LUCKY ARE THE BRAVE

MEMORIAL DAY 2008

We're staring down the beginning of a very beautiful day here in Polson. Current temperature is 50 degrees with a guess of rain today. But I don't see that now. Live for the moment, I always say.
I woke up this morning to an unfortunately familiar smell of dog poop. We recently switched our dogs to a "higher" quality dog food than they have been inhaling and one of the mutts' system can't seem to handle it, seemingly at random! So, I'm never quite sure, going to bed the night before, when I'll be waking up to "THAT" smell. Like I said, it happened this morning. My reaction was what you'd expect "GOD D*MN DOG, GET THE F@#K OUT! WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH YOU?!?!" Or something like that. She's outside sulking, I'm inside fuming. I'm cleaning it up, grumbling to myself when this story comes on CNN about some US soldiers who are being deployed to Afghanistan but have a few days to visit their families. Problem is there is no money for them to make the trip! So citizens donated all the funds needed. I know, while this is a very real story, the timing of the telling of it was designed to generate solidarity, civic pride, etc. Well, it worked. But also, it showed me something else. It shook me out of my little, daily ego-centric bubble. While cleaning up liquid dog poop first thing in the morning sucks, I'm not being deployed to the other side of the world! It is far too easy for me (and others I suspect) to loose sight of things like this. I don't want to brand this rant as "Appreciate what you have-others have it worse-you don't know how good you have it!". Most of that is true however. But, that is human nature.

One thing I've stressed to my offspring is this: When you see a soldier and have the opportunity, STOP what you're doing, walk up to that person, politely get their attention, look them in the eye and just THANK THEM. Red state, blue state, white state, green state, republican, democrat, independent, pro-war, anti-war, pro-bush, anti-bush, morning-person, night-owl, WHATEVER!!! JUST THANK THEM! Okay?

Good ole' GBC will be open today. Jim and I will be at the helm. Today, we're gonna be brewing some North Fork or maybe Stout. Those two always seem to be a little tougher to brew than the others. Mainly because of their extended grain and hop bills. The amber calls for SEVEN hop additions and uses EIGHT different grains. I know, I'm getting lazier as I age. That's why I have a "JIM". Everyone should get one, it's great! Such a wonderful, labor saving device! You just point your "JIM" at a task and, before you know it, it's done! Alright, sometimes I have to point it at the task a few times. Just kidding, Jim. (Who am I kidding, he can't read! He went to the University of Wyoming.....GO CSU RAMS!!!)

It is my wish that our collective day passes with peace and harmony. Sounds too hippy-ish? Too bad. Maybe the hippies have something there. One more thing before I release you, yesterday NASA landed a very advanced craft near the northern pole of Mars, looking for water and evidence of life. Do yourself a favor, check out the recent pictures of the surface of Mars, sip on your favorite Glacier Brew, watch the sunset, be in the moment. Oh yea, pray for no more liquefied dog poop!

Until next time,
Your Humble Brewer

87 DEGREES IN DA' SHADE!!!

Surfin' Safari

Ya' gotta love Montana. Last week, we were getting snow, freezing rain, could see your breath as you walked to work (just me? okay...). Now, we're staring down 87degrees on Friday and hotter this weekend! Great news, right? WRONG!!! Think "Glacial Lake Missoula", think "Noah", think "Washed out bridges!". I know, some of you are saying "Don't be such a nay-sayer!". Sorry, it's just the way I roll. I love seeing the power of nature (from a distance, of course). This coming week holds the promise of exciting events happening along our western Montana waterways. We have had a significant amount of snow this year. Even lately. Now, suddenly, we're hitting the upper 80's and possibly the 90's?!? Excuse my American but, WTF?!? It is rare in my memory of such extreme temperature swings.
I have family in Colorado and I've been hearing stories from them of rapid melting causing culverts to dam and flood and then the next couple of days they get three inches of fresh powder! This may be climate change due to human activity or maybe it's part of a much, much larger cycle. One that our "recorded" history has yet to document.

Whatever the root cause, the results remain the same: Surf's Up!


Photo courtesy of the Montana Historical Society

HERE I SIT...

TICK, TOCK.....

Well, here I sit. In the tasting room on Wednesday night after 5:00pm. It's 6:20 in fact and no one has taken me up on my "Free Pint" offer. No one has said "MOLLYCODDLE" to me.

.......so sad.....

AUGUST 2003
POLEBRIDGE, MT

When I came across this photo in my digital archive, the thought that struck me was "Amazing what extremes you do to accomplish your goals." The story behind this photo is we had an account in the North Fork up in Polebridge (if you've never been, get off your ass and get up there! AMAZING!), they just had a party or concert or something. Anyway, they had quite a few of our kegs and tapping equipment. So I volunteered to to get it. You can pretty much shoot the day to hell going from Polson to Polebridge and back so I was looking forward to some Montana windshield time and a visit to one of my favorite places, The North Fork/Polebridge. When I got there and I reconnoitered their empty keg stacks, it dawned on me how poorly I had judged how many of our empties were up there. Now, keep in mind that I'm the kind of guy that when I get home from the grocery store, I like to make only ONE trip from car to kitchen with the bags of groceries. I've been known to cut off blood flow to my hands from having too many bags dangling from them. It's just how I'm wired. So when I saw all those kegs, I was bound and determined to get them all back, come hell or high water! What you can't see in the photo is I also had kegs in the front seat as well. Funny what I thought was "normal" when we were trying to get this brewery off the ground!
That was also the year of the fires in and around Glacier National Park. On my way back down, I stumbled upon a firecamp and helitack. The helitack was offering public tours (or so the sign said). I pulled in and got out of the keg-wagon, securing stares from the ground crew. I looked around and saw I was the only "public" around! Hot Dawg! Well, they loaded me into a truck and took me out to where the Sikorsky Helicopter was parked. I love helicopter! I mean, I LOVE THEM!!! I was gonna become a helicopter pilot for the military but they told me my eyes weren't good enough, so then I was gonna become a helicopter mechanic. Well, a female sergeant yelled at me to remove my hat indoors (while I was taking the ASVAB test and all the associated bending and probing), I thought immediately "I'm not in your army yet, how dare you yell at me like that!" And so ended that dream!
But I digress! I got to talk with the crew of this helicopter, sit in the left-hand seat, and basically crawl all around the thing until they got a call to deliver some water onto the fire and they kicked my off this wonderful machine! That was a good day! I do believe that one very vital key to everyday happiness is to find "mini-vacations" during the day. Find something that gives your being release, joy, peace.
Until next time,
Prost!
Your humble brewer

HELLOOO OUT THERE!!!!!

Alright, I'm not sure anyone is even reading these posts. So in the interest to determine the interest in this blog, I'm offering the following:

-One (1) FREE pint of beer on Wednesday after 5:00pm in the GBC Tasting Room to anyone who tells me (Dave the Brewer) the magic word:

"MOLLYCODDLE"

Yup! That's right. Just say that word to Dave the Brewer on Wednesday (between May 7 and May 14, 2008) after 5:00 pm and you'll get a FREE pint of beer of your choice in our tasting room!
That's it!

GBC IN SPRING!

YIPPEE!!!

Well, I think I'm gonna go ahead and jinx it and say SPRING IS FINALLY HERE!!
We've had beautiful days lately. Perfect weather to indulge in my new specialty, WILD WOLF WHEAT! This is any American wheat beer that I filter to wonderful clarity! This beer is crisp, refreshing, and beautiful!
I haven't made this recipe in over two years so it's kinda fun to get back out again. Last time I made this beer, the filtration of it was a nightmare. It took me over ten hours and two-and-a-half sets of filter pads to get it clear! I swore I would never again make this recipe. Well, two years and a new filter later, this time around the filtration went like a dream: one set of pads and 40 minutes! Not only that, but I filter two other tanks of beer before I filtered this wheat, ON THE SAME SET OF PADS!! I LOVE MY FILTER!

Whenever you make a wheat beer, ya' gotta be careful during the mash. This is due to the wheat kernels, themselves. Any good wheat beer is gonna be made up of at least 50% wheat grain. The wheat, unlike barley, is huskless. The husk of barley, while basically inert in the brewing process, provides a very important anti-clumping action in the mash. The husks don't allow the wet, hot grain to clump up very easily. Now, when you reduce the husk content by at least 50% (remember the wheat), well, clumping and "sticking your mash" become very real possibilities. Sticking your mash means that the milled grains in the mash tun have basically loosely fused into a big dough ball on top of the mash screens. So tightly, in fact, that not even water can get through. NOT GOOD! So you must monitor your mash, stir it gently, talk softly to it, be nice.
If all goes well, you then get to run the malt sugars over to your brew kettle.

This is known as your first runnings of wort (pronounced "wert"). This is some very sugary hot liquid. As the hot water continues to sprinkle over the grains, more and more sugars are leached out and into the brew kettle. Once the kettle is full, the wort is boiled, hops are added (if you can find any!), and the hot, hopped wort is crash-cooled on its way to the fermenter. The fermenter is where the magic happens! The yeast is added and eats all the sugars. It then excretes (yup, pees) alcohol! After the yeast is done peeing in our beer, we filter it, carbonate it, and package. Last but not least, we drink it!
So, get in here quick because the Wild Wolf Wheat always goes quick. I'm not sure when I'm gonna make it again since there are so many other beer styles I want to try out.
Until next time,
Prost!
Your Humble Brewer!

Yup, here it is again!
EARTH DAY! This is the time for all of us to gather around our good intentions, turn off the lights, turn down the heat, recycle our newspapers and plastics (no glass, remember we're in Montana! No Glass Recycling Here!), make sure the dishwasher is full before running it, walk instead of driving, and on and on and on.
Except, is it really possible to reverse several hundreds of years of out and out environmental sodomy by taking these small steps? Is it possible to have any real-lasting effect on this enormous system we call "the environment"? I'm not sure.
I know, I know, "At least it's something." This is true. But the lifestyle changes needed should be all-encompassing and long-long-term.
Basic things, like when you use your car, need to be changed. The car, it seems, has become an extension of the body and this extension needs to be severed. Driving the car should become a unique thing.
Light usage: Next time you're in a grocery store, look up and try to count how many light fixtures are up there. I'm betting you get tired of counting before you get them all. Now think of how many stores use this many lights in your town, county, state, country?!? Holy Waa! How much light do we really need to compare two brands of pork rinds?
Excess is the credo of our society. I guess $3.50 a gallon and up is the price (literally) we pay for following this credo generation after generation.

So, what do we do? How about fuel rations? Everyone gets 35 gallons a month. Do with it what you can. When your tank is dry, you have to wait until the new month. I'd really make sure my "quick trip" to the store is worth it if this was the case. What else? How about sensors on lights so they can only be turned on when it's dark enough to need them? Graywater systems standard on all new construction. Municipal photovoltaic, hydro, and wind power-generating systems to supplement grid. Community food gardens instead of shipping food across the hemisphere. Ban NASCAR!
Oh, and everyone must fill their growlers at the Glacier Brewing Company!
P.S. In this vein, I'm thinking of collecting our beer bottles back so we can smash them and maybe use the crushed glass for landscaping or offer it to local builders as fill material. What do you think about this? Post a comment, email me (info@glacierbrewing.com) or come into the brewery and talk to me about it.