4 kegs of California Common

Johnny was a whirlwind of kegging today - four kegs of California Common, a steam beer, which can't be called a steam beer thanks to Anchor Brewing. Steam beers, historically from California's west coast, are brewed with lager yeasts, but fermented without refrigeration. Steam beers probably originated in the Gold Rush through the inelegance of necessity, but resulted in unexpected delectibility. Though they claim no connection to the original steam beer process, Anchor Brewing trademarked the term "steam beer" in 1981, rendering the rest of us unable to use it.

While researching California Common, steam beer etc, I came across the Beer Judge Certification Program style guidelines, a matrix of ABV%, color and chemical breakdown, Johnny said "What I am trying to do is make something that's good, in and of itself." We're less into the statistics of style and more into just making beer that tastes good.

Hops in the Garden

Now that we finally have access to some dirt after a long hiatus in Amsterdam and San Francisco, we are SO pleased to havea garden, which of course includes hops. We got Cascade and Hallertauer rhizomes from the Thyme Garden Herb Company. Johnny's dad, Tom, has grown Cascade and a few other varieties with great success down south of us in Morgan Hill. He had pretty limited growth the first year while the root systems got established followed by superb growth subsequent years. We'll hope that's the same case for us....



Let's just say that the Cascade hops are thriving, even under the plum trees that have turned their open sun into dappled light.

The leaves are impressively large.










Hallertauer - not so much.....










At this point, even as novelty hops, we love them.

Changes at Anderson Valley Brewing

Like we mentioned before, nano is the new micro.... and nanobrewers are popping up to fill the void left as microbreweries go big.

As many of us know, Anderson Valley Brewing was just sold - and we wish all of them the best. According to the Santa Rosa Press Democrat, the new owner, Trey White has said that the only thing that's going to change is "the marketing end of things." Given his experience in marketing and distribution at United States Beverage, this makes sense. It will be interesting to see what changes occur in the coming months and years. Hard not to somehow feel that the end of an founder-run microbrewery is the end of an era. Ken Allen certainly gave it a good run and we wish him all the best.

We wish all our beer comrades all the best and as we watch micro move towards mega, we feel affirmed in our commitment to the taste of small batch beer and hope that you do too.

Trends in American Specialty Beer – A Dutch Perspective

Just a few days ago, a Dutch beer critic from Bier.Blog.NL provided a critical overview of what they see as the developing trends in American specialty beer. Seems like they have it about right. Perspectives from the international community on beer trends are always interesting, but the fact that it’s from Holland makes it all the more interesting to me. By translating it (to the best of my ability) – it will have the opportunity to be interesting to you too….

Translated from “Top 7 interessante speciaalbier trends in Amerika” from Bier.blog.nl written by Fiona de Lange

"I always really enjoy following the beer trends in the rest of the world with a scrutinizing eye, particularly America. Not all that everything springs from America of course. However, it is particularly interesting to see how fast the specialty beer market is developing there. And of course we must ensure that we are not left out of the game. A review of relevant American beer sites revealed many notable trends!

Below are listed a number of recent developments and hot trends in the American specialty beer market. First `Nanobreweries `. For me this explains the association with nanotechnology – it’s got nothing to do with it. These are comparable with homebrewers (thuisbrouwers) who produce beer for small groups. They frequently do this by partnering with a bar or restaurant for which special beer is exclusively made. This is a fast growing trend in American beer.

In contrast to the Tripel beer trend in Belgium and the Netherlands, in America we see a rise of the “sour beer” (zure bieren) trend. These beers are seeing attention both in the US and in Belgium. Americans are pursuing the acid beer style begun in Belgium and we’re seeing the style taken over more and more by American brewers.

Locally produced beers are trendy at restaurants. The beer menu at many restaurants considerably on the shovel and large brands such as Budweiser and Heineken are gone from the menu in favor of local specialty beers. This recent development is also supported where 79% of the restaurants agree that this is the recent trend of 2010.

Another trend observed both in the Netherlands and America is creative beer names. In America this is a well-established trend with many original, modern and creative beer labels and names.

A recent development heard on the grapevine is extreme beers. Brewers seek out more and more the extremeness such as the Scottish Brewdog did with several beers with weighing in at 41%. This was echoed in the US, with the Sam Adams Utopias Beer, brought to market with an alcohol percentage of 27%.

Experimenting with styles. Where before every brewer clung desperately to the recipe, now many beers are being brewed experimentally. We’re seeing all kinds of ingredients being added to basis beer recipes. Nuts, fruit, herbs, and all kinds of other ingredients on hand hands. This ensures, that new beers and beer styles and types are arising.

In America they are already very busy with: cooperation. This is something that is more restricted with us in the Netherlands. Of course have “de Smaak van Echt,” in which 4 brewers will brew cooperatively and “Brouwerij de Molen,” which often brews beer abroad. Yet, we are nevertheless for the most part working by ourselves. In America we’re seeing two breweries work together to make a new beer to put on the market. An example is the cooperation between Stone Brewing and Brewdog and also between Weihenstephan and Boston Beer Co who are working together to make a champagne beer.

These are all serious trends developing within America, but being noticed in other corners of the world as well. Let’s hope it stays that way!”

Translated from: Top 7 interessante speciaalbier trends in Amerika”
from Bier.blog.nl written by Fiona de Lange

B is for Beer

Thank you Tom Robbins, for bringing beer to the children with the book, B is for Beer.

According to No Exit Press, the book explores "various aspects of beer culture - ancient, modern, and otherworldly; brutal, infantile and divine."

Though reader reviews have been a bit mixed, let's be honest - it really is a children's book so comparing it to his previous works doesn't seem fair.

Gotta get my hands on it....

Starter Logo

I made us a starter card - it does make the whole thing seem real to set it down on paper. We'll be working with a designer soon to make a kickass logo, but we figured we'd self-legitimate in the meantime. Johnny is Grain Alchemist and Creek is Minister of Information.

Brewing & Beaurocracy

It is perhaps not the most amazing time in the economy to begin a new business, but people seem to be drinking beer fairly steadily, and the time is right to take the leap into founding an honest to god nanobrewery.

So as Johnny as been perfecting his Northern English Ale on the 10 gallon brew structure from More Beer, my job is to begin the journey through town and state bureaucracy, business plans, and lawyers as we get begin to go for it.

One of many first steps is sussing out a place to brew. Since (according to TTB) it is legal to brew 200 gallons as a homebrewer in a 2 person household, originally, we thought we'd try to do the start-up phase out of our garage, or out of Tom's garage where they currently brew in Morgan Hill. So I started with the Morgan Hill Planning Department. Since we already operate a home based consulting business, I am familiar with the Town of San Anselmo's home business regulations, which ended up being quite different.

Interesting civic planning lesson #1: Home business regulations are made at the city level.

On one hand this makes sense, but it's also bizarre. In San Anselmo, you can NOT use your garage but you CAN have 1 employee. So that's out. In Morgan Hill you CAN use your garage but you can NOT have anyone other than the owner at work. So that's out too. And to be quite honest, the deeper I get into the calculations it seems worth it to find our home in a local warehouse and go for it.

Next step.... Craigslist. and figuring out the clusterf*$! of ABC, TTB, BOE, EHS etc. to make sure anywhere we rent is actually an approvable brewing space. I might add "Bureaucratic Ninja" to my job title...

"Market Research" - Beer & Honeymooning in Amsterdam

Being Dutch, or Dutch enough to love the Netherlands, we headed to Amsterdam in September of 2009 for our honeymoon. While we were there, we figured it would be responsible to do some research about comparative breweries oversees.










Our first beer-related stop in Amsterdam was the Bekeerde Zuster - translated as "twisted sister." One of Amsterdam's only breweries, tauting itself as a "steam brewery," brewpub sits just off Nieuwmarkt, one of the city's oldest market squares on the far side of the Red Light District. Though it has been active since 1614, it is called "New Market" because, it is indeed less old than other parts of the city.





Johnny loves seeing brewing equipment. It makes him very happy.

At the Bekeerde Zuster, now part of the Beiaard Group, which serves the beer at several cafes throughout the city, we sampled the Manke Monnik (a Trippel), and the Witte Ros. Pretty delicious. The Witte Ros (White Night) is a wit - almost too light even for me, but refreshing.

We walked by an apothecary, Jacob Hooy & Co, founded as you can see, in 1743. The barrels and drawers, still filled with mixes of herbs and teas and traditional candies, have been in use for more than a century.























Here we are at the Beiaard Cafe near the Spui, closer to the center of Amsterdam.




























Next was the Rembrandt Corner Cafe, and yup, it's next door to Rembrandt House Museum, where it is a delight to see the actual north light through the same windows captured so often in his work. They don't make beer, but they have cool ceiling fans run on conveyor belts, so it was worth it.









Amsterdam has a couple of excellent beer stores with a selection of incredible beers from all over Europe. The Cracked Kettle, along with de BierKoning (Beer King) have hundreds of beers from dozens of countries and breweries, large and small. Being surrounded by hundreds of bottles is delightful. I remember being in the Cracked Kettle when I first moved to Amsterdam and being delighted that the owner was from the US - Massachusetts or Ohio, I think. He had a dream and damn if he's not living it. Opening a beer shop in Amsterdam, there are worse things.



The finale, and indeed the highlight of the trip, was Zeeland, the southwestern region of the Netherlands bordering Belgium. Zeeland, where my (Creek's) family goes back ten generations, has a rich history of ship building, bright textiles, intricate silver jewelry, and fierce defense to be ruled by no one but themselves. Clearly my people.

Even better, the rich brewing traditions of Belgium and the low country are thriving at de Mug Braai-Tapperij brewery. The Mug, which means "The Mosquito" - is pronounced "Moo" finished off with the patented throaty Dutch guttural sound. It's situated on a side street that leads like an artery to the central market square - which has been in continuous use for several hundred years - in Middelburg, a small and very relaxed city about three hours by train from Amsterdam and a bit less from from Brussels.
























Being a people of sand, sea, salt, and water - the Mug played with theme: The Strandgaper (named for a clam) and Zeezuiper bother refer to sand and see as well as just being fun to say. And both are an otherworldly pleasure to drink.

The Selection of Beers at the Mug was pretty spectacular for such a small place. In addition to their own brews, they had a selection of brews from Belgium, Germany, and throughout Europe.

Things are kept simple. You can get blocks of cheese (young, or aged), and/or nuts and/or small pieces of cold sausage to go with your beers.

Our Story

Van Houten Brewing Company (say "van HOW ten" ) is a Marin-based, family owned and operated craft nanobrewery-in-planning. Johnny and Creek Van Houten, a husband and wife team, are the mainstays of the operation. Johnny's dad, Tom serves as consultant and works with Johnny to perfect recipes. Between the two of them, they have almost 20 years of homebrewing experience.

Johnny and his dad, Tom, began their quest for great beer while attempting to recreate a limited edition beer which had fulfilled its mission by becoming unavailable. They decided to try to make it themselves and found that their own beer was even better. Let’s face it, there is an alchemical chemistry geek appeal to brewing - the hydrometers, spiral copper tubing, magnetic stirrers, and large boiling kettles over rocket-ship-like flames all has a certain appeal.

Creek joined the team by loving Johnny, who instilled in her an undiscovered love of beer, which bodes well for their marriage. She is the Minister of Information and honing her skills in navigating government acronyms on our way to official breweryhood... or is it breweryship.... brewerydom?

Anyways, the beer began showing up at movie nights and pirate parties – then weddings and anniversary gatherings, and the requests began. And so, the microbrew movement settled in and thrived, and California got their IPA on, while our father and son team continued their quest honing skills in British Ales, and German Lagers, (not to leave out the Belgians). Perhaps it is our Dutch and British blood that causes us to yearn for old style beer brewed by the simplest means possible.

Ten years later, we’re just plain tired of people asking us for beer so we’ve decided to take the plunge, make our dreams come true – and bring great beer home.

Sometimes we get help from our friends (like Shakes and Hank at right) doing what we lovingly refer to as "market research."