This blog has taken a back seat to life lately. I really haven’t written or felt the need to write in quite a while, but suddenly have the itch to share a few things. Life at Steamworks continues to be great. Lots of learning, lots of fun and lots of hours. Most of my time here has been spent in the cellar where I’ve become comfortable with the day-to-day tasks of monitoring beer, transferring beer, stabilizing beer, centrifuging and lots of cleaning. Over the last few months I’ve worked my way in to the brewhouse and have brewed several batches of Pale Ale, Pilsner, Kolsch, Heroica Red Ale, Black IPA and Blitzen Belgian Trippel. At Steamworks I’m lucky enough to work with a very talented group of brewers. We consistently taste and criticize our beer, discussing and trying ways to tweak our recipes to make our beer better. We all feel we have a long way to go, not because our beer is bad, but because there is always room for improvement. I’m lucky to work in this environment. I hear stories every once in a while from people who’ve worked in breweries where the push for better quality eventually disappears. Stories of laziness when it comes to cleaning tanks, cutting corners to save a buck, and a creeping mentality of ‘oh well, we can probably sell it anyways’. If I’ve learned anything over the past year it’s that a push for quality is paramount to the continued and future success of craft beer. Breweries are opening at an exponential rate and we’re soon going to reach a saturation point. I imagine many breweries will get burned at some point in the future. What will set the winners and losers apart is the quality of the beer. I’m not short changing the importance of marketing or business strategy, but as brewers our job is to continue to make beer better. Consumers are getting more educated and have more choice. It will be their demand for quality that will drive the market going forward.

I’m happy to report that I passed all three IBD modules and have received the Diploma in Brewing. This was no small feat as the pass rate for Module 3 (Engineering and Packaging) was by far the lowest its ever been at 23%. I’ve heard from some really talented, smart brewers who failed this last exam and I find it a bit hard to believe. I could have easily fell in to this group and I think that would have put a damper on my experiences. Anyway, I was one of the lucky ones and I’m happy about that.

So, now school is but a memory. The real work begins. Of the many areas I’ve been working on improving, one of the most important has been the sensory side of things. Judith and I recently took a beer course focused on tasting, I’ve been involved in tasting panels at Steamworks, and I continue to taste beer pretty much every day of my life (there is the odd Sunday I refrain, but not many). I’m at the tipping point where it gets difficult to enjoy a beer that is not quite right, and I find myself getting grumpy at sub-par beer selections. However, I am finding it easier to identify what I am looking for in a beer and what I don’t like. This is helping my brewing, as is discussing things with my colleagues on a daily basis. Jamie Floyd of Ninkasi Brewing told us that sensory is one of the most important things in brewing, never stop tasting beer.

Finally, I just watched Craft: The California Beer Documentary. Charlie Bamforth shared this gem on his facebook page yesterday and it provided some excellent entertainment and insight in to the beer industry in California. It was nice to see some familiar faces from my time down there in the doc as well. Most importantly it was a nice reminder of the industry we are so lucky to be a part of. I would suggest checking it out.

Speaking of how fun this industry is, another aspect I have really been enjoying is all of the events that take place. Since I returned to Canada I’ve been to beer festivals in Vancouver, Squamish, Whistler, Gibsons. We raced a keg through the forest during the Tough Keggar and I will be at a mustache contest tomorrow at Strange Fellows, Friday we will deep fry a Turkey. Brewers know how to have a good time while being passionate about what they do. I’d say so far things have been working out.