California Beerzine

Homebrew Away From Home: SoCal Festival Moves to Lake Casitas

The annual spring Southern California Homebrewers Festival is always one of the coolest beer parties in the bottom half of the state, but this year, the fest was literally cooler. That’s because the 2008 festival was moved from the traditional toasty Temecula location in Riverside County to the more temperate climes of the Lake Casitas Recreation area, outside of Ojai in Ventura County, where a refreshing breeze blew in off the lake to the relief of the revelers.

Over 1,000 homebrewers and their friends, representing nearly 30 brewclubs – from Alpha Ales of Orange County to Walnut Valley Beer and Gourmet Society of Walnut – descended upon the grounds on May 2, set up camp and erected their serving booths for the opening festivities that evening (including a Belgian ale taste-off, a single malt Scotch whisky tasting and live music), and the day-long party May 3.

With each of the homebrew booths featuring at least five beers on draught, and some close to 20, there were literally more brews than people could get to in a day. And the majority of them were exceptional. Among the most unique beers were the winner in the Belgian taste-off, the Long Beach Homebrewers’ French Oak-aged Belgian Quad from Julian Shrago; the Chamomile American Strong Ale from Pacific Gravity (which won Josh Jensen a Gold Medal in this year’s Mayfaire competition); and “Alexander Rodenbach,” a blend of two beers from the Strand Brewers: Super Sexy Flanders and Flemish Sour Red, which was phenomenally tart, and definitely exceeded the sum of its parts.

Aside from the sun and the suds, the day also featured talks by Firestone Walker Brewing’s head brewer Matt Brynildson and Hop Union’s GM/owner Ralph Olson, and a raffle of brewing equipment and assorted breweriana. Tina Damery of Arcadia won the grand prize: a deluxe brewing system from Beer, Beer & More Beer. There was also live music throughout the day, including a lunchtime performance from Steve Casselman (a bluesman and brewer who has performed at all of the SoCal Homebrew Fests, and the Maltose Falcons’ Brews Band, which closed out the fest with a dance-inducing set of class rock covers –– and proved that homebrewers can make good music too.

All photos by Tomm Carroll

Bombing Through Humboldt County

In the extreme Northwest of California, Humboldt Nation to be precise, you will notice an amazing concentration of breweries and brewpubs in and around Eureka. Most people recognize Humboldt for its other major export. Believe me, that hasn’t stolen the attention of all the great beer coming from Humboldt.

Why is so much great beer concentrated in this area? After speaking with several brewers from the region, I think I’ve traced it back to a couple of reasons.

One is the Humbrewers Guild, an active homebrew club that dates back earlier than the advent of craft brew itself. The other is the Humboldt brewery (no longer with us, label was bought out by Firestone Walker).

Bob Smith, Founder and President of Mad River Brewing Company, spent much of his time brewing with the Humbrewers. He was a regular patron of Ken Grossman’s homebrew shop in Chico, buying supplies for himself and the club. Ken eventually closed the homebrew shop in order to start Sierra Nevada, a decision we are all happy about.

Bob was putting in time at the Humboldt Brewery to help ensure their success in the county. He also consulted for Wendy Pound and Barbara Groom on their new brewpub, Lost Coast. After all this, he had the momentum to get backing for his own brewery. He wanted it to be a production facility from the start.

Mad River now produces the Steelhead and Jamaica Brand of beers. During the holiday season, they produce John Barleycorn Barleywine (GABF Gold medal last year). While I was up visiting this month they were working on test batches for this year’s release. Seek it out.

I spoke with GABF Gold and Silver medal winner, Carlos Sanchez (Brewmaster, Six Rivers Brewpub) who, two weeks after losing a boring day job back in 1990, decided to go work at Humboldt brewery. He came onto the job with plenty of experience in homebrewing and judging beers for the Humbrewers guild. When he wasn’t brewing there, he was helping out at Mad River Brewing, which had just started up.

When Humboldt Brewing started to plateau in production, Carlos decided to take the job as Brewmaster for the newly formed Six Rivers Brewing Co. He was eventually able to secure Humboldt Brewing’s original equipment and he brews on that equipment to this day.

So what about Humboldt’s “other export” in terms of beer marketing? When I sat down and spoke with Ted Vivitson, President and Founder of Eel River Brewing Co., he had this to say: “I’ll go around the country and people say ‘where you from?’ and I say Fortuna, California, they say ‘where’s that?’ and I say Humboldt, they go ‘ahhhh….you bring any?’”

Instant name recognition.

So let’s review some of Humboldt’s finest:

Six Rivers Brewing Co.
While Carlos does bottle some of his staple beers (IPA, Pale, Porter), distribution is very limited. You truly need to visit Six Rivers, only 20 minutes north of Eureka. His GABF silver medal winning Chili Pepper ale has to be experienced.

He puts roasted and raw habaneras, japapenos, ceranos, and anaheims into a food processor, chops them up, puts them in a mesh sack and lets it sit in a base wheat beer for about a week. The beer smells like hot peppers, and a second or two after swallowing you get a 5 second heat blast. Again, you have to experience this beer.

A couple other to mention, Carlos does an amazing rasberry framboise and it is one of his biggest sellers. My favorite, though, was his GABF gold medal winner: the nitro poured kona moon porter. Wow, the coffee comes through nicely in both aroma and flavor and the nitro adds a creaminess. All backed up with a subtle roast in the porter. This is a beer I could easily drink at 6am.

sixriversbrewery.com

Mad River Brewing Co.
Sells both the Steelhead and Jamaica Brands of beer. They have a great tasting room next to the brewery that has the elusive seasonal John Barleycorn Barleywine and usually a couple other special beers. I had a chance to try the Scotch Porter which is a Porter mad with a peated malt. Wonderful Porter flavor up front that introduces a subtle smokiness into the back of your mouth.

madriverbrewing.com

Eel River Brewing Co.
Eel River is the first organic brewery in the country. They are located about 20 minutes south of Eureka in the quiet sunny town of Fortuna. They have a production brewery further down the road but all of the brewpubs beers are done on the house system, on location.

Their menu has a solid organic lineup. I tried the Organic Blonde which was an enjoyable easy drinker. The Amber Organic was a true to its West Coast heritage, that went down easily as well.

Eel River is known for their Triple Exultation, an outstanding beer. As Ted Vivitson says “we wanted a strong ale, an old style ale. We came up with Exultation. I then looked at my guys and I said let’s triple it”.

eelriverbrewing.com

Lost Coast Brewpub and Brewing Co.
A cool brewpub right in downtown Eureka. The pub is a busy place with some eclectic art decorating the room. Again, a couple of good ones on tap that I haven’t seen in bottles. A delicious scotch ale in the style of a wee heavy, as well as a chocolate porter that gave wonderful coffee flavors with a nice, moderate level of roast.

lostcoast.com

For audio interviews with these brewers and more, check beerobsessed.com.