A Place to Gather and Talk
COOPERSTOWN, NY, August 8, 2012 — Each year near the midpoint of summer, one of the country’s most anticipated and best organized beer festivals is held in the beautiful setting of Cooperstown, NY, seemingly in the middle of nowhere. It is called Belgium Comes To Cooperstown (BCTC).
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If you are anywhere near the Adirondacks this August, or September, the Beaver River Beer Tastings are set for the weekend before Labor Day, Labor Day and September 22nd. For more information please click here.
The first picture is the Norridgewock Riverboat: one way people attending can get to Beaver River. The next is part of downtown Beaver River, and the third is the location of the first tasting.
Continue reading “Pictures from the Beaver River Beer Tastings”
The Topic: Wasps and Beer, a New Beer Frontier
Listening to NPR this morning I heard a report about how the European hornet contributes to the complexity of wine. Apparently they are, unlike other insects, able to pierce the skin of grapes. Inside these hornets there’s a yeast they regurgitate into grapes that helps make wine more complex.
Think that’s “gross?†Well if you like alcohol, then you don’t even want to know what yeast are doing that creates alcohol.
Question: a new frontier for brewers?
Continue reading “Brew Biz: Werts and All”
These are my beer tastings I run every year in the Central Adirondacks. Below the “more” feature you’ll see a picture of one of the entrances to Beaver River. Will post more in a week or two, when this ad is reposted…
Three FREEBeer Tastings!
Beaver River Station, New York and Stillwater, NY
Have a remote Adirondack adventure WITH beer! Beaver River: a town with no roads going to it, is on the eastern edge of Stillwater reservoir, a few miles past Big Moose, NY. Every year Certified BJCP judge and homebrewer, Ken Carman, offers plenty of free beer and interesting information about styles of beer for beer lovers and the beer curious. These are not your average quaffs. Ken collects VERY weird beers. And during the first beer tasting Salt City Home Brewers will be there: homebrew club out of Syracuse, NY. Homebrewers LOVE to discuss beer and, if you want to more learn about homebrewing, you’re in luck! Imagine all this in an idyllic, remote, Adirondack setting: two of the tastings in a town with no roads going to it!
When and Where?
First date: August 25th. Salt City Homebrewers (of Syracuse) will be there with Ken, behind the Thompson family’s Norridgewock in Beaver River Station. Need to do one of the other tastings? Ask Ken: he’s been brewing since 1979, when Jimmy Carter made it legal.
Sept. 1st: in front of,one of the last, classic, Adirondack hotels: Beaver River Lodge,
September 22nd, Stillwater Hotel, Stillwater, NY.
All tastings: 2pm, except Stillwater, which will start @ High Noon. The ghost of Gary Cooper will NOT be there, nor the ghosts of the Earps, a last name that sounds a tad like what you do after drinking beer.
How do I get there, what if I need to stay over?
Well, on the first two dates the Norridgewock Riverboat leaves at 12:30, and you get a tour of the lake too! Return: 3:30. Tasting begins at 2 in Beaver River, plenty of time, (Tasting starts at 12 in Stillwater 9/22.) You could use your boat or take a boat taxi. Walk in from Twitchell Lake. Norridgewock, Stillwater Hotel and Beaver River Lodge all have rooms. Directions to Stillwater, where your beer adventure begins: from Lowville take the Number 4 Road, then right on to Stillwater Rd, From Big Moose: Big Moose turns into a dirt road. Keep going. At the “T†take a right. Stillwater Hotel on the left about ½ a mile. Going to Beaver River? Please call and make arrangements from there in advance. And PLEASE don’t just keep driving past Still water Hotel. Cars don’t swim.
Unless you have a working Amphicar, then lucky (???) you. Note: better bring a Brit mechanic with you just in case.
Want to know more? Looking for contact numbers? The bear you asked was lost too?
Beaver River Lodge @ 315 376 3010 Stillwater Hotel @ 315 378 6470
Norridgewock @ 315 376 6200 Ken Carman @ 315 376 6625
Continue reading “Free Beer!!!”
10 tips for spotting a craft beer/homebrew drinker:
10. Is the only person drinking beer out of a pint glass at a party.
9. Is constantly explaining the difference between an ale and a lager to people that don’t care.
8. Can usually be found sipping something the color of motor oil out of a goblet….very slowly.
7. Laughs when a beer commercial claims its beer is “triple hopped”.
6. Will take 10 minutes to explain to a bartender how to pour a beer.
5. Often sniffing the contents of their glass with a satisfying “…ahhhh!”.
4. Approves of “Born on dates” but only on a Barleywine or a mead.
3. At least half of their t-shirts have beer logos on them.
2. Is always trying to explain why their homebrew tastes “bitter” to their “plain beer” friends.
1. Has a beer bottle opener on their keychain.
More than 100 years ago in 1902, a man by the name of William F. Peck built a home in the small, but booming mining town of Tonopah, Nev. He didn’t build with wood, brick or any other traditional materials for that matter; rather he used 10,000 empty beer bottles.
Other bottle houses popped up in the following decades as homes were often built in desert mining towns where saloons and their respective empty bottles, were more plentiful than construction materials. Short of necessities and far from freight lines, the mining town residents would likely be praised for their recycling efforts by builders today.
Continue reading “Building With Bottles”
Over the weekend eBay began removing auctions for certain craft beer brands. Most noticeably auctions for unopened bottles of Russian River, Cantillon, Lost Abbey and Hill Farmstead were ended. As of this posting a few new auctions have popped up, so it will be interesting to see if those are removed today. Bottle and growler auctions on eBay have been the subject of a growing debate in the past year. Many breweries have publicly issued statements denouncing what they believe is a “Black or Gray Market†for beer sales. On the flip side of that coin, buyers of these auctions have said eBay is the only way they can obtain some of these limited release beers.
Recently Hill Farmstead brewery in Vermont has seen its bottles become some of the most popular auctions on eBay. Shaun Hill who owns the brewery hasn’t let his opinion of Ebay beer/bottle auctions go unnoticed. Since it appears as though eBay has begun to honor the requests of the brewers who do not want their bottles on the auction site I wanted to get Shaun’s reactions to the news. I have contacted a few other breweries for reaction, but as of this posting I haven’t heard anything back. I will update this post as soon as I get a response.
Continue reading “The eBay Debate: Brewer Reactions”
Beer festival—wooooo!
Woooo?
Come now, surely I can get a “woo†for this weekend’s Oregon Brewers Festival, known as the biggest and best of Beervana’s keg-based parties. There will be more than 80 distinctive craft brews served alongside the Willamette River. It’ll go down under sunny skies if the early forecast is correct.
Ah, yes, but beer festivals are too often annoying. It only takes one drunken gang of broey buffoons arguing about the Sounders-Timbers rivalry precipitously close to a stroller and a flight of stairs to make you reconsider the entire venture.
Continue reading “A Brief but Essential Guide to Beer-Festival Etiquette.”
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