Professor Good Ales

Tom Dalldorf for Celebrator

Alaskans are a sturdy bunch. Independent and resourceful, they are in survival mode for much of their existence in the wilds of the Last Frontier. Included in “travel gear” are water, blankets, Spam or jerky and a good supply of duct tape (called 100-mile-an-hour tape). Downtown Anchorage is a bit more civilized, with modern hotels, shops, restaurants and pubs. Scattered around the biggest state in the U.S. (with one of the smallest populations) are an impressive collection of breweries and brewpubs (more per capita than any other state?) catering to the eclectic tastes of its hearty inhabitants.

Once a year, during the dead of winter (the summer is far too busy for such foolishness), the Alaskan brewers and beer fans converge on the “big city” of Anchorage for the annual Great Alaska Beer & Barley Wine Festival. Traveling 300 to 800 miles to a beer fest is a challenge for most brewers and beer geeks, but in Alaska it means over roads that can be covered in snow, with temps plunging to –30ºF. For this year’s festival, the weather was milder, with highs in the upper 20s and lows in the teens — a regular heat wave for those rugged inhabitants.

Aurora Productions did another superb job of organizing a great beer show. Fest founder Billy Opinsky of Humpy’s Alehouse did yeoman’s work in bringing the best Alaskan beers together, along with excellent offerings from the Pacific Northwest and beyond in the Lower 48. Classic European beers were also available to provide a truly excellent cross section of great beer for interested Alaskan beer lovers, and an inspiration to local brewers and homebrewers alike.

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No, that’s not the Blob that ate the brewer. A mixture of diatomaceous earth and yeast. DE is used for filtering. Picture from Wiki Commons

Written by Brad Smith for Beer Smith

Note: Professor GA does not recommend washing and reusing yeast that you bought in a dried form. Drying yeast stresses it. Best start with a new yeast if it was dried.

Washing yeast to reuse it in another batch of beer is a great technique to have in your home brewing arsenal. Yeast washing is a simple process used to separate the live yeast from the underlying trub (hops and spent grains) left at the bottom of your fermenter when making beer.

Continue reading “The Technical Edge: Washing Your Yeast”

Topic for this edition of Brew Biz: Worst Beer Ever

Written by Ken Carman

So many bad beers. So much wasted time. So many times my taste buds have been offended.
Continue reading “Brew Biz: Werts and All”

Courtesy Statemaster.com. Stamp commemorating the 1923 beer-related coup event issued years later.

Reported by Ken Carman for professorgoodales.org

Stories abound of stupid things done while visiting your local pub, bar or beer hall. Sometimes things can get strange like patrons passing an obnoxious drunk over their heads on Saint Patty’s Day and tossing him out the door, or drunk streakers who do more stumbling and less streak-ing. But one of the most famous events surrounds a soon to be a lot more famous fellow named Adolf Hitler. If only this event had been the high point of his political career because, if not for those who died, in places it reads a little more like the Stooges than a serious attempt by a world conquer wanna be, mass murderer.

Continue reading “Beer History: Hitler and Beer”

This image shows malt samples milled with a 0.65 mm (26 mil) mill gap. The left hand sample has been conditioned and the right hand sample has been milled dry. The conditioned malt’s volume is about 30% larger than the dry milled malt’s volume.

Conditioning you malt helps you to lessen the crush you use and access the fermentables. Another site recommends you can actually increase your crush.

Here are a few links to start your exploration.

Link 1

Link 2

A cold brew has high levels of dietary silicon, analysis shows.

Picture source: Kirsty Wigglesworth for AP

While researchers don’t recommend gulping beer to meet your silicon intake needs, a new study shows the potential health benefits of a cold brew.

Written by Jeanna Bryner for msnbc.com

(With National Hop Day approaching, note the silicon levels on IPA- Prof GA)
Continue reading “Beer May Be Good for Your Bones”

(Prof. GA wonders, if Bragdy is still brewing, how it compares with the nanobreweries. See previous article. This post may qualify as mostly a “historic marker.” The end of this article there’s a comment regarding whether they are still brewing.)

(Source: Stanzapub.com)

From various sources: as noted.
Continue reading “Is this Still the World’s Smallest Commercial Brewery?”

From various sources; as noted.
Continue reading “Cuvee De Ranke and Kriek De Ranke”