Month: March 2014

Local sourcing is an increasingly mainstream priority for restaurants, chefs and almost anyone producing food or beverages. But it’s not such an easy proposition for craft brewing. Unlike butchers who know their pig suppliers or jam makers who know their berry farmers, craft beer makers have a hard time finding local sources of hops and other beer ingredients.

“Everyone talks about local beer, but probably only the water and the brewer are local,” said Robby Crafton, brewer at Big Alice Brewing, during the recent Brewer’s Choice event at New York City’s Beer Week.

Truly local beer is hard to make. This is not the brewers’ fault. Blame it on a regionalized agriculture system that has centralized areas of grain production and processing.

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HERE

When you’re selling beer glasses in sets called The Pompous Set or The Snobby Set, it’s just a simple formality to call yourself the Pretentious Beer Glass Company. Coors Light would feel out of place in the presence of such malty arrogance.

Owner, artist, and designer Matthew Cummings explains,

The PBGC originated from a small drinking club at the Mellwood Arts Center in Louisville, KY. Each Friday afternoon, we would take off work early to sit in the courtyard and drink great craft beer. After a couple too many (all good ideas start this way, right?) the club decided that I should make beer glasses for everyone.

Cummings spent months perfecting his designs before launching his product line and is now working 7 days a week to keep up with orders as he still runs his shop largely on his own. He maintains the pretentious tone throughout the site, including recommended beer pairings with each glass. Descriptions about which types of beer each glass can get to “really sing,” how they can enhance the “aromatic qualities,” or ways in which “you can smell the bouquet of both beers” will either leave you feeling right at home or have you reaching for a Bud Light.

See some of Cummings’ creations below and visit his Etsy page to order one (or a set) for yourself…

The complete “Pretentious Set”

 

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HERE

Profiled by Maria Devan for PGA

Pours the color of sunshine. Yellow gold. If it weren’t for the particles in suspension to offer haze, you would need sunglasses to look at this bright beer. Fat white head of foam that fell slowly and left great lace.

Nose is decadent with hops. Fruity hops run the gamut from citrus and citric tartness to mango and stone fruit softness and depth, to a graceful pineapple that screams hops,with a touch of twang. There’s the brightness of citrus zest and this yeast is the funkiest of the entire box of Belgians. Dry earthy yeast. mango, pineapple with it’s bit of acidic tang, and mango with it deep stone fruit soft sweetness. A floral like flower petals.

Now let’s have some…

Taste is IPA all the way. Light body. No slickness no heaviness. The malt is crisp dry wheat that offers a bit of sour and a refreshing middle. It almost puckers but not quite. Delightful! The fruit is stellar. With so many fruits to create the idea of complexity, until you drink it and realize that without the characteristic IPA bitter this was fruit punch. Light wheat cracker malt brings you a crisp dry floral with a bushel of fruits that do not realize their intense sweetness because on their heels is an IPA bitter. It swoops in like a predator and takes the finish but you are satisfied.

Craker-y, crisp wheat with a touch of natural sweetness, dry and crisp from carbonation. Beautiful. Congratulations Ithaca. The bit of funk did this beer good and I enjoyed it immensely. It’s as though the sun came out today and I put it in my glass.

Welcome to the PGA beer rating system: one beer “Don’t bother.” Two: Eh, if someone gives it to you, drink. Three: very good, go ahead and seek it out, but be aware there is at least one problem. Four: seek it out. Five: pretty much “perfecto.”

_____________________________________________Beer HERE

Maria Devan lives in Ithaca, NY and is frequent reviewer of beer and a beer lover deluxe.

Courtesy dazzlejunction.com