Think you know where in the beer world this photo was taken?
Please leave your answer as a comment.
On the surface this might appear to be tough, so a hint. Hope it doesn’t make it too easy. The photo was taken in 1998 and several Great American Beer Festival gold medal winning beers were boiled in this kettle.
Wolf Tongue Brewery?
Celis Brewery? Seems to be the only multi-gold winner I think.
I was going to suggest “Wolf Canyon Brewing Company” but I don’t see multiple golds for them. (Yes, I am only basing my suggestions off of the wolf sticker on the kettle 🙂
Il Vicino or perhaps another Frankenbrewer
olllllo – this is probably something that amuses only me, but . . .
– Dave mentioned Wolf Canyon Brewing
– Brad Kraus was the brewmaster at Wolf Canyon (Santa Fe)
– Before that he was the brewmaster at Rio Bravo (Albuquerque)
– When Rio Bravo failed Il Vicino bought the system, replacing its Frankenbrew
– Just moved that system to a new location
All of this nothing to do with the photo.
Beer Geeks follow brewers. Real Beer Geeks follow brewhouses.
Bringing us back to the answer, which is Dave was right with his first guess.
The photo was taken at Wolf Tongue. I’m taking the lazy route and pasting in the lead Daria and I wrote after visiting the brewery in 1988:
“What do the Great American Beer Festival gold medals won by High Country Brewery in 1993, Twisted Pine Brewing Co. in 1996 and Wolf Tongue Brewery in 1998 have in common?
“The same brewer, Gordon Knight, who has been followed virtually every step of a winding path along the Rocky Mountain’s Front Range by the same basic brewing system.
“Despite the fact that Knight has formulated recipes for three winning beers, all quite different, at three different breweries, the Wolf Tongue brewhouse is arguably more ‘famous’ than he is. The 5-hectoliter (about 4½-barrel) system is the one Jeff Lebesch and Kim Jordan used when they started New Belgium Brewing Co. in their Fort Collins, Colo., basement in 1991.”
Fortunately, New Belgium reacquired the brewhouse after Wolf Tongue closed. It’s on display at the brewery. They pulled off the wolves crossing sign, but for a few years you could still tell where it had been. The outline had vanished in a recent photo I saw. Perhaps that means I need to stop in and look more closely.
Interesting reading about the history of the equipment. Not an aspect I think about all that often.
That makes it worse, Stan.
That means I’ve seen that boil kettle a number of times, but I was always more fascinated by the square mash tun.
Great to know the backstory on it.