Celebrating 20 Years of Off Center Thinking and Brewing

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Some people live a charmed life.  Sam Calagione always seemed like that kind of guy to me.  20 years ago this week Sam founded Dogfish Head Brewery in Milton, Delaware.  Over the past two decades the brewery has grown into a 175,000 barrel behemoth in craft beer, Sam has become a spokesperson for craft brewing, and few others have done more to move the industry forward.

Everyone knows Dogfish Head.

I have the pleasure of visiting Rehoboth about two to three times a year.  I have run the Dogfish Dash, and will again this year.  The brewery in Milton is a great place to visit and I always make a stop at the brewpub. The brewpub is where to check out what strange one offs and new brews are on tap. When it comes to Dogfish… If they brew it, I will buy it.

My favorite time to visit the brewpub is during the off season on Wednesdays.  Way-back Wednesday is when they tap an aged keg of beer (at least 2 years old) and offer some tasty bottles for sale out of their cellar.  In the early spring of 2009, I purchased two 2006 bottles of 120 Minute IPA, and then I promptly put them away for a special day.

120 Minute IPA is described as “the Holy Grail for hop heads.”  Though the “whale” status on 120 Minute IPA has diminished due to ever changing tastes and wider availability, this beer still delivers a phenomenal experience.  The two hour boil while continuously being hopped and the month long dry hopped aging process leaves you with a beer that is 15-20% ABV and a palate wrecking level of bitterness.

To celebrate 20 years of off center thinking and brewing I opened the nine year old bottle of 120 Minute IPA and poured it into a DFH IPA glass.  The aging process produces significant changes in this brew.  The hazy golden hue turns to a deep mahogany.  The hop oils disappear and leave behind a sweet strong brew.  The harsh astringency of alcohol is mellowed; still boozy but more inviting.  The nose is somewhat oddly of maple and cherries with a slight orange tone.  This full bodied beer comes across as downright heavy.  Sipping brings forth rich malts with cherry and brown sugar sweetness.  This beer is sweet but without a saccharin-like finish.  It’s a proper sweetness.  Light in carbonation, and long lasting in the finish, a 12 oz. bottle will last all evening or split perfectly between two.

I have yet to find a beer that is capable of such dramatic change via aging as this one. After resting for a number of years it can take on the depth and complexity of a top shelf after dinner cordial.  A fresh 120 and a well-aged one are only discernable as the same brew by the label on the bottle.  It is a magical transformation.

The general rule is “hoppy” beers must be consumed fresh to get all their dank, resin, citrus and pine like flavors at peak.  But this beer is the exception.  I much prefer it aged 5 or more years and I am very happy that I have many more sleeping quietly in the dark waiting for their day.

Dogfish Head and Sam Calagione are champions for an entire industry.  They make great beer.  Period.  But their 20 years of success are not based on a charmed existence or good luck.  Anyone that has watched Beer Wars or the short lived series Brew Masters knows that their success is based on hard work, an exacting demand for quality, and unrelenting desire to push the envelope.  I think it is clear that this brewery is aging just as well as their top flight beer. They both are just getting better with the years.

Believing Your Lying Eyes

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When enjoying a beer the first sense that is engaged is vision.  The look of a beer says a great deal about it before you take the first sip. Be it a thick opaque porter, a clean and clear pilsner, or a hazy hefeweizen the look of beer often communicates what is coming.  It can be the classic and inviting cascade of a nitro infused Guinness or it can be overly pale yellow of a Rolling Rock; each says something important.

But what happens when you play against type?

Stone Brewing Company through its Stochasticity Project released Master of Disguise an Imperial Golden Stout.  A beer brewed to have the flavor, body and character of a stout but the golden hue of a pale ale.

The beer came in a 22oz bomber and I poured it into a stemmed tulip glass.  It was as clear and as crisp looking as a golden pale ale; it looked just as advertised.  The head was thin and disappeared quickly.  The nose is immediately of coffee but it is not overpowering.  It is joined by slight, gentle notes of chocolate and roasted malts.  The mouth feel a bit deep not unlike a stout but closer to a full bodied porter.  This comes from an abundance of oats. The oats show as the backbone and balance all the flavors and allow the beer to lace beautifully along the glass.  While it starts with roasted coffee and malts, as the beer warms up the esters of the hops open up.  The finish is proper with coffee and cacao flavors lingering.  This well balanced beer clocks in at 9.7% ABV but this is never is evident.

While the trend of Black IPAs took off and was hot before burning out, I don’t see this beer as starting a trend.  It was certainly a delicious beer and an interesting experiment in brewing; it just does not have the complexity and the essence of the other very highly regarded Stone Brewing stouts.  Is this “essence” lost when you change the natural color of a beer?  If I had enjoyed this beer in a blind test I feel like I would not have guessed it as a stout.  There lacked a certain velvet and silk like quality that you get from a full bodied, thick stout…but this was damn close.

So the real question is… Did they pull it off?  I think so.  While the body was a little light, the beer had plenty of stout characteristics to pass.

I would recommend this beer for novices that are put off by the concept of a thick black stout.  Some people can’t get past the look of a stout beer and tend to just order perceived lighter fare.  Master of Disguise would be a great way to introduce imperial stouts.

Postscript:  I think Master of Disguise is just another in a long line of beers that are blurring the line of what it means for a beer to be “true to style.”  Black IPAs drove this conversation for a long time but as they faded from interest so did the discussion.  This beer alone will do little to reignite the debate.  The boarder question is “How committed are brewers to being true to style?”  In homebrew competitions and beer festivals of note this is a critical component. But how important is it to the typical craft beer drinker?  As the industry moves further and further outward via expansion how far will brewers push to make something new?  I don’t know the answer to that question but I am looking forward to thinking about it while trying a ever changing number of strange brews.

Pittsburgh Brewing Company’s Craft Movement

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In 1979 the “We are Family” Pirates won the World Series. A couple month later the Steel Curtain cemented its legacy and the franchise had its dynasty with its fourth Super Bowl. Pittsburgh having branded itself as the Steel City became “The City of Champions.”

But as the city raised banners in glory to their sports franchises, the bottom was falling out of the steel industry. By the end of the decade nearly the entire industry was decimated and all those middle class blue collar jobs it provided had gone.

It’s a story we all know.

What people are still coming to realize is that the sooty skyline has cleared, Pittsburgh is now “America’s Most Livable City” and the steel has been replaced with the silicon of robotics and Internet companies. “Mama Steel” has been replaced by Daddy Tech.

Yinzers still consider themselves as from a steel town and you would be hard pressed to find a people more loyal to their hometown. Yinzers are protective of Kennywood, Isaly Chipped Chopped Ham and Iron City Beer. These are not products and businesses but community trusts.

The latter, specifically Pittsburgh Brewing Company, has changed hands multiple times in my lifetime and has exited the city proper but still tastes like home.

First locally brewed adjunct lagers, once the prince of blue collar libations were pushed aside a homogenized industry decades ago.  Later, craft brewing returned the importance of regional beers of every variety.  This leaves local brewers like Pittsburgh Brewing Company in an strange place; local but no craft.  They are being squeezed by the conglomerates and by the upstart craft brewers.

Iron City will always be the perfect companion to a “cap and cheese” at Primanti’s but it’s not going to find its way into the discerning beer drinker’s fridge and its not big enough to compete with AB, Miller and Coors.

To address this shift, Pittsburgh Brewing Company established the Block House Brewing line of beers. To see what it has in store, I purchased their Summer Break and Double Chocolate Bock.

The Summer Break opens with a hazy orange yellow pour with a sweet and citrusy nose. The beer is well carbonated with a light mouthfeel. It is excessively sweet. The flavors of grapefruit are intense and only quenched by a sweet lemonade finish. The beer is very, very sweet and did not exactly agree with my taste. It comes in at 5.0% ABV and is as light as a summer beer should be. College students are summer break are going to love it.

The Double Chocolate Bock was much better. Chocolate in the nose with a slight hint of roasted malts. This medium bodied bock has good mouthfeel and is properly balanced. The chocolate runs through and through but only plays one note.  It tends towards the milk chocolate side and does not provide the bitter dark favor of cacao.  Its was a different take on a nice style of beer. While not as saccharine sweet as the Summer Break this beer too sits at the sweet side of the scale.

Both of these beers show Pittsburgh Brewing Company is trying to move beyond IC Light and Old German as they must.  Summer Break and Double Chocolate Bock are a good first effort. The trend of seasonal offerings will be a benefit to Block House as they roll out their IPL and Pumpkin Ale. This will allow for refinement and improvement.

While Pittsburgh as a city has redefined itself and emerged as a city with a brightly shining future, it’s most famous brewery still has work to do but appears to be well on their way.

Pittsburgh did not turn around its fortunes in a day. It took decades and it was not a straight path. It’s brewery is on the same course. It’s working hard. It’s making changes and its betting on new craft focused brands. If it can do half as well as the folks it serves it will be in great shape.  I’m quite hopeful. These beers are a huge step forward from Olde Frothingslosh and Augustiner and that is a great thing.

The Unifier of Lancaster Beer

~ Bearcat ~ 1 Comment

 

St. Boniface  Craft Brewing Co. in Ephrata, PA is a small brewery doing big things for Lancaster area beer.  I had the chance to swing by their establishment recently and was incredibly impressed in the quality of their beer.  As a product of a lifetime of Catholic education the wink and nods to the namesake in the brewery were also appreciated and inviting.

My first pint was their Offering #22 Berlinger Weisse.  This refreshing light bodied beer was effervescent and inviting and perfect for the season.  With a mild flavor and subtle hints of salt and coriander highlighting citrus notes it was exceedingly drinkable.  Good thing this one comes in at only 3.0% ABV because it absolutely disappears from the glass quickly.  The finish is dry and a little acidic and asks for you take another long draw from this fantastic beer.  This straw yellow cloudy beer with a light fluffy head was so good I nearly hesitated to try the other offerings.

The Bullshead Mild is an amazing example of a English style mild pub ale.  Malty flavors that sit on top of roasted bready yeast like accents, this beer is easy drinking but big on flavor.  While the Weisse gently made for an inviting beer this one is bolder but no less drinkable. 3.2% ABV but loaded with malts and a sweet finish make this the perfect beer for a long day drinking beers with friends.  When beer is described as “liquid bread” they mean ales like this one.

3lbs IPA is properly bitter slightly hazy ale with pine and resin flavor right up front but not overly so in the nose.  Well balanced with a backbone of malts and some citrus hops acting their proper role.  Medium bodied and well developed.  This is a good example of an inviting IPA that at 6.0% doesn’t try to blow your socks off with bombed out hops but seeks the balanced end of the IPA scale.

The real discovery was Paideia Pale Ale.  This brew was in and of itself worth the trip.  The golden ale presented with a thick white head of foam that held up and laced the glass perfectly.  Clementines and nectaries in the nose along with some malt to show the impending balance of flavor. This beer was high on tropical fruits and tasted like the fruits in the nose.  Exceedingly drinkable it is also available in cans which I got to go. Paideia referred to the greek ideal of the perfect citizen.  The name is a lot to live up to and in this case it does.

If you have not visited St. Boniface you are really missing out.  The beers are well crafted and the overwhelming distinction from other craft brewers in the area is just how eminently drinkable these beers are.  Relatively low ABVs across the board and big flavor make for a great day of tasting beers.

St. Boniface was a missionary to the Germans and is credited with being a unifier of Europe.  Not a small credit in any sense.  Likewise, the brewers at St. Boniface are the unifiers of Lancaster beer.  They are brewing easy drinking approachable beers that will cut across the beer drinker spectrum.  Craft beer novices and the pickiest of beer snobs will enjoy their offerings and be able to sample both generously and happily.

I can’t wait to go back.

When Big Beers and Big Brewers Go Big

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Arrogant Bastard Ale will always hold a special place in my heart when it comes to beer drinking.  It was an early influencer in developing my appreciation for the Strong/Ole Ale style and eventually Barley-wines.  As a friend of mine stated on Untappd “[This is] the beer that made me fall in love with craft beer.”  I think that is probably true for lots of today’s craft beer drinkers.  Still, it is often easily dismissed by beer snobs who are frequently chasing the new styles or most limited of releases.  But Stone never disappoints with this ale; it’s truly a world class American Strong Ale.  Further, Arrogant Bastard has been the base for a number of other fantastic beers over the years.

It has provided Double Bastard, a winter release that takes all the flavors of the “lighter” ale and goes to 11.  I once split a three year old magnum of this crazy brew with some friends and needless to say it got us all absolutely wrecked. Be careful with that one.

Lukcy Basartd Ale (not a typo) married the two above with Oaked Bastard which showed off the ability of Stone to blend various beers and marry them together in such a way as to take an already exceedingly complex ale and give it enough personalities to require institutionalization.

In 2013 Stone released Crime and Punishment.  Crime was a cork and cage bottle of Lukcy Basrtd aged in Kentucky bourbon barrels with an assortment of hot peppers.  Punishment was Double Bastard given the same treatment.  Stone basically took the two ales and drove them off a cliff in a burning car.  They were amazing even if the mere thought of them still gives me heart burn.

Oaked Bastard, my favorite of the lot was a beautiful beer that poured a deep rich mahogany color with a bright white head.  Its subtle wood notes in the nose and finish were glorious and refined.  But it was sadly discontinued last year to make way for Arrogant Bastard Bourbon Barrel Aged.

Recently I procured a 22oz bottle of Arrogant Bastard BBA and after the news of Sepp Blatter stepping down from the head of FIFA, I felt there was never going to be a better opportunity.  In case you are unaware Sepp Blatter is an arrogant, evil, bastard of a man but this is a beer blog so I will just leave a link.

Arrogant Bastard BBA was a good beer but when held up to its kin I am a little worried. The beer pours a dark mahogany color as is true to the lineage.  The head was nearly nonexistent but that is not unusual for BBA beers.  Nose was malty, sweet with a bit of rye. Only the faintest hint of Kentucky bourbon could be determined in the nose.  The mouth feel is medium bodied and not adversely affected by the time held in a cooper’s handiwork. The changes to this great beer by the barrel aging though are in a word… underwhelming.  It is welcome to have a BBA beer with no astringency but it also came without the bourbon.  I regularly praise brewers on their ability to deftly evoke subtly in flavors.  To play at the edge of a flavor profile and not to go crashing through. But this one just never showed up.  It is kind of sad. Look, this is a good, tasty beer but it just never lived up to its pedigree.  It just makes me feel sad that Oaked Bastard is gone.

Postscript – I wonder if volume is the issue with this beer.  Black Note, KBS, Bourbon County and other BBA beers are in such short supply finding just one bottle is often enough.  Arrogant Bastard BBA is being sold on tap, in 22oz bombers and six packs.  It appears to be pretty widely available as far as I can tell.  Stone is a huge operation with nationwide distribution (and sights even further).  Kentucky bourbon barrels are 53 gallons and used barrels are in high demand.  To my mind there is an interesting question:  Is Stone going high volume with what is by nature a low yield product thus resulting in an underwhelming beer?  I can’t answer that specifically that but it seems like it could be the issue.

Strawberries and Beer: Together Again For the First Time

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  Right now driving around Central PA the farm stands are all open and there is one piece of produce that is at peak: Strawberries.

Let us forget for a minute my last post about summer beer and their light and crisp flavor profile and instead focus on what pairs right with a fresh bowl of ripe red sweet and slightly tart strawberries.  In my opinion these tend to be malty, heavier beers that contrast the natural flavors of the berries.

My fist pick is ¿Impending Descent? by Troegs.  This gonzo Russian Imperial Stout gets released each November so I buy in bulk to enjoy it on occasion throughout the year and have been ageing a large number as a running vertical. If you have one tucked away, pairing it with some fresh local strawberries will work out perfectly.  The copious amount of malts (six varieties) provide for various flavors of dark chocolate, vanilla, and coffee.  The roasted malts work wonderfully with the sweet tart fruit. If this beer has been cellaring for a time the pine and resin hop notes will have muted and left a perfect pairing.  If you can’t get a hand on ¿Impending Descent? I suggest picking up the always available Javahead Stout or racing out to the Hershey brewer right quick and picking up a growler of Scratch #192 a velvety smooth and decadent chocolate stout.

Palo Santo Marron by Dogfish Head Brewing will pair nicely.  The caramel, vanilla, and wood flavors from this 12% ABV brown ale will marry wonderfully.  The roasted notes along with molasses and a round mouth feel just work.  This is a world class beer and would be right at home with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and some strawberries.

Samuel Smith Organic Strawberry Ale is a wonderfully crisp and tart fruit beer from the world famous English brewers.  Smooth malts with a soft mouth feel and subtle strawberry finish will be intensified by local fresh berries. This beer is easy drinking at 5% ABV. I would pair this with a strawberry and baby spinach salad with a light poppy dressing for dinner.

After dinner consider opening a bottle of Southern Tier’s Crème Brulee Imperial Milk Stout.  This beer is the pinnacle of Southern Tier’s very highly regarded Blackwater Series in my opinion.  Remarkably this beer tastes exactly like its name sake.  In fact, it is downright magical in likeness.  Cream, vanilla, and burnt sugar come straight through with a long sweet lasting finish.  This 9.6% ABV full bodied beer has an exceptional mouthfeel and would be a fine addition to a strawberry shortcake dessert.

Cheers.

Summer Is Made For Drinking Beer

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Summer Beer 2

It is Memorial Day Weekend which means that even though the Northeast is under frost advisories it is the beginning of summer.  Summer time is a great season for craft beers.  The seasonal offerings get lighter, crisper and the ABV generally goes down a bit.  Perfect beer for sharing a few with friends.

As is typical for beer blogs, I am going highlight some great beers you should seek out for this summer season but I hope these are beers you don’t necessarily see on other lists.

DreamWeaver Wheat Ale by Troegs:  This South German-Style Hefeweizen is not a seasonal and is widely available year round.  Pepper and clove notes, a crisp short finish and low 4.5% ABV make this beer incredibly drinkable.  When my in-laws host a cook-out during the summer months more likely than not a case of this is my contribution.  DreamWeaver only comes in bottles and frankly summer calls for cans so be sure to also check out Sunshine Pils.  It is crisp and clean and hopped just right for hot days.  It might be my favorite Pilsner.

Shiner Ruby Redbird by Spoetzl Brewery:  This grapefruit infused summer beer clocks in at 4% ABV.  Grapefruit and a hint of ginger in the nose.  This is another easy drinking beer that would be a good introduction to fruit beers for the novice craft drinker.  Not super easy to find but priced right.  Buy a six pack of bottles or cans and share it with a friend on the back porch.

New Belgium Brewing’s Folly 12 Pack of Cans: Slow Ride Session IPA, Fat Tire Amber Ale, Ranger IPA and Snapshot Wheat.  New Belgium is only now getting its feet in the door of PA distribution but I have been seeking them out each time I leave the Commonwealth.  This 12 pack offers four great beers and all are in cans which makes for an excellent and easy way to tailgate, drink at the shore or just lay poolside without worry.  This is my favorite mix pack for summer.

Witte by Ommegang:  The perfect beer for a nice dinner on the back deck.  If you have grilled up some fresh fish or local vegetables and need to pair it with something impressive but still light and refreshing I suggest Witte.  Flavorful as it is hazy it will work well on those warm nights and be a refreshing ale to share with a friend.

Red Stripe Jamaican Lager:  I can almost hear the audible groan from some of my readers. But drinking this beer extra cold on a blazing hot day straight from the bottle gets me every time.  Yes, I know it’s an adjunct lager and falls into the yellow fizzy category but this beer tastes like relaxation.  I have been to St. Thomas USVI a bunch of times and buying one of these out of a vendor boy’s cooler just makes the day taste better.  Drink it straight from the bottle and relax.  Sometimes you just want a beer and not get all fussy about the complexity; even if it is likely brewed in Latrobe, PA.

Dale’s Pale Ale by Oskar Blues Brewing:  This classic pale ale has some grapefruit notes and piney floral hops.  If you are banging and picking steamed Chesapeake blue crabs this is the perfect can of beer to hold down the newspaper.  I suggest springing for the big 19.2 oz cans.  It marries perfectly with the Old Bay and mild crab meat in my opinion.  I can hardly think of a better way to enjoy a summer day.  Pro-tip: Never use a hammer when eating blue crabs.

Cheers!

Costly Beer vs. Expensive Beer

~ Bearcat ~ 8 Comments

Hater Tears

Recently the cost of beer has been an interesting subject.  First, Thrillist.com had a long story about the impending craft beer war. The point here being that price will be where the various craft brewers compete in the near future.  This would inherently drive the cost down on many beers.  Some brewers are already producing on the razors edge economically and others are pushing for rapid expansion to achieve the very real economies of scale.  There is a coming bloodbath.  Anyone that follows the industry closely knows it.  There is a bubble.  It will burst someday.

Earlier this week Drunkspin’s Will Gordon pondered the price of beer at length and never really came to an answer other than “Is all beer overpriced?”

The next day, Albert Kominski took to Instagram, Facebook and Twitter to defend selling 750mL bottles of barrel aged sours for $33 apiece.  His response was lengthy by social media standards but cogent at the same time.

Over the years I have spoken with Al far more than any other brewer I know.  He is always quick to greet me when he sees me in his establishment and gives me a few minutes of his clearly busy schedule to discuss what I am having and what else on the big board is worth picking up for my next draft.  I say this to mean that as far as I can tell, Al gives a damn about his customers and always has.

In my opinion, Al has exceptional taste when it comes to curating his offerings, brewing beer, and together with Terry Hawbaker has been delivering very high quality beer.  Al has been doing this well enough and for long enough to have an exceptional resume and a trusted responsibility to his customers.

So when Al sells a beer for $33 bucks a pop it’s because in his mind it’s worth it and/or he needs to charge that amount.  Is it costly?  Yes it is.  Is it expensive?  Not necessarily.  Keep in mind that those two things, costly and expensive, are not the same. (Please check out that link… I can’t say it better.) These beers, as Al pointed out in the above and here provided links, are costly to develop.  That does not necessarily make them expensive.

Do I wince at $33 a bottle?  Sure… but I also don’t tell other people how to spend their money.  Which as far as I can tell is where the debate started.  Al took exception to a patron telling others that the beer was overpriced.  He was right to do so.

The Internet flame war that ensued was typical.  It was also mostly BS being thrown around.

Making beer is hard work.  Making exceptional beer is both hard work and costly.  Making exceptional, barrel aged, small batch, sour beers with hundreds of pounds of fruit and literally years of work is a serious and costly endeavor that can go belly up for reasons that are not completely under the control of the brewer.  There is risk.  The risk can be great.  The investment in money and time is real.

So when I see a $33 bottle of beer do I wince?  Yes, I wince at the thought of how much work and money must have gone into just 750mL of beer.

Post Script: I think what Al is doing by going up market, dramatically so, is skating to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.  Down market is a losing proposition and is already owned by huge corporate interest.  The economies of scales of SABMiller and InBev cannot be matched.  So why go there?  The only place it go it up.  Way up. This is the fundamental concept behind disruption from above and is a guiding principle of the craft brewing industry. There is a market at the top and selling artfully crafted rare and costly beer is the way to develop a hopefully safe space when the impending bloodbath ensues.

Bearcat on Podcast

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Right before the end of Harrisburg Beer Week I ran into the fun trio of podcasters that record and produce The Beer Busters Podcast. I’ve been a faithful listener for quite a while and was happy to finally meet Steph, and the brothers Wayne and Dan. 

The three were kind enough the next day at the Little Big Beer Fest to ask me to join them on the show. I had the lucky but unenviable task of helping to wrap up a huge show. This was not my first podcast. This was not my first podcast after having a few beers. Come to think of it… I’ve never podcasted sober.

But this was a professional quality podcast. The Beer Busters are excellent at their job. Prepared, fun, smooth. measured, and with voices tailor made for radio. Everything I and my last venture into podcasting were not. 

But they were great to work with. They riff off each other with the easy of old friends and do the same with their guests. I was just hoping not to sound like a total mess. 

If you take the time to follow this link and listen to the podcast I promise it does not disappoint, at least until I take the mic at the very end. The other guests are literally a Who’s Who of the Central/Eastern PA beer scene and it’s crazy that I got to step in. I’m very thankful.

Steph, Wayne and Dan are doing great things in promoting craft beer.  Take the time to check out their work as they promote great brews and the good news of craft beer.  Subscribe to the podcast and check out BeerBustersPodcast.com.

Cheers!

Columbia Kettle Works One Year Anniversary

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Columbia-Kettle-Featured

I have been a big fan of Columbia Kettle Works (CKW) since they opened in May of 2014.  They started out right with a great location in a town that was looking to welcome a new brewery.  They opened slow, working their “regular jobs” full time while also doing their dream; that is probably still true.

They were brewing beers that they like.  I and a bunch other people, if you look around the place, appear to like them too.  The beers started out good and have consistently improved along the way.  I have been to CKW about a dozen times over the past year to either get a couple pints or to fill a growler or two.  Each time the beer is just a little bit better. They give a damn about the beer.  The beer is the product.  That is evident by the quality and the set up of the brewery/bar. 

So I am really happy to see they are celebrating their one year anniversary this Saturday while taking a step towards the future.

CKW recently hired Chad Rieker away from Iron Hill Brewery Lancaster. Rieker is a 6th generation brewer from Columbia.  His brewing genealogy stretches back to the Rieker Star Brewery of Lancaster.  This pedigree is just freaking cool and he is returning directly to his roots by brewing in Columbia.

This hire in my mind is a big commitment to the business and a sign of more great beers to come.  Brewing is naturally a collaborative process and adding Rieker to Rod Smith’s brewing acumen appears to be a brilliant move.  Also, I secretly hope he brings his St. James Brown ale along with him to CKW as I really liked that beer at Iron Hill.

If you attend the anniversary party at CKW on Saturday expect some live music and more importantly some great beer.  First they will be tapping Rieker’s first beer at CKW, “Convocation” a Belgian Dubbel.  They will also be breaking out a Ginger Saison, a very small batch of Belgian Peach Blond that sounds amazing, a new batch of their collaboration ale, Kettleface (brewed with St. Boniface) and most excitedly a Belgian Dark Strong Ale that has matured for four months in a bourbon barrel behind the bar.  Seriously I have been watching that barrel each time I go… I think it is going to be great.

Cheers to Columbia Kettle Works on their first year and may they have many, many more.