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. Label courtesy Bruguru.com

In the early 70s I headed off to college, having wet my whistle long before I was of age.
Forgive me Lord, for I have sinned.
Or just help me find more great craft beer.
I thought I hated beer. Well, let’s rephrase that. Let’s just just say beer was a cheap: somewhat tolerable, and a way to have a break between my Stingers, Lime Collins, Harvey Wallbangers and anything else someone would recommend. Like with beer, mixed drinks were an adventure. I didn’t like hard liquor, except really, really expensive Scotch: and I didn’t know that yet. Wine drove my stomach crazy. So mixed drinks were all that was left to get a buzz on.
Continue reading “From the Bottle Collection: Schmidts Bock”

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.

 In the early 70s I headed off to college, having wet my whistle long before I was of age.
 Forgive me Lord, for I have sinned.
 Or just help me find more great craft beer.
 I thought I hated beer. Well, let’s just say beer was a cheap: somewhat tolerable, way to have a break between my Stingers, Lime Collins, Harvey Wallbangers and anything else someone would recommend. Like with beer, mixed drinks were an adventure. I didn’t like hard liquor, except really, really expensive Scotch: and I didn’t know that yet. So mixed drinks were all that was left to get a buzz on. Continue reading “From the Bottle Collection: Schmidt’s Bock”

Written by Ken Carman

 The first Bluegrass Cup where we judged was at a horse track. That sounds bad, but no: it was fun. And the horses didn’t even ask to share in the bubbly. They were too busy hoofing it, or being the “mane” attraction: depending on which version of “bad joke” you prefer.
 Lexington is one of the main, and most famous, horse capitals of the country. Indeed it known as “the horse capital of the world” and “Thoroughbred City.” So it wasn’t surprising that’s where we judged this competition the first time. While it was a pleasant place to judge, I think we prefer where they hold it now: Shrewsbury Hall… part of Alltech; a local craft brewery.
   I remember there being many breweries pouring their beer on another level at the track, and a wide open judging area. In many ways, similar to some competitions we attended during those years, the fare’ that surrounded it was a bit party-like.
  But is that what beer competition is really about?
 Increasingly, I have observed, competitions are getting away from that model and more towards what The Bluegrass Cup has become.
 A wide open judging space with hard walls, like what I remember at the horse track, can make for a noisy environment: despite the natural contemplative nature of judging beer. Well, “natural” until there’s a gusher, or some entry stands out in a really good way… or not so grand, to be polite. And I have noticed: at a rare competition, the high gravity tables can tend to be a bit more noisy… only the lampshade hat wearing beer gods know why.
 So nicely half paneled walls, soft carpet and fine restaurant tablecloths, like at Shrewsbury Hall, really make for a better judging atmosphere overall. Continue reading “A Beer Judge’s Diary: The Bluegrass Cup”

 I am hoping to make this an occasional feature in the Diary. Millie and I have been judging since the 90s, and since I travel a lot for work and judge occasionally on the road, and we like to do a few out of town competitions together… we get to see more competitions than some judges, I suppose.
 Sometimes it’s something that seems insignificant, like a top to a sample cup. These were those plastic cups most competitions use. I think this was at Knickerbocker in Albany: run by Saratoga Thoroughbrews. While it may seem small, there’s something very satisfying about being able to shake a glass as much as you want without getting your hand wet, or spilling it on yourself. Plus it can hold aroma in quite well while you inspect appearance. As judges well know aroma can be a fleeting thing, yet head can be too. To judge a beer it can be a chicken or egg situation, as in “which best to look at first, which will I lose faster if I don’t get to it first?” The top helps to resolve that. Continue reading “A Beer Judge’s Diary: Things to Consider When Planning a Competition”

Written by Ken Carman for professorgoodales.net

The Topic: The Hop Experience: an Update, and Of Big Brews

  This is one of the ways we learn as homebrewers. We do, learn from the experience, then venture out to do, and brew, again.
  As you may have already read, a few weeks ago we did The Hop Experience in Clarksville, Tennessee. Hop pellets of different types were placed in bottles, “single hopped,” then resealed. Much later they were reopened and we assessed the differences in each hop.
 Miller was chosen for the last Experience and we all agreed that the corn sense, plus grassy-sense from bits and pieces of hop, made it less than satisfactory. Over carbonation got in the way too. That’s the short list.
 I knew, as a member of Music City Brewers, I would be getting some wort from Boscos on Big Brew Day, so I siphoned off two gallons and brought it to James Visger who boiled it for 30 minutes. Continue reading “Brew Biz: Werts and All”

Written by Ken Carman for professorgoodales.net

 I woke up at 12 midnight, Nashville time. I knew we had a long drive ahead and I had old-man-itis: no sleep syndrome. So by the time I gently prodded the angry bear; um, “wife,” awake without getting bit… too much, we were off to Starkville, Mississippi. The shortest route looked like down I-65 to Huntsville and over. Continue reading “A Beer Judge’s Diary: War of the Wort, Starkville, Mississippi”

Written by Ken Carman

 One of the more problematic things to really achieve as a judge is decent palate education. You can’t do it by simply drinking more beer. In fact, unless you drink a lot of defective beer, and styles you’re not fond of, and otherwise great beer that’s considered off style: drinking more may be counter-productive when it comes to educating the palate. An occasional defect session run by your homebrew club is great, except these are flavors, aromas and other parameters you need to be very familiar with; time is not your friend: memory fades, can even change.
 The summer before I took the BJCP test again, every week I would stop by Yankee Spirits in Sturbridge: or wherever my tour took me, and buy a beer. Then I would pollute it with Butter Buds, corn juice from a can of corn, Chloraseptic: anything that might mimic a beer defect. I started with NAs and worked my way up to Russian Imperials and Double IPAs.
 Clubs often have off flavor seminars, or club meetings where polluted beer is served: “polluted” with a defect kit offered by the BJCP containing vials of concentrated defect solution that; if you sniff them straight, really are quite “vile.” Beer could be left out in the sun, beer might be very, very old. You too can drink cardboard beer: yum!
 We do whatever nasty thing we need to do to beer to experience the defects we need to be looking for when judging beer.
 Note: I also recommend sessions, to provide just one example, where Anchor Porter, in a label-less bottle, is served as an American Amber and participants tell everyone why this is, or isn’t, an American Amber, or a Dry Stout, or…
 A few years ago I brought a case of Sam Adams single hop series: where they took their Latitude 48 and made several versions with only one hop each, to a Music City Brewers meeting for all to try. I think we found it educational… so I was already interested in being able to understand how different hops affect beer. This concept seems to have been filtered into something called The Hop Experience, where homebrewers can take a very simple beer, usually a light beer, and put different hops in it.
 Enter Clarksville Carboys…
 Millie and I are members of Music City Brewers, but we live closer to Clarksville than most Davidson County residents: out towards Ashland City. I used to live even closer in Cheatham County part of Joelton and worked for a while in Clarksville. So when we found out there was a homebrew club in Clarksville, Tennessee, we decided to visit occasionally, when we had a chance. Our first visit was about a year ago, and three weeks ago we got to visit again. That’s when James Visger, president, told us about their plan to do The Hop Experience. We’re into beer education, so we couldn’t resist. Continue reading “A Beer Judge’s Diary: The Hop Experience”

Review: TimberCreek Tap & Table

11191 Highline Drive, Meadville, PA 16335
814-807-1005
(This is Route 19, and right off Route 322. Route 322 is also route 6 at this point in PA)

Written by Ken Carman

  I was headed north for yet another tour and Millie, my wife, decided to tag along. The ball and chain was so hard to drag all the way… hey, I’m talking about the truck we were towing behind us. That “ball and chain!” Not my loving wife, Millie. (Whew, that was a good save.)
  No, goofing around aside, she want to check out a competition I judged at last year: AWOG, or “Amber Waves of Grain,” in Niagara Falls, NY. And she had some time she needed to take off from work, or lose it.
  Anywhosie, I checked out breweries and brewpubs we’d be close to before we went, other than The Church or Sprague in Pennsylvania: both of which we’ve tried and enjoyed. Mr. Google did a beer burp and came up with Voodoo Brewing. I even know the brewer: Matt Allyn, from a previous brew job in Titusville, PA at Four Sons. (Now called “Blue Canoe.”) I did a column on him and Four Sons a few years ago. But the hours didn’t work out for Millie to go there too. Besides, there was a second Google beer burp and…”Look, Millie! There’s this new brewpub and the pictures of the inside even look a little like the old Buckhead brewpub that was in Tallahassee!” Continue reading “Brew Biz: Werts and All”