St. Stan's Brewing Company April

April

St. Stan's Brewing Company

St. Stan's Brewing Company traces its origins back to 1973, when Garith Helm and his wife Romy became interested in brewing German-style beers as a hobby after returning from a trip to Germany. After many experimental brews and several visits to Germany, they successfully produced an "Alt" beer, a style that is popular in Dusseldorf, Germany. Encouraged by the reception given to their beer by friends, Romy and Garith decided to build a modest brewery adjacent to their home in Modesto, California. Construction of the 1,000 barrel brewery commenced in 1981, and was completed in 1984. Their first commercial beer was produced in July1984, but was limited to kegs. By 1986 they were able to bottle their beer in liter bottles, but this necessitated expansion of the brewery. It wasn't until 1987 that they could finally bottle in 12 ounce, but once again, they faced a problem.

The original brewery that Romy and Garith had built next to their home was now running at full capacity. They knew that a new brewery would need to be built and so in the fall of 1989 they broke ground on a new facility in downtown Modesto. The new brewery was built with a capacity of 12,000 barrels per year and was completed in September 1990. To ensure the best beers possible, Romy and Garith had an up-to-date microbiological lab built so that they could constantly monitor each batch of beer. In addition, all of their fermentation and storage tanks are constructed of stainless steel. St. Stan's Amber Alt is brewed in the Altbier style of Dusseldorf, Germany with a malty, creamy smooth flavor. It is medium bodied, dry, has a mild bitterness, bright copper color and pleasant lingering flavors. The Amber Alt recently received a Silver medal at the World Beer Championships. Visit St. Stan's Online!

Whistle Stop Ale

Alcohol (% by Volume)	4.0
Original Gravity	1042
Bitterness Units (IBU)	32
Malts Used	Pale, Wheat, Caramel and Cara Pils
Hops Used	Chinook and Kent Goldings

Amber Alt

Alcohol (% by Volume)	5.8
Original Gravity	1048
Bitterness Units (IBU)	16
Malts Used	Pale, Caramel
Hops Used	Fuggles, Tettnang, Cascade

St. Stans newest product, Whistle Stop Ale is a traditional British Pale Ale. The color is that of golden straw. The aroma is brimming with hints of fruit intertwined and balanced with hop assertiveness. The front of the palate is light, round and clean with a dry-freshness on the finish. Whistle Stop Pale Ale's whimsical tag line, "Wet Your Whistle," is so named because St. Stan's Brewery is located between two railroad lines, the Southern Pacific and the Union Pacific Tidewater. On occasions when both trains pass simultaneously, customers are "train locked" and St. Stan's is the only place to "Wet Your Whistle"!

St. Stan's Amber Alt is brewed in the Altbier style of Dusseldorf, Germany with a malty, creamy smooth flavor. It is medium bodied, dry, has a mild bitterness, bright copper color and pleasant lingering flavors. The Amber Alt recently received a Silver medal at the World Beer Championships.

Smuttynose Brewing Company

Peter Egelston, the owner and founder of Smuttynose is quite well known in the New England brewing community. Not only did he start one of the original New England brewpubs, but also has succeeded in opening a second brewpub, a brewery, and one of the most well attended beer festivals in the Northeast.

His beer career started in 1986 when his sister Janet and her boyfriend Mark convinced Peter to quite his teaching job in Brooklyn, New York and move to Massachusetts to open a brewpub. Peter stayed in Massachusetts until 1991, at which point he opened New Hampshire's first brewpub, the Portsmouth Brewery. With two successful brewpubs under his belt, Peter was ready open his first brewery. In 1994 Peter opened Smuttynose Brewing, which is also located in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The brewery was built on the ruins of the Frank Jones Brewing Company, a brewery that opened in 1992 and went out of business a year later. Peter chose to name the brewery after Smuttynose Island, one of the isles of Shoals, which lie nine miles off the coast of New Hampshire and Maine. Legend has it that mariners in the 1600s named the island for the dark seaweed-covered rock ledge that juts out from one end of the island. For over three centuries, poets, pirates and fishermen have called the Isles of Shoals home. You can take a visit yourself at Smuttynose Online.

Old Brown Dog Ale

Original Gravity	15 degrees Plato
Alcohol (% by Volume)	5.6
Malts Used	2 row domestic pale, munich, caramel, chocolate
Hops Used	galena, willamette, cascade

Portsmouth Lager

Original Gravity	11.5 Plato
Alcohol (% by Volume)	4.5
Malts Used	2-row domestic Pale, Cara-Vienna
Hops Used	Cascade, Hallertau, Tettnanger

Old Brown Dog, our first feature from Smuttynose this month, has been around for many years. It was first brewed in 1989 at the Northampton Brewery. In 1989 it won a silver medal in its category at the Great American Beer Festival in Denver. For years now, "the Dog" has been the best-known beer at the Portsmouth and Northampton Breweries. Now, after years of very limited availability, Old Brown Dog is finally in bottles and on draft. Old Brown Dog has been cited as a classic example of the "American Brown Ale" style of beer. Compared to typical English Brown Ales, Old Brown Dog is fuller-bodied and more strongly hopped.

Our second feature, Smuttynose Portsmouth Lager is the brewery's fourth full-time beer. Named after the brewery's hometown on the occasion of its 375th anniversary, Portsmouth Lager is a full-flavored, medium bodied continental-style beer, deep golden in color, featuring a mouth-pleasing maltiness subtly balanced with spicy Hallertau and Tettnanger hops. One taste of this fine lager tells you this is no ordinary beer: From its mellow, velvety body to its lingering, fresh hop finish, Portsmouth Lager is smooth, complex and satisfying.