Smoke Rises

Funky Friday the 13th's first release was huge success. We are overjoyed with how the beer came out, and Friday, August 13th, 2010 can't come fast enough.
We are in the midst of a long day in the cellar so that tomorrow I can brew up our Holiday offering, a Smoked Imperial Brown Ale. We plan to use the new cherry wood smoked malt from Briess, blackstrap molasses, several other malts, and three hop varieties.
We also plan to brew an Anniversary Ale, to celebrate the brewery's first year in operation. It will be a Belgian Dark Strong Ale. Both beers will be in the 8% range.
Well, back to kegging and cleaning...

Boo!

Surprise! I'm back. This summer was a bit crazy and the Blog got left in the dust, but here I am to pick up the dregs.
Well, what has happened since the end of May? Lots, and even more.
We now have an assistant brewer, Jerid Saffell, he has taken charge on several Peeks and has made great progress in the cellar and will take some brewhouse responsibilities.
I have moved from the Schlafly Taproom to the Bottleworks and been brewing on the complete opposite kind of system that we have at MBC. Our MBC brewhouse is a 1.5 bbl, two vessel system of the most manual nature imaginable (other than having to chop wood to fire the kettle). While at the Bottleworks it a 6 vessel, 22-30 bbl variable capacity, computer controlled operation.
A big distraction (or is that inspiration?) is the now immenent wedding. I'll be tying the knot next month and Jerid's wife is due to deliver shortly thereafter. So we are trying to pack the place to the rafters with beer...just in case.
We have released several new beers: Gemutlich Keller Oktoberfest, Pooka Pumpkin Ale and Hop Seeker Fresh Hop American Strong Ale, and I'm very proud of how they all turned out.
We attended the St. Louis Brewers' Heritage Festival, St. Louis Microfest, Augusta Bottoms Beer Festival, Parkville Brewers' Festival and the first Schlafly Fresh Hop Festival.
MBC has won two awards, in the Sauce Magazine Readers' Choice Poll we snagged an Honorable Mention and we took the title of 'Best Beer' in the Riverfront Times Best of St. Louis edition for our Black Sky Stout Porter.
Halloween is coming soon and while we've released plenty of treats already, there are more to come, like Autumnal Blaze Strong Amber Wit on 10/28, Jerid's Hop Goddess IIPA on 11/4, Jerid's Evil Pumpkin Imperial Porter on 11/11 and Funky Friday's first appearance on 11/13.
Well, time to go check on the mash of this American Barleywine. Its gonna me a monster!

Drew's Favorites Volume 2

Ahh...Flossmoor Station, how I want a Pullman Brown, Killer Kapowski or is it Kowalski? whatever, I want one of those Baltic Porters, no, better make it a case. Or two. Flossmoor Station from outside of Chicago has not only put out two of my favorite dark beers brewed in the midwest, but the even produce and amazing series of American IPAs and a very nice American Wheat, a style I will defend from other beer geeks for all of my days.
Pullman Brown is a work of art, and a true show of complexity for another style brushed aside by many in the search of the latest and greatest. Nutty, toasty malt, toffee sweetness, a bit of chocolate and layering of earthy hops tied together with their fruity house ale yeast makes for a brown of startling depth. The use of toasted oats and molasses really puts it over the top.
The Baltic Porter is classic representation of one of my favorite styles. Loads of malt in all its fat glory adorned with dark, dried fruits, figs and raisins all dusted in cocoa powder and coffee. Clean, devastatingly smooth and strong enough to make you a little sleepy.
Vishnu's Vice and Lady Columbia were both excllent bottled IPAs I had the pleasure of consuming, and the Wooden Hell Barleywine was no slouch, either.
Even though Matt Van Wyk has left Flossmoor Behind to head out Oregon way, Bryan Shimkos has stepped into his boots (not literally...eww) and will take Flossmoor into the future. I wish him the best of luck!

A Mighty Current

We are standing on the edge of history. Not moon landing, or Archduke assasination history, but we are one the brink of one of those little shifts that can change the course of things, like the way the weather in Clearwater County, Minnesota alters how the Mississippi-Missouri River confluence laps on our banks, and flows down towards the delta.
This is not passive history, however, it is active history, and the river of which I speak isn't filled with muddy water, but glorious craft beer. While the river of craft beer has picked up greatly in volume and quality in the St. Louis area over the past few years, it have certainly not crested.
A new tributary is about to surge into the current, St. Louis Craft Beer Week. SLCBW is already part of a larger body, the mighty STLhops.com which has been pouring into the current for over 20 months now and has decidedly changed how craft beer flows through St. Louis.
What exactly, will it bring? Well right now, all we can do is look at the events slated for this year, see how they fare and make forcasts for next year.
This year's lineup looks something like this:

Saturday May 30th
Beer and Brats Festival - Westport Plaza
B33r and Brats - 33 Wine Shop & Tasting Bar
Wine-Beer-BBQ - Wine & Cheese Place Ballwin

Sunday May 31st
Homebrew With Drew (that's me) - Mattingly Brewing Company
I'll be firing up the old homebrewing kettles and making a Dampfbier, a Bavarian peasants' beer, low in gravity (initial sugar content and, therefore, alchol), all barley malt, lightly hopped and fermented with yeast borrowed from a Weissbier (Schlafly, in this case) brewery. It will be served at the June 17th Peek.
It starts at 9am and if you want to brew email me drew at mattinglybrewing dot com

Monday June 1st
Craft Beer Dinner - The Shaved Duck
Meet a Griesedieck - The Royale
Boulevard Tank 7 Sampling - International Tap House

Tuesday June 2nd
Beer and Cheese Matching - Wine & Cheese Place Clayton
Founders Draught Release Party - The Stable
Tenacious Trivia: Beer Edition - Newstead Tower Public House
Bell's Beer Dinner - Renaissance St. Louis Airport
Sam Adams Beer Tasting - Lukas Liquor

Wednesday June 3rd
Bell's Brewery Beer School - Cicero's
Peek-a-Brew Pale Ryeder Edition - Mattingly Brewing Company
Boulevard Two Jokers Wit and Smokestack Tasting - Lukas Liquor
Beer and Cheese Tasting - Schlafly Taproom
Sam Adams Beer Tasting - Randall's Wine & Spirits
Meet the Brewery (Founders) - International Tap House

Thursday June 4th
Craft/Beer - The Royale
Beer Tasting for Wine Lovers - Wine & Cheese Place Clayton
History of Craft Beer - Schlafly Bottleworks
O'Fallon Brewery Garden Party - Missouri Botanical Gardens

Friday June 5th
Beer Tasting - Wine & Cheese Place Clayton
St. Louis Brewers' Heritage Festival - Forset Park
Ss. Peter & Paul Craft Beer Fest - Alton Sportmen's Club

Saturday June 6th
St. Louis Brewers' Heritage Festival - Forst Park

Details on all the events can be found at www.stlbeerweek.com

That's an amazing week!
I will be at both Mattingly events and will do my best to attend the Founders' Release Party and Trivia events on Tuesday night, the History of Craft Beer and O'Fallon Garden Party on Thursday and as much of the St. Louis Brewers' Heritage Festival as I can fit it around my brewing schedule for that weekend.
I encourage everyone to make it out to these events, especially the Mattingly events, but if cannot attend those, please go to what you can and support this venture. St. Louis Craft Beer Week has some incredible potential. Can St. Louis become the next Denver, San Diego or Portland? If we can demonstrate that we are up their level, then we will be at their level. So raise a pint and make it happen!

The Homebrewing Spirit Lives on at MBC

Craft Beer. noun.
If a homebrewer (current or former) gets to decide what the beer tastes like, it's craft beer.
- Randy Mosher's Radical Brewing, p. 2

Lately it occurs to me that things have been very homebrew-esque around the cellar at Mattingly Brewing Company. Since the release of the mighty Dead Flowers Double IPA we have seen a Dubbel spiced with Star Anise, Cinnimon, Ginger and Orange peel, a Brandy Oak Aged Dubbel, and a Chipotle Porter. It looks a awful lot like the kind of homebrew lineup I have been known to turn out. The cellar has seen more that Drew-brand homebrewed insanity in the last few days. In the near future we'll see the release of the Black Sands Coconut Porter, Black Thoughts Cocoa Porter aged on toasted (by me) coconut and Scharffen Berger Cacao Nibs, resectively. But, dear beer ethusiasts, that is not all. I have also kegged off Black Past Historical Porter, Black Sky Stout Porter taken back to the 1800s. To create this 'Original' Porter, I added a bit of our Abominator Smoked Doppelbock, charred American White Oak (charred by yours truely) and the funky, yeasty dregs from a bottle of George Gale's Prize Old Ale (I'm enjoying the remainder of this bottle of the 2005 Vintage as I type), this will aged and develop or 'stale' in the parlance of the 1800s, the release date is TBA (read: When its good and ready, damnit!).
Oh, by the way, I've brewed up some Abominator Smoked Doppelbock, too! It was actually the first brew on the system, my test batch. The crazy system we have suprisingly is very efficient at getting every last bit of malty goodness out the mash, so the Smoked Bock quickly became a Samiclaus strength Doppelbock...woohoo! It has been patiently aging in our cellar, and will continue to until winter rears its ugly head and we beat back the bitter cold with a massive, smoky, sweet, caramelly, warming lager.
There are other projects maturing down here, like the Biere from Mars, the Biere de Mars inoculated (what a great word) with Brettanomyces from my favorite source for those little buggers, Orval. To be released in the fall.
Since I have finally kegged off the Abominator, I'll have some empty homebrew fermenters, which means its time to brew into them. Perhaps something like Black Forest Maple Extra Stout?
But you don't have to wait for everything exciting, in fact, for one, the wait is almost over. On June 3rd, be ready for the ride of the Pale Ryeder Palm Sugar Rye Tripel.

Drew's Favorites Volume 1

Rather than just keep my small army of readers up to date on the goings on in the cellar at Mattingly Brewing Company, I have decided to use this blog as a chance to show my appreciation for what fellow brewers are up to. There will no be discernible order or pattern to who or how they are chosen for recognition, other than that I have a deep respect for the beers they produce.
So, on with it then!
Who, oh who should I recognize first?
Well, I was sitting at home (for a change) with my fiance, Julie, talking about the upcoming beer festival season, which kicked off this past weekend with Schlafly's Repeal of Prohibition Festival. We were talking about the first festival she came to (or I dragged her to, whatever), it was the St. Louis Microfest 2006. It was a cool May afternoon and we didn't stay for the whole thing, but we did get to sample quite a few beers. Even after the years there was one beer that stuck out in her mind, New Albanian Brewing Company's Thunderfoot.
For those poor, wretched souls who do not know Thunderfoot, it a magical and mysterious black ale, a Cherry Oak Imperial Stout. Sublime balance of chocolately malt, coffee roastiness, caramelly and toffee malt middle, woody and vanilla oakiness, all drenched in sweet and tart cherries, real cherries. Silky smooth and dangerously satisfying, it is a magnificent beverage. Really, it is no shock that it stuck in Julie's mind.
But, of course, it doesn't end with Thunderfoot. Hoptimus is an American Double IPA drippying in citrusy, grassy hop character with a fantastic, bready caramelly malt backing. Malcolm's Old Setter's Ale on cask was arguably the best beer at the 2008 Great Taste of the Midwest, intense maltiness, some earthy and floral hops to balance the intense rush of toffee and breadiness with plenty of fruity esters and warming alcohol to round out an immense Old Ale. It was truly remarkable.
They also brew an excellent Imperial Pilsner by the name Elsa Von Horizon, a funky, sour, refreshing and outright strange Kentucky Common in addition to many, many others.
Jared, Jesse and their newest team member, David are working tirelessly to get the new production facility up and running to package their fantastic beers and get them into the market.
I, for one, cannot wait!

Hops? I'll show you hops!

Stone recently posted on their blog about a new collaborative beer, Juxtaposition Black Pilsner. A joint effort between Cambridge Brewing, Brew Dog and Stone they proclaim that it is the hoppiest beer they have ever brewed.
Wow! Stone's hoppiest beer ever? That must really be something! From the makers of Stone IPA, Levitation Ale, Sublimely Self Righteous Ale, Arrogant Bastard, Old Guardian and many other one time only or occasionally offered hop bombs, they really know how to hop a beer, and this one must be a monster! Right?
They claim a usage of 3 pounds of hops per barrel. They're right it is a load of hops.
But, here's the kicker, they're all excited to put that load into a 10% ABV Black Pilsner with more than 100 calculated IBUS, to be brewed only once...yet our HOPtimal APA, weighing in at 4.5% ABV and 45 IBUs is brewed with...3 pounds of hops per barrel.
Now some may wonder how and why this can be. Stone is using a higher portion of their hop charges for bitterness, while I focus my hop bills more around flavor and aroma. We're both using high alpha (and high oil content) hops in these brews. In Stone's case Sorachi Ace and Motueka, in my case its Magnum, Sterling, Mt. Hood, Ahtanum and Summit.
Okay, so this may be Stone's hoppiest beer, but that doesn't make it the hoppiest beer out there, does it?
Well, how about something really, Really, REALLY hoppy? Yes, please. Lets take a look at Russian River's Pliny the Elder, widely regarded as one of the hoppiest beers around and possibly the best Double IPA being brewed. It clocks in with approximately 6 pounds per barrel of hoppy goodness.
But that still isn't their hoppiest offering, that distinction belongs to Pliny the Younger, a Triple IPA or TIPA. Which based on the information available, it packs the punch of around 9 pounds per barrel of green flowery insanity.
Which brings me to what all this has been building towards. I hear the cries of the St. Louis beer community clamoring "Give us more hops!". Be sure your cries had not gone unheeded.
While HOPtimal APA, which is hoppier than anything Stone has made until now, has been described as "not EXCEPTIONALLY hoppy" and "mild", I find to have the subtlety of a sledgehammer to the face. I will really bring on the hurt with Dead Flowers Double IPA. It will hit your palate with about the subtlety of a 70 megaton thermonuclear blast or a five mile wide asteroid impact.
The brew was so packed with hops, the entire kettle appeared to full of the sludge, called 'trub' left over in the kettle after a brew is transferred to the kettle.
The hop stopper clogged instantly and the heat exchanger had to be cleaned three times after the brew because so much hop material made it that far.
The dry hopping rate alone exceeds that of Stone's total hop load for its hoppiest beer yet.
You want hops, you got hops.
10...in fact more than 10 pounds per barrel. That's more than three times the hops in HOPtimal APA or Stone Juxtaposition Black Pilsner, almost twice the hops in Pliny the Elder and still more hops than even the monster, Pliny the Younger. It packs the punch of 8% ABV and 80 IBUs, remember, the focus is on flavor and aroma...and that 80 is still insanely high.
St. Louis hopheads prepare for a rain of fire, death and destruction and the ride of the four horsemen because Dead Flowers Double IPA is coming on April 8th and after it lands on your palate it will leave it like so much scorched earth.