In the fall of 2010, Westbrook Brewing will become the sixth distributing brewery in South Carolina. Like many commercial brewers before him, Ed is living the homebrewer’s dream and taking it to the next level.

Ed Westbrook along the Wando River

I first met Ed in 2008 when I moved to Greenville, South Carolina and became involved in the local homebrewers club, the Upstate Brewtopians. Ed started coming to the meetings around the same time I did, and he quickly earned the nickname “Prolific Ed,” in order to differentiate him from another Ed in the Brewtopians.

Ed brewed so often that we had to institute the “Ed Rule” to limit the number of different homebrews a person could bring to a meeting to share with the group. Ed often brought between 5 and 10 selections each month. It would take us over an hour to just to sample his beers, but none of us really minded because his beer was outstanding.

So when I heard he was starting a commercial brewery in Charleston, there was no surprise, I just nodded my head in approval.

Runnin’ Down a Dream

Westbrook, 25, caught the craft beer fever while on a family vacation to England his senior year at Furman University. Having “real beer” for the first time opened his eyes and palate to the possibilities that beer had to offer.

He began homebrewing soon after in the fall of 2006 with an extract starter kit. Though Furman does not allow alcohol on campus, Ed managed to get away with brewing his own on the stove of his on-campus apartment. As his homebrewing enterprise began to take over the apartment, his three roommates never complained, as they reaped the rewards of his industriousness.

Despite his newfound homebrewing addiction, Ed managed to graduate with a BS in Computer Science in 2007. He immediately went into business school at Clemson, and finished his MBA in 2009. All the while, he was brewing at least once a week.

Upon graduating, Ed thought, “I felt like I needed to do something to positively contribute to the economy, so why not start a brewery?” So in May 2009, he began planning.

Why not?

The Brewery To-Be

Westbrook Brewing is going to start out on a 30-barrel brewhouse with 5 60-barrel fermenters and 1 brite tank, which is all being built as I type. Many new breweries opt to try and find used equipment to start on, but as Westbrook looked around, there were very few complete systems at that size available for sale, and trying to piece equipment together would only have saved a few thousand dollars. Ed figured might as well go for the gusto and start fresh and modern.

The brewery itself will also be new construction, a 14,000 square foot warehouse set to go up in Mt. Pleasant on Wando Park Blvd. off Longpoint Rd. near the Velocity Sports building. When asked what the biggest challenge has been to this point in the process, Westbrook said it’s proven to be closing on the property. That was supposed to happen in September of 2009, but has been delayed and should close by early April.

Given that Westbrook doesn’t have much experience on a commercial brewery floor, he understands the need to have experienced help to tame this beast. He plans on hiring an experienced brewmaster and at least one assistant brewer to manage production. Westbrook’s role will be primarily be managing and promoting the business, along with having input into recipes and styles.

It’s All About the Beer

Westbrook plans on starting with three year-round beers and wants to focus on Belgian styles. While he hasn’t yet decided on his lineup, he’s leaning toward having a Belgian Wit and a Saison, along with a third undecided selection.

Ed has long been enamored with the flavor and complexity of sour and farmhouse beers and wants to bring the funk with brettanomyces and various benevolent bacteria. That will make Westbrook rather unique around this area, since there are no other breweries around here that have a lineup of primarily Belgian beers.

The brewery will be visible from I-526 and a tasting room has been included in the plans, so they are hoping to utilize this and bring in fans and visitors to tour the brewery and sample the product. It’s all about developing a loyal following. “We want to establish a strong presence in the Lowcountry first. I’d rather have a lot of beer in one spot than a little beer all over.”

The Best View In Brewing

Today, Ed is busily producing test batches on his 1/2 barrel pilot system which he has set-up at his parents’ house on the marsh off Highway 41 in Mt. Pleasant. I had the chance to visit the test brewery, and I am insane with jealousy, as the view from the back deck of the “pilot brewery” is simply stunning. It’s as close to heaven as a brewer can get, and I would be brewing every day and I would never want to leave.

Westbrook Brewing Pilot System. The photo does not do the view justice.

While there, I was able to sample a few of Ed’s recent creations. The first was a Saison with brett funk. It had a good amount of wild funk, but it was subdued enough to be accessible. Next up was a Belgian Pale with a spiced fruit aroma, biscuit malt flavor and earthy finish.

Lastly, and certainly not least was the Uberbier II, a 22% Belgian Strong Ale. Needless to say, this will never see production in South Carolina, but that’s a damn shame. He and fellow Greenville homebrewer Bobby Congdon collaborated on this brew that used 80 pounds of grain, Belgian candy syrup, turbinado and demerara sugar. It was super rich and warming, but with surprisingly little alcohol burn. It had tons of caramelization from a three hour boil and finished with a slight Belgian funk.

There were around a dozen other beers fermenting away in the “cellar.” Prolific Ed certainly hasn’t slowed down since deciding to go pro.

The Pilot Cellar

Only time will tell if Westbrook Brewing will be a success, but knowing Ed, I give it every chance. He has a quiet confidence, and while some may call it the inexperience of youth, he’s staying calm and collected. Personally, I would be freaking out if I were starting a 30-barrel brewery, but when I asked about how crazy it’s been trying to get off the ground, Ed simply responded, “It hasn’t been bad.”

Ed’s literally taking it one day at a time, and I hope that in six to nine months I’ll be writing about Westbrook’s grand opening party.

Beer under the Big Top

The festival was organized by the Charleston Beer Exchange and Coast Brewing Company, and it was obvious their focus was on the beer. They know their stuff, and it came through in the rare and unique beers that the breweries brought in.

It’s About the Beer

After reviewing the list, I’d say I had never tried at least 40 of the 70 or so beers that were there. Of those 40, I only got to about 25 in the six hours of the festival.

Katie from Thomas Creek shaves dark chocolate on top of a Doppelbock

The 27 breweries that attended brought out their best for this one. There were about 5 casks, a dozen barrel-aged selections, and several other oddities, like the Avery Meph Addict (like drinking an espresso on crack), Palmetto Watermelon Wheat (sounds weird, but it was actually good) and Thomas Creek Doppelbock topped with dark chocolate shavings (the shavings amped up the chocolate aroma to epic proportions).

There were also a dozen or so sour beers available, which is uncommon for this market. Usually at a festival around here you might find one or two. Among the sours was New Belgium Love, which was the first keg of that beer to make it east of the Mississippi.

Most people around here have never had a sour beer, and while it’s tough for many newcomers to palate, a fellow Greenvillian, Adam Gautch, after trying his first said, “now all I want is sour beer.”

My Favorites

Granted I did not try everything, but of those I had, a few really stood out. Avery Meph Addict was a coffee version of Mephistopheles Imperial Stout. It has to be the most intense coffee beer I’ve ever had. It tasted like they took an espresso, poured in some Mephistopheles and then added a tablespoon of sugar just for giggles. I’m still not sure how to feel about it, but it was insane. I’ll give them credit for that.

My favorite sour was Ommegang Rouge. It had a very nice balance of sour tartness and farmhouse funk without being over the top.

My overall favorite was the Stone 2008 Bourbon Barrel Russian Imperial Stout. It had the perfect amount of bourbon oak flavor on top of the roasted malt sweetness of the stout. Amazing beer.

Star Struck

Not only was there great beer to be had, but there were some heavy hitters in the beer world in attendance. Greg Koch from Stone was the keynote speaker. Also there were Patrick Rue from The Bruery, Oscar Wong from Highland and Grady Hull from New Belgium. I think every brewery in attendance had at least one representative. If you weren’t shy, you could certainly make some great connections and learn a lot about the beer and the breweries.

Me with Grady Hull, Assistant Brewmaster at New Belgium

“We’ll Fix That Next Year”

With all the great beer and people, it’s not to say that everything was perfect. As with Version 1.0 of anything, there were bugs. The line to get in was long and a bit disorganized. The beer was all underneath a big tent, which wasn’t a problem in itself, but the back side of the tent went all the way up against a fence, creating a big horseshoe. Traffic could have moved more smoothly had we been able to move around in a circle.

From what I learned, one of the food vendors was a no-show, which created lines to get food and led to the other vendors running out of food before the end. Obviously, that’s out of the organizers’ control.

Cornelia sports her Handipants

Speaking of food, while I missed out on the pulled pork sandwiches from Ted’s Butcherblock and the pizza from D’Allesandro’s, I did get my hands on an amazing Godiva chocolate cupcake made with COAST Blackbeerd Stout and topped with bacon from Madra Rua. Holy smoke, that was awesome.

So despite some hiccups, I thought the festival went really well and I had a great time. The issues that did occur were more an inconvenience than a bother, and nothing got in the way of enjoying the beer.

In Closing

Brewvival has raised the bar for beer festivals in the Carolinas. There are a couple more beer festivals coming up around here in the next few months, and several of my friends who went to Brewvival have asked me about the beer lists for those festivals. If they are only pouring “regular” beers, they have no interest in going.

I think that about sums it up.

This is a special week for craft beer in South Carolina. Greg Koch from Stone Brewing Company left his refuge in Southern California to come out to abnormally chilly South Carolina for a whirlwind tour, culminating with the Brewvival Festival in Charleston on Saturday.

We don’t often have nationally known brewers and beer folk passing through our state, so for us it’s a very special opportunity to meet one of the most influential people in the industry.

Greg’s first stop was on Tuesday night for a meet and greet at Barley’s Tap Room in Greenville, SC. He brought with him some special treats: three vintages of Old Guardian Barleywine, 2007, 2009 and the recently released 2010.

Vertical tastings are fascinating. I love being able to experience how a particular beer changes and matures, all in one flight. The Old Guardian was perfect for a demonstration of this process. It was apparent that each vintage had it’s own character.

So let’s get vertical!

Old Guardian 2007

I started with the elder statesman of the flight. Knowing Stone’s propensity for hops, I didn’t want risk destroying my palate on the fresher vintages.

The color in the photo to the right comes across pretty accurately. It was a bright amber.

I did not notice much in the way of hops in the aroma. The aroma was sweet with malt and candy sugar.

The flavor was intensely sweet and malty as you’d expect from a barleywine. To me it came across as a melange of candied sugar and dried fruit. Not much in the way of hops in the front end. The malt is the star here. It did have a moderately bitter hop finish.

I thought it was smooth and had a comforting alcohol warming to it. It was a pleasant and delicious beer to drink.

Old Guardian 2009

Stepping forward a couple years, I knew the intensity was about to get ratcheted up a few notches. I strapped myself in and prepared for Round 2.

The color of the ‘09 was nearly identical to the ‘07, a vibrant amber. The difference I noticed right off the bat was the presence of hop aroma, which was absent from the ‘07.

The hop character was also present at the beginning of the flavor. It was a big, yet well-balanced mix of citrus hops and malt sweetness. Very full-bodied. As with the ‘07, it finished with a moderate amount of bitterness that lingered on the tongue.

Old Guardian 2010

The newest addition to the family, the ‘10 comes out swinging like a younger brother who is tired of being picked on by his older siblings. One word is needed for the ‘10: hops.

Hops in the aroma, assertive hop flavor throughout, finishing bitter. The malt backbone was not as gripping in the ‘10 as the previous years. The ‘10 was also a good bit darker than than its predecessors.

Turns out, Stone made some significant changes to the recipe in 2010 which affected the color and malt profile. So, the 2010 Old Guardian is not a true “control,” holding all things constant except age, but it is similar enough to the previous vintages that you can still get the point.

Left to right: Old Guardian 2010, 2009 and 2007

The ‘10 tasted fresher and much more assertive than the older beers. It was certainly good, but you likely need to be a hophead to get maximum enjoyment out of this vintage.

In Summary

My favorite of the three vintages was the 2009. After a year, I feel like the Old Guardian really hits its stride. It still has hop character in the aroma and flavor, but it’s also had time to develop that amazing and complex malt backbone. It’s wonderfully balanced and gives you the full spectrum of what beer can offer.

The 2007 was a close second. Smooth and delicious. I just wanted to sit in a big leather chair and smoke a cigar with this beer in hand.

If you do buy some of the new 2010 at the store, it’s still a great beer if you want to drink it now. However, if you have a cool, dark place to store some bottles, you’ll be well rewarded if you stash this bad boy away for a year.

Ask Mr. Science: Why does hop character leave beer over time?

I thought I would add a quick little Mr. Science lesson for those that may be wondering why the hop character of the 2007 Old Guardian was so different from the newer vintages. Did they use less hops or what?

Hops lends its character to beer from oils and alpha acid that are contained in tiny resinous globes in the hop cones. These oils have different levels of volatility (meaning how quickly they dissolve and evaporate), so they lend different traits depending on when they are added during the brewing process.http://briancendrowski.hoppress.com/wp-admin/post.php?action=edit&post=357

The oil that contributes to the aroma is very volatile, so it evaporates quickly. That’s why aroma hops are added at the very end of the brewing boil, or even after fermentation is complete (a process called dry hopping).

The flavor oils lend the citrus, spicy or earthy hop flavor and are a little less volatile, so they are typically added with anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes left in the boil.

Finally, you get the bittering component. The bitterness comes from alpha acid, and it contributes the bitter finish and pucker at the tail end of a swallow. Those acids are not very soluble in water, so it requires a long boil to rearrange the acid molecules get them to dissolve in the beer. They are added earliest in the boil, usually with 60 to 90 minutes remaining.

That is the same reason why, over time, the hop character begins to dissipate from aged beer. The aroma is the first to go, followed by the flavoring hops. Hop bitterness can stick around for a long time, as the 2007 Old Guardian proved.

That’s why, as a rule of thumb, it’s best to enjoy most beer when it is fresh, especially hoppy beers. Barleywines, Imperial Stouts and some Belgian styles make good candidates for aging because they draw most of their richness from developing a complex malt backbone and don’t usually rely as heavily on hops.

I’m not a huge fan of chicken. In comparison with beef and fish, I find it bland and often dry. (Maybe that’s why it sells so well…) However, last summer I discovered the wonders of the Beer Can Chicken, and I now have a new appreciation for that mindless little bird.

Known by other names such as Beer Butt Chicken or Drunken Chicken, this is the most flavorful and succulent chicken I’ve ever prepared, and I’d even put it up there with any chicken dish I’ve had in a restaurant. The real key: it’s unbelievably easy to make.

With all the snow and cold weather we’ve been getting lately all over the country, I thought I might turn our imaginations to spring and cookouts, giving us something to look forward to after the thaw. However, you don’t have to wait until it’s warm enough to grill. You can even do this in your oven.

I received my original inspiration for this delicacy from Beer-Can Chicken and 74 Other Offbeat Recipes For the Grill by Steven Raichlen. Raichlen simplifies what at first sounded like a complicated process and offers a lot of different twists to this concept. I highly recommend the book as a starting point.

There are a lot of varieties to this technique. You can pretty much use any combination of marinades, rubs and beer that form a tasty compliment to one another. What I’ll describe below is a basic starter recipe, but feel free to go wild.

Here’s what you’ll need to get started:

• A 3 1/2 to 4 pound whole fryer chicken (leave skin on)
• At least 2 tablespoons of spice rub
• A few teaspoons of olive oil (You can use any vegetable oil. For a healthier alternative, you can omit the oil, but you’re missing out.)
• A 12 oz. can of beer
• I recommend a beer can chicken stand. You can get one at most of the big-box hardware stores, but it isn’t necessary. When you place the chicken on the grill, use its legs and the beer can to form a tripod.
• I use a smoker box on my propane grill to add more smoked flavor. Optional.

Preheat grill using indirect heat:

• Propane
  • For a 3 or 4-burner grill, turn on front and back (or side) burners, leaving the middle off. Once grill is hot, turn burners down to medium.
  • For a 2-burner grill, turn one side on medium and cook the chicken over the other.
• Charcoal or wood
  • Create 2 piles of coals on either side of the grill, leaving the middle open. You want to maintain the temperature around 350 degrees. This may require adding more coals around the 1-hour mark.
• Oven
  • Preheat oven to 350, adjust grates so that the chicken has enough room to sit upright in the oven.

Directions:

1. Pour 1/2 of the can of beer out or into another container or your mouth. Make two additional holes in the top of the can.
2. Place the beer can in the stand. (optional)
3. Remove giblets from the chicken and rinse it off with water, including the inside, then dry it off with paper towels.
4. Sprinkle at least 1 teaspoon of the rub inside the cavity of the chicken and 1/2 teaspoon into the neck.
5. Put 1 1/2 teaspoons of the rub in the beer can.
6. Brush oil on outside of the chicken (optional)
7. Sprinkle at least 1 tablespoon of rub on outside of chicken
8. Hold chicken upright and seat it onto the beer can, forming a tripod with the legs
9. Cook over indirect heat for 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours.
10. When done, carefully take the beer can out and carve that sucker. Be careful, there will still be hot beer left in the can.

That’s it. Prep takes me less than 20 minutes, and then it’s just having the time and patience to wait an hour and a half for it to cook. It’s absolutely delicious. I hope you enjoy!

How is it that things we once couldn’t stand we now enjoy? On the other hand, there may be things you loved as a kid that you wouldn’t touch now, like Spaghettios or Lucky Charms. Are these changes a physical evolution of our bodies, or is it a conscious decision we make to acquire or deacquire a particular flavor?

Acquiring taste also begs another question: Why in the world would we repeatedly subject ourselves to something we don’t like in an attempt to make ourselves like it?

Turns out, taste is a very complicated thing. As far as I have found in my research, there is no one answer that explains it all. To the best of my ability, I’ll attempt to explain some of the issues surrounding taste and our changing preferences. I’ll finish up with some tips on how you might begin to branch out into beer you may enjoy at the moment.

How Do We Taste?

I’m sure you remember from your elementary school science classes that our taste buds can sense four types of flavors: sweet, salty, sour and bitter. According to Randy Mosher in his book, Tasting Beer, researchers have recently discovered that we have receptors for two other flavors: fat and umami. Umami is a savory, meaty flavor that is often found in aged meat and cheese, fermented food and soy sauce, among others.

You have probably also heard that much of our perception of taste actually comes from our sense of smell. Research shows that 70% or more of our perception of taste comes from smell.

Our taste buds alone can only perceive those six basic flavors. It’s our sense of smell combined with our taste buds that allows us to perceive more complex flavors, such as grilled onions, oranges and peanut butter.

Instinctive Tastes

Everyone knows that kids love sweets. It’s a rare child that begs for artichoke hearts. Instinctively, we know that sweet and fatty foods are a safe source for lots of calories. (By safe, I mean it won’t kill us immediately. Excess over time is a different story, but our bodies don’t know the difference.)

Naturally, our body’s primary goal is self-preservation, and that means finding and storing energy so we won’t run the risk of starvation. We also tend to be averse to bitter flavors. In nature, bitter is often associated with dangerous or inedible.

Physical Changes

When we are born, we have taste buds along the sides and roof of our mouths, in addition to those on our tongue. That’s one reason why children are so opinionated about the food they like and don’t like. They are very sensitive to taste.

As we get older, the taste buds around our mouth are worn off, and as adults we are only left with taste buds on our tongue. In addition, our taste buds can be damaged by repeated burning by hot food, or other things such as smoking and medication.

Once we reach 50 years old, our sense of smell also begins to diminish. This causes us to begin losing our sense of taste. Food can become bland. The taste buds that detect sweet and salty begin to go first, which means that we can become much more sensitive to sour and bitter flavors than we used to be.

Aside from wear and tear, as we age hormonal and chemical changes in our body can affect how our brain interprets taste. The prime example is pregnant women. During pregnancy, the changes in a woman’s hormones can lead to craving certain food they never wanted before. For us non-pregnant people, the chemical composition of our body does change over time and can slowly, or suddenly, cause changes to how we perceive flavors.

Experience Affects Taste

Perhaps even more influential than the physical changes we undergo as we age, our perceptions, experiences and expectations have a tremendous impact on what we like to eat and drink.

I’m sure we’ve all had a few experiences where we either overindulge on an adult beverage like tequila or Captain Morgan, or perhaps you got food poisoning from fish or a hamburger, and now you gag every time you so much as smell those things. That certainly has an impact on your taste.

There are other experiential factors that can impact your taste. One is the overexposure of a particular taste for a prolonged period of time. When I was three years old, I had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches every day for like a year and I got so sick of them I didn’t eat peanut butter again until I was in college.

On the other side of overexposure, if you go without a certain flavor for a while, you can become very sensitive to it when you start eating or drinking it again. For me, it was sugar. I gave up eating desserts, candy bars, sweet cereal and drinking soda for about 9 months after college. Once I decided to allow myself some of those things again, everything was super sweet and I could barely stomach it.

Perception and Expectation

Not only do our own experiences help shape what tastes we like and don’t like, others’ opinions influence us as well. A study by Michael Siegrist and Marie-Eve Cousin was published in the February 2009 issue of Appetite magazine in which they gave 163 people different information about a wine either before or after they allowed them to taste it.

Participants that were told before tasting the wine that it received a 72 rating from a renowned expert scored the wine much lower than those who were told before tasting that the wine received a 92. It’s a perfect illustration of how your expectations influence your taste. (I’ve always wanted to take an unmarked bottle of Stone or Victory to my homebrew club to test this theory.)

Acquiring Taste

Sometimes we are able to make a conscious decision that we want to acquire a taste for something that we don’t currently like. Why in the world would anyone want to do that? My answer is that it pushes us to experience and appreciate more that the world has to offer.

If we only stuck with what we liked at the moment, we would never grow and life would be pretty boring. We would never slow down to try and understand the subtle intricacies that make something appealing. We’d take one bite, one swig, or one listen, judge it good or bad, and if it was bad we’d never come back to it.

I can think of countless albums I did not like the first time I listened to them, but after pushing through a few times I would begin to hear different instrumentation, notice changes in melody and tempo, and really begin to appreciate what the musicians were doing. Sometimes it takes a while to understand something.

I believe acquiring for something we don’t care for comes down to two things: we have to want to like it, and we have to believe we can like it. It’s basically the theory of cognitive dissonance. If we don’t like something, but we keep trying it and we believe we will like it, one of two things will happen.

Either we’ll start to like it, or we’ll stop trying it. We can’t believe one thing and do another. Our subconscious won’t allow it. In essence, you “fake it till you make it.”

Now, that’s not to say we can acquire a taste for everything. Black licorice makes me want to gag. I find it so repulsive that I can’t even smell it. Never had a bad experience with it, I just can’t stand it. I’ll never like black licorice, horseradish or olives.

Then again, do I not like those because I don’t believe I can? Oh man, I think my head may explode…

How Do I Help Other People Acquire a Taste For Beer?

First, realize you can’t make everyone like beer, no matter how passionate or skilled you are. Some people need more time to grow into it, others may never develop a taste.

There are a few things you can try to help people who say they “don’t like beer.”

1. Be patient and don’t haze someone for not drinking an entire pint of something they don’t like. I offer a “money back guarantee” on all my recommendations, offering to drink the beer if they don’t like it. People are more likely to experiment if they don’t have to risk a whole $5.
2. Ask questions to find common flavors between certain beer styles and what they like in other food and drink. Do they like wine? If so, what kind? Do they drink coffee? What kind of candy do they like? Are they chocoholics? Do they like oranges, grapefruit or other fruits? Do they like dried fruit, such as raisins, plums or cherries?
3. If someone you are with orders a “standard” beer, speak up and suggest something similar, but that you feel is a little better tasting or more sophisticated. Encourage them to branch out.
4. When all else fails, go negative. Say things like, “I think this beer is awesome, but I don’t think you’d like it.” Subconsciously, most people will think to themselves, “Why wouldn’t I like it, too? I like good things. I have taste!” They’ll order it and probably like it just because you said they wouldn’t. It’s sneaky, but effective.

There is no one answer to why you used to like basil but it now makes you queasy. The human mind and senses are too complicated for generalized answers.

My advice is simple. Try new things. Slow down and attempt to discover nuances you never noticed before. If you haven’t had something you don’t like in a while, try it again. You never know if the switch in your brain has been flipped.

As a disclaimer, Andy did point out that he wrote an article a few months prior about the creep of seasonal beers into times before they were traditionally available, and how that can taint the excitement of seasonal beer releases. So he sees it from both sides.

That got me thinking about seasonal beers and how I feel about them. I really enjoy seasonal beers and think they add a richness to the beer scene and tradition that keep it from getting boring. When I’m at a bar or restaurant, I’m always looking to order something I’ve never had, so limited seasonal releases are often what I choose.

The discussion about seasonal beer reminded me of a conversation I had with my wife around the end of the Christmas season. We were debating when to take our tree down, and she wanted to keep it up until February. And I’m sure once February rolled around, it may have even gone into March. She loves Christmas and would probably keep some stuff up all year if she could.

My point to her was that if it’s up all year, or even a month or two too long, it won’t be as special. You see that happening with the Christmas Creep when they start playing Christmas music before Halloween.

Emotional Drinking

Much like the foods we eat, we choose our beer based on emotion. We have very strong emotional ties to our beer. It reminds us of hanging out with friends, of our college days, sporting events, times out on a boat or at the beach, sitting in a warm, dark bar as it’s snowing outside.

Or perhaps it’s present day issues, like avoiding macro beers because we are taking a stand against the man, or choosing our local brewery because we’ve met the brewmaster.

Seasonal selections are the same way. My biological clock starts ticking come September and I start thirsting for a Sam Adams Octoberfest. As the days get shorter, there’s nothing I want more than a stout or a Scottish ale just after the sun sets at 5:30. When I’m out at my friend’s lake house in July, give me a PBR.

Our anticipation grows as the time of year approaches, and that first sip of a beer we haven’t had in months tastes amazing. I may occasionally want to have an imperial stout on a June evening with dessert or just to change things up now and again, but I’d be ok if I had to wait. It’ll taste that much better when I do get to have one.

Beer Locavores

There are also ecological aspects of some seasonal beers that we should be aware of. While most beer only contains water, barley, hops and yeast, an increasing number of craft brewers are experimenting with other ingredients, including fruit, vegetables, herbs, spices, and different grains.

In today’s world, there is an increasing movement toward “being green.” From a food and beverage standpoint, the locavore movement is gaining steam. We are encouraged to buy fresh food that is produced within a reasonable distance of where we live in order to support our local economies, the sustainability of our agriculture, and decrease the use of fuel, preservatives and other chemicals.

The downside, if you can call it that, of using fresh local ingredients is that you are dependent on what is in season at the time in your neck of the woods. If you are in the United States, using peaches from Argentina to brew a beer in November, or canned pumpkin from who knows where to brew a pumpkin ale in May encourages far and wide shipping, processing and preservatives.

Tradition

While I’m all for innovation and pushing style boundaries, or even completely doing away with them, one of the coolest things about beer is the culture and tradition that surrounds it. That’s why most of us are so passionate about it. I love to eat chocolate, but I’m not going to chocolate maker meetings.

The history and tradition of beer is fascinating and captures our imagination. When we’re brewing a particular style at the same time of year and in a similar way as our brewing ancestors, we feel a connection to something larger than ourselves.

At the same time, many breweries’ year-round offerings run the gambit, so we do have access to pale ales, lagers, IPAs, stouts, and wheat beers if we’re ever in the mood at any time of year.

So if it’s April and you want to crack open a Sam Adams Octoberfest that you’ve had in the fridge from the fall, I certainly wouldn’t blame you.

After being handed an 8 oz. “taster” glass, we spilled out into an open ballroom with 20 area breweries lining the walls of the room. All but three of the breweries, Sweetwater, Thomas Creek and Yazoo, were from North Carolina.

There were so many good beers to try and less than 4 hours to do it, Nicole and I had to come up with a game plan. Our first priority was to try something from each brewery. To maximize our diversity, we would each get a different selection from each station. We also requested half pours, since we still wanted to be standing by the end.

The life of a beer writer at a festival.

With glass in hand and plan in mind, we began making our lap around the room. We started with the “imports,” who were all lined up on one wall to the right of the entrance.

I won’t go into every beer I had, but there were several noteworthy, unique beers there. The most polarizing was the Duck-Rabbit Blueberry Insanity. This isn’t surprising, since it was the only sour beer at the festival. I talked to several people that thought it was terrible. I also had several come up and tell me I had to be sure and try it.

Duck-Rabbit open fermented the Insanity. It was funky and slightly sour. It wasn’t nearly as intense as some sours I’ve had and I thought it was rather drinkable. I liked it, even thought I’m not a true sour convert yet. The reaction I witnessed was a good indication that the majority of American beer drinkers still aren’t ready for sours to take over, but it is gaining some steam.

Nicole enjoying a Duck-Rabbit Blueberry Insanity

The other notable beer I want to mention was the Triangle Habanero Pale Ale. It had a moderate amount of heat, which was most apparent on the backend. It didn’t set your entire mouth ablaze, so it remained drinkable. I also felt the peppers added a vegetal quality to the beer that was unique. I wouldn’t say it was my favorite, but it was good and I love the concept.

The coolest thing about a small, regional beer festival is the presence of brewery reps, and often the brewers themselves. I think many people are intimidated to talk to brewers, because the best thing they can think of to say is, “Man, I like your beer!” (Often myself included!)

I highly encourage everyone to just go up and introduce yourself to these guys. Aside from drinking tasty beer, the most rewarding aspect of craft beer culture is the people behind it. While many brewers are introverted and reserved, you kind of have to be if you’re spending countless hours holed up in a brewery, once you get them talking, their passion and enthusiasm comes right out.

I’m talking with T.L. from Ham’s Restaurant & Brewhouse in Greenville, NC. He drove 6 hours to be there. That’s dedication!

As the festival continued into its third and fourth hours, the crowd was very well behaved considering all the beer that was flowing. Although, some dancing broke out in front of the stage where the bluegrass band was playing!

Asheville folks certainly know how to appreciate their beer and hold their liquor. They are also big into beards, which begs the question, what came first, the beards or the beer?

I really only had two critiques from the festival:

• There were not nearly enough stalls in the bathroom. For the guys, we had two, so I had to stand in line for about 15 minutes to use the restroom. I did figure out that I could go back out into the hotel and use the bathroom in the lobby, but I couldn’t bring my beer out there.
• I felt there should have been water jugs at each beer station. Not only does that allow you to rinse your glass, but it encourages hydration, which is key. There were two or three water stations set up, but as they say, out of sight out of mind.

I had a great time at the festival. It was seamless and well-run. Beer lines were short, there were three free food stations, which was key in keeping my sea legs, and it was not too crowded despite being indoors in a ballroom.

The Winter Warmer Festival represented Asheville’s brewing scene well. The legacy of Asheville beer continues to be written, and I can’t wait to see what comes next.

The only surviving brewery is the Hunter-Gatherer, downtown near the State House. The Flying Saucer arrived in the Vista in 2003, bringing a much needed breath of fresh craft beer to the city and exposing most of us to the vast world of craft beer for the first time.

Since that time, the state’s ABV cap was lifted from 5% to 14% in 2007, and craft beer awareness has continued to grow slowly, both in Columbia and throughout the rest of South Carolina.

In January 2009, another corner was turned in the city’s beer culture. All About Beer Magazine picked Columbia as the 4th host city for their World Beer Festival series, the others being Raleigh, Durham and Richmond. I wasn’t able to attend the festival in Columbia last year, and I remained perplexed as to why they would pick Columbia of all places.

I did attend this year’s festival, which was last weekend at the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center. I now understand why it’s such a good match. Columbia is an emerging craft beer market, and the World Beer Festival is the perfect setup to make the world of craft beer more accessible to those that aren’t familiar with it.

First, some background on the festival. There were two sessions: noon to 4 pm and 6 to 10 pm. I only attended the earlier session. I had a church obligation Sunday morning, so I had to make it back to Greenville Saturday night. Therefore my experience can only pertain to that session.

From what I heard, the evening session was more crowded and had a slightly different demographic. The beer connoisseurs and appreciators came out in the afternoon, the beer drinkers came out in the evening. If you know what I mean…

They split the festival into two large rooms on different floors of the convention center. There were 250+ beers representing more than 75 breweries. Each floor had a live band playing and food vendors lining the outskirts of each room.

They expected more than 4,000 people at each session. Attendees were given a mini plastic pilsner tasting glass and were allowed unlimited 2 oz. samples.

A Well-Oiled Machine

The first year of any event in a new location is bound to have a few kinks. Whatever issues may have existed in 2009 were definitely worked out this year. For such a large festival, it felt like a well-oiled machine. I rarely had to wait more than 30 seconds in line for a beer, the bathroom lines were manageable, and I never felt too crowded.

They had volunteers working most of the pouring stations, and that can often be a dicey proposition. However, the people working that afternoon were very friendly, served the beer quickly and had a basic knowledge of the beer they were pouring if you had any questions. I was very impressed.

Hydration is key at beer festivals. Remember, it’s a marathon, not a sprint.

A Perfect Introduction

The World Beer Festival was focused on beer education and exposing people to something new. With more than 250 beers to choose from, there were obviously going to be new choices for even the most seasoned veteran. Not that I’ve had everything under the sun myself, as I counted 60 beers on the list that I had never tried. I certainly had my work cut out for me in 4 hours.

All About Beer provided a well-produced and informative guide book to the event, with a map of all beer stations, an overview of each beer, basic tasting instructions, and even a handy chart that shows roughly how many beers it takes to reach certain blood alcohol levels based on your weight.

In addition to all the beer, they also had informational break-out sessions and flights held on the hour. The topics for the afternoon session were Beer 101, Trends in Craft Beer, and Beer Ingredients. I intended to go to the 2:00 session about Trends in Craft Beer, but I lost time and it was 2:15 before I realized it. Ugh…

Nicole and me posing in the PBR tent. This is probably where I lost time.

The Shortcomings

I would be remiss if I were just a ray of sunshine, only pointing out what was great about the festival. While there were no glaring problems or issues, I did feel there were a few shortcomings, especially for more “advanced” beer drinkers.

For me, the top priority in any festival is the beer. I’m always on a quest to find something new and different. As I mentioned earlier, I did identify 60 beers that I had never tried, so I knew I was going to get to try a lot of new beers.

However, there was a noticeable lack of rare selections, such as barrel-aged, cask or special batch beers. (I’m not talking about seasonals, but rare finds that you can’t buy in stores.) I did find a couple from our local South Carolina breweries, Thomas Creek’s Up the Creek IPA run through a Randal, and a 2008 Coast Blackbeerd Stout. There may have been others, but that’s all I could find in my 4 hours.

The other thing I missed was the presence of representatives and brewers from the breweries themselves. I know that our local breweries had a personal presence there, but I knew those folks beforehand. Since volunteers were manning the stations, it was difficult to identify brewery people in the sea of attendees unless you knew who to look for.

To a degree, that depersonalized the festival for me. Part of the excitement of going to festivals is meeting the people that make craft beer happen. The lack of that presence, combined with the indoor convention center venue, made the festival feel like somewhat of a “trade show.” However, that feeling tends to go away after the third hour of tasting beer and anywhere feels like home!

In Summary

Overall, I had a great time. I brought some friends down from Greenville, and was able to reconnect with several old friends from Columbia. That’s what really makes it, good friends and good beer.

The crew that came down from Greenville

The festival was exceptionally well-run, and I think it’s a great thing for Columbia’s beer scene. I hope they continue having the festival there for years to come.

On a side note, I have one funny story to share. My wife Nicole and I were spotted by a WIS-TV cameraman after posing for a picture inside the PBR tent. He asked if he could ask us a few questions on camera and we agreed.

If anyone ever thought of me as a “beer connoisseur,” you may want to reform your opinion. After drawing a blank when asked what my favorite beer was so far, (you try to remember Koningshoeven Brouwerij Duppel on a TV interview after you’ve had a dozen samples!) and basically saying my favorite thing about the festival was “beer,” I think I’m going to have to give my “Beer Guy” card back.

I did nominate some awards for the festival, which you can check out on Untamed Beer.

I’ll be coming back next week with my experience from the Asheville Winter Warmer Festival, which is a lot smaller and more regionally focused. It will be interesting to compare these two very different festivals.

Stouts often use these dark grains, such as roasted barley, black patent and chocolate malt. Therefore, even in non-coffee-flavored beer, coffee characteristics can be present, ranging from very subtle to “I want this beer with my morning paper.”

Chocolate Malt (above), often used in stouts. Compare the darkness of the roast to base 2-row malt, which is shown below.

Adding actual coffee to a stout enhances that characteristic of the dark malt and brings it to the forefront of the taste and aroma. However, if done poorly it can add a harsh, bitter imbalance to the beer.

If you’re researching a homebrew coffee stout recipe, you’ve likely come across dozens of techniques and opinions about how much coffee to add and when to add it during the process. I’ll describe three common techniques here. My personal preference is #3, the cold extraction.

The first step is to compile your stout recipe. Just about any old stout will do, so pick anything you think you’ll like.

How Much Coffee Do I Need?

Obviously, the more coffee you add the stronger the flavor and aroma. However, coffee is a lot like hops. If you add too much, you can make your beer very harsh and bitter. On the flip side, you want to add enough so you can detect it. As is life, beer is best when it is in balance.

I’ve found that you can get good coffee flavor with as little as 1/4 lb. per 5 gallons. The most I’ve used is 3/4 lb., and it was pretty potent. The best batch I’ve brewed was right in between, using 1/2 lb.

A full pound is downright mad.

I have read some techniques that call for cracking the beans in a bag with a rolling pin or hammer, like you can do with malted barley if you can’t get your grain milled, but I don’t feel that’s an efficient way to get all the flavor out of your coffee. I recommend a coarse grind.

Once you’ve ground your coffee, here are a few suggested methods for adding it to your beer. Adding it at different points can have varying effects, so feel free to experiment and find out what works best for your tastes.

Method #1: The Mash

One way to go is to treat the coffee just like your grains and add the grounds to the mash. Steeping coffee grounds in the hot liquor is a close representation to brewing coffee, so it makes sense.

Be sure to keep the grounds in a nylon hop bag. You don’t want loose grounds floating around that could stick your sparge.

If you’re doing an all-extract recipe, put the bag with coffee grounds into your brew water as you begin heating it, just be sure to remove the bag before the water boils.

Method #2: The End of the Boil

Another way to go is to add the coffee grounds directly to your wort at the very end of your boil, after flame out. Coffee should not be boiled, so be sure that the temperature has dropped to between 160 and 200 degrees before adding the grounds.

You can add the grounds loose to your wort here, but that can be a pain to deal with when it comes time to strain your wort on its way into the fermenter. (I’ve tried that, it was messy.) Again, a nylon hop bag works well.

Method #3: Cold Extraction

The cold extraction is my personal favorite method. I feel that it lends the smoothest coffee flavor to beer.

A cold extraction creates a water-based coffee extract that you can add to the secondary fermentation. Follow these steps:

1. Coarsely grind 1/2 lb of coffee beans.
2. Put grounds and 24 oz. water into a sanitized container.
3. Allow it to sit for 24 hours.
4. Run the mixture through a coffee filter or fine strainer.
5. Add the filtered coffee liquid to secondary.

I’m sure there are worry-worts out there that are freaking out because I’m not doing anything to sanitize the coffee beans. One advantage of adding this extract to secondary is that there is likely enough alcohol in the beer at this point to kill anything living on the beans.

If you’re still paranoid about infection, stick the beans in the microwave for a few seconds, but not long enough to further roast the beans.

Last month I won my local homebrewer’s club challenge with a coffee stout using a cold extraction. The flavor was smooth, yet gripping. It maintained a wonderful balance. It’s easy to do and won me over.

I hope this gives you some good ideas to run with. Happy brewing. Let me know how it goes!

The front of RJ Rockers’ new brewery

The first thing I noticed when I pulled up were the huge solar panels and large windows. They did a nice renovation job on this former Salvation Army thrift store.

Aside from the looks of the shiny new tanks and clean floors, they went the extra mile to make the brewery as environmentally friendly as beer making can be. For a small operation, this is a state-of-the-art facility that utilizes a lot of green technologies, including:

• 10 solar panels than can heat 500 gallons of water to 172 degrees in about five hours
• Rainwater collection tanks
• A brand new, highly efficient boiler
• Recirculating water
• Huge windows that keep the brewery well-lit, so lights don’t have to be turned on during the day

How It Came To Be

Mark filled me in on the story of how they came to be in this beautiful space. The search for a new location began back in October 2007 when Mark brought on two business partners, John Bauknight and Nick Wildrick. With the strength of the new partnership, they felt it was time to expand the brewery’s production.

Nearly a year and a half later, they found an old warehouse on the outskirts of town that they felt would do the trick. A story ran in the Spartanburg Herald Journal about RJ Rockers’ plans to move into this warehouse. It so happened that around that time, a local real estate developer, George Dean Johnson Jr., bought the old Salvation Army thrift store building on Main St. on the west side of downtown.

Johnson saw this story in the newspaper and must have been given a vision from the heavens. His people contacted RJ Rockers and gave them an offer they couldn’t refuse for the downtown building.

Lo-and-behold, the deal was finalized in February 2009, construction began in April and they brewed their first batch of beer on August 12.

With the new brewery, RJ Rockers now has a 30-barrel brewing system and increased their capacity from 1,500 barrels to 7,500. Since they aren’t going to quintuple production and sales overnight, Mark said they plan on brewing more seasonals and experimental beers using their excess capacity. He said to look for something new every couple months.

What’s This? A Government Agency In South Carolina Supporting a Local Brewery?

Pardon me if I seem a little jaded, but the government in South Carolina has not exactly been known to bend over backwards in support of local breweries. We’re slowly overcoming special interests and archaic blue laws. It’s a slow push, but we’re getting there.

That’s one of the aspects that makes RJ Rockers’ story fascinating. The Spartanburg city council approved historic incentives to entice the brewery to move into the Salvation Army building. The city agreed to give the brewery tax breaks if it adds 10 new jobs over the next 3 years. There are also incentives for attracting restaurants into this “complex” and for achieving food and beverage sales goals.

So why would the city be interested in attracting a brewery downtown, when they can’t even sell their own beer out of the brewery? (In South Carolina, it is not legal  for a distributing brewery to sell its beer, even within its facility. The beer must always pass through a distributor.) It’s always about money, so what is the financial motivation?

In recent years, Spartanburg has been trying hard to turn around its downtown and to attract new businesses. Mark observed that even though the brewery itself won’t directly generate a lot of traffic with people going in and out, “it acts as an anchor for the west side of downtown. The brewery brings a vibe that other downtown businesses can build on.”

In the large warehouse complex that was the Salvation Army, there are spaces for two more restaurants, in addition to the Tap Room that is already in operation. The plan is to make this a major hub of activity, all centered around the brewery.

The Tap Room

Even though breweries in South Carolina are not allowed to have their own tasting rooms, or even sipping rooms, RJ Rockers was able to bring back the feel of its original roots as a brewpub, allowing people to drink the brewery’s beer right next door in The Tap Room.

The Tap Room, owned by Keith Williams, is a completely separate beer bar that is attached to the brewery’s building. The funniest part of the whole thing is how RJ Rockers beer finds its way into the Tap Room. It illustrates how some laws override common sense. You guessed it, the distributor pulls his pickup truck up to the brewery, loads up a few kegs, drives 20 feet and unloads them at the Tap Room. Efficient, huh?

The Tap Room serves all 11 of RJ Rockers’ beers on tap and has a limited food menu. Starting later this month, you will be able to tour the brewery starting and ending in the Tap Room, and you’ll get to sample the beers you saw being made next door. From the customer’s standpoint, it’s as if the brewery and Tap Room are one entity. People can enjoy a tour, meet the brewers and then sample the beer. It’s a powerful way to build loyal customers.

I know this doesn’t sound like anything special to many of you around the country, and we do have brewpubs here that can give you pretty much the same effect, but none of the other distributing breweries in South Carolina have a setup like this “simulated” tap room at the brewery. I think it’s a wonderful example to our state government of what is possible and how this can benefit local breweries and surrounding businesses.

Award-Winning Beers

Aside from the excitement of opening the new brewery, there was a lot to celebrate at RJ Rockers in 2009. They took home a gold medal at the GABF for their Light Rock in the English-style Summer Beer category. Mark said that even though the medal hasn’t sparked a huge direct increase in sales for the Light Rock, their 4th best year-round seller, it has been incredibly valuable in increasing the awareness and credibility of the brewery as they look to expand into new markets.

Earlier this year they also took home a gold medal for the Son of a Peach in the Fruit Wheat Beer category at the Los Angeles International Commercial Beer Competition. Mark was amazed at the success of the Son of a Peach. He introduced it in the early summer of last year as an experimental brew. The aim was just to try something different and see what happens. This experiment turned into their biggest seller of 2009.

Son of a Peach is one of the few fruit-based beers that I’ve enjoyed. They use real peaches in primary fermentation, and the peach flavor and aroma is remarkable. At the same time, it isn’t overly sweet like a lot of fruit beers. It’s very well-balanced and refreshing.

RJ Rockers has a lot to be excited about going into 2010. With their recent successes and the freedom to branch out into new things, I’m certainly looking forward to what’s to come.