The art of beer

by Tara Nelson

Shrine def: A place of sacred objects.
Beer shrine def: See The North Fork Brewery.

When Vicky and Sandy Savage let a friend use a space containing their life-long collection of beer bottles as a prayer room, the idea for their future business was brewing.

Savage, who worked for several years as a brewer for Triple Rock in Berkeley, California, had been collecting beer bottles since the age of 15.

“We hauled them around for about 20 years, and then they just started finding us,” his wife Vicky said. “People would bring in bottles to add to our collection.”

Years later, the couple moved to the Mt. Baker foothills and opened a brewpub and restaurant. Of course, they had no trouble thinking of a name.

Such is the story of the North Fork Brewery and Beer Shrine.
“The definition of a shrine is a place of sacred objects,” said Vicky, who was raised Catholic and conceded the idea may be a little sacrilegious. “But it’s about fellowship, that’s for sure.”

Inside the “shrine,” a neatly lined, chronological display of bottles – some dated before the days of prohibition – serves as a historical exhibition of beer in America as votive candles decorated with the Virgin of Guadalupe burn slowly on the dining room tables. An ordained minister, Vicky also said she performs customized weddings here.

Brewer Eric Jorgensen, 29, of Glacier, however, performs the magic.
In an adjoining room, Jorgensen brews 100-gallon batches of the house specialty beers in the British-style traditional method of open fermentation and multiple tanks.

Although much more labor intensive – requiring almost constant attention – Jorgensen said this method produces a beer with minimal flaws. This is because the beer is allowed to carry through with its natural fermentation process whereas other breweries, he said, stop the fermentation before it is complete, a process called “crashing.” It also gives Jorgensen more creative control over the process.
“This is a very old school, traditional way of making beer,” he said. “Not many brewers do it anymore.”

Jorgensen said he began brewing beer as a hobby at the age of 18 in his home state of Alaska. He moved to Glacier in 1998 and started out as a baker for the restaurant. In 2000, he began brewing for Sandy.

“I made a ton of beers,” he said of his homebrew experience. “Really, really weird; really stupid beers. But brewing professionally, you really learn a lot.”

When I caught up to Jorgensen, he was watching steaming-hot wort, or beer in its beginning stages, drain into a separate tank that Sandy fashioned out of an old beer keg. This process separates the liquid from the mash, or the hand-milled barley, which is steeped in water to convert the naturally occurring starch into sugar.

“It’s a real patch-work machine,” he said. “It’s really neat how Sandy put this together.”

After the wort is drained, it is mixed with more water, transferred into a boiler and then passed through a heat-transferring device that instantly cools the liquid. This is critical to ensure the wort’s proper temperature when it enters the primary fermentation tank where Jorgensen adds the yeast mixture.

It is during this phase that the beer releases so much carbon dioxide, you’d pass out if you put your face into the tank, Jorgensen said. The beer is allowed to ferment for a period of four to 10 days until it reaches its peak temperature and yeast activity, a phenomena that Jorgensen calls “the Kraeusen” in German, the historical language of brewers.

The entire process takes five days to several months, depending on the beer.

“An India Pale Ale (IPA) will take four to 10 days, while a barley wine will be in here eight to 10 days,” he said.

The beer is then transferred to a secondary fermentation tank that forces medical oxygen and carbon dioxide to create carbonation. Scotch beers and Barley wines are kept here for as long as six months, while more aromatic beers such as the IPA are pushed through quickly – about 14 to 20 days, Jorgensen said.

“The first thing to go is the hoppy aroma,” he said. “So it’s important to get the IPAs out as soon as possible.”

After a short conditioning period in a walk-in cooler, a pressurized system transfers the product through a maze of sanitized hoses and into the taproom, where it can be poured into a glass and enjoyed.
When asked if he had a favorite, Jorgensen said his beers are like children.

“You can’t have a favorite,” he said. “Although I really like the Hefeweizen and the stout — it’s a dry stout that doesn’t have a lot of body or residual sugar. It’s also got a really great roasty aftertaste.”
Jorgensen said the restaurant rotates the specialty beers (usually six at any given time) but makes sure that favorites such as the IPA and the barley wine are always available.

With the highest amount of bittering hops, the IPA is a favorite among local patrons, with some driving from as far as Sumas just to get a pint. The restaurant also offers their Lighter Shade of Pale, a milder version of the IPA, for those who never grew a taste for bitter beer, such as this reporter.

“It’s very similar to the IPA,” Jorgensen said. “It’s got a ton of hoppy character and flavor but it’s not extremely bitter.”

This reporter also liked the dry stout, a light-tasting beer with roasty malt overtones, a coffee-like flavor and color, and just a hint of sweetness. Jorgensen said people often avoid stouts because of a misconception that they are heavy in body and sweetness. He added, however, that the dry stout, with four percent alcohol by volume, is actually the brewery’s lightest beer.

“It’s a very drinkable stout,” he said.
The bar also offers seasonal brews such as the Scotch ale, which is available all winter, and the Hefeweizen, which is available all summer.

And no visit to the brewery is complete without trying their acclaimed pizza, which is, of course, made with beer.

This reporter recommends the Mediterranean pizza ($13.75 and $20.75), with an olive oil, garlic sauce and sun-dried tomatoes, artichoke hearts, feta cheese and parmesan on a hand-tossed crust second to no other in Whatcom County.

The white pizza (same price as the above) was also quite good, with real pieces of chicken breast, gorgonzola, mushrooms, sunflower seeds, Parmesan, and the olive oil, garlic sauce.

In fact, almost everything on the menu is made with beer, from the stout-infused French onion soup made with veggie stock ($3.25/cup, $4.50/bowl) to the spicy ale steamers ($11), the hand-made ale pizza crust and the stout marinara sauce. The only exception is the fortune cookies they serve at the end.

“We don’t use ale in those,” said Brenna Reaugh, a bartender there. “Everything else we make, though, has beer in it.”

The North Fork Brewery and Beer Shrine is located at 6186 Mt. Baker Highway, just east of the State Route 9 junction. Hours of operation are Monday through Friday from 2 p.m. to 9 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday from noon to 11 p.m. Their number is 360/599-2337.