Exclusive Interview with Stephen from Phat Hound Brewing

I was extremely lucky to be invited into Stephen Albanese's house this Saturday afternoon to sample his beers and interview him for the blog. For those of you that don't know Stephen, he is a local homebrewer that is on the brink of taking his brewing to the next level, with the help of his friendly basset hound Buddy. He currently works for Mike's Stone Baked Pizza and may be brewing a bit there, but also has plans to move back to his hometown and open his own brewpub and pizzeria in the future. When this happens, I hope to be one of the first people there enjoying his brews!

He shared several awesome brews with me including standards like a double IPA, as well as his real passion - some experimental brews such as a rum and oak aged Belgian pale ale, a vanilla porter, a black IPA, and even a smoked stout with Scotch in it! All of the beers were quite tasty, probably some of the best I've had in town, and my favorite was the vanilla porter. I have a feeling that once Stephen gets his business going he will have no trouble pleasing thirsty drinkers!

What will the name of your brewing company be?
I like Phat Hound Brewing Company. I had it as Bastard Hound Brewing Company, but I don’t want to have bastard in the name.

Where are you hoping this brewery will be located?
I ultimately want to open up an organic pizzeria/brewpub in my hometown of Delray Beach, FL. I don’t want it to just be a brewery – I want it to be an organic, wood-fire pizzeria and brewpub with all of my stuff on tap. That would be my goal in the next three or four months to try to open that up.

Why an organic pizzeria?
In my hometown people really care about what they eat and they don’t want to be just drinking anything or just eating anything. It’s kind of a wealthier community. More or less the organic part will be a label on the front door, but mostly it’s a wood-fire pizzeria.

I didn’t know you were planning on leaving Tallahassee, but since you’re still planning on opening a pizza place, that means I don’t have to change these questions.
Yeah, I definitely want to do a restaurant. I’ve been in the pizza industry since I was 16 years old. I started as a dishwasher in a pizza restaurant and then started making pizzas. I’ve worked at a few places and now I work at Mike’s, so I have over six years of pizza experience… and over two years of brewing experience.

Where did the name of your brewing company come from?
*Points at his dog, a large basset hound, who has been sitting wonderfully beside me for some time* - My dog.

What made you decide to go commercial with your brewing or why do you want to open a restaurant?
I was really brewing a lot – it’s a passion of mine. I definitely don’t want to go into what I studied in college, which is corporate management. I’d much rather go out and open a brewery and stuff like that. I’m still very young, so I have a lot to learn as well.

Could that major potentially help you run your business, though?
Definitely. Not to say management like managing people, but definitely the financial aspects of the business, which is what I really learned in school. I learned all of my management through management experience – managing restaurants and stuff like that.

What is your vision for the brewpub, or what do you want to happen in the next couple of years?
I would like to open up as a wood-fire pizzeria and get it going for a year or two and then hopefully expand to a warehouse where I can start distributing my beer. Besides the restaurant, I’d ultimately like to see every grocery store carrying my beer.

So you’re hoping for distribution throughout Florida and maybe even more in the future?
-Absolutely. I’ve also been accepted into the Siebel Institute, so that’s also something I may end up doing in the next couple of years… go get my brewmaster’s degree.

So do you think you’ll take it?
I really want to take it. It’s booked through 2012, so the first time I could take it would be 2013, so I’m going to have about 2 years of down time at least.

If you end up starting your own successful restaurant and brewpub without doing that, would you still do it or do you think you’ll just keep plugging along?
I think it’s something I might do later on just so I can have the title.

There are a lot of successful brewers out there that never did any official studying.
Yeah, I just feel like I’m still really young, so I still have time. A year of brewing school would be nothing for a 23 year old, but if a 40 year old took a year off it might be harder.

If you did take a year off to go study, how would you run your brewpub? Hire someone else?
Exactly.

We seem to have two types of philosophies in this town [Tallahassee], since there are currently two breweries open, one of which is weird and crazy and always wanting to make something different, and the other which is, in my opinion, completely brewing for the masses. So what would you say is your philosophy for brewing, given your personal philosophy and/or your philosophy for the market you’re going into?
I always want to have unique things on draft that are experimental, like my vanilla porter or the rum oak beer you’re drinking - something that I don’t necessarily know if it would turn out good or if it would turn out bad, but I still like experimenting with it. But then again I also want to have a few beers that the masses will be able to drink. You know, if my girlfriend walks into my restaurant she might not want to drink a rum oak Belgian beer; she’d probably want a hefeweizen or a wheat beer, something lighter. I want to have things like that for the masses but also the other stuff.

So when you say beer for the masses, you mean things like hefeweizens, wheat beers, and stuff like that?
Hefes, pale ales, and stuff that is lighter and drinkable, as opposed to the coconut porter you’re making or a coffee stout, stuff like that.

But at the same time you don’t mean anything super lame like a pale lager or anything like that?
No no no no, definitely good stuff like hefeweizen and a good IPA.

What sets you apart from the other brewpubs already open or about to open in town?
I would say my young personality and my motivated, innovative spirit. I also have a nice system, I built it, and I use it to make awesome beers.

Are you planning on keeping beer geeks happy, everybody else happy, or some combination of both?
Definitely going to try to keep the beer geeks happy. I want people that love craft beer to walk into my restaurant. I’m not really trying to convince the Bud Light drinkers to completely switch to craft beer. I want to please people that are passionate about craft beer and really like it.

I of course like that answer as a beer person, but as a business owner, how is that going to work?
That’s why I wanna have a couple of beers like a hefeweizen, but there’s also the restaurant aspect that will make money, not just the brewery.

Once your place is open, do you think you’ll plan any events such as special releases, meet the brewer, brewing classes, or anything of that sort?
Definitely. I have already thought about doing brewing classes for beginners. I’m sure there are plenty of new or extract brewers out there that want to make the jump up to all grain. I can show them in two or three hours that it’s not as hard as they think and they can make great beers. I’d love to offer classes like that at the brewery. I’d also like to have a lot of events. I don’t necessarily want to have a release party for every beer; I just want to put it on tap and have people enjoy it. Some small breweries make a huge deal about every release but the small batches get drank so quickly and every time I stop in the breweries for a beer there’s nothing there. What’s the point of going to a brewery if I can’t ever drink their beer unless I go on the busiest nights? Other breweries you can walk into at any time of the day and enjoy a fresh brewed beer. That’s what I want to do.

How are you going to let the public know when your beers go on tap? What’s your marketing plan, if anything, and how will social media play into that?
I think I will do something like have a certain day where beers are always released, like every Monday or Tuesday, or something like that. Try to get the nerdy beer lovers in to enjoy the beers. I will definitely use Facebook, but I don’t think I’ll be doing a lot of advertising or anything. Maybe I’ll get a plane and drop flyers from the sky. *laughs*

How does pizza play into your plan? Are you planning on matching certain styles of beer with pizza or is it a coincidence or a convenience thing that you wanted to do anyway?
I want to use my beer in the ingredients, like beer dough, using the beer or spent grains. I might be able to have a bakery of some sort even. I definitely want to incorporate beer into the ingredients. People could get beer-sauteed onions on their pizza. I want to have a really personal pizzeria/brewery, not a generic pizzeria where they all use the same ingredients. I don’t want to have a round pie, I want to have a square pie that looks natural and I want it to go along with say an awesome IPA.

With this quick revolution that’s happening in Tallahassee, with two new brewers going already, plus several others on the horizon, what do you think about the future of craft beer in Tallahassee?
I think it’s very, very good. I think Tallahassee is an awesome place to start a brewery right now. I don’t even feel threatened by all of the other breweries – they bring a lot more awareness and demand for the craft market. If more people go into say Momo’s and try their beers, like that beer, and want to try something else, they might drive over to Mike’s and try my beer. I love the revolution. I feel like I’ve even been a part of it. I’ve persuaded lots of people to go and buy extract homebrewing kits in town.

Do you think Tallahassee will have a place on the map someday, as far as craft beer goes?
I think Florida is way behind the whole craft brewing tradition by 5 or 10 years.

What do you think about them catching up or where do you think we’ll be in the future?
We’re getting there. In the next 5 years I’m sure there will be 5 or 6 new breweries opening in town. Not only do we have a few already, but we have others coming.

What do you think about Cigar City helping the revolution of craft beer in Florida?
I love Cigar City. I think they’re really opening the light to other brewers as to what can be done. Before Cigar City I didn’t realize I could brew like… avocado beer. I mean they’ve only been open for about 2 years and they already have a couple of hundred different recipes. Even if it is just one IPA treated 20 different ways, they’re definitely not afraid to be unique and it’s definitely paying off for them.

How do you feel about doing things like cask beers with weird treatments and stuff like that to keep beer nerds happy?
I definitely want to get a cask. I’ve actually been looking at casks right now for my homebrewing setup.

What are your favorite styles of beer to drink?
My favorite is definitely Belgian beer. I always have one or two Belgian style beers on tap. Just last week we finished my Meyer lemon Belgian wit, which was fantastic. Other than that I like wheat beers and I always like a good IPA. When it’s cold I like stouts. I always brew a stout in the winter.

What do you like to brew?
I’ve brewed hefeweizens the most… other than that, probably saisons or IPAs.

That’s all of the questions I have – anything else you want to say?
Just that brewing is an awesome hobby. It’s awesome that you’re going to do a blog about me. I appreciate the recognition.

No problem, Stephen, and thanks again for the interview!

Cheers!

My Adventures in Homebrewing

Ah, another day, another boring class. That means it's time for a blog entry. Contenance Angloise? Eh, I'll take a beer.

Before we get started, a bit for the locals.

-Don't forget the weekly tasting at New Leaf on Saturday
-Fermentation's original release schedule says they're releasing a new Golden Horn beer on October 1st, but they haven't said anything else about it as of yet
-Momo's didn't release any beer this weekend, and myself and all sources were basically told, "I don't know. A couple/few weeks."

Now, let's talk homebrewing.

I've thought about writing about my adventures in homebrewing for awhile now, but I don't really know what to say... and I still really don't, so I'll ramble a bit and hopefully figure something out.

I suppose I should mention how I got started... that part's easy - my older brother, Calvin (pictured). He is completely responsible for beginning my interest in beer in general, let alone homebrewing. He's been doing it for years, and when I once asked him why people drink beer (I used to hate beer, but I just didn't know what was out there), he said something to me along the lines of, "It's not that you don't like beer - it's that you haven't had the right beer." The rest is history.

Before I got started, and I'm not 100% sure on these facts, I'm sure I brewed with my brother a bit, and possibly a few other people, and then started getting into commercial beer. My wife (girlfriend at the time) actually made the leap into homebrewing for me (a trend we'll see again later) by getting me a Mr. Beer kit for Christmas one year. After making their horrible first recipe, I immediately sought my brother's advice and started making my own recipes with his help. Unlike the Mr. Beer kits suggest, I started boiling, adding specialty grains, adding extra hops, using real adjuncts (fruit, etc.) instead of extracts, pitching liquid yeast, and so on.

Eventually I grew out of the kit and my roommate and I at UNI got a bunch of equipment and went to town, brewing quite a bit. I jumped into full 5-gallon extract brewing, bought a bigger pot, and started experimenting. My first full 5-gallon batch was a coffee Russian imperial stout, part of which I set aside and aged on Jack Daniels-soaked toasted oak chips. Go big or go home, I guess. This started to be my trend... I never really brewed anything normal, and my roommate at the time didn't help that fact. I started brewing fruit beers, coconut porters, and we both brewed a ton of weird ciders - many of which turned out... less than awesome. We even brewed a blueberry mead in honor of a famous visiting euphonium player. My roommate found a clone recipe for one of his favorite witbiers and we sent it to Calvin's hometown competition - the Drunk Monk Challenge - and didn't tell him. Him and his wife were both surprised when our names got called for a 3rd place ribbon in that category. To this day it's the only competition I've ever entered, for no specific reason, honestly. I also got involved with a homebrew club in town, CRAZE, and had a good time getting to know some of those guys, though at the time I was not nearly as experienced as they were.

For awhile, this kept going. I brewed a lot of extract 5-gallon batches over the next couple of years, even a coconut porter and a raspberry wheat for table favors at my wedding. I brewed with lots of different people as well - relatives, friends, fellow local homebrewers, etc. As always happens with homebrewers, I eventually felt the need for more control over my recipes and wanted to go all grain... but never wanted to purchase the equipment. My wife again made the leap for me by purchasing me an all grain ingredient kit for my birthday this summer... so I had to get the equipment right? Several hundred dollars later and I was happily pumping out my first all grain batch - an extremely hoppy IPA. I currently have a cooler type 3-tier system complete with a 10-gallon hot liquor tank, 10-gallon mash tun with a false bottom, and my old 8 gallon mega pot. I've since made two batches and already have several ideas for my next batches - with thanks to my wife, friends, and others.

The setup

The first IPA I made (pictured) turned out awesome. I would venture to say it is one of the best, if not the best, beer I have made to date. When I first tasted it I posted on Facebook something about how it tasted like pine dipped in caramelized grapefruit, or something like that. The hop character is very tasty, and I'm pretty proud of the beer. So far the people I've shared it with seem to enjoy it as well, but who knows. After that I wanted to try my hands at a more sessionable beer, and I took inspiration from a hoppy wheat beer of my brother's I had tasted recently. I took his recipe, altered it a bit, and produced what is a light, but tasty and slightly hoppy, wheat beer that is just under 5% and goes down like heaven on a hot day. Coupled with its sweet, hoppy aroma from loads of Centennial dry-hopping (pictured below), it's pretty dang good. Honestly, both of these brews had an ulterior motive for their production, but I won't get into that now. So far those are the only 2 all grain batches I've made, but as soon as I get a free day from work and school, more will be coming.

Dry-hopping the wheat
So what's next? Well, there is a coconut porter recipe I've made several times (though never all-grain), and I have a pretty awesome idea for it... imperial coconut porter! On top of that, I found out recently that I can get Palm Ridge Reserve Whiskey barrels through a distributor where I work... whiskey barrel aged imperial coconut porter! Yes, you read that right. If I can pull that off... this beer could be awesome. What's great about Palm Ridge Reserve is that it's local, high-quality, and the barrels are 5-gallons! It's like they're begging homebrewers to use them! Will do.

Palm Ridge barrels
Well, that's all for now, folks. Feel free to comment on here or email me with questions or anything you may have to say! This weekend I will be attending the Barrel-aged Hunahpu's release at Cigar City Brewing in Tampa, so you can expect a post about that next week.

Cheers!

Local Updates

Well, folks, can you tell that school has started? I can.

In fact, I'm literally typing this blog in class. 12th century counterpoint? Eh, I'll take a beer.

In the near future I intend to write up a post about my adventures in homebrewing, both past and upcoming, but for now, a few local updates.

Momo's still hasn't updated anything on their website, but a co-worker told me he saw wort pumping last time he ate there. If anyone has any more information, feel free to comment on here. I know a couple of you get out that way more than I do.

I've also been checking Mike's Stone Baked Pizza's Facebook page and haven't seen anything at all about brewing. I'll probably shoot the brewer a text sometime soon.

For the tickers out there, I'm told that Tomahawk has Yuengling Oktoberfest on tap, oddly enough.

Fermentation Lounge announced via their Facebook that they will be tapping a beer from a brewery they've never had before on Friday or Saturday... for free. Nuts. I asked on their FB what it will be - my guess being Thomas Creek since that started showing up in town, but they also mentioned getting a keg of Liefman's Oud Bruin, so it may be that, but I don't know if they've had Liefman's before.

UPDATE: They responded on their Facebook "Intuition." I can only assume they mean Intuition Ale Works from Jacksonville, which I've never had. Sweet.

They've also started beer education, dubbed "Beer 101," on their blog. They're very brief, somewhat generic, and seemingly random as well, but it's nice that they're doing it nonetheless.

As for other events, don't forget about the Gordon Biersch event at Proof on the 21st and the upcoming Golden Horn releases at Ferm in October.

Cheers!