Author: Professor Good Ales

Mythical poster at The LTS Good for What Ales You Beer Journal. Loves good beer. Hates same old, same old. Muses that Bud and Miller might as well be brewed in urinals. Drinks lagers too, if they are complex and interesting.
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Beer-Chugging Black Bear Visits Bar, Roams Florida Town

Written by Larry McShane for The New York Daily News

A thirsty 300-pounder black bear is wandering the streets near a Florida marina, chug-a-lugging beers found on back porches and popping in at the Happy Snapper Tiki Bar in Debary, Fla.

Customers stood and stared when the wild creature arrived at the waterfront bar, according to eyewitness Sandy Harvey.

“We all rushed over and we call watched the bear just meander all around,” she told FOX 35-TV.

Other local residents report the bear tearing into a case of beer — shredding the cans to get a taste — and knocking around in the middle of the night.
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Facing the Loss of a Tax Exemption, Lawmakers, Brewers Craft a Solution

Written by By Pervaiz Shallwani for The Wall Street Journal

State and federal lawmakers said Sunday they have brewed a way to keep local craft beermakers’ profits from going flat.

(The question being: what is the favorite quaff of a black bear? -PGA)

A March 28 New York state court ruling declared unconstitutional a law that had exempted local brewers from a state excise tax and registration fees. Under the ruling, all distributors now have to pay a 14 cent per gallon in state tax and an additional 12 cents per gallon for beer sold in New York City.

Losing the exemption would mean a $434,000 cost increase for a craft brewer that produces 100,000 barrels of beer a year, said U.S. Senator Charles Schumer during a news conference Sunday.

“That’s a staggering amount that could make it difficult for these burgeoning, wonderful businesses to stay in business,” Mr. Schumer said.

State lawmakers announced Sunday a bill that would partially solve the problem, giving New York’s craft brewers—those that produce less than 6 million barrels a year—a 14 cent per gallon tax credit on the first 200,000 barrels produced.

The bill is backed by Assemblyman Joseph Lentol, a Democrat from Brooklyn, and state Sen. Lee Zeldin, a Long Island Republican. Both have notable craft breweries in their districts.

“We have to take action against” the ruling, Mr. Lentol said.

A spokesman for Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver said in an email that “different proposals” were being considered to address the court ruling.

“It’s a shame that in state small brewers could be hurt because of this decision,” the spokesman said.

New York brewers would get most of the monetary value of the old exemption back if the state legislation is passed and coupled with a federal proposal introduced in March that would cut federal excise taxes on brewers that make less than 1.9 million barrels a year.

Mr. Schumer is co-sponsoring that bill.

State brewers and bar owners had complained that the court ruling threatened to stunt a booming industry in New York. Bars said it would force them to raise the cost on pints, and brewers said they may move some of their operations to neighboring states.

But the Shelton Brothers, a Massachusetts-based distribution company that brought the lawsuit, had complained the tax exemption and fees were putting out-of-state brewers at an unfair disadvantage.

Shelton Brothers President Daniel Shelton said the move by lawmakers was what he expected. “It’s going to be the same effect, but it’s clear the instate people are supposed to pay the tax the same way we are, but the state has made a decision to give it back to in-state brewers,” he said.

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Beer Man: This Magic Hat Imperial Pilsner is Truly Regal

Written by By Todd Haefer for The (Appleton, Wis.) Post-Crescent

Magic Hat’s latest entry in its limited-edition Humdinger series lives up to that name.

Many times, breweries simply double the amount of hops in a beer and slap the “Imperial” designation on the label. That is lazy brewing. Sometimes, though, you get a beer like Over the Pils that “imperializes” each characteristic of a style to create a winner.

First off, kudos to Magic Hat for resisting the urge to use a piney, grapefruity American hop variety, like some Imperial pilsners I’ve sampled. If I want that type of beer, there are hundreds of American IPAs to choose from. If I want an Imperial pilsner, I want to taste lots of grassy, citrusy German-style hops.

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From the Bottle Collection: Archive

Here at Professor Goodales we treasure the work our columnists do, so we are starting a new feature. Once in a while, we will walk through the vast digital warehouse, not unlike where they stored the Ark in Indiana Jones, and republish an occasional archived article. This is our second archived edition…

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 going to be an interesting edition: I thought I’d combine a profile with the Bottle Collection, since the first time I had Theakston Old Peculier was quite a while ago.

The last time I had this was at a wedding in Utica, NY in the 80s and I almost threw fruit at the bartender. He kept insisting Old Peculiar was only “properly served” with fruit extract in it and an orange slice on the rim. He told me because dark beers were too bitter and “everyone drank it that way.” Of course by then I had had Guinness Foreign Extra in Montreal and I told him it wasn’t all that “dark,” or “bitter,” and I wouldn’t let him ruin such a grand experience.

He relented.

Maybe it was my threat I didn’t make to give him a very “personal” fruit filled experience. But I felt like saying that. I think he was surprised when after savoring the experience I ordered another, sans fruit, fruit slice and, oh, did I mention? He wanted to salt the rim of the glass too.

Gack!!!

Typical beer ignorance that was so dominant in the 80s; a time when “exotic” sometimes meant a Miller Dark in many places. Of course Miller Dark was pretty much the same damn recipe as regular Miller except food coloring and maybe a pinch of some denser, roasty: more interesting, malts.

So I saw Old Peculier at Midtown in Nashville just before Turkey Day and said, “What the hell, let’s see if it’s as good as I remember.”

It was.

Peculier was named after the peculier of Masham. Yes, “Masham,” I’m sure, is an unintentional brewing pun. A “peculier” is a parish outside the jurisdiction of a diocese. Old P is an Old Ale: not classified as actual “Old P” which would be real disgusting, so let’s not dither on that thought, shall we? Yes, classified as “Old Ale” even though the original gravity is just a tad low for the style. You’d never know.

Caramel nose with malt accent: no hops sensed, Old Peculier is brown with great ruby-esk highlights. The mouthfeel is very low on the carbonation side and it tastes malty sweet with a few darker malts peeking out in the taste. No diacetyl. Not real dark, by any means. There’s a very slight peated sense to the malt. Though the carbonation is low in the mouthfeel it fills the mouth with slightly sweet malt. But there are bubbles in the body, in the glass.

White, rocky, head that fades fast.
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Sierra Nevada Founder Talks Craft Beer: Past, Present, Future

Written by Tom Rotunno for cnbc.com

In 1980, Ken Grossman founded the Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. and over the years turned it into one of the first and most successful craft breweries ever built.

This week at the Brewers Association’s “Craft Brewers Conference” in San Diego, we caught up with this brewing pioneer to talk about Sierra Nevada and the business of craft beer: past, present and future.

What was your first exposure to brewing?

When I was growing up in Southern California I had a neighbor that was actually a rocket scientist, he was an accomplished home brewer and home wine maker. His son and I were best buddies going through elementary school, junior high, and high school. His dad would be brewing something on his stove every weekend and had rows of carboys fermenting away. I was just intrigued by all of that and think it sort of stuck.

What was it like in the early days of building your brewery?

In those days, in the late 70’s when I was planning the brewery, there was only a couple of small brewers in the U.S. The whole U.S. brewing industry was down to about 40 independent companies and I had a very small goal of brewing about a thousand barrels a year. Maybe 1,500 barrels a year and our business plan reflected a limited ambition at that point. On paper it looked like we could survive and make a living. It was a struggle the first year or so, and then people started loving our beer and we kept growing and haven’t stopped since.

How hard was it to get the ingredients you needed in the beginning?

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Beer Review: Super Brew 10

Reviewed by Tom Becham for Professorgoodales.net

If you believe that Nicolae Ceaucescu and Dracula are the only great evils to emerge from Romania, you’ve obviously never tried Super Brew 15.

Is it really that bad, or am I exaggerating? Well, that’s the thing. It’s tough to separate the reality from hyperbole with this beer.

First, some background. One of my beer quirks is that I like to try beers from as many different countries as I can. Largely, this experience has been one of mediocre pale lagers. Occasionally, I’ll find a gem, like Sri Lanka’s Lion Stout, or Kenya’s Tusker Lager. And just as often, I’ll find some that are vaguely unpleasant. But never before have I encountered a beer as hideous as Super Brew 15.

A couple months ago, my wife and I were in Torrance, California at the Alpine Village market. I spotted this brew on the shelf in back with the beers. I had never had a Romanian beer, so I picked this up, along with some excellent German brews.
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