Category: Front Page

Written by Andy Ingram for The Republic and azcentral.com

I’m not very technically savvy, so when things go a little haywire, like an iPhone or my son’s Xbox, it’s nice to push reset and start over.

It seems to me that this is happening with craft beer as well. And, although I like the experimental and the crazy, it’s nice to see some brewers hit the reset button and get back to what started this whole beer revolution: clean, lower-alcohol, session beer.

There’s been a little spat on the beer-geek blogs and websites about what exactly is a session beer. These folks tend to have an insatiable desire to label and categorize, to micromanage with specific alcohol ranges and distinct flavor profiles.

Maybe the idea of a session beer is lost on these people.
Continue reading “Beer Buzz: Say “Yes” to “Boring,” Low-Alcohol Craft Beer”

Written by Norman Millier for GateHouse News Service and Metrowestdailinews.com

A quarter century ago, Rich Doyle and Dan Kenary were friends who enjoyed going out and grabbing a beer or two.

The pair founded Boston’s Harpoon Brewery, and next month, the brewery will celebrate its 25th anniversary.

“It sounds like a long time, but it doesn’t necessarily feel that long,” Doyle said.

“It’s really incredible,” Kenary said. “This is one of those anniversaries that you really notice. I’m 50 now, and I was 25 when we started the brewery, so it’s been half of my life now.”

To celebrate the anniversary, Doyle and Kenary went into the brewhouse together and brewed a commemorative beer: Rich and Dan’s Rye IPA. The beer is part of Harpoon’s 100 Barrel Series, meaning only 3,100 gallons of it have been brewed.

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Weather, commodity prices and greed are to blame for the cost of your brew going up

Written by Loren Berlin for DailyFinance and today.msnbc.msn.com

It’s strange to think that someone actually invented beer, that it hasn’t just always been there, like centrifugal force or oxygen. But it’s true: 6,000 years before Jesus even hit the scene, the Babylonians — people living in the area that is modern-day Iraq — began fermenting barley in the glittering heat of the Mesopotamian dessert, and making clay vessels in which to store the frothy brew and trade it with neighbors.
Continue reading “The Economic Forces Behind Rising Cost of Beer”

Written by Erik Schelzig for The Associated Press and Mercurynews.com

NASHVILLE, Tenn.—A bill to allow strong beer makers to sell their product at Tennessee breweries was given final approval by the House on Saturday and sent to the governor for his signature.

The House voted 69-15 to pass the bill sponsored by Republican Rep. Curry Todd of Collierville. It passed the Senate 28-3 a day earlier.
Continue reading “Lawmakers OK Strong Beer Sales at Tenn. Breweries”

Profiled by Ken Carman

This is one of the most interesting lighter beers I’m had that is not dominated by spices, or darker malts, or hops. Sweetwater’s blurb claims it was a Pilsner that “blew a tire” and wound up being finished up with an ale yeast. The nose is lager yeast, but there;s something else there, just a slight diacetyl sense you might get with some ales. Not enough to be bothersome.

Pours with a nice head. Straw. Chill haze: I suspect it needs clarification except…

Mouthfeel is the first indication of something amazing that has been brewed with a simple application of two yeasts: carbonation/carbonic buzz supporting a nice firm bitter that clings to the roof of the mouth. Very satisfying. Malt low but more than adequate for all that’s going on here.

The flavor is refreshing, fruity, malt focus yet with a nice bitter background. Reminds me a bit of an alcoholic Clausthaler… an NA. This is no NA, but could qualify as lawnmower. It’s also a bit wine like, in a sense. Fruity and clean lager combine to provide almost a bubbly wine sense without the alc punch or even actual fruit” slight champagne but more a lightly carbonated Rhine wine with a slight acidic punch one might get from grapes, or lager yeast.

Impressive.

Reported by Ken Carman for Professor Goodales

Many thanks to Tom Henderson for most of these photos

Millie and I hadn’t been in Charlotte since 1986. Millie’s brother, and his wife, moved to Charlotte quite a few years back and, more important, they’re both beer lovers. Chris would have been in high school back when we visited in 86. Thought it about time we took the plunge and climbed the mountains between North Carolina and Tennessee for a visit.

“Hey, Millie, there’s a homebrew competition in Charlotte! Let’s go visit! Everyone loves it when the relatives visit, right?”

Gulp.

So Chris, Colleen and their sons Ryan, Sean had visitors last weekend, as “Uncle Buck” Ken and Auntie Millie pulled into Charlotte late Friday afternoon. Early the next morning we headed off to the competition. The kind folks at Carolina BrewMasters, which included Bill Lynch: organizer and Richard Lane: head judge… amongst many… agreed to let our two competition virgins judge and steward. Actually it was by my request that we keep Chris and Colleen under our wings and one judge with us, one steward.

I think they found the experience interesting, educational and… fun!

First came the instructions for the judges and the stewards…

Then we walked through the brewery to the judging tables. Past where we registered…

Continue reading “U.S. Open: Charlotte”

Great news from Canada who has always been a bit ahead of us, except maybe as of late… PGA

Refined palates, Canucks playoff run helping local beer industry heat up otherwise cool spring

Written by Andrew A. Duffy for timescolumnist.com

It’s nearly mid May, yet the skies are dull and threaten rain, there’s tougher rules in place against drinking and driving and the harmonized sales tax has eaten into the hospitality budgets of most households.

These are tough hurdles to navigate for anyone selling beer. So there’s plenty of reason to question just why Victoria craft beer brewers and brewpubs are smiling.

At this time of year beerdrinking season should have kicked off, patios should be filled with lagerswilling sun worshippers and back yards should be beer-and-burger territory.

That isn’t really happening. However, a playoff run from the Vancouver Canucks seems to be making up for some of the bad weather and driving beer sales, while the more-cultured palate of the Victoria beer drinker seems to be the biggest reason for the sunny dispositions of these brewers.

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Reported by Ken Carman for Professor Goodales

Boscos parking lot: in back. Tents? You can see the wind blowing. The brewers and their tents are leaning to the left with the wind. You almost expect sand to start filling the portrait. Has Lawrence of Brew-rabia delivered himself, via camel to Nashville and ordered his slaves to brew up a quaff so tasty even a sand pirate would love it? Is he brewing up a Belgian that, instead of that horse blanket taste, as certain styles have, wet camel hump? Would that be from a one lump or two camel?

No, the “lean” is from my occasionally quirky camera, and this is National Homebrew, and these are my fellow club members: Music City Brewers.

Every year we gather and wait for the Holy Grail: Wort, from Boscos, local brewpub. Above you see those seeking the Grail. I’ve been told the shorter gentleman would go off a Cliff for Boscos wort.

Yeah, his name is Cliff. It was a joke. What are you going to do about it?

In the picture above you see the holy delivery of… Wait. JOHNATHAN!!! What the HELL are you DOING up there, AND in public? In a brewery filled with people?

Oh, giving everyone wort. Never mind. Nice hose job, BTW.

This is Phil Snyder’s tent. Phil is so dedicated he has been brewing with his own hops for quite a while. He grows them in his large backyard, up on the plateau… just north of Nashville. His happy army of albino groundhogs keep them well watered and fertilized.

Nah, he does all the work himself.

Below you see club member Tom Vista, better known as “Hop God,” or “Hop Tyrant;” depending on whether he feels like getting out the whips and chains for the hop-less masses who think beer really doesn’t need hops… or not. And Karen Lassiter, Bosco’s brewer, also fellow club member, watching over the whole affair.

Her husband Jack was there that day too, he left later on his bike; such a small, puny, thing; more a minibike. I think he calls it “Jasmine.” Last name: “Harley.”

Hey, Jack, get a real bike! I hear there are a few Honda dealers in town.

Homebrewers bring Boscos beer out into the lot and add grain bags, hops: all added to the boil. Notice the picture is a bit odd. What makes folks want to do this? For fun? Maybe they’re a little… warped?

Nah, that’s just my camera.

Like the occasional odd shot from my quirky camera, I’m sure more than a few of us would have willingly admitted to being at least a little bit warped on this special day… but in a pleasing, brewing up a whole lot of fun, way.

Written by Doug Brumley for fledglingbrewer.com

Posted by Ken Carman for PGA readers

A bill designed to limit to three the number of Tennessee breweries manufacturing high-alcohol beer is currently making its way through state Senate committees. Originally drafted to ease the residential requirements for obtaining a retail liquor store license in Tennessee, the bill’s initial language and intent were amended before the proposed legislation picked up a second, oddly worded amendment in the Senate; that latter addition establishes a “pilot program” that licenses only one brewery to produce high-alcohol beer—defined as 5 percent to 20 percent alcohol by weight—in each of Tennessee’s three “Grand Divisions” (East, Middle and West Tennessee).

This Amendment No. 2, added in the Senate after the bill passed by a wide margin in the state House, caught many in the regional craft beer community by surprise and has created quite a stir among Tennessee brewers, distributors and beer enthusiasts. Reactions range from confusion to suspicion as word spreads that a large, out-of-state brewery is lobbying the state legislature for incentives to locate a new facility in East Tennessee.
Continue reading “Puzzling Changes Proposed to TN Beer Laws”