Professor Good Ales

Profiled by Ken Carman for professorgoodales.net

 Sitting in a back room, near the back porch: I could hear birds outside the closed glass door… and even hear them on the recording device I used when I reviewed our conversation days later. This is truly Tennessee countryside.
 The Liz and Phil Snyder estate in White House, Tennessee, gently slopes down to a small creek, then back up to the hill where the hop garden is. I find it odd how you look at grass, a stream, a hop garden, grapes vines: and they seem as if they’re just natural; been there for a long, long time. That’s how I feel about Phil Snyder as a member of Music City Brewers. Phil and the club just seemed to fit together.
 But Phil’s story is more interesting than that. Born in Defiance, Ohio, Phil’s family quickly moved to Fort Wayne, Indiana, “when I was just a little tyke,” where his father had taken a job.
 He started with wine and made his first batch in 1969. At a wine convention in DC; about 1980, Phil was staying at a friend’s house who had a fridge full of beer and a six pack of Anchor Steam.
 “I tasted that and I knew I had to start brewing.”
 His first batch was about 1979 or 1980, just after home brewing was made legal.
 “We had a big wine club up in Fort Wayne and I was president of that several

times. Just on the side some of them were making beer. It wasn’t as popular back then: you couldn’t get any supplies; you had to get Blue Ribbon extract from the grocery store and Red Star Baker’s Yeast. I don’t remember what we used for hops. There were no homebrew shops or places to order supplies.” Continue reading “Brewer’s Profile: Phil Snyder”

The Topic: Styles of scoring and judging beer

Ken Carman is a BJCP judge; homebrewer since 1979, club member at Escambia Bay, Salt City and Music City Homebrewers, who has been interviewing professional brewers all over the east coast for over 10 years.

 There are various versions of judging beer, like bottom up or top down: one where the judge decides what score the beer probably should be then adjusts as he or she scores, or scores the beer and then adjusts the score to what they think is closer to what it should be. Then you always have adjusting because two, or more, judges differ and their score is too far apart.
  Then you have one of the oddest I’ve ever encountered. I understand judging in silence and then discussing after we’ve each come to a score, but one judge claimed the correct way to do it is to judge all the beers in a flight and then go back and adjust.
  I simply can’t support that. If the head of the table insisted, well of course I would do it.
  There is another method I have used that most judges probably frown upon, but I think can work quite well. The BJCP doesn’t seem all that fond of it either. But in certain circumstances: with certain judges, I think it works amazingly well. Continue reading “Brew Biz: Werts and All”

Without intent, I have collected well over 1,000 beer bottles since the early 70s. When something finally had to be done about the cheap paneling in this old modular, I had a choice. Tear down the walls while, oh, so carefully, replacing the often rotted 1X3s. Or: cover them with… The Bottle Collection.

  I know a tad about this one. Suwanee River Ale was probably brewed for Spirit of Suwanee Campground in Live Oak, Florida. There was a small contract brewer in the south who brewed the beer. To be honest I think they had two different venders over the years, so I’m not sure which one. The whole thing was put together by Micro Masters, a company out of Pensacola.
 The bottle itself was pulled from the collection to take a picture of it, but now it’s… well, somewhere in this vast collection. When I find it I’ll return and post the picture.
  I got the bottle at Micro Masters when my friend Steve Fried, who was the founding brewer at McGuires, and brewmaster there for many years, gave me the bottle.
  To be honest a very bland ale: not much to talk about. Kind of a little darker than Bud: but not by much. They basically brewed one beer and slapped different labels on the bottles.
  Micro Masters had many clients but, according to my information, went out of business due to mismanagement. And I seriously doubt many missed the beer.

Profiled for The Professor by Ken Carman

Victory Brewing
Downingtown, PA

88@BA, 91@BA, 8.5 abv.

“Red” Thunder? More like deep brown at best, even black. Head fades very fast. Pillow with a very few small rock bubbles. Clarity good with some garnet highlights, mostly hidden by the deep brown.

Their web site says Baltic Porter. Sort of. Does seem close, but Imperial Brown aged in wine barrel seems closer.

Deep caramel malt nose with hops background. Nose promises malt complexity. A lot of chocolate nose: probably chocolate malt.

Mouthfeel: medium body with just a slight sense of roasted barley. Munich malt too. Caramel malt provides depth. Nice full body. Excellent malt profile.

Taste: malt, heavy on the malt side, balance right for an Imperial Red.. Hops provide strong, very, very, background bitter. According to them back label this is a bounce off of a Porter, which explains the body and the color. There’s a wine sweetness that helps provide plenty of pleasure to the quaff. Malt complexity is there, but in the background. Wine sweetness is first, then malt, hops behind that: just a soft bitter. Just a hint of wood barrel.

I cannot rate this as Red, or Porter. More a Specialty with some of both with an Imperial sense on Red side and malt Imperial Brown then add a strong, woody, wine barrel sense to top it off.

I can’t bash it for style, it’s SO good. Excellent at a 4.

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.”