Month: June 2014

The Americans have the spunk, the vigor and a willingness to try anything. The Belgians have the art, the creativity and the tradition of world-class success. We’re not just talking about their looming World Cup matchup here. We’re also talking about beer.

The topic of beer and the World Cup is now bubbling around in the highest offices of the two nations.

Belgium’s Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo has offered President Obama, a noted beer fan, a “beer bet” over the match, , “Hey @BarackObama, I am betting some great Belgian beers that our @BelRedDevils will make it to the quarter final!”

Of course, this is all a preamble to the big question: What will you be drinking when the U.S. and Belgium face off Tuesday afternoon?

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Employers receive countless resumes from hopeful job applicants, but not many come in the form of craft-brewed 4-packs of beer.

Brennan Gleason, a designer from British Columbia, decided to try an unconventional approach to his resume, opting to showcase his qualifications on his home-brewed blonde beer, dubbed “Resum-Ale,” instead of the standard one-page CV.

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Craft beer is big. Independent craft breweries saw their collective sales grow 20 percent last year, and they’re slowly taking away sales from the giants. Overall beer sales are flat, but locally brewed India Pale Ales are killing it.

Craft beer is also small. As a group, craft breweries still comprise only about 8 to 14 percent of the overall beer market. And being small is a point of pride — it’s part of the craft brewery definition. You can’t be craft if you make more than 6 million barrels of beer a year (Budweiser brews about 40 million barrels a year). Even if a brewery sticks a craft-looking label on the bottle (think Third Shift, which is actually a front for Coors), it doesn’t make it craft. Its parent company is still too big.

Except, maybe, for Samuel Adams. Jim Koch started his Boston Beer Company and Samuel Adams in 1984, pitching it as a flavorful antidote to a watery beer scene. Along the way Boston Beer Company grew into a $2.9 billion company. But now flavor is everywhere, as are other upstarts that pitch their beers as more bold, artisanal and authentic than Sam Adams.

The company is trying to combat this narrative, recognizing that it’s stuck between the small and the big. No matter how craft fads come and go, a recent television ad implies, Sam Adams is forever.

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AUBURN | Ever wanted to try a sour beer?

Such adventurousness could set you back several dollars and leave you with five and a half unwanted bottles, but it doesn’t have to at Thirsty Pug Craft Beer Market: The new Genesee Center store, which opened June 13, offers single-bottle sales.

“It’s for people to experiment without investing a ton of money in something they might not enjoy. It’s much less intimidating trying something new,” said owner Mike Sigona, 29, of Auburn.

Sigona opened Thirsty Pug after several years of kitchen experience at places like the Cascade Grill in Moravia. The long hours in that profession held him back from his own attempts at brewing, he said.

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It’s safe to say Vinnie Cilurzo, owner and brewmaster of Russian River Brewing Company, knows a thing or two about making hoppy beers. His double IPA, Pliny the Elder, has earned the title of Zymurgy‘s Best Beer in America for six consecutive years—and this year readers also named Russian River America’s top brewery. The full results of Zymurgy‘s Best Beers in America are published in the July/August 2014 Zymurgy, which AHA members can access instantly online.

We asked Vinnie for a few tips about making great IPAs, and here is what he had to say:

1. Don’t go Crystal crazy.

Keep crystal malts to a very low percentage of your total grist bill. Too much crystal malt can hide some of the really nice aromas and flavors contributed by the hops.

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