Beer Wars - The review......

Last night I spent the evening with my wife in Framingham MA attending the well talked about Beer Wars Movie. And to be honest...I'm still not sure how I feel about it. To answer the questions I posted about yesterday, Yes...I was entertained and No, I didn't learn anything new. So, if you're still planning on going to see the movie and would hate to know all about the movie before you saw it (Leah and Luke are brother and sister....wait, wrong wars) then don't read on.

The start of the movie was, to say the least, rough. I felt like I was watching a track meet and someone tripped when the gun went off. Not good. Anat Baron (Filmmaker) struggled in the opening of the the movie, which was live. Whoever was holding her cue cards probably got fired today.....and we'll leave it at that. I guess that's what you get with live production.

Once the movie actually started rolling, things went a little better. The beginning of the movie went through Anat's background working in the "beer" industry. Ahem....she worked for Mikes Hard lemonade....not quite beer, but a malternative none the less. Oh, and she is allergic to alcohol so she can't drink it. Now, I am in no way saying she's not allergic to alcohol, but to make a movie about beer....hype the crap out of it....then admit you don't drink beer seems a little hypocritical! To quote a good friend....."that's like me making a movie about dresses". It just doesn't work, and my attitude toward the movie quickly shifted to "damn, I just wasted $32 on this movie....should I make my wife stay through it all?"

She then proceeded start us through a journey of beer giving the history of beer in America and transitioned into the big 3 brewers and how they got to be so big. The rest of the movie jumped around from topic to topic, starting with Sam Calagione. She highlighted his/Dogfish Heads rise to Cult status and talked about the expansion to there brewery. The other interview subject was Rhonda Kallman, founder and CEO of New Century Brewing Co. Rhonda also happens to be the co-founder of Boston Beer Co, the makers Sam Adams. New Century is launching a new beer called Moonshot, which is a light beer made with Caffeine in it. This was probably the most interesting part of the movie personally because it highlighted the struggle that start -up craft brewers have to face with the big 3 pushing you off the shelf in stores.

The rest of the movie seemed more like a clip from a Michael Moore film. It showed clips of here trying to track down (stalk) August Busch IV. Then clips of Anat in DC discussing the Beer Lobby and the 3 tier distribution system. I started to get excited that I might learn something about the 3 tier system, but nothing. No more than 15 seconds were spent trying to explain the system, or why the lobbyist are fighting to keep it in place so hard.

Then......it was over! Time for the live panel moderated by Ben Stein. The panel consisted of Charlie Papazian (AHA), Greg Koch (Stone), Sam Calagione (Dogfish Head), Rhonda Kallman (New Century), Maureen Ogle (Author, "Ambitious Brew"), Todd Alstrom (Beer Advocate) and Anat, and man was it awkward. Some of the questions Ben asked made it seem like he didn't watch the movie. I forget the exact wording of the question, but it was the second one he asked and the movie had touched on the same question and Greg Koch answered it in the movie.......STEIN.........STEIN.........STEIN?

All in all, I kind of wish I had waited for it to come out on DVD or better yet....You tube! I know Anat had good intentions of showing how the Big 3 are trying to push the Craft Brewers around, but it fell short of the target. Some segments should have gone deeper, some shouldn't have gone at all, but I can say I was entertained!! I'm looking forward to hearing how others felt about it. I'm sure there will be TON'S of posts on blog around the country!!

Cheers!
Jason

CNN BREAKING NEWS!!!!!!!!

I'm not sure about you, but when I see that come across my email, my heart skips a beat. I think back to 2001 when I received the same email about the twin towers, or in 2005 when 16 Navy Seals were killed in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan that was hit by an RPG, and one went MIA for 2 weeks. So, naturally when I saw today's CNN BREAKING NEWS email, I said to myself "oh no"......quickly followed by "ARE YOU F-ING KIDDING ME?".

"-- Ashton Kutcher is first to reach 1 million followers in Twitter contest with
CNN."

Is this what the news world has been reduced to??? The fact that anyone should give a shit that Ashton Kutcher reached 1 million followers on Twitter is, to say the least, RIDICULOUS!!!!

Our country is in the middle of one of, if not the, worst recessions EVER. We're still fighting two wars overseas (agree with them or not, they are still going on), Pirates are attacking ships delivering relieve supplies to 3rd world country's and CNN has the balls to send a breaking news alert about Ashton f-ing Kutcher reaching 1 million followers???? WOW!!!!

Sorry for the non-beer rant, but that just pushed my buttons!!!

Cheers to real news,

Jason

Email posting & Beer wars

This post is brought to you via email for the first time!!! I'm not sure if this is a good thing, but maybe it will help with my lack of posting! WOO HOO TECHNOLOGY!!!

Tonight, I'm heading out to see "Beer Wars" with my wife. I have mixed feelings about this movie. One on hand, I'm wondering how they can pull off a documentary about beer to a bunch of craft beer drinkers who already despise the macros....I mean, are we going to learn anything that the converted craft beer drinkers of America don't already know?? On the other hand.....I'm pretty sure I'll be entertained which is the point of going to the movies. Plus, I get to spend a night of beer watching, and most likely drinking, with my wife which is always good!! I'll post another day on what I thought about the movie!

Cheers,
Jason

Pike Brewing Releases Monk's Uncle Tripel Ale as a Year 'round Offering & Pike Tandem Double Ale is Reformulated with Belgian Ale Yeast

Seattle, Washington, March 26, 2009
There once was a little boy. He didn't want to be a racecar driver, a cowboy or a fireman.When he grew up he wanted to be a monk. Not just any monk, but one who brewed beer. He expressed his ambition to his parents. "But son, we're Jewish!" they told him. He became an artist instead.

Being Jewish didn't stop Charles Finkel from introducing Orval Trappist Ale into the USA years later. When the Abbot of this famous monastery brewery, established in 1028, was told that the best importer had been identified to distribute their beer, he was also told that the principal was Jewish. "So was our lord," the Abbot was reported to say, and Finkel got the exclusive U.S. agency. Among beer connoisseurs Orval, like the five other Trappist beers in Belgium, is regarded to this day as "holy beer." Miracle of miracles, the cultivation of barley and the beer brewed from it was imported from the Middle East to the West by the crusaders who introduced the new concept to the Roman Catholic Church. While it is the monks who get the credit, it was the nuns who did the brewing. Hildegard Von Bingen, the Abbess of the Convent of Bingen in Northern Germany, is credited with introducing humulus lupulus (hops) to beer around 1067AD. Europe's first big businesses were three breweries owned by the Monastery of St. Gall in Switzerland during the dark ages. At a time when most people were illiterate, the monasteries communicated the gravity or strength of their beers with crucifixes. One cross was for a single, a brew to be drunk on a daily basis; two crosses, a double, for special occasions; and three, a triple, reserved for religious holidays. As people learned to read and write, the cross became Xs. Multiple Xs on a bottle, still to this day, indicates a strong drink. Secular brewing got its start in the Middle Ages when people began to move to cities; many of today's breweries trace their origin to the church. Seven monastic breweries continue to operate in Belgium and Holland.

Beers of the double and tripel style are made by monasteries today including Westmalle and Rochefort. They are the benchmarks for these distinctive styles, though many more doubles and triples are brewed in Belgium by secular breweries who, prevented by law from calling these old fashioned beers "Trappist," call them Abbey Ales.

In 1989, Charles and Rose Ann founded the Pike Place Brewery in Seattle's famous public market. In 1996, the company, now called The Pike Brewing Company, expanded to its current space - a gravity flow steam brewery and pub, one-half block uphill from its original location. Michael Jackson described the new Pike as, "a shrine to beer." The Finkels sold Pike, along with Merchant Du Vin, their beer importing company in 1997. After an eight-year "sabbatical," they re-acquired Pike in 2006 and since that time, have worked to realize their dream to own a world class brewery. Pike's original line of beers was already well established and all were brewed with yeast originally imported from England. Remembering his childhood dream to be a monk, Charles wanted to add completely different tastes for Pike customers: a double and tripel in the monastic style. Since Charles and Rose Ann were tandem bicycle enthusiasts, they named their new Double, "Pike Tandem." In the Abbey style, Head Brewer Drew Cluley added organic sugar and coriander to a gold medal winning brown ale.

Monk's Uncle Triple, brewed as a spring seasonal, became the first Pike beer to use Belgium yeast. Introduced at Brouwer's Cafe in Seattle, it became a cult classic, selling out at each release. Monk's Uncle won the readers choice award for "Best Belgian Ale" 2008.

With the addition of more fermentation tanks to expand the brewery's capacity, the decision was made to add Pike Monk's Uncle Triple to the Pike lineup of beers brewed year round. Since the yeast, a strain from Westmalle Monastery, could now be propagated from one batch to the next as the brewery has done with its English style yeast since 1989, it was decided to brew Pike Tandem with the same Belgian ale yeast as well.

Pike Monk's Uncle Triple 9% alcohol by volume is brewed with organic malt and organic sugar. It is golden, full-bodied and complex with a yeasty nose, fruity esters and malty dryness. There are hints of honey, spice and exotic fruit that play with the senses.

Pike Tandem Double is cocoa colored, smooth, round, nutty and complex with flavors of freshly baked bread. It is stylish and sensual without bitterness. In addition to hops, coriander is used as a seasoning.

According to Finkel, drinking these beers is a, "religious experience!"

Fermentation Friday: Spring Fever

I'm joining the ranks of the Fermentation Friday crew and posting on the topic. Bryon, at HomeBrewBeer.net is this months host and will post is roundup here. This months topic is "Spring Fever".

"How will you grow or change as a homebrewer this Spring? How will you
embrace your Spring fever and channel it toward your homebrewing
endeavors?"

This spring is going to be a crazy one for me. I have a lot going on and to be able to fit in some brewing sessions here and there will be key. As I've posted before, Ive been asked to brew some beer for my friends Kate and Shaun's wedding. So, naturally I'll need them to taste it before I brew the official batch. Almost all of my brewing this spring will be focused on this. I'm hoping to be able to get two good batches that they both like so I can have them for the wedding, in June!

On top of that, I've signed up to race in a Half-Ironman triathlon in July and I need to start getting a lot of training in and weekends are a great time for long runs and rides.....which eats into my brewing time. But, the good thing is that in the pat few months I've brewed a few batches so I'll have some tasty homebrew when I'm done my training sessions.

IF I had the time I want to dedicate to brewing, I think my main focus would be on consistancy. I have two recipes which have come out great in the past that I want to perfect. My APA and my Brown Session Ale. These beers are my best beers and If I can perfect them to a point where brewing them is like riding a bike, then I can kill two birds with one stone. First, I'll have two great recipes to base starting my brewing (whenever that may be) with, and second is, naturally, I'll have two awesome beers on tap at all times! WIN WIN for me!!

The other area I'd like to focus on, and I imagine a lot of others will too, is being more economically sound with my brewing. With the consistancy of the two brews mentioned above, I'd like to be able to make them for less. Hey, money doesn't grow on trees (someone should tell Obama that) so being frugal and trying to brew for less will be a big plus for me!!

Fermentation Friday was started by Adam over at Beer Bits 2, and it’s a chance for all homebrew bloggers to sound off on a singular theme at a set date - the last Friday of each month (check out Adam’s post explaining the origins).

Cheers,

Jason

Beer's Economic Impact

I came accross a great site today called Beer Serves America. The site goes into great detail about the impact beer has our nations (and states) economy. There is a tool on the site that allows you to view by state, and by district within your state, the economic impact the beer industry has. It was pretty amazing stuff. In 2006, Massachusettes employed just under 25,000 people in the industry earning wages over $255 million.

Now, I'm not an economist, but I read a great post (actually a few) on Lew Bryson's blog about taxes on beer/liquor/cigarettes etc. and how they don't work. With Govenor Deval's push for the new "Wellness Tax" I thought I'd point out this site. As Lew's post points out, NJ Tried this with smokes in order to help curb a budget crisis, and it backfired. People either stopped smoking or drove over the border to get their smokes and the State actually lost revenue.

Let's pray that the Wellness Tax doesn't go into effect. Because not only will your beer be more expensive, but that bag of skittles from the vending machine will be $2 soon!!

Cheers,
Jason

Two Brew Weekend

This weekend was one of the first weekends I've had this year where my wife and I didn't have to travel anywhere, or have any plans to do anything, so I took full advantage of it and was able to brew two batches of beer. The first batch was an attempt at making a clone of Sixpoint Craft Ale's Sweet Action. I used a lot of crystal malt to try and pull out the sweetness, and decent amount of high alpha hops to try and balance it out. The second batch was brewed at my neighbors house with another neighbor and fellow homebrewer. It was our goal to recruit one more person into the homebrewing club, and I think we were successful (Matt??).

The reason for the Sixpoint clone is two-fold. First, It's an awesome beer with a great balance of big sweet malt flavor and big hop aroma and flavor. So naturally, when a homebrewer likes a beer, they try and clone it! Second, my good friend Shaun, who lives in Brooklyn, is getting married to my other good friend Kate. As I've mentioned before, they've asked me to brew some beer for the wedding. We've collectively been trying to come up with a beer that would be enjoyed at the wedding, and one I'm able to brew successfully. A few beers are on the list, but this one was next so I gave it a shot. I posted a few comments on the TastyBrew forum about the original recipe that I created and was told I had WAY too much crystal malt in the recipe and that it would be ridiculously sweet. So I took some out, and added some other malts to try and balance it out and added some more hops for balance as well. I still think I'm on the sweet side with about 23% crystal malt, but we'll have to wait and see.

CrystALE

OG - 1.050
Batch Size - 6 g
Pre-boil Volume - 8 g

Fermentables:
8 lbs Two-Row
1.5 lbs Crystal 15L
1.5 lbs Crystal 40L
1 lbs Munich
.25 lbs Brown Malt
.5 lbs Flaked Barley

Hops:
.5 oz Columbus (13% AA, 6.5 AAU, FWH)
.5 oz Magnum (14.5% AA, 7.3 AAU, 30 min)
.25 oz Columbus (13% AA, 3.3 AAU, 30 min)
.5 oz Glacier (5.5% AA, 2.8 AAU, 15 min)
.25 Columbus (13% AA, 3.3 AAU, 10 min)
.5 oz Glacier (5.5% AA, 2.8 AAU, DH)

Yeast:
Wyeast 1056 American Ale

On Sunday, Rob, Matt and Myself brewed at Matt's house. Matt has been asking Rob and myself to teach him to brew for a while now, and we finally were able to make it happen. We took a walk (through the snow) to Barleycorns and picked up a kit for Matt to make. He chose an English Ale called Burton's Best Bitter. "Best Bitter - Mid level gravity and more malt flavor than the ordinary, also with a touch more hop character" It was reasonably priced at $44 so we picked it up and went back to brew. The day went off without any issues and we were able to show Matt how easy homebrewing can be. With an extract/grain recipe, our brewing time was about 90 minutes and we let the wort cool in the snow which took another 1.5 hours or so, during which we drank beer and stared at a fire. Two of my favorite things....beer and fire!! I don't have the exact recipe, but my attempt from memory is below. I was surprised how much hops were used, 5 total oz for a 5 g batch, but they were mostly low alpha hops.

Burton's Best Bitter

Fermentables:
4 lbs amber malt extract
3 lbs light malt extract
1 Victory Malt
1 Carastan Malt
.5 lbs Two-Row

Hops:
2 oz Goldings (5% AA, 60 min)
1 oz Fuggles (5% AA, 30 min)
1 oz Goldings (5% AA, 1 min)
1 oz Fuggles (5% AA, DH)

Yeast:
Safale S-04 dried yeast

I'm looking forward to finding out how these both come out. Next up, I'm brewing my American Pale Ale for my fantasy baseball draft. I don't have much time so I'm going to have to brew it one night this week. More brewing...WOOO HOO!!!!!

Cheers,
Jason

Patriot Homebrew Contest results

I received the results from the Patriot Homebrew contest. I entered two beers, Robust Vanilla Bourbon Porter and American Brown Session Ale. I scored a 33.5 out of 50 for the porter and a 32.6 for the brown ale. Although the score was lower, the feedback was much more positive with the brown ale and it scored second place in Category 10 C. I was pretty happy with that, and the criticism I received was deserved. I knew I had an issue with this recipe, as I stated in my previous post, because I added Munich malt. The biggest criticism was it had a roast malt flavor so when I brew this again this weekend, I'll replace the munich with Cara-pils.

Next up, the Sam Adams Longshot Homebrew contest.

Cheers,
Jason

Lagering - Part 1

I took my first step in being able to brew a lager. This weekend I converted my basement fridge into a lagering fridge. No, I say "converted" but all I really did was reinforce the bottom shelf of the firdge with a piece of plywood and braced the shlef to be able to withstand the weight of my carboy. I know, it's not much. But it's a step in the right direction and I can now fit a single keg on one side of the shelf and the carboy on the other.

I've already put together a Munich Dunkle recipe that I'm going to try out. It's second in line now to my Sweet Crystal Ale, which I'm hoping will be close to the Sixpoint Sweet Action I wrote about. Hopefully I'll be able to brew the dunkle before I leave for Red Sox Spring Training in March.

Here are my questions to you....have you ever brewed a lager? Was it difficult? What did you brew?

I'm not set in stone to brewing the Munich Dunkle, so if you have a good recipe, let me know.

Cheers,
Jason

Organic Belgian Wit

This weekend I tasted the Organic Belgian Wit that I bottled from the keg. It was my first time force carbonating in a keg, and I definitely need to study up a little more on that. The beer was pretty close to flat. It was in the keg at 50 f under 18 PSI for 5 days and it had very little carbonation. I used the keg carb stone and it still didn't work. I have my APA II in there now, so I'll see if I leave it in there longer if it will help.

Besides the carbonation level, the beer was pretty good. Great spice from the coriander and orange. I used marmalade based on The Bearded Brewers recipe, and it went well. The marmalade I used had bits of orange peel in it as well. The one taste issue I had was with the aftertaste. It had a heavy orange peel bitterness to it at the end of the bottle that i was not expecting and was unpleasant. I'm not sure why, but I will re-make this with either a different kind of marmalade or with regular dried orange peel. The staple cloudiness of the beer was perfect and the color was very light pale, almost white. Not a bad beer. I will definitely go back to the drawing board with this one as I think it could be a great beer.

Cheers,
Jason