Six Months with Bob Sylvester

Written by Jake Miller

Before I got to Saint Somewhere, I had worked for two other small breweries. Days were long; I was the only production employee for both. I liked that—I had built a life in each cellar and knew barrels better than friends. Grain bills and hopping rates had become my language. I loved what I did, but I was exhausted. I was also nurturing an unhealthy cynicism for the industry.

Craft beer, whatever that means, was quickly becoming a hoax. The rebels, fist shakers, river rats and outdoor enthusiasts I had known in my early 20s had been replaced with marketing demigods. Greed, ego and line lust seemed to be pushing out all sense of honesty and artisanship. The arms race for wild and spontaneous beer programs was well underway, and balance and nuance were quickly becoming casualties. Bottles of Beaujolais were cheaper than American sour beer and 4-packs of IPA. A dollar an ounce was commonplace. I was completely lost. I needed to look at things through less weary eyes. I needed to have a conversation with someone I could trust. That’s when I emailed Bob.

Credit: Blake Coleman

Bob doesn’t know I’ve been up for a full day when I land in Tampa. I get a text at the baggage claim: He’s outside waiting for me in a Mazda SUV. Within minutes, we pull into Cigar City—heard of this place? We have a couple of beers and move on to 7venth Sun. They’re having a bottle share. Justin Stange introduces himself and holds up a bottle of Prairie’s 4th Anniversary: Talk to me about this. I haven’t been at Prairie since the 3rd, I tell him. I don’t remember much else. 

Bob tells me I’ve got the next three days to myself. Explore the town, chill out, go to the beach, we’ll start on Monday. I walk to the sponge docks, nearly a dozen old wooden boats manned by old Greek men, thousands of sponges covering their decks and the sidewalk. It feels like it’s centuries ago. I order lamb orzo from a small place, and something labeled Greek light beer. The orzo is good, the beer is miserable.  

It’s 6:30 a.m. on a Tuesday—November 22. Florida pays no attention to the month. It’s 75 degrees, and the sun hasn’t even begun to show itself. We stack bags of Dingemans pilsner malt. Bob says the early start should give us good groundwater temperature for the transfer. We’re brewing a table beer. After a long boil on an old kettle, we get set up for the transfer. I can’t help but smile as we gather chairs, garden hoses and a couple of homebrew-sized heat exchangers. This is exactly what I needed. I ask Bob where his oxygen tank is. He thinks it’s broken—we’ll just let the wort fall from the top of the tank. Of course.  

I ask Bob if he wants me to CIP the fermenter. He nods yes. I strip the tank and soak all the parts in hot detergent water. I ask what’s in the detergent—equal parts OxiClean and TSP (trisodium phosphate)—and what made him decide to use it (It works, I wear flip-flops when I brew, and you can get it at a hardware store and a grocery store on your way to the brewery). Most of Bob’s processes have more to do with how old his brewery is than anything else. Yesterday, he was telling me how he used to have to mail in his labels for federal approval.

I’m putting the valves back on the tank when Bob tells me to hold on. He brings over a blowtorch and lights it up, running the flame over every port, crack and opening on the tank. I have never in my life seen or heard of anything like this, and I ask him about it. He shrugs and says there was a time a couple of years ago when he had eight batches in a row go bad—he had to dump every single one. He would pull up to the brewery the morning after a brew day and smell sulfur before he even opened the front door. He tells me he’d tried everything and didn’t know what else to do. He thought he was going to lose the business. Desperate for a fix, he decided to try hitting the tank with a blowtorch before running the wort in. He hasn’t smelled sulfur since.   

It’s Christmas. I haven’t been home for one in a while. Bob picks me up in a Mercury cop car, and we haven’t gotten five minutes down the road when we both agree that we don’t have enough beer. We become those people that we hate and pull into a Walgreens on Christmas Day. We walk out with a lot of Sierra Nevada. Gifts are exchanged, and we all eat until there’s nothing left. I meet Bob’s parents; they’ve been married more than 60 years. We all take turns wearing a virtual reality headset. Bob gives me a card with a $100 bill in it. The card has Saint Nick’s reindeer careening into a shithouse with a caption that reads I said the Schmidt house. 

We’re kegging our second beer today. It’s an easy-drinking saison with heaps of jasmine tea leaves. Taking a sample, I stand over it for several minutes and end up finishing the entire pour. It’s loaded with soft white nectarines, dried late-season grasses and the infant stages of Brettanomyces. What really gets me is the mouthfeel. There are subdued tannins, and it takes me a minute to realize there’s also an oak presence. Not the vanilla, coconut oak notes that brewers typically strive for, but just the aspects of aging that lend to a fuller body. I love this. I ask Bob if this always happens. Yep. I guess even marvels can become mundane after so many years.

Bob’s mom died last week. I can tell it’s been really hard on him. There’s a ton of family around, and I haven’t seen him for a few days. He’s good about sending me texts letting me know that he won’t be around. I put the last of my Fantôme bottles in the fridge. Nothing eases the pain of a parent’s death, but I know he’ll appreciate the gesture.  

We spend a lot of nights like this, pulling bottles of old saisons out of the fridge and talking shit. It’s incredibly healthy for me. I hope it is for Bob, too—basing a brand off of saison and never wavering feels a lot like living on an island. Everybody thinks you’re living the dream, but really you’re just isolated.

I read an article yesterday on spontaneous and wild fermentation. I show it to Bob; he shakes his head. We talk about how some of the people interviewed haven’t even produced the things they’re talking about. I ask him why he doesn’t get interviewed on wild fermentation. I can tell I’ve hit a soft spot. He talks about how he didn’t even get interviewed for an article written last year about packaging in green bottles. I know he’s not asking me to feel sorry for him, he’s simply wondering what the hell is going on.  

It’s Tampa Bay Beer Week: a time where people fly in from all over the country to drink DIPAs and adjunct stouts in 97-degree heat with 97 percent humidity. We take refuge in the few kölschs and saisons offered. Like the Great American Beer Festival, the highlights of the week are the events surrounding the main event. Brewers and owners from the most followed breweries in the country make the 45-minute trek out to Saint Somewhere. Bob has pulled a few strings and landed some esoteric Fantôme bottles, and Jeffrey Stuffings has earmarked some highly sought-after Jester King. We all share stories about the first time we had a Bob beer—there isn’t a person in the room who doesn’t think of him as a mentor, a legend or a close friend. We sell through four cases of Fantôme bottles, almost all the Jester King and several kegs of Saint Somewhere. Bob is beaming. 

Bob and I both drink a lot of XX Bitter. We order multiple cases at once, and I think we both know who is drinking most of it. We talk about it dogmatically: firm and deliberate bitterness that follows the whole taste profile, occasionally bending toward maltiness but never letting you forget it’s a Hallertau story. There are no words for how perfect this beer is. Like most brewers, we can’t help but want to try and brew something similar ourselves. We put together a straightforward grain bill and decide that we’re going to use Aramis instead of Mittelfruh. After a week, we take our first sample. It smells incredible. We take our second sample a week later. Before I even get the glass to my nose, I can smell the pedio. What the hell? We both swirl the glass continually in disbelief. We look fermenter to fermenter, making sure we’re even sampling the right tank—we haven’t had anything get this sour yet. Swirl. Drink. Swirl. Drink. It’s been a long time since I’ve been completely blindsided by the direction a beer has taken. I can tell this came out of nowhere for Bob, too. We both decide this is a cool open fermentation story, a lack of lab intervention in the cellar leading to a head-scratching result. We dry hop it a little later on and eventually package it. We throw the first keg on draft. It sells faster than any beer we’ve made so far.

My friend Nick Danger has been in town the past few days. Today is his last day, and we’re kegging a batch. As we set up, I ask Bob if he wants me to CIP the kettle before we transfer the finished beer into it. He says to just spray it out with water. I look over at Nick and smile. These little industry defiances will make any brewer’s heart swell.  

It’s my last week in Tarpon Springs. It’s bittersweet; I’m eager to get to work on my next project, but I know I’m going to miss Bob. He’s throwing me an Occupy party tomorrow. I’m hungover just thinking about it. I’m also incredibly honored to participate in one of Saint Somewhere’s most hallowed events. I’ve heard stories from several people about these nights, and all of them include blurry reminiscence of mash tun hot tubs, whippets, and infinite bottle counts. Honored and terrified. 

Credit: Blake Coleman

I’m given an Occupy Jake shirt by Bob Lorber, one of the many members of the Bob Squad. These guys are all at least 15 years older than I am, but there isn’t a chance I’ll keep up with them tonight. Bottles are opened in stages. Someone reaches into the crate of reserve bottles and is immediately informed that those bottles will be opened once the bottles on the table are finished. There is another table with a Crock-Pot full of hot dogs. I remember two hours ago thinking I would never touch those. I’ve already had two. A cake makes its way to the table. Bob gathers everyone around and gives a speech. He gets choked up at the end, and so do I. It’s hitting me hard that this will all be over in a few hours. Some friends and I scheme a last visit to Johnny’s, our local bar specializing in wings and Mexican lagers. I look over at Bob, and he’s got the water hose out, spraying off his feet over the floor drain and saying something about flip-flops. We walk across the street to the bar for a final order of wings and lagers. And just like so many other nights in Tarpon Springs, I struggle to remember the rest. 

Jake Miller has brewed at Prairie Artisan Ales in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Wolves and People Farmhouse Brewery in Newberg, Oregon. Along with Zach and Melissa French, he is a co-founder of Heirloom Rustic Ales, opening this fall in Tulsa. During the winter and spring of 2017, Miller spent six months as a brewer in residence under Bob Sylvester of Saint Somewhere Brewing Company in Tarpon Springs, Florida.

Edited by Molly Bullock

Our Favorite American Craft Beers of 2016

 Every year we get the chance to drink a lot of really great beers.  We don't assign them numbers or award points for rarity.  Some of those beers stick out to us.  This last year, these were those beers (in no particular order): 

1. Fonta Flora Brewing, Razzmatazz Vol.1:  In my opinion, Fonta Flora is one of the most exciting breweries in the country.  They experiment with local and foraged ingredients, brew killer hoppy beer, but most of all have a portfolio of wonderfully complex and bold flavored and balanced beer.  Razzmatazz Vol. 1 is a beautiful red raspberry wild ale, with an enormous berry bouquet and layer upon layer of raspberry and funk on the palette.  While we could have picked from almost any of the Fonta Flora beers we were lucky enough to have this last year, this one had us from the first smell in the glass.

2. Bissell Brothers Brewing, Lux: We're suckers for Rye. We're suckers for hops.  Marry the two and Lux is as close to perfect as you'll get.  While most people talk about Swish or Reciprocal when they bring up Bissell Brothers, but Lux was a stand out for us given the unique peppery character added by the rye.  Like you've come to expect from Bissell Brothers, huge tropical fruit, citrus, and pine will punch you in the face from the first sip to the last.  We popped the can and could smell the hops from 4 feet away!  We love Bissell Brothers beer and this one is our favorite.

3. Forest & Main Brewing, Paradisaea: This brewery, the people behind it, and the beer are all world class.  Paradisaea is a barrel aged saison with citrus and Mosaic hops.  It's a juicy, just sour enough, beautiful interpretation of the style and is a wonderful representation of what the brewery is capable of.  Part English pub and part barrel aged sour production brewery, F&M is creating some of the most inspiring beer in the country.  Fermenting their sour beers, like this one, on a local forged yeast and bacteria culture, they're able to create an experience unique to their brewery with each offering. Paradisaea is wonderful.  It's fun and playful and really got us thinking about all the subtle flavors we were picking up throughout our time with the beer.  We can't wait to see what's next from F&M.

4. Cellarmaker Brewing, Nelson: We visited the quaint brewery in November while in San Francisco, with our good friend Jesse Friedman (Almanac, founder).  He thought it was a must while in town - and he was absolutely right.  We loved the experience from start to finish.  The taproom is cozy and the beer is fantastic.  Nelson, which features Nelson Sauvin hops (as the name suggests), stood out as our favorite.  Nelson is just one of those juicy, hazy (not juicy because it's hazy), dry, and hop forward beers that has you going back for more.  It's aggressive but soft at the same time.  It's pungent and powerful but subtle and delicate all at the same time. Moral of the story, it's just damn good.

5. Crooked Stave Artisan Beer Project, Nightmare on Brett (Leopold Whiskey Barrels on Cherry): Chad Yakobsen, owner and founder of Crooked Stave is the authority on Brettanomyces fermentation.  He's able to coax unique and interesting character out of his yeast cultures that most breweries only dream of.  This understanding of fermentation also allows Crooked Stave to put out big bold beers like Nightmare on Brett (around 10% abv), which are sour, influenced by fruit, and fermented in whiskey barrels and make them seem delicate and almost wine like.   We love this beer because the dark appearance and whiskey aromatics give way to a complex acidic and fruity character on the palette.  It takes you by surprise and offers a truly unique experience with sour beer as most breweries only use neutral oak or wine barrels for their sour program.  The beer has so much going on but when poured into the glass everything works in harmony.  Nightmare on Brett is a present look to the future for sour beer and for that reason it had to be on our list. 

6. The Tank Brewing, La Finca: It's no surprise that we love saison.  The Tank, which opened earlier this year, decided to make La Finca ("the farm", in Spanish) saison a core year-round offering and we couldn't be happier about it.  It's dry, effervescent, peppery, citrusy, earthy, and incredibly refreshing.  It's brewed with a nod to the traditional saisons and the history of the style, but is modern in approach and choice of ingredient.  La Finca is brewed with an acute attention to detail and purpose that comes across as a mature "we've been doing this for years" offering.  We're excited about this beer and what's to come from this new Miami brewery. 

7. Civil Society Brewing, Fresh: Hops, hops, hops.  Civil Society just celebrated its 1 year anniversary and has already established itself as a hop head's dream in South Florida.  Fresh is the beer that, in our opinion, truly separates the brewery from the rest.  Head brewer, Karl Volstad, has been brewing the beer for years, each time fine tuning the approach to make it into what it has become.  An aggressively hopped, ripe tropical fruit forward,  aromatic, and refreshing IPA that gives you all the hops you could ask for without the astringent bitterness.  You can taste the time and effort the brewery has put in to the beer with every sip.  For even more hops, head to the brewery and try the Double Dry Hopped Fresh. 

8. Side Project Brewing, Derivation (Batch 5):  I know, I know.  Side Project has made its way on to the favorite beers list every year since we started.  What can I say?  Cory is a master at his craft.  This year, we got to spend some time together down in Florida drinking through several Side Project offerings and although all were world class, this batch of Derivation blew us away.  A huge imperial stout: coffee, vanilla, aged in rum barrels for over a year; yet, somehow it came across as soft and delicate.  We still haven't been able to wrap our heads around how such a powerful and flavorful beer could come off so nuanced, subtle, and graceful.  Big body, creamy mouthfeel, and dangerously drinkable.  It's a testament to what Side Project is capable of and quite simply one of the best beers we've ever had the opportunity to try.  

9. Firestone Walker Brewing, Pivo Pils: This beer may be as close to perfect as it gets.  Because it's a pilsner and because it's somewhat readily available it doesn't get all of the the attention in the beer nerd kingdom that it deserves.  But, it is phenomenal.  It is so technically sound, so flavorful, so refreshing, it's almost hard to believe.  Firestone Walker is an industry standard for quality and consistency and Pivo is steering the ship.  It's no surprise that Pivo took Gold at the Great American Beer Festival from 2013 to 2015.  That's blind tasting, by the way!  

10. Casey Brewing & Blending, Oak Theory:  Troy Casey is a superstar in the making, if not already one.  Ask most brewers who they're watching these days, and Casey Brewing is at the top of the list, and it's no surprise.  He's making beautiful funk forward mixed fermentation beers employing old school meets new school fermentation techniques and the results are often times breathtaking.  Funk reminiscent of your favorite cheesy lambic, jammy fruited sours, and just a masterful command over the beers.  Oak Theory is no non-sense Belgian inspired beer fermented in and aged in oak for over a year.  The result is a funky, dry, and incredibly complex beer.  It's one of those beers that really lets you experience the oak and Troy's ability to bring out unique flavors through fermentation.  It's a thing of beauty people!

Future of South Florida Craft Beer

Here in South Florida we tend to be late to the party on many things.  The one benefit of that is that by the time we arrive, we've had an opportunity to scope out what everyone's going to be wearing, get a feel for the kinds of things people will be doing there, and lastly we have the opportunity to take all of that intel, ignore it, and do whatever we were going to do anyways.  It's just the way things are down here.  We'll get to the party eventually but every single person at that party brings their own personality.  So while the craft beer scene has been pretty dismal considering the number of people down here versus the number of open breweries, the party just started.

There are plenty of things to be excited about these days.  Wynwood Brewing and MIA Beer are selling their beer in bottles and cans, Civil Society is working to master the art of hops, and slowly but surely, breweries are investing in oak programs - adding complexity and diversity to their offerings.  The number of breweries is growing and more are in planning, but three of those "in planning" stick out in our minds as breweries to watch for.  Those are: 3 Sons Brewing, Odd Breed Wild Ales, and the closest to opening, The Tank Brewing.  All three completely different interpretations of style and all three just as exciting as the next.  We all got together recently to sample some of the pilot batches the brweeries were working on, talk shop, and get a better feel for what was in store for South Florida.

3 Sons, led by Corey Artanis, has gained an incredible following for its big bold stouts.  After winning the best beer and people's choice at the 2015 Hunahpu's Day event, Corey solidified himself and his stouts as a force to be reckoned with.  Yet, his portfolio is broadening every day. Focusing on wild ales, Florida Weisses, and his juicy pale ales, 3 Sons will show the world they are not a one-trick pony.  The examples we tried were clean, fruity, and refreshing.  Big fruit, beautiful color and aroma, and bringing more to the table than "just fruit".  It's something that gets lost today - yes, people want to taste fruit, but that can't be everything.  Of course, Lumberjack, Morning Break, one of the beers that put 3 Sons on the map made an appearance as well.  A "Bourbon Barrel Aged Imperial Maple Coffee Stout" and a big sweet, roasty, aromatic, bomb of flavor after flavor, held up by a sturdy backbone and heavy mouthfeel.  Yet, for as big as this beer is, it's surprisingly drinkable.  Since meeting up with Corey to go through some new beers, 3 Sons took Best Brewery and Best Beer award for a second year in a row at Cigar City's Hunahpu's Day.  Impressive to say the least. 

Odd Breed will be South Florida's first wild ale only brewery - every beer fermented with wild yeast/bacteria and every beer seeing time in oak before packaging.   If you want more background info on this exciting upcoming brewery, head over to our conversation and beer review pages.  Matt Manthe, head brewer and co-founder, is producing some of the most beautiful wild and sour beers in country (yes, a bold statement), placing emphasis on balance and subtlety over any gimmick.  His beers are complex yet extremely approachable - fit for the nerdiest of beer drinkers or the casual consumer.  We had a few examples but a wild ale on peaches really stood out on this day as one we couldn't get enough of.  

The Tank Brewing is the furthest along of the three and is going to feature a beautiful saison as its flagship.  I'm biased to the style but this saison is just awesome.  The most recent batch, also the finalized recipe/process, is big on citrus, it's dry, effervescent, and finishes earthy and peppery.  It's a wonderful food beer or just a beer to enjoy on its own.  It's where it needs to be and we're looking forward to it being available year round.  The other beers in the portfolio are equally as exciting, like a brown that features tons of dark chocolate and roasted coffee notes but finishes delicately and dry.  Led by Matt Weintraub and Moh Saade, the Tank will feature some traditional European styles with a twist and plans to develop a barrel program early on.  

It's not easy to sit down on a cool sunny afternoon and drink through some of the most recent batches of beer being produced by these up and coming breweries but someone had to do it.  The day reaffirmed the party analogy above.  Each brewery, although sharing similar philosophy and approach, brought forward different styles and interpretations.  The beers being produced in South Florida currently having no bearing on what they will do.  It's refreshing to know that even when big national breweries are laying out road maps to successful portfolios, there will always be those down here that will break the mold and be themselves no matter what.  South Florida will continue to grow as a player on the national scale with these guys helping to solidify that growth every step of the way.  

Cheers,

Craft Commander

Craft Beer and Its Place in American Cuisine

America is seeing a rebirth of pre-prohibition, micro culture exhibitions by and through the local beers and spirits being produced by modern day artisans known as brewers. A back to basics approach. This, all while obliterating the idea of simplicity of what is generally associated with the word "traditional".  Alongside the artists, chefs, local bakers, and cheesemakers, brewers are finding ways to express the history of their region, the cultural identity of the people who influence them, and their locale's "terroir" through beer.  Playing on traditional European styles and techniques, ultimately making them bigger, at times more aggressive, and in turn - inherently "American".  After all, nothing is ever big enough for us Americans anyways.  Still, some of the world's most nuanced and food-ready beers are coming out of America these days.  Through the use of local ingredients, local yeast strains, grains, hops, and fruits, the American craft brewer is touching on the essence of the make-up of his or her hometown.  It's a thing of beauty, people.  

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Jeffrey Stuffings (far left) Founder of Jester King.  Photo Credit: Jester King Brewery

The ability to understand purpose, time, and place, when putting your nose in a glass, enjoying the view of the liquid in the glass, and finally being overcome by the attack on your palate when it hits your tongue is only becoming more common.  Brewers are not only taking more time with their products but they're showing more restraint (when needed) to ensure the ever important quality of balance.  It's this balance that will continue to elevate the product so many in America are starting to love, appreciate, and enjoy.  What good is an IPA that rips the enamel off of your teeth if it destroys your palate and leaves you unable to enjoy that dinner you paid $50 for?!  The focus on balance and food is becoming more important to the craft brewer and will continue to be a driving force in ensuring the craft beer rebirth is here to stay.  I believe it's craft beer's availability in fine dining restaurants and its ability to be paired more easily with more kinds of foods that will truly bring craft to the forefront and keep it there.  Restaurants will be forced to adapt.  Cicerones will join sommeliers in the ranks at these restaurants and hold positions of respect and prestige. 

Craft beer is a natural fit on the American table.  Don't get me wrong, I love wine.  I love it alone and I love it with food.  It just has its shortcomings at the dinner table - shortcomings that craft beer is ready to and more than capable of filing.  Jeff Stuffings, founder of Jester King Brewery believes "it makes sense for beer to be at the dinner table because, in many ways, it's an extension of cooking.  Brewers strive for balance and depth of flavor through ingredients and technique, much like a chef.  In fact, several of Jester King's beers are inspired riffs on various dishes we've enjoyed.  Through process and ingredients, beer can have all the complexity and pairing potential of wine, despite the fact that grapes naturally have more complexity than grains."  Beer is a blank canvas.  It's subject to more experimentation than wine, more diversity than wine, and in the end can be made to pair with anything.  Yeast, fermentation temperature, hops, grains, oak, all in different proportions make beer the best beverage for the American diner.  Yet, most still don't see it this way.  Soon, they will.  

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Cory King, Founder and Brewer at Side Project Brewing.  Photo courtesy of Tim Bottchen and Side Project Brewing.

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Jester King Detritivore. A wild ale fermented with wild yeast and bacteria native to the Texas hill country and collected by Jester King.  Fermented on second use cherries (first use of the cherries was on a beer called Montmorency vs. Balaton). 

Cory King, founder and brewmaster at Side Project Brewing and "director of oak" at Perennial Artisan Ales, says he feels "fortunate when the discussion of beer/food vs. wine/food pairings comes up. For beer, there are no restrictions, in the ingredients we can use in the beer and to the diversity of flavors we can develop.  With this, a beer can often hit on notes in a dish that a wine may not be able to achieve.  Moving forward, I believe that many more high end restaurants and more prolific chefs will be adding beer to their pairing repertoires in order to best showcase flavors and pairing to their guests."  And that's just it.  It's not that having craft beer accessible in more lower price-point restaurants is not helping the cause, because it is.  The more that people have the ability to understand the complexity of this diverse product only helps improve its status in the market.  The point is the level of respect for craftsmanship that has accompanied wine for decades has kept it in the forefront of the conversation when talking about food and, in turn, has allowed wine to maintain prominence and grow is its admiration at the fine dining establishments of the world.  This is the stability that craft beer needs.  Brewers like Cory and Jeff are helping it get there.  The day of drinking beer at a tailgate party only need to be days of the past. 

But what about terroir?  What about wine's ability to speak to a time and place?  Its ability to be compatible with other foods associated with a certain region? Craft beer has that covered.  Breweries like Jester King, Side Project, and Plan Bee Farm Brewery are achieving the same level of complexity and character through local and house yeast strains.  Breweries like Cantillon have been doing it for decades.  "It has been suggested that terroir or sense of place in wine comes in large part from the particular microorganisms living on the skins of the grapes in various geographic locales. This is equally as valid for wild or spontaneously fermented beer from different regions.  The microbes unique to a specific location create complexity and a sense of place in beer during fermentation, just as in wine.  Therefore, I believe it's fair to say that wild beer in particular stands up to the complexity of wine when it comes to food pairings," says Jeff.  And it's true.  Put your nose in a glass of his beer and there's just something there, a distinct characteristic that lets you know "this is Jester King." 

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Eileen Andrade, Founder and Chef, Finka Table & Tap.

The signs that this transformation is occurring are out there.  NOMA, considered the world's best restaurant by many, partnered with Mikkeller in 2012 to feature world class, creative beers along side it's world class cuisine.  And call it what you will, but Estrella Damm's Inedit, created with the genius of Ferran Adria,  for the purpose of serving at the table alongside food like what was served at El Bulli, was something that certainly helped move this idea of beer and food forward.  

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Giorgio Rapicavoli, founder/chef at Eating House Miami and winner of Food Network's Chopped.

I'm not suggesting that beer drinkers need to start drinking with their pinkies out just for beer to survive what many who don't get the upsurge of craft beer call a fad.  The point is, that craft beer is more suited than anything else right now to be served alongside the most variety of tastes and textures.  Better with cheese.  Better with spice. It's the stigma that needs to be broken down.  The idea that American beers are bland.  The idea that craft beer is nothing more than a way for adults to start up a new collection until the next "cool thing" comes around.  It's creating an appreciation for complexity and experimentation with the understanding that the foie gras you just had to order would go great with an imperial stout or maybe even an earthy, yeast driven farmhouse ale.  Eileen Andrade, chef and owner of Finka Table & Tap in Miami, thinks "beer is an incredibly versatile drink.  It pairs so nicely with so many different kinds of foods.  Our restaurant serves food with Caribbean and Asian influence and the craft beers that we order go so well with the heavily seasoned and spiced foods. I like pairing foods with a drink that is similar to the flavor profile of the dish and craft beer is making it easier for us to do that." The possibilities are endless.  Giorgio Rapicavoli, founder and chef at Eating House in Miami, says "beer plays an integral part of the beverage program at Eating House.  In my opinion beer's diversity in flavor and intensity play off our foods better than wine."  Craft beer must continue to work it's way up the chain into these restaurants.  Restaurants that know how to play off the nuances and subtleties of beer and provide their patrons with an enhanced experience.  

At the end of the day, money rules.  The craft beer drinker must demand these beers at the restaurants.  Change the traditional wine-only thought process.  That day will come - you just need to do your part.

Cheers,

Craft Commander

Swamp Head Brewery Bringing Florida's Wetlands to the World

It seemed like just yesterday I graduated from the University of Florida, leaving Gainesville, the sleepy little town just about 110 miles north of Orlando behind.  It was always a college town and will always be a college town.  Dirty bars with cheap beer (sometimes a penny for a pitcher) and typical student food like pizza by the slice was the expectation.  Sometimes it was more welcomed than anything else you could've offered.  Yet, just a few years later, something happened.  A revolution of sorts.  Gainesville has been undergoing an evolution in its food and beer culture and Swamp Head finds itself at the forefront of the cause.  Founded in 2008, Swamp Head sought out not only to be Gainesville's brewery, but instead, as their motto "Inherently Floridian" suggests, Florida's.  

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Originally, the brewery sat in a commercial warehouse park, tucked away in a back corner. Unassuming, small, and charming.  Soon, too small.  For as industrial and dry as the brewery's surrounding were, an etched and painted piece of cypress bearing the brewery's logo let you know where you were.  Inside, copper kettles and fermentation vessels gave a rustic, cozy old Florida feel to the brewery.  Cars lined the parking lot and streets leading to the little oasis of hand-crafted and bold flavored beers being offered by the young brewery. Most impressive was the incredible number of college students on college budgets leaving behind the aforementioned typical college town bars and paying two or three times what they had been paying for beer previously to enjoy Swamp Head's offerings.  The following grew.  People around the State began travelling to Gainesville to get their hands on limited releases or six-packs of the popular flagships, like Stumpknocker Pale Ale - a flavorful, resinous, and wonderfully balanced pale ale.  People in Gainesville started to understand the interplay between high-quality beer and the modern food being served now in Gainesville.  Soon, people around the country began to take note.

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So here we are, a mere five years later and Swamp Head has moved into a new brewery three times the size of the prior brewery - complete with a proper canning line and something most breweries don't have, a lab.  A stand alone brewery complete with two large yellow silos welcoming you at the entrance.  Even more, Swamp Head made the new tap room as Inherently Floridian as the beer and art work on the labels suggests. 

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The new brewery sits on a large plot of land and next to a retention pond and a forest that Swamp Head has donated to preservation.  Almost as if on cue, a hawk swooped down from a tree and grabbed one of the bluegill that live in the pond just to let us know the space is and would remain natural.  The wood inside the tap room is repurposed and reclaimed wood from farms.  The bar top is a gorgeous display of cross cut cypress, the tree that symbolizes Swamp Head.  As we talked about the growth of the brewery, the great beers they produce, and what's next for Swamp Head, the sun filled the tap room through the large panoramic windows that enclose it.  All in all, everything points back to nature.  Just as they planned.

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The brewery had just released its latest batch of 10-10-10 an aggressively hopped Imperial IPA so big that it previously won gold as a barleywine.  10 different hop additions, 10 percent abv, and 110 IBUs.  Beautiful color, massive hop character, and a sturdy malt backbone to give balance to this monster of a beer.  But Swamp Head doesn't rely on the big limited releases to grow it's brand - a devotion to a quality core lineup of beers has allowed the brewery's growth to continue and will ultimately allow for the brewery to expand the reach of its distribution.  Other popular and limited offerings include Catherine's Passion, a big and roasty Russian Imperial Stout featuring locally roasted organic fair trade coffee and cacao nibs and the recently released Eternal, the brewery's first beer in the Forever Florida series.  Eternal, a crisp blonde ale, once again displays Swamp Head's commitment to the Florida ecosystem and was a collaboration with the Florida Springs Institute, a private non-profit corporation which educates the public about the issues facing Florida's springs and aquifer and develops management methods intended to protect and recover the springs.  Swamp Head is donating a portion of the proceeds from Eternal to help the Institute in this cause.

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Eventually, Swamp Head will reach its way across Florida.  Hopefully this means more great beer and more education on the issues that face Florida's fragile ecosystem.  Hopefully it means turning more drinkers of cheap, mass produced beer into craft fanatics.  Swamp Head is only five years old, but they're already a great ambassador for the craft beer community in our State and for my favorite small town.  It's a good time to be a Florida Gator.

Cheers,

Craft Commander

Our Top 10 American Craft Beers of 2014

We were very fortunate to have been able to try many phenomenal beers from all around the world, but a few seemed to continue to come up in conversation throughout the year.  Beers that we continuously compared to others of the same style, that we admired for technical perfection or a special and unique taste, that created a sense of pride for our local beer community, or just simply a great beer that just seemed to stand out.  So, naturally, as one does when they have these great experiences, we ranked our favorites.  Just for good measure, we threw in a wild card as number 11, a beer that could have been in any top 10 as far as we're concerned.  

As we sat to write out our list, we tried to include various styles and the beers within those styles that stood out; but, as you can see, 2014 was the year of the wild/sour farmhouse ale for us.  A style that is wide open to creativity and which saw brewers from around the country pushing the limits with house yeasts and bacteria cultures, and various fruits and oak barrel combinations.  A return to a time where beer was truly "wild" but now in controlled environments that allowed the brewers to push the envelope and come up with some amazing new beers with a sense of purpose and almost surgical precision.  We can't wait to see what 2015 has in store and want to thank everyone for their support this past year.  Here are our favorites of 2014:

WILD CARD; Green Bench Brewing Co. - For the Mad Ones Rye Sour Brown (St. Petersburg, FL):  We had this beer recently and it opened our eyes to Green Bench's very unique sour program.  Kettle souring allows this beer to remain clean and bright while the initial taste is heavily influenced by the cabernet sauvignon oak barrels.  This is complex beer that is approachable to an experienced beer drinker or beginner.  Wonderful all-around beer.

10. Wynwood Brewing - Pop's Porter (Miami, FL): Our very own Great American Beer Festival Gold Medal winner.  Roasty, silky smooth, viscous, and rounded off by a nice sweet finish.  A sturdy beer that features a great malt character and a straight-forward, calculated approach to the style. Plus, how can a list created in Miami not have it's city's very first GABF gold medal winner as part of it?

9. Half Acre Brewing Co. - Beer Hates Astronauts IPA (Chicago, IL): This beer found it's way to us from Chicago and was consumed almost immediately after canning.  The crack of the pop top lead to a massive aroma of dank, tropical fruits and all that Citra hop goodness.  The flavors that followed were as aggressive as the nose - tropical fruits (think melon, ripe mango, and guava) that were so in your face, the only thing we kept saying was "juicy"!  An outstanding IPA from one of our favorite pale ale and IPA producers.  We hope they make this again in 2015.

8. Stone Brewing Co. - Xocoveza Mocha Stout (San Diego, CA): While being from Florida may make me partial to our big roast spiced stout, in Hunahpu, Xocoveza was an amazing example of a spiced stout.  The combination of chocolate, cinnamon, nutmeg, chili-pepper, and coffee in a sweet stout worked beautifully as the sweetness really did a nice job of holding all the flavors together and balancing the light chili presence.  While this was released as part of Stone's collaboration series - we're hoping 2015 brings Xocoveza 2.0!

7. Beer'd Brewing Co. - Hobbit Juice Double IPA (Stonington, CT):  At 9.2% ABV, this Double IPA is a monster of a beer.  A beautifully balanced combination of hops and malt create a really enjoyable drinking experience that leaves you craving another glass (without realizing how big of a beer this really is).  The choice to use only Nelson Sauvin hops brings forward notes of sauvignon blanc and stone fruit while giving the hop bite you expect from a double IPA.  We had heard Beer'd produced amazing IPAs and can easily say that this one lived up to the hype.  

6. Cycle Brewing - Rare DOS (St. Petersburg, FL): Cycle is producing some of the world's best stouts.  Hands down.  Rare DOS, an imperial stout aged in oak whisky barrels, is no exception.  Huge whisky, oak barrel, and roast on the nose, followed by a big, silky, thick mouthfeel, and flavors of chocolate, vanilla, dark fruit, and whisky.  If you'd prefer rum over whisky, try Cycle's RareR DOS - we love it just the same but prefer the whisky notes in Rare.

5. Cigar City Brewing - Hunahpu Imperial Stout (Tampa, FL):  The king of Florida beer. People travelled from all over the world this last year to get their hands on their limit of this once-a-year release and raved about the quality of this year's batch.  Hunahpu is a jet black, motor oil looking beer that almost appears to ooze out of the bottle into your glass.  On the nose a beautiful array of vanilla, molasses, cinnamon and dark chocolate get the senses going and the tastes to come follow suit.  A heavy beer with a perfect melding of the ingredients make this an almost perfect imperial stout.  What would make it more perfect?  Get your hands on an apple brandy barrel-aged Huna! 

4. Wicked Weed Brewing - Black Angel Cherry Sour (Asheville, NC): Wicked Weed's flagship sour features over one pound of sweet and tart cherries per barrel of the sour black ale.  Aged in bourbon barrels, the bourbon hits your nose immediately followed by some funk and tart cherry.  Take a sip and the beer is like a cherry jam that has a pleasant sourness to it and is rounded off by whisky notes from the bourbon barrels that play a role in every aspect of your experience with the beer.  Just a great example from, in our opinion, one of the premier sour producers in the country.

3. Russian River Brewing - Supplication (Sonoma, CA):  Russian River's sour program is revered by any person in the U.S. producing sours today and this beer is a great example of why.  This is a sour brown ale aged for 12 months in pinot noir barrels with sour cherries, brettanomyces and souring bacteria.  A very sour beer that is balanced by a sturdy malt backbone all while achieving a delicateness that will blow you away.  The cherries play right into the flavors imparted by the Sonoma County pinot noir barrels, and the funk from the brettanomyces adds a layer of complexity that makes this beer world class.

2. Jester King Brewery - Atrial Rubicite (Austin, TX):  Jester King's first barrel aged sour beer to incorporate fruit was an instant success.  One of the most sought after beers in the world, Atrial is a visually appealing pink/red wild ale that comes in at 5.8% abv and features raspberries and Jester King's famous house blend of native hill country yeast.  A sense of terroir is created by Jester King's yeast and use of well water, which sets their beer apart from other raspberry sours we had this year.  The most important aspect of the beer was the balance achieved - everything just felt right.  We enjoyed lots of Jester King offerings this year, but Atrial held a special place in our hearts.

1. Side Project Brewing - Blanc de Blancs (Saint Louis, MO):  This is a game changing beer from a game changing brewery. Side Project is, in our opinion, the most exciting brewery in the country right now, which landed our favorite offering from them (that we've been able to get our hands on) at number 1 on our list. Like Jester King, Side Project is imparting a sense of terroir into their beers using house yeast cultures and as many local ingredients are are available for their beers.  Blanc de Blancs features chardonnel grapes which are prevalent throughout, playing on the tartness up front all while providing a residual sweetness that balanced the beer out.  The chardonnay oak barrels come through in the finish and reminded us of a delicate dry champagne - a funky barnyard champagne! The best part about this beer was the complexity on every level; beginning with the look of the beer, the nose on the beer, and ending in the taste.  Each sensory experience topped by the next.  Funky, crisp, sour, refreshing, fruity, and almost wine-like, we loved everything about this beer.  

Cheers,

Craft Commander

Chicago

"The whole is greater than the sum of its parts"

                                                            - Aristotle

Chicago.  The people, the food, the music, the architecture, and most importantly (for this site at least), the beer make up the wonderful whole that is Chicago. Driving through Chicago's many famous neighborhoods you're taken back to a time where buying local was everything, and people were proud about what was being produced by the people that lived next door.  Need proof? Count the Chicago flag tattoos, t-shirts, dog leashes, and car stickers and you're likely to come up with a number you've never counted to before.  Point is, this is a proud city - and rightfully so.  

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While we were eager to check out what Chicago proper had to offer, the trip began with a midday trip to the mecca which is Three Floyd's Brewing.  Zombie Dust, a flavor packed American pale ale hopped with only Citra (my favorite hop) fresh from the source was calling my name and so naturally, one was ordered and consumed immediately upon entering the brew pub.  The brew pub itself is an experience - heavy punk and metal scream from the sound system and a "we have awesome beer and we know it" attitude permeates.  That may be the only flaw, actually.  The beer though, that's fantastic.  As if you didn't already know. 

Then came the other beautifully crafted beers - War Mullet a double IPA that clocks in at 8.1% abv, and just like the description says, makes you want to grow a mullet and go to war; Space Station Middle Finger an American Pale Ale at 6% abv, that was dank, citrusy, and juicy at 50 IBU; Cool Breeze a smooth and refreshingly beautiful american lager; Backmasking, an awesome Oatmeal stout that clocks in at 6% abv but packs huge rich oatmeal, roasty, milk chocolate flavor.  And on, and on, and on.

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Point is, Three Floyd's has certainly earned it's reputation as one of the world's best breweries.  You can taste the artisanship that goes in to each beer - no matter what the style.  One beer that really impressed us was the Chevalier Bertrand du Guesclin, an american sour ale aged in wine barrels with blueberries.  Beautiful purple/dark blue hue, an earthy smell, and tartness prevail, all while being rounded out by the sweetness from the blueberries.  If you can find a bottle, get it.  I had been waiting for a long time to get here and the beer we had made the wait worth it.  If you're in Chicago, take the 40 minute drive down to Indiana and enjoy!  We even played limbo with a girl on crutches!  Now, even though that sounds funny - the funniest part is that while she made it through unscathed, her non-injured and able bodied friend somehow fell.  One too many Zombie Dusts.

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So after getting our fill of 3 Floyds, we headed back to Chicago to visit Half Acre Brewing Co.  These guys are brewing some of the best pale ale's and IPA's around.  Daisy Cutter, one of their core beers, is a balanced and aggressively hopped american pale ale that rivals any other around.  Bright, cloudy, huge citrus hop aroma create a balanced malt to hop attack on your palate.  Just drinking this all night would've made me happy, but we were lucky enough that on the day we were there Half Acre was releasing a collaboration with Three Floyd's called Anicca.  A big, in your face IPA that combines the best of what both breweries have to offer.  Of course, we had one... or two.  The highlight, even beyond the beer at Half Acre is the people.  Co-founder Maurizio Fiori greeted us with open arms and showed around his spot and the supporters were all having a great time inside.  

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A warehouse with rooms shooting off to either side, housing tanks and tanks and tanks, while separating the brewery store from the tap room.  Each fermentation vessel had a name  and character assigned to it (my favorite was Franklin).  This is where the magic happens.   They had just finished re-releasing Heyoka and the canning line still held some of the brightly colored cans.  We couldn't have asked for better timing.  

Inside the taproom a bustling crowd of craft beer fanatics had been drinking the Anicca and other great Half Acre offerings like the Pony Pilsner, Space IPA, Lager Town (Oktoberfest), Heyoka, and the Akari Shogun.  We joined the crowd and loved every second of it - meeting people from all over the midwest all united by one thing... craft beer.  

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 For other great breweries in Chicago, be sure to visit Revolution (try an Anti-Hero IPA), Goose Island, and Piece Brewery.  Still, Chicago is much more than beer.  It's about the food, the art, the architecture, the people and their sense of community and emphasis on supporting the local economy.  It's about small independent stores and restaurants, and it's about supporting that which is made with the hands of those in your area code.  Most importantly, it's about the sum of all those parts that come together in unison to create the great city which is Chicago.

Cheers!

Craft Commander