Professor Good Ales

Written by Charlie Papazian

From Examiner.com You can follow this series there, but please check out other sources, like bjcp.org for taste evaluations, defects and judging standards. This should provide a more complete picture.

(Prof. GA- Is it possible the Examiner missed printing part of this article? Some spaces were blank and descriptions incomplete or somewhat askew. But the information is still interesting.)

Several quantitative variables differentiate one beer from another helping to define beer styles.

During the 1980s and early 90s analytical variables measured by Professor Anton Piendl of the Institut für Bräuerei-Technologie und Mickrobiologie der Technischen Universität München at Weihenstephan established a baseline for identifying beer style characters.  More than 500 different beers were analyzed.  The data helped American Homebrewers Association and Brewers Association begin its work more than 25 years ago to help develop its current guidelines for beer types.  Professor Piendl’s work was published over a 13 years period in the 1980s and 1990s in the German brewing journal Brauindustrie.   Here is a list of the values he measured.
Continue reading “Beer Styles: What Do Beer Scientists Evaluate?”

“MR. Colbert! How DARE you steal Scribe’s pronunciation of ‘report.'”


Courtesy Beernews.org

Harvest Dance
Wheat Wine Style Ale
Boulevard Brewing
Kansas City, Kansas
9.1%

Start with unpredictable foam. Scribe doesn’t mean “open and run like HELL to the sink.” That happens and wheat can do that. Brewers USE it to bolster head. Scribe means: open it, start to pour and part way through the pour the glass suddenly fills and the bottle overflows. Let it sit there and it overflows, then not, overflows, then not. In other words: about as unpredictable as a cat dropped unto a bed of hot coals.

Ruined a TV control. That’s OK. Mrs. Scribe wanted to watch soap operas.

BARF.

9.1? Tastes like more and still loads of sweet. Aroma: sweet and wheat. Maybe just a bit of peppery yeast. Maybe.

Mouthfeel? Scuse Scribe for a sec. What did ya feel, mouth? Oh, yeah. OK. Scribe will tell them. “Foam, wheat and sweet.” This beer has about as many dimensions as Flatland. That would be: two. YUP, that’s about it: sweet and wheat. The foam doesn’t count because it’s so &^%$#@!)*&^ unpredictable.

Misty yeast/wheat haze. Slight light gold color. If labels made beer grand, at least the packaging would save this. But it doesn’t. Why didn’t they keep the red provided in the picture culled from Beer News? Looked better. This was kind of a Dracula BLAH-se’ brown.

Did they fully ferment this sucker? Barley wines can be sweet too, but to claim this is cloying is like saying the only problem a puking kid is the cement-like PBJ sticking to the roof of his mouth was a teensy weensy “cloying.”

If not for that: “drinkable,” if you can get enough in your glass between explosive foam pours to drink. Drinkable: yes. Interesting: hell no.

Now, please excuse Scribe again. He needs to go steal a jackhammer from the county to get the “cloy” out his mouth.

Written by Leah McLaren for The Spectator (UK)

The government acts as if booze is the root cause of all our social problems, says Leah McLaren, but it’s not. Drinking is an important part of British culture, the pub is the hub of the community, and health warnings can even be counterproductive.

“No drug, not even alcohol, causes the fundamental ills of society. If we’re looking for the source of our troubles, we shouldn’t test people for drugs, we should test them for stupidity, ignorance, greed and love of power.”

— P.J. O’Rourke

Happy new year! But don’t pass the bubbly. Haven’t you heard? We are all in danger of losing our souls to the demon liquor. According to the government, alcohol expands your liver, distends your pancreas and turns your brainstem to jelly. It makes you gamble and stumble and sleep with women who aren’t your wife. It’s highly addictive, full of harmful nitrates and the latest craze among schoolchildren aged four to six. Rampant swilling explains why the NHS is overburdened, unemployment is high and Gordon Brown looks so exhausted. It makes poor people beat their babies to death and rich people put money in hedge funds.

And you wouldn’t want that, would you?
Continue reading “Don’t Worry — Drink and Be Merry”

Peter Fowler

Written by Ben Ellery for Oxford Mail (UK)

THERE are bitters, bitter bitters and then Peter Fowler’s latest creation, which he hopes will earn him the title of bitterest brewer in the world.
Continue reading “Brewer’s Bid to Be the Bitterest”

Nashville, TN area

Please be sure to attend the January meeting of the MCB. We need nominations for officers for the year 2010 (election is held in February). So far, the only nomination I know of is Brandon Jones for President. Members must be current in their dues in order to be eligible to vote in the election. Let Jonathan know you are coming – we need a pretty close head count I guess.

The club has big plans this year for the annual competition – this will be our 15th! Come and hear what’s on tap!

Thanks – and Happy New Year to everyone.

Liz

January 9th @ 2:00 pm
108 Bridge Street, Franklin, TN 37064

The Topic- How NOT to Judge Beer

Written by Ken Carman

I opened up the beer: pre-competition judging. I think I had judged 3 or 4 competitions at that point: at best. I wasn’t BJCP yet and hadn’t thought through my duties to those who had spent so much time and effort brewing and submitting beer. The smell literally filled the big upstairs room at Boscos where we were judging. A National rated judge at the other end of the table gagged and said, “Whew, all that in one bottle?”

Hence the birth of “dirty diaper beer.”
Continue reading “Brew Biz: Werts and All”

Jolly Pumpkin Artisan Ales
Dexter, Michigan

Can you say, “head?” When poured there was little beer: foam coats the glass and hangs, hangs, hangs on. In the glass: all pillow head. Mrs. Scribe was mad when Scribe looked at all that head with envy and said, “If only….” Malt and alcohol nose. Sour. Is this supposed to be Flemish? Mahogany brown,

Dark malts and alcohol coat the mouth. Not as much carbonation in the mouthfeel.

From their site:

“Noel de Calabaza – Deep mahogany and malty, layered hops, figs, raisins, sugar plums, cashews betwixt rum laden truffles.”

If this were an attempt at Belgian, as some claim, it should be on da bloody bottle! Mention that. Skip the hop BS. If there had been a hint of this on the bottle Scribe may have reconsidered. But not much.

There has to be some black patent in here and maybe some brown malt. If that sour sense is the hops, change the damn hops! Bottle label says “multi-layered hops.” What %$#@! hops?

If ya wanna pucker then sucker this one down. But as far as being “Christmas,” “seasonal,” or all that interesting?

Bah humbug.

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

Continue reading “From the Bottle Collection: Suwanee Ale”