Session #98 announced: Cans or bottles?

The SessionHost Nathan Pierce has posted the topic for The Sessions #98: Cans or Bottles? It is pretty simply:

What’s your perspective?

Will you write from the consumer point of view? From which kind of packaging do you prefer to drink beer? Why do you prefer that packaging?

Will you write from a manufacturer perspective? How do you want your brand portrayed? Which packaging suits your beer best?

Will you write from a distributors perspective? Which packaging do you prefer to transport and stock at retail locations?

Hope to read what you have to say on April 3.

The ‘sweetening’ of American IPA

MONDAY BEER LINKS, MUSING 03.09.15

Last week I promised to find links related to actually drinking beer. Plenty to choose from if you pay a bit of attention.

No Man Loves Life Like Him That’s Growing Old.
“The back room and bar were heaving when we arrived and squeezed into the hatched snug on the right as you enter. It gives you a kind of railway tunnel view of proceedings. There was a geriatric karaoke in full swing. At the far end an oldish guy on an electronic music box was squeezing out old time tunes accompanied by even older types giving it laldy on the microphone.” [Via Tandleman’s Beer Blog]

Changing tastes of IPA.
“But after sinking my first half pint of Beavertown’s uber-fresh Bloody ‘Ell on its launch day, something crystallised in my mind immediately. US IPAs are very sweet.” And, “The more I reflect on the beers I had in DC last month, the more I realised that the majority of them had so much of that sickly barley sugar flavour in the background, in some cases it was almost overwhelming the hops despite the beers being fresh.”

I’m not sure everybody would describe such beers as sweet, but myself I share the anti-crystal bias. And I think back to 2006 and Vinnie Cilurzo talking about when the Russian River Brewing production facility would come on line. He said that anybody who worked for him must “understand the beers are defined and have our signature. They must be bone dry – that can’t change. The new brewer suggests adding crystal, ‘You’re fired!'” That was before fruit-forward hops such as Citra, Mosaic and El Dorado hops were available. Alone they don’t have to make a beer sweet, but couple them with a bit too much crystal and a lack of firm bitterness and you get sweet. However, that’s only some American IPAs. Not La Cumbre Brewing Elevated IPA, Fat Heads Head Hunter, Firestone Walker Union Jack, Russian River Blind Pig, Schlafly AIPA, Half Acre Senit. The list of firmly bitter beers is pretty long. [Via Crema’s Beer Odyssey, h/T Boak & Bailey]

The beer that changed my life.
“The golden liquid was strangely bitter to my inexperienced palate, but there was a rich sweetness to it as well. The taste grew on me, litre by litre, until by the end of the trip I was a lager drinker. I remember carrying ten bottles home in my luggage.” [Via I might have a glass of beer]

Up and coming beer destinations?
Lars Marius Garshol picks Vilnius. “To most people, farmhouse ale is the same as saison and biere de garde. Two hours in Vilnius is enough to destroy that illusion for ever. Uniquely in the world, apart from Belgium, Lithuania has not just preserved its ancient farmhouse brewing culture, but managed to commercialize it. There are at least 15 breweries in Lithuania brewing beers that are either real farmhouse ale in the Lithuanian tradition, or to some degree commercialized versions of farmhouse ale.” [Via larsblog]

The Craft Beer Series.
“I’m stuck in two beer series right now: Bell’s Planetary series and Victory’s Moving Parts. When a new component of either series pops up on the shelf, I buy it. Neither series is wowing me in the way Lilyhammer did in the beginning of season 2 with its pop cultural references (Animal House, Godfather). Neither series has me wondering how it will all wrap up in the end as we debated Breaking Bad’s conclusion (we knew, though, that Walter White would go down in a glorious manner; we just didn’t know how). Still, I can’t quit the series. I’ve started it. I’m a part of it. I have to see it through.” [Make Mine Potato]

An Overflowing River Of New York Beer.
“I had 15 beers across 12 breweries in three different NY beer bars and one bottle shop. I had beers from big breweries, small breweries, new breweries and old(er) breweries.” {Via BeerGraphs]

Luck of the draw.
“Definitely a mixed bag, then. Proof that raffles are not the ideal way to source new beers.” [Via The Beer Nut]

Session #97: Farms and farmhouse beers

The SessionHost Brett Domue of Our Tasty Travels has asked contributors to write about “Up-and-Coming Beer Locations” for The Session 97. The challenge here is that so many destinations seem like they recently up and came. After all, Beer Advocate magazine is coming up on its 100th issue and it features a different beer destination, presumably one that has arrived, each month. Pretty soon I expect they’ll be focusing on neighborhoods instead of entire cities.

So instead of a single destination I’m going to suggest that rural breweries are “up and coming.” They might be in farmhouses or barns, but not necessarily. They might brew what are called farmhouse ales and they might not. They might be the sort of place you could get lost trying to find after you hear the dreaded “GPS signal lost” message. And they definitely reflect their environment.

A few days ago Food Republic tackled the notion of “Deciphering Craft Beer Terminology: Farmhouse Vs. Farm Brewing.” I guess that matters if you are standing in a store looking at a bottle and wondering what to expect the beer inside to taste like based on a bit of information on the label. Visiting these places eliminates the guesswork. And makes the beer taste better, because it isn’t always a matter of what’s in the glass.

I’d like to think that I’ll visit lots more of these in the coming months, because many are using local ingredients that will be part of “Indigenous Beer: American Grown.” Realistically, I’ll get to some, and I already know the next one. To give you an idea of what I’m talking about here are five of interest.

Tap handle at Jester King Brewing

Jester King Brewery is featured in the Food Republic story. Almost two million people live in the Austin area, so this it not exactly out of the way compared to the next two breweries, but it far enough from town to shift gears.

Patio at Scratch Brewing

Scratch Brewing in southern Illinois — it is as cool as it looks in this video. Stick around for the discussion of Paw Paws. The brewery is located on the edge of several acres of woods, the beers made with both foraged and cultivated ingredients, many of the latter grown beside the brewery.

Piney River Brewing - inside the barn

When you get to the sign that says something about a gravel road two miles ahead you know you are getting close to Piney River Brewing, about an hour south of Rolla, Mo. The brewery is located in a refurbished barn (I posted a picture of the outside a few weeks ago). “Farmhouse ales” are not part of the regular lineup, but some beers are made with local ingredients. They are celebrating their fourth anniversary tomorrow, should you be in a mood to drive on a few gravel roads.

Dave Logsdon, Logsdon Farmhouse Ales

Dave Logsdon (above) and Charles Porter brew Logsdon Farmhouse Ales in the barn on Logsdon’s 10-acre Oregon farm where he started Wyeast (which he sold in 2009). The farm is about a 20-minute drive south of Hood River, where Logsdon will open a tasting room in May. There are cherry trees, friendly animals and a splendid view of Mount Hood.

Dave's BrewFarm, the brewery system

Dave’s BrewFarm in Wisconsin, about an hour east of the Twin Cities, is still for sale. For a half million dollars you get this seven-barrel brewing system, a 10-gallon pilot system, a house to live in, a 35-acre farm (most of it to be rented to local farmers), a half-acre vegetable garden that could be expanded, a 20kW wind generator (as well as geothermal for heating and cooling), a pole barn and greenhouse. And very nice views. Dave Anderson and wife open the tasting room, basically inside the brewery and below the living area, about twice a month. His beers include some with ingredients from the garden and some with yeast sourced from Belgium. “(It) expands what beer can be and maybe (is about) what it was,” Anderson said.

Time for truth in all things beer?

Ripped from today’s beer blog headlines:

Fakery and the Illusion of Variety.
Joe Stange sounds off:

“If you are a trained, experienced brewer who sometimes hires other breweries to make your recipe, you are not a brewer in the context of that beer. Sorry.

“That might sound petty. I prefer accurate. As an ongoing project I’m trying to connect the clearest meaning of those words — “brewer” and “brewery” — with a really simple public interest. Specialty beer is getting more attention these days, but more to the point: People just want to know from whence their food comes. Here is an idea — radical, I know — but why not put the place of manufacture on the label?”
Comment there

Great Story, Shame It’s Not True.
From Boak & Bailey: “Lots of pubs have fascinating stories attached to them but it’s a shame so few of them seem to be true.”
Comment there.

Next week, links about actually drinking beer

MONDAY BEER LINKS, MUSING 03.02.15

Organizing the links this week I figured out what was missing.

Making & selling beer

Inside The Ram Brewery.
Whoa! There’s a nanobrewery inside the Ram Brewery, the place where Young’s and Co, made beer 1831 and 2006. Here’s the tour: “We’re shown a set of cast iron grain hoppers, over a century old. These barley grains have sat in this chamber since the 1970s.” [Via Londonist, h/T Stonch]

Houston’s craft beer king opens up on staying relevant, the Sam Adams controversy and a greedy new wave.
A lengthy interview with Saint Arnold Brewing co-founder Brock Wagner delivers all that’s promised in the headline and more. Right up front, Wagner says, “We also don’t believe that our being here for 20 years is particularly relevant to the craft beer drinker.” I don’t know if it is a left brain/right brain thing, but he’s an MBA/homebrew enthusiast, so properly practical but with an appreciation for a business that makes it something beyond selling more beer than last year. [Via Culture Map]

Making diastatic brown malt.
This is Ed Wray’s contribution to Boak & Bailey’s call for #beerylongreads (the last round, for a while, at least). The others mostly appeal to a wider audience but I point to this one because it is authoritative. After I recommended Randy Mosher’s “Mastering Homebrew” I noticed a review at Amazon that concluded, “The advance brewer is likely to find a few things that s/he did not know but that can be found in web sources as well.” Not to come across as an author defending his turf (“You can’t trust what you read on the internet — buy the dang book”), but when you are following somebody else’s instructions on how to do something you really appreciate it when they are authoritative. Sorry, I don’t have a perfect way to sort out what is and is not. But this is. So there you have it. [Via Ed’s Beer Site]

Why Greene King doesn’t care that the haters hate its IPA.
A) This is how the beer market works. B) “A small rant directed at all those idiots who keep chuntering on about how Greene King IPA is ‘not an India Pale Ale’ and how IPA has to be ‘strong and strongly hopped’, so it would survive the long journey to the Indian sub continent, over 200 years ago. You don’t have a clue what you are talking about.” And C) 97 comments. [Via Zythophile]

Seminary students make beer-making part of daily work.
Brother Albert Marie Curtis, 21, is in charge of the brewing. “He learned from another brother for a year, then took over the operation himself. Since he’s nearing the end of his time at the seminary, he is now training two other brothers to brew.” [Via LaCrosse Tribune]

Growing beer

Michigan’s hops acres to double.
What does it mean when an investment group that typically invests in commercial real estate plan to start 400-acre hop farm? It’s happening in Michigan, which already had more acres of hops under trellis than any other state outside the hop-rich Northwest. “It’s all about economies of scale,” Jason Warren, president of the investment group, said. “If you’re going to do it in a meaningful way you have to set yourself up for this size of a farming operation.” Farmers in the Northwest do operate on a larger scale, but the approach for the revived hop industry elsewhere has been to follow the German model. There the average farm has 34 acres under trellis. [Via Traverse City Record-Eagle]

Brewer’s Choice, SMaSH Beers, and NY Agriculture.
In this case SMaSH stands for State Malt and State Hops. Here’s what the Farm Brewery license does: it that allows breweries to sell beer by the glass at their own facility and elsewhere, including farmers markets. To qualify for the permit at least 20 percent of the hops and 20 percent of all other ingredients a brewery uses must be grown or produced in New York State. That percentage increases to 60 percent in 2018 and 90 percent in 2024. Those are going to be tough numbers to reach. [Via BeerGraphs]

R.I.P. Acadian Farms & Brewery has Closed.
But you can own it for $275,000, one-barrel brewing system included. [Via The New School]

Writing about beer

“Click Bait!” Not Really Code For Good Beer Criticism.
And don’t miss the Pete Brown’s comment. Having watched this from a distance for several days I have concluded I have nothing to add. [Via a Good Beer Blog]