INTERVIEW CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS PAGE

What’s the criteria for a beer you brew at Hangar 24?

What we look for is something that is generally unique. We strive for fairly unique beers. We try to take a little bit of an approach for sessionability, for drinkability, for our clientele, but also add unique flairs. Our Orange Wheat is a standard American wheat beer, but we use 100% local oranges in the process. We add them in a way where people didn’t experiment a lot before, adding them in hot, and adding them in whole. We add in whole pureed oranges. Our Belgian Summer Ale is our summer seasonal this year. We do kind of like a Berlinerweisse souring procedure on the wort side to try to drive some lactic acid bacteria activity, but then we terminate that and don’t add any bacteria or wild yeast post-fermentation, so that we get more of a standard Belgian fermentation on top of the lactic sour wort. But again, it’s a Belgian blonde, so it’s a little lower in alcohol, so it comes in right under 6, 5.8%, so it’s drinkable but also has a unique flair to it. Also, I’m going to be doing another beer with citrus. We just brewed recently, it’s called Essence, and it’s an American double IPA we do with blood oranges, oranges and grapefruit, in addition to a large dry-hopping profile, so you get a really big citrus impact, not only from the fruit, but also from the citrus.

That’s the most recent beer that you brewed?

Yeah, that would be the most recent one that we made. We’re around the clock production now, 24 hours, 5 days a week, so we’re brewing our core stuff all the time. That’d be the most recent specialty beer.

Hangar 24 Palmero and Double IPA at Library Alehouse

What’s your top selling beer at Hangar 24, and why do you think that’s the case?

Our top selling beer is the Orange Wheat, and I think it’s the top selling beer for a couple reasons. First and foremost, it’s very approachable. The flavor is good for people who enjoy beer, like wheat beers, very soft body, with a lot of impact from the citrus. It’s also good for people who don’t like those beers. It doesn’t have your traditional sharpness. People who always hated that standard American lager can come to the Orange Wheat. It’s also great, because as I said, 100% local oranges in the batch means that our community has really rallied behind that beer, not only locally in Redlands, but also overall in Southern California enjoy that beer. It’s brewed with local ingredients and it’s a local beer.

How do you go about naming your beers, in general?

Tend to stay more towards style. Orange Wheat, we have our Alt-Bier and Double IPA. For a lot of our core stuff, it stays that way. Now we try to do a committee approach, where in the Brewing department, we talk to some of the people in Distribution, some of the people in Marketing, see what comes out of a synergistic approach. Our Local Fields Series, which our American double IPA with citrus, is in, they’re all going to be named one name, like the Palmero that’s on here tonight. Palmero is a word that refers to the people that harvested the dates off the date palms. So that’s a Belgian Dubbel brewed with dates. We also had the Vinaceous in that series, which was brewed with wine grapes from Temecula. The next beer is Essence, referring obviously to the citrus oils, and also our essence. We’re brewing a very American style, and we’re doing it a way we like doing, which is brewing with citrus, brewing with fruit.

How do you feel about collaborating with other breweries?

We’ve done two collaborations. We did one with Golden Road and one with The Bruery. I enjoy it. It’s really nice to get together with another brewery, and it’s really interesting to see how other people approach the brewing process. Brewing is all the same, but it’s so different on somebody else’s system, how they learn, what their background is, and what their approach to the brewing process is. It’s very interesting not to get boxed in, “We do things one way.” To open your eyes to what other people are doing and to share that information is really nice and good for the collective industry.

What music do you like to listen to while brewing, if any?

If it’s Friday in the brewery, we listen to hip-hop. That’s just a tradition that’s been there for the three years I’ve been there. If not that, I like to brew to the Flaming Lips. It’s inspiring.

Who’s a brewer that you’ve never brewed with before that you would most like to brew with?

That’s a tough one. I think I’d like to brew with Todd Mott. He brews at Portsmouth Brewery.

Why him?

Because, as I told you, Old Rasputin was the first beer that opened my eyes to my love of Imperial Stouts, and he makes one of the most fantastic Imperial Stouts in the country, Kate the Great. I think he’s an interesting guy, from the pictures I’ve seen and what I’ve heard of him. I’d like to spend a day and just kind of pick his brain, or his beer.

Where and what do you like to drink when you’re not working?

When I’m not working, I like to go out and go climbing. I’ll grab a six pack of Prima Pils. It’s one of my favorite beers, really refreshing, go up into the mountains and grab that or Moose Drool.

If you could travel to any city in the world right now, primarily to drink beer, what city would it be and why?

I’d probably go to Munich, which is probably a standard answer, but I’ve never been to Europe, and I would really like to Germany and Munich in particular, as a big fan of lagers, to be in one of the best cities for lager brewing.

If you could only drink one more beer, and you couldn’t brew it, what would it be and why?

Do you want a commercial example?

It could be anything. It could be something I’ve never heard of.

I would probably want a super hopped up, unfiltered Czech pils, and I don’t know who would brew it, but whoever could bring me the best pilsner of my entire life, that’s what I would want. And I couldn’t brew it myself, because I’ve never brewed a Czech pils.