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About Vernonia's voice. (Vernonia, OR) 2007-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 1, 2009)
community Brewing With Brett 2009 17 The Blue House Brewer is Getting Comfortable in His New Digs By Scott Laird make sense of the steps and unfamiliar terms. Wort. Mash. Sparge-- what does it all mean? But when you When the Blue House Mediterranean Cafe are there and observing, it all starts to come together. started serving Brett Costley’s home-brewed beers at It does help to have someone with over fifteen years of their old location five miles south of Vernonia, those of brewing experience explaining the process to you. Mix us who appreciate a good microbrew were a little more the grains in some hot water; strain out the grains and than pleasantly surprised by the quality of beer Costley boil what’s left; move to a fermentation tank and add produced for our consumption. And it gave many of us yeast; put it in a keg a few weeks later and drink. Not just one more reason to head out to the Blue House-- really so complicated. Of course, there are a few more fresh, healthy, delicious food-- plus great beer?! Let’s steps than that and numerous variations, recipes and small adjustments for each batch and style. go! But seeing it happen makes it all much more When the Blue clear. House Cafe and Brew- Costley brews fairly straightforward ery moved to downtown and simple recipes. Stouts and Porters. Vernonia this past spring, Golden and Pale Ales. Fruit-flavored Wheats within walking distance in the summer. An occasional Red, and a Rye of many of our homes or now and then. With four taps available at the work, it got even better. Blue House, it’s a continual rotation as the Now Costley is starting to seasons change. “If I can get get comfortable with his enough of a batch kegged up, new two-barrel brewing I might do some small batches system that Blue House at home and some experiments owner Sam Semerjian has to see if people like them,” put together, and things are said Costley, discussing the improving even more. possibility of trying some new After a few recipes or variations. “I don’t months of experiment- want to try sixty gallons of a ing with his tried and true Chocolate Stout, since I’ve recipes, Costley is starting never brewed with chocolate to work the bugs out of before, and then find out I did the new system, and figur- Blue House brewer, Brett Costley something wrong.” ing out what adjustments works on a batch of Stout. Bigger batches mean he needs to make to brew more beer at one time and brewing less batches of beer five to six times the size of what he was brewing before. The new sixty-two gallon system is get- often. “The equipment works well,” said ting put to full use too, as the Blue House is pouring it as Costley. “I like it on the whole, because it’s easier than my other equipment because there’s less fast as Costley can brew it and keg it. I recently had the pleasure of spending a few manual labor involved. And I can make six times as hours watching Costley start a batch of Dry Stout, and much beer at one time with about ninety percent of the chatted with him about the process of making his now labor as before. So that’s pretty good.” It also means getting the batch just right, or you locally famous Brett’s Brews. Beer brewing is a fairly complicated process, end up with a lot of beer that isn’t very popular. With the especially if you are just reading about it and trying to new equipment and adjustments to his recipes, Costley Meet Frank Grace, Vernonia’s New Police Chief continued from front page out input from the stakeholders and part- ners involved, and that could be just Police Department personnel, that could be police and city personnel, it could be those two and community members, depending on the changes we’re going to make and who is impacted by it. One change the community will see in October is more coverage. The staff has put together a new schedule that is ac- tually going to provide better coverage for the city, including days when you haven’t been seeing officers. And the credit for that goes to the officers who put it together. Vernonia’s Voice: This community has experienced two major weather-related events the past two winters. What is your past experience in Emergency Pre- paredness? Frank Grace: I’ll be honest, the only ex- perience I have is academic. I’ve never had the experience of hands-on. To my benefit, I do have my academic training, but the real test comes when it happens. I think I’m very fortunate to have an of- fice full of personnel, and the city is very fortunate to have others, the Fire Depart- ment, the Public Works Department, and the county-wide support we have-- all peo- ple who have dealt with these issues in the past. Now, not every event is going to be the same, but I think there’s a good game plan, and people who have experienced it. So my experience is very limited and I’m looking to learn as much as I can. When you think about this area, you obviously see the concern for flooding, but we’re re- ally in a situation for fire danger as well. And we have fault lines to be concerned with, and earthquakes. So this area offers some real challenges in terms of Emergen- october cy Management. Vernonia’s Voice: Do you have specific personal or community goals that you hope to accomplish here in Vernonia? Frank Grace: One of the things I’m look- ing to develop, and I haven’t really decided what we’ll call it, maybe we’ll call it a Po- lice/Community Forum. I’m really a be- liever in partnerships and having the work we do transparent. I think sometimes peo- ple have the wrong impression about what police work is all about. We’re not inde- pendent players, we have a set of rules to play by. Police work is a science, and we have to meet all the standards before you can make an arrest. We have a set of laws that are universal that cover personal rights and freedoms, we can’t just arrest people and take them to jail. Police officers are the first line of defense for municipalities against lawsuits. They have to be doing their job correctly. So I want to establish a forum that has community members. I want people to be on the forum who have no knowledge of police work. You don’t have to be a fan of the police to be on the forum. I think it’s a good avenue to stop some of the rumors and give the commu- nity some insight. I want to have a group who are committed to coming in and ask- ing questions and letting us give you some answers. The other thing I would like to achieve is a better rapport with the commu- nity, and have people approach the police. I would really like to find ways to involve more of our young citizens and our youth, to find ways to get them involved in the community and with the police and see if we can’t make this city even more livable than it already is. has had a few batches that haven’t turned out exactly as planned. But with some feedback from customers and help from Sam, Costley is figuring out the details and getting everything dialed in. “There’s definitely been some adjustments,” said Costley. “I’m not complete- ly happy with where our beer is right now. I think it’s drinkable. And it’s still pretty cool that we have some- thing that’s locally made.” So Costley is working hard to continually improve the process and his end product. Brewing is a fine art, but not an exact science. Measurements are often guesses or by the look and feel of things that day. Add an extra scoop of grain here; a little less water this time and maybe not as hot; which type yeast did you use, where did it come from and how old is it? A hops shortage this past year has left brew- ers all over scrambling to find substitutions and make adjustments to their recipes. As he’s brewing, Costley explains the impor- tance of water temperature at various times in the pro- cess, the difference in malted grains-- dark versus regular, the extraction of sugars from the grains and how different strains of yeast will inter- act with those sug- ars in the fermenter, and how he plans to use some of his own homegrown hops for aroma and flavor. This is where it all gets more compli- cated, and you start to see where his years of experience start to pay off. Having our own locally brewed beer has been a real treat for Vernonia beer lovers. And as Brett Costley gets more comfortable with his new brewing system, we can expect more of what we have come to enjoy at the Blue House Cafe in Vernonia-- delicious food and great beer. “Where’s da deer?” Be Prepared. Head to Sporty’s. Hunting, Camping & Fishing Supplies! New & Used, Buy, Sell, Trade & Consignment. SPORTY’S! 275 West Columbia River Highway, Clastkanie, OR • 503-728-2712