Professor Good Ales

Courtesy fyeahstrangefinds.tumblr.com

Written by QMI Agency for The Toronto Sun

Bad news for outdoorsy types: mosquitoes like beer as much as you do. This according to an Australian study published on PloS One, the Public Library of Science online. A team of researchers in Australia put volunteers in tents in Burkina Faso in West Africa. The tents used a complex system of tubing to direct the volunteers’ body odour into boxes in such a way that the mosquitoes could choose which scent to go after.

Half the volunteers – all men between 20 and 43 – were given one litre of 3% beer to drink, and the other half were given a litre of water. Then the researchers unleashed the lab-bred mosquitoes. The experiment was conducted four times: before beer, after beer, before water and after water.
Continue reading “Well That BITES or Why Mosquitoes Have More Fun”

It’s the time of year many start thinking “vacation.” Here’s one possibility: if not this year; next.

Every year beer lovers gather for a two day event: Hastings Beer and Music Festival. This fascinating event takes place in Alexandra Park, Hastings. English and visiting music fans delight to the sounds of many acts, including Not Guilty, Pugwash, Joe’s Blues Band, Slam, Keane, Hastings Horns, Blair MacKichan, Status Quo, Lenny Beige and even a family sing-a-long. Here’s a hint to festival organizers: how about some international acts to increase the appeal to visiting tourists like us Yanks? This has been a charity event with much of the funds going to St. Michaels Hospice, so local appeal, musically, is certainly necessary.

Usually held in early July around the 4th. Stick it to our former oppressor: go dressed in your American best!

Beer selection: over 100 different ales, bitters, milds, and stouts. Past tastings: Thwaites Well, Well, Well (Pale), Whites Grumpy Guvnor (malty deep amber bitter), Westerham British Bulldog “BB” (Maris Otter anyone?), Wells and Youngs Eagle IPA, Titanic Longitude (perhaps a Brit take on an American IPA?) and many, many more.

Cost last year 8L in advance, 10 at the door. That’s about $12 and $15. Not bad.

If you dare to wear, can be bought at foulmouthfish.com

The Professor likes to highlight competitions with a special twist. And he knows more than a few hopheads.

Announcement…

GEBL Hop Madness IPA Bracket Challenge, BJCP/WAHA Competition – This is a Head-to-Head competition with 4 brackets (English IPA14a, American IPA 14b Imperial IPA 14c and Experimental IPA 23a.). The winner of each bracket will advance to a final best of show round when the best of each IPA style will be going against the other styles. This is a BJCP/WAHA registered competition and also makes you eligible for Washington Homebrew of the Year points. Enter as many different IPA beers as you wish. Entries are due May 18, 2010, Judging May 22, 2010.

For entry instructions or more information, please click…

HERE

A personal note from one of the organizers was posted on Judge Net…

Coming up on May 22nd the Greater Everett Brewers League will be hosting the Hop Madness IPA Challenge. Beers will be placed in one of 4 brackets (American IPA14a, European IPA 14b Imperial IPA 14c and Experimental IPA 23a.) and will be evaluated in a head-to-head fashion. The winner of each bracket will advance to a final Best of Show round, and the best beer will be crowned the winner. This is a BJCP certified competition as well as Washington Homebrewer of the Year qualifier.
Participants will be allowed to enter as many different IPA beers as they wish. Please don’t enter the same beer twice. Entries will be accepted May 7th- May18th. For more information go to: www.gebl.org.

We are also looking to sign up judges. Please email me if you can join us on the 22nd at 9 am to judge.

“Will” <teamoly@yahoo.com : Greater Everett Brewers League, PO Box 13392. Everett, WA 98206. Phone: 425 385-2322.

Written by Jeff Bean

One great thing about beer is that it offers incredible value for money. Compared to wine or spirits, tasting the best the world has to offer beer-wise is pretty cheap. Retail prices of the most expensive beers seldom exceed $20, and beers in the $30-50 range are exceedingly rare. Some beers, however, have demand that far exceed their supply, and thus bring much higher prices at auction.

One such beer is Three Floyds Dark Lord Russian Imperial Stout, made in Chicago’s south suburbs. The beer is uniquely complex and viscous, even among imperial stouts, and its appeal has been greatly enhanced by its extremely limited availability. It is only sold one day each year at a special release party at the brewery.

Dark Lord Day, as it is known, has turned into a huge outdoor beer extravaganza and will be held this upcoming Saturday. Thousands attend to share beer, eat barbecue, and purchase coveted bottles of Dark Lord. Lines can be long, but spirits are high and beer talk and camaraderie abounds.

But you don’t have to stand in the long line at Dark Lord Day to witness the hype surrounding this beer – a visit to www.eBay.com is enough. Last week, one 2010 bottle apparently sold for $12,800. This event incited a significant amount of discussion and debate in beer forums, and the consensus seemed to be that it was a sham. The 2010 DL doesn’t go on sale until Saturday, and if it was in fact a leaked bottle, $12,785 is a high premium to pay for the chance to drink it a week early. More likely is that it was a bidding war in which the top bidders had no intention of paying. It may also be a complete sham item, with photoshopped wax. I guess we’ll have a better idea on Saturday, after we see the color of the wax. Real or not, it’s evidence of the tremendous hype surrounding this beer.
Continue reading “$12,800 for a Bottle of Beer!?”

Written by Jonathan Shikes for Denver Westword Blogs

What do beer and pot have in common? Not much. In fact, there are plenty of smokers who hate beer drinkers and plenty of imbibers who scorn pot heads.

But on 4/20, maybe we can all just get a long.

Craft breweries seem to think it can work, and a number of them are holding special events or offering beers on tap designed to celebrate along with marijuana advocates.

Vine Street Pub’s 4/20 birthday celebration and the Satchel’s Market event with California’s Stone Brewing Company.

But you’ll also find beer made with hemp seeds on tap.

Twisted Pine Brewing in Boulder releases Hemp IPA today, a 9 percent abv beer made with roasted hemp seeds; even better, free beer shots at the tap house at 4:20 p.m.

​And in Colorado Springs, Trinity Brewing Company will tap The Emperor Wears No Clothes, also made with hemp seeds, a 5.5 percent abv Belgian saison. Meanwhile, back in Boulder, you can “get Hazed” with Boulder Beer Company at the Sink restaurant from 4:20 to 6:20 p.m. Beer from the first keg of the brewery’s Hazed & Infused is free. The brewpub itself will feature pot stickers, twice-baked potato skins and Boulder Beer brownies.

The Professor found this rather odd and interesting method for estimating the bitterness of hops in an old edition of Zymurgy…

Written by Patrick D’Luzansky

The old standard method to estimate alpha-acid percentage is to make an educated guess and then modify the guess as you gain brewing experience with your hops. Because homegrown hops are fresher and have suffered less handling, they are more bitter than commercial hops. Estimating their alpha as 50 percent higher than the average alpha for the same commercial cultivar is a pretty good guess. Knowing the exact alpha of your hops is less critical if you use them only for flavor and aroma additions.
We can improve on this guess with a taste-testing technique I call “ratiometric titration.” The approach here is to compare a same-cultivar hop of known alpha content with our unknown alpha hop. We compare the ratio of quantities of sugar needed to overcome the bitterness and infer that this ratio will equal the ratio of alphas. Thus, if it takes five teaspoons of sugar to offset the bitterness of our homegrown hops and three teaspoons to null the commercial hops, then our hops are five-thirds as strong, and our alpha-acid content is five-thirds the commercial alpha. If the commercial alpha is 6 percent, then our alpha is 5/3 times 6, or 10 percent.

I make up two hop tea samples – one from our unknown alpha fresh hops, and the second from commercial whole leaf hops of the same cultivar with known alpha. Stir one-quarter ounce hops plus one teaspoon sugar into two cups of boiling water (the sugar is needed because the hop resins are nearly insoluble in plain water.) Next, reduce the heat and simmer with the lid on for 30 minutes. Now add enough boiled water to each sample to bring their volumes back to two cups. Let the teas settle and cool to room temperature. Next, decant and filter the teas through a coffee filter to remove sediment.

Now comes the tasting part. It’s best to do the tasting in the morning when your taste buds are freshest. Measure a quarter cup of each of the hops teas. Now taste a few drops of the unknown alpha tea and rinse off your tongue. The tea will taste bitter, of course. Next, add one-quarter teaspoon sugar and taste. It will taste a little less bitter. Continue titrating the tea with the sugar in quarter-teaspoon increments (and doing a tongue rinsing between each tasting) while tasting for the point when the predominantly bitter taste finally gives way to a sweet taste (with bitter overtones). This is when the bitter loses its bite. Record the amount of sugar it took to reach this turning point. Now repeat the titration with the known alpha tea. The ratio of the titrated sugar for the unknown hops to the sugar required for the known hops is our estimate of the ratio of the alphas of the respective hops.

If this method seems too imprecise for you, send a one-ounce sample of hops to Jim Murphey at Murphey Analytical Laboratories Inc., (509) 577-8969. He will do an alpha-acid and beta-acid spectrographic analysis for about $28 and a hop oil profile analysis for $80. He also will perform an IBU analysis of your beer for $25. (Send two bottles – one for testing and one for qualitative analysis while doing the write-up – to 7 W. Mead Ave., Yakima, WA 98902.)

This excerpt is from an article that also has some tips regarding cultivating hops, and hop interesting facts- Prof. GA