Professor Good Ales

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.

Written by Ken Carman

I dedicate this column to Drew Patterson who introduced me to Sergio’s. That’s Drew with the beard, watching a beer being poured. Drew passed on May 17th. He will be missed more than he, or even his wife Vickie, ever imagined.

A Review: Sergio’s World Beers

1605 Story Avenue
Louisville, KY 40206
(502) 618-2337
 

Continue reading “Brew Biz: Werts and All”

From H.S. Corran’s “A History of Brewing”

Because beer is a living thing, made from living ingredients by changing people in a changing world, it evolves. Often the explanation is “a change in public taste,” but that is always an inadequate answer. The real reasons for evolution in brewing are always complex, usually a mixture of history, economics, sociology, technology and, finally, the expectations of the drinking public.
Continue reading “Black Patent Malt and the Evolution of Porter”

Anne Ryan for The Wall Street JournalChicago’s Metropolitan Brewing, founded by Tracy and Doug Hurst, began selling its lagers this winter.

Written by David Kesmodel for The WSJ

The economic crisis has stifled entrepreneurial activity in many industries. But it’s done little to dent the ambitions of those who dream of brewing their own beer and offering it to the world.

Surprisingly large numbers of entrepreneurs — some let go from corporate jobs in recent years — have been starting microbreweries or brewpubs. Schools that teach brewing are being showered with applications from people interested in getting into the business. At the same time, enthusiasm for interesting new beers remains strong; BeerAdvocate.com, a Web site for beer enthusiasts, says its traffic has reached one million unique visitors a month, and is rising as much as 12% each month.

Last year, even as a recession gripped the country, 114 microbreweries and brewpubs — restaurants that make their own beer — opened in the U.S., according to the Brewers Association, a Boulder, Colo., trade group. That marked the highest number since 1999. Openings are expected to decline this year, but start-up activity remains robust, says Paul Gatza, director of the Brewers Association. The group estimates 200 microbreweries and brewpubs already are on the drawing board for the next few years.
Continue reading “In Lean Times, a Stout Dream”

Reported by Ken Carman for Professor Goodales

With help from grizzlygrowler.com

There are fund raisers.

There are beer fund raisers.

Then there are great: innovative, fund raisers. Hence: the Grizzly Growler Tree.

Everyone likes to leave their fav brewpub or small micro serving room with a grwoler of their fav beer, right? Well eat your hearts out, Montana quaffers: Christian Claeys won The Growler Tree… a tree with growlers from most of Montana’s brewpubs planted on the tree’s limb like shelves at the Myrna Theater in Helena, Montana. Now he gets to travel around and fill those growlers.

One unfortunate note: no where could the writer find what the fund raiser was for. One would think this might be important.

If only those of us without kids could replace our Christmas trees and Santa delivered…

Word of warning: best not try to fill and personally empty them all in one day, Christian: this is an experience best savored over time!

Written by Martyn Cornell for Zythophile.wordpress.com

No they weren’t, and nor were there ever any petitions against hops to Parliament, nor were any general bans on brewers using hops made by Henry VIII, Parliament, the mayors and corporations of Coventry or Norwich, or anybody else.

What did happen was that at different times and in different places between approximately 1440 and 1540 attempts were made to maintain the distinction between (unhopped) ale, the only malted cereal drink made in England before the last quarter of the 14th century, and beer, the hopped malted cereal drink brought into this country by immigrants from the Low Countries and Germany. Various authorities thus forbad the ale brewers – who remained an entirely separate group of men and women from the beer brewers until at least the reign of James I in the 17th century – from putting hops into their ale. Beer brewers, however, were allowed to hop away.
Continue reading “Another Hop Myth”

LOUISVILLE, KY (MAY 13, 2010) – Celebrate the Top of the Hops Louisville Beer Festival on Saturday, June 19 from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. at the Kentucky International Convention Center in Exhibit Hall 1AB. Top of the Hops has included Louisville on its list of cities for its inaugural craft beer tour.

Continue reading “Top of the Hops Brings Beer to Louisville”

Written by John Palmer

Beer has been brewed for thousands of years and the majority of this brewing was done before anyone knew about germs or sanitation. Sometimes the beer was good and sometimes it wasn’t. Over time, brewers learned which practices seemed to make good beer, and these practices became ritual. A case in point is the historic Norwegian beer totems r used in the Middle Ages. Michael Jackson reports that these sticks were passed down from generation to generation and used to stir the developing beer. The totems harbored yeast (and bacteria) of previous batches. Reusing the totems inoculated each new batch with these yeast and bacteria. Maintaining this “house yeast” was the basis for a family’s brewing success. The totems were very important and were treated carefully to preserve their power for turning wort into beer.

Late in the 1860s, Louis Pasteur discovered yeast as the cause of fermentation. At about the same time he discovered that bacteria and “wild” yeasts caused the spoilage of beer ( 1). From Pasteur’s work, it was recognized that using large amounts of healthy yeast could overcome any small amounts of bacteria present and help reduce the risk of spoilage of the final product. Once the effects of yeast and bacteria were identified. measures could be taken to control them in brewing. Unfortunately problems with beer infections persist today, particularly during the summer months when the air is teeming with bacteria and wild yeast. Only by maintaining vigilance over our sanitation techniques can we be assured of successful batches.
Continue reading “The Technical Edge: A Complete Guide to Cleaning and Sanitation”

Written by Patrick Gavin for Politico.com

While most of Washington was focused on Tuesday’s election results, the House was busy doing something else: passing a resolution about beer.

House Resolution 1297, sponsored by Rep. Betsy Markey, supports “the goals and ideals of American Craft Beer Week.”

“We’ve got quite a number of microbreweries and entrepreneurs that are creating jobs, and we wanted to celebrate that this is a craft,” Markey told POLITICO. “I think beer has been a tradition since this country was founded,” said Markey. “We wanted to celebrate entrepreneurship — and good beer!”

Markey is obviously partial to brews from her home state of Colorado, but she won’t claim a favorite.

“You can’t just have one,” said Markey. “It really depends on what mood you’re in. Sometimes, I like a light beer — I might want a Skinny Dip — or otherwise prefer a heavier brew.”

The real question is: Why would anyone vote against this?

“It does seem like a no brainer,” said Markey.