Monday morning musing: Got a beer question?

Wednesday I am off to the Craft Brewers Conference in San Diego.

Yes, this involves drinking beer. It also involves a lot of asking questions. In my case many will be wheat related, since I’m starting work on the previously mentioned book for Brewers Publications.

But if you were going and could ask craft brewers or brewing industry suppliers a question (or questions) what would you ask?

Here’s the lineup of speakers and topics.

The week begins with judging for the World Beer Cup, with awards handed out Saturday. That means brewers from around the world will be on hand to judge.

Feel free to use comments or email the question(s).

– The St. Louis Post-Distpatch visits “extreme beers,” mostly locally produced and including the area’s micros as well as brewing giant Anheuser-Busch.

Great quote from Pat McGauley, vice president innovation, who is talking specifically about A-B’s 8% blueberry lager but makes what’s really a general observation.

“It lives in a much different world than most of the beers we deal with.”

The Session #15 announced: How did it all start for you?

The SessionHosts Boak & Bailey have announced the theme for the next Session: How did it all start for you?

Continuing the “Beervangelism” theme, we’d like you to write about the moment when you saw the light. At what point did you realise you were a beer lover/geek/enthusiast? What beer(s) triggered the conversion? Did someone help you along your way, or did you come to it yourself?

In short; how did you get into good beer?

If you’re not familiar with The Session, it’s a beer blogosphere gathering where bloggers all over the world drink and write about beer based on a theme, and then post their thoughts on a designated Friday. In this case May 2.

All participants are welcome. See Boak & Bailey for details.

Drink vicariously through Twitter

Yesterday I mentioned Luke Nicholas’ Twitter feed.

(What’s Twitter? This is a good way to found out.)

Luke, a New Zealander who brews Epic Ale, landed in San Francisco on Thursday and I can’t count how many beers he’s had since. As I type he’s working his way through the lineup at Russian River Brewing in Sonoma. He reports the brewpub is out of Pliny the Elder “because we drank it all at Toronado.”

Luke’s on the way to San Diego, where he’ll be judging in the World Beer Cup. How much fun would it be to read his tweets from there? I don’t expect the Brewers Association would permit that.

Ready to settle down with one beer?

Research commissioned by UK brewer Greene King found “35 is the age at which British men typically settle on their ‘usual.’ ”

So I guess I’m a little slow. I don’t even have a “usual” style.

On the other hand perhaps I’m precocious, because “they trial an average of seven different brands before developing a loyalty to their favourite beer.” Only seven beers? Check out Luke Nicholas’ Twitter feed from last night. (And he’s from New Zealand.)

Obviously some across-the-pond cultural differences here. Nonetheless, more from the survey:

– One in five men try up to 14 different kinds of beer before settling on their favorite, and that is determined “on quality and taste above all other factors – including price, brand, strength and peer pressure from friends.”

– Peer pressure? Twenty-nine percent of those 18 to 24 order the same beer as their friends. Just 7% of men over the age of 35 are similarly influenced.

– While men in London are the most likely to rate quality as the key factor in their beer preferences, Londoners are also most influenced in their choice of beer by their mates (16%), and men in Yorkshire the least (4%).

More hops! More hops! More hops!

The Associated Press has good news for us:

Some Yakima Valley hop growers are pulling other crops to plant the beer-flavoring ingredient and planting new acreage in response to a worldwide shortage that caught everyone – brewers, dealers and growers – by surprise.

This story makes me giddy.

Growers are feverishly reconditioning yards and adding new land at an unheard-of pace. Growers are receiving multiple-year contracts with prices front-loaded to help them shoulder the estimated $6,000-per-acre cost to plant yards and also upgrade equipment.

The story further reports that hops acreage expanded about 2,000 acres at the end of 2007 and could grow by another 5,000 this year. Ralph Olson of Hopunion thinks the figure could be closer to 8,000 acres, which would be a 25% jump in acreage.

“It’s basic economics,” said Ann George of the Washington Hop Commission. “When everyone started making orders, we found we had a shortage. The price went crazy. People are willing to spend large sums.”

And she correctly points out that prices will abate (which doesn’t have to mean they will plummet to the ridiculously low prices of recent years) when supply equals demand.

“The big challenge is finding the perfect balance. How do we hit that and keep the brewers happy and not go into oversupply?” she said.