This post is a little late, so I apologize to both my sister and Jester King Craft  Brewery. But regardless, better late than never. Right?

I’m really excited to have a “guest” writer on my site for this post. And I am particularly excited because this writer is also my younger (only) sister. The most ironic part about the whole thing is that my sister doesn’t actually drink beer… and rarely, if ever, drinks alcohol.

Now I know what you are thinking, how on earth are we related? Let’s just say, it happens…

Anyways, my sister and her best friend from high school have a long distance baking blog called, The Daily Bread. And although she doesn’t actually drink beer, my sister likes to bake bread with it.

In January, she wrote me an email saying, “It’s also sad that I was planning on going to a brewery opening just because I want to use one of their beers to make bread with…” Which is cute, yet depressing. Not looking to pass up an opportunity I responded to her, “Haha… well you should go to the brewery opening and take pics and scope out the scene for me. You could be a field reporter for my blog. Don’t worry about tasting notes, just provide photos. And I can write up a little doo-da.”

Well, she ended up writing the doo-da as well. And here it is, the “scoop” on Jester King Craft Brewery in Austin, TX (according to the Wench’s non-drinking sister):

Went to the Jester King Brewery Opening today with Patrick and Matt.  There were probably around 2000 people there, what a zoo! Live bands, a beard contest, brewery tours etc.

There should be info about all the beer we tasted on the site.

Patrick liked the Boxers Revenge (A Farmhouse Provision Ale described on the website as being: Full-flavored, dry, champagne-like farmhouse ale, dry-hopped with floral, citrusy, Cascade and Centennial hops and re-fermented in French oak wine barrel with wild yeast. One to keep around!) best. It was citrusy, bright and very highly carbonated (sort of like Champagne). He said it was very delicious.

We also tasted Commercial Suicide which neither one of us was a huge fan of, and not Matt either. It tasted smokey and like coffee. (Described on the website as a Oaked English Mild — A true “session beer”, Commercial Suicide is an authentic English dark mild with notes of caramel, coffee and chocolate. A portion of each batch is aged in medium toast American oak barrels, lending very subtle toasted, oaky notes to the finished beer.)

We also tried the Wytchmaker Rye IPA which was very bitter, reddish in color and very hoppy.

There was a classic car show and way many more people than they had expected. I would say you should get in touch with the brew master because Matt and Patrick both agreed that this beer was far superior to what we had the other night at the North by Northwest Brewery in ATX and also the Draught House now has a few of their beers on tap… seems like it will be an Austin Craft Brew Favorite.

Special thanks to my little field reporter, Becca Routson, for her awesome photography and insight into Jester King Craft Brewery. I look forward to visiting both her and the brewery in Austin, hopefully very soon!

CHEERS!

ABOUT JESTER KING CRAFT BREWERY

Located in the beautiful Texas Hill Country,Located in the beautiful Texas Hill Country, Jester King Craft Brewery is an authentic farmhouse brewery committed to brewing artisan ales of great depth and character. At times drawing influences from the world beyond traditional brewers’ yeast, Jester King’s beer is not rushed to market but allowed to mature – often in oak barrels – to create the most enjoyable, interesting and exciting beer we can make. An additional layer of complexity is added to Jester King’s bottled beers by allowing a second fermentation to take place in the bottle. As part of its commitment to sustainability, the slow food movement and Texas, Jester King beer uses as many organic and local ingredients as possible and will soon be brewed with harvested rainwater.

Follow @jesterkingbeer on Twitter!

Fan Jester King Craft Brewery on Facebook!

One of the great perks to writing a blog is having the complete creative freedom to write about whatever you want, however you want. By now, most of you are probably aware of my rather opinionated approach to beer writing. And when I get excited about something, it is hard for me not to express it or share it with the world.

Before I get into my story, there are a few things I need to disclose. This past weekend I was flown by Black Star Beer to Whitefish, Montana. The company paid for my flight, my 2-night stay at the lodge, dinner on Friday night, and (copious amounts of) beers all weekend long. I also received a fun little gift package that included a tin beer mug, a six pack of beer, coffee, and a t-shirt. Okay, now that I’ve followed the “blogging rules” of disclosure, we can move on…

Although I did attend its “relaunch” party last spring, I must admit that,
prior to this trip, I did not know that Black Star Beer was the flagship brand of the McKenzie River Corporation, a beverage marketing firm based in San Francisco, CA. I’ve since learned that the company is also responsible for launching other beverage brands such as Sparks, Steel Reserve (oh how proud this would make my friends at Bistro Sabor), and even an absinthe called Le Torment.

Now for all of you craft beer snobs that have speculations and assumptions about Black Star Beer, put down the boxing gloves and step away from the hater-ade. Although it is associated with a marketing corporation responsible for more mass-produced products, Great Northern Brewing Company is a legitimate craft brewery in every sense of the word, dedicated to producing delicious beer from high quality ingredients.

And y’all know by now that I would never stand behind a corporate brand, so have faith in me on this one.

The McKensie River Corporation was founded by Minott Wessinger, whose family tradition of brewing dates back to 1856. In 1995, Minott founded the Great Northern Brewery, a three story brewhouse with a 20 barrel system that utilizes a traditional “gravity flow” brewing process. Great Northern Brewing Co. currently produces approximately 8000 barrels per year. At this time, the brewery produces all of its smaller production beers as well as Black Star on draft. Black Star bottles are brewed at a separate production facility.

By now, I’ve toured and brewed in several different breweries of all sizes. I must admit that Great Northern was one of the coolest breweries I’ve ever visited. Although small, the three-tiered brewing system was really impressive and, apparently, very efficient. It was also very clean, which is crucial — especially with breweries that mainly brew lagers.

Typically viewed as the “gateway” to craft beer, the craft lager family is often under-appreciated, if not completely ignored. Personally, I find the category completely liberating and refreshing, especially with the recent flood of high-octane, extreme beers in the market.

Minott developed the Black Star lager because he saw a need in the market for a well-made, flavorful, craft lager. He recognized that the average everyday corporate beer drinking consumer needed an approachable, full-flavored beer to help them make the transition into craft beer. And that is preciously what Black Star is — an easy to drink, light-bodied beer brewed with quality ingredients and lots of flavor.

Although I did enjoy probably what equates to the volume of one keg of Black Star beer over the duration of the weekend, it was Fred’s Black Lager that really stole the show. It had balanced notes of chocolate and roasted malts, no esters, a light and smooth body, and I found it to be a perfect breakfast beer.

Another excellent beer was the “Going to the Sun IPA” — a nicely balanced, crisp IPA around 55 IBUs and 6% abv. The hops were floral and slightly citrusy with notes of pine and complimented the very light malt bill (mostly two-row with some munich and a hint of crystal for color).

When I learned I would be attending the Black Star Barter and the Whitefish Winter Carnival, I was excited but really didn’t know exactly what to expect. What ever expectations I might have had were completely exceeded by the Black Star beer crew.

I flew in Friday evening, and was taken immediately to the Lodge at Whitefish Lake. Words cannot give justice to the hospitality of the lodge staff. From the moment our car pulled up, till the moment I was dropped at the airport, the staff was unbelievably friendly and accommodating.

Black Star hooked me up with a PIMP suite in the main building of the lodge. I had a balcony, fireplace, kitchen, enormous king size bed, and a bathroom that any female would envy. Naturally, all the travel made me extremely parched, and I was very excited to find a mixed six-pack of Great Northern beers. I popped a Black Star open, freshened up, and then headed to the lobby to meet the rest of the Black Star team.

I would like to interrupt this post now to make the following announcement: I AM IN LOVE WITH THE ENTIRE BLACK STAR CREW (and Great Northern and all of their partners). Each and everyone of them had a great personality, sincere passion for Black Star and commitment to each other and the company. The group dynamic was bewitching and I was helpless against their charm. I had only one option this weekend, fall under the Black Star spell.

The weekend, in a word, was EPIC. I know the word is overused, but I really cannot find a better term to describe my experience. Friday night consisted of one of the most unique and extraordinary beer dinners I’ve ever attended. Great Northern Brewery set up a huge banquet table on the floor of its brewery, lined up against the fermenters. Lights were turned down low and the brewery was illuminated by candle light.

The dinner deserves an entirely separate editorial, as does the Black Star Beer Barter. So I will close my first post by thanking the entire Black Star crew for their amazing hospitality and all of the really goods times I had this past weekend.

CHEERS! (And stay tuned for more on my weekend in Whitefish…)

At the end of August, a good friend and I embarked upon the cross country road trip of a lifetime. The road trip had multiple purposes — 1. it was my big move from Florida to California (my whole life actually fit into a Dodge Neon = ridiculous) 2. it was the preliminary launch of our (Shana’s and mine) social media expose called Project Y-ine (a research project focused on studying and observing the drinking habits of Generation Y) and 3. it was an opportunity to travel for beer events all throughout the South.

The one destination that neither of us had ever been to and had been anticipating since the beginning of the trip was Austin, Tx. Austin is the self-proclaimed “Live Music Capital of The World” and is known for being a young, hip, liberal & very artsy city. And, of course, it is also known for having a kickass food & beverage scene.

Prior to our visit, my friend Chris from the blog Beer Town Austin set up a few beer events and Texas beer tastings with two local bars. One such bar was Uncle Billy’s Brew and Que. They have developed quite the reputation amongst beer geeks — both local and national. The GM, Ryan, was extremely hospitable and took me on a tour of the brewpub brewing facilities.

Here is the video footage of the behind the scenes tour of Uncle Billy’s Brew & Que:

(I apologize in advance for the darkness of the video. This is my first attempt at editing and I know that I have a lot of kinks to work out. Bear with me …)

Where did we last leave off?

Ah yes, now I remember …

Last week I made the bold decision to leave the state of Ohio – never to return again. (Well that is a BIG lie. Being an Ohio State alumni and a wickedly obsessed Buckeye football fan, it is guaranteed that I will return on multiple occasions for games. Moving on …)

And so last Monday I packed up my car with only my essentials and embarked upon a road trip to my new home in Orlando, FL. First stop was a Twitter friend‘s house in Downington, PA – complete with a VIP tour of Victory Brewing Co. as well as my first experience eating BACON! (Another story for another time!)

This brings us to day two. A day that will forever live in Beer Wench infamy. The day I toured my favorite craft brewery in the whole entire country. The day I met Sir Hopsalot. The day I visited DOGFISH HEAD BREWERY!!!

Luckily, I had a good friend from college that lived about a hour north Milton, DE – where the Dogfish Head Brewery is located. He offered to join me on the tour and then crash at his place. In return, I treated him to dinner and drinks at the Dogfish Head Brewpub in Rehoboth Beach, DE. The brewpub experience deserves a blog of its own. SO, without further ado, I present to you …

Wenchie’s Dogfish Head Brewery tour!!!

THE DOGFISH HEAD BREWERY … (and yes, I am peeing in my pants – correction – I am peeing in my spandex leggings right about now)

CHALK BOARD on the wall at the entrance listing all the beers that DFH is featuring on tap at the brewpub.

GIGANTIC BANNER advertising Dogfish Head’s newest ale creation – Theobroma. Ironically, this beer had just been bottled THE DAY BEFORE I arrived and was neither available for tasting nor sale. BUMMER man.

The LIST OF BEERS we were going to taste (for free!!!) after the brewery tour. (It was enough incentive to keep my mouth shut and ask as few questions as possible! Lucky for me, I am very familiar with the Dogfish Head story, beers and brewing process – so I had no questions!) Mmm … MIDAS TOUCH on DRAFT! SCORE!

Our SUPER AWESOME tour guide Jill. She was a total stud. She told us that out of th 1,400 craft breweries in the United States, Dogfish Head is currently the 25th largest.

Jill also informed us that Dogfish Head is known for two huge differentiating factors:

ONE: Dogfish Head uses more HOPS PER BARREL than ANY other brewery in the world.

TWO: Dogfish Head is infamous for adding unique and exotic ADDITIONAL INGREDIENTS to their ales.

I want you to meet my little friend, SIR HOPS A LOT. Are you familiar with Dogfish Head’s infamous line of IPAs? Aka … the 60 minute IPA, the 90 minute IPA and the OH SO COVETED 120 minute IPA? Do you know how they got their names?

Dogfish Head is the ONLY brewing company that continuously hops its beer. This is because its founder and owner, Sam Caglione, INVENTED and TRADEMARKED the continuous hopping process.

Typically, brewers only add hops during two points of the brewing process – once in the beginning and then again at the end. Once upon a time, Sam was watching a cooking show and the chef was preparing soup. The chef on the show emphasized the importance of slowly and continuously adding the pepper throughout the cooking process. He said that continuously peppering the soup would yield better flavor than just adding it all at once.

And then a light bulb went off in Sam’s head … instead of adding the hops all at once, why not try to continuously hop the beer over a set period of time? This is how the 60 minute ale was born. The first time Sam brewed 60 Minute IPA used an old vibrating tabletop football game that he found at a garage sale. He put the game over the brew kettle and covered the surface with hops. The little plastic football players shook and spun their way down the field, continuously distributing hops into the kettle over a 60 minute time period.

Obviously, an old plastic game from the 80′s was not the most efficient tool for the continuous hopping process. So Sam decided to build his own apparatus to do the job. The first model was SIR HOPS A LOT.

This is me and my new boy friend – SIR HOPS A LOT

Sign on the ORIGINAL KEGGING LINE

Sign on the ORIGINAL BOTTLING LINE

Mmm roasted barley …

Jill explaining how Dogfish Head sends its used mash to local farmers, who feed it to their cattle. AND THEN, Dogfish Head buys the cattle meat for the steaks and burgers at the brewpub. Circle of life anyone?

Dogfish Head’s current brewing line … where the magic starts!

THE HEAT EXCHANGER! This system is freaking awesome. Before it can be fermented, the wort must first be cooled down to yeast pitching temperature. The large steel barrels are filled with cold water. The super hot wort flows through the pipes in the barrels of cold water which yields 2 results: 1. the wort is cooled and 2. the water in the steel barrels are heated.

Dogfish Head then uses the hot water to produce more wort. Since boiling large quantities of water takes a lot of energy, this heat exchanger saves a HUGE amount of energy.

Dogfish Head also has its own water wells on site and does not require water from any other sources. All “waste” water (from cleaning etc.) goes to the local farmers for irrigation. NEAT-O!

UH OH. Wenchie found the barrel of Dogfish Head 120 IPA – aka THE HOLY GRAIL FOR HOPHEADS. SAVE SOME FOR THE OTHERS!

BATHROOM BREAK!

Other interesting tidbits about Dogfish Head:

-Dogfish Head has 4 different labs with 3 full time quality insurance employees (Yes, we are talking about every beer drinker’s dream job – the tasters. That is all they do … taste beer … PHENOMENAL BEER … ALL DAY. Ahhh the life!)

-Every batch of Dogfish Head beer is tasted 40 times

-Due to its inability to keep up with the high demand, Dogfish Head is only able to ship 30% of its beer orders

-Dogfish Head is available in 28 states

-Dogfish Head has 24 varieties of yeast in the house and posses the ability to propagate its own yeast

-Dogfish Head just added new fermenters in the last 8 weeks.  In order to get them into the brewery, the roof had to be removed and the fermenters were flown in by helicopter.

My tasting cup with Dogfish Head Punkin Ale. After this we tasted Midas Touch, 60 Minute and Indian Brown Ale. And yes, they were all as wonderful as you can imagine!

Punkin was my first pumpkin ale of the season. It was not as spicy and a little more creamy than past versions. All in all, it was ABSOLUTELY delicious.

For me, the biggest highlight was being able to taste Midas Touch on draft. Although it is a year round beer, it can be extremely limited and hard to obtain. And forget about finding it on draft … impossible! It was quite an extraordinary treat!

Me and the truck that got Sam Caglione and Dogfish Head to where they are today!

WHEW! What an amazing tour … but my Dogfish Head experience didn’t stop here! Stay tuned for my next blog on my brewpub experience!

CHEERS!

Recently, I made the bold decision to completely uproot my life and embark on an entirely new adventure.

I quit my job without the prospect of another one.

I forfeited my lease with my old landlord (which unfortunately cost me a PRETTY penny).

I gave away everything I owned that would not fit into my super small Dodge Neon.

And then I whole “life” packed into my ity bity little car and moved from Columbus, OH to Orlando, FL.

Instead of just driving straight down, though, I decided to turn my road trip into a mini beer adventure. Along the way I stopped at and toured 2 of my favorite breweries as well as took a side trip to a microbrewery brewpub. All of my little detours were well worth it and I look forward to blogging about them all.

I left Columbus mid-morning Monday, September 15th. My first stop was right outside of Philadelphia in a town called Downingtown.

For those of you who are not quite aware, I am addicted to the social network slash microblogging tool known as TWITTER. I am going to refrain from talking about Twitter at this time since it would completely take over this blog.

Thanks to Twitter, I have met some really amazing and impressively intelligent people across the world. Many of the people I follow and interact with on Twitter also happen to be huge food & beverage geeks and aficionados as well. I have spent hours on Twitter with other foodies, winos & hopheads – discussing and posting pics of food & booze.

One of my buds from Twitter -the brilliant brains behind 1WineDude blog- invited me to come stay with him and his wife in Downington, PA. They are good friends with the event coordinator at Victory Brewing Co. and were able to set me up with a private tour. This was not an offer The Beer Wench could refuse.

And of course, I accepted @1WineDude‘s invitation and went on a special VIP tour of Victory Brewing Company – followed by a delicious dinner with some delicious Victory beers in the Victory brewpub!

And without further ado, here is my tour (via photos)!

VICTORY MALT MILL. The object of milling is to split the husk, preferably lengthwise, in order to expose the starchy endosperm for milling and allow for efficient extraction and subsequent filtration of the wort. Malt milling is usually done by either dry or wet milling. In a wet milling operation, the whole uncrushed malt is presteeped in hot water to the point where the husks reach a water content of approximately 20% and the endosperm remains nearly dry, which results in a semi-plastic, almost pasty consistency. Source: The Brewer’s Handbook.

Victory is the ONLY craft brewery that wet mills.

BARLEY

CONTROL PANEL. WARNING – DO NOT LET BEER WENCH TOUCH, EVER!

DRIED WHOLE LEAF HOPS

FERMENTATION TANKS

YEAST FILTRATION MACHINE THINGY

Mmmm HOPDEVIL KEG!

KEGGING LINE

BOTTLING LINE

PACKAGING AND SHIPPING AREA

JACKPOT!

HALF OF THE BAR

132 CENTS IPA ON CASK!

GOLD RUSH ALE & CREOLE SHRIMP AND SPANISH RICE SPECIAL ENTREE

HOPDEVIL IPA ON CASK

After finishing all the great food and beer, our lovely and very knowledgable tour guide gave us a few bottles of Victory Baltic Thunder as a parting gift. Then we all trucked back to my friend’s place where we sipped on some Victory 10 Years Alt Altbier while looking at some amazing photos in scrap books that his wife put together! Perfect ending to a perfect evening!

SPECIAL THANKS TO Wine Dude, Mrs. Dudette and Baby Dudette. You dudes are the cat’s meow!