Author: Ken Carman

Profiled for The Professor by Ken Carman

Victory Brewing
Downingtown, PA

88@BA, 91@BA, 8.5 abv.

“Red” Thunder? More like deep brown at best, even black. Head fades very fast. Pillow with a very few small rock bubbles. Clarity good with some garnet highlights, mostly hidden by the deep brown.

Their web site says Baltic Porter. Sort of. Does seem close, but Imperial Brown aged in wine barrel seems closer.

Deep caramel malt nose with hops background. Nose promises malt complexity. A lot of chocolate nose: probably chocolate malt.

Mouthfeel: medium body with just a slight sense of roasted barley. Munich malt too. Caramel malt provides depth. Nice full body. Excellent malt profile.

Taste: malt, heavy on the malt side, balance right for an Imperial Red.. Hops provide strong, very, very, background bitter. According to them back label this is a bounce off of a Porter, which explains the body and the color. There’s a wine sweetness that helps provide plenty of pleasure to the quaff. Malt complexity is there, but in the background. Wine sweetness is first, then malt, hops behind that: just a soft bitter. Just a hint of wood barrel.

I cannot rate this as Red, or Porter. More a Specialty with some of both with an Imperial sense on Red side and malt Imperial Brown then add a strong, woody, wine barrel sense to top it off.

I can’t bash it for style, it’s SO good. Excellent at a 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.”

The Topic: An Absinthe of Information

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

 Imagine you ask for a beer. A friend hands you a glass and you take a sniff. Huh??? Then a sip: you gag. What, did he think you wanted liquid licorice, or black jelly beans? Of course what your “friend” did, most likely, is pour you some absinthe instead. Indeed it may be bad absinthe that has been flavored with star anise oil. The good absinthe uses green anise. Real fans of the legendary quaff will tell you there’s a lot more to really good absinthe than the harshest, black, licorice; and certainly not some black jelly bean drink.
 Maybe he thought he was being funny. But you probably aren’t laughing.
 Beer judges sometimes have experiences almost as off putting, and it may not be the fault of the brewer who entered it.
  A previous edition of Brew Biz mentioned a competition I was entering which had just restarted after a few years and their web site, their instructions, were confusing: at best. I understand competitions are run by volunteers, and I have no wish to dump on those who work their garbanzos off: not getting a single bean for their efforts: all for the cause of better brewing and better beer.
 Indeed let me start by saying I found the organizer helpful and kind, especially after working with him through the, “OK, what now,” phase when site instructions were confusing and links didn’t work. The web site seemed professional: until I tried to use it. Even the organizer admitted he wasn’t surprised: since this was the first competition after a long time things weren’t a little messed up. This competition had been on a hiatus for quite a while.
  Yes: I am deliberately trying to be vague to avoid giving you clues as to who I am referring to. Since we’re talking about the same competition, and I wish to do nothing but encourage more competitions: no names mentioned. Continue reading “Brew Biz: Werts and All”

  The seventh Beaver River Beer Tasting was on August 31st at 2pm. As you can tell from the Brew Biz column posted after this it almost didn’t happen, but I will leave that all for my usual vent space.
  At 2pm quaffers gathered at 168 Railroad Street: otherwise known as “The Carman Camp.” We probably had a total of 20-25 people: down from previous years, but with the circumstances, that was amazing. Mark Franey also brought two wines: a dry and a sweet Riesling, but I was too busy to get to try them. Ei! Continue reading “Beaver River Beer Tasting: 2013”

The Topic: The Death and Rebirth of a Beer Tasting

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

 I think the first Beaver River Beer Tasting was in 2006, at The Beaver River Hotel: now called Beaver River Lodge. During those years, for a brief time, the tastings expanded to three different locations. The Labor Day beer tasting was always the most successful, with Millie, my wife, counting about 60-70 people at one point. For a town with no roads going to it, only accessible by boat, barge or trail: that’s incredible.
 Beaver River Beer Tastings have always been a mix of commercial beers and homebrews: commercial examples bought, by myself, from stores like Yankee Spirits in Sturbridge, Beers of the World in Batavia, NY, Marcy Discount, in Marcy, NY, Tully’s in Wells, Maine and Midtown in Nashville. Basically stores all over the east coast: from Mississippi to Maine.
 A few were from brewpubs who bottle their own or do growlers. All commercial examples had already been taxed and almost all had gone through distributors, the few exceptions: growlers and bottled examples from brewpubs. This year I had three, out of probably 200 different brews. Most years all were bought from stores who were supplied by distributors.
 Of course, being a homebrewer and a member of three clubs homebrew was part of the mix. Continue reading “Brew Biz: Werts and All”

The Annual Beaver River Beer Tastings Will Be Held Saturday, August 24th and Saturday 31st @ 2pm at The Beaver River Lodge.

Also known as “the old hotel.” The 24th will be a casual affair with the number of beers offered varying with attendance. The second will be 30 plus beers from all over the world, homebrews PLUS several braggots.

For more information contact Ken Carman @ 315-376-6625

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

  This is a bottle from my collection I have used for this column before. I do have more information, though I really don’t remember much, except I think it was brewed, in this case, by a brewery just south of Cincinnati. I didn’t have a lot of respect for them because once touring it I was told when a customer: essentially someone who wanted them to brew their commercial beer, gave them a recipe for a beer they don’t brew, “We give them whatever we have that is closest.”
  No way to run a contract brewery, in my opinion. Best to just refuse the contract. I found it odd that their representative actual seemed proud of this “pawn whatever off on them.”
  But since I’m not sure, and can’t remember how it was, I’ll reserve the rest of my commentary.
  Here’s what Wiki says…

Hudepohl Brewing Company was a brewery established in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1885 by founder Ludwig Hudepohl II. Hudepohl was the son of Bavarian immigrants and had worked in the surgical tool business before starting his brewery. Hudepohl combined with Schoenling Brewing Company in 1986. Today, the Hudepohl-Schoenling Brewing Company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Christian Moerlein Brewing Co..

  When Hudepohl went out Boston Brewing started selling the beer. Here’s something I do know: for a while that brewery: barely in Kentucky, was contract brewing for Boston, like Matt’s in Utica. Then the Hudepohl brand was bought out by Royal Brewing, whose main executive had been and exec at Heileman. The Kentucky brewery also vended out for Heilman for a while.
  Seems very likely somewhere in this 90s, early 70s, time frame this bottle was filled: most likely in kentucky. Why? Because this brand had been in flux for all that time and the execs who had anything to do with the Hudepohl name also had connections with this contract brewery. The original brewery shut down, production shifted elsewhere at time and the 90s and 2000s were pretty bad for them. At last report the recipes were sold, and the original brewery being deconstructed.

Review: Voodoo Brewery
215 Arch Street
Meadville, PA 16335
(814)337-3676
Brewer: Matt Allyn

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

  Twisting…
 Turning…
 …up, down, swinging around woodlands, fast past farmland and open fields, meandering around meadows and swinging by swamps as the weird contraption two wheels its way through hair pin corners…
  Last time I interviewed Matt Allyn I rode my Honda Big Ruckus scooter to Titusville, PA. Matt used to be the brewer at 4 Sons Brewing in Titusville. 4 Sons is closed now: another brewery occupies the same building: called “Blue Canoe…” and that is a better name than “Blue Gnu” because I’ve been told gnu tastes terrible in beer.
 (Surprised? So was I. Who gnu?)
 But all that was a long time ago, in a different brew galaxy seemingly far away, when I was a less seasoned writer. (More Cajun spices, please!)
 More than two years ago I heard rumors Matt was planning on opening a brewpub: or perhaps, as accurate… a brewery with a tasting room and great food, in Meadville: I even swung by sometime between 2008 to 2012 to see where it would be, saying to myself, “There? Ewe.”
 Rumors I probably heard in 2008 at Sprague Brewery… then forgot. Continue reading “Brew Biz: Werts and All”

The Topic: Entering Competition

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

 I will not tell you which competition I entered. My object here is not to dis the club, or those who volunteer hours of time setting up web sites, or decide the rules. My object is to make you understand decisions have consequences.
  Recently I entered a competition that had been on hiatus for a while, then started up again. Looking through scheduled BJCP competitions I found one just right for what I wanted to enter. Since I brew “odd” I contacted the organizer and asked a few questions.
  Good to go!
  So I went to the web site to enter.
  Nice web site! Or so I thought, until started to click: links didn’t work: one which told me where to ship to, another how to prepare and ship the bottles and the registration form didn’t work for my set up at home; no printer. I knew we were getting close to a deadline that was mid-4th of July weekend, so I contacted the organizer. Continue reading “Brew Biz: Werts and All”