From Maine, With Love - An Allagash Brewing Podcast

S3 Episode 10: Ski House Party

• Allagash Brewing Company • Season 3 • Episode 10

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You love it, you really love it. We’re talking about Ski House, our big Belgian-style white beer brewed with ginger—the main subject of our most recent episode. And we're focusing on it because you all have been enjoying this beer so much, we've had to brew way more than we originally planned. Cool!

In the episode, you’ll learn more about the beer’s historic origin, the story behind the beer label design, as well as why our birding-enthusiast employees weren’t too happy about a previous version of the beer. Plus, hear more about our upcoming events, and a very cool concert featuring Maine’s own Julia Gagnon, here at the brewery.

Brett:

Ready to go. This is a special one. This is a special one. I'll do the intro first. This is for Maine with Love, an Allagash Brewing podcast where we talk about beer, our community here in Maine, and things that generally make us happy. And I am ecstatic to welcome back our marketing manager, Liz. Whoa. Whoa.

Liz:

Welcome back. Here I am. I was on maternity leave.

Brett:

Very, very... I'm glad you took the time.

Liz:

Yeah. And... How's

Brett:

it feel? How's it feel to be back, Liz? That's not even my secret question. I just want to know how it feels.

Liz:

That is your secret question?

Brett:

No, that's not my secret question. Oh, good. I get two questions. We don't

Liz:

have time for that. No, it's amazing. And it's just the most overwhelming experience that no one can... prepare you for ever. But I am really happy to be back.

Brett:

And you're doing awesome.

Liz:

You're doing awesome. Here I am.

Brett:

Yeah. Congratulations again. All right. Your secret question. What's your least favorite children's song?

Liz:

Oh my gosh. I don't think I've been burned out quite yet on them, but we do have the, we have this like rainbow, like piano i think it's like the fisher price the thing that everybody is like yes your kid will love this and he does love it that's nice and it's you know i have stuck in my head the animals play the animals play the animals play all day and that is um i know that i will get sick of it oh that's good but it is yeah head shoulders knees and toes is stuck in my head all the time that'll

Brett:

get

Liz:

you um but mostly songs from that toy.

Brett:

Yeah,

Liz:

a little earworms. So whoever wrote those songs, bravo, because they're real catchy.

Brett:

That's amazing.

Liz:

Yeah.

Brett:

Yeah, I have to answer, too, because I've, like, gone through different phases. I think the funny one that pops into my head is there is an intro to a show called Mini Forest Rangers that is on Netflix. I think it's a Korean show. Anyway, my kids were watching that a lot right in the beginning of the pandemic, and I have, like, the worst possible associations with just this, like, this guitar slide. It's like... And I'm like, no! But the new one is actually, if you've ever heard of the Disney show... The Descendants. Have you ever heard of these? Or not show. It's like movie,

Liz:

series, something. I've heard of it, but I haven't seen it. They have a lot of music. Okay. My kid's loving that music right now. Great. Not loving

Brett:

it. Sorry.

Liz:

Sorry. All right, Brett. Yes. Your question. Do you have a favorite holiday movie?

Brett:

Oh. Oh, man. I feel like... So I've been on The Blue Sky, and I feel like for some reason people are talking about like... This is a holiday movie, actually. Like, you know, the classic one is Die Hard is a Christmas movie, but then it's, I don't know, just random stuff. Let me think, actually, if I really do. I do. I 100% do. And it is a Christmas movie, actually. And it is... It's a Wonderful Life. Not. Actually, It's a Wonderful Life is an incredibly fun movie to dissect. If you start, like, he gets saved by a GoFundMe. It's like he gets put out of business by a big banker. The big banker has no repercussions, and then they have to save him. Anyway, really fun. No, my favorite one is... Christmas Carol but it's a particular version with Albert Finney that's a musical from like 1970 something but my mom loved this one and so we started watching it and at first I hated it I didn't hate it I was just kind of like begrudgingly watch it and I've since watched it so many times that I like love it it's like a cult classic for me at this point oh there's so much good stuff watch that movie it's weird

Liz:

it's so good perfect segue to hey Allagash is on Blue Sky now so give us a follow that's true yeah

Brett:

love it But don't expect a lot. Yeah, we haven't posted anything, but we're there. We're figuring it out. Yeah. And speaking of wintry type things, Ski House. Alligator Ski House, our newest, the third of our seasonal house series of beers. We had Surf House in the summer. We had Haunted House around the haunted times. And now we got Ski House to take us through the winter. What do you think of Ski House, Liz? Have you had some?

Liz:

I have. Well, we could get into why I've had it because it's not a new beer here. It is a brand that maybe, I guess, Brett, we could give the whole history, but most recently was Starling Wit, which we've offered on a limited basis over the years. It's a big wit beer. Perfect for some of those chillier weather. And then it's got ginger added to it. Fresh ginger. It's

Brett:

not like a powder. The brewers are there grating actual ginger that they then add to the beer. So

Liz:

you'll get that. Which if you've ever grated ginger, it's one of the harder things.

Brett:

Yeah. Luckily we have slightly automated process to help us with the grating. But yeah, it's legit. It's really, it's tasting great. Yeah. I'm loving that beer. 7.5% ABV. That's what I was just looking up. Allagash White is 5.2. This is 7.5, so you get a little bit more, but it's really nice. And this is the creation of Tom Bonifair, one of our brewers, former brewer here at Allagash. Long time that he was here. And yeah.

Liz:

Yeah, a beer that people really enjoy, and especially if you're a big fan of Allagash White, then I think this would be a really fun thing to give a try just to sort of compare it and also see what the ginger adds to it as well. And it's got a 90 on Beer Advocate, so they're liking it. You need a reason to try it. And then it was originally a Fluxus beer, which predates... Me? Yeah.

Brett:

You didn't have any Fluxuses that came out in your... Yeah. Because was the last one maybe 2018, I think, or maybe 17? We did Hibernal Fluxus. That was the winter. We really wanted to make it super easy to say that one. But the Fluxus beers were really cool. It was a series of beers that we do one a year, and the Fluxus, I think Fluxus means change in Latin, so it would change every single year. And this was one of the earlier ones because it was, yeah, 2008. Like that has to be maybe one of the first. Do we know? I don't know. Well, no one will know. Mystery. We'll fact

Liz:

check that later.

Brett:

Follow us on Blue Sky. We'll post the answer on Blue Sky.

Liz:

Yeah. I guess.

Brett:

So I talked to someone about this beer. I talked to Greg. Do we have that recording? How do we want to do that? I kind of forgot what he said. So Greg is a longtime brewer. He directs a lot about our brewing processes and cellaring. And he's a very funny guy. So I thought he knew Tom really well. He was around when this beer was originally made. So we just wanted a little comment from Greg on his experience with this beer early on.

Greg:

All right. What do you want me to talk about? You want to talk about Ski House, a.k.a. Starling Whip, a.k.a. Ginger Whip. Ginger Whip. I feel like it had another name. Wasn't it Fluxus? I think it was 2008. That's what it was. All right. So the first time we brewed that beer, which is a double wit with ginger, Tom Bonifair, who's one of our old brewers who has now moved on but is awesome, is a good brewer, trained me. Oh, really? Clearly it's all his fault. Jason came to us and he asked each of us to come up with a beer.

Brett:

Yeah.

Greg:

Because we've been brewing there for a long time. That's how we did it back then. It was before the pilot system. And I came up with Matina Rosa. Very good beer. Very good beer. What award did that win? I want to say it was a silver at the GABF, but I shouldn't really remember that. It's all about the people and the beer for me, Brett. Not the awards. But yeah, so Jason came to us looking for recipes and That was Tom's recipe.

Brett:

Yeah.

Greg:

You know, he loved white, ginger. Everybody loves ginger because it's so fresh and refreshing. It is. And we made it back then, and I think it was Fluxus the first time. Yeah. And it was awesome. And then it's like, you know, it's like back pain. It never went away. So every couple of years, it just keeps coming back, right? Because, you know, we love white. That beer is good. Mm-hmm. And we just keep wanting to make it. Yeah.

Brett:

So has it changed that much recipe-wise in the time?

Greg:

That is a good question. I would say not really that much other than like how the rest of the surrounding environment has changed. Yeah, yeah, yeah. A lot. Like we source materials differently. You know, it's on a different brew house. Right, right, right. Even when it was on the same brew house, the vessels all changed during that time because it's been... I mean, I don't even know because I'm old, but it's been more than 10 years since we've been making that beer. This place has changed a lot in 10 years.

Brett:

I will say, actually, Jason mentioned that he actually sent some ski house to Tom to see what his take was. And Tom said it was the best it had ever been tasting. Nice.

Greg:

Company man. Company man. Tom. He doesn't even have to be here. Well, knowing Tom, there's no way he would say anything but the absolute truth. That is actually true. Tom, awesome

Brett:

guy, character. I feel like a true... He was one of my first introductions to Allagash, too, where it Like he was a sort of dude where like when you met him, you're like, Ooh, this is kind of like a tough guy. And then you talk to him. He's like, this is the nicest guy I've ever met in my

Greg:

life. Super scary. Yeah. Yeah. I remember being like, don't mess with that guy. And I started, but he's a nice

Liz:

guy.

Greg:

Yeah. Very good. All right. Thank you for your time, Greg.

Liz:

I'm so glad we got Greg's laugh. Yes. Everyone should experience it. It's the best.

Brett:

I was saying to Matt that my feeling about Greg's laugh is like when you're in the jungle or you know movies in the jungle and you hear like a tropical bird way in the background, like that's the experience at Allagash is you hear Greg's laugh from like some other part of the brewery. And you're like, oh, there

Liz:

he is. It's so good. It's so good. Don't just listen to us. Give Ski House a try.

Brett:

Go give Ski House a try.

Liz:

Where can you get it, Brett?

Brett:

You can get it anywhere Allagash is available. It's literally, it's going out. all the places. So yeah, just allagash.com slash locator is going to show you the closest place to you that you can get this beer. And it should be pretty widely available because we've had to brew some extra batches. We were brewing more than we thought we had to.

Liz:

Yeah, that's good news.

Brett:

That's very good news.

Liz:

We're glad you're liking it out there. Yes.

Brett:

Thank you. All right. The next topic at hand.

Liz:

You didn't want to talk about Starlings?

Brett:

Oh, yeah. Yeah, we should mention it. Starling Witt was one of the... Do you want to tell the story of the Starling Wit?

Liz:

Is there a particular story?

Brett:

No, it's kind of a general

Liz:

purpose. Yeah, so Ski House, formerly known as Starling Wit, a label that we liked. If you follow Allagash Brands, you've seen a bird here or there over the years. But we realized that not everybody has a fond love of starlings. The bird, yeah. They are, I believe, invasive and can be a pest. And so we've gotten some feedback that has nothing to do with the beer, but the branding makes them angrier than it should. And so, hey, we're always open to feedback here at Allagash. We are. And so we have evolved. To Ski House, no starlings present on this label.

Brett:

Yeah, those comments, I think a number of them came internally from the birders on staff. We have some pretty avid birders here, and they're all like, oh, label looks awesome, but starlings, I don't like starlings.

Liz:

Yeah, yeah. So email podcast.allagash.com if you have any stories about starlings you'd like to share.

Brett:

Good or bad. Yeah, good or bad. Maybe we can help reform their character.

Liz:

Yeah.

Brett:

So Liz, for the people who want to know, how does Ski House... package look?

Liz:

It's very fun, and it just gives you all the winter feels. I am not what you would call an avid skier or snowboarder. In fact, you wouldn't want to be anywhere near me if I had ski socks. But it is such a cute winter scene, and it gives me lots of New England vibes. Although, I'm sure there are, what do you call this, a little A-frame? Yep, a little A-frame. It's got a little red A-frame and snowman and snowflakes. It just, you know, it gets you in the winter feeling. Yeah. But it's a really fun can that we had a good time designing. I think once we sort of knew we were going to do the ski house, haunted house, surf house sort of theme design, Todd, our graphic designer, just sort of unlocked creativity and made this really fun little... winter vignette

Brett:

on the can.

Liz:

the label, you're like, oh, there's a little cardinal and little, you know, fun little things to pick out.

Brett:

People seem very pro-cardinal,

Liz:

right? Yeah, I think. I mean, no Starling. Yeah.

Brett:

We haven't heard from the anti-cardinal crowd yet. Yeah,

Liz:

yeah. We think cardinals are still okay. Haven't

Brett:

heard anything bad about them. But to your point, Liz, about Todd sort of unlocking something, this whole house series, so Ski House, Haunted House, Surf House, Todd designed everything from front to back on them. And I feel like it was kind of his like, he went super Saiyan. So if you're an anime fan, he unlocked a new potential because they're so consistent. They're so fun universally. I feel like the feedback we've gotten has been very high. And also, I mean, Rob. Rob's saying, Rob Todd, founder of Allagash, says this is his favorite design we've ever done. So if you want to taste the beer inside Rob Todd's favorite can, Maybe accepting Allagash White. Have an Allagash White, too. Buy an Allagash White and my ski house, and you'll make Rob very

Liz:

happy. But that's a fun side-by-side comparison. That is.

Brett:

I'd recommend it.

Liz:

Yeah. So great for, you know, if you are packing up and going hitting the mountains. Is that what they say? They say that? Hit the slopes? It's more striking the

Brett:

slopes,

Liz:

Liz. I think that's what they say normally. Pounding the slopes. Or, you know, just having a cozy Sunday afternoon. Watching the snow come down in your house. Perfect little companion.

Brett:

So one of the considerations we had while we were designing this beer was, is Ski House going to alienate people who aren't necessarily skiers? And this is like a kind of a crucial marketing question that has popped up for us time and time again of, are we alienating X group by going further in on Y? And I think we found with this beer so far, no. No. People don't have to ski. Liz, you don't have to ski to enjoy a ski house? No. You get it?

Liz:

Yeah, the few times I've skied end up in injury. So, I mean, I probably have not a great experience with skiing, and I still think it would be, you know, something I would gravitate towards. Liz,

Brett:

our next episode is going to be Liz's ski injury

Liz:

recap. I skied over a girl in middle school. Oh, no. Caught some injury to her and me. Was

Brett:

the girl of similar size

Liz:

to you? Yeah, we were pretty similar in size, but I just ran her right over. She had an injury. Oh, no. But she's okay. Are you friends? This is middle school. Are

Brett:

you enemies?

Liz:

I don't think so. Okay, that's good. But I'm still sorry about that.

Brett:

There

Liz:

you go. Yeah, I guess... And you can tell us if you see this beer out there and whether you ski or don't, we'd love to hear.

Brett:

Yeah, definitely would love to hear feedback. Also if you have other house ideas. Yeah. If you know of any other houses that are seasonally appropriate, we'd love to have them.

Liz:

Yeah.

Brett:

The next one, Hearts of Pine.

Liz:

Hearts of Pine.

Brett:

Collaboration beer.

Liz:

Up the hearts. Up the hearts. Up the hearts.

Brett:

What is the cadence? Do we know? Oh, I don't know. You sounded like you actually knew what you were doing.

Liz:

I was just into it. Yes.

Brett:

All right. You go ahead, Liz.

Liz:

Yeah. We're doing a collaboration beer, which is super exciting because we don't do a ton of collaboration beers. And we are going to... The beer isn't final, which is maybe the most exciting thing. We're tasting through four lager options that... guests of the event will get to help us pick the one that ends up being the final collaboration beer before you get too excited it is sold out there's a wait list if you go on our website you can sign up for the wait list but the Hearts of Pine folks are going to be here and The Dear Go Union crew is going to be here, and it's going to be a good time. I think we're hosting it in the Cellars? Yes,

Brett:

hosted in the Cellars Sunday, January 5th. But, yeah, it sold out pretty quick, and we— Put it out there on a newsletter, and I think it sold out in like 45 minutes. Sorry, that was very dictated by the amount of beer we have because these are four different pilot batches of beer, so we could only have so many people come and taste it, so we had enough beer for everyone to try a little bit of each version.

Liz:

But we were excited by your enthusiasm for an event like this, so I'll just put a plug in for signing up for our newsletter for any types of events we do like this in the future because... it'll be cool to involve the public in tasting some, some beers and helping us pick the one that's going to be the beer at. Yeah. For hearts of pine.

Brett:

And just as a brief refresher, hearts of pine is a local soccer team here in Portland that is going to start playing next year, but they've already built a lot of momentum and we're an official beer. We are official beer sponsor of the hearts of pine. And so we, Yeah, everything that we've done with them so far has been awesome. We were at their kit reveal a couple weeks ago, and the energy in that for the reveal of their jersey, which has also gained national press coverage of how much everyone loves the jersey, so they're crushing it, and we feel really lucky to be a part of the momentum and to be a part of this Portland and Maine phenomenon. So, up the hearts.

Liz:

Yeah, lots more to come. on that partnership. We're

Brett:

probably going to have them on the podcast. They're going to be on here soon. We're going to talk with them more.

Liz:

Yeah.

Brett:

That's a promise.

Liz:

And then we just have a lot of really fun events coming up at the brewery. I feel like we've got a packed schedule these days. We

Brett:

do.

Liz:

If you're looking for things to do over the holidays, you've got people in town, bring them on by. We've got trivia in the brew house on Fridays, which I know has been quite well attended. Um, I think Meg from personality hire is our MC for that. Does a great job. Um, you can find all the information on our website.

Brett:

Also, I didn't know this great prizes. I think it's like a $100 gift card to the brewery if you win, if your team wins. So there's like legit prizes. That was one prize. I don't know if that's every single time, but there's some good reasons to come out on top of the great beer and wonderful questions. Yeah. Yeah. You want me to do the next one? Yep. All right. Mondays, we're doing free seasonal beer samplings. So between 3 and 5 p.m., come to the tasting room. Don't have to sign up. Don't have to RSVP. Just stop by. And we have samplings of some of our sort of limited release beers that we're really excited about. And one of our staff will take you through them, talk about them. You can ask questions.

Liz:

Try them out before you

Brett:

buy them

Liz:

out. There you go. Yeah, it's just a great way– to taste what we have here only at the brewery and our staff loves talking about beer. And so you can sort of pick their brain and ask any questions you have too. Sundays. No,

Brett:

no. We're going to get suitless.

Liz:

I'll just edit it by note.

Brett:

We just have to change up the notes.

Liz:

Yeah, there

Brett:

you go.

Liz:

Football in the brew house. We got a big TV. I saw it. It's really big. It is the

Brett:

biggest TV I've

Liz:

ever seen. Yeah, I didn't know they made TVs this big.

Brett:

It's an old Jumbotron from Dallas Cowboy Stadium. Oh, no, I can't say that. It's from the team in Dallas. Anyway.

Liz:

Yeah. So So, yeah, come on by. We'll be playing the games while we're open. You can... have beer in our brew house if that's news to you we're opening it up for the colder months which is really fun to sort of be among the brewing equipment yeah i don't think we

Brett:

we have i don't think we ever actually have announced that yet but we are opening up our brew house more and more during the winter as just a really large nice indoor space that you can pop in through so basically when you walk into our um sort of gift shop area where you can buy beer and bathrooms are there you just can walk straight in through into the brew house we set up a bunch of tables it's been really nice i've taken advantage of it with my family Nice. It's been really nice. But yeah, the hours are, if I get this wrong, we can cut it out, but 11 till 6.30, I believe, on Sundays. So that last game, you might not be able to catch all of it because we are going to have to close up. But at the same time, we're showing football as long as we're open. Six o'clock. Six o'clock, sorry. 11 to 6 is the hours for Sunday.

Liz:

And then... Another great option for all the time, but especially around the holiday, is our beer in barrels tour. So bring family, makes a great gift card even. But we offer tours of the Brewhouse that we know people have really enjoyed. And so you can sign up for those on our website. They do fill up. So if you're a planner, be sure to check those dates out. They run a couple times a day, multiple days a week. So definitely come check out our website. There's a couple different tour options to see the brewery.

Brett:

Yeah, I'll clarify too. Tours of our original brew house. Not the current big one where we set up some tables, but it's actually the space where Rob originally started the brewery, just kind of down the road from our tasting room. But those are, yeah, that's an awesome gift experience. I would say if you have a person who's even halfway interested in beer in your life and you're looking for a holiday idea like that as a gift, I think they'd love it because I did it. with my wife a couple weeks ago, just kind of on a whim. And even though I've been working here for eight years, it was so fun. Just tasting the beers, hearing about them, getting some time to just kind of wander that space. So I would put my also plug behind that. Awesome. They do a great job there. And then for an event coming up January 16th at 6 p.m., I believe it's scheduled, Julia Gagnon, Main Zone. former American Idol contestant.

Liz:

Yeah, so exciting.

Brett:

It is exciting. It's been fun getting to know her, working with her, and Nate, her bandmate.

Liz:

She's incredible, and she's coming here, so I'm pretty psyched.

Brett:

Yeah, so it's going to be more of an intimate concert, probably lots of originals, I think a little acoustic. Its tickets are on sale right now. Just go to our website, the events section. She's been doing everything, too. She's been, I feel like everything, the legislative session that just happened, she sang the national anthem when they opened that up. So she's going across Maine, just crushing it. Way to go, Julia. Lots of stuff. Lots of stuff. Yeah. All right. This has been an Allagash Brewing production. If you have something you'd like us to talk about or a question for our team, just send us an email at podcast at allagash.com. And as always, thanks for listening.