Erosion Wine, Beer, and Ice Cream Appreciation Thread

Looked them up. Sounds cool and will upset the wine freaks

 

Thank you for the very kind words, Alicia! You're such a great advocate and given honest & valuable feedback when I've / we've needed it the most.

In case anyone is curious here's a little bit about what I've been up to-- I moved to a town of 6000 people (St. Helena, middle of Napa Valley growing area) with my family in late 2018 and spent a few months figuring what to do next, with an eye towards getting into the wine industry. I've been a fan of great wine for almost as long as craft beer, but the culture of wine never spoke to me & honestly made me feel uncomfortable (still kinda does, but the mystique has mostly been resolved). What started out as a winery that hoped to bring a craft beer ethos to wine has evolved into a collection of things I love, sort of 80 hour / week hobby. We make beer, wine, ice cream, run a beer bar / tasting room, bottle shop... and if I add anything else to it the wheels will absolutely fall off!

Our initial canned wine lineup were blends we put together with wines purchased from other Napa Valley wineries, and they've definitely turned some heads around here! For example, we have a Merlot with cacao nibs and vanilla, one of those things that has to be tried to be understood. We're just starting to release our 2019 wines which I'm super proud of, and thankfully 2019 gave the weather / growing conditions to make the wines I was hoping to make. Making wine is amazing and at best borders on magic, but the rest of it is brutal, and being involved in it has made me appreciate the world of beer so much more!

Our brewery is tiny at 3 BBL, which in a way is nice to be able to make just about anything and see how it goes. We've branched off into two directions-- making beers & beverages that the locals and visitors to our Tap House want, and making beers that allow me to be creative & build upon what I've been able to do in the past. What I've found is that people who are around wine for an extended period of time have a love / need for beer, so that's encouraging! We're a bit of an oasis / public service in this town, which has allowed me to get to know my neighbors better. However, most customers are looking for beer that contrasts with the big & delicious wines around here, so a helles and a crisp IPA (& even a hazy IPA) are in demand by a 20:1 margin compared to something more adventurous. If I tapped a keg of Black Tuesday Reserve aged in 23 year Pappy barrels (BTW something I don't have and/or doesn't exist), there would be a handful of customers who would be super stoked, but most would rather have a helles and a few months from now that 5 gallon keg could still be on our tap list. That doesn't mean I won't have beers like that, though! That's all to say I make a lot of beers that fit a "brewpub" model and make other beers that make no sense around here, but perhaps I'll be able to find people who will enjoy these beers. I love making beer and get a lot of satisfaction in being a part of the process, regardless of what I'm brewing.

We also just opened up our Bottle Shop, which has been so much fun. It gives me a chance to reconnect with friends at breweries around California, support them in a small way, and have a collection of beers that makes me smile every day I go in there. If you're in CA we'll ship to you, so check it out if interested! https://erosion.buzz/bottle-shop/

Thanks for reading and cheers to you all!

Patrick

 

I was really excited to see the bottle shop open for shipping. Shipping a couple crowlers doesn't math out but now I can augment with other fun goodies.

I'm just not a big wine person, but it has been fun trying their wines. The 250ml format is outstanding for very occasional wine drinkers like me.

@PMR what's the recommended shelf life on the beer crowlers if we keep refrigerated? Autumn Dulce is amazing and takes me right back to that "other" beer I miss so much. And TBH the lower ABV with no compromise on flavor is an improvement.

 

Gonna be in Napa in two weeks. I'll swing by and say hey. Cheers.

 

Glad you're enjoying the wines & format!

All of our crowlers are filled like a beer bottle would typically be filled. We have a very manual 4 head filler that purges and fills under pressure, very similar to this one:

https://www.morebeer.com/products/x...5WvRQe5p1CeJXXkRxrIXLLD6O4M9u_OwaAutPEALw_wcB

We manually screw cap, which we do seconds it comes off the filler, while trying to promote screw capping on foam (harder than it sounds with this machine).

For something like Autumn Dulce, as long as it's kept cold, I'd think would taste similarly within 3 months. The one thing I don't have is a micro program so I'm in the dark with regard to spoilers, which is mostly a concern of mine when we're adding ingredients post-fermentation and the customer is going to keep it stored warm. I use a "killer" strain of yeast for beers that'll be aged longer term, which gives some layer of protection against wild yeast, which was also used in Autumn Dulce. Accidentally making sour beer is a frequent nightmare of mine.

Once we start releasing our barrel aged / wood aged beers, they'll be batch pasteurized and will be packaged in the 8 oz. sleek cans. Once we run out of crowlers (a few thousand left), we'll switch to 12 oz. sleek cans.

That'd be awesome, Pat! Let me know when you'll be visiting. My eMail: patrick (at) erosion.wine

 

Rad, thanks! I'll do what I can to help run down that crowler stockpile

Exciting to hear about the 8/12oz cans too. Very appealing.

 

Very cool, this has immediately gone to the top of the list for whenever I visit Napa next

 

Went there back in early June just a couple days after Memorial Day weekend. Patrick wasn't there but I was wearing an old Black Tuesday t shirt to show support and the guys working that day were incredibly generous. Got a wine flight, some dip, a beer, and they gave us a couple free samples and let us go walk around the ice cream/wine bar side of the place after hours. Asked tons of questions about the Bruery (and why I'm no longer a member, but still support), genuinely cool people.

Really great place, wish I could visit it more often, and a nice change of pace in the middle of wine country where I often times feel like I don't fit in with the culture at all.

 

What's the "style"? I'm sure it's unique, but how would you describe?

 

Awesome, glad you're excited about it!!!

 

@ernh Not really a style, but perhaps a "cornwine" or "bourbon beer"? Brewed in 2011 with a mash of 60% corn and 40% barley. Very low bitterness Initially the plan was to get it to 21% pre-barrel aging, but if I recall correctly it was closer to 19%. The first set of barrels were new American oak with alligator char, same as what bourbon off of the still would go into. After that a few years, it was racked into wet bourbon barrels and gets racked into a new set of bourbon barrels every 2-3 years. At this point I think it's been racked to new barrels 4 times.

It has another 9 years of aging before my daughter is 21, and I don't necessarily see how more oxygen / wood contact is going to improve things, so it'll be going into a stainless tank that'll be topped up to the brim.

Flavor-wise it's like tawny port, bourbon and a barleywine had a baby. Nutty oxidation, loads of caramel, and a light cellar mustiness. I'd say it's somewhere between Utopias and Xyauyu in flavor / sweetness / alcohol burn.

 

@PMR you are an absolute mad man and a real national treasure.

 

That's really cool! Do you carbonate to serve or keep it still?

 

Thanks! I think it’s best still & at cellar temp.

 

My wife got me a selection of beers for Valentine's day and it arrived super quick (great shipping). Had Autumn Dolce last night and damn it really does harken back to Autumn Maple, my wife and I both loved it

 

Haven’t had the opportunity to try any Erosion beer (or wine or ice cream) yet but I did have the fortunate opportunity to meet @PMR when he swung by my brewery this past summer. Honestly one of the nicest folks I’ve met in the short time I’ve had in this industry. His positive words and just overall stoke for our beer and beer in general was so cool to see from someone who’s been at it for as long as he has. Even left us some glowing reviews on the Google and Untappd. I’m looking forward to the day I get the chance to swing by Erosion. Place looks rad and I’m sure the beers will be nothing short of spectacular.

@PMR you headed back to PC for some skiing anytime soon?