Share Your Passion: Wood Cellarman Cesar on Making Music

For as long as I can remember, I’ve always been interested in music. As a young kid I would steal my dad’s dress shoes, don my tiny blazer and dance for hours in front of the television while Moonwalker played on repeat.

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I didn’t have rhythm to save my life but I still went for it. As I got older, I found myself listening to my dad’s LP’s, which I now listen to on a daily basis. Even as a kid, I loved the crazy, sporadic drumming of Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, and Frank Zappa. Trying my hand at snare drum in elementary school, I found myself bored with the marching band’s 1-2-3-4 counts and switched to trumpet. While I played that for a few years, I was disappointed it didn’t give me the freedom to truly “rock out”.

While in middle school, I met a friend who was an aspiring DJ who listened to a new type of music that I wasn’t used to. The nice blend of hip hop and electronic music and rock filling his playlist resulted in a bit of a sporadic feel, but still seemed to flow since all the music had the same roots. We used a program that would use clips of music and we would simply piece everything together to make our own tracks. This program opened a new platform for my musical expression that I would be reintroduced to later in life.

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I didn’t get my first drum set until I was out of high school but I borrowed friends’ sets to play in hard rock-type bands. Jumping from band to band, I really couldn’t find people that would want to play the same music that I wanted to play. That’s when I went back to the computer and synthesizers to make electronic music that I could control and make my own.

To this day I still (infrequently) make music in the comfort of my own home just for the sake of making it. I like to DJ house parties or small gigs from time to time and try out the material that I put together. Whenever I get the chance, I’m always down to jam with some friends, analog style. I always keep a pair of drum sticks in my car in case a spontaneous jam sesh presents itself.

Listening, learning, and making music will always be a passion of mine ... of course alongside my passion for great craft beer.

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Post written by Cesar Alfaro, one of our packaging team members turned Barrel Whisperer. Cesar is a talented homebrewer and cheesemonger who also goes to lots of epic music shows where he unleashes his glorious flowing locks of El Salvadorian hair.

Read more from our passionate staff:

• Director of Retail Matt Olesh
• Our Homebruers

Summer Camp Crafts with our Bruers: Cesar's Upcycled Wine Barrel Cheese Board

At The Bruery we go through a lot of barrels. For just one blend, we typically go through 30 to 100 barrels! People always ask me, “What happens to all the barrels that once you’re through with them?” My usual answer is, “Nothing." Once the barrels have been used for clean beer purposes we actually can’t use them use them again because they are no longer lean and have too many buggies from their previous use. So, once we’re done using them, we stick them in a yard to wait for the next owner to make something creative out of them.

Recipe: ¡Bionicos del Cesar!

Here at The Bruery we love our fruit in beer. So much so, that it’s difficult think of what to do with it when we’re not putting it in beer. And we’re not too keen on garnishing the sides of our tulip glasses with fruit either.

So what can we actually do with fruit that doesn’t involve randalls, aging, ninja slicing, and racking?

I used to hang out with my dad on the "mean" streets of Los Angeles. Being a kid, I was hungry every 5 minutes. That meant my dad would have to find food quickly that I wouldn’t complain about. To the rescue came the street vendor around the corner who, if memory serves me right, would always have a plethora of fresh fruit in her cart.

Expansion Update 4: More Warehouse Space = Improved Quality

The addition of our brand new brewhouse from Germany means some things will need to move around inside our current spaces. We're pleased to announce that another step in our expansion plans for 2014 includes the lease of two new warehouse spaces, which means separation of clean beer and sour beer fermentation and packaging.

At the end of January, we leaked a sneak peek at one of our new warehouse spaces located near our administrative offices. This warehouse is pretty cavernous and will be used for marketing department raves the less glamorous parts of the wonderful world of brewing, like bottle conditioning and storage of packaging materials.

Careful Cellaring, Part 4: The Barrel Maintenance Program for Living Beer

We couldn't have a blog series on the intricacies of beer cellaring without addressing the challenges and benefits of having barrel program like ours at The Bruery. In order to produce beer that is up to our quality standards, our wood cellarmen must take utmost care in working with our barrels and beer. To further explain how our barrels are taken care of, our team of wood cellarmen, Cesar Alfaro and Brett Richman, explain the basics and some FAQs.



Here at The Bruery it's the wood cellarmen's duty is to make sure that the beer that comes out of barrels are of best quality and, of course, taste delicious. In order to do so we take a lot of measures to make sure the barrels are in perfect condition before beer goes into them.

Harvest Beer & Cheese Pairing Favorites from our Resident Cheesemonger

Today's Harvest Month beer & food pairing comes from one of our humble barrel fellows who spends his day making sure the thousands of barrels in our warehouses stay happy and organized. Before Cesar started focusing much of his time on Bruery beer, he did a lot of homebrewing and worked at a local cheese shop.

Here around The Bruery some call me The Barrel Whisperer, but did you know when first starting at The Bruery I was also working as a cheesemonger? Let’s say I just did I did it for some extra ... cheddar.

Anyways, while working the cheese shop I learned a great deal about different varieties of cheese and how I can incorporate my love of beer to every type.

Meet the Homebruer: Cesar Alfaro

On the cusp of releasing Batch 1000 BRYEIAN, we are profiling some of our homebruers on our staff! Many of our team members developed their love for The Bruery via homebrew clubs, and today those clubs and their members are still very important to us. That's a big reason why we host our Batch series competition for milestone brews.

One of our homebruers made his first batch in 2008, and today he works in our packaging department, carefully bottling and lovingly boxing bottles of beer to be sent out for your enjoyment. His name is Cesar, and he has excellent hair.

What sparked your interest in homebrewing?