Balance, but not in the OM sense of the word
So I’m sitting here drinking a Smuttynose IPA, watching the Celtics, and it got me thinking about balance. The C’s are down 32-13 right now, mostly because they’re not playing balanced basketball. But balance play an equally important part in a successful beer. According to our friend Ignace, the measure of a quality beer lies in its balance. It’s ability to provide equal parts of hop bite, malt smoothness, and subtle alcohol if it’s a higher alcohol beer. In the most typical of circumstances, a balanced beer is certainly welcome, and a quality, balanced beer will hardly ever take criticism from me. But sometimes, I’m just in the mood for something completely unbalanced. Unbalanced carries many negative connotations, but it’s a relative term in the realm of beer. The Smutty IPA is unbalanced in all senses of the word. There is hardly any malt backbone; instead a heavy dose of hop bitterness that is very welcome. I’ve written a similar piece before about the Boulder Beer Mojo IPA, but the Smutty IPA takes unbalanced to new heights. Make no mistake, this is not a negative piece about the beer. In fact, this is a glowing review for the beer, because it fits into a niche that is left open by many of those other quality, balanced beers. Sometimes, you’re just in the mood for a really solid, over the top hoppy beer, and that isn’t possible if there are a bunch of malts knocking at the door. So, balance in most things is good, but sometimes, unbalanced is good, and in this case, it’s perfect. Smutty IPA is unbalanced to the point of perfection when you’re looking for some nice, sharp hop bite without any of those pesky malts mucking up the taste.
Blog Wars - Prequel to the Clone Wars
This sounds so absurd — that I love it.
Sean
2Beerguys.com
Drink Craft Beer, You’ve Earned It!!!
For All You Do, Bud, This Blog Is About You Miller Site Specializes In News on Its Rival; The Scoop on Lime Beer
By DAVID KESMODEL
![[James Arndorfer]](http://s.wsj.net/public/resources/images/HC-GL900_Arndor_20080423202524.gif)
MILWAUKEE — Last month, beer reporter James Arndorfer broke a story that Anheuser-Busch Cos. was readying a new brew called Budweiser American Ale. Trade publications and Anheuser’s hometown paper quickly chased the scoop.
With his dispatch, Mr. Arndorfer beat the giant brewer’s own publicity machine to the punch. Making the story more irritating for Anheuser-Busch: Mr. Arndorfer’s beer-news site is owned by Bud’s biggest rival.
Mr. Arndorfer, 37 years old, is a full-time employee of Miller Brewing Co., the U.S. arm of SABMiller PLC. A former reporter for Advertising Age, he now runs Brew Blog, a free Web site dedicated to breaking news about beer. Especially news about Anheuser-Busch’s beer.
![[Brew Blog]](http://s.wsj.net/public/resources/images/OB-BH310_Brew_B_20080415175341.jpg)
Brew Blog is the latest and perhaps most unlikely front in Miller’s drive to rattle Anheuser. Mr. Arndorfer tracks the St. Louis company’s every move, from earnings reports to management changes. He relishes revealing details of its products before Anheuser does.
Though Mr. Arndorfer covers other brewers, he’s “fixated on A-B,” says Harry Schuhmacher, editor of Beer Business Daily, an online newsletter. Mr. Arndorfer responds: “They’re the industry leader. And they’ve been making a lot of news.”
The corporate marketing battlefield has long been strewn with pithy digs in ads and selective news leaks about others’ business woes. But it’s unusual for a company to go to the trouble of creating its own media arm to grind out news on the competition. While the site lets Miller tweak its famously tight-lipped rival, it also gives the company a platform to take a first crack at spinning industry news.
“They are trying to aggressively go around the gatekeepers” in newsrooms and the trade press, says Stephen Quigley, an associate professor of public relations at Boston University. “It’s something you couldn’t do five years ago,” before the proliferation of blogs.
Anheuser declined to answer specific questions about Brew Blog or make an executive available for an interview. It wouldn’t say whether it considers the site a concern. “Our focus is on our consumers and delivering great brands,” Dave Peacock, Anheuser’s vice president of marketing, said in a statement.
Anheuser, which controls nearly 50% of the U.S. beer market, and Miller, with less than 20%, have been duking it out for decades. In the 1970s, some Anheuser employees wore “Miller Killers” T-shirts. Some Miller employees have come to refer to Anheuser as the Evil Empire.
In 2004, Anheuser ran ads portraying Miller Lite as the “queen of carbs,” prompting Miller to file a lawsuit. (The matter was settled out of court.) Lately, Miller has been running ads showing Dalmations, longtime Anheuser mascots, bolting from a barnful of Clydesdales and chasing down a Miller truck.
The Beer Beat
Brew Blog is the brainchild of Paul Pendergrass and Pete Marino, communications consultants for Miller who wanted the brewer to have more influence over what’s covered in the industry. In 2006, they recruited Mr. Arndorfer from Advertising Age and told him to cover the sector like a beat reporter would.
The site reaches mostly beer-industry professionals, Mr. Arndorfer says. It received about 24,000 visits in the month ending April 10 — representing more than 12,000 individual visitors — according to Miller’s statistics. Users on Miller’s computer network accounted for the most visits among corporations, with 1,675. Running second: Anheuser, with 1,540 visits.
Messrs. Marino and Pendergrass say they’ve been gently needled about the blog by Anheuser executives at industry events. Anheuser public-relations officials have responded with pique to reporters’ follow-ups to Brew Blog items. “You know that’s put out by Miller, right?” an official told The Wall Street Journal.
Miller isn’t sneaky about Brew Blog. Its home page prominently states that the blog is “brought to you by the Miller Brewing Co.”
Mr. Arndorfer, a Milwaukee native, works in a spartan office adjacent to Miller’s 150-year-old brewery. He spends his days calling industry sources, reading analyst reports and sifting through public records.
In February, Mr. Arndorfer’s industry sources were telling him that Anheuser was planning a lime-flavored version of Bud Light, the world’s best-selling beer. He posted an article saying Anheuser appeared poised to roll out a knockoff of Miller Chill, a lime-and-salt-flavored brew launched by Miller last year.
The scoop, chased by this and other publications, allowed Miller to paint Bud Light Lime as a “follower,” says Nehl Horton, Miller’s senior vice president for communications. Anheuser responded that it had begun considering such a brew in 2006, before Miller Chill came out.
Mr. Arndorfer usually doesn’t call Anheuser for that sort of comment. “I called them a couple of times a long time ago,” he says. “I didn’t hear back.”
In March, Mr. Arndorfer was rummaging through an online database when he noticed that Anheuser had received government approval for a Budweiser American Ale label. Breaking the news about the offering, he evoked recent Anheuser ads that disparaged ale-style craft brews. “It’s somewhat ironic A-B would roll out a Bud ale given ‘Great American Lager’ ads for Bud take shots at ‘heavy’ and ‘cloudy’ beers.”
Rosy Coverage
The same month, Brew Blog’s coverage of Miller was rosy. One entry highlighted how Miller won four “hot brand” awards from trade journal Impact.
Mr. Arndorfer says he doesn’t avoid negative stories about Miller. He pointed to an October 2006 blog entry saying Miller CEO Tom Long was “dissatisfied” with Miller Lite sales, as well as a March 2007 report that the brewer was parting ways with a key ad agency.
The blog has enough influence that a staffer at a PR agency for Anheuser pitched a story to Mr. Arndorfer about Budweiser’s Superbowl ads. A representative for Tecate, a Mexican beer, inquired about running an ad on the site. Brew Blog doesn’t take ads.
Not so crazy about the blog is Mr. Schuhmacher, the editor and publisher of Beer Business Daily. Mr. Schuhmacher, who charges $440 a year for his publication, declines to say how many subscribers he has. “I tell Miller you’re subsidizing a free publication, and it hurts the trade press,” he says. “But they don’t care.”
Mr. Schuhmacher became angry when Miller bought ads to run alongside Google searches for the keywords “Harry Schuhmacher” and “Beer Business Daily” to drive visitors to Brew Blog. The brewer took the ads down after he complained.
Mr. Schuhmacher adds that he writes fewer positive pieces about Miller than he once did because he knows Brew Blog will always publish the same stories. On a recent evening, a Miller spokesman suggested he write about one of its newer brews, a lemonade-flavored wheat beer called Leinenkugel’s Summer Shandy.
“I said, ‘You know what, give it to Brew Blog,’” Mr. Schuhmacher says.
Traveling to Vancouver?
When you are in Seattle, you might want to take a trip to Vancouver.
If you do, please use the following as a guide.
Sean
2Beerguys.com
Drink Craft Beer, You’ve Earned It!!
p.s. If you have any additional feedback about these breweries, please let us know.
Get a sudsy overview of B.C. brews while touring some of the city’s haunts
By JOHN LEE
SPECIAL TO THE P-I
VANCOUVER, B.C. — It’s 1 p.m. on a cloud-free Saturday afternoon. But rather than soaking up the sun around Stanley Park or strolling the shops of Yaletown, I’m hunched over a jet-black glass of beer in the shady corner of a local bar.
Of course, this isn’t just any old beer.
British Columbia has undergone a colorful microbrewery renaissance in recent years, with dozens of eclectic craft-beer makers popping up around the province. With an afternoon to spare, I’ve hit the city’s streets in search of the region’s most exotic local tipples.
Alibi Room
First stop: the Alibi Room on the edge of Vancouver’s heritage Gastown district. As I sip a smooth Back Hand of God stout from Crannog Ales — a celebrated organic producer from a 10-acre farm in Sorrento — I’m surprised at how much lighter it is than Guinness, with a distinctive, but not overpowering, coffeelike finish.
“It’s probably our most popular beer,” says Alibi co-owner and chief booze selector Nigel Springthorpe. Transforming his 10-year-old wood-floored bar from its original cocktail lounge approach, he has wooed regional brewers into supplying him with Vancouver’s biggest B.C. beer selection.
Among the 14 taps lining his bar are lip-smacking concoctions from Chilliwack’s Old Yale Brewing, Squamish’s Howe Sound Brewing and Surrey’s Russell Brewing. There’s even room for Swans and Spinnakers, a couple of Victoria producers that aren’t served by anyone else in Vancouver.
For beer drinkers, it’s a chance to taste-trip around British Columbia without leaving town, especially since the Alibi’s small tasting glasses cost just $3 (Canadian) each. “People come in for something simple, but by the end of the night, they’re happily trying Surly Blonde or Irish Red Ale for the first time,” Springthorpe says.
Tempted to spend the afternoon slowly sliding under the table, I instead knock back a fruity Salt Spring Golden Ale, then head out.
Steamworks Brewing Co.
Strolling along nearby Water Street, I soon reach the landmark Steamworks Brewing Co., one of the city’s leading brewpubs.
It’s half-filled with chatty locals, and I snag a corner table on the main floor before perusing the list of own-brewed beers. Through the picture windows, I catch sight of North Vancouver’s snow-topped mountains looming over the harbor inlet.
Weighing the lure of Oatmeal Stout and Empress India Pale Ale, I opt instead for a small glass of Lions Gate Lager, a light and refreshing brew my server tells me is the bar’s most popular beer. I also flick absentmindedly through the lunch menu: booze apparently doesn’t cover all the food groups, so Steamworks offers hearty pub classics such as fish and chips and thin-crust pizzas.
Railway Club
Back outside after an hour or so, I climb uphill to the intersection of Dunsmuir and Seymour streets in the heart of downtown. With a convenience store dominating the corner here, it’s easy to miss the unassuming entrance to the upstairs Railway Club, Vancouver’s best old-school bar.
The grubby carpets and dinged wooden tables at “The Rail” recall traditional English pubs. But along with its diverse roster of nightly live music, there’s a connoisseur’s approach to B.C. beer, with taps from Central City Brewing, Tree Brewing and Phillips Brewing among those jostling for bar space. The Rail is almost empty on my visit and there’s a sleepy feel to the afternoon’s proceedings.
Accompanied by a creamy glass of Big Kettle, I ease into a window table and smugly watch the rest of the city bustling below. Within a few minutes, I’ve moved on to a hoppy Red Truck Ale. Soon feeling slightly fuzzy-headed, I’m starting to wonder if I can keep up the pace.
Granville Island Brewing
Reluctantly peeling away from my comfy nook, I sober up with a bracing stroll to nearby Howe Street, where a 10-minute bus ride takes me to tourist-friendly Granville Island. Eschewing the public market and artisan stores, I head straight for Granville Island Brewing, the producer that kick-started B.C.’s craft beer golden age.
Established in 1984, the company has mostly shifted production to its larger out-of-town facility. But the original brewhouse remains and is home to small-batch beer making and a bar that showcases the likes of Cyprus Honey Lager and Kitsilano Maple Cream Ale. It also offers the city’s only brewery tour.
Joining a small group of eager beer fans — including two Aussie lads — I’m led around the small brewing operation, complete with stainless steel kegs and bottling machinery. Munching on different types of malt, we’re introduced to the intricacies of beer making by an engaging guide who frequently reminds us that samples are just around the corner.
Within 30 minutes, we’re back in the bar, where tasting glasses have been set out for us on a long wooden bench. Each drinker has a place mat marked with the names and descriptions of the brewery’s beers. My four glasses are temptingly filled to the brim as I mull over what to try first.
The Robson Street Hefeweizen turns out to be frothy and citrusy — an ideal summer quaff. The lagerlike English Bay Pale Ale is similarly light and easy to drink, while the limited-run Killarney Irish Stout has an overpowering javalike aftertaste. My favorite is the rust-colored Gastown Amber Ale, which is full-bodied, smooth and slightly bitter.
The young Aussies are not sure which they prefer, so they pour another round from the pitchers left on the table just to make sure.
If you go
Alibi Room — 157 Alexander St.; 604-623-3383; alibi.ca
Steamworks Brewing Co. — 375 Water St.; 604-689-2739; steamworks.com
Railway Club — 579 Dunsmuir St., 604-681-1625; therailwayclub.com. Cover charge after 7 p.m.
Granville Island Brewing — 1441 Cartwright St.; 604-687-2739; gib.ca. Daily tours ($9.75 Canadian) are at noon, 2 and 4 p.m.
More on B.C. microbreweries — bcbeer.ca
Information about Rye Beer
Howdy,
I saw this information about Rye beers within a different story and wanted to share. I hope that you find it interesting.
Sean
2Beerguys.com
Rye Beers
Rye beers are typically spicy and, in America, often heavily hopped to compliment the natural spicy notes of malted rye.
German Roggenbier often tastes of pumpernickel and is typically brewed with a Hefeweizen yeast strain. Roggenbier is rare in the United States, though some brewers will occasionally release a Roggenbier-inspired beer as a special release.
Sahti, a traditional Finnish ale, uses a variety of fermentable and nonfermentable grains, chiefly rye. Sahti is often flavored with juniper berries, either in addition to hops or in lieu of them.
Kvass is popular in Russia and the Baltic region, and has been brewed and consumed in Europe since ancient times. It’s made by fermenting finished bread, usually a black bread containing rye, and adding fruits, herbs or berries and sometimes birch sap as a flavoring. Kvass was often sold by street vendors, and with 2 percent alcohol by volume, it was considered suitable for children.
Today Kvass is marketed more as a soft drink than as an alcoholic beverage. In Latvia, which is better known for fruit-accented Baltic porters like Aldaris Porteris, Kvass saw stiff competition from Coca-Cola. But the Kvass makers packaged the beverage in bottles and cans and launched a massive marketing campaign. The strategy worked, and Coca-Cola saw its market share fall in Latvia and other Baltic countries.
Lammin Kataja Olut from Finnish brewer Saimman Panimo incorporates juniper berries into its big malt-heavy ale for a taste that has some similarities with traditional Sahti, though it lacks Sahti’s typical yeast-derived banana flavors. It’s 7 percent alcohol by volume, and sells for a pricy $5.49 per 11.2-oz. bottles. It’s available only in specialty beer stores like Kingdom Liquors at 2026 Badlands Drive in Brandon.
Another rye beer available in Tampa Bay is Terrapin Rye Pale Ale, made by Terrapin Beer Company of Athens, Ga. A fairly hop-forward beer with pine and citrus accents, Terrapin Rye Pale Ale has a balancing malt base, and the rye acts to reduce some of the lingering flavors of the hops, making for a cleaner finish.
Stranahan’s Colorado Whiskey update
Beer and whiskey mix
Here’s a story with a happy ending.
Back in December we reported that Flying Dog’s decision to shutter its Denver brewery - and relocate its beer-making operations to Maryland - had put Stranahan’s Colorado Whiskey in a jam. The tiny Denver maker of super-premium whiskey had been relying on neighboring Flying Dog for its “distiller’s wash,” a custom-made, fermented liquid that’s based on a proprietary recipe made just for Stranahan’s. Stranahan’s owner Jess Graber was forced to find a new source for the wash.
As luck would have it, he’s rounded up a new partner in the form of Oskar Blues Brewery, the Lyons craft beer maker known for its Dale’s Pale Ale packaged in cans.
“When I heard that Flying Dog was leaving, I immediately called (Stranahan’s) and offered our service,” says Oskar Blues spokesman Marty Jones, noting that he’s a “big fan” of the whiskey.
Jones calls Graber “a pioneer.”
“He’s doing for whiskey what craft brewers have done for beer,” Jones says. “He and his little team have defied the status quo and the Goliaths of the distilling world and shown that spine-tingling whis key can be made by daring individuals right in one’s own community.”Â
Oskar Blues will soon begin trucking more than 5,000 barrels of wash a year to Stranahan’s from the beer maker’s new Longmont brewery. The deliveries will be made weekly. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.
Graber, for his part, is one happy whiskey maker.
“They’re a really good company and they make a really good beer,” he says of Oskar Blues. “We want to maintain our quality, and we don’t think we could have done any better than hook up with these guys.”
Weekend Update - Happy Cinco de Mayo
*** HAVERHILL TAP - TONIGHT - to CELEBRATE CINCO DE MAYO ***
I hope that you had a great weekend. For me, it was a very busy beer weekend, in which I attended both Nerax and CBC. In case you forget, here are the Previous blogs:
CBC Birthday Celebration
NERAX 2008 - Be there or be square
Nerax (New England Real Ale Exhibition)
Ryan and I traveled to Somerville on Friday night to enjoy the Nerax festival for the second year in a row. It was rainy and we didn’t have tickets, so we got into the city early. After finding a key parking spot, we secure entry into the event and jaunted over to the Liquor and Beer store (which is 1 block away). We were impressed with the selection of European and Craft beer available. We purchased a few select beers that we haven’t seen at other stores and we were on our way.
After standing in line until the doors opened, for only 20 minutes, we headed into the tap room. There were 60+ cask conditioned ales available. Some were connected to hand driven pumps and others were sitting on a rack with a turn spout in the end. The beers were available in 1/4 ($1.50) , 1/2 ($2.50), and full imperial pint ($5.00) sizes.
Ryan and I decided to stick with the American Cask Ales with the hopes of trying all of them (sticking with strictly 1/4 size). The selection included the following:
Allagash Brewing (Portland, ME) - Dubbel ABV: 7.0% OG: 1064
Andrews Brewing (Lincolnville, ME) - Andrews English Pale Ale ABV: 4.8% OG: 1052
Boston Beer Company (Samuel Adams) (Boston, MA) - Cider — ABV: 6.7% IBU: 0
Boston Beer Company (Samuel Adams) (Boston, MA) - Holiday Porter — ABV: 5.8%
Cambridge Brewing (Cambridge, MA) - Charles River Porter — ABV: 6.0% OG: 1060
Gardner Ale House (Gardner, MA) - Naked Stout ABV: 3.8% OG: 1041 IBU: 36
Geary’s (Portland, ME) - Hampshire Special Ale ABV: 7.0% OG: 1070
Geary’s (Portland, ME) - Pale Ale — Still pouring at end ABV: 4.5% OG: 1047
Gritty McDuff’s (Portland, ME) - Best Bitter ABV: 5.0% OG: 1050 IBU: 42
Harpoon Brewery (Boston, MA) - Harpoon Ale ABV: 5.0% OG: 1055 IBU: 24
Honest Town Brewery (Southbridge, MA) - S.O.B. - Southbridge Ordinary Bitter — ABV: 3.9% OG: 1040 IBU: 24
Kennebunk Brewing Company (Kennebunk, ME) - Royal IPA ABV: 6.5% OG: 1063
Martha’s Exchange (Nashua, NH) - Velvet Elvis Vanilla Bean Stout ABV: 4.8%
Moat Mountain Smokehouse and Brewing (North Conway, NH) - Spruce Tip Brown ABV: 5.4% OG: 1050
Opa Opa Steakhouse and Brewery (Southampton, MA) - Red Rock Ale ABV: 6.0% OG: 1056 IBU: 28
Pennichuck Brewing (Milford, NH) - Halligan Rye PA ABV: 5.1% OG: 1050 IBU: 41
People’s Pint (Greenfield, MA) - Pied PIPA ABV: 5.7% OG: 1060 IBU: 50
Portsmouth Brewery (Portsmouth, NH) - American Mild ABV: 4.5% OG: 1048 IBU: 36
Redhook (Portsmouth, NH) - Long Hammer — ABV: 6.5% OG: 1057 IBU: 37
Rock Bottom (Braintree, MA) - North Star Ale — ABV: 5.0% OG: 1048 IBU: 28
Sebago Brewing (Gorham, ME) - Slick Nick — ABV: 6.5%
Sheepscot Valley Brewing (Whitefield, ME) - Sheepscot Bitter Pale Ale — ABV: 5.0% OG: 1050
Shipyard Brewing (Portland, ME) - Old Thumper — ABV: 5.8% OG: 1060 IBU: 36
Smuttynose Brewing (Portsmouth, NH) - IPA ABV: 6.6% OG: 1060 IBU: 65
Smuttynose Brewing (Portsmouth, NH) - Portsmouth Lager — ABV: 4.5% OG: 1048 IBU: 15
The TAP (Haverhill, MA) - Leatherlips ABV: 5.5% OG: 1049 IBU: 50
Willimantic Brewing (Willimantic, CT) - Postage Porter ABV: 5.6% OG: 1058 IBU: 25
We were sad to miss Cape Ann Brewing (Gloucester, MA) - Fisherman’s Ale, which was available Saturday and Clipper City Brewing (Baltimore, MD) - Loose Cannon IPA and Red Sky at Night Saison Ale, which never arrived.
I’ll check my notes later, but I think we at least sipped many of those listed above. This list seems dauntingly long, but it totals up to about 3 1/2 beers a piece.
The most memorable beers were:
- Martha’s Exchange (Nashua, NH) - Velvet Elvis Vanilla Bean Stout
- The TAP (Haverhill, MA) - Leatherlips
- Sebago Brewing (Gorham, ME) - Slick Nick
- Gardner Ale House (Gardner, MA) - Naked Stout
Least Favorite:
- Moat Mountain Smokehouse and Brewing (North Conway, NH) - Spruce Tip Brown
For hot treats, Redbones was setup with a table selling Pulled Pork, Chicken and Beef. The sandwiches were delicious.
Overall, Ryan and I had a fun time. The crowd wasn’t too bad (because they limit the number of people allowed in). At times, some of the lines moved slower than the others. Having 1-2 additional pourers might have helped, but overall it was a fun evening. The folks from shipyard were in attendance. Once NERAX was closed, Ryan and I hung out with them for a bit before we headed home.
Cambridge Brewing Company
On Saturday night, Amber and I ventured into Boston to celebrate the CBC’s 19 Beers for 19 Years. We sorta new how to get there, but we missed the exit on Storrow Drive. It was ok, we decided to take a leisurely driving tour of Cambridge. We found MIT, but we aren’t sure how to get back there.
We landed at CBC around 8:00. The crowd was manageable and we signed up for a table. It didn’t take too long and we were seated. I started with a Red God 2008 and Amber started with the Cherry Stout. Red God was amazingly hoppy and delicious, served in a thing Belgian style beer glass. The Cherry Stout was dark and malty, served in a snifter glass. The cherry aspects were not detectable in the aroma, but slightly noticeable in the taste.
In addition, we also tried the beers listed below. Unfortunately, ~9 of the 19 beers had been kicked before we got there. We enjoyed our dinner. The server was not very attentive, but it seemed like the crew had a long tiring day.
Complete list of beers we tried:
Bitchin’ Bitter – 4.0% (Sean)
Red God 2008 – 8.5% (Sean)
Cherry Stout – Stout Aged With Organic Montmorency Cherries – 6.3% (Amber)
Om – Barrel-aged Liquid Enlightenment – 9.4% (Sean)
Biere de Miel 2007 – Belgian-style Blonde Ale with Cambridge Honey - 8.8% (Amber)
Sunday Night Comparison
On Sunday night, Amber and I performed a side by side comparison of two highly rated beers.
* Oskar Blues - 10 Fidy Imperial Stout (no official 2Beerguy review-yet and 99 percentile on RateBeer.com )
* Flying Dog - Gonzo Imperial Porter (24 of 30 2Beerguy review and 98 Percentile on RateBeer.com)
Both beers looked and smelled amazing. Without knowing that one was a porter and the other was a stout, it would be difficult to determine which was which based on Visual and Aroma aspects. Both were as black as oil, topped with a gorgeous light brown head. The 10 Fidy was slightly smokey and thicker in body. There was a noticeable alcohol presence in both offerings, but not over whelming. It was difficult to say which one was better, but the Gonzo Imperial Porter edged out the Oskar Blues 10 fidy.
In case you missed it being mentioned above, a few of us have decided to had to the Haverhill tap tonight to celebrate Cinco de Mayo. It is an open invitation to anyone who would like to join us. We expect to arrive around 7:30. See you there.
Sean
2Beerguys.com
Drink Craft Beer, You’ve Earned It.
p.s. Riverhawks Dec Hockey team update - On Sunday, we won game 2 to complete the best of 3 championship series and win the C division trophy.
Look for Odel limited releases
Odell aims to shake up market with one-time ales
BY CARI MERRILL
When you think of special and reserved labels, an exclusive Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon or Riesling might come to mind.
But Odell Brewing Co. is changing the face of beer and adding designations that aren’t just for wine anymore.
The local craft brewer is brewing special recipes of beer and fermenting the brews in oak casks to create a unique and limited selection beer.
Each batch of the ale, which will have more vanilla and caramel tones, will make enough for only roughly 120 cases before the recipe is retired, creating an exclusivity factor not usually associated with beer. Each 750 mL bottle - hand-corked, hand-signed and numbered - will sell for $24.99.
“It’s a one-time kind of thing,” John Bryant, Odell chief operating officer, said of the process they hope will put them at the forefront of the market.
“It’s to keep challenging ourselves to be creative,” Bryant said.
Doug Odell got the idea after attending a brewing class in England, prompting him to come home and invest in the $450 oak barrels.
The process takes longer than the typical brewing and fermenting beer process.
For example, the company’s signature Easy Street Wheat can go from brew to bottle in three weeks. The brews in the oak casks, however, will sit for roughly eight months. Odell personally taste tests the beer every three to four weeks and expects the first batch to be done in June.
“To me, that’s what craft brewing is all about,” said Odell, a craft brewer for 33 years. “It’s a good way to keep the brewers interested as well.”
Customer input could be used in future recipes. Bryant and Odell say brewers often take feedback they get from the tap room into consideration when creating new recipes.
“I think people really get behind a project when you do that because they feel like they’re contributing,” Odell said.
That is the kind of culture Odell wants to keep at his brewery, one where he knows all of the employees by name and where Odell brews are exclusive to Colorado and seven surrounding states.
“I like the fact of going to different parts of the United States and getting something you can’t get anywhere else,” he said of Odell’s business model that helps the region stand out and creates a smaller, more managed approach to business.
The brewery recently came in 33rd on the Brewers Association top 50 craft brewers in the country.
Link to article.
Beer in a box
Beer in a box
by John Holl/Star-Ledger Staff
In a novel approach to the way freshly brewed beer can be carried home, a Hunterdon County brewery has decided to go the route long used by wine and more recently by coffee and soda purveyors. The Ship Inn Brew Pub in Milford now gives its customers the chance to buy its beer in a box.
“There really isn’t much of a learning curve,” said Tim Hall, the brewer. “There aren’t a lot of people doing this.”
Since it opened in 1995, patrons to the brewery have been able to take the brewed-on-premises beer home in half gallon jugs called growlers, that can be refilled multiple times, but Hall said a lot of the decision to switch to a cube was economical and environmental.
The boxes are inexpensive and biodegradable and are a favorable alternative to glass bottles. Hall, who has spent a lot of time abroad as both a student and tourist said that he was unaware of the stigma that boxed adult beverages have in the states.
“In Europe, it’s really good,” said Hall standing behind the dark wood bar on a chilly morning. “At first, I was getting strange looks from customers.”
Sideways glances did not last long however. The Ship Inn began to test the five and 10 quart boxes in the fall of 2006 and by last summer had made them a staple of the pub. The idea has caught on and they are now selling about an extra 100 gallons of beer each week.
A brew pub is defined as a restaurant that brews small batches of beer on premises. State law prohibits the pubs from selling their suds through distributors. A micro brewery is traditionally defined as one that produces up to 15,000 barrels per year. A barrel holds roughly 31 gallons.
Currently the Ship Inn has three of their homemade beers on tap. There is an English Bitter Style Ale, a cask conditioned -unfiltered and low carbonation beer served from a hand pump - ale and Golden Wheat beer that Hall calls more of a “lawn mower” beer, designed for people who still might be leery of craft brews.
Of the nearly two dozen brew pubs and micro breweries in the Garden State, the Ship Inn is the only one currently pouring into boxes, according to the state brewer’s guild.
Hall said he researched the idea for a few years and had to reconfigure the pub’s taps to accommodate the new system. In the spirit of fresh beer, they are only filled when ordered.
“You won’t find them sitting on a shelf or cooler,” he said.
There are a handful of brew pubs across the country that are also boxing their beer, including Rubicon Brewing in Sacramento, CA which has been offering gallon boxes for the last few years.
But in large, the idea of boxing beer is a new thing.
Julia Herz, a spokeswoman for the Brewers Association, a nonprofit group devoted to professional brewers, said that while “alternative packaging” has become a trend in craft brewing, she and others at the association had not heard of the cardboard contraptions.
“From a cost perspective it’s probably a helpful decision,” she said in a telephone interview from Colorado.
She noted that many craft brewers are also returning to the idea of cans - a container that can also carry a negative image - saying that in 2007 at least 25,000 barrels of suds wound up in aluminum cylinders. Micro brewers who are using cans said it is cheaper than bottles, it better helps retain flavor and helps their product stand out on shelves that are becoming more and more crowded with craft beers.
Dan Soboti Jr., who brews at the Gaslight Brewery and Restaurant in South Orange said that they would likely stick with glass growlers for the foreseeable future.
“We talked about it, but we decided that it wasn’t going to work for us,” he said.
Hall said that he sells between 30 and 40 boxes and growlers per week and once a cube is filled, the beer stays carbonated for 2-3 weeks. The five quart box sells for $18 and the 10 quart for $28. Each comes with a reusable plastic tap that can be screwed onto the spigot and reused by return visitors. The box itself isn’t built for more than one use, though the brewer said it’s possible to get a second round out of it. When the box is emptied, drinkers can break it down and toss it in with the recycling.
Customers to the Ship Inn, like Richard Kroth of Milford, like the box because they last longer than growlers. And with a young child at home, he’s not able to get to the pub as often as he’d like.
“It’s just really easy,” he said.
Looking forward, Hall says he hopes to add some new beers to the rotation that are “full of flavor but have a low alcohol content.”
In doing so, he hopes to bring new drinkers to the craft brew bar, and see them leave with a box tucked under their arm
Latest Reviews: Yulesmith & Holy Sheets
Our latest 2Beerguy tasting adventure took us on a trip visiting an old friend and a new friend. We started with the YuleSmith - Strong Ale - 9.5% (from AleSmith Brewing Company) and Holy Sheets Uber Abbey Ale - Abby Dubble - 9% (from Clipper City Brewing). Upon inspection of the bottle, we determined that the YuleSmith was the Christmas offering from January of 2007. The Holy Sheet Uber Abbey Ale from clipper city brewing was purchased recently.
Note: AleSmith makes two varieties of the YuleSmith. The Imperial Red Ale is the Christmas offering and the Double IPA is the summer offering.
Clipper City Brewing Company’s Holy Sheet Uber Abbey Ale
Official Description:
“Just released our newest seasonal – Holy Sheet. From the centuries-old tradition of Belgian Abbey monks comes our Uber Abbey Ale (9%). Aromatic and very full bodied, the beer will pour a deep burgundy in color and feature a rich, robust depth of malt character. Grab a line – Holy Sheet! – or you might be swept overboard.” — Clipper City
2Beerguys Review
The Uber Abbey Ale pours a ruby red hue with minimal head that dissipates down to nothing, with very little carbonation. As quickly as the head forms, it’s gone leaving a very still body behind. No lacing whatsoever as the beer swirls around the glass. Aroma is subtle with some sweet malts and soft alcohol, with a little bit of sour on the back end. Initial taste is sweet but quickly moves to a sour alcohol finish that lasts for quite a while. Medium bodied, there is minimal carbonation in the mouthfeel, with some creamy textures, very smooth and very balanced, very enjoyable on the palate.
Style Abbey Dubbel
ABV 9%
Source 12 oz bottle
Overall 19/30
AleSmith Brewing Company’s YuleSmith Holiday Ale (Winter)
Official Description
“During the summer, YuleSmith is transformed into a big, hoppy, Double IPA. The enormous load of hops requires a substantial malt background to create just the right balance for a Double IPA. Lighter in color, summer YuleSmith is available around the 4th of July and is packaged in a red, white, and blue bottle. For the winter season, YuleSmith is brewed as an Imperial Red Ale. This version is maltier, more balanced, and darker in color than the summer version. Although quite malty, big hop flavors and aromas are abundant making this an unforgettable winter warmer. Winter YuleSmith is packaged in traditional holiday red and green. Original Gravity Alcohol by Volume 1.085 9.5%” — AleSmith.
2Beerguy Review
The YuleSmith pours a light garnet hue into a very carbonated body with tremendous bubble action on the glass, supporting the massive frothy light-brown head. Body clarity is decent given the bottle conditioning. Thin wispy lacing lines the glass as the head subsides, and the body has darkened up a bit to a more ruby/amber color. Aroma is of potent hops with some piney notes up front with some grapefruit in the background, much more reminiscent of an IPA than a typical Strong Ale. Malt character is strong as well with some dark bread notes. Initial taste is very well balanced with equal hits of malt and hop bitterness, and this balance continues through the finish despite an increase in both malt and hop strength with a dominant citrus hop taste. Medium bodied, almost to the point of chewy, with lively carbonation and a slightly oily film with a smooth malt finish. High alcohol content is masked somewhat by the smooth malt finish. Delicioso!
Style Strong Ale
ABV 9.5%
Source 22 oz bottle
Overall 24/30
In summary, we enjoyed the YuleSmith (Winter) and the Uber Abbey ale. If you spot them in a store, pick them up and let us know what you think.
Sean
2Beerguys.com
Drink Craft Beer, You’ve Earned It!!!
Beer Brewing 101 - provided by Stanford Students
Let there be beer
Students in EBF explore the art of homebrewing
April 15, 2008
By Christopher P. Anderson
The search for a tasty brew has consumed the nightlife of college students for eons. Sean Arenson ‘08 and Carolyn Mansfield ‘08, residents in the Enchanted Broccoli Forest (EBF), have an unusually direct approach to acquiring good beer. They make it themselves.
The EBF brewing adventure began when Mansfield, whose father is a homebrewer, gave her boyfriend, Johnny DuPont ‘09, a homebrewing kit for Christmas. Five brews later, it’s a regular part of their lives and something Arenson says is “easier to do than someone who’s never done it before might think.”
Both students find the activity a perfect fit for the EBF ethos. “Co-ops are a culture of beer appreciation,” says Mansfield, citing brewing activity in other co-op houses, as well. Arenson adds that the co-op culture of “go smaller” and consumption of fresh and non-commercial products dovetails nicely with EBF’s earthy reputation.
Homebrewing, the private production of beer for personal enjoyment as opposed to commercial gain, has taken off in the United States in the last 30 years, reviving a tradition that waned as beer went from a farmhouse craft to a factory operation. It draws devotees from all walks of life — college students, blue-collar laborers, urban professionals, environmental stewards and those with a do-it-yourself attitude.
THE WORLD’S FIRST REFRESHER
Thought to be the oldest manufactured beverage in human history, beer is, by definition, a fermented alcoholic substance made by mixing malted grain, hops, water and yeast. Barley is the most popular grain and the easiest to work with, although wheat and rye can also be use.
“Brewing” technically refers to the boiling of ingredients before fermentation, but the art of homebrewing is understood to include choosing a recipe, managing the boil, pitching the yeast and bottling and carbonating the beer.
Most agricultural peoples have produced a beer-like beverage, using many types of plants to balance the sweet malt flavor. The use of the hop flower as a flavoring and bittering agent became standardized in beer in the 16th and 17th centuries and was codified in the German Beer Purity Law of 1516.
Homebrewing in the United States was fully legalized by Congress in 1978, eliminating a holdover from Prohibition-era laws. Some states, such as Utah and Alabama, still prohibit brewing without a license.
THE START OF SOMETHING BIG
The first EBF beer was brewed in January — a porter, an English dark ale, that consumed not just the standard ingredients but also a cell phone. After Arenson insisted on compulsive sanitation at every step, duPont mistakenly dropped his phone into the brew just prior to bottling. duPont further threatened to contaminate the brew by sticking his arm in the bucket to retrieve the phone.
The brew turned out unharmed, and thus was born the distinctive name “Cingular Porter.” Mansfield said the cell phone store had never before heard such an explanation for a broken phone.
Arenson was impressed with their first product, and with duPont studying abroad in Berlin this quarter, Arenson has been promoted to unofficial EBF brewmaster. He promises to do his mentor proud. “This quarter is going to be a very prolific one.”
HOW BREWING IS DONE
The most basic brewing kit, designed for a five-gallon batch, includes a large stove pot, an airlocked fermentation bucket and a bottle capper. Homebrew ingredients can be bought from several sources. Arenson and Mansfield buy their stock from a homebrew store in Los Altos, but several Bay Area shops and multiple online vendors are available for ingredients and equipment, as well as valuable advice from those with experience.
The basic process of homebrewing begins with bringing a pot of water to boil. Water is a critical element in a beer style; the famously hard water of English rivers contributes to British ale styles, while Pilsner Urquell uses soft water from world-renowned Czech wells.
Most homebrewers cannot control their local water sources, but chemical supplements are available to approximate some desired mineral profiles.
Malt extract, either powered or syrup, is added to the boiling water. The extract provides the sugars that will, in turn, be fermented into alcohol.
An advanced technique called all-grain brewing involves mashing the malted grain itself into a porridge, activating the malting enzymes that break down the starch into fermentable sugars. This process duplicates the one used by commercial breweries, but it isn’t necessary for producing great-tasting beer. Many homebrewers, including the EBF crew, get tasty results from extract brewing.
Hops are added at the beginning and end of the approximately hour-long boil.
The hop oils are chemically changed by the boiling process, causing the first batch of hops to add a bitter flavor. Hops added at the end of the boil provide flavor and aroma.
After the liquid, called wort, is cooled, it is placed in an airlocked bucket or glass carboy; the yeast is added (or “pitched”), and the fermentation process begins. In an anaerobic (oxygen-free) process, the yeast consumes sugars and produces carbon dioxide, ethyl alcohol and a slew of flavor products. The temperature at which fermentation occurs, and whether the yeast strain ferments on top of the brew or at the bottom, has a strong effect on the beer flavor.
Primary fermentation completes after about two days. The beer is normally then transferred to another vessel and left to settle and clarify for up to a month. Hops and spice flavorings are sometimes added in this phase (“dry-hopped”) for an extra kick. In addition to taste and smell, hops provide an anti-bacterial effect, favoring yeast growth and acting as a preservative in the final product.
Finally, the beer is bottled. Carbonation is accomplished by adding sugar to the brew before bottling, which re-activates the yeast. With the bottles capped, carbon dioxide goes into solution, giving the brew its distinctive fizz. The beer is drinkable within two weeks, although aging for up to a year depending on style can improve its flavor.
Meticulous sanitation is required at every step to ensure the yeast does not compete with other microbes in the fermenter — the sort of attention to detail that Arenson followed until duPont dropped his phone in the beer. An infected batch is not usually dangerous to the drinker, it just tastes bad; in almost all cases, multiplying yeast “crowd out” other species, and contamination is rare.
As used glass bottles from store-bought beers can be reused, homebrewers tend to become inveterate scroungers; according to Arenson, “you find yourself asking someone drinking a beer, ‘Can I have that bottle when you’re finished?’”
DON’T CRAMP YOUR STYLE
The explosion in American homebrewing in the 1980s was a factor in the rise of microbrewing and craft brewing (similar terms for the commercial production of moderate quantities of quality-focused beer), exposing Americans to a slew of styles then unavailable in mass-produced products. California and Portland have become particularly remarkable in the microbrew industry.
A variant of craft brewing is the brewpub, where beer is made on the premises and served in conjunction with a restaurant. Gordon Biersch Brewery Restaurant, originating in Palo Alto, is an example of a brewpub.
“California is such a fertile ground for homebrewing and craftbrewing,” Arenson said. “There’s such a variation of styles…beer blows wine out of the water with regard to diversity of styles.” With all of this high-quality beer around, Sean has not missed the opportunity to evangelize. He often purchases a collection of beers and holds tasting events for fellow students.
College kids who have swilled down Natural Light for years are usually in for a pleasant surprise. Arenson says that after presenting a range of styles, even his beer-averse subjects normally find one or two beers they enjoy.
While the exact ingredients used in commercial beers are trade secrets, “clone brew” recipes allow brewers to emulate popular products. But homebrewing also provides the freedom to tinker with classic styles and recipes, adjusting the grain, hops and yeast to the brewer’s taste and creating entirely new flavors with the addition of fruit or spices.
MO’ MONEY
An ingredient kit for a five-gallon batch — about 40 twelve-ounce bottles — typically costs between $30 and $50, making homebrew costs competitive with store prices for microbrewed six-packs.
The prices, however, are on the rise. The brewing industry has been rocked by a massive world hop shortage stemming from a destructive European winter, a decline in farmland used for hops, and a selling out of hop reserves. Some varieties are simply not available, and others have seen fivefold price increases.
Microbreweries and homebrewers, masters of highly hopped styles and lacking guaranteed contracts with hop distributors, have been hit the hardest. The cost has been passed on to consumers, who have already seen price increases and will likely feel the squeeze for at least another year.
MORE THAN A HOBBY
Even as a biology major, Arenson sees his hobby as a fuzzy enterprise. “I view brewing as more of an art than a science, which is interesting because,” despite being a jazz musician, “I have no artistic talent.”
He did compare it to his alternate life: “There are parallels between jazz and brewing — there’s a lot of improvisation, in each batch you do something different, and the mood you are in is reflected in the brew.”
The hobby can also have health benefits. Homebrewed beer is made with a handful of ingredients without the preservatives of mass-produced beer. Age, handling and freshness can be controlled by the brewers themselves, something not possible with mass-produced beers shipped across the country. Because of the presence of yeast normally filtered out by commercial breweries, which provide B vitamins, homebrewed beer is one of the most beneficial alcoholic beverages one can drink — particularly when it comes to keeping away a hangover.
Between brewing and tastings, Arenson and Mansfield are driven by the appreciation of fine beer that motivates many homebrewers. Arenson encourages the curious to give it a try.
“People assume it requires smokestacks and everything. It’s just like any food product: you can do it in your own kitchen…they should really dive in instead of being intimidated.”
