Professor Good Ales

It’s tough to forget the first time you drank a sour ale.The beer’s acidity is likely to throw you for a lurch — acid is a taste so foreign to most people’s idea of beer that you’re more likely to wonder what it is than whether or not you like it.

But if it was made correctly, a sour beer’s flavors can form a transcendental culinary experience, introducing a whole new layer of flavors into an already complex beverage.

Brandon Jones, who is now a sour and wild ale consultant for Nashville’s Yazoo Brewing Company, hasn’t forgotten the first sour beer he drank.

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Supporters of Homebrew,

On Thursday, May 9, Alabama Governor Robert Bentley signed homebrew legalization bill HB9 into law, making Alabama the 50th state to legalize homebrewing.

Earlier this year on March 19, Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant signed a homebrew legalization bill that officially goes into effect July 1, 2013, at which time homebrewing will be legal in all 50 states for the first time since before Prohibition.

For the past five years the American Homebrewers Association, along with Alabama homebrew advocacy group Right To Brew, has been working towards homebrew legalization in their state.

“Homebrewing has been an integral part of the history of America, so it’s thrilling to know that soon, all 50 states will support this growing hobby and long-standing tradition,” said Gary Glass, director, American Homebrewers Association. “We appreciate the backing of all of the homebrewers, the dedicated grassroots efforts of Right to Brew and the legislators who have worked so diligently to make homebrewing a reality in Alabama. We are especially grateful to Representative Mac McCutcheon who introduced this bill and has fought long and hard for its passage, along with Senator Bill Holtzclaw.”

Post-Prohibition, homebrewing was not federally legal until President Jimmy Carter signed H.R. 1337 on October 14, 1978, which officially went into effect on February 1, 1979. Shortly after that bill was signed, the American Homebrewers Association was formed by Charlie Papazian and Charlie Matzen to promote and celebrate homebrewing. Since then, the AHA has taken a leading role in advocating for homebrew rights and supporting the legislative efforts of local homebrew communities.

Michael Scherer reports that White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough met Paul Ryan for a Secret Beer at a Belgian brewery. Ryan’s quote in the story is what stands out here, though. Ryan hastens to explain that he is but a simple Midwestern yokel lured to a fancy European-style establishment unwittingly and against his will:

The Belgian restaurant lists 115 beers on its menu, but not Miller Lite, Ryan’s beer of choice. “I ended up getting some lager I’d never heard of,” said Ryan, who mistook the place for a French joint.

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Boulder, CO • May 8, 2013—The American Homebrewers Association (AHA) is pleased to announce the Alabama legislature has passed a bill that, once signed by Governor Robert J. Bentley, will effectively legalize homebrewing throughout the state. Alabama will be the last state in the nation to legalize homebrewing.

“Homebrewing has been an integral part of the history of America, so it’s thrilling to know that soon all 50 states will support this growing hobby and long-standing tradition,” said Gary Glass, director, American Homebrewers Association. “We appreciate the backing of all of the homebrewers, the dedicated grassroots efforts of Right to Brew and the legislators who have worked so diligently to make homebrewing a reality in Alabama. We are especially grateful to Representative Mac McCutcheon who introduced this bill and has fought long and hard for its passage, along with Senator Bill Holtzclaw.”

Alabama is the last state holding out against legalizing homebrewing. Continue reading “Announcement from The AHA: Alabama”

While the upper U.S. West coast has a beer style to call its own (Cascadian Dark Ale), it appears that the craft beer movement in Florida has spawned a new style of beer: the Florida Weisse.

The second annual Berliner Bash on the Bay in Gulfport, Florida, was recently held on April 20 and several Florida brewers took the opportunity to showcase what exactly the Florida Weisse is all about.

A regional sour wheat beer that originated in Northern Germany, the Berliner Weisse is not superpotent –ranging anywhere from two to five percent alcohol-by-volume. Like the Berliner Weisse, the Florida Weisse is low-alcohol too. A low-ABV beer may not sound attractive compared to 13 percent-plus imperial stouts, but remember that alcohol is only a small part of its character.

Whereas a heavy emphasis is placed on hops in West coast-style ales, the Florida Weisse is different. Based on the traditional German Berliner Weisse beer, the Florida Weisse is brewed with lots of fruit–particularly tropical fruit–rather than just simply having fruited syrup added to the glass when the beer is poured. The sweetness of the syrup is supposed to balance the acidity of the beer.

“That’s the traditional way of doing it,” said Johnathan Wakefield, Miami home-brewer and owner/founder of J. Wakefield Brewing Company. “But we’re not doing anything traditional.”

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The R&D lab where Long Trail brewers perform their experiments is inside a drafty old farmhouse about a five-minute walk from the main brewery in Bridgewater.

It is an unpretentious little facility and the brewers like it that way.

“This is about as free form as it can get,” said Brandon Mayes, a Long Trail brewer. “Any ideas that the guys have, they should be free to pursue.”

The “pilot facility” was a small white room where four stainless steel kettles sat on burners, and bags of grain were stored nearby in the barn. Head brewer Dave Hartmann was standing inside with his colleague, Sam Clemens, who was hand-cranking a mill filled with malted barley.

On this particular Tuesday, Clemens and Hartmann were making two different batches of beer. One was a wheat IPA. The other was a black walnut dunkelweizen.

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We can’t help the fact that we’re sometimes attracted to bright, shiny objects. It’s why we do occasionally judge a book by its cover, and it’s also why we may order a beer we don’t know based on the really awesome tap handle associated with it. This doesn’t happen all the time, but we’re pretty sure it would be hard to pass up the suds coming from these guys.

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