Tomme | December 21, 2006

The best part about being predisposed, really is not knowing it� At least, that�s how I like to look at things. When it comes to being a brewer, I like my beers to look, feel and even act a certain way way. I call them flavor driven beers. This is my notion of brewing process driven beers where flavors are gained through the development of new techniques. Many authors and consumer have dubbed these types of beers as �Extreme Beers.� And for what it�s worth, those who make them �Extreme Brewers.�

The thing is, I don�t consider myself nor the beers we make to be Extreme which leads me to the Subject line for this blog. For the past 10 years, I have been gainfully employed as a professional brewer. During this time, I have inherited a reputation for producing cutting edge or �Extreme Beers.� As a professional brewer I, seek each and everyday to ensure that the beers we are making bear my artistic stamp. But at no time have I ever considered what I do as a brewer to be extreme. It most certainly is different by design but to call it extreme would be to ignore hundreds of years of brewing history.

Recently, there has been an enormous amount of attention heaped upon brewers all over this great country stretching the proverbial limits of traditional styles. These beers have caught the attention of the mainstream press and even found themselves being mentioned in the Wall Street Journal. Bravo. We finally have something worth being written about. Or at least I thought we did.
Little did I know, there is a backlash towards these beers mounting and much of the grumbling is coming from within the brewing community. It seems that some brewers- who have not joined the movement of extremists are upset with the progression of beer over the past 10 years. During this time, there has been an explosion of �bigger must be better beers,� and the creation of new style guidelines to categorize these beers.

Many of these beers are steroidal monsters which have their roots in traditional brewing styles. Perhaps you�ve seen them. Double IPA, Imperial Red Ale and even Imperial Pilsners. All of these new beer �styles� grew out of what is currently being referred to as a testosterone fueled movement by brewers engaged in a frat boy like pissing match of who can make a bigger ballsier brew. Thing is, I don�t necessarily view this as a bad thing.

I find it somewhat amusing this whole pissing match. Mostly because there have been some amazing beers created as part of this movement. Oh, I will grant you there have also been some phenomenal duds- maybe even more so than successes. But, as brewers have taken flavors to extreme levels as part of this process, we have learned an enormous amount about yeast and what it is capable of doing. Today, there are more than a handful of beers clocking in over 14% ABV and many of them are made here in this country. I may not be that old, but I can remember when Samichlaus was the strongest beer in the world. I seriously doubt right now that it would even be in the top 20 strongest beers in the world (now that�s a pissing match).

But it�s not just about ethanol producing let�s go to the moon and back rocket fuel style beers that are emerging from these yeast experiments. We�re in the midst of another yeast movement that is back to the wild yeast and microbial fermentations of the past where an endless number of permutations are possible. And the coolest thing about these beers is that they are often below 6.0% ABV qualifying in my world as session ales.

Of course, there is the dark side( cue the music ) of this yeast movement and for the past 7 years, we have been making our own steroidal monster of a beer known simply to many as Cuvee. It starts conventionally enough as a Belgian Style Dark Strong Ale and morphs like a super hero into a super extreme taste bud killing machine. After spending a year in used bourbon barrels with cherries and resident wild yeast, the beer emerges as a shadow of its� former Punxsutawney Phil-like self. Over the years, it�s been called Rodenbach on Steroids.

Does this mean, we are �Extreme Brewers?� I�d have to answer emphatically no. Are we guilty of ramping up a traditional style? Probably. Have we created something uniquely American in our efforts. As of right now we have. And for that, I accept my punishment- whatever that may be. But still, you have to give and take when it comes to progressions like this. Clearly, we are in the middle of one of the most interesting movements in brewing this country has ever seen.

This past March, I had the pleasure of joining a few of my closest brewer friends on a pilgrimage to Belgium. This is a very small country with an enormous diversity of beers. Many people have labeled these beers as �Extreme� because of their flavors and production methods. I just think of them as unique.

The trip was arranged by my good friend Sam Calagione of Dogfishead fame and fortunes. He had been approached by a publishing company who wanted him to write a book titled curiously enough �Extreme Brewing.� Sam felt it important to make a pilgrimage to the Mecca of eccentric brewing known as Belgium. To complete this trip, Sam also invited Vinnie Cilurzo, Adam Avery and Rob Tod to accompany him on this journey.

Each of the brewers going on the trip was asked to ship over two versions of our �Belgian Style Beers.� For our part, we sent SPF 45- our spiced Saison and our elusive Cuvee de Tomme. Our beers were sampled at several points along the way by consumers, chefs and Belgian Brewers. Each of them had mixed reactions to what we were doing. Some thought they were skillfully made. Others found beers like our Cuvee de Tomme to be disasters not worthy of drinking. But none of them used the word �Extreme� to describe our beers. Because to these people, this was beer as beer can be- an artistic form of self expression with each and every new bottle.

At Port Brewing and The Lost Abbey, we�re not really all that concerned with Semantics or styles for that matter. We spend our time trying to make the most interesting beers �for sinners and saints alike.� If we do our job(s) people will notice. If we forget our roots and how we got here, then we�ll join the ranks of the unemployed right quick. I really don�t give a rats� ass these days about what you call this movement or if you even want to acknowledge it. For what�s it worth, I don�t think what we are doing is Extreme in any way. My notion of Extreme is trying to make yellow snow when it�s twenty below outside. Whether a brewer makes more mainstream, fringe based or God Forbid Extreme beers matters not to me. What matters the most is that they make them well. From there, everything else works itself out.

Yet, I am proud to be brewing the beers we�re making right now. Given the explosion of incredibly unique beers that are being produced, I consider myself very lucky that we still make beers worthy of being discussed and interpreted. For that, I am thankful. So with that in mind, I am headed back to my new R & D lab where my guys are hard at work on our first ever Double Dry Hopped Imperial Non Alcoholic Beer. It�s a whopping .075% ABV and just oozes hops. I�ll see you on the other side.

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Tomme | November 26, 2006

Every Blog needs a title, so kudos to those who recognize the obscure musical reference in the title. It comes from more than a bit of my youth spent watching the Muppets and their most popular musical guest John Denver. The Muppets were one of my favorite shows. How can you not love Fozzie the Bear and his infectious �Wakka Wakka?� These shows still have the ability to illicit a laugh from me every time Kermit tells Fozzie to �turn right at the fork in the road.�

When we were developing many of the foundations for The Lost Abbey, I was constantly reminded that many religions have at the roots in no less than these three elements. So, today I thought I would write about these three elements and their relationship to our brewery.

The first one is Poems. Maybe by now, you have noticed that our labels and our beers tell stories. It is my notion that every beer should tell its� own story and that the specifics of each beer should be secondary to the experience it provides. In this way, we have deviated from most breweries in the way that our labels are less about the actual beer inside the bottle and more about a back story behind each brew.

In many ways, there is a rhythm to the words and as such they move and function like mini poems on our bottles. As we have started this new brand, each new beer affords me an opportunity to draw upon my creative writing techniques. I had a conversation the other day with one of our customers and I intimated that sometimes, I think (feel) I am a better writer than I am brewer. This surprised him and we talked about the reasoning for this. He thought it was my ego speaking after a three IPA night of working the bar.

I reasoned with him that I have been writing much longer than I have been brewing. I also mentioned that throughout my studies in high school and college, the emphasis was always on writing. During my junior year of college, I began studying Poetry and dabbling in writing it as well. This was a full year before I began home brewing. I spent the next two years writing a lot and brewing at home. I learned over the years that the thing required to be a better than average write is a voice. And in my experience, when I write, my personality and voice come through loud and clear.

As a brewer, I have also spent the last 10+ years working on my voice. I �think� I have found it. But when I think about artists and their expressions, I am reminded that art is in a constant state of evolution. Brush strokes get refined, subject matter improves and the essence of the artist and his perspective is suddenly brought to the front with amazing clarity.

I like to think that as a brewer, I am entering a more golden age for my beers. I believe that I have studied the past masters, I have worked on my brush strokes and it is time to take these essences and meld them together so that lucidity develops and clarity ensues with each and every new release. There have been many moments in the past 7 months where I have seen this at work in our new brewery.

This brings us to the second element: Prayers. I was raised in a Catholic school environment and was taught that �if all else fails, PRAY!� Now I am not going to sit here and suggest that everyday, I come through the front doors at 155 Mata Way light candles and break off some incredibly rich Tibetan Monk Chants. However, there is a certain level of prayer that goes into starting a project like this.

Take an old brewery, revamp it for your needs, open the doors and pray that what you�re doing resonates with enough people enabling you to stay in the business of making great beer. That�s the kind of praying I�ve been doing of late. But in school, they also taught me there are numerous kinds of other prayers. There are prayers for the sick, the invalid, the poor and many others. These are the kinds of prayers that are most often found in churches and religious circles.

But here at 155 Mata Way, we specialize in a whole different kind of prayer. Most mornings, it starts with a simple prayer of �God I hope all of our equipment works today�� Some days, these prayers are answered and sometimes they are not. The days when they are not, I figure we are being punished for our indiscretions of which there are many around here.

Of course, dabbling in the field of Hocus Pocus and experimentation, we often have to pray for things to work out ok. You see, we are in the business of not only making beer but selling beer. What this means is that we are not in the business of selling experiments gone bad. So, we do everything we can in prayer or otherwise to ensure that out �Big� batches of experimental offerings go better than planned.

Thankfully, we have been blessed up until now by copious amounts of �experimental grace.� It seems we have a presence that guides us. Which I am thankful for because as an owner of this brewery, the last thing that I want is to have to go pray to our friends the porcelain gods when we have to pour $10K worth of beer down the drain. Sure, I�ve prayed to them on �other� occasions like the one time I had the Spanish Influenza de Botella complements of mi amigo Don Julio de Jalisco. Those of you who have heard my Spanish know that my prayers in this language aren�t often answered. Yet, I�ve learned the funny thing about most prayers is that they are more often than not accompanied by promises.

It seems that every time we are in a position of �asking for something,� we also feel quite giving. Take for example my good friend Don Julio de Jalisco. When he and I become reacquainted from time to time, I might find myself saying �Dear lord. What was I thinking? I promise if you get me through this, I won�t hang out with him anymore.� Which of course is an out right lie as me and Don have this thing�Somos Amigos. And Amigos never die.

So I wanted to end my blog with this notion of promises. We at the Lost Abbey promise to be lots of things. First and foremost, we promise to be passionate. This will always remain our guiding principle. It is my belief that passion conquers everything if you believe in its� power. We also promise to continually explore new flavors and boundaries in our beers. This not to say that we will be esoteric for esoteric sake; rather, we will be bold when spicy is what we are after. But perhaps the biggest promise of all is that we won�t lie about our beers.

If we make something that isn�t up to our standards, we�ll tell you. We believe this is a big part of the crusade of good beer vs evil beer. You had better tell the truth. So here goes. We�ve been open a few months now and, not every batch of beer that we have made has been the cats meow. Is this our fault? You bet. Did we notice? Damn skippy we did. Yet, we are not sitting on our sugar sacks drinking instead of working on these problems.

Ours is an evolving business- one that is based upon time and energy. We�re working hard and our promise to you is that we will continue to work hard each and every day at what we do. This will enable us at the end of each day to look across our bar and tell you in good conscience that business is good, the beers are great and it�s only getting better.

Our relationship with you the customer is where each day begins and ends. You may start your day with one of our beers or you may end it that way. Either way, we�re thankful you find enough reason to make us part of your day. That alone speaks volumes about what we are doing.

With this in mind, I am returning to the first element in the title today. Over the years, I have written many poems along the way and lately, I have been inspired to write more. I find inspiration in many things we do and lately with all the writing I have been doing, it translate into thoughts and new ideas. Beer can be many things to many people. Often, ours is called liquid art. We like to think of it this way as well. As such, I am going to use this space from time to time to share some art of a different kind.

So, since they gave me a blog with no restrictions, I have decided to invoke my creative right and share some of these things with you. If you don�t want to read feel free to jump ship right now. You are also forewarned that in the future this space may even include the creative right of my 6 month old daughter who someday may be an amazing artist in her own right.

The first poem I have decided to share with The Lost Abbey blog audience is one of my favorites. AND, since it has a decidedly libation evoking subject matter, I felt it most appropriate. My only hope is that you enjoy it with a glass of one of our beers in your hand. If not, any beer from San Diego will do. If none of these are available, please knock the dust off your favorite 40 ounce tall boy and spill some for me� Su Amigo.

Intoxicated
By
Tomme Arthur

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Tomme | November 10, 2006

It�s not fair. At least that�s how I think of it. Pizza Port and Port Brewing already has some of the most talented brewers on the planet working for us and we�re developing a stealth program to ensure that our needs in the future for greatness can be met from within.

It�s a super secret program that we call the Sydney Keegan In training Project (Code Named SKIP). You see it�s not really TOP secret as many of you have already seen her working at Port Brewing in San Marcos. Sydney was hired on May 15th of 2006. She weighed 6 lbs 12 ounces on that day and was a whopping 18 inches tall. That may not seem like much in the credential department, but it�s my belief that the best trainees are sometimes the ones with no experience. And I had to hire her, she has great genes.

Currently, she works on a part time as needed basis. It varies depending on her mood, her availability and in general her malaise. I haven�t had to work with too many female brewers in the past so getting a handle on her schedule can be tough to say the least. But she is an excellent pupil-when not taking her obligatory siesta.

I studied English at Northern Arizona University with the intention of becoming a teacher. That didn�t work out so well. Still, I took all the information from those classes and over the years have taught many people the ins and outs of being great brewers. It�s no secret that some of the best brewers who have made beer in San Diego have at one time called Pizza Port their home.

Which brings us back to the Sydney Keegan Project and it�s just not fair. Sometimes, I think about how unfair it will be 18 years from now when she�s brewing. I know plenty of brewers who have almost 20 years of experience and many of them have reached Demi-God like status. Someone will inevitably ask where she studied or learned to be a brewer. She�ll stop and think about it before answering- �dunno, can�t remember a time when I didn�t make beer.� And that will be the Gods honest truth.

Sure, this may turn out to be the story of an overzealous father. Maybe they�ll commit me to a mental institution? Lucky for her, there aren�t summer camps for brewers in training. She won�t have to endure 5 AM mornings at the gym to keep in top shape. And there most certainly won�t be too many tournaments to burn her out.

Yet, she will be a brewer. WHY, because Daddy said so! Many of you may be wondering what she�s learned so far. Well, she�s learned that Caustic, Steam and Hot Kettles are safe as long as you don�t get too close to them. She�s learned that Old Viscosity seems like a beverage she one day may like A LOT. Mostly, she�s seen that the brewery is a place with a teacher who seems eager to teach as long as the pupil is willing to listen. And right now, she is a great listener.

Next time you find yourself thinking about your favorite brewery or brewer. Ask yourself. �Twenty years from now, will this still be a great beer?� We are confident the answer is yes and we invite you all to witness the Sydney Keegan In training Project as living and breathing proof that if you build it, they will come.

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Tomme | November 6, 2006

Every so often, I find myself acting like a patron at our bar. Only, the curious thing about sitting at our bar inside of Port Brewing is that we haven�t rolled out the red carpet and furnished it with overstuffed chairs. Like most brewery projects, we opened our doors with great expectations and �almost� enough money to finish our project. This is not to say that we are going out of business anytime soon.

However, as we went about remodeling the bathrooms, painting and designing a thoughtful and colorful office area, we spent all of the money budgeted for improvements. I guess, we never really looked at the 25 foot long bar and thought about the need for bar stools while we were slaving away. Still, at the end of each day, we would be exhausted from all the construction work.

One day, in a moment of amazing clarity, (some would say divine inspiration) I looked around and noticed that inverted kegs seemed to be almost the right height for bar stools. That was the day I ended the pain and suffering of soles everywhere and soon, we started kicking back after work on stainless steel bar stools. Seems the price for these was mighty choice as FREE works especially well if you have tapped the bank account trying to get open.

Weeks went by and we kept plugging away on our construction never really giving much thought to replacing the bar stools we were using. We spent April brewing and got in our first shipments of malt. Since we needed some Dextrose (Sugar) for our Avant Garde and Lost and Found beers, we suddenly had some nice, almost soft, tops for our bar stools. It wasn�t the best thing in the world for comfort sake but form doesn�t always follow functionality.

May approached and with it came our opening. We had a party for the Stone employees on Cinco de Mayo. Sensing the need for more bar stools for our friends, I ordered up some extra bags of Dextrose and we suddenly had a bar full of happy customers and friends. It felt good to look out over the bar and see people enjoying our beers while actually seating down. The following day we opened for business and our first customers rolled in.

I was very nervous about the lack of proper seating but everyone soon took it in stride. We met Sage and his wife Terri. They showed up the following weekend and she had her own bar stool in tote. This started a mini trend. Next thing I knew, Ken rolled up with his own hot rod bar stool. We began discussing more bar stools and I was really getting motivated to buy some for the bar.

But then a funny thing happened. I started to see people appreciate the simplicity of our design and they took to the character of the sacks. In my mind, these customers reached a whole new plateau of awareness and I started referring to them in my head as the �Sugar Sack Gang.� These people, like us, cared more about the beer in the glass then their proverbial comfort. And that is pretty damn cool.

Let me also state that I am neither their leader nor the Grand Pubbah of this band of merry drinkers. Rather, I am only one of them. There are many days when I can be found sitting on these bags of sugar. Even now, I am composing this from there. Perhaps the most interesting nugget about these bags is that more often than not, they start off pretty soft. We�re not talking Charmin two ply soft here. Rather, we are talking I�ve sinned this week and a little punishment for my sins kind of soft. This happens every so often when the malt company loads them on the top of the pallet and I swear my song is sung to the angels on high. Of course, there have been weeks were I sinned enough to banish those bags to the bottom of the pallet whereby, they were smashed under the weight of my indiscretions.

But I am here to tell you that these people in my �Sugar Sack Gang� are really smart. And I know, they know that you should never look a gift horse in the mouth. Although a bag of rock hard sugar seems like less than a gift, it still has the ability to get two soles off the floor after a very long day and for that, I am thankful.

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