New Breweries that Can and Bottle too soon

I have noticed with the influx of new breweries popping up lately, how many want to get a fast return on their investment with bottling and canning their beers right away.

I have talked to many sources and what I've learned is that the saturation point is all ready here but not where you think. It's saturated in the liquor stores with a limited amount of space availability in the cooler doors. Many of these breweries are starting out with state of the art equipment which means finance loans that have to paid.  Sam Scruby, head-brewer at Upslope Brewing commented that the neighborhood breweries was a way around that cooler door limitation.

I asked an acquaintance who is opening a brewery, Jesse Brookstein about what were their plans and he said that Call To Arms Brewing will be a neighborhood place for locals to hangout. He also commented that if they do bottle or can, it was likely that they would sell them on site not distribute.  Jamie Wells, of J Wells brewing hand bottles bombers than self distributes as a way to get customers into his taproom. Which for him was a smart move, since his brewery is in an industrial park not close to a neighborhood in Boulder. Front Range Brewing in Lafayette bottles speciality beers quarterly and sells them on premises. They also self distribute to a some liquor stores as J Wells Brewing does in Boulder, for the same reason to get their name out.

I'm not saying that a brewery can't sell their beers for distribution, I'm saying maybe wait until your beers are the best. What I mean is, craft that beer to be able to compete with what's all ready on the shelves.  I have drank some really okay beers that I wouldn't buy to take home. Some breweries hit it on the mark really fast like Niwot's Bootstrap Brewing with their Insane Rush IPA, the local liquor stores can't keep them on the shelves for long. 

I think that there are some people in the brewing industry that are in it for the future prospect of financial gain but those who are up on top got there with a great product like Adam Avery founder of Avery Brewing.  Like others, he started when the industry was in it's infancy but it took him over 20 years to finally build a state of the art brewing facility.  The industry has grown up since then and the beers out there are fabulously crafted, it's a different industry now with that influx of breweries selling their beers for distribution.

If you're going to distribute, the beer had better be killer because this is becoming a very competitive business.  Craft beer drinkers are getting more knowledgeable everyday that putting mediocre beer on the shelves will give a new brewery a bad name and word of mouth spreads fast.

These are of course one person's opinion, so please take it so.

Beer and Girl Scout Cookies at J Wells Brewing

J Wells Brewing and Girl Scout Cookies seemed to be nice pairing. Jamie Wells, founder/brewer of J Wells paired the beers that was chosen for each cookie. This was a Barley's Angels Colorado event hosted at the brewery and Deborah Cameron, of the chapter had to drive to the Girl Scouts of Colorado in Denver because the cookies haven't been released for sale yet but she managed to acquire the top three favorite cookies.

Deborah Cameron and Jamie Wells.

The Samoas cookie was paired with the Lisa, a red IPA that is brewed with Citra hops. He choose this beer because of the slight bitterness and citrus flavor that would complement the sweetness of the cookie.

A chocolate milk stout was paired with Tagalongs, the peanut butter cookie. The chocolate flavor of the stout complemented the peanut butter cookie to make a Reese's peanut butter candy which was Jamie's intention. It was a good pairing.

My least favorite cookie and beer pairing was the Thin Mints with Lig'Ts Out Stout, a Russian Imperial Stout. I found that the flavors worked against each other, it tasted light bad cough syrup. Not a good pairing for me.

Cari Schnepp.

Jamie gave a tour of his small brew house then mingled among the tables talking about beer and his brewing process. Deborah talked to the group of women about the up and coming events in 2015 and fielded questions about Barley's Angels. Cari Schnepp, gave a small introduction about the Girl Scouts as she is a troupe leader. 15% of the event's proceeds went to the Girl Scouts of Colorado.

I realized at this event that I'm not really into Girl Scout cookies and I wouldn't eat them with beer but I was in the minority.  I would say that most of the ladies really enjoyed the cookie and beer pairings or maybe it was the camaraderie among the women or both?

Cherrysh!t Imperial Porter release party at J Wells Brewing in Boulder.

December 15 was the release party for Cherish!t Imperial Porter at J Wells Brewing. That night it was cold out but inside the small taproom it was full and warm.  All the ladies from the brewing sessions were there to have a taste of their beer.  Deborah Cameron, founder of Barley's Angels Colorado was on hand to thank everyone for a marvelous job and to have a pint of our Cherrys!t Imperial Porter.

The Imperial Porter was rich with the added tartness and flavors of the cherries and at 8.0% ABV, not a session beer.  A few ladies suggested adding the Imperial Porter with the Chocolate Sweet Stout which made for it more smooth with just that hint of cherries.

Food truck, Tiger Sliderz provided the food pairing for this event, a coffee braised beef slider.  It was a good pairing with the Cherrysh!t Imperial Porter.  The richness of the beef lent well with the richness of the porter.

Jamie Wells, owner/brewer.

Cherryh!t Imperial Porter.

Barley's Angels; Eola, Amanda, Kirsten.
Karen, and Hollie.

Barley's Angels; Juliann, Colleen, and
Jessica.

Brewing Imperial Porter with Cherries at J Wells Brewing in Boulder, Part 2

On a cool Saturday morning I headed out to J Wells Brewing for our (Barley's Angels CO group) beer brewing session 2.

Jamie Wells and his assistant Nathan, were all ready at the brewery getting the water boiling in the 100 gallon tank. As the women trickled in the brewery, we started brewing the imperial porter. Jamie started us with measuring the grains, we used 6 different ones. Each one was weighed on a scale then dumped into the milling machine.  Jamie is a "dyi" person so he showed us the homemade grain miller, it's a wooden apparatus on wheels that grinds the grain.  Because of all the dust it produces, the milling is done outside. Some of the ladies helped Jamie with milling the grain outside and others talked to Nathan about the brewing process.

Weighing the grains.

Pouring the grains into the miller.

Outside watch the grains get milled.

Water was put in the mash tank and some of the ladies helped put the grains into the tank. Then each took turns stirring the mixture then it was the waiting game. After around 45 minutes or so the wort was transferred into another tank to boil. I didn't stay until the end but I assumed that after the boil it goes into the fermenting tank with yeast? Or is it pitch earlier? After all these years drinking beer, I still get that mix up. The cherries were to be added during the primary fermentation.  All in all it was a nice fall morning for brewing beer.

Adding the grains to the mash tun.

Stirring the mash.

Looks like oatmeal!

Brewing Beer at J Wells Brewery in Boulder, Part 1

I'm part of the Barley's Angels woman's group and last fall we had an opportunity to brew a holiday beer with J Wells Brewing in Boulder.

The brewing was broken down into three sessions; planning, brewing, and the release party. The cost of the brewing included all three session with a free beer and food pairing at the release party.

On October 27, 22 women came down to J Wells Brewing for the first session, planning the beer to be brewed.  Jamie Wells, owner/brewer was very agreeable to the bombardment of suggestions for the holiday beer. There was a consensus that the beer should be rich and dark while the minority wanted an IPA sort of beer. With the louder portion of the group, it was approved that a porter or stout would be a good winter holiday beer. But it didn't stop there, the women were very adventurous to want to add some other ingredients to the imperial porter. The imperial porter was the majority ruling for the beer.  Jamie just stood there helping us decided what adjuncts would be appropriate and we all agreed to cherries. Now Jamie did wonder where he would get cherries so late in the fall but he agreed to them. One of the ladies told us that she's allergic to cherries so Jamie said he would divide the beer in half and make part with cherries and the other without them.

Jamie Wells giving us his expert advise on the beer.

The next phase was to decided what malts, yeast, and hops for the porter. So Jamie talked to the group about what each would add to the flavor of the beer. With a projector he showed us what he decided from talking to us. I never really thought about how each ingredient can add to the final flavor of the beer especially malts and yeast.

At the end of the night, we were in somewhat of an agreement that our beer would be called Cherrysh!t Imperial Porter.