Month: May 2010

Written by Martyn Cornell for Zythophile.wordpress.com

Silly joke: but the fact that even someone with my limited Photoshop skills can knock up an unkind photospoof of AB Inbev’s new “entry level” four per cent alcohol lager for the British market, Bud 66, in 15 minutes suggests the company’s marketing department didn’t think hard enough about the branding. And my apologies to Stuart MacFarlane, AB Inbev’s UK president: his skin’s not really that colour. (The horns, though …)

The most interesting fact about Bud 66 is not the mockable name, however, nor the fact that you and I, dear reader, won’t like it (since the maker describes it as a “lightly carbonated lager” brewed with a “touch of sweetness for a smooth easy taste” and “targeted at the early 20s market”, which translates as “fizzy, over-sugary and bland, and designed for people we think don’t know anything about beer” – if I were in my early 20s I’d be extremely insulted that InBev thinks this is the sort of stuff I’d like to drink.)

Nor is it the way that the company attempts to present blatantly copying Beck’s Vier and Stella Artois 4% as “another example of innovation by AB InBev”. Rather, it’s that InBev feels it has to enter this category with Bud at all, with MacFarlane describing the launch as InBev’s “most important business action in 2010.”

Continue reading “Bud 66… 6?”

Written by Chris Ballard for Blogcritics.org

I regret to inform the wine drinkers of the world that your drink is not the one of sophistication! Beer is the beverage of sophistication, as it has always been. The reasons for this astounding conclusion abound, some of which will be laid out in this article.

First a definition. Sophistication: change from the natural character or simplicity, or the resulting condition; complexity, as in design or organization.

Beer is more complex.

There are more ingredients in a bottle of beer than a glass of wine. This creates a more complex flavor with each drink of beer than of wine. Wine primarily consists of two ingredients, grapes and yeast (for fermentation). Beer, on the other hand, consists of several base ingredients such as barley, hops, yeast, and water. Beyond this the list of ingredients is limited only by the brewer’s imagination.

There is a greater range of color available within the world of beer than that of wine. This is extremely important because humans rely on visual stimuli to rate quality and perceived taste. This is why beer should always be poured into a glass, rather than consumed from a bottle.

Beer color ranges from a pale straw to black, with a myriad of colors in between. In the U.S. we have a scale for these colors, the SRM (Standard Reference Method). Pale straw starts the scale at a 2, with black rounding out the scale with a 40+.

Continue reading “Beer is More Sophisticated Than Wine”

“…an article from the current “Pensacola Magazine” publication on our Homebrew Club. There are a few(?) miss-quotes/mistakes buy it was a pretty good article overall.”

-Pat Johnson

Written by Emily Lullo

After a long day of work stretches into the evening, you yearn to rest your aching body and quench your thirst for both a refreshing beverage and some much-deserved relaxation. You’re probably tempted to stop by a local pub or to grab a six pack of your favorite brew on your drive home. That icy, bubbly beer of choice tastes like heaven—a refreshingly chilled delight to your palate, and the perfect accompaniment to anything from a pepperoni pizza to a perfectly grilled steak.

If you’re a member of one of Pensacola’s coolest clubs—the Escambia Bay Homebrewers Association—then that trip to the pub or store won’t be necessary to partake in the hallowed tradition of an ice cold brew at the end of the day.
The club was formed in the spring of 1985, with the mission to share the art of making quality beer and wine with the community, and also to engender an appreciation of fine microbrewed and imported beers.
Continue reading “Escambia Bay Brewers: From Pensacola Magazine”

Ken Carman is a BJCP judge; homebrewer since 1979, club member at Escambia Bay and Music City Homebrewers, who has been interviewing professional brewers all over the east coast for over 10 years.

Written by Ken Carman

I dedicate this column to Drew Patterson who introduced me to Sergio’s. That’s Drew with the beard, watching a beer being poured. Drew passed on May 17th. He will be missed more than he, or even his wife Vickie, ever imagined.

A Review: Sergio’s World Beers

1605 Story Avenue
Louisville, KY 40206
(502) 618-2337
 

Continue reading “Brew Biz: Werts and All”

From H.S. Corran’s “A History of Brewing”

Because beer is a living thing, made from living ingredients by changing people in a changing world, it evolves. Often the explanation is “a change in public taste,” but that is always an inadequate answer. The real reasons for evolution in brewing are always complex, usually a mixture of history, economics, sociology, technology and, finally, the expectations of the drinking public.
Continue reading “Black Patent Malt and the Evolution of Porter”

Anne Ryan for The Wall Street JournalChicago’s Metropolitan Brewing, founded by Tracy and Doug Hurst, began selling its lagers this winter.

Written by David Kesmodel for The WSJ

The economic crisis has stifled entrepreneurial activity in many industries. But it’s done little to dent the ambitions of those who dream of brewing their own beer and offering it to the world.

Surprisingly large numbers of entrepreneurs — some let go from corporate jobs in recent years — have been starting microbreweries or brewpubs. Schools that teach brewing are being showered with applications from people interested in getting into the business. At the same time, enthusiasm for interesting new beers remains strong; BeerAdvocate.com, a Web site for beer enthusiasts, says its traffic has reached one million unique visitors a month, and is rising as much as 12% each month.

Last year, even as a recession gripped the country, 114 microbreweries and brewpubs — restaurants that make their own beer — opened in the U.S., according to the Brewers Association, a Boulder, Colo., trade group. That marked the highest number since 1999. Openings are expected to decline this year, but start-up activity remains robust, says Paul Gatza, director of the Brewers Association. The group estimates 200 microbreweries and brewpubs already are on the drawing board for the next few years.
Continue reading “In Lean Times, a Stout Dream”

Reported by Ken Carman for Professor Goodales

With help from grizzlygrowler.com

There are fund raisers.

There are beer fund raisers.

Then there are great: innovative, fund raisers. Hence: the Grizzly Growler Tree.

Everyone likes to leave their fav brewpub or small micro serving room with a grwoler of their fav beer, right? Well eat your hearts out, Montana quaffers: Christian Claeys won The Growler Tree… a tree with growlers from most of Montana’s brewpubs planted on the tree’s limb like shelves at the Myrna Theater in Helena, Montana. Now he gets to travel around and fill those growlers.

One unfortunate note: no where could the writer find what the fund raiser was for. One would think this might be important.

If only those of us without kids could replace our Christmas trees and Santa delivered…

Word of warning: best not try to fill and personally empty them all in one day, Christian: this is an experience best savored over time!

Written by Martyn Cornell for Zythophile.wordpress.com

No they weren’t, and nor were there ever any petitions against hops to Parliament, nor were any general bans on brewers using hops made by Henry VIII, Parliament, the mayors and corporations of Coventry or Norwich, or anybody else.

What did happen was that at different times and in different places between approximately 1440 and 1540 attempts were made to maintain the distinction between (unhopped) ale, the only malted cereal drink made in England before the last quarter of the 14th century, and beer, the hopped malted cereal drink brought into this country by immigrants from the Low Countries and Germany. Various authorities thus forbad the ale brewers – who remained an entirely separate group of men and women from the beer brewers until at least the reign of James I in the 17th century – from putting hops into their ale. Beer brewers, however, were allowed to hop away.
Continue reading “Another Hop Myth”

LOUISVILLE, KY (MAY 13, 2010) – Celebrate the Top of the Hops Louisville Beer Festival on Saturday, June 19 from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. at the Kentucky International Convention Center in Exhibit Hall 1AB. Top of the Hops has included Louisville on its list of cities for its inaugural craft beer tour.

Continue reading “Top of the Hops Brings Beer to Louisville”