Third Street Aleworks News with Tyler Laverty leads off today’s show. He is back on Brew Ha Ha with Harry Duke and Herlinda Heras after appearing here just one month ago. He is here to deliver the news that after 26 years in the same location, they have decided not to renew the lease at the downtown pub location. However, they will continue to produce and distribute beer. They have been building a production facility already for about a year. They will self-distribute locally and have established local distributors in other counties.

Visit our sponsor Victory House online for their latest viewing and menu options.

Tuesday, March 14 will be the last day of operations. They will also continue to participate in San Francisco Beer Week and Santa Rosa’s own Beer Passport in “Feb-Brew-ary” and they eventually plan to have a new taproom. Third Street Aleworks is iconic. It was the first brew pub where both Harry and Tyler had a beer when they each came to Santa Rosa. They opened on March 8, 1996, so they will celebrate their 27th anniversary.

Russian River Brewing Co. is open in Santa Rosa on 4th St. and at their big Windsor location. Visit their website for up-to-date hours, menus, beers and more info.

They are tasting one of Third Street Aleworks’ west coast IPAs. This is called Big Picture IPA, which uses Amarillo, Simcoe and Strada hops, which they put right on the can, so people know what went into it. One of their owners, Matt Vella, designs all of their labels.

Distribution will be crucial for their new success. And, as long as they are still open downtown, Bayou on the Bay will continue to provide food at the taproom, seven days a week. They will have cans of their dry stout again, which they sold out of a month before they won the gold medal at GABF and the Beer World Cup.

Jenny Ogston and Wes Skelton from Victory House and Poppy Bank Epicenter are in studio with Harry Duke today on Brew Ha Ha. They are also expecting a phone call from Herlinda Heras who is in Krakow, Poland, where she is judging a big beer competition.

Jenny Ogston is the GM of Poppy Bank Epicenter and Wes Skelton is the front-of-house food and beverage manager of Victory House. Poppy Bank Epicenter has several areas devoted to different kinds of sports and recreation. There are all these different attractions: Sports City, an entertainment arcade with bowling, pool and darts; Victory House, AnyTime Fitness and Sky Zone, a trampoline park. Victory House is a restaurant and sports bar full of big screens with a great menu of food and beverages. Wes describes Victory House as a giant sports bar.

They taste a cocktail that Wes invented, called Tamarind Mango Mule. It has Tamarind vodka, fresh lime juice, mango purée and ginger beer. There are at least 24 beers on tap there too. They have Modelo, Third Street Aleworks, Parliament, Hen House, Sierra Nevada, Lagunitas and many more.

Herlinda Heras calls in from Krakow, Poland. She is judging the national beer competition there along with other judges from many other countries. She will bring some Polish beers back to Santa Rosa. Herlinda will also have some guests from Poland on the show in the near future.

The Victory House opens at 6:30 am for the World Cup final games this weekend. They have lots of NFL games on the big screens. Generally, the 49ers take priority when they are playing, but there are other teams that have followings too.

Poppy Bank Epicenter has a New Year’s Eve Family Party, which is a great place to bring the family, so the grown-ups can have a nice time together while the children are busy playing games. They do the balloon drop at 9pm west coast time, for the benefit of the families.

Casey Williams (l) & James Claus (r)

James Claus, co-owner and brewmaster of 3 Disciples Brewing is here, and so is Casey Williams of Barrel Proof Comedy, to join Harry Duke and Herlinda Heras on Brew Ha Ha today.

Casey Williams has been doing comedy shows at 3 Disciples and still does shows at Barrel Proof Comedy. He spent fifteen years in the carting business and was doing comedy shows on the side.

3 Disciples Brewing is located in Santa Rosa (next to the Tipsy Taco). They celebrate their fifth anniversary next year. Matt, Luke and James are the three disciples and their mottos is, “Beer is our religion.”

Sally Tomatoes is still an event center, even if the restaurant is closed. James describes how they turned their location into one of the best music and comedy venues in Sonoma County. They moved brewing operations from Sebastopol to Santa Rosa about a year and a half ago. It is a great space and they are working on getting their operation moved to 1018 Santa Rosa Plaza for the last year. It is the old Two Tread location and came with equipment. As of Jan. 1 they will be moved in entirely. James is very happy with the new venue.

Russian River Brewing Co. is open in Santa Rosa on 4th St. and at their big Windsor location. Visit their website for up-to-date hours, menus, beers and more info.

There is big Brews News today, which they describe as two doors opening. As 3 Disciples are leaving the old venue, Casey is taking it over. 501 Mendocino Ave. will now be called Barrel Proof, an entertainment venue for comedy and music. It is also a great location and Casey knows its potential. Barrel Proof will still sell 3 Disciples beer. They also have the Tipsy Taco next door and food trucks that come by. The new 3 Disciples location does have a kitchen. “I can promise you it will be great.” Barrel Proof has a goal of opening by the third week in January.

3 Disciples started in Sebastopol seven years ago. Two years ago they moved into 501 Mendocino but they have outgrown it. Ron Sly does the artwork on the 3 Disciples cans. They have known Ron for a while, he used to be in the same home brew club. When Covid happened, breweries needed to distribute beer in cans, so they needed good art. James new Ron was perfect for that gig. Let There Be Light Pilsner, a German style beer, clean and light, with German hops. It’s only 5% and it’s a Pilsner. 3 Disciples started with three Belgian styles. Since the people like IPAs now, they had to make a lot of that.

Visit our sponsor Victory House online for their latest viewing and menu options.

They second beer is their new West Coast IPA, 3D IPA. 6.5% with Idaho 7 Centennial and Cascade hops. He gets lemon and pineapple flavors. The Cascade hops give citrus notes and the Centennial gives pineapple flavors. The next one is called Galaxy Invaders, a hazy IPA. It is primarily Galaxy hops from Australia, and the 2022 vintage. The hops are fresh from a month ago, where it’s summer down under. The fourth beer is called Galaxy, Citra and Mosaic and features Galaxy invaders from outer space. Then there is a kettle sour called Fruity Kettles, made with apricot, peach, tangerine, vanilla and milk sugar.

Anchor Brewing historian Dave Burkhart and former Anchor brewing chief Mark Carpenter join Harry Duke and Herlinda Heras on Brew Ha Ha today. Mark Carpenter is the former co-host of this show who began working at Anchor in 1971. Author Dave Burkhart has been with Anchor Brewing Co. for thirty-one and a half years. Very early in his tenure began collecting historical documentation of the brewery. His book, The Anchor Brewing Story, has just been published.

Mark and Dave agree that Anchor has a bright future since the new owners (Sapporo) are investing heavily in the company. Dave started at Anchor on a Monday and by the following Saturday, he started researching the company. In 2010, he took the title Anchor Historian. He describes finding out about the original owner Gottfried Breckle, who first went from Germany in 1852 to Valdivia, Chile. It was “the irresistible lure of gold” that brought him to California.

A lot of this early family history is documented on this page of the Anchor Brewing website. Gottfried came to California in late 1953 or early 1854 and worked in the gold fields, then worked for a local brewery. He became an American citizen in 1854. He “did what everyone did in the gold rush, he reinvented himself.” Eventually he owned the Golden Gate Brewery in San Francisco, which burned down. He took the insurance money back to Germany and opened a brewery there. Then he came back to San Francisco and opened another brewery in the Russian Hill neighborhood. Then he sold it and invested in a saloon that they turned into brewery in 1871. That marks the beginning of the company that became Anchor in 1896.

Russian River Brewing Co. is open in Santa Rosa on 4th St. and at their big Windsor location. Visit their website for up-to-date hours, menus, beers and more info.

There were more than thirty breweries in San Francisco in the late 1800s and 847 drinking establishments in town, as well as many corner grocery stores in the city which also served beer in the back room.

There is a pub now at Anchor Brewery that is a showcase for their panorama of beer recipes. One is Humming Ale, which uses Nelson hops. It’s the same recipe as Liberty Ale except that uses Cascade hops. That was the first IPA in California, although they did not want to call it that. Fritz Maytag, who was Anchor’s owner at the time of its late 1960s rebirth, wanted to make that type of beer that he remembered from his student days back east. It has a lot more hops than other beers at the time.

Visit our sponsor Victory House online for their latest viewing and menu options.

Steam Beer is called a California Common in the beer index books. There are several possible origins of the term Steam Beer. It is a California story and without Anchor there would be none of it. Lager beer needs cold conditions, so there was no ice in the city and they needed to make beer without it. They came up with the idea of a Cool Ship, a large shallow pan with a large surface area. It was exposed to the atmosphere, there were louvered windows in the room. The mean temperature was cooler then than now. When the warm wort was pumped up into the cool ship, the difference in temperature produced steam.

Another theory holds that when they dropped the beer back to the floor below, they added yeast to it. Then they filled large wooden barrels with the beer. If a bartender opened a keg while the beer was still fermenting, tapping the keg would produce a spray that was similar to steam. Yet another idea is that bartenders would pour from different kegs of different ages. The newest beer was the foamiest. So there is some uncertainty about the term.

Today is the forty-seventh anniversary of the first brewing of Anchor Christmas Ale. There is a different tree on the label every year. This year, it is a Blue Gum tree, also known as the Eucalyptus.

Sean Paxton and Lauren Price

Mindscape Fermentations co-owner and brewer Lauren Price and Home Brew Chef Sean Paxton are our guests today on Brew Ha Ha with Harry Duke and Herlinda Heras. Sean Paxton has been a guest on Brew Ha Ha thrice since this first appearance in April of 2018. He was back in November of that year in time for this episode. His last time on the show was this show in November of 2019 which was all about turkey.

Lauren Price is the co-owner and brewer at Mindscape Fermentations, whih does all things fermented so that means Kombucha, Kimchee, Sauerkraut and more.

Sean Paxton the Home Brew Chef is in to talk about cooking with beer again. He has had the number one Beer Brine Turkey recipe online.

The Mindscape Fermentations mission of uniting fermentation across all cultures, including foods and beverages that are fermented. Her title is Microbe Manager. She describex how we have a relationship with the microbes. They opened about six months ago and are located in Rocklin right off Hwy 80, just outside Sacramento on the way towards Reno. Lauren did the Master’s program at UC Davis when Charlie Bamforth “The Pope of Foam” was teaching there. She has brought Alligator Teeth pale ale and a Kombucha with cotton candy grapes, for tasting. They also have some Knuckleballs, which are stuffed pizza dough balls, to snack on.

Visit our sponsor Victory House online for their latest viewing and menu options.

Sean has of course been on a few times before Thanksgiving. His chef uses spelt and whole wheat flour and a special culture to make his pizza dough. They use local organic ingredients.

Lauren has poured the Mindscape Fermentations pale ale called Alligator Teeth. It uses special hops, Bravo and Idaho Seven. Mindscape Fermentations allows outside food at their location and they also have panini and cured meat platters. Their place is a hybrid between a taproom and a very low-key restaurant.

Russian River Brewing Co. is open in Santa Rosa on 4th St. and at their big Windsor location. Visit their website for up-to-date hours, menus, beers and more info.

Sean’s website Home Brew Chef has several beer bring turkey recipes. The doppelbock beer is Sean’s favorite for cooking but it is a style that is not easy to come by these days. He also mentions that the Russian River Brewing Co. beers are all very food-friendly because of their intense flavors. Hoppy beers should not be cooked unless you are adding a lot of extra sugars. The hop oils intensify and make harsher flavors.

Herlinda remembers a salad dressing that Sean made with a Bear Republic Racer 5. He mentions that his website is an online cookbook and the recipes are set up to help cooks that are cooking for groups of all sizes, not just four servings.

Sean was in a movie called Beers of Joy which is available on various streaming services.

Later we get to the Kombucha from Mindscape Fermentations, which is a kind of fermented tea. It is called Gypsy Games.

Ed McGrath from Ace Cider and Adam Ray, founder of Beer City are both guests on Brew Ha Ha with Harry Duke and Herlinda Heras. We have had Ed McGrath on Brew Ha Ha most recently on this July 2020 episode.

Brew’s News with Herlinda is sponsored by the Beer City Festival, which was going to be in Calistoga in November this year but instead will be held Easter weekend, April 16th, 2023. Also, Santa Rosa will have a Beer City festival on February 25th, 2023, downtown in Old Courthouse Square.

They begin the show by christening the new KSRO studio with an heirloom cider. It’s a dry cider that tastes a bit different every year. It is 9% ABV, Herlinda calls it “sneaky.”

This is an heirloom cider made from local Gravenstein apples. The French ciders have less alcohol and uses more traditional cider apples. During Prohibition all the American cider apples were chopped down because they’re not for eating. Today there is a west coast style cider, called Blackjack, made from west coast apples. There are also distinctive ciders coming from New York and Michigan. Ace Cider founder Jeffery House has been a guest on Brew Ha Ha before.

Visit our sponsor Victory House online for their latest viewing and menu options.

They have another cider called Ace High, a card playing reference. It is semi dry and has subtle fruit flavors. Ace doesn’t add food coloring or sugars so the colors are all natural. Blueberry doesn’t give color, so the other berries do.

Beer City is less than a year old. Adam Ray tells about how the idea started in Santa Rosa, about how to create an attraction.

Ed McGrath is happy to have introduced cider to more people than anybody. Cider is gluten free, since there is no grain.

Russian River Brewing Co. is open in Santa Rosa on 4th St. and at their big Windsor location. Visit their website for up-to-date hours, menus, beers and more info.

Cider is the perfect pairing for a lot of Thanksgiving foods; not the sugary non-alcoholic kind, but the real fermented cider. Ace has also made a seasonal pumpkin cider (although the pumpkin is nearly flavorless and what we are actually tasting in all of these things is the spices, not the pumpkin).

Hendrick Verspecht

Brew Ha Ha gets a visit from Hendrick Verspecht from cuVer Brewing. He has been on Brew Ha Ha before. Today he brought some beer to the studio. He brought their three Belgians. Pepperwood Saison, a Belgian Saison with meyer lemon peel and bay leaf, and two types of Belgian abbey ales, a golden one and a dark one.

Tyler Laverty, Vinnie Cilurzo and Brian Hunt are all guests today on Brew Ha Ha with Harry Duke and Herlinda Heras. Tyler Laverty is brewmaster at Third Street Aleworks. Vinnie Cilurzo is brewmaster and a co-founder of Russian River Brewing Company. Brian Hunt is the founder, co-owner and brewmaster at Moonlight Brewing Company. This is a powerful bunch of beer guys AND they all just won medals at the Great American Beer Festival.

They can’t resist joking about playing fast and loose with the “official” brew descriptions of the BJCP, which are online here. Listen to these beer heavyweights, check out the BJCP descriptions they’re referencing, taste some of the beer, and then see what you think. That’s the scientific method as applied to this show. This kind of audience involvement shows the power of radio and beer together. Taste and see. And tell your friends!

Visit our sponsor Victory House online for their latest viewing and menu options.

Brian Hunt describes the Moonlight beer called Wee Nibble that won a medal. His brewmaster Zach Greenwood wanted to make a Petit Saison which ended up winning.

Vinnie Cilurzo describes the beer that won a medal for Russian River Brewing Co. called Intinction.

Tyler Laverty describes the challenging business environment and the recent changes at Third Street Aleworks. They have had to close the restaurant and now they have popups providing food. Bayou On The Bay has taken up residency and he brought a Cajun Birria style taco, and the Cajun Cali Burrito, from their menu.

Russian River Brewing Co. is open in Santa Rosa on 4th St. and at their big Windsor location. Visit their website for up-to-date hours, menus, beers and more info.

Dylan Prater of Mother Road Brewing Co.

Brendan Moylan, founder of Moylan’s Brewery & Restaurant, Moylan’s Distilling and the now-closed Marin Brewing joins Herlinda Heras on Brew Ha Ha. Peter Lopez is sitting in for Harry Duke today.

Harry Duke, finishing his interstate tour this week, is calling in from Flagstaff, Arizona with Dylan Prater on the line, who is the manager of Mother Road Brewing Company in Flagstaff. John Steinbeck called Route 66 The Mother Road in The Grapes of Wrath. In November Mother Road Brewing Co. will celebrate their 11th anniversary. Their two core beers are the Tower Station IPA, the number one selling independently owned IPA in the state, and the other is Conserve and Protect Golden Ale. A portion of its proceeds go to the Arizona Game and Fish Dept. The taproom in Flagstaff is also the original brewery, although they also brew beer in another nearby location. Dylan describes their quest to provide “radical hospitality” to make it a place you will want to visit.

Brendan Moylan

He started the first brewery after attending St. Mary’s College. “I just knew I wasn’t going to be an accountant and I had to have a plan.” He was one of the founders of Marin Brewing Company in 1989 when there were only 25 breweries in California. Today there are thousands. Today he has Moylan’s Brewery. They are located in Novato right off the 101. One of their signature beers is a Scotch Ale. Beers from Scotland will be light on the hops. Moylan’s Distillery opened in 2003/2004. They are located behind the Buckhorn in Petaluma. Their whiskey has won many awards.

Moylan’s is huge inside and has a menu with things like a half-pound hamburger, an epic corned-beef Reuben sandwich, bangers and mash with a lot of mash, fish and chips and all kinds of pizzas and salads. Marin Brewing Co. used to have a lot of beers on tap and Moylan’s also has a lot, they have 12 on tap now. They just installed a 2000-pound mill on the second floor. Marin Brewing Co. had a 32-year run.

Herlinda mentions that Anchor’s Liberty Ale was the first IPA, they just didn’t call it that. Brendan mentions that the youngest beer consumers today are interested in having a constant rotation of new beers. Moylan’s has an active Facebook and Instagram, and they are open 7 days a week until 9pm. They plan to bring back live music next year.

Russian River Brewing Co. is open in Santa Rosa on 4th St. and at their big Windsor location. Visit their website for up-to-date hours, menus, beers and more info.

Susan Boyle

Susan Boyle, the Irish Spirits Ambassador is the guest of Herlinda Heras with Peter Lopez who is sitting in for Harry Duke on Brew Ha Ha today.

First, Harry Duke is calling in from a roadside attraction on Route 66 in Oklahoma, on his road trip. Oklahoma City has a thriving craft beer scene, and he’s “not in the land of IPAs anymore.” If he sees one or two on the board, it’s a surprise. The Pilsners and Lagers are more popular there among the craft brewers. They are going from their Fall beers to their Winter beers.

Bord Bia is the Irish Food Board, that oversees food and drink exports from Ireland. There is a renaissance going on in Irish distilling. After the low point of the 1960s there has been a great revival. Herlinda points out that Bourbon and Whiskey start off with the wort, the same way beer does, only they don’t add hops and they distill it instead of ferment.

Herlinda has brought a bottle of Guinness West Indies Porter. It is a historic recipe, which came from their corporate archives. There is a lot of brewing history in those documents. They have a whiskey called Lost Irish, a blended Irish whiskey. Irish whiskey can be aged in any kind of wood, such as chestnut or acacia, besides oak.

Russian River Brewing Co. is open in Santa Rosa on 4th St. and at their big Windsor location. Visit their website for up-to-date hours, menus, beers and more info.

Susan’s portfolio includes whiskeys, cream liqueurs, white spirits including gin and Irish Poitín (pronounced “potcheen”) sometimes also called Irish moonshine. Irish cream liqueur is one of three spirits whose name and origin are regulated, along with Irish whiskey and Irish Poitín.

This whiskey has spent time in six different casks which impart a spectrum of flavors. It is drinkable and smooth with caramel, toffee and nuts in the flavors. “Everything tastes better with friends.”

Richard Norgrove and Josh Grace

Bear Republic brewer Richard Norgrove and Josh Grace of Grace Bros. Brewing join Herlinda Heras in studio. Peter Lopez is sitting in for Harry Duke who will call in later and Tara Nurin will also call in to talk about the award her book just won. Tara Nurin was a guest on Brew Ha Ha on this episode of October 21, 2021, and talked about her book.

First, Tara Nurin calls in to talk about about her book about women in brewing winning an award. Tara has been on Brew Ha Ha many times including this October 21, 2021 episode where she described the recently published “The Woman’s Place Is In The Brewhouse.” The book has just won the first prize from the North American Guild of Beer Writers. She really likes hearing stories from readers who identify with the many successful women in brewing. It was also a great experience to do the research interviews and meet a lot of her heroes. Tara has some stories coming out on the Food Network website too.

Richard and Josh tell the origin story of the Grace Bros. Beer, which was making beer in the early 1900s. He works in the business of buying and selling wineries, which often includes trademarks. In the course of another business deal, he found the Grace Bros. Beer trademark was available. He describes the process of recovering the trademark, which is on the beer that they are tasting today. Grace Bros. was one of the largest breweries 100 and more years ago, in Sonoma County. They stopped making beer in the 1960s and now they are relaunching the beer with Bear Republic. A portion of the profits go to the historical society and to veteran’s assistance.

Russian River Brewing Co. is open in Santa Rosa on 4th St. and at their big Windsor location. Visit their website for up-to-date hours, menus, beers and more info.

Russian River Hop Time Harvest Ale made with 100% Sonoma County hops and barley, and malt from Admiral Malting. They are canning it now at Russian River Brewing Co.

Harry Duke is calling in for an installment of “Where the Hell is Harry?” this time from Flatonia, Texas, which is between San Antonio and Houston. He was at the Alamo earlier and posted pictures on The Drive’s face book page and ended up at the oldest saloon in Texas, The Buckhorn, in San Antonio. When he asked for a local beer he had one called Texican from Blue Star Brewing Co. of San Antonio, a light Mexican style lager, which was perfect for the hot weather there. Harry describes seeking out Classic Rock stations while driving across the southwest. At one point, at night, doing 80 MPH (the speed limit there) Freebird came on… And gas is $2.85 a gallon, but the tradeoff is, you’ve got to be in Texas.

They had a big release party for the new Grace Bros. beer. They sold out in the first day. The beer is a classic, light easy-drinking beer (under 5%), as it was originally. They tried to imitate the ingredients and process and they got to experiment as home brewers in order to get the recipe right. Grace Bros. started brewing in 1897 and apart from Prohibition, it was idle from 1953 to 1958, then again until 1967. But in the heyday of the 1940s, when it was most popular, this was the beer. They were careful to use just the right hops, which is California Cluster. It’s a Bavarian type lager, even if in those days, it was basically just called beer. The pub is in Rhonhert Park on Roberts Lake Road and the beer is on tap. They might release it in Spring or earlier in Summer next year.