Thank you, KC Bier Meisters

We ventured across Missouri this past weekend, where I spent most of my time in the company of the Kansas City Bier Meisters, judging beer, talking about beer, drinking beer, talking excessively about beer, speaking at the awards banquet for their 29th Annual Homebrew Competition (making it older than all but a few American breweries), and talking obsessively about beer.

I didn’t take pictures (other than one of Twitter star Jeremy Danner, a.k.a. “Cookie Bottom”). I didn’t take notes. I did have a great time, and, of course, I learned more about beer. New Beer Rule #9 remains in force.

More practically, I discovered a few things I need to state more clearly when speaking, or writing, about hops. The manuscript it nearly done, but some parts will read different at the end of today than they did Friday. So readers of “For the Love of Hops” will also owe a thanks to the Kansas City Bier Meisters.

Brewery closings: no trend here folks

Nine hundred and five breweries closed between 2000 and 2010, an average of a little over 82 a year. The numbers for 2011 aren’t in yet, so I couldn’t include them. Closings ran higher in the front half of those years, but in even the best of them, other than 2010, a brewery closed at least once a week.

So I’m bumfuzzled why my feed reader is full of stories, actually the same story modified here and there, implying that six breweries closing so far this year could be the start of a trend. Hey, maybe 2012 is going to turn out to be a terrible year for small breweries, but it won’t be because these six breweries closed. (To be clear, I feel bad for the owners, investors and the poor souls who worked at these places. Mostly the people who worked there.)

I can’t tell you how much beer the breweries that closed sold last year. Those numbers are not available yet, but take a look at the 2010 sales listed below. Except for Buckbean, which did not report its production to the Brewers Association (and that might tell us something), so I had to go with 2009.

Bavarian Barbarian Brewing          350
Buckbean Brewing 1,050 (2009)
Airdale Brewing 450 (under contract)
Kelley Brothers Brewing 77
Bee Creek Brewing 250
The Local Pub & Brewery Opened in 2011

So let’s say that 80 breweries end up closing during 2012 and that they previously produced an average of 750 barrels a year — a number pretty much made up, I admit. So that’s what? 60,000 barrels out of the system. I’m pretty sure that Deschutes Brewery alone will grow that much in 2012.

#60 in the books; getting local for Session #61

The SessionThe Session #60, Let’s Talk Growlers, is in the record books.

Now we begin Year Six of The Session in Indiana. (Year Six, meaning we started five years ago. Pretty amazing. “What Goes Around… Comes Around” was atop the music charts.)

Hoosier Beer Geek Matt Robinson asks we consider this question over beer: What makes local beer better?

Of course I think this is a good idea. www.drinklocalbeer.com is one of those stray URLs I’ve given a home (don’t bother with the link, it brings you to the Appellation Beer front page). So to Matt’s marching orders:

We are hosting the March edition of the session. The topic I’ve been thinking about is local beer. The term is being used by just about every craft brewer in the country. What does it really mean though? Is it more of a marketing term or is there substance behind the moniker? This month I want to think about what makes local beer better? I’m not just talking about the beer itself, although it’s the focal point, but what makes local beer better? My connection to local beer is far from thinking that my beer is actually “local.” Maybe you don’t agree with me, and you can write about that. Bonus points for writing about your favorite local beer and the settings around it being local to you.

I just realized that last year for the March Session we visited Urban Chestnut Brewing in St. Louis. It wasn’t local then. We were still paying property taxes in New Mexico. Perhaps I should hum “What Goes Around… Comes Around.” If I only knew the tune. The fact is, though, there are two breweries closer to our house than UCB, and in addition three breweries opened in the months after UCB. Local has taken on new meaning in St. Louis.

Ready for beer in a carton?

Beer in a cartonOK, I’m probably just out of it. This may have already been discussed to death on various beer forums. Perhaps under Innovation, as in “Is this more are less innovative than Green IPA for St. Patrick’s Day?”

Anyway, opening Ale Street News today I sure was surprised to see a full page advertisement for take home beer cartons.

Nothing much at the Crafty Carton website right now (don’t bother with the “how it works” link; I tried), but apparently there will be March 20.

Ale Street has partnered with British ex-pat Luke Dolby to create Crafty Carton, so there is a story in the brewspaper. “The take-home disposable carton has been part of the British pub for over 20 years and I always feel proud when I see one of our cartons on sale there,” Dolby says for the story.

So think of it as a cardboard growler that holds 32 ounces.

Oh, and the advertisement indicates it is bio-degradable and recycalable.

FYI, ‘Hops drops’ contain no hops

Did every local television station get the same marching orders this past weekend? Super Bowl: Go find a beer story.

In Cleveland it was about Mickie Reinhart, who has come up with seven flavors of “hops drops,” liquid additives intended to be used in light lagers. The varieties include chocolate and coffee, as opposed to ones, say “tangerine” or “lychee fruit,” that have drinkers and brewers talking about new “flavor” hops.

Reinhart’s not trying to fool anybody that the drops will turn cheap beer into something it’s not. “These are really good for thin, watery tasting beer,” she said.

Anyway, a few Monday morning links, all from England, nothing about Super Bowl commercials.

* Will Hawkes profiles Eddie Gadds of Gadds’ brewery, who sounds like a poet describing his favorite hop, which happens to be his local hop, East Kent Golding: “When you smell them, you know there is a class about them. They’re not particularly pungent, mores the pity – they’re pretty bloody shy. It’s very difficult to find really good ones and it’s even harder to get the flavour out of them. But if you can do it, it’s great.”

* Simon Johnson has assembled his Craft Beer Manifesto in one spot, after first “releasing” it one Tweet at a time. Use only barley that’s been warmed by the breath of kindly owls. Brilliant.

* Zak Avery poses a question for the ages: “What is a brewer?”