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It’s Thursday February 26th and I am at home having just put Sydney down for the evening. Maureen is in DC visiting some friends and I have Sydney all to myself for the next three days. It should be interesting. We’re releasing Brandy Angel’s Share this weekend and celebrating Carnevale on Saturday night in a sort of day night double header for Port Brewing. Thank God for Grandparents! Still, church on Sunday is probably going to hurt…

I haven’t had a beer all day (chasing an almost three year old around will do that to me). So, I just popped the cork on a 375 ml bottle of Bourbon Angel’s Share. This dates back to our last release in March of 2008. And by pop, I truly mean POP! You see, when we packaged this last batch of Angel’s Share, we went ahead and Krausened the batch with a freshly fermenting batch of Angel’s Share. It was fortuitous to say the least that we had a new batch going at the same time we were packaging the old one. It was also the first time we had primed our bottles this way.

In hindsight, it probably wasn’t the best way to carbonate the Bourbon Angel’s Share as the Krausening batch fermented out at a lower terminal gravity causing our bottles to carbonate at a more elevated level than perhaps we would like. The bottle I just opened is gassier than the Blue Hairs at Hometown Buffet at 4:30 on a Tuesday. But I’m okay with that (our beer not the blue hairs)!

The good news in all of this is that the newest batch of Brandy Angel’s Share is more alcoholic than in years past due to this lower terminal gravity. But it also means that we’re now entering interesting waters. On Saturday, we will release our third batch of Brandy Angel’s Share and later in March we will release our second Bourbon Angel’s share as well. Welcome my friends to the waters of unpredictable barrel aged beer versions from year to year.

As a producer, I’ve come to the realization that we’re dealing with a living fire breathing monster when it comes to barrel aged beers. In some ways, they are liquid crapshoots. Go ask a winemaker and see if they don’t nod their head in silent agreement. This is one of the reasons that they specialize in blending. It affords better consistency. But, no matter how hard we work towards a consistent barrel aged beer, there are roadblocks at every turn. Much of this has to do with barrel procurement and duration from spirit dump to barrel refilling. Sometimes, it’s out of our control.

As such, I’m beginning to think of myself as a Cal Trans worker who tends to the roads in our glorious state. Sometimes, the roads they work require little assistance. These freshly poured asphalt highways, are our smooth epic batches of beers. Other times, they get called out to massage the road back into shape filling in pot-holes. These seem to be batches that can be saved but need tweaking. This is where a great beer can emerge from a barrel but doesn’t always. And lastly, there are those times when they are called out for long term issues. This would be akin to fixing sinkholes in the ground. These are batches of beer that once showed promise and now may never be restored to their former glory. These are the batches of beer that burn consumers the most.

I am reminded of this as I am sitting here half way through my glass of Angel’s Share. I’m enjoying the bottle but not as much as I do the Brandy Barrel version of this beer and in particular the original batch from 2006. What is perhaps most interesting to me is that the business of beer more or less sells beer on fixed pricing structures. This is not always the case in the wine business where vintages are celebrated, lauded and command differentiation of pricing from year to year.

I wonder as more and more breweries commit their resources, energy and space to barrel aging if this won’t be the direction the industry moves in. I’m not advocating it, merely pointing out that we have yet to see this even though there is so much variation in the barrel aging of beer. It seems that almost every brewery in America now has a bourbon barrel or four in their breweries. And, there seems to be a fixed pricing structure relative to barrel aged beers that doesn’t celebrate the best of the best. In this way, mediocrity is rewarded. Worked for the wine business. But do we really need 280 buttery chardonnays from California?

It’s tough this barrel aged thing, a lot like drinking flabby Chardonay. And I would know. Before summer, we’ll have over 500 oak barrels worth of beer aging at the brewery. Funny thing this barrel aged beer trend. When you talk to wineries, you almost never hear a vintner say “ Yep, we just added our 987th barrel to the facility…” But, in a space race of sorts, we almost HAVE to tell the world how much beer we’re currently aging in oak barrels. We’re guilty of it. Why? Well, it’s sexy for one. But mostly, it’s a point of differentiation. Or at least it used to be.

So tomorrow, we’re going to release our third bottling of Brandy Barrel Angel’s Share. It’s different than the first two. It more closely resembles batch one than two. It shows the promise of a better tomorrow. What does that mean to a beer drinker? Not much other than my glass is empty and there’s a ton of bottles going on sale this Saturday. Let’s hope we’ve done our job and the road less traveled isn’t full of potholes.

It’s Saturday. We’re in the midst of a very busy holiday weekend. Today is the feast of St. Valentines Day and lovers everywhere are celebrating. Some are going the traditional route of flowers and others may lean towards the sweet side of things. Me, I’m leaning towards Red Poppy. I had a couple of these last night and survived Friday the 13th. And by survived, I mean that in the best possible way.

Last night was one of the craziest Friday nights I have been associated with at Port Brewing since we opened our doors nearly three years ago. Walking around the brewery last night, you could just tell it was going to be one of those nights. We were standing room only packed at 5 O’clock which should have been the first clue. There are times at the brewery when we “know” we’re going to be busy and we can prepare for the onslought. Last night sort of caught us by surprise.

It shouldn’t have. Freaks unite and come out of the wood work during full moons, holiday weekends and apparently on Friday the 13ths. Sage just informed me, we have another one of these on tap in March. Can’t effing wait. Lost in the drama that was last night was a good story. An acquiantence, who I worked in the print shop at NAU, John Torok, happened to come into the brewery last night. I hadn’t seen John since he left Flagstaff in 1995. And then BLAM, just like a thundering Batman Punch, we was seated at our bar.

John was there during my formative years when I was first researching beer and exploring craft brewed beers. It stuck with me one day when he proclaimed that I was in the midst of drinking “Champagne and Caviar” expensive beers on a college budget. He didn’t know too many students who spent the kind of money that I did on beer while studying. But, that comment has stayed with me all these years. It was great to see him last night and reminisce about printing and beer.

I also learned that John has his own business and is pursuing his own passions. About five years ago, he founded a company in Vista, CA. called HATCH that specializes in high end fly fishing reels. Our stories shared some parallels as we have both chosen to engage our lifestyles by turning hobbies into our craft. I’m looking forward to following the company as they are growing at epic rates and have found their niche. I think it’s pretty cool that two guys who shared the pressroom at Reprographics on the campus of Norther Arizona University have ended up chasing life on their own terms here in San Diego.

Last night was a crazy night. We had freaks, geeks and just plum weird things happen at the brewery. Old friends stopped by as well which made it marginally better. I for one am not looking forward to March 13th but I will do so with bit of trepidation and nervous hope that once a quarter is enough for the strange peeps of the brewery to come out and visit us. The way I look at it, there are 30 breweries in this town. Maybe they’ll grace them with their presence thus sparing us next month. Then again, we’re The Lost Abbey- For Sinners and Saints Alike. Maybe I should finally install those direct lines to heaven and hell so that when the time comes next month, I can contact the keeper of the lost soul who’s wandered into our brewery looking for refuge?

And yes, I’m serious about the phone line thing. Either that, or we’re gonna need a bigger boat… I wonder what sort of charges we could expect to call long distance to the Underworld? After last night, I’ve begun saving every penny I can around here. We’re going to need it. I swear. Sometimes being in charge isn’t as cool as most make it out to be.

It’s Saturday and the doors at Port Brewing don’t open for another hour and a half. It’s quiet in the brewery except for Fermenter # 6 which is bubbling along in the blow off bucket. It’s a lager fermentation. It sounds a bit different than what I’m used to hearing. I’d say it’s peaceful, but I don’t feel like waxing poetically this morning.

I knew that I was going to blog this morning as my schedule has cleared up a bit and we’re finally back to having most of our packaged beer inventory at decent enough levels that I ‘get’ to write. It’s a good feeling for sure. I’m always surprised at how many of you out there read my blogs given how infrequently I write them. It’s something I am trying to do more of.

Today, I figure I should post a brief update on things around the brewery. In my last post, we welcomed the monkeys to Port Brewing. Mike just completed his third week here at The Lost Abbey and it couldn’t have come at a better time. We’re in the midst of a serious expansion here. I just got word that the two used 120 bbl Fermenters we bought from Bert Grant’s old brewery are on a truck in Portland and should be here tomorrow. Of course, this is Sunday and Sunday’s are supposed to be family day. Let’s hope that they don’t mind waiting until Monday to be unloaded.

We purchased these tanks to go along with our new (albeit used) bottling line. The guys spent all day Monday cleaning this hunk of stainless and we’re hoping to have it up and running around March 1st. It will be such a huge boost in our production to get this piece of equipment up and running. We have out grown our little bottling ‘system’ and very much need to get better with this part of our operations.

Lately, I have receieved numerous emails and complaints about some of our bottles and the ‘lack’ of fizz. It’s probably one of my least favorite things to do but answering emails and complaints about our beers is something that comes with the territory. I tend to take it harder than I should but at the same time, I cringe when I read about flat beer. It’s our job to ensure that they aren’t lifeless. The challenge is that I can’t taste every bottle and ‘guarantee’ that they are good to go. That part sucks.

As a process, we are committed to bottle conditioning and the flavor gains that come with it. It just sucks when the process doesn’t go as well as planned and there is deviation. I for one am hoping that our new packaging line and our new head brewer can help us find stability in this area. We have to get better at this. We’re growing and looking to expand markets. As such, we need to be better.

As part of our new packaging operations, I met with a label company this week about purchasing a new labeler. We’re hoping this will make us much more efficient and cut down on our waste. We discussed some options for the labeler and it would appear at this time that we’ll be intsalling some sort of coding system for the bottles as well. In an ideal world, we would have coded our bottles from day one but that just wasn’t part of the system we’ve been running.

But, as we’re expanding and upgrading our capacity and infrastructure, we most assuredly will look to start coding our bottles so that we know exactly which batch they came from. It is our hope that we will be better able to deal with bottle to bottle variations and refermentations with this information at our disposal. I sincerely believe that we’re maturing our operations and this new equipment will make our beers that much better.

Speaking of better beers, we are starting to package a ton of barrel aged beers and I thought we should share with you some of the upcoming releases. We’ll kick off the 2009 barrel aged releases with Red Poppy at the end of January. We’ll chase this into February with the much anticipated release of the Brandy Barrel Aged Angel’s Share. I am super excited about this as we’ll be packaging almost 45 oak barrels worth of beer. This will allow us to get a measure of beer to all of our distributors AND more importantly, we’ll be able to keep enough on hand at the brewery to ensure visitors can purchase Angel’s Share in the future.

For the February release of The Angel’s Share, we’ll be packaging the beer in both 375 ml and 750 ml for the first time. The 375 ml format will only be available at the brewery. 750 ml bottles will be available at the brewery and for the retail market. When we’re finished packaging this beer, we will turn our attention to Older Viscosity for a March release as well. Most likely, we’ll skip an April release so that we can double up on a May release.

Look for an announcement about our Anniversary Party in May to include Cuvee de Tomme and Bourbon Angel’s to coincide with our stupendous party. If all goes well, we hope to release Duck, Duck Gooze in June and envision an extra special Christmas in July with the release of Barrel Aged Santa’s Little Helper. I haven’t sampled the Imperial Stout since it went into barrels in September. Today might just be the day to do so.

On February 3rd, we’re expecting our latest shipment of barrels to head our way. We have ordered 100 more bourbon barrels. If you’ve been by the brewery lately, you know that we don’t have room for these. But, we’re just going to have to find the room. We know the demand for these beers is out there and we’re going to keep making them. It might even be time to finally start the discussions about a bigger warehouse for our barrels. For those keeping score at home, we now have over 330 barrels of beer. Really fun beer no less!

Lastly, Draft Magazine just released their January/February 2009 issue and inside recounted the top 25 beers from 2008. Lost Abbey landed two beers on the list- Isabelle Proximus and The Angel’s Share. We were the only brewery to place two beers on the list. It would appear that we’re doing something right here in San Marcos! For 2009, we think we have even better beer on the horizon. Those of you who have sampled the newest Red Poppy may agree with us. If not, you’ll get a chance to taste for yourself on Saturday January 31st. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go check on some bottle carbonation levels’