The Growler Saver

Every once in a while the professor comes across a product that makes him violate his “don’t give free advertising” rule. This one seems worth it…

What is a Growler Saver?

The Growler Saver is a Patent Pending cap that will ensure a draft-like beer pour out of a growler, even after breaking a growler’s original seal and opening it numerous times. Until I developed this cutting-edge industry-first design, draft beer stored in a growler could not retain its optimum freshness and the brewer’s intended carbonation levels, especially after the growler’s original seal was broken. Now, thanks to the Growler Saver, beer drinkers no longer have to consume an entire growler once they open it for the first time, or otherwise risk their beer tasting old, under carbonated, or full of off-flavors. With the Growler Saver, beer drinkers can open their growlers again and again, with the confidence that the beer inside will taste just as good as it did when it left the tap.
The Growler Saverâ„¢

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Beer Taste, Not Just Alcohol, Rewards Pleasure Centers in Brain: Study

beer-news10The taste of beer, even without any effect from alcohol, triggers a key reward chemical in the brain, according to a study on Monday that explores how people become hooked on booze.

Neurologists at the University of Indiana asked 49 men to drink either their favorite beer or Gatorade, a non-alcoholic sports drink, while their brains were scanned by positron emission tomography (PET).

The goal was to look at dopamine, a chemical in a part of the brain called the ventral striatum that gives the sensation of reward.

The beer was rationed out in tiny amounts — just 15 millilitres, or about one tablespoon, every 15 minutes — so that the brain could be scanned without the influence of alcohol.

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Beer-Wine Hybrids: Two Worlds Collide

Wine-Beer Hybrids--Two Worlds Collide

Wine was my first love. Beer is my true love.

From retail to restaurants to winery work, I spent six years pursuing a career in wine. I had the honor of being trained by one of the world’s few Master Sommeliers, and even moved to California specifically to work in the wine industry.

Wine fascinates me. It gets me excited. I absolutely adore wine.

And if it wasn’t for wine, I might never have uncovered my love for craft beer. Studying wine helped give me an understanding and appreciation for well-crafted alcohol beverages. Wine trained my palate and taught  me how to taste and pair.

One of the beers that helped me make the leap to craft beer was Dogfish Head’s Midas Touch, an usual grain and grape hybrid, made from an ancient recipe that scientists were able to recreate from alcohol residue found in King Midas’s tomb. The flavors blew me away. It was rich and vicious, almost Sauternes-like, yet bright, refreshing and bubbly.

Midas Touch was, in a sense, the gateway beer that led me to seek out and try craft beer. From there, I uncovered a passion for hops, a love of rich, dark malt and a fascination with wild yeast beers—all because someone decided to infuse beer with wine.

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Brew Biz: Werts and All

The Topic: Adventures in Braggotland, Part 2

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.

  First the news: I won second in Chattanooga for my Bee Czar, and first in Savannah for my 3 Weizen Guys. Here’s the irony: they both scored poorly in the competitions they didn’t win in. If you simply compared the scores forms you would think I mixed up the bottles, except the judges made specific comments that proved to me I labelled them right. Both set of judges thought the brews that didn’t score well might be infected.
  Chuckle.
  Here’s what I think happened. The Dunkelweizen Braggot, aka: 3 Weizen Guys, was not labelled for the judges as using a Dunkelweizen-base for the beer at the first competition, even though I specifically specified that when I entered it. Hence the phenolic sense one might expect in that style were perceived as a defect. And, to be honest, I doubt the judges had much experience judging braggots. That’s common. Meads alone are kind of the poor cousins in beer judge-dom. That kind of makes braggot the bastard child of the poor cousin many don’t want to know, much of which has to do with some judges who think mead shouldn’t even be in a beer competition. Continue reading “Brew Biz: Werts and All”