musing

Where are they now?

Microbrews: A Ten Year Retrospective looks to be an interesting project.

The premise:

The whole premise of this blog is to see how many of the 200+ microbrews and brews featured in MICROBREWS: A GUIDE TO AMERICA’S BEST NEW BEERS AND BREWERIES have survived the craft brew infatuation of the last 20 years or so. I’m using this book because it is ten years old and is the only book I have of its sort.

My choice likely would have been to start with Steve Johnson’s “ON TAP: Guide to North American Brewpubs” because Steve chronicled the comings and goings of breweries with the zeal of a librarian (perhaps because he is a librarian), but it would appear this book is alphabetical and that lends itself well to this undertaking.

Today’s post features the brewery formerly known as Adler Brau and now called Stone Cellar Brewpub. Adler Brau made some excellent German inspired beers – in fact winning four medals at the 1991 Great American Beer Festival.

What we really liked was the cellar pub, which included what we refer to as a “Wisconsin bar.” These exist elsewhere, but we always associate them with Wisconsin. Basically the area behind the bar is recessed and the bartender is pretty much face-to-face with seated customers. Very friendly.

Beyond the sexy tap handles

Meantime taps

Nearly 100 news outlets have picked up the Associated Press story about the art of tap handles. That’s understandable, because tap handles can be pretty cool, although you’ll notice I chose to illustrate this story with the simple but elegant tap handles of Meantime Brewing in Greenwich. The photo was shot at the Brew Wharf, part of the Vinopolis complext in London.

But I’m not sure that I ever ordered a beer because it had a great handle. Handles certainly have grabbed my attention at a pub, and if I already knew something about the brewery (or even the beer) then I may have ended up drinking a beer from that tap.

Thus I wish I had written what Roger Baylor offered at the Potable Curmudgeon. Be sure to read clear to the conclusion:

You can’t read a book without cracking the cover. Admire the tap handle from afar, but delve into the true significance of what it represents, and become knowledgeable.

Words to drink by.

Beer for the Baskin-Robbins crowd

Chocolate beerChances are that neither you nor I will ever see Frederick Miller Classic Chocolate Lager because it’s only due to be distributed in the Midwest.

But it has attracted a lot of attention than any of the excellent chocolate beers brewers have been producing for years. The latest is this story from the Associated Press, which is looking for an underlying trend. That would be beer with more flavors. Not just beer with more flavor, but different flavors.

Thus the story consults Felicia McClain, an analyst with Mintel Research. “They’re trying to do something to bring some spice back into beer,” she says. And Mintel has a list of the top 10 selling beer flavors from 2005. Presented here without further comment:

1. plain (regular)
2. pumpkin
3. honey
4. vanilla
5. nut
6. pomegranate
7. brown sugar
8. spice and spicy
9. lime
10. orange

Beer naturally

Real aleFirst, beer. Tomorrow a New York Times tasting panel will report back on porters. Eric Asimov writes in advance he “was impressed with the high quality of porters available today.”

Second, wine. In his blog, The Pour, Asimov writes today about what winemakers are really saying when they describe themselves as “non-interventionist” – pretty important if we are to accept the concept of terroir. The post was provoked by an interview he did with the Michael Rolland, the flying winemaker villified in the movie “Mondovino.”

In it Asimov mentioned the names of some California winemakers who favor moderation when it comes to the balance between restraint and fruit bomb. Rolland replied:

“Are they as successful in the marketplace? No,” he said, warming to the subject. “Wine is done for what? The public! Wine is a business. They want to make wine to sell wine. In the U.S. they are honest enough to tell you they want good ratings. They don’t want loser wines.”

Now, back to beer. Asimov’s post could lead to a discussion of why bigger, bolder beers get so much more attention than classically restrained beers (Double IPAs vs. a German hell from a countryside brewer, but not here, not today.

Instead, consider the statement “Wine is a business.” Now replace the word “wine” with “beer.” We simply have to accept that. Beer is business, but – here’s the good part – it can be more.

Asimov’s post sent me to the bookcase to pull out a copy of Beer Naturally, co-produced by the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) in 1976. Primarily a book of loving, mostly black-and-white, photos – hops twine being strung, vines, harvesting of barley, floor maltings, well-worn kettles – the book illustrates how beer can be brewed naturally while also acknowledging the ways brewers break with tradition.

But the strongest message is the photos and the first words of the book:

“Beer at its best is a reflection of a golden field of barley, a reminder of the rich aroma of a hop garden. Scientists can argue endlessly about the merits of the man-made concoctions which go into much of today’s beer but the proof of the pint is in the drinking … the best of British beer is produced from the gifts that nature gave us and by methods which have been proudly handed down over the centuries. The story of beer is a story of nature and of craftmanship; a story of farmer and brewers who join forces to greate beer naturally.”

View from atop New Belgium

Peter Bouckaert

New Belgium Brewing’s Peter Bouckaert gestures into the distance while giving a tour to members of the media who were in Colorado during the Great American Beer Festival, making a bit of a joke we’ll get to in a moment.

This view is from the roof of the brewery. The building under construction is the new packaging facility. When it is complete New Belgium will be able to brew and ship 850,000 barrels of beer per year – and that’s capacity for the current site.

What then? If you know just where to look in this photo you’ll spot Anheuser-Busch’s Fort Collins brewery (current capacity 10 million barrels) in the distance. New Belgium will take that over in 2010, Bouckaert said, smiling while adding “just kidding” in case the A-B employees on the tour (which next went to the A-B plant) were worried.

New Belgium shipped 370,000 barrels in 2005 and will likely sell about 435,000 in 2006. That number is constrained by the currently packaging line, which runs 24/7. “We’re bottling gold,” Bouckaert said.

Among items on display in one of the brewhouses (below) is the original five-hecoliter system that Jeff Lebesch began brewing on when he and his wife, Kim Jordan, started the brewery in the basement of their home. In front are a couple of the wine barrels that Bouckaert began experimenting with in the late 1990s (eventually producing La Foile). The Fat Tire bicycles to the right are examples of those each employee receives after one year of working at New Belgium. After five years they get a trip to Belgium.

NBB brewhouse

The photo below shows a mini-shrine hanging on one wall of the hospitality area of the brewery. Call it beer folk art.

NBB shrine