BYO Blogs

 Many of the beers I enjoy are brewed only from malt, hops, water and yeast, for example IPA and Octoberfests. But, I don't shy away from beers that contain other ingredients. I generally like coffee stouts or coffee porters and also recently wrote an article about brewing with coffee (May/June 2010 issue). If you were ever to stop by my house, you'd also know that I like cats. So, imagine how happy I was when — a year or so ago — I heard of a beverage that combined beer, coffee and cats. 

Well, not cats exactly. The beer — Mikkeller's Beer Geek Breakfast Brunch (Weasel) — is an imperial oatmeal stout made with coffee. But not just any coffee. This coffee comes from coffee cherries that have been eaten, and the coffee bean excreted, by the Asian palm civit. Civits are small mammals that look a bit like cats, but aren't. (They are most closely related to genets, other small mammals that look sort of like cats, but aren't.) The beans are cleaned and then processed into a very expensive type of coffee called kopi luwak (in Malaysia), ca phe chon (in Vietnam) or other names, depending on where it is produced. The Mikkeller beer uses Vietnamese civit coffee and is brewed at the Nøgne Ø brewery in Grimsatd, Norway. 

Here's a picture of the bottle (and Austin ZEALOT Joe White proclaiming that the Austin ZEALOTS are #1!)

Even before I began the process of opening Heretic Brewing Company, homebrewers would ask me what it took to open a brewery.

When you think about starting a brewery, you know you will need kegs to package some portion of your beer, but that is about as far as the thinking goes.

Upon arriving back to San Diego from my trip to Dogfish Head, the waiting game had begun.  My head was racing with all sorts of scenarios that included what life on the east coast would be like, how I’d fit in as the token So Cal guy in a small Delaware town, and wondering if being a brewer at DFH was the ideal working situation for me at this point in my life.  As the first week passed by, I followed up with the head brewer at the Mission Brewery here in town, to see if their new facility was operational yet and if they needed to add to their brewing crew.  I wanted to make sure I wasn’t leaving any local opportunities on the table before making any decisions on relocation. I was told that they couldn’t hire anybody just yet, but that maybe down the road in a month or two they’d have the money to hire someone full time.  It’s basically the same story I had heard before, so I was beginning to accept that I might be moving soon.  I’ll be the first to admit at that point in time, I was getting a bit weary of job searching.

After about 10 days of waiting, I finally received the call from DFH that they wanted to officially offer me a brewing position.  The woman I was speaking to immediately went into all of the benefits they provided, pay, the stock program, bonuses, etc.  After about 10 minutes of me listening to all of the great things they offer (and believe me it is the best I have ever heard from a craft brewery), she paused and asked “Well, what do you think?”  I was a bit overwhelmed at that very moment, so I told her that it all sounded very good and politely asked if I could take some time to let it all soak in before giving a definitive answer.  She completely understood and said I could take some time to get back to her. 

The next day I called my family and a few friends to share the good news.  As expected, there were mixed opinions as to whether I should make the move or not.  Then something unexpected happened.  That evening I received a voicemail from a gentleman representing the Firehouse Brewing Co. in San Diego.  He saw my resume and wanted to speak with me regarding a potential opening.  I called him back shortly after and had an interesting conversation with him about their current situation.  He himself was relatively new to the company and they were in the midst of a change in management due to some missteps from the people previously running both the brewing and business side of things.  Despite the growth they had achieved over most of the last 10 years, recently production had slowly fallen off and in turn sales were slumping.

What it all boils down to is that they were basically starting over again and wanted to inject some new blood into the place.  There was one remaining brewer that survived the old guard and a prospective Brewmaster that would be working as a consultant to help right the ship.  That was it for the production staff.  They wanted to know if I was interested in rounding out this trio.  I told him I was very interested, but that I needed to know how serious they were rather quickly since I had a pending job offer from you know who. 

You aren't ever going to catch me saying anything bad about beer. It's tasty. It's a social lubricant. It's fun to make. Everything about beer is great. Well, OK, there is that one thing. It starts with "C" . . . "Calories." 

For most homebrewers, our favorite beverage has given a lot to us, including fun times with friends and many a pleasurable brew day. But for many of us, it (along with the rest of our lifestyle) has given us something else — a few unwanted pounds. Fortunately, as homebrewers, we are in a better position than most beer drinkers to do something about this. Here is a quick list of how to keep beer in your diet, but not have it contribute excessive amounts of unwanted Calories. 

Drink Less and Exercise