Professor Good Ales

From AP

Writer NOT Credited

FREDERICK, Md. — Some craft brewers are growing by shrinking.

After years of shipping beer farther and farther away, many small brewers are now shrinking distribution to sell beer more profitably at home.

The strategy reflects the nation’s growing thirst for boutique beers from independent breweries that simply can’t produce enough to meet the demand of a larger market — so they’re putting local customers first.

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Written by Charlie Papazian for craftbeer.com

Most discussions regarding food and craft beer pairings emphasize the perfect marriages. It is remarkable to beginning beer enthusiasts how well beer pairs with certain foods.

I’ve recently discovered that fundamentally food and craft beer pairings are not about the marriage, nor the independent characteristics of food and beer. Pairings are about the child—the final result experience. It’s all about something called umami, a fifth taste sensation we all experience but are usually unaware of.
Continue reading “Umami: It’s Not About the Marriage—It’s About the Child”

The BBC NEVER credits their writers. Shame.-PGA

From the BBC

Archaeologists have uncovered evidence that the occupants of southeastern France were brewing beer during the Iron Age, some 2,500 years ago.

A paper in Human Ecology outlines the discovery of barley grains that had been sprouted in a process known as malting; an oven found nearby may have been used to regulate the process.
Continue reading “Iron-Age Brewing Evidence Found in Southeastern France”

Written by Erin Ailworth for Boston.com/The Boston Globe

The state’s Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission yesterday decided to ditch a licensing rule change that would have hurt more than two dozen Massachusetts craft brewers and, the beer makers said, put several companies out of business.

The new rule would have required brewers operating under a farmer-brewery license to grow 50 percent of the grains or hops they use to make malt beverages, or get them from a domestic source, which many brewers interpreted to mean Massachusetts. That, they said, would be impossible for most brewers, because the state doesn’t produce enough of the necessary ingredients.

After meeting with brewers yesterday – including the makers of Samuel Adams, as well as Cape Ann Brewing Company and Ipswich Ale Brewery – state Treasurer Steven Grossman said the commission, which his office oversees, had made a “mistake.’’ The farmer-brewery license costs hundreds, even thousands, of dollars less than the state’s other brewing licenses, and allows brewers to market their beer directly to retailers, a necessity for many of the small businesses to grow.

“The 50 percent threshold will not be implemented,’’ Grossman said. “We realized that perhaps we went a little beyond what was practical.’’

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Written by Ed Enoch for the Opelika-Auburn News and www2.wrbl.com

The brewing kettles tucked into the backroom of the Olde Auburn Ale House are long gone, and the brewery Chris Collier dreamed of building went north. Each in their own way were victims of financial realities that, until this year, made brewing beer in Alabama a difficult business.

“Two years ago, I would have never considered opening a brewery in Alabama,” said Collier, the brewer at the North-Carolina-based Nantahala Brewing Company. “Not because I didn’t want to, but because it wouldn’t have made any fiscal sense.”

Collier, who lives in Atlanta and commutes to North Carolina on the weekends to brew, said the beer-friendly laws and culture of North Carolina made the choice of where to locate his brewery easy. But during its last session, the Alabama Legislature changed state laws, giving brewpubs and breweries more freedom to bring their beer to a wider Alabama audience.

The recent legislation was a compromise between advocates such as grassroots group Free the Hops and the distributors who currently sell beer across the state to retailers. The new regulations still tether brewpubs to historic buildings or historic districts in counties where brewing occurred before Prohibition, but it frees them of the requirement to also operate as 80-seat restaurants and to only sell their beer to customers on premise. The new law also allows brewpubs to sell their beer to wholesalers for retail sale off premise. The revised law allows breweries to operate taprooms, where beer lovers may sample brews as well as enjoy full pints.
Continue reading “New Beer Laws Could Boost Brewing in Auburn”

Written by Brandon Jones for embracethefunk.com

Awesome words spoken by Jean Van Roy of Cantillon that every brewer of sour beers should know.

What happens when a beer gets sick? To quote Dr. Evil “It got weird didn’t it?” That is what happens when a beer goes sick…. It gets weird. The awesome sour beer you last tasted is suddenly ropey, buttery, slick, and oily. It can happen in the fermenter, the bottle, or it can happen during both. Yes the beer can get sick twice.

What can cause the sickness? Pediococcus can give off the buttery/diacetyl/ropiness. Technically a Polysaccharide will form as a layer in the beer.

Continue reading ““Beer Must Be Sick To Be Stronger After””

This is just wrong-PGA

Written by Andrew McGill for mcall.com

 

Caroline Simock doesn’t know it, but she’s a rebel.

Rounding the Fahy Bridge with her husband, the Neffs woman took a swig from her cup of beer, a scene as old as Musikfest. Where else, after all, does a city founded by Moravians allow its streets to run thick with mugs of beer — if only for 10 days a year?

But as Simock walked past a Bethlehem Police Department squad car, the officer inside had every right to hand her a ticket.

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Note: to the Professor this seems an artificial debate: “real beer,” done right IS craft beer. And not every beer brewed right need be cask/firkin- PGA

Written by Danner Kline for bhamweekly.com

Once in a while I read an article that gets my mental gears turning so much I just have to write about it. That was the case this week when someone directed my attention to the BrewDog blog and their post on craft beer vs. real ale. It offers both an opportunity for me to touch on the topic of cask-conditioned ale and the topic of craft beer more generally.

Longtime readers will recall that BrewDog is the Scottish brewery that garnered tons of free publicity last year by engaging in a battle to produce the strongest beer in the world. After several rounds of one-upmanship with Germany’s Schorschbräu brewery, BrewDog ended the battle (at least for a while) with the release of The End of History, a 55-percent ABV beer—a strength produced by ice distillation. The brewery has really made a name for itself by pulling stunts that garner lots of media attention, and by brewing beers that would be much more at home in the middle of the American craft beer revolution than in their native U.K., where dark milds and ESBs are revered more than extreme beer styles or tricks like shooting for ridiculous alcohol contents.
Continue reading “Craft Beer vs. Real Ale”