Willem geier by Freestyle Academy

FRONT COVER

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B r a e u h h t aus n i n u F

Willem Geier

Acknowledgements I would like to thank the students and teachers of Freestyle Academy, without whom this book would not have been created, and Caden Denton, who proofread this book and supported my work. I would especially like to thank the owners and workers of Tied House Brewery, and to the owners and workers of Hermitage Brewery for their hospitality, letting me film, interview, and enjoy their atmosphere.

Table of Contents Preface

Introduction

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Conclusion

Works Cited

Preface The inspiration for the creation of this book was the deep interest I have for brewing culture. The brewing process, the history and culture are all deeply interesting to me. Beer has advanced science, medicine and the arts which makes this an interesting topic to write about and film. However, I wrote this book more specifically about Tied House Brewery because it is the most local brewhouse to me. Craft beer is very important to me not only because of its history, but also because I have several family members who homebrew. In this book, I explain the process by which beer is brewed, a general history of beer and beer in the Bay Area, and how Tied House represents the beer culture of the Bay Area. The purpose of this book is to help spread the knowledge that I have learned through the creation of this documentary, and to educate my audience, especially those that are new to the world of craft beer.

Introduction There is a stigma against beer that it is destructive, just as much as hard liquor, and that it ruins peoples lives. Other notions about liver failure, drunk driving accidents, and beer being too high in calories are legitimate concerns, but they manage to distract people from the benefits of beer and the true cultural value that it adds to today’s society. Not only does it contribute to our national and social DNA, beer has also helped save a lot of lives and has shaped history as we know it today. For example, Louis Pasteur advanced Germ Theory through experimenting with beer. He studied fermentation and looked at spoiled beer through a microscope, and found bacteria that were the culprits in spoiling the beer, proving Germ Theory. If it were not for his work and the study of beer, doctors would not be cleansing their hands today (How Beer Saved the World). Without beer, we would not exist in the way that we do currently. There is no better local example of this than the Tied House Brewery, which specifically adds to the culture of the Bay Area. Beer itself has a very interesting culture today, one that is immensely different from its culture of decades, centuries, and even millennia ago. It has taken many twists and turns for better and for worse throughout its history; today we are on a positive trend that the Tied House Brewery helped pave the way. This recent change is actually a large surge of new, smaller, independent, regional breweries, called craft breweries. This was a relatively new thing for the world, exclaims Andy Crouch, award winning writer author of numerous books and articles about beer, “Until the late 1980s, and perhaps well into the early 1990s in many parts of the country, you would have been lucky to find a couple of upstart craft brands or a struggling regional beer.” Indeed there were very few breweries, let alone craft breweries. Beer was mostly produced by large brewing corporations at a high and consistent output. This beer was rather boring and lacked variety. However, after a few key breweries started up in the Bay Area, craft beer started to pop up in many places. Tied House was part of this forefront of the “craft beer revolution” and remains a special craft brewery in the Bay Area to this day.

“From man’s sweat and God’s love, beer came into the world.” –Saint Arnold of Metz, The patron Saint of Brewers

Chapter 1

An Important Discovery

o understand the origins of the Tied House, we need to understand a brief context of beer and where it came from. Well, where did beer come from? Who was genius enough to invent such a thing? That last question actually implies a common misconception, that beer was invented. According to Tom Standage, author of A History of the World in 6 Glasses, people did not actually invent beer, rather it was discovered; it was something completely accidental. And this accident was recreated over and over again to become one of the most consumed beverages in history. It all started about 10,000 years ago when man started to domesticate plants and animals. This defined the start of the Neolithic age or the “New Stone Age.” One of the first cultivated grains was not wheat, contrary to popular belief, but barley. The fertile crescent, more specifically an-

cient Sumer, was where beer is believed to have been discovered. Its discovery was most likely attributed to Sumerians having grain storage to help survive when food was scarce or in case of a drought. They left their grains in storage houses, and inevitability a few grain pots were left outside during the rainy season. This allowed for the barley to malt, when a lucky Sumerian walked by, tried it, and liked the sweet taste that the maltose sugars gave to the water. Then people started to malt their barley on purpose because they preferred the flavor. However, in order for fermentation to take place, yeast need to be present. Yeasts live in most places where saccharides--a scientific word for sugar--are usually located, so yeast would either have fallen onto the barley from the air or have been on the barley the whole time. The only thing yeast needed by this point was more moisture so fermentation could take place. Any

Sumerian who had left the pots out for too long, but long enough for more rain to fall, would have tasted the solution and liked it, obviously for its flavor and “alcoholic effect”(Standage). Beer from then on was recreated up to the present day; often seen as something a lot more favorable than water. Later in Medieval Europe–more specifically Flanders, or Belgium in the early 15th century– a magical new brewing innovation was discovered, hops. They added a bitterness and longevity to the brew. They, however, regarded hops as undesirable due to the added bitterness, which is very odd considering hops are very much desired in today’s brews. Hops are actually what defined IPA’s (India Pale Ales) when the British Empire acquired India as a colony. There developed a large new market that businesses wanted to capitalize on. English merchants

wanted to trade beer in India which would bring in a lot of capital. However, the trip to India was too lengthy as ships had to sail all the way around the horn of Africa. The lengthy trip caused the beer to spoil on the trip. The beer with added hops, “kept better than English ale because of the preservative quality of the hops”(The History of Beer) The English increased the longevity of the beer by adding more hops which allowed the beer to last for the whole trip. This is what makes IPA’s more “hoppy” generally Beer in this case was used in imperialism, however it has helped people in history too. Modern science today for example was bettered by beer. Beer came over to America aboard the Mayflower, rather beer as a necessity came. On the Mayflower, were dozens of barrels containing beer, not water; beer had been regarded as safer than water since the middle ages. Even the children would drink beer albeit weaker beer; as it was a vital part of the pilgrims’ daily diet. However, they had not packed enough beer for the trip

to America and when they ran out they had to land in Plymouth. Beer remained the Plymouth colonists’ prefered beverage as they brewed their own after landing (How Beer Saved the World). This is how beer reached America.

“Beer, if drunk in moderation, softens the temper, cheers the spirit, and promotes health.” –Thomas Jefferson The US had reached a peak of 2011 Breweries by 1887, and that number started to decrease until prohibition occurred which shut all breweries down. Brewing then underwent a hiatus from 1920 to 1933 when prohibition ended. American beer had taken a turn for the worse afterwards. The number of Breweries continued to decrease at the rate prior to prohibition until the 80s, the US had only about 90 breweries in total. 89 breweries was its peak

low. This was partially because huge breweries, called megabreweries, were making most of the beer sales in the US. With a whole country of demand, these companies needed to produce copious amounts of beer with consistent quality. Companies like Miller, Coors, and Pilsner were brewing with a huge output, but with a drawback. Generally in the brewing industry, breweries are able to increase their production, but only at the cost of flavor and quality; the beer has less time to rest and ferment. Larger breweries also give less time when acquiring ingredients, they use the cheapest grains and hops available to maximize profit. The reason people bought those beers, was because they were nearly the only beers out there. But with the turn of the 90s, craft Breweries started to pop up exponentially. Tied House was one of the earliest breweries to enter the craft brewing industry. It began construction in 1987, and then sold its first beer a year later.

“Honestly, my favorite type of beer is the one I’m drinking.” –Gregory Filippi, Headbrewer at Hermitage Brewery

Chapter 2

Behind the Brew

uality over quantity is one of the key differences between microbreweries and mega-breweries, and the brewers at Tied house do not let their beer fall short of high quality. They make sure that they give their brews the proper amount of time in every stage of the process.

The Malt

This process begins with the fertilization of barley, the first grain to create beer. Other grains such as wheat, rice, or rye are also farmed for brewing. This is the first of a few ingredients to beer, the others are yeast, water, preferably hops, and about two weeks of time. The first step to brew the actual beer is malting the grain. Saint-Sebastian Belgian Microbrewery puts it simply, “All beers are brewed using a process based on a simple formula. Key to the beer making process is malt-

ed grain, depending on the region traditionally barley, wheat, corn, or sometimes rye.” Most of us have already heard of malt. We know it makes really good milk shakes. But what is malt? “Malt is made by allowing a grain to germinate, after which it is then dried in a kiln and

sometimes roasted.” So malt is basically sprouting seeds, and breweries do this by soaking the grain, usually barley, in giant chambers so they can begin to grow. The moment the infantile roots sprout out of the seed shell, they drain the water and dry the seeds. Then brew-

The Mash

ting pasta in a pasta strainer, only we want to keep the filtered liquid The malt is ground and put and not the “pasta.” into hot water in a large container; this part is called “mashing,” which appropriately makes a mixture Now the thick liquid we have called the “mash.” The heated water, is humorously called “wort,” which which is set at a specific temperais then boiled, usually with hops. If ture between 104 to 160 degrees we want to be a little adventurous Fahrenheit, depending on the style then we can add other stuff that we of beer, activates certain enzymes want the beer to taste like. Some which break down the starches add fruit, some add ice cream, and into sugars– this will be very imothers add bacon. Hops add bitterportant later! After this, the temness and longevity to the beer, this perature is raised much higher–to is why hoppy beers are more bitabout 165 to 170 degrees–which ter. They do this to counteract the will in turn make the enzymes desweetness from all the sugar that activate. Additionally, more water was made earlier. may be sprinkled onto the grains to help release more of the sugars, a process called “sparging.” Next the wort is moved to another container called the “fer Next is a process called “lautmenter.” The fermentation process ering”–where the malt-liquid is a week to three week process made from the mashing process is where yeast is added to eat the sugfiltered–which is kind of like putars, and releases CO2 and alcohol

The Wort

eries roast the malt how they want, depending on the style of beer: the more they roast it, the darker the beer will get and the more “smoky flavor” that they want to add. Most breweries buy the malt as opposed to producing it themselves saving time and money to do so.

Lautering

Fermentation

as a byproduct, this is what makes beer fizzy and gives it a “head.” Gregory Filippi, the head brewer at Hermitage Brewery, Tied House’s sister brewery, explains, “We are predominantly an ale brewery, so we use yeast that operates at higher temperatures and it basically does its job faster. A lager brewing happens much slower at colder temperatures, you get a cleaner beer, but its also not the robust, bolder flavors that American craft beer drinkers are looking for.” The beer is cooled down, close to freezing and the yeast is filtered out, some kinds of beer keep the yeast in or even add yeast later to keep making alcohol in the beer. This is conditioning for the beer. After conditioning for a week to several months, the beer is often filtered to remove remaining yeast and any remaining particles, again depending on the kind of beer. The beer here may be bottled or connected to a tap for dispension. Some brewers still aren’t done yet though, some like to keep their beer fermenting until it comes off

the shelf, so they keep the yeast in the beer and add a little extra sugar for it when it is bottled. Hermitage and Tied House are both generally on two week cycles, Filippi elaborates, “The vast majority of what we brew is two weeks from the day that it is, raw, malted grain in the silo, to the day we’re putting it

into a bottle.” Tied House generally only has its beers on tap, so you cannot buy bottles, but they do offer growlers, a brown glass jar for beer, and kegs.

“He was a wise man who invented beer.” –Plato

Chapter 3

A Visit to the Tied House

hen one walks into Tied House they are greeted warmly by the hostess or servers, it is a friendly and inviting place to go to, almost like a family. Tied House Brewery is “a family owned business,” exclaims Vasquez. It started up when “they ended up bringing one of the brewmasters in from Budweiser to help us start... So he started us off for the first two years and then we had another brewer… from Germany, he kind of kicked us more into the different types of beer.” Interestingly the name “Tied House” also traditionally connotates a different sense of a family restaurant, “Tied House is an old english term...they were tied to their own product, so they were originally tied house,” Vasquez later elaborates. So like the original tied houses in England, where a pub was “tied” to a certain brewery, the Tied House is also tied to its own brews and to the

brews of its sister brewery, Hermitage Brewery, almost like a family of breweries. Tied houses are not the only kind of craft beer establishments today.

“I would compare this job to be my favorite by far... it’s refreshing to come somewhere different.” –Michael Moreno, Front of House Manager at Tied House According to the American Brewers Association, there are four basic kinds of establishments in the craft beer industry, brewpubs, microbreweries, regional craft breweries, and contract brewing companies. The Tied House is a brewpub,

“a restaurant-brewery that sells 25 percent or more of its beer on site. The beer is brewed primarily for sale in the restaurant and bar. The beer is often dispensed directly from the brewery’s storage tanks.” Hermitage Brewery would however classify as a contract brewery “A business that hires another brewery to produce its beer. It can also be a brewery that hires another brewery to produce additional beer. The contract brewing company handles marketing, sales and distribution of its beer, while generally leaving the brewing and packaging to its producerbrewery.” Hermitage Brewery also classifies as the third kind of establishment, a regional craft brewery, “An independent regional brewery with a majority of volume in ‘traditional’ or ‘innovative’ beers.” However complicated it is, Tied House has and still does play a major role in today’s beer culture.

125-Year Brewery Count

2,011

2,000

703

500 0

(June 2012)

1,179

1,500 1,000

2,126

(1887-June 2012)

(1887)

Number of U.S. Breweries

2,500

89 (Prohibition)

1890

1900

1910

Source: Brewers Association, Boulder, CO

Local beer culture is comprised of the regional breweries and their customers. When talking about his beer interests, Filippi declares, “Honestly, my favorite type of beer is usually the one I’m drinking. I’m not overly picky... I appreciate the vast majority of the beer spectrum. If I had to pick like a desert island beer it would probably be a pale ale... Something nice and light and crisp, kind of on the hoppier side… I very rarely find myself drinking the same

1920

1930

1940

1950

1960

1970

1980

1990

2000

2010

Year beer twice, like, consecutively. I like to change it up.” An animated and heartfelt server, Jayne Galvin put into words, “It’s absolutely my type of environment. Its just really laid back, come in, have a good time, meet with people, have a couple of beers, whether its a celebration, bring the family, bring the dog, its just a really relaxed environment, so that’s what I love about it.” Tied House is the home to Ironwood Dark, Golden Alpine,

and Cascade Amber Ales, its most popular brews. As regular beer patron Baird Nuckolls puts it, “I probably come here once every month or two...I would even come like once a week...my friends from work and my husbands friends, we hung out

“Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.” –Benjamin Franklin

here a lot.” The Tied House Brewery is a place that focuses on quality as opposed to quantity like how most mega breweries operate. The brewers at Tied House are able to keep their customers’ loyalty by this and by making a beer that local beer patrons can enjoy, Mrs. Nuckolls explains, “I think the Tied House does what they do very well. They focus on providing beer to their local customers.”

“Beer is nice and enjoyable... you never see anybody with a small thing of beer, its a nice pint, or a tall pint, and its really easy to drink,” exclaims Vasquez when detailing why people would want to try it. If one were new to beer or to come into the Tied House for the first time, Vasquez advises, “I think the best way to experience our beer is to simply, obviously come into our

restaurant and sit down in a chair, take in the ambience.” As stated on the Tied House’s website, “We plan to be around, as an important part of our local community, for another two decades, and hope you become a part of our family, and the next chapter in our history.”

Conclusion Although beer began as an accident, it has proven its value to society and even civilization. It kept people healthy through dark times, and has enriched the tastes of the Bay Area. How we organize local breweries can be seen as a reflection of how we organize ourselves.

“For a quart of ale is a dish for a king.” –William Shakespeare, The Winter’s Tale, Act IV, Scene 3

Works Cited “About the Show.” Brew Dogs Official Site. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Mar. 2015. Acitelli, Tom. The Audacity of Hops: The History of America’s Craft Beer Revolution. Chicago: Chicago Review, Incorporated, 2013. Print. Bamforth, Charles W. Beer: Tap into the Art and Science of Brewing. New York: Oxford UP, 2003. Print. “Beer Brewing Process.” How Beer Is Made: The Brewing Process. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Feb. 2015. “Beer: The Midwife of Civilization.” Beer: The Midwife of Civilization. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Feb. 2015. “Broad Street Pump Outbreak.” Broad Street Pump Outbreak. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Feb. 2015. “Concise Timetable of Beer History.” Concise Timetable of Beer History. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Mar. 2015. “10 Crafty Beers Made By Big Beer Companies.” Pastemagazine.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Feb. 2015. Crouch, Andy. Great American Craft Beer a Guide to the Nation’s Finest Beers and Breweries. Philadelphia, PA: Running, 2010. Print. “Famous Beer Quotes.” Oocities.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Apr. 2015. Filippi, Gregory. Personal interview. 11 Mar. 2015. Galvin, Jayne. Personal interview. 20 Mar. 2015. “Historic American Craft Breweries | Anchor & California History.” Historic American Craft Breweries | Anchor & California History. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Apr. 2015. “History.” Tied House. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Feb. 2015. “How Beer Saved the World.” HISTORY. N.p., 08 June 2013. Web. 20 Feb. 2015. Kassner, Donald. Personal interview. 16 Mar. 2015. “Learn the Step-by-Step Process Of Brewing Beer, Explained in Animated GIFs.” First We Feast. N.p., 06 Mar. 2014. Web. 20 Feb. 2015. Moreno, Michael, Jr. Personal interview. 16 Mar. 2015.W “Maps of the 1854 Broad Street Pump Outbreak.” Maps of the 1854 Broad Street Pump Outbreak. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Feb. 2015. Nuckolls, Baird. Personal interview. 5 Mar. 2015. “New Albion Brewing.” New Albion Brewing. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Apr. 2015. Palmer, John J. How to Brew: Everything You Need to Know to Brew Beer Right the First Time. Boulder, CO: Brewers Publications, 2006. Print. Standage, Tom. A History of the World in 6 Glasses. New York: Walker, 2005. Print. “To Anacreon in Heaven.” To Anacreon in Heaven. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Feb. 2015. “The History of Beer.” All about Beer. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Feb. 2015. Vasquez, Sabio. Personal interview. 26 Feb. 2015. “What Is Yeast?” Wyeast Laboratories : Home Enthusiasts : Brewers : Technical Information : Yeast Fundamentals. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Feb. 2015.

BACK COVER

Author Bio Willem Geier is a student documentarian whose newest film, Fun in the Brauhaus focuses on Tied House Brewery, a Microbrewerey in Silicon Valley. A Junior at Mountain View High School and Freestyle Academy, he is an avid filmmaker and has highly interesting debates about geopolitics and American hegemony with his peers. He lives with his family in Los Altos, California.

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