Levud's

Last Sunday I met up with Mark Graham and Loren Miraglia at Mark's beautiful house in San Clemente to brew a 10 gallon batch of the Batch No. 01 Competition winner, Levud's. This is a Golden Strong Belgian Ale that is remarkably simple in ingredients, but overwhelmingly complex in flavor. I had a lot of fun watching these guys brew. They are so laid back and yet still finished brewing the batch in around 3 hours-- remarkable! I can't do that even when I'm paying full attention to what I'm doing. To their credit, they had everything ready to go. The grain was crushed, the strike water was to temp., and the beers were cold (but not too cold).

Loren and Mark will be helping me brew this batch commercially. 34 bbl of this will be brewed, so it will technically be Batch No. 01 and No. 02, but we'll consider it all one batch since it'll be fermenting in the same fermenter. 30 bbl will go into stainless, and 4 bbl will be fermenting in oak. I'm doing two batches of it because I feel this beer will sell very well, so I want to make enough to meet demand, and because I have no idea what the efficiency on my system will be. If the first batch extracts way too many or way too few fermentables, I have a second chance to brew it and average out the first batch to where we want. You only get to brew Batch No. 01 once, so I want it to be as close to the original as possible.

Thanks Mark and Loren, can't wait to brew this with you guys!

Scoresheets Finally Returned

Sorry to all those who entered the Batch No. 01 Competition, I've been very slow at getting your scoresheets back to you. I finally got them out yesterday, so many of you should find them in your mail boxes today. Congrats again to the winners!

The Bruery Batch No. 01 Competition Results

Thanks to all of the people who entered their beer into the competition! We received 34 entries, and had ten judges at The Bruery on Sunday to judge them. We were a bit short of judges, so I had to judge myself. Luckily, my short term memory is shot, so I wasn't able to identify the brewers with the beers I was judging, so rest assured the judging process was not compromised. There were many great beers entered--everyone who entered should be proud of the quality of their beers.

The best of show winner is Loren Miraglia of Encinitas, CA, and his brewing partner Mark Graham of San Clemente, CA. Loren is a member of QUAFF, and is reknown for his Belgian-style beers. Loren is especially talented in yeast culturing and archiving, a skill I wish I had and a skill I desparately need. They won for their Belgian-style Golden Strong Ale, named Levud's, backwards for Duvel. This beer is fairly similar to Duvel-- dry and has a spectacular hoppy, crisp finish, with a pear fruity undertone. It is dangerously drinkable for a 9% beer. I can't wait to brew this beer. I'm thinking a 10 gallon batch this week is in order, although Loren and Mark used a yeast that's not quite commercially available-- a self cultured strain that Duvel used that dates back before 1995. I hope these guys help me out in getting this strain, or WLP570 it is!

As an odd-ball contest, we divided up the categories according to the number of entries in particular categories. BJCP Category 16A-D and 23, Category 16E, Category 18A, B, and E, and Category 18 C and D were judged by two or three judges each. The following are the results for each of those categories:

Category 16A-D, 23:
1st Place: Mike McDole, Clayton, CA-- Belgian Pale Ale
2nd Place: Patrick Duke, Orange, CA-- Witbier
3rd Place: Brent Brubaker, Riverside, CA-- Saison, "Summer School Saison"

Category 16E:
1st Place: Dan Sherman, Lafayette, CA-- Grand Cru
2nd Place: Barry Weeg, Phoenix, AZ-- Double Witbier, "Windlass Witbier"
3rd Place: Douglas Gladue, Nesconset, NY-- Belgian Quadrupel with Chamomile, "Camailo"

Category 18A, B, E:
1st Place: Loren Miraglia, Encinitas, CA-- Dubbel
2nd Place: Loren Mirglia, Encinitas, CA / Mark Graham, San Clemente, CA-- Belgian Blonde Ale, "Teagon Blonde"
3rd Place: Brent Brubaker, Riverside, CA-- Belgian Blonde Ale, "Shut Up"

Category 18C, D:
1st Place: Loren Mirglia, Encinitas, CA / Mark Graham, San Clemente, CA-- Belgian Golden Strong Ale, "Levud's" (Best of Show Winner)
2nd Place: Brent Brubaker, Riverside, CA-- Belgian Tripel, "Golden Valley"
3rd Place: James Sites, Littleton, CO-- Belgian Golden Strong Ale, "St. Peter of Luxembourg"

Congratulations to the winners! I'll mail out score sheets this week, along with a special surprise to all entrants.

Thanks to the judges and stewards, who displayed a good amount of bravery to show up to a warehouse off of the 57 freeway on a Sunday morning. The judges were Steve Cook, a BJCP judge and the President of the Maltose Falcons; Jim Wilson, a National rank BJCP judge who is my mentor in judging BJCP exams; Tyler King, the brewer at BJ's West Covina and an excellent resource of brewing knowledge; Kenny Hollingshead, an advisor of mine who runs the infamous Hollingshead Deli and possibly a first time judge; Cristian Sierra, a BJCP judge and Inland Empire Brewers Vice President (I think he travelled the furthest from Crestline, CA); Pete Bakulic, a good friend who is a mead/wine/beer/everything expert who lives just a few blocks away from The Bruery; Casey Rue, my big brother and designer of The Bruery logo and first time beer judge; Mike Rue, my Dad, business advior and another first time beer judge; Dennis Paul, my father-in-law and yet another first time beer judge; and myself. Dennis gets the award for his performance as first time beer judge. He did a great job, and was asked to perform the duty about 10 minutes before he started judging. He did get a fair amount of instruction from Jim Wilson, so thanks to Jim. I think all of the first time beer judges did a very nice job, and learned a lot about beer in the process. If their comments are insulting, please take them with a grain of salt. Many didn't know the entrants would be receiving these back, so they are about as candid as it gets. Stewards Joan Paul (my Mother-in-law) and Jenny Rue (My Mom) did a great job getting the competition finished in a timely manner.

Thanks to all for entering, and look out for Batch No. 01 on store shelves whenever we get around to opening our doors!



Thanks to Spence Coleman for the photo(s)!!

The Bruery Batch No. 01 Competition Update

Entries have started coming in from all over the place-- the furthest so far being Colorado. Entries are due this Friday (August 24th), so bring them to the drop-off spots or FedEx / UPS them today.

The mailing address:

The Bruery
715 Dunn Way
Placentia, CA 92870

Here's the current drop-off spots:

Beer Beer & More Beer
1506 Columbia Ave. Suite 12
Riverside, CA 92507

O'Sheas Brewing Co.
28142 Camino Capistrano
Laguna Niguel, CA 92677

Stein Fillers
4160 Norse Way
Long Beach, CA 90808

For those in LA, we also added the Home Wine, Beer and Cheese Shop:

22836 Ventura Blvd., Unit 2
Woodland Hills, CA 91364

If you're in San Diego, eMail or give me a call and we'll arrange for some sort of pick up. It's too late to add a San Diego drop off point, but I'd be happy to arrange something on Thursday for picking up entries.

This should be a great competition, so if you're debating whether to send anything in, please do! There's no entry fee, and every entrant will receive a gift from us. Cheers!