Professor Good Ales

HUMAN beings are social animals. But just as important, we are socially constrained as well.

We can probably thank the latter trait for keeping our fledgling species alive at the dawn of man. Five core social instincts, I have argued, gave structure and strength to our primeval herds. They kept us safely codependent with our fellow clan members, assigned us a rank in the pecking order, made sure we all did our chores, discouraged us from offending others, and removed us from this social coil when we became a drag on shared resources.

Thus could our ancient forebears cooperate, prosper, multiply — and pass along their DNA to later generations.

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Modern-day hopheads–the beer drinkers who gleefully, obsessively seek out hoppier and hoppier brews–don’t usually start out that way. Most people have a natural aversion to bitter compounds–useful for avoiding eating lethal doses of poisons in the wild. No, one must work one’s way up to hops: Start off drinking beers with lower IBUs (International Bitterness Units, one measure of how bitter a beer is), be them ambers, lagers, brown ales, or stouts. Next, try a pale ale. Then try many pale ales. Then discover the IPA — and with it, become obsessed with hop varietals such as Simcoe (piney aroma) and Amarillo (fruity aroma). Be happy with that for a while. Maybe try a double IPA (twice the malt, twice the hops as a regular IPA), which may or may not be successful, depending on whose you drink. Begin to love being punched in the face with a fist of hops. Become obsessed with IBU ratings. Buy the hoppiest beers one can find, even if they don’t actually taste all that good. Despair.

Back in 2005, a pair of California-based brewers (Vinnie Cilurzo of Russian River and Matt Brynildson of Firestone Walker) came up with a tongue-in-cheek definition for this hop passion. They called it the lupulin threshold shift, describing it as “when a double IPA just isn’t enough.” (Lupulin glands on the hop cones hold the main hop compounds that eventually contribute flavor and bitterness to beers.) I’ve seen many a beer drinker ask why they feel compelled to seek out ever-hoppier beers. Could it be that their brains and tastebuds are addicted to the hop?

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MOBILE, Alabama — Mobile County prosecutor Keith Blackwood is, according to posts made to his now-defunct Twitter account, a libertarian, a cigar aficionado and somewhat of a foodie. He’s also a criminal.

That’s because Blackwood has, on occasion, brewed his own beer, a hobby that is perfectly legal in 48 states — 49 if Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant signs a bill recently approved in the state’s Legislature.

It’s also legal under federal law, has been since the 1970s. President Barack Obama famously has a homebrew setup in the White House.

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Green Flash Brewing Co. is the latest Western craft brewer to hop on the caravan to the East Coast. While Sierra Nevada Brewing Co., New Belgium Brewing Co. and Oskar Blues all opted for North Carolina, Green Flash has chosen Virginia Beach as the site of its Atlantic base of operations.

In his State of the City address on Thursday, mayor William Sessoms Jr. announced that the San Diego-based brewer will break ground on a plant in Virginia Beach to open in 2015.

The plant will employ a staff of 40 and have a capacity of 100,000 barrels per year, likely making it the largest brewery in Virginia after the Anheuser-Busch facility in Williamsburg and the MillerCoors plant in Elkton.

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Written by James Mulcahy

 

Put down that watery draft beer! The craft-beer movement has taken New York City by storm, and bars around town are tapping into a supply of artisanal brews made by small producers around the country. At these hopsheads meccas, you can geek out by learning the nuances of the various offering – and get a little tipsy to boot. Click through the slideshow below to see our guide to the best craft-beer bars New York has to offer. Got a go-to pint for the season? Let us know your favorite in the comments.Or, if cocktails are more your style, check our our guide to secret bars here.

 

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Charlie Hanchett works in a beer group at Christ Church in Massachusetts.

Written by ERICA E. PHILLIPS and BEN KESLING for wsj.com

ALLENDALE, Mich.—As several of the faithful from the Valley Church here prepared to bow their heads in prayer to open a recent Saturday-evening meeting, they introduced themselves.

“My name is Darin,” the Methodist congregation’s 37-year-old music director said, grinning. “And I like me a 30-pack of Busch Light!”

The circle broke into laughter as several people put down bottles of microbrew beer to applaud. It was a fitting introduction for the event—a semi-regular meeting of beer enthusiasts and home brewers who go by the moniker “What Would Jesus Brew?”

Pastor Matt Bistayi, who started Valley Church three years ago, says the goal of WWJB isn’t to be “churchy,” but rather to “reach out to people in a loving, grace-filled way that meets people where they are and as they are.”

Valley Church is one of several congregations around the country tapping the growing craft-beer trend as a way to attract new members.

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It’s safe to say that no beer style has defined the American craft beer revolution as assertively as the India Pale Ale. The history of the style and its development is the U.S. is well-worth investigating for those who want to explore it—from the use of hops as preservatives to help beers keep on the long journey from Britain to the colonies many centuries ago (hence the name), to pioneering American experiments like Vinnie Cilurzo’s Blind Pig IPA and, later, the use of continuous hopping by Dogfish Head’s Sam Calagione. It’s modern development has been all about attitude: When the stateside microbrew scene first started to get attention, hoppy beers were a bold and assertive middle finger to the status quo, separating craft beer from the light lagers that dominated the market and giving new brewers a much needed point of view.

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Note: look just above the main picture on each page to click so you can read about the different beers.

Last week I organized a panel of respected beer connoisseurs Brian Yaeger, Charles Culp and “SNOB” Ritch Marvin to go along with myself to the Indie Hops offices and evaluate new test hop varietals bred at Oregon State University. It’s not often the public or even media get a first hand chance to taste and more importantly smell new hops in development and the opportunity was thanks to Jim Solberg co-owner of Indie Hops.

In case you did not know Oregon is the 2nd largest farming region for hops next to the Washington’s Yakima Valley. We also have Oregon State University which in addition to having one of the only fermentation sciences programs in the country also does quite a bit of hop research and breeding.

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