Month: June 2015

666 IPAs on the wall, 666 IPAs

MONDAY BEER LINKS, MUSING 06.15.15

Why Americans have such bad taste in beer.
The premise here about the blandification of American beer is not exactly new. Should you be tempted to fork over $40 to read the complete article this story cites I’d suggest instead buying Maureen Ogle’s Ambitious Brew: The Story of American Beer. More detail, better told, and you can spend what you save on beer. [Via The Washington Post]

Should Northeast-Grown Hops Be Renamed? / Brewing an IPA with Century-Feral New York Wild Hops.
Among other things, Derek Dellinger asks “When is Cascade no longer Cascade?” Rather than renaming the hop, I’d suggest we recognize regional differences, which I’ve written about before. More interesting to me are his thoughts about brewing with hops found growing in the wild: “Hops that have absorbed the character of the land and made it their own. Truly unique, more-or-less native hops.” [Via Bear Flavored]

Retirement Home Residents Learn To Brew Beer.
What better way to stay young? [Via Hartford Courant]

5 Reasons You Shouldn’t Miss ‘Leuven Innovation Beer Festival’: Brouwerij Hof Ten Dormaal’s Leuven Beer Festival at De Hoorn.
Putting the word innovation in the name of a festival immediately makes me nervous, but apparently they could also have called it the “Leuven Intimate Beer Festival.” [Via Belgian Smaak]

Charlotte’s craft beer boom lifts other businesses, too.
“The beauty of small manufacturing is its inefficiency. … (A craft brewery) has a much larger impact on its local economy because of its inefficiency.” [Via The Herald]

Take a hike. Have a beer. Life is perfect. Here’s where.
Pairing trailheads and brewpubs across Washington state. [Via Washington Times]

National Homebrew Competition Winners.
Unless you had a beer entered or know somebody who did or judged a lot of beers in the first round and are curious if any won medals then this list will not be of interest. However, I point you to Category 14: India Pale Ale (IPA). No surprise that it had the most entries, but some would attach meaning to the fact there were 666. [Via the American Homebrewers Association]

Whither the German Pilsner?

German pilsner bitterness unitesHere is a chilling thought: “If this trend of reducing the hop-content in (German) Pilsner beer continues, by 2030 the Pilsner beer will have similar composition to today’s export or lager beers.”

The Journal of the Institute of Brewing and Distilling recently published a study that indicated the bitterness level of German pilsners had remained relatively constant between 1983 and 2006, but since then has dipped, now brewing with about 27 International Bitterness Units (IBU) rather than 30. Just in case you thought hops were making a comeback everywhere.

The report suggests there are several possible reasons for the results. “One may be purely economic reasons in times of a declining beer market in Germany. This is probably true for so-called ‘discount’ beers, which are regularly at the lower end of the legally permissible range regarding original gravity but also regarding (bitterness units). Another reason may be a change in consumer preference towards less bitter beers (a statement that
has often been made during our contacts with industry but which is currently not scientifically verifiable). Or is this an apparent case of consumer deception, because the consumers’ expectations may have been intentionally changed by the subtle decline in hop-dosage during a 40 year period? Clearly, a German Pilsner beer today is not what is was in the last century.”

The story concludes with a discussion about German food laws and if there should be a way to legally enforce the bitterness level of pilsners. That’s not going to happen.

The chart at the top compares four single breweries to the overall trend. The dark blue band on the left represents 1986-2003, the middle band 1998-2004, the one on the right 2005-2013.

Beer experiences: Historic and premium

MONDAY BEER LINKS, MUSING 06.08.15

I’m not sure how many bloggers ended up participating in The Session #100 on Friday, but every entry I’ve read has been above average interesting. And there were a couple other posts — the first three listed here — that seem related.

A full disclosure: the making of 1883 Lager.
Tiah Edmunson-Morton tackles the challenge of finding pre-Prohibition beer recipes (and brewing logs) to come up with a recipe for Hopworks Urban Brewery (and here’s their version of the story).
[Via Oregon Hops & Brewing Archives]

The three-threads mystery and the birth of porter: the answer is …
Martyn Cornell tackles “One of the biggest mysteries in the history of beer.” In the end he writes that not everybody will agree with conclusions. Same facts, different views. Something to remember when discussing beer history. An aside, it is the people who don’t pay attention to the facts that drive me bonkers. [Via Zythophile]

Lazarus beers: 6 brands that should be raised from the dead.
Don Russell talks about specific beers, not styles, and from more recent history. {Via Joe Sixpack]

Cans or bottles? Surprising results from two blind taste tests.
As the headline suggests, surprising results. They are a reminded blind taste tests are a valuable tool, but as humans we may not always taste things the same way. It makes me think that as well as tasting the same beer from a bottle as a can it would be interesting to do a similar test comparing two bottles from the same six pack. [Via Microbrewr]

Drink Parochial.
Miles Liebtag revisits the local/quality/diversity debate. It is even handed, but I don’t agree with his conclusion (there’s that “same facts, different views” thing): “Loyalty to your home is a beautiful thing, and in beer, art, music, literature and culture generally, like-minded people form enclaves that are specific to a place and foment wonderful bursts of creativity and innovation. But let’s not fool ourselves into thinking we’re talking just about culture. We’re talking about business.” Yes, you can’t overlook that brewing beer is a business. But we are talking about local culture. Local may change our appreciation of a beer. Most visits to the local pub are not for a blind beer tasting (or test, if you will). [Via BeerGraphs]

Does Oskar Blues Still Own Oskar Blues? Brewery Would Rather Focus on the Beer.
File this one under “bears watching.” [Via Westword]

How Big Lager Lost The Plot And Developed Narcissistic Personality Disorder.
And file this under sentences that make you think: “Premiumness in beer is not about this kind of cock-waving, and it never was. It’s about the premiumness of the experience the beer creates – the experience for which the beer is the catalyst, not the central focus.” There are times you don’t want a premium experience, or maybe I should say you want an experience you’ll enjoy and aren’t prepared to pay for premium. [Via Pete Brown]

Session #100: What makes a beer historically accurate?

Phoneix Kentucky Komon

Reuben Gray hosts the 100th gathering of The Session and asks blogs to write about “Resurrecting Lost Beer Styles.” Visit his site for links to other contributions.

The SessionWhen David Pierce set out to brew the first commercial batch of Kentucky Common in, well nobody knows how many, years “it was still back when we all thought it (had been) a sour beer.” That was 1994 and Pierce was brewmaster at Bluegrass Brewing Co. in Louisville.

We’ve since learned the idea that the process used to brew Kentucky Common in the early years of the twentieth century included a sour mash is just plain wrong. But, going on the best information anybody had to offer, Pierce began with a 100 percent sour mash, mashing in hot one night and arriving to a horrific smell at the brewery the next day. It was not an easy beer to sell. Roger Baylor at Rich O’s Public House in New Albany, across the Ohio River from Louisville, did his best to support a beer he thought was historically important. He promoted it as “beer formaggio.”

Pierce made the beer periodically in the following years before he left BBC to work for Baylor at New Albanian Brewing. He refined the process, souring only part of the mash, creating a beer than wasn’t as pungent. He thought the fifth, and last, batch was probably the best. “We couldn’t give it a way,” he said. Then somebody suggested they call it a Belgian sour brown ale. The last seven barrels (14 kegs) sold out in a week.

In the years since, meticulous research by Leah Dienes, Dibbs Harting, and Conrad Selle established that if Kentucky Common occasionally turned out sour in the marketplace in the years before Prohibition it wasn’t on purpose, and it certainly wasn’t made using a sour mash. That is reflected in the recently released BJCP Style Guidelines. Kentucky Common is in Category 27, Historical Beers, and the guidelines even specify “Enter soured versions in American Wild Ale.” That works fine for judging in a homebrew competition, particularly in a historic context, but what about modern day commercial beers? Kentucky Common now has a 20-year history in which a sour mash is used in the brewing process.

Granted the modern history is limited. However, if you are looking for a “Kentucky Common” brewed in Kentucky and sold outside of Kentucky it is going to be Against the Grain’s Kamen Knuddeln, which is a blend of a young sour-mashed beer and a barrel-aged stout. Jerry Gnagy gets a lactobacillus starter from Four Roses Bourbon for the sour mash. It makes perfect sense that had Kentucky Common been brewed continuously for a hundred-and-some years that it might evolved or at least different versions would have emerged. Using lacto from a nearby distillery? Makes sense. Include a portion of beer aged in bourbon barrels? Also indigenous.

Last month, as part of the Derby City Brewfest it hosted, Bluegrass Brewing invited participating breweries to make a Kentucky Common. Eight Commons ended on offer, some sour, some not. Because we were in Kentucky the following week I got a chance drink several of them. I certainly could have wasted a larger chunk of an afternoon than I did drinking New Albanian’s Phoenix Kentucky Komon and chatting with Baylor (who has currently stepped away from the business while he runs for mayor of New Albany). It is not an easy beer to make, and the brewery does it just once a year on its smaller four-barrel system — yes, four barrels a year; like I wrote, a pretty limited modern history. “It’s one of my roughest mashes of the year,” brewer Ben Minton said, in this case because of the percentage of corn and temperamental false bottom in the mash tun. “It comes out a little different every time.”

Apocalypse Brewing, Louisville

Two historic (in other words, not sour) versions I had at Apocalypse Brewing were equally delightful. Dienes had her Oertel’s 1912, which is based on the records in Oertel’s brewing logs and the only example of the style in the BJCP guidelines, on tap. Harting brought his homebrewed version. It is the only beer he struggles to keep on tap. “Oh dad, can I take a common home?” Harting said, quoting one of his children. “I’m sure it was a fabulous bucket (growler) beer,” he added.

This works for me. Kentucky Common of the past. Kentucky Common of the present. Kentucky Common of the future. There doesn’t have to be just one.

Hops and the law – ‘Neato’

MONDAY BEER LINKS, MUSING 06.01.15

We just finished moving our books, beds and other essentials under a new roof. So notes taken during the Craft Brewers Conference about some of the various hop-related things going on at Brewery Ommegang are packed in a box somewhere. I don’t remember all the details, but I do remember that Nirvana IPA, which is made for Ommegang at Boulevard Brewing, is brimming with bold American hop aroma. However, only available in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.

Three 1700s English Court Cases About Hops.
A post about hops that concludes with a one-word sentence: “Neato.” How could I resist? [Via A Good Beer Blog]

Farm brewery still a go in Lucketts—but without Flying Dog.
A bit confusing what might happen to the farm brewery in Maryland that received considerable attention because Flying Dog Brewery was to be a partner. Now Flying Dog has backed away. However, a hops facility on the same farmland, which will receive grant money from the state and county, is not affected by the change and will go ahead as planned. [Via Loudon Times]

Hops yesterday, today and tomorrow.
Hops yesterday, today and tomorrow (part two).
The decline and rise of hopping rates. [Via Shut Up About Barclay Perkins]

ENOUGH HOPS? HOW ABOUT THESE?

From Vikings To The War Of 1812: An Interview With Right Proper Brewmaster Nathan Zeender On Recreating Historic Beer Styles.
I’m pointing to this even though it includes a favorable shout out to Stan Hieronymus (always a bit embarrassing) because it serves as an excellent reminder that the theme The Session #100 on Friday is Resurrecting Lost Beer Styles. [Via War on the Rocks]

5 craft beer bits from Founders, New Holland owners.
Among the takeaways: What aspect of the job has gotten tougher over the years? “The hangovers are worse.” [Via MLive]

Czech village toasts success of self-service pub.
Machine dispenses homebrewed beer for the same prices as lemonade, 20 Czech koruna (80 cents) a pint. [Via The Guardian]

I Started a Fantasy Beer League, and So Can You.
You’ll just have to read it. [Via Paste]