Behind the Bars and Beers with Omar Castrellón

October 26, 2006

When we stopped by Alcatraz Brewing Company to update our Alcatraz webpage, it became obvious we would be doing more than just an update. Known by most as the "restaurant with a brewery" attached to Circle Center Mall in Downtown Indianapolis, Alcatraz captures throngs of hungry conventioneers, Colts ticket holders, first dates, and tired shoppers. They come for the upscale food, the stainless steel surroundings, black napkins, prison bars, and the fiery activity in the kitchen. It's clean, safe, friendly, and all words in between.

Most customers order up one of Alcatraz's beers. Dark, light. Lager, ale... they know the lingo, and they know what they want. Something familiar, like Bud Light, but better. Something made on the premises. No cans or kegs. "We'll start with one of your lighter beers, please." Hey, the customer is always right.

That's why Searchlight Golden Ale is Alcatraz's best seller. It's relatively inexpensive to make, easy to drink, and refreshing. It pleases the masses. Without it, Alcatraz would crumble- like it's namesake. So a brewer at Alcatraz needs get out that yellowing, stained formula book and keep a serving vessel filled with the right amounts of water, hops, yeast, corn flakes, and malted barley.

Ferment with x yeast for y days.

Don't stop there.

Throw in a porter, a Weiss, and a brown and... BINGO. You're in business, doing business, for a long, long time.

But that's not Omar Castrellón's style. Which means he doesn't stop there. Right now he's brewing an all-sorghum beer. A whim. An experiment. Perhaps Indiana's first. So who is the man who can balance satiating the thirsty masses and maintain a passion for brewing unique craft beers?

Omar Castrellón was born and raised in Panama. In his late teens he was recruited for military training in United States where he ended up serving his country- but fortunately our country- as a brewer. He learned the art by doing the brewer's dirty work: Cleaning kegs, lines, and vessels at Old Heidelberg Brewrey in Durham, North Carolina. Three months into his new job the head brewer was laid off and Omar took over as brewmaster, specializing in lagers.

Heidelberg eventually closed its doors and Omar continued to brew in North Carolina, at Loggerhead Brewing in Greensboro, and after that at Greenshields Brewing in Raleigh. There he was an assistant brewer to German-born brewer Thomas Kunzmann. He stayed for four years and landed a job as head brewer at Barrett's Brewpub in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. While there he squeezed in a course at American Craft Brewers in Torrance, California.

Whew... Get a beer. The story continues. A rolling stone gathers no moss.

Omar moved on to brew at River Rock Brewery in Little Rock, Arkansas where he stayed for five years until it closed after many name and location changes. He was then hired by Alcatraz's main office in Emeryville, California and immediately took a position at it's Indianapolis location where he's been for the past four years. Four stable years. Omar's wide-ranging experience is a winning ticket for Alcatraz, and he has the medals to prove it. During his tenure he's brewed just about every style of beer imaginable, and our recent visit confirms that he's continually reinventing himself as a brewer.

It's worth mentioning that the two Alcatraz locations (the other being in Orange, California) have alike decor and cuisine, but dissimilar beer. Omar is quick to point out that although he and Rob are under the same management umbrella, they enjoy tremendous independence and are free to develop their own recipies and draw upon their own expertise. The beers at Orange tend to be a bit lighter overall. In Indy, Omar is constantly trying new things, and sometimes he goes big. Or bold. We caught up with him on a Wednesday afternoon.

"A good host always gives you his best." And with that Omar fetched us his Saison... a crisp Belgian style beer, dark golden color, and 7% ABV. This is a delicious beer, overlooked by the average customer, but demanded by the craft beer lover. The secret? Yeast. Stolen. Not really stolen- more borrowed. From Ted Miller. We should have known! Omar's not shy about revealing his sources. All these brewers beg, borrow, and steal from each other. It's for the good of the cause, after all. It's a guild. That's the yeast, pictured on the left, sitting in refrigeration.

After a look at the serving vessels we headed upstairs to try the Red Ale. Naturally carbonated in the fermentation vessel, the Red was very easy to drink with a thin, delicate head. The softness is from the yeast. Stolen yeast. Not really stolen, more borrowed, from the RAM across the street.

We then had the rare opportunity to sample the all-sorghum beer just one-day into it's fermentation, straight from the vessel. Sweet, very young, cloudy, yeasty and smooth. We'll be back next month to see how it did.

Next up was a crisp IPA, again naturally carbonated and poured straight out of the fermenter. Summit and Mount Hood hops give it the bitter bite and aroma. It was brewed with Scottish Ale yeast courtesy of Jerry Sutherlin, brewer at Rock Bottom. The ABV is near 7%.

We also tried Omar's first sorghum experiment (arms twisted): The Chibuku. Chibuku is the name of an African beer that comes in a cardboard carton (like milk), usually warm and made from wheat/sorghum. Sorghum is extremely hardy and heat tolerant which makes it an excellent substitute for barley in poor south Aftrican countries. it was good! Omar's Chibuku is brewed using a 38th generation San Francisco lager yeast courtesy of Dave Colt from the RAM.

Few customers probably appreciate the fact that Alcatraz is a fully functioning brewery. That big prison-looking water tank thingy outside? It's a 25,000 pound grain silo. (We'd love to see it getting filled on one of Indiana's most bustling and vibrant intersections!). Where does the grain go? Omar showed us.... Through a non-descript black door in the upstairs dining area- Omar has a grain mill.

Enough about the beer. Let's focus on International fare that Alcatraz is known for. Offerings on the menu...

Sous chef Jason Hinton is increasingly incorporating beer into his cooking. Take the Pier 39 Fish and Chips- cod strips battered in Searchlight Golden Ale served with crispy fries, coleslaw, and house made tartar. Yum! We enjoyed a Black Lager with dinner. It was served very cold. A chocolaty, malty taste was very noticeable. Almost like a stout.

Also on the menu are Stout Braised Short Ribs served with baby carrots, fingerling potatos and parsnips. These require buckets of beer to make. And Omar keeps watch to make sure it all gets to the ribs. Look for more offerings incorporating his beer in the future. As a second course we tried the Spring Rolls- smoked duck, peppers, pepperjack cheese and cilantro, watermelon and jicama salsa...

That's the end of our visit. We'd like to thank Omar and the entire staff at Alcatraz for their time and talents. Especially Adrian Ball, long time homebrewer, and Executive Chef at Brugge who has been helping for over a year as assistant brewer and certainly his taste preferences sometimes overcome a particular recipe that Omar might put together!