Category: Front Page

Written by Louis McGill for the Knoxville News Sentinel and knoxnews.com

Standing on his back porch on a crisp Saturday morning, Dennis Collins stirs a giant, boiling pot. The scene is reminiscent of an old monster movie, complete with a mad scientist. The steam flowing out has a sweet scent similar to baking bread.

While other Knoxvillians are watching football, Collins, an engineer and member of the Tennessee Valley Homebrewers club, is taking part in an activity older than the pyramids: brewing beer.

For some, brewing beer at home can prove economical. Collins claims to be able to brew two cases of craft-quality beer for under 20 dollars. However, as in any hobby, getting to that point requires some investment.

The pot he stirs is filled with wort, a sugary liquid extracted from malted barley and other grains, which serves as the basic building block of beer. It was extracted from the grains earlier that morning through an elaborate setup that he built involving a modified cooler and a pair of converted kegs.

“Homebrewers are very inventive,” Collins said. “They invent wonderful things.”

While the hobby languished in obscurity for decades after Prohibition it has been legal in the United States since 1978.

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HERE

Written by Molly Ryan for bizjournals.com

The second annual Houston Beer Week, taking place this week, is celebrating craft beers from around the world at more than 30 Houston bars, restaurants and secret, undisclosed venues.

“It’s a week long celebration,” said Cathy Rascoe, the festival organizer. “Think about it like restaurant week, with beer.”

The festival kicked off Nov. 19 with the Monsters of Beer Charity Festival in Guadalupe Plaza Park. According to Rascoe, the festival drew in hundreds of visitors to sample beers from around 50 breweries.

During the week, the festival continues at night at various Houston bars and restaurants. At these events, attendees can purchase tickets to, for example, talk with Ash Rowell of Duff Beer at The Ginger Man on Wednesday night or attend a formal beer dinner at Vic & Anthony’s featuring beers from the North Coast Brewing Co. on Nov. 18.

The locations of some events, such as a 10-course beer dinner made by chefs from Catalan and Beaver’s, are undisclosed until hours before they start.

Continue reading “Houston Beer Week Showcases Emerging Brew Enthusiasts”

Considering who it is, how she’s dressed, isn’t the message kind of lost here?- the Professor

This is a practical joke set up by Heineken. There seems to be a loading issue, so the Professor isn’t sure if the whole vid will play for you. But it is beer related because of who the practical joker was, and even if only part of plays you will still get the idea of what happened.-PGA

Photo by Chelsea Ellis, The Free Press. Pamola Xtra Pale Ale cans prepare to be filled with Baxter Brewing Companies signature brew. Baxter, along with 26 other Maine brewers will be participating in the first annual Maine Beer week Nov.10-17 in Portland.

Posted by Anna Flemke at usmfreepress.org

Tinny, watery, bitter and hard to swallow are just a few ways some might describe the taste of America’s most recognized beer brands. America turned into a lager-loving country in the 1970s as high-profile marketing campaigns depicted rugged, stereotypically masculine men bearing a striking resemblance to the iconic Marlboro Man commercials; but instead of cigarettes, they enjoyed less-than-stellar brews.

The desire for more flavor, however, left some Americans searching for something above the average cold one. In the early 1980s, the demand for a better beer led to the opening of half a dozen American microbreweries in 1982 alone. The craft beer revival had begun, bringing homebrewing skill and technique back to local breweries across the nation. Craft brewing flourished in Maine, inspired by breweries in both New York and Massachusetts, and the state’s penchant towards local business development that includes Portland’s recent “Buy Local” initiative.
Continue reading “First annual Maine Beer Week Celebrates Local Breweries and Businesses”

Written by Beppi Crosariol for theglobeandmail.com

Ben Franklin is reputed to have said, “Beer is proof that God loves us.” Probably apocryphal in its attribution, the bumper-sticker classic captures the fun-loving passion with which many people approach the planet’s most popular alcoholic beverage. Now, beer’s faithful have their bible. The Oxford Companion to Beer, a formidable 920-page volume, chronicles the drink’s history, from its birth more than 5,000 years ago in the grasslands of ancient Iraq to the modern craft-beer movement.

Written by E.D. Kain for forbes.com

Back in 2003 I lived with my then-girlfriend (now-wife) in Denver, CO not terribly far from the New Belgium brewery up in Fort Collins.

That winter there was a snow storm that ground the city to a halt. And not just Denver, but the entire foothills stretch from Colorado Springs in the south to Fort Collins in the north. Some areas had several feet of snow, others had even more.

The city was shutdown. All the roads were closed to everyone except emergency and police vehicles. Nobody went to work. I’ve since only seen one storm that even came close, and that was two winters ago in Northern Arizona.

All of which brings me to Snow Day, the new winter ale from New Belgium, a brew which took its inspiration from that very same storm in 2003:

“In 2003, we had a massive 37-inch snowstorm over two days in Fort Collins. Everything shut down for a couple days – no work, no school, no cars. The only way you could get around was by ski or toboggan. When we began brewing Snow Day, we looked to this one storm for inspiration. The dark characters of the malt bill reflect the dark stormy sky at the beginning of the snowfall. But on the third day, the sun broke through and everything was glorious! The name Snow Day evoked joyful freedom. Everyone remembers waiting for the school report as little kids. When you heard your school was closed, you suddenly had all day to play in the transformed, white landscape. Well, that’s the kind of emotion we put into this beer.”

Continue reading “Craft Beer of the Day – Snow Day by New Belgium”