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WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN BEER & ALES?
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| The U.S.
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms sets the alcohol levels of beer & ale.
Beer describes the typical American malt beverage (i.e. Budweiser, Miller,
and Coors) containing less than 4% alcohol by volume. These beers can be made with
either lager or ale yeast. Ale, however, must be made with Ale yeast and the alcohol
must be between 4% and 7.2% by volume. |
WHAT
GIVES BEER & ALES THEIR COLOR, FLAVOR, BITTERNESS AND AROMA?
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They are produced by the Hops,
Grains, and Yeast
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| - Hops
provide bitterness, flavor, and aroma. |
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Bitterness is completely under the control of
the brewer. Before spoilage was understood, it was found that adding bitter hops to
the non-sterile wooden kegs would preserve the beer. This was applied to the beer
being sent to India and became known as India Pale Ale. Pasturization can also be
used to preserve the beer. Many of the micro-breweries found that increasing the
bitterness was an efficient way to preserve their beers.
Flavor comes from the hops added after the midpoint of the 1 hour boil.
Aroma comes from the hops added at the end of the boil. |
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Grains provide color, flavor, and aroma. |
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Most grains are "malted".
They are soaked with water and allowed to sprout, this turns the grain to starch.
Then the grain is roasted just enough to kill the sprout. This is how Pale Malt is
produced. The enzymes present in malted barley change the starch to sugar when
immersed in 155 degree water.
Color is produced by further roasting of the grain. Color is described by a scale of
1 to 600. Pale Malt has a color of 1.75.
Grains may be roasted wet or dry. Dry roasting gives a tart hard edged
flavor. Wet roasting allows the grain to convert to sugar and form caramel sugars
that provide unique flavors and aromas. |
| - Yeast is
either lager or ale. |
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Lager yeast works best at 50 to 55
degrees. This produces clean and restrained flavors and aromas.
Ale yeast works best at 65 to 68 degrees. The warmer temperature yields more complex
flavors and aromas. |
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WHAT MAKES SAN RAFAEL ALE DIFFERENT FROM OTHER MICROBREWS?
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| All the
color is derived from Caramel Malts which produce our rich complex flavors with a hint of
sweetness. The hops are carefully chosen to balance restrained bitterness with the
rich aromatic flavors of the finest hops. The unique flavor and aroma of our Ales
are derived from painstaking recipe development that spanned 5 years. |
IS SAN RAFAEL ALE MADE IN SAN RAFAEL?
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| Our
original 100 gallon brewery was in continous use in Marin County for 8 years. Our
contract with a major Marin-Sonoma distributor quickly called for more production.
Since we could not afford a 2 million dollar brewery, we contracted with Gluek Brewing in
Minnesota to brew beer for us. This allowed us to have the beer pasteurized for
stability and good shelf life. They make the beer to our exact specifications.
They have done a great job for us. During the Mississippi River floods, the price of
wheat went through the roof. The brewer harvested his own wheat field and brewed a
batch of our wheat beer on time. |
| Our firm is composed
of 3 people and a small dog. |
| CEO: |
Dennis Coco |
| Sales Manager: |
Gene Coco |
| Brewmaster: |
Jim Hyde |
Director of
Public Relations: |
Barbie Dog, a 12 lb. Rat Terrier.
"The Energizer Bunny in a cow suit" |
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