Brian Strumke is an East Baltimore native, ex-techno dj/producer and current Belgian beer fanatic. Michael had met up with him a few years back to talk homebrewing sours, but this time around we wanted to talk to Brian about Stillwater Artisanal Ales, his new commercial venture. So we headed up from DC to Baltimore after work to meet up with Brian at his house in Brewer's Hill, appropriately in the shadow of the old National Bohemian Brewery (Natty Boh). As an added bonus, noted Belgian beer expert, and Brian's East Baltimore neighbor, Chuck Cook joined us for the evening. Chuck told us a great story about how he smuggled a bottle of one of Brian's sours over to Belgium and into the hands of that godhead of Belgian beer arcanery Tim Webb, who when pressed to identify the beer, mistook it for one brewed at one of the tradition lambic houses.
Brian has just bottled his first beer under the Stillwater banner at the Dog Brewing Co. in Westminster, Maryland. Brian's vision is for a travellin' brewer setup similar to Pretty Things, whom Brian had not heard of until just recently, in which he rents time, space and resources at an established brewery. This has allowed him to start brewing commercially for a much smaller cash outlay than it would have to buy the tanks and equipment necessary to start brewing from scratch. It also allows him the flexibility to brew a smaller amount of beer, or switch brewing facilities if a better situation comes along. He has also teamed up with 12% Imports which will be taking his beer all across the country with shallow/wide distribution. Brian hopes to complete against similar Belgian operations which are highly sought after, but hard to come by.
The story of Selin's Grove Brewing Co. is the story of a couple of over-achieving, modern day beer-steaders. Steve Leason and his wife Heather McNabb opened Selin's Grove in 1996, at the peak of the second wave of the American Craft Beer Renaissance. They had started brewing together years before in a fisherman's shack on the Maine coast, where they worked as innkeepers. A journey out West, including a stint at the burgeoning New Belgium Brewing Co. in Ft. Collins, Colorado and an inspirational, slapdash trip to Belgium fomented their dream of opening Selin's Grove.
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Steve does a yeoman's job producing a broad range of beers with precision. He has a definite bent toward organic practices, with 3 organic beers on tap for our visit: Baltic Porter, Shade Mountain Oatmeal Stout (that he has been tweaking) and a really well executed Pilsner. Many of the organic beers we've encountered seem to leave a bit desired; not so at Selin's Grove. Steve has been happy with the quality and diversity of organic malts available, though he admits many organic hops from New Zealand and the US are behind the curve. He looks to Europe for organic hops. 
Steve's Stealth Tripel was really exceptional, showing no higher alcohol flavors and lots of honied fruit. He uses a mix of Trappist yeasts: the "Bastogne" strain from Orval and Westmalle's strain to help the 9% abv beer attenuate. 
Having tried a few different and striking bottles from Bullfrog Brewery in Williamsport, PA we knew it was only a matter of time before we would be making the trek up to meet head brewer Terry Hawbaker: friends of ours had smuggled to DC bottles of Bullfrog's "El Rojo Diablo" - a Cabernet Sauvignon barrel aged sour red ale dry hopped with 3 pounds of hops in the barrel, and "Magic Beans" - a barrel aged, soured black saison with chocolate and vanilla beans. Terry's experiments with wild yeast and barrel aging have garnered him both a GABF gold medal in the Wood and Barrel Aged Sour category for "BeeKeeper" and a cult following amongst the beer geekerati.
Their ambitious schedule of bottle releases of single barrel experiments, painstakingly blended and hand bottled in the cellar have been wildly successful. It's a demanding job keeping the pub supplied with interesting, new drafts and burning the other end of the candle keeping the bottling schedule on-line and it's apparent that these guys are not getting a lot of sleep (and further apparent they're doing so without regret). They are not giving themselves a break either, with plans to put in several more barrel racks in the near future: Underground, Independent...Maximum Rock N' Roll.
Terry's big 8% abv Edgar IPA is his best selling beer, which they have to scramble to keep in the tanks. Bullfrog has bullied and corrupted their local clientele to expect evermore artful and compelling beers with each return visit. Even his hop bombs haven't escaped the creeping influence of wild yeast, as shortly before our trip Bullfrog released bottles of "Undead Ed" which is a reformulation of Edgar IPA with brettanomyces, which dries out and sharpens the beer, as well as adding enticing aromatics.
It seems Terry is near bursting with ideas for new beers and is only bound by the limitations of the physical space of the cellar and hours in the day. He apprenticed in a very serious bakery that specialized in spontaneous leavening years back that served as his introduction to wild yeast and acid producing bacteria, and he has proved an apt pupil. Terry very consciously sees his brewing as an act of art, yet without any pretense or pomp.
Both Terry and Nate are that great combination of easy going and really engaging, equally music and beer possessed and have fanatic homebrewing backgrounds. Nate just bought a used 55 gallon system to start filling barrels at home: a man after our own hearts. They are both passionate about the entire spectrum of brewing from dialing-in their house Blonde, to Terry's quest for the ultimate Scotch ale, to all the barreled madness.
A bottle of De Dolle's Oerbier Reserva stands sentry over the mash tun. It's one of our favorite and inspiring beers, a mixed fermentation goliath (~13% abv), aged in used Bordeaux casks for 18 months, and it made absolute sense to see it there. We also spotted a bottle of Pretty Thing's Baby Tree on the stairs down to the cellar, who we visited with just a few months back.
Bullfrog was founded in 1996, and still operated by Steve Koch and his father Bob. Charlie Schnable brewed there for 5 years before leaving to open Otto's in State College, PA. Terry came on board in 2004, after brewing for the now shuttered Black Rock Brewing Co. in Wilkes-Barre, PA. Steve has given Terry free rein in the brew house which has paved the way for some really radical creations.
The copper brew house at Bullfrog is an Old World showpiece...
The fermenters and conditioning tanks are right behind the bar, making even transferring beers something that must be done before any customers arrive. Bar patrons have a front row view to the ageless mystery of fermentation.
David was waiting for us on an overcast Wednesday morning at 8:15AM with sacks of milled grain to brew his Summer S.A.S.E., a session ale brewed exclusively with Sybilla hops from Poland. David is a real stand up guy with an easy-zen-humor that puts you immediately at ease and the 7 barrel brewhouse is second nature to him. Within minutes we were up on the platform taking turns dumping sacks of grain in the mash/lauter tun and canoe paddling the thickening mash. We hit our mash temperature dead-on.
While we waited on the kettle to fill with wort and then come to a boil, we ran the numbers on the Sybilla hops, which David had never used before, to determine our hopping schedule.
Next up was the boil and hop additions...
at the end of the boil, we whirlpooled and ran sanitizer through the fermenter.
When we had transferred all the boiled wort from the kettle it was boots on ...
for hopping in and scouring the inside of the kettle, it’s a sweaty but vital job. Lastly we harvested fresh yeast from the bottom of one of the fermentors and pitched it into the cooled wort.
Everything we sampled throughout the brew day demonstrated David’s assured experience and hop sensitivity: including a super dry, spicy saison fresh from the tank, a crisp Imperial Pilsner ale, and 2IPA, a lush, fruity hop bomb. What really floored us was his huge funky blend of intentionally soured Imperial Porter, vintage Willi Whammer barleywine and some of his solera funk that made for this really ponderous chocolate, oaky, lactic masterpiece.
Among other brewing memorabilia David has on prominent display in the brewhouse is a big picture of the 3 Stooges, stooging out with bottles of beer. The Stooge spirit seemed to increasingly pervade the brew day with everyone naturally adopting their respective personae (Nathan>Larry, Mike>Curly, David>Moe).
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