Free Craft Beer!
CRAFT breweries may be a big story in the media these days, but they face much tougher challenges than most other small businesses.
Take the rules governing how beer is distributed, known as franchise laws, which were written decades ago and today are being used to limit consumer choice by keeping small and start-up breweries from moving easily into new markets.
Almost every state franchise law demands that breweries sign a strict contract with a single distributor in a state — the so-called three-tiered system. The contracts not only prevent other companies from distributing a company’s beers, but also give the distributor virtual carte blanche to decide how the beer is sold and placed in stores and bars — in essence, the distributor owns the brand inside that state.
This model was enacted in the 1970s, when the industry was a lot different: Back then there were fewer than 50 brewing companies in America and 5,000 distributors. Many small distributors carried beer only from one large brewer, and they needed protection in case the brewer they represented wanted to pull its product.
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HERE
Beer Man: Solstice D’hiver Disappoints as a Barleywine
Brasserie Dieu du Ciel, St-Jerome, Quebec, Canada
To all the microbreweries out there: OK, I get it. You can put Cascade hops into any beer style you want.
Not content to fill the shelves with thousands of American pale ale and American India pale ale beers that taste like pine and grapefruit, you are now making every style in the world taste like that. These beers should have a label on them that reads, “Rated PG.”
But know this: You are not breaking new ground. You are not being hip. Three thousand breweries before you have made PG-tasting porters, barleywines, weissbiers, imperial stouts, Belgian ales, etc.
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HERE
A Beer Judge’s Diary: the BJCP Test
Column update: Millie did pass, the second time… while keeping an eye out for online “quirks.”
Let’s start with “we all have our quirks.” One of Millie’s is from her mother: doing things late, or at the last moment. With her mother it’s a family joke, of sorts. Not Marilyn Jenny herself, no: everyone loves her. Nah, just Jenny last moment, or late-ism.
The reason I’m telling you all this is she started studying, hoping to keep her BJCP status. Probably “started” 2 months ago: more I suspect. In school I was the B+ to C or D student. A’s for English, B’s History and everything else maybe a C, a few D’s. Yet when it comes to the online BJCP test this solid A student (Millie) has had a problem that makes the former high flying student fail the Legacy: twice, the online once. Continue reading “A Beer Judge’s Diary: the BJCP Test”
Beer Nut: Rochefort 10 is a ’10’ in My Book
Our own Maria Devan will be glad to see her rating confirmed here…
Even when you’re making a lot of new friends, you should never forget your old ones.
That’s a thought I had last week when I was savoring a Rochefort 10 for the first time in probably several years.
In this column, along with beer news and opinion, I sometimes write about a specific beer itself to let people know what to expect. These are often new brews, or ones that are at least new to my area.
But I sometimes forget that there are thousands of older beers I’ve never written about. Although I have been doing the column for 10 years, that’s still only a little more than 500 columns total. So there is no way to get to them all.
HERE
Beer Profile: Rochefort 10
Profiled by Maria Devan for PGA
This pours murky and brown with a fat head of khaki creamy foam.
A nose of luscious caramel, touch of booze and a bit of raisin and fig. A bit of sweet chocolate on the nose and soft peat.
The taste is generous with malt sweetness. Luscious caramel, molasses, raisin, fig and and earthiness that isn’t any dark malt flavor like coffee or chocolate. It’s soft.
Mouthfeel is full but drinks lightly with plenty of carbonation to tickle. A mysterious drying. At some point in the beer the palate has become dry and you are left to wonder why. Sweetness from alcohol and a bit of alcohol dryness in the finish.
Wonderful.
Welcome to the PGA beer rating system: one beer “Don’t bother.” Two: Eh, if someone gives it to you, drink. Three: very good, go ahead and seek it out, but be aware there is at least one problem. Four: seek it out. Five: pretty much “perfecto.”
____________________________________________Beer HERE
Maria Devan lives in Ithaca, NY and is frequent reviewer of beer and a beer lover deluxe.
Beer Profile: Halibut Point Hefeweizen
Profiled by Maria Devan
Pours a lovely turbid banana yellow with a graceful orange blush. Fat white head of foam that fell slowly and left lovely lace. Nose is crisp wheat on a light banana with plenty of citrus. Bright orange. There is some faint clove in the background and maybe a bit of grass.
Brewed by Baranof Brewing, Alaska. 3 reviews at BA in mid to high 3 range… which usually means about an 80 on a 100 scale. About mid 3’s on Rate Beer, which usually means just a little lower.
Taste is unique.
It has a creamy yet light mouthfeel of a traditional hefe but the flavor is citrusy with orange. I like it. Makes it drink lightly like a wheat beer or a pale ale. Crisp dry wheat cracker and a bit of clove and faint white pepper and spice in the finish. The hops are lightly on the back end, just enough to accent that fruity taste and leave this one dry and refreshing.
Vive la difference is what I say. This is a unique interpretation of a hefe that many will say does not have enough banana and clove. I think they simply chose to give the citrus a nice place on the palate and the flavor in the end has plenty of banana but also plenty of orange to really brighten it and make it lovely on that wheat malt. Drinks creamy like a hefe, but has a slightly different slant on the flavor. Another great beer from this brewer. Thank you Adam for the chance to try another beer from this up and coming brewer.
Serving type: bottle
3.9
Welcome to the PGA beer rating system: one beer “Don’t bother.” Two: Eh, if someone gives it to you, drink. Three: very good, go ahead and seek it out, but be aware there is at least one problem. Four: seek it out. Five: pretty much “perfecto.”
_____________________________Beer HERE
Maria Devan lives in Ithaca, NY and is frequent reviewer of beer and a beer lover deluxe.
Lambic Seminar #6
Beer Marinade Could Reduce Levels of Potentially Harmful Substances in Grilled Meats
Date:
March 26, 2014
Source:
American Chemical Society
Summary:
The smells of summer — the sweet fragrance of newly opened flowers, the scent of freshly cut grass and the aroma of meats cooking on the backyard grill — will soon be upon us. Now, researchers are reporting that the very same beer that many people enjoy at backyard barbeques could, when used as a marinade, help reduce the formation of potentially harmful substances in grilled meats.
The smells of summer — the sweet fragrance of newly opened flowers, the scent of freshly cut grass and the aroma of meats cooking on the backyard grill — will soon be upon us. Now, researchers are reporting that the very same beer that many people enjoy at backyard barbeques could, when used as a marinade, help reduce the formation of potentially harmful substances in grilled meats. The study appears in ACS’ Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.
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