Professor Good Ales

Written by Scott Simon for NPR

Cold beer is on tap in Minnesota this weekend. But it was almost the casualty of the two-week shutdown of the state government that may have come to an end.

MillerCoors, which holds “brand label registrations” for 39 beers, including Miller, Coors, Blue Moon Pale and Hamm’s — almost 40 percent of the beer sold in Minnesota — sent in its renewal notice on June 15.

But the state Alcohol and Gambling Enforcement Agency said that MillerCoors overpaid its registration fees and refused to stamp the paperwork.

MillerCoors sent another check immediately. Julian Green, director of media relations for MillerCoors, pointed out that beer is its business. “We don’t take securing our licenses lightly.”

But the state agency didn’t process the check by the time the state government shut down on June 30. Its employees were shut out. Hundreds of taverns and restaurants also worried that they could not sell alcohol because their license renewals were just piling up like wet coasters in state offices.
Continue reading “Minnesota Survives A Cold Near-Beer Experience”

Written by Tom Becham for Professor Goodales

Let me begin this article with a complete non-sequitur. Americans seem to be able to accept even the harshest of criticisms if they come from people with British accents. Whether it be Gordon Ramsey, Jamie Oliver, Simon Cowell or even the Supernanny, it seems to go over better when delivered with a “BBC Standard” intonation, or even an East End London working class accent. So, while you’re reading this article, pretend that I sound like I’m from Cambridge. Or even the slums of Manchester. Chances are, being Americans, none of us will know the difference anyway.

I believe we may be in the middle of a “craft beer bubble” similar to the dot com and real estate bubbles. I don’t have anything other than circumstantial evidence and intuition to support my assertion. I also admit that there are certain factors which might mitigate against my conclusion. I certainly hope I’m wrong. But don’t be entirely surprised if I’m not. In short, I think we will soon witness another large contraction of the craft beer industry, as was witnessed in the ’90s.

Why would I say that?
Continue reading “Are We in a Craft Beer “Bubble”?”

Note: The Professor, being a bit anal, did correct a few minor spelling and capitalization errors: hopefully they weren’t culturally based. And this may seem an odd entry: but think only 20 or so years ago how far behind we were compared to the Brits when it comes to beer. A bit of perspective on how much things have changed provided from across the big pond.

Posted by Neil at mashspargeboil.com

Recently I read a forum post on the brilliant Jims Beer Kit Forum about the differences between American vs British Home Brewing. It’s something I have thought about a bit so I wanted to write a post here inspired by that forum topic.

Let me clear up something straight away, I am British, so naturally my point of view is as a British home brewer. I picked up a few key points from the discussion and want to add my view about them below.

Equipment
Continue reading “A Look at American vs British Home Brewing”

Written by Katherine Scarrow for theglobeandmail.com

It’s paradoxical, but the global economic crisis of 2008 may have been the best thing ever to have to happened to lawyer-turned-brewery-owner Dimitri van Kampen.

“I had lost all of my clients overnight. Lehman Brothers, Merill Lynch all went away and I’m sitting there, with no much to do, and I started thinking what I might’ve done with my life if I hadn’t gotten into law,” he says.

Mr. van Kampen, who refers to himself as a “refugee of the credit crunch,” was always a beer hobbyist, but it was time spent in U.K. pubs that deepened his love affair with bold English ales.

“It was a real eye-opener for me about what beer could be, so I started thinking why can’t I start a brewery?”
Continue reading “Lawyer Brews Craft Beer to the Extreme”

Written by Norman Miller/DAILY NEWS STAFF, GHS and tauntongazette.com

A lot of craft beer drinkers would love to brew the beers they drink but they either don’t have the time or the technical know-how to homebrew.

The Woodstock Inn Brewery in North Woodstock, N.H., has a solution — Brewer’s Weekends at the inn.

“It’s all instructional learning throughout the weekend,” said brewery spokesman Garrett Smith. “It’s really a melee of food and pitchers of beer.”

The Woodstock Inn Brewery started as an inn in 1983, and added the brewery in 1995.

“We were one of the largest Samuel Adams accounts in New Hampshire, and we had all of these crazy craft beers on draft and noticed better beer was selling really good, so we added the brewery,” Smith said.

During the Brewer’s Weekend, which is run on certain weekends during the fall and spring, the inn hosts 20 people at a time and typically sells out, Smith said.

The weekend begins on Friday with a reception featuring Woodstock beers and food.

HERE

Note: this collection of pictures is interesting. Only attribution is James Martin for photos and captions. From news.cnet.com

In 1965, when beer connoisseur Fritz Maytag first visited the struggling Anchor Brewery, which was set to close within weeks, he had no idea how to brew beer. But he was almost instantly sold on Anchor’s traditional methods, and the idea of becoming a brewmaster sparked a revival of the Anchor Brewing Company.

Over the next few years, Maytag devoted himself to learning traditional craft brewing from the ground up.

His approach toward brewing, defined by innovation, creativity, and exploration, marked the beginning of the craft-beer revolution.

Between 1965 and 1971, Maytag learned how to brew from scratch, and when Anchor again began selling its Steam beer in 1971, it became recognized as the representative California common beer, a modern handcrafted brew encapsulating the history and culture of the original California immigrants’ brewing processes.

Want to read more and see more Anchor photos? Please click…

HERE

Written by Todd Martens for latimesblogs.latimes.com

In just 18 months, Eagle Rock Brewery has leapt to the forefront of the still-burgeoning Los Angeles craft-beer scene. The home-grown company’s handcrafted beers are now distributed by San Diego’s acclaimed Stone Brewing, and Eagle Rock’s Red Velvet Ale last year brought home a gold medal from Denver’s Great American Brewfest, a trophy that instantly put the tiny operation on the national beer map.

Yet Eagle Rock Brewery might still have a few locals to win over. Despite its quick growth, the brewery could be on the verge of suffering a serious hit to its operations.

Owners on Tuesday will go before City Hall in an effort to prove that the brewery has been in full compliance with its conditional-use permit, the license that allows the company to serve beer in the brewery’s tasting room.

Though the company’s president and brewer Jeremy Raub said he is confident the city will rule in the brewery’s favor, he stressed this hearing should not be taken lightly. “It certainly is paperwork and procedural in nature, but I don’t feel like we can just assume we’ll coast through it,” Raub said. He runs the brewery with his father, Steve.
Continue reading “Eagle Rock Brewery to Fight for its Rights Once More”