Cigar City Brewing, Tampa
By Julie Johnson
Published November 2011, Volume 32, Number 5
I recently gave a presentation at the National Homebrewers Conference in San Diego on aging beer on exotic wood, which covered Spanish cedar—they use it to construct the humidor boxes to age cigars and they also use it in the construction of cigar inserts. I also discussed lemon and grapefruit wood aging in the Dos Costas Oeste project we’re doing in collaboration with The Bruery out of Placentia, CA. [“Two West Coasts,” since both breweries are on the west coasts of their respective states.] Read More…
Founder of New Albion Brewing Co.
By Julie Johnson
Published September 2011, Volume 32, Number 4
In 1976, an ex-Navy man named Jack McAuliffe founded America’s first modern microbrewery, New Albion Brewing Co. in Sonoma, CA. In an era when American brewing was dominated by a few large facilities brewing versions of light lager, McAuliffe hand-built his brewery from the ground up, and brewed full-flavored bottle-conditioned ales in the English tradition.
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Saint Arnold Brewing Co., Houston, TX
By Julie Johnson
Published July 2011, Volume 32, Number 3
What do you hope your fans will take away from your Moveable Yeast project?
The primary goal of the series was to demonstrate to beer lovers―who may not be as familiar with yeast as, say, homebrewers would be―how large an effect yeast has on the flavor of beer. People talk about malt and hops a lot, but yeast is kind of forgotten. Read More…
AC Golden Brewing Co.
By Julie Johnson
Published May 2011, Volume 32, Number 2
Tell me about AC Golden.
GK: We’re owned by MillerCoors. Pete Coors took a look at how new products like Blue Moon were being developed for the pipeline, and noticed that we weren’t doing many. Largely, what the big brewers have done is spend anywhere from $19 to 30 million developing a brand, developing the advertising, shooting commercials, buying airtime, all the R & D, all the packaging―and, frankly, 90 percent of them fail. Read More…
Live Oak Brewing Co.
By Julie Johnson
Published March 2011, Volume 32, Number 1
When Live Oak opened in 1997, you specialized in beer styles that most craft brewers weren’t making. Why did you make that decision?
Our first beer was a pilsner. I don’t know if anybody was making any back then—Victory might have been. We started making Czech pilsner because they taste so good and we love them so much. You can’t hide behind any flavors in it—they’re all right up front. It’s a difficult beer to make, so I understand why people don’t make them that much.
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Pizza Port, Carlsbad
By Julie Johnson
Published January 2011, Volume 31, Number 6
You’ve won Large Brewpub of the Year twice, and you have won Alpha King twice. So what I want to know is, what’s the story with the plaid pants?
That’s a good one. I like that question, right off. In my high school years, some friends of mine used to wear kind of loud pants and jackets and cruise around town, being a general menace. In college, some friends did the same type of thing, but just the loud pants, and we used to call them “party pants.” Now, each year for the GABF I try to find a new pair that’s louder or at least just as loud, so now I’ve got quite a collection. We make a beer here at Carlsbad that won an award a few years back, called Party Pants Pilsner. Read More…
