When visiting Safeco Field for a Seattle Mariners game, the Bullpen Market—the food and beverage court near center field—is where to find the broadest selection of good draft beer. Not far away, in the actual bullpen, you’ll find Chris Ray, one of the home team’s relief pitchers and a man on whom a great beer is not wasted. In fact, when he isn’t pitching baseballs, you might find him pitching yeast.
I’m blogging live this morning (Monday, June 13th) from Fremont Brewing Company where Chris Ray is brewing a very special batch of beer: an IPA that will be sold at pubs, taverns and grocery stores around the Seattle area to benefit Operation Homefront, an organization that provides emergency financial and other assistance to the families of our service members and wounded warriors. The beer, named Homefront IPA, will also be available at Safeco Field.
Moving Up to the Big Leagues
This was not Chris Ray’s first time brewing beer; he is an accomplished home brewer. However, it was his first time working on a full-blown, commercial craft brewing system and that is an entirely different ballgame. I know he was excited only because he said so. Otherwise you’d be hard-pressed to tell that this was anything other than business as usual. I suppose it takes a pretty even keel to be a major league relief pitcher.
Chris has been homebrewing for a few years now. It’s a hobby he picked up in the minor leagues from one of his teammates. These days his brewing cohort is his brother. Together they plan to open a brewery in Ashland, Virginia, where Chris resides when he’s not pitching for the Mariners.
“There’s a lack of breweries where I live in Virginia,” Chris says, “My brother lives in Florida and we swap home brew back and forth with each other. My father-in-law is a farmer so we’re working on growing hops, too.”
Talking with Chris, you immediately recognize that he’s serious about beer. He talks about the rhizomes they chose to grow their hops and the first year’s hop harvest. Albeit tight-lipped, he tells me about the company that is potentially going to build the brewhouse. We discuss Virginia’s archaic liquor laws and the obstacles those laws create for a small brewery. It is clear that he is very serious about opening a brewery. He’s not just some guy who likes IPA.
Chris follows Matt Lincoln (Fremont’s head brewer) around the brewery attentively, looking through the microscope at yeast samples, measuring hops, raking out the mash tun, and generally soaking up as much of the professional brewing experience as possible.
“I’m not going to do baseball forever. What I really want to do is brew beer, but you can’t pass up the opportunity to play baseball,” he said with a smile and a bit of a laugh, suggesting he recognized the relative absurdity of the statement.
I asked if any of his fellow Mariners like craft beer, and if he and the rest of the bullpen ever slip out for a good beer after a game. “Not really,” he said. “There are a few guys, but it’s pretty hard converting light beer drinkers. I do bring my beer into the club house, though.”
Bats in the Vats
Looking at the brew sheet, the beer seems to be a relatively straight-forward IPA with a couple of minor twists (and I do mean “twists,” hint). Perhaps the greatest differentiating factor, Fremont and Chris Ray plan to age the beer on maple. And not just any maple.
“Louisville Slugger donated some bats, so were going to sit the beer on those,” Chris tells us.
The maple bats will be used to lend some extra character to the beer. They will be added to the conditioning tanks. Some of bats will be left whole and pristine, others cut into smaller pieces to help enhance the flavor imparted on the beer. Once the beer is ready, the whole bats will be removed, dried, and autographed by Chris’ teammates. The bats will then be auctioned off to raise money for Operation Homefront.
Opening Day
The beer will be released on Friday, July 29th at Safeco Field when the Mariners take on the Tampa Bay Rays. Although it is not perfectly clear yet, the beer will be poured from a number of draft stations around the ballpark, and bottles will be available in the Hit it Here Cafe.
Thereafter, a limited number of kegs will be distributed to some of the Seattle area’s better beer bars. The majority of the beer will be bottled and available in select local grocery stores.
It’s early, but plans to make additional batches are part of the discussion.