When we last checked in on Family Business Brewing Company (“Pub-licity,” Winter 2019), it still enjoyed the novelty of having a celebrity owner, television star Jensen Ackles. But we — and Ackles and his FBBC co-owners — knew that celebrity wouldn’t be enough. Eventually, the beer itself would have to become the real star.
Mission accomplished. At this year’s Great American Beer Festival, the prestigious annual competition in Denver, Colorado, one of Family Business’ beers brought home a gold medal. It’s a prize every brewer in America hopes to capture, competing against the entire nation.
Family Business won in the Chili Beer category for its Chilis From the Grave. As you might guess from the name, it’s infused with peppers. The brew was one of four medal winners from the Hill Country, the other three being LMM Belgian Amber (Lone Man Mountain Brewing, Driftwood, Bronze, Belgian- or French-Style Ale), Cruzer (Real Ale Brewing, Blanco, Bronze, German-Style Koelsch) and Real Heavy (also Real Ale, Gold, Scotch Ale).
Head Brewer Cosimo Sorrentino has been with FBBC since May. We caught up with him to talk about his winning beer, the prestige of a GABF medal, and why you shouldn’t be afraid of beer brewed with chili peppers.
What inspired this beer?
It’s based on a beer called Ashes From the Grave, which is a beer that I’ve made since my first year as a brewer. It was a collaboration between my brewery at the time, Monkey Paw Brewing, and AleSmith Brewing in San Diego. Me and the brewer from AleSmith that I worked with on it — we’ve transitioned to other breweries since — we always get together and make it traditionally as a Halloween beer.
Ashes won gold for Smoke Beer at the 2016 World Beer Cup. It’s a beer that I’ve always had in rotation wherever I’ve been. And then I’ve always played with it and done a chili version just as kind of like a draft-only specialty. My boss at Monkey Paw was really into chili beers and smoked beers. So it’s just something we did on a regular basis.
This year, being here at Family Business, and most of our entries being our core beers and not being in that brewpub environment where I have as much variety to select from when entering the competitions, we knew we were going to make Ashes From the Grave. So to get that extra entry in and fill all of our slots, I did the chili version as well.
So winning this medal was almost an accident? You were just trying to fill your slots at the festival?
Oh no, when we sent it, I thought it was our best chance at a medal just because it’s kind of an obscure category, but something I’m very familiar with in a recipe that we’ve done multiple times. I’ve been looking for an excuse to enter it and that’s the way it worked out.
Describe the taste profile of Chilis From the Grave.
So the base beer is a smoked American brown. It’s kind of on the edge of a robust porter. So you’re gonna get the roasted coffee, bread crust kind of notes mixed with a bit of sweet caramel. There is a little bit of that sweetness to balance out the roast in the brown ale. And then bringing the chilis in, we use a combination of dried guajillo and ancho as well as fresh and roasted serrano peppers that have mostly been de-seeded.
So you’ll get the dark fruit from the dried peppers and a little bit of that kind of smoky character from the ancho as well, which is a bit of a different smoke profile from the wood smoke in the beer itself. And then you’ll get that fresh pepper-flesh kind of flavor from the serranos, and then the heat will come at the end.
There’s definitely a noticeable amount of heat, but it’s not the most aggressive part of the beer. We definitely design it to where you can drink a pint of it and it’ll tickle your throat by the end of it. But it’s not gonna blow your palate.
I think some people reading this will be afraid of a chili beer. Tell them why they shouldn’t be.
Because our chili beer incorporates the chili from a flavor and balance perspective, as opposed to it being some sort of a dare or a gimmick beer. We don’t just want to get one in your hands so you could say you drank it. It’s a beer that’s meant to be enjoyed multiple times. It also pairs really well with food, especially barbecue. Coming from a brewpub background, I’ve made a lot of spiced beers and beers that come from a culinary influence. And the goal has always been to make sure that the full enjoyment of the beer and flavor profile comes after a full serving size, as opposed to the first sip.
For those not familiar with the Great American Beer Festival, explain the prestige of winning one of these medals.
There were over 9,000 beers entered and just over 100 categories. So gold medals went to about one percent of beers that were entered. And considering that each brewery has to choose their six best beers to enter, the numbers show how hard it is to get in there.
And then on top of that, the people judging it are the best brewers and best beer professionals in America and sometimes in the world. They have to go through multiple years to get certified and then invited to be a judge. And then there’s always a balance of senior and junior judges at the table. So we always like to say that great beers don’t always win, but bad beers never win.
Has Family Business won a Great American Beer Festival medal before? And have you won before?
In 2019, Family Business took a silver for German Pilsner with Golden Age, which is our core German Pilsner.
Personally, I won my first GABF medal in 2013. It was a gold in the American Strong Ale category with Monkey Paw Brewing, and then I took a silver medal in 2015 in the Oatmeal Stout category with South Park Brewing in San Diego, and then a gold last year at Lazarus Brewing in Austin in the Herb and Spice Beer category.
Is Chilis From the Grave a seasonal beer or one you will have in continuous production?
It is planned as a seasonal. I will be making another batch of it for the spring to enter into the Texas Craft Brewers Guild competition as well as the World Beer Cup. So it’ll be a tap room availability for the springtime and then we will be releasing the Ashes From the Grave, the base beer, as a seasonal can release in the fall for full distribution at HEB. And we will can Chilis and have it as a tap room availability in the fall as well.
Brewery scenes go through stages — a clunky early stage, then a maturing stage, and then hopefully a full-blown scene. What stage would you say the Hill Country brewing scene is at right now?
It’s approaching the critical mass of breweries that, more from collaboration than competition, kind of breeds the necessity to pay attention to your neighbors.
But what’s great about the brewing industry is that we take that as inspiration and learning. So because there’s enough of us out here and we’re close enough and we go to each other’s places and taste our beers, we can help each other out and exchange ideas and feedback. And even just ingredients — if I’m short on something or something unexpected happens, I can call the guy down the block or down the road and borrow something so that I don’t have to sacrifice any quality.
So it gets to a point where there’s enough breweries that are all working for the common good that it’s kind of that rising tide raises all ships. That’s where we’re at right now. We haven’t gotten to the point where we’re competing and, and marketing is taking over and we’re all doing the same style and kind of competing for the same customer. We’re competing with each other in a sense that our quality is getting better and there’s great beer. So more people are traveling out here to support the businesses which keeps the beer fresher and gives us more of an opportunity to make different styles and progress in that manner as well.