Professor Good Ales

Two companies in Australia have developed a beer that can be safely consumed in space.

With space tourism preparing to take off as early as next year, Saber Astronautics Australia and the Four Pines Brewing Company came up with the thirst quenching beer.

Posted at SiFy.com. Author uncredited

Jaron Mitchell, the founder of Four Pines, said the creation of space beer was an event for the history books.

“Wherever humans have journeyed or conquest to throughout history in the last few thousand years, we first worry about water, food, shelter and clothing,” News.com.au quoted him as saying.
Continue reading “Oz Firms Develop First Beer That Can Be Consumed in Space”

Written by Tom Becham for Professorgoodales.net

Due to some family considerations, January saw me and my wife traveling to Northern California by car. While I did not, and could not make this entire trip about beer, we did manage to visit a couple prominent breweries and/or their taprooms while on the road.

The first of these places was Firestone-Walker. Their actual brewery is in Paso Robles, but their taproom – with nice attached restaurant – is just off the highway in Buellton, California. As Firestone is located smack in the heart of Santa Barbara wine country (and since the Firestone family is also involved in wineries), the brewery’s fondness for barrel-aging beers seems natural. Combined with Firestone’s fondness for barrel-fermenting and aging beers, is their effort to make beers that are as English in character as possible. The results tend to be ales that one could easily find in a pub in Yorkshire or Kent, but with a unique twist.
Continue reading “The Beer Highway in Northern California (Part One of Three)”

Written by Ye Olde Scribe

What to do?

What to do?

The horsemen are horsing around. The Evil one is ruling the planet but Jesus is riding in the same heavenly nuclear tank he rode out on, blasting sinners with plagues, pestilence and mega poisoned pesto. There’s fire everywhere, earthquakes and mother Earth is just being a %$#@! bitch towards her infestation: us. Your evil Aunt Blanche is walking around because she dedicated her life to Jesus before she died, but your kind Unkie Chris is un-reanimated. He was an agnostic. Never you mind Aunt Blanche was a pus filled, AIDS infected, hooker in her prime and Unkie Chris saved puppies from brutal puppy mills.

Why has our kind, benevolent, deity has decided to go with that bitch Blanche, as her eyes dangle out, demons pour forth from the portal no man ever longed to enter and she whacks the nail studded paddle she used to use on all the kids just for fun on her hand? Scribe thinks she looking for you. Doesn’t matter you haven’t been a “bad boy” as she kept insisting.

Like Shaun when faced with zombies: the walking dead, Scribe suggests, “LET’S GO TO THE PUB!”

But what do we drink?
Continue reading “Ye Olde Scribe’s Beers for the End Times”

(While this is a more local focused story, this act should help small breweries across the country.-PGA)

Sen. Charles E. Schumer peers into a fermentation tank with Peter Martin, director of brewery operations at Brown’s Brewing Co.,in Troy, Tuesday, where Sen. Schumer announced his support for a bill which would provide small breweries with a break on annual excise taxes. (Mike McMahon / The Record)

Written by Katie Nowak for troyrecord.com

TROY, NY— As he toured Brown’s Brewing Company Tuesday, nibbling on toasted barley and chatting with employees, Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-NY, paused to reflect on the brewery’s place in the financial landscape.

“It’s the new economy, right here,” Schumer said.

That new economy will get a boost if Schumer has his way, as New York’s senior senator announced his support for bipartisan legislation called the Brewers Excise and Economic Relief Act, or BEER Act, which would give small local breweries, like Brown’s, a tax cut, ultimately helping them reinvest in their operations and expand their workforce.

Breweries across the country currently pay a $7 excise tax on the first 60,000 barrels they brew annually, and Brown’s shoulders a $28,000 bill thanks to that tax. But the BEER Act would cut that tax in half for breweries which produce fewer than six million barrels per year, to $3.50 per barrel, and would take $2 off the tax on the remaining barrels up to two million.
Continue reading “The Beer Act and Chuck Shumer”

Dog Bite High Gravity Lager
Rock Wall Brewing Company
Rochester, NY
10% abv
(Picture from brewer’s site.)

I always try to say something nice when I profile a beer. I suppose if you are into the cheap malt liquors that the big brewers tried to pawn off African Americans in the 70s it might be barely tolerable, reemphasizing “barely.” Even then… I’ve had plenty better.

Light urine yellow, clear with a giant rocky head: it’s looks OK. There’s that sulfur: lager sense to the aroma and taste I’ve never cared for to the extreme. Mouthfeel is carbonation and the edgy sense of high alcohols to come. The taste delivers that harsh, brash savor you get when the brewer is more interested in pumping up the % than taste. I’m guessing there’s corn in here and maybe even corn sugar to hype it up some more. Higher alcs rip the tongue and your whole mouth a new mouth: not pleasant.

Beer Advocate says “Genessee Brewing.” The real Genny went outa biz a long time ago. Sad to see the brewer, who I have noticed switches names of their brewery depending upon the packaging, is trying to outdo the worst breweries did back then. I’ve had high grav lagers before. Though I prefer ales, the lagers can be quite good. Bite isn’t, and “bites” is a bit more appropriate.

This one may fit the profile of the style, I admit. But even then; even though some harsh might be expected: still too damn harsh. And I’d bet good money Bite can produce one hell of a hangover. Maybe taking it all the way to 10% wasn’t a great idea?

It’s barely drinkable. But why would one bother anyway?

Picture courtesy Jonathon Gruenke of the The Kalamazoo Gazette

(Guests pack the Dark Horse Brewing Co. in Marshall on a recent afternoon. The brewery is completing a $700,000 project to increase capacity, add a conference room, office and more.)

Written by John Liberty for the Kalamazoo Gazette

KALAMAZOO — These are heady times for Michigan craft beer.

While the state’s unemployment rate stood around 12 percent entering this year, breweries, microbreweries and brew pubs from West Michigan to Detroit to Bellaire and Bay City are adding jobs, increasing production and investing in expansions and renovations totaling more than $70 million.

Michigan’s total of more than 80 beermakers ranks fifth nationally; at least three more plan to open this year.

Continue reading “Michigan’s Beer Boom: for Craft Brewers, the Glass isn’t just Half-full, it’s Overflowing”