Blogging with Briess

And the winner is…..

penny — Tue, 15 May 2012 13:57:18 +0000

Congratulations to James Hellmuth from Sun King Brewing! His business card was drawn as the winner of the ”free malted milk balls for a year” contest.

Countdown to CBC!

daverichter — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 23:17:05 +0000

We are just about one month away from the 2012 Craft Brewers Conference in San Diego, CA! This years CBC runs from May 2 -5 and will be held again at the San Diego Town & Country Resort. This CBC is a highlight as it is also in conjunction with the World Beer Cup judging and awards. Winning an award at the WBC is a true pinnacle for any brewer as it’s on a global scale with over 4,000 beers entered from 57 different countries this year. I will also have 2 Briess beers on tap for the CBC (at the welcome reception we sponsor and at the beer station by our booth at the Brew Expo), an Octoberfest brewed at Karl Strauss Brewing using our new Goldpils Vienna malt and a Black IPA that I’m brewing at Pizza Port San Clemente using our Midnight Wheat malt. Should be a great time indeed!

Tap marker for the CBC 2011 beer I brewed using Midnight Wheat with our good friends at Sierra Nevada.

Little Piece of my Heart

daverichter — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 16:53:41 +0000

I had to post these pictures from the Anchor tasting room in San Francisco! The series of pics were taken in June 1966 by noted Haight-Ashbury photographer Bill Brach. This is the Janis Joplin fronted Big Brother & the Holding Company enjoying a beer at the recently resurrected Anchor Brewing Company that craft brewing pioneer Fritz Maytag purchased in 1965. Outstanding!!!

Chillin' with an ould skewl Steam beer!

Janis and Big Brother & the Holding Company at Anchor 1966

Goin’ Big! – Lagunitas Brewing Company

daverichter — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 16:23:19 +0000

I stopped in to visit with Lagunitas Head Brewer Jeremy who was able to show me the progress on their new brewhouse. They installed the 65bbl Rolec brewhouse just 3 short years ago and have already outgrown it. The new 250bbl brewery should take them somewhere in the neighborhood of 800,000bbls!

The lauter tun that was destroyed in transit from Germany, painful indeed.

The new 250bbl brewhouse with dual level catwalk.

The space is waiting for the new 27' lauter tun.

Happy New Year!

daverichter — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 22:07:29 +0000

As a lot of people will be attending New Years Eve parties tonight and counting down the last few moments of 2011 so I thought I’d share a picture that I think is quite appropriate for a festive evening. Brewer (and evidently master artisan) Bill Jenkins of Elliott Bay Brewing Company in Seattle hand-crafted this “disco ~~ball~~ keg” by applying what appears to be several million tiny mirrors to a 1/4BBL keg. This well constructed item might be the most creative use of a keg I’ve ever seen and this close up picture was taken in front of their 10BBL brewhouse. Bill had this hanging at EBBC for our District NW MBAA cask fest (click for cask presentations) a few months back and it was a great addition to the brewhouse I’d say! I hope everyone has a wonderful New Years Eve and I hope to see you in 2012!

Every brewery should have one of these!

Noble Ale Works

daverichter — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 20:53:54 +0000

Are those barrels in the back?

I received this picture recently from our good friends at Noble Ale Works in Anaheim, CA who are getting ready to celebrate their first anniversary on January 28. They will be having a party at the brewery with live music and food trucks, sure to be a blast! The Briess-centric beers from Noble I sampled at the GABF were outstanding and their Dark Sybian IPA (Cascadian Dark Ale) featuring our Midnight Wheat malt was quite tasty. At their anniversary party they will be launching the new beer Nobility as well as tapping into some of these special barrel aged beers you can see in the attached photo. Pictures of the event to be posted next month!

Caracrystal® Wheat Malt is now available

bernadette — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 18:32:08 +0000

We’ve extended the length of time that our Maltster’s Reserve Series malts are available from three to six months. That means that Caracrystal® Wheat Malt, which is now available from Briess or our distributors, can be ordered through the end of June. That’ll be followed by Carabrown® Malt in July which can be ordered through the end of December.

Aren’t familiar with Caracrystal® Wheat Malt? It’s a different from other caramel wheat malts. It has the caramel sweetness you’d expect along with a really nice roasted flavor that made us think of “dark toast”. Let us know what you brew with it!

Check out the winter edition of BWB

bernadette — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 16:53:23 +0000

The winter edition of Brewing With Briess has been posted on the Briess website. There’s an article with an important update on our Maltster’s Reserve Series, information about Caracrystal® Wheat Malt which is now available, a report on the 2011 North American barley crop and dates for the 2012 Malt & Brew Workshop. Check it out! And add a comment to this blog if there’s a specific malt-related topic you’d like to see covered in the newsletter. Cheers!

Holiday hours at Briess

bernadette — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 15:17:26 +0000

Merry Christmas! Here’s our holiday schedule:

Friday, Dec. 23 – Closed
Monday, Dec. 26 for Christmas – Closed
Friday, Dec. 30 – Closing at noon. Limited truckload shipping from 8-11 a.m.
Monday, Jan. 2 – Closed

Collaboration brewing in PDX

daverichter — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 00:49:07 +0000

Recently I had the privilege of doing a collaboration brew with Elan Walsky and Bruce McPhee at Coalition Brewing in Portland, Oregon. We brewed a 100% Briess 10BBL batch of a Cascadian Dark Ale/Black IPA/American-style Dark Ale (or whatever you want to refer to it as this week) on their newish JVNW brewhouse. Like most brewers we got an early start and got mashed in before caffeine. I’ll have the brew recipe posted on our website but can tell you that we were not shy on the hops as it takes a LOT of them to shine through on this style of beer. As this CDA made generous use of Apollo hops the beer was named Apollo Creed and they had Rocky on the big screen punching it out for the tapping party! The final product had a nice dryness and a nice creamy mouthfeel with only a minor amount of roasted malt flavor from the use of our Midnight Wheat malt (550L) which is a great malt to use when you’re looking for color but none of that acrid/bitter/husky flavors. Thanks a mil to Elan and Bruce for letting me be a part of a wonderful beer!

The hopback filled with Apollo and Willamette hops!

Coalition Brewing Portland, OR

Elan and Bruce in front of their 10BBL JVNW brewhouse.