Professor Good Ales

Image courtesy stanford.wellsphere.com

Profiled by Ken Carman

You’re going to have to excuse me, I’m doing this one from memory. I had this beer at the Bluebonnet and describing one beer from something like the BB is almost like describing a single drop in a thunderstorm. I type “almost” because this one stood out: not for what it was but what it wasn’t.

You would expect a beer with anaheim, fresno, serrano, jalapeno, habanero peppers in it would be overwhelming: especially one with a light ale body like this. Well, I believe “ale,” but to be honest I’d need another taste minus the thunderstorm to be sure. I can usually tell the difference: ale more fruity, lager variable amounts of a sulfur-like sense.

But, instead of a pepper whack, the spicing here is gentle: subtle; just enough to tingle the buds. No hops evident and aroma is pepper… not much else. The example I had was clear and a little darker than Bud: not dark at all, really.
Continue reading “Beer Profile: Billy’s Chilies”

(Please refer to #8 for the source of both the following photo and the related story-Prof. GA)

Ever watch “Six Feet Under” when it was on? Someone always dies in the beginning, some ironic some very sad or even funny ways. Scribe LOVES beer. He first started writing ABOUT beer. But just like any alcoholic beverage, to say beer can make be used as an excuse to do stupid things is so much an obvious “duh,” it’s dumber than a Homer Simpson ‘DOH.'” Here are just a few either stupid, or sad, beer and alcohol related deaths Scribe has discovered by visiting Doctor Google. (Hopefully he doesn’t offer certain enemas.) Murder is included. Scribe dares you not to laugh, feel sad or shake your head in wonder. Scribe warns you: some of these are a bit gruesome. If you’d rather NOT, DON’T click.

Continue reading “Ye Olde Scribe’s VERY, VERY Incredibly Bad Beer Report”

The Blue Bonnet Brew-Off
Dallas, Texas

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.

The last time we went to Dallas was in the 80s for a wedding. It’s a good 600 miles away from Nashville. For years we had been hearing about The Bluebonnet, and depending on who you talk to, it’s either the biggest or one of the biggest in the country.

We left at 9pm and drove all night, taking turns to sleep. Of course “sleeping well” while “someone else is driving” are often close to antonyms. Luckily I didn’t wake up this time in sheer terror thinking I had fallen asleep while driving. After adjusting some bad directions from the net we arrived at the location of the event: the Westin.

Continue reading “Brew Biz: Werts and All”

Bluebonnet Brew-off 2002 Winners
Continue reading “The Bluebonnet: Winners”

Written by Jay Brooks for the Brookston Beer Bulletin

Back in the last week of April, I visited the Ball Can Factory in Fairfield, California to watch the first beer cans for 21st Amendment Restaurant & Brewery being manufactured. Last week, I followed up on that story to watch the next part of the can’s journey to your hand. So I joined owner/brewer Shaun O’Sullivan and his assistant brewer, Mike D., early Thursday morning at the brewpub to watch as they went through the process of taking empty cans and turning them into a full six-pack of beer. I even had a chance to pitch in briefly, which was great fun. All of the equipment used for the canning came from Cask Brewing Systems of Calgary, Canada. So I’ll step you through the process in detail:

Continue reading “Putting Beer in Cans: 21st Amendment Cans Their Beer”

Without intent, I have collected well over 1,000 beer bottles since the early 70s. When something finally had to be done about the cheap paneling in this old modular, I had a choice. Tear down the walls while, oh, so carefully, replacing the often rotted 1X3s. Or: cover them with… The Bottle Collection.

Written by Ken Carman

A while ago I put a lot of these into draft status and then forgot about them. My apologies if you’ve seen this before. Please remember: any contradictions probably have to do with the fading memories of one old coot: moi’.

This was sold as if it was brewed in upstate, NY, if I remember right… Syracuse, though at the time it was really brewed in New Jersey. Quite a ways to vend out for contract beer. I remember it having a copious amount of caramelized malts and some hops, but not as many as the name would indicate. The body was the real focus. Just a little one dimensional. I had thought Landmark was out of business, but they still have a website up. It looks like they may have stopped brewing on their own and then, at some point, started again with Paper City brewing for them now. Apparently Flying Bison and Custom Crafters have helped too. It looks like they have added several styles to their portfolio including an Imperial Stout.

The Paper City facility is fascinated and well suited to contract brewing: several breweries use the same facility. I would assume that means they’re able to switch labeling operations and between styles. I hope to write about it this summer when I’m in New England.

There can be no doubt that that part of New York can use more breweries. One hopes they will eventually get their own brewery again, though it’s obviously an expensive endeavor so contract brewing has its attractions.

It also sounds like the recipe has been changed, as in “more hops.”

For more on Landmark click…

HERE

Kielbasa In Beer And Onions

Ingredients

* 4 Tablespoons butter
* 3-4 pounds kielbasa (cut in 2 – 3″ pieces)
* 2-12 once bottles regular or hearty beer
* 4 to 5 onions, thinly sliced
* 1/2 pound mushrooms, quartered
* Salt, pepper and marjoram to taste

For the rest, please click

HERE

(Press-Register/Victor Calhoun) Morgan Smith samples an import at HopsFest, an event in Mobile, Ala., that gave patrons a chance to sample craft beers from around the country and a few imports. It was held Saturday, March 20, 2010, in Cathedral Square in downtown Mobile.

Written by David Ferrara for al.com

MOBILE, Ala. — MOBILE, Ala. — Many of the 53 types of beers offered at Cathedral Square on Saturday would have been illegal in the state at the same time last year.

The inaugural Mobile Baykeeper HopsFest, celebrating state legislation that allows beers with higher alcohol content, drew hundreds of gourmet beer aficionados.
Continue reading “Mobile Baykeeper HopsFest Draws Hundreds; Celebrates Legislation Allowing Beers with Higher Alcohol Content”

Detroit police inspecting a clandestine underground brewery during Prohibition.

The little-told story of how the U.S. government poisoned alcohol during Prohibition with deadly consequences.

Written by Deborah Bloom for Slate.com

It was Christmas Eve 1926, the streets aglitter with snow and lights, when the man afraid of Santa Claus stumbled into the emergency room at New York City’s Bellevue Hospital. He was flushed, gasping with fear: Santa Claus, he kept telling the nurses, was just behind him, wielding a baseball bat.

Before hospital staff realized how sick he was—the alcohol-induced hallucination was just a symptom—the man died. So did another holiday partygoer. And another. As dusk fell on Christmas, the hospital staff tallied up more than 60 people made desperately ill by alcohol and eight dead from it. Within the next two days, yet another 23 people died in the city from celebrating the season.

Doctors were accustomed to alcohol poisoning by then, the routine of life in the Prohibition era. The bootlegged whiskies and so-called gins often made people sick. The liquor produced in hidden stills frequently came tainted with metals and other impurities. But this outbreak was bizarrely different. The deaths, as investigators would shortly realize, came courtesy of the U.S. government.

Want to read more? Click…

HERE

Hawkshead Beer Hall: United Kingdom. In Staveley. The river Kent meanders through the area. There’s plenty of food from a nearby cafe’. They have their own brewery. Here are four of their beers.

They also “proudly serve” pork pies at the bar made from “happy pigs fattened on grain from our brewery.”