Author: nate.luzod

October is one of my favorite months. I get to celebrate my birthday, attend the Great American Beer Festival and at the end of the month I get to steal mini candy bars on Halloween night after Sydney goes to bed. All in all, it’s a pretty great month. Chocolate always makes me feel better. Especially when it’s stolen from a 2 and a 1/2 year old. Sorry, I’m sick like that.

This year, I am heading to Denver on October 7th which also happens to be my 35th birthday. Some guys like to celebrate their birthday for a week on end. I suppose that will be me this year since the best beer festival in the world happens to coincide with the annual glorious celebration of my arrival into this world.

The 2008 Great American Beer Festival promises to be liquid chaos for my liver. Port Brewing and The Lost Abbey will arrive in Denver as the 2007 Small Brewery of the Year as well as the 2008 World Beer Cup Small Brewery of the Year. This means that there will be an enormous amount of attention (and pressure) on us to continue our winning ways. I’m fine with that. I personally love the pressure and added expectations that go along with our past success. It’s just part of the business. As in years past, I believe we have an exceptionally eclectic range of beers. AND more importantly, they may even be better than the ones we sent to the competition in 2007. Sometimes, I think I sound like a broken record. But it’s true. We’re becoming better brewers having refined some of our processes and our beers reflect it.

With 8 days left until I board that plane for Denver, I’m most looking forward to this Saturday. This will be the evening tasting of the beers we’ve entered in the competition that we do each year before we leave for Denver. As in years past, all of the brewers will gather to sample each others beers from the bottles we packaged for the fest. It’s one last look into the mindset of our brewers (from Pizza Port) as well as affording me an introspective moment to reflect on our Port Brewing and Lost Abbey beers.

On Saturday, we will gather at Jeff Bagby’s house in Cardiff to sample all of the 2008 entries. This truly is brutal work I might add. You want to talk about having thick skin? You better have Alligator thick skin as we brutally rate each others chances. All told, we’ll sample almost 40 different entries. Port Brewing and Lost Abbey will be sending 11 beers to the GABF in 2008. Typically we would send 8 entries. This year, we couldn’t contain ourselves. We have released so many great beers in the last year that just begged to be entered.

As many of these beers are incredibly unique and easily recognizable, I will wait until Friday October 10th to post my comments on our beers, their categories and what I believe our chances are this year. So please check back in the coming days and maybe, you’ll get an idea of what’s in store for us this year. But, for the sake of a wee bit of a tease. “Yes Noah, I like our chances this year. I like them more than a little. Yours too.”

Devoted readers of The Lost Abbey blog (also known as Tomme’s ADD like Tendencies) may recall the self imposed no new beer moratorium from this summer. I had hoped that by going less schizophrenic on the new beer side of things that we might actually get caught up around here. It was going pretty well. Then my honey supplier showed up and we “had” to find a beer to use his Grapefruit Honey in. So, Witch’s Wit was released. We almost made it 60 days before I broke down and brewed a new beer. During that Moratorium, we also brewed another beer under wraps.

Perhaps from the title of this Blog, you may have figured out that we have another new beer in the pipeline. Some of you may also find it curious that we chose to brew an Imperial Pilsner given my lack of interest in brewing lager styled beers. But like every great beer here at Port Brewing, there is a story. So humor me (as you always do) as I discuss in great, but not excruciating, the details for this new little beer.

A few years ago, the Great American Beer Festival decided to create a new category of beers. Essentially, they wanted to have a category that could bridge home and commercial brewing. This category is called the GABF Pro- Am and it features award winning home brew recipes brewed at commercial breweries. I think it’s a pretty cool idea and have wanted to support it since its inception. Last year, we could not get our crap together to do it and missed out. The guys at Ballast Point won a Bronze Medal for their Sculpin IPA which as we all know is a great IPA.

Those of you who visit Port Brewing and The Lost Abbey have no doubt been introduced to Julian Shrago. No stranger to great beer, Julian and his side kick Nigel come by from time to time. I have been impressed since day one with his beers (not Nigel’s) and have always thought his Bellweather IPA would give many a craft brewed IPA a run for their money. So Julian and I started talking about using one of his recipes for the 2008 Great American Pro Am.

Around the same time, Julian went down to Solana Beach and brewed a batch of his Tovarish Cofffee Imperial Stout with Greg and Yiga. It was decided they would hold back a keg for the competition. I started thinking about how great Julian’s beers are and I mentioned in passing to Jeff Bagby, Pizza Port Carlsbad Head Brewer and Director of Pub Operations that each Port location ought to jump on the Shrago Express. Essentially, we would all select one of Julian’s recipes and brew it for the 2008 GABF.

This was all fine and dandy and in fact Julian came and brewed this batch of beer with us on July 3rd, 2008. He then went on and brewed another batch of beer in Carlsbad with Jeff. We selected the Imperial Pils recipe as we felt it would be a great departure from all the ales and weird stuff we normally do AND, there weren’t any raisins looking to jump on board.

From the moment we decided to brew this beer, I was concerned we might have an issue sourcing enough hops to make it work. We might not be Sam Adams in our hop needs but damnit this is an Imperial IPA being brewed with hops we don’t normally keep around. We were fortunate and really only had to sub Domestic Hallertau for German Hallertau. We got some great German Tett and Saaz as well. The brew day went incredibly well and the beer has been lagering away for some time now.

It looks as if it is finally time to get off our duffs and package the beer. Yes, I know I promised no new beers earlier in the summer. But hey, I’m entitled to Whims and Folly from time to time. New Belgium may be bigger but they don’t own Folly making meriment. The real bitch of this beer is that we can’t send it to Denver to the Great American Beer Fest.

It seems that we didn’t read the fine print. And by fine print, I don’t mean the part that says “No Imperial Anythings.” No, what I missed was the part that said Contestants in the Pro Am can only enter one beer per AHA Membership. Our dream of having four Shrago Specialty beers in Denver was dashed. It sucks. I guess I need a new pair of glasses?

Either way, we have this new beer coming out in a couple of weeks. Distribution will be quite limited. In fact, most of it probably won’t even leave Southern California. I doubt we’ll yield more than 200 cases. It will be on tap at the brewery for sure and growlers will most likely fly out of here. I wanted to tell the story of Panzer Imperial Pilsner today so that Julian gets credit for this beer. He needs to get off his ass and open a brewery of his own so that I can visit and talk smack. Orange County has The Bruery. Let’s hope it doesn’t stop there. I look forward to another 9.0% ABV beer on the wall. It’s just what we need around here.

Lastly before I forget there are two more notes to post today. First is that we did launch our beers in Colorado last week. Thanks to all of you who are supporting us and your local beverage store with your buying power. It looks like Colorado will be good to us. There has been some interest in our Midwest timing. I forgot to include that we are looking at more area then just Chicago at this time. Hang on for more news at 11 about this when I can post.

Finally, High Tide is progressing along nicely. We have 80 bbls in Brite Beer tank # 2 and another 120 in Brite Tank 4 as well. We hope to transfer the beer next Monday to the bottling tank and begin that process on Tuesday- Thursday for the first bottling. My guys will kill me for this but it will be worth it. We’re going to have a cask release for High Tide on Thursday September 25,2009 at O’Briens so come on out for not one but two casks that night. Bottles should be in the market starting October 1, 2008.

I’m sitting at the airport in Seattle. You see, this past week, I boarded a plane and headed for Yakima, Washington to attend the 2008 Hop School put on by our friends at Hop Union. This is the third time I have been asked to speak at the school which allows brewers to get a first hand view of hop growing, processing and logistics. I spent Monday- Thursday in Yakima talking hops. On Thursday I headed to Seattle to do some promotional work with Click Wholesale our Washington state distributor.

On Monday, having flown from San Diego to Seattle, WA. I met up with David Edgar. I have known David since his days as the President of the IBS (Instute of Brewing Studies). He now works as a representative for White Labs, Hop Union and Rastal. As we had recently ordered our new Lost Abbey glassware through Rastal, it was my first chance to thank David for his assistance on this project.

We shared a couple of beers at the airport and boarded our flight to Yakima, WA. After checking in at the hotel, I headed back to Hop Union World Headquarters and sampled some beers with Ralph Olson. Ralph and I sat down to discuss the state of the hop growing world and what can be expected for future harvests. I will be posting my notes from this conversation in another blog. Ralph hoped that our conversation would enlighten some brewers and give them some clarity about the global situation with hops.

Tuesday morning came WAY too early as we raged against the dying of the Yakima light that evening and well into the next. I unfortunately drew the dreaded short hop shoot which meant the early AM teaching slot. After a short introduction and tour of the facility, it was go time. As I had only 5 hours of sleep in my system, it was needless to say a brutal talk at best.

My talk was on the cost and difficulties associated with starting a new hop farm. This past summer Sheldon Boren and his brother had planted some 200 Centennial Rhizomes (hop plants) in Fallbrook, CA. Fallbrook is about 20 minutes north of our brewery and is well known as an avocado growing region. There are numerous brewers who undertook hop farming this year as a means to an end. Many of these breweries are hoping to grow enough hops in the coming years to develop sustainable hop supplies allowing them to make Fresh Hop or Harvest Ales.

When Sheldon approached us about planting hops, we told him we would be thrilled to have local hops at our disposal. It’s no secret, at Port Brewing we love hops! It’s apparent in our Wipeout IPA, Hop 15 and Shark Attack. We also happen to make a Fresh Hop beer each year known as High Tide. This is one of my favorite beers even though it may have the highest pain in the ass factor of anything we do which is amazing given our propensity to do absurdly weird things to our beers (yes I know Caramelized fruit seems easy in hindsight).

While my primary goal of being in Yakima was to work as an instructor, I also needed to work out the kinks with Ralph relative to our Fresh hop needs. They always say be careful what you wish for. I for one couldn’t agree more! When we launched High Tide in 2006, we felt the market was ready for a Fresh Hop beer in the bottle. There were tons of these beers being made but few to none existed on the shelf. In 2006, we brewed one single 30 bbl batch of High Tide Fresh Hop Ale. It sold out in two weeks.

In 2007 we made the commitment to a triple batch of High Tide. This was a very big step up for us. As High Tide features two additions of Fresh Hops one week apart, it was a logistical nightmare to schedule the brew. I still remember the look on Jason’s Face (our UPS Driver) when he rolled up to deliver. He was more then eager to get the 270 lbs of Fresh Hops off his truck. Either he was very sleepy or concerned about the Sheriff’s Department and their canine unit. The 2007 version of High Tide featured Fresh Centennial and Simcoe Hops. The 90 barrel triple batch sold out in 2 weeks. It was a fantastic beer.

Fast forward to 2008. It’s now Hop Harvesting time and we’re gearing up to make this years batch of High Tide. I for one am very excited. Having just come from Yakima, where I was able to secure the hops we need, you can understand why I am anxious to get home. If all goes according to plan, you will find us brewing 240 barrels of High Tide Fresh Hop IPA this weekend. It’s going to be great and painful at the same time. 240 barrels is eight batches of this beer. This will also be the largest batch of a seasonal beer Port Brewing has ever released!

On a production schedule, it means we will be brewing round the clock for two days in a row in
order to get er done and keep the hops fresh. I’m not looking forward to the 3 AM side of life but days like these don’t come along that often. We’ll suck it up and brew like mad men to make sure we can supply High Tide to as many of our distributors as possible.

Next week, we’ll get our second set of Fresh Hops in and we’ll then move the beer to the conditioning tank where we will dry hop (Wet fresh hop?) these two very large batches of beer. About one week later, we will start the bottling process and hopefully have beer ready to go in late September. I can’t wait for this beer to be back on tap. It is so fresh and hoppy.

Now, I would also like to point out that the guys went out to Sheldon’s Field today and helped pick his hops. And, rather then take our locally grown hops and burn them out in the big batches of High Tide, we have decided to do a special extra dry hopped version of Hop 15. This will be a growler only beer available at the brewery. First year hop plantings don’t yield enough hops for our batch size. However, it would appear that we have enough to dry hop an extra special small batch of Hop 15 which seems like fun to me. Look for this version of Hop 15 to be on tap at the brewery on Friday September 19, 2008.

For those of you who happen to come by and visit the brewery this week, please be kind to our brewers. We’re going to be conducting our very own sleep deprivation experiment. I for one am staring about 70 hours of work in the face. If we happen to be having a conversation and I fall asleep in a fit of narcolepsy, please don’t take it personally. Weeks like this come around very infrequently but at the end of it all, it’s so worth it. High Tide is coming! Go tell it on the mountain, Ralph and Ralph are Hop Gods and in them we trust when it comes time to make our beloved High Tide.

On Wednesday morning at 4:30 AM I was rustled from my sleep by the sound of my Blackberry roaring to life with incoming emails. Apparently, something was VERY important. Turns out, it was. I rolled over and flicked the scroll wheel of fortune on my PDA to find an email from Jolly Old England announcing that we were big winners (tell me something I didn’t already know I thought to myself).

Our cask of Bourbon Angel’s Share was named Best in Show at the 2008 Great British Beer Festival in London and the emails (all 6 of them) confirmed this. All told, there were 46 casks of American Beer on display at the largest cask conditioned beer festival in the world and somehow, our beer was deeemed the best Yankee example. Bravo! Smashing! Cherrio I say! Well played… How efffin cool is that? As a big proponent of cask conditioned ale for all these years, it’s a nice feather in my cap to have sent beer across the pond and suceeded at such a high level. Considering our casks nearly went to Africa and back, it makes it doubly cool.

I am also going to take a moment to congratulate the first runner up my buddy Matt who is the brewer at Mayflower Brewing Company. It’s pretty impressive that the first and second place beers came from two breweries who have been in business a whopping three years combined! Perhaps the coolest part of the award (for Matt and myself) is that Northern Arizona University can no lay claim to being a great brewing school. It’s a little known fact that Matt and I both attended Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff (at the same time no less)! As such, it is certain that NAU should start rewriting their promotional literature for propsective students to include an underground brewing culture that ferments world class brewers. Or as of Wednesday, at the very least it graduates brewers who understand the art of cask conditioning.

If you throw in Jim Roper (Brewer at 4 Peaks in Tempe, Arizona) you end up with a great cask conditioning class. Somedays, I laugh when I think of the three of us in school at the same time. And to think, Flagstaff didn’t get a brewpub until my senior year of college. I’ve considered after talking to them that it’s even possible we had a class or two together. And to think, none of us declared a science as our major. Yet, I can’t help but think it might be time for Moms and Dads to send their aspiring brewers to Northern Arizona University. Clearly, there was something in that Flagstaff water that produced three pretty good brewers.

Congratulations Matt. You deserve the kudos (even the ironic ones that come from a Brewery named Mayflower Brewing Company sending beer east and winning). As for us, we’re ecstatic that our Angel’s speak proper English. Lord knows the rest of us around here certainly don’t. Sage asked me for a quote last night about this victory for the press release. I went with the vanilla ”It feels good.” He pressed for something a little more savory.

I don’t think I emerged with a brilliant enough quote for him. He said it was like pulling teeth with me (if he only knew how much laughing gas I was on). True I replied. But, I reminded him that we never send beer out the door without wanting to impress. At the end of the day, The Angel’s Share is one of those beers. Sure, we could have fired up two casks of Wipeout IPA and they would have tied some taste buds. But, I made a decision that day. Some guys are happy to be invited. Us, we aim to knock down the door like an uninvited cousin on Thanksgiving.

Yesterday was a good day. We got great news from England and Chicago. Both were about Real Ale. I also learned at 4:30 AM Pacific Standard Time that the Angel’s working out in the brewery speak the Queen’s English. Apparently they aim to please here and abroad as well. So last night, I decided that I should aim to please my taste buds and reward myself for a days hard work. I fired up the Ipod, hit play on Yellow Submarine and swam my way through a bottle of 2006 Angel’s Share. I suppose I should apologize to the Queen Mum today for my actions or at least my Karaoke laced singing. Nah, that would take all the fun out of it.

It’s the Fourth of July. I am sitting at Churchill’s Pub here in San Marcos. It’s an English Pub (so the sign says). But they also happen to serve great craft beer and their bottled beer list is unrivaled in these parts of town. It’s 11:48 in the AM and I needed a beer after swimming this morning. (Feel free to interject whether the 20 Ounces of yellow liquid I just ordered is even beer) With all the flag waving and hymns to our beloved Stars and Stripes I will see today, I decided today would be a great day to sit and write about the impending takeover of an American Icon known simply to most as Bud.

By now, everyone knows that In Bev is trying to acquire AB. And since today is literally a Red, White and Blue Day, it makes sense that I might finally want to write about this topic. I suppose as a Patriotic American and a Brewery Owner, I should be concerned about In Bev coming into our country and bullying their way into our land of the free. Thing is, I really don’t give a flying you know what. Mostly, it would seem that Beer Karma is bitting AB in their collective ass.

See for too long, there has been enough Arrogance coming out of St Louis to fuel a space program. This idealism of Americana, which has been wrapped around every can and bottle of Budweiser, is seemingly about to be crushed like that same can of beer on a frat boys forehead on a Friday night. Clearly, this hostile takeover bid is a gut check. And I for one am not sure how the AB we know and all “Love” survives this. The Busch family seems to have lost touch with reality and the changing landscape of brewing fueled by my great friends and the instigators of the Craft Beer Movement. People want flavorful beer. It’s a pretty simple premise.

But at this very moment, the largest American Brewer is under attack from another very powerful brewing giant. And one that I might add seems well positioned to take down the #1 Brewer in the world. How can this be? How does the biggest brewer in the world get toppled by a “lesser and surely “inferior” brewing company?

More importantly do we as Patriotic drinkers even care? I mean as an American, I am concerned for the loss of jobs and inevitable displacement that will come from the shakeout. When In Bev comes marching in, there will be a reorganization for sure. That’s to be expected. There’s nothing we can do about that. What concerns me more (and not enough to write my congressman) is the loss of the last big American Brewer to foreign concerns. We have lost Coors to the Canadians and Molson as well as Miller to the South Africans. Does this portend well for Yuengling? Does this instantly take them into a new stratosphere? Don’t know. But it’s crazy to consider how much of the total beer produced in this country would be owned by foreign entities. That seems so Un American? I find a certain measure of interest in the fact that a Belgian owned company is on the march through America. During WW I and II it seems that everyone marched through Belgium. Today, the Belgian Mega group of In Bev is returning the favor. Should we have seen this coming? Why is it happening now?

Well my friends, it comes from growth and the need to be public. As a public company, AB has backed itself into a proverbial corner. In doing so, In Bev has forced the Busch family to come out swinging like a runt in school yard fight. From my vantage point, it would appear that this little battle brewing is like a classic cartoon where the bully is puts his hand on the forehead of the “little runt” all the while, the little dude keeps swinging at air. I know the AB guys have an army of lawyers but how much muscle do they have? About 5.0% of total shares is what I am told the Busch family controls. That isn’t a position I would like to be in. And I am sure that they never considered anyone would mount a hostile takeover.

So this Fourth of July, I just consumed one Stella Artois in an act of Patriotism. I suppose you would argue that I should have consumed a Budwieser. But, as they have yet to roll out Budwieser American Ale, I took a pass. With the emptying of my glass, I have moved on to an Arrogant Bastard. It’s a lesser known beer with plenty of attitude as well. It’s my kind of attitude. The one that says ” You’re probably not going to like this beer…” It’s very refreshing this attitude thing. The other guys who pimp the Red White and Blue have been telling us a lie all these years “We know of know other beer in the world that tastes like this…” Yeah right, it tastes nothing like the beer that we’re all drinking these days. Today, I am going to celebrate our country’s great independence even though we’re in the midst of an invasion. It’s an invasion that promises to change the landscape of brewing. What remains to be seen is when they redraw the boundaries of AB what the new map is going to look like. For the most part, I couldn’t care.

Memo:

It’s official, we have to be the most confusing brewery on the planet. Or at least it would seem from the emails and online chatter about our beers. I posted a bunch of new information this week and sat back and watched as a bunch of postings and emails about Isabelle Proximus poured in. – So, in the interest of clarity, here are more details and confusing tidbits. We produced 17 oak barrels of this beer. We yielded about 350 cases of the beer as well as six 1/2 bbl kegs. Some of these kegs have been served for special tastings and events like Brouwer’s Cafe, Five Guys and a Barrel and a dinner we hosted here at The Lost Abbey. We have six 1/2 bbls left and one will be on tap this weekend during the Isabelle release at the brewery. I can’t wait. For the release on Saturday, we have allocated 200 cases of the beer for sale. If they do not sell out on Saturday, we will then offer them to our Patron Sinners and Saints.

We have also allocated 100 cases of this beer to be sold throughout our distribution territories and we’ll be designating on premise places like Brouwer’s, Monk’s Cafe, Toronado(s) and O’Briens to cellar this beer. This way when you visit these world class establishments, you’ll be able to find Isabelle Proximus. We will be putting this in their hands at a reasonable price point which should keep all these bottles below $40 in the market. As we don’t have enough beer to satisfy all of our distribution needs, we decided to increase the allotments to specific bars who have been part of the Belgian Beer movement and suppport great craft brewers from around the world. At this time, O’Briens is the only bar to have receieved any.

Each of the participating breweries in the project will be allocated 10 cases of beer. These 10 cases are for their personal cellars. No questions asked. They cannot legally resell them at their breweries so we just figure they’ll keep them for special occassions. Maybe if you’re lucky and special enough, this could be you.

You’ll notice that leaves some cases for The Lost Abbey. These cases will be used for Promotional tastings and the like. We feel a beer like this should be shared for many years to come. We also will be setting a percentage of the profits aside from this batch to send the 5 Brett Packers back on the road. Rumor has it that they will be pointing their collective compass towards Piozzo, Italy on a visit next summer.

Brouwer’s Imagination Saison. Yes, we only made 43 cases of this beer. We will be selling 35 cases and 4 half barrels of this beer to Brouwer’s. They will be the only ones who have it. It will be entered into the 2008 GABF and most likely we’ll put a keg of it on the floor for tasting at the event. No bottles will be sold at The Lost Abbey.

Ne Goeien Saison. This is a 100% Bottle only release. We made 234 cases. Most of these cases will remain in Southern California. We will be shipping a few cases to Monk’s Cafe as Tom Peter’s and Hildegard are great friends and they will want to be able to drink this beer when they visit. We didn’t make any draft of this beer as we felt there wasn’t enough to go around with cases.

Witch’s Wit. This is brewed and done fermenting. It is our Lost Abbey Summer Seasonal and we have very high hopes for it. The Grapefruit flavor came through incredibly well. We anticipate this being a full release to all of our distributors with draft for Southern California and Arizona.

That’s it for now. We have to get back to cleaning up for the crush on Saturday. Can’t wait!
See you then

I always wanted to learn how to play the guitar when I was younger. I just felt it was something that I would REALLY like to know how to do. And, I wanted to write songs. Thing is, I tried to play guitar. And I sucked at it. Chalk that up as another one of lifes failures I suppose? At the end of the day, it means that I can’t sit down and collaborate with another singer/songwriter and compose a song and chords to go along. Yet, my job as a brewer means that sometimes, I get to do exactly this, albeit in a different medium. Instead of lyrics and chords, I get to use hops, yeast and malt. Not too shabby of a trade off.

Back when this year began, I commented to a fellow blogger that I felt 2008 was going to be the year of the Collaboration between Brewers. From what I have seen, I am quite the prophet. It wasn’t hard for me to imagine this being the case. Last year, I had traveled to Belgium to work with the DeProef Brewery on a beer called Signature Ale. This union of American ingredients and creativity coupled with the technical brewers at De Proef yielded incredilble results. It made me want to work with more brewers from Belgium.

In the fall of 2007, I was in Denver for The Great American Beer Festival. I ran into Hildegard van Ostedan and her husband Bas from Brouwerij Leyerth which is known better as Urthel. It was during a judging session that Hildegard and I began discussing brewing a collaborative beer together. We had met 3 years earlier in Belgium during the 24 hours of Belgian Beer. Our paths crossed from time to time. It wasn’t until we were at a table judging Belgian and French style beers last fall that we agreed we should get together and work on a project.

We left Denver knowing she’d be traveling to San Diego in April. It was decided that she would come brew with us on the Monday prior to the World Beer Cup and Craft Brewers Conference. Via email, we began discussions. From the get go, Hildegard made it clear that she wanted a very traditional Saison styled beer with a “firm” bitterness. No problemo we replied. If there was thing we do well here, it’s firm bitterness. A simple recipe consisting of Pilsner Malt a splash of wheat and some hops was devised. We pointed our collective compass at 5.5% ABV and set out to “Collaborate” that day.

The day began around 7AM and finished about 3PM with another round of beers to celebrate the brewing process. It was an excellent day on all fronts. We actually brewed a batch of IPA that day as well so Hildegard was exposed to a full brew day at Port Brewing. Her husband Bas sat quietly at the bar and sketched out some thoughts for the label. It’s the first time in my life that I have been drawn as cartoon (that cruel picture of me from 7th grade doesn’t count)!

We have sent the label off to print. It’s pretty cool. I’ve put my name on two bottles of beer in the past but never my face. I suppose after 12 years of brewing professionally, I’ve earned the right to splash my mug on a label? Either way it’s a done deal so we just have to roll with it. As it was a Collaborative beer, I decided to allow Hildegard to name the beer. She chose the phrase Ne Goeien. This is a Flemish phrase which tranlates loosely as “A Good One.” If you walk into a bar in Flanders and order Ne Goeien, you are telling the bartender to give you a good beer. It’s simple and Flemish. How cool is that?

We’re waiting for the proofs on this label to come back to us from the printer. We expect that it will be on the shelves the 2nd or 3rd week of July. It was packaged back in May and has been taking up space at our brewery ever since. We made 234 Cases of this beer and when it’s gone, there will be screams of oe ta meulick (how can this be?) at the brewery. All in all, it has been a fantastic experience. Sure, Ne Goeien Saison joins the list of beers we just didn’t make enough of. It sucks. Just like not being able to pick the intro to Stairway to Heaven on a guitar. But, life goes on.

Okay,

We’re going to try to play catch up around here. It seems that I am always behind schedule with things relating to new releases and the infinite amount of new beers we seem to unleash. First things first, we have lifted the moratorium on new beers (thanks Rex). Last week, we brewed a new batch of our Summer Seasonal. It is a Wit bier brewed with Grapefruit honey (Thanks Rex the honey guy) and some grapefruit zest (thanks Terri and Sage for all those fruits).

If you recall back in May, I mentioned in my first blog in months that we wouldn’t be brewing any new beers for a bit. That was a half truth. Mostly it was a half truth as we had already brewed two new beers that resting in our brewery but wouldn’t be released for a while. How did this happen? What does this mean for me your loyal Lost Abbey drinker?

Since I love a good back story, let’s dive into another one here. Last October I went to Seattle to launch our line of beers with Click Wholesale. During my time in Seattle, I visited Brouwer’s Cafe (home to Seattle’s most amazing dracft and bottled beer list) and spent some time with Matt Bonney the owner. Matt drilled me on the subject of our limited releases. Brouwer’s “had” to have them. I explained that our Non Denominational Ales and limited releases were produced in incredibly limited quantitities and as such, we just didn’t have enough to go around at this time.

I mentioned this would not always be the case but presently, we demand far exceeds our production. I countered that we at The Lost Abbey would be more than willing to work on a very small scale to create a unique beer for Matt each year that would be sold only at Brouwer’s Cafe (maybe Bottleworks?) Matt seemed to think this was an acceptable solution and he tasked us with creating a Saison styled beer for the Original Release of the Imagination Series.

Those of you who have met/shared a drink with me understand that I am a huge fan of Saison styled beers and will jump at any chance to work one into our production. It so happened that we were considering a new beer to mark the start of the Lenten Holiday in February. It was to be a very low alcohol beer made with some unmalted wheat, oats, Amarillo and Simcoe hops fermented with a Saison strain of yeast. We released this beer as Carnevale and partied the night away.

A portion of this beer was diverted at bottling time to our small grundy tank. It was spiked with Brettanomyces Anamolus and packaged for Matt and Brouwer’s Cafe. Bo and I felt that the addition of the fruity Anamolus Brett working with the citric American Hops would be a slam dunk. It was! The beer dried out to a very nice level and the Brett is available in the nose but not so overwhelming. For all intense purposes, it is a smashingly drinkable summer beer. Which is good. Because, Brouwer’s is about to receieve the shipment of this beer in early July.

One last note about this beer. It was sort of a stealth project. We really didn’t talk much about the beer around here as we were always waiting for it. It was brewed in January. We then waited for the Brett to do its’ job. Then we waited for the artist to create the label. AND most recently, we waited for the TTB to approve that label. Now that we have gone to print with it, we are waiting for the labels to arrive. It’s nice to be done with it all.

However, the waiting has only served to heighten the awareness of this beer and increase the expectations. This past April, we entered the Brouwer’s Imagination Saison in the 2008 World Beer Cup. It won a bronze medal in the 91st and final Category of the competition. This was the beer that literally delivered us to the podium for the Small Brewery of the Year Award. Without the Brouwer’s Beer, we would not have earned enough points. So thanks Matt for giving us a little push. It doesn’t take much to motivate us around here. We can only hope that you’ll find yourself in Seattle soon enough AND that Matt has some left. There were only 43 Cases and six 1/2 bbls produced of this beer. Simply put, you will not find it on sale in San Marcos at the brewery. Sorry! There is a rumor on the street that this beer was an overwhelming success and as such the 2009 version of Carnevale may take on more of the attributes from this version…Stay tuned.

It’s true. Saturday June 28, 2008 Isabelle Proximus will officially go on sale at the brewery. Of all the beers that we have produced in our two and a half years in business, this one comes with the biggest expectations. It has to. It has the biggest back story of any beer we have ever produced. And that my friends is saying a LOT!

Perhaps you’d like to humor me, if you will, as we take a journey back in time. It’s November of 2005. I am sitting in a coffee shop in Solana Beach working on my laptop. We’re in the midst of acquiring the old Stone Brewery (currently the home of Port Brewing and The Lost Abbey). I am reading some email when I come across an invitation from my good friend Sammy at Dogfish.

Apparently, he’s working on his second book entitled “Extreme Brewing.” He’s requested that I join him, Rob Tod from Allagash, Adam Avery of Avery Brewing Company as well as Vinnie Cilurzo from Russian River on a pilgramage to the Holy Land of brewing that is Belgium. We’ll be joined by Lorenzo Dabove (the prince of Payontenland) who will act as our Embassador of Breattnomyces while we’re touring numerous of the best Gueze and Lambic producers in Belgium. It’s a trip not to be missed.

We book our flights in early 2006 and all head to Belgium for what promises to be a once in a life time opportunity. As part of our Ambassador like duties, Sam has requested that each brewery ship 6 cases of two different beers over for press and enthusiast tastings and dinners. In this way, we are never empty handed when it comes to discussing our beers and breweries with the respective Belgian Brewers we are to meet along the way. For our part, we ship Pizza Port Solana Beach SPF 45 Saison and Cuvee de Tomme over.

On our journey, we visit Cantillon, Drie Fontenien, Boon and other great breweries. It becomes clear in the course of all of our conversations, that there is no one way to make sour beer. As we travel from one brewery to the next all sauced up on sour beer, we begin to envision a project back at home. It is decided that an homage to the storied production of Lambic is what we should attempt.

I offer Port Brewing as a great place for this experiment and homage to take place. When we built this brewery, we made a concerted effort to focus on barrel aged beers. As such, we have excess capacity in our barrel room for a beer of this scope. Somehow, we manage to get everyone on board and in November 2006 we are suddenly all reunited in San Marcos at Port Brewing. We’ve gathered to make a run at immortality. Or at the very least, we’ve gathered to drink Margaritas, watch women with questionable morals dance on our bar and all the while hope we won’t screw up a whole batch of beer.

By now, you’re probably wondering why Isabelle Proximus? Well, funny you should ask. When we were in Belgium both Vinnie and Rod had acquired International Cell Phones. When we landed in Belgium, they switched them on. The words Bel Proximus streamed to life. There were then ensuing numerous guy jokes about the size of their respective “Bel Proximus’s.” At the end of the day, we couldn’t call it anything BUT Bel Proximus.

Except of course, there is a brewery in Kalamazoo, Michigan that uses the words Bell’s Brewing and as such, there was a conflict at hand. We agreed at the end of the day that our dear old Bel Proximus would live on in a kinder gentler feminine form and henceforth has been known as Isabelle Proximus. BTW, she’s WAY sexier than the Bel Proximus we ditched.

There were so many great parts to the making of Isabelle Proximus. Just getting the five us us to brew in one location was pretty damn sweet. Did I mention the beer tastes pretty good too? And now we return to the back story… I wanted the project to have great diversity and not just be a sour beer produced by Port Brewing. As such, I asked each of the breweries to deliver 4 Oak barrels to Port Brewing along with house cultures from their sour beer program. It was my thinking that this would be a great way to create flavors and diversity outside the scope of solely our bugs and barrels. Vinnie sent some American Oak barrels which we can certainly taste in the finished blend. Sam sent some cultures from the Festina Lente project they had worked on. Without a doubt, they lent a nice fruit component to the beer.

One large base beer was brewed that November day under the direction of 5 American Brewers and our crazy Mexican Muse Don Julio. The goal would be to take the same base beer and then age it on different cultures contributed by the participants of the trip. We fermented the base beer with our lager strain at 80F because that’s what we had around and figured it truly wasn’t going to matter what we used. The beer was racked into barrels ten days later. The beer spent the next 16 months doing whatever it damn well pleased. It did quite well. We filled 18 oak barrels with Isabelle Proximus.

At the end of the 16 months, we had one tragedy in the barrel and it was summarily dispatched by our illustrious tasting panel. All told, we ended up blending 17 Oak barrels worth of beer. We think it is an excellent homage and one that exudes the energy and passion for brewing we found on our trip.

This past April, we reconvened the Brett Pack here at the brewery and launched Isabelle Proximus in front of about 100 of our closest friends the media. It was a stunning night. Rob Tod said it best that night. “This tastes way better than I would have ever imagined.” I couldn’t have said it better myself Rob! Beers like this don’t come around very often. I am personally very excited to be a part of something that has a great back story. It’s right up my alley. We look forward to Isabelle Proximus finding you wherever you may be.

We’ve targeted some of the best on premise accounts (read bars) around this country and each of them will be receiving no less than 10 cases of this beer. In this way, it will appear on beer menus thereby giving a wider audience a chance to meet Isabelle Proximus in person. This week, Isabelle Proximus is set to hopefully take the brewing world by storm. It’s good to dream. It’s better to dare, dream and execute that vision. I’d like to think that Isabelle Proximus will take more than a few sour beer lovers over that proverbial rainbow. And for that, I am thankful to have met such a talented group of brewers. They make my job look easy.