May 14th Van Houten Beer Tasting in Review

Ok - the good news is we have so much going on that getting to the blogosphere has been delayed! Last month we had a successful semi public tasting event in our backyard beer garden. A collection of old friends and new friends from the beer community and twitterland gathered at our house on a Saturday in May to sample six of Johnny's beers.

Johnny outfitted a freezer with built in tap towers and a temperature gauge to transform it into a serious kegerator.


We debated about whether to give folks feedback forms or surveys, and decided to engage folks about what they were tasting. We served our American Amber, California Common, Belgian Brown, Belgian Dubbel, Pilsner, and Northern English Brown. It was a nice opportunity to talk about beer in general and specific, why we're not filtering, why small batches matter, and to enjoy in the convivial spirit of local beer.



We were honored that our fellow-nano brewers Alan, from Beltane Brewing, JJ, from Petaluma Hills, and Cathy a brewer out of Novato joined us, as well as our colleague Brian, from bayareacraftbeer.com. Also a delight to meet a few folks from the twittersphere in person.


People really enjoyed themselves and most found there way to trying all 5 varieties.


Lots of beer gets paired with heavy pub food, which is often a delight, but with three local cheese companies, we wanted to present an overall delight of the senses with local beer, cheese, bread and fruit.


It went over rather well.


At the end of the day, we tallied up the results and found some interesting information - Lots of people who thought they didn't like dark beers, or light beers etc - liked the Van Houten version. The California Common and Belgian Dubbel were the official winners, but most of them were rated quite well.


Next time - and update on our West Coast Brewery Tour - 19 Breweries in 9 Days!

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A Taste of Van Houten

My big dreams of blogging about how profound the Craft Brewers Conference was for us and all the amazing conversations we had with our new and old friends... Let's just say for now that it was life affirming. The work of making whole beer and weaving community feels important, historical, and borders on the mystic.

The conference opening night was at the Academy of Sciences where we drank with the fishes and it was glorious. Someone got a nice photo of me (Creek) and Johnny with our friend, Brian from bayareacraftbeer.com


Well, that energy got diverted into planning our June 2011 West Coast Brewery tour (more later) and getting ready for our May 14th tasting event - our own homage to American Craft Beer Week. Space is limited, but anyone in the Bay Area can email us to see if there is space left at vanhoutenbrewing(at)gmail(dot)com

We'll have 5 of Johnny's homebrews on tap at the tasting: California Common, Northern English Brown, Belgian Golden, Belgian Dubbel and American Amber Ale. The garden is looking beautiful and it's time to celebrate spring.

But first things first -
I just finished the coaster design, and approved the proof for our first run.


See you May 14th!

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Van Houten Brewing Co's First Public Pour

During to a few fortunate run-ins with Richard of Elizabeth Street Brewery at City Beer and Mill Valley Beer Works, we were invited to pour at his annual Super Bowl party. We felt honored to pour alongside Elizabeth Street Brewery and Pacific Brewing Laboratory.


Johnny brought his Northern English Brown Ale and his California Common and folks seemed to really enjoy. It is good to get good feedback from lots of people you don't know. Our banner also got its first use, and a christening of beer spills from happy homebrew drinkers.


The people who have gathered around the phenomenon that is Elizabeth Street Brewing is amazing. Neighbors who donated chairs for the day. Friendly strangers who read about Richard on the internet or twitter. Old friends and colleagues from the beer world and every sort of connection. The folks at Smoke BBQ SF donated ribs, and the potluck delicacies were nearly endless.

And the place is amazing. Richard's clever wife Alyson set up a "While you were out" home installation reality tv show extravaganza a few years back and they came and set up a mini home pub - the home brewers dream.


Alyson made this beer bottle mosaic window, which is awesome.


It was definitely a highlight of the year for us - but we suspect the SF Beerweek Nanobrewery Festival at the Social Kitchen will also be pretty fabulous. Hope to see folks on Sunday at the Social Kitchen.

Breweries of Tomorrow Nanobrewery Festival

February 13 from 5:00 pm - 9:00 pm

at the Social Kitchen and Brewery, 1326 9th Ave. San Francisco, CA 94122

Admission: $15 for keepsake glass, 2 SKB drafts, and lots of nanobrews. SKB's food will be available for purchase, too, should you get munchy. (more info)

Join SKB and AllOverBeer.com to try the beers of and toast the brewers looking to quit their day jobs, such as Elizabeth St. Brewery, Van Houten Brewing Co., Local Brewing Co., Pacific Brew Labs, Bosworth Brewery, Beltane Brewing, Petaluma Hills, 510 Brewing, and others.

Thanks to Brians of AllOverBeer.com and www.bayareacraftbeer.com and our friends at Social Kitchen & Brewery for their work!

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Tweaking the Northern English Brown


Made some changes to the Northern English brown ale. I made a few rest adjustments, as per Griz’s suggestions, and I’ve lowered the final gravity into a range more appropriate to the style.

The result is a much more dry flavor and it lets the E Kent Goldings through a little more. I’ve also been oaking half of my batches with oak chips, with good results. The oak adds another layer of flavor and depth. It’s particularly fun to run a glass of oaked and un-oaked ale and taste them side by side.

I’m not sure how authentic the flavor added by the chips is, though I’ll bet it’s close to actual barrel flavor. As it turns out, the chips are gathered from the barrel-making process and are toasted with the barrel in a perforated can. It’s not clear if there is any residual oak sugar still in the chips, as they’ve never been exposed to alcohol before. A little research is in order.

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Metal Spinning, Chinchillas, and the Beer Infochart

First - a quick brewing update:

It is a joy for Johnny to have the pilot equipment up and running. The machining is truly beautiful, and I have a soft spot for the metal spinning involved, probably because my dad spins metal chinchilla exercise wheels, yeah, you heard me...

Metal Spinning, which is basically the equivalent of working with metal on a potters wheel, is useful for making fancy cookware, fermenter tops, rocket cones, and rodent exercise equipment. Check out my dad's website and the Flying Saucer Chinchilla Exercise Wheel site - which includes a video of the wheel in action.

Many of us have seen the awesome Grand Taxonomy of Rap Names from the intensely clever folks at Pop Chart Lab. Now beer geeks can appreciate the Many Varieties of Beer poster. Created by Brooklyn-based kickass designer Ben Gibson and book editor Patrick Mulligan. Gibson's work is quite spectacular.

You can get it for yerself at their website.

They also just came out with a t-shirt version, also at their site.

The Brew Sculpture has Landed!

Our pilot brew sculpture from More Beer arrived!!!! It is beautiful. Johnny had a really good conversation with the guys at More Beer, one of whom got teary when Johnny was telling him about how he and his dad started brewing on their brew sculptures almost ten years ago.

This means the beginning of phase II - pilot brewing while we finalize paperwork and logistics, which means there are still an undetermined number of phases ahead, but we are well on our way :)

It cannot be said these photos are amazing, but they give you an idea.


The control panel has several very satisfying lights and knobs, and comes complete with personalized engraving. A personalized brew-sculture - this is true happiness.


This one is from the folks at Morebeer.com


He'll be brewing on it for the first time this weekend - we'll keep you posted.

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