Tag Archives: Enegren Brewing Company

by | April 30, 2013 · 5:39 pm

Tap Takeover at Dish

Last night, Enegren Brewing Company took over the taps at Dish in Thousand Oaks.
amChef Alfie had been inspired by a few of EBC’s beers and decided to put together a burger pairing for Dish’s weekly Monday Craft Beer and Burger Night.
am3While the boys set up for the evening, I greedily studied the menu and proceeded to order each of the featured burgers.
am6Buffalo Mole Burger, inspired by Captain Patrick’s Irish Stout – A thick, juicy buffalo patty cooked perfectly to medium, topped with a savory mole sauce emanating essence of dusty cocoa, sweet onions and a delicate spice of pepper. The dry Irish stout enhanced the smokiness of the burger and brought forward the rich chocolate in the mole while taming the spice.
am7Three Little Pigs, inspired by Protector Imperial IPA – This burger was a little overwhelming at first. Stacked to high heaven and no knife and fork in sight…
am8We topped it with the tender brioche bun and proceeded to compress it until it was almost short enough to take a full bite. House ground pork patty topped with the thickest bacon I’ve ever seen topped again with barbecue pulled pork and crispy onions. The hoppiness of the beer cut through the adiposity of the bacon while balancing out the sweetness of the barbecue sauce.
am9I also happened to see a new addition to the chalkboard – Onion rings coated in Golden Spur Saison batter, served with warmed zesty dijon mustard dipping sauce spiked with Golden Spur. The batter was light, flaky and piping hot. Everything was greedily consumed and copious amounts of napkins were used.
am4In addition to the five beers on tap, the boys brought along a cask of Vanilla Oaked Valkyrie – a favorite of the brewery regulars.
CaskRon of Dish tapped the keg in the early evening and we were pleased to see many glasses being sent out around the restaurant.
am5After a taster of the cask, I was designated the task of disposing of any “mispours” made by the boys. I didn’t complain – gotta do what I can to help out!
am1Overall it was yet another delicious night, as seems to be tradition when there’s beer and food involved.
am10The night was almost ruined for me when my camera bag betrayed me and threw my beloved camera onto the street, cracking the lens right down the middle. While I stood in shock, hyperventilating, internally cursing and trying not to faint, Commander Matt calmed me down and showed me that the body and actual lens of the camera were fine – the protective UV cover had taken all the abuse. The above picture is proof that my lovely camera still lives. Crisis averted.

Said camera bag may be burned and replaced for its betrayal.

2 Comments

Filed under beer pairing

Tagged as , , , ,

by | April 26, 2013 · 4:07 pm

Boys in Short Shorts

It’s been a busy week – that seems to be a new tradition. On Wednesday I had a beer and food pairing event at Sagebrush Cantina in Calabases that I designed and had to get there early to set up. I happened to get there just a tad too early and used the extra time as an excuse to go visit Pedaler’s Fork across the street.
AMI was a tad too late for breakfast…
am1And just hungry enough that I might be able to finish a piece or two of flatbread.
am5Smoked chicken and shishito peppers! Smokey and sweet.

The crew from Lagunitas happened to show up as I was enjoying my first bite. They ordered some fancy whiskey for themselves…
am7…and a shot of Lagunitas Sucks for me. I had a speech to give so I was behaving.
am2Behaving is very difficult with Pedaler’s selection of 32 taps, but I stood my ground.
am6Except for a small sip of the fizz that mixologist Thor was trying out. Thor (his actual name is Tor, but I can’t not call him Thor) also happens to be a Chiver!
am4In exchange for letting me call him Thor, I gave him a Bill F***ing Murray shirt. Good trade, in my opinion.
am3I enjoyed the last of the sunlight in the rustic restaurant before going back across the street to set up.
am8Beer. Check.
am9Other beer. Check.
am11More beer. Check.
am12am13am14am15am16You get the idea. Check.
am10All in all we had about eighteen different breweries attend with about thirty two beers. I’d spent the past week putting together and finalizing all of the food pairings. Unfortunately for you guys, I got too busy hosting and giving speeches (aka a single two-minute speech about how to taste the beer before I ran to Lagunitas and told them to “beer me” whilst holding out my four ounce glass for a fill) and was unable to take pictures of the actual prepared food. The event and pairing was well-received by all, and brewery tours were promised by reps. It was a good evening for me!

In other news, I’m slowly adding to my beer/brewery photography portfolio. I apologize in advance if these explicit photographs offend anybody.
am17Behind the scenes for Enegren Brewing’s new beer Shorts Day.
am18The official pic.
am19The boys decided to try out the entire brew in their short shorts.
am20The official beer picture for Shorts Day Spring IPA…
am21And the background model in all of his white-legged glory.

Again, I’m so sorry.

1 Comment

Filed under beer, beer tasting

Tagged as , , , , ,

by | August 21, 2012 · 9:38 pm

Brewery Hecticity

Life has been crazy busy lately. In addition to working at Wolf Creek Brewery, I’m also doing social media and writing their blog.
You can check out the purpose of this crazy photo over at the Wolf Creek blog. On top of real work, I also volunteer at Enegren Brewing Friday through Sunday.
I got a little refresher from Red Mango on my way over to Moorpark Friday afternoon.
And then I got another little refresher at Ladyface on the way. Sweet Cherry Porter on cask? How could I not?
Definitely glad I treated myself before this huge pallet arrived! Those would be 356 two liter growlers from Italy. The caps were in the same shipment. That’s right – caps were not attached to the bottles.
I spent Friday afternoon and all of Saturday assembling the tops and attaching them to the bottles – this time with help from the EBC crew. My hands and wrists still ache.
While I was there on Friday, the owner/brewmaster from Hangar 24 happened to swing by with about seven other employees/sales reps. Ben Cook recently had an article written about him in the New Brewer magazine which his coworkers made sure to point out, much to Ben’s dismay. I immediately jumped on the bandwagon and insisted on a personalized autograph and cheesy picture just to humiliate him a little more. The entire group of guys were a much needed fun breath of fresh air in between unloading and assembling growlers. Now I need to get to the Redlands and visit the brewery!

Friday night was brew night – Chris and Matt mashed in and brewed overnight and then Joe and I came in the morning to relieve them and finish up the brew. Saturday was a long one full of pain and growlers and cursing at growlers that created pain, but with this schedule we had all of Sunday free!
ADVENTURE TEAM!
We went on a 16.7 mile mountain bike ride on Sunday morning then ate back all of the calories we’d burned at the local greasy diner, Cactus Patch, before heading back to work.

And then the week started again. Normally this would be tragic (or at least it would be if I had a normal job and didn’t brew beer for a living), but I had the fifteenth gathering of Ladies at Ladyface: The Fermentables and Comestibles Education and Tippling Society to look forward to on Monday night!
We went “back to the basics” and had a brewery tour where we were walked through the brew process and got to munch on milled malts and sip Blind Ambition straight from the fermentor. There were many new faces, all eager to learn and imbibe and get tippled in the necessary fashion it takes to be a L@L.
We had a nice big group of ladies attending – not a single keg was left un-sat-upon. We spent the evening sipping homebrews and socializing before grabbing some foods to ward off the dizzying effects of beer on empty stomachs.
Sweet potato fries – suicide style. Could you need anything more in life?

For recaps of our past Ladies at Ladyface meetings, check out the links below:
Ladies at Ladyface: 1
Ladies at Ladyface: 2
Ladies at Ladyface: 3
Ladies at Ladyface: 4
Ladies at Ladyface: 5
Ladies at Ladyface: 6
Ladies at Ladyface: 7
Ladies at Ladyface: 8
Ladies at Ladyface: 9
Ladies at Ladyface: 10
Ladies at Ladyface: 11
Ladies at Ladyface: 12
Ladies at Ladyface: 13
Ladies at Ladyface: 14

2 Comments

Filed under brewery

Tagged as , , , , , ,

by | July 17, 2012 · 8:43 pm

Ladies at Ladyface: 14

Last night was our fourteenth meeting of Ladies at Ladyface: The Fermentables and Comestibles Education and Tippling Society! Time really flies! Meetings ten, eleven, twelve and thirteen on the links!
My craft beer girl Janelle (picture from our first visit ever to Enegren Brewing Company) brought something extra special to last night’s meeting.
World, meet little Avery – Janelle and Andrew’s five day old, perfectly adorable creation.
Everyone else just brought food for the potluck. Not as adorable, but quite delicious. Our meeting was a field trip to Enegren Brewing Company to try all the beers, get a brewery tour and do the usual socializing and eating. Enegren’s four taster limit was recently lifted, so we took full advantage (everyone had designated drivers). I love these meetings!
One liter growlers gracing the shelves.
Taps in the sunset. Such a beautiful sight.
We had a great showing and demolished almost all of the comestibles. I failed at food blogging and consumed everything before I remembered that pictures would’ve been a nice addition… Yum. Oops.
Cyrena brought dessert – Blue Belly Barleywine! Wonderfully rich, sweet and full of subtle vanilla notes from the whiskey barrels it’s aged in. There was some leftover at the end of the night. I may or may not have snuck it home with me and polished it off last night (I did).

Next meeting we’ll be going “back to the basics”. Our group has come quite a long way in the year and two months we’ve been up and running, and unfortunately that has become intimidating to potential new craft beer lovers. No need to be scared, ladies! Come drink wonderful craft beer, learn about why it’s so delectable, eat delicious foods and socialize! That’s what the root of the group is truly about.

1 Comment

Filed under beer, beer tasting, brewery

Tagged as , , ,

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!

1 Comment

Filed under brewery, brewing

Tagged as , , ,

by | January 1, 2012 · 11:21 pm

Happy 2012!!!

Happy New Year to all! I hope you all had a wonderful, safe holiday! I spent my evening sipping a homemade hot toddy, coughing up a storm and watching In Bruges. Not quite the successful evening we’d planned, but we were miserably comfortable.

I’m attempting to sum up some highlights of this year with pictures, and I’ve realized that I have had a WONDERFUL year. If you thought 30 pictures was bad, prepare yourself for a visual onslaught.
The first of many, many nights at Ladyface, TRULY appreciating beer.
Learning all-grain brewing with Grayson and Frank.
Watching my first polo match in Indio.
Staying in a hotel in Indio where someone was possibly murdered…
Multiple trips to Ojai.
Opening my first brew: Dos Beckis!
Recording ADR for a film that has yet to surface… C’mon, Scott!
Enjoyed my first (of many) sangrias at Sofrita!
Created a recipe for Newman’s Own!
Had a blogger meetup at Ladyface.
Made Oatmeal Stout Brownies with Caramelized Bacon – this has gotten me recognized in the brewery and at the homebrew shop: “Hey, you’re the one who made the brownies with bacon!”
Attempted to resign, and then officially resigned from my retail job.
Went to Colorado for two weeks…
Was so sick that every time I inhaled I had to cough. (Seriously, I didn’t sleep for a week thanks to this horrible illness as I’m sure you can see in that picture!)
Went to the Odell’s Small Batch Revival. I jokingly told my brother that once he and his wife opened their brewery, I would be pouring in their taproom. They said, “We’d really prefer a sommelier for beer.” I went home, researched, and found the Cicerone program.
I became a Cicerone Certified Beer Server. I’m scheduled to take the exam to become a Certified Cicerone in the next few months…
Became a member of the American Homebrewers Association.
Was featured on The Chive three times!
Went to Breckenridge for a show and got to meet/interview the head brewer, Matt Darling.
…and enjoy Breckenridge in all of its chilly glory.
Purchased a MacBook Pro with my own earnings.
Purchased a camera. Then immediately upgraded to an even better camera!
Visited Wades Wines new tasting room. Then visited again and again and again. Then was interviewed by The Beer Wench.
Tried mussels for the first time. Tried mussels for the last time.
Visited Island Brewing Company.
Got a tour from the brewer.
Brewed my second batch of beer with the Maltose Falcons.
Finally trespassed and got a closeup look at an old abandoned water park.
Became a founding member of Ladies at Ladyface.  Haven’t missed a meeting since.
Went to the second concert of my entire life with my friend/cousin Allie. She owled.
I owled.
Went to Seattle for the first time in my life.
Visited Elysian Brewing Company and became obsessed with their Avatar Jasmine IPA.
Learned how to use the bus and visited Deschutes Brewery on our way down from Seattle.
Made a pit stop at Sierra Nevada Brewing in Chico to try all SIXTEEN of their brews.
Met the brewers at Enegren Brewing Company.
Weasled my way into the brewery and started volunteering there so I could be a Cicerone Certified Beer Server who’d actually served beer to people instead of just passed an online test. Then they threw me into a brewniform, let me help with a brew day and got stuck with me.
I learned how to lift 50lb kegs over my shoulder while wearing heels. Enegren will seriously have a hard time getting rid of me.
I visited TONS of breweries. The few I’ve featured are only skimming the top…
I created some delicious recipes for the autumn season…
Some boozy autumn recipes as well.
One of my recipes was featured on Taste Terminal and was their second most popular post of 2011!
Discovered a program for HDR and went slightly beserk with that. Consequently, I realized that food doesn’t always do so well with HDR.
Brewed again with Frank and Grayson up in Santa Barbara.
Met the Beer Chicks at the latest Ladies at Ladyface.

And that’s barely skimming the surface. Happy Holidays and Happy New Year to all!
Raising a glass to 2012 being as good, or even better than 2011.

5 Comments

Filed under New Year

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

by | October 31, 2011 · 5:26 pm

Chocolate Covered Pretzels

I tend to have incredibly nerdy tendencies. If you’ve been reading the blog for a while, you already know this. On Friday I decided to make some chocolate covered pretzels to take into Enegren. I originally planned to cover them with orange and black sprinkles and go with a Halloween theme. When I got to the grocery store, there were no orange OR black sprinkles to be found. I stumbled across silver and gold, then had an epiphany.
Enegren’s official colors are grey, red and yellow. Nerd-dom activate!
Silver (gray), gold (yellow) and red sprinkles.
Served in an Enegren glass, of course. I warned you: NERD.

I’d love to say that I created this recipe, but really, dipping pretzels in melted chocolate and sprinkling them with sprinkles isn’t really a recipe. I DID, however, steal the idea from Dashing Dish.

For a super simple recipe – melt a whole bunch of chocolate chips in a coffee mug, take long pretzel rods and dip them in the melted chocolate. Place the dipped pretzels on wax paper and sprinkle with toppings, then freeze for 10 minutes until they harden. Recipe magic!
While I waited for those to harden in the freezer, I enjoyed the always lovely California afternoon.

I worked at the brewery Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
The kegs of Christopher Columbus (Enegren’s IPA that was dry-hopped with Columbus hops) were drank dry by happy customers, so my awesome artwork had to come down. Another aspect of my job as a brewtern: artwork. It almost never turns out…

Last night we had the monthly meeting of our local homebrew club: the first time I’ve been in town and able to make it since it began.
We had about twenty people show up, and about twice as many bottles. What you see above is about half of what we had.
It was a beautiful evening.

Without further ado, Happy Halloween!
This monster tried to attack me the other day. I was not appreciative.

1 Comment

Filed under brewery

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , ,

by | October 16, 2011 · 5:55 pm

Catching Up

My life has been consumed by writing papers for class and working at the brewery. I’m okay with the latter, not so much with the former when they take away from my blogging time… Yesterday I wrote an entire paper while at the brewery. It made it a lot more bearable, being able to distract myself by helping mash in and working the tap room. My paper might suck, but at least it’s done!
Plus, now I have these awesome bruises from mashing in! Apparently I incorrectly rest my forearm on the edge of the mash tun while stirring. This is the second time that I’ve ended up bruised and battered from mashing in. I plan on resting my forearm on the edge of the mash tun from now on so I can whine about it and annoy the brewers at Enegren. I’m sure they’ll appreciate that.
The rest of this blog will be random pictures that I’ve taken over the past week and been far too busy to post.
Sparks flying at Enegren Brewing Company.
The lovely Ms. Sofia Pernas, rocking a “Lara Croft” French braid, a la me. I’m a French braiding rock star.
A beautiful sunrise to transition to the next, terrifying picture.
Black and white jumping spider of death and terror with millions of minions of spider-zombies.
A close up of the black and white jumping spider of death with millions of minions of spider-zombies and his evil eyes and pincers.
A delicious mise en place of my Autumn Pumpkin Ale Chili in preparation for something super sneaky.
Super sneaky sneak preview.
Post super sneaky stuff adult beverage. Bison Brewing Gingerbread Ale. They tweeted about this going out two weeks ago and I’ve been seeking it ever since. It took oh, so very long to find it. In my world, two weeks is an eternity.
Me enjoying said adult beverage. This porter has a nice aroma of ginger on the nose and a spicy, beautifully carbonated sip that explodes across the tongue with sweet ginger and a whisper of nutmeg. HIGH drinkability factor. Be warned, it goes down easier than you’d expect. On a completely unrelated note, I’m extremely chillaxed and happy and full of ginger as we speak.

Unfortunately, that is all. I have some awesome stuff coming up this week that I’ll be sure to photograph!

9 Comments

Filed under brewery

Tagged as , , , , , , ,

by | September 15, 2011 · 8:13 pm

Library Alehouse

Enegren Brewing Company’s beer was being poured at the Library Alehouse in Santa Monica yesterday. Naturally, I had to attend to show my support! Their beer was set to be tapped at 6pm. I got there at 4pm for a little… extra support? In any case, beer was the final outcome.
My pops was my date for the evening. We grabbed a table next to the window and set to work deciphering the 29 taps behind the bar!
The Library Alehouse is set in a narrow space on Main Street, but extends all the way back into a cozy patio. We opted to stay inside where all of the action was.
The menu included the majority of their beer on tap, but left out the a few of the delicious newbies to the bar like La Folie by New Belgium and Denogginizer by Drake’s Brewing.
PUNKIN ALE? Well, it IS technically mid-September…
And that beauty on the far right is, indeed, Punkin Ale by Dogfish Head. Lovely and spicy, full of the aroma of pumpkin pie, a smooth, sweet malty sip and a warm boozy finish. Fall has arrived! Now going from left to right: Drake’s 1500 Pale Ale, Houblon Chouffe by Achouffe (heehee, Ah-choo-f! I’m twelve.), Old Rasputin Russian Imperial Stout by North Coast Brewing, Jamaica Red by Mad River Brewing, and back to Punkin Ale. I enjoyed the 1500 Pale Ale and the Jamaica Red best, so I ordered a glass of the Houblon Chouffe. Makes sense, right? Turns out we weren’t given a list of the beers so I ordered what I thought was in the glass on the far left (it was sipped dry by then)…
Well, Houblon Chouffe it is! This one’s quite a bit higher in the ABV than the 1500 Pale Ale (9% vs. 5.2%), and full of delicate bittering hops and the flavor and aroma of banana thanks to the use of traditional Belgian yeast. I wasn’t complaining after the first sip!
My dad got a full pint of the Old Rasputin in a slightly not-beer-clean glass. He didn’t mind too much.
We split the Local Burger – bison purchased at the Santa Monica farmers’ market, topped with sharp gouda, arugula and served on a soft bun covered with opium poppyseeds. The sweet potato fries were the true stand-outs of this – crispy on the outside, soft and sweet inside and covered with flakes of salt and fresh herbs.
6 o’clock rolled around, the candles came out, I ordered my pops an Old Chub Scotch Ale by Oskar Blues, an Alesmith IPA was randomly placed in front of me in a pint glass, and who should walk in but two Ghostbusters men in brewniforms! (They never get tired of hearing that, I’m sure…)
They even wore the boots –  that’s dedication. My dad and I grabbed a taster size of their Valkyrie California Alt (we had been there since 4pm…), spouted off how amazing it was to the sitters-by, tried some of the Alehouse’s mocha torte which turned out so dry that we had to send it back, and then slowly, lazily rolled off our tall chairs, meandered down Main Street and headed home.
Aaaaah, life is glorious!

9 Comments

Filed under Alehouse, Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

by | September 7, 2011 · 8:31 pm

WEDNESDAY!

Hey guys! It’s Wednesday! It’s September 7th, 2011! This will only happen ONCE in the entire existence of the universe.

On this rare occasion you should most definitely…
Order and consume an entire pizza….
Dye ridiculous amounts of random-colored streaks into parts of your hair.
At least, that’s how I would recommend you spend your Wednesday. If you forgo the hair, just go for pizza and a beer.

That will make for an epic Wednesday indeed.

For Thursday, you should most definitely head over to Wades Wines to support the newest local brewery in Ventura County – Enegren Brewing! It’s “Meet the Brewers” night  from 4:30pm to 7pm and, while I’ll be unable to attend, will be showing my support from afar. If you do go, tell them that Becki threatened you if you didn’t show up, and that a flight of their beers would make you feel much safer.
Enegren will be showcasing FOUR beers tomorrey night! Yes, that means one that they don’t serve at the brewery! I got an advanced screening sip of this when I worked the taps last Saturday and I can tell you – It. Be. Awesome.

Seriously though, go and support them. All craft breweries deserve support in order to stick it to the big guys. Plus, the longer they stay open, the longer I can steal away into their tap room – measuring hops, stirring mash, pouring tasters and working for tips.
Delicious, mouthwatering tips.

3 Comments

Filed under Random

Tagged as , , , , ,