Worthy Adversary will kick your ass. Tell those Johnnies that I’m way glad Lent is almost over!!!

Best of luck to the Fulton guys. It’s nice to see younger people with an interest in beer. As I’ve been known to say on a couple of occasions, brewing is the best job in the world that sucks.

One comment to Frank: I don’t pretend to know how Sand Creek runs, but what they are doing is contract brewing. Maybe the Fulton guys are way brighter than I am, but it would be a struggle for me to walk into someone’s brewery and make a beer in a reasonable amount of time, and I’ve been doing this for 12 years and worked on numerous systems. It just doesn’t work that way. You may be part of the process, but you are not an integral part at the beginning. And, lest anyone misunderstand, I certainly am not trying to take anything away from what the Fulton folk are doing.

I spoke with a craft brewer at GABF who told me when they purchased new larger volume brewhouse equipment it took them nearly 70 batches to perfect the original flavor profile of their flagship beer customers knew and loved. Granted, I’m sure the first beer they made using the new system wasn’t far off, but the brewers themselves weren’t satisfied with it. Based on that, I’d say system means a great deal in the grand scheme of things.

I didn’t realize until I went to Great Taste of the Midwest, that they only invite brewers with on-premise equipment. One friend told me that he’ll get invited when they have a “dirty little contract whore” tent. It’s too bad cause there’s alot of good stuff being made at Sand Creek. The list of guys who brew there is longer than you would think. Some guys have a vision of what they want and they are patient enough to make it happen. There’s no shame in using someone else’s place starting out. Establishing label recognition (read: fans)is huge.

I would consider myself an average homebrewer, so in no way is my opinion backed up with any professional experience or expertise. It would seem to me that both recipe and process are vital to a good product. Also, process and recipe are developed together. Just because I have someone’s recipe, it doesn’t mean I’m going to brew their beer…there are far too many variables. You can even argue that brewing system and process are two different things, which also affect each other. So if you move from contract brewing in someone’s facility to brewing on your own equipment, there will be a lot of adjustments to recipe and process.

Ultimately, I would say that process is more important. Anyone with a great recipe, ingredients and equipment can still make miserable beer; and a great brewer won’t suffer bad recipes and trash ingredients (it takes a lot of restraint here to not cheap shot a couple big breweries).