Ridin’ this weekend!
Chris put his beer down long enough to write this on January 24th, 2013 | No Comments
Marks Design and Metal Works
Chris put his beer down long enough to write this on January 21st, 2013 | No Comments
We needed fermenters to meet the record growth we’ve been experiencing. We have a tank farm full of random things from all over the globe, USA, China, eastern Europe. After learning about Marks Design and Metal Works, We knew it was time to park our dollars right here in the good ‘ol US of A. And boy am I glad we did!
I just got back from a quickie road trip to see our tanks in progress and while I knew we had picked a good fabricator in Ryan Marks, I was absolutely blown away by his shop and staff! The place is huge with multiple overhead bridge cranes, aircraft sized doors and a crew of 45 guys and gals cutting and welding away. (job creators!) Located in Vancouver WA, part of the greater Portland OR environs, craft beer is just oozing from every pour (yep, pun).
I’m stoked I got to see under the skin because Ryan Marks uses some bomber construction in areas that are later covered up. Since I like to sleep at night, it was great to see the innards. Interior finishes are insanely clean/cleanable. These guys are really going for the quality not just giving it lip service. Thanks for the tour Loui Arnold!
They had multiple jobs going and we were in good company with many tanks and brewhouses being built for “breweries that you’ve heard of”.
If you’re out there shopping for tanks, check these guys out. When they do become the number one tank manufacturer, I’ll be able to say I told you so!
Links 4U
Chris put his beer down long enough to write this on October 1st, 2012 | No Comments
These are worth taking a look at:
From our buddies at NBBC 
From our own former, local cheesemonger Meggan, turned world hitchiker:
Where the brewers get their hair cut,(while sipping on a fine malt beverage!)
Real mountain clothes (with the upside down hop logo)
And finally: Old Faithful LIVE:
http://www.nps.gov/features/yell/live/live4.htm
Late Spring, Early Summer Updates
Chris put his beer down long enough to write this on June 14th, 2012 | 1 Comment
Well let’s see… We quit bottling altogether and are now putting all of our mainline beers into cans. (If you’re in the market for a used bottling line gimme a call!)
We won a medal at the World Beer Cup in San Diego.
World Beer Cup 2012 Intro from Brewers Association on Vimeo.
It was a Silver for Serpent Cerise.
Wyoming contingent at the Gala Dinner. SRB Natinal Sales Director Tim Harland with Brewmaster Richie Strom of Wind River Brewing, Pinedale, Wyoming. http://www.worldbeercup.org/media/photos
We won three medals at the North American Brewers Fest. Gold for Paintbrush Pilsner, Silver for Zonker Stout and Bronze for Snake River Pale Ale.
We picked up about 4500 square feet of storage when our old tenant Fitzgerald’s Bicycles moved out. We’re awaiting two 60 bbl tanks to bump up our capacity.
We’re offering public tours on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 3pm. We will be adding more tours on more days just as soon as we get our hospitality staff all trained up.
We are just about to announce who the M.U.G. Beer Drinker of the Year (BDOY) will be for 2012.
The class of 2012
Chris put his beer down long enough to write this on June 14th, 2012 | No Comments
This is your fabulous crew for Summer 2012!!
The Grosventrester
Chris put his beer down long enough to write this on February 27th, 2012 | 2 Comments
Say THAT fast three times! People obviously butcher this all the time but there was a period in history when the French speaking mountain men passed through Jackson’s Hole and started doling out place names. That’s how the Tetons were named! The Gros Ventre River flows into the Snake and runs a chocolatey brown color during the spring run off. Later English speaking trappers did their best to phonetisize this for us and so you will see Gro Vont sometimes used. Now you can see how the “Grovonster” is truly a “monster” of a beer!
In fact the Grosventrester is the invention of local homebrewer Steve Melanson and it was his winning entry in the 2011 first annual Teton County Fair Homebrew Contest last July. We sponsored the contest and had a respectable 18 entries (for a town our size) and Steve’s Baltic Porter came out on top as Grand Champion. The prize was to brew a big batch here in the pub.
L to R: Colby Cox, "Holey Foamers" brew club president, Rob Denton SRB pro brewer and Steve Melanson, Grosventrster creator in the brewhouse.
After just a week on tap, this strong, hoppy Baltic Porter is garnering a loyal following among locals, visitors and beer geeks. Fermented with lager yeast and chock full of dark roasted grains, this is a perfect mid winter warmer for apres-ski or just plain hunkering down. Come in soon to try one, another in the series of specialty and experimental brews coming out of our 10 barrel R+D mini-me tank. It won’t last forever people! Thanks to our local homebrewers for their passion and their support of great beer!
Black Silk, Velvet Hammer
The Glutenator
Chris put his beer down long enough to write this on February 2nd, 2012 | No Comments
On tap 2-2-12. Our new strong, hoppy pale is gluten free!
This is a small batch out of our “mini-me” R and D tank, please come in directly to try some!
If you’re a gluten hater you’ll love the Glutenator!
Apparently…
Chris put his beer down long enough to write this on January 17th, 2012 | No Comments
… I have a great face for radio!
Last week, my buddy Ginger Johnson interviewed me for her weekly (weekly!) Beer Radio Program on KSKQ, Ashland, Oregon’s community radio station. Only in Oregon, the hippest, beeriest state in the union can you find a weekly radio show on beer. (Portland has one too, of course!)
Ginger is well immersed in the beer world through her “Women Enjoying Beer” website. In fact, she passed through Jackson Hole in the fall of ’09 and put on a seminar for our own gang of women beer drinkers. And she’s married to a brewer, Larry Chase of Standing Stone Brewing. (Around here she’d be known as a “brewer-doer” – not sure if they roll with that out in OR…?)
My episode is archived here.
And if you are so inclined, take a look back at her other archived programs. Ginger has put many of the true beer industry Illuminati before the mic. Even if you’re not near Ashland, you can live stream the programs on Wednesday evenings!
Thanks Ginger!
Brewers in the Stillhouse, Part 1
Chris put his beer down long enough to write this on January 4th, 2012 | No Comments
Recently, our neighbors over at Wyoming Whiskey were kind enough to extend an invitation to “brew” up our own custom Snake River Malt Whiskey. They are the first ever “legal” distillery in Wyoming. We considered their proposal for about one nanosecond before accepting! Now, as a restaurant, we had already signed up for their private barreling program. We are still awaiting the release of our very own barrel “#22″ Wyoming Whiskey Bourbon. (22 is the county code on the Wyo license plate for Teton County)
Barrel 22 of Wyoming Whiskey Bourbon reserved for Snake River Brewing. Release date: ???
This project however was different: we brought our own brewer’s malt (Weyermann’s finest) and our brewer’s yeast to make the distiller’s beer that will become our very own all-malt whiskey. As you may know, bourbon making requires a corn mash. At Wyoming Whiskey, Master Distiller Steve Nally uses Wyoming-grown corn, wheat and barley for a true “loca-hol” concoction. While ours might struggle for a designation, we thought it would be interesting to make an unhopped version of a beer we’d probably like to drink and see what the resulting distillate might taste like. Not exactly a scotch, not a bourbon, but a beer brewer’s all-malt whiskey.
Weyermann of Germany has a distinctive "W M" logo.
Cosmic Coincidence: Wyoming Whiskey has a distinctive "WW" logo!
This endeavor took place over two road trips: first to brew up our distiller’s beer and then after a five day fermentation back again for the distillation. Cory, Auggie, Tim and I headed over in two vehicles with Cory and I getting caught in a nasty blizzard over Togwotee pass followed by a reprise of sideways blowing snow through the Wind River Canyon. People like to refer to sparsely populated Wyoming as one big town with a really long Main Street, which is kinda true except when the crosswinds are 60 mph and the vis is barely out to the hood of your car, then it’s a REALLY long Main Street! Our arrival pushed the Kirby, Wyoming population from 57 to 61 for two days.
Tallest building in Kirby
Speaking of the small world factor, it’s remarkable how many tie-ins this collaboration has. First of all, our brewery spent grain in Jackson goes to the Mead Ranch of Brad and Kate Mead, co-founders of Wyoming Whiskey. Brad’s family is not “originally” from Wyoming, but you’d have to go back 4 generations before you find someone who isn’t from here! He is a rancher, attorney and brother of our current Governor. Kate is a lawyer herself and a School Board member here in Jackson.Their natural beef herd dines on our delicious leftovers. Co-founder David Defazio is COO of Wyoming Whiskey and consistently voted Jackson Hole’s best lawyer in the Jackson Hole Weekly’s annual “best of” poll. This “cabal” (insert lawyer jokes here) has been conspicuous in their patronage of our Brewpub. I’ve pretty much decided for myself that their ambition to open a distillery was fueled by several to many pints of Snake River Beer. (I could be wrong…)
Jake from WW runs the show under Big Steve and he guided us through the process
Cory from SRB prepping for the mash in
Their steam heated Mash mixer gave us options to protein rest and step infuse that we don't get in our brewery. We had to quickly devise a program and then we let'r rip!
"Little" Steve runs the cooker.
Steve preps the fermenter that will hold our "beer". He hasn't fallen in...yet!
As the "wort"(?) pumps over to the fermenter, Cory pitches the brewer's yeast the old fashioned way! Yep, open fermenters in the distillery. Don't ask me how I know this, but flavor compounds from the yeast do seem to have a carry over affect in the distilled product. We expect our beer yeast to have different flavors from the distiller's yeast that WW uses.
To be Continued…
P.U.B. Bike Expo II
Chris put his beer down long enough to write this on December 8th, 2011 | No Comments
Pretty Unique Bikes (P.U.B.) Expo II was held this past November 1st, 2nd and 3rd. We started this little show last year to highlight the efforts of the local, custom framebuilders we have in our little mountain town. We also had local collectors bring in vintage and unique cycles. We had a great turnout and decided to go for number II which was a great success with a slew of new bikes and only two repeaters. For 2011 we extended the show to three days and we gave the public a chance to vote for their favorite P.U.B.
A custom hand built steel cross bike. Owner: Warren Ostler. Builder: Tim Hoff, Hoff's Bikesmith
A few oldies came out of the woodwork. Keith Benefiel built his own road frame back in 1976 and she’s still going strong.
Keith's handbuilt 1976 Benefiel
All told seven local framebuilders had bikes on display. Drew Gillingwators of Greybike had his first urban hipster single speed hanging in the show.
Drew's first Greybike SS
The focus for two builders, Shane Dawson and Tim Hoff has been on swing bikes. basically your top tube pivots at the fork and also right in front of your seat tube. The crazy frame designs inspire a few more flourishes than just the standard double diamond of a normal bike.
hey, how come the wheels don't "line up"???
A Shane Dawson headbadge affixed to the Tim Hoff Swinger
Shane Dawsons King of Swing won the people’s choce for best in show. The buttressed bridge of a top tube and his intricate paint job swayed the voters.
Shane's sublime King of Swing
Carl Detwyler builds his own bikes for his own pleasure. he’s been turning out one frame a year for the last three years. This year he built a 29er dir road touring machine. His earlier Pingora I was a high vote getter among visitors to the show.
A class touring bike, handbuilt by Carl Detwyler
Pingora I detail
Pingora I Detail
- Pingora’s lugged construction
Jack Koehler had a business building custom bikes for riders and racers throughout the nineteen eighties. While he still lives in town he no longer works in the bike biz but his custom built beauties ride on and on.
80's Purple fade paint
Mike Lowham formerly of Jackson and now living in Lander has built lots of custom crazies but he always includes some nice details like this “JH” heaad badge on a road bike he built for brother Doug.
Besides the handbuilts we got to show other unique bikes. Our local hometown hero “Jay P” Petervary had just recently completed his No Idle Tour an amazing solo trifecta dedicated to the memory of Willie Neal and reminding us all to turn off the car engine when you don’t need it (dammit!). Below is a pic of the Orbea Alma that he rode to a new record time on the Tour Divide route from Banff, Canada to the Mexican border. And keep in mind you’re seeing it fully loaded just as he rode it for 2745 miles in 17 days, 9 hours!
There were many other bikes in the show and we do expect to keep the Expo alive for as long as new bikes are built and new collectors come out of the woodwork with vintage curiosities.
Thanks to everyone involved and see you next year for P.UB. Epo III!