The Fermenting Barrel

What does beer mean to you?

2008-05-01T09:45:00.000-07:00

This past week I got a chance to go spend some time with my good friend Josh Pfriem, a brewer at the Utah Brewers Cooperative. What an interesting experience I had at the brewery.

UBC (brewers of Wasatch and Squatters beers) is the 48th largest craft brewery in the US. As a standard, they brew clean, well balanced, 4% alc. beer. Through my interaction with their brewing staff, I was struck by the contrasting vision of how they see beer and how I (and Josh, probably) see beer.

Where they like clear, brightly filtered beer, I go for the unfiltered, rustic side. They prefer the tingly, sharpness of an artificially carbonated beer, I like the textured, roundness of naturally bottle condition beer. Where they strive for rigorous consistency, I lean toward an artisanal, farmhouse inconsistency.

My point? Our visions of what beer is are different, and it's beautiful. Some people want their hops to make your mouth numb, some only strive for balance and consistency, and yet others want a lip puckering acidity in every sip. The great thing is...nobodies wrong. Beer and the enjoyment you get from it is wholly yours. The diversity in discerning palates is what makes this beer culture so interesting, fun, and burgeoning.

You know, you can refill that bottle.

2008-04-22T07:29:00.000-07:00

Wow, everyone's thinking about packaged beer these days.

On Thursday I was in a lecture on sustainability and the life cycle of beer at the Craft Brewers Conference. During the Q&A I presented the panel with the question "where do reusable bottles fit into a sustainability solution?"

I guess I wasn't the only one who had this question.

This morning I read an article in Joe Sixpack's column about the demise of the returnable bottle. Why did the reusable disappear in the US?

I am often fascinated with ways that brewers can lessen their carbon footprint. The returnable bottle is perhaps the most eco-friendly packaging solution besides kegs. And yet it has completely disappeared here. Bottles obviously carry a detrimental carbon load (you can refer to this article for more specifics), besides the impact of beer in a retail setting, glass carries the largest carbon footprint in the lifecycle of beer.

When I presented the sustainability director from New Belgium Brewing, who was on the panel, with the idea of reusing bottles, my thoughts were sort of poopooed as if reusing a bottle wasn't possible.

And then the audience spoke up.

Canada reuses bottles, Europe reuses bottles, developing countries reuse bottles, third world countries reuse bottles, homebrewers reuse bottles, and up until about teh 70's every bottle in the US got reused. And here we sit, one of the richest countries in the world, and we're told it's just too much of a logistical matter to be a feasible solution.

Maybe, we are just too comfortable with the waste we generate. I would think New Belgium, a brewery I hold in high esteem when it comes to sustainability, would be all over this topic. But, they weren't, just too much logistics. How sad.

Challenges for the green brewery.

2008-04-11T11:33:00.000-07:00

I came across this article recently about sustainability and the beer industry. Interesting. They talk about a couple of issues that concern me and my passion for beer, mainly breweries resource use and CO2 emission. It's hard for me to get around the fact that brewing beer requires alot of water and energy. I just wish this wasn't so.

The article doesn't really address ways to solve this problem, it just sort of highlights the fact that it is there. Check it out, it's worth a read.

Bottle conditioning saved my beer.

2008-04-08T14:57:00.000-07:00

Bottle conditioning makes sense.

Before I get into why it's such a great idea, first, let me tell you what it means to bottle condition a beer.

Bottle conditioning is the process of leaving or adding live yeast to a beer so it can mature in the bottle. Most bottle conditioning involves adding yeast and a sugar source of some sort at bottling. This causes the beer to referment, adding natural carbonation, a layer of live yeast, and a small amount of alcohol.

Here are some reasons why this is such a great idea:

1. It keeps the beer fresher. When the yeast ferments the sugar it uses up most of the oxygen trapped in the bottle. Oxygen is a great enemy to beer, breaking it down and contributing to oxidation off flavors. By eliminating the oxygen the beer stays fresher longer.

2. More carbonation. Bottle conditioned beers have the ability to contain more carbonation than regular bottled or draft beer. I love the liveliness of bottle conditioned Belgian beer, especially Duvel.

3. Added complexity. The refermentation adds more layers of depth and texture to the beer.

4. Better cellaring ability. The active yeast left in the bottle allows the beer to develope and change over time. Orval is a great example of a beer that matures well in the bottle.

What's the best way to drink beer, as in best green way.

2008-03-13T11:01:00.000-07:00

Over at Slate magazine, Brendan I. Koerner wrote a great article about environmental choices when it come to drinking beer. Here are some condensed highlights from his article:

-if choosing between bottles and cans, cans use bauxite which is far more environmentally destructive than the silica used in bottles. This results in 2.07 kilowatt hours of electricity to produce a can vs. 1.09 kilowatt hours for the bottle.

-however, when it comes to recycling, cans are more recyclable and recycled at a higher rate than bottles.

-when looking at greenhouse gases produced in transporting your beer, bottles are much heavier. If your drinking from a brewery close to home, bottles make sense, but if it come from a far distance, bottles are not so smart.

-reusable glass bottles, which most of the rest of the world besides America are using, make great sense.

-kegged beer is by far the best choice, kegs last between 15-20 years and have the greatest chance of getting recycled.

When it comes down to it, locally brewed and kegged beer is going to make the least negative environmental impact. Not mentioned, but worth noting, perhaps an efficient homebrewer might top the list when it comes to eco-responsibility?

Top 5 reasons why the "hop shortage" is good for the beer industry.

2008-03-11T16:34:00.000-07:00

Hops! Hops! Hops!

Who would think it would come to this?

Such a media frenzy and panic with the "hop shortage" and subsequent price increases.

This is a bad thing, right?

I think not, and so I have included several reasons while it is not as bad as we think, perhaps even working as benefit to the industry.

1. Free media coverage for craft beer. I can't even begin to list the amount of nationally syndicated articles about the hop shortage featuring small craft breweries that I've read in the past year. Free press. No one is complaining, especially not The Boston Beer Co.

2. Balanced beer. What with all the quadruple IPA's and 500 ibu Russian Imperial Stouts, the craft beer industry could learn a little more about balance. What better way than to take away their hops.

3. More beer exploration. Maybe a little spruce. Perhaps a little coriander. Some Orange peel. A touch of pepper. Some tannin from wood. A nudge towards creativity and ingenuity. You get the picture.

4. Price increases. Sure, no one likes to pay higher prices, but craft beer for the most part is not a profit driven field, instead it is a passion driven field. I think breweries deserve to make more money for the effort they put in. In no way do I think that the price of hops will justify the increases we will see in the stores. Hops are such a small part of the overhead cost that go into making beer. Equipment, power, fuel, water, employee salaries, square footage, these are the real costs. Despite this fact, we will see a greater increase than what truly correlates with the hop price increase. And I support this if in the long run it pushes more breweries to open or stay in business.

5. Broader beer education. Most people I know didn't even know what hops were before last year. Now, with the great media coverage the "hops crisis" has brought, more people have become aware of the ingredients and agricultural heritage behind beer.

Alaskan Smoked Porter.

2008-02-28T10:16:00.000-08:00

My first and only experience with Alaskan Smoked Porter came recently, a 10 year old bottle from 1998. Wow! 10 years in the bottle and only little signs of oxidation. Instead, aromas of rich, honey baked ham with a strong base of deep and dark roast. Small punches of sherry nuttiness and soft dark fruits. The mouth-feel really achieved inspiration with a roasted malt fullness and a dry, pleasantly smoky finish.

Coming from the brisk cold of Juneau, Alaska, the beer first came on the market in 1988. With an inspiration for roasted malts and smoked salmon, the owners of Alaskan Brewing Co., Geoff and Marcy Larson, began to smoke the malts locally over alderwood at Taku Smokeries. The beers incredible reputation helps build anticipation every year as the bottles are marked with a vintage date, encouraging you to cellar a few for the future.

If you try this beer sometime soon and you want a food recommendation, I suggest a simple sandwich. Using multi-grain bread, I would layer tomatoes, sprouts, mozzarella cheese, a couple drops of hot sauce, a small amount of a mild mustard, and then, instead of a smoked meat, just enjoy the smoked porter with the meal.

Is organic beer bad?

2008-02-26T09:51:00.000-08:00

I've often heard many people share their dislike of organic beer. The common misconception is that the quality of the beer is poor because of the ingredients.

This is quite far from the truth.

I think the reason for organic beer getting a bad rap is the approach commercial organic producers take in their business choices. Instead of getting into the beer business with a first and foremost passion for quality beer, they step into this arena with their motivation being things like a great marketing concept or they are excited about organic agriculture and sustainability. These are not a bad thing, but they won't make good beer.

As a homebrewer, the majority of the beer I make comes from organic ingredients (here is a great source for buying organic). I'm proud of this fact and have never thought once that it hurts the quality of the beer I make. Making a great product is always my first priority, but sustainability constantly floats around in the back of my mind.

In the commercial spectrum, the shelves are filled with many great organic choices. In places like Portland, OR almost everyone's making organic beer; Roots Brewing Co., Laurelwood, Hair of the Dog, Hopworks Urban Brewery, Etc. For beers that are more widely distributed there are some truely great choices; New Belguims Mothership Wit, Deschutes has some organic products, Bison makes some fine organic beers (they made a farmhouse saison 2 years ago that was one of my favorite beers of the year), and the list continues to grow all the time.

So, don't count the beer out because it is organic, that is no reason to stereotype some really great breweries.

The Confrontation of Expoiter and Nurturer.

2008-02-21T11:40:00.000-08:00

As a beer enthusiast, I am constantly pitting craft beer against industrial beer. In this battle I send craft beer, a scrappy multi faceted, viral movement of passionate brewers, into the ring against industrial beer, a three headed corporate, marketing, and profit driven business.

It's not just make believe, it's a real confrontation.

Over the past eight years the overall beer market in the US has been fairly stable, growing or losing a few percentage points every year. During this same period our population has stayed relatively stable as well. What this means is that in order to sell more beer you have to persuade customers away from one of your competitors. Craft beer has been fairly good at achieving this, their rate of growth the past few years has been somewhere between 10-13%. This nod to the little guy pumps new, fresh blood into a stagnant pulse.

It is this same local, intimate care taken by craft brewers that Wendel Berry writes about in his book The Unsettling of America. Though he talks about two approaches to farming, agribusiness industrial farming and the local family farm, his voice is quite relevant. He uses two terms to define the two, exploitation and nurture. The exploiter thinks in terms of numbers, quantities, and hard facts with the end goal being money and profit. Whereas the nurturer thinks in terms of character, condition, quality, and kind with an end goal of health for the craft and community.

The post-industrial 'nurturing' movement of craft beer is far out-weighted by the industrial brewery's dollar, organization, technology, and marketing, yet its growth cadences on. Passion, care, and community propel beer drinkers away from industrial products and toward local and regional beer. Encouraging? Yes. An unorganized and underfunded group of closet chemists and backyard brewers demanding an audience for their well cared for vocation. Wendel Berry would be proud.

The Perfect Cellaring Beer

2008-02-15T17:27:00.001-08:00

If ever there was beer to cellar, it is Hair of the Dog beer.

Their Adam beer I have always adored, but Fred, a golden special ale, has never quite done it for me. Too much malty sweetness. Too Strong. Off putting hop bitterness. As a beer, it has never totally come together and been a memorable, complete, and integrated experience. But my opinion now changes.

A couple of months ago I had a Fred from 2003 or 2004. Still, much of the same cloying sweetness. My opinion stayed the same.

Then, last Sunday at a place called the Beechwood BBQ, the proprietor, Gabe, poured me a glass of Hair of the Dog Fred from 2000. Wow! What a succinct experience. Strawberry. Apricot. Dried plum. Spanish sherry nuttiness. A perfect tango of fruity, aged malt sweetness and firm bitterness. Warming, but not alcoholic. Truely, a genuine expression of what an aged beer can be.

I have now tasted many vintages of Hair of the Dog ales and am convinced that their beers grow in depth as time passes. Oxidation rounds out the sharpness, bottle conditioning dries out the intense residual sugar, and the experience just gets more enjoyable. The motley vividness that is expressed young, gives way to a unified maturity when old.

What a great way for me to get to welcome Hair of the Dog beers and their availability in Southern California. Cheers to all the great beers we get to enjoy these days.

Beer as a Cultural Institution.

2008-02-01T16:03:00.000-08:00

I just got done drinking a glass of Rodenbach, a flemish sour ale. The beer has an incredible profile; dark cherry tart, hints of Dr. Pepper, fresh cut cedar, grape popsicle, and a crisp, dry, and subtle chocolate malt finish. Really, a unique experience.

I have had beers in America crafted along these same lines before, but what distinguishes this beer and many others from their American counterparts is the cultural history surrounding the breweries and their beers. The Rodenbach brewery has a history in the Roeselare region of Belgium pushing on 200 years. Blind and yet swooned by beer, Alexander Rodenbach instigated his families new heritage, purchasing the struggling St. George brewery in 1820. Drawing influence from brewing methods used in England, Eugene Rodenbach began using wood to develop acidity in their beer in the late 19th century. This process focused the breweries attention and propelled them to define the style of beer known as a Flanders Red Ale.

In an age where technology almost always trumps tradition, the Rodenbach brewery has bucked modernization, continuing the rigorous process of aging all their beer in oaken vats, 294 in all. This classic approach allows locals to identifying the brewery as part of Belgian history they can lay claim to.

In a rather young, and yet thriving artisan beer culture here in America, we lack the sort of ideologies they possess in places like Belgium that allow them to see beer and breweries as cultural institutions. We did have a beer culture in America that paralleled our history as a nation, but most of this knowledge has long been forgotten. Prohibition ravished our sense of identity, pushing our local beer from something to be proud of, to a taboo, or even worse, sin.

Sure, we can go to our local market and find beer from around the world or the newest twist on tradition our local breweries have come up with, but that doesn't make the ideology seep deep into our being. With just about 30 years of the new found "craft" beer under our belts, we are just beginning to see the opportunities we have with beer in America. With places like Seattle, Portland, Denver, and San Diego fighting to claim beer as a part of their local culture, I feel we have much more in store for us as it develops the respect and maturity it is capable of.

[this was for you Hunter, since it seems that you are either my only reader or the only one who cares what direction my writing goes. cheers, brother.]

The $400 Beer.

2008-01-31T15:29:00.000-08:00

With all the talk about beer pricing going on these days, I found this article in the Salt Lake Tribune quite interesting. It seems the Carlsberg brewery in Denmark has gone and outdid everyone, they've made a beer with a $398 price tag. Ouch!

Sure, I think for the effort that goes into making a premium beer that a decent price should be paid, but 400 bucks! This is a new realm, both, a marketing tool for the brewery, and even more sad, a status symbol for the consumer.

I'd love to hear the reviews on this beer, because I personally don't see the justification for this sort of pricing on any consumable good, whether it be wine, beer, caviar, or whatever.

Simple, educated beer explanations are the best.

2008-01-11T20:36:00.000-08:00

Man, I'm always overdoing myself.

When I try to explain something, like beer for instance, I always try to be super thorough, explaining every last detail. I think it comes from my upbringing. When someone asks what an American pale ale is, they don't want to hear how hops effect ibu's, the perfect mash temperature, or the thermo-dynamics as they relate to beer flow through a hose.

People just want the basics.

Oh, a pale ale, that's a fruity beer with a nice caramel malt base typically balanced against citrus and floral aromatics. Simple, to the point.

Lately, my over extension has become more clear to me because of my new job. I'm training to be a bartender at a great beer bar in Santa Monica called Father's Office. They put all of their bartenders through a program called "beer school." Right now, I'm both going through beer school as a trainee and giving them feedback as to its accuracy and organization. The problem I keep falling into is this desire to fill in every stinking detail. Every time I feel like their material is too ambiguous and overgeneralized I go the opposite direction and get too in depth.

Father's Office does things right by keeping their explanations of beer simple.

This idea of explaining beer and food to people in a simple, straight forward manner is paramount to beers ongoing success. Not only is it great that Father's Office does this, but the fact that they actually have a training program so that their employees can give educated information about the beer they are serving is unreal. And they've been doing this for years. Most places I go, the servers can't even name the 3 beers they have on draft.

Recently, a new national beer education program organized by Ray Daniels was formed, the program is calling their newly trained beer experts Cicerones. You can read about it here. Though it's about 15 years late, it's great that we're putting more organization effort behind the service of beer. It's a munch needed missing link in the beer chain.

More training for people serving beer, such a novel idea.

The Marching Malted Beverages have sidetracked me.

2008-01-07T13:14:00.000-08:00

The holidays have kept me busy and distracted. The hum of friends and family partnered with the credence of fermented malt beverage marching into my mouth has left me post less for a couple of weeks.

In reviewing my sight and the trends in my own writing, I realize the business and politics of beer fascinate me, but may be a bit dry in there overall appeal. Is this true?

I want to push my writing about beer to be more engaging, personal and filled with the joys I get from this great beverage. I would love to hear your feedback on the direction you would like to see my writings go. Suggestions, please?

Sierra Nevada does it again!

2007-12-24T13:57:00.000-08:00

If there is one brewery that I continually admire for not only their quality, but their resourcefulness, corporate philosophy, and environmental stewardship, Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. is it. Instead of focusing on marketing campaigns and public image, they hone in on quality control and stewardship.

A recent press release announced the installation of a new solar array. By coupling this with their existing 1 MW fuel cell they are very close to reaching their goal of providing 100% of their energy needs with clean, on site alternative energies. As the second largest craft brewery in the US this is no modest task. In my humble opinion they are the leader in brewery sustainability, and yet you hardly ever hear a peep about this in the public spectrum.

The same thing goes for their beers, with minimal advertising they continue to let the product speak for itself. And the product does indeed speak for itself, their freshness in the bottle far surpasses most craft breweries out there. Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. Celebration. Bigfoot Barleywine. These are all great beers. Cheers to them for making excellent beer and enforcing such sound business practices.

Flying Dog Brewing Co. moving production operations to Maryland.

2007-12-12T13:09:00.001-08:00

So....more shake-ups in the craft beer world. Flying Dog Brewing Company is up and moving all their production from Denver, CO. to Fredrick, MD. Their president, Eric Warner, talks about it here. That's a pretty big move for a fairly large craft brewing company. They've stated that a large reason for the transition is the huge increase in hop and malt prices. Their facility in Maryland is much more efficient and cost effective. Interesting.

Could you move your beer to the back of the store, please. The kids are absorbing it through osmosis having it near the entrance.

2007-12-12T11:52:00.000-08:00

Way to often the US comes up with the most stupid policies imaginable. The Salt Lake Tribune reported that in South Utah County they've passed a recent ordinance requiring stores to move beer displays a minimum of 15 feet from their entrance. There goal is to limit kids exposure to alcohol.

Doesn't their city counsel have better things to do than this.

Why is beer demonized? In other countries beer is a social way of life, something that families share together at the dinner table. Often ones first beer or glass of wine gets consumed with one's parents. It's a way of forming community bonds.

Tell me this, are the kids absorbing the alcohol by being in the mere vicinity of a case of beer? Can't the kids still walk to the back of the store and *gasp* be exposed to beer? Or are the children confined to the front of the store?

In my opinion there's way worse things kids can be exposed to right at the counter, say...pornography, cigarettes, or even junk food, candy, and soda. Last I checked diabetes was one of the worst epidemics in the US. How does it usually develop? Through obesity caused from a poor diet and a sedentary lifestyle. How about going even a little further, what about all the easy access kids have to the crap on TV, the Internet, and movies.

OK, I'm done ranting. You get my point. There's bigger fish to fry than fretting over kids walking past a case of beer when they walk in a store. Just leave it to Utah to come up with even more insane alcohol laws. As if their laws weren't already weird enough.

Slangin' beer on Ebay.

2007-12-10T14:52:00.000-08:00

The beer geeks of the world are rabid for rare bottles of Lost Abbey, Three Floyds, and Firestone Walker beers. This growing phenomenon shows beers made by reputable producers popping up on Ebay for outrageous prices. Recently, a bottle of Dark Lord from Three Floyds sold for $167. I'm sure others have sold for even more.

As I sift through the gossip of online beer folk I find people claiming that the true beer enthusiasts would never purchase a beer on Ebay, that this practice is harmful to the beer industry, the brewers are losing out on profit, and that it's artificially pushing beer pricing higher. Nonsense, I say.

How is it artificial if the consumer is setting his own price? Isn't it also the insane enthusiast who is willing to pay 500% of face value for a rare product. And if it was harming the breweries don't you think they wouldn't be bragging about it (Lost Abbey brewer Tomme Arthur "mentions" ebay pricing here) and sending out press releases announcing the prices their beers are fetching on Ebay (Firestone Walker here).

Sure, it's a wacky world seeing bottles of beer sell on Ebay for a 100 bucks, but it is an auction with the audience setting the price.

At one point my mother was buying childrens books at thrift stores for $.25 and then turning around and selling them on Ebay for $20. Her customers were not complaining because they realized they were buying a product that was rare and no longer available. The same goes for beer. If a brewery can only produce a curtain amount of a given beer and the demand is greater than the production, then the consumer will help set the market price.

So, in my opinion, more power to all you Ebay slangers. If the beer geeks keep buying, I'm sure the breweries are willing keep soaking up the free press.

Firestone Walker "11"

2007-12-01T15:39:00.001-08:00

So, if I wasn't already excited enough for the release of Firestone Walker's 11th anniversary ale, yesterday sealed the deal. I went down to The Strong Ale Festival at Pizza Port and had the pleasure of trying two components of this blended oak aged beer (click here, here, and here for more info on this beer).

Parabola and Rufus were the two beer's names. Both were massive.

Parabola is an 13% imperial oatmeal stout. Saying the beer is complex is like saying Bill Gates is sort of wealthy. An explosion of flavor in your mouth. Dark chocolate. Real vanilla bean. Coconut. Deep espresso roast. Warming alcohol. Definitely one to take as a sipper for your nightcap. A singular beer experience.

Rufus is an 11% imperial amber ale. An soft amber/golden hue deceptively hides this beers strength. Bourbon. Alcoholic. Vanilla. And to my surprise quite a bit like a beer version of the cereal Cookie Crisp, which when I was a kid used to be one of my favorites. Enjoyable, but overall a bit too sharp and harsh.

...hopefully, I will be purchasing a bottle of the real deal soon. I'm sure the whole will be even better than the sum of its parts.

Following rules-the new cool.

2007-11-29T13:44:00.000-08:00

Connoisseurship and pretension, a marriage seemingly inseparable. The mere idea of being a connoisseur creates a hierarchy, a separation of the good and the not so good.

Can one enjoy top of the line goods without becoming a shmuck? Some are of the ilk that creating rules of etiquette will help people behave in a more civilized way and eliminate hierarchy. The LA Times did a piece on the rise of the speakeasy cocktail parlor, a place immersed in rules for its patron to follow, all to bring the focus away from shmuckiness and shifting it toward appreciating the drink.

I hate following rules or being told what to do, but I kind of like this concept. Take away all the usual night life games, meat markets, overcrowding, cellphones, loud music, drunkenness, namedropping, etc., and replace this with an environment focusing on the art of the drink.

I'm sure some of these places are high concept and only interested in creating an elite sort of joint with high-end cocktails and membership fees, but at the root, this is a great idea. What it does is put everyone who enters on the same level, vents the pressure of a scene, and lowers the overall volume, so everyone can enjoy their company and the drinks they have in front of them. Perfect. I'll take that any day.

[Reading back over this, I realize this may just be an issue in bigger cities such as LA or NY. It may be out of context in other places.]

The cost of a glass of beer.

2007-11-21T13:01:00.000-08:00

How much are you paying for a glass of beer at your local pub or brewery?

Recently, I've come across a few articles that have talked about cheater pints (pint glasses that are only 14 oz. instead of 16 oz.) and the amount people are paying for draft beer. Man, I feel out of touch here in Los Angeles. Beer is expensive in this city.

I was recently thrilled to find a place three blocks away that has a happy hours with $3.50 pints. A bargain I thought.

Another place over in Hollywood sell pints for $4 all the time. The best deal in town I think.

I regularly pay $5-9 a beer. No, not for some rare Belgian or barrel-aged beer, just straight forward American ales like Sierra Nevada pale ale. It's crazy how easy one assimilates into a new economy. I've only lived here a year and a half and this all seems normal. Is it? Well, yes, considering the cost of running and operating a business in this here expensive metropolis. But, that doesn't make it fun to shell out those hard earned bucks for a beer.

If you live where you can get $3.50 pints, enjoy it, cause it doesn't happen everywhere...and it may be changing soon in the new climate of expensive hops and grains.

WidHook...what are the implications of this craft beer merger?

2007-11-17T12:41:00.000-08:00

A few days behind the times, but I think this is significant enough to post a few days late. Widmer Brewing Co. and Redhook Brewing Co., both large craft breweries, are looking to merge in earlier 2008. Anheuser Busch holds minority stake in both companies, giving the craft breweries better access to A-B's distribution chain. Interesting to see these developments as craft breweries try to take advantage of economies of scale. In the beer world the cost of just about everything (barley, hops, power) is skyrocketing, forcing companies to adjust strategies to survive. We've seen this happening with industrial breweries, but this is perhaps the first of this size for craft beer.

I can't for tell the implications of this development, but it does appear as though it will be harder and harder for smaller breweries to compete in this sort of market. Many factors seem to be going against the littler guys. Access to distribution. Brewery efficiency. Purchasing power. Widmer and Redhook seem to be finding answers for these problems, but most small breweries do not have these same options, nor do they care for these sorts of corporate solutions. Patrick Emerson at the Oregon Economics blog has some interesting thoughts on these issues. If interested check them out as well as Jeff Alworth's response.

Will moves like this make it harder for small brewery to compete? Can the smaller brewery survive the looming price hikes in necessary ingredients? Or can passion push them through in their small profit margins, limited distribution networks, and seemingly endless hard work and low pay? What do you think?

Temptation from Russian River Brewing Co.

2007-11-14T12:44:00.000-08:00

It's been awhile since I've written about the actual sensation of drinking a beer. Crazy. Isn't the simple pleasure of drinking a beer what this is all about? I think so. Today, I return to beer.

In celebration of my wife's success at school we popped the cork on a bottle of Russian River Brewing Co.'s Temptation. The bottle had spent the last 8 months cellared in our garage. The label says it is a Belgian blond ale age in French oak chardonnay barrels with Brettanomyces. Without even opening the bottle it already seems complex. I've had this beer several times, so I understand what I am getting into.

The cork popped with some force, hinting at ample carbonation. The beer pours a cool yellowish gold with a generous white head. The aroma wafts with stone fruit, bready hay, and a subtle lingering sourness. In the mouth is where this beer really gets it's legs. Peach. Apricot. Firm tannins. Lemons zest. A bracing, yet integrated acidity. Delicate hay. Vanilla pushing toward tropical fruit. Light body, but lively carbonation to balance it out. Finishes with a dry, tart peach sensation.

Truly, Russian River understands how to achieve complexity and balance. In this beer, I feel it is the acidity and tannic tension from the oak that help develop its layered and textural complexity. I've drank this beer before, but this was the best bottle I've had. I think the added age helped smooth out the intensity on the palate and integrated the richness of tastes together.

At $11 for 375 ml, this beer is quite expensive, but well worth the price tag. If you find yourself blessed enough to come across it in the store, buy it up!

You gotta try this beer that tastes like beer, it's awesome!

2007-11-09T09:00:00.002-08:00

I'm a drink fanatic.

Yes, beer is usually my number one choice. However, every circumstance can't call for a beer. So, in some occasions, I turn on my eye-glass windshield wipers and try to clear off the beer goggles. I'm out scouring the shelves to find libations other than the malty liquid that keeps wanting to pound down in-front of me. Coffee. Tea. Wine. Boba. Juice. Smoothies. I love them all. When I branch out to another oasis of liquid, I look for something that differentiates itself by being unique and distinct from other options.

Recent curiosity found me researching coffee on the web. Cyberspace swims with radicals for this black liquid. In my reading it appears that most coffee enthusiasts keep calibrating their beverages with wine. They know their subject, coffee, very well. They approach their subject from a well informed perspective; covering climate, soil, and cultivation, the nuances of roasting your beans, and the most important part-sensory textures: taste, smell, and touch (in the mouth, of course). Disappointingly though, they keep coming back to this calibration with wine.

I see this same thing in the beer spectrum. Heck, I do it myself. I feel the need to justify beers status in the connoisseur's world, often bringing up the comparison that beer has a broader range of styles than wine and that beer is a better fit with most foods.

Recently, though, I've come to the conclusion that this approach is a mistake.

All of these beverages can stand on their own two legs (or glass stem or ceramic cup bottom for that matter). Even great beer writers such as Garret Oliver fall into this trap. In his book The Brewmaster's Table he writes "Wine is a simple beverage to produce. In order to make wine, one needs only grapes. Crush the grapes, and the natural yeast on the grape skins will start the fermentation; and pretty soon--voila!--you'll have wine. In fact, if you have enough grapes, they'll crush themselves by their own weight--the winemaker doesn't even need to do that! Beer is not nearly so simple, and brewing is a far more complicated art than winemaking." In my opinion, comparisons like this diminishes beer's status. It's the dirty politics of smear campaigns and idea theft.

Granted, the wine world has done a great job of establishing a more refined status. The image winemakers have shaped has made consumers look at their beverage with respect. Much of this has to do with how they talk about wine. A while back Field Maloney wrote an article highlighting linguistics role in wines rise to the top of the class. They created a vocabulary that aligned themselves with connoisseurs, not with consumers of another product.

Coffee is not wine. Beer is not wine, either. They all are unique, complex experiences by themselves.

I think beer drinkers, myself included, need to stop calibrating beer against other beverages. Beer stands out with it's own subtleties, nuances, and sensory textures. We should allow our vonacular to highlight the aspects that make it uniquely beer, without trying to justify it with talk about wine. As the cliche says, it's like comparing apples and oranges.

Is Classic Rock the Sound of Fermentation?

2007-11-02T11:27:00.001-07:00

This is part of a collective beer blogger effort to write in a unified manner on a given topic. This is the 9th session of this sort, but the 1st for me. This "Session" is hosted by Tomme Arthur and involves beer and music. So, here it goes.

Are the reverberating sounds of Creedence Clearwater Revival, Led Zeppelin, and Jimi Hendrix all an inherent part of the magic of making beer? It seems every time my bright green, size 9 Asics enter into another brewhouse my ears are filled with the glorious guitar driven rock sounds of the past. Is there a collective knowledge that shows those little yeast cells preferring the soulful growl of John Fogerty?

Perhaps, classic rock is only what the little yeasties that make American style ales prefer when they're reproducing? Maybe, different types of yeast prefer different types of music?

I think the little yeasts I use in brewing, usually Belgian derived, are partial to the classical compositions of Mozart? They seem to perform better when exposed to the balance and clarity of his piano concertos.

Maybe, every step of the brewing process requires something different.

For example, in my brewhouse, indie rock for the the actual brew day.

Fermentation is more style specific:

Techno music for German lagers.
Classic rock for American ales.
Classical compositions for Belgian ales.
Mariachi for our friendly, festival lagers from south of the border.
Neil Young for the lagers north of the border.
Wild Fermentations with non-traditional yeasts and bacteria tend to take in a broader set of influences in their work. James Brown. Tom Waits. Beirut. Prince. ABBA. Johnny Cash. And many others. Each one exposed in small doses over long periods of time.

Ok, you get the idea, yeast are particular in their music choices.

As for the actual act of drinking beer and listening to music, wow, the experiences can be so expansive. I'll stay in the present, I guess. Right now, I'm writing, listening, and drinking. The speakers trumpet Devendra Banhart, a folk freak sprouting with joy and mischief, multiple languages, and things unexpected and misunderstood. This floats along in alliance with the saison fermented with Brettanomyces I am drinking; a bit offensive, tart, layered, and not understood by everyone. My writing swims with these elements, edgy ingredients forming a relationship.

Beer and music, in my malt stained world an elemental bond.