Port Brewing and The Lost Abbey’s Director of Brewery Operations (and overall nice guy) leaves the heat of Southern California and heads Northwest for Seattle Beer Week 2013! If you’re in the area, stop by and say hi! CLICK HERE for a full list of events during Seattle Beer Week.
Brewers night with Tomme Arthur
Thursday, May 16th
Elliot Bay Pizza
4 – 7pm
Sourfest
Thursday, May 16th
Brouwers Pub
8pm – 10pm
Bottle Signing with Tomme Arthur
Friday, May 17th
Beer Junction
3- 5pm
Bottle Signing with Tomme Arthur
Friday, May 17th
Chucks 85th
6 – 9pm
Lost Abbey Tap Takeover
Saturday, May 18th
Super Deli Mart
All Day (Tomme will stop by for a beer around 11am on his way to the airport… maybe 2 beers)
Serious Eats‘ Maggie Hoffman ran an interesting interview with Tomme Arthur today. If you’d like some insight into The Tomme’s style and personal philosophy, it’s a definite “must-read”. Tomme Arthur in Serious Eats
From the article:
Where do you get your brewing inspiration? Inspiration is a crazy thing. Obviously the bulk of it comes from exploring new flavors. It might be a bottle of beer a friend made. It could be an experience in a Belgian cafe. Other times, I might draw my inspiration from conversations with other brewers or even chefs. Ultimately what it comes down to is that my attention gets focused on creating (or recreating) certain flavors in our beers. How we get there is partly due to inspiration and how well I use my imagination.
Wine Enthusiast Magazine has published its list of the top 25 beers of 2009. We’re please to find two Lost Abbey beers — Cuvee de Tomme and Duck Duck Gooze — made the list, both with excellent ratings of 93 out of 100. Along with our neighbor and good friend Stone Brewing, we’re the only breweries to have two beers on the list (the Stone-Nonge-Jolly Pumpkin collaboration, Special Winter Ale, and Vertical Epic 09.09.09 both scored very solid 92’s).
Here’s a selection from the Cuvee review in the article:
…A ton of things going on in the mouth: flavors of bourbon, sour cherry, coffe cream, walnut and more balanced by appropriate acidityto counter the weight and heft of the flavor profile. An infinite finish with minimal carbonation and high abv makes this an ecellent sipper to be shared among good friends or stored in the cellar for years to come.
Our DirectorI have an easy job. There I said it, easy. I show up for work at a brewery each day and make decisions about beer. It seems like an easy task and most days, this place runs itself. Sometimes, I am asked to make bigger picture assertions and this past week, we undertook a major redesign of our existing tasting bar.
You see, during the week and especially on the weekends we’ve started to see a major increase in the number of visitors to our warehouse.
Over the past 6 months, our original tasting bar just became so inadequate. The cold box also began bursting at the seams as we kept stuffing more kegs in it. So, we made an executive decision to tear it all down and start over.
Demolition began on Monday and by Friday evening, we were back up and running. We’ve added more taps, more bar top space and committed more open space for enjoying your favorite Lost Abbey beer. As an added bonus, we’ve now got shelving in our cold box and we’ll be launching a Vintage Beer List on December 12th. This list will include bottles we’ve been sold out of and potentially experimental beers we’ve never made available. Look for details on www.lostabbey.com.
Our beers are always in a state of evolution so it’s not surprising that our tasting bar has evolved as well. Mind you, we’ve kept the comfortable bar stools. And the attentive, colorful language swearing wait staff is still here. Those aren’t things you redesign. There’s 17 beers on tap right now with room for more! Come on down and see us. You’ll like what we’ve been up to.
I promise.
The Faces of The Lost Abbey
Ryan Fields, Lead Brewer
Ryan Fields, Lead Brewer
This month we’d like to introduce you to our lead brewer Ryan Fields. At the tender age of 24, he’s the youngest brewer on staff, but as a near two-year veteran of the team, he’s also the oldest employee (we don’t count Tomme).
Ryan started with Port Brewing / The Lost Abbey back in January of 2008 as a general brewhouse grunt, washing kegs, cleaning tanks, running the bottler, and all the dirty work no one else wanted to do. Before long he proved himself to be a hard worker and quick learner, and he was promoted to brew staff, initally as a brewer’s assistant, then and assistant brewer, and finally to his current lead brewer position.
These days you’ll find Ryan running the night brew shift, where when, he’s not moving beer from one place to another, he hides among the fermenters and pretends to be “the brewery troll” (don’t ask).
The night shift may not last long for Ryan, however. He made his first appearance as a Lost Abbey brewer at a special event at the Great American Beer Festival this year. Turns out his boyish good looks and humble personality made him a big hit, especially among the ladies in attendance. He ended up signing a lot of bottles and more than a few girl’s body parts.
Many people ask how Ryan got his first job at the brewery and we like to tell the story of his job interview.
One night he walked into the tasting bar and asked Molly the bartender “hey, are you hiring?”
Molly nodded to the man sitting next Ryan who happened to be none other than Tomme himself. Tomme turned to Ryan and said “what are your qualifications?”
“Well, I used to be an Eagle Scout,” Ryan answered.
He started work a few days later.
Brewery News: Tasting Room Updates
If you missed Tomme’s blog post on the website the other day, then you haven’t heard that we’ve recently done a major renovation on the brewery tasting room.
Our 25 foot long tasting bar, 16 taps and giant cold box have been replaced by a 42 foot bar(that’s 13 meters to those of you outside of the states), 29 taps and new restaurant style walk-in with double glass doors for bottles.
Not only is new new space larger and swankier, but it also affords us the ability to keep more bottles chilled for purchase and/or over-the counter consumption. click for larger image
Right now we’re still putting the finishing touches on the space — adding the new merchandise displays and bottle cabinets, plumbing the glass washers and re-mounting the big screen TV — but we’re still open for business, and patrons are here enjoying it on a regular basis.
We plan on finishing everything up within the next couple of weeks in time for the big grand opening on December 12th when we’ll be revealing our new vintage bottle selection. (Bottle of `06 Angel’s Share anyone? How about a nice cold bottle of Yellow Bus?)
Make sure to check the website for updates and a final list of the vintage bottles that’ll be avaialble that day. If you get a chance, make sure to drop by and check the place out. (You’ll find our tasting room hours and updates on the website right here.)
2010 Patron Saints and Patron Sinners Club Registration
Yes, this is the long-awaited announcement! Registration for the 2010 Lost Abbey Saints, and Lost Abbey Sinners will open on Tuesday, December 1 at 6am Pacific Time.
As with last year’s clubs, the Patron Saints will be limited to 200 members, each of whom will receive 14 beers, including the much coveted Saint’s “black label” release. The Patron Sinners limited to 350 members, each of whom will receive a dozen of our barrel-aged rarities including the annual Sinner’s Blend. Annual membership dues will also remain the same at $160 for Saints and $235 for Sinners.
In addition to the beers, members of each club will also be entitled to VIP status for all limited availability beer releases, receive a six-piece set imported Lost Abbey glassware, and get 10% off all non-specialty beers and merchandise purchases. Members of both clubs will also be invited to the annual Sinners and Saints Dinner and Tasting held every October at the brewery.
NOTE: Both of these clubs sell out very quickly. If you’re interested in becoming either a Patron Saint or Patron Sinner, make sure to register as early as possible!
New Online Shop
We’re pleased to announce the opening of our new online shop!
Now you’ll be able to purchase Port Brewing and Lost Abbey merchandise — T-shirts, workshirts, glassware, tap handles and more — all from the convenience of your computer. Additionally, if you’re a resident of the state of California, you’ll also be able to make bottled beer purchases online and have them delivered right to your door.
Here’s the current new releases for the holiday season. Both of these beers have been bottled and kegged and shipped into distribution, so if you’re in a region in which our beers are available (click here for a map), you should see these start to hit your favorite tap rooms and store shelves any time now.
Brookston Beer Bulletin’s Jay Brooks has a list of the best new breweries that didn’t exist 10 years ago. Guess who tops that list? Yep, Port Brewing / The Lost Abbey!
From the article:
…many new breweries have seen a phenomenal amount of success in a relatively short time. Undoubtedly, the market has changed considerably from where it was pre-millennium and that probably accounts for more favorable conditions for new craft brewers. But alone that’s not enough to account for it all. Some of these new breweries just stepped up and kicked butt. So for my 20th Top 10 list, here are my choices for the ten most important and influential breweries that began within the last ten years.
Thanks for the nod, Jay. And thanks to all of you for helping us make it to the top!
Greetings from Your Director of Brewery Operations.
I’m sure many of you wonder what I actually do around here. Me too. It’s kind of strange being a Director. I mean I don’t yell “Cut.” I don’t “frame scenes” in the air with my hands and I most certainly don’t hide behind the lens in a Directors Chair. Nope, what I do matters around here. I show up each and every day (except Sundays, that’s family day) and I support the brand.
What this means exactly know one knows.
Like today, I am being asked to support the Lost Abbey brand of information communication by writing this piece. Tomorrow, I will show my support as Mike and Ryan stuff body bag after body bag of Fresh Hops in the dry hopping tank. On Thursday, I’ll make some beer (it still won’t be enough brewing for me) and on Friday, I’ll settle into the bar and rehash the week with each of you.
Being a Director is still very weird to me. It’s like having Business Attention Deficit Disorder. I always have things to do but seemingly never get any of them done. But at the end of each and every day, there is always beer. So I guess, I should get used to life as a Director as long as there’s all this beer around, it can’t be that bad.
Can it?
New Faces at The Lost Abbey
One of the reasons we can now restrict Tomme’s activities to his actual job of “directing” operations (as well as company figurehead and sex symbol) here at Port Brewing and The Lost Abbey, is we’ve got a couple of new folks handling our brewing operation. They actually joined us back at the beginning of the year, but we’ve all been so busy that we haven’t had time to introduce them properly. So we’re making ammends now. Allow us to introduce our new faces:
Mike Rodriguez, Head Brewer
Mike hails from Kansas City, MO where, prior to joining us, he was a brewer and cellarman for the famed Boulevard Brewing for the past six years. Before that he was head brewer at The Power Plant restaurant and brewery in Parkville, MO.
Mike’s wealth of skills and experience from his time at Boulevard is the driving factor behind our ability to scale production upward to meet the growing demand for our beers nationwide.
When he’s not running the brewhouse, Mike loves to play rugby and, in true Kansas City native style, BBQ just about anything that fits on a grill.
He also has an encyclopedic knowledge of the lines from just about every romantic comedy and action-adventure movie made in America since 1975. If you ever have a chance to drop by the brewery or see him at an appearance, buy him a beer and ask him to act out all the characters in Die Hard.
Gordon Gerski, Brewer & Bottling Line Wrangler
Like Mike, Gordon, or “Gordie” as everyone calls him, comes to us from Boulevard Brewing and The Power Plant before that.
One of Gordie’s jobs while at Boulevard was to run and maintain their bottling line, a skill that’s come in handy here at the Abbey since our shiny new bottling line is of the same make (albiet much smaller than Boulevard’s). As anyone who’s ever run a bottling line can tell you, keeping one of those Rube Goldbergian contraptions running smoothly is no simple feat, so his knowledge of which dials to turn and knobs to fiddle with (or which panel to kick) are invaluable to us.
Outside of the brewery Gordie’s an avid cyclist who enjoys climbing and decending our local mountains on a bike with ridiculously thin tires. He’s also got a very large husky named Molly who can bark her ABCs.
Brewery Updates
Beyond just new faces, we’ve also been growing our brewery like gangbusters. Earlier this year we acquired two new fermenters, Heaven and Hell, named for what had to be moved to get them into the brewhouse (See the photo album here). The aforementioned bottling line is now up and running (most of the time) which has increased our bottling capacity from a couple hundred cases a week to well over 1,000.
We also acquired several hundred more oak barrels, pushing our total to over 500, and signed a keg contract that’ll allow us to significantly increase our draft accounts across the country (read: more fresh beer for you).
As you might guess, all of the new stuff has significantly increased our storage requirements, so we also added 10,000 square feet of warehouse space to handle our rapidly growing distribution.
And in the coming months you’ll be seeing even more changes. This fall we’ll also be adding cold storage to our warehouse allowing us to move shipment-ready kegs out of the brewery, tear down the exiting coldbox, and build a brand new tasting bar complete with a fancy refrigeration unit to keep some of the rare stuff chilled and ready for tasting. So when you visit the brewery, you’ll not only be able to sample our regular fare, but you’ll also be able to experience some of our epic beers from the reserve (2006 Cuvee de Tomme anyone?).
Finally, just this past week, we added a new feature to our tasting hours — food in the form of Marty and his amazing hot dog cart. Marty’s the real deal, and his authentic New York hot dogs, brats, cheesesteak sandwiches and other streetside eats are simply amazing (inexpensive too). So the next time you’re down to the brewery for a tasting, or a new beer release, make sure to grab a dog or two — you’ll be glad you did!
Third Annual Barrel Tasting Night
Here’s an event you won’t want to miss — Each year a limited number of guests are invited to join the Port Brewing family as we delve into the barrel archives to sample a few of the specialties waiting within. Barrel Tasting Night is limited to 125 lucky people who will be the first to taste craft releases aged as long as two years by brewmaster Tomme Arthur and crew.
This year is our third annual Barrel Tasting Night which will be held on Saturday, November 7 to coincide with the kickoff of San Diego Beer Week.
The event is from 7pm to 10pm and includes a number of incredibly rare beers coupled with hors d’ oeuvres and fine foods prepared by The Lost Abbey chef in residence, Vince Marsaglia.
Tickets to the event are $80 each, $150 for a couple, and are guaranteed to sell out quickly. If you’re going to be in town that week, this is definitely a “can’t miss” event.
Here’s what on tap for release over the next few months (please note that all dates are estimates). If you’re in an area in which we distribute (click here for a map), you should see these start to hit your favorite tap rooms and store shelves in 7 to 14 days after release.
Sept. 1 — Panzer Pils, Imperial Pilsner
Sept. 18 — High Tide, Fresh Hopped IPA
Oct. 19 — Santa’s Little Helper, Russian Imperial Stout
Nov. 2 — Gift of the Magi, Holiday Golden Ale
Upcoming Events
Here’s a list of upcoming events for the next few weeks. You can always find a full list of events, appearances and releases on our website.
Sept. 24 – 26 — Great American Beer Festival, Denver, CO
CNN.com/travel has a story today on how craft beer, like wine, is now a travel destination. Lost Abbey is one of the breweries featured. From the article:
…while “all of California could be considered the state from which the innovators of craft beer came, San Diego specifically grabbed the golden ring from the merry go round and ran with it,” said Matt Simpson, a craft beer consultant.
So when you’re talking San Diego-style beer, for most beer geeks you’re talking about The Lost Abbey. “The most notable guy right now is Tomme Arthur at Lost Abbey. He was one of the early adventurous brewers in Southern California,” beer tasting expert Mosher said.
Known for Belgian-style beers and a “flavor first” philosophy, beer expert Beaumont said “they’re doing some really innovative, interesting stuff in terms of barrel aging and unusual fermentations, beyond basic brewers yeast.”
