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 Profile: Cranker’s Brewing’s Aphrodisiac Chocolate Pomegranate Imperial Stout

Profiled by Ken Carman

While the chocolate was muted, it provided a delightful dark chocolate-like chewiness. It’s as if they used a dark chocolate sauce to give it more mouthfeel, minus what would be an inappropriate “sauce” sense. I’ve had that before when judging. I swear one brewer use a straight sriracha sauce and carbonated it. Great score? No, not really.

The pomegranate is subtle, but stands out enough to take the deep dark maltiness for a gentle ride

Nose is roasted malt and hint of fruit. Not much hops in aroma or on the palate: not needed.

You would never know this is 9%. That takes talent.

Black as all hell. Tan head, pillow. Some rising legs in solution: hard to see, though it does pour like a Guinness with that brooding cloud of bubbles that finally consolidates into a big head.

It’s a dark, complex malty, fruity, party, and you’re invited. 3.9 BA, 3.7 Rate Beer.

4.3

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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.”

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___________________________________________Beer HERE

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kYes, to the left is Ken Carman. Obviously Ken is a mere cartoon character who reviews beer. A magical nymph turns the beer into something a cartoon character can drink.

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China’s New Craft-Beer Bully

The global giant that owns Budweiser wants to dominate the craft-beer market in China.

In late 2015, Chandler Jurinka realized someone was spying on his beer taps.

Jurinka and a partner own Slow Boat Brewery, a Beijing craft-beer maker that distributes its beers across a dozen cities in China and runs a new three-level brewpub in Beijing’s nightlife district. (Jurinka named the brewery after the 1940s Frank Loesser love song “On a Slow Boat to China.”) The business is driven in part by sales of kegs to restaurants and bars in China’s capital, where good beer isn’t as easy to find as it is in, say, Seattle or Kansas City.

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HERE

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Beer Profile: Rivertown’s Death (Imperial Stout with Ghost Peppers)

Profiled by Ken Carman for PGA

The ghost pepper is hot and not that interesting: just hot. The RIP provides support… but not much. Way in the background. Dark malts obvious but really not much to the nose on this one.

Black, black and black. How much “appearance” is there really to this style? Good tan head that fades fast, tiny bubbles.

Taste, as mentioned, is heat dominant. It’s not overwhelmingly hot. But the balance is slightly off. The malt should strike the palate with more intensity. Almost London Brown-like. Tad sweet under the hot. Recommend calling it an Imperial London Brown, and backing off on the pepper a tad, while adding just a little flesh of the jalapeño for flavor, or other pepper.

Usually Rivertown is better than this.

BA score 3.5/60 @ Rate Beer

3.9

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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.”

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_________________Beer HERE

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Opinion: Your state is soaking you for beer money

There are a whole lot of taxes behind the price of your six-pack of beer. But how much you pay depends largely on where you live, and how beer-friendly your state is in general.

Before you even purchase a pint, six-pack or case of beer, excise taxes are imposed on that beer on both the federal and state levels. In the untamed corners of state beer law, excise taxes range from a scant 2 cents per gallon in Wisconsin to $1.29 in Tennessee, more than double the federal levy.

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HERE

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61 Brewers Speak Out: What I Wish I’d Known Before Starting a Brewery

What’s one of the most common responses that we got?  People loving their beer too much!  Planning for expansions from the start is key… especially with how quickly the craft beer industry is growing!

Derek from 192 Brewing

I am still amazed at how fast we are growing, so I think that if I had seriously known how fast the growth was going to take place, I might have spent a little more time researching “next steps” in the growth process. I assumed I would be able to grow at a slow comfortable pace, but there is too much demand to let pass by, so the hours are much longer than expected to try our best to keep up with the next immediate needs of the business, and that tends to be the only focus for about 6 months out of the year. It can be a constant rat race to get the projects done just in time for them to be already behind production needs upon completion. This also causes a lot of stress on the team, even for those that also see the potential for the constant growth. A larger brewing system is a next step that looms over our heads at the moment, and will require a change of location for that operation.

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HERE

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Akronym Brewing hopes for fall opening in downtown Akron

Akronym

Akronym Brewing Co., a new production brewery and tasting room that hopes to launch in downtown Akron this fall, is looking to be compared to the city’s brewing greats.

“We’re going to be making world-class beer like Thirsty Dog and Hoppin’ Frog,” co-founder and brewer Shawn Adams said. “Our main thing is we’re going to focus on quality.”

Thirsty Dog and Hoppin’ Frog are the city’s two established breweries that have won multiple awards at national and international beer competitions.

 

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HERE

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Breweries are breathing new life into vacant buildings across Northeast Ohio


CLEVELAND – Breweries are breathing new life into vacant, often abandoned properties throughout Northeast, Ohio. And they’re doing so in an increasing amount.

Cleveland was at the epicenter of the foreclosure housing crisis that left swaths of properties and plots of land vacant and abandoned. Tens of thousands of run-down empty buildings and lots have become permanent sights and structures in neighborhoods across the city. The Cuyahoga Land Bank documented 15,474 vacant residential lots countywide in 2017.

The region’s microbrewery industry is breathing new life into forgotten spaces that have been neglected for years.

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HERE