Tyler Hawkins may be a brewmaster today, but that wasn”t what Neil Marzolf originally hired him to do – originally, he hired him to milk his goats.
At first, Marzolf and his wife Ramirose Attebury, a University of Idaho reference librarian, planned to start a goat barn five miles outside of Moscow.
One day, Marzolf said he asked Hawkins if he wanted to make an Indian Pale Ale – a hops-heavy beer with a high amount of bittering units – for his birthday.
Marzolf said the brew they made was good – very good.
Tess Fox | Argonaut
Patrons of Tapped Taphouse and Kitchen enjoy a beer with lunch on a quiet Saturday afternoon in downtown Moscow.
“So I kicked the goats out of the barn and turned my home barn into a brewery,” Marzolf said. “(I) decided to get rid of the goats and do beer instead.”
The goat-barn operation is now Rants and Raves Brewery, wherein lies over $250,000 worth of brewing equipment and is available for the public to see and learn from in an educational setting, Marzolf said.
Marzolf said an educational setting in a brewery is important and often his brewers will travel to community members” homes to educate them about the brewing process. He said for thousands of years, people across the globe have come together as a community over the science of brewing beer, the artistry behind it and, perhaps most importantly, the beer itself.
What it takes to brew
Marzolf said it all starts with the water.
“Moscow has absolutely atrocious water,” he said. “So what we do is we run water through a DI, deionization, system.”
This process removes all the minerals, additives and other foreign substances in Moscow”s water, he said. In addition, Moscow runs on two wells, which at different times of the year have different PH levels, a measurement of acidity or basicity.
Marzolf said Moscow”s wells require different approaches at different times of the year.
In order to produce a consistent beer, Marzolf said he has to kill the water. The water is transitioned into a hot liquor tank – a large metal machine to heat water – in various amounts to match the desired PH and mineral levels.
From there, an auger and gerst, or cracked grains often depending on the type of beer being made, are introduced to the process, he said. A mixture of water and grains are transitioned into a mash tank, which pipes 180-degree water into the gerst in a process that cycles multiple times, cleaning the grain and pulling sugar from in it a whirlpool motion.
Marzolf said they are able to pull 88 percent of the sugar from the grain.
Afterward, the grain – now wort, a mixture of grain before fermentation – is pumped into a boil kettle and raised from approximately 160 degrees to 170 degrees to kill off bacteria.
“We start heating the wort again and at this point is when we do our hop additives so then we”ll figure out what hop profile we want to use,” Marzolf said. “We stick that in there and the hops sit in there while it”s boiling.”
The oils from the hops infuse into the mixture and deliver the flavor to the beer, he said.
The mixture is pumped into a wort chiller, which Marzolf said is like a gigantic radiator in a car, and brought down to 60 degrees. The beer is then fermented at around 65 degrees – too cold or too hot, the fermentation is ruined.
He said fermentation is a game of adjusting degrees. Lagers are fermented at about 55 degrees whereas microbeers are at around 65-70 degrees. Marzolf uses a jacketed fermenter that cycles glycol to keep the wort at an exact temperature.
The wort is introduced to yeast, which eats away at the sugar in the wort, Marzolf said. The particular mixture for an 8.4 percent alcohol by volume (ABV) IPA will ferment at 65 degrees for five days, chill as a result of a cold crash and be dry hopped, at which point back-end flavors and aromatics are transfused into the product.
Following fermentation, a clearing agent is introduced to clear the beer”s murkiness, he said. In Marzolf”s beer, carbonation is added through a pressurized tank pumped with carbon dioxide. The concoction is then ready to be kegged.
Marzolf said the end product is art.
“Making beer, that”s really what it”s about for me. It”s an art and I want to be the best at my art as I can be,” he said. “When I make a beer, or when my brewer makes a beer should I say, and that beer is good, then I take a lot of personal satisfaction in the fact that as a business we created something that other people are going to enjoy.”
Community through beer
Wendy Smiley Johnson, the owner of the Moscow Alehouse, said beer is social, and that happens the moment the glass touches the table – she said there”s an instant relationship with the amber or brown hue, the aroma and the foam.
Joel Cohen, the owner of Tapped Taphouse and Kitchen, said people for thousands of years have come together around beer.
He said with beer, he sees people lower their barriers and interact with one another almost as if they were sitting around a fire.
Phil Odrick, the owner of CJ”s Nightclub, said that conversational change comes when alcohol drops the consumer”s social walls. He said the concern about perception, appearances and conversation lowers with alcohol in the mix.
“Now, instead of being the mouse, they become a little more louder, a little more boisterous, a little more opinionated,” Odrick said.
Johnson said she loves beer people.
“I think that beer people have great hearts,” she said. “I think that beer is such a community and social thing that hearts are broken and relationships are built on beer sometimes, you know?”
The Moscow community gathers for events and bonds over beer in the businesses throughout town, Johnson said.
The Alehouse”s annual Brewfest is an example of community events that forge bonds, she said. The Alehouse will provide 40 types of beer, eight bands and food through Vandal Meats 1-9 p.m. Saturday. All proceeds will be donated to Relay for Life and the American Cancer Society.
“We”re gathering as a community to drink beer for cancer,” Johnson said.
Not a bar
Marzolf said he corrects people who call his brewery a “bar.” He said the term can often be incorrectly applied to breweries, and to him carries a negative connotation.
“Typically, they”re a watering hole to go get drunk. That”s kind of what they”ve become,” he said. “Bars, I think, the term “bars” has slowly evolved into a place to go drink cheap booze.”
Yet Marzolf said millennials who enter his establishment are searching for a social club such as the Elk”s Club and Moose Club in the “80s, but without the obligation of an annual fee.
Cohen, who was a certified accountant in Oregon before opening Tapped, said every business has to establish an identity.
“When we were first getting started, I think I read this, you can”t create a restaurant that appeals to everybody,” Cohen said. “The way they put it is you can”t be something to everybody, you have to be everything to somebody.”
Cohen said he controls the ambience and beer to create an environment for a specific type of older patron that enjoys quality beer and food.
Marzolf said the brewing industry in Moscow is changing and growing – Hunga Dunga Brewing Company will soon open, and the Moscow Brewing Company is currently on the market. He said taking that into consideration, he would like to create a Moscow Brewing District on the north side of Moscow that is recognized by the city.
“It creates this end of the town into a brewing district and I”m working hard to get the city to recognize the Moscow Brewing District as its own little district,” Marzolf said. “I think that”ll be exciting if we”re able to get that accomplished.”
Johnson said she would absolutely support a Moscow Brewing District.
“I think it would put little Moscow on the map as far as a really good destination spot for some really, really good beer,” she said.
Jake Smith can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @notjakesmith
Concerne citizen
Is that owner the same Neil Marzolf, who is a registered sex offender for rape and child molestation?