A Place to Gather and Talk
Some consider it “swill,” some “hip.”-The Professor
Pabst Blue Ribbon: the breakfast of Chicago hipsters. Old Style: beer of the Chicago Cubs. Schlitz: “The beer that made Milwaukee famous.”
Continue reading “Move to Los Angeles Could Tap Pabst’s Character”
This post is part of a blogging series by economics students at the Presidio Graduate School’s MBA program. You can follow along here.
In the early part of the 20th Century, beer drinkers had only two choices when it came to quenching their thirst for a delicious frothy beverage: draught beer or bottles. It wasn’t until the 1930s that canned beer arrived on the scene. Initially, tin cans could not withstand the carbonated pressure and burst. Eventually, technological developments and the introduction of a vinyl liner proved successful in containing the pressure. Then in 1935, Kruger’s Brewery of New Jersey introduced the first canned beer–Kruger’s Finest Beer–to the market, revolutionizing the beer industry. The canned versus bottled beer debate has raged ever since, and now the emerging mircrobrew trend is putting a new spin on the topic.
The traditional debate has centered on factors including taste, convenience, and cost. Beer is a sensitive beverage and exposure to both light and oxygen results in off-flavors. The caps on bottles are not completely airtight, creating a chemical reaction between oxygen and the hops, whereas cans are impervious to both light and oxygen, protecting the flavor, reducing chances of creating a “skunky†amora, and extending the shelf life. Although proponents of bottles have remained steadfast in the claim that cans produce a metallic taste, there has been little empirical evidence to support the claim. Additionally, the lightweight and portability of cans often prove to be more convenient than bottles for both consumers and producers. In regards to shipping efficiency, the longneck design on bottles wastes packaging space, while cans are able to be efficiently packaged and weigh less, which allows more to be shipped at less cost.
Continue reading “The Great Canned vs Bottled Beer Debate 2.0: Craft Brewing Weighs In”
Mud Slinger, a tasty nut brown from Redhook. Soft and malty and just on the edge of darkness. Excellent session beer.
Speaking of soft and malty, I picked up a four pack of an Austrian dunkel that had been discounted, Hirter Morchl, a dark lager made by the Hirt Brewery, which has been making beer since 1270.
I’d never heard of the brewery before, but I’ve also never had an Austrian beer that hasn’t charmed me with a quality unlike any other beer in the world. The bottle proudly proclaimed the use of Alpine spring water. Something about the Austrian aquifer produces lovely, soft beers.
Judges at the 2008 World Beer Championships were so impressed with Hirter Morchl that they made it head of the class all by itself with a Platinum Award. Here’s how those judges described it: “Dark reddish copper color with a frothy tan head. Aromas of chocolate pudding, delicate baking spices and roasted nuts follow through on a soft, satiny entry to a drying medium body with accents of toffee, roasted root vegetable, and cream. Finishes mildly with a cocoa-dusted nut and grain fade. Fantastic.â€
Obviously those judges have far more refined snouts and palates than I do. Chocolate pudding? Really? I guess I don’t know how chocolate pudding smells. Nor did I taste roasted rutabagas in this delicious brew.
Like I said, I found my four-pack in a closeout sale, and it’s long gone now. But I will certainly keep my eyes peeled for more from this brewery. I would love to try their pils.
As a general rule of thumb, you can’t go wrong with an Austrian beer, or, at least, I have never met an Austrian beer that I didn’t like.
Little Slammers. I’m a sucker for shorties, but they’re hard to come by, especially in flavors I like. While I prefer my shorties to be of the lager variety, these Little Slammers from Wasatch Beers, Salt Lake City, Utah, a golden ale, will do. Such a dainty bottle. Kinda cute.
The brewery also does a classic lager in seven-ounce “slammers,†but I’ve yet to see them. If anyone knows where they can be had — short of going to Utah — please let me know ( info@scenenewspaper.comThis e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ). The lager season is here!
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One of the quickest paths to the most intimate 
As mysterious and metaphysical as brewing may seem, the process of making beer at home is actually pretty simple, affordable and fascinating. One of my trademark lines when explaining homebrewing to another interested beer lover is “if you can follow a recipe and make pancakes, you can make beer.” With minimal, locally available or even scrounged equipment and a handful of key ingredients you can make five gallons of very good homebrewed beer in a couple of hours. And, like any hobby, you can expand your homebrewing system over time to some pretty cosmic, highly sophisticated levels which approach professional miniature commercial systems the big boys use.
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Stone Brewing Co. of San Diego crashed the state in March. Their highly hopped ales and cocky promotional copy have made them legendary among craft-beer aficionados. Fans in the Land of Lakes previously had to trek across the St. Croix for these palate-pushing brews. Now they are as close as a trip to the local beer store.
The label for Stone’s best-known beer, Arrogant Bastard, throws down an audacious challenge, proclaiming that the drinker may not be worthy of consuming the bottle’s contents. It boasts an aggressive bitterness that lingers long into the finish. Pine-resin hop flavors overlay a malt profile that features a complex mix of toast, bread and raisins, with touches of Tootsie-Roll-like chocolate. It’s a style-bending beer that would be great with a grilled steak.
Continue reading “Liquid Assets: Wide-Ranging Flavors of Beer”
Such is the odd path Jose Morales has taken since a sweltering day five years ago when he found himself wondering how to make a beverage he doesn’t even drink. The daydreaming has led Morales, then a hotel warehouse manager, to an unlikely new calling as a beer maker.
Morales, 36, is among a burst of Mexican brewers who are testing recipes and investing in imported equipment in hopes of finding the same formula for success that microbreweries north of the border have found.
Mostly self-taught, the Mexican brewers have launched an array of offerings, from Belgian-style wheat beers and imperial stouts to an ale aged in tequila barrels. They want to translate a hobby into commercial success in a country that is increasingly quick to embrace foreign trends, from smartphones to designer coffee.
Welcome to (sign 400)
Millie 300 in front of brewhouse
Stairs 300(hazy pic)
Nice 400 size Interior upstairs shot
MEXICO CITY — The craft brewers plotted their revolution
Their goal felt equally subversive: nothing less than the transformation of Mexico’s beer-loving culture into one that thirsts not for the mild flavors of Corona or Dos Equis, but for the richness of stouts, the dark body of double malts and the bitterness of India pale ales.
The brewers said they were fighting for choice: “Por la Cerveza Libre,†or “For the Liberated Beer.â€
“To choose what we consume based on our tastes, translates as free choice, a fundamental right of every person,†they wrote in a manifesto.
Even though Mexico is known worldwide for its beer, only two companies dominate the domestic market and determine what millions of people swig.
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Another success story in craft beer world!-PGA
If one good beer deserves another, there is good news on tap for East End Brewing Co. lovers.
The Homewood craft beer maker is close to purchasing a building in Larimer that will increase its space from 4,000 square feet to 17,000 square feet. The new location at 6580 Frankstown Ave. is less than a mile from the current Susquehanna Street location.
“Where we are now, we’re in such a tight box that it’s hard to see where the end of the rainbow is,” said founder and owner Scott Smith. “With more room, the sky’s the limit. … We’ll instantly be able to double our production capacity, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.”
The business started selling beer in December 2004 and now has two full-time employees, three part-time workers and a handful of volunteers. It has increased the amount of beer produced by 30 to 40 percent each year, Smith said.
Last year, East End Brewing Co. produced about 1,800 barrels of beer, Smith said. A barrel is 31 gallons.
“And right now, we’re turning away business through our distributors,” he said.
The 1,700 members of the craft brewing industry in the United States produced nearly 10 million barrels last year, according to the Colorado-based Brewers Association, a trade group for craft brewers.
Continue reading “East End Brewing Co. Eyes Larimer Expansion”
On one of the most important days on the beer calendar, when fevered drinkers from across the U.S. travel to Munster, Ind., to buy one of the world’s rarest beers, the unthinkable happened.
Cradling a box of his newfound bounty, a man in jeans and a black jacket dropped a bottle of the day’s manna. The 22-ounce bottle of Dark Lord — a pitch black, high-alcohol stout made by Three Floyds Brewing for release this very day — shattered, its black frothy gold spreading across the asphalt and toward a sewer grate.
Hundreds of beer lovers saw it happen, some standing in a two-hour line to buy bottles of their own, others merely drinking and rejoicing in the office park surrounding the brewery. They were of a single mind.
“Boooooooooooooo!†the chorus shouted.
Sheepishly, silently, the man plucked the glass shards from the ground and moved on.
Then the thinkable happened.
Continue reading “Love of Beer Reigns at Dark Lord Day”
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