Author: Ken Carman

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

 Tanner’s Jack is a beer that, according to the label, is brewed by Moreland Brewery, Bury St. Edmunds, England. It’s actually brewed by Greene King, not Moreland which is now kind of like Buick is to GM, or Mercury to Ford, only beer, obviously. I haven’t seen it in the stores for a while but I must be honest: I haven’t been looking.
 Morland’s opened in 1711 and proceeded over the years to buy out other breweries. Then Moreland was bought many times, eventually by one of their vend-ess they used to brew for: Greene King.
Continue reading “From the Bottle Collection: Tanner’s Jack”

PGA: we republished Maria Devan’s profile at at the end of this one so the reader may compare.

Profiled by Ken Carman for PGA

The nose is cascade/American hop/citrus like with a light grapefruit sense. Very light pilsener malt in the background.

Mostly good clarity with the very slightest sense of haze. The head is pillow with a few bubbles big to small.

I have to ask up front: what the hell makes this “wild?” I understand; they used wild hops, but if you get the same result as if you used regular commercial hops: what the hell’s the point?

Otherwise: if you’re looking for a light, slightly hoppy beer that has a slight pils sense to it, but none of that lager/sulfur sense: this is it For that it’s exceptional. A great gateway beer for the somewhat hop adverse quaffer.
Continue reading “Beer Profile: Saranac Wild Hops Pils”

Written by Ken Carman

  Note: for those who get The Music City Brew-Score at the end of the year there will be even more pictures and stories regarding the 2014 MCBO. Oh, and after the column, stay tuned for the winner list.

 We missed the main event at Music City Brew Off last year. Judging in Albany, NY, at Knickerbocker, we only ended up doing prejudging in 2013. Flash forward (zoom!) to the 2014 Music City Brew Off: this year we fermented our way through all the activities, and since we’re old fogies that “fermentation” was probably just a wee bit funky.
 To be honest, I think we both forgot just how intense it all can be. Almost every third day we were prejudging beer at Czanns: owned by long term Music City Brewers member Ken Rebman. Ken is one of the few old time members left: and when we joined in 98 (99?) I think he was already a member.
 Music City Brewers has more members who have become professional brewers than any club I have visited, or we are members of. And I have been to many homebrew club meetings from NY to Mississippi. We’re members of three. So what makes Nashville so different? I think it may have to do with the serious, educational, path the club has taken over the years. And, to be honest, having been in Nashville since 1978, on the air, hawking songs on Music Row and working in the music industry, the fact Nashville seems to attract a lot of type-A personalities might have a little to do with it.
 Chuckle.

 Czann’s worked well for prejudging, and having been part of MCBO since the very late 90s I can tell you some of our prejudging locations weren’t always the best, not to mention any names. (Spew, sputter, cough up dust, “I’m hot! I’m cold! I’m hot! I’m…” upstairs Boscos.)
 Thanks Ken. Great first name you have there, by the way.
 This year we had a new location for the actual competition: Ramada Inn Stadium Hotel in downtown Nashville, TN. Continue reading “A Beer Judge’s Diary: Music City Brew Off”

Written by Ken Carman for Professor Good Ales

Hoppin Frog
1680 E Waterloo Rd, Akron, OH 44306
(330) 352-4578

  Ken Carman is a BJCP judge; homebrewer since 1979, club member at Escambia Bay, Clarksville Carboys and Music City Homebrewers, who has been interviewing professional brewers all over the east coast for over 15 years.

The Topic: Time to Hop Over to the Frog!

 Millie and I were headed south from her vacation at our place in Beaver River, NY, and after my 3 months hermitage there. I go there once my northern tour is over. After visiting my tour bus in northeast Ohio we were driving through Akron, Ohio; home to one of my fav breweries: Hoppin Frog. I suggested we stop by and check out the Frog. Oh, I’d been there many times before: stopping by to buy bottles for my Beaver River Beer Tasting every year. But I’d never had time to check out what, to me, was the “new” Tasting Room.
 Before the Tasting Room quaffers stopped by a quick paced brewery and bought a bottle from employees who were also busy brewing, bottling and trying to avoid being tickled to death by the giant golem named Gus the Gross who lives in the cellar. I kid about the golem, of course. But stop by shopping couldn’t have been the best of on site brewery marketing methods. So Fred Karm created the Tasting Room. Continue reading “Brew Biz: Werts and All”

 Well, I wasn’t eaten.
  Are you surprised?
 Disappointed?
 Hungry?
 Well, I’m NOT on the menu, or at least I wasn’t that night.
  Being the only person on a lake: miles away from any house, I still wonder. By morning it was obvious that someone, or “something,” had an issue with the on site outhouse door with heavy springs that probably kept them out, or kept slapping them on the posterior. Who, or what dragged a rock and then put it between an outhouse and its door? At thirty minutes past midnight? At a campsite half way around a lake that’s not even the main part of said campsite?
 Was it someone desperate to bring me a late entry but decided to dump it?
 Someone who passed by several outhouses past midnight to do a different kind of dump far off the beaten path?
 Who “beats” these paths, and do they complain? Call 911? Should I have called 911?
 No cell phone service.
 Or, was that what’s considered the “caviar,” or “sirloin tips” of late night snacks for bears?”
 OK, when I lived here they fed at the dumps, so… maybe?
 Gross.
 Anywhosie…
 I arrived at The Back Door early and my judges were right on time. Continue reading “A Beer Judge’s Diary: The Old Forge Old Ale Competition, Part 2”

As with any adventure in life, there’s always a background story…

 I started liking: really “liking,” beer in late 1972 when my first college friend, Dave, brought me to a bar with dark beer. It was probably mostly food coloring, but I think it was an ale. Or was it Dave sharing his love for Genny Bock? A lager, but more malt, and a hint more malt complexity. For the time? A lot. Remember this was a time when Bud-like beer really was king, and almost every brewer on the east coast was generally doing what now would be considered almost a clone of Bud, Miller, Schaefer… With recipe changes even Ballantine was fading into yet another, “So what?”
 When I got married in my hometown at Big Moose Chapel my father-in-law had them bring in Heinekin Dark. For the Central Adirondacks: especially Big Moose, this was real exotic. By the time I went home again I found out the Big Moose bars had started stocking Heineken Dark. Even compared with the rest of the Adirondacks, the Central Adirondacks always seemed to have been a tad slow to bring in what we now call “craft beer.” And homebrew? Well, even these days I’ve had to go to Watertown or Syracuse for supplies.
 So I decided to start a competition.
 Location was problematic. I thought at first we’d do it in Beaver River: bring them down the reservoir in style on the Norridgewock Riverboat, stay at my cabin and the local hotel or motel. We’re a tiny community with no roads going to it on the eastern end of the Stillwater Reservoir. What an adventure! Continue reading “A Beer Judge’s Diary: The Old Forge Old Ale Competition, Part 1”

Written by Ken Carman for PGA

The Topic: Beaver River Bootlegger’s Yeast

 I could be admitting to a high crime for my community here. The punishment: my property could be confiscated. In our deeds here at Beaver River there’s a phrase that states anyone caught brewing or distilling can have their property taken away. I asked Scott Thompson: a member of a five generation Beaver River family, and fellow wise… guy, about that and we agreed it was probably put in the deeds by his grandfather, or great grandfather during Prohibition.
  And I asked, “Because he wanted everyone to stay above the law, right?”
  He chuckled, “No, he probably didn’t want the competition.”
  Then he added, “I don’t care if you brew back here.
  But let’s just add to my story that all this kind of, sort of, happened somewhere else, OK?
  We have green apples growing here in Beaver River. Not sure what type they are: they’re not really “green,” or “crab,” since they turn somewhat red in spots when completely ripe. The tree across the tracks has apples that turn totally red. I suspect they are of a different variety.
  The apples closest to my Anywhere But Beaver River Brewery are a grand mix between a nice shade of sour and slightly sweet. I’ve been attempting various versions of… “making cider…” out of them over the years. This year I bought a small fruit press, tired of the very inefficient potato masher mashing method.

Continue reading “Brew Biz: Werts and All”

Written by Tom Becham for PGA

Please be aware that my upcoming reviews of gluten-free beers are at the request of a friend. Since that request, I have also discovered more people than I knew of also wanted such reviews.

After my most recent experience with the gluten-free NGB Lager from Minhas Craft Brewing, I never thought I’d be writing a decent review of a GF beer. Certainly never imagined I would write a review of two of them from the same brewer, and find positive things to say about them both.

First, let me say that my experience with NGB Lager was instructive. It taught me that gluten-free beers tend to have a certain flavor profile, as they lack the familiar beery flavors that barley give us.

As well, it would seem that sorghum produces tastes that are sour almost to the point of being astringent. However, skillful use of rice, millet and/or buckwheat can moderate the odd sorghum flavor palette. Clearly, a reviewer should suspend his normal expectations of beer when reviewing gluten-free brews.

It seems that Green’s Brewery, the maker of these two beers, is a subsidiary of Belgian brewer De Proef. De Proef has an excellent reputation amongst beer geeks, and produces a number of unusual brews, many of them either experimental, or of very obscure styles. So, I had hope for the Green’s beers.

It seems that hope was not misplaced.
Continue reading “Beer Reviews by Tom Becham”

This is a great little beer. It pours faint yellow , slight haze and a few bubbles wafting up to the top to meet a creamy head of white foam that fell quickly then lasted in a layer on top.

Nose is peach. Delightful peach. The earthy skin, the juicy fruit and a bit of cracker for malt. A light sweetness and a lovely floral.

Drinks wonderfully and lightly with plenty of flavor and a good carbonation. It is crisp, dry and drying. Has a light peach flavor and a crisp cracker for malt. A bit of malt sweetness comes forward as it warms . A faint touch of hops and a bit of tartness finish this one off and it just plain tastes great!

4.

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.