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Ohio Gov. John Kasich signed a controversial brewery bill Tuesday afternoon that benefits craft brewers and was blasted by Anheuser-Busch InBev.

The legislation creates a new liquor permit for breweries that make less than 31 million gallons a year. The new permit, called an A-1c, will replace the A-1 permit for small brewers and reduce their annual licensing fee from $3,906 to $1,000.

Craft brewers have praised the legislation, saying it will allow them to invest more money into their breweries.

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Note: while this article if from a wine blog, certainly hombrewers can find useful information too.

One of the most useful pieces of kit that a winemaker can have is a hydrometer. Simple devices, they are closed cylindrical glass tube weighted with steel shot at one end (steel, not mercury or lead like some sources claim). Inside the tube is a piece of paper with a scale of numbers, usually running from 0.990 to 1.100, in increments of 0.002. Because the sealed tube is hollow, it floats in liquid. Because it is weighted, the heavy end points down, ensuring that the scale is upright and readable.To use it, you carefully place it into your wine (works on beer too) and read the scale where the liquid touches the tube.

Many people, when asked what a hydrometer does, will answer, ‘Measures alcohol’. Some will say, ‘Measures sugar’. Neither answer is true. Hydrometers compare the the ratio of the density of the liquid to the density of water, and that’s all. It’s what we can do with this reading that’s useful to us.

If we use a standard home winemaking hydrometer on our must before fermentation, the liquid will be very high in sugar, and thus will have a density higher than that of pure water. Depending on the wine type, it could by anywhere from 1.070 to 1.110 times as dense. After we pitch yeast and the fermentation is ongoing, the sugar will be metabolised into carbon dioxide and alcohol. As the sugar levels drop, the density of the must will go down and the hydrometer won’t float quite as high. This drop shows us the progress of fermentation–which is why it’s important to record the initial gravity reading, so you can compare it. More on this below.

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Profiled by Ken Carman for professorgoodales.net

Nose: oak, a little sweet. Mouthfeel sweet with some oak clinging to the roof of the mouth. Bourbon in still in the mix, but lighter. A little bourbon cling, but not as dominant. In #1 barrel aged the spices were obvious, though background. In number two I think the oak, with the bourbon almost perfectly counter balanced, made the spices kind of disappear.

Once again brown with great highlights, clarity good and head lingers: pillow. SRM high 20s.

I did find spices in the nose, but slight and hard to perceive. Oak is stronger, bourbon behind that. Mouthfeel is just a little more bourbon focused: sweet coats the back of the mouth. Medium body, hint of caramelization, good clarity with brown/ruby highlights. Soured orange sense, which I’m sure is the bourbon, on the palate.

What happened here is balance is actually working against us. With the bourbon just a hint on top, but the rest firmly beneath, it was superb. With the bourbon and the oak mostly in balance the spices seem less important, the oak and bourbon arguing so loudly on the palate the spices almost might as well not be there.

A very pleasing quaff, but, honestly, I didn’t enjoy it as much as the first, though it’s still is very, very good.

I wasn’t tempted at all to give this a 5 out of 5, but it still deserves 4. Maybe even 4.5, though I do feel the balance is so even the flavors are battling for attention a bit too much.

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.”

We’ve all seen a cold beer can sweat in the summer heat. Now, a new scientific study reveals the surprising effect that layer of condensation has on the temperature of your beverage.

If you’re familiar with evaporative cooling, there’s a chance you guessed that moisture keeps your can chilled. After all, when people sweat, we experience a cooling effect. Transitioning from a liquid phase to a gaseous one requires the input of energy; as the beads of moisture on our skin evaporate, that energy comes from our bodies in the form of heat, cooling us in the process. So is this what happens to a chilled beverage on a hot, humid day? Nope. In fact, it’s the exact opposite.


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Ph Readings of Commercial Beers

Written by Brandon Jones for embracethefunk.com

 

Assume all readings are taken at room temp (apprx 70 degrees F). I calibrate my ph meter fairly often, but don’t always show that here.

 

When I am able to do so…Gravity readings will also be recorded starting 8/25/2012. Thanks to everyone who suggested the idea! Please understand that some rare beers or beers I only have a small amount of, I just can’t sacrifice enough to de-carb for the reading.

  Click the reading for a picture of each beer being tested.
This page will be constantly updated as I am able to take the readings (meaning when I don’t forget!) Continue reading “Ph Readings Of Commercial Beers”

Beer people are good people.That’s one of the main things I’ve learned writing about beer these past few years. Last week, in wake up the Boston Marathon bombings, a bunch of beer people proved that statement true as many of them made donations and set up fundraisers to help the families of those killed and those who were injured in the two explosions.

One of the biggest events was the Buy a Beer for Boston, event that took place at the Tavern in Framingham. The speed that this event came together was impressive.

On Tuesday morning, David Carlson, owner of Marshall Wharf Brewing Company of Belfast, Maine, posted a message on Beer Advocate that they were going to be sending every can of beer they had to Massachusetts to help those who needed it, and they challenged other breweries to do the same.

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With the beer-less days of Passover just past and the sweltering get-me-a-cold-drink summer months up ahead, it seemed a perfect time for Israeli beer lovers to gather. And so they did − coming together at a beer festival in Jaffa recently to celebrate the art of the homeland brew, compare hops and yeast notes, talk barley − and also complain about that buzzkill of a subject: taxes.

“Now, here is a surprising fact,” begins Shachar Hertz, 37, owner of “Beer and Beyond,” a company dedicated to promoting beer consumption in Israel that co-sponsored the event, together with a local bartending school. “Israel is, after Finland, the biggest per capita consumer of…” But, alas, no, he shakes his head, looking around the underground parking lot-turned-beer-cellar and festival venue. “Beer,” despite Hertz’s best efforts, is not the next word to roll of his tongue. It’s “vodka” − thanks in no small part to the Russian immigration of the past decades, and with some help from Tel Aviv bartenders who have turned late night vodka chasers into the must-have giveaway item of any self respecting bar.

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