Session #14 roundup posted, and my favorite

The SessionJeff Bell/Stonch has posted the roundup for The Session #14: Beer People. Many outstanding posts, and one terrific suggestion from Jay Brooks.

But I wish I’d written this (and not only because it would mean I could still share a “snob beer” with my Dad):

Bob is my Dad. He drinks Labatt’s Blue religiously. Before Labatt’s it was Michelob. Before Michelob it was Pabst or Natural Light. My Dad has never taught me about original gravity or dry-hopping. He’s never taught me about the difference between a Kolsch and a Pilsner or cascade hops and chinook hops. In fact, my Dad has really taught me only one thing about beer in my whole life. He taught me that beer is something that can bring two people together on the same level and be genuine with one another.

Read the rest at Beer, Maine & Me.

Session #14: Generations of Beer People

The SessionIn setting the theme for The Session #14: Beer People Jeff Bell asked for “pen portraits.”

At the risk of appearing lazy I’m letting the subject speak for himself. Ed Reisch was the fourth generation of his Springfield, Ill., family to oversee operations for Reisch Brewing Co. The brewery operated from 1849 until 1966, although Reisch left in 1964 to work for Pabst in Milwaukee

I visited him in December to collect his oral history, in this case using video. Here are a couple of minutes in which he talks about brewing Pabst and Andecker (Pabst’s high-end beer) in the 1970s.

The Reisch Brewery is gone . . . It was not insignificant — by the early twentieth century it occupied three acres and 11 building, shortly before Prohibition producing nearly 80,000 barrels annually. Ed Reisch was born in 1919, and played in the brewery as a youth during Prohibition, when malt syrup was produced there.

But the Reisch story continues . . . One of Ed’s sons, George, is a corporate brewmaster at Anheuser-Busch and George’s son, Patrick, is training to become a professional brewer. That will make six generations.

So more later.

Young’s Bitter: Red Tractor guarantees it’s all UK

Red Tractor Assured food standardsRed Tractor beer is not a brand in the UK (as opposed to the Palisade Red Truck IPA from Colorado), but a stamp that assures it is made only with British ingredients that have been checked for quality assurance.

Wells and Young’s has become the first major brewer to promote the Red Tractor logo.

Red Tractor “is a food assurance scheme which covers production standards developed by experts on safety, hygiene, animal welfare and the environment amongst other things.”

Reacting to Wells and Young’s announcement all bottles of Young’s Bitter will carry the Red Tractor logo, Jonathan Tipples, vice chairman of Assured Food Standards said: “The Red Tractor logo signifies that the ale has been brewed in the UK using hops, malt and barley produced to high standards on the farm and checked by independent inspections.”

The current barley and hops crisis (both prices and availability) has reminded many drinkers of the historically strong links between brewers and farmers.

Head brewer at Wells and Young’s Brewery, Jim Robertson, said: “It is incredibly important to us that we work with our farmers and suppliers and knowing that every drop of Young’s Bitter will be made with Red Tractor approved ingredients is a strong provenance message for our consumers.”

Fat Tire in cans: No foolin’

You are bound to see some April Fool’s posts today in the beer blogosphere, but the news that New Belgium Brewing in Colorado almost certainly will be packaging Fat Tire in cans is real.

I simply missed the story in the The Fort Collins Coloradoan until now.

Fat Tire is the only one of New Belgium’s brews that will be available in cans and will be packaged in a 12 pack, capitalizing on the brand’s popularity.

“It’s a little more versatility in our packaging,” spokesman Bryan Simpson told the newspaper, and it provides another option for people to take cans of Fat Tire to places they couldn’t take glass bottles, such as concerts and other outdoor activities.

Given New Belgium’s commitment to sustainability this makes perfect sense. Aluminum cans are 100% recyclable into new cans, and recycling 40 aluminum beverage cans saves enough energy equivalent to one gallon of gasoline, according to the Aluminum Association Inc.

Oskar Blues in nearby Lyons triggered something of micro canning revolution in 2002 when it installed a small canning line at its then-tiny brewpub.

Added April 2: New Belgium has issued a press release indicating cans will be available in June.