Going, going, gone . . . I hope not

Earlier this month at he Great American Beer Festival, Banded Oak Brewing collected a bronze medal in the Contemporary American-Style category with their Mexican lager. That may or may not seem appropriate, but that’s not what this short post is about. Banded Oak closed its doors in Denver in September, that is before the festival. They are moving to the suburbs and into a restaurant that is also a bowling establishment and a bike shop.

In a story posted before the brewery closed, founder Will Curtin said the brewing landscape has changed significantly over the years, and believes that the traditional “garage brewery” model may be waning.

“I think sort of the age of a garage brewery is sort of, if not gone, going,” he said.

I hope that’s not true, because when I read that I thought immediately of a conversation with the late Greg Noonan, the pioneering founder of the Vermont Pub and Brewery.

“When the homebrewers stop entering the profession, and the backyard breweries are squeezed out, then it will become stagnant. You gotta keep getting the guys who say, ‘Cool, I can sell the beer I make. I can do it,’ ” he said.

About change (and why I miss blogging circa 2009)

All aboard the Time Travel Machine, when civilized discussions occurred in blogs. We all learned something, and perhaps contributed to the conversation (in the comments).

– We don’t want Belgian beer to change – and that’s our problem

– They don’t want Belgian beer to change – and that’s their problem*

– I want Belgian beer to change – because it is a problem*
(From Facebook, scroll down for English version)

Multiple voices. Multiple views.

Counting bubbles

How many bubbles in this beer foam?

I recently wrote a story about beer foam for Brewing Industry Guide (“Foam Loves Hops (Except When It Doesn’t”). As happens, I had to leave a few darlings on the cutting room floor in order to have room for some key information. Such as, Dry hopping with Cascade pellets resulted in a near-linear decline in foam stability using the Nibem method, a standardized way of measuring foam stability over time.

This was one of those paragraphs:

There is more to monitoring beer foam than counting bubbles, although they are the foundation. They result from nucleation, and as those bubbles climb to first form or then replenish the foam head, proteins and bitter substances are carried into the bubble wall, forming a matrix that holds the skeleton together. In his doctoral thesis, “Beer Foam Physics,” A. D. Ronteltap calculated that a foam 3 centimeters high (a bit less than 2 fingers) in a glass 6 centimeters wide (a bit less than a Willi Becher) made up of bubbles with an initial radius of .2 mm (twice the width of a human hair) would contain 1.5 million bubbles distributed over about 100 layers.

What does it mean to grow ‘more’ hops?

Roadkill -- as seen during hop harvest in Oregon

Hop harvest has begun in Oregon (where I’ll be in two weeks). This is roadkill from a previous harvest.

Perhaps I will try to make “fun with numbers” a semi-regular Friday feature. We’ll see.

When I received an email last week declaring “Oregon Retakes No. 2 Spot for U.S. Hop Crop” I was en route to Argentina, so wasn’t inclined to do some necessary math. Several sites have since posted the information.

It is a fact that Oregon farmers strung 5,421 acres for harvest and Idaho 5,109. But . . .

Last year, average yield per acre was 1,732 in Oregon and 2,273 in Idaho. If yields are identical this year (they won’t be) then Oregon farmers will harvest 9,389,172 pounds of hops and Idaho farmers 11,612,757. In my mind, more pounds of hops trumps more acres.

This is not to say that the difference in yield will be as large this year. Idaho farmers will harvest far fewer acres of Helios this year (the USDA has withheld the numbers to avoid disclosing data for individual operations) and last year the average yield for Helios was 3,092.

Expect ad update in December, when the USDA posts final results of harvest.

Women’s sports bars, and maybe even brewery taprooms

Message on the entry door at Lady Justice Brewing in Englewood, Colorado.

The photo above is from the entrance of Lady Justice Brewing in Englewood, Colorado (think of it as Denver extended). They aren’t included in “The Rise of Women’s Sports Bars in the United States” by Ruvani de Silva, but they would fit in perfectly.

“Community, safety, inclusion and accessibility are at the core of the women’s sports bar ethos. ‘People are tired of not seeing themselves reflected in traditional sports bars,’ says Chelsea Fishman, owner of Atlanta’s recently opened Jolene Jolene. ‘Women’s sports bars are answering that call by creating inclusive, intentional spaces for fans who’ve always been here but haven’t always felt welcome.’”

Read more.

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