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Written by Franz Hofer for A Tempest in a Tankard

It was one of those August days when the sun-baked cobblestones seem to transcend themselves in mirage-like fashion. Since arriving in Salzburg earlier that day, we had been exploring a baroque palace here, a castle overlooking the city there, and churches everywhere. Definitely time for a beer, one of my friends declared. Another suggested a visit to the Augustiner, where we could relax in its chestnut grove with a cold beer. With one last burst of energy we glided across the foot bridge over the Salzach and climbed the hill in the direction of the Augustiner.

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Just three months after the brewery he helped start was acquired, Dick Cantwell has resigned from Elysian Brewing and Anheuser-Busch InBev, Brewbound has learned.

“I am a craft brewer, however you cut it,” he wrote to Brewbound in an email. “A-B has been extremely courteous through all of this, presenting exciting opportunities to me and my brewing folks, but I can’t do it.”

It makes for a quick end to a union that had been shaky from the start: when the acquisition of the 20-year-old Seattle based brewery was announced in January, Cantwell expressed his opposition to striking a deal with the world’s largest brewer.

 

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Written by Tom Becham

It seems appropriate since my last article took to task the fans of sour and barrel-aged beers that my latest review should be about sour beers.

It goes without saying that since sour beers (usually) rely on both spontaneous fermentation and bacterial action to attain their unique flavor profiles, sour beers can be wildly variable. Certain amounts of control can be obtained by blending, but there are always some factors that will vary from year-to-year, and even batch-to-batch. That said, certain allowances must be made for sours.

First on my list is Almanac’s Farmer’s Reserve Strawberry. Almanac falls under the category of “Most Undeserving of the Incredible Reputation They Possess,” for me. I’ve tried over a dozen of their sours, and with one or two exceptions (Valley of the Heart’s Delight was quite good), they were, at best, mediocre. Nothing different with their Strawberry. Strawberry can be difficult to work with, as the flavor fades extremely quickly. But for a fairly new vintage, I wouldn’t have even known this had strawberries in it, were it not for the label on the bottle. Continue reading “Tom Becham Reviews: Sours”

Over the weekend, we had the pleasure of attending the Annual Saison & Farmhouse Invitational at TRiNiTY Brewing in Colorado Springs. This continues to be a fantastic event that we make a point to attend year after year. To recap the event, I’m turning the keyboard over to Matt Morris, the newest member of the Brewtally Insane Team. Please welcome him and we hope you enjoy his look back at this stellar event.

TRiNiTY Brewing hosted its Annual celebration of Saison & Farmhouse beers this past Saturday. The broad definition of the style allowed for more than 30 breweries to come out and show off their interpretations, and I’m happy to report there were plenty of gems that I would love the opportunity to sample again soon.

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So, last time we left off with different strategies for adding fruit to your sour meads. But what happens when your batch loses its complexity, becoming one dimensional? Maybe it’s too sour, or just a bit too horsey. If you have several batches going, you’ll be able to blend them together, which will add that complexity you’re looking for back in. This is an easy, and fun process. Plus, you get to drink your sour meads! If that isn’t fun, then what is?

It’s helpful to know what you are looking to do before you begin, but not necessary. If you have a batch that is out of this world sour, you can keep that batch to add into ones that maybe didn’t hit the tart mark you wanted. You could also just be looking to improve a batch that does taste fine on its own (they say the sum is greater than its parts right?). The ideal is to have many meads to blend so that you can churn out amazing finished products all the time. Obviously, not everyone (myself included) have a pseudo-barrel room, but even just a few one gallon carboys to blend with can yield excellent results.

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If you missed Part one, it can be found here http://www.homebrewtalk.com/lambic-s…king-pt-1.html

So, last time we left off with a traditional Lambic mead (just honey, water, and maltodextrin). It makes a great mead, but what happens when you want to add some more character by adding fruit to your lambic meads? Here we’ll go over adding fruits to wild meads and how to go about it. It does have similar rules of thumb as standard mead making, but has a few different nuances.

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I’ve began to compile the things I know on alternative fermentations in mead making. And by that, I mean meads infected with the likes of brettanomyces, lactobacillus, and pediococcus. I’ll continue to add more parts as my findings and experiments continue.

Why make lambic meads? As many are aware, the commercial market for sour/ funky brews is at an all time high. Which is great, because they taste excellent! The bad thing is the price-point. These are typically the most expensive per fluid oz to buy. So the next time your on the forums of your choice and someone starts to say “home brewing don’t save any money!”, You can go right ahead and say “Home brewing don’t save save money…Unless you’re making sours.” .

Meads tend to be more expensive than beer; So what happens when you take the priciest of both worlds and add both mead and sour styled brews together? You save money by home brewing that’s what!

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25. The Burnt Hickory Brewery The Didjits
City: Kennesaw, GA
ABV: 7.5%
The verdict: Burnt Hickory is one of the buzzier small breweries in Georgia, and “The Didgits” makes that easy to understand. An IPA infused with blood oranges, this beer understandably comes across with a candy-like sweetness—it’s intensely citric and juicy, in a unique way that tipped off tasters that there might be something more than simply American hops at work. It’s a bit earthier and more rounded in its maltiness than some of the other fruit or zest-infused IPAs, though, and there’s even the lightest bit of tartness present—this is not a simple or gimmicky IPA. Its unique, candied fruit character helped it stand out in its heat and earn a place in the finals.

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What better day to defer from your usual drink order than on National Beer Day? Here are 11 crazy craft brew concoctions that are so strange you’ll be dying to try them out for yourself:

1. Pizza Beer by Mamma Mia! Pizza Beer

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