Saison's greetings

Saisons figure big in the South and Central Jersey beer picture this weekend, with River Horse Brewing pouring one at ShadFest 2011, and Iron Hill Maple Shade releasing its saison to mark a brewing collaboration and fete women beer enthusiasts.

River Horse will pour its Brewer's Reserve No. 7 saison (7% ABV) at the annual, two-day townwide event in Lambertville along with seven of its other brews, the most RH has ever put on tap for the festival. (Here's the lineup: Lager, Hop Hazard, Tripel Horse, Special, Double IPA, Double Wit, Summer Blonde and the saison. As in the past, the back lot of the brewery is blocked off for festival crowds and bands. Beers are sold and poured via a ticket system, and commemorative glasses are available for sale.)

RH's head brewer, Chris Rakow, says the Belgian farmhouse ale is a choice style of the brewery, yet one that had not made it into the production pipeline.

"It's one we always wanted to do, kind of a favorite style of the brewery, and we finally got a chance to do it," Chris says. "It has nice citrus notes, earthy notes, a little bit of tartness to it. But we wanted to accentuate the citrus notes in it, so we used lemongrass. To accentuate some of the earthy notes to it, we did white peppercorns. The white peppercorns give a little bit of funk to it, not much."

The saison gave RH a chance to bring its Brewer's Reserve series back around and settle an issue with the brewery's 12-bottle variety pack. Past Brewer's Reserve beers have ended up becoming either year-round brews (like Hop-A-Lot-Amus Double IPA) or seasonals (Oatmeal Milk Stout, Belgian Double Wit).

"In our variety pack, we always kinda struggle on a fourth beer to put in there. Usually it was Tripel. But Tripel's so popular, it's hard to steal that away from (distribution) orders," Chris says. "Then we were putting Double IPA in there, and then same thing, that was taking off. So we were like, 'Hey we could do a Brewer's reserve, get it out there again, and then we'll have a fourth beer to put in the variety pack along with Special, Hazard and Lager, and then have it draft, too.' "

Four bands are on the ShadFest music bill for the brewery back lot. Look for Chris' band, Ludlow Station, to hit the stage on Saturday. (Chris plays guitar in the group; more on that in a future post.)

Meanwhile, down in Maple Shade, Iron Hill brewer Chris LaPierre's fifth turn at a saison is probably his most endearing. Maybe that's because he made the peppercorn-spiced brew, dubbed Saizanne, with his girlfriend, Suzanne Woods (pictured at left), a Sly Fox Brewing representative.

The beer is an informal collaboration aimed squarely at the pleasure of beer, not trying to break new ground. Besides, saisons are a fav of Suzanne's. (Note: The ale isn't an actual Sly Fox-Iron Hill brewery collaboration. However, a round of Sly Fox's saison yeast was used to make it. "Which is pretty much what we always use for this beer," Chris says.) The brewpub will tap the beer (7% ABV, with a golden hue) at noon on Saturday.

Collaboration beers have been a craft beer industry trend lately. Despite that, Chris thinks they're less about fusion than beer enthusiasts may be led to believe.

"They're more about having fun than exploring," he says. "A lot of the collaboration beers I've seen out there, I kinda have to wonder did they really do anything that they wouldn't have on their own?

"With Suzanne and me, it's a little bit different because she's not a professional brewer. So it's more about her influence in brewing something that she likes, that she really enjoys. She loves saisons, and peppercorns are her favorite spice, so it was kinda more about that."

As part of the beer's release, members of In Pursuit of Ales (yes, its acronym is IPA), the Philadelphia-area women's beer club that Suzanne founded about four or five years ago, will gather at the brewpub. As will Beer for Babes, a South Jersey women's beer club founded by beer and food writer Tara Nurin, with the help of Kate Burns of Haddon Township.

Women's beer groups, Tara says, are a way to nudge perceptions of beer away from old conventions. That is, beer is not exclusively your dad's or granddad's drink. It's for everyone, and the visibility of women who enjoy craft beers for the flavor of the beverage, for their power to pair with food and for the camaraderie is growing.

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.

Down by the river, Part 2

It’s getting to the tail end of the double Belgian wit seasonal that River Horse Brewing introduced in March in draft and bottles.

Co-owner Glenn Bernabeo says they have one more tank to run through, but the beer has exceeded expectations, doing well enough to earn a place in the Lambertville brewery’s year-round lineup.

That’s not official, Glenn says, but the brew has cleared a crucial hurdle toward life as a year-round beer. Stay tuned.

RH's wit (7% ABV) debuted around March 1 as the first of a brewmaster's reserve series, and was a centerpiece of what RH poured at ShadFest April 26-27. (Check out the stills from the video shot at RH’s back lot on the Saturday of the weekend event in Lambertville. The video is for a larger piece we have in the works on RH.)

All of RH’s beers were on tap for the event, and Glenn says the brewery went through nearly 30 half barrels over ShadFest. The brewery sold 1,200 pint glasses as well. And the overall attendance at the brewery? Well, it’s just a guess, but somewhere between 1,500-2,000 people.

FYI: Glenn and Chris Walsh are closing in on their first anniversary of taking over as owners of RH and, as you would expect, are busy making plans for the next year.

Speaking of anniversaries, Tim Kelly notches his first year at the Tun Tavern this month. Tim is an alumnus of Flying Fish in Cherry Hill, and FF’s loss has clearly been the Tun’s gain.

When he took over, Tim noted he wanted to put more pub-brewed lagers on tap in Atlantic City. That’s not always an easy task, since the longer cold conditioning required for lagers ties up tank space, compared to ales, which by nature have faster turn-around times.

But Tim has managed to keep his word, and not just with seasonal lagers, like bocks. Last fall the Tun put on a Vienna lager, although its decoction-mashed Oktoberfest was fermented with an ale yeast.

Right now, the Tun’s winding down its doublebock and pouring a dark lager that’s a response to bar patrons looking for a Yuengling-like beer. But the real treat is on the horizon, a Czech pilsner that’s due on tap some time in June.

Down by the river

New Jersey's ShadFest is this Saturday and Sunday in, where else, Lambertville, that quaint southern Hunterdon County town situated along the banks of the Delaware River and Delaware-Raritan Canal that has held this annual spring event since 1981.

The festival salutes the return of shad to the river, and features plenty of food, crafts and entertainment, i.e. live music.

There's also locally brewed beer, which is one of the things that distinguishes this event. Set up in the old Original Trenton Cracker factory building, River Horse Brewing has been part of the Lambertville landscape for a dozen years now. So it's as much a flavor of the festival as the myriad ways you can prepare shad.

If you made it to River Horse's Oktoberfest event last fall, then you'll know what to expect at the brewery's back loading area come this weekend. RH co-owner Glenn Bernabeo says the brewery will have its flight of beers on tap, including its new Belgian wit and its summer blond ale. There's no cover charge; it's pay as you drink. There will also be music and food from nearby vendors.

With a lot of events like this – Long Beach Island's annual Chowderfest comes to mind – it can be nearly impossible to find a beer in which you can taste the malt and hops. That's because distributors for the big national brewers usually infiltrate with some sponsorship, and next thing you know, the only thing on tap is fizzy yellow beers that are the portrait of boredom and undermine the unique flavors that are the host town or region's specialty.

We're not picking on Chowderfest, mind you, but we do think that folks on LBI could stand to turn things up a notch and marry some better beer flavors to the locally made chowders.

But this isn't about clams and ocean waves; it's about shad and the river. So yes, it's very cool, and even special, that there's a craft brewer in town serving locally brewed beer at ShadFest.

So by all means, support the local brewer. Your palate will be glad you did.