BEER STORIES
by Heidi Grieser
Utah is home to many great breweries, but our own Redrock stands out nationally at competitions. Even winning so many catagories in 2007 to be named the Great American Beer Festival, ‘brewpub and brewery of the year.’ To be a great brewery, you need brewers, like a restuarant needs great chefs. In fact, brewers and chefs must similarly stand behind their products with pride. That’s why there’s no stereotype of a humble chef. But the self-described ‘humble magnificent’ brewery at Redrock is just that.
Redrock brewer, Kevin Templin, is one of the most excited brewers imaginable and he’s just part of a team of educated and passionate brewers. Kevin said, “we have great dogs, great kids, cool wives, and the best job in the world. It’s like getting paid for your hobby. It’s like someone paid me to go powder skiing or gambling, I love both of those things.” Truly, this is coming from a guy whose son is named Porter.
It’s hard work brewing beer- with hot temperatures and the necessity to clean equipment beyond sanitary during the fermenting process. “It’s a hard job. People think it’s like drinking beer everyday with a volleyball team. But you’re digging grain out, and lifting 178 lb kegs,” said Kevin.
The brewers are Kevin Templin, Matt Davis, Chris Harlin and Joe Welsh. Over all of them is the Eric Dunlop who opened the place in 1994. The crew is divided into brewers and cellar men like Chris, a cellar master, whose job is to, “baby the beer after it’s brewed and fermented, and take it all the way into the bottles,” said Kevin. The two have worked together almost 10 years. Chris called Redrock, “the humble magnificent brewery,” compared to the other breweries in town and said, “we take left turns on right angles- which means we don’t have limits.” Chris has a lot of fun at work and was not drunk, I assure you, he was just trying to express how much the brewers at Redrock are encouraged to experiment.
Some of the new beers they are releasing have been in the works for years. reflect the training and experience these guys have. “We worked on the Reve for 6 years and released it 3 years ago in Jan. It’s aged for one year. Barrell aged beers are the most rare thing we make,” said Kevin. “We have 7 lagers coming up for Oktoberfest,” and he’s particularly excited by any German style beers after Redrock sent him to brewing school just south of Bavaria.
Kevin teaches me that “lager” means to “lay down” in German, and refers to the 6-8 weeks it takes to make compared to ale’s 10-14 days. Redrock also has a popular “rauch” style, or smoked beer that tastes like bacon.
The much anticipated Elephant- Double IPA 8% alcohol is soon to be bottled. Also a German style beer, it has double the hops and a higher alcohol than a regular IPA. Kevin and the guys at Redrock will continue doing what they love best with their experimenting and I can’t wait to get a taste of what they’ve been coming up with.§
