Living the Dream

I grew up knowing what I was going to do for a job. I even wanted to do it. I was going to work full time after college and grow with this amazing company. My salary was going to be quite considerable. I knew where I was headed. However, it didn’t take me long to realize that I never truly loved the idea of working in the tire business.

I recall having this conversation with my father sometime in the mid-’90s: “Remember that weekend beer-making hobby I have spent all my schoolbook and rent money on during college? Well, I don’t feel like settling on just brewing on weekends anymore. Yup, I am going to become a professional brewer!!!”

Needless to say, he was skeptical, but I knew he believed in me and on I went.

While still in college, friends would come by my house on Kutch Drive in Flagstaff, Ariz., to try my latest creations. I brewed in 10-gallon brew lengths and always had a wide variety of beers to sample. I remember friends saying the Rye Beers and Pale Ales were the best, but I had a few favorites myself: Kona’s Porter (a tribute to my dog), and I once brewed a Saison that I still think is one of the best beers I ever made. Wish I could find that recipe.

I did often wonder why brewing came my way. Did I choose beer or did it choose me? I have since found out that my great-great grandmother made mead for her village in Poland over 100 years ago. I guess brewing must be in my blood, right? Whatever the reason, one thing is absolutely true: Brewing is my all-consuming passion.

How can one just traverse life without pursuing their passion? I was not one to spend my life working a job I either kind of liked or could barely stand. Good thing too, because it turns out, I am a pretty good brewer, and I love sharing that passion with others. One of the greatest aspects of this industry is how beer brings people together. It introduced me to people I truly respect and admire—I get to drink beers with them. At one point, I even brewed a beer inspired by and named after a brewer friend of mine. (Come home to Beantown, Dann!)

Plus, brewing is one of those professions that is so rare among the general population that it bestows a rock star-like status on its practitioners. Haven’t you heard about all the glory of being a brewer? Let’s briefly think about this “glory” in the brewhouse. You know… like the first time you removed a tri-clamp fitting with too much pressure behind it and yeast blew straight into your face. Or when the bottom grain-out door on the mash tun drops and floods the floor with 1,000 pounds of very wet, spent grain. How about getting steam in the face off the wort kettle when you smell the hops five minutes after they’re added? Or rubbing your arm against the steam pipe next to the hot liquor tank while taking apart the damn solenoid that sticks open? Yesterday, Ryan (my assistant) and I learned what happens when our DE filter reaches a pressure of 4 bar. (QUICK PRESSURE RELIEF!) YES, all that GLORY.

That being said, I must say it is so worth it. Consider all the PERKS of the job. What did you have for breakfast this morning? I had a sample of FV2 at 9 a.m. The Porter tastes outstanding, just like we want it—smooth and rich with a velvety body. Everyone likes a beer after work, right? How about an after-work beer at work?

So yes, I suppose there is something pretty great about what I do every day. Most brewers love what they do and take the good with the bad. At the end of a hellish bottling run, when you have cuts and bruises, huge losses, broken glass everywhere and 25 cases of shortfills, we still are the luckiest damn folks around. I know many would agree that finishing a hard day of work by pulling a sample off the fermentor doesn’t suck at all! It has been said before, and I will say it again. A bad day at the brewery is still a damn good day.

And you gotta love it when someone truly appreciates what you have done. The following is from a beer review on BeerAdvocate:

“Notes: Fuck. If nothing else in our mortal world could make you believe in God (or Bacchus, at least), this would. There is no other brew within this style that approaches this in terms of complexity and uniqueness of flavor. It rubs shoulders easily with certain Cantillon brews and Panil Barriquee. A masterpiece of brewing, and once you’ve tried it, you’re not going to be easily forgetting it. One of my all time favorite beers bar none.”

It is not likely you’ve tried this beer, as there were only 50 gallons of this special release ever made. The point is though, this guy truly saw something in what I was trying to accomplish flavor-wise with this beer.

Thanks for reading, but I must go now. My wife just opened a beer for us: Taras Boulba from Brasserie De La Senne. I am truly living the dream. ■