Transcript:
I’m Chad Jacobson owner brewmaster here Crooked Stave our severe project we’re in Denver Colorado. Crooked Stave today was really a unique combination it’s a combination of my Master’s dissertation so it was done in brewing research and it was done on Brettanomyces yeast so we really got our start from me taking my Master’s dissertation and really looking at okay this this research is great but is it something that’s actually applicable in the brewing industry and from that really is the grounds that we ran on to create Crooked Stave.
To get to where we are now the foundation of Crooked Stave really rests heavily on wild sour barrel-aged Brettanomyces beers so building a bond Brettanomyces beers but really making barrels the focal point so you know as we sit here we’ve got the large rooters behind us that’s really what makes Crooked Stave unique and has been since day one.
When we got started there was really one other brewery that focused entirely on wild sour barrel aged beers and from there it’s really grown into a massive industry that was something that we hung our hat on from the beginning was using Brettanomyces beers producing wild sour beers and and growing from there the type of beers we’ve made.
So for us it’s really neat because where we sit is a brewery we make beers that are not perceived or have not been perceived to go into a can Brettanomyces these wild sour beers these are beers that generally go into large format cork and cage bottles they can age for a really long time the perception has always been this very very high end in a 750 ml bottle and that’s always kind of been tradition and history we sit in a unique place I think in Colorado, but also within the craft brewing industry where cans have grown five years ago cans weren’t nearly as accepted as there are now 10 years ago.
It was almost unheard of in the craft brewing industry and so it’s a really unique place not just from Colorado where we are but also nationwide so as we got up and going through the first batches in early 2011 so it puts us just about at 7 years old now I haven’t note in my phone still to this day for October 11 2011 which said put some bread in a can so as we got going we really wanted to test the Brettanomyces what we could do with these beers but grew to see that brewed a series of beers based on the rainbow we come to wild wild frets and we’d had wild wild Bret orange and this was the spiritus ya brought together like a Belgian wit with old-world saison and Brettanomyces characteristics completely drinkable but also something that thinking outside of the box like this is something that we could put in a can so I I had this note from 2011 put some bread in a can it took until 2017 so you know a mere six and a half years later or so and we were putting in any can.
And so that’s really I think really kind of forward thinking for the beers that we make looking at taking Brettanomyces beers wild sour beers and putting them in a can and make him approachable that’s what’s amazing about the can and that has grown to a point with technology and with the industry where it’s accepted and we can do that.
So with being able to automate deepal and automate canning line it was really what we looked at from the beginning so for us, Barrett, we are relatively a really small brewery and I think that’s something that will always stick with us because of the types of beers we make and what we’re doing, but again it’s relative to how you operate, what you do so for us it’s always been about quality are the most important things within our vision within our mission at our brewery its quality never compromising.
And that was a big thing for us before we went into cans then also looking at that process of how we went into cans, so we knew that if we were gonna go into a canning line, we needed to be able to beat any of our DOs, TPOs, and really get that down and that’s not just the canning line itself but that’s the entire process all the way through we knew we needed seamless integration from the beginning to the end that’s something that SKA was able to offer us and it’s something that we were able to have especially with that deep out great recognition here in Colorado great recognition amongst craft brewers and that was something that we knew we could put our trust in as we got up and going with that to get the line that we really needed.
So for us you know relationships are really important who we work with an important integrity of who we work with is important and that’s something that we’ve built over the years with SKA and SKA fabrications I love there’s a personal side that as an entrepreneur I love seeing people branch out I love seeing people create new businesses but we’re also going to work with the most quality manufacturer we can who’s gonna be able to work with us and build that relationship with us SKA with that first and foremost right away it was great the attention to detail that they had the attention to had in our project what they wanted to be able to bring to it so it’s easy to work with someone that you like that you respect but also is gonna put quality in the same way.
We knew that if we wanted to tweak if we wanted to change things if we wanted to make it you know what we call our Stave standard they were willing to work with us ultimately there really wasn’t anything like that we needed to do because they’ve already been doing it for all these years they’ve already thought it through and so we were able to pick the package we wanted it worked for us and have it built.
Our brewery is very interesting as you wander through as you check everything out attention to detail and focus are our paramount and with that comes quality of quality first never compromising we really sometimes even sweat the small stuff as it gets put we have to within our process there’s too much room for beer to be able to change beer to be able to become something we don’t want it to be we end up handling the beer five times more it’s because of all the barrels all the projects everything we do but therefore we really blend science and art science quality attention to detail being able to deserve everything all the way through but then being able to take the art to the taste and blend things together and we really showcase that all the way through.
We like the versatility so whenever we’re looking at a project there’s today but just as important if not more important as a future with the canning line that we’ve got up but all of the equipment from SKA Fabrication that we’ve been able to build out on it we know that we can continue to use that past this line if we want to bring in new canning lines to work faster to continue that automation level all of that’s there with our SKA Fab equipment.
If we want to be able to change our pack out system, change anything in line it’s all built so that we can be able to do that add in add to it continue to grow so we’re not cornered into any one piece of equipment that we can’t use later down the line. That was really important to me in being able to do that, knowing that okay, hey a source for this line but the versatility of this continues to grow which means we would do more and we can continue to add on as we develop.
So where I see the industry as a whole even with sour beer and especially with Denver it’s it’s unique we’ve got a lot of really good breweries here in Denver make some amazing sour beers so it’s a really cool thing to be able to be a part of but also on a on a national stage and on a world stage so you continue to develop more and more people are getting into it so more and more competitiveness. That’s what I think brings us a bit of a competitive edge to the cans we have some that’s really exciting in February we’ll be launching our first full barrel aged sour in cans and be available in six pack year around and that’s something that I’ve yet to hear anyone really be able to do so it’s just that would be unfathomable years ago to do that and to say hey we’re going forward with the sour and cans I’m gonna launch this way and gonna be competitive and play into the market.
I think it’s a really great thing for consumers and for people like that’s canning and the revolution of canning that really makes that available.
I would absolutely recommend SKA to fellow craft brewing people that’s a really easy one to say to because everybody around us also recommends SKA I’m fortunate to have employees who worked with ska equipment at three or four other breweries give or take each person’s experience so it’s something also that the reputation and all of that supersedes itself so yeah I’ll recommend it just like everyone recommended it to us.
