FIRST 2009 JOLLY ROGER TAPPED

Drake's holiday ale, Jolly Roger, was tapped for the first time this year... at 5pm, Tuesday, November 24th, at Cato's Alehouse in Oakland (3891 Piedmont Ave.) The Drake's brewers were there, including Assistant Brewer Morgan Phillips who designed this year's Jolly Roger. For 2009 Jolly Roger is a Imperial Brown. Jolly Roger has been a holiday time tradition all the way back to the first years Drake's was in business. (The name comes from the original Owner/Brewmaster Roger Lind.) Scroll down to see previous post about the recipe for this year's Jolly. Another great year, and another great beer!

Image: Morgan is on the left, Brian Thorson, Assistant Head Brewer on the right.

Thanks for reading! -- The Drake

BARREL-AGED LINE UP FOR THE BISTRO, SATURDAY NOV. 14TH

The Bistro Barrel Aged Festival - November 14, 2009

For the Bistro event Josh & Brian have a triple play of beers, with a baseball theme, honoring the great Kansas City third baseman (and hall of famer) George Brett

"George Brett Triple" - A Belgian Triple aged in a Pinot Noir barrel for 2 years. Unblended, unspiked with Brett, yet extremely sour imparted from the barrel itself. 8.75% abv

"Pine Tar Barleywine" Named after George Brett's meltdown when the Yankee's Manager Billy Martin, and the umpires accused him of using too much pine tar on his bat after hitting a home run. Two year old Barleywine aged in a Grenache barrel. Unspiked with any other yeasts. Very oakey from the barrel. 10% abv

"K.C. Blues - Blueberry Stout" 6 year old Imperial Stout aged in a Merlot barrel, with Blueberries added and Brettanomyces spiked. 9% abv

From the Bistro website: "There will be over 70 beers on tap, live music and party BISTRO style with BBQ smokin' and beer flowin' - 11am - 7pm - street closed for extra room. Enjoy Sang Matiz will play at 4pm" www.the-bistro.com

Thanks for reading!

-- The Drake

2009 JOLLY ROGER IN THE TANK!

FIRST BATCH BREWED ON OCTOBER 29TH

Traditionally, Jolly is different every year (last year it was an Imperial Red). Morgan Phillips, Drake's assistant brewer, was given a big assignment by Josh & Brian. Formulate and brew this year's Jolly Roger!

This just in From Morgan:

"Everything went great with Jolly yesterday. It came in at 22.2 Plato so if the yeast attenuate at their listed capacity it will be about 9.5% abv. With beers this size it's hard to estimate because it could easily go either way as much as a half a percent. We should know for sure in about ten days.

As for the beer itself I'm very pleased with how it came out so far and it should be very good. It's an Imperial Brown I modeled off an English Brown recipe I've done before. Some of the ingredients are English and it is English inspired, but this big boy is very American. The color is a very rich maple brown that doesn't seem to have red or orange highlights, just brown. The flavor is rich toffee with toasty notes underneath which should give a nice play between malty sweet and dry flavors in the mouth. The mouth-feel with be full and a little sweet, but there are plenty of hops to balance that out. I went with Magnum for bittering and a duet of Chinook and Willamette for flavor and aroma".

Jolly Roger should be on tap at your local East & West Bay taphouses, starting around November 20th.

Thanks for reading!

-- John

WHERE'S DRINKDRAKES.COM?

NEW WEBSITE IN THE WORKS

For those of you that keep up on these kinds of things... you might have noticed that the old drinkdrakes.com website is no more.

We finally got around to transferring the url, and are busy creating a new website. Nothing too elaborate. But, expect to see more information about the brewery, it's history, our staff, and the beers we produce.

We'll keep you up-to-date on the latest seasonals, and events at the brewery. Look for it to go live in a few weeks!

Thanks for reading!

-- The Drake

DRAKE'S AUTUMN FEST IN LIMITED RELEASE

Josh & Brian have just kegged up our single batch of Autumn Fest, Drake's Fall seasonal. An American version of a Fest-style Bier. Amber color, medium bodied, and a smooth flavor. This beer is the brother from another mother of the famous beers of Munich. Fest Beers are usually brewed in anticipation of an upcoming festival (Oktoberfest, Fall, or Autumn, Spring, etc...) We used a kolsch yeast (but it is not a kolsch-style beer) 18 IBU's (relatively low). Spalt & Saaz Hops 5.75% abv

Currently can only be found on tap at our sister brewpubs Jupiter & the Bear's Lair Campus Pub (at UC Berkeley), in Berkeley. Coming to a few other select pubs & restaurants in the East Bay, the Peninsula, & San Francisco.

THE EVIDENCE: DENOGGINIZER TAKES SILVER AT THE GABF

As many of you know, Drake's infamous Denoggin- izer Double IPA earned some hardware in Denver. We've been waiting for the official awards photo from the Brewers Association, operators of the Great American Beer Festival. We now have the shot, so here it is! Josh & Brian accepting the Silver Medal for Denogginizer, in the Imperial India Pale Ale catagory.

To learn more about this great beer. See a previous blog posting on how Denogginizer came to be.

We plan to have Denog in 220z. bottles available later this fall. Molly & John are putting the final touches on the label right now.

Thanks for reading!

-- The Drake

DRAKE'S WELCOMES NEW SALES MANAGER DOW TUNIS!

We are happy to announce the new Drake's Sales Manager. His name is H. Dow Tunis IV, and is a resident of Albany, just north of Berkeley. Dow is a familiar name in the Bay Area brewing scene, and certainly a familiar face around the J & R Martin brewing organization. Dow ran our Twenty Tank Brewery in San Francisco, from the mid-nineties, til its close in 2000. He also put in a stint getting the Bear's Lair Pub in the Student Union at UC Berkeley up, running and operating smoothly, starting in 2001. He is an avid craft beer aficionado, and a committed foodie as well.

We are very happy to have Dow back in the fold, at Drake's Brewing Co. Dow is in charge of all draft and package sales in the San Francisco Bay Area. To start, he is busy getting to know all our present draft accounts. Drake's is committed to the self-distribution of our draft products in our "Home Market" of the East Bay and San Francisco. It's a lot more work for the brewery, but we think it is essential to stay close to our accounts and customers, and to keep it local (as it should be). You'll see Dow at most beer festivals & events that Drake's attends, so stop at the booth and say hello!

If you are interested in putting Drake's on tap, give Dow a call @ 510-568-BREW, ext 1, or he can be reached at dow(at)drakesbrewing.com. You can also follow Dow on twitter! Click here.

Thanks for reading -- John

WE SAY GOODBYE TO BRAD

Bradley Robbins our excellent brewer and draft sales guy, has punched out on the Drake's time clock for the last time. Our history with Brad goes way back. Brad started out working in the kitchen at Triple Rock over 8 years ago. With time he moved into the brewery, training under Head Brewer Christian Kazakoff. Brad made a huge contribution as the Assistant Brewer under Christian.

Brad left Triple Rock a few years ago to follow his wonderful girlfriend Jordan to England, where she attended the London School of Economics. Brad landed a job at Oxfordshire Ales, in Marsh Gibbon. Before he knew it, he was promoted to Head Brewer! After Jordan's graduation, and a lot of Oxfordshire ales brewed, the couple came back to the Bay Area last October. Just in time to nab the position of draft sales rep/brewer right after our purchase of Drake's. Brad has done a huge amount to bring Drake's draft back to local tap houses and restaurants, after a period where the emphasis had been more on expanding the bottled products of the brewery. He has also been essential in the brewery, helping Josh & Brian with the greatly expanded brewing schedule.

Well as things have it, Jordan is now Brad's fiancee. She just got a great job in Ft. Collins, CO. So, the couple is on the move again. We can't thank Brad enough for all his contributions to Triple Rock, and now Drake's Brewing Co., over the years. Luckily, they are moving to a great brewing town and we expect Brad will be back in the brewing scene without delay.

Thanks Brad!

Here's a photo of Brad (top left) with Head Brewer Josh Miner, and at last Spring's "Fallen Heros" fundraiser at Jack London Square.

-- John, Reid, Roy & everybody at Triple Rock & Drake's

BREWED FOR THOUGHT DROPS BY DRAKE'S

Mario, of the great beer blog "Brewed for Thought" came by Drake's the other day to taste our latest one-off IPA, known as the "Aroma Coma". He wrote up a real nice post on his visit. Here's a link to the blog post. Thanks Mario!

BETTER BEER BLOG VISITS DRAKES

Peter of the wonderful blog www.betterbeerblog.com came by last Friday for a tour and tasting at the brewery. I know...don't give us a bad time about the Friday tasting event.... we're working on it! He posted a real nice feature on Drake's.

Peter also got roped into a little game of Washoes along with Marcel of www.craftondraft.com

Click here to read about Peter's visit to Drake's!