Brews Travelers 365 Enki Stop

Just a quick post today to mention a cool couple of guys that I met the other day.  High school friends Brandon Wurtz and Michael Roberts have a mission: to travel the country for every day of 2014 visiting regional and local breweries wherever they pass through.  Their project is called Brews Travelers 365 and their official website is HERE. 

At this point the guys are just past the half-way point on their epic journey across the country.  They began in Texas (where they live) and have been all over the USA since leaving.  While visiting the Twin Cities they had already stopped at Town Hall, Bauhaus Brewlabs, and had more on the list.  I ran into them at Enki Brewing in Victoria.  My friends and fellow Jack of All Brews members Jesse and Kent were already firmly ensconced at the bar when Sj, Anna, and myself arrived.  Brewery co-owner Dan, tasting room manager Dave, and brewmaster Jason Davis were also there.  Brandon and Michael were sharing some bottles of beer that they had accumulated on their travels with everyone and we got to join in the fun! 

Sipping on some Enki Tail Feather IPA, I had a great time hanging out with the Brews Travelers and all my friends at the tasting room.  Lets be honest, I always like hanging out at Enki, and nearly always have a friend or two show up when I stop by. 

I really enjoyed meeting these two bearded gypsies and hope that they are able to finish their journey.  I envy their ability to quit work and take this type of challenge on themselves!  Having met the guys and seen their blog, I'll be continuing to watch their progress across our great country and perhaps take some cues from them for future brewery visits on my own travels.  Though their blog posts have fallen behind, they keep up to date with Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and Untappd.  Check them out!

Sour Tasting

John Hayes and Dan Norton from Enki Brewing recently approached me with some questions about sour beers.  Like many even fairly well educated beer drinkers they both felt that their knowledge and ability to judge the sours was not quite where they would like it.  As a BJCP beer judge I really appreciate those who know their beer shortcomings and want to improve on them!  I know several ranked judges who specifically request not to judge these categories of beer simply because they don't like them...to me this is something they should work at and either learn to like them or at least recognize good from bad examples!

I had already been amassing a collection of sour beers after our recent Belgium trip, so this was a perfect time to break some of those out and see if I had the chops to teach others what I know of the sour styles.  I have been thinking of doing a BJCP prep class for the Western Suburbs in the next year or two and this would be a great way to test my skills.  And an excuse to have some great sour beers!

My friend (and sour beer aficionado) Andrew and his wife Janelle joined us for this and contributed some cool beers as well.  John, Dan, Dan's wife (who isn't a beer person at all) and Sj all showed up for the tasting.  We had a few cancellations, and luckily another friend, Jesse, was able to fill in at the last minute!

I tried to start with the more accessible beers, since those are often viewed as "gateway" beers for non-sour drinkers.  We would then move into the more extreme examples.

Flanders Red

We started the grouping with what many would consider the easiest sour beer to handle: Flanders Red.  This style is a mixed fermentation including traditional beer yeast, lactobacillus, pediococcus, acetobacter, and brettanomyces yeast, usually fermented or aged in wooden barrels or foedors.  Also known as the Bergundy of Belgium, these reddish hued ales combine cherry or other dark fruit flavors with a tart or sour bite.  Most of these beers use a blend of older/more sour beer with a younger/less sour beer to get the right balance.  One of the most commonly found examples of this style here in Minnesota is the Duchesse De Borgogne.  This one is very approachable since it's tartness is tempered by back-sweetening, resulting in a sweeter and easier to handle flavor.  I used to really like this beer, but now it seems way too sweet for my palate.  I still have plenty of friends who love the beer, and have no problem with that!

From there we went to a homebrewed example that I brewed up in 2009.  This one has continued to increase in tartness over time, and certainly has more than The Duchesse.  I've been brewing one of these each year since 2008, and my skills are slowly increasing.  With the need to age for such protracted time (a year or so) zeroing in on the right recipe and making changes can take a bit of time!  I haven't quite gotten to the point of blending myself but I'm starting to think this is the way to go!

The third beer we tried was New Glarus Enigma.  This one has aged several years and has more of a tart cherry pie flavor than I remember from when it was fresh.  Still nice, but overall people liked my version better (Eric pats own back here...)

The last beer was the Jolly Pumpkin La Roja that I brought back from our recent trip to Michigan.  This one is not entirely traditional for Belgium, but is very close in style for tasting.  The complexity in the beer is incredible compared to our previous two examples.  Initially most of the unseasoned sour drinkers in the group loved the Duchesse, but by the end of the tasting several liked the Jolly Pumpkin more.

Flanders Brown Ale/Oud Bruin

The Belgian sour brown is really an offshoot of the Flanders Red, but tends to be a bit more mellow and darker in color.  Often these will be back sweetened or blended to have just a touch of acidity or sourness to them.  These beers usually have more dark fruit, raisin, prune, and some caramel or toffee malt flavors to them than the Flanders Red.  These are also often aged for some time and may have a bit of oxidation or sherry character.  There are not many local examples of this style and it hasn't caught on as much with the American craft beer scene yet, though does often act as a base for fruit beers.  I discovered a paper wrapped bottle of Leifman's Goudenband at The Four Firkins that would do nicely here!  This one was a hit with its smoother sourness and I think everyone liked it well.  I have had the chance to try a 20 year old bottle of this beer when in Antwerp that was still amazing.

Gueuze

Gueuze is really usually a blend of three years worth of spontaneously fermented lambics.  I did get a chance to taste some of the young unblended lambic beers in Belgium, but trust me, they get much more complex when blended together with older and more tart beer.  Brussels is the epicenter for this style of beer, but they can be found elsewhere, and now American brewers like Allagash and Jolly Pumpkin are doing their own versions of these beers.  The hot wort is traditionally run into a large flat copper coolship where it cools overnight and gets inoculated with random brewery bacteria.  It is then added to used wooden barrels (where most of the real wild yeast and bacteria reside) and fermented for 1-3 years.

I started here with the Timmermans Oude Gueuze (also from The Firkins).  I had never had this beer before, and expected one that was fairly mellow, based on the sweetness and mediocre sourness levels of the Timmermans fruit lambics I've tried.  It came as a bit of a shock that this beer was incredibly tart, virtually bursting with lemon flavors that made it stand out as very unique amongst geuezes I've tried in the past.

We then tried Andrew's Girardin 1882 which is one of the better and more accessible examples of the style.  This one was more balanced and complex than the Timmermans and is one of my favorites (if I can't find a Cantillon!)  The group was a little more challenged by this style but several still enjoyed the lemon-crazy flavors of the Timmermans.

Fruited Lambics

What most people think of when they hear the word Lambic is slightly tart fruit beers.  The quintessential and most available of these is Lindemans.  They have several flavors, but the Kriek (cherry) and Framboise (raspberry) are the most popular and most traditional.  These, like The Duchesse use a sour beer base, but back sweeten to the point of being nearly syrupy and cloyingly sweet.  The New Glarus Belgian Red and Raspberry Tart are very similar American examples.  I do like these, but after having the more traditional tart versions of these beers I have a harder time dealing with the sweetness.  All of our group (except us seasoned veterans) really enjoyed this beer.  Again--I don't judge!

We moved on to the Boon Marriage Parfait--a more classic Kriek with a much more sour and tart finish.  I really like this beer and find it to have a better balance of cherry flavor, but without the overwhelming sweetness.  This one wasn't as big a hit as I'd expected it to be.

Lastly we tried Andrew's Lindemans Kriek Cuvee Rene.  I had not heard of this beer before, though have tried the base Geueze Cuvee Rene which is quite good.  This is a Kriek that is amazingly different from their above-mentioned sugar-bomb.  I really enjoyed getting a chance to try this rare beer and it proved to me that Lindemans is certainly a good sour producer--even if they make most of their money on overly sweet versions of their beer.

American Sours

This is where it gets weird.  As with anything Americans like to do their own thing.  Follow traditional brewing methods that have been around for hundreds of years?  Nah!  Let's do something different!  Some of our sours are made like in Belgium, but many push the styles into new territory either by methods, ingredients or trying something completely new.  Unfortunately some of these experiments are either ill-conceived or brewing mistakes that are unintentionally sour--giving the rest a bad name.  I've had American sours that are as good or better than some in Belgium.  I've also had travesties that are amongst the worst beers I've ever put in my mouth.  Paint thinner and silage are NOT good flavors in a sour beer!

One of the best examples of great American sours is Cascade Brewing from Portland, OR.  I went to their barrel house tasting room last year and that place blew me away!  Instead of the more common brettanomyces fermentations, they focus on the lactic or acidic/tart styles.  They do various fruit beers like Strawberry, Blueberry, Cherry, but also some unusual strong ales like Vlad the Impaler.  For this event I cracked a two year old Cascade Blueberry that had changed quite a bit since I had it previously.  A lot of the blueberry had faded and a strong smoky phenol flavor had shown up.  I still liked the beer, but it was an entirely different experience for me.  Reviews on this one were positive, but not the overall winner of the day!


We had more to try, but at this point were losing folks.  The guys from Enki ordered us pizza and we had a great time with this event!  I hope that this brought everyone closer to enjoying sours as a broad style--or at least taught them what styles to focus on for their personal taste.  Andrew and I didn't get a chance to crack a few of our other beers so ended up doing that later in the week...perhaps I'll write those up as well.

Turning 40

This past week I celebrated my 40th birthday.  Strangely, where 35 freaked me out, this year's slow tick of the death-clock didn't seem to affect me much.  I'm guessing that the big-freak at 35 was because I didn't really even start my official career until age 30 and hadn't settled in for the long haul yet.  I'll also admit that since then I have gathered a fair number of friends who are older than me, and seeing them remaining cool and fun makes me feel like there is hope!  I worry a bit about becoming behind the times, but so far I can still talk video games, books, and music with the young folks.  I still have no comprehension of Twitter and hate songs with auto-tuning, so maybe this is the start of the drift to irrelevancy... Or perhaps just maintaining good taste! 

For my birthday week we did a lot of fun things to celebrate, and with all this fantastic stuff to look forward to I really had a great time! 

The festivities began on Tuesday with a Tyranena beer dinner at The Happy Gnome.  This is a small Wisconsin brewery that was ahead of the big craft beer boom curve, but that I've not really paid much attention to recently.  I did try their Painted Ladies pumpkin beer as part of my pumpkin beer blogging experiment, but that may be the only beer of theirs that I've had in 2 years.  I was pleased overall with the beer quality, and the well balanced drinkability of all of them.  The Sheep Shagger was one of the best Scotch ales I've had in a while...though the label design's shepherd with a lamb on his lap looks way too melancholy...  As usual we had a great time hanging out with our frequent-flyer beer dinner friends, as well as the wonderful staff of The Gnome.  The food was amazing as always!

On Wednesday, (my actual birthday) Sj had a meeting in the evening and my plans were to sit at home moping alone with a beer and my PS3.  My friends did not agree with this plan!  Mike Lebben, as well as Bryce and Elise came over to share beers and keep me company.  They all brought some cool beers for me, and I took this opportunity to crack a couple of rare beers that have been languishing in my cellar.  We had the incredibly tart and complex Cantillon Kriek, as well as a 2012 Black Tuesday to celebrate!  Lucky for Sj, I saved some of both for her tardy return!  It was fun just hanging out with friends on a school-night.

Saturday I went over to Andrew's place and we played Shadowrun, a game I haven't played since I was about 15 years old.  Its a roleplaying game from the 1980's in which the futuristic world is run by evil competing corporations who hire players for espionage, extortion, and various other misdeeds.  So the dystopian future of the 80's is really just the 2000's?  Though in the game, magic has returned to the world including elves, dwarves and trolls... I'm still waiting for that to happen!  This was a fun way to spend an afternoon--basking in the old-school geek glory of sitting around a table and rolling dice to kill things.

During this summer's CONvergence in Bloomington Sj and I donated money to Fearless Comedy Productions at a level that allowed for Courtney McLean and The Dirty Curls to play our event.  What event?  Well, why not have a 40th birthday party for me?  This was the ball that started rolling down the mountain, soon to become an avalanche ending in an amazing and crazy birthday bash.  Dan and John from Enki Brewing in Victoria kindly rented out their brewery for my nefarious deeds.  We had food catered through Chipotle, which seemed to be a big hit. 

Since the party was on a Sunday, and draconian Minnesota liquor laws don't allow taprooms to sell beer then, we were unable to drink Enki beer at the event.  I was able to furnish my own brews though and had six on tap using the JAB jockey-box.  The crowd favorites seemed to be the Mild Mannered, the JAB de Garde and the ill-fated Pumpacolypse Brau.  I managed to empty three kegs to make room for upcoming brews! 

Later in the evening, the band arrived and performed two sets of their deliciously raunchy music for our entertainment.  If you have not heard of them, you should check out their website here.  Watch a video and prepare to have your mind blown.  I'm amazed at how a group of (mostly) gals can sing such disturbing lyrics whilst maintaining a straight face!  I was a bit concerned that my friends and family would be horrified, but I think the band was a hit.  They sang one naughty serenade to Andrew and Janelle's 17 month old boy, who stood in rapt attention for the entire song.  They sang me a wonderful new birthday song that reminded me of the disturbing fact that my parents once had sex, and congratulated me on not being aborted!  Watching the crowd's reactions was almost as good as watching the band--I know I had tears running down my face from laughing so hard.

We're with the band...

The party turned out amazingly and I thank the band, the guys from Enki, and everyone who came to share the fun.  Special thanks to my best friend since Kindergarten, Bryan Keehl, who drove all the way from Chicago to take part.  Bryan gave a great speech that got both of us choked up and rivaled the one he gave at my wedding!  He also acted as my beer mule--bringing me some awesome Three Floyds beer from our field trip out there last month.  Thanks to all those who brought gifts (you really didn't need to, but I appreciate them) and cards.  My friend Marty the blacksmith forged me a heavy bottle opener in the shape of battle-axe that I carried around like a jaded king's scepter most of the night.

Both still ticking!

The point of this story you ask?  As I hit age 40 I find myself in the enviable position of having everything that I really want out of life.  I'm married to a wonderful woman who loves me and keeps me on track.  I have a busy job that I really love to do, and that provides me with the money to not worry about the little things as much.  I have a ton of great friends and a healthy family.  My hobbies of homebrewing and beer-blogging are an outlet for my creative side.  Now that I've reached this stage, I find that (for me) life is really about the experience.  Life is a series of experiences, some good, some bad, but all lead you along the road that becomes your history and your future.  Why do I love beer so much?  Each beer I have is an experience.  It will never be the same again, that special combination of company, location, food, etc.  Beer is meant to be shared--as are all great experiences like concerts, theater, sporting events, and even birthday parties.  The company and the event means more than the liquid in the glass.  This is the reason I continue my long-winded babbling about beer and beer events--I'm attempting to put into inadequate words the feeling that these things engender.  This is also a journal and remembrance of a series of (mostly) enjoyable events that make up the current chapter of my life.

To all my friends, family and other readers: Stop and enjoy those moments that make up your life.  Here's to another chapter and the next 40 years!

Terra Waconia's Enki Beer Dinner 2013

The other night I was fortunate enough to take part in Enki Brewing's first official beer dinner.  Our local fine dining establishment, Terra Waconia, has done several beer dinners over the past 2 years, most notably a dress-up Halloween dinner and a 21st Amendment dinner that I presented at.  They do a fair number of wine dinners, but they are clearly getting the hang of the beer side. 

Upon arriving in quaint downtown Waconia, Sj and I discovered our friend and fellow Jack Of All Brews alumni, Jon Baldwin sitting out in front of Frost & Steam getting caffeinated.  He was kind enough to give me bunch of his home grown Honeycrisp apples for later devouring.  Apparently he had also supplied the restaurant with fresh hops from his enormous Jack & The Beanstalk sized hop bine.  Soon we were also greeted by Jeff Capiello, another JAB member and husband of one of the wonderful chefs (Kim). 

Karie Menser McDougall and Dan Norton from Enki were there,  put to work pouring beers and presenting on them between courses.  Poor John and Jason missed out on this one!  At this point the brewery has only been open for 12 weeks.  Currently Enki has four beers in their line-up, so we had a four course paired menu to go with those beers.  Now is the part where I'll make you readers drool.  Oh, and it was fairly dark in the restaurant so my pictures don't do the food justice!

The first course was a sweet corn chowder with red, white, and blue potatoes.  The dish was topped with fried corn silk and one of Jon's deep fried cascade hops.  A beautiful dish that tasted of the fall harvest.  I'll admit I was hesitant to eat a whole hop--those suckers can be horribly astringent--but I was willing to take the gamble.  The frying process must have tempered the bitterness, because it was actually quite good and very unique.  The bitterness from the hop and the corn silk actually worked well with the sweet chowder, making the entire dish have a nice balance.  The soup was served with Enki's Victoria Gold, (the new version using American ale yeast), that is a pleasant and very easy drinking beer.  I think this beer will appeal to the locals who may not be ready for a pale ale, but is still a clean beer than a craft guy like me can still handle.  The pairing was spot on.

The second course of awesome was a salmon fillet atop a fresh salad of fall greens.  This dish was served with my new favorite pale ale: the Enki Citric Journey.  I love the mix of English malt, and bitter, but restrained American hops in this beer.  The beer cut the richness of the fish quite nicely and complemented the light dressing on the salad. 

Third course arrived next: a crisp philo dough wrapped around a flavorful cabbage roll, filled with barley and locally sourced beef.  I could have eaten 10 of these.  The crispy outer shell of the roll took the traditionally soggy cabbage roll to new heights.  This was paired with the Auburn Kolsch, the maltiness of the red ale working in harmony with the earthy delights of the dish.

And of course desert!  This was my favorite dish of the night--a light apple soufflé made with corn flour and topped with cream.  So airy and delicious.  And so small.  Again--wanted many more to throw down my voracious gullet!  This one was paired with the first iteration of Victoria Gold, made with a Belgian yeast.  This has been my least favorite beer by Enki so far, and I think it is starting to get some more unusual flavors over time.  The apple notes in the beer, while not thrilling on its own, did pair well with the desert dish. 

I really enjoyed this meal a lot.  Tracy and Craig run a tight ship at Terra, putting out amazing dishes made with locally sourced ingredients and a ever changing menu.  Paired with beers made by new local brewery, this made for a fun and relaxing evening with friends.  We love the rest of the staff at Terra, (shout out to Nikki and Kim), as well.  It was also great to hang out with Dan and Karie.  I feel that this was a great start to hopefully many more beer dinners for Enki in the future, especially as they expand their portfolio of beers.

Enki Brewing: Open For Business!

Back in January of this year I had the fortune to meet up with Dan Norton to discuss his upcoming scheme of opening a brewery in either Victoria or Waconia.  I posted the results and their cool logo in this blog and have been impressed with how many hits I continue to get on that posting.  In fact that post has the most hits of any I have written in the past two years!  Since January I have had a chance to hang out with Dan, his partner in crime John Hayes, and brewmaster Jason Davis several times.  I feel privileged to have been included in some of the planning and unrolling of the brewery and have been thrilled at their involvement with Jack Of All Brews.  I think this will be a great long term partnership for all of us! 

Enki Brewing is housed within the circa 1917 historic Creamery Building in Victoria (West of Chanhassen on HWY 5.)  I posted a mid-construction update a ways back that includes some pictures of the massive demolition and remodel required to get the building up to code for a modern age: check it out here.  Since then, they have continued to work long hours getting the place in shape to open for the Summer months.

Dan in front of the newly installed brewery prior to the opening

I stopped by the brewery on the night of their first batch, an evening fraught difficulty due to equipment issues, but giving them good experience on the new brew system.  When they initially told me that the goal was to open in June or July I thought they were insane...especially after seeing some other new breweries take well over a year to get going.  But in mid-June they quietly unrolled their first beer on a small local audience and have continued to have the tap room open for business!  At the time of this writing they are open Thursday and Friday from 4-10, Saturday Noon-10 and every other Wednesday for Victoria's classic car night.

Recently I have been traveling a lot (see my extensive notes on the Oregon beer scene and discussion drinking with geeks in previous entries) and actually missed the opening for the brewery.  I'm happy to say that I finally had a chance to get out there this Wednesday during the classic car night event.  The difference between the previous visits and today is extensive!  They have put in a small bar with tap connections directly to large serving tanks in a cooler behind the bar.  A door opens from the tap room to an outdoor Biergarten area that I think they will need to enlarge to make room for crowds.  The location is fantastic: right in the middle of the quaint downtown area and walking distance from School of the Wise and Floyd's for those who want some food after visiting the tap room.

John and Kent manning the bar!

At this writing, they had two beers on tap with more planned for the future.  Their first is called Citric Journey and is really not a beer that fits a current style.  By color I'd call it an American Amber, but the flavor profile is much more malty and toasty than that, ending with an almost roasted note.  Hops are present and contribute some bitterness and aroma, but this is not a very hoppy beer overall.  Clocking in at around 7% ABV it really goes down smoothly and the alcohol is very subtle.  For a first outing, I think this beer is a great start!  The second beer was just released this weekend and is an unusual Auburn Kolsch.  There was some issue with the filter not working right and the beer is a bit more cloudy than they wanted, but it does not affect the flavor at all.  A red kolsch is an interesting idea and one I have never seen before.  To me it lacks some of the fruity yeast character I expect in a kolsch and has a hint of roast that makes this taste more like an Irish red.  Don't get me wrong I like it, but I think it could do with a bit of tweaking to get the character they are looking for.  Overall for the first two beers to come out of the brewery, these guys are putting out interesting and very drinkable beers.  Their next is going to be a golden ale with the goal of having at least four beers on tap at a time.  Based on this visit, I'm excited to try more.

Biergarten

Compared to where Enki started, there has been much change to the brewery building, but it has kept some of the old feel including the rough walls, open timbers, reclaimed stained glass and the weird gargoyle faces on the side of the building.  The only issue I see with the place is that they may get popular enough to run out of space!  But that is a good problem to have for a brewery.  I'm very pleased with the tap room, the beers and the vibe here.  I'll admit I can't be a totally unbiased observer since I have known these guys for a while, but I try to be honest with myself and my readers.  Visit the brewery and tell me what you think!  Check them out on the Web, and Facebook.  Tell them I sent you!

Enki Brewing Update! Construction and Deconstruction

The creamery building--future site of Enki Brewery

A while ago I posted the first official press info about the upcoming Enki Brewing in Victoria, Minnesota.  Since then, I have consistently had about 30-100 hits on that particular blog post daily, showing a continued interest in this planned local brewery.  The brewery is being opened by current Victoria residents Dan Norton and John Hayes.  Dan has recently relocated here from Texas:  the poor guy probably expected summer by now!

Just this past Friday, Dan and Enki's Brewer, Jason Davis were able to join up with the monthly Jack Of All Brews meeting and give us a bit of an update on how things are going with the brewery.  Dan also invited me over to the building itself on Sunday and I was able to take some pictures of the process and show me the blueprints.

Really cool and slightly creepy exterior of the creamery!

The brewery building is a historic creamery that was built around 1917, and has been empty of activity for many years.  There is an apartment upstairs, and by Minnesota law the stairs connecting the residence to the inside of the brewery had to be torn down.  That was one of the first things that Dan and John did to get the building up to code.  Still, living upstairs from a brewery sounds like heaven to me, even if you do have to get in via the outside doorway!  As a very old building, there were some serious structural issues that the guys discovered over the last few months.  The roof has been replaced, holes in the walls and ceiling patched, painting, new windows, new doors, etc.  The electrical system needed an upgrade to handle the type of voltage necessary to run the mechanicals in the brewery as well.  They needed to invest in a huge new boiler, since much of the energy for their brewing system is steam generated. 

Massive new boiler

Local and state codes have resulted in some issues as well, leading to surprise costs and timing problems.  The taproom requires separate bathrooms for men and women, which led to the discovery that much of the antediluvian sewer piping needed to be replaced, resulting in having to tear through up to 10 inches of solid concrete!  Better now than later I guess, but not fun.  The mill room requires a lot of work to make it dust proof (and hence explosion proof!)  With all the structural work needing to be done, they have a tight schedule to get things finished.  The fermentation tanks are due for arrival in about a week and the guys are very excited about that!

The view from above before demo...

After the plumbing revamp...

More plumbing related destruction!

I was able to see (but not taste) the first few homebrew sized test batches that were brewed at the brewery.  Ah, reminds me of my old basement!  I plan to do an interview here with Jason Davis at some point to get more info about him and his plans for the beers, but I thought I'd give him a little time to get settled before I hold him to anything.

Overall, the Enki guys have made a lot of progress, but still have a lot of work ahead of them to get things up and running by summer.  The building is very cool and has a lot of character, which will really make this venue stand out amongst all the other Minnesota breweries.  I'm very excited to see what kind of traffic and business that Enki will bring to the tiny downtown Victoria area.  I know that I plan on having a beer at Enki and then heading right across the street for a sandwich at School of the Wise.  I aim to continue bringing you details and updates about this brewery over the next few months when things really get rolling.  Thanks again to Dan, John and Jason for including me (and my readers) in the process.  It isn't every day I get to document the entire process opening a brewery and taproom!  Oh, and check out Enki on their Facebook page as well for more up to date info.

Future patio where I can have an Enki beer while looking down at the lake!

April 2013 JAB Meeting Recap!

Since I am "technologically challenged" and can't seem to make The Jabber work for me (we need you back TIM!) I'm doing a blog entry about out most recent meeting.  For those who missed it, this should be almost like you were there...minus getting to taste the great commercial and homebrewed beers! 

The meeting this month was at my basement bar, and actually seemed to be a smaller and quieter group than usual.  Present were Jason and Dan from Enki Brewing, who both talked a bit about the current status of the brewery and their test batches of beer.  Both are now proud owners of shiny new JAB membership cards!  We also had a couple other new members show up, so welcome to all of you!  Some old-school members (Kramer, Rick) were able to make it--always good to have some old blood to balance all the new. 

Keeping in touch with JAB:  we have a facebook group (different from the facebook page) so you can ask questions or post comments and ideas.  If I haven't invited you yet, you can request to be added from that page and I'll send you an invite.

We talked a bit about upcoming events (check the website or JAB Facebook Group for more details.) 

1) We have a Big Brew scheduled at Excelsior Brewing:  it looks like they want us to bring a couple of homebrew set-ups and do this at the brewery.  Bryce will give us more info soon.  If anyone wants to be involved, post on the Facebook group or shoot me an e-mail.

2) Next month's meeting is at my place and is our Belgian Brew Off.  So bring your Belgian homebrews, and if you don't have one, bring something actually Belgian to share with us!  We will hopefully have a few prizes and what-not.

3) In June we will be distributing the yeast assignments for the experimental brew (September meeting.)  No details posted on that yet, but we plan to have one base recipe (all-grain and extract versions) with every person getting a different yeast to really showcase the different yeast characters.  I'd like us to have a lot of entries and see if we can get it published in BYO or Zymurgy.

4) We are nearing completion on the first JAB barrel ale!  We need folks to start signing up for making portions of the next beer so we can fill the barrel right away after emptying the current beer.  Our upcoming batch will be a lambic.  e-mail me or post on JAB FB group if you want to take part in this one.  We need to get going quick!  I have my materials and hope to brew in the next 2 weeks.

Gera gave a short talk on BJCP style judging, with fancy hand outs and everything.  I'm glad this was a smaller group, since the noise level was better than usual!  Thanks for the talk Gera!  I really want to keep our educational aspect of meetings, so I appreciate the work and effort that our members put into these presentations.  If anyone has any ideas for a quick talk, please don't hesitate to contact me about it!

Sorry Gera, the other pics were too blurry!

We had a bunch of good homebrews to try this month, with Gera taking home the Mash Paddle for her Cocoa Cardamom Mild.  We had an amazing Simcoe IPA from Garret that was a big hit amongst the hop-heads in the group.  Mark also had a very well balanced IPA.  Kramer wiped the cobwebs from some 2007 Beet Meade and some 2011 Tart Cherry for us.  I dug out a 2007 bretty version of his Cherry from my cellar and we tried them side by side with interesting results.  I knew I was saving that for something!  Joe discovered a new category of English Bitter: The Way Bitter Bitter.  Gary sampled one of the more interesting beers I've had: a pale ale with Sriracha hot sauce.  We promptly named this beer Hot Cock Sauce, and so it shall remain named for all eternity.  Sorry Gary.  Oh, and Alex had a peach and tea beer that was very interesting--but I'd up the sweetness on it next time.  Last, but not least, Scott brought a keg of smoked Scottish ale that was very easy on the palate!  We also had a few nice commercial beers like a growler of Town Hall's Twisted Trace barleywine.  Less commercial beers this month, but we also had my 6 taps free to sample and we had plenty to for us to drink!

Overall, a very laid back and fun meeting.  Perhaps the calm before the storm, because next month is Belgian Brew Off!!!

Jack Of All Brews Meeting 2/8/13: Rahr Bierstube

I had originally meant to do a recap of each JAB meeting here on this blog.  That has not happened, as I'm sure you have noticed!  I've had a great time at every meeting since we began having them in 2006, but some meetings seem to be special.  One such meeting was this last Friday.  Member Chris German of Brewer's Supply Group/Rahr was able to get the Rahr Malting Bierstube in Shakopee for a new meeting place.  The private bar/tasting room is just a bit over a year old now and this is the second time we have been invited out there to enjoy the venue.  There is a very spacious bar with a combination of old world wood and new stainless steel, as well as ample seating and good acoustics.  Old brewerania line the walls and classic German steins populate the display area behind the bar.  They also had two homebrews and some great commercial Minnesota beers on tap.  Love the Steel Toe Size 7!

JAB members listening intently to Enki Brewing founders

Both times we have been to this amazing venue a huge proportion of the folks showing up were new or prospective members--we had seven or eight new people this time.  Of course this sets the bar high for putting on a good meeting in the future!  We had over 25 people at this particular meeting.  The owners of the upcoming Enki Brewing in Victoria, Dan and John, were there to talk a bit about their plans and get to know their future local supporters.  I'm very pleased that they seem to have embraced our club as a partner for the future, and hope we can do a lot of things together in the next few years.

The wonderful Chris German

There was a lot of other business to cover this month.  We started with a quick introduction of new folks and then moved into Brewcred and bling for the last two homebrewing competitions-- 9 medals for Mash Out and 1 for the Beer Dabbler.  Tim talked about our new Dickie's work shirts and took pre-orders for those.  If we can get over 50 shirts pre-ordered we plan on having the club cover the cost of embroidering names on the front.  I call "Doc!"  Tim also managed to get a bunch of candi sugar and free Belgian yeast samples to give out for our May meeting's Belgian Beer Brew Off event.
  

I did a quick style spotlight on Belgian Dubbels with commercial examples Westmalle Dubbel, New Belgium Abbey, and one from Choc brewing.  We then moved into a quick talk by Tim about the unusual but effective method of eising beers, meads and ciders.  He was able to give us some pre and post eis samples from his personal stock to show the difference in the resulting flavor and aroma.  That eised berry melomel was amazing and I can see why he won the coveted Eis Anything trophy from Mash Out for the second year running.  Minnesota winter is the perfect time and place to try this out!

Then the meeting quickly devolved into fun drinking and socializing.  I think we accomplished quite a bit considering how large a group we had.  I'm guessing all the new guys were quieter than they will be in the future!  It was great to hang out with old friends and some new.  One thing I love about our meetings is never knowing who might show up--it could be an old member from years past, or a brand new brewer just getting passionate about the hobby and wanting to up their game by joining a club.  Personally, joining this club was the best thing I could have done for my brewing, but also for my social life.  We tried a few good homebrews and Ben and Bob won the Golden Mash Paddle this month for their black IPA. 

Thanks again to the folks at Rahr, especially to Chris and Jeff.  We all had a great time this month and look forward to getting back here in the future! 

Enki Brewing

You heard it first here folks:  A new local brewery rises from the frozen landscape to burn brightly upon the steel grey horizon!  Enki Brewing will be a new production brewery located in Victoria, Minnesota.  They will be the closest brewery to where I live and this makes me very happy!  Way too many breweries have been opening in Northeast Minneapolis or in St. Paul and not enough out West, leaving us to feel unloved and forgotten by the brewing community.

Enki is a long time dream of Dan Norton and John Hayes, two fellows who met while both working at Nike many years ago.  Both men are avid homebrewers and have finally taken the plunge to start their own business and finally work for themselves.  The current plan is to move into the historic Victoria Creamery, building a production brewery and tasting room into the existing structure.  Being such an old building, there will certainly be some changes necessitated by local and state laws regarding breweries, but this will hopefully not cause any unnecessary delays in their schedule.  The fermentors and brewing equipment have already been purchased and a head brewer has been hired, so this looks like it will really happen soon!  The goal is to be serving fresh local beer by this Summer, both at the tap room and on draft at local drinking establishments.  They are also aiming to have a patio area off of the tasting room for outdoor seating during the warmer months.  Being in the depth of the Minnesota winter I find it difficult to remember that we do get some nice weather here.

I met with Dan Monday at my bar where we discussed these plans as well as the local beer scene over some homebrews.  Dan is a very friendly sort of guy who knows more sports trivia than I'll ever comprehend, and seems very excited to be taking this next step in his career.  The partners and their brewer have already been at work this past week brewing up some smaller scale test batches to come up with their flagship beer.  From the sounds of it this may be a kolsch, a refreshing and lighter style with subtle fruity notes that should appeal to beer geeks as well as those who are still nervous about drinking anything with color or hops in it.  Not a bad idea for a good craft cross-over beer for our more conservative area.  They hope to do at least one lager since Dan is a huge fan of them after living in Germany for several years, but since these tend to take longer to ferment and clear it may be tougher to start with one.

When asked about the name of the brewery Dan revealed that Enki was the Sumerian Goddess of running water, as well as being an anagram for Nike, where the two partners began their dream of this brewery.  The logo is pretty wicked as well, and I've put in my order for a hat already!

It seems that they are willing to embrace the Jack Of All Brews club and involve us in beer releases or tastings and possibly even eventually brew one of our homebrew recipes commercially!  I'm very excited about the ability to be involved in these things and I know a lot of our members will be as well.  I'm sure that Enki will need volunteers to help out at the brewery and with events and hope that we can assist with those things. Dan and John also plan to make it to some JAB meetings which should be a great way for them to get acquainted with a bunch of the local beer fans.

I think these guys have a good goal and plan and seem fun and down to earth.  I have every hope that they will succeed and make a stellar local beer that I don't have to drive 45 minutes to have on tap.  As with any new brewery in this time of rapid craft beer growth they have a lot of hurdles to jump over before they can succeed: local laws and inspections; local tastes in beer; learning a new brewing system; getting beers into bars and restaurants; learning how to use the local water; and potential for hop and grain shortages.  I wish them lots of luck and will do everything I can to help their plan!

Addendum:  As of June 2013 Enki Brewing is open for business!  If you are coming to this blog entry late, I have a review of the brewery here.  Feel free to check it out--and to check out the brewery itself!