A Beer Judge’s Diary: Erie County Fair Home Brew Competition
This ABJD is even more “diary†in nature than some because the story behind the adventure is as interesting as the event itself, and admittedly I know less event specifics than I should. For a complete list of winners please keep checking Erie County Fair’s Facebook Page. According to a recent post the first in show was Kevin DiTondo of Cheektowaga, NY with his Vienna Lager. Part of his winnings are having his beer brewed at Flying Bison Brewery in Buffalo.
Anywhosie, like some fool writer who makes up his own words, Ken tends to make his own “situations,†and is good one. We have a boat to tow up north and, this year, a car too. The somewhat obscene sounding two ball rule means I can’t do the more dangerous thing and tow both. And for many unmentioned reasons that would extend this tale towards tedious, some of a somewhat self sabotaging nature, I need to tow the boat first.
On the bright side, with my increasingly buff 64 year old body I’ll be able to fulfill my not so wet dream fantasy of flipping the 90 horse Evinrude upside down, use it like a propeller, and slide across the ice of Stillwater ten miles to Beaver River. Continue reading “A Beer Judge’s Diary: Erie County Fair Home Brew Competition”
Brewing Dortmunder Adambier
Picture courtesy Beer Archives. NOT Woodland Brewery’s Adambier.
A dated article, but I have heard no one talk of this style. Just had one in Marcy, NY. Interesting-Ken Carman
A Dortmunder Adambier is malt dominated strong ale from Northern Germany. No one can be certain on the origin. Dortmund was one of the cities in the 14th Century Hanseatic League (along with Einbeck — the home of Bock); the city was best known for beer and brewing. In the 19th Century, King Frederick William IV of Prussia was known as a hard drinking man. He visited Dortmund and some Adambier put him under the table for more than a whole day! With the development of lagers, this style fell out of favor among German beer drinkers, and now is very difficult to find. Even the BJCP (sadly) abandoned the style when they revised the guidelines in 1998.
My first exposure to Dortmunder Adambier was when I was judging European Ales in the mid 1990s. There was this wonderful strong beer that tasted like a cross between an English Barley wine and a dopplebock. I later found out that Bruce Brode and Brian Vessa were the brewers and have since brewed several myself. The only commercial example of an Adambier I know of is Hair of the Dog’s Adam. Brewer Alan Sprints goes to great trouble with this flagship beer. Each batch is numbered, and the carbonation comes from krausening, where Hair of the Dog adds some new fermenting Adam to some that is ready to be bottled. One can tell, Adam will last many years if kept cold, and the head is as intense and rocky as any beer I’ve ever seen. Alan adds some smoked malt as well — peat if you can believe it. If you haven’t tried Adam, do yourself a favor and get some. Stuffed Sandwich has many aged magnums going back a number of years.
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Alcohol from dairy process waste may be headed to a tap near you
Dairy that is fermented and brewed like beer could soon be on tap as Sam Alcaine, M.S. ’07, assistant professor in the Department of Food Science, turns dairy waste into a flavorful drink with an alcoholic kick.
The research is more than a compelling addition to the craft beer craze: Alcoholic dairy products could be a solution to an increasing problem for New York’s powerhouse Greek yogurt industry.
The production of Greek yogurt creates acid whey, a leftover liquid with very little protein and few profitable uses. Alcaine, former product innovation manager at Miller Brewing Co., thinks there may be a place for alcoholic dairy beverages made from whey.
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In the Land of Flemish Red-Brown Ale
Written by Franz Hofer for Tempest in a Tankard
Only an hour by train from Brussels, West Flanders is renowned for its picturesque medieval towns replete with belfries and beguinages, sandy North Sea beaches, verdant open fields, and a harrowing First World War history. Bruges is West Flanders’ heavily visited capital, but the region is also home to the Poperinge hop district and some of Belgium’s most unique beers in a country famous for unique beer. Roeselare, Vleteren, and Vichte are but a few of the towns and villages that conjure up visions of Trappist brewers and the sweet-sour beers of the region. If the bucolic Payottenland due west of Brussels is known for lambic, the western part of the country answers with Flemish red ale and the oud bruin of East Flanders.
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Maria Devan Reviews Ellicottville Island Gose
pFriem Family Brewers: From 0 to 100 in Just Six Years
When Josh pFriem, Ken Whiteman and Rudy Kellner cooked up the notion of a new brewery in Hood River, Oregon, back in 2011, they had a notion – because of Josh’s extensive experience as an assistant (most notably with the legendary Chuckanut Brewing of Bellingham, WA, and its brewmaster emeritus, Wil Kemper) and a frankly wonky immersion in All Things Fermentable – that this new venture just might be pretty good. They were certainly optimistic, as proven by the unusually handsome and adaptable digs down at Hood River’s new Waterfront Park Business Center, and by the measure-twice-cut-once thoroughness of their planning. Unlike so many – maybe the majority of – new breweries, pFriem was planned for success.
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Northern California’s new ‘Champagne’ beer could signal the end of the hazy IPA trend
DOUBTFUL. More likely it will just add to the pantheon.-PGA
For those who have grown weary of the hazy beer trend, a new hope has arrived. Unlike the murky and juicy Northeast-style IPAs that have dominated the beer scene for the last couple years, the hot new sub-style of IPA is pale, clear and ridiculously dry — and it was born right here in Northern California.
The first Extra Brut IPA — called Hop Champagne, so named for its high carbonation, light body and champagne-like finish — was brewed last year by Kim Sturdavant at Social Kitchen & Brewery in San Francisco. Largely influenced by trendsetters such as Vinnie Cilurzo at Russian River Brewing Company, brewers long have been using corn sugar to enhance the dryness of their IPAs, but the Extra Brut IPA takes that concept a step further.
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Maria Devan Reviews Ithaca’s Mo’ Kolsch
Open Letter to The Bud Sell-Outs: Cowboy Up, Whiners
There are people with whom we become “friends” on Facebook and have never even met in daily life. This is our new paradigm: digital friendships. I contend that these relationships – which many people regard as phony or artificial – can be, in some ways, as close as the more superficial relationships we have with casual acquaintances or co-workers. What do we make friends with, anyway? Our friend’s eyebrows? Nose? Shoes? No, we make friends with the content of their character, their conversations with us, their wisdom or sense of humor. And much of that, their personality and smarts, can be communicated via the internet, just as easily as on adjoining bar stools.
Two days ago, I committed what I – and many others – regard as an egregious lapse of courtesy against a friend whose name I have known for years and whose work I’ve greatly admired for that whole time.
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