Category: Beer

Review: Voodoo Brewery
215 Arch Street
Meadville, PA 16335
(814)337-3676
Brewer: Matt Allyn

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

  Twisting…
 Turning…
 …up, down, swinging around woodlands, fast past farmland and open fields, meandering around meadows and swinging by swamps as the weird contraption two wheels its way through hair pin corners…
  Last time I interviewed Matt Allyn I rode my Honda Big Ruckus scooter to Titusville, PA. Matt used to be the brewer at 4 Sons Brewing in Titusville. 4 Sons is closed now: another brewery occupies the same building: called “Blue Canoe…” and that is a better name than “Blue Gnu” because I’ve been told gnu tastes terrible in beer.
 (Surprised? So was I. Who gnu?)
 But all that was a long time ago, in a different brew galaxy seemingly far away, when I was a less seasoned writer. (More Cajun spices, please!)
 More than two years ago I heard rumors Matt was planning on opening a brewpub: or perhaps, as accurate… a brewery with a tasting room and great food, in Meadville: I even swung by sometime between 2008 to 2012 to see where it would be, saying to myself, “There? Ewe.”
 Rumors I probably heard in 2008 at Sprague Brewery… then forgot. Continue reading “Brew Biz: Werts and All”

Written by Dee Gross for crazycow252.blogspot.com

It has been nearly two decades since either my husband or me have been to the beach.  So, this summer, we decided the time had finally come.  With the Black Tripel and Kolsch nestled in the kegerator, we packed the car and headed to Florida.

The first few days, we spent in Orlando.

Courtesy beerstreetjournal.com

Profiled by Ken Carman for professorgoodales

Red grapefruit and ginger.
Red grapefruit nose in bottle. Same in the glass plus a hint of ginger and, behind that pale malt.

Great clarity, Urine color. Head slight: pinpoint bubbler and fades fast and leaves no remnants.

Mouthfeel: low carbonation and a bit “biting”” carbonic, for what there is. Low body.

Taste: grapefruit and pale malt, ginger. Citrusy: grapefruit red. Hint of a fruity tang.
This is a very clean, and very simplistic, quaff. If you’re looking for a very light, uncomplicated, “so what” summer brew: almost watery, have at it. I understand the concept of a simple summer beer. But if you care little for any complexity, just drink q Bud or Miller. But there is nothing more than pale malt, red grapefruit sense and just a hint of ginger. For what it is, pleasant, but needs more to be a 4 with complexity.

I understand the concept of a simple summer quaff some call lawnmower. But should the brewers go out of their way to lack complexity? An emphatic “no,” IMO. And that’s my sense here. So 3.

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 “prefecto.”

image courtesy Matt Rourke AP

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Nearly 80 years ago Richmond revolutionized the beer world. For it was in this Southern city in 1935 that canned beer — complete with how-to instructions — was first sold.

Krueger’s Cream Ale and its punch-top can became an instant hit, propelling the humble beer can to iconic status. That is, until Americans returned to bottles and the beloved craft brews they contained, a cultural turn that left canned beer looking decidedly low-brow.

But more recently craft brewers rediscovered cans, realizing they weren’t just retro-cool, but with a few tweaks might even be able to kick bottles in the can.

Want to read more? Please click…

HERE

 

The Topic: Entering Competition

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

 I will not tell you which competition I entered. My object here is not to dis the club, or those who volunteer hours of time setting up web sites, or decide the rules. My object is to make you understand decisions have consequences.
  Recently I entered a competition that had been on hiatus for a while, then started up again. Looking through scheduled BJCP competitions I found one just right for what I wanted to enter. Since I brew “odd” I contacted the organizer and asked a few questions.
  Good to go!
  So I went to the web site to enter.
  Nice web site! Or so I thought, until started to click: links didn’t work: one which told me where to ship to, another how to prepare and ship the bottles and the registration form didn’t work for my set up at home; no printer. I knew we were getting close to a deadline that was mid-4th of July weekend, so I contacted the organizer. Continue reading “Brew Biz: Werts and All”