Jonathan Moxey of Perennial

Jonathan Moxey of Perennial Artisan Ales (Flash version)

  Non-Flash podcast   

On Dec. 6, 2013 Proletariat hosted Jonathan Moxey of St. Louis' Perennial Artisan Ales. And while it wasn't quite the extreme tap take over by Perennial at Barcade earlier this year, there was plenty of great beer and good cheer to welcome Jonathan back to the city where he discovered the art of brewing!

Full house on a rain drenched Friday night.

Jonathan explained to us how a friend introduced him to homebrewing while working as an editor for the financial services industry in New York, biding his time as he sought to discover what he really wanted to do for a career. He immersed himself the craft brewing world, joining the NYC Homebrewers Guild, becoming a beer judge, brewing scores of beers, entering contests, and taking in all things beer. His success in contests gave him the confidence to return to his hometown and apply for an internship at St. Louis' Schlafly Beer. After an arduous month of brewery hard labor, he applied for a position at Perennial Artisan Ales, where he interned for 6 weeks before being hired on full-time.

Currently, Perennial brews at a full capacity of 2,000 bbls per year on their 8 1/2 bbl system. The brewery is tiny in size, but enormous in stature, brewing some of the most interesting, delicious, intriguing and creative brews you could imagine. A big part of the brewery's identity is their use of fresh, local ingredients. Their Peach Berliner Weisse, which in late summer annually, utilizes local Missouri and Illinois peaches -- 750lbs per batch! Jonathan explained that while they could brew the beer with less expensive and more readily available Georgian peaches, their concept source as many ingredients as possible from local producers.

"Needs more bird!"

B.R. ribbed Jonathan a bit by asking if Perennial uses Cardinals in their Vermilioin Winter Ale. He played along and noted that it is their only non-vegetarian beer! More seriously, he noted that their Walnut Dunkel Weisse uses Black Walnuts from Stockton, MO, and that Woodside honey from Maplewood, MO goes into their triple, and said that coffee is specially roasted for them by local roasters Sump Coffee for their Sump Coffee Stout.

B.R. has that Perennial glow.

When asked about any special brewery projects, Jonathan told us that he recently took part in the blending of Perennial's La Bohéme, which involves fermenting a Belgian Brown Ale with Michigan tart cherries in used wine barrels, allowing the naturally present bacteria and Brettanomyces to transform the beer into something magical. He also mentioned an on-going project involving an all-Brett version of their Aria Strong Belgian Ale. They take a portion of the aging beer out of the barrels each year to bottle and keg, and replace it with fresh beer, adding layer after layer of depth and complexity to the beer over time.

Cory of Proletariat, David of Hearth, B.R., Jonathan and beer writer Chris.

We spoke with Jonathan on day two of the Belgium 2 Brooklyn fest at Mugs Alehouse on Sunday Dec. 8, 2013 and learned a few new things about the brewery, owned and run by Phil Wymore, which adds to our knowledge from previous blogposts on Perennial.

Same crew, different pose.

Bob and Jonathan at Mugs Alehouse.

Menu at Proletariat.

John of the NYC Homebrewers Guild at Proletariat.

Jonathan and Chris O'Leary.

People's Brewery Of Israel

[link to podcast page]
WFMU's Beer Hear! with Bob W. and B.R. from 3/19/2013

Beer in the Middle East? Not too likely in the Muslim-majority nations. In fact, Brooklyn Brewery's co-founder Steve Hindy (and, no, they don't pay us to mention them in every single blogpost/podcast -- they're just the biggest, most visible brewery in New York City -- and they kick ass!) started homebrewing as a journalist stationed abroad in the alcohol-free Middle East in the 80s, so as not to be deprived of a beverage that, ironically, originated there (probably in Iraq or Iran) thousands of years earlier.

But in the alcohol-tolerant nation of Israel... cut the schmalz and mash the malts!

B.R., Ariel and Bob, at Proletariat. Thanks to Cory for turning down the punk muzak!

We met up with Ariel Druck, a brewer at The People's Brewery located in Even Yehuda, Israel, not far from Tel Aviv, while he was on an extend tour of the Northeast U.S., starting in New York for NYC Craft Beer Week. We saw him at pretty much every event and bar that we were at, so, clearly, he was well informed!

Side-note: the somewhat tongue-in-cheek socialist-themed logo and name of the brewery was inspired by the fact that the owners of the brewery spent some time on a kibbutz., not because they're Marxists. So don't go there expecting free beer, regardless of your needs and abilities.

Ariel gave us some very general background info on the craft beer scene in Israel. You can always get more from good ol' Wiki. But his basic message was that craft beer was on the rise in Israel, and his brewery is one of the scene's leaders. We first met Ariel two weeks prior to conducting the interview at Proletariat where we sampled a bit of one of his beers -- I can't recall what it was -- and it was very good. It was something along the lines of a Belgian triple or golden ale.

 

Ariel seems to be one of those fearless brewers who threw himself into the craft beer life, devoted to making interesting, flavorful and challenging creations of the zymurgistic persuasion to test himself and to delight other devotees of good beer. You can hear his take on the current Israeli craft beer scene and find out what caught his attention during his beer trip to America in this week's podcast.

Churchkey Can Co. Pilsner

BR says:  During a recent visit to The Cannibal, I came across a unique can of beer. Being somewhat of a sucker for cool packaging, I had to pick up a can of Churchkey Pilsner. And by can, I mean an old-school, steel can with no newfangled pull-tab. Everyone has an old can opener at the bottom of the silverware drawer but how often do you get to use it?
 
We took the can over to Proletariat to share with a Bartender Cory who looked bemused until we showed him the churchkey opener we had dug out to get at the suds. For something that screams "gimmick", albeit a gimmick in a really cool package with a retro design, we were surprised by the quality of this full-bodied American Pilsner style beer. It's from a new brewing company from Seattle, Wa.,  Churchkey Can Co., which contracts with Two Beers Brewery to produce a delicious, malty Pilsner.

Aside from initial foaming when opened, the beer poured a hazy dark gold and looked to be unfiltered. It had a malty aroma with some hop presence and a surprisingly full-bodied flavor -- much bigger than a traditional pils -- with solid hop bitterness in the finish. There was a bit of graininess in the finish and didn't have a clean pilsner profile but we've definitely had worse.

And Bob did a little research because BR has some terrible gaps in pop culture knowledge and the comment "isn't the guy from Entourage involved?" drew a blank stare from her:  From the company's website, "Co-founded by Portland-native Justin Hawkins [Wieden+Kennedy/Nike designer] and actor Adrian Grenier [from Entourage], Churchkey Can Co. began as the desire to someday experience a great beer in a simple can as the generations before had. Quickly realizing the flat top can was all but a memory, Hawkins and Grenier set the wheels in motion to found Churchkey Can Co."

"Our home brewers Lucas Jones & Sean Burke are the creators of the Churchkey Can co. Pilsner Recipe. They have been crafting home brewed beer in their garages for many years. They share these brews with their friends at backyard BBQs and over the holidays as gifts. They love this hobby and are passionate about their beer and the community they cultivate with it. We are very excited to have these two All-American guys create the recipe for the Churchkey Pilsner. We hope that you enjoy it as much as we do."