Coming in May, a newsletter for hops lovers

'For the Love of Hops' newsletter

I don’t plan to call it Postcards from an Oast House, or The Lupulin Letters, but these days a newsletter seems like a good place to park bits of hop-related flotsam that you’d rather see remain infobits a good idea.

Sometimes we are talking bad rumors. For instance, that the collaboration beer brewed by Pinthouse Pizza, Wicked Weed Brewing and Creature Comforts Brewing to showcase some of the new Cryo Hops from YCH Hops contained seven pounds of LupuLN2 powder per barrel. That would be comparable to 14 pounds of hop pellets or 7% of a 200-pound hop bale for in 31 gallons of beer. The day after I heard the rumor I saw Creature Comforts head brewer David Stein at the Craft Brewers Conference trade show. He and his fellow conspirators “only” used the equivalent of 6-and-half pounds of pellets per barrel, most of that powder. Crazy, but not insane. So infobits that merit more than a tweet, less than a post.

Expect a bit of agriculture, a dash of science, an occasional new variety, and always some hop geekery. As often as not you will be reading the questions I am asking hop scientists, hop farmers, hop breeders, brewers and anybody else who will put up with my questions.

It took me a little while to figure this out. That’s why some sentences are crossed out. I’ve decided to call the newsletter Hop Queries, because I know better than to promise Hop Answers.

powered by TinyLetter

Beer links, musing 04.17.17: Categories vs. appellations

What's the next beer style on the rise? CBC 2017Monday musing and linking began in 2008 as a way to stay in touch during our semi sabbatical, but there hae often times I am not sure what reality I am in touch with. So rather than force the issue, next Monday there will be no links because I will be in Brazil. And I understand that because most of this week’s links were collected while I was in the midst of the rather insular experience of the Craft Brewers Conference they might look different in bright sunlight.

Gonzofest literary contest winner: The Great American Smoker.
Larry Bell said Monday he’s not sure when he last missed a Chicago Cubs’ home opener (which was Monday), but he thought it was important to be at CBC even though the company hums along fine with a minimum of intervention on his part. There are a lot more parties at CBC (and the Great American Beer Festival) these days, bigger, sometimes more lavish, more everything. Well, maybe not more fun. [Via Leo Weekly]

Read more

Monday beer links: ‘Nonsense; unrelenting nonsense’

MONDAY BEER AND WINE LINKS, MUSING, 04.10.17

FRESHNESS: Can we stop?
“Except it is nonsense; unrelenting nonsense. Suddenly we’re drinking beers unprepared, unconditioned and unfit for consumption. And we’re lapping it up; exclaiming the virtues of de-malted hop water as if the Ancient Babylonians had it wrong from the beginning. It is as though beer only needed one added ingredient aside from water – those green leafy cones – and that the fermentation stage was never an added necessity. Alcoholic leaves became the future of beer; as if yellow bananas were now no good and the bitter skin tasting unripened green variety were preferable.” [Via Beer Compurgation]

In Praise of Budweiser.
This is not click bait. “I didn’t want to be challenged, I didn’t want to prove my craft credentials and feel worthy of drinking a beer, I didn’t want to wrap my head round a muddle of flavours and aromas that may or may not have been intentional. I wanted a lager that was expertly brewed, technically solid, and through which quality brewing science shone, and this was that beer in that moment.” [Via Fuggled]

Read more

Session #122: The a, b and c of imported beers

The SessionWhat timing, given that it’s National Beer Day, one of those holidays that certainly snuck up on me but I think is designed to celebrate American brewed beer. Yet the topic for The Session this month is “Views on imported beer” and host Christopher Barnes puts forth this question: “What place do imported beers (traditional European) have in a craft beer market?” (Drop by his blog for other answers.)

Barnes has eliminated the best selling imports by process of parenthesis, which simplifies the question of why consumers might choose traditional Europeans beers. The three best reasons that come to mind are: a) cachet, b) quality, and c) education. They are not exclusive.

Otherwise, I recommend reading a very long feature on Shelton Brothers beer importers in the April issue of Beer Advocate magazine. The beers they’ve brought to the United States certainly tick a, b and c.

*****

Just for fun, a quick quiz. What company first imported Duvel and when?

Significant beer digits iv

Hells Gate BreweryThe rate at which exotic, artisanal, expensive beer sales are growing may have slowed, but it’s not clear when brewery openings may. Bart Watson’s string of tweets Monday made that clear, beginning with this: “The new TTB license data has all sorts of jaw dropping stats. Take NY – now has 420 licenses (#3 in absolute terms), more than US until ’93.”

Licenses do not always translate into operating breweries (of course). The final 2016 numbers are not in, but in 2015 there were 208 craft breweries in New York and they brewed 1,086,718 barrels. Folding in production at Genesse/North American breweries triples the total, but it still doesn’t match production almost 140 years ago. In 1879 New York’s 365 breweries produced 3,980,716 barrels. At the time the state had a population of not quite 2 million; now it has 20 million residents.

George Ehret’s Hell Gate Brewery in New York City was the largest brewery in the country in 1879, selling 180,152 barrels. Missouri and Wisconsin would soon become brewing centers, but at the time New York ruled.

In fact, New York City breweries produced more beer than any other state, with 78 breweries making 1,894,668 barrels, and 45 Brooklyn breweries 544,896 more barrels. NYC had 13 breweries that sold more than 50,000 barrels and an additional 21 that brewed at least 20,000.