Category: Beer

Written by Rev. Walter Snyder

This is an excerpt from an on site answer to a reader’s question about beer in the Bible. The complete: less beer related answer, can be found HERE.

Like you, I like to sit down occasionally to figure out what life was like in Bible times. It helps to understand the people and situations we meet on Scripture’s pages. I also like to sit down with a good beer. It helps to relax and refresh a world-weary pilgrim.

Since we Lutherans are often stereotyped as beer-lovers, it seems appropriate to examine Biblical precedent. After all, Martin Luther (probably only partially in jest) commented upon doing what he could, then having a brew and getting out of the Lord’s way during the Reformation: “I opposed indulgences and all the papists, but never with force. I simply taught, preached, and wrote God’s Word; otherwise I did nothing. And while I slept [cf. Mark 4:26–29], or drank Wittenberg beer with my friends Philipp [Melanchthon] and [Nicholas] Amsdorf, the Word so greatly weakened the papacy that no prince or emperor ever inflicted such losses upon it. I did nothing; the Word did everything.”
Continue reading “Beer in the Bible?”

Pensacola/Emerald Coast area

Continue reading “Club Update: Escambia Bay”

The Church and Head Brewer: Brant Dubovick

Profiled by Ken Carman

This is a rather odd, one off ale: probably one of the most interesting I’ve had. From one of the most interesting brewpubs in the country: The Church in Pittsburgh, PA. For more on The Church, click here. I had the growler filled in mid-August but just cracked it open because I forgot about it. The intent: have my audience sample it on Labor Day. Oops: missed it when I hauled the bottles over to the Hotel.

Stored quite well. That’s why all brewpubs should have the option for Grolsch style bottles with a clamp-able ceramic top. Not sure if The Church does. My growler. I collect.

A bit soapy, but the lip balm used as a hopping could have provided that common defect. In this case: no defect at all: added to the experience. Sweet. A bit cloying in an interesting way. Not much head to start at all and what little there was died fast. Cloudy. Light amber. Mouthfeel sweet, medium body, roof of the mouth gets a fullness sense: body-wise. The tongue: sweet with a tad tart. There is another spice they told me about I have since forgotten the name of that adds just a bit of “pepper.” Not complex, but the kind of beer you want to have those who claim “all beers taste the same” to sample.

The nose seemed to sense a bit of a pilsner malt focus and rhubarb-like tart up front. The head faded fast in the glass, but I don’t remember if it did at The Church. Storage can effect such things despite the clamp top: especially after a few opens and then… “Oops! I should review this sucker!”

A bit like a light version of my infamous rhubarb ales I’ve brewed. Warning: may not satisfy judges who know nothing of rhubarb, like some in the South. They may insist it’s a defect. It’s not. Also a bit like Flemish sour ales. A mild Gueuze would be another valid comparison, perhaps.

This is so unique I would recommend keeping it on tap year around. Those who go to brewpubs only because someone drags them there, and prefer wine lets say, might find this interesting. Even a beer geek/beer judge/reviewer found the concept and the taste intriguing.

Lip balm? Am I inoculated now? Hopefully I’ll never have cold sores again.

Ken Carman is a BJCP judge; homebrewer since 1979, club member at Escambia Bay and Music City Homebrewers, who has been interviewing professional brewers all over the east coast for over 10 years.

Written by Ken Carman

Topic for this edition: Extreme Brewing

This is a tough edition for me to write. I don’t think you’ll find a bigger fan of extreme brewing. But sometimes enough is enough. I think the idea for this column slipped into my cortex when the Professor posted Brew Dog’s 55% beer bottled, literally, in dead animals. Hey folks, there’s “extreme,” there’s boring Miller time and then there’s stupid gimmick time, and I don’t just mean Rocky the Squirrel’s gut filled with beer.

Before (Courtesy wii60.com)………….. After?
Continue reading “Brew Biz: Werts and All”

Writer not attributed, from dailymail.co.uk

A Finnish anchorman has been sacked after being caught live on air drinking a bottle of beer. Kimmo Wilska got into trouble when he pulled out the brew during recorded footage about licensing laws. However, when the report cut back to the studio, the country’s most well known English-speaking newsreader was seen taking a swig.

A YouTube video shows Wilska looking startled and spilling some of the alcohol down his suit before he wrapped up the show. More than 430,000 web users have viewed the video making it the latest internet hit.

Furious television bosses have now fired Wilska, despite him telling them the whole incident had been a prank intended to make the behind-the-scenes crew laugh. However, they refused to accept his excuses and fired Wilska – who is described by fans as the Barry White of Finland for his distinctive and deep tone of voice. The gaff has also led to Wilska being compared to movie character Ron Burgundy.

Funny man Will Ferrell played the San Diego newsreader in the 2004 hit. The loud-mouthed character is seen knocking back scotch live on air.

For more pictures and info click…

HERE

Kimmo Wilska has been compared to Ron Burgundy who was seen drinking scotch on air in the 2004 comedy movie Anchorman.

Profiled by Ken Carman

Moylan Brewing
Novato, Caifornia
9.2%

I was warned that this was well over 100 IBUs. Not sure the hop mix here, but I doubt it. I was the willing victim of many Tim Rastetter ales in the 90s at Brew Works south of Cinci that really were well over 100 and, until I got used to them, had to be cut by moi’. Of course the hop mix is crucial. You could have a lot of citrus and floral but never really leave that satisfying burn that 100 IBUs delivers, even if it does peak over 100. And you can have a hell of a lot of burn but little substance to the hop mix that doesn’t reach 100. This comes close, so maybe it is, but the hop mix could be done better either way. Not bad at all. Just not the best one can do when one reaches the speed of light equivalent in hop-world: 100 and over. The Rastetter hop balance was always damn near perfect. This? Needs some tweaking.

Continue reading “Beer Profile: Hopsickle Imperial Ale”

Written by Jennifer Welsh for Discovermagazine.com

A new type of beer is being marketed to a very select demographic: space tourists. The special beer is about to undergo testing in a near-weightless environment to qualify it for drinking in space.

Unlike other space beers, which are created from barely that grew on the International Space Station, this space beer is being made especially to be consumed in space. The brew is a team effort from Saber Astronautics Australia and the 4-Pines Brewing Company (aka Vostok Pty Ltd), and will be given its low-gravity try-out by the non-profit organization Astronauts4Hire. From the Vostok Pty Ltd Facebook page:
Continue reading “Space Tourists Will Get Their Own Special Space Beer”

Ken Carman is a BJCP judge; homebrewer since 1979, club member at Escambia Bay and Music City Homebrewers, who has been interviewing professional brewers all over the east coast for over 10 years.

Written by Ken Carman

Yazoo Brewing Company
910 Division Street
Nashville, TN 37203
(615)891-4649

My wife Millie and I have spent many hours at the old Yazoo tasting room in the far older Marathon Auto manufacturing building,

Marathon ceased production in 1914. One must wonder how the building lasted this long; especially with Marathon painted on the side: but we’re grateful. It definitely provided an interesting atmosphere for sipping quality beer.

When we first met Linus, in the late 90s, Yazoo was but a fantasy. As an entertainer who dreamed of living off my talents, and built a business touring the east coast, I know the magic and the hard, hard work it takes to make any big dream come true. We were all members of Music City Homebrewers. I believe we met during our annual competition where Linus had, once again, submitted Dos Perros. Beer Advocate has it listed as an American Brown. That isn’t quite right, in my opinion. If I remember right, Dos Perros started as a version of Dos Equis, only with an ale yeast. From their site…

Continue reading “Brew Biz: Werts and All”

Written by Andrew Rosenblum for accidentalblogger.typepad.com

When a Detroit minister named Mayowa Lisa Reynolds went to her City Council last summer to complain about malt liquor advertising, she came prepared. The minister had conducted a survey in which she found a Colt .45 billboard in every square mile of the city. She looked in the nearby, majority white suburbs of Plymouth and Royal Oak.There were none.

Still, the Colt .45 billboards were relatively inoffensive by the traditional standards of malt liquor advertising. In one notorious 1986 print spot for Midnight Dragon, a voluptuous woman grasped a squat 40 ounce bottle above the tagline “I could suck on this all night.” In the 90s, charismatic gangster rappers incorporated 40s into their tales of murder and drug-dealing, driving malt liquor sales to all-time highs. In contrast, the 2009 Colt .45 ads merely featured a cartoon drawing of longtime spokesman Billy Dee Williams dressed in mauve and beige evening wear, accompanied by the slogan, “Works Every Time.”

Continue reading “What was Malt Liquor?”