On beer and…beer.

I don’t need much reason to drink good beer. Bad beer? That’s another story. I’ve snubbed kegs at various get-togethers. Call me a snob, but I’ve aged (and expanded) to the point where I take the judgment of John Moore, owner of Barley John’s Brew Pub in New Brighton, quite seriously when it comes to marginal, bland or otherwise bad beer: It’s not worth the calories. I’ll have water, thank you.

Fortunately, there is plenty of good beer available, and much of it is produced and served locally. Notable craft brews from Summit and Surly populate most bars claiming a good tap list, and I also see Schell’s (which also brews the classic Premium Grain Belt) on tap with increasing frequency. There’s also a growing crop of bars appealing to the beer aficionado, pulling in craft brews from home and abroad—the Happy Gnome and Muddy Pig bars in St. Paul are two notables.

Good beer. It’s just as complex to the senses as good wine, and cheaper (mostly).

For a real beer treat, however, one should visit a brewpub and sample the options. It’s not just the drinking beer part of the equation (although that’s the point) that’s satisfying. It’s also walking in while the brewing is in process: the malt-y odor of the wort cooking away is a wonderful thing (particularly in winter, when the sinuses are bone dry—the humidity is therapeutic).

Two of my favorites are the aforementioned Barley John’s and Great Waters Brewing Co. in St. Paul. For whatever reason, I hadn’t visited the latter in many months, but along came a perfect opportunity: A five-course beer dinner.

Now, I’ve gone to a few wine dinners, even had some wine training. While I’m certainly no expert, I can navigate a wine list, know what’s likely to go best with what meal. And I certainly grasp that good beer varieties are complex enough to be paired nicely with particular foods. But I’d never attended a beer dinner.

That’s nearly criminal behavior for someone who takes a professional interest in the industry. So when Stuart Gray, president of 4 Remarkable Service foodservice training company and avid good-beer fan suggested I join his motley crew on a Monday night at Great Waters, there was hardly an arm twist.

Beers were served in eight-ounce glasses, so no one stumbled or got too filled to enjoy themselves. Highlights on the food side were a pork tenderloin with fried polenta and chorizo and corn salsa paired with the Brown Trout brown ale, and a pistachio encrusted walleye with corn fritters and a yellow pepper and orange sauce paired with the Kaizerweizer Hefeweizen.

I drink a hefeweizen (wheat beer) now and again to keep my head in the game, but they are a taste I’ve never acquired. Depending on where they are produced, they have a yeast-y to citrus-y flavor profile that’s never been my choice when I want to just sit and drink a beer. This Great Waters version was quite different from those I’d been exposed to. First, it was nearly transparent. Hefeweizens are traditionally not filtered. This one wasn’t either, explained Great Waters master brewer Robert DuVernois, it was just not moved when stored and any particles just went the way of gravity. The flavor, while tasting like a hefeweizen, was also unique for its overall lightness, and in the way it fell away (at least it did for me) on the palate, almost like a fino sherry. It went well with the walleye and was sufficiently zesty to cut the sauce and corn fritters. I just might try it again on its own.

It was a great event thrown by Great Waters owner Sean O’Byrne and his staff to expand the view that beer isn’t just a beverage that pairs well with bar food.

The event also provoked a thought for the industry in general: While it’s becoming increasingly common to train servers on wine-and-food-pairing basics, why not treat the beer list—if you’ve got a good one—the same way?


Brew equipment maintenance

After the meal a few of us joined DuVernois in the brewing area for a quick look at the tanks and a chat, which reminded me of conversations I had months ago with DuVernois and Barley John’s brewer Collin Mullen regarding brewing equipment.

If there’s a trait that most brewers share, it’s self-reliance. And, it’s a trait that’s necessary for survival if one plans to have a profitable brewing business. There are no service plans—aside from individual parts—for a brewery. Much of the equipment—particularly the tanks—is purchased used or manufactured to order from a company that might not specialize in brewing equipment.

“I’ve used people who’ve made tanks for the dairy or pharmaceutical industry,” DuVernois said back then. “It’s still stainless steel.”

Both Barley John’s and Great Waters have had equipment designed specifically for their space, but, generally, until a brewer reaches a certain size, used equipment is a common path. “There’s quite an outlet for used equipment that I think a lot of people flock to,” Mullen said. “There’s new fabrication out there, but our game is also pursuing the used market, like Probrewer.com.”

Piecing equipment—new and used—together to create a functional whole requires a brewer to have a certain yen for mechanical engineering, and the ability to conduct repairs when that “whole” malfunctions. There might be a service plan for an individual part—say, a boiler—but companies that deal “turn-key” brewing apparatus are few, particularly for the small brew pub.

Fortunately, total meltdowns are rare. “It’s mostly stainless steel equipment, so as long as you clean it, your maintenance is pretty low,” DuVernois said. “You have your occasional pump problems, but those are usually seals, and those are pretty easily changed by a person working there, rather than pay a lot of money to have someone come out and do it for you.”

Equipment maintenance and repair is “part of the brewers job description,” DuVernois said. “They’re the ones that know how to make (the beer). They’re the ones that should be involved in the equipment.”

That responsibility doesn’t escape brewers at larger breweries, either, such as Surly, based in Minneapolis. “The head brewer there can also weld,” Mullen said, laughing. “One of those traits that’s handy as a brewer is to be able to deal with your equipment. Because inevitably it breaks on you, and it’s faster if you can respond to it. That’s kind of how we roll in this industry.”