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Home Brewing Professionally: Big Ambitions for Pipe Dream Brewery

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I’ve never interviewed home brewers before. And who could blame me? This blog is called California BrewMasters after all… which isn’t to disrespect the age old tradition of brewing in a private residence. Maybe I just hadn’t met the right home brewers yet? I personally do not home brew; reason being I find it much, MUCH easier to cozy up to a bar and sip on the labors of others than stumble through all that hard work myself. Take my $7 and hand me a pint, damn it. Call me lazy (I certainly do), but there’s just no way in hell I’m capable of a Ballast Point Victory at Sea Imperial Stout or a Russian River Blind Pig IPA. I certainly can’t get the hop contracts.

Brian Holter, Kingsley Toby, and more recent team addition Kevin Segna are thankfully not at all like me, at least in that respect. Collectively, they make up Pipe Dream Brewery, and Brian and Kingsley have been brewing together for almost a decade. They’ve taken it to the next level with professional-quality beers and aspirations to get out of the garage (impressive in its own right) and into their own brewery. These guys are even on Untappd for Pete sake!

I first tried their beers in a hotel room late at night (the inspiration for too many blog posts these days) with Brian, Kingsley, and a bunch of beer bloggers. Mid-bottle share they whipped out some stunningly beautiful 350ml bottles and poured abso-friggen-lutely stunning fruit sours. My taste buds were wowed, and after careful inspection of the minimalist white label with a hardened smear of oil paint, the color signifying the variety (I believe I tried a deep red for raspberry and a purple boysenberry), I remarked, “Wow, you must really like these Pipe Dream guys.” Looking at each other, then back at me, they chuckled and revealed their true identities. I’m all the better for it.

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Being Beer Friendly: An Interview with Anaheim Mayor Tom Tait

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I’ve interviewed plenty of brewers since starting California BrewMasters. If you haven’t noticed by now, it’s kind of my thing. I’ve spoken to brewers in depth about primary and secondary fermentation methods, and listened closely as they pontificated the philosophies of good recipe formulation. For me this information is thought provoking, but as someone that has never brewed, either at home or on a commercial level, these pieces of brewing knowledge are not why I got into craft beer journalism.

I got into beer because of the community that was every bit as intriguing as the beer itself. The nuances of my favorite farmhouse saison are every bit as interesting to me as following the rise of a new brewery in an untapped neighborhood. And just as beer doesn’t make itself, a beer community is only as strong as those that foster and create it. As journalists and fans our appreciation most likely begins after the doors have opened, but we should take into consideration the incredible determination by each brewery to pry the doors open in the first place. It takes months and years, and the process is oftentimes fraught with red tape due to a lack of information or misinformation by the city and county it hopes to call home.

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The Golden Road to Anaheim: Victor Novak Interview

Brewer Victor Novak discusses his time in LA and his return to OCNGingold_GRVictor_web_002

Golden Road Brewing announced earlier this month that they’d be launching their first major expansion brewery in Anaheim. The Los Angeles based brewery found 56,000 square feet of prime real estate just a few steps away from Angel Stadium. This second location not only solidifies Anaheim as a beer town to be reckoned with, but also brings home Victor Novak, acclaimed brewer from TAPS in Brea who has been working for Golden Road for the past six months; and who will be running the show at this new location. In Victor’s own words, taking charge of this new facility “couldn’t be more perfect for an Angel’s fan.”

I’ll spare you too many of the details of this new brewery because, first off, it’s been discussed in many other articles and blog posts, and secondly, I want to focus on Victor and let you hear him talk about this new opportunity in his own words. I sat down with Victor last week to discuss what he’s been doing with his time in Los Angeles, and found out how he’s going to approach the task he’s been given; putting the Golden Road stamp on a town already buzzing with terrific breweries.

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Barley Forge Opens In Costa Mesa – Meet Greg Nylen

**Note: a version of this interview will appear in the December 2014/January 2015 issue of Beer Paper LA**
 
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Have a conversation with Barley Forge owner Greg Nylen and you soon realize his words reveal as much about the brewery as they do about Nylan’s own character. Methodical and delicately worded, Nylen has been both a successful career lawyer and home brewer for the past 24 years. Barley Forge has been planned, again methodically, for the last 14 years. With brewer Kevin Buckley on staff creating some of his own recipes while also scaling up Nylen’s home brews, Costa Mesa now bears the fruits of these labors with the recent opening of the city’s first production brewery. Buckley’s resume boasts breweries from Iowa, Chicago, and Canada before working in San Diego at both Alpine and Back Street Brewing.
 
Located one street behind the always-packed retail and restaurant destination The Camp, Barley Forge is set to place a decisive stamp on a part of town that was in high need of a good brewery. Oh, and by the way, the beers are damn tasty. I sat down with Nylen to discuss the big plans and small details of opening a new brewery, transitioning recipes from home brewing to large-scale production, and what Barley Forge has in store for the community.
 

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The Great American Beer Festival – A Photographic Perspective

Note: This article was published on BeersInParadise.com, thanks to the great folks there for letting me share my experiences through there website. It is re-posted here because, well screw it I wrote the damn thing. All photos copyright Nicholas Gingold, © 2014. Don’t steal photos, it’s bad karma.
 
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The Great American Beer Festival, the nation’s largest and most illustrious festival celebrating all things craft beer, is now a week in my rear view. Admittedly it took some time, but with my clarity fully restored I’ve had the chance to think about my time in Denver and reflect on my first GABF. I’ve been thinking a lot of about what this festival meant both to me as a beer drinker and to the ever-expanding industry of craft beer. As a photographer I like these conversations to be started with images. I want to share GABF with you through my lens.
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The festival is in short, awe inducing. It’s huge, bigger than my wildest expectations. 710 breweries from every corner of the country poured a staggering 3,500+ beers. 49,000 fellow attendees would be my subjects while trudging through this beer-Mecca. And as one might guess, there was no shortage of flavor – from crazy costumes to a bevvy of pretzel-necklaces; it was enough to keep you smiling at every turn; the unlimited one-ounce pours helped keep the crowd smiling as well.
 
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I set a few ground rules for myself during the festival. Rule 1: Whenever possible do not try a beer you’ve already had. Rule 2: Stick to a particular style of beer, at least for a couple hours, before moving onto the next. Rule 3: Always try a beer with a hilarious name. These rules would at least narrow the field, providing a loose path for me to wonder my way down the rabbit hole. And in case you’re curious (and I know you are), the winner of “best name” goes to Lickinghole Brewing, located in Goochland, VA, pouring Magic Beaver. I couldn’t make this up if I tried.
 
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It may be the nation’s largest beer festival, but it can still be an extremely intimate experience. At the heart of this are individuals – people like Dogfish Head’s Sam Calagione or Ballast Point’s Jack White. You might just run into these guys on the festival floor, perfectly willing to chat it up with beer fans, take pictures, and talk all things beer. Hell, you might even see Charlie Papazian, founder of the Great American Beer Festival and the Brewers Association, at lunch. What you begin to realize is that while this industry is growing at an alarming rate (1.5 breweries are now opening up per day, according to Bart Watson, staff economist at the Brewers Association told me), it’s still a small enough world filled with friendly faces to make it appealing. And these faces are accessible, which to me is what craft beer was all about in the first place. The minute we lose that accessibility, we might as well be wine.
 
Ballast Point owner Jack White talks with Firestone Walker’s David Walker before the festival began on Thursday afternoon.

Ballast Point owner Jack White talks with Firestone Walker’s David Walker before the festival began on Thursday afternoon.

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Lagunitas brought vaporized hops to share with festival-goers at their booth.

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I began this post by trying to decode this festival on both a personal level as a beer fan and as an active member of California’s beer community. One can easily drift through this whole event in a perpetual fog, attaching little value on one beer or the next, but I needed to think that there was meaning at the center of the galaxy. For the industry, GABF provides validation through its numerous awards and acts as a catalyst for networking and collaboration, as well as a way for newer breweries to develop a national buzz. We’ll talk about awards soon, but for the latter point I think this is an incredibly special and rare opportunity for many brewers and breweries.

 

Three Weavers brewer Alex Nowell, left at their GABF booth.

Three Weavers brewer Alex Nowell, left at their GABF booth.

 
I’ll use Three Weavers as an example, a new Los Angeles brewery in Inglewood whose grand opening is this Saturday, October 18th. That’s right – it wasn’t even open during GABF. With their first batch of beer in tow, they had a huge buzz about them. Maybe it’s because I’m hyper-aware of my local breweries, but it seemed that everywhere I looked I saw a Three Weavers temp-tattoo on necks and arms. I would hear them brought up in conversations between people unfamiliar with California breweries. It’s the type of hype that you can’t generate without a festival like this – making it one of many invaluable resources for brand new breweries.

 

Outside Events

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Falling Rock, a popular post-festival watering hole.

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There are plenty of events outside the festival that make Denver come alive. Sometimes that rare beer you’re after might just be found at one of the many great beer bars located downtown. Falling Rock, Fresh Craft, and Star Bar were among some of the spots I visited after hours. And yes, things had the potential to get a little weird.
 

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Other events of note: a Magic Hat morning event featuring their new coffee beer, Drip IPA, which paired excellently with gourmet donuts, and the media luncheon, put on by the brewers association.
 
 
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Ross Thompson, lead brewer for Magic Hat, gets interviewed during the event. The Denver Convention Center sits in the background.

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Magic Hat Hop Drip IPA being poured by a hotel employee.

 

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Beer Media at the Media Luncheon. A who’s who of the craft beer industry.

 

Beer Judging and Awards

At the heart of the Great American Beer Festival is the judging of beers leading up to the awards ceremony. 222 judges from 10 countries judged 5,507 beers this year (not including 89 Pro-Am competition entries), a 16 percent increase over 2013. There were 90 categories. It’s the one thing putting brewers on edge during this festival, and you can see just the smallest amount of anxiousness in their eyes leading up to Saturday morning’s awards ceremony. Many of these brewers are judges themselves, and I can recall running into more than a few departing the Marriott hotel where the judging was being held with glazed over eyes, having just come out of what can only be described as beer-battle. “They gave us over 20 Belgian Strong Ales to try at 10am,” remarked one brewer.
 
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In this double-exposure we can see the staging area for the beer judging competition in the belly of the Marriot Hotel, and unmarked bottles to be poured for judges.

 
Come Saturday morning the results are in. Again – I need to emphasize how massive, yet intimate this all seemed to me. There was beer flowing, of course, but what made it so interesting to me was how accessible everyone was. You could be sitting next to a tiny brewery from Texas or the Firestone Walker crew, probably both. Whenever anyone would win one of the numerous awards presented, there was always applause, high-fives, and warm hugs between competitors and neighboring breweries. If there were any loyalties, it seemed to be at a regional level to cheer on breweries from your home state.

 

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Vinnie and Natalie Cilurzo of Russian River Brewing Co in Santa Rosa, CA get their photo taken with Charlie Papazian after winning a medal for their famous IPA Pliny the Elder.

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Ritual Brewing Co. brewer Owen Williams congratulates Kyle Mann on a medal win.

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Firestone Walker Brewer Matt Brynildson (left) and Russian River’s Vinnie Cilurzo during the award’s ceremony. Both breweries took home a medal for their Pilsner.

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Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper, a 30 year home-brewer himself, addresses the brewers at Saturday’s awards ceremony.

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Founder of the Great American Beer Festival Charlie Papazian greets the awards ceremony crowd.

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Some state’s performed much better than I expected, New Mexico and Texas had surprising amounts of medals. While California (47 medals), Colorado (40), and Oregon (22), still rounded out the top three, states like Texas (16), Pennsylvania (10) and New Mexico (8), had surprising victories. This was eye opening to me, a native Californian with a proud emphasis on West Coast beers. I of course, rooted on my home state, and need to give special recognition to places like Beachwood BBQ, taking home the award for winning best Large Brewpub and Large Brewpub Brewer of the Year, as well as to San Diego for sweeping the Session Beer category.
 
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Ballast Point’s Colby Chandler, center, waiting to get on stage for a medal win.

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The Lost Abbey crew gets excited about a big win on stage.

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Jeff Bagby, wearing arguably the best pants at the festival, walks up to the stage for a medal win. This must be a hugely validating achievement for Bagby Beer, having only opened at the end of this summer.

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So to wrap this up, the Great American Beer Festival brought me eye to eye with the vastness that is American craft beer. It showed me just how quickly things are moving in this industry, and I had to come to terms that no matter how hard I try to keep my ear to the ground, there’s just too much happening in too many places to get a handle on it all. In contrast, it also showed this industry to be as personal and warm as I’ve always found it to be from the get-go. It’s what got me into craft in the first place. The circle of friends is only expanding, and as far as I’m concerned, there’s plenty of room for more. All are welcome in American beer.
 

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Welcome to the CBM Blog

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Welcome, welcome, welcome. I’m glad you stopped by. For this inaugural post I thought I’d start simply enough by telling you a bit about the project, and share some exciting news about it’s development. The California Brew Masters book is a collection of interviews and portraits of some of California’s best brewers, over 45 of them so far.

Each brewer was interviewed about their brewing history, their opinions on the beer industry, their philosophy of brewing, some shared funny stories, others shared some great tips and tricks for home brewers. We then took them around their own brewery, or into their communities, to photograph them and reveal the face responsible for that empty glass in front of you. We’re putting all this content together so that you can learn the stories behind your favorite brewers.

So why do this? Well, first and foremost these guys (and gals) produce a lot of great beer. Beer that’s so good you’ll take one sip and go “ahhhhh” like you suddenly found yourself in a friggen Pepsi commercial. There’s over 300 breweries in California alone, that’s the most in the country! So, with all the recent momentum of the craft beer movement, I couldn’t help but think these folks deserved a bit of credit. So I, Nick Gingold, author and photographer of this fine project (nice to meet you too), set out on a California adventure to meet some great people, and drink some amazing beer.

So here I sit today, writing this post to you, and if you’ve read this far, I’m hoping you like my idea, and like what I have to offer to the world. That’s good… because we need YOUR help. Yes, you, at the computer. Even you, girl reading this on your cell phone. We need your help to turn this project into a beautiful coffee table book. We’re launching a Kickstarter February 1st to raise $25,000 in 45 days. That’s a LOT of money in a little amount of time, and so we’re counting on YOU to bring this fan-friggin-tastic 10″x10″ hard cover coffee table book to life.

Now, your generosity will not go unnoticed. We’ll be offering some of the beer-nerdiest, most redonk-a-donk incentives for the backers of this project. You can also pre-order your own copy of the book for $5 off the retail price. Now isn’t that just swell?

So stay tuned for a lot more info, I’m excited to share this wild ride with you. I’ll be doing blog posts about future fundraising events, progress reports on the book and the Kickstarter campaign, sweet teasers of portraits and clips from the interviews, and much more. Thanks for your support. Cheers!