Two weeks notice

It's time to move on: I gave my notice to Gottberg yesterday. Paris and I bought a house in Omaha, aptly-named "The Porter House". My last day at the brewery will be Wednesday, June 10, and our first day in the new house will be Tuesday, June 30.

I'll still have to make a thousand gallons of root beer before I go, and I should probably brew another batch of Pale Ale, but that's about it. As for the 715 pounds of Weyermann Rauchmalz in the cellar...well, I do regret that I won't be brewing the Rauchdoppelbock that I had planned.

Once we get organized in Omaha, I'll build a new half-barrel homebrew system^* and start making beer again. I'll keep the blog alive for that process; it's still "A Brewer's Life" after all.

As for a job, I don't have anything in the works. There are a few groups of people there that are thinking of building new breweries, and I can maybe consult for them at first, and brew for them if the situation is right. There are also rumors of expansions of existing breweries, but nothing very specific. In any case, there will be a lot more opportunities in Omaha than there are in Columbus.

^*Does anyone out there remember the one I had at the Big Pink House in Oshkosh and/or in Clear Lake? And do you have pictures? I don't think I actually took any.

Oktoberfest beer Maß prices bubble over

In what has become an annual ritual, beer prices at Munich's Oktoberfest are going up again.

Visitors to Munich’s world-famous beer bash Oktoberfest will have to dig even deeper in their pockets for a one-litre Maß of delicious amber nectar this year, with prices set to climb up to €8.60 per mug.


The city’s tourist office announced on Wednesday that a Maß will run revellers a minimum of €0.30 more than last year. Prices for non-alcoholic drinks will also be more expensive, with water costing on average €6.63 per litre and soda costing a hefty €7.44.

Read the whole story at The Local.

Steppin' out for a smoke

Here's an interesting take on prohibitionism from an interesting source:

English musician and Berlin resident Joe Jackson explains why he’s delighted Germany’s smoking ban appears to be unravelling faster than a self-rolled cigarette.



Having lived in Berlin for the better part of three years, I’ve been asked to write something about my ‘right’ to smoke here. But I’m not sure I have one. The real question, I think, is: who has the right to forbid me to smoke, and on what grounds? Consider the following:



(1) Tobacco is legal in Germany.

(2) Smokers are adults.

(3) Smokers contribute enormous amounts of tax revenue.

(4) Pubs, bars, clubs and restaurants are private property.

(5) If some people don’t like smoke, this is a matter of taste and therefore for the free market to sort out, not the government.

(6) A decent modern ventilation system can render smoke virtually unnoticeable.

(7) ‘Second-hand,’ or ‘passive’ smoke hurts no one anyway.



Every aspect of our personal lives is being dictated, more and more, by unelected and unaccountable bodies like the WHO or various bit of the EU bureaucracy. If you don’t smoke, you may think it’s none of your business. But don’t kid yourself. If you’re a few pounds ‘overweight,’ or drink more than two government-defined ‘units’ of alcohol per day, or eat ‘unhealthy’ foods, then you’re next in line to be scapegoated and stigmatised, denied health care or insurance, denied jobs or housing, forbidden to adopt children...the list is growing daily.

Read Jackson's entire column at The Local.

2009 Graduation Season

At least 10% of Gottberg's annual root beer sales will occur this weekend. That's why there hasn't been much on the schedule lately, besides filling kegs and making root beer.

Things should get back to normal (whatever that means) starting next week.

15th Annual Green Bay Rackers Titletown Open Homebrew Competition

Paris and I were in Green Bay this weekend to judge at the Titletown Open Homebrew Competition. We've been fortunate to attend the past eleven of their fifteen events, ever since my first year at Egan Brewing.

Before the first night's judging, we met some friends in Appleton at Stone Cellar Brewpub.

Left to right: Don Goen, Jon Jorgenson, Paris Cunningham, Richard Stueven, Loriann Andersen, Dan Pleshek

The Titletown Open, held at Titletown Brewing, set records this year with 159 entries and 20 judges over two days.

Scenes from Titletown Open XV

There were a lot of great beers entered this year. The Best of Show winner was a magnificent Eisbock. I gave it 45 points out of 50, the first time I've rated a beer that high at a competition. I noted that while it wasn't EKU 28, it was at least EKU 23.

Not even close

Last week didn't go according to plan. Not even close. But then that seems to be the rule rather than the exception.

I had planned to brew three or even four times; I brewed a batch of All American Gold on Monday, and that was it.

The yeast wasn't active enough on Tuesday to kräusen a new batch, so I worked on my brewery record-keeping software instead.

I got a root beer order from Lincoln to be delivered on Thursday, so I spent Wednesday filling kegs, and dumping the disappointing Maibock. A busload of people came in for a not-really-a-tour; instead of actually walking through the brewery, they just wanted me to talk about what I do around here.

I forgot to mention that I ran out of root beer on Wednesday, so I had to steal some from the pub's tank Thursday morning before hitting the road.

I picked up 1300 pounds of sugar Friday morning, and made 14 barrels of root beer Friday afternoon to fill the two empty tanks in the cellar. Also, my Weyermann Rauchmalz arrived, so I need to schedule the brews leading up to the Smoked Doppelbock.

I probably should have brewed some Tin Lizzie Hefeweizen today, but the remaining 800 pounds of sugar was still in the brewhouse, so I made 21 barrels of root beer instead. A gasket failed on one of the holding tanks, and a barrel and a half or so ended up on the floor by the time I fixed it.

Tomorrow I'll clean the draft lines and brew the Hefeweizen. Wednesday I'll clean and fill kegs. No plans for Thursday yet. Friday, Paris and I are going to Green Bay for the annual Titletown Open Homebrew Competition. If you happen to be in Appleton, Wisconsin this Friday afternoon, come have a beer with us at the Stone Cellar Brewpub!

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State of the Brewery Address: April 2009

So I haven't posted anything about A Brewer's Life since ... (looking back) ... late February, it seems. So rather than catching up all the mundane details — and they have been mundane — I'll just provide the current state of the brewery and beers, and try to start again.

What's on tap? Seven beers, which is probably one too many.

• Bugeater Brown Ale (3 barrels)


• Uncle Ivan's Dunkelweizen (2 barrels)


• Impromptu Pale Ale (6½ barrels)


• Tin Lizzie Hefeweizen (7 barrels)


• All American Gold (6½ barrels)


• 1916 Irish Stout (5½ barrels)


• Papa Dale's Amber Ale (3½ barrels)

The Dunkelweizen is showing its age, and the Stout and Amber aren't moving at all.

What's in the tanks? Not a whole hell of a lot. Of the eleven fermenters, two of which are only used as holding tanks for root beer, ten are empty. The eleventh contains this year's Stüvenbräu Maibock, which didn't ferment out, and which is tasting pretty tart, and which I'll probably dump out early next week.

What's coming up? The problem with the Maibock seems to be that I underpitched the wort. So before I brew anything special again, I need to build up my yeast stocks. I figure that if I brew three beers on consecutive days, pitching each wort with kräusen beer from the previous day's batch, I can harvest one tank for future beers, and harvest the other two to pitch into a single strong beer. I'm leaning toward that strong beer being a Rauchbock. So next week, I'll probably brew a Gold, a Brown, and a (don't know yet), then brew the Rauchbock two weeks later. Which means I need to order the smoked malt, like, today.

What else is coming up? KJ gave me a list of beers he'd like me to brew.

• Altbier


• Amber/Red


• Brown


• Doppelbock


• Dubbel


• Dunkel


• Dunkelweizen


• German IPA


• Hefeweizen


• Helles/Gold


• Hopfenweisse


• Imperial Oktoberfest


• Imperial Porter


• Kellerbier


• Kölsch


• Maibock


• Oktoberfest/Märzen


• Pale Ale


• Porter


• Quad


• Rauchbier


• Roggenbier


• Ryebock


• Schwarz


• Stout/Cream


• Tripel


• Weihnachtsbier


• Weizenbock


• Wheatwine

So, yeah, that oughta keep me busy for a while. I'm just wondering who we're going to sell all this beer to.