Rivertowne Brewing, Export, PA

Tue, 17 Jul 2018 00:00:00 +0000

I had the opportunity to tour my first brewery a few weekends ago, Rivertowne Brewing just outside of Pittsburgh in Export, PA where the Hala Kahiki Pineapple Ale, one of my favorite fruit beers, is brewed. There I had the pleasure of meeting “Cowboy Paul” whose attire fit his name with a shirt buttoned up halfway and a large brimmed cowboy hat. Cowboy Paul gave me an excellent, first-time overview of the brewing process at a large scale.

Upon arrival I was asked if I wanted a beer. How could I turn that down? Because I had only ever had their Hala Kahiki, I wanted to try something different. Luckily they had two seasonal sours on tap. I don’t recall the name of the first one, but I tried it and it was very tart. I wasn’t in the mood for a tart beer so I went with their Strawberry Rhubarb Sour Amish Mafia and it was delicious. I ended up taking a 32 ounce crowler of it home.

One of the first pieces of wisdom that Cowboy Paul bestowed upon me as an aspiring brewer was that all beer has four main ingredients: grain, yeast, hops, and water. Nearly all modern day beers contain these base ingredients. Interestingly enough, in 1516 a law was adopted in the German state of Barvia known as the Reinheitsgebot which declared that the only ingredients permitted in the production of beer were barely, hops, and water. The existence of yeast was unknown at the time so it was not included. But it’s a great example of how those four ingredients have been used to brew beer for centuries.

Cowboy Paul first showed us the giant silos outside of the brewery that must have been about 20 feet tall filled with grain. The grain is dispensed inside the brewery from a pipe and weighed before being split apart in preparation to make “wort”, the sugary liquid processed by the mashing of the grains. Essentially, the grains are split, conditioned, and boiled in four huge ten foot tall tanks. The wort consists of the water and the sugars extracted from the grains. What remains of the grains is then separated and Rivertowne Brewery gives it to a nearby farmer who feeds it to his livestock.

The wort is then combined with yeast which then eats the sugars in the wort and ferments. The enclosures where the fermentation takes place, “fermentors”, were about the same size as the silos of grain and the beer can sit in there for 2 weeks or so fermenting. This is also the stage of the process in which other ingredients such as the pineapple in the Hala Kahiki or the strawberry in the Amish Mafia are added.

Cowboy Paul also told me that when you get right down to it, there are really two types of beer and all the other types are simply subsets: lagers and ales. I had already heard this before but I didn’t know the primary difference between the two. According to Cowboy Paul, ales are fermented at 60° to 70° Farenheit while lagers are fermented between 35° to 40°. The temperature ranges may vary depending on who you talk to, but I found it fascinating that the temperature could affect the taste and brew so drastically.

Upon doing more research, there is a difference in the yeast used as well. You can’t simply choose what temperature to ferment at and use the same yeast for any beer. Rather, you must prepare beforehand and purchase yeast meant for either an ale or a lager. So it’s not solely the temperature that determines the type of beer.

A mapping of known beer types by Pop Chart Lab

One of the fermentors had a tube running to a five gallon bucket. Huge, thick bubbles were running out from the tube. This is completely normal in the fermenting process. The bubbles from this beer were particularly clean and clear. I didn’t ask him what beer was being fermented there but now I wish I had.

The day of the tour happened to also be canning day. They were getting ready to send off a large shipment of twelve packs to their distributing area, which consists of a large portion of the central east coast States. Just a couple days ago they announced an expansion to the Boston area, which is exciting because the beer is great.

I noticed they weren’t using any bottles to package their beer. When I asked Cowboy Paul why that was he replied that the light that comes in through the bottles doesn’t allow it to age well. I as a bit confused because that is why brown bottles are used for beer. But upon visiting Blue Owl Brewing the following week, they also only use cans, albeit for different reasons. But it appears that bottles may slowly become a thing of the past in the brewing world. I guess only time will tell.

The canning process is largely automated with some manual intervention. The cans work their way down the line and are filled with CO² and beer. It’s my understanding that the CO² is meant to clear out all the oxygen from the can before the beer in poured in. Like wine, the taste of beer is affected if exposed to oxygen for too long. At the end of the canning line is a large triangular platform where the cans are gathered. As that area fills with cans, they are taken and packaged as either four packs, six packs, or 12 packs. I wish I could have seen them filling up the kegs, but the canning line was pretty cool.

Overall, the experience was great and I learned a lot. If you ever get a chance, you should definitely try some Rivertowne beer. They make some great session ales that are great for a summer afternoon!

The Beginning

Wed, 11 Jul 2018 00:00:00 +0000

I was raised Mormon in the heart of Utah Valley. Mormons don’t drink alcohol, or at least they’re not supposed to. I never did until I was 25 years old, shortly before deciding to leave the religion altogether. I had no idea what I was missing out on.

My first taste was a red wine. I can’t remember which, but I didn’t like it much at the time. The first time I drank scotch was from a bottle my friend Sam brought to a game night. I poured about one finger into a coffee mug, took one sip and asked if he’d finish the rest. He still teases me about that.

My first taste of beer was an IPA my buddy Dylan was drinking at a work sponsored happy hour. That was a terrible decision, though he did forewarn me that I wasn’t going to like it. That same night at Blueprint Tap Room (now Hardwood) in San Francisco’s Design District, another friend Al pointed me to a Pilsner Urquell. It was not nearly as bad as the IPA but still tasted horribly bitter. Both Dylan and Al helped me navigate my first time drinking in a bar that night. I ended it by drinking a sweet, hard cider and walked away thinking I wasn’t a beer person.

I fumbled my way through an all inclusive vacation at a Cancun resort drinking mostly whiskey and tequila cocktails. When going drinking with friends, I’d drink whiskey. I found a great go-to in the Recoil, a whiskey cocktail with lime and ginger-beer from Bloodhound but after months I never truly acquired a taste for alcohol.

In between all of this, I attended a “Sour Hour”, a happy hour consisting only of sour beers and there was hardly a beer I tried that I didn’t like. However, I soon moved from San Francisco with little chance to explore its sour beer selection and returned to my hometown in Utah where the alcohol laws are an embarassment and the beer selection is even worse. It wasn’t until I moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania that I was really able to experience and enjoy the experience of drinking a good beer and I now have many favorites and recommendations. Now I wonder why I ever tried to make myself a whiskey drinker.

I have acquired a taste for most wines and enjoy the ocassional mule. I only really drink hard liquor socially at parties when I’m intentionally getting drunk. Otherwise, I drink a variety of sour and fruit beers for pure enjoyment.

Growing up, “beer” was a forbidden beverage that looked like apple juice that I associated with Homer Simpson. Never did I realize there are dozens of different styles, all with their own sub-styles, all brewed with different ingredients ranging from fruit to honey or chocolate to hops. Hell, I didn’t even know what hops were. This not-so-secret world that stayed hidden from me my entire life fascinates me, and I want to be a part of it.

I love studying and learning about what makes a beer taste and look the way it does, different brewing techniques, the aging process, and so much more. It’s an intricate process that, like cooking, is easily viewed as an art. As such, I’m currently making my way through John Palmer’s latest edition of How to Brew, Charlie Papazian’s The Complete Joy of Homebrewing, Emma Christensen’s Brew Better Beer, and Mountain Brew, the book that started the United States’ homebrewing revolution in the 1970s. I’ve also subscribed to over half a dozen beer and homebrewing podcasts and joined almost as many homebrewing Facebook groups, all in hopes to start brewing my own beers this Fall.

Join me as I document my learnings, observations, mistakes, and successes on this journey. I also hope to visit many influential breweries and recount the experience and lessons here. I’ve already got a couple under my belt. For my reviews and comments on individual beers, follow me on Untappd. Who knows, if this goes well, perhaps I’ll open up my own microbrewery and pub one day ;)

EGD

dodge.beer

Rivertowne Brewing, Export, PA

The Beginning