Just drove out to Night Shift to meet with the guys hiring. It went fine but it wasn't an interview, so it was just sorta like me interrupting their morning work and chatting with them. Stayed about 20 minutes, chatted about a lot of things, got a sense of what their timeline is, thanked them, left. They've had almost 100 applicants so far including lawyers and big brewery workers. I am much less confident than I was, even though nothing remotely bad happened. The competition is so much stiffer than I realized, and I am very scared that I won't get it. And I haaate this feeling.

I've talked about them some. I'm actually going to their new brewery site tomorrow for the first time.

I like their scotch ale (Drafty Kilt) but it's the only one that really stands out for me. The Fu Man Brew wit is fine but it doesn't really distinguish itself as better or worse than a dozen other beers that you can get in that style (like Sierra's Kellerweis for instance).

Their IPA and Imperial IPA were pretty forgettable for me.

Still, I think Atlanta will support them enough that they can continue to experiment and make better stuff so I'm pretty optimistic about them.

Oh, and good luck Cap.

Good luck on the gig! I know the dream of finding satisfying work for half the money - surprisingly hard to do. Hope you pull it off.

Bitter American is our go to fancy-can beer. Don't like most of the crazy hoppy ones so it's a good family compromise (the man would live on Dale's and a similar-style local given his druthers and an expense account).

Here's a podcast from Monday with the two I talked to today, Rob and Mike O'Mara.

http://www.seacoastbeveragelab.com/2013/08/06/episode-44-night-shift-brewing/

Pretty much my take. Still a local brewery that makes a good scotch ale is an instant winner for me. It's made me really happy that I can get that at a whole lot of bars around here.

I'm not into IPAs anyway so I don't really care about those although I did have their spicy one at the brewery, and it was kind of interesting in a good way. I agree that the wheat beer is nothing special, but since it's local I'll probably end up buying it over stuff like Sierra Nevada or New Belgium or whatever that aren't really any better.

A few episodes back, the one with Sam from Dogfish is pretty damned good. He's pretty funny and answers questions fairly thoughtfully. And he's not annoying. For some reason things I have read on him made me expect otherwise. I am learning.

There was some sort of reality show (?) with him on the Discovery Channel (?). If I'm not just completely making that up, he was very likable, and I remember being surprised by that, but I didn't know why I was surprised.

Basically, I know nothing in this post.

Yeah there was a show. I never saw it (no cable), but they asked him about it on this podcast. They asked if the rumors were true that it got canceled due to pressure from Big Beer, who advertise a ton on the network. He gave a very PC answer that more or less said "yep."

Is that a good podcast? I don't mean the specific episode but in general. I was looking for a beer podcast earlier in the year and tried a few but couldn't find one that was consistently interesting. It seemed like most were just really nerdy beer geeks sitting around and talking about a few craft beers. Not all that interesting and even worse when and if it turns out that they don't have that good taste. I got a major case of CHH when one of the podcasts did a March Madness style craft beer tasting tournament and picked a coors product over Logson Seizon Bretta.

I found craft beer radio recently which seems really good at least based on the first podcast I sampled. Probably plenty of stuff for you to geek out over though.
For example, they recorded every salon section at Savor:

http://www.craftbeerradio.com/savor/#taste2.3

The one I listened to "Blending Barrel Aged Sour Beers" is two people from Lost Abbey leading an hour long session in which they talk about their barrel aged sour program with samples from different casks with different barrel ages, barrel types, yeast treatments and walk the group through how they blend them to create a final product. Pretty cool stuff even if it would be much better to be there and get to taste.

I guess I'd never really thought enough about it to realize that they were even doing this sort of blending like they do with wine and whiskey.

Based on the two episodes I listened to, no, it's not a good podcast in general. They do little or no prep whatsoever, only a couple of them has anything like an engaging sense of humor, they use glitchy internet connections so the audio is somewhere between Shitty and Completely Absent. They get somewhat big names, and they seem to just point a laptop camera at them over Google Chat and say "So... you like ... stuff?" They don't have a good flow or mechanism for handing over who's asking questions, and there are some awkward gaps and pauses. Calagione overcame that by just being really funny and by giving interesting, long-form answers for the most part.

It's just mousey beer geeks drinking beer and fawning, pretty much. I wish it were more.

Awesome, thank you! Listening now.

Glad I'm not crazy. I was wondering what had happened to that show, and now it all makes sense.

Here's what I can remember having yesterday:

Monkey Paw Oatmeal Pale w/ Lychee - Monkey Paw is a small San Diego Brewpub. I don't think their beers get distributed much outside of San Diego and their Buffalo Trace Oak Aged Imperial Porter was one of my favorites from the event last year so I figured I'd give this a try. It was fine but not one of the standouts of the day.

Kern River’s Just Outstanding - Really Good IPA from Central CA brewery. I'd heard good things about them but never had a chance to try anything. They just signed a distribution deal with Stone so hopefully their beers will be easier to find soon.

Craftsman CuriousityThis was a "Red Saison" from a small Pasadena brewery. Not bad but not one of my favorites. A little more fruit than a typical saison and somewhat tart. Not quite a fruit sour but not quite a saison either. I think I would have preferred either one.

Alesmith Speedway Stout w/ Vietnamese Coffee - really great. Probably my favorite of the day.

Taps Cream Ale - Very good cream ale, which was a nice palate refresher in between some bigger beers.

Bell’s Two Hearted I can see what all the acclaim is about. Really a great beer - I'm not that much of an IPA fan but I would drink this regularly if I could.

Noble Naughty Sauce - Golden Blonde Milk Stout infused with Guatemalan Coffee. Really interesting and creamy and odd that it does pour blonde. Apparently this is a big cult beer.

Firestone Walker Parabajava - This keg killed before I had a chance to get one but a guy was nice enough to let me try his. Really good coffee stout variation on the Parabola.

Ballast Point Victory at Sea Mole Victory at Sea is one of my favorite Porters and this one was infused with Mole. Another pretty damn great beer.

Bruery Xata Was really curious about this one. It's a blonde ale with horchata. Strong Horchata flavors. I like that Bruery trys really odd things like this but it didn't really work for me.

Bruery White Chocolate wheat wine aged in oak barrels for a year with cocoa nibs and vanilla added. Pretty tasty but a bit odd. Pretty strong at 14%.

Lost Abbey Red Poppy - A really good flanders ale.

Telegraph Obscura Vulpine Wild Ale aged in Syrah barrels. Good funky sour beer. This is the best thing I've had from them.

Almanac Flowering Gose Not bad but Gose isn't a favorite style of mine and this won't change that.

Almanac Dogpatch Sour A good sour but not as good as the Telegraph one.

Avery Uncle Jacob’s Stout An excellent Bourbon Barrel Stout and a bit of a monster at 17.4% ABV.

Hangar 24 - Pugachev's Cobra Another big stout and another cult beer favorite. By far the best thing they make.

New Belgium - Eric's Ale Part of their Lips of Faith series. Slighty sweet and slightly sour with lots of tropical and citrus fruits. Good enough but not really a standout. It was the last thing I had though so I'm not sure I was in any position to judge it fairly.

Finally - I've been so curious for you to eventually try it. When I had monday night gigs back in Madison, I would just nurse 2 or 3 pints of this all night.



On the whole "white stout" thing, the guys I'm trying to work for (Night Shift) have one called Snow that I've heard about, made the same way. You get the stout roasted flavor from whole coffee beans. Leaving them whole means you don't get the coloration. I'm interested in trying one if I can ever find it.

Ya think?

I don't think I mentioned it here, but I finally drank the Dogfish Worldwide Stout I've been hanging on to for a while. It's supposed to be 15-20% ABV. It was delicious but I split it over 2 nights.

Oh shit. Sounds delicious. I need some more for the vault.

There was a stout there which was just under 24% but I can't remember which one it was.

A few other recents (not from yesterday):

Bison/Logsdon Collaboration Cocoa Bretta - One of my bottle shops had a Bison Tap Takeover last week. I had never heard of them -- they are a Bay Area Organic Brewery -- but had to go when I saw the Logsdon Collab beer on the list. It's a sour chocolate stout. Kind of disappointing -- not nearly as good as the other two sour stouts I've tried. The funky sourness was fine and along the lines of Seizon Bretta but the underlying Chocolate Stout was kind of bland and boring.

Mikkeller Funky E Star - A sour/wild ale aged in Sauternes barrels. Pretty good sour and probably the best thing I've had from Mikkeller. I was hoping to get something different from the Sauternes barrel but really couldn't detect anything unique from it as opposed to other barrel types, but it was a very good sour.

Hangar 24 - Chocolate Porter. I wouldn't seek this out again but it was a pretty solid local beer at not too steep a price point (~$5 for a 22 oz bottle).

I noticed they have a few Mikkeller sours at Hop City now but I didn't grab one...might see if they have that one next time I'm in.

The Uinta sour I asked about several posts ago was quite good. Not overwhelming but definitely lots of sour/vinegar-yness. My wife thought it was disgusting which is a good sign since she hates sours.

Also had the Founders Rubaeus, a raspberry version of that seasonal Cherry beer theyve done in years past. Fruit beers are not really my thing (the wife is a big fan), but I had one and thought it was good for the style. Typical Founders quality although I gotta say, the price was a bit much.

I thought I was buying that Boulevard 80 you guys referenced above, but I guess it was just their standard issue wheat beer. (Didnt realize they have two wheats). Not really my thing, not much of a wheat guy. I'll try the 80 some other time.

Awesome news about Kern and Stone distro. Just Outstanding is fantastic. All of the Almanac sours I've had are top notch and I loved, loved, loved the Cobra when I had it.

Brewery job I want is closing the application process today. They got about 150 applications. I know this because I've written a few times during the last week and he keeps writing back, which is a good sign. I asked if there was anything I could prepare before the potential interview (not trying to be presumptuous and assume I'll get called in), offered a few ideas like a basic market analysis and a look at different distribution models (knowing they self-distribute now out of their personal vehicles), and he said "sure," so now I have to throw something together. This is fun, and stressful.

Attn Squirrgle:

http://discussions.probrewer.com/showth ... %96-Brewer

VERY surprised they background check and even more so that they drug screen.

Why in the fuck do they do that in this day and age?

Because, even if someone does say, smoke grass recreationaly, it's nice as an employer to know that they can at least get their shit together enough to pass a drug test. Also (and more importantly), INSURANCE.

Edit: And I'm not sure why you wouldn't do a background check but I'm open to ideas.

No background check is fine I guess. But drug testing... if it had some affect on performance I guess I get it. Or maybe they're concerned about hard drugs. Again, if it affects performance then you didn't need a test ahead of time - the guy comes in and does shitty work and you fire him. If he comes in after doing drugs and does good work, the why the fuck did you care? I'm not sure what it tells you.

[and a moment to recognize the irony here of the guy who's never done a drug taking this side of the argument]