We opened up our doors on Wednesday and the turn out was mind blowing. We thought 15 or 30 people might show up. Boy, were we wrong. It was probably a lot closer to 120+ that came through our little 1.6BBL beer factory! You gotta love the San Diego beer scene. Thanks beer lovers!
We also had visits from some of our fellow brewers - Peter Hess Zien (yes, that's his real middle name - what a coincidence!), Bill Batten and several others of the AleSmith Brewing Co. crew, Lee Chase of BLAH & Automatic Brewing Co. and Tony Clarke of Airdale Brewing Co.
Packed House.
Jeff & Melani Gordon of TapHunter.com stopped by as well. If you live in SD and have an iPhone TapHunter is a must have app. For your Droid-ers, get the mobile web version. It is great for finding specific beers or new bars around town. Also Jeff Hammett who writes SanDiegoBeerBlog.com was there and also had some nice things to say.
Huzzah!
Peter Rowe of the SD Union Tribune came by on Saturday, and he promptly wrote a kind review today. Thanks Pete!
We will be officially opening our doors to the public on Wednesday the Seventh of July.
The GRAND OPENING is still To Be Announced, but we’re targeting the fourth weekend of July.
Tasting Room Hours as of July 7th:
Wednesdays from 2:00-7:00PM
Thursdays from 2:00-7:00PM
Fridays from 2:00-8:00PM
Saturdays from 1:00-5:00PM
Groups of five our more – you call it, we’ll be there for ya’.
Getting to our doors can be a little tricky, so study this visual guide to help you on your way (this is traveling West on Silverton):
Once you turn down our driveway, we are in the front corner of the second building on the left. We'll get some sort of signage up. Currently we are quite non-descript. Please, do not park in front of our neighbors’ rollup doors. Park anywhere else you like though.
We will have all five of our beers on draft!
Claritas Kölsch: The lightest of our offerings this light ale is based off of the official beer of Cologne, Germany. We weren't born in Köln, but we're Köbes when we serve it. With an OG of 1.054 this is right in the center of the Kölsch-Konvention standards. Pours a light straw color, light, refreshing, crisp. A highly clarifying summertime beer.
OG 1.054 - 5.8%ABV
23.3 IBUs
Grazias Vienna Cream Ale: This beer is of our own invention. It is inspired by the classic Vienna Lagers brought to Mexico from Austria in the 1800s but with a Hess Brewing twist. The name Grazias is an mash-up of the second largest city in Austria, Graz and our second favorite word in the Spanish language, Gracias.
OG 1.055 - 5.4%ABV
37 IBUs
Intrepidus India Pale Ale: Our IPA is brewed with five different hops and has a simple, complimentary malt bill. Citrus and hop flowers dominate the aromatics. Pours a cloudy golden amber with a thick light tan head.
OG 1.080 - 8.4%ABV
88 IBUs
Amplus Acerba San Diego Pale Ale: SDPA isn't the official style name... yet. We are working on that. What is it you ask? Like the Latin name translates it has Ample Bitterness. The AA signifies not only a boat load of Alpha Acids but also the fact that if you drink too many of these a week you'll have to sign up.
Note: (say: ah-kair-ba … accent on the ‘ah’, ‘kair’ rhymes with bear)
OG 1.103 - 11.3%ABV
120 IBUs
Ex Umbris Rye Imperial Stout: Gobs of chocolate, honey and rye malt along with four others - more than should be allowed in a beer! ... this stout is not for the faint of heart. It is such a big stout that we cannot brew a full batch on our system! The rich complexities of the malt and hop interplay of this brew will bring you out of the shadows and into the light of Rye Imperial Stout revelry.
OG 1.095 - 9.8%ABV
65 IBUs
We hope you come in and try all five! We will be doing tasting flights of five 3 ounce pours + our killer customized Willi Becher Pub Glass for $10
I built our tap handles this weekend up in my hometown of Redlands. It was a fun project. We stopped by Inland Empire Brewing Company on our way to pick up some red oak out in Fontana... that turned into a long, long stop but it was cool. They had some great beers and Ryan was an awesome guy.
Best Laid Plans.
We started out with an idea of what we wanted to end up with. The process to get to what we wanted turned out to be a little more difficult than expected.
Legs for Days.
One thing I learned is that Red Oak (Quercas Rubra) is not a very forgiving wood and brass is not a very hard metal.
Drilling Out.
We had to drill out the hole for our tap fitting 5/8 of an inch because the brass would not bite into the oak. Next time I am skipping the brass insert and going with a steel screw plus silver ferrule.
Everything In It's Right Place.
Weights.
Because of this we had to take a more creative approach. Two weights keeping our fittings in place while our glue does it's thing.
The Demon Cutter.
Attempting to not lose a finger on the table saw. Easier said than done.
Making Face.
Sink a Dowel, Make 'em Howl.
Not Too Shabby.
"I like to work with my hands."
Semi-Finished Tap Handles.
Now all that is left is figuring out how to get our logo and name of beers onto each of the tap handles. My current idea is screen printing or stenciling them on. I'll be sure to let you know how that goes.
As we come into the final stretch before our opening, much time has been spent working on getting the Hess Brewing glassware and tap handles figured out. Rather than go with the traditional 'pint' glass, and as fans of the Honest Pint movement Mike decided to go with a glass that would hold a full pour, called a Willi Becher - like the one above. The one we're likely to go with is 21.5 ounces to the top. We also like it because (to be perfectly honest with you) it has a silly name. Now the trouble is figuring out where to get it screen printed / sand blasted with our logo and a fill-mark line at a .5L that won't cost us an arm and a leg.
Although we won't have them on opening day, what do you think about having some Belgian tulips or snifters for our Ex Umbris or Amplus Acerba?
Terrible, Terrible Artwork.
For our tap handles we're probably going to go the custom route. Skubic has been working hard and spending many hours figuring out how to go about making them... right now he's thinking of using Wenge as the wooden base then screen printing / stencil spray painting on the logos / labels. The arm is the hangup now, on the one hand we can go with wood, on the other, Mike may try and hone his metalworking skills and make a wrought iron handle...TBD!
Classic.
This is the growler we are going to be going with. Greg, Mike's brother bought him one of these for Christmas a few years back and it's been a favorite for bringing homebrew around to friend's houses. We love the big pour mouth and monster handle. It's from koch-usa. We think you'll love the look of this growler too, so bulky yet stylish too. It's going to look even better with our Hess Brew logo screened on the front!
This is some crazy stuff. We had starting to feel like we had inadvertently shut down all of the tasting rooms in San Diego last week - and maybe we did... Here's the story: When Mike got the 23 license from the State, our ABC rep said, "now go talk to the Department of Health." How were we to know that none of the breweries in San Diego operating tasting rooms had filed a plan with the Department of Health?
Meeting Time.
On Monday, after we met with the DEH (as our Facebook, Twitter and Blog followers know) we left there feeling that we were being held to a higher standard than all the other breweries we've ever visited - for Hess Brewing, the DEH wanted us to install SEVEN SINKS, self-coving floor tiles, floor drains, 8-10 foot high ceilings above all sinks and taps... it seemed quite ridiculous...
The Waiting Room - SD DEH
Well apparently on Tuesday they realized "Hey, we are not regulating ANY of the breweries in San Diego" and decided to go to both The Lost Abbey and AleSmith to hit them with Cease and Desist Orders until they could file a plan and get up to "code" (which included some nice fees, too!) On Friday, we got the news of the raids when The Full Pint reported that they had been informed that The Lost Abbey was shut down. Soon after this Tomme posted an excellent rant, which was unknowingly probably directed at us (even though we did not report any breweries; the fact we WENT to the Department of Health had the unfortunate consequence of letting them know that other breweries were not getting their plans checked through them). As you can imagine... we were crushed when his post hit. Later on in the day, AleSmith's Facebook page said that they too had been served with a C&D Order. So now, besides realizing that Mike just didn't have the capital to come up to code to meet these overstepping and egregious requirements and were likely going to forego the tasting room, we realized we may have hosed our fellow San Diego craft brewers and drinkers. Unintentionally I remind you! But now, we have some GREAT NEWS!!!! Today, Mike spoke with State Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher's office, 75th District, to talk to him about getting an exemption for beer tasting rooms, just like wineries apparently are. His office thought it was an excellent idea and wanted to explore further writing up legislation to introduce at the beginning of 2011.
Not an hour later, just about 2:50 this afternoon, Mike got the best call - and most unexpected - he could have hoped for from the Dept of Health. Our new bestie, Jackie at the Department of Health called to say that because of the ruckus that we raised over the past three months and last week's activities (the raids and push back from the craft community) that she took it to the State for ruling. Can you believe this? The result? The county no longer regulates or has jurisdiction over beer tasting rooms in the county! This means we do not need the floor sink, three-tiered ware washing sinks and all the other CRAZY stuff we would have had to install to open up as a tasting room.
We got approval from the TTB, it took us a couple of tries, but thankfully the online COLAs submittal process makes it much quicker than snail mail. This was our third attempt for approval of our original label; we had left out a couple of things: 1. Alc. x% by Vol. (we forgot the "By Volume") 2. Added "-Style" behind Kölsch and Vienna, otherwise it is misleading--we are not from Cologne or Vienna. We don't want to mislead anyone...
It was interesting working with the TTB because the text content wasn't the only issue. The size of the text proved to be a challenge. Regulations said that the text in the Gov't Warning (on the left side of the label) and in the Beer Name section had to be 3 and 2mm high respectively.
However to measure the text, the TTB doesn't print out your art - they literally get out a ruler or calipers and measure the art on their screen. Yes, they measure the height of the characters on the monitor. If I say it again, will you believe me? Our graphics team was pulling out their hair when I found this out, but the solution was simple. No, I did not tell them to adjust the resolution of their monitor. We did have Patton slightly enlarge the whole label so it actually just appeared larger. Voila. Same label, larger, approved.
Now to be sure, the text on our label is 3.2mm and 2.7mm, well above standard, but only after pumping up the size of the file did approval come - once it appeared larger than 3mm on their monitors. It's a crazy world out there at the TTB, but we live in it...
In other news, we got our stickers from Sticker Robot and they look pretty dang awesome too.
Not For Sale.
We will not be selling in these bottles, they are for your viewing pleasures only (unless you are a bar or restaurant in which case I'll be bringing these by for sampling in the near future!) However, if you want a sticker - come on by!
The kegs arrived a few days ago from Plastic Kegs America. They come with some nice etching on the sides. I'm wondering whether I should spray paint a big "H" on the side just for kick however... Neon blue perhaps.
Plenty of Storage.
240 Gallons worth of keg space, also known as eight barrels. Do you think that will be enough for distribution?
Light Weight.
21 lbs empty versus 29-31 lbs for an empty steel keg. That is a 28% reduction. They are quiet too, which is great, but bad news for my steel drum band side project.
Remember.
The biggest issue I've heard of is that they are a little taller than a standard steel keg. Hopefully that will not be an issue.
The World Beer Cup list of winners is out. San Diego did a mighty fine job this year. I can't wait to get our brews out there! This year SD got 9 Golds, 7 Silvers, and 5 Bronzes. I've tried the majority of these brews (still need to try four of them) and I can say they are all world class.
Best Small-Sized Brewery & Brewmaster: Ballast Point Brewery - San Diego, CA
Belgian Pale Strong Ale: SILVER: Revelations - Pizza Port Carlsbad
Other Strong Beer: SILVER: Stout - Green Flash Brewing
Out of Category - Traditional Brewed Ales: GOLD: Fathon IPL - Ballast Point Brewery SILVER: Hot Rocks Lager - Port Brewing
English-Style Brown: SILVER: Longboard Brown - Rock Bottom La Jolla
Wood or Barrel Aged Strong Beer: GOLD: Bourbon Aged Piper Down Scottish Ale - Ballast Point
Scottish Ale: GOLD: Wee Heavy - AleSmith BRONZE: Reed's Wee Heavy - Pizza Port Carlsbad
South German-Style Weizen-Bock: GOLD: Decadence 2009 - AleSmith
Irish-Style Red: GOLD: Red Trolley - Karl Strauss BRONZE: Rag Top Red - Rock Bottom La Jolla
Classic Irish-Style Dry Stout: SILVER: Port Truck Stout - Pizza Port Carlsbad
Greg loading up the Burner and Whirl Pool Stand.
The stand fit perfectly into the back of a standard full-sized truck. Almost like we engineered it that way.
Old Dominion Dropping of the Conicals.
Our four 60 gallon conicals arrive via freight. I think Old Dominion is my favorite trucking company. Such a great name.
Brew Stand is in Place.
Slowly but surely this place is coming together.
Mike and Jorge working on the Kettles.
You can see more of his work on JplusE.com, the man is an artist.
1.66 Barrel Brew System.
Almost complete. We just need some Stainless Steel Tri-Clover fittings and some hoses and we will be in Business!
Luckily we had the brute strength of two lovely ladies and a baby to get this bar off of the truck. It was pretty darn heavy--probably 350 pounds +/- before the 360 pounds of concrete was even added!
Melamine Forms.
Skillfully and calculatedly designed melamine forms to shape and transport the concrete countertop to San Diego from Redlands, CA.
Fresh Concrete.
Five Man Job.
Perspective.
Huzzah!
The bar is finished, and I have to say, it looks pretty good. Not bad for our first attempt anyhow. I just have to add a few more coats of Buddy Rhodes to the concrete and it will be ship shape.
