Fridays During The Tour - Week 3

OK, last Tour post, I promise. Through the first 12 stages (the riders are on stage 13 today) and after over 50 hours of riding, Aussie Cadel Evans has a 1 second lead over Luxembourgian Frank Schleck and a 38 second lead over American Christian Vandevelde. The Top 12 are all under 5 minutes from the lead. Even without drugs and relatively little external drama, this tour is turning out to be one of the best in recent memory. Heck, I even got my dad, a Midwestern meat-and-potatoes football and baseball kinda guy, hooked on the excitement of the damned thing. And, Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwin are easily best announcers on television.

So, starting Saturday, the tour heads along the Ligurian Sea, into the Italian Alps, with a stage or two in Italy, then back into the center of the country through the Rhone-Alpes and Auvergne regions.

Stage 14 and Stage 15 - Through the plains of Nimes and into the Alps on Sunday, there are no breweries until the tour crosses over the Italian border and passes through Frassino. There the tour will pass the B&B La Birra Della Valvaracho where Bierra Boero is brewed. Bierra Boero has been brewing since 2006 and now has 7 beers, ranging from a wheat to a porter and many in between.

Stage 15 ends in Prato Navoso, Italy and Tuesday is a rest day in Cuneo, Italy before trudging back up into the mountains and back into France. The 157 km Stage 16 from Cuneo to Jausiers is bereft of any breweries.

Stage 17 - Embrun to L'Alpe D'Huez - On Wednesday July 23rd the tours engages in a brutal 210 km high mountain stage through the Alps. This one stage features 3 of the most difficult climbs in all of France. The Col du Galibier, the Col de la Croix de Fer, and a finish on the L'Alpe D'Huez promises to make this, literally, a make or break stage. With the distinct possibility of eliminating virutally every sprinter and completely destroying the climbers, if you only watch one stage of the entire tour - this one will be unbelievable. And, there's more! What? More! How could you ask for more? Well, consider this a bonus. About 31 km into the ride, just as the peloton will begin break apart on the climb up Col du Galibier, there is a brewery in Briancon called Brasserie Artisanale des Grands Cols. By all accounts it is not a particularly good brewery. But still. It's better than nothing and it should provide carbs needed for the day.

Stage 18 - A foothills stage coming out of the Alps and into Saint-Etienne. About 8.5 miles southwest of Chavanay is an organic brewery called Brasserie du Pilat. Pilat brews 5 blondes, 3 ambers and 3 saisons. This makes the second all-organic brewery that we have seen along the route. Which is interesting to me because I think I can count on one finger the number of all-organic breweries here in the states. Of course, these French breweries are all small-time and I am sure there are plenty of small breweries and brewpubs not named Wolavers that are all-organic that just do not have high availability. But we have also seen a number of breweries that offer a few, if not all, organic beers. Nonetheless, it does help to bring to focus a trend that we here in the states may view simply as a trend, but that the French take very seriously - namely organic and sustainable agriculture. Outside of Paris, France is still very much an agricultural country and to prevent the erosion of that industry, they must make their agriculture sustainable. They simply cannot afford to rape their arable land in the name of industrial agriculture. I think there is an agricultural attitude here in the US that says that we can continue to fertilize and genetically enhance and monoculture our way through. But, I think we are starting to learn that this simply is not sustainable. Erosion reduces arable soil table, fertilizers wreak havoc on the waters, and monoculture requires trucking necessary fertlizers and soil nutrients all across the country in diesel trucks getting 7 MPG, $5/gallon at a time. Thankfully we are starting to see at least the forward-thinking Wisconsin brewing industry doing something about it - whether it is David Anderson's BrewFarm or South Shore Brewery leading a buying group and purchasing Wisconsin-based grain and hops. Hopefully these measures prove that local, sustainable agriculture is the only way to reduce reliance on others, decrease costs, stabilize an economy and ensure quality. Apparently the French already know this.

Anyway. Sorry for the little diatribe there, sometimes I get a little carried away.

Stage 19 - Roanne to Montlucon - this is the last stage that we will cover for the Tour as no beer is along the Stage 20 time trial and Stage 21 in Paris - well, you're probably not in Paris to drink beer. Besides, there is only one brewery that is only kinda sorta along today's route. Just shy of 9 miles south of Commentry is Brasserie des Sagnes in La Crouzille. Brasserie des Sagnes makes two beers. I'll let you guess the style? Think you've figured it out? Did you guess Blonde and Amber? If so, you would be correct. The brewery is not open to the public, though, so you'll just have to settle for finding their beers in local restaurants and bars.

I hope you've enjoyed this trip through France. I had no idea what to expect when I started this, but it is possible to make some general observations. First, French beer is not a big industry, there are very few active discussions or reviews of these beers and with limited exception are not available outside of their immediate areas. Even the major cities are often without major breweries. It is difficult to make any pronouncement as to quality - while some reviews haven't been particularly favorable, few have been atrocious and there simply isn't a very big sample size. Most of these breweries appear to very local, so the extent that these breweries are putting out "table beer" is it really fair to judge them on any particular set of criteria other than "not bad" or "would spoil your meal"?

And second, French beer, or at least much of it, attempts to duplicate the sustainable agriculture of the renowned French wine industry. For this reason few of them would even be capable of growing large enough for inter-national distribution channels.

In any event. I hope you've enjoyed this brewery tour of the Tour. Au revoir.

Farm + Brew = BrewFarm

We first mentioned this about ten days ago. First picked up on by Wisconsin's Bio Energy Forum, we posted a link to a St. Paul Pioneer Press article about a new brewery in the works up in Wilson, Wisconsin. Well, we were able to track down the guy starting up BrewFarm, and managed to get him to answer a few questions in his free time.

Madison Beer Review: Who are you? What is your brewing experience? What were you doing immediately before starting BrewFarm?
David Anderson: Who am I? Dang good question. I suppose how it relates to beer and brewing would be most relevant.

I started homebrewing in 1993-4 and people seemed to enjoy my creations. I took that encouragement and attempted to open a brewpub in Plymouth, MN from about 1995-2000 - long story short, I couldn't raise the needed investor money to get the project fully funded and operational. In 1996 I went to the Siebel Institute in Chicago, IL for commercial brewing training. My first brewing job was with Ambleside Brewing Co. in Minneapolis - was there for the 1.5 years it existed. [ed note: Ambleside sold its brewing equipment to Wisconsin's Tyranena Brewing Company] I then sold specialty beer for the Wine Company in the Twin Cities. Moved to Massachusetts to work with a beer importer, got back into brewing with Paper City Brewery in Holoyoke, MA for 2.5 years. Created a craft beer export company ("Brewer's Alchemy Exports") and then moved back to Minnesota to (eventually) open a brewery.

Prior to starting this incarnation of Dave's BrewFarm, I picked up a few consulting jobs: I spent nearly three months in Vietnam working with a start-up brewpub, 10 weeks in Aosta, Italy working with a start-up craft brewery, two week in Israel working with a start-up, one day in Tulsa, OK doing a site selection audit for a start-up. I also worked with a brewery in South Dakota on brewery layout and equipment sourcing.

I am also a Great American Beer Festival Judge and internationally, I've judged the last two years of the "Birra dell'Anno" (Craft Beer of the Year) in Milan, Italy. I judged homebrewing contests on/off for the past 12 years.

MBR: When did you get the idea to start BrewFarm and what prompted it?
DA: The BrewFarm concept was hatched in the Summer of 1995, and as to what prompted it, I've always enjoyed being out the countryside and had thought the idea of a farmhouse brewery made a lot of sense - combining passions.

MBR: Being from Minnesota, what made you choose Wilson, Wisconsin? What was it about the state laws and regulations that made you choose Wisconsin over Minnesota?
DA: I drove all over western WI for 6+ months looking at dirt - the 35 acre site in Wilson has a wonderful combination of rolling pasture and woods, with great wind and solar resources.

WI is just a lot more pro-brewer/brewer-friendly than MN. I have a lot more freedom to sell my beer as I see fit, though I do plan on shipping back to MN - the Twin Cities is a very good specialty beer market with a lot of enthusiastic beer fans.

MBR: What is the basic philosophy of BrewFarm and what are the some of the highlights that put that philosophy into practice?
DA: Dave's BrewFarm will be a sustainably-based venture. I received my permit for my wind generator - it's going to be a Jacobs 31-20 - a 20 kW generator on a 120-foot tower. Heating and cooling will be handled via geothermal. I will have solar panels for thermal water heating - breweries use a lot of hot water. A lot of engineering will go into process energy use and efficiency - how to use, save, utilize energy without sacrificing. A lot of thought is going into this. And it's not just "green" for green's sake – all the renewables and processes have to make functional and fiscal sense. I guess the philosophy is one can make great beer and be "gentle" on the environment; it just takes a bit of forward thinking and some additional funding up-front. It will pay for itself in a relatively short time.

MBR: What kinds of hops and barley will you grow? Will it be more than you need? What will you do with the excess?
DA: I only plan for hops - barley and the associated malting process is very intensive, way beyond the scope of what I want to accomplish. I have 50 fuggles rhizomes growing at the moment. I will be planting many varieties and other herbs/spices/fruits/vegetables for use in the brewing process to create unique beers. Any excess hops would be sold. Once a web site is up, I would make it known what is for sale. The land is "organic" - not yet certified but hasn't had chemicals used on it for more than 10 years. I'm not using chemicals for the hops - more of a "holistic" approach to growing. Wisconsin was the number one hop growing state during the 1860-1870s, so yes, hops can/do grow in WI. Hops are kinda "weed-like" - it's often harder to kill them than grow them. I plan on growing 1-2 acres of hops - that's about 200-300 vines. Harvesting will be by hand (I pay volunteers in beer to pick hops - A lot of beer...). [ed note: anyone who likes beer want to go pick some hops?] Hops take a few years to become established and productive, so percentage-wise, it'll be small. There are so many varieties out there, not all will come from my land.

MBR: What kind of distribution do you envision, if any?
DA: I will self-distribute. I plan on being small and staying small. This is not about knocking out thousands of barrels of beer - I want to create "curious beers of distinction" [ed note: we'll put a ^TM on that for ya] and spend time crafting and aging. Interesting things can happen...

MBR: Will you give tours or on-site seminars to help others?
DA: Indeed, tours and seminars are planned. I'm definitely into the passing on of knowledge and any other assistance I can lend. Goodness knows that's how I got to this point!

I hope to enlist the help of students at UW-River Falls and UW-Stout for various agriculture projects and renewable/sustainability projects. I want to promote a "living classroom" atmosphere at the BrewFarm.

MBR: What's the official name of this thing? Dave's BrewFarm? The BrewFarm? BrewFarm?
DA: The dba names are: Dave's BrewFarm Brewery on Little Wolf Farmstead. Essentially two businesses but intertwined. I'll be growing hops, therefore the name of the farmstead: The botanical name for hops, Humulus Lupulus comes from its old German name, humela, plus lupulus meaning "Little Wolf" – and there it is ...