Category: Beer

 Any competition is an adventure: the unpredictable happens, the entries provide even more of an adventure and interaction between judges is almost always, well, interesting…
 Millie, my wife, and I are somewhat unfamiliar with Birmingham, Alabama. I promoted this city a few times with my own shows I do for kids but never got any bookings. To be honest I didn’t do much promotion because I was staying at Coast to Coast resorts in my gas guzzling tour bus. To make the touring affordable there needed to be one close enough to make morning commutes rational and affordable. There weren’t any.
 So most of my contact with Birmingham was incidental: driving through to serve clients in the Gulf Coast, or going to Big Bob’s Barleywine Bash in Pensacola Beach. But when we were contacted by Lauren McCurdy about Good People Brewing’s Heart of Dixie Open we decided to go and judge.
 This was also Millie’s first competition judging as a Certified judge. She did well, but she always does.
 We didn’t have to be there until 12:30 to start judging at 1, so we left Nashville at about 6am.
 Remember what I said about “unpredictable?” The GPS sent us out to a project in west Birmingham. So we called the hotel: Highland, and they gave us more info. Apparently there are many 14th Streets in Birmingham.
 We arrived at about 11:15 and parking was, well, confusing. Money into the meter and then we went inside. But, first in, many judges checked in before us. We waited well over an hour and they acted surprised we were told we could check in early even though this was confirmed later by those who ran the competition. But let’s leave it at that and not get into the gruesome details, OK? You know, the bandana wrapped around my head, the squirt gun, the possum and raccoon we released who had a merry time chasing each other up and down the elevator shafts. Besides, none of that happened. We just wait: none too patiently I must admit, until wrinkles were ironed out by the bulldozer I hired.
  OK, I’m joking again. Let’s just say that after this snafu passed the stay at Highland was OK, the staff was kind, and other than the guy knocking on all the doors but ours at almost 3am, it went off without a hitch. And that’s NOT a joke. Seriously Dude?
 On to the main attraction! Continue reading “A Beer Judge’s Diary: Good People”

A Brew Biz Alert: 3 Breweries, Boca Raton, Florida

 Ken Carman is a BJCP judge; homebrewer since 1979, club member at Escambia Bay, Salt City, Clarksville Carboys and Music City Homebrewers, who has been writing on beer-related topics and interviewing professional brewers all over the east coast, for over 15 years.

Written by Ken Carman

 If you’re going to Miami area; specifically Boca, here are three breweries you might consider…
 This was an unexpected trip due to a death in Millie’s family, so no time to interview brewers, or do much in depth study. Plus, we were being brought around by my brother-in-law Dan Jenny and he had better things to do than haul around two beer judges.

Barrel of Monks Brewing
“A modern stop for house made Belgian beer” (Their slogan, not mine.)
1141 S Rogers Cir #5
barrelofmonks.com/
Cherry Chocolate Quad, Father Christmas, Wild Ale*******

The Funky Buddha Lounge and Brewery
2621 N Federal Hwy
thefunkybuddha.com/
Cherry Pie Wheat, Tropical Thunder Berliner, Smoked Stout, Red Dawn, Citra Az Down, Physical Graffiti

Brewzzi
Glades Plaza, 2222 Glades Rd, Boca Raton, FL
http://www.brewzzi.com/
Black Duke, Tropical Madness (raspberry), Brewzzi Reserve (barrel aged Russian Imperial?)

 We were lucky. One of the original plans was for Millie to fly down, into Fort Lauderdale. She might have come in right about the time of the shooting at the airport that day. But her husband, yup; “me,” wanted to show my support, even though they weren’t that close. It was more “for the family” in the larger sense, and I wanted to be with her for that. Continue reading “Brew Biz: Werts and All (Boca)”

The Topic: The Death of Brewpubs

By Ken Carman

 Years ago I wrote a column with the topic, “What Kills a Brewpub?” The example used was a brewpub in Covington, Kentucky where the brewer, who became a friend years later, had been the brewmaster. Let’s just say the conclusion was not the usual. During a time when brewpubs (90s) were the new “hot” item to open, I usually found brewpubs kacked because; trying to capitalize on the new trend, they came in and built a giant facility with more bells as whistles than one can imagine… then location, location got the best of them.
 The example I use a lot was Main Street Brewing in Worcester, MA, where they came into downtown, put in at least a 3 level brewery with a huge brew operation behind a giant horseshoe bar, second floor a concert hall for older rock groups needing a full stage like Chicago, the Association, 3rd floor a lot of regulation pools tables. There may have been a fourth level, but I don’t remember what was up there. Problem is they went into downtown Worcester, pretty much one of the deeper economic pits in mid-Mass at the time.
 Instead, in Tim’s case, the guilty party was “management, management.” OK, “horrid, horrid, horrid management.”
 A lot has changed since those days. Continue reading “Brew Biz: Werts and All”

Written by Tom Becham

The argument over the superiority of wine or beer has been around for decades, centuries, possibly millennia. But the line between the two beverages has not always been a clear one. Dogfish Head Brewing makes a brew called Midas Touch, based on ingredients found in a 2700 year-old drinking vessel excavated in Asia Minor. The beverage is made with barley, honey and grapes. It is, essentially a hybrid of beer, wine and mead. Continue reading “Tom Becham Reviews Green Flash Cellar 3: Oculus Sauvage with Red and Black Currants and Brett”

Last night, a great friend of mine, a winemaker and bon vivant and terribly well-traveled academic type, sent me a Facebook message that said, “I’m drinking a Deschutes Abyss. I don’t know what this stuff is but it’s not beer.” I didn’t even ask if he liked it. That would have been inviting one of those fascinating but very time-consuming dialogues that he and I have had periodically, ever since I started working in his Bainbridge Island, Washington, wine shop, back in the fall of 1998.I didn’t have time to discuss it but I know, beyond doubt, that his very acute palate picked up on one aspect of this fascinating, paradigm-altering ale that has had me mesmerized ever since that first vintage, in 2006: complexity.

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