tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-74829971720934777672024-02-07T21:40:15.443-08:00Brewers Union Blog 180Brewers Union Local 180http://www.blogger.com/profile/05786517873195170945noreply@blogger.comBlogger148125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7482997172093477767.post-9884857758028691152014-11-05T12:00:00.000-08:002014-11-05T12:00:31.755-08:00Innovations in Cask Technology<p>That word "innovation", just like "sustainable" and "craft", get well overused in this business, but I think we're on to something here. Introducing the Pumpkin Cask.</p>
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<p>Just hollow the gourd out, and after carefully hand-drilling in a bung hole and gently fitting a gravity tap, fill it with strong ale and put it on the bar. It was Halloween night party time after all. We had a little trouble with the gravity tap, as it has a hop filter inside that quickly got clogged up with orange bits, but had good luck with one of the Cask Doctor taps we use in the cellar.</p>
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<p>Our 7.6% "Oh, The Humanities!" Strong Ale had sufficient oomph to drown out some of the funkiness that seeps from the walls of a pumpkin. After about an hour in the cask, though, it got weird. We did manage to sell a little of it to the adventuresome risk-takers, and I had at least two pints before the night was out.</p>
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<p>I had promised myself that I wasn't going to work whilst away. You know what I mean. Dragging out the iPad and being the antisocial old git in the corner of the side room pretending to be a blogger. I kept my promise. Back I now am to the increasingly chilly river office, of which I have several, enjoying one of those last few days before it gets too cold to sit out here with a pint and a good book.</p>
<p>Yesterday I finally washed the clothes that I bore on my back for 17 days while on my trip. Air France had cancelled my flight from Paris/Chuck De Gaulle to Manchester and promptly lost my baggage. Although I was rerouted on British Airways and finally made it to Manchester six hours behind schedule, I was not to see my backpack until the night before I had to fly back to the USA of America. I was going to burn these clothes when I got back, but thought better of it, and am now absorbing the memories of a wonderful trip to the Yorkshire Dales and Cumbria through the patient, loyal fabric that took about four days on a stretch each time to develop a ripe, manly smell. Thank God for the modern washing machine.</p>
<p>This is the first of a series of posts about some thoughts and blather from some of my favorite spots on the planet.</p>Brewers Union Local 180http://www.blogger.com/profile/05786517873195170945noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7482997172093477767.post-46868637211907578502014-08-20T19:37:00.000-07:002014-08-20T19:37:22.242-07:00Now We Are Six<p>A little <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Now_We_Are_Six">Winnie the Pooh</a> reference there. We are now six indeed. Time finds us at this moment, in fact, a week after August 13th when our little real ale pub up in the woods crossed the line into its seventh year. I was too busy wrangling mountain bikers (who drank almost all our beer this last weekend during <a href="http://mtbikeoakridge.com">Mountain Bike Oregon</a>), a brewery and paperwork to write anything about it at the time. Exhausting work this. I wonder if Pooh is old enough to hoist a pint.</p>
<p>Hard to believe isn't it? I feel like I've aged ten years during that six. Unless someone wants to buy a pub so I can retire in my 50's, I guess I'll give it a go for another six. Meanwhile, we better get cracking on producing some beer. It's embarrassing to be down to three handpulls.</p>Brewers Union Local 180http://www.blogger.com/profile/05786517873195170945noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7482997172093477767.post-63847526486754309422014-07-10T14:26:00.000-07:002014-07-10T14:26:07.133-07:00In Praise of CoolBot<p>A timely email from Tony, a British expat who has visited our pub a couple times and who helps out at <a href="http://thebeershoppe.net/">The Beer Shoppe in Yakima, Washington</a>, and an anonymous comment on my last post, pointed my in the right direction for solving our cellar refrigeration issues. I was prepared to crack open the imposing electronics package of my new Sears Kenmore air conditioner and figure out how to bypass it when I was saved by <a href="http://www.storeitcold.com/">CoolBot</a>.</p>
<p>This device is ingenious. It turns a normal, everyday, working air conditioner into a refrigeration unit <b>without messing with the electronics</b>. How does it do this? It has a little heater that is attached to the temperature sensor of the unit with a piece of foil. This fools the unit into thinking that it is warmer than it really is. Brilliant.</p>
<p>The old guy was icing up every day in a serious way, so I was determined to fix it when I got back from Portland late last Wednesday night. Started work at about 10:00 PM and had the old unit out and the new one in by 12:30. The CoolBot was very easy to install and set up. I waited around until about 3:30 to monitor its performance, and was satisfied that by the AM, or rather later in the AM when I returned to open the pub that the cellar and its contents would be sitting at a pleasant 52 degrees.</p>
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<p>There ya go. Instead of dropping four or five grand on a fancy refrigeration unit, get yourself a 10,000 BTU air conditioner and a CoolBot for around $600. Well, there is building a room and insulating it, but you knew that.</p>Brewers Union Local 180http://www.blogger.com/profile/05786517873195170945noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7482997172093477767.post-52089127686414330062014-06-21T14:32:00.000-07:002014-06-21T14:32:28.220-07:00Lessons In Refrigeration<p>It had to happen. It was time for something to break; as inevitable as death, taxes and noisy neighbors. When we built the pub we decided to go cheapo DYI and build a cellar and cooler behind the bar using air conditioners. Cheap air conditioners from Sears. After all, it's a room 10' by 8' by 4' that has to be kept at 50 of Heir Fahrenheit's degrees. We could have installed a professional ductless A/C, and spent an order of magnitude more money, but this was more fun and had that rebel element to it that has a myriad of satisfying qualities.</p>
<p>Well, this pour old boy has been churning out cold air for six years now and is growing weary. There's nothing quite finer than popping into the pub of a morning, with a skip in your step, whistling an old Steely Dan tune, eager to prepare the pub for a fine day of the eat, the drink and the merry, to confront a big block of ice where your A/C unit used to be.</p>
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<p>It's summer now, and the pub is running, and often heaving, seven days a week. Unlike the winter when we shut on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, making significant repairs is awkward. We certainly can't have a frazzled publican crawling around in the cellar behind the bar with a fistful of tools during service hours, where the bar staff has to explain why the cask ale is room temperature. I brought my A/C guy out to have a look and make suggestions. The installation of the ductless A/C that we originally rejected as being too efficient and practical was reintroduced, but the sticker shock got to me and the fact that it would take a whole day of having two frazzled A/C guys crawling around in the cellar behind the bar with a fistful of tools during service hours, where the staff has to explain why the cask ale is room temperature, wasn't sitting well with me.</p>
<p>So I bought another Sears Kenmore air conditioner. As I was attempting to purchase the new toy, carefully checking dimensions to make sure that the new unit would fit in the same hole through the block wall as the old unit, the nice Sears service man asked if the warranty was still good on my old one. When I told him that I yanked out the electronics and substituted an external temperature controller, he just silently shook his head and took my debit card.</p>
<p>The old unit is still limping along, and requires a couple of manual defrosts per day. Scheduling time with an early morning rise and a handy helper is my next step. I've unboxed the new guy and have been gazing at it with a look of unbridled hope and admiration. It's got all new electronics that I get to figure out how to bypass. What could go wrong?</p>
Brewers Union Local 180http://www.blogger.com/profile/05786517873195170945noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7482997172093477767.post-67279618477230009112014-06-03T14:44:00.001-07:002014-06-03T14:44:46.454-07:00Out of Hibernation<p>hi·a·tus [hahy-ey-tuhs]</br>
noun, plural hi·a·tus·es, hi·a·tus.</br>
1. a break or interruption in the continuity of a work, series, action, etc.</p>
<p>It's a little hard for me to understand, but I've had as many as three people say that they miss my blog and wish I would get back at it. Alrighty then. You asked for it. The hiatus is over.</p>
<p><a href="http://eugenebeerweek.org/">Eugene Beer Week</a> kicks off this week. We're not in Eugene, but we're accepted as part of the community. Even the new <a href="http://www.eugenecascadescoast.org/eugene-ale-trail/">Eugene Ale Trail</a> that Travel Lane County kicked off last night at <a href="http://16tonscafe.com/">16 Tons Cafe</a> has us listed as a bonus destination. I brought down some beer and we had a good time.</p>
<p>I hadn't done a cask remotely in a while, so I had to remind myself of all the things that are required for serving real ale outside the safe confines of the pub. Having all the tools and taps and sundries, including ice quilts and jackets, is part of the job. I ordered a set of new quilts from <a href="http://www.ukbrewing.com/">UK Brewing Supplies</a> a couple weeks in advance and prepped them up.</p>
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<p>Keeping the temperature within the proper range is the trickiest bit. The quilts help but are not perfect. If only every pub had a cellar. The last time I sent out a cask was back in November at the <a href="http://www.horsebrass.com/">Horse Brass Pub</a> in Portland. The covered alley between the pub and offices was the perfect temperature back then, and we just stored the firkin overnight out there. I wish it could have been served from the same location.</p>
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<p>I'll be back down again with another cask at the <a href="http://tapandgrowler.com/">Tap & Growler</a> on Friday. Of course this requires coming down Thursday to set up, but that also dictates that I have to go to the <a href="http://brewpublic.com/beer-personalities/eugene-beer-week-celebrations-with-peter-defazio-charlie-papazian/">DeFazio/Papazian event</a> and participate in some heavy schmoozing. I'll manage.</p>Brewers Union Local 180http://www.blogger.com/profile/05786517873195170945noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7482997172093477767.post-27683593298166190752013-12-04T14:02:00.000-08:002013-12-04T14:02:35.005-08:00No More Overhead<p>Wouldn't that be nice, to run a business without any overhead. That 2% to 6% typical profit margin in this trade might even double. However, that's not what I came here to talk to you about today. I came to talk about beer lines, a.k.a. trunk lines, a.k.a. pythons.</p>
<p>For the last five plus years that we've been open, we've had to put up with excessive fobbing when dispensing beer from the gas (guest) taps. Not only does this increase the time that it takes to pour a pint (which tends to irritate the staff), but also causes considerable waste as the foam that gets spooned out of the glass ends up in the slop bucket for feeding the bacteria down the sink at the end of the night. Since I was trained in setting up cask dispense and not keg dispense, I was not aware of the intricacies of what's called <a href="http://beersmith.com/blog/2011/07/14/keg-line-length-balancing-the-science-of-draft-beer/">balancing a beer line</a>. I ignorantly though that beer would flow through anything. So, instead of running the pythons under the floor from the cellar and cooler behind the bar, which involves the nasty business of cutting concrete, I thought it would save time and effort to just run them overhead through the woodwork above and inside the bar.</p>
<p>This was a Bad Idea.</p>
<p>Now, more than five years later, the beer is pouring just fine. Since we are on our Winter hours, being closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays, I determined that this would be the year in which the problem got solved proper. Last week also contained an additional day of closure called Thanksgiving, giving us a little extra time to work out the kinks. So, late last Monday night I started cleaning out the cellar and the bar and getting ready for an early Tuesday morning of concrete bashing.</p>
<p>As you can see, the two pythons run up from below and into the ceiling. Notice the fancy Sears air conditioner that we use as our refrigeration system, with the glycol lines that run through a small race car radiator.</p>
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<p>Since Ben is younger than me and more spry and savvy with things like jackhammers and hammer drills, he volunteered (I think) to work with the concrete and my job was to deal with all the plumbing, clamps, fittings, liquids, etc.</p>
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<p>Now, I've worked with a lot of mechanical things, rebuilt engines, spent years fiddling with hardware and software engineering, and am seldom surprised by the "Always One Principle", which often competes with my adage of "What Could Go Wrong?". This states that there is always at least one thing that has the potential of breaking off, dropping into a gutter, sproinging across the room or otherwise getting in the way - you know what I mean, that one manifold bolt out of four that breaks off and has to be drilled out. Sure enough, as I was muttering "What Could Go Wrong", we discovered, upon cutting the floor, that there was a large chunk of metal directly in the path of the future python trench.</p>
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<p>We'd forgotten that was there when we built the bar, having just paved over it with the epoxy resin floor. It turned out be be encased in solid concrete, and took half a day to hammer out. 8 1/2 inches in diameter and 19 1/2 inches tall, it appears to be a drop safe that was ensconced in the floor when the building was built around 1945. There is a groove on the top surface that looks as though it used to house a handle, and a groove around the rim suggesting threads.</p>
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<p>Whats inside? Beats me, although speculation runs the gamut - time capsule, drop safe full of gold coins, who knows? It is currently sitting in the front corner of the pub, easily up to the task of making a great conversation piece. It will get opened. Some day. Not sure how.</p>
<p>Anyway, by Wednesday night the pythons were in place and the concrete poured. I finished all the hookups and so forth later in the evening, and even updated the glycol lines at the shanks in the coffin box to provide better cooling.</p>
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<p>So far, a week later, the experiment has been a success. The over-carbonating of the kegs caused by having to force the beer through 40 ft. of line with a significant amount of elevation gain using 18 lbs. of pressure is over. They are running at a comfortable 14 lbs. and are dispensing like a dream. I still prefer cask, which is what we sell the most of, and the benefit there is that the shorter lines also cause less waste there as well. So, we'll see you at the pub for a perfectly poured cold one.</p>Brewers Union Local 180http://www.blogger.com/profile/05786517873195170945noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7482997172093477767.post-16799100508878113882013-08-25T17:51:00.002-07:002013-08-25T17:51:30.120-07:00Lonely Little Guy<p>That's what happens after four days of a busy <a href="http://mtbikeoregon.com/">Mountain Bike Oregon</a> weekend, and that was after the last night. Granted, many of the firkins were already leaning by the time we opened the door for business.</p>
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<p>That was taken at 11:00 PM on a Sunday. One poor little firkin left over. Note to self, for the next pub make sure there are two slots on stillage per handpull.</p>Brewers Union Local 180http://www.blogger.com/profile/05786517873195170945noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7482997172093477767.post-75509055069068749092013-08-14T18:23:00.001-07:002013-08-14T18:23:02.032-07:00And Then We Were Five<p>This was meant to be composed in a fit of brilliance yesterday, being that it was our fifth superannuation and we are still alive. With all the craziness going on this summer, I haven't really had time to reflect on what this means. That one-day-off-a-week project that I started this Spring didn't really materialize, except for last Friday when I took a half day. Perhaps this Friday I can attempt another half and just think about the pub.</p>
<p>Five. Yowzer! They say it takes three to five years in the BEST of times. It hasn't been so, something having to do with an economic downturn or some such thing. There were dark moments in the first three years when I just wanted to chuck it. Cash flow was poor in this diminutive and isolated mountain town. Then slowly in the fourth year we started to get caught up on the back bills and got the Oregon Department of Revenue and the IRS off our backs. In the fifth year we made some needed improvements and repairs to the kitchen, cellar and walk-in cooler and started staffing up a bit to cover the increased traffic. This is the first year that I've brought in brewery assistance and had double help in the front of the house during the peak hours on the weekends. While it cuts into the cash in a big way, it improves the customer experience and allows me a little time away. To plan. To scheme. To have a pint or two in someone else's pub.</p>
<p>Looking ahead, we are still thinking about growing this segment of small family-run pubs. I can't say too much at this point, but it's in the works. I don't suspect there is enough trade in the off-season to justify opening seven days a week, but that may come with a few more years. However, there are some other pub improvement projects we want to deal with during our closed days in the winter. And, I thought it might be time to start blogging again.</p>
<p>Anyway, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, PUB. I'm heading up front for one of those rare pints of our birthday beer, a cask of 7.1% Old Ale called "Oh(k), The Humanities!" aged for the last six months with oak chips soaked in Laphroaig. See you at the pub.</p>
Brewers Union Local 180http://www.blogger.com/profile/05786517873195170945noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7482997172093477767.post-28322998086862611732013-01-02T13:46:00.000-08:002013-01-02T13:46:39.708-08:00Jan 2, 2013 - Not a Grumpy Publican Post<p>Just a shortie today. I was sitting here in the quiet pub (being closed on Wednesdays during the off-season) and dealing with end-of-year inventory and paperwork and so forth, and realized that the last time I'd blogged was somewhere in England back in November. Tempus fugit ex nostrilium. I'm trying to get used to writing the number 2013 on checks and thinking about a new calendar year. 2012 was, in my opinion and as the records show, our best year yet. We seemed to have turned a corner. Overall gross takings at the till were up almost 15% from 2011. This is cheery, and means that I don't have to write a grumpy publican post to start out the new year. 2012 also won us an <a href="http://www.newschoolbeer.com/2012/12/best-of-year-2012-awards.html">award</a> and installed me in my first foreign <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GS0uDXc_-GM">meet-the-brewer video</a>. What could be finer?</p>
<p>Looking forward, progress is being made on planning for the next pub, albeit more slowly than I would like. And that's my fault, as I keep experiencing difficulty letting my staff do stuff that they are perfectly capable of themselves. Must. Let. Go. Also, I've been working on refining my recipes, particularly my session beers. It's interesting so see that putting a mere 100g less Galena at the top of the boil makes an enormous difference in the balance of the final product.</p>
<p>And before you wander off and forget to plan a visit to the pub, this year's Tanninbomb, our oak-aged old ale, is extraordinary. The new cellar we built last summer has been causing just a small amount of increased conditioning, especially over three months it takes to age, so it takes a bit of breathing on the stillage to get it right. I'm quite happy with that. It's worth the trouble. See you at the pub.</p>
Brewers Union Local 180http://www.blogger.com/profile/05786517873195170945noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7482997172093477767.post-70068910037218675962012-11-16T11:05:00.001-08:002012-11-16T15:18:51.877-08:00A Celebration of Prevarication<p>I know some who plan their vacations down to the last detail. All the major tourist highlights and media-flogged points of interest must be taken in in the most efficient manner as possible; a jamb-packed orgy of stress-inducing sights and sounds and diesel tour busses. Not fun, really. I prefer a richer experience that can be experienced by sailing the gentle, wayward breeze of organic encounter in the pubs and footpaths of England.</p>
<p>Last night this errant breeze had unexpectedly washed me ashore at the <a href="http://www.santonbridgeinn.com/">Bridge Inn</a> in Santon Bridge, Holmrook, for the <a href="http://www.santonbridgeinn.com/liar/index.html">World's Biggest Liar Competition</a>. This is an event that originated in the 19th century, and still runs strong on an annual basis. I had first read about it while staying for a couple of nights in Wasdale Head back in September of 2004 on a random walking jaunt across Cumbria. I never expected that I'd see the day I might witness this noble and solemn spectacle.</p>
<p>Be it known that I'm not trained in journalism, and I somewhat reluctantly blog. However, uncertainty reigned supreme as I found myself charged by the <a href="http://www.hardknott.com/">Hardknott Brewery</a> in Millom to be their blogger representative at the pub. The choices were to (A) tell a five minute equivocation under the bright lights of the stage before a crowd of over a hundred crammed into the function room of a rural public house, or (B) write about the event over t'Interweb.</p>
<p>On the five mile walk over to the inn from the train station I thought up a handful of less-than-true figments of my holiday-corrupted imagination. The illusion of a large, hirsute American taking the stage was taking on a cloudy, misshapen and ambitious form. To my ultimate benefit, over my first pint at the bar, the barkeep formed me that tall tales that don't connect well with the Cumbrian locals, their folklore, their history and their local color might not be well-received. Good enough for me. Plan B goes into effect, and I'm merely left with enjoying the show stress-free and scratching together some sentences for the 7 people who actually read my blog. Perfect.</p>
<p>Through connections that I don't completely understand I was put at the press table at the side of the stage, notebook in hand, pondering the sense that I didn't really deserve this. That didn't stop me from attempting to take notes and liberating an assortment of Cumbrian ales. The Jennings Brewery, who sponsored the event, had on a special Biggest Liar ale that was brown and biscuity and reminded me of my own "Quid Hoc Sibi Vult" Special Bitter which I hope is still on the pumps back at the home office. I felt at home, as I most often do in this part of the globe.</p>
<p>There were 12 contestants this year. Having been to Cumbria many times in the past, indeed spending a splendid tour learning English brewing techniques and pub operations over the years, I had not a whit of trouble sorting through the regional accents and local references. Around the third contestant I began to see the structure of the storytelling, for that's what it came to be in my mind. This is the weaving of tall tales; a celebration of prevarication. Part of me wanted to compare the act and delivery with stand-up comedy, but, for reasons I can't quite put my finger on, there was something special going on here. You can't bottle this and stick it on a shelf at the local tricky-tacky shop. Selfishly, I wanted all the cameras and media and promotion to just go away and bring me back to a lost era when tales would be spun at a local around a coal fire with a pint of the usual.</p>
<p>Ah, the stories. It is not my intention to write reviews here. I'll leave that to the local media. But, ah, the stories. I was particularly amused by the true account of a journey to Whitehaven trying to sell a box of four kittens. There were stories about badger ancestry, web-footed cats, the origins of the word haggis, the rhyming meter of the tale of Ruby Tuesday's sister. This is an art that sadly persists in its absence. There were three winners, but they all won.</p>
<p>Altogether it was a splendid and unique evening, and I am thankful to all who made it possible.</p>
<p>Speaking of unique, it quickly became well-known that an American publican and brewer was on the premises, observing and writing. I was asked more than once whether I would consider putting on an event of a similar nature at my own pub. No, I replied. Not going to happen. Full stop. I understood the event to be unique; it belongs here and only here, and only gets lost in translation. To commercialize it and exploit it would be tragic. This is not something that should be interfered with by a large American, or anyone for that matter, and that is not a lie.</p>
Brewers Union Local 180http://www.blogger.com/profile/05786517873195170945noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7482997172093477767.post-38095339461840574612012-11-13T10:17:00.001-08:002012-11-13T10:17:52.548-08:00Notes From Cornwall<p>Cornwall was fantastic. However, I have had to leave it a bit earlier than I expected. There are rumblings and goings-on up north, of the beery variety, that have put me on a train back to familiar Oxford. Then tomorrow I head up to the Lake District. I don't totally know what awaits me up there, but that's the way I like it. I do know that there is an <a href="http://hardknott.blogspot.co.uk/">event planned</a> in Leeds on my last night, and I would also like to spend a couple of days pottering about the pubs and fells of Coniston.</p>
<p>Sadly, I'm seeing more pubs going corporate. By this I'm not talking about design, layout and atmosphere (that's a different matter), but rather staffing and management. It is harder to run across the publican-led pub, especially in urban areas. And the smiling, friendly staff that engages you in a conversation is the exception rather than the norm. Kudos to the Tinner's Arms in Zennor near St. Ives. The barkeep warned me that the 5.2% ABV pint that I was in the process of acquiring was " a bit strong", and the landlady gave me advice for the walk over the neck of Cornwall to Penzance. I give high ratings there to the Admiral Benbow and the Turks Head.</p>
<p>Cornwall is definitely dominated by the St. Austell's brewery. A large percentage of the pubs I visited were tied. Last night I was in Fowey on the southern coast, a beautiful little harbor town. Out of the five pubs, four were tied, and the fifth sported Sharps Doom Bar, Wadworth 6X and, you guessed it, St Austell's Tribute. While there, staring out over the harbor, I got to witness a young, cocky Diageo boy replace a shiny ice-cold Guinness font with a newer and shinier ice-cold Guinness font. Yuck.</p>
<p>I'm supposed to be in the land of the unsparkled pint, but an Austell's pub in St. Ives was dispensing "northern". Nothing wrong with that in my book, unless the sparkler was used to prop up a fading cask, which was the case on more than one occasion. I ran across another in Fowey.</p>
<p>The business plan for the satellite pub is coming along slowly. Thoughts and images need time to soak in. I finish this entry from my new favorite pub in Oxford, the <a href="http://www.thegoodpubguide.co.uk/pub/view/Rose-&-Crown-OX2-6LX">Rose and Crown</a> off Woodstock Road, which I discovered off the Good Pub Guide. A free house with a well-kept cellar, lots of little rooms, and a covered patio overgrown with vines. It's also bereft of students. Cheers!</p>Brewers Union Local 180http://www.blogger.com/profile/05786517873195170945noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7482997172093477767.post-1583841137418437462012-11-10T12:53:00.001-08:002012-11-10T12:53:51.133-08:00Don't Look For Me at Work - I'm Not There<p>[Bloggers note: I couldn't figure out how to upload pictures from an iPad, so edited accordingly. Any insights out there?]</p>
<p>It's Saturday already. It was Wednesday morning when I landed in Manchester. After a lovely two nights in Oxford revisiting some of my favorite pubs like the Bear, the Old Bookbinders and the Turf, I'm now enjoying my first full day in St. Ives way down the tippy end of Cornwall.</p>
<p>I had hoped to make a blog entry earlier, but finding reliable WiFi has been a chore. It is showing up more in the pubs than I recall in years past, but there seems to be something odd and persistently unreliable about it. It reminds me of a rotating lighthouse beacon that smiles on you for 10 seconds once every four minutes. Many things are opposite of the way they are back in the States, such as light switch positions, traffic lanes, and the inability of hot water taps to decide whether they are on the right or the left, so perhaps zeros are ones and ones are zeros and my portable American electronic device is caught in a state of bewilderment.</p>
<p>Ah, the pubs. Pubs to the left of me. Pubs to the right. Good pubs. City pubs. Rural pubs. Locals pubs. Tourist pubs. Student pubs. Cozy pubs. Wetherspoons pubs (yes, for the sake of research I need to go in then and have a look around, and to have a £1.49 pint to stay in budget). I'm here to research pubs, to study them (in a purely academic fashion, of course), to scrutinize their design and atmosphere and architecture. There is a business plan in the works and I'm sorting that out.<p>
<p>Another reason to be here is to have a cracking good time off, and to ensure that any work I perform whilst on this Island is something that I do in my spare time and when I'm in the proper mood. So, as such, I'm off for a pint.<p>
Brewers Union Local 180http://www.blogger.com/profile/05786517873195170945noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7482997172093477767.post-35267469016258958992012-10-23T16:13:00.001-07:002012-10-23T16:13:47.915-07:00Little Green Men<p>I was just going through my blog roll while brewing today and read <a href="http://www.its-pub-night.com/2012/10/final-thoughts-on-2012-fresh-hop-season.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+its-pub-night+%28It%27s+Pub+Night%29">Bill's report</a> on the fresh hop season. This caused me to think that I never did finish that post about our own fresh hop beer. Now I feel I have to rewrite the thing, as it is no longer relevant in the face of the fact that, to be blunt, we drank it all. Here's one of the last pints coming over the bar and soon to be in my possession.</p>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1Ds5yimBzf6Puhjzxqq2iJy8CWOLpLL17RL0VDD9B2Q6vqQxLiz5WahnRLplEs9Nt9uZheLi1EOfB8V970DEIEHi5U5zEIm5AVgRACT8jl5BtZzRuspFgfrcjMKQhh01HD-1Nq1DonpA/s1600/lgm-jill.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1Ds5yimBzf6Puhjzxqq2iJy8CWOLpLL17RL0VDD9B2Q6vqQxLiz5WahnRLplEs9Nt9uZheLi1EOfB8V970DEIEHi5U5zEIm5AVgRACT8jl5BtZzRuspFgfrcjMKQhh01HD-1Nq1DonpA/s400/lgm-jill.jpg" /></a></div>
<p>Bill also posted about <a href="http://www.its-pub-night.com/2012/09/fresh-hops-stop-calling-them-wet-hops.html">terminology</a> back in September. "Wet Hops", "Fresh Hops", "Green Hops", "Moist Hops". I don't know that there is universal agreement. I called mine "Green Hopped" as the hops were very shiny and green. Yes, I know, whole cones and pellets are also green, but not green-green, if you know what I mean. Not one to remain caught up endlessly in terminology, I thought I'd just run with it. We've been growing hops up our porch at home for several years now and I never managed to pick them. This year I got up early on a brew day and picked a quarter-kilo of the little green guys.</p>
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<p>I have to admit that I don't know what strain they are. My wife thinks they are either Willamette or Cascade, and I'm guessing Cascade based on the shape of the cone and the aroma. I took one of my recipes that works really well on cask for a 5.5% ABV very pale IPA. I used Cascade and Centennial for bittering and Cascade and Simcoe for the finish. The poor little fresh guys got chucked in right at flameout. I didn't really have a name for it until a couple of days later when, while I wasn't even thinking about it, "Little Green Men" popped into some unfashionable outlying region of my cortex.</p>
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<p>It came out beautiful. After two weeks sitting in the cask I tapped the first firkin and put it on the bar. It was gone in a day, although it is possible to do that in September when trade is still fairly brisk (as opposed to the dismal season we are heading into now). The effect of the fresh hops is subtle, but I believe it expresses itself better at cellar temperature and without the surfeit of bubbles you might encounter in a kegged or bottled version. I can't help but wonder, though, if a similar effect could be achieved with lawn clippings or dandelion greens, or whether this whole fresh hop thing is simply a marketing gimmick or cry for attention.</p>
<p>Now it's the season to get cracking on the alternatively-bittered November beers, such as my chanterelle, peat moss and wet-big-leaf-maple brown ale, brewed with Belgian Ardennes, cucumber seads and a dash of mace.</p>
Brewers Union Local 180http://www.blogger.com/profile/05786517873195170945noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7482997172093477767.post-91625338361588710492012-09-30T18:48:00.000-07:002012-09-30T18:48:50.165-07:00No Time Like the Present<p>I've been waiting for the perfect moment to open my bottle of <a href="http://brewersunion.blogspot.com/2012/03/colonial-mayhem.html">Colonial Mayhem</a>, brewed in Cumbria last November and hand-delivered to me by some other <a href="http://block15.com">visiting brewers</a> back in May. That time never came, and so there it sat, until yesterday when I decided that for the sheer joy of still being alive I would celebrate by opening the blasted thing and having a snort. Since my plane ticket to England in November was booked last week, and my Britrail pass arrived on Friday, I suppose I could celebrate that as well.</p>
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<p>I know of a number of beery sites that like to give complicated beer reviews. I'm not into that. All I'm going to say is that it poured a bit fizzy, tasted delicious (probably due to pure Millom spring water) and made my barkeep smile (yes, I shared).
I understand that a pin of the stuff from a second batch might be stashed away at the <a href="http://www.hardknott.com">brewery</a> for my visit.</p>Brewers Union Local 180http://www.blogger.com/profile/05786517873195170945noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7482997172093477767.post-7123042929503002242012-09-04T13:18:00.000-07:002012-09-04T13:18:52.279-07:00The Pub With No Beer<p>Thanks to heaving crowds the last two weekends, we are almost <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Pub_with_No_Beer">out of beer</a>. Our proud collection of six hand pulls are still there, but only two of them are burdened by the responsibility of dispensing ale. So, until tomorrow (Wednesday) there is a Best Bitter and a Stout, both sessionable and chock full of yum. On Wednesday there will be a new one-off, six-hopped IPA, and then on Friday the new tweaked recipe of Bridleway, a 3.5% Session Bitter, will be eager to be unleashed on the thirsty masses. See you at the pub.</p>Brewers Union Local 180http://www.blogger.com/profile/05786517873195170945noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7482997172093477767.post-70503211109395799712012-08-13T16:29:00.000-07:002012-08-13T16:29:49.531-07:00Fourth Superannuation<p>In May of 2006, on the West Cumbrian Line from Ravenglass to Carlisle, a silly germ of an idea of opening an English Real Ale Pub and Brewery in a depressed logging town in the Oregon Cascades was born. On August 13, 2008, the Brewers Union Local 180 opened its door. It's now four years later and we're still here. Amazing.</p>
<p>I'm sitting here in the brewery knocking out a batch of stout and trying to let that fact sink in. Who woulda thunk that the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression of 1929 would strike a few months after opening. There were many plot points in the last four years where I considered closing or moving. It was bleak. There was scarce trade at first. There was that late and lame winter and that wet spring that kept the mountain bikes off the trails until June. There's still that IRS lien that I've almost worked off. Long hours. No pay. The occasional negative review.</p>
<p>A line from an old Bruce Cockburn song just popped into my head, from "<a href="http://www.lyrics007.com/Bruce%20Cockburn%20Lyrics/Fascist%20Architecture%20Lyrics.html">Fascist Architecture</a>":
<blockquote>Bloody nose and burning eyes</br>Raised in laughter to the skies</blockquote></p>
<p>Hah! They say it takes three to five years for a new business to become successful. I don't know what measure of success is referred to there, but in the worst of times and a tough town with an unknown product all I can say is we're still kicking. Even better, it looks like we're finally crossing a threshold. Production and consumption is up enough that we had, and were able to, buy more casks and complete a new cask cellar. New problems are arising, such as how to find time to brew and where to find staff as traffic increases in the pub. I've been thinking it might be time to hire a part time house manager. That sort of thing. And better yet, there are rumblings and murmurs along the lines of building another pub or two, maybe even in your small town. I think we are about 40,000 short in this state alone.</p>
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<p>So, for today we are offering a special ale called "4th Superannuation Ale", and it will be a $3 Imperial Pint all day long. It's called an Oakridge Red Ale, since we invented the concept of adding a lot of hops to a strong red ale (Millennium, Chinook, Glacier and Armadillo). I think it might even be called a Red IPA or a Cascadian Red Ale now in the BJCP guidelines. Go figure.</p>
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<p>Cheers!</p>
Brewers Union Local 180http://www.blogger.com/profile/05786517873195170945noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7482997172093477767.post-34112258085282687902012-08-03T15:22:00.000-07:002012-08-03T15:22:40.752-07:00Massive Brewery Expansion<p>Catchy, isn't it? Mayhap you were thinking big chunks of stainless or a new automated casking system or something. Nope - we're talking here about new casks and a new proper cellar.</p>
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<p>Truth is, for me it's massive because I've been trying for three years to purchase more casks and have a better place to store them. Yes, that's all I'm talking about: more casks and a better place to store them. So, a shipment of shiny plastic firkins arrived last week, 16 in all, which is enough for two batches. My current inventory of 46 wasn't enough, as it created a limitation for when I could brew. There's no point in brewing a batch of beer and then finding nothing to put it in. I can also now have a larger inventory of ale in the cellar, allow them to mature longer, and do a bit more oak aging. It's also an indicator that trade is up this summer and all you lovely punters are latching on to real ale.</p>
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<p>The other problem of storage space is being addressed at the moment as well. Currently our casks share the walk-in cooler (behind the giant wooden door) with the kitchen supplies, kegged beer, soft drinks, wine and my hop shelf. It's been cramped in there. The space next to it if full of junk interspersed with useful things that could likely find a new home in some other part of the building. That space is now being converted into a room tied to the walk-in via a temperature controlled fan system to keep the temperature at a cool 50° instead of the 40° required for the food storage.</p>
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<p>The whole deal should be finished in a few days and ready for receiving it's cargo. Meanwhile I've got some brewing to do.</p>Brewers Union Local 180http://www.blogger.com/profile/05786517873195170945noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7482997172093477767.post-55421711742722992642012-06-24T18:27:00.001-07:002012-06-29T17:22:26.766-07:00Oh, The Humanities!<p>I'm going to take a quick break from my ramblings on pubs to announce the availability of the strongest ale ever brewed at the Brewers Union. Not that I am set on this modern West Coast notion that stronger and hoppier beers are cool, as they are (hush, hush, top secret) easy to make and even easier to hide defects in. It's just that one of our local regulars requested a big malty ale and I decided to oblige. And, it has that feel of a momentous occassion like the record-setting going on at the Olympic Track & Field Trials down in Eugene. 7.1% ABV. Plenty of malt. A generous dose of Simcoe at flameout. We're working here with something like a Scottish Ale but without any smoke or peat, and it goes down way too easy.</p>
<p>I had originally decided to bluntly label it "David's Big Malty Ale", being that David is the name of the aforementioned local regular, but as he teaches Humanities down at the University of Oregon it ended up being called, "Oh, the Humanities!". We felt jolly clever about it, and I chuckled all the way to the Adobe Illustrator file that contains the pump clip artwork.</p>
<p>Tapping took place on Thursday. In our case we really do tap them, bona fide, with a rubber mallet and a cask tap. I am frequently amused by the flood of notices on the various beer sites about beer tappings, when all they do is twist down a Sankey tap and open the valve on a tank of CO2. Out comes dead beer. This, on the contrary, is living stuff, where we get to fiddle with it each morning and make knowing comments about how it is changing from day to day and from cask to cask. It is. It really is. Come down today and try a pint, and then return enthusiastically in a couple of weeks and see what I'm talking about.</p>
<p>Tomorrow I'll be brewing small beer again, just like old times. I'm shooting for 3.8% or thereabouts. Then I'll be back to rambling about pubs. There is a juicy comment in the last post that I want to tackle.</p>Brewers Union Local 180http://www.blogger.com/profile/05786517873195170945noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7482997172093477767.post-46299175548664744612012-06-19T20:45:00.000-07:002012-06-19T20:45:00.783-07:00RE: Pubs, Part the Second<p>The first comment from my <a href="http://brewersunion.blogspot.com/2012/06/re-pubs-part-first.html">previous post</a> came from a noted <a href="http://beervana.blogspot.com/">Portland beer blogger</a> who had visited England for the first time back in November, and got to experience his first pubs. Or, was that first visit to the Raleigh Hills McMenamins the first? That's the question; do we have pubs here in America? What is a pub? Is it OK to use it as a familiar synonym for a bar or tavern or a restaurant that brews beer (brewpub)?</p>
<p>I grew up near, in and around Ithaca, NY. When I graduated from college (1985) I moved back, bought a house, and got a job working as a software engineer for Cornell University. On the edge of campus is "Collegetown", a few blocks of streets on a steep hill leading down to the city. It contains all the necessities of off-campus life: markets, apartments, a great bagel shop, coffee shops, restaurants and bars. I quickly took a liking to a pizza joint called <a href="http://www.theninesithacany.com/">The Nines</a>. The best deep-dish pizza I've ever had, cooked in a square pan in an upstairs kitchen and dropped to the bar below in a dumbwaiter. There was a great beer selection for the time, live music periodically, and rough tables scattered around for slouching in for a pint and a good book. I felt comfortable there.</p>
<p>Shortly afterward a couple of lawyers from New York City renovated the old <a href="http://www.chapterhouseithaca.com/">Chapter House</a> and installed a small brewery. It was fantastic, just as I pictured a British pub to be. I could order a slice of pizza from a tiny back kitchen and a pint from the bar and meet my friends, or just sit in a corner over a book with a bowl of the free popcorn from the constantly humming machine. My old jazz band, the Spam Fisted Butchers of Jazz, managed to convince the owners to let us play there a few times. Sadly, the brewery is no longer there, but the last time I was back it still had a pub-like character and I enjoyed my brief stay.</p>
<p>I thought of those places as pubs, but what was it about that first pub outside Victoria Station in London in 1991 that changed my perspective? I'm still trying to figure that out. Having been back and forth to the U.K. numerous times, I still feel like I'm chasing the greased pig as I attempt to define, let alone articulate, the differences. Fragments of "Pubs, Part the Third" are starting to form in my Slowly Decaying Cortex (tm).</p>Brewers Union Local 180http://www.blogger.com/profile/05786517873195170945noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7482997172093477767.post-10023241048157106532012-06-13T22:52:00.000-07:002012-06-13T22:52:03.141-07:00RE: Pubs, Part the First<p>It was May of 1991 when I stepped into my first pub. I was in the process of moving from Upstate New York (NOT the CITY, for those not in the know) to Oregon, in which we had picked a little town in the Cascades off the Rand McNally called Oakridge. My wife and I took a month off to wander around a small island off the coast of France by train, thumb, bus, coach and foot. To this day I distinctly remember stepping into my first pub after disembarking the train at Victoria Station in a sizable village called London. My first pint of "Bitter". My first mushy peas. My first taste of British hospitality in its continuum of indifference to sheer joy.</p>
<p>Now I own a pub. But can I say this: What is a pub? As I spend anywhere from 0 to 20 hours a week behind my own bar, also known as running the front of the house, I have encountered the occasional customer that didn't realize that pub was short for public house. As a barkeep, an important part of the job is the disbursement of knowledge and entertainment, so the punter can leave a little better off than they came. And also serve them a proper pint and make them feel at home. Shouldn't a public house be a home? I hope so.</p>
<p> I'm now off my non-blogging binge, and am as unsure as to the grammar of that as the next guy who finds language a right kick in the pants. Thus begins a discourse on pubs. I hope both of you readers will take the time to comment and heckle as deemed appropriate.</p>Brewers Union Local 180http://www.blogger.com/profile/05786517873195170945noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7482997172093477767.post-50098507484270479172012-06-12T20:28:00.000-07:002012-06-12T20:28:11.270-07:00Queue up the Music<p>I used to stare at these things for a living. Sometimes I would push rectangular buttons with letters and numbers on them, creating non-conversational verbiage that computers found highly suggestive and were compelled to obey. Then I quit that life and built a real ale pub. Around the middle of April, when business here at the pub was wallowing around in its nadir, I just couldn't bring myself to stare at a screen and write down what was zipping around in my Slowly Decaying Cortex (tm). The notion of curling up on a rock down on the river with a good book and a jar of ale took precedence. Consequently, the blog has suffered. I've decided I'm back now, and am going to make a nuisance of myself on t'Interweb.</p>
<p>I'll begin tomorrow.</p>Brewers Union Local 180http://www.blogger.com/profile/05786517873195170945noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7482997172093477767.post-21770678776349568512012-04-11T14:12:00.003-07:002012-04-11T14:12:47.163-07:00Colonial Mayhem Redux<p>I shouldn't be using this blog to repost someone else's blog, right? After all, shouldn't I be coming up with witty and informative material? Naw, it's Spring and trade jumps of a steep cliff into the rocky surf below. Then I get moody until the rain stops and the sun comes out and mountain bikers, campers, anglers, hikers and boaty types start clamoring for ale. So I'm just going to pop a link up here to a video of <a href="http://hardknott.blogspot.com/2012/04/colonial-mayhem.html">MY BEER</a> being consumed eight time zones away and then go back to washing casks.</p>Brewers Union Local 180http://www.blogger.com/profile/05786517873195170945noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7482997172093477767.post-49372966435123228032012-03-12T16:23:00.000-07:002012-03-12T16:23:13.179-07:00One-Off's are a Hoot<p>I had the honor of being invited up to Portland to <a href="http://www.belmont-station.com/">Belmont Station's</a> 15th anniversary on the 15th of March. I thought to myself, as I often do, of how much fun it would be to knock off a special beer for the occasion made out of stuff lying around the brewery. As a result, "15-15-15" was born, also known as "The Ides of Belmont Station". It contains 15 grains and the remaining bits of my small cache of special hops. It's not bad, either, and am heading up to the bar to see if I can sample another pint. Hope to see you all in Portland in a couple of days. John Foyston posted a goofy picture of me on his <a href="http://blog.oregonlive.com/thebeerhere/2012/03/tis_the_saison_at_apex_plus_be.html">blog</a>, so I now know that I need to stay away from cameras.</p>Brewers Union Local 180http://www.blogger.com/profile/05786517873195170945noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7482997172093477767.post-91192550694219104132012-03-05T15:51:00.000-08:002012-03-05T15:51:43.807-08:00Colonial Mayhem<p>As I've mentioned here on this blog, I spent a couple weeks back in England last November. I have <a href="http://www.hardknott.com/">friends in the Lake District</a> who have a brewery and are patient with me and drive me around on "cultural tours". They also, after demonstrating my usefulness painting walls and floors and installing fermenters without denting them too much, permitted me to design and brew a beer. It is now apparently <a href="http://www.hardknott.com/Shop/?page_id=272">available</a> to the unwary public and is being (or already has been) dispensed at a <a href="http://hardknott.blogspot.com/2012/03/cask-pub-and-kitchen-meet-brewer.html">meet the brewer event</a>. I hope some lingers in a bottle until I hopefully can return there in November. Ideally there would be a pin or maybe a firkin sitting around as well (hint, hint, hint).</p>Brewers Union Local 180http://www.blogger.com/profile/05786517873195170945noreply@blogger.com1