Professor Good Ales

Written by Dan Murphy for the Press Register and al.com

Two beer dinners are planned along the Gulf Coast in January, and they both look very promising.

On Jan. 19 at 7 p.m., Seville Quarter in Pensacola will be hosting a NOLA Brewing beer dinner, a five-course meal that pairs various NOLA brews with some amazing sounding food. Don’t miss the cask-conditioned NOLA Blonde dry-hopped with Citra hops, a new and increasingly popular hop varietal that lends a tropical, mango-like flavor to the beer.
Continue reading “Beer Dinners Planned Along the Gulf Coast”

Posted by Eric Maza at weblogs.baltimoresun.com

A couple of weeks ago, when I reported that Flying Dog had sold its Wild Goose brand to something that referred itself as a “nano-brewery,” an incredulous reader snapped back on twitter, “WTF is a nano-brewery?” (Hi @ryan97ou!)

Who can blame him for the confusion. In the beer world, terms like nano-breweries and microbreweries and craft breweries are often interchangeable, so that’s it’s difficult to know exactly how macro some of these places really are.
Continue reading “What Should be the Standard for Craft Breweries?”

Written by Joe Sixpack for The Philadelphia Daily News

BEER DRINKERS are notoriously slothful when it comes to planning for the future. That’s why we’ve developed so many ways to crack open a cold one without a bottle opener.

But now that you’ve found a place to hang the 2011 furry kitten calendar you got for Christmas, take a minute to mark some important dates to remember.

Jan. 14-15: Great Alaska Beer and Barleywine Festival. Yes, it’s cold, but the high-proof ales (not to mention outstanding mead) will warm you right up.
Continue reading “Joe Sixpack: A Year of Big Dates for Beer-lovers to Observe”

Ken Carman is a BJCP judge; homebrewer since 1979, club member at Escambia Bay and Music City Homebrewers, who has been interviewing professional brewers all over the east coast for over 10 years.

We had to go to South Bend, Indiana, on business. So what do we do? Stop by brewpubs. Of course, being Friday night and Saturday, I didn’t get to interview the brewers, or see much of the brew equipment.

So many brewpubs have come and gone in this area. Nine G., Mishawaka Brewing… we were lucky to find the few we did.

The first target was Shoreline Brewery and Restaurant in Michigan City: seemed to be the only real brewpub in the close to South Bend area as far as we could tell. More on the “real” comment later.

Brick exterior, apparently an old factory or something that, on the outside, needs some refurbishing. A few blocks from Lake Michigan itself. The inside yellow-ish/pine like wood. Promising. They even had a barley wine in bottle. But I left without one.

You know that’s absolutely not a good sign, right?

Continue reading “Brew Biz: Werts and All”

Written by Danner Kline for www.bhamweekly.com

(Photo by Robert S. Donovan. For further editions of the regional series, please check Birmingham Weekly)

Last week I did an overview of dark beers, but that was a break from a series I’ve been working on, covering key regions for American craft beer. First in the series was the Southeast, second was California and next up is Colorado. Colorado is second only to California in the quantity, quality and fame of its breweries.

Continue reading “American Beer by Region- Colorado”

Written by Danner Kline for www.bhamweekly.com

(Photo by John Setzler. For further editions of the regional series, please check Birmingham Weekly)

I’m in the middle of a series of columns highlighting different regions of American craft beer, but I like to take a break from series like that.

This time of year I hear a lot people insisting on drinking dark beer. Sometimes winter seasonal beers specifically intended by brewmasters to be enjoyed in cold weather are spurned if not sufficiently dark. I don’t really agree with this obsession with beer color, but if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. So here’s an overview of “dark beer” for people who insist on such things at this time of year.
Continue reading “Getting to Know Your Dark Beer”

Maybe those zombies at the Winchester just longed for a true British pint?

(Note: beer prices in GB are also going up due to a tax increase, so this may be advantageous to pub folks -The Prof.)

From the Associated Press

LONDON — Britain is calling time on more than 300 years of history, by relaxing rules on pub glass sizes.

Pubs will soon be able to serve a smaller beer, holding about 400 milliliters – a measure popular in some parts of Australia where it is known as a schooner.

Science Minister David Willetts said Tuesday that centuries old rules governing the sale of alcohol are being relaxed in response to health concerns and following demands from businesses to sell sizes better suited to modern waistlines and wallets.

The British pint – a 568 milliliter pour – has been the standard size for beer or cider since it was introduced in 1698. Bars are currently permitted to serve beer only as a pint, or as a third or a half of that measure.
Continue reading “Don’t Fancy a Pint? UK Introduces New Beer Size”

This brew is an India Pale Ale by style, but that is where the similarity to most IPAs ends. Each consecutive batch of Hop Project is brewed with a different blend of spicy, aromatic hops, never using the same blend twice. It’s a Hophead’s dream come true! Check the bottled on date and our blog to decode what specific hop varieties we used in that batch.- From Yazoo’s web site.

Written by Ken Carman

When I asked the Professor about the possibility that all writers here might be able to offer some occasional “applause” for innovation, he readily agreed.

Well, “readily” after I begged, pleaded, did all kinds of unmentionable things for him.

I’m joking. But we are hoping that Scribe, Tom Becham and other writers occasionally featured here will help. Feel free to offer your own “applause.” Perhaps even a boo or a hiss? Hmm… perhaps another new feature here at PGA?

Let’s start with Yazoos Hop project…

I know of no other brewery who does this. Every craft brewer of any worth now has at least one IPA. Or IIPA, smoked IPA, Cascadian/Dark IPA and various spins off of that motif. I applaud the attention hop lovers have been given. But Yazoo Brewing in Nashville has something quite unique in their Hop Project. Every few weeks they take a basic wort and vary the hops: both in the type of hop and how one adds the hops… fresh hops, odd hops from all over the world, and, one hopes, smoked and other variations on hops in the future.

Here is my opinion: this is what brewing is all about.
Continue reading “Applauding Innovation: Hop Project”

Photo: Real Ale Reviews

Profiled by Ken Carman for Professorgoodales.net

Looking for the perfect beer, Christmas?

Being a beer geek always seeking more punishment for my palate, I was very surprised just how much I liked St. Petersburg Russian Imperial. I mean, it is English, and they do back off from the extremes newer American brewers go to. And this is now exception.

What a beautiful beer. I imagine this might be exactly what the Czars loved so much that they considered it their beer and started to brew it themselves. Sadly I have never had a Russian version that compared to most of the American and English versions.

St. Pete started with a huge, cascading head that was a dark tan pillow. I’d sleep on it any day. The nose, the only thing slightly off, was oddly chocolate. I expected more deep roast complexity and some fruit-like sense, though there was a not unexpected slight hint of coffee.

Mouthfeel: big malt, and low attentuation. A tad sweet in the background and the slightest hint of burnt.

There were hops, yes, but unlike American versions (some), way in the background and just a slight, perfectly balanced, bitter. Malt is the focus and it delivers big time with a multitude of roasty tastes from some dark chocolate-like flavor, to some coffee-like, and various malts. Little Black Patent, but it does seem to be there, way in the background. There’s also some smoke, or peated malt, sense that increases as it warms.

I imagine this to be exactly like many of the imports into Russia from oh so many years ago. If not: should have been. Wow!

I recommend this to anyone and especially to have on Christmas to warm one’s cheer. And at 7.7% you might even be able to have two, unlike the higher ABV American versions. I wouldn’t recommend driving though, not only for obvious reasons, but because you’ll want to savor this beauty.

From the BBC

13th-Century Belgian abbey famous for its brewery has been damaged by fire but the monks escaped unhurt and the vats survived intact.

The Trappist (Cistercian) monks were dining when fire broke out at the abbey at St Remy-Rochefort, famous for its Rochefort beer.

The building was evacuated and it took 70 firefighters to put out the blaze.

It seems the blaze began near a generator being used temporarily after problems with the power supply.
Rochefort Trappist beer Rochefort is famous for strong beers

Francois Bellot, mayor of Rochefort, said he was confident that it would be possible to resume beer production within a few days.
Continue reading “Fire damages Rochefort Trappist Beer Abbey in Belgium”