Monday, June 9, 2008

I received this from Gary Juels, the head brewer at Mary's Pizza Shack in Roseville Calif., in response to an earlier post I did after my first visit. This is his introduction and background, thought you might be interested.
Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Gary Juels Head Brewer for Mary’s Pizza Shack.

Education
UC Davis, Master Brewers Course

Experience
Intern, Trumer Brauerei, Berkeley, CA
Volunteer at Mt Shasta Brewing Co. Weed, CA
Home Brewer.

Intro
Much like you.. I agree that we produced four good beers for our first ever Brews. This was a used 10 HL system, Direct fire kettle, and totally manual.. And I mean manual...no switches, rakes, temperature controls or any of the basic technology most commercial brewers have. I used a shaky ladder to mash and stir the first four batches because we couldn’t fit a Brewers platform in the 365 sq/ft brewery. I use gravity to transfer beer most of the time. Which I feel makes for a better Beer, its not being beat up by the pumps. The beers are truly handcrafted like the food.

Focus
We didn’t want the Beer to over power the food. So we came up with these four recipes and they turned out exactly the way we wanted them. We've been getting mostly positive feed back from our Patrons who frequent (fruit or no fruit). Always been a dilemma between beer geeks and soccer moms. If the "Hop Heads" are looking for something for their taste buds then I would suggest the "Pazzo" Pale Ale. It’s my personal favorite although; it is usually a battle between the Pilsner and Pale Ale

Future
The Wheat Beer is light – bodied . We wanted it this way to start. The next batch will be Medium-bodied with stronger floral – fruit aroma. Already in the recipe, look for it soon.

Coming Soon
All 4 beers and a seasonal served at any of Mary’s 18 restaurants.
Get ready for our Seasonal beer, Ill give you a heads up if you are up for a second visit.

Special Notes
The beer is served directly from the Bright Tanks. No secondary packaging. You can’t get a fresher beer from a tap.