The Summer of Beer

Even though Hi times is within walking distance of my house, and the Orange County Wine show is is of one of more important shoes in the states.  For someone like me who benefits greatly from the free aspect of being in the industry, Orange County is a black hole of wine.  Thus it was the summer of beer.  18 gallons were brewed, countless great beers shared and tasted, and lots of good times spent seeking out.  Acknowledgment needs to be giving to one Michael Richley for hunting down and dragging me out to find great beer.  This post is his fault.

Best IPA to date in Heady topper

Beer. the oldest of all fermented beverages and the third most consumed beverage in the world behind tea and water. The Germans would tell you that this gut inducing beverage is made from 4 ingredients: water, malted grains (barley more specifically), hops, and Yeast. And while our Deutschland friends laid the foundations or are limited by, depending on your view; we in the states are busy throwing everything we can think of into our beer. Now before I elaborate on the beer, beer culture, and the direction I think its going, I first want to address the term beer itself and its relation to the industry

Let me first be clear that in my discussion of american beer, I am talking about the not so micro microbrew scene and the increase in quality beer-esque beverages. Other than my argument for the what is the best beer in the states, none of this information is relevant to the pisswater that some people think they enjoy while the rest of us just suffer it as punishment

Like the French in regards to wine, a strong case can be made for Germany being the most important beer brewing nation.  The location of Beer-vana still lies in some barley or hop field deep in bavaria.  For like 600 years the Germans have made beer by a set of laws known as Reinheitsgebot, or german purity laws.  Much like some of the french wine laws, the Germans specified how and with what ingredients beer could be produced. Water, hops, grains, later Yeast (thanks to Louis Pasteur) and sugar  (to any beer that is top fermenting, otherwise known as ales: aka the predominant beer style for yuppy microbrews in the states).  Now I'm a bit of a traditionalist when it comes to alcoholic beverage labeling. I have always liked history, and take pride in knowing about the past.

 The next statement may shock you. Most Beer in the United States is not Beer...  Blasphemy you cry out, "at least 25% of my conscious life and 35% of my unconscious life is spent in a committed relationship to beer."   If needed, take a moment, a minute, even an afternoon to cry it out, drink a superior alcohol in bourbon, or find the bottle of a German Riesling bottle.  Done wallowing, alright, keep reading

The rice rocket of beer

Most Ales produced in the United States by microbrews do not fall under the traditional german laws. As a traditionalist, this leads me to question there old world title. and Although the laws do not extend out of Germany or even parts of Bavaria, there is something to be said for showing a certain level of respect to the Germans (they did give us Oktoberfest). Most of what we drink is a "Brewed Beverage", a witches kettle of excessive Hops, grains, sugar derivatives and damn near anything you can find in your spice cabinet. Take for example the 5 gallons of bottle ready citra based IPA, happily conditioning away with 2 oz of dry hops and another 2 oz of dried sweet Orange peels.  A very tasty brewed beverage that would at the very least irritate a purist, to the extreme with Ballast Points Jalapano Pale ale which is down right offensive albeit very tasty.  The conspiracy goes all the way up to the highest powers in the beer brewing land. Both the king of beers (budwiser) and Cameron Oden's beloved Coors use rice as a main fermentable saccharide. Rice is a much more inexpensive way to harness fermentable sugars than using all grain or sugar additives.  This And beer is more like a Not beer. however, The term beer is so engrained into our society that its is to late to campaign for chance, I would just like for you to acknowledge why beer brewed with Grains, Hops, water, and yeast will forever been the best beer into the world, and most of what we drink are derivatives useing excess ingredients. more on this later.

NOT BEER, but still a realllly yummy brew

Jacki's Nightmare

At a recent ultra exclusive beer tasting of a beer you will never ever get to try, it dawned on me that this brew was less similar to beer as it was to whiskey. This beer specifically was Track 7 by Lost Abbey, an incredibly delicious experiment in oak, microbiology and fruit fermentation.  Sour Brett flaw funk balanced with a lovely tart berry fruit undertone to send even the most natural of winemakers to burn the clothing he tasted the beer in.  This was not beer, it was the most beautiful example of controlled decomposition I have ever tasted.  The Brett in this should scare the shit our any winemaker, and it does.  But just like any industry, flood the market with essentially the same product, and the outliers will stand out even more in quality.   A shout of should be given to Lost Abbey for being the best brewery in San Diego for their willingness to experiment and for breeding a very accessible but committed exclusivity philosophy

Matt is Oregon... and He loves PBR while
Grape Stomping to bluegrass

What is the best beer in the world? Oregonians will probably side with The Abyss, Californians Pliny the Younger,  Belgians, Trappist Westervelennsharfenlongname 12, The Scottish, Tacular Nuclear penguin, you aussies, Little Creatures, but watch out for Allister and his Beir Haus. For my close newport friends, we have conditioned ourselves into choosing Coors.  There are two schools of thought when summing up the debate of best beer in the world. School #1, is the actual quality of the beer.  Its a never ending debate simple by virtue of style, an objective observation of hop to malt compliment, mouth feel, balance, color, aroma, and length much in the same way we talk about wine. School #2 is the best beer you have ever had defaulting to the best beer in your mind. I've asked this question around to a certain few people, and not to my surprise the most peoples best brewed beverage was a refreshing right place right time.  Its typically some light lager after a long day of doing physically active things. That Bud light tastes a lot better after a day of skiing than after a day of playing COD. Mine, Sitting at the santa cruz mountain brewery on a spring saturday with Brennan Davis drinking their pale ale post 3 hour 4 mile epic surf sesh. Mouth partched, eyes bloodshot from all the sun, a liter's worth of nose drippings, sand everywhere, perfect weather, outside porch, surrounded by smiling santa cruzians... and a beautiful crisp clean slightly hoped pale ale. The Best Beer I have ever had. The best argument I have ever heard claiming a beer as the best belongs to my first winery supervisor and his love affiar with Pabst Blue Ribbon, (later validated by Matt).  A big lumberjack of a man who consumed PBR like it was his job while at the same time attempting to run hipsters over just because. His argument for PBR was that there is never a bad time for a PBR and it will never dissapoint you, ergo the best beer in the world. (side note: PBR uses Hops, barley malt, water, yearst, and a bit of corn syrup, while not quite falling into the german rules, its close and a hell of a lot closer than most other brewed beverages made stateside) The simplicity of the argument is what sold me, "PBR is good when its hot, its good when its cold, PBR is good when its hot outside, and its good when its cold outside.  It will never disappoint you because you don't expect much, but it will fit any occasion".  Hipsters have yet to come to this conclusion, still drinking on the platform that it won a blue ribbon at some obscure state fair or something that you probably havn't herd of (it was in Chicago in 1893).  If you cant come to any conclusion about what you think is the best beer, well congratulations, its still out there waiting for you.

You may be reading this, and saying to yourself... I want to be more involved. I want to feel special and cultured and taste these glorious brews discussed. You a bit late to the game, and the underground aspect has been gone for a while, but lucky you, the beer has if anything gotten better.  The mircobrewery scene is not so micro anymore. Still think Stone Brewing makes you seem like you know beer. They are in the same league volume wise as New Belgium, Deshuetes, and Sierra Nevada. And all 4 of them are working there way up to Boston Lager size.  5000 gallon fermentations my ass, Arrogant Bastard is brewed on a very very large scale with a very large distribution.  aside from my negative condescending tone, this is a very good thing. With the increase in competition, colaboration, and style uniformity (again, anyone can brew a Big IPA) the sky is the limit as far as creativity and brewmanship is concerned.  I would have 2 months ago said that I believed that the Microbrew was reaching its max capacity and was destined to pop. Then I went to San Diego July 18th for the Track 7 at lost abbey. What really surprised me that should not have was not the beer nor the exclusive pretentious feel about getting that beer, but the low end of customer that just stumbled in to be part of this every growing scene. What I failed to understand was the appeal of all the San Diego breweries as a whole.  As a Vino guy, I go wine taste, this new generation of beer enthusiasts go beer drinking. Where I may have gone and tasted 25 wines in a day, this breed of mature hipster is casually drinking their way through an equal amount of beer tasters or the equivalent pints in warehouse district back lots. This well lit daytime bing-crawl is much likes its nighttime counterpart, except replacing pretty girls and shitty beer is well priced good beer. (sorry about the lack of girls).  What really "opened my eyes" to what they are doing was when third party buses and vans would show up for out of towners or bachelor parties selling brewery tours. It of course makes complete sense to capitalize on such a small concentration of good beer.  San Diego is creating a tourism industry around their developing brewery scene.  Portland, you should probably start doing this if you haven't, but make sure its bike or bio-diesel tours.

If you really want to embark on the drinking adventure that craft brew can provide, I have a few suggestions.  #1, start at and support your local microbrewery. I don't care if they arn't making Heady Topper, they still make better beer than the piss water you may be used to. Plus the brewmaster knows more about brewing than you ever will, unless of course you become a brewmaster. #2, please please please do not judge a brewery on its IPA, in fact, aside from the occasional bitter craving, steer clear of the IPA. Experiment with the different specialty beers they are producing, taste the stouts or the bitters, and whatever you do, make sure you drink their most popular beer. #3, make up your own mind, do not buy into lists or beer snobery. Russian River is the best brewery in the states because of there ability to produce a world class IPA as well as a plethora of bret ridden sours. But please calm down and make up your own mind. Personally, I like Cafe Racer 15 better than Pliny the Elder, and I tasted them both back to back at their respective breweries.  #4. If you are really interested in beer, do not stop there, try to drink something different. Get a french cider, buy a port, please please try a sour beer.  The more different things you taste the more you will know what you like and how to articulate why you like that. That is being an intelligent drinker.  And if you do happen to try something different and you dislike it, please tell me about it and why you dislike it.

If at any point this post seemed negative or sarcastic towards the beer culture, that could not be farther from the truth. As a wine guy, I understand that beer is more of a gateway, and with the increased use of oak and hop emphasis, its just a matter of time before those people come up to the elegance and quality of wine.  Also I am a huge fan of great beers and quality alcoholic beverages, the methods of production and the marketing plan.  The CO2 microbrew bubble is getting larger and larger every day, and all of us reap the benifits of new flavors and styles. I for one am very very excited to taste some of the beer brewed 2 years from now.

Now GO drink a good beer damnit

Tasmania... A fancy way to say Australia.

My apologies for the delay on the blog posts.  I have a pocket notebook full of thoughts and impressions from my travels, but failed to place on onto social media for easy consumption.  And seeing as how I have done almost nothing since being home, its a good time to reflect back on where I traveled. Tasmania first.

For those of you who don't know, Tasmania is that little not so little island off the bottom right corner of Australia. For many Australia's, it's second best to New Zealand as the punchline to a bogan joke.  History tells us that Tasmania not only has the oldest temperate rain forests on planet earth, but was also the prison colony for the prison continent in which Australia was first established.   According to "the bottom of the bottle" Tasmania is a gem, a somewhat hidden secret of beautiful landscapes, a plethora of quality food/wine/beer, and unfortunately not a single cute girl in sight.

My first impression of Tasmania was formed by a Texan (I know, even I associate with a few) who would respectively inflate his ego only like a texan can by adding the line "which is a fancy way to say Australia" whenever the Tasmanian we worked with would introduce himself as being from said Island.  Before arriving in Australia, Tasmania was only on my radar as a spot to visit because of how much Mick(that Tasmanian) talked it up as being a spectacular place. Thanks to one Matthew Boenzli, who has traveled to most of the other Australian states, we decided to go to Tasmania.  In hindsight, The Texan was half right (can Texans ever be fully right). Tasmania is a fancy way to say Australia, But Australia is a also an incorrect way to describe Tasmania.

I traveled to Tasmania on June 4th (their winter) with two of my best friends, Matt and Matt's epic beard.  We rented a Wicked Camper (www.wickedcamper.com.au is worth a visit) for the 8 days we were there for transportation and shelter when necessary. We were lucky enough to be able to stay with Mick (my Tasmanian friend) and his lovely lady Kylie (thanks Kylie) just outside of Hobart.  From there we drove our wicked Wicked camper van over 2200km covering most of the island.   Instead of rehashing each day with witty little jokes, I'm going to categorize the highlights for simplicity sake into things that are relevent to the Bottom of the bottle. Wine, Beer, Food, Highlights.

Tasmania Wine:
Maybe I'm biased towards cool climate growing having been hypothetically brought up on Oregon Pinot Noirs.  Maybe I had been drinking to many Barossa Reds and forgot how delicate and unique the subtle flavors of Pinot Noir are, but damnit Tasmania had some really great wines. Jansz, Bay of Fires, Morilla, Joseph Chromy to name a few.  Even a lot of the small vineyard to wine productions made great wines. There is still a lot for the passion of growing your own grapes and translating it into a quality vino without the pressures of market share. They are so far removed from the "wine industrial complex" that they make variety accurate tasmanian style wine. No false advertisement about the wines inspiration nor is it old world stylistic counterpart.  (for my aussie friends, it seems like every wine made in California is made "in a french style"). I was so impressed with Tasmanian wines that the only disappointment was Frogmore Creek (ironically a place I almost got hired).  The Bubbles, the Pinot, the Chardonnay, the Reisling, what more do you really need.  It would take a very long time to get bored of Tasmanian wines.  For those of you in the states, Tasmanian wines taste like what Oregon wines should, not the high alcohol overoaked (napa style) that a majority of the big players are pushing. Tasmanian wines are uninfluenced and uniquely Tasmanian.  I will hopefully work a harvest here someday.

Tazzy Beer/Whiskey:
Tasmania, like the rest of the budding australia "microbrew" scene is 20 + years behind where we are here in the states, but they are going in the right direction and have some very cool passionate people behind it. Notables were Moo Brew, Iron House, and 7 sheds. The major disappointment was 2 metre Tall Real ales. The philosophy behind this brewery is fundamentally cool, They aim to use estate grown grain and hop's to then produce their naturally barrel fermented real ales, untilizing lots of fun micro organisms to generate individual bacterial flavors.   But... the unfortunate but that follows all disappointments, is the quality control. 1/3 of the brews I purchased and drank had an infectious bug. This would be an accurate time to hashtag a Facepalm. This "gusher" as its commonly known in home brews, is a micro organism that can get into your beer and will feed on some of the larger starch and flavor compounds in the beer that our bud's Saccromyces dont eat (yeast pun) producing excess C02 (very bad in a sealed bottle) and a bad metallic aftertaste. Basically A gusher eats the good flavor, leaves a bad one, and can produce enough CO2 to explode the bottles. having a gusher infection in a homebrew is bound to happen but easy to avoid with proper sanitation. It is absolutely inexcusable in a commercially sold product. If I were a bottleshop owner, I would not stock this brewery.  It would not be right to talk about Tasmanian beer without mentioning the New Sydney Hotel in Hobart. They know their beer.  Not only do keep many great aussie microbrews on tap, they also have rotating taps of the likes of Brew dog, Sierra Nevada, and Mikkeller to name a few.  They are so confident in their beer knowledge that they have taken to putting anything and everything in their Hopinator and matched with an equally as good beer. Iron House through Portabella mushrooms when we were there.

One of the other highlights was the tour of Cascade Brewery that Matt, Matt's beard and I took. if you ever find yourself in Hobart, its worth your 20 dollars to tour the brewery if for no other reason to stand on top of the 100K Liter fermenters.  The brilliance of this brewery other than it was started and built by convicts is that they capture all of their C02 produced to carbonate, bottle, and even sell of some excess, way to be an efficient business. When Matt does move to Australia he can still get his PBR in the form of Cascade's pale ale.  The Only distillary we made it to was Lark, right on the Hobart waterfront, and If the others are better, then tasmania is a goldmine for scotch style whiskeys.  I actually brought a lark whiskey all the home for its uniquness. They practice a more traditional fermentation on their must, and by traditional, they do not control the ferment temperature. Allowing ferment temp to climb into the high 20's/low 30's Celsius (low to mid 70's Fahrenheit), you get certain esters produced by the yeast that smell and taste anywhere from Banana to bubblegum (wheat beers). This, along with the water they use, gives the whiskey a very cool oily consistency with these sweet banana undertones. If for no other reason its worth a taste for the uniqueness of the whiskey.  I think Matt's beard leveled up from heavy metal guitarist to hefty lumberjack from the high quality of alcoholic beverage in tasmania.

Tasmanian Food:
Being as inland and german as I was in the Barossa valley (more figuratively then literally), the incredible seafood accessible in South Australia eluded me. I made up for it in Tasmania.  It seems like all of the seafood I had in tasmania, from the oysters to scollops to salmon were raised in a Rombaur-esque environtment. Everything was so rich, as if they were pre-buttered. I've consumed a lot of salmon, and tasmanian is by far the best.  They are known for their vast array of honeys, and is prime hop growing region. I need to go back and eat a lot more.

If I were a better writer I could put into words how strikingly beautiful Tasmania was. I would say how while nothing compares to the grandiose of yosemite valley or standing on the south rim of the grand canyon. Tasmania has subtle beauty everwhere. It takes every attractive landscape on the west coast save the mojave, adds some scottish style highlands, and stuffs it all into an island the size of southern california.  Everywhere you turn the landscape is so attractive you cant help but go "wow, this place is beautiful".   The highlights of an already highlighted island were Cradle Mountain National Park, The Central Highlands, Every Water fall, The East Tamar Valley, Mount Field National Park, Mole Creek Valley, the entire east coast and especially Wineglass bay, Hastings cave, Port Arthur, the south central forests and valleys south of Huonville. Basically the entire Island.

I want to go back to Tasmania, very badly, we were there 8 days, and only scratched the surface. The hikes I still want to do, the beaches to visit, wine/beer/whiskey to taste, the food, the surf (tasmania has a lot of surf and not a lot of surfers), everything there has Josh Smith written in big words across the top.  I could very easily see myself living in tasmania, maybe easier than living anywhere else in the world.

P.S. yes I saw Tasmanian devils. Matt and I went to an animal park (australian for petting zoo basically)  in the Mole Creek Valley. It was right at devil feeding time.  We walk over to the devil enclosure with a man who I'm pretty sure worked on the Sea Shepherd and associated more with the devils than with humans.  Now devils are cute, very cute black little marsupials with a white strip across their chest as if they were off to a formal ball. Out of this 5 gallon bucket Mr. Sea Shepherd was carrying comes road-killed raw meat, which I am pretty sure he had hit himself.  A wallaby leg here, a piece of wombat there, and half possum later, the cute little devils instantly transform into their namesake. Their ears get flushed with blood making them glow bright red, they start growling a high pitched wail of a growl.  Sharp teeth for days rip and tear off pieces of vehicular animal-slaughter half the size of their little bodies and proceed to run lap after lap around their enclosure trying to keep it for themselves. Its probably the most energetically primitive dinner party you could imagine. All the time growling and glowing at their devil brother's and sisters.  Never have I seen something so cute become so deadly that fast.  I believe in Karma, and while I do not believe in the reincarnation aspect of that spiritual belief, I really really hope that I come back as a Tasmanian Devil.

The art of travel part 2

I think I started one of the first blogs with something about how traveling itself sucks. Let me add one simple adverb to that. The actual act of traveling REALLY sucks. before I elaborate on my increasing disdain for all things involved in travel, let me answer a few questions that have been bothering you for the last month.
I'm sure many (none) of you have been wondering "why hasn't josh posted any new blogs in the last month". the answer is simply because I was off traveling australia, from southern tasmania to well, southern Queensland (which really isn't that far north at all). And with my macbook having turned itself into a macbook sized paperweight, the lack of computer made the option for blogging about the adventures somewhat difficult. That and I was out living the adventures, not coming up with ways to blog about them.  Now for those of you (none of you) who are nervous that "The Bottom of the Bottle" was going to be said and done with due to my time in Australia being over, you can put those fears to bed. In fact, TBOTB is going to be expanding, covering more alcoholic beverage experiences, opinions, and comments on relative data. Tastings and stand out drinks will be acknowledged and praised with emphasis on those of high quality or uniqueness in flavor or technique. The blog will also be continuing for the very selfish reason of having an excuse not to answer the questions "how was (insert location)". I solemnly swear that I will not ask you that question but something a little more specific and relevant, and if for some reason I ask "how was (insert location)", feel free to slap me. Of course the blogs will still include my mediocre at best pictures, and I promise with the whole right side of my brain to still include as many grammatical errors as can be afforded. I would like this blog to be a bit more about beer and wine and the alcohol industry fueling the drinking culture, so it might be nice if any of the 2 readers have an opinion of their own about what I have said or points I missed.  One last thing, I will be posting blogs about each of the places I traveled to and specific ideas about the wines and beers of said areas. So get excited.

the new wine fridge

If it is true and the antibiotics that we have been taking for 100 years or so are failing to kill the evolving bugs, then I think we need to look no further than the immune system for long haul flight attendants for the new answer. The amount of recycled air and harmful bugs they come into contact with every day they work is astounding. basically I want their immune systems, and mine is pretty good. maybe If I had their immune system I would not have come down with some throat infection that is putting my 4th of july with my friends greatly in jeopardy.  I also decided mid-flight that the zombie apocalypse (we all know its going to happen) does actually happen it will take place on an intercontinental flight. Think about it. Close contact, everyone is already lethargic from either drugs, sitting in the airport and or other flights, no weapons are allowed, and the cockpit is locked so the plane could still land.  All you need is one infected person and bam, you have an international plane full of man eating zombies landing in some first world metropolitan airport.  Next time I fly Intercontinentally like I did, I would like the pearson next to me to be an anesthesiologist who can put me under for the flight. Either way. I got sick from the lack of sleep/recycled air/ long hours of being stagnant and it is going to potentially put a big damper on my 4th of july experience. being on antibiotics and having a really sore throat, drinking carbonated or alcoholic beverages is out of the picture. perhaps guinness because its pressurized with nitrogen instead of CO2, and we don't have receptors that are effected by Nitrogen like CO2. Either way I am bummed that I did get sick, especially this time of the year.  people keep asking me how is home, my actual house is nice, family is good, other than that I have yet to leave the house and experience anything outside. Im going to assume its unchanged and won't live up to the inflated memories and expectations that we all have.

Very proud knowing that I was a big part of
making that wine. look for it. 

Two great things that were at home or available at home when I got home were a 6 foot tall 180 bottle wine fridge (hello) and 2011 Elk Cove Pinot Gris.  The wine fridge is great because it allows for temp control, and easier bottle organization, not to mention it looks damn cool (much better than the lame photo I took of it) I was easily able to organize and store my wine in a system I feel comfortable with. the 2011 Elk Cove Pinot Gris ( available at hitimes) is the first finished wine I will get to taste that I helped make. I worked harvest at Elk Cove in 2011 and did a large majority of the white wine work for that vintage, including a lot of tanks of Pinot Gris.  There will be a Blog post in the very near future discussing white wine, the white wine that I helped make, and the two beers I brewed around xmas time that I have yet to try. I know that this blog post was pretty lame, But i'll do my best to keep the ones to follow fresh and informative.

The wine story

Since I leave the Barossa Valley in 10 days or so. I figured this would be a good time to reflect on my experience within the wine industry here in the Barossa. Thank you first to Alison, whom I live with, for the multitude of wine knowedge, dinners, bottles of wine, and you cats. I consider myself very lucky to have ended up living here, and getting to know her group of freinds, many of whom are involved in the wine industry one way or another, I learned a lot and more importantly had a very good time hanging out them/you (depending on who is reading).  Thank you to the amazing permanent staff at St. Hallett who made this vintage + experience a very enjoyable one. I have only praise to speak for that winery and team, and if all goes according to plan may be back working there next year. What I wanted to illustrate in this post is some of my thoughts on the wine industry, some of the real highlights in wines and tastings.
As far as wine is concered in australia. I expected everything to be big, overoaked, jammy, and alcoholic. Basically Stags Leap distract but with Shiraz. Not to be the case, the wines are flavorful, complex, and lucky enough that the shiraz can hold just about any oak treatment you can throw at it. They are known for big, complex wines, but have a finesse style about them that makes them very appraochable.  I also feel that novice wine drinkers would gravitate twords a wine like these as apposed something light like a Pinot Noir. What i'm saying is if you want to get into wine, as an austrailan, drink barossa shiraz of course. As an amerinca who wants to get into wine, look for wines from Paso Robles or Dry creek valley in Sonoma. Look for Zinfandels, Syrahs, and GSM style blends in the 20 dollar range. avoid some of the higher tannic italian style wines, or wines from other countries unless you know anything about them. markups are insane for wine across oceans, so even though its french, odds are its going to be much less quality than a similar priced wine from the states.

First off i'll start with my case of wine that is coming home with me. as pictured

The case contains
St Hallett 2001 Old Block Shiraz (Top wine from my winery and drink now)
St Hallett 2006 Old block Shiraz (Another top wine, let this age)
Lengmeil 2009 Freedom Shiraz (vines planted in 1846)
Lengmeil 2009 Orphan Bank Shiraz (awsome Shiraz)
Yalumba 2006 Octavius Shiraz (benchmark wine from oldest winery)
Yalumba 2006 Moppa Springs Granache (drink now)
Yelland and Papps 2009 Divine Shiraz (great wine from a great guy)
John Duval 2009 Entity (John Duval is another great winemaker)
Rusden 2007 Zinfandel (drink soon)
Radford 2008 Bush Vine Shiraz (only Eden Valley Shiraz, stands out)
Rockford 2009 Basket Press (Old School Shiraz from Old School winery)
Rockford 2009 Cab Sav (Great example of Barossa Cab)
Retail Price: more than your weekly paycheck
My Price: not nearly your weekly paycheck
Why take a case of wine home if I may end up back here. Because in 20 years time when I'm a real winemaker, i'll find a case underneath a lot of cases and it will contain one or more of these wines. This case is a drinkable momento from my time this vintage. Its a representation of the best 12 bottles I could aquire while being here. Also it is hard/impossible or very expensive to get some of these bottles in the states. Every time I get to open one of these bottles its a sensory overload of nostalgia for an awsome time in the Barossa Valley. Also important to note, that when 2012 St Hallett wine becomes availible for purchase (just as 2011 Elk Cove and 2010 Domaine Serene) i'll have to hunt down bottles that I helped make, and lucky for me, I have insider knowledge on which vineyards were the best in each of those years.  If your lucky enough you might get to try one of more of these bottles.

disclaimer: I am by no means an expert on the South Australia Wine industry, and really only know the Barossa Valley. I've tasted many but definitly not all of the wines produced in the valley. What I want to type out more for me are my favorite wineries for the wine, for the experience, for the view. I mean lets face it, most wine drinkers only care if they do or do not like the wine, its price, and their tasting experience.  If by chance any novice wine drinkers to the Barossa Valley were Traveling through the Barossa Valley, this could be used a rough guide as to where to taste for the day/how to spend your day. 
Notable Barossa Wineries for their wine.
-St. Hallett: Duh I have to shout out to St. Hallett, that being said, I think we produce some excellent wine in both the Old Block Shiraz and the unique Granache Shiraz Touriga blend.
-Lengmeil: There Freedom Shiraz contains maybe the oldest vines in the world, its awsome, and the cellar crew takes as good of care of their grapes/ferments/wines as possible.
-Hently Farm: impecable vineyards first with some lots going to their own product which is also kept in a unique style.
-Rockford: Old School winery that makes awsome wines
-Henshke's: Because they have a fasination with Pinot Noir, and the Hill of Grace vineyard under their production is the most beautiful vineyard you could ever see
-Yalumba: oldest winery in the Barossa, large production but have the time/funding/and vineyards to produce top wines
-Yelland and Papps (if open): Great small winemaking program, great tasting experience on the side of their house, ironically almost in the shadow of penfolds giant facility.
Elderton (top range)
Artisans
Taste of eden
The last two on that list are winemakers studios of sort, where many different labels are poured. I've elaborated before that those places are the best to gain a good feel for the area due to the many different styles poured in using similarly sourced fruit.

Now remember, most wine drinkers care less about the product (as long as they like it) and more about the experience of tasting.  The tasting experience itself can make or break the wine. By far and away the most pleasent tasting experience in the Barossa Valley is at Two Hands winery. They sit you down, usually outside,  give you a few bits to eat, and present each wine over the course of 45 minutes or so.  Very well done. Another notable tasting experience is at a winery known as Tscharkeys, with their beautiful cellar door and outside patio.  Both of those must not miss on a beautiful day.

Oh, and dont miss fermentAsian for dinner in Tanunda. Get some sort of reisling from the menu, its extensive and fair priced.

I havn't spent a lot of time in the other winegrowing regions, but these are some of the highlights we/I came across in the other regions.

Claire Wineries
skillagolee
Knapstein
O'leary Walker
Crabtree
Adelaide hills:
Shaw and Smith
Petaluma
Ashton hills

MclarenVale:
Oliver Taranga
Chapel Hill
Samuels Gorge

And if you somehow make it out to Langhorn Creek, check out Bremerton, Rusticana, and the Winehouse

I take it most of the previous readers lost interest beyond this point, but if, you perservered through the litarary nightmare that is "the bottom of the bottle" you will now be rewarded with the beer insite South australia.  If your seeking out beer, number one by far and away is Beirhaus in Lobethal. the Brewer knows what he is doing, and to quote matt "the top five australian beers are at the Beirhaus" (his opinion of course)  Goodesons Brewery down in MclarenVale is nice. If you ever find yourself wondering through Radelaide, which is the the rad version of adelaide, and beer is what you seek, you must frequent the Wheatchief Hotel. Its a pub run by two beer loving lesbians, so you can only imagine the ecclectic mix of people that frequent. They have 10 or so beers on tap, ranging from Mikkeller to Local Beirhars beers. They also have a very extensive bottle list that contains.... wait for it... Bear Republic and Sierra Nevada. and they have a Hoppinator. I'm going to miss the Wheatchief.  Also gotta give good mention to Barossa Valley Brewery right here in Taunda. They make a nice beer, and are one the right track. However, they serve their beer in wine glass, and have more of a cellar door feel than a brewery. Be more of a brewery please, and cater to beer drinkers, not wine drinkers.
If you are traveling to south australia, there is a plethora of very yummy wine and beer to drink and consume. Good food to find if you know where your looking, and

There are no spirits worth talking about in South Australia, and its expensive. sorry
South Australia doesn't seem so far as it did 5 months ago.

Grad school, genetics, and tasting

I know. I know. its been a while. But while I could be writing blogs about all the fun things i'm out doing, I'm actually out doing them. Sorry. So first things first. I took a tour of the Masters in Oenology (winemkaing) program at University of Adelaide on monday. To explain why I took the visit and will be applying to the University of Adelaide masters in Oenology program I will rehash a conversation i've had with multiple winemkers.
me: "mr/mrs winemaker, do I need to get a winemaking degree"
winemaker: "you mean you dont have a winemaking degree, what is your base degree in"
me: "molecular, cell, and developmental biology."
w: " that should be more than good enough"
me: " well given my application and three applications with winemaking degrees and exactly the same experience, would you even consider me as a candidate."
w: "probably not"
me: "that is my answer, thank you very much"
hence why I am going to apply. Other reasons for applying other than the end all be all american dream "so I can get a good job" is that I think that to be the winemaker I want to be I need to go get some formal education in wine. Do I have some sensory skills, yes. are they getting better by the day, yes. but until I put all the peices together with a formal education, there will always be simple gaps in my education. Why might you ask am I not as interested in the two programs in California, I will explain. Uc Davis masters in enology is a very theory and research based program, and other than the fact that I cant get in there without taking lots of undergraduate classes in winemaking, I'm not sure that it would be the right program for me to be the best winemaker I can. The CSU fresno program, while getting much better, is very production based. yes the theory classes would help, but much as with most of the CSU system, it is very hands on learning. At this point I might as well make money while working in a winery than pay to work in a winery.  The program at Adelaide is a nice inbetween of the other two, being both production/lab based in the winery and theory reserch based in the lecture. Another perk is that one the same campus is the AWRI, or the Australian Wine Research Institute, arguable the best Wine research institute in the world, lots and lots of winemaking information at your fingertips. Oh.... and this is the fall sunset view from the campus looking over the City of Adelaide.  And what a pretty sunset  it was. 

sunset from the AWRI

In other news, Kangaroo Tacos are not as good as they are novel, with the best taco meat still remaining black bear (thats going to be a tough one to beat) It was decided by the other amuricans and I that we would make Roo tacos and tequila for cinco de mayo. Some of the buzz words for cinco de mayo include: roo tacos, tequila, singing on the roof, party crashing, dance battle winning, new friends, tearing through the vineyards in a Gator (not driving). There are a few more buzzwords to describe cinco de mayo that are not internet worthy. dont worry parents, everything was in good taste and in a psudo responsible manner. It was up there as far as cinco de mayo's go. 
             Work has been fine, it consists of moving wine from tank to tank of different sizes. blending, breaking down, putting wine into oak, taking wine out of oak, cleaning tanks, cleaning more tanks, cleaning more tanks. "45% moving shit, 45% cleaning shit, and 10% drinking beer". I've been doing 90% of the work described. One of the cool things we have been doing are benchmark tastings. We (some of the employees) will taste 10-14 different wines from different wineries but in the same style and at roughly the same pricepoint. The goal of this is to see how our wine stacks up versus other wines in the same price bracket. This is one of the best things for me to do, because it gives me a chance to A. taste the wines, B.write down my thoughts on the wine (nose, taste, color, lenght, acid, finish) Anc C. get to explain my thoughts along with some of the other cellar staff and winemakers. I am pleased to say that I am for the most part inline with the winemakers on the tastes, aside from a few outliers of course. Again, something else that a little schooling will help me with. Something else that is cool about the masters program is that there is a chance to sit on the panel for wine judging competitions. that would be cool.   Last Friday I went to a Burgundy wine tasting at Whister Wines put on by a friend. Bring a Burgudny, get to taste the rest. I know very little about specific french wine regions, so a tasting like this is good experience to taste the differences between some of the burgundian regions.

burgundy tasting at Whistler Wines.

I do only have 8 days left of work here in australia, and only 12 days left in the barossa valley, Until next year most likely. Assuming that I get into the masters program I will most likely be coming back to work at St. Hallett for vintage (they already said yes)  If my tennative plan works out to be my actual plan I will be In australia from January 2013 till september/october 2015. That is crazy to think about. But again, all specualtive however I am motivated to make it my actual plan, and if you know me, it'll probably happen.
I have to give some acknowlegement and thanks to my parents in regards to my genetics. Due to recent diet experiments I have determied that I am somewhat Gluten intolerent. Not that I cant eat it, its just much more comfortable not to. Bummer because I like beer, and bread, and pasta, and gluten filled foods. looks like my homebrew career may be very limited, and potentially up for sale. Speaking quickly of beer, Heaps Good Beer is great, at least so I've herd scince trying to avoid drinking beer, but I do have access to some fun lab equipemnt, like this piece of lab equipemnt called an Alcolyzer, which determins the alcohol percentage of beverages. If you look in the small sample jar, you can see the color of the beer, if you look at the screen of the sweet peice of lab machinery, it says 8.17. That is the Alcohol of our beer, A little higher than we targeted, and not really any cooler accpet that it is fun to use lab equiment. I do owe a lab tech some food for use of the apparati though, I bet she will take beer.  Last things last. my travel plans.
June 4th: leave the Barossa Valley and fly to Hobart Tasmania.
June 5th: pick up our wicked camper van (the company is called wicked camper, check it out online)
June 5th-June 13th: travel tasmania, wine taste when the weather is bad, hike and sitesee when the weather is good.
June 13-16th: Brisbane to visit brisbane staying with Dads Friend Andy
June 16th-23rd: Byron Bay, for surfing and sunshine. any contacts there would be helpful
June 24th-30th: after taking the overnight train from byron bay to sydney, I will be hanging out in Sydney with the awsome Alanna Pentz in sydney, probably play tourist and do more beach going.
June 30th: Back Stateside for mexican food, bicycle riding to the beach, and family and friends.
If any of you have any recomendations of things to do in those places they will be appreciated. although i'm sure i'll find many things to do. That is all for now.
              

"Beer, Barrels, Bottles"



Matt... acting as bottling line supervisor

Alright. new blog post time. sit back, relax, grab a drink and prepare to be entertained and informed all at the same time. First things first. Matt and I bottled "heaps good beer". I created a pretty sweet label with a kangaroo on it and a few interesting words, but my lazyness to find a place to print it is going to hinder that label ever being put onto a bottle. save's paper anyway. As stated before, we set out to create what we called a cascadian dark ale. Something with some nice darker/toastier malt caractaristics underneath a very lifted hop aroma us west coast beer drinkers like so much. But as with anything Matt and I seem to do, very brief discussion and planning followed by near perfect execution has long lead us wrong. (not to toot our own horns or anything) With all the makings of a nice dark beer we set out a soak/sparge/and fermentation plan designed more for a stout/porter than for a lighter ale. When you make beer, so much of the dictation in the final product is determined by the soaking of your grains. When you brew beer, there is an ideal temperature range for soaking your grains to extract the proper amount of sugar and what types of sugars you extract. The Range is from 145 degrees f till 158 degrees f. By soaking at the lower end of that range (for lets say an hour) you dont break down some of the larger more complex sugar starch compounds that are broken down at the upper end of that scale, thus netting a thicker Wort which in turn makes a thicker beer. So a thinner lighter ale is soaked twords the higher end of that range while a thick stout or porter is soaked at the lower end. Matt pretty much nailed it on the soak, keeping it at at 146 for a good hour. That lends itself to a thicker beer. we also had a long cool ferment with the fermenter almost submerged in cool water. This also aids in making a thicker beer. Matched with the slight amount of Wheat (also for body), the chocolate roasted dark grains, and a bit of extract to get our gravity up, this beer is thick, really thick. And to match it, we have added somewhere around 80ibu's worth of Simcoe and Cascade hops to create what truly is a big big beer drinkers beer. Matt and I both having experience in homebrewing ran through the bottling no problem netting 45 bottles of our hoppy porter we call "Heaps Good". What are we going to do with this beer you might ask. Well with my half of the bottles I plan on sharing them around my winery, and the small community which I am part of. Introduce some aussies to BEER and encouraging the local homebrewers to get away from the coopers kits. Its currently carbonating and maturning, probably the first taste will be on sunday, and oh what a taste it will be. 
I finished putting together my case of wine. It consists of 9 big ass barossa shiraz's, a cab, grenache, and zin. I could put together two more cases of great wine from varietals other than Shiraz, but damnit, I'm in the Barossa Valley. Not bringing home a plethora of big Shiraz would be like going to Oregon and not brining home Pinot and Ninkasi, or Texas and not bringing home a gun rack and Shiner, Or Rombaur and not bringing back a bottle of popcore butter, or chicago and not bringing home Ian Fowler. You see, Shiraz is just a must(thats a wine pun people). 


Thats a lot of Barrels.

Work has been going well since vintage ended and some of the other casuels have gone their seperate ways, not saying I dont miss them, but work has calmed down even a notch more. If I have learned anything in the last week, its that "wine is not made only durring vintage". yes we turn grapes into an alcoholic drink we call wine durring vintage, but there are so many other things that go into making a finished wine a finished wine. Working outside of harvest like I am now, you see those things in practice. I'm not going to elaborate on what I have learned, but trust that it has to do with wine. The one part about being out of vintage (more out of the busy workload of vintage) is the ability to taste so many of our wines. Many of them are finishing malolactic fermentation (if they are destined to do so) and are getting tasted and graded for final blends. I get to taste a lot of what the winemakers are tasting, which is very important for me to learn/practice as a wannabe winemaker. I got to participate in a comparative tasting of 12 or so wines all in the same style and same pricepoint but from different producers (including our own) to see how ours stacks up. these are done blind then at the end we compare notes on each wine and reveal which was which. Only through lots of practice will you develope a palate to be able to pick up on certain aspects of the wine. I'm trying to get lots and lots of practice. Over the next month i'll be able to taste many of the blends that the winemakers come up with and the why's and why nots of the blending peices. Thats pretty much all for now. The two things on my agenda are starting up graduate school research and applications to various winemaking schools and post Barossa travel plans. Matt and I are going to sit down tomorrow and book a few things. I know it will consist of Tasmania, Brisbane, Byron Bay, and Sydney. Again, we plan little but execute perfectly.

Souvenir's

In recent barossa happenings, I'm starting to put together my Souvenir's from Australia. Now I know i'll be here for another 2 months plus, but its never to early to start to get organised. I'm going to be bringing exactly 14 souvenirs home from Australia. I know what your saying, "14, what, thats so many you damn american consumer". 12 of them are bottles of wine. I'm focusing on wine from my winery and from smaller but still of great if not better quality than the bigger production facilities. A lot of the wines I can find in the US if i look hard enough and contact their disrtibuters. So it makes sense to ship home a case of wine that I could not for any reason get in the states. besides, it will be great having that wine for years to come as a reminder of this time in australia. souvenir #13, and rightfully numbered 13 is going to be a coopers t-shirt. I'f you have ever had coopers, you would understand. #14 is one that needed a bit more justification and the right timing. I'll set the stage for you. Matt and I are having a lovely day driving down to Adelaide. 25 (75 f), a few sporatic clouds. All of the vineyards sense the impending fall and have begun their sunset like color transformation into dormancy. We stop in at our favorite brewery for a pint of pale.  Adelaide is no different, people happily bustling about, jogging, biking, consuming, drinking, strolling, purchasing, chatting, and living: the best are doing up to 4. Matt's intentions in adelaide was to get a big ass cuban cigar for his harvest party, mine intention was of similar financial value yet not nearly as enjoyable as crossing another task off my bucket list. (already crossed the cuban cigar off, I mean, why not) I was finally going to make it to a store which might help me with my computer problem, and by problem I mean that is probably dead. 3rd store later i find the one that can help me with a mac, the only thing they tell me is that for 75 dollars they can send if off and have it diagnosed. I'm not going to pay them 75 dollars to tell me what I think I already know, that being that the hardrive is shot. So I have resigned to having it looked at once im back in the states. Thank you apple for providing me with a trendy, (typically) userfriendly, slightly overpriced and currently oversized paperweight to lug around australia for the next 70 days. The irony is that i'll take it in to the apple store and some genious will wave his hand over the top fixing it instantly. However, aside from maybe not being able to recover all my data, not having a computer as a constant pull is kinda a nice thing. I'm not neccisarily being more productive, but i'm not sucked in to its vortex pull all the time. An hour on the computer is an hour on the computer, whether your in australia, austria, or austin matters not. back to the main topic at hand, consumer spending for nostalgias sake. Upon deciding not to spend the 75 on what I think is a failed endevour, I walked down the road to Adelaide Hatters and purchased souvenir #14, An awsome Akubra Hat.  This is my awsome Akubra
Now for those of you who dont know Akubra, It is the Stetson of Australia. here you will find a link the Akubras Wikipedia page, and Akubras home page. take a minute of your time rediscover envy.

The Coorong, by Akubra

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akubra

http://www.akubra.com.au/


For those of you not wanting to click further, Akubra hats are made from rabbit felt (if my hat gets red paint thrown on it I swear I will eat nothing but meat for a week). Being made from rabbit felt they are water proof, and offer great sun protection, which if you know me, I need all the protection I can get. Another easy justification for purchasing this hat is that I will be spending an increasing amount of time out in vineyards. So why not get a great souviner that serves me a functional purpose back home. I anticipate that I will get a lot of good use out of this hat. 2 cool facts about this Akubra. As I wear it the band inside the will shrink and fit to my head. Cool fact #2 is that this style is made specifically for the Adelaide Hatters where I purchased this hat. Any store that has a large enough stock gets to stock their own style. this the Coorong, is named after a large lake/estuary at the end of the Murry river seperated from the ocean by a very long sandspit. I have seen the Coorong. So its an Australian hat, purchased in south australia at a store only selling that syle named after a famous south australian natural landmark that will go to great use as my vineyard time increases. Great Souvenir.
As for other happenings, work is fine, still doing a lot of cleaning and post vintage rackings and wine transfers. It will be nice to see a winery relax after vintage and what the "normal"workload consists of. The beer that Matt and I are making is progressing along nicely. we set out to make a cascadian dark ale and ended up with more of a hoppy porter. to quote my mother, "oh darn right". We are calling it Heaps Good Beer because South Australians say the word heaps heaps. Its somewhat of a running joke. Couple more weeks and we will be sharing it around, so more on that later.  Also i'm formulating travel plans, like for real this time. The only epiphany is that I'm looking to take the train from destination to destination, might take a little longer, but i could potentially bring my bike, its a more oldschool way to travel, and I would get to see a lot more of the countryside. I'll make my next blog topic about what the travel plans are in more detail.
I'm off to bed, raving for breakfast again tomorrow near from 166 year old shiraz vines. should be fun. I'll leave you with a sweet video that Cam sent me not so long ago. Its all people from burning man reciting different lines from the good Dr's "Oh the Places You'll Go". enjoy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahv_1IS7SiE