Month: February 2013

Written by Elizabeth Flock for USNews

For the last six generations, beer has defined Jim Koch’s family.

And for much of that time, his family’s story has criss-crossed that of another brewing company, Anheuser-Busch. Koch’s great-great grandfather founded their family’s brewery the same year Anheuser opened its doors. Both were housed in St. Louis. Koch’s grandfather even worked as a brewmaster at the Anheuser brewery post-Prohibition.

But in the years since, the Anheuser and Koch breweries have taken very different paths, ones that have led them to become more foes than friends.

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New York Times Editorial

Consumers will benefit from the Justice Department’s antitrust suit to block Anheuser-Busch InBev, the country’s largest brewing company, from acquiring one of its competitors. This kind of action was seen less frequently in the Bush administration.

Anheuser-Busch InBev announced in June that it would pay $20.1 billion to buy the 50 percent stake in Grupo Modelo of Mexico — maker of Corona beer — that it did not already own. Together the two companies sell about 46 percent of all beer in the United States and more than 50 percent in big cities like Houston and Los Angeles, according to the department’s antitrust division. The proposed acquisition would leave the country with just two companies — the second being MillerCoors — controlling more than 70 percent of the beer business.

Under the Bush administration’s less robust antitrust division, a series of big mergers severely reduced competition in the beer industry and led to higher prices. In 2008, it greenlighted two mega-deals: Belgium-based InBev’s purchase of Anheuser-Busch, and a merger of the American beer divisions of SABMiller, a London-based brewing giant, and Molson Coors, a Canadian company.

Not surprisingly, beer prices started rising faster than the Consumer Price Index, according to a detailed study by the American Antitrust Institute, a research organization.

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Courtesy classictrucks.com

Without intent, I have collected well over 1,000 beer bottles since the early 70s. When something finally had to be done about the cheap paneling in this old modular, I had a choice. Tear down the walls while, oh, so carefully, replacing the often rotted 1X3s. Or: cover them with… The Bottle Collection.

Written by Ken Carman

H.C. Berger Brewing Co.
1900 E. Lincoln Ave.
Fort Collins, CO 80524

H.C. Berger was a brewer out of Fort Collins, CO. I’m sure this was one of the beers I offered at my beer events I hold in the summer. Seems to me it wasn’t all that remarkable. According to Beer Advocate they are closed. Chocolate mild at best. Not a lot of head and brownish-black.

According to thecoloradoan.com H.C. opened in 1992, and in 2002 it was shut down due to non-payment of taxes and reopened as well known craft brewer Fort Collins. They do a Chocolate Stout, but I doubt the recipe is the same.

Here is how brewpublic.com describes that beer…
Continue reading “From the Bottle Collection: H.C. Berger Chocolate Stout”

The Bible Belt Brouhaha over Beer

Written by Tommy Andres, CNN

 

Editor’s Note: Listen to the full story in our player above (on their site: PGA), and join the conversation in our comments section below (on their site too-PGA.)

Montgomery, Alabama (CNN) – Despite the fact that it has been federally legal since 1979, there are still two U.S. states that don’t allow residents to make beer in their own homes: Alabama and Mississippi.

The issue is expected to be one of the first to surface in Alabama’s state legislature as lawmakers there head back to session this week, and a colorful standoff is likely.

Homebrew laws have failed to materialize for the past five years, with religion and morality arguments narrowly beating out the estimated 5,000 underground homebrewers in the state who say their civil liberties are on the line.

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(Note: this link also includes the CNN radio report.)

Written by Julia Herz for craftbeer.com

I like to call craft-brewed beer a cerebral beverage. Based on all the flavors, variety and innovation going on today, it certainly gives beer lovers much to talk about. But therein lies the challenge…

In talking about flavor on a daily basis, I’ve searched high and low for a solid answer on what exactly flavor is, how the heck we perceive it, and more importantly, describe it.

Admittedly, as one on a flavor-finding journey, and ever a palate athlete in training—we train each bite people—the bottom line is flavors are often difficult to describe. There are a multitude of books on the very topic. A new one that relates directly to pairing is Beer, Food, and Flavor by Schuyler Schultz.

Schultz talks about tasting in terms of attack: primary, secondary and tertiary flavor characteristics, finish, balance and dimension. There’s also the stand-by bible Tasting Beer by Randy Mosher. For those who really want to geek out, read Neurogastronomy by Gordon Shepherd, or Sensory Evaluation Techniques by Morten Meilgaard, Gail Vance Civille and B. Thomas Carr.

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Written by Tom Law

Show up a little before 9 a.m. on a Saturday morning at West Sixth Brewing Company and the beer garden is already packed and buzzing. Twenty something’s mix and mingle with others in their 30s, 40s and 50s. No, they’re not there for a special early-morning tasting or even a tailgate party in the brewery’s spacious taproom. They’re there for the West Sixth Running Club’s half marathon training team workout, just one of many events at the new brewery on any given day that gives the operation housed in a former bread factory a true community feel.

Other days it’s a yoga class in the beer garden, or perhaps a group of science enthusiasts listening to an informal presentation on topics ranging from fracking to the way wine drinking affects aging. On the sixth of every month the brewery hosts “6th for a Cause,” events where West Sixth donates six percent of its profits to charity, allowing the brewery’s owners to continue to foster their mission and give back to the same community that has helped it become one of the fastest growing and most popular hangouts in town.

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Written by Brandon Jones for embracethefunk.com

About a week ago Shaun Hill of Hill Farmstead Brewery shocked many beer lovers by announcing an upcoming membership sale. The owner of the recently awarded  RateBeer #1 Brewery In The World gave Embrace The Funk a few details about the program and how you can get access to some of the great sour/wild beers in his line-up.

ETF- What is the official name of the membership club?

Shaun- “Hill Farmstead’s Collected Works”

ETF- If you’ve come up with a “Trustee” pick up policy, can you give some info on it?

Shaun- Of course.  Given our location – we absolutely must allow for ‘trustees’ to assist in beer retrieval.  Members can name their trustee, with proper communication, until a few days before the beer needs to be retrieved.  We will hold onto the beer, in a refrigerated storage space, until July 6th and 7th.  After those days… the beer will go up for sale.  Folks shouldn’t sign up if they don’t have a means of on site retrieval.
Continue reading “Hill Farmstead Membership: Some Deets From Shaun”

Written by Anita George for pastemagazine.com

An Alaskan brewery found a creative and green way to dispose of its brewing waste and reduce the overall cost of powering its operations.

A recently installed $1.8 million furnace now burns the Alaskan Brewing Co.’s spent grain, (the waste left over after brewing beer) and converts it into steam, which is then used to power most of the brewery, according to The Associated Press.

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As those of you who read this blog will know I have been talking about a technique called hop bursting recently. I first tried it back in Nov 2009 whilst brewing my Dog Fish Head 90min without really knowing how the technique worked. I came across it again last week when I brewed Northern Brewers 115th Dream Imperial IPA, which shipped with over 1 lb of hops.  How can you add 1 lb of hops to a 5 gallon brew and it not taste disgusting? I was curious and wanted to find out more, especially given how clean the bottom of boil kettle was where the hops had settled while cooling.

First up lets quickly review the big hop post I did a few back. First thing to remember are the Alpha Acids, these cause bittering and are not very water soluble so require an hour of boiling to fully extract. Then there are the Beta Acids, these are water soluble and actually evaporate if left too long in the water. Beta acids provide the hop aroma and flavour.  The more the beta acids evaporate the less the aroma which is why we have flavour additions with 10-15mins of a boil to go and aroma at 0 mins.

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