Brewers and roasters, the quest for flavor

Kane's tasting room board

A couple of draft-only coffee brews emerged on the New Jersey craft beer landscape in January.

Aside from being well worth your glass, they train a spotlight on a couple of New Jersey coffee roasters and underscore how the pursuit of great coffee mirrors the quest for good beer.

Rojo's Roastery, a must-stop for any flavor-seeker visiting Lambertville, lent its expertise to River Horse Brewing for a coffee turn on the brewery's oatmeal milk stout seasonal. The roaster worked with River Horse to select the right variety of coffee bean to give the the 6.7% ABV stout some added bounce. (See Rojo's coffees here.)

Likewise, Rook Coffee Roasters teamed with their neighbor, Kane Brewing in Ocean Township in Monmouth County, for a velvety infusion of cold-brewed Sumatra in an imperial porter, called Morning Bell, that rings the bell at 9.2% ABV. 

Jamie Arnold and David Waldman

Taphandle says it 

Rook, located about a half-mile from Kane, has the added distinction of plying the coffee craft in the building where Heavyweight Brewing produced artisanal beers before exiting New Jersey in 2006 to re-emerge as a brewpub under a new identity in Philadelphia.

"They're like-minded people," says Michael Kane, whose eponymous brewery took last year's St. Patrick's Day collaboration with Rook to the next level with Morning Bell. "What's important to them about their coffee is as important to us about our beer business here."

Such is the bond among artisans, says David Waldman, who opened Rojo's in a north-end neighborhood in Lambertville in 2006. "There's a mutual respect for the respective crafts we practice," he says.

Rojo's coffees are prepared from organic, fair trade beans with a 1956 Probat roaster, a machine that echoes a golden era of coffee bars (think Beat Generation and Jack Kerouac), a roaster that David can trace back to its only other owner in Lille, France. He lovingly rebuilt it for his shop and has declined requests from the manufacturer to buy it back for their museum. "This is what we do. We don't put them in a museum," David says. "We put them to work, as they're intended."

Holly and Shawn

Founded by Shawn Kingsley and Holly Migliaccio, Rook opened three years ago with a small roaster in the Oakhurst community of Ocean Township. Another shop in Long Branch, a quick trip north, was added a little over a year later, as was the location near Kane, where the company's roasting of organic, fair trade coffees is done (on a new larger roaster) and their cold-brewed Sumatra coffee is made (Cornie-kegged and bottled) for their retail shops, including a new one in Little Silver. (Check out their coffees here.)

"Holly and I have an appreciation for anything craft. We love wines and beer and coffee," says Shawn. Collaborating with Kane "has been a great opportunity. They're in line with what we're focused on, which is craft, quality, service ..."

Says Holly: "It was such a great experience; our eyes were opened to the world of brewing beer. Then we found out that this particular location used to be a brewery."

Two worlds, single-minded passions

Coffee people move in a world that parallels their beer bretheren: Producers and aficionados are both drawn to exploring the global regions that are home to fine beers (Belgium, for instance) and beans (Costa Rica). And, among people who have experienced the rest, then became compelled to find – and/or make – the best, some overlap is inevitable.

Like coffee beer. 

Coffee beans for roasting

But that said, coffee in beer is hardly new. For that matter, neither is prevailing on local roasters to provide the beans. Yet, as a go-to beverage, coffee always suggests a new day, revisiting an old friend  – or idea. Thus, the coffee-beer combination enjoys healthy representation among stouts and porters, even Irish reds. Plug the word "coffee" into BeerAdvocate's search engine, and you'll get nearly 300 beer-name hits, nearly 50 for "java". (That doesn't even count brews like Flying Dog's Cujo, which opt for less-linear names, like Morning Bell.)

Jersey brewers are wont to give their brews espresso expression, too. The list of Garden State coffee beers includes both brewpubs (Basil T's, Triumph, Long Valley, Iron Hill, and Tun Tavern) and production brewers (Tuckahoe's New Brighton Coffee Stout and Flying Fish's Imperial Coffee Porter, both using beans from roasters local to the breweries). 

Barley and beans

At River Horse, jazzing up the oatmeal milk stout the brewery has been turning out since 2008 meant an opportunity to share some flavors the brewery staff appreciates at Rojo's in a one-off beer. (The stout is out now; check River Horse's Facebook page for availability. But hurry; it's a limited brew: Only about 60 barrels were produced.)

"It's phenomenal coffee. It's where we get our coffee from," says head brewer Chris Rakow. 

Chris teamed with Jamie Arnold, a roaster at Rojo's, to get the surest coffee flavor from the most complementary variety of bean. They chose a Guatemalan bean (Huehuetenango growing region) over Brazilian and Cost Rican, favoring its more harmonious tones and lower acidity; they opted for whole bean over a grind to minimize oxidation of the coffee and control how much coffee was imparted into the stout. They also decided to let the beer itself do some of the work post-fermentation.

"The majority (of brewers), what they will do is cold-brew and add the coffee," Chris says. "What our idea was, instead of cold-brewing it with water and adding it in, we would age the coffee on the beans. Essentially, you're doing a cold-brew with the beer and not water."

The beans were roasted on a Monday, then added two days later to the beer in a conditioning tank, a proportion of 20 pounds per 40 barrels of beer. 

"That also lends clarity to the finished product," Jamie says, "and this way, your window is a lot bigger, like when you're going to get the right amount of flavor added. The difference is in days."

Adding the cold-brewed coffee to the beer, though effective, wouldn't, for their palates, allow for the nuance they were seeking, Jamie says. "You're deciding right there how much coffee flavor is going in, and once it's in, it's in," he says.

The result of their efforts is a layered stout that unfolds with inviting coffee aroma and a friendly coffee flavor that doesn't overwhelm the beer, but rather, gently wakes it up. 

"Next year I'd like to do a specific coffee beer with them. This was just real quick," Chris says. "We just decided to take one of our beers and age it on coffee. Next year, we might try to do a separate recipe for a coffee beer."

Next year is this year for the folks at Kane Brewing. 

The question there was, how to revisit the success of last year's additions of Rook coffees, including their Sumatra, to create variations of their 6.2% ABV Port Omna Stout, done for a St. Patrick's Day tasting room event, without just repeating themselves (not that the brewery's fans would mind much). 

The answer was go back to the drawing board. Michael explains the Kane-Rook collaboration's second act: 

"People wanted us to do a coffee stout, or make more of that coffee stout. I really liked the way it came out, but I thought if we brewed a beer specifically with that coffee in mind, we could make it a little better than just adding coffee to the stout we'd already made.

"What I wanted to do was to make it a little bit different, make it a bigger beer, something that would stand up well to their Sumatra roast – the dark roast. We wanted to make it a porter base style to back off on the roasty malts that would have been in a stout, the roasted barley, the black patent – the darker roasts – and not have so much of that in the base beer.

"We thought it would be good to maybe pull a little bit from the milk stout category and pull in some of those unfermentable sugars, sweeten it up a little bit. We thought that would balance the roast and bold flavor of the coffee. We thought the higher alcohol, a bigger beer would stand up, because that's a pretty dark roast they use; we used a really concentrated version of that.

The brewery did three or four pilot batches, winding up using 15 gallons of the Sumatra cold brew in the porter. The result is a velvety porter, deep and flavorful. (Morning Bell came out the second week of January; check the brewery's Facebook page for availability and bars.)

That coffee in it, by the way, has a wide following among Rook's fans.

"It has a dark, syrupy tone to it, with chocolate notes," says Shawn. "We characterize it like dark chocolate. When you cold-brew it, it produces this concentrate, which is must less acidic than hot coffee ... When you mix it into something, it holds its flavor. Usually, when you have hot coffee poured over ice, it sometimes gets diluted. This is very smooth, very rich, very flavorful."

Rook and Kane landed on each other's radars via Nip-N-Tuck Bar & Grill in Long Branch. Holly and Shawn are friends of the owner, Bob Burtchaell. The bar's also one of Kane's draft accounts. 

"We we first went to him and started pitching the beer to him, he brought up Rook, that they're really good people, and it's a local product," Michael says. 

The same thing about Kane Brewing was pretty much happening in conversations Holly and Shawn had with Bob. 

For the brewery, one that has sourced locally produced apple cider, hops and even yeast for some of its beers, Rook was another great find. What followed was a mutual appreciation and ultimately a friendship. And opportunities to work together.

"We had tasted their beer locally," Holly says, "and knew it was far superior than other things we'd tried. So we were very excited."

"And humbled," says Shawn.

River Horse: 5 years under new owners

River Horse Brewing wrapped up its Oktoberfest last weekend, featuring its fall seasonal Hipp-O-Lantern Imperial Pumpkin Ale (among other brews), plus a cask version of its Special Ale, dressed up with bourbon-soaked oak chips, cinnamon and vanilla bean.

The crowd that packed into the brewery and its back loading area made quick work of that cask Special Ale and jammed once again to brewer Chris Rakow's band, Ludlow Station.

If you're keeping score with the Lambertville brewery, then you'll know River Horse crossed a milestone at the end of this summer, something that the annual Oktoberfest was symbolic of.

Five years ago in August, River Horse gained new owners, a changing of the guard that not only rescued a troubled brewery but set it on a steady course that has delivered Garden State craft beer enthusiasts not only a more diverse and quality beer lineup but some really creative beers in the mix as well.

Oh, and the hippos on the six-pack packaging got a makeover, too.

But it was at the 2007 Oktoberfest, then a two-day affair at the brewery (it's now a more manageable single afternoon), that Glenn Bernabeo and Chris Walsh got to really mix with those beer drinkers who remained faithful to the brand and let them know that the new owners were a couple of guys who really appreciate beer and were dedicated to rebuilding the brand.

Back in 2007, River Horse, the about 10 years in business, had fallen into inconsistency with its product quaslity, and among package store beer managers, the name was one that many were beginning to skip.

"A lot of folks thought we were out of business when we had that one and were a little surprised when they heard that things were not good," Glenn says, recalling that 2007 Oktoberfest. "That wasn't the case, obviously."

The turnaround, for a lack of a better term, involved restoring quality, shaking up River Horse's lineup that included a clutch of Belgian styles, some 1990s craft beer standards like amber and hoppy ales, and a lager. It also meant refocusing the River Horse market, ditching some distribution areas that one could easily argue had overextended the brewery.

"What we've done since we've taken over is pull the footprint in to be way more local," Glenn says. "When we started we were in Virginia; we were in D.C.; we were in Delaware; we were in Maryland; we were in Rhode Island; we were in Boston; we were in upstate New York ... We've pulled those territories in, and right now, though production-wise we're much higher volume (but), it's concentrated in a much smaller area.

"We've become focused on being a local brewery. We're predominantly in New Jersey; we're in Philadelphia/five county; we're in Lehigh Valley, out to Lancaster a little bit, Manhattan, Brooklyn, southern Connecticut ... and that's it. That's been working for us."

Something else that has worked is sharpening the brewery's business approach. It didn't hurt the brewery added tank capacity, but Glenn says production efficiencies paid off as well.

"We have added physical capacity with respect to tank space. We've also done a lot of work around our yields; we've done a lot of work around our production timing and the production flow," he says. "At the time we weren't even getting the most out of the capacity we had. So we've grown volume even more than we've actually added tanks because we've gotten a little bit sharper at how we operate the business.

"Now we're very, very regimented in terms of what our brew schedule is, how our product is launched, our packaging schedule ... We have scheduled down days just for maintenance (and) quality control. We always had the mentality that if we get the product right first, then all of the other things are going to fall in line. So far, that's been true."

So what's next for River Horse?

"We're always experimenting. We've got a Scotch ale on the horizon, some smoked beers on the horizon," Glenn says. "We're going to continue to expand our product line and try to keep things interesting and fresh."

Hold up your end of the bargain

River Horse Brewing holds its annual Oktoberfest from 1-6 p.m. on Saturday at the brewery on Lambert Lane in Lambertville.

The brew lineup for this pay-as-you-go event is Lager, Special Ale, Tripel Horse, Hop A Lot Amus, Hop Hazard, Hipp O Lantern and their new Brewer's Reserve, a dunkelweizen; the featured musical entertainment is Ludlow Station, the jam band head brewer Chris Rakow plays guitar in. (Check 'em out here, playing at last April's ShadFest.)

Unlike past years, the 2011 edition is a one-day-only affair (rain date is Sunday; past editions of the fest were spread over the weekend), and the brewery is calling on its legions of fans to lend a hand to a couple of local food pantries that are struggling to keep up with demand for their help in the flat economy.

So if you're going, pack along some of these items, and consider it holding up your end of the bargain in return for the great gig that River Horse puts on ...

• Canned soups, tuna, salmon, chicken, vegetables
• Canned or dried beans
• Rice and whole grains
• Pasta
• Tomato sauce
• 100% fruit juices
• Condiments - ketchup, mustard, salad dressings, etc.
• Baking mixes
• Cereal- hot and cold
• Baby food
• Sugar-free items (juice mixes, Jello, pudding, etc.)
• Dog and cat food

Cheers.

Roofs, River Horse & Mark Twain ...

A Mark Twain moment at River Horse Brewing in Lambertville ...

By that we mean, when Twain heard the New York Journal had published his obituary, he commented: The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated. And so it goes with reports of a partial roof collapse at River Horse brewery in Lambertville – the incident has been oversold by the headlines.

Owner Chris Walsh says rain and melting snow did drain down onto a portion of flat roof in the center part of the building above some fermenter tanks, weakening it and causing it to sag Monday evening. No one was hurt.

Yes, the fire department showed up, the water had to be drained, and today became a day to catch up on brewery paperwork and not production, Chris says. The affected area has been shored up and will be fixed, and Lambertville officials will reinspect the place.

The incident has made for slow-news-day fodder, with Philly TV, among other news agencies, sniffing around for a story. Meanwhile reports like the one Monday evening by mycentraljersey.com, which did the journalism no-no of posting unsubstantiated police radio chatter about the building sagging and in danger of collapse, are as Twain put it, greatly exaggerated.

Chris says the brewery expects to be back in production about Friday, finishing orders for Belgian Double Wit. Coming in the middle of winter, the brief shutdown won't set production back too much. "This time of year, there's no problem on the orders. If this was June I'd be freaking out," he says.

The brewery posted photos on its Facebook page around noon today, as well as a word of thanks to the Lambertville fire department.

Found on Facebook

A pumpkin done up as River Horse Brewing's Hipp-0-Lantern.

Oktoberfest glances

Scenes from the Oktoberfest dinner at Artisan's brewpub in Toms River and the brewery-backlot soiree put on each fall at River Horse Brewing in Lambertville. (Footage was shot on Flip camera, which doesn't seem to do too well in low light.)

That's Kurt Hoffmann, father of Artisan brewer Dave Hoffmann, cutting a rug, and River Horse brewer Chris Rakow playing guitar.

One bit of news out of River Horse: plans call for the fall seasonal Hipp-O-Lantern Imperial Pumpkin Ale, out this first year as a Brewer's Reserve, to be back next year under its own dedicated packaging. River Horse has launched at least a couple of beers this way, its Double Wit and Hop-a-lot-amus Double IPA come to mind.

River Horse – after ShadFest

ShadFest in Lambertville helped run down the clock on April (it was the weekend of the 24th).

And if you follow River Horse Brewing, this go-round you may have noticed something a little different about the brewery: It's really starting to hit its stride under the new ownership (RH changed hands back in 2007), getting there with a contagious enthusiasm.

To make that point may also imply that RH had fallen from favor in a few places. It's true, that happened. But since the folks there now in the red brick of the Old Trenton Cracker factory have worked really hard to get beyond that, we'll just say 'nough said 'bout that.

What supporters of Jersey beer should know is this: The atmosphere at the brewery along the Delaware River is as sunny as the playful packaging that envelopes RH's beer. Production was up 40 percent last year, and a co-owner Chris Walsh will point out they can't brew beer fast enough.

Still smiling as he tells a couple who popped in the brewery's souvenir shop about an hour before ShadFest got rolling, Chris notes: It's happening without throwing a marketing campaign behind the beer.

And for months now, Walsh and Glenn Bernabeo, RH's other co-owner, have been scouting around for more fermenter and bright beer tanks. But it's been a challenge to find tanks on the used market that fit the brewery's specifications. Glenn says it could come down to buying new.

In the meantime, managing demand calls for closer examining of orders from the brewery's distributors.

Chris Rakow, who took over head brewer duties back in January, likens the growth to an imminent blastoff. (That's Chris at left.)

"I think of this place as a spaceship on the pad. It's rumbling, the engines are going," hes says. "This past winter we sold more beer than we did the previous summer ... Summer is the busy season. The orders just keep doubling in size from every different distributor. That's why we're really trying to get some (extra) tanks in here.

"Summer Blonde, we're on our seventh (40-barrel) tank of it. And with the other beers we make year-round we're probably on our seventh tank of those beers, too. So in the past month and a half, two months, we've just been cranking that out. We're probably looking to do 12 to 15 tanks of it."

Since the 2007 ownership change, River Horse has been very much about trying new things: a cherry amber ale, a dunkel, a honey wheat, a double wit, a double IPA, a hefe-rye beer and an oatmeal milk stout. Many of those lay the foundation of RH's brewers reserve series, while some emerged as seasonals and others as year-rounds.

Chris says the next reserve brew will be an imperial pumpkin ale with fresh pumpkin, spices, maple syrup and vanilla bean. "I'm a huge fan of pumpkin beers, and it's just how the schedule worked out that the next brewers reserve was fall, so I was pushing for a pumpkin beer," he says.

Chris is from Bloomsbury in Hunterdon County and studied electrical engineering at Rutgers. He also enjoyed a turn as a homebrewer. "As soon as I found out you can make beer at home, I jumped on it. All throughout college, I was homebrewing as much as possible."

(He also plays guitar. That's him playing the Paul Reed Smith guitar with his band at ShadFest, part of the brewery's back-lot entertainment; Chris Walsh's son, Collin, a bass player, also took a turn on stage with his band. See photo below.)

Rakow's first stop after college was American Brewers Guild as a "mini-vacation before I started working." Next stop was a job as an engineer. "Loved the money, but I just hated the desk job, sitting in front of a computer all day," he says. "My ultimate plan was work as an engineer, save up some money, open a brewpub."

Chris brewed at Boston-based Harpoon Brewery's Windsor, Vt., location and was already at River Horse when the head brewer job came open in January. He ably took over those reins and welcomes the challenge of growing the brewery.

"We're just getting this place geared up to be higher volume but still stick to really good beer and really care about it."

More photos from ShadFest ...

The shad are back

The celebration of the return of shad to Delaware River waters is tomorrow in Lambertville, home of River Horse Brewing.

Folks familiar with the two-day ShadFest know it showcases the artsy community nestled along the river and canal in southern Hunterdon County.

But it's also a moment for River Horse to show off the brewery's best. This year, along side RH's flagship and seasonal brews, like Hop Hazard or Summer Ale, you can try a pint of a big, fat red rye that's brimming with hops and stands tall at 9 percent ABV.

To get something bigger, you have to reach for a Tripel Horse, a Belgian style brew that, as Mark Haynie of Mid-Atlantic Brewing News tells the story, originated from a suggestion by the late great beer hunter Michael Jackson during a visit to the brewery once upon a time. (Mark was escorting Jackson to breweries that day.)

The brewery will have a setup in its back lot, featuring food concessions and live music. It's pay as you go, and the brewery usually has commemorative pint glasses for sale.

See you there.

Jersey beers at the Brewers Plate

A quick photo pass through the 2010 Brewers Plate in Philadelphia on March 14. From top down: River Horse, Flying Fish, Triumph, Iron Hill, Boaks Beer, Climax Brewing and Cricket Hill. (As many of us know, Triumph and Iron Hill have locations on both sides of the Delaware.)

Heard at Shad Fest '09

Something newsy that came out of River Horse during Shad Fest ...

Co-owner Chris Walsh says RH fired off a letter to the state legislators who represent that chunk of Hunderton County that includes Lambertville.

The thrust of the letter, sent earlier this month, was an appeal to improve the business climate for brewers. You can pretty much frame that as a comparison to what freedoms brewers in Pennsylvania enjoy vs. New Jersey, namely that they can pull pints and sell cases and kegs, essentially acting as their own distributors within their premises, while of course here in the Garden State retail sales are capped at two six-packs or two growlers per person per visit to the brewery.

It’s worth noting that while Pennsylvania breweries like Sly Fox, Stoudt’s and Victory can do that, they also put a lot of beer on the shelves in New Jersey. Sum that up as they enjoy multiple points of sale at home and successfully compete for shelf space in New Jersey with our brewers, whom the state chokes off such opportunities. So asking Trenton to level the playing field seems only fair.

None of this is new. For a long while, it’s been a sore spot for Jersey brewers, who’ve pointed to the freedoms that Garden State wineries enjoy, which sort of match what Pennsylvania brewers can do in their state. Greg Zaccardi at High Point Brewing in Butler has for some time argued this position and is in the process of putting pen to paper like River Horse has done. Meanwhile, folks at Cricket Hill haven’t been shy about discussing this topic. Just ask Rick Reed.

For River Horse’s part, it’s encouraging that the 23rd District lawmakers said they would take a look at the beer/brewer regulations. Let’s hope they agree that an update is in order, one that should be done with business growth in mind, and respond with some legislation.

Let’s not forget what our cash-strapped state can come away with here – more revenue. Is it going to be a king’s ransom? Of course not, but New Jersey’s balance sheet is drowning in red ink, and it has been of little financial help to its towns and public schools for some time, as it tries to even out expenses vs income. So the state isn’t exactly in much of a position to be turning down an income source that’s both renewable and can be grown without having to jack up tax rates (like what's been proposed for liquor and wine taxes, and income taxes on wealthy people).

And part of that potential source, like we’ve been carping for a while, is the 7-cent sales tax, something everyone pays, so it’s not a regressive tax (like property taxes); it’s something that's evenly distributed. But there’s a wider picture, a trickle-down effect here, again as we’ve been saying a lot this year: Let the brewers sell more retail, beyond the minimum. The state will collect more in sales tax; breweries will move more beer, and if they move more beer, they’ll brew more beer, and the state collects more from the $3.72-per-barrel alcoholic beverage that tax brewers pay.

No one loses here. Not even the distributors or retail outlets because the breweries must rely on them to widen their reach and develop markets. Buying beer at the brewery is a convenience for the hordes of people who enjoy brewhouse tours each year, or have developed supportive relationships with the beer-makers and like to stop by.

And not to forget brewpubs ... They, as we’re saying yet again, should enjoy the opportunity to sign on with distributors and put their beer on the store shelves, provided they want to go to the investment expense to position themselves so. Conversely, production brewers should be allowed to also obtain brewpub licenses, and seek retail consumption licenses from their host municipalities (which can be a six- or seven-figure expense).

By the by, if you support the state’s craft brewers, you don’t have to wait on their efforts to make this case. You can write your own district lawmakers and pitch the argument.

It’s all about helping to trim the state’s bottom line and make the business climate fairer for the folks who make good beer for you.

Go fish

What we really mean to say is, take a trip to Shad Fest, but go for the beer.

Lambertville is pulling out the stops again Saturday and Sunday (noon to 5 p.m.) for the annual shad fest, and River Horse Brewing will tempt you with their Summer Blonde ale this time of year. Or if you want to go large, try their new Double Honey Weizenbock (brewed for Philly Beer Week back in March) and Double Wit Belgian ale, now in its second year as a seasonal (and new to being on shelves as a four pack).

The weather is supposed to be summerlike, in the 80s, so you can’t go wrong with the lighter, blonde brew. River Horse also has a quenching, unfiltered lager (they had it on tap back in the fall during their Oktoberfest, so maybe again in the spring). You’ll find them pouring a range of brews in the back lot of the brewery, and it’s pay as you go so you can get a full pint (just buy the glass).

There's a lot of local support for the brewery, and RH can draw a crowd with its brews. But they’ve scored some extra space this year, so you’ll have plenty of elbow room to enjoy the beer and food. We confess, the shad chowder really isn’t something to write home about, but there’s plenty of selection in the cuisine concession.

The great thing about going to Lambertville, as we’ve said boatloads of times, is you can explore the best of two beer worlds, since over the bridge (within walking distance) in New Hope is Triumph Brewing.

Pictured below is Triumph’s beer board pulled from their Web site. It looks a little sparse for them, but as of this writing, it could have been updated. With 80-degree weather, go for the kellerbier if you wander over.

Dark beers, new frontiers

We shot up to Lambertville on Saturday for a return visit to River Horse Brewing’s Oktoberfest observance.

But that’s only half the story. The lead is what’s going on with RH. The hippo’s got a new swagger.

Sure, the O-fest was fun, and if you’ve never been to one of RH’s two-day affairs, you should go. Good bands (519 South rocks, no lie), good food, good time. That's Rich Dalrymple (above right) sporting the lederhosen. Rich just returned from a two-year stay in Hamburg, Germany, for work purposes. (He had to skip Oktoberfest in Munich this year, but was there last year.)

Rich gets rock ’n’ roll points for exiting Germany via the Reeperbahn, the city’s happening nightlife district that's also famously remembered as the place where The Beatles honed their chops before going on to wider glory.

Rich says he made one final tour of the Reeperbahn before catching his flight to the States.

But the story here is the beer.

When Glenn Bernabeo and Chris Walsh, two beer enthusiasts from the finance world, took over RH a little more than a year ago, they knew there would be some changes to come under their stewardship. To their credit, Chris and Glenn spent some time getting a feel for the topography before making those changes.

That’s the backstory. What’s new is this: gold medals, dark beers and new frontiers.

For instance, RH’s Double Belgian Wit and Cherry Imperial Amber, the first two installments of RH’s Brewer’s Reserve series (a stout will be the third; more on that in a bit), each won World Beer Championship gold medals. The wit was popular enough to earn a place in RH’s regular beer lineup. The cherry, well, we recommend you try it. Some nice flavors unfold with this beer, and cherry is just one.

But there’s more.

Dunkel Fester, RH’s draft-only dark lager for the autumn, proved so popular that demand outpaced availability (RH did a limited brew of one tank with Fester). Rest assured, that lesson has been taken to heart and Fester will come back in 2009 in bottles, too.

(Fester was in a lot of glasses on Saturday, and one chap we talked to had this to say upon being told of the bottling plans: They better!)

Did we mention there’s more?

Down the road, look for a double IPA, featuring Perle hops. But next month get ready for Brewers Reserve 003, an oatmeal milk stout that we got an advance taste on Saturday. It’s silky smooth from the oats, roasty in a lot of places and sweet in between. The fusion of oats and milk was the brainchild of Jeremy Myers, RH’s assistant brewer since May.

A Penn State grad, Jeremy’s a product of Lambertville, and comes to the brewery by way of Churchville, Pa. When he’s not helping brewers Christian Ryan and Tim Bryan, he’s probably working with his screen printing business, Jump Start, in Philadelphia.

Jeremy’s friends had a hand in RH’s new packaging (photo above): Jon Loudon did the layout on the new variety packs, and Bruno Guerreiro designed that hippo with some attitude.

Wait, there’s even more.

Tried RH’s lager lately? They switched to a Danish yeast and are bottling and kegging the beer unfiltered. It has a biscuity signature and gentle hop smack, quite drinkable at 4-and-change ABV. (The lager and Fester were the beers we had seconds of on Saturday.)

RH ... new swagger and making a splash.