Monthly Archives: June 2012

by | June 27, 2012 · 8:49 pm

Typical Insanity

It’s been an insane week. Even more than usual. I was up bright and early Saturday morning to do my shift brew for Enegren Brewing with Brew Chief Joe.
In between pH testing and hop additions, we found the time to do a little photo shoot for Captain’s Summer Session blonde ale. Joe was the designated “fluffer” of the beer…
I think it turned out pretty well. We had to drink the beer(s) at 7:30am after we’d poured it, but since it’s only 4.9% we fared well for the rest of the day.
Saturday night after brew day was spent grilling, drinking delicious beer and eating candy malt samples from the CBC.
I’ll eat malt plain, but when it’s covered in sugar, I’ll eat even MORE of it.
Yes, please!
Sunday ended with this deliciousness. That would be “The Mack” (mac and cheese in a grilled cheese sammich) from Custom Melt in Moorpark – a gourmet grilled cheese restaurant that recently opened. I have eaten there every weekend. I will continue to do so every weekend I am in town.
The Green-Go – roasted turkey, bacon, avocado and pesto wrapped up in a cheesy embrace. There will definitely be a blog about this place coming in the near future.
Sunday night puppies were played with, the movie Kick Ass was watched and I was prepared to face the oncoming week. Monday was spent cleaning kegs and Tuesday was a surprise day off. I got an oil change. I was told that my tires didn’t look so good. I went to the tire place. I replaced All. Four. Tires.
My wallet is weeping silent tears as I type.
I do have a PLANNED day off on Friday, though! I’ll be camping up in Kern Valley through the weekend: a much needed extended weekend spent mountain biking, hiking, exploring and drinking mass quantities of instant coffee from my Jetboil.
I think I’m all prepared. Only thing left to do is pick up some brews from Kern River Brewing before we head out into the wilderness!
That and somehow bid farewell to those beautiful eyes for three days. Once I do THAT I’ll be fully prepared.

Tomorrey is brew day, then getting in the car immediately after to head out for camping! Follow my brew day updates on my Facebook or my Twitter, OR on Wolf Creek Brewery’s Facebook and Twitter (I run all of the above)! Have a wonderful extended weekend!

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by | June 23, 2012 · 5:12 pm

Brewery Eats

On the weekends, brewers tend to get tired of ordering in delicious foods. Creativity begins.
Enegren has a mini grill that can fit the equivalent of half of a meal for a normal person. Brew chief Joe made it work.
Beef + green onions + creativity = Carne asada tacos!
Avocado and cilantro fancied them up. They were devoured.
Pairing is necessary with such brewery feasts. We had the Deviation Stout that had been aging in a barrel since February. This was definitely the worst beer in the world.
The EBC crew definitely should NOT have served it to customers. It should have been solely given to workers so they could truly appreciate what a terrible beer had been created. I may or may not have had multiple tasters of this heavenly delicious atrocious beer.
In all honestly, especially when served from a pump tap, this beer was out of this world amazing. Smooth, room temperature and full of oak and chocolate and roast and love. There is no love this great in the world. Besides God’s love.
And that of a baby husky. All wonderful things.

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by | June 19, 2012 · 4:18 pm

Ladies at Ladyface: 13

This month, the ladies planned a hike to the top of Ladyface Mountain! Unfortunately, I arrived too late to attend.
Definitely missed out a little bit, but instead I got to have an awesome 3 hour dinner with this lovely lady!
Janelle’s little one is due very soon!
I started off with the Spring Farm Salad – arugula, fresh blueberries, avocado, shaved parmesan and candied almond slivers tossed in a champagne vinaigrette. This monster of a salad took me almost an hour to complete, but I couldn’t stop – so delicious! I paired it with a taster of the Derailleur and a taster of the Reyes Adobe Red.
We had a tough time deciding what to get for dessert, so we got two dishes and split them. First up was the slow roasted stone fruits – white peaches, nectarines and black and red plums served with ricotta dulce and honey lavender. We probably should’ve gotten two the way we demolished the contents of the glass.
The Chocolate Porter Torte was next, with fresh vanilla gelato slowly melting atop. The drink pairing for this was obvious.
French press coffee! Not what you were expecting?
We were serenaded by the peaceful voice of Masha McSorley as the sky began to darken.
The ladies who had attended the hike came back burdened with a huge bouquet of mountaintop gatherings which they promptly presented to us and then immediately ordered their refreshments for proper rehydration after their strenuous exercise.
More french press was foolishly consumed by myself, and I spent the rest of the evening/night buzzing around in an overstuffed bliss.

Next time I’ll be joining in on the hike and then eating even more to refuel after!

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by | June 14, 2012 · 7:16 pm

Submersed in Beer

If you’d asked me three years ago if I would ever imagine myself completely submersed in the world of beer, I would’ve laughed my ass off as I popped the top off of a Fat Tire or Blue Moon and drank it straight from the bottle.
My goodness how things change. This entire week has been nothing but brewing, beer, cleaning and more brewing. And beer.
Scrubbed out faucets and cleaned tap lines in the beginning of the week. My hands have healed from the scrub brushes just in time to scrub out some more tomorrey!
Keg delivery is tomorrey as well! Gotta replenish those taps with fresh brews! And hopefully replenish myself with a new experiment by head chef, Chuy? Hint hint, Chuy, if you’re reading this, hehe. We’ll also be dropping off kegs at The LAB Brewing for a local tap takeover for Father’s Day! If you’re in town, head over there on Saturday and sample some of the amazing brews the Agoura Hills/Moorpark/Ventura County has!
The brew days have only contained slight injuries. Tuesday’s consisted of 175 degree spent grain falling into my boot. Today, I somehow have bruised lines across the tops of my knees as well as a blister on my finger from a hot water burn. Not bad for a double brew week!
Today, the grain mill jammed on our last 20lbs of malted wheat. Luckily it was an easy fix – scoop everything out, find the small stone that had gotten lodged between the gears, then reassemble and finish milling.
Once in a while we get spoiled during these early mornings and are surprised with bacon from the kitchen. These mornings are my favorite.
This morning, unfortunately, was not one of those mornings. Three cups of coffee and crunching on the grain before we mashed in made do.
We also had some quality control to do – Surfin’ Monks was transferred yesterday and carbonated today. It passed the test.
Luckily, I won’t be doing what I was last weekend – an overnight brew at Enegren. We mashed in at 7:30pm and worked until 6am. Not that there’s anything wrong with that…
…Unless your 3am meal consists of flamin’ hot Cheetos, M&Ms and Gatorade from a late run to 7-11. Sometimes you just get desperate.
Luckily, coffee heals all. Apparently it works faster when you snort it.

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by | June 11, 2012 · 8:14 pm

Working for the Weekend

Side note – I thought for 25 years that “working for the weekend” meant working ON the weekend. I was enlightened a month ago. This blog title is based on my previous assumption.

My weekend:
Commander Matt and I brewed at Enegren Brewing from 7:30pm on Friday night until we were relieved by Joe and Chris at 6am on Saturday morning. Then I was able to sleep for three hours before heading back to work the tasting room. Zombie Saturday.
Plenty of caffeine was consumed. Beer may also have been consumed…
During the short breaks in between customers, I played with settings on my camera.
Oh, I fancy, huh?
More photography as I tried not to fall asleep whilst holding my camera.
The EBC crew kegged their Golden Spur Saison that’s been aging in a Syrah barrel for three months.
We sampled it, just to make sure it was up to par. Heavenly with hints of vanilla, Syrah and a bold touch of oak.
Kegging for the tasting room!
Christoph takes his job of blanketing the keg with CO2 seriously.
Very seriously, as you can see.

After the long weekend, Commander Matt helped me move to a new place that’s within biking distance of Wolf Creek Brewery. After returning, we picked up the most amazing, delicious dinner known to wo/man. At least for this week.
That would be chili over mac ‘n cheese. I could tell you where we got this from… but then I would actually have to kill you.

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by | June 7, 2012 · 8:19 pm

Post Brew Foods

Just got done with an eleven hour brew day! This would be no big deal if it weren’t for that fact that it was about 98 degrees in Valencia today. That and I got only three hours of sleep after a late night of helping Enegren Brewing deliver kegs to Mohawk’s Bend in LA, Tony’s Darts Away in Burbank and Short Order at the Farmers’ Market in West Hollywood. Them boys and their brews be popular!
After a long day like that, I wanted something incredibly simple for fooding. I had these coupons given to me a few months ago by Foodbuzz and Van de Kamp’s (even though I received coupons for free, all reviews are my own opinion, yada yada yada, you know the spiel) and after all of the hassle of moving, finally picked up these frozen fish packet thingies.
After 24 minutes in the oven, all puffed up!
Pretty similar to the picture on the box. I shared these with my cousin and uncle. He sauteed up some fresh broccoli with garlic and olive oil to balance out the meal.
My uncle chose the classic grilled version. A bit more photogenic than the lemon pepper. Overall, the fish was actually good! Legit pieces of fish – not some compressed combination of randomness, but they were a little overwhelmed with the sauce. A good grab if you’re lazy like me and don’t want to put effort into your meal.
Sometimes though, you just need something a little heartier, as delicious as tilapia is… I paired two day old pasta with some Shift Pale Lager from New Belgium. Classy on the pasta, I know. Shift really surprised me! I wasn’t expecting to like a lager so much, but this is crisp and refreshing for this hot evening, with a sweet and bready malt backbone. A VERY easy drinker at 5% ABV. I could see taking this along on a camping trip in the near future…
Brewer injuries. I have no idea how this happened, but it did. I also learned today that there’s no possible way to take a good picture of one’s knee.

Tomorrey promises a day of keg deliveries followed by an overnight brew at Enegren Brewing. Basically, I’ll be awake from 7am on Friday until at least 7am on Saturday. And THEN I’m moving AGAIN. This should be a fun weekend…

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by | June 4, 2012 · 7:05 pm

Zoo Brew 2012

On Saturday I went up to Santa Barbara with the Wolf Creek crew to serve at the 3rd annual Santa Barbara Zoo Brew.
We packed up the pickup truck with kegs and the jockeybox and headed north.
I was the designated “foofer” of the day. Foofer is a scientific term. Basically, I tried to make the table look pretty and make the jockeybox look invisible. Designing pretty things is not in my nature, but I gave it a go…
After we’d set up, I wandered around the little park to check it out.
The calm before the storm.
And so it begins! The first hour was for VIP only and was nice and mellow. Then everyone else piled in.
We poured taster after taster with no rest for the entire five hours!
The majority of the crowd was made up of UCSB students and the majority of them knew absolutely nothing about beer. I can’t recall how many times someone tripped up to the table and slurringly asked, “Can I have the light one?” One girl and I had a very serious conversation about how just because a beer is called “pale ale”, it doesn’t mean that it tastes light. I got a high five for my explanation. Hooray.

Luckily, I was able to Keep Calm and Chive On through all of this.
I spotted four Chivers at the event! I was only able to grab a few pics with these two though.
Dang, I really need one of these shirts. That and a BFM…
There was a mad rush for beer when the last half hour was announced. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw one guy sprint across the little park, stop to take his flip flops off, leave them perfectly placed and punch some guy in the face for looking at his girlfriend wrong. Lovely.
After everyone stopped pouring beer and the attendees stopped trying to bribe us to pour them “just one last taster”, the park emptied out very quickly.
We packed up our fancy setup and waited for the carts to come and shuttle us back down to the parking lot.
Enjoying the peace after the crazy day.
Definitely not the worst view to be stuck with.
We drove back to Valencia, enjoying the ocean views while we had them, and wrapped up the thirteen hour day with a brew at Dargan’s Irish Pub in Ventura.
We work so very hard…

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by | June 1, 2012 · 8:07 pm

Easing Into Real Life

I’m slowly reverting back into reality after my amazing weekend in Colorado.
That drive to the airport was just too short. I miss Colorado already.
Back to work on Tuesday! Lots of brewing, coffee and more coffee.
I run Wolf Creek’s social media. You can follow all my updates for them on Facebook or on Twitter! We had to take a picture of a full pint of Wolf Pack to show everyone it was going up on tap that day. You can’t waste beer, even if it’s 7am. It was a good start to the day.
Rob, Wolf Creek’s brewmaster, found this in the latest edition of Celebrator magazine! I’m so very proud to be part of both Enegren and Wolf Creek!
We took a little trip up to our new brewery site! This is what will soon be our tasting room! I’m so very excited!
We dropped off our new kegs into the grain area of the brewery. They look pretty good there, methinks.
I had the chance to go use one of my Groupons and get a massage yesterday. Passed by this little gem on the way. Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell! Anyone who gets that reference is now my best friend.
Tomorrey I’ll be working at the Zoo Brew in Santa Barbara with Wolf Creek Brewery, then perfecting my Black Stripe at Enegren. Although, I’m not sure it could get much better than that!

I do have one favor to ask you… Wolf Creek Brewery has applied for a grant to help us get the bottling line so we can start distributing our beers in Southern California! It’d mean the world to me if you would go vote for us. We only need 137 more votes! I’ll love you forever 🙂
Mission Small Business – Click to register, log in through your Facebook, type Wolf Creek into the search and vote! Thanks so much!

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