Month: November 2006

Every Blog needs a title, so kudos to those who recognize the obscure musical reference in the title. It comes from more than a bit of my youth spent watching the Muppets and their most popular musical guest John Denver. The Muppets were one of my favorite shows. How can you not love Fozzie the Bear and his infectious “Wakka Wakka?” These shows still have the ability to illicit a laugh from me every time Kermit tells Fozzie to “turn right at the fork in the road.”

When we were developing many of the foundations for The Lost Abbey, I was constantly reminded that many religions have at the roots in no less than these three elements. So, today I thought I would write about these three elements and their relationship to our brewery.

The first one is Poems. Maybe by now, you have noticed that our labels and our beers tell stories. It is my notion that every beer should tell its’ own story and that the specifics of each beer should be secondary to the experience it provides. In this way, we have deviated from most breweries in the way that our labels are less about the actual beer inside the bottle and more about a back story behind each brew.

In many ways, there is a rhythm to the words and as such they move and function like mini poems on our bottles. As we have started this new brand, each new beer affords me an opportunity to draw upon my creative writing techniques. I had a conversation the other day with one of our customers and I intimated that sometimes, I think (feel) I am a better writer than I am brewer. This surprised him and we talked about the reasoning for this. He thought it was my ego speaking after a three IPA night of working the bar.

I reasoned with him that I have been writing much longer than I have been brewing. I also mentioned that throughout my studies in high school and college, the emphasis was always on writing. During my junior year of college, I began studying Poetry and dabbling in writing it as well. This was a full year before I began home brewing. I spent the next two years writing a lot and brewing at home. I learned over the years that the thing required to be a better than average write is a voice. And in my experience, when I write, my personality and voice come through loud and clear.

As a brewer, I have also spent the last 10+ years working on my voice. I “think” I have found it. But when I think about artists and their expressions, I am reminded that art is in a constant state of evolution. Brush strokes get refined, subject matter improves and the essence of the artist and his perspective is suddenly brought to the front with amazing clarity.

I like to think that as a brewer, I am entering a more golden age for my beers. I believe that I have studied the past masters, I have worked on my brush strokes and it is time to take these essences and meld them together so that lucidity develops and clarity ensues with each and every new release. There have been many moments in the past 7 months where I have seen this at work in our new brewery.

This brings us to the second element: Prayers. I was raised in a Catholic school environment and was taught that “if all else fails, PRAY!” Now I am not going to sit here and suggest that everyday, I come through the front doors at 155 Mata Way light candles and break off some incredibly rich Tibetan Monk Chants. However, there is a certain level of prayer that goes into starting a project like this.

Take an old brewery, revamp it for your needs, open the doors and pray that what you’re doing resonates with enough people enabling you to stay in the business of making great beer. That’s the kind of praying I’ve been doing of late. But in school, they also taught me there are numerous kinds of other prayers. There are prayers for the sick, the invalid, the poor and many others. These are the kinds of prayers that are most often found in churches and religious circles.

But here at 155 Mata Way, we specialize in a whole different kind of prayer. Most mornings, it starts with a simple prayer of “God I hope all of our equipment works today…” Some days, these prayers are answered and sometimes they are not. The days when they are not, I figure we are being punished for our indiscretions of which there are many around here.

Of course, dabbling in the field of Hocus Pocus and experimentation, we often have to pray for things to work out ok. You see, we are in the business of not only making beer but selling beer. What this means is that we are not in the business of selling experiments gone bad. So, we do everything we can in prayer or otherwise to ensure that out “Big” batches of experimental offerings go better than planned.

Thankfully, we have been blessed up until now by copious amounts of “experimental grace.” It seems we have a presence that guides us. Which I am thankful for because as an owner of this brewery, the last thing that I want is to have to go pray to our friends the porcelain gods when we have to pour $10K worth of beer down the drain. Sure, I’ve prayed to them on “other” occasions like the one time I had the Spanish Influenza de Botella complements of mi amigo Don Julio de Jalisco. Those of you who have heard my Spanish know that my prayers in this language aren’t often answered. Yet, I’ve learned the funny thing about most prayers is that they are more often than not accompanied by promises.

It seems that every time we are in a position of “asking for something,” we also feel quite giving. Take for example my good friend Don Julio de Jalisco. When he and I become reacquainted from time to time, I might find myself saying “Dear lord. What was I thinking? I promise if you get me through this, I won’t hang out with him anymore.” Which of course is an out right lie as me and Don have this thing…Somos Amigos. And Amigos never die.

So I wanted to end my blog with this notion of promises. We at the Lost Abbey promise to be lots of things. First and foremost, we promise to be passionate. This will always remain our guiding principle. It is my belief that passion conquers everything if you believe in its’ power. We also promise to continually explore new flavors and boundaries in our beers. This not to say that we will be esoteric for esoteric sake; rather, we will be bold when spicy is what we are after. But perhaps the biggest promise of all is that we won’t lie about our beers.

If we make something that isn’t up to our standards, we’ll tell you. We believe this is a big part of the crusade of good beer vs evil beer. You had better tell the truth. So here goes. We’ve been open a few months now and, not every batch of beer that we have made has been the cats meow. Is this our fault? You bet. Did we notice? Damn skippy we did. Yet, we are not sitting on our sugar sacks drinking instead of working on these problems.

Ours is an evolving business- one that is based upon time and energy. We’re working hard and our promise to you is that we will continue to work hard each and every day at what we do. This will enable us at the end of each day to look across our bar and tell you in good conscience that business is good, the beers are great and it’s only getting better.

Our relationship with you the customer is where each day begins and ends. You may start your day with one of our beers or you may end it that way. Either way, we’re thankful you find enough reason to make us part of your day. That alone speaks volumes about what we are doing.

With this in mind, I am returning to the first element in the title today. Over the years, I have written many poems along the way and lately, I have been inspired to write more. I find inspiration in many things we do and lately with all the writing I have been doing, it translate into thoughts and new ideas. Beer can be many things to many people. Often, ours is called liquid art. We like to think of it this way as well. As such, I am going to use this space from time to time to share some art of a different kind.

So, since they gave me a blog with no restrictions, I have decided to invoke my creative right and share some of these things with you. If you don’t want to read feel free to jump ship right now. You are also forewarned that in the future this space may even include the creative right of my 6 month old daughter who someday may be an amazing artist in her own right.

The first poem I have decided to share with The Lost Abbey blog audience is one of my favorites. AND, since it has a decidedly libation evoking subject matter, I felt it most appropriate. My only hope is that you enjoy it with a glass of one of our beers in your hand. If not, any beer from San Diego will do. If none of these are available, please knock the dust off your favorite 40 ounce tall boy and spill some for me… Su Amigo.

Intoxicated
By
Tomme Arthur

It’s not fair. At least that’s how I think of it. Pizza Port and Port Brewing already has some of the most talented brewers on the planet working for us and we’re developing a stealth program to ensure that our needs in the future for greatness can be met from within.

It’s a super secret program that we call the Sydney Keegan In training Project (Code Named SKIP). You see it’s not really TOP secret as many of you have already seen her working at Port Brewing in San Marcos. Sydney was hired on May 15th of 2006. She weighed 6 lbs 12 ounces on that day and was a whopping 18 inches tall. That may not seem like much in the credential department, but it’s my belief that the best trainees are sometimes the ones with no experience. And I had to hire her, she has great genes.

Currently, she works on a part time as needed basis. It varies depending on her mood, her availability and in general her malaise. I haven’t had to work with too many female brewers in the past so getting a handle on her schedule can be tough to say the least. But she is an excellent pupil-when not taking her obligatory siesta.

I studied English at Northern Arizona University with the intention of becoming a teacher. That didn’t work out so well. Still, I took all the information from those classes and over the years have taught many people the ins and outs of being great brewers. It’s no secret that some of the best brewers who have made beer in San Diego have at one time called Pizza Port their home.

Which brings us back to the Sydney Keegan Project and it’s just not fair. Sometimes, I think about how unfair it will be 18 years from now when she’s brewing. I know plenty of brewers who have almost 20 years of experience and many of them have reached Demi-God like status. Someone will inevitably ask where she studied or learned to be a brewer. She’ll stop and think about it before answering- “dunno, can’t remember a time when I didn’t make beer.” And that will be the Gods honest truth.

Sure, this may turn out to be the story of an overzealous father. Maybe they’ll commit me to a mental institution? Lucky for her, there aren’t summer camps for brewers in training. She won’t have to endure 5 AM mornings at the gym to keep in top shape. And there most certainly won’t be too many tournaments to burn her out.

Yet, she will be a brewer. WHY, because Daddy said so! Many of you may be wondering what she’s learned so far. Well, she’s learned that Caustic, Steam and Hot Kettles are safe as long as you don’t get too close to them. She’s learned that Old Viscosity seems like a beverage she one day may like A LOT. Mostly, she’s seen that the brewery is a place with a teacher who seems eager to teach as long as the pupil is willing to listen. And right now, she is a great listener.

Next time you find yourself thinking about your favorite brewery or brewer. Ask yourself. “Twenty years from now, will this still be a great beer?” We are confident the answer is yes and we invite you all to witness the Sydney Keegan In training Project as living and breathing proof that if you build it, they will come.

Every so often, I find myself acting like a patron at our bar. Only, the curious thing about sitting at our bar inside of Port Brewing is that we haven’t rolled out the red carpet and furnished it with overstuffed chairs. Like most brewery projects, we opened our doors with great expectations and “almost” enough money to finish our project. This is not to say that we are going out of business anytime soon.

However, as we went about remodeling the bathrooms, painting and designing a thoughtful and colorful office area, we spent all of the money budgeted for improvements. I guess, we never really looked at the 25 foot long bar and thought about the need for bar stools while we were slaving away. Still, at the end of each day, we would be exhausted from all the construction work.

One day, in a moment of amazing clarity, (some would say divine inspiration) I looked around and noticed that inverted kegs seemed to be almost the right height for bar stools. That was the day I ended the pain and suffering of soles everywhere and soon, we started kicking back after work on stainless steel bar stools. Seems the price for these was mighty choice as FREE works especially well if you have tapped the bank account trying to get open.

Weeks went by and we kept plugging away on our construction never really giving much thought to replacing the bar stools we were using. We spent April brewing and got in our first shipments of malt. Since we needed some Dextrose (Sugar) for our Avant Garde and Lost and Found beers, we suddenly had some nice, almost soft, tops for our bar stools. It wasn’t the best thing in the world for comfort sake but form doesn’t always follow functionality.

May approached and with it came our opening. We had a party for the Stone employees on Cinco de Mayo. Sensing the need for more bar stools for our friends, I ordered up some extra bags of Dextrose and we suddenly had a bar full of happy customers and friends. It felt good to look out over the bar and see people enjoying our beers while actually seating down. The following day we opened for business and our first customers rolled in.

I was very nervous about the lack of proper seating but everyone soon took it in stride. We met Sage and his wife Terri. They showed up the following weekend and she had her own bar stool in tote. This started a mini trend. Next thing I knew, Ken rolled up with his own hot rod bar stool. We began discussing more bar stools and I was really getting motivated to buy some for the bar.

But then a funny thing happened. I started to see people appreciate the simplicity of our design and they took to the character of the sacks. In my mind, these customers reached a whole new plateau of awareness and I started referring to them in my head as the “Sugar Sack Gang.” These people, like us, cared more about the beer in the glass then their proverbial comfort. And that is pretty damn cool.

Let me also state that I am neither their leader nor the Grand Pubbah of this band of merry drinkers. Rather, I am only one of them. There are many days when I can be found sitting on these bags of sugar. Even now, I am composing this from there. Perhaps the most interesting nugget about these bags is that more often than not, they start off pretty soft. We’re not talking Charmin two ply soft here. Rather, we are talking I’ve sinned this week and a little punishment for my sins kind of soft. This happens every so often when the malt company loads them on the top of the pallet and I swear my song is sung to the angels on high. Of course, there have been weeks were I sinned enough to banish those bags to the bottom of the pallet whereby, they were smashed under the weight of my indiscretions.

But I am here to tell you that these people in my “Sugar Sack Gang” are really smart. And I know, they know that you should never look a gift horse in the mouth. Although a bag of rock hard sugar seems like less than a gift, it still has the ability to get two soles off the floor after a very long day and for that, I am thankful.

5 Months?

When we show people our Lost Abbey labels, they unanimously approve of the artistic impression that they make. Nothing makes me more proud than to hear the words “your labels are so beautiful.” It tells me that it was all worth it. And then they talk about the beer inside and I know we are on the right track. For an inspired life is a life worth living.

Starting last October, Gina, Jim, myself and Vince met every Wednesday night after work and began working on the artistic direction for the new brand. When developing a brand as rich in connotations as The Lost Abbey, everything has to be perfect. Wanting things to be “just right” required an enormous amount of energy. There were always revisions and corrections to be made- week after week. For those who care to see the process, we have archived many of the versions at our brewery and you can view them on our walls and see the progressions of our meetings.

It’s not easy to develop a new brand and identity from scratch. It’s your baby and the artistry of a label can and sometimes is the one thing that people will look at before purchasing. It has to be powerful. It needs to be approachable and ultimately, it needs to convey the spirit of the brewery. The success of brands is not by accident.

In developing The Lost Abbey, we set out to tell a story. Every brewery has its own unique story. It revolves around the same premise. There are hundreds of brewers making the best beer in the world. Many of them take the same 4 ingredients blend them together to make beer. How they tell the story of their existence determines their success in the business.

Each of our beers will tell the story of beer as art. It starts with a talented artist. His name is Sean Dominguez. You can view his work at www.artbydomo.com. Working with Sean has been tremendous. His ability to paint and sketch the visions for our beers has been first rate. As we are still developing new beers each month, we get to meet and see the artist at work. One of the best parts of the project is each month when the new art for our labels show up. There is nothing cooler than seeing an acrylic oil painting on canvas in your conference room of a beer that you have brewed. If you have visited the brewery, you probably have seen these pieces hanging from our walls.

As a writer and a creative person, I am tasked with completing the wording for the labels. In my quest to tell the story of the brewery and each beer, I am sometimes more verbose than space permits. As such, you will find only a fraction of what is known as the back story on each label. If you dig a little deeper on our website, you can read the entire back story for each beer and my inspiration for brewing the beer.

I typically write these stories at the end of the day after working in the brewery. These stories remind me that while we work in a concrete stainless jungle each day, there is a deeper connection to life found in the stories behind our beers. It is my job as a brewer to create the story of the beer in the bottle and on the label of the bottle. But most importantly, I must also find a way to make the story memorable enough that our patrons want to retell the story. Mankind’s history has been one of stories and symbols. And for many years, it was an oral history passed down from generation to generation in the form of stories. It is my hope that The Lost Abbey and our storied beers will inspire a similar oral tradition replete with rich symbols, art and tales worthy of being told and retold.

So please read along as we develop new stories for each one of our beers. I get almost as much pleasure out of writing these pieces as I do brewing. For me, they are both creative opportunities to express myself and my thoughts to The Lost Abbey faithful. If you like what you see, pass it on or drop me a line at tomme@lostabbey.com