Decisions, decisions, decisions...

When starting a brewery there are certain decisions you make and routes you take with your product that are made due to the fact that you have very little choice or limited resources to achieve your goal.

The first item we had to decide on was how we will be dealing with consistency... Making consistently good beer is a challenge we are willing to accept and we are trying our very best to keep it that way. However, to make the exact same beer well every time without any noticeable differences between batches is extremely difficult for any startup brewery. On the other hand isn't it just a little bit boring to make the same thing over and over and over.

We decided to embrace "inconsistency" and to make varying beers. If we make the same recipe again it will differ from the previous. To a large extent because we think we will never make the perfect beer. Perfection is something you always strive for, but will never achieve.

Having decided the concept the next group of decisions have to be in connection with ingredients. In general we do not really like South African hops. The majority of the local varieties do not suit what we want to brew at the moment. Local malts, although the choice is limited to a single type of pale malt and a black malt, are good to use if you have some basic knowledge of ingredients. Hops and any speciality malts we use are imports. Some say it is too expensive to import such a large portion of your raw ingredients. We do not agree... The bulk of your cost can actually attributed to packaging, capital costs and labour if you have to pay people to make your beer instead of doing all the hard work yourself.

The following major decisions were related to fermentation.

Firstly we decided against the use of plastic fermenters. Plastic scratches and cleaning them properly is a royal pain in the ass. We use stainless steel only. Even though it costs a little more.

Secondly we decided to control fermentation temperatures the way most small breweries in London do... By using the suitable fermenters in spaces kept at the right temperatures. To do this we have a temperature controlled fermentation room.

There are a couple of decisions many brewers struggle with...

When running small batches, do you need conical fermenters? Actually NO. Unless you want to drop a lot of cash of having them jacketed and using glycol cooling systems. Yeast trapped in the cones may be easier to get out eventually, but due to the pressure and heat they generate yeast autolysis and the accompanying off flavours are a real threat. With fairly wide, flat bottomed fermenters you do not have this problem. There are also quite a number of brewers who swear these flatter fermenters also work better for dry hopping.

Do you need vessels capable of handling pressure? NO... Open fermentation works fine.

Do you need secondary fermenters? NO... Cold crashing and proper conditioning can clear your beer damn well if done correctly.

Lately there seems to be a few people who frown upon bottle conditioned beers... Well, we decided to go this route. Tough shit! It works for us at the moment.

It is probably safe to assume that most of the newer breweries going this route have not perfected the technique yet... Hell, not even quite sure we have, but our bottle re-fermented beers taste way better than any keg carbonated beer we've ever made.

Bottle conditioned beers have finer bubbles with a more silky smooth mouthfeel.

Bottle conditioning scavenges any oxygen in the bottles resulting in a more stable product with a longer shelf life.

Due to the fact that the beers are bottled alive they also develop characteristics with age force carbonated beers cannot.

Bottle conditioning has an old world charm to it... And we are suckers for doing some things old school for the hell of it.

Furthermore, being similar to the carbonation process used for cask beer, bottle conditioned beer can be classified as Real Ale. Force carbonated beers can never be classified as Real Ale.

If breweries like The Kernel, Beavertown and even the monster Sierra Nevada can do it why should the technique be frowned upon?

(A common mistake new brewers make when force carbonating is doing it without proper carbonation stones. This results in a beer with a distinct carbonic acid taste.)

So many people...

“So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservatism, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more dangerous to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. The very basic core of a man’s living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun.” ~ Jon Krakauer

Good Service...

Good service is most definitely not the easiest thing to find in South Africa.

In general the level of service offered by most South African businesses is pretty shocking. I would say in most cases it is due to incompetent sales staff and employees.

Over the last couple of weeks we have been trying to get some printing done for our upcoming beers. The requests we had were pretty simple... We required a quote for the following: two types of vinyl labels, one type of paper labels with a few variations in the graphics and the die cutter for the paper labels to get the desired shaped... Guess what... One month later and we are back at square one.

None of the quotes we got so far listed the items correctly or in the breakdown we required. Most of the times the quotes took days or weeks just to get to us.

Ah well... We will just go elsewhere. There are many other printing companies in town, but if anybody asks for advice when it comes to printing, one printing shop will never see anyone sent to them by our team.

At least I have something good to say as well this round... One of the other companies we are dealing with is simply superb... They are the guys who print our bottles. A couple of emails, one meeting, a quick inspection when the printing started and the printing was done... They will most definitely see a lot of work from us in the future.

I guess slow is usually better....

I guess taking things slow is generally the best approach. Well, at least, that is our approach for setting up Gallows Hill Brewing Co.

Taking it slow is not only due to the desire to ensure that we do it once only and correct, but also due to the fact that we are juggling day jobs while going through the motions and red tape to set up a small business. Furthermore, we are taking it slow because it is the way we want to do it.

Setting up a small business, especially a liquor manufacturer & seller, is no easy task. Obtaining liquor licenses for the manufacture and sale is a seriously dragged out and painful process. More detail on this will follow in an upcoming post. In the mean time let's just say the authorities are not going out of their way to assist & promote the creation of small businesses. We are dealing with a case of a lot of talking at the top and very little actually happening on the ground.

Once licensing is in place you have to deal with the South African Revenue Service. If you find the correct person to help you, the whole process is not too painful. There are some issues SARS can work on. Firstly they promote the use of brokers and their entire setup is structured in such a way that you need to pay a third party to help you. Why? My only guess is that they are lazy and like to create unwarranted jobs for their friends and ex colleagues. The second issue they need to work on is "registration packages".... Let me explain: Instead of simply walking in and saying: "Hey. We are starting a brewery / winery / distillery and would like to set up all our tax issues, can you help?" and getting a reply: "Certainly, please fill in forms A, C, D & Z" you have to go through an iterative process. You complete the one step only to find out you should have registered for something else first upon completion... Is it so bloody difficult to set up a more structured approach?

They can certainly learn a lot from our major retail banks.

I am glad to say that all these issues should be concluded by the end of today...

Our bottles are being printed towards the end of the week and if all goes well some of our labels will also be done. All that we are left with then is brewing, experimenting, testing, more brewing and slowly getting bottled beer on the liquor store shelves.

As soon as production, sales and our processes become more stable and refined we will get going on the design and procurement of our proper big-boy brewhouse...

When I get my day job under control again we will tackle construction in the taproom. Personally I am looking forward to have it up and running. Talking & selling beer directly to customers over weekends is always enjoyable.

 

PS. Our brewery truck went in for restoration yesterday... If all goes to plan it will be the most bad-ass brewery truck in Cape Town !! Watch this space for build updates...

The IPA Hegemony - Sourced from www.communitybeerworks.com

The IPA Hegemony

7/2/2013 by Dan

 "stay gold" - Biro (listen )

It’s the first week of the month, meaning it’s time for July’s Session, when beer bloggers get together and talk about a common theme. This month, Justin’s Brew Review is hosting the topic “IPA: What’s the Big Deal?”

For quite some time now, I’ve been wondering what makes the India Pale Ale (IPA) style of beer so popular. Don’t get me wrong–I thoroughly enjoy it and gladly participate in #IPADay. I’m just wondering, why all the hype? What is it about an IPA that makes craft beer enthusiasts (CBE) go wild? Is it because CBEs want to differentiate craft beer from crap beer? I don’t care if a watered-down pilsener is labeled as “triple-hops brewed”; it wouldn’t satisfy someone looking for an IPA.

The IPA is our best selling beer at retail every week, with exceptions only when we have something new or when people drank everything we made the week before. I’m not going to pretend that I have the answer to why this is, though. I have ideas, but obviously speaking factually about why people like what they like is at best fraught with peril and at worst complete drivel.

This is a blog, though, so let the drivel commence.

They taste good

This is easy, right? It’s pure capitalism: IPAs are a a craft beer favorite because they’re delicious. Cream rises to the top (ironically, above cream ales*).

They can be piney and resinous or tart and full of grapefruit. Like their cousins the pale ale they pair well with pretty much everything: with pizza, falafel, sandwiches or solo, an IPA is never out of its element. I’m a firm believer that all beer is appropriate for all seasons, but chances are even if you like your stouts in winter and your wheats in summer you think an IPA is in a category that never goes out of style.

They’re “advanced”

I have a clear memory of one day early in my journey down the beer rabbit hole. I had picked up a mixed 12 pack of Saranac and opened the pale ale. “Oh!” I said. “This is too bitter for me.”

That is now filed in my memory palace alongside when I thought a school field trip would go to an actual field. You know, for collecting soil samples and stuff.

My point is that I expect few people can jump from 0 to 60 IBUs immediately. It might be a small rite of passage but it’s a rite nonetheless. It’s a consumable shibboleth, and so professing your love of them can show you’re really “one of us.”

This is more subconscious than overt, and I may have pulled it out of thin air**, because nobody has ever asked me for the secret code word before letting me into a tasting. It’s also important to recognize that the inverse isn’t true: if you don’t like IPAs (or hoppy beers generally) it doesn’t mean you don’t love “good”/”real” beer, it means you don’t like IPAs. People are allowed to have opinions, even if they aren’t in agreement with mine (for now). Some people never like hoppy beer because that’s not their thing, and that’s fine. On the whole, though, if someone tries all five of our beers and doesn’t like one of them, it’s The IPA (if they don’t like two, it’s The IPA and Frank, our pale ale).

They have lots of flavor

You might think that I covered this in “They taste good.” I did, but this is another angle.

Take a gander at ratebeer’s top 50 beers. I’ll wait. Now BeerAdvocate.

Notice anything? Like how searching for “imperial” highlights the page like a used textbook? You have to get to #12 on ratebeer’s list before something isn’t “imperial”/”strong”, and then until #29 for a second. BeerAdvocate is slightly more diverse, with a pale ale at #4 and a sour at #10, but on the whole the trend is clear: people like stronger beers better than weaker ones.

(Yes, there are other explanations, like “The people who hang out on beer rating sites like stronger beers” but I’m not trying to publish this in a peer reviewed journal.)

I’m going to say that the alcohol content is a secondary factor here because we’re not a bunch of drunks. If we were we’d buy a bottle of cheap vodka and be done with it. Instead I’d say that, on average, people prefer more flavor to less flavor. A big imperial stout will have rich coffee and dark chocolate and plums and a bit of pleasant wine characteristic, whereas a mild still has plenty to write home about, only more subdued.

This question could just as easily be “why do people order dark roast coffee?” or “why do people put sriracha or Frank’s on everything?” Because subtlety is harder to appreciate, and a mediocre base can turn into a good product with its application. That’s not to say that hoppy/high gravity beers are lazy, but “AND A BUSHEL OF HOPS!!” as your final ingredient will on the whole produce at the very least a decent beer. It’s similar to how light American lagers are technically impressive, even if you don’t like them: off flavors have nowhere to hide.

Science!

It turns out that there’s actually some scientific basis to why hops are great. Alex (of Risk fame) did all the legwork on that, though, and plans to write a post of his own. I fully support any excuse to point a finger in the air and yell, “SCIENCE!”

In the end, they taste good

Having gone on for quite a while about subconscious reasons for the love of IPAs, I think it’s important to remember where I started: they’re popular because damn, they’re tasty.

* This is not ironic
** Like all social science***
*** HIYOOOOOO