome inspired Saison and 2nd for an English Style Barleywine called Ol' Teabagger, which is actually a Belgian Dark Strong that is two years old. No firsts or making it to BOS this year, but I'm pretty happy. Selection from the professional breweries is next Saturday for the recipes they want to brew. A great event with 300 entries that ran very smoothly. Nicely done everyone. It gives me the warm fuzzies to know awesome brewers/judges like you guys are out there.

SB 5060 signed today!

This has been a long time coming, but as of today SB 5060 has finally been signed into a law. I got a phone call from Tim "Dr. Decoctor" Hayner while the sweat was still damp on his palm from Gregoire's hand shake. Check out this NPR audio snippet if you're not up to snuff.

Mark Emiley, you are an amazing guy. I look up to you and am proud to call you a friend. Tom Schmidlin, Alejandro Brown, Tim Hayner, mad props guys. Cheers to all the people who called in and hounded their legislators, I'm raising a pint to you guys tonight. Let the celebrations begin! Now if we can just start putting the rush on SB 5615....

Aporkalypse

Cascade Brewing

Not really sure where to start...It's been a while since my last post. The period key on my lap top is completely FUBAR, and there is no fixing it. It's kind of put in dent in my willingness to post using a ballpoint pen to press down on the spot where the period key once was. Luckily, the lovely Bekky has let me use her awesome laptop while she is away in Europe.

I finally made it down to Art Larrance's Racoon Lodge and Cascade Brewing. Art is legendary in the craft beer scene and is the creator of the Oregon Brewers Festival. Ron Gansberg is the head brewer and along with his assistant Curtis( who unfortunately was not there), conjure up some of the best Belgian Style and Belgian Style Sour ales I have ever had the pleasure of drinking. Correction : Belgian inspired beers. These are Northwest Sour beers. I have been hearing about Cascade since I had my first sip of the Apricot a couple years back at Uber. It was the very essence of apricot caught in an 8 percent beer. Awesome.

The brewery is beautiful, racks and rows of barrels giving off a patina like quality. Oregon red, white, and even port barrels with some bourbon barrels thrown in for good measure. It's hard to describe, and not to sound completely dramatic, although some of you will understand and hope you will chime in if you've been there, (and maybe I was just getting really, really drunk) the creativity is thick in there. I was trying to break down the samples I was having..smell, taste, what is that spice, how did he get that sweetness that finishes dry... I dunno. I've been to Russian River, I've been to Lost Abbey, which were all great places in their own right, but I felt like I was in...California? Ron's brewery was a comfortable place and I knew we were about to experiencing something very special. And boy-0 was it special.

We started off with a taste of the Blackberry that was clearing in the bright tank (freaking incredible) and from then on, we were treated to barrel taste after barrel taste. We played bucket brigade with the stemmed glasses as Ron slid between racks, pouring us tastes of his blends and creations. I can't tell you everything I got to try, but just let me say, there is going to be some pretty amazing stuff coming out of there in the future. I could get into lactic fermentation, the barrel characteristics, blending, carbonation, types of fruit, Ron's brewing Kung Fu...they are all a factor in an awesome product.

More stemmed glasses, bottles started popping, a side by side of The Vine and Cuvee de Castleton was set up. Poor Cuvee didn't have a chance . Small 1/6 barrel kegs were tapped, more bottles popped. Back down to the barrels to try some more stuff. The party was moved outside to enjoy the beautiful afternoon.




Thank you Art. Thank you Ron for your kind words and generosity. It was an afternoon I won't soon forget. Try these beers if you haven't already. Finer establishments will have them on tap and bottles. If you have, share it with someone who hasn't and spread the word.

Cheers all!

Russian Imperial Stout brewed!

We got the Russian Imperial Stout brewed down at The Powerhouse over the weekend, hit a gravity of 1.106 and now it is doing it's thing. This beer will age for a few months and be put on tap around August/September (mmmm 10% beer in late summer). In the meantime, we found a wet bourbon barrel that will be filled with 50 gallons of finished stout, aged for a while and tasted periodically. It was fantastic being back in my hometown at the place I had one of my first craft beers. Tim Paddy is a top notch dude, and made a long brew day very enjoyable. Hope some of you will be able to come down and try this when it is ready, and if you can't I have a feeling there may be some on tap at Beacon Hill. Thanks Alejandro for the in on the barrel! More later.

Russian Imperial Stout

Friday nights are being scheduled as brew nights from here on out... It gives us a chance to relax and not worry about being stressed out to start late and finish up because of plans on a Saturday night or having to get to bed to wake up for work if it's a Sunday brew.

We brewed one of our most complex and high alcohol beers, a Russian Imperial Stout. This beer has done pretty well in competition and I am very happy with the way it is evolving. The only problem I really have is keeping my hands off of it so it has time to age.


This particular batch was bumped up a little gravity wise and I increased a couple of the specialty malt additions. We ended up with a 1.110 original gravity from our usual 1.105, it's our most inefficient beer as we use 26 lbs of grain and only yield 6 gallons, our mash tun can only hold about another 5-6 lbs of grain. The 3 liter starter that was made proved to be explosive and the beer took off right away, blowing the airlock off the next morning. I could smell the sweet mess from outside the basement door :)

The 6 gallons that was yielded will be split in half, one getting put on a Stranahan's barrel stave I brought back from GABF soaked in whiskey, and the other half will get an addition of Theo cocoa nibs and a yet undecided local espresso. The whole batch will be bottles and left to age and condition in the bottle.

A great guy and great brewer, Tim Paddy has asked to brew this beer for The Powerhouse in my hometown of Puyallup. Along with Tim Hayner, we have scaled the recipe up and hope to brew within the next month or so. I was lucky to have been there when Tim Hayner brewed his awesome 16 Penny Pale for the ProAm competition a few years back, and I know Tim Paddy will do our beer justice. Now I just need to figure out how to get a full size barrel delivered from Denver.....

I'm planning on making another 6, hopefully 12 very soon,if we can incorporate another mash tun, and take it down to the National Homebrew Conference for club night.

Next Friday's brew will be a big hoppy IPA from all of the extra hops we have laying around, this batch will be split as well and aged on some very special wood that I am really excited about using. Stay tuned and cheers!

Blonde ambition

Made our Belgian style Blonde yesterday. We've made a couple batches in the past that seemed to have been a crowd pleaser and also liked by some refined palates. It's a pretty simple recipe using only Pilsner and wheat malt for the grains, and a couple of spice additions at the end. I incorporated a new varietal of hops called Citra. They are a high alpha Hallertau relative, which were generously donated to some of us from Hutch of Rogue Issaquah as sort of a test run for what these hops have potential for. I'm really digging them so far.

Half of the batch of Blonde will be bottle conditioned and corked, the other half will age with a funky culture I've played around with on a previous batch of saison that was a huge success. I'm excited to see how the lemon and citrus aspects of this beer come through. The picture is what the last one looked like...I was really happy with the head retention and clarity, nice tight bubbles and very sessionable. Cheers!


For more information on new hop strain cultivation, check out this awesome article Mark Emiley wrote for WAHA after attending HopUnions hop school in the summer.

Jesus, is it almost February?

We have done some moving around of things in the brewery operations and cellar space, and finally disposed of all of the former dead beat roomate's shit, to make room for more...yup, brewing stuff. My dear friend (and some of yours) Kevin is headed off to brewing school and we are stashing some stuff for him for the next few months.

With the addition of two new fridges (total of FIVE now), the draftiness and inefficient build of the house, my driving a vehicle that gets 10 miles to the gallon, and Rodney's 30 mile commute, I''m pretty sure we have the least green house and inhabitants in all of Seattle.I'm just waiting for someone to call me on it. We are in the middle of trying to figure something out, I promise hippies.

In other news, we have 10 gallons of Dopplebock bubbling away in Kevin's conical that was part of a very successful WAHA decoction clinic. I'm dumping the yeast tonight and brining it up for a diacetyl rest.The strain of yeast we used puts out a lot of sulfur, so basically the basement has smelled like a big fart for the past week or so.

I have a couple beers planned to make this week, including a variation of our Russian Imperial Stout, and another I'm planning on using an incremental sugar feeding method to boost the alcohol for a very special Halloween party that is in the works of being planned.

Cheers all and please check out Geoff Kaiser's awesome new page.

Greetings from Florida.

Getting this thing up and running again. Stay tuned for a whole new blog. Same poor writing, same great beer.Hope everyone at homes hasn't lost anything to frost bite. Just got done with a huge dinner with the family and mixing up a bottle of tasty Athol Brose.Cheers all and have a great holiday!

Rock Bottom Brew and welcome back Geoff.

I just talked with Brian from Rock Bottom of Bellevue about some final recipe adjustments and we are ready to brew Saturday at noon. I'm pretty excited as it seems like to guys at Rock Bottom have a lot of wiggle room and creativity. For a corporate owned brewery and restaurant,they are A-OK in my book. They turn out some great beers and I have been pretty happy for the most part and I know Brian will do our Saison justice.

Mark Emily's awesome Kolsch will be on tap starting tomorrow at Rock Bottom Seattle. I have had the pleasure of trying the original a couple of times and new it was a winner from the get go. Great job dude, and I can't wait to try it tomorrow!

Last but not least, welcome back Geoff Kaiser who has been on vacation to Italy for the past couple of weeks (bastard). Hopefully after all of the great wine and food he experienced over there,he still has an appreciation for all of the great beer and food we have here in out little corner of Washington. I need to rush out and get some beer in him before he completely turns into a cork dork. There still might be time if we hurry! Welcome back dude. We have some heavy pint lifting to do.

And here we go...

As most of you may know, beer has taken a back seat for the past couple of months due to a few circumstances. Unfortunately Rodney is sustaining some back injuries and is trying to take it easy. He's doing great, but no more heaving 55lb grain bags up the stairs for a bit..I for one am in the process of trying to get into the best shape of my life after my back surgery and have cut beer drinking out for special occasions. There seem to be a lot of special occasion lately though. Our huge drop in cooler took a dump and we are somewhat limited on cold storage right now, but we are making due and have plans for a brewery revamp very soon, so come over and help get rid of some of our old stuff. We'll be back up and going in a couple of weeks.

So the good stuff: Saison Du Beacon took first place in the Belgian/French ale category at the Pro-Am competition. It was picked up by Rock Bottom Bellevue to be scaled up and entered in the Great American Beer Festival. I'm pretty stoked I must say. This is not only an honor, but it's also going to be a kick ass time. There is a bunch of us going down to Denver this year and is going to prove to be a great time no who wins what.I'm rooting for Mark Emily and Kevin Davey though. We'll all be down there rooting for each other. I will post the date of the tapping party when the beer is ready. Should be a great time.

I just worked the Seattle International Beer Festival this weekend and have to say it was an awesome experience.Yes, I carried a radio and wore a shirt that said "Beer Police" on the back. Probably got called a douchebag by a couple of people, but for that weekend, the few and the proud of us were above the law. Beer Police Brewtality. Lots of incredible experiences and I went away with some new friends as well. I won't have to worry about hotel rooms when I go down to Portland anymore:)

I just had the pleasure tonight of attending a dinner/beer pairing at Smith on Capitol Hill hosted by New Belgium Brewing. I was lucky enough to sit next to Peter Bouckeart and chat about brewing and the industry for a bit. If you have never heard of Peter, he's a pretty incredible guy. He doesn't believe in beer style, so some of you guys who read this would get along with him very well...Talk about artistic and passionate..jesus.

So future brews coming up in the future:

Out house IPA. You know it and love it. It will be here soon.

A series of Belgian Strong Ales, hopefully ready by Octoberfest along with a few others yet to be decided.

Funky stuff. No Lambics yet, but we do have a surprise up our sleeves that will rock your world. We have a 100 percent Brettanomyces Wit beer that is pretty awesome right now.

More Saisons of course. My favorite style.

I gotta run. Lots of stuff to do this week. Putting together a beer pairing with some of the best food in all of Seattle for the winner of the Belgian Category of the Novembeerfest competition. Yes, believe the hype. This place is that good (Hillary can I get an amen sista?)especially at the hands of Jimmy.

Last but not least, let me give a shout out to the soon to be opened Big Al Brewing. Alejandro, Jerome, Eddie and Noel, you guys are going to be great. We're all behind you and there to help make this place great.


Make beer not bombs,

Colin

It's been a while.

I'm a slacker I know. My soapbox has been in the shop for repair, but now that it's out, we're ready to get this thing going once again. Yet another thing to waste time at work browsing over. More to come! Lots of really exciting news. BTW, we're going to Denver baby! Saison Du Beacon is in the Pro-Am..GABF here we come again.

Under the Brewers Kilt:Triple Decoction Epic Brew Day

A few months ago, Tim and Rodney started a series of Scottish Ales using the triple decoction method of brewing.

The first couple of brews, a 60 Shilling (Mac 60) and an 80 Shilling) Mac 80 turned out excellent and have one them a couple of awards. These beers pack a lot of flavor into a malty, earthy, low alcohol beer. A long cool fermentation with a traditional strain of Scottish yeast lends a subtle smokiness and a smooth drinkability.

Yesterday marked Tim's 100th brew, and we all went down to hang out and help he and Rodney with the epic end to the series: The Wee Heavy. These beer have huge malt flavors, caramel, dark fruits, and will usually knock your kilt off with the alcohol strength.

Lots of brewers and friends showed up to support Tim and Rodney (there was also free food and 6-7 beers on tap, so that might have helped too!) and a good time was had by all. Here's a few pictures.

Decoctions are a very long process that takes patience and elbow grease. A few guys who showed up who were interested in trying it on their own brewing systems, were thoroughly convinced it was not for them after seeing what was involved. The amount of grain used surpassed the amount one mash tun would hold, so we hauled our brewing system down and simply mashed and decocted on two separate systems, lautered and sparged into one boil pot to get the volume (10 gallons) that was desired. Everything worked out great with a final gravity of 1.098, Tim is hoping this beer will be in the 10 percent range if all goes well with fermentation.

Like they say,"If it's not Scottish, it's Crap!". I strongly agree.

Liver Hardening March

Tis the season for high alcohol beer. Strong Ale, Barley Wines and everything in between. Beery blogger and fellow Beacon Hill resident Geoff Kaiser is doing a great job on following what is going on around the area in what proves to be a sadistic but fun punishment to the liver. He and his girlfriend even found time to stop by on a double batch day to help dough in on a batch of our hop-blitzkrieged IPA.

Later in the evening found Rodney and I doing cellar work after brewing. We transfered our Robust Porter(roasty and chocolaty!), Berliner Weisse (getting nice and sour!) and took a sample of a very special beer that is becoming very complex.

Almost a year ago we brewed a Belgian Dark Strong. The yeast fermented this beer very quickly so it originally came out kind of hot (alcohol) so we let it sit to mellow. Almost 6 months later I got a wild hair and decided to dump a mixture of raisins reduced in Tawney Port into 5 gallons. We let it sit for another couple of months, then Rodney kegged it. The sugars from the raisins have naturally carbonated with some left over yeast in the keg. The beer is dark, rich and fruity, and very drinkable at over 10 percent.

I will try and somehow get this into some bottles and get it out to a few of you. Definitely one of the best beers we've turned out, and exceeds our standards for what a Belgian inspired beer should taste like. I think I'm going to go sneak another taste...

Make mine a Funky Dubble

Rodney and I have been thinking about making an interpretation of a Dubble for a while now, and we're about ready to brew it in the next few weeks. We've been talking about flavor profiles and what we want to achieve.

A Dubbel is a very sneaky beer. Rich malts, fruits and chocolate with a velvety mouth feel. Complex beyond belief (at least the good ones are). A good Dubbel should be very attenuated and drinkable, but not thin, rich and warming.

We have a pretty good arsenal of tricks up our sleeves. One in particular is the use of Belgian Candi Syrup. As far as getting close to traditional, this is the stuff that is actually used. It is more or less a product of centrifuged caramelized beet sugar. Sugar is traditionally used in Belgian beers to increase the alcohol without increasing the body too much. These sugars and syrups also lend a ton of complexity to the brew.

So it has been decided to make a simple Dubble recipe, and to carry on our habits of experimentation lately, split the batch. Half will be left alone, corked and bottle conditioned. The second half will be taking the train on down to funky town.

5 gallons will be inoculated with a Lambic culture of all sorts of funky little critters and micro biota to age and sour over the course of a few months. After the first couple of months a concoction of cherries soaked in Bourbon, then reduced and caramelized and added to everything else a la Tim Hayner's Burnt Bourbon Cherry Stout, (I like to call it Haynerized, or Haynerizing the syrup). I present to you : Maker's Mark and the Funky Bunch.Not to be confused with these guys...


I'm hoping to achieve big fruit profiles in this beer, with a subtle tartness to balance out the richness and dark fruits with a hint of bourbon in the back ground. This may turn out to be a disaster, but it could be off the hook.This is what I love about brewing.

Porter

We brewed a variation of a Robust Porter last night, lots of British Chocolate malt, with a tad of Roasted Barley and a nice addition of East Kent Goldings hops to balance things out. The 10 gallons were split between an Wyeast 1056, a neutral ale yeast and White Labs 002, an English ESB yeast. Kind of an experiment, we will compare the flavor profiles between the two. I am definitely expecting the 1056 to finish clean and really showcase the chocolate and roasted barley, and attenuate pretty low. The WL002 should finish a little higher and have a much more fruity taste. Time will tell. Hope to put half on tap and half and bottle half and give to friends.

Washington Homebrewers Association launched

At long last the WAHA website has been launched. There has been much activity in the past couple of meetings and things seem like they are coming together. With a very knowledgable and kind dude named Steve Antoch, I will be assisting him with the educational aspects of WAHA. Basicaly touching on things such as theory, recipe formulation, techniques, equipment...all that good stuff. Steve came up with a great idea of a mentoring map. Someone who is just starting out can contact an experienced brewer via an online push pin style map that is in their area. The two parties can agree on a date and get together and brew a batch. Another cool idea is to have a Trouble shooting/ Evaluation Program that integrates the map as well. If someone wants objective feedback for a certain beer or is having problems with off-flavor, they can be set up with a judge in the area to help them out. I'm excited to be part of this and to try and help out! Big Al took me under his wing a few years ago and I have made it my mission to try and do the same for others in the name of good beer. Check out the website and the yahoo group. Join up and get brewing.