New Beer Rule #8: More beer, less analysis

NEW BEER RULE #8: Always take beer more seriously than yourself.

This needs little explanation.

But to be clear, this is a beer rule. Not a life or work rule. The alternative version goes like this: Ask yourself if it’s the beer you are taking too seriously or yourself.

The rule popped into my mind not long after I hurriedly posted my Thursday morning musing, so here are those links again and one to a discussion that followed.

– Over Analysis Syndrome (from brewer Matt Van Wyk)
– Armchair Brewer Syndrome (from brewvana)
– Drinking the same beer way too long (from The Beer Mapping Project)
– Rating Beer Raters? (Rate Beer discussion – Matt must still be amazed what he wandered into)

You connect the dots.

How expensive are hops? They’re on eBay

Samuel Adams hops sampleWe should have seen this coming. The “hops crisis” has reached the point that hops are up for sale on eBay.

Forget the bottles of Stone Epic Vertical and Lost Abbey Angel’s Share. Now you can buy the pure stuff. Just rip open the package and stick your nose in (somewhat like the drawing on the package).

Dump the hops into your beer. OK, that might not be such a good idea.

Granted, these promotional packages from Boston Beer won’t take you far. One weighs about 4 grams (and that includes the packaging). But think of it like gold &#151 the price is only going up.

Don Russell (Joe Sixpack) had a terrific column last week in which Dan Weirback of Weyerbacher Brewing in Pennsylvania talked specifically about how much more he is paying for hops and what it means for prices. Double Simcoe IPA (the No. 2 rated beer in the NY Times “extreme” tasting) will cost $15-$18 per case more.

It’s scary out there right now.

I got a look at latest prices on a one-page price sheet from GW Kent (dated Dec. 20) when I stopped in at a local brewery. A 44-pound box of German Hallertau Select is selling for $440, or $11 a pound. Not bad, until you notice the alpha acids on this delicate hop are just 1.5%. That’s not going to add much bitterness.

This provides a graphic illustration that it’s really a worldwide alpha shortage driving up hop prices. Not alpha that is going into niche beers like Double Imperial IPAs but into the millions of gallons of industrial pale lagers with just enough bitterness to balance any malt sweetness.

The giant brewing companies making those beers shop for “kilograms of alpha.” In November the going price was about 600 euros per kg of alpha. If my math is correct, the prices on this sheet are more like 870 euros per kg. Doesn’t seem we’re headed in the right direction.

Hallertau Mittelfrueh (which is in the Samuel Adams package) costs $1,144 for a 44-pound box (4.5% alpha), while Hallertau Tradition has a little more pop (5.5% alpha) and costs $1,276.

Disclaimer: I received one of these packages in a press kit. Words on the back support the notion “Hops are to beer what grapes are to wine,” discuss the hopping levels of Boston Lager versus industrial beers and promote “noble” hops.

But I particularly like a warning on the front that hops “are NOT intended for ingestion. So please smell, do not eat.”

The package is going on a shelf with Daria’s collection of Prohibition-era hop boxes, many of which still contain hops about three quarters of a century old (none of which we are tempted to sample).

Thursday morning musing: Take the quiz

One quick link this morning if you want to see just where your priorities lie.

Matt Van Wyk of Flossmoor Station Restaurant & Brewery assembled a quick quiz. A couple of his questions:

4) Did you lose a friend this year because you said SNPA was so yesterday?

5) Do you only drink a beer once and then move on to the next one?

Plenty to read if you follow the link to brewvana that provoked his post and a similar conversation at The Beer Mapping Project (be sure to scroll down to Matt’s comments for another giggle).

Perhaps I’ll have some thoughtful musing about this later, but I’ve already used up my thinking-about-beer time for the morning. Priorities are priorities, right Matt?

I’d rather have a beer with Dennis Kucinich

Clinton vs. ObamaNot only do I not care if my beer is hip, but I also will not cast my vote for president (in the primary or general election) based upon which candidate I would rather have a beer with.

That’s just a dumb idea.

Obviously the National Beer Wholesalers Association leadership wasn’t thinking of me when they came up with an online poll that lets you vote on who you would most like to have a beer with.

Apparently George Bush was that guy in 2000. Don’t people know he doesn’t drink?

So today we’ve got this story in the San Francisco Chronicle about how Barack Obama needs a good turnout among wine drinkers to have a chance of winning the California Democratic primary.

The big showdown between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama could come down to California’s “beer-drinking Democrats” versus its “wine and cheese” liberals – with the Bay Area playing a pivotal role in the outcome.

Pollster Mark DiCamillo, who has been taking the state’s political pulse for 30 years, describes the beer vote as mostly blue-collar workers, the elderly and ethnic Democrats, especially Latinos, in the Los Angeles area and rural parts of the state.

The more liberal, more educated, wine-and-cheese crowd congregates here in the Bay Area, where more than a quarter of the ballots will be cast in the Democratic primary Feb. 5, he says.

And as DiCamillo sees it, the blue-collar group likes Clinton and the wine-and-cheesers go more for Obama.

“If Obama has any chance of winning California, we should see it here in the Bay Area,” DiCamillo said. “And he’ll have to be winning here by double digits” – no easy task, considering the Clintons’ long popularity in the area.

So who’s leading the beer NBWA’s poll?

Obama.

Isn’t he supposed to be the wine guy?

But what about high-priced water?

Monday’s post about wine prices and perception caused Josh Mishell of Flying Dog Ales and BeerDinners.com to drop me a note about an episode of Penn & Teller’s Bullshit! (Showtime) featuring a “water steward” hawking high-priced bottled water — in bottles being filled from a garden hose out back.

Thanks, Josh.

Took all of 15 seconds to find it on YouTube.

The “beer steward” stuff starts about two minutes in.

So now we know beer drinkers are smarter than wine drinkers and water drinkers.