Posts Tagged ‘Drake’s Brewery’
Thursday, November 1st, 2012
John Martin (left) and Roy Kirkorian (right)- beer guys.
This Saturday marks the anniversary of what has been a huge milestone in the growth of our humble brewery. Four years ago on November 3rd, John Martin and Roy Kirkorian walked into the Drake’s Brewery as the new owners. There they found a 19-year-old boil kettle, thirteen 15 barrel fermenters, one driver, and two brewers who were putting out just under 1000 barrels per year of some of the best brews in the Bay Area.
It was the beer that drove them; both John and Roy knew the potential that Drake’s had with each taste of the beers. The small brewery just needed the extra push and investment to grow, and it certainly has.
In 2008, Drake’s was brewing 2-3 times per week and producing just under 1000 barrels (1 barrel= 31 gallons = 2 standard American kegs) of beer per year. Now, we are brewing 4-5 times per day, running a 24 hour daily schedule Sunday-Thursday, and aiming to brew approximately 13,000 barrels of beer by the end of 2012 (20,000 barrels for 2013).
The old shrink wrap label.
IPA's new look.
The brewery has expanded to fill the entire 6,100 square foot space with three 80 barrel fermenters, seven 60 barrel fermenters, four 30 barrel fermenters, seven 20 barrel fermenters, six 15 barrel fermenters, a new 20 barrel boil kettle and brewdeck, and a brand new 16-head bottling line. The cold-storage, barrel-aging program, admin offices, and tasting room were moved into the building next to the brewery, and new storage space was acquired. Drake’s now inhabits 22,000 square feet in San Leandro. The only pieces of equipment that still live in their original spaces are the silo, mill, and mashtun.
In June 2011, we opened Drake’s Barrel House Retail Store and Taproom beside the barrels of aging beer where we have the ability to showcase up to 22 beers on tap including a rotating selection of our small batch barrel-aged beers.
With all the growing, the work load has increased to accomodate over 32 full and part time employees, all of whom have a deep and abiding love of great beer.
It’s been a thrilling 4 years for Drake’s, and we have no doubt as to what has made it possible for us. It’s the fans of the beer, our proponents in the streets looking for our beers on the shelves, talking us up to their local barkeep, and watching out for our latest releases. So, to give back to your guys on Saturday, come by the Barrel House for “one on John and Roy.” A free 4oz taster of your choice and a free glass of our latest seasonal Exxpedition Imperial Red Ale on cask (while the cask lasts). Cheers to many more years, and many many more beers!
Click on the pics below for larger views of our changes over the past 4 years.
Tags: Anniversary, Craft Beer, Drake's Barrel House, Drake's Brewery, Drake's Brewing, Economic Growth, Expansion, Growth, John Martin, Roy Kirkorian
Posted in beer, Brewers, Brewery, Drake's Brewing, Drake's Staff | No Comments »
Thursday, November 1st, 2012
As the winds rise and the chill begins to fall on the Bay Area, the brewers at Drake’s beckon forth again their swashbuckling seasonal Jolly Rodger from the fog. On Saturday, November 10 at 12pm at Drake’s Barrel House, this year’s incarnation of our always bold Jolly Rodger will emerge from the tanks to greet craft beer fans on tap and in 22 oz. bottles.
Fans of Jolly Rodger will know that this brew has over the years taken many forms and styles. Now, after years of scallywagging about and dallying with any style that caught its fancy, good ole JR is returning to it’s original form, an American Barleywine.
Originally crafted as a holiday brew that Drake’s brewers could get behind, Jolly had all the warming powers of malt and alcohol, minus the strange holiday beer ubiquitousness of overpowering pie spices, and finished with the open handed smack of bold Northwest American hops.
The 2012 Jolly Rodger is full-bodied with rich caramel malt undertones and mild biscuit malt character. Sufficient additions of West Coast hops balance the malt with pine needle aromatics and satisfying bitterness.
Release Event Details:
When: Saturday, November 10 from 12-9pm
Where: Drake’s Barrel House- 1933 Davis St., San Leandro, CA 94577
Food: Oakland’s Fist of Flour Wood-fire Pizza
Beer Availability:
Jolly Rodger will be available on tap, on cask, in growlers (2 per person), in (very limited) 5 gallon kegs (1 per person), and in 22oz bottles (6 per person limit).
We will also be pulling some barrel-aged Barleywines from our barrels to put on tap at the Barrel House for a Drake’s Barleywine Flight opportunity for the beer geeks to drool about.
Tags: American Barleywine, Barleywine, Barrel-aged, Barrel-aged beers, Beer Release, Brewery, Brewing, Craft Beer, Drake's Brewery, Drake's Brewing, Fists of Flour Pizza, Hops, Jolly Rodger, Jolly Rodger 2012, Jolly Rodger Ale, Malt, Seasonal beer, Specialty Beer
Posted in Barrel House, Brewery, Drake's Brewing, Event, Jolly Rodger, Release, Seasonal | No Comments »
Wednesday, October 24th, 2012
On Monday, a new label ran through our bottling line in San Leandro. For the first time, the long time, draft only brew, Black Robusto Porter stepped into our bottle line-up in 22oz bombers.
Drake’s Black Robusto is a deep, dark “Robust Porter,” a beer style known for being darker, fuller-bodied, and stronger than a standard Brown Porter. Each pint goes down smoothly with flavors of bittersweet chocolate and slight roast from Crystal and Chocolate malt. A touch of spicy, herbal hop character from Willamette hops balance out the finish. Enjoy a pint, and now a bottle, with dark lingering satisfaction.
With it’s malt backbone, chocolate, and roasted flavors, the Black Robusto also plays an exceptional role on the table as it pairs well with smoked meats, BBQ brisket, mole, chocolate, and much more.
Just bottled Monday, you are welcome to grab the Black Robusto here on the shelves at the Drake’s Barrel House starting today, and it should make it to stores in the Bay Area within the next week or so. Further out in SoCal and up past Sacramento, our fans can expect to see it sometime in November. Cheers to more Drake’s beers.
Tags: Black Robusto Porter, Bomber, Bottling, Craft Beer, dark beer, Drake's bottles, Drake's Brewery, Drake's Brewing, food pairing, Release, Robust Porter, San Leandro
Posted in beer, Brewery, craft beer, Event, food and beer pairing, Release | No Comments »
Wednesday, August 22nd, 2012
If we had to name the common ground that every single person on the crew shares, there’s no doubt that it would be an intense fascination with the process of making craft beer, tasting it, and sharing it with others.
Kelsey's manning the camera as Alex pulls from a wine barrel
Today, we got members of the whole crew involved round the brewery in various tasks. Early on in the day, Lead Brewer Alex grabbed the wine thief tool to check on the sour barrels with tasting and barrel climbing help from our Community Manager Kelsey. Then, Barrel House Manager Gabbi and DBH Bartender Antonio ascended the catwalk to help John Gillooly dry hop a 60 bbl batch of IPA. Afterwards, Tony went behind the mashtun to give Chris Dunstan a hand in graining out today’s batch of Hefe.
Having earned the brewer/kinda for a day badges. It was then time for a toast at the Barrel House for a job well done. Teamwork kids. That’s what’s up. Cheers.
Tags: Alexandra Nowell, Antonio Sarinana, Barrel-aged, Bay Area, Craft Beer, Drake's Brewery, Drake's Brewing, Dry-hopping, Gabrielle Chan, Kelsey Williams, San Leandro, Teamwork
Posted in beer, Brewers, Brewery, Drake's Staff | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, July 31st, 2012
Alex and Vince had a good time mashing in.
There’s a guest brewer in the house today, and I don’t think we could have picked a better brew day for him to join. Vincent Hine, former brewer at Hallertau Brewbar, a 12 hectoliter (~10 bbl) brewpub in Auckland New Zealand joined Alex on the brew deck.
We first met Vince last November at a local beer festival here in San Francisco, and have been hatching plans to have him in for a brew day ever since. So, when Vince showed up this Saturday for the Aroma Coma and Aroma Prieta release, one of those little Eureka lightbulbs popped up over our heads… bring him in for the next Aroma Prieta brew.
Yes, that’s correct. More of our newest seasonal, Aroma Prieta double-dry-hopped IPA with New Zealand hops is hitting the tanks today.
We know what you’re thinking… ”That’s Awesome! But why didn’t you just brew more in the first place?”
There’s a pretty fascinating answer for that, but the short version is: We didn’t get all of our New Zealand hops in time for the first brew. Due to the growing popularity of New Zealand’s hop varieties and their long harvest season, all the hops we planned to use didn’t quite make it to San Leandro in time for the first brew of Prieta.
According to Vince, their particular aromas and flavors of tropical fruit, lemon, citrus, and gooseberries have caught the attention of brewers both domestically, where they have traditionally relied more on Noble and English varieties, as well as in American craft breweries.
“From what I’ve seen of the hop fields, it’s still a very small production, but expanding. I don’t know if they are expanding at the rate of popularity,” Vince explained.
Still, despite initial setbacks, we are currently brewing up more Aroma Prieta today, which according to our in-house expert of the day, is “balanced with nice Motueka (lemon, citrus) and Nelson Sauvin (lemon, gooseberries, and sometimes green bell pepper) character.”
Thanks Vince for hanging out, helping us with the brew, and giving us some first hand insight into New Zealand hops.
For those still seeking Prieta, we currently have a few cases of bottles left here at the Barrel House, and the next batch should be available in a couple of weeks, though we’ve not decided how much will become bottles and how much will be draft. In the meantime, have an Aroma Coma. Cheers.
Tags: Aroma Coma, Aroma Prieta, Craft Beer, Drake's Brewery, Drake's Brewing, Guest Brewer, India Pale Ale, IPA, IPA Day, Motueka, Nelson Sauvin, New Zealand, New Zealand hops
Posted in beer, Brewers, Brewery, craft beer, Drake's Brewing, Drake's Staff, Seasonal | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, July 11th, 2012
Beer is 90+% water by weight. Brewery cleaning and sanitation is essential to consistently great craft beer and also requires a healthy amount of clean, hot water. With these two facts in mind, the brewery upgrade we installed yesterday, while not as flashy as big, shiny, new 80 bbl tanks or a larger boil kettle, is just as exciting to us. Two new Bosch OnDemand water heaters now reside on the back wall of the Drake’s Brewery capable of continuously supplying us with up to 175 degree water, and thereby allowing us to keep our hot liquor tank consistently full and ready for another brew.
Before these heaters, we had to dip into our hot liquor supply for both brewing purposes and for the necessary cleaning steps following each brew, so by the end of the day (3 batches on average), our hot water was gone. Therefore, to allow ourselves the option of going beyond the 3rd brew in a day, we needed a way to keep the hot water flowing.
Enter our good friend Taylor Shaw, Bosch representative and coincidentally a big fan and friend of craft beer and Drake’s and her associate Tara McNamara. She came in yesterday with her crew and had the heaters installed and ready in no time. Now, our brew day can go the distance, perhaps eventually into 24 hour rotations. Long story short, endless hot water = potential for endless Drake’s beers.
As you can see, Jesse is quite happy about the addition. After the install, we all decided it was time to celebrate with a beer.
Tags: Bosch Water Heater, Brewing, Craft Beer, Drake's Brewery, Drake's Brewing Company, Jesse Houck, News, OnDemand Water Heater
Posted in beer, Brewery, Drake's Brewing | 1 Comment »
Monday, June 18th, 2012
Aroma Coma fans, it’s time to get happy. Not only are we planning to release Aroma Coma again in 22oz bottles in a larger run than last year, but this year, we are also releasing Aroma Coma’s sister beer, Aroma Prieta in bottles and on draft.
Aroma Prieta will be, like Aroma Coma, 6.75% ABV and 75 IBUs. Check out the label description:
“Shake out from Aroma Coma with Aroma Prieta. Aroma Coma’s sister beer mirrors its twin starting with primarily American 2-row barley malt and a touch Caramalt for body. From there, we turn things upside down. This time, Prieta leaves behind Coma’s North American hops for some Southern Hemisphere hop action. New Zealand hops Nelson Sauvin, Pacific Jade, and Motueka and Aussie hop Helga in the double dry-hop give Aroma Prieta huge notes of tropical fruit, gooseberries, and grapefruit. Like Coma but different: breathe in these hops and enjoy.”
Aroma Prieta will be released alongside Aroma Coma on July 28th with a release event here at Drake’s Barrel House (details TBA). Afterwards, both beers will be available out in the market, with Aroma Coma more widely distributed.
Our long-time fans will remember Aroma Prieta as a beer we have done in the past (last brewed in 2010), but not with NZ hops. Essentially, its original concept was to be a twin beer with different hops. So, this time around for a large scale release we decided to go for more fruit-forward NZ hops as a cool contrast with the piney, resinous hop character of Aroma Coma. Breathe in the hops and enjoy.
Tags: Aroma Coma, Aroma Prieta, Bay Area, Craft Beer, Double-dry hop, Drake's Beer, Drake's Brewery, Helga, Hops, India Pale Ale, IPA Festival, Motueka, Nelson Sauvin, New Zealand, Northern California, Pacific Jade, San Francisco, San Leandro, Sister Beer
Posted in beer, craft beer, Drake's Brewing, Release, Seasonal | 3 Comments »
Friday, June 8th, 2012
We here at Drake’s are pretty big Rye Whiskey fans. If you asked all of us, it would probably be in the top 5 beverages for most folks here. That’s why this week was pretty excellent. We just received and filled our first Rye barrels from Heaven Hill distillery in Bardstown, Kentucky.
We filled 2 of these beauties with Drakonic and the third with our Moscow’s Burning Smoked Imperial Stout. The fourth barrel there is Heaven Hill Bourbon filled with Barleywine. This time the wait is going to seem very long… we want it now! Cheers.
Tags: Barrel-aged beer, Barrel-aging, Drake's Brewery, Drake's Brewing, Drakonic, Heaven Hill, Imperial Stout, Moscow's Burning Smoked Imperial Stout, Rye Whiskey
Posted in Barrel House, beer, Brewers, Brewery, Drake's Brewing | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, May 16th, 2012
Three years ago, the brewers, in an effort to give their livers a break from the big IPAs and double IPAs they’d been cranking out (IPA, Denogginizer, Hop Salad, Aroma Coma, Hopocalypse), decided to brew a session ale. However, they were unwilling to give up their west-coast hop addiction to accomplish this goal.
Their solution? 1. Brew a light, refreshing session ale with 2-row, Maris Otter, and a touch of crystal malt (3.8%) 2. Crank up the hops to IPA levels (50 IBUs) with large additions of West Coast hops in the boil and another hefty dosage in the dry-hop. 3. Leave the beer only loosely filtered. 4. Enjoy many pints.
Since our first batch of Alpha Session, low-ABV ales have grown in popularity throughout the craft beer community, with ales like English-style Milds, Berliner-weiss, and small beers growing in popularity. So after two years of brewing this “NorCal Bitter” ale in small batches, and likely drinking most of it ourselves, we are ready to share our hop-forward take on session ales with our fans. This time round, Alpha Session has been given full annual seasonal status, meaning that once a year this brewer favorite will be available both on draft and in 22 oz bottles.
To celebrate, we’re kickin’ back at the Barrel House all day Saturday, May 19th from 12-9pm. The Drake’s crew will be on hand sippin’ on Alpha Session, giving tours, playing games of washoes, and generally having an excellent day. For noshing, Oakland’s Fists of Flour pizza truck will be coming by all day to sling pies for our friends. Bottles of the Alpha Session will be available for purchase (limited number per person), so folks can come have a pint and take home some more for later.
Tags: Alpha Session, Brewery Tours, Drake's Barrel House, Drake's Brewery, Drake's Brewing, event, FIsts of Flour, Food Truck, pizza, Seasonal release, session ale, Spring Seasonal
Posted in Release, Seasonal | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, January 3rd, 2012
We can’t tell you whether you need to worry about the Apocalypse in 2012, but we can say definitively that the Hopocalypse is imminent. Clear room in your fridge; designate your driver; and prepare your tastebuds. On Saturday, Feb. 4th, the End is Beer.
Yes, the Hopocalypse hit the tanks today. Jeff stirred the mash of batch number two as Chris gleefully added the last of four massive hits of hops to the batch number one, and the whole brewery buzzed with an energy that comes from brewing this beer.
This seasonal orange beast boasts a hop arsenal of Magnum, Chinook, Simcoe, Citra, and CTZ and a three-hop dry-hop that will convert all who drink it into hop-heads and send its devotees into the beer rapture with its tantalizing, heady aroma and crisp slap of citrus and pine… Alright, so maybe we’re waxing poetic a little… we get that way about this beer.
The Hopocalypse is one of our favorite brews each year, and this year’s batch will the biggest yet. We are set to brew more of the Hopocalypse than ever before, and for the first time we have brewed what we have christened the Hopocalypse Black Label- a Triple IPA at 12.5% ABV with huge amounts of 5 different hops that will be available on draft and in a limited release of 22oz bottles only at Drake’s Barrel House.
Alex brewed the Black Label just before the New Year filling the mash tun to the hilt, but only filling the boil kettle two-thirds full to reach the level of Plato needed to hit the 12.5% ABV mark. Now the Black Label is tucked safely in its fermenter where it will be for the next month slowly transforming into a dangerously, delicious beer.
The Hopocalypse and the Black Label will burst forth from the brewery with force February 4 to greet all you patiently waiting hop-heads with a special all day release at Drake’s Barrel House. Mark your calendar. The Hopocalypse approaches.
Tags: Bay Area, Beer Release, Black Label, Brewer, Brewery, California, Craft Beer, Double India Pale Ale, Double IPA, Drake's Barrel House, Drake's Brewery, Drake's Brewing Co., East Bay, Hopocalypse, Hoppy Beers, Hops, Imperial India Pale Ale, Imperial IPA, John Martin, San Leandro, Seasonal
Posted in Barrel House, beer, Brewers, Brewery, craft beer, Event, Hopocalypse, Release, Seasonal | 2 Comments »
