Month: June 2012

ALBANY, N.Y. — New York brewmeisters can celebrate with some Saranac beer brewed in the foothills of the Adirondacks or Brooklyn’s Monster Ale now that state officials have found a way to restore a tax break for craft beer brewers.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the state Legislature not only restored a per-gallon tax exemption eliminated by a lawsuit from a rival Massachusetts brewer, but New York is increasing its bet on an industry that’s flourishing despite a slow overall economic recovery. The package of laws announced Wednesday will even allow farmers to sell craft beer at farmers’ markets.

“This legislation will give our state’s growing craft beer industry the tools needed to create jobs, promote agriculture, and encourage environmentally friendly economic development across New York state,” Mr. Cuomo said Wednesday.

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Written by Evan S. Benn for stltoday.com

Hundreds of gallons of beer that were set to be poured this weekend at the sixth annual St. Louis Brewers Heritage Festival will have to find a new home after the city’s excise commissioner ruled Monday that serving it at the festival would be illegal.

“We discussed the fact that homebrewers’ beers have been available for patrons to sample at the Heritage Festival as well as other area festivals in the past,” Schlafly CEO Dan Kopman wrote after his meeting with St. Louis Excise Commissioner Robert Kraiberg. “While everyone acknowledges the value to our brewing community of having the homebrewed beers available, the fact is that we have concluded it is illegal for us to serve these beers at the Festival.”
Continue reading “St. Louis: Homebrew is Illegal at Heritage Festival”

 

Written by Greg Kitsock for The Washington Post

SAVOR weekin Washington left a sour taste in my mouth — in a good way.

The most memorable beers were, tart, acidic and refreshing, or complex, earthy and mouth-puckering. Let’s start with Terra Incognita, the collaboration that Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. and Boulevard Brewing Co. whipped up expressly for this year’s beer-and-food festival, held June 8 and 9 at the National Building Museum.

Sierra Nevada cooked up the wort, then shipped the unfermented beer to Boulevard in Kansas City, reversing the path of the 19th-century pioneers who followed the California Trail to the American West.

At Boulevard, the wort was fermented and siphoned into 21 barrels, some of which held wine or bourbon, some freshly fashioned out of new oak. After two months, all were sampled, and the contents of 12 were deemed suitable for the blend. As a final flourish, the brewers added a dash of the wild yeast Brettanomyces to spark a new fermentation in the bottle.

Continue reading “Craft Beer Takes a Sour Turn at SAVOR Festival”

Written by Christine Hsu for medicaldaily.com

Scientists have discovered that a hidden vitamin in beer and milk called the “miracle molecule” may prevent obesity.

A new study found that nicotinamide riboside (NR), a molecule found to indirectly influence the activity of cell metabolism, could play an important role in preventing weight gain and diabetes, improving muscular performance and providing other “extraordinary health benefits,” according to a Switzerland-based research team.

Researchers from the Polytechnic School in Lausanne say the results of the mice study were “impressive”.
Continue reading ““Miracle Molecule” in Beer and Milk”

Profiled by Ken Carman for professorgoodales.net

Pillow head, nice clarity. About a 2srm. Bubbles on side of glass and head holds for a while. Light pale malt in background.

The aroma is floral and citrus: a bit hoppy and American for English Ale. Cascade-ish.

What “English Ale” is this supposed to be?

Mouthfeel is light with light caramel cling and hint of hops at best.

Taste: if this were supposed to be an Ordinary Bitter it might be closer: most English Pales I’ve had have more malt complexity and I am getting some diacetyl in the background: a bit more than expected if this is an Ordinary.

Dundee comes out of a brewery in Rochester that uses several brands when selling nationally. I have yet to have anything from there all that impressive. This is better than most, but still could be a lot better, and I get the sense the palate of the brewer needs a little training when assessing how on style mark-wise he/she is. If you’re going to do “English,” do ENGLISH. You know: Fuggles? Kent? Could be more malty sense.

Honest, I didn’t know about the Cascade until after it was scheduled and The Professor let me add this note. I just guessed from the aroma, and missed the Columbus. So why would they do this in an “English?” If I had to guess the real intent here is a light beer to compete for American tastes with a hint of Brit for beer geeks. If that’s the intent, fine, but “English” is a bit off.

Author Unattributed. From The Huffington Post

Big business brewers have begun paying more attention to their lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender customers, and a beer targeted at gay consumption was released last year in Mexico, but next week the alcoholic beverage is going to take a big step out of the closet.

The Hillcrest Brewing Company, which is being touted as the “world’s first out and proud LGBT brewery,” will be opening in San Diego’s vibrant Hillcrest neighborhood next week.
Continue reading “Hillcrest Brewing Company, World’s First LGBT Brewery, To Open Next Week”

Courtesy tsbmag.com

Written by Jay R. Brooks for the Bay Area News Group and Mercurynews.com

Pale ales were once the darling of microbreweries — they were one of the styles that practically every brewery made, and some based their reputations on this now-often-overlooked style.

Pale ales originated in England in the 1640s, when maltsters realized they could control the temperature of their kilns by using coke, which is essentially coal with the poisonous toxins removed. This allowed them to make pale malt, which had more fermentable material than darker malt.

However, it wasn’t until the 19th century that pale ales — then synonymous with bitters, best bitters or bitter beer — came into their own. They weren’t particularly pale, but they were paler than the much darker porter, which was the most popular beer of that time, and the name stuck.
Continue reading “Brooks on Beer: Pale Ale Passion”