Somethings different in the brewery these days… Perhaps it’s because where Alex normally stands on the brew deck there is a tall, long haired tattooed fellow manning the mashtun, though he does seem vaguely familiar. It’s George Kumparak from Triple Rock, down here to get a lil training on the bigger system here at Drake’s for a few weeks.
So, where’s Alex?
At Triple Rock of course- hanging with Rodger and brewing some Triple Rock favorites including Tree Frog and Reindeer Ale behind the glass wall at the Berkeley brew pub.
Why the switching you ask?
Why not?
Just thought it may be high time for brewers on both sides of our brewing family to learn the ins and outs of both systems, and needless to say they seem to be enjoying the change of pace.
“I’ve brewed here once before, just after I moved down here from Chico but I’d never worked on a system like this before;” said Alex, “It’s good to be back when I know what I’m doing.”
George, generally the quiet type, didn’t have much to add, but he said he’s enjoying the warehouse atmosphere compared to the fishbowl brewing experience in Berkeley.
Still, in a couple weeks our lady of the brewhouse will be back here in San Leandro and George will get back to business at Triple Rock, each with a little more brewing knowledge in tow.
Our three new 60 barrel tanks arrived in late September just as we were about to hop a plane for the Great American Beer Festival, and the excitement that day round here was pretty palpable. But, for the past couple of weeks the tanks have stood tall and enticing but empty in our new cellar as we have worked to make the space and the new tanks ready. Finally today, however, we finished preparing the new glycol lines and pre-treating the inside of the tanks to make them ready to take on their first brew. As I type, a fresh batch of our 1500 is finishing up its boil, and getting ready for transfer into the fermenter, thereby christening tank number 61 in the best way we can think of.
A week from Friday, Drake’s is teaming up with Tcho Chocolates for a Beer, Cheese and Chocolate Pairing event, and so, to prepare the best line-up of pairings for that night we thought it would be a good idea to have a pre-tasting here at the Brewery. Also, we just really really like cheese, chocolate and beer…mmm.
Last Friday at the Barrel House we gathered our bounty. With five cheeses — smoked gouda, chevre, Dubliner Irish Sharp Cheddar, Triple Cream, and Roquefort blue — six chocolates — Classic Milk, Dark Milk, Fruity Dark, Citrus Dark, Nutty Dark and Pure Chocolatey Dark — and the DBH’s grand wall of over twenty taps we proceeded (in a very orderly fashion and not at all like animals who hadn’t eaten in days…) to work to find perfect pairings.
It was arduous eating all that cheese and chocolate and drinking Drake’s beers… truly it was… but it had to be done.
BUT in the end we were triumphant, coming to several conclusions that we can now share with you.
Drakonic Imperial Stout, blue cheese and Pure Dark Chocolate- Simple Perfection.
Drake’s IPA, tangy chevre and dark milk chocolate. This one caught us a bit off-guard, but the tangy flavor of the chevre both worked with the grapefruit, citrus characteristics of our hoppy flagship and balanced perfectly with the malt tones and the bitterness. The sweetness of the dark milk chocolate was then the perfect cap that brought it all together.
Drake’s 1500, Dubliner cheddar and fruity dark chocolate. Our hop-foward 1500 paired great with the sharp and nutty cheddar, and the fruity dark chocolate was a harmonious match with the citrus flavors from the hops in the Pale Ale.
Smoked Cheeses are tough to pair as they just make all the beers taste like smoked beers. But, they seemed to work best with our Black Robusto Porter.
Triple Cream also worked well with the Drakonic. The one we had was more mild but a funkier cheese would have been absolutely perfect. A triple cream blue would be amazing.
While we weren’t looking at the Barrel Aged beers too closely- they had some amazing pairings too. One that was particularly stellar: Midnight Run- sour imperial stout aged in bourbon barrels – and Blue Cheese.
So, now we know you’re jealous and marking Oct. 21 on your calendar to go hang out with some Drake’s beers, cheese and chocolate in the city, but if by some terrible coarse of events you can’t make it we have a solution. Gather your own cheese, chocolate tasting smorgasbord and come down to the Barrel House. If you come up with any great pairings of your own- let us know! Cheers.
It’s a little quiet round the brewery today, but sorta that quiet before the storm sorta way… there’s a lot happenin’ this weekend.
Several of our brewers left yesterday for the Great American Beer Festival ready to chill with brewers and beer geeks from across the country and basically have a helluva, beer-soaked weekend. They took six official beers for judging including:
1500 American Pale Ale
Drakonic Imperial Stout
Drake’s IPA
Denogginizer Imperial IPA
Aroma Coma IPA
Barrel House Sour (aka the Amy “Beer in Wine” House, though we call it the “Amy” beer)- A Belgian Blonde sour beer aged in Chardonnay barrels.
Alex also hand-bottled an exclusive taste (just a couple bottles) of her Pink Boots Scholarship Saison for the Pink Boots National Meeting being held Friday of the festival, where she is one of the key speakers (nice job, Alex). Got to taste this beer earlier this week and it is pretty much exactly how she describes it: a classic Saison with a California hop edge. This beer comes out on draft in mid-October here in the Bay Area, and trust me, it should be on your list of beers to try before it’s gone.
Between the competitions, the hangouts, the Brewer’s dinners, meetings and tastings our brewers have a ton of beer in store for them this weekend, but those of us still in the Bay Area will be slinging some Drake’s beers for our home crowd too.
On Saturday, you will find us at two Oktoberfests in the East Bay: Oaktoberfest in the Dimond District in Oakland from 11-6pm and Parktoberfest at the Lafayette Park Hotel from 1-5pm. Then on Sunday our beer (along with live music and lots of meat) will be at the annual Sausages and Suds Festival from 10-6pm in downtown San Leandro.
So here’s to an epic beer weekend. Wish us luck, Monday’s gonna be fun.
This Friday is the 2nd of September and you know what that means… Drake’s First Friday is here again! To kick off the Labor Day weekend right we decided to have a good ole’ fashioned BBQ. What could be better than to send off what’s been a pretty damn awesome summer than with smoked meat, Drake’s beer and good friends? Answer: to send off summer with smoked meat, Drake’s beer and good friends for a great local cause.
This month we are hosting the San Leandro Scholarship Foundation, which works to provide graduating high-school seniors with the scholarships they need to put higher education within reach.
So, come out this Friday and join us with a pint, some pork and some friends to have a great time and help the students while we’re at it.
If you’ve never made it to one of our First Fridays, here’s a video of the action from our August event. As you can see, we all had a blast with old friends and new on that sunny San Leandro evening. Cheers!
Somethings different in the brewery these days… Perhaps it’s because where Alex normally stands on the brew deck there is a tall, long haired tattooed fellow manning the mashtun, though he does seem vaguely familiar. It’s George Kumparak from Triple Rock, down here to get a lil training on the bigger system here at Drake’s for a few weeks.
So, where’s Alex?
