This Is 2015
Strange Brewfest Exactly. One. Stranger. INSIDE:
Stories about strange brews and the people who brew them.
Supplement to the Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2015 edition of the Port Townsend & Jefferson County Leader
Strange Brew turns it up to 11 When you turn 11 years old as a human, you’ve likely just arrived at the beginning of an odyssey of selfexploration that will help forge the foundation for the young man or woman you are soon to become. Monumental accomplishments, such as a first kiss or a first concert take on magical qualities that are hard to replicate as we get older, or even when we’re twelve.
When you turn 11 years old as a typical brewfest, you’ve likely just arrived at the beginning of an odyssey of self-retrospection. You look back on the magical moments with great nostalgia. Maybe those moments bring a smile and a chuckle, but because they’re in the past the magic just isn’t tenable. When you turn 11 years old as Strange Brewfest, you pretty
much just go crazy. You look forward, and you look backward, embracing both with open arms. Then you look onward and upward, turning every available knob you can find just a little bit louder. More brewers, more brews, more music, more food and more space. Strange Brewfest 11, it’s on! Nina Law & Mark Burr founders Strange Brewfest Port Townsend, Washington
This year’s logo, to adorn T-shirts and souvenir glasses, was designed by Sasha Lannon Kenny of Port Townsend in collaboration with Derek Gress of Fingers Duke, who produced this year’s edition. The colors are no mistake, says event organizer Nina Law, who felt this year’s logo might as well honor Seattle’s Seahawks. Short sleeve t-shirts sell for $20, long sleeve for $25 and hoodies for $45.
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2015 Strange Brewfest
The Port Townsend & Jefferson County Leader
Brewfest basics The 11th annual Port Townsend Strange Brewfest runs from 5 p.m. to midnight Friday, Jan. 23 and from 1 p.m. to midnight Saturday, Jan. 24 at the American Legion Hall at 209 Monroe St. This 21 and over event features at least 35 brewers pouring at least 70 strange brews. Advance tickets are $30. Beginning at 3 p.m. Friday, Jan. 23, tickets are $35 at the door. Tickets include admission both days, a souvenir tasting glass, four tasting tokens and a weekend full of entertainment, plus food vendors and more.
For more information, visit strangebrewfestpt.com.
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Strange Brewfest 2015
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Elysian’s Jasmine debuted at first fest By Nicholas Johnson of the Leader
For brewers and buffs alike, Strange Brewfest is all about trying new things. And while many creations fall flat, never to be brewed again, some live on to grace grocery store shelves and distant draft handles. Such is the case of Elysian Brewing Company’s Avatar Jasmine IPA. Brewmaster Dick Cantwell debuted a small batch of the medium-bodied brew during the festival’s inaugural year in January 2005 at the former Water Street Brewing in downtown Port Townsend. “It was wild,” Cantwell said of the festival’s first year. “The place was crammed and the music was great. People liked it [the Avatar Jasmine IPA], but there were a lot of crazy beers to try.” Though it didn’t win any awards that weekend, Cantwell stuck by his creation, which beat out 56 other entries to win a bronze medal in the Herb and Spice Beer category later that year at the Great American Beer Festival in Denver, Colorado. In the spring of 2008, it won gold in the same category at the World Beer Cup in San Diego, California. Cantwell, who has served as a judge at the Great American Beer Festival for more than 20 years, said he got the idea for the beer while tasting IPAs during his first year on that festival’s panel of judges. “I remember one judge fell in love with a beer because it reminded him of jasmine tea,” he said. “It didn’t go on to win, but that gave me the conceptual idea of doing something like that.” Years later, using a 3-barrel, smallbatch brewing setup at Tangletown in Seattle’s Greenlake neighborhood, he bought about 2 pounds of jasmine flowers from an herb company online and got to work.
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2015 Strange Brewfest
Elysian Brewing Company’s Avatar Jasmine IPA is available year-round in 22-ounce bottles and half-barrel kegs. This brew is made with dried jasmine flowers, malts such as Pale, 45-degree Crystal, Munich and Cara-hell, and bittered with German Northern Brewer hops and finished with Glacier and Amarillo hops. It’s got 6.3 percent alcohol by volume and its International Bitterness Unit is a rather middle-of-the-road 45. Photos courtesy of Elysian Brewing
That first batch had outstanding flavor, he said. But when he began producing 200-barrel batches at New Belgium’s Fort Collins, Colorado facility in 2008, he struggled to create the same, rich floral taste. Then, with input from New Belgium brewers, he began pulverizing the flowers before mixing them into his brew, rather than bagging whole buds and soaking them for an extended period of time. In November 2011, upon opening a 35,000 square-foot production facility in Georgetown, Cantwell once again began brewing the beer in the Pacific Northwest. Adding jasmine flowers to an
India Pale Ale was no fluke. In fact, Cantwell said the idea is at least partly based on the story of how IPAs first came to be. In the late 18th century, a wellhopped, well-malted October stock bitter ale made by various brewers in England became a popular import in colonial India. Casks of the ale traveling by ship from England to India benefited from months at sea, allowing the ale a chance to mature as intended. Cantwell figures if English brewers in those days had experimented with herbs and flora native to their product’s South Asian destination, such as jasmine, their
hoppy, malty ales might have been even more popular. Today, Jasmine ales tend to be more common among English brewers than American craft brewers in the U.S., Cantwell said. In 2013, Cantwell was invited to speak and brew his jasmine IPA at Thwaites Brewery in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, which was founded in 1807. Elysian, pronounced eh-LEE-zeeen, distributes throughout six states in the West – Washington, Alaska, Oregon, Idaho, Colorado, Montana – and five in the East – Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware and New York.
Continued over there ➞ The Port Townsend & Jefferson County Leader
➞ Continued on here “It does well in our East Coast market because it’s so unique,” he said. “There’s certainly a cache in being from the Northwest. It also does really well in Oregon – you know, places where there are a lot of hippies.” Beer festivals, especially those like Strange Brewfest, are a perfect opportunity for brewers to test out new ideas, Cantwell said. “If a beer does well at a festival, we consider going bigger with it,” he said, adding that he also uses those opportunities to taste other brewers’ creations. “When I have an interesting beer at a festival, those are the kinds of breweries I ask to take part in our Great Pumpkin Beer Fest.” Cantwell said he’s currently a big fan of Black Raven Brewing of Redmond, Silver City Brewing of Silverdale, Reuben’s Brews of Seattle and Fremont Brewing of Seattle’s Fremont area. He said he enjoys tasting variations on IPA – naming Ballast Point Brewing’s Sculpin IPA as a favorite – as well as variations on sour beers. “Sour beers are interesting to experiment with,” said Cantwell, who once brewed a Saffron Sour. “They are a whole different realm.” Strange Brewfest is always good for at least a few chili beers, Cantwell said, as well as variations on IPA, such a Pink Peppercorn IPA he once brewed. “Not all have been tasty, but all have been very interesting,” he said. Though he won’t be bringing it
• • • “I have a real interest in unusual ingredients and innovation.” Dick Cantwell brewmaster Elysian Brewing Company Seattle
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to this year’s festival, he said he’s currently working on a Eucalyptus IPA. “I have a real interest in unusual ingredients and innovation,” he said. “That’s what keeps me interested after 18 years with this business and more than 25 in the brewing industry.” Elysian has participated in Strange Brewfest each year, and each year with entirely new creations. “I don’t think they’ve ever won an award at Strange Brewfest, which is weird because they win awards everywhere else,” said Nina Law, one of the festival’s founders. This year, Cantwell hopes one of his brews will finally get him on the board. He’s planning to serve up a beer brewed with wafers and aged in red wine barrels he calls My First Communion, as well as a cross between a pale ale and an IPA brewed with branches of spruce, juniper and rosemary he calls Tree Hugger. “We have the ability to generate new beers all the time,” he said, “so we try to bring something new every year.”
Elysian Brewing Company’s brewmaster Dick Cantwell holds a glass of his Avatar Jasmine IPA while standing next to brewing tanks at the brewery’s Capitol Hill Public House along East Pike Street in Seattle.
The Port Townsend & Jefferson County Leader
Strange Brewfest 2015
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Orcas brewery to debut strange creations at this year’s festival The folks behind Island Hoppin’ Brewery on Orcas Island have been itching to participate in Strange Brewfest since opening a tasting room and production facility in September 2012. “We’ve never been to Strange Brewfest,” said Becca Gray, adding that until this year, she and her fellow brewers felt too short-staffed to make the two-ferry trip and spend a weekend, temporarily abandoning their newborn brewery. Gray and fiance Nate Schons teamed up with Jim Parker to open their small-batch brewery, which covers the gamut in beer styles featuring everything from a kolsch to a stout to a strong ale. “We like to mix it up with crowd pleasers and offer something for
everybody,” Gray said. “We usually try to keep a Belgian style or fruitbased beer on tap in our tasting room.” Gray said the brewery also barrelages some beers, and not everything graduates to distribution beyond the tasting room. “Sometimes the beer is so good we just sell it here and keep it for ourselves,” she said. Regardless of whether any given beer transcends Strange Brewfest, Gray said she’s just excited to push the boundaries and try new creations. “To have everybody pushing those limits is going to be really interesting,” she said. “Some people will do it really well and others won’t, and I’m curious how ours will do. It’s always interesting to see what people will dream up as a strange brew.”
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2015 Strange Brewfest
Nate Schons (left) and fiance Becca Gray with close friend and fellow brewer Jim Parker stand behind the bar of their taproom at 33 Hope Lane on Orcas Island on their first day of business in September 2012. Photo courtesy of Island Hoppin’ Brewery
For its debut at Strange Brew, Island Hoppin’ plans to pour a cucumber saison and a mint stout. “They are two very different beers because we wanted to have something for everybody,” she said. Island Hoppin’ has done a raspberry saison and a blackberry saison in the past, so cucumber will be its third twist on the Belgian-style farmhouse ale. Gray said the stout is made with breakfast pillow mints, chocolate and mint grown in the brewers’
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personal gardens, then it’s poured from a nitro tap for maximum creaminess. “Usually every beer is a direct correlation to each brewer, so their strange brews represent what is strange for that person,” Gray said. “We’re always pushing limits, so it’s nice to be able to dive in all the way with these.” Visit Island Hoppin’ Brewery’s taproom at 33 Hope Lane on Orcas Island or give them call at 360-3766079.
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Newcomer SnoTown to spice up brewfest By Nicholas Johnson of the Leader
Frank Sandoval and Keri Jenson of Snohomish have been brewing together under the name SnoTown Brewery for the past nine months and are set to make their Strange Brewfest debut this year. Sandoval first tried his hand at home brewing in 2000 after picking up a kit at a garage sale. “I tried it and failed and put it all away and years later [2008] she [Jenson] saw it and said ‘Let’s start brewing,’” recalls Sandoval. “She did the recipe legwork, we brewed a batch and have been brewing ever since.” SnoTown doesn’t yet bottle its beers, rather it sells them wholesale to local bars and restaurants, such as The Hawthorne in Snohomish, which offers the brewery’s Panther Irish Red Ale, its SnoTown Blonde Ale as well as a rotating handle. Until receiving their license to brew in 2014, Sandoval and Jenson tried and failed many times, drinking their own brews and sharing them with friends. During those years, Sandoval said they discovered they prefer crisp, light, refreshing beers that won’t fill you up quickly or mull you over with alcohol. “When it comes to micro-brewers, they try to be heavier or darker, or hoppier or maltier,” Sandoval said. “We only brew the beer we like to drink, so we often focus on a lighterbodied beer, something crisper, something for the masses. I like beer that I can drink three or four of and not get housed.” Strange Brewfest marks SnoTown’s third beer festival appearance after having participated in the Snohomish Brewfest in October and
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a Kla Ha Ya Days Festival tasting event in December. At the Snohomish Brewfest, SnoTown won the “Brew Dude Award” after it was voted the favorite of festival-goers. So when Sandoval and Jenson heard about Strange Brewfest through a fellow brewer, they decided it was right up their alley. “I think Strange Brewfest is great because it’s a special event celebrating creativity in brewing,” Sandoval said. “You just know it’s going to be a different kind of brewfest.” Sandoval said he and Jenson plan to pour a tried and true favorite of theirs as well as an entirely new creation. First up is the Loose Rooster Smoked Pepper IPA, which was met with a flurry of favorable reviews at the Snohomish Brewfest. “It was a huge hit and people were asking for more and more of it,” said Sandoval, adding that they first began brewing the spicy beer about five years ago, making adjustments each time. “About a year ago we got it just right. It’s slowly becoming a staple of ours.” Sandoval uses wild peppers that grow in his mother’s backyard in Tuscon, Arizona. “You wouldn’t be able to buy them anywhere and I don’t think you could find the peppers anywhere but my mom’s backyard because they’re crossbred in the wild,” he said, adding that he and Jenson have had to rework their recipe each time they use a new crop. Next up is a citrus basil beer based on their summer ale, which uses Citra hops for a more fragrant effect. “One day I was walking through Whole Foods and there was a line
• • • “We only brew the beer we like to drink, so we often focus on a lighter-bodied beer, something crisper, something for the masses.” Frank Sandoval brewer SnoTown Brewery
Keri Jenson (left) and Frank Sandoval received the “Brew Dude Award” from “Brewfest Brenda” during the Snohomish Brewfest in October 2014. Photo courtesy of SnoTown Brewery
of beef jerky of all different flavors, including citrus basil, so I bought a bag and realized the citrus and basil go great together,” he said. Sandoval grows the basil in his backyard, harvests it, tears it into
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pieces and sprinkles it liberally into his brewing beer. “The citrus basil will first be introduced at Strange Brew before anywhere else,” he said. “This will be a perfect chance to see how people like it. Port Townsend will be our guinea pig.” SnoTown Brewery doesn’t operate its own taproom, but you can call them at 425-231-8113.
Strange Brewfest 2015
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Getting around town By Nicholas Johnson of the Leader
When it comes to getting around town, especially after having had a few, you’ve got about three options – hoof it, hail it or catch it. Those staying at hotels in town, especially hotels downtown, might be best off on foot. But for those who would rather get a ride, Peninsula Taxi and Jefferson Transit are the best bets. Port Townsend’s only commercial taxi service expects to have all three of its vehicles on the road all weekend, 24 hours each day. Call 360-385-1872. “Out-of-towners need to understand this is a small town,” said company owner Doug Eaton. “We don’t have a taxi on every corner like Seattle would.” Think ahead, Eaton said. Call at least a half hour before you hope to be picked up in order to get your name on the list.
Realize taxi drivers won’t take specific time requests as they operate on a first-tocall, first-to-be-served basis. Also, drivers won’t accept credit cards, but they do accept cash and local checks. Drivers are also happy to stop by an ATM if a customer is without cash or check, Eaton said. The taxis can legally carry four passengers but have been known to squeeze an extra person or two. Eaton said if a taxi is stopped by police on suspicion of a seatbelt violation, any resulting ticket is the responsibility of the violating passenger, not the driver. “Patience is the biggest thing,” Eaton said. “We’re a small town, a small service and there will be a large influx of people in town.” For a $1.50 in cash or check, you can ride Jefferson Transit’s Port Townsend shuttles all day. Two shuttle busses each
loop around Port Townsend once an hour. Service ends early evening. On Friday, Loop A stops near the festival downtown at Water and Adams streets once each hour from 7:04 a.m. to 8:04 p.m., while Loop B stops near the festival at Water and Quincy streets once each hour from 7:42 a.m. to 6:37 p.m. On Saturday, Loop A stops near the festival at Water & Adams streets once each hour from 9:04 a.m. to 8:04 p.m., while Loop B stops near the festival at Water & Quincy streets once each hour from 9:37 a.m. to 7:47 p.m. Jefferson Transit does not offer bus service on Sundays.
Visit JeffersonTransit.com for a full schedule.
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2015 Strange Brewfest
The Port Townsend & Jefferson County Leader