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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The Beer Act and Chuck Shumer

(While this is a more local focused story, this act should help small breweries across the country.-PGA)

Sen. Charles E. Schumer peers into a fermentation tank with Peter Martin, director of brewery operations at Brown’s Brewing Co.,in Troy, Tuesday, where Sen. Schumer announced his support for a bill which would provide small breweries with a break on annual excise taxes. (Mike McMahon / The Record)

Written by Katie Nowak for troyrecord.com

TROY, NY— As he toured Brown’s Brewing Company Tuesday, nibbling on toasted barley and chatting with employees, Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-NY, paused to reflect on the brewery’s place in the financial landscape.

“It’s the new economy, right here,” Schumer said.

That new economy will get a boost if Schumer has his way, as New York’s senior senator announced his support for bipartisan legislation called the Brewers Excise and Economic Relief Act, or BEER Act, which would give small local breweries, like Brown’s, a tax cut, ultimately helping them reinvest in their operations and expand their workforce.

Breweries across the country currently pay a $7 excise tax on the first 60,000 barrels they brew annually, and Brown’s shoulders a $28,000 bill thanks to that tax. But the BEER Act would cut that tax in half for breweries which produce fewer than six million barrels per year, to $3.50 per barrel, and would take $2 off the tax on the remaining barrels up to two million.
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Beer Profile: Dog Bite

Dog Bite High Gravity Lager
Rock Wall Brewing Company
Rochester, NY
10% abv
(Picture from brewer’s site.)

I always try to say something nice when I profile a beer. I suppose if you are into the cheap malt liquors that the big brewers tried to pawn off African Americans in the 70s it might be barely tolerable, reemphasizing “barely.” Even then… I’ve had plenty better.

Light urine yellow, clear with a giant rocky head: it’s looks OK. There’s that sulfur: lager sense to the aroma and taste I’ve never cared for to the extreme. Mouthfeel is carbonation and the edgy sense of high alcohols to come. The taste delivers that harsh, brash savor you get when the brewer is more interested in pumping up the % than taste. I’m guessing there’s corn in here and maybe even corn sugar to hype it up some more. Higher alcs rip the tongue and your whole mouth a new mouth: not pleasant.

Beer Advocate says “Genessee Brewing.” The real Genny went outa biz a long time ago. Sad to see the brewer, who I have noticed switches names of their brewery depending upon the packaging, is trying to outdo the worst breweries did back then. I’ve had high grav lagers before. Though I prefer ales, the lagers can be quite good. Bite isn’t, and “bites” is a bit more appropriate.

This one may fit the profile of the style, I admit. But even then; even though some harsh might be expected: still too damn harsh. And I’d bet good money Bite can produce one hell of a hangover. Maybe taking it all the way to 10% wasn’t a great idea?

It’s barely drinkable. But why would one bother anyway?

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Lucky Seven at Brewvival

Seven beers to put on your must-try list

Written by T. Ballard Lesemann for charlestoncitypaper.com

The Brewvival (Feb. 26, 2011) ain’t a typical kegger or guzzle party. It’s a civilized celebration of beer appreciation, a craft beer festival for the super-fanatical (and geeky) beer aficionados in the Lowcountry. Presented by downtown retail shop Charleston Beer Exchange and local microbrewery COAST Brewing Co., the outdoor festival taps kegs of seasonal ales and lagers, high-gravity knock-outs, wood-aged sour beers, and bizarre rarities. Here’s a six-pack (plus one) of suggestions to help you navigate the offerings.

Westbrook Brewing Co.’s Uberbier #3 (17.5 percent a.b.v.)

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Michigan’s Beer Boom: for Craft Brewers, the Glass isn’t just Half-full, it’s Overflowing

Picture courtesy Jonathon Gruenke of the The Kalamazoo Gazette

(Guests pack the Dark Horse Brewing Co. in Marshall on a recent afternoon. The brewery is completing a $700,000 project to increase capacity, add a conference room, office and more.)

Written by John Liberty for the Kalamazoo Gazette

KALAMAZOO — These are heady times for Michigan craft beer.

While the state’s unemployment rate stood around 12 percent entering this year, breweries, microbreweries and brew pubs from West Michigan to Detroit to Bellaire and Bay City are adding jobs, increasing production and investing in expansions and renovations totaling more than $70 million.

Michigan’s total of more than 80 beermakers ranks fifth nationally; at least three more plan to open this year.

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Club Update: Music City Brewers


Nashville, TN area


Upcoming Franklin festival

wasn’t at the meeting so I may have not have an updated list. This is what I have so far for the Franklin Beer Festival. We will likely need 1 more volunteer and a few more kegs. Please contact me (bjones615@att.net) if you can do wither one.

Gil- Volunteer (not sure about beer donation)
Adam Hargrove -Volunteer
Tyler- Volunteer and beer donation
Brandon-Volunteer and Beer donation
Chris Rueger – Beer donation

Brandon

The club will give each member that donates a keg $5 for reimbursement.
_______________________________________
MCB officers for 2011

President-Chris Rueger
Vice President- Brandon Jones
Treasurer- Steve Johnson
Communications- Tyler Crowell
Burgermeister- Mark Forrester
Secretary- Millie Carman
______________________________________

Chris Rueger will be going down to Atlanta on Saturday morning. Anyone wanting to send entries down for PSBO can drop entries off at Rebel Brewer until closing time on Friday. Please be sure to include a little extra $$ for Chris’ trouble.
———————————— Continue reading “Club Update: Music City Brewers”

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MIT Grad’s Invention Turns Brewery Waste Into Fuel

Eric Fitch holds a Magic Hat glass in front of the digester building at the brewery in South Burlington, Vt. The Vermont brewery is giving new meaning to the idea of green beer. (TOBY TALBOT/Associated Press)

Written by John Curran for montereyherald.com

SOUTH BURLINGTON, Vt. — Before he started “saving the Earth, one beer at a time,” all inventor Eric Fitch knew about home brewing was that it could make quite a mess.

Once, he accidentally backed up the plumbing in his apartment building by dumping into his garbage disposal the spent grain left over from his India Pale Ale home brew. The oatmeal-looking gunk choked the pipes in his Cambridge, Mass., building, flooding the basement.

These days, he is doing something more constructive, fulfilling the dream of beer lovers everywhere by recycling the stuff: The MIT-trained mechanical engineer has invented a patented device that turns brewery waste into natural gas that is used to fuel the brewing process.
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The Argument for Canned Beer

Written by John Chilson for Askmen.com

There’s nothing better than a thirst-quenching swig of cold beer on a hot summer day after an exhausting hike or an afternoon spent in the sun. Wait a minute — that cold beer is in a can, and through years of exposure to social prejudice you believe it’s of a lesser quality than its bottled counterpart. Pondering the argument for canned beers, you come to realize that numerous craft micro brewers are now offering delicious, complex and interesting beers in cans. Your internal debate has also left you with numerous questions about canned beer: Does the aluminum can affect the taste? Does good-tasting beer store well in cans? Are there benefits to drinking a good beer from a can?

Sit back and finish your suds; we’re about to make that canned-beer experience taste just a bit better with our argument for canned beer.

The argument for canned beer

The biggest misconception about canned beer is that the aluminum can imparts a metallic taste. The insides of most cans and lids used for high-end craft beers have a sprayed coating, ensuring that there is absolutely no contact between the beer and the aluminum. Test the metal-taste theory: Pour a beer in a pint glass for a pal and have them taste it for any metal taste. Also consider that most people enjoy draft beer, which is housed in a metal keg. All you have to do is think of your canned beer as a mini keg.

As far as storage goes, canned beer might have a slight advantage over bottles in that cans actually protect beer from light and oxygen. Cans are airtight and oxygen-free. When light consistently hits a bottle of beer, it can turn skunky and ultimately undrinkable. Oxygen can also leach into a bottled beer under the bottle cap and affect the taste, which could potentially destroy the beer.

Want to read more? Please click…

HERE

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Top 10: Weird Beer Names

Written by Kyle Darbyson for Askmen.com

Strange beer names that inspire empty mugs
When it was originally enacted in 1516, the Bavarian Purity Law stated that beer should only contain water, hops and barley. It’s a simple recipe that hasn’t changed much through the years. So, with these draconian limits governing their product, brewers have been forced to extremes when differentiating their products from competitors. Some spend millions on slick advertising, while others pay a king’s ransom to athletes to pimp their beer. But for smaller breweries, it’s not that easy. Even if they produce a nectar that’s worthy of the Gods, it will rarely raise a blip in the crowded beer market.

So, these microbreweries have found an ingenious method to stand out from the clutter. Freed from the constraints of corporate, focus group-obsessed marketing departments, they’ve been able to develop bizarre, sometimes offensive and always attention-grabbing brand names, which results in strange beer names. It was a grueling bit of research but we managed to find a plethora of strange beer names, and here are 10 of our favorites.
Number 10: Fiddler’s Elbow

If you want read more, please click…

HERE

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Breweries and What Else They Do

Written by The Professor


There are a lot of interesting community services and extra things breweries and brewpubs do that most folks don’t know about, like McGuire’s Pipes and Drums: a Bagpipe Band, Pensacola, Florida and The Caledonian Brewery Pipe Band in Edinburgh. These type of bands often appear at brewery related functions, local events, festivals and fund raising events. The Professor thought it best to share something with our readers that brewers share out of the good of their hearts.

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It’s in the Can

Written by Jack Curtin for Craftbeer.com


If there is a tide in the affairs of men, it seems fitting that its currents made 2010 the year in which craft brewers packaging their brews in cans moved from oddity to trend. After all, 2010 marked the 200th anniversary of the can as a food and beverage container and the 75th anniversary of the beer can, which was introduced on January 24, 1935 with the test-market release of Krueger’s Cream Ale in steel cans.
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