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Bringing craft brewed beer back to Truckee |
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Written by Paul Raymore
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Thursday, 05 July 2007 |
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Summertime dishes, especially those that come off the grill at your favorite restaurant or from your own backyard barbecue, demand a beverage that can accentuate the flavors of the season.
And while lighter white, red and rosé wines typically pair well with summer favorites, beer is definitely king when the days are long and the temperatures are hot.
Of course it's been a rough few years for local beer aficionados; for while the microbrew revolution has left hundreds of choices at upscale groceries and markets, other communities have been enjoying craft brewed beers only available at small-scale brewpubs — the type of place that, until now, North Lake Tahoe and Truckee was lacking.
So all you beer lovers out there, heed this advice: Take a step back from your grill, get down on your knees, and thank the heavens for the Fifty Fifty Brewing Company, which recently opened off Brockway Road in Truckee, and especially for Todd Ashman, award-winning brewmaster and The Man who will bring craft brewed beer back to town.
 (And then, of course, head on down to Fifty Fifty and try some of the beer they're pouring.)
Ashman took a circuitous route to get to Truckee: He grew up in Southern California, took up home brewing while living in Sonoma County, enrolled in the American Brewers Guild Craft Brewers Apprenticeship Program at U.C. Davis in 1995, went on to an apprenticeship at The Bison brewpub in Berkeley, Calif. in 1996, spent a short time at a brewery in Alamogordo, New Mexico, before moving on to a brewery in Chicago for eight years, and then another in Green Bay for a short period, took a job as a malt salesman and brewing advisor, and then met Andy and Alicia Barr, who hired him as the Brewmaster for Fifty Fifty.
“I really enjoy Truckee,” Ashman said. “I used to come up here with my parents as a kid, and it's nice to be back.”
Chow Editor Paul Raymore met up with Ashman amidst the fermentation tanks, mash tun, barley mill and other brewing equipment at the Fifty Fifty Brewing Company to talk about beer, foods that go well with beer, and what beers Ashman likes to brew and enjoy.
Q&A with Todd Ashman:
Chow: What lured you to this job?
Ashman: Those who know me know that I've been trying to get back into the western states for quite some time - after spending 11 years essentially in the Midwest. It was a combination of the mountains, trees, geography, and the vision that Andy and Alicia Barr had. I was excited because, I don't want to say I have complete autonomy, but they pretty much let me do what I want. So I am pretty much conveying my tastes in beer; I'm kind of unleashing that on the Truckee/Tahoe area.
 I enjoy brewing at the brew pub level. You'll find that in my beers there's a lot of creativity. And it's not just simple beermaking, but there's actually a lot of unique ingredients that go into the products that I make.
And we really try to focus on the accompaniment of beer with food, and we will actually be preparing a lot of the dishes we make with beer, in addition to encouraging people to do a simple complimentary and contrast with beer and the dishes we prepare. In addition to the pub food, there are a lot of really interesting dishes that lend themselves to food and beer pairing.
Chow: What advice would you give to folks who would like to do their own food and beer pairing at home?
Ashman: More than anything, when you're going to have a meal with beer, we like to encourage people to think about beer as a palate cleanser. Not only is it full of flavor, but because it's carbonated, it truly cleanses the palate. So every bit will truly become a new experience. Whereas wine might not be able to do that as well because of its lack of carbonation.
Generally, lighter beers will lend themselves to just about anything; but as beers get darker, their flavors become richer. And usually, for example, an oatmeal stout would be an ideal accompaniment to a chocolate dessert; whereas something bitter like a pale ale or IPA would lend itself to something spicy, because you're getting that contrast between something bitter and something spicy. That bitterness might kind of quench the fire of a spicy Thai dish, or possibly Mexican food. Whereas our porter, for example - which is very rich in chocolaty flavors and caramel and maybe even espresso - would be ideal with something like ribs or barbecue, because the richness plays off the sweetness of the sauce. But if you're not trying to do rich and rich, you might want to have something more like a pilsner to kind of cut through the sweetness of barbecue sauce.
There are a lot of different possibilities, those are just really the tip of the iceberg.
Generally, lighter beers like our Golden Ale or the Manifesto Pale Ale would be ideal for something like an artisan cheese platter. Those kind of lighter beers with a little bit of bitterness will be able to cut through the richness of various cheeses, thus allowing you to experience each cheese on its own and clearing the palate.
Chow: How did you go about deciding what beers you wanted to brew here at Fifty Fifty? And will that change seasonally or with your tastes?
 Ashman: Well, some will change. But there's basically a core lineup of four beers we'll always have, and that's going to be the Basecamp Golden Ale, the Foggy Goggle White Beer, the Manifesto Pale Ale, and the Donner Party Porter. And those will always be available year round…
If someone were to come in who had never had a craft brewed beer, we'd love to introduce them to what craft brewed beer is.
So the golden ale is a transition beer, meaning that it's very similar to, but not exactly like, an industrial lager.
The pale ale is in that genre of craft brewed pale ales. I don't want to compare it to anything directly, but if someone enjoyed Sierra Nevada or Firestone Walker, they would be in comfortable company.
The Foggy Goggle White Beer is essentially our wheat beer, and it's just an enjoyable Belgian-style white. We do add some unique ingredients to it like sweet and bitter orange peel, lemon peel, coriander, rose hips… Very nice, very refreshing.
And of course the Donner Party Porter is kind of my claim to fame. It's been known by other names at other breweries, but it's the beer that I've won the most awards for: four Great American Beer Festival medals, several World Beer Cup medals. I've gotten a lot of mileage out of that recipe. And it's nice to brew it again.
Chow: What do you look for in a good summertime beer?
Ashman: You don't want anything too heavy. You don't want anything too strong. Some people might call it lawnmower beer - something that you can have two or three of and still function. And that would mean ride your mountain bike, hike your favorite trail, and still not have to worry about smashing your head.
So really the Belgian White [is a good example]. We brew it to be refreshing, it's tart, it'll be effervescent, and it'll be a nice refreshing beer.
It's hard because we have to plan so far in advance. The summertime beers will usually be a quick turn [from fermentation to serving], but these bigger beers that we have to get ready for Christmas have to start getting brewed now so they can age properly. So it's kind of a fine balancing act... And we're still trying to see, based on the sales we've had so far, what's popular.
Eventually, we’re planning on adding a sixth [fermentation] tank, and that tank will be specifically for lager beer. At this point, all of the beers that we’re doing are ales; and it’s mainly because of the time it takes to brew, ferment and age an ale is in the three week range, whereas lager is more like six to eight weeks.
Chow: What was it like being able to start from scratch in terms of the brewery space, what you wanted to brew, the restaurant and everything?
 Ashman: It’s been an entirely new experience.
The place that I spent the longest, I got there the day they had their grand opening, so I went through none of the hassles, the heartaches, and the delays that we went through here. So I am very glad that I was able to experience that here in Truckee. In another way, because I’m a small shareholder in the business, it’s really gratifying to actually see it up and running.
I guess more than anything, the fact that I learned how to brew in California and finally came back after a very circuitous 12-year route around the country... To come back and actually brew beer here in the state is great.
Questions to Fifty Fifty Brewing Company owners Andy and Alicia Barr:
Chow: What made you think Truckee was ready for a brewpub?
Andy Barr: We’ve been coming here for the last 10 years and we were really surprised there wasn’t a brewpub here. Most resort towns have one. It’s just the kind of local atmosphere type of place that would go over well in Truckee. So we figured we might as well try it.
Alicia Barr: Also, if you go to all the bars around town, they’re very receptive to microbrews; microbrews do really well on tap up here. And people are always asking “Do you have a local brew?” So we figured we’d provide that local brew.
Andy Barr: We are planning on doing distribution in the next few months once we figure out how much we’re selling, what are volumes are, and what our brewing schedule is.
Chow: Todd spoke briefly about some of the special beer events you have planned. Can you elaborate on some of those plans?
Andy Barr: We have lots of plans for special events. We want to do beermaker’s dinners, we want to do some educational events, invite locals in to try some test batches and let them give us a little feedback on what seasonal beers they’d like to see. We don’t have those scheduled yet, but they’re absolutely planned for this summer.
Fifty Fifty Brewing Company
11197 Brockway Road, Truckee, California
530-587-BEER (2337)
www.FiftyFiftyBrewing.com
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 05 July 2007 )
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