A Place to Gather and Talk
Genetic engineering and synthetic biology are making it easier to create everything from food ingredients to scents using unexpected sources.
That’s where genetically engineered yeast comes in. A recent article in the New York Times explored its larger implications and how companies like Amyris continue to push the scope of what engineered yeast can produce.
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Courtesy beerpulse.com
Not enough scores to score on RB or BA. Not listed on their site, but found on a FB page run by them…
Here is what the brewery says about this beer…
“Dark Planet is a rich, earthy, English style ale that checks in at 9% ABV. Deceptively smooth and complex with hints of caramel, molasses, and dark fruit, a great beer for the fall season.â€
Big light tan head that fades fast: little pillow, more bubble/big rock head. The srm is probably 18 or so, brown ale-ish. Good clarity with very nice highlights: deep ruby-ish/garnet.
The nose is carmelized sweetness with slight hopping noticed: so background hard to tell.
Firm bitter in both the taste and the mouthfeel, but to be honest this beer fails with balance. I get the caramel, molasses (very slight, not as much fruit: maybe hint of plum, but there’s a balance problem here.) The abv hits you hard and competes way too much with the rest. Harsh on the roof of the mouth, and the palate, and on the 
way down. Not undrinkable by any means, but it simply ruins what would be an otherwise incredible experience. Keep the abv but even more sweet grain, more likely less hops. Cut down on bitter, combines with harsh abv in slight problematic ways. Medium body that hangs in the mouth after swallow.
“Smooth?” Uh: NO.
Note: English ale? Where do they get English ale from? Well, if the abv was less it might be more “English,†but I’d have to have it that way to be sure. English ales I’ve had have always been more about balance than this. The hops are, perhaps, Fuggles-ish. I get some “earthy,†but way in the background.
Personally I’d take this into Scottish Heavy territory because it doesn’t quite work. But they have one of those already. Another solution, maybe the best is bring it to 7abv. There are no higher alcohols I can sense here, but even when not “higher,” too much for balance is problematic.
Great brewery, and I hate to do it, but a three. Needs work, guys.
In attendance were more than 630 breweries, the lucky ones able to quickly snag a spot before registration closed in just an hour and 40 minutes. Hundreds more breweries were on the wait list.
The brewers in Denver represented just a portion of the more than 2,500 breweries operating in the United States—the most since Prohibition. What’s more, there are 1,500 other breweries in the planning stage.
With all the growth, many in the craft beer industry attending the festival frequently turned to the same question: How far can the craft boom go?
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A Texas brewery has sparked outrage with an advertisement for its Dallas Blonde beer, which it says “goes down easy.”
Deep Ellum Brewing Co. is under fire for its controversial promo campaign to mark the alcoholic brew’s first birthday.
Critics say bosses are relying on “rape culture,” with the catchphrase and logo of a doll wearing a blond wig to sell the product.
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/critics-slam-dallas-blonde-beer-promoting-rape-culture-article-1.1492524#ixzz2iTk5cJXR
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This is depressing… PGA
When it comes to beer, the northeast loves Sam Adams, Pennsylvania opts for its native Yuengling, and California picks Corona.
Blowfish, a “hangover cure” that promises relief after a night of heavy drinking, recently conducted a poll with AMP, a third-party research firm, to learn about people’s drinking habits across the U.S. The survey included 5,249 drinkers over the age of 21 from all 50 states and Washington, D.C.
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Sip a beer, ale, stout or porter and after that first cool refreshing sensation the sweet grain flavors bloom and make good on the promises of the aromatics experienced just before you took that first sip. Then there is another flavor that can take a bit of looking for. Should you be sipping something called an India Pale Ale brewed in the United States or Canada you might find the roasted grain flavors hard to find, replaced by perhaps the flavor of grapefruit of lemon zest. If the India Pale Ale was brewed in the United Kingdom the flavors might resemble blackberry or a sharp mineral tang. Welcome to the world of hops.
Before I go any further let’s get two things understood to be indisputable information. First; the use of hops to flavor/preserve fermented malt beverages was first done by brewers in the Low Countries of the European Continent. Today this area is claimed by the Dutch and Luxemburgish. The second item is that a king of England did not decree the use of hops to be a capital crime. He simply imposed an onerous tax on the use of the herb. These two items of information can be verified by consulting the Royal Society of Chemists. I would be pleased to provide more sources for those interested in contesting the above.
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Move over, bitter IPAs and chocolaty stouts. There’s a new kid on the craft brewing block, and it’s going to knock your salivary glands into action.
They’re called “sour beers.” When you take a sip, it’s like biting into a Granny Smith apple that’s soaked in a French red wine: crisp, refreshing and a bit odd.
Sour beers are probably the oldest style of brewski in the world, but they’re just starting to get popular in the States. They were all the buzz at this year’s Great American Beer Festival. And with hundreds of brewers now dabbling in sours, it’s easier than ever to find them at a local bar or grocery store.
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Sitting in a back room, near the back porch: I could hear birds outside the closed glass door… and even hear them on the recording device I used when I reviewed our conversation days later. This is truly Tennessee countryside.
The Liz and Phil Snyder estate in White House, Tennessee, gently slopes down to a small creek, then back up to the hill where the hop garden is. I find it odd how you look at grass, a stream, a hop garden, grapes vines: and they seem as if they’re just natural; been there for a long, long time. That’s how I feel about Phil Snyder as a member of Music City Brewers. Phil and the club just seemed to fit together.
But Phil’s story is more interesting than that. Born in Defiance, Ohio, Phil’s family quickly moved to Fort Wayne, Indiana, “when I was just a little tyke,†where his father had taken a job.
He started with wine and made his first batch in 1969. At a wine convention in DC; about 1980, Phil was staying at a friend’s house who had a fridge full of beer and a six pack of Anchor Steam.
“I tasted that and I knew I had to start brewing.â€
His first batch was about 1979 or 1980, just after home brewing was made legal.
“We had a big wine club up in Fort Wayne and I was president of that several 
There are various versions of judging beer, like bottom up or top down: one where the judge decides what score the beer probably should be then adjusts as he or she scores, or scores the beer and then adjusts the score to what they think is closer to what it should be. Then you always have adjusting because two, or more, judges differ and their score is too far apart.
Then you have one of the oddest I’ve ever encountered. I understand judging in silence and then discussing after we’ve each come to a score, but one judge claimed the correct way to do it is to judge all the beers in a flight and then go back and adjust.
I simply can’t support that. If the head of the table insisted, well of course I would do it.
There is another method I have used that most judges probably frown upon, but I think can work quite well. The BJCP doesn’t seem all that fond of it either. But in certain circumstances: with certain judges, I think it works amazingly well. Continue reading “Brew Biz: Werts and All”
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