From the Bottle Collection: Buffalo Bill’s Alimony Ale
  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
The collection has grown so big I have no more wall space. Now I’m cleaning out the house and have to throw out so much, be far more selective. In an old box I found Alimony Ale, billed as “the bitterest brew in America.†Hardly, though I do remember it being very bitter. Brewed by Buffalo Bill’s in Hayward, CA.
I haven’t seen this brew in quite a while. I’m also thinking it’s probably been out bittered, due to the peak of hopheadedness.
78 and 83 on BA, 38 and 11 on Ratebeer. Here is what RB said…
â€This traditional India Pale Ale was first produced in 1987 for a customer going through a divorce. Alimony was one of the first craft IPAs and gained cult status after articles appeared in Newsweek and Playboy. Brewed with an abundance of hops from the Pacific Northwest, 70 IBUs and 6.8% ABV. “
They say it’s brewed by Mendecino, which I am guessing is their vender. Kind of like how Matt’s Brewing/Saranac has brewed for Sam Adams in the past. Buffalo was started in 1983. According to their own site…
”In the early 1980s, beer enthusiast and famed photojournalist Bill Owens envisioned opening an authentic brewpub similar to those that existed in England. It would serve homemade, hearty libations with character and integrity. At the time, California law prevented the joint operation of a brewery and pub, and true beer lovers had few alternatives to watery, mass produced beers, unless they could figure out how to make their own home brew.â€
“The law changed in early 1983, giving brewpubs the green light to draft their own beer on the premises. Owens, a pioneer in the early brewpub movement, made his dream a reality and opened Buffalo Bill’s Brewery in Hayward, California.â€
“In 1994, Owens sold Buffalo Bill’s to then, brewer, Geoff Harries, who continues to carry on the brewing legacy. Harries started homebrewing beer in his parents garage, and began working with Bill in 1987.â€
Here is Wiki’s entry on Geoff.
From the Bottle collection is a column by Ken Carman: homebrewer since 1979, collector of bottles and such, Certified beer judge and columnist. Ken Lives in Nashville, Tennessee, Eagle Bay and Beaver River, NY.
©Copyright 2017
Ken Carman and Cartentual Productions
all rights reserved
Maria Devan Reviews: Three Heads Baltic Porter
Beer Profile: Birra Del Borgo’s Dodici
Profiled by Maria Devan
I have not had a beer from birra del borgo before and when I saw this I grabbed it. The number on the bottle says 25 but the word is dodici and that does not mean twenty five. This is a Christmas beer as you may have guessed because docici /25 would be 12/25. The brewer lists this as a winter warmer but I think this beer is one of the best barleywines I have tried. In the category of barleywines you will notice three variations on the style. The american barleywine, the english barleywine and the old ale. However because of the addition of bitter orange peel it is classified as a winter warmer. This beer is 9.5 percent. Malts are Pilsner malt, Munich , vienna , cara munich , cara weizen, chocolate. Hops are hallertau northern brewer, hallertau hersbrucker, styrian golding, simcoe.
Dodici
Pours a sweet rusty orange. hazier at first then clearing with a few big bubbles but no head in the tasting glass.
Nose is brown sugar, orange, toffee, spice, hints of lemon, caramel and earth.
Drinks beautifully. Complex malt and vivacious fruity character. Rich and mellow but the hops dance on the palate. Pepper, spice and a generous herbal. Orange. The herbal form the hops will show you a very generous malt that is so sweetly done you almost have to close your eyes to really see it fully. When you do you will taste nuts, brittle caramel or hard crack caramel, sweet cake-y bread. A wild hint of medicinal alcohol and then the perfect swallow. No harshness, no bite and hardly any bitterness from all those hops. Instead the bitterness you taste is from the orange and that is a bit of an illusion because the tip of your tongue does tingle a little as you notice a light mineral softness to the body of the beer. Tobacco leaf, light cocoa. It feels like silk.
This was one of the best beers I have had this year . Cheers and Happy New Year everyone!
4.5
Welcome to the PGA beer rating system: one beer “Don’t bother.” Two: Eh, if someone gives it to you, drink. Three: very good, go ahead and seek it out, but be aware there is at least one problem. Four: seek it out. Five: pretty much “perfecto.”
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Maria Devan lives in Ithaca, NY and is a great beer writer. That’s Maria in the middle. The other two are not, but they are lucky to have her as a friend.
The Craft Beer Industry’s Turf War Begins in Earnest in 2017
If you contemplated the contents of your pint glass deeply enough this year, you likely have some idea of where the United States beer industry is headed in 2017.
At the end of 2016, I was asked by the hosts of a couple of beer podcasts for my thoughts on what lies ahead for U.S. beer brewers, distributors and drinkers. This column began answering that question as early as March, when it pointed out that the number of craft beer brands and products on taps and on store shelves had tripled in seven years. By November, the number of brewers in the U.S. topped 5,000 and was continuing to grow, even if sales of the beers they were producing saw growth slip into single-digit percentages for the first time in years.
In a beer market that’s quickly saturating, just about everyone is looking for dry ground. Anheuser-Busch InBev BUD, +0.21% with the U.S. government watching closely after its acquisition of SABMiller, seems to have made the last of its craft beer acquisitions (in Texas, no less), and is looking to expand its current stable of U.S. craft brands, its stateside marketing efforts and its reach in its craft brands’ home markets.
Want to read more? Please click…
HERE
6 Common Homebrew Myths with Denny Conn
Although Charles Dickens was talking about the French Revolution when he wrote those words, you’d almost think that he was talking about the flow of homebrewing information today. We have unprecedented access to homebrewing information and ingredients, which is a wonderful thing. But at the same time, we almost have an overload of information, and as anyone who has ever tried to hit every booth at Homebrew Con Club Night can tell you, it’s possible to have too much of a good thing!
Want to read more? Please click…
HERE
Beer Profile: Goodwood Walnut Brown
Profiled by Ken Carman for PGA
This Louisville brewery is somewhat new to me, but to be honest other brews I’ve had have been, well, 
unimpressive.
Not this one. Yes, the wood and the nut are a tad overbearing, but the brown is there. Even ta hop bitter pops out as it warms. The aroma is almost wine like, and I get that in the taste too. Low carbonation, most of it in a huge big pillow, big bubble, head. The body is lighter than it seems: low side of medium. The bitter it’s the top of the palate.
There a tad pepper sense to it too, but I think that’s the wood, walnut coming though.
Great clarity with a light brown.
Very quaffable.
36, 33 style on Rate Beer (Wow!) 82 on BA.
4
Welcome to the PGA beer rating system: one beer “Don’t bother.” Two: Eh, if someone gives it to you, drink. Three: very good, go ahead and seek it out, but be aware there is at least one problem. Four: seek it out. Five: pretty much “perfecto.”
____________________________________Beer HERE
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Ken Carman isn’t his real name. He’s not even human. Short, annoying, supposedly from Mars, “Ken” eats rocks and doesn’t jump very well, Earth’s gravity is so high. But he likes beer.
5 little-known facts about women’s role in brewing history
Beer and women.  Women and beer.  Nowadays, when you think of the two, you probably fall in line with what’s shown in commercials: a manly drink with bold flavors brought to you by buxom, scantily-clad ladies. While that all sounds like a good time, it really couldn’t be further from the truth of beer’s origins and how brewing was throughout most of history. Most people wouldn’t think that brewing beer was originally a woman’s responsibility or something that fell within the homemaker’s domain. So, in honor of International Women’s day this March 8th, let’s take a look back at the history of beer and see just what kind of role women played in it.
1. Beer led to Civilization, and women were its brewers
 Want to read more? Please click…
HERE
Beer Profile: Sierra Nevada’s Otra-Vez
Profiled by Ken Carman for PGA
I usually love almost anything Sierra does, but this has some issues. “Lemon?” yes. “Sourness,” slight if any. Doughy malt? NO. Salt is close to absent. Nose is pretty much lemon. Hint of sour in aroma, true. No hops, as expected.
Head almost none existent. Some haze. Light yellow. Hint of pepper from coriander.
Low carbonation, at best, light body. Suggest more wheat for mouthfeel, wheat sense absent.
Misses the mark in several categories, but a great quaff.
84 on BA, 81 Ratebeer.
3.8
Welcome to the PGA beer rating system: one beer “Don’t bother.” Two: Eh, if someone gives it to you, drink. Three: very good, go ahead and seek it out, but be aware there is at least one problem. Four: seek it out. Five: pretty much “perfecto.”
____________________Beer HERE
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