Author: Professor Good Ales

Craft enthusiasts enjoy exploring the depths of pints uncharted, but they don’t sail without navigational equipment. One of the most ubiquitous and least comprehensible methods of navigating the heavy seas is the IBU scale.

The rate of bittering is an important influence on taste as the success in the marketplace of the Dogfish Head brand’s 60 Minute IPA and 90 Minute IPA has demonstrated. But an IBU scale is more accurate for measuring bitterness than any method based on the rate of hops addition.

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Two big things on today’s show as we get ready for HomeBrewCon! The first, we asked you for your Brewday disasters and boy did you deliver. So we’re going to run through some of our favorite stories of things gone horribly wrong.

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The national battle between Big Beer and local craft breweries is playing out on the shelves of your neighborhood Publix — and some favorite Florida brewmakers are losing. The guild that represents Florida brewers says at least 12 small breweries have had merchandise reduced or completely taken off the shelves in some Publix stores across the state. What’s in its place? Craft brews from across the country — several of which are owned by one of beer’s biggest players, Anheuser-Busch InBev.

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The Brew is Out There!

Knowledge Show

When everything is going right, our fermentations run easily with a smooth transformation of sugar into ethanol and CO2. When things don’t go right, well, our beer pays the price. In this episode, we’ll look at the most common off-flavors we’ve encountered, what causes them and how to prevent/fix them. So, sit back, we’re going off the rails…

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What happens when your pub chain wants a brewery but has no room? You make room! When Brian Herbertson joined the Simmzy’s group, that was his challenge. The answer – stick it on the second floor! Together we sit down and discuss just how you put a brewery on the second story, tackling supplying a whole chain with beer from one location and his spin on the summer’s new hit style – Brut IPA.

 

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The Brew is Out There!

Technique Show

Yorkshire Square’s Andy Black has opinions. In the episode, Drew sits down with LA’s guardian of the cask to discuss session beers, making a beer festival worthy of attending and stretching his equipment with the strangle old method of double or reiterated mashing. Sit back with a proper pint for this episode of the Brew Files

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HERE

Craft beer has a complicated relationship with pilsner. It’s the world’s most widely consumed, most widely copied and emulated beer style, but the vast majority of those beers either don’t actually qualify for the “pilsner” style guidelines or come anywhere close to the Brewers Association definition of “craft.” And yet, it’s also a style with a rich history, dating back to the famous ur-pils of 1842, Pilsner Urquell. For more detailed information on the style’s history and current role, by the way, check out our companion piece: Let’s Talk Beer Styles: Pilsner, which was published when we last blind-tasted this style back in 2016.

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I don’t get shocked a lot, in this business.

I get surprised quite a bit; happily surprised. “Desperately bummed“, occasionally, and those, for reasons of taste and philosophy, just go unmentioned. But actual shock, of the kind that literally makes your eyes pop open like window shades, is rare. VERY rare.

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Change is the defining characteristic of the American craft brewing industry. Evolving slowly, new trends and fads appear and then solidify or transition to the next form. We started with anything-other-than-light-lagers, Ambers, and light Pale Ales, before shifting into the early ages of wonder. Increased hop levels, decidedly non-Reinheitsgebot-friendly ingredients, booming alcohol counts, and barrel aging followed. Now we’re engulfed in a fog of hazy beers. Looking ahead to the rest of 2018, the rapid transformation and mutation of American craft brewing will undoubtedly persevere. Yet one thing always remains the same: the absence of boredom.

So what awaits us in the year ahead?

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Fermentation tanks at Shmaltz Brewing Company in Clifton Park, about 20 miles north of Albany, in 2013

Astoria, Queens-based Singlecut Beersmiths has purchased Shmaltz’s brewery in Clifton Park north of Albany, greatly expanding the capacity of the five and a half year old brand. The brewery will roll out several beers year-round out of the Clifton Park facility, allowing their Queens facility to brew a wider selection of beers, including the traditional lagers that were to be the primary focus of Singlecut when it first opened.

Singlecut had been in the market for a second facility outside of New York for a while. Their Astoria brewery has been at maximum capacity for two and a half years. In 2017, it was purchased outright by Singlecut, so it was clear they would keep their roots planted in New York City. But that operation comes at a cost: a capacity that prevented the brewery from scaling up, which often kept beer hard to find in the markets where they’ve expanded and at a high cost for consumers. Expanding capacity will help reduce case limits Singlecut had on accounts in markets like Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and upstate New York. Plus, the new facility will allow for economies of scale, Singlecut GM Dan Bronson told us, and would result in significant cost reductions for beer brewed in Clifton Park. The MSRP for a 4-pack of 18-Watt IPA will be $12.99.

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