Change in the wind

New stout on tap, a dry stout with 15 pounds of coffee added. I used an organic New Guinea from La Costa Coffee Roasting which lent a light fruit character and plenty of warm nutty and chocolate tones. In other happenings, my tenure as head brewer at Back Street is coming to an end soon. What will I be doing to take up my time you ask.....How about opening a new brewery of which I have vested equity? Sounds good to me too! As some might know Green Flash Brewing moved from Vista to Mira Mesa a little while back leaving a sizable brewing facility behind for an even larger one. As it would so happen, I have found my self heading the brewing operations to take this place over. The resulting company with be Latitude 33 Brewing where I will once again have the opportunity to package products for distribution to where ever there might be a demand. What will I be brewing there? There are no limits. Brew ranging from IPA to spiced red ales to barrel aged sours are already on the agenda. As we get closer to production and completing the renovations on our tasting room more will be posted.

Crazy Train

Rossi at a festivale

Grain out time

Fun at Olde Main Brewery

Well, things have been crazy to say the least. Still plowing through festivals and the wedding in Iowa was fun. After getting back from the wedding there was plenty of catch up in the brew house at Back Street. Now to add a little extra fun to the mix I am heading a project open a new brewery in Vista, well at least a new company in brewery that was up for grabs. What does this mean?? As soon as we get inventory in place and licenses handled we can start production. When that happens the smallest batch I can do there will yield 25 barrels of beer which ends up being 50 kegs at a time which will allow for sales to plenty of accounts. We are even shopping for a bottling machine. So look out San Diego county. Since we don't have all of the paper work in order I can't share all of the information for this new project. Once that clears you can  expect pictures and updates galore on the progress there.

over due

Ali and Delta excited over pizza and beer

Vista Optimist tasting/fundraiser

Growler time

Sorry for not keeping up on this as much as I should. Things have been pretty busy lately. Let's see, What's new? Festivals are happening all the time and I am participating in the ones that I can make time for and as close to north county San Diego as possible. Brewed a second batch of Bitter Broad DIPA. A 9%, cascade hopped strong IPA. Working on brewing a coffee stout soon. Getting ready to brew more Rydin' Dirty IPA which has become a staple IPA for our beer list lately. What is Rydin' Dirty?? It is a west coast style IPA brewed with with a generous amount of rye malt as well as traditional barley malt with a blend of cascade, columbus and amarillo hops. Getting ready to head out to my friends wedding on the 30th and will be stopping by Olde Main Brewing in Ames. I will be sure to get some pics of what they have going on there. I am still working on getting the approval for our expansion but it is looking promising. It is just a bit slow going.

MBD samples.

Murder By Death is coming along nicely. I pulled samples  from the barrels and shared with some folks that happened to be in the bar. It has a very rich chocolate flavor, the oak is still a bit on the mild side. The bourbon comes through and gives it some alcohol heat without being overwhelming. Definitely very excited for the possible changes over the next couple of months before its release.
   The festival season is upon us. Seems like ever other day someone is calling trying to get free beer for some event. I really wish I could make it to the bluesapalooza this year, had a blast there last time, but things are too busy or me to take the time out of the brewery to drive to Mammoth for a couple of days. I am also taking the approach of hitting more events closer to home and in greater numbers. San Diego County has plenty of events to keep us busy pouring beer and socializing.

Expanding..?

Well, there is some potential excitement happening at the brewery. My hope is that it happens sooner rather than later. I currently have a couple of regulars that happen to be contractors writing a bid for some new construction for us. While we can't really expand our building we can make modifications within. I have fallen into some luck on receiving two lightly used brite beer/ conditioning tanks. Our goal is to rearrange a section of our bar, remove a few fixtures and add in a wall to house an expanded location for our serving tanks. While adding 2 tanks doesn't seem like much it does mean more beer production which is always a beautiful thing. So, still waiting on the bid and budget approval but it is looking good so far.

test batches

 So to keep things extra interesting at the brewery, I like to pull some wort aside to play with. Since we lack a pilot system this is the best way to try small scale experiments. The latest debauchery comes in the form of a twisted American wheat ale. Much in the vein of the Sour Bee, it is a house beer fermented with a blend of yeast and souring bacteria. What sets this one apart? During the conditioning phase I added five pounds of lightly caramelized pineapple to the five gallon fermentation. Keep checking in for more updates on the progress of this brew and the many others coming down the pipeline.

Choco-Orange beer..??

Released a new brew this week. For lack of creativity, it was dubbed our Summer Ale. It is a modified American blonde ale recipe with oats replacing the wheat content to add a little sweetness and body. As a twist for this brew I wanted to have it spiced with orange peels which is commonly seen in brews but I also wanted to utilize chocolate. While the two are a great combination they usually are not paired together in a beer. Instead of opting for cocoa powder or actual processed chocolate I used cocoa nibs which are roasted cocoa beans. Also in the ingredient list is locally produced honey. The ending result is a nice light colored beer with a mouth feel comparable to an English mild or pale ale that has a very distinct chocolate flavor with a slight citrus finish. I am pretty pleased with this brew although I think a second production would call for a bit more orange

Sour Brown Ale

Something that I have been trying to work at Back Street is developing a clientele for sour beers. While getting in guest brews to fill this void I have also been squirreling away small batches of brew to become soured. The first to be released will be an American honey brown ale that was fermented with a blend of yeast and bacteria (American Ale 05 and Lactobacillus.) After fermentation it was transferred to a new vessel to which heavy toasted french oak and malolactic bacteria were added. The end result is our new "Sour Bee", falling in line with the original beer it was derived from "Delphic Bee." I am hoping to have it on tap this Saturday, May 28th The only draw back to producing sour beers is the intense time commitment to producing them. The bacteria involved in the process are very slow acting. This particular test batch has been in the works for nearly Seven months now and would be considered an introductory sour ale due to its subtle acidic character.

Murder By Death in barrels

Filling a barrel

stacked and lookin' pretty

Just recently I had the pleasure of acquiring a handful of bourbon barrels from Port/Lost Abbey Brewing. The barrels were originally used by Heaven Hill to age their bourbon in. After that Port used them to transform their Old Viscosity into Older Viscosity. Now that they are in my possession they have once again been filled with stout. Last year I had brewed a stout named after the band Murder By Death. It was a 10.4% imperial stout that was very well received. This year, with a few minor tweaks, it is back in action. Among the changes to the original recipe is the use of oats and rye malt to build a little extra body (the original utilized wheat) and being aged in bourbon barrels. Murder By Death Stout should be ready for an October release giving it six months to take on some of the bourbon and American oak character of these barrels.

Cherry poppin' post

Tasting some bourbon @ Back Street Brewery

     Well, to be noted first, I am not a blogger by nature. So my apologies as I wander into this venue. My intention with this page is to chronicle my ventures in the world of brewing. I would like to offer up my experiences with other brewers, beer events, travels as well as use of off beat ingredients and processes while on the way to eventually operating my own brewing facility.
     Now for a brief history on myself. I have recently come into a head brewer position for Back Street Brewery in Vista, Ca. Prior to that I have brewed for companies in Iowa, Illinois, Canada and California. My position prior to moving to Back Street was as the assistant brewer for Alpine Beer Co. If you have yet to run across them or their product you are missing out. In the past seven years of being in the beer industry I have occupied many positions ranging from delivery driver, store manager to head brewer and made many great friends along the way.