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.
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