Tag Archives: great american beer festival

2011 GABF Interview with Dave Anderson of Dave’s Brewfarm

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Dave’s Brewfarm is nestled in the rolling farmland of western Wisconsin. Only two things differentiate it from the farmsteads that surround it. One is a sign at the top of the driveway declaring that this little, red farmhouse is, in fact, brewery. The second is a tall wind turbine. Owner and brewer Dave Anderson is big into sustainable brewing. The turbine provides a good amount of the power needed to run the combination living space/brewery. A geo-thermal unit helps with heating and cooling. Solar panels to be installed at a later date will eventually aid with heating the hot water needed to brew.

Anderson holds frequent open houses at the brewery – or “labrewatory” as he calls it. At these events people camp at the farm, socialize, and drink the unusual array of beers that he produces there. In this interview we mention two brews that were commercially available in bottles and cans, Brewfarm Select and Matacabras. Sadly, problems with the breweries where these beers were contract brewed and packaged have caused Anderson to discontinue them. While no longer available in retail stores, they will still make appearances at the farm. You’ll just have to go there to sample them.

2011 GABF Interview with Scott Manning of Vintage Brewing Company

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Madison, Wisconsin is full of great breweries. One of the best and most interesting in my view is Vintage Brewing Company. Brewer Scott Manning has been in the business of brewing for 15 years. Much of that time has been spent at production breweries or corporate brewpub chains. He loves the freedom and creativity that he can exercise at Vintage. In his own words he feels like “a 4 year old running around naked.” He takes a “don’t get used to it” approach to the beers he crafts for the pub. He always wants people to try something new, so there are only a couple of beers in the line-up that are almost always on tap. He’s been winning awards for his creations, including a silver medal at the 2011 GABF and silver and bronze medals at the 2012 World Beer Cup.

I am more than a little obsessed with Sahti, a little-known, ancient beer style from Finland. Manning brews two of them at Vintage; Summer Sahti and Joulupukki Winter Sahti. These beers lean heavily on rye and juniper for their unique flavor. Manning even ferments his winter version in the traditional way, using baking yeast instead of a cultured brewer’s yeast strain.

If you are in Madison, Vintage Brewing Company is well worth a stop.

2011 GABF Interview with John McDonald of Boulevard Brewing Co.

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Founded in 1989, Boulevard Brewing Company is a Midwestern craft-beer pioneer. When he started making beer people thought John McDonald was crazy. The region quite literally dominated by Anheuser-Busch. Selling this new, more flavorful beer was a daunting task. In the interview McDonald shares an amusing story about an early delivery to a bar just down the street from the brewery. The reception of the patrons makes you wonder how the brewery ever got off the ground.

But succeed it did. Boulevard has grown into the largest specialty brewer in the Midwest, with beer available in 24 states. They continue to innovate with their Smokestack Series beers, bringing out a wide range of styles and flavors from Belgians, to barrel-aged and sour beers. The brewery itself has grown from the original, vintage Bavarian brewhouse to a state-of-the-art 150-barrel system with capacity to produce 600,000 barrels a year. The building is itself a model for others to follow with multiple event spaces that host everything from corporate meetings to weddings.

You can read an earlier interview that I did with McDonald on The Heavy Table food blog.

2011 GABF Interview with Brett Porter of Goose Island Beer Co.

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Brett Porter, the Brewmaster at Goose Island Beer Co. has had a busy tenure. He came to the company from Deschutes in late 2009 as Head Brewer. Within a couple of months co-founder and former Brewmaster Greg Hall had announced his resignation to go into the cider business and Porter found himself at the helm of one of the Midwest’s largest craft breweries. Shortly thereafter Goose Island was sold to ABInbev, a move that drew heavy criticism from many in the beer world. It was a lot for the new guy to take on.

So far, the ABInbev merger hasn’t changed the beer coming out of Goose Island. It has allowed them to expand production of their Vintage series and invest in equipment to insure better and more consistent results in their Brettanomyces-fermented beers. Porter has instituted an intensive program of research into the workings of this “wild” yeast strain, which to me is fascinating stuff. Porter talks at length about that research in this interview, as well as about his efforts to include the entire staff of the brewery in the creative process. A warning, this one gets pretty geeky.

2011 GABF Interview with Brandon Wright of Hamburger Mary’s in Chicago

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Hamburger Mary’s Brew & Grill is located in the heart of the Andersonville neighborhood (a.k.a. boystown) on Chicago’s North Side. It’s a very diverse neighborhood full of unique shops, exotic restaurants, and fun bars. It happens also to be the home of the famous Hop Leaf Belgian beer bar, which is just a few steps down the street from Mary’s.

Owner and brewer Brandon Wright is crafting some unique beers (peanut butter porter anyone?) on what is basically a large scale homebrew system. The mash and boil are handled on a ten-burner commercial stove in the prep kitchen. Wort is hauled to the fermenting cellar in buckets. He calls his brews “Mary’s homebrew.” Are the beers great? Well no, but they’re not terrible either. And the ambience of the place more than makes up for any shortcomings. The main dining room is colorful and kitchy. One might even say “Fabulous.” Two other spaces in the Mary’s complex include a sports bar and a nightclub where they do what they call “Maryoke.”

As they say at Mary’s, “Eat, Drink, and be Mary.”

GABF 2011 Interivew with Pete Crowley of Haymarket Pub & Brewery

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The 2012 Great American Beer Fest (GABF) is only a few weeks away. I though I might celebrate that fact by finally posting some of the video interviews we shot at last year’s festival. I’ll kick it off with an interview with Pete Crowley, Brewmaster at the Haymarket Pub & Brewery in Chicago.

I first met Pete in 2009. I had passed the Certified Cicerone exam just a few months before and saw Cicerone Certification Program founder Ray Daniels chatting with someone across the bar at the Goose Island Clybourn Brewpub. That someone was Pete Crowley, who at the time was head brewer at the Chicago Rock Bottom. During our conversation I made the mistake of referencing “house beers” at the Rock Bottom Chain. At that time – unbeknownst to me – the Rock Bottom chain had no system-wide house beers. The brewer at each location had nearly total control of what they brewed. Having revealed my ignorance, Pete proceeded to roundly dress me down for at least 10 minutes.

Fast forward to 2011. I’m in Chicago doing a two-month theatre residency with men in a halfway house on Chicago’s West Side. I happened also to be doing brewery visits for my upcoming (at some point, I promise) Upper-Midwest Brewery Guide. Haymarket had just opened, and happened to be within walking distance of the halfway house. Needless to say, I was a frequent visitor. I had the opportunity to engage in many, more-civil conversations with Pete and to share a few beers along the way. Haymarket quickly became – along with Goose Island Clybourn – my second “Chicago office.”

GABF 2011 – Day One

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My day began at 4:30 AM, the time I had to get up to catch my flight to Denver. Left the house early and decided to catch the 5:31 AM #8 bus to the light rail instead of the planned 5:39 AM #9 bus. I arrived at the stop by 5:28. Still sitting there at 5:35, I decided that the bus had come early. That meant a 5-block run with suitcase in hand to catch that 5:39 bus. Man I’m out of shape!

The beer-festivities got underway quickly. We arrived at our hotel at 10:00 AM and by 10:45 PM we were crowded into a van with the folks from Original Gravity, a Minnesota craft-beer distributor for an afternoon trip to Odell Brewing Company in Fort Collins. Midwest regional sale rep Todd Ewing showed us a good time, giving a tour of the brewery and lunch. Of course the beer flowed liberally. I especially liked Hiveranno, a so-called American wild ale fermented with yeast isolated at the brewery.

Returning to Denver, we had time for a quick beer and burger at Rock Bottom before heading to the Convention Center for Session 1. This session was mostly about work. I’m doing short video interviews with some of the Upper-Midwest regional brewers that will be featured in my upcoming Upper Midwest Beer Guide. These will be posted on this blog once I can get them edited.

We talked with Brett Porter, the new Brewmaster at Goose Island about his work with Brettanomyces. Spent a bit of time with Boulevard Brewing founder John McDonald. I talked Sahti with Scott Manning, the head brewer at Vintage Brewing Co. in Madison, Wisconsin. He brought a very tasty pumpkin beer with hints of Belgian yeastiness.  Brandon Wright from Hamburger Mary’s in Chicago gave us a few moments of his time as did Pete Crowley, brewer and owner of Haymarket Pub and Brewery. A chat with “Farmer” Dave Anderson from Dave’s BrewFarm, who is out here judging wrapped up our work day, leaving just enough time for a bit of sampling before the session ended.

Dry Dock Brewing Company Post-GABF Interview

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In the summer of 2006 I spent three weeks in Aurora, Colorado doing some theatre work with kids. Of course I used my off hours to explore the incredible Denver craft beer scene. One of the breweries that I found on Beermapping.com was Dry Dock Brewing. It was located in Aurora, just a few miles from my hotel. How could I not pay them a visit?

I jumped in the car and drove to the address. I drove up and down the street looking for any signs of a brewery, but found none. Frustrated, I finally decided to ask in the homebrew store that I had driven past. Surely they would know if there was a brewery in the area. That turned out to be a good call, as the brewery I sought was literally in the back-room of the store.

I went into the tasting room, a tiny, nondescript and somewhat makeshift bar area. It didn’t fill me with confidence about the beers I would find there. I took a seat at the bar and ordered the sampler tray. Out came six or eight beer samples representing a wide range of styles. As I worked my way through I was completely surprised. These were really good beers. I loved the vanilla porter. The hefeweizen was heavenly. There was an opulent old ale. But the best of all was the H.M.S. Victory ESB. I was surprised to learn that this beer had won a gold medal at the world beer cup earlier that year. They continued to win medals every since.

Having discovered all this great beer I spent a lot of time in that little tasting room during the rest of my Aurora stay. I was happy to go back to Dry Dock following this year’s Great American Beer Festival. Things have changed a bit since my visit four years ago. I got to speak and share a beer with owner and founder Kevin DeLange. Here’s the interview.

Check out other videos on the Perfect Pint You Tube Channel.

Ray Daniels, Lead Cicerone at the 2010 GABF

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It was bad service of good beer that motivated Ray Daniels to start the Cicerone Certification Program a couple of years ago. In the first year of the program 17 people passed the Certified Cicerone exam. I was one of them, and the first in Minnesota. Now there are over 100 Certified Cicerones throughout the country. I think there are now five in Minnesota.

The goal of the program is to provide beer service training and credentialing to people in the beer industry. There are three levels of certification. The Certified Beer Server level is intended for front of house staff like servers and bartender. The Certified Cicerone Level is geared toward those with greater involvement with beer, including distributor sales reps, foodservice beer specialists and retail beer buyers. The Master Cicerone level is, according to the website, “for those who demonstrate the highest level of expertise with regard to beer.”

I interviewed Ray at the Great American Beer Festival in September. Here’s the interview:

Check out other videos on the Perfect Pint You Tube Channel.

Tallgrass Brewing Company at the GABF 2010

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Minnesotans’ first encounter with Tallgrass Brewing Company came at this summer’s St. Paul Summer Beer Fest. I spent a good deal of time at their booth sampling beers and talking with the brewers. Having family roots in Kansas, I had a special interest in this brewery located in the college town of Manhattan, Kansas. I found the folks in the booth to be very approachable and friendly. And their beer (especially Oasis, a sort of big ESB) to be quite tasty. When Tallgrass beers were released in the state a few weeks later they immediately became favorites in the Twin Cities beer scene.

I talked with co-founders Jeff and Tricia Gill in their booth at the GABF this fall. Here’s the interview.

Check out other videos on the Perfect Pint You Tube Channel.