By 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.

Rated 62 at Rate Beer and 42 for style.
83 at Beer Advocate.

  I really enjoy Oyster Stouts, and that seems counter intuitive. Really? Oysters in beer? I must admit, being a beer judge, that no longer seems as weird as it used to. You wouldn’t believe some of the weird beers I’ve judged.
 I also think it could be easy for this “adjunct” to take over the recipe, though not as easy as the smoked salmon beer a friend submitted (I found out later it was his) and I judged. As I wrote on the form, “I think the salmon swam away with the recipe.” Continue reading “From the Bottle Collection: Whitstable Oyster Stout”

199 entries Best Of Show – Extravaganza! 2014

 This week’s Brew Biz will be shared with other sites: under the banner for another column I have written since 1972 called Inspection. Inspection is my personal forum for discussing societal issues. Because, though it may surprise brew lovers, there’s more to discuss here than just beer.

Ken Carman is a BJCP judge; homebrewer since 1979, club member at Escambia Bay and Music City Homebrewers, who has been interviewing professional brewers all over the east coast for over 10 years.

  Today’s corporate beer adventure courtesy UPS… and also includes a commentary on the increasingly corporate culture of The United States of America.
  I used to work for a record company as a shipping and receiving manager and quality control. At the time the boxes would come in like Godzilla had kicked them around, but the contents were usually OK. My cousin, Joyce, who used to work for UPS told me the old conveyer system would to do that. While I was there our UPS man and I talked a lot. He’d fume about how anal they were: how every little thing had to be just so, despite banged up boxes. Now I believe him more than ever.
  It’s been quite a while since those days. I have used UPS, occasionally, for Christmas gifts. I do remember one year an attendant at our local UPS station insisted on tearing apart my package and repacking it because, “It just doesn’t look right.” She made more a mess of it than I did and succeeded in nothing. I could tell she was really pissed when she took it away.
  So were the multitude of customers behind me.
  “Did you use packing material?”
  “Yes.”
  I had used newspaper, she insisted on bubble wrap… “bubble wrap” I had to buy from her. I had used duct tape. She said it should be another kind of tape and “neater.”
  Yup, she did nothing to make me reconsider my box banging, anal nature, image I had been left with after all these years.
  Well, being a beer judge and a brewer I have shipped a few entries to distant competitions. I had decided never to use UPS again because they claim you can’t ship alcohol. Not quite true, as we shall see, but true enough for peons like you and me. Usually I just say they’re yeast samples and they question a little more, I hedge around the issue, then they ship it. But why bother? Just go to Federal Express: they don’t interrogate me.
  But every once in a while you run into more “anal” than not.
  Well I picked up a six of Anchor Foghorn: first time I’d seen it in Tennessee since the 80s or early 90s. Opened up one and felt like I was drinking from a green rubber hose. Opened a second and got the hose job again. Continue reading “Brew Biz: Werts and All”

Profiled by Ken Carman for PGA

Rhubarb nose with big pillow head that fades fast. Very hazy with and orange tint to the gold. Sniffing it I feel like I”m about to bite into rhubarb pie. Slight sour to that rhubarb, as expected in any good rhubarb pie, but not crust. A bit of sweet to the nose. When you add sugar to rhubarb pie the same aroma happens. Some debris in bottom of bottle.

Mouthfeel: high side of light carbonation. Light side of medium body with slightly prickly carbonation. Sweet rhubarb caresses the roof of the mouth: obviously bug driven, as per some typical Geuzes.

Taste: slight sour with, again, rhubarb sense: yeast driven. There’s a malt way in the background… pilsner?

This is an incredibly good Geuze: very drinkable and something many might enjoy. It’s like some consider the style: almost not beer. The soothing, slightly sour, rhubarb sense is pleasing and seductive. This is all yeast as far as character. get no sense of hops. Malt background. The [performer is the yeast, and the applause should be plentiful.

4.7. Close to 5.

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.”

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Profiled by Ken Carman for PGA

This is a multigrain beer that for the grist uses a lot of buckwheat. I was curious about buckwheat itself, since I use buckwheat honey. Let’s just say I may still use a hint, but not that impressed. It also uses a crystal malt and and Metcalfe malt: 2 row.

Clarity great except a very slight haze at about 3 srm: deep gold. Rock head: big with tad pillow that fades very, very fast.

Nose: buckwheat. That’s it.

Mouthfeel: feels full but that’s buckwheat. I would call it high side of light or low of medium. Carbonation very light, but this was from a tap into a Grolsch bottle.

Taste: buckwheat and hint of caramel malt. The hop is mostly a slightly sharp bitter. This is a quaff so simple that it’s an interesting attempt, but not all that “interesting” compared to all that’s on the shelf thee days. I get the mouthful-ness of the buckwheat and some slight caramel malt way in the background: weak at best. Hops? A hint of bitter at best. No esters from what would normally be a late addition or two. Buckwheat, light carbonation, slight bitter: that’s pretty much it. Needs more overall complexity.

Rate Beer has it at 61, 63 for style and BA: 80.

This is in no way problematic, just not all that interesting. However could be a great breakout beer for the craft beer hesitant.

Score for BJCP score sheet: 28, maybe 29.

3.8 on PGA scale.

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