Beerinator

I like The Globe and Mail newspaper, I really do. I like it enough that it's the only daily I receive six days a week -- they don't publish The Globe on Sundays -- and I like it enough to on occasion write for it. I've worked with many an editor there and they've pretty much all been creative, considerate and kind people.

Sixty-three years ago, composer Karl Ganzer wrote the words “horlla-rü-di-ri, di-ri, di-ri” and altered German beer-drinking culture forevermore. The famous chorus of the Kufsteinlied — you may know it as that yodeling drinking song — has since become the popular folk song in Europe and a serious source of income for Ganzer’s family, which receives royalties every time it’s played.

The family, however, is currently embroiled in a lawsuit with music publisher Egon Frauenberger, who claims that while Ganzer wrote the song, Frauenberger updated the chorus in the 1960s and helped transform the tune into the popular ditty it is today. As a reward for this work, he is suing to receive one-twelfth of the royalties.

Would he settle for a lifetime supply of Ricola?

If you’ve been following the STL Hops Forums, then this is old news to you. But if you haven’t, the East Side Brewers homebrewing club has a new website.  It’s still a bit of a work in progress, but they’ll be featuring blogs, brewing information and their own homebrewing forums.

The East Side Brewers have really blown up over the past few months.  Make sure to visit the site to see what events they have coming up and stop by for some great beer, great knowledge and some really great guys.

Tags: east side brewers

As a Dupont Circle/Adams Morgan/U Street beer drinker, it is tough to make the sell to get people to trek across town to the metro-less Georgetown. Even when I am trying to go to Birreria Paradiso and one of the best beer lists around. That is why it is so awesome that the owners of the [...]

They’re all featured in this first half of a two-part story at Keystone Edge, a tale of people out there in the hills who seem to have not gotten the word that craft beer in Pennsylvania begins and ends in the Philadelphia area. Damned uppity of ‘em, if you ask me. I blame Bryson for encouraging this sort of thing.

Here’s a look at what you can grab over at Vine Park in case your fridge is in need of a restock.

Maibock. Richly malty bock beer associated with spring & summer drinking.

Capital Hill Pilsner available late this afternoon until its gone. Crisp and spicy with traditional Saaz hops from the Czech Republic. This light colored pilsner is perfect for the hot summer weather that must show up eventually.

Coffee Stout is out dark colored offering now. Nearly black, this stout has the added flavor of a coffee malt added to the grain bill. Not sharp like many coffee beers with actual coffee added, this is more a subtle addition then a smack to the palate.

In a plot ripped from “The Fast And The Furious 4″ (”More Fast and More Furious”? “Overwhelmingly Fast and Violently Furious”? “Vin Diesel Needs A Paycheck”?), thieves in Florida stole two tractor trailer trucks containing 2,000 cases of Corona and 1,000 cases of Modella Especial.

The theft, which happened during broad daylight, occurred when the rigs stopped on Adamo Drive. Police later found the cabs of the trucks but unfortunately, “The trailers, a white Lufkin model cargo trailer and a white Wabash model cargo trailer, are still missing. In one trailer was 1,260 six-packs of Corona Extra beer. The other trailer contained 990 six-packs of Corona and 990 cases of Modella Especial beer.”

Come to think of it, 3,000 cases of beer might be just the thing to make “Fast And Furious” watchable.

Philly's bringing it strong once again to close out the month of July, just in time to head off for BCTC 2009 in Cooperstown, NY.Check out the entire July 2009 calendar over here.Try something new at a free or PAYG tasting@Beer Yard, Wayne, PA--- Fri. 7/24 - Friday Night Tasting (Yards) (5:00pm-7:00pm; free tasting samples of classic ESA, reformulated Saison, and the new Brawler)@Devil's Den,

The Giving Tree

Just a quick note to let you all know that we’ve wrapped the gifts and placed them under the Giving Tree! If you’d like to receive one of them on Saturday, we’re asking that you give a $15 donation, the proceeds of which will go to benefit the Toys for Tots Foundation. (There’s a limit of four donations per person so that more people have an opportunity.)

Here’s a list of what you’ll find under the tree come Saturday afternoon:

• Brandy Angel’s 08 (750 ml) bottles
• Bourbon Angel’s 09 (375 ml) bottles
• Bourbon Angel’s 09 (750 ml) bottles
• Cuvee de Tomme (375 ml) bottles
• Cuvee de Tomme (750 ml) bottles
• Isabelle Proximus (750 ml) bottles
• Older Viscosity 09 (375 ml) bottles
• Saints Devotion (750 ml) bottles
• Veritas 004 (750 ml) bottles

Additionally, there’s also a number of super-special “Golden Ticket” rarities:

• Angel’s Share 06 (750 ml) bottles
• Cable Car 08 (750 ml) bottles
• Cuvee de Tomme 06 (375 ml) bottles
• Sinner’s 08 Blend (375 ml) bottles

Hope you’ve been good enough to make Santa’s “Nice” list this year.

See you at Christmas in July on Saturday!

Winetree and Jack Frey get ink in the Evansvile Courier & Press.

Top Ten Signs that you're the Wife of a Beer Geek. It could be worse for women. Say for instance in Malaysia where a woman was fined $1,400 and six cane strokes for drinking beer. Oh, her boyfriend and the waitress also got six lashes. article.

Inc Magazine has a long article: The Way I Work: Dogfish Head's Sam Calagione.

Do you have your 58-page Brewers Association Draft Beer Quality Manual?

Many areas of Great Britain use a Pubwatch scheme for two reasons. 1) They can laugh at the logo. 2) Anyone banned from one pub is effectively banned from all pubs in the immediate area. Now it's questioned whether a banned person should be able to get the courts involved. Crucial pubwatch decision on hold

12 people have been arrested in England for their part in scrapping £9million worth of steel kegs. article

Japan's giant, Kirin, has started talks to take over Suntory. Kirin also owns about half of Lion Nathan in Australia and San Miguel in the Philippines as well as being the Pepsi bottler in Japan.

It’s a trend worth noting - more community agriculture groups are including craft beer at the table. For decades, I’ve thought that vegetables pair more wonderfully with craft beer than wine. Now, there’s some company from both craft brewers and chefs, in appreciation of artichokes, asparagus, heirloom tomatoes, roasted corn chowders, and other veggie cuisine matched with ales and lagers…

On August 26, chef Alec Lopez of the Armsby Abbey and the Pretty Things Ale Project are producing a farm to table beer dinner. “The month of August brings some of the most amazing vegetables from our local farms, the ripest fruits from our favorite orchards, farmstead cheeses… so what better way to honor them then a Farm-to-Table VEGETARIAN Beer Dinner?” Owner/Brewer Dan and Martha Paquette of Pretty Things Ale Project will chat about each of their beers.

And organically raised meats are also alluring matches on a farm to table menu. Jason Ebel of Two Brothers Brewing in Warrenville, IL, hosts a farm to table beer dinner each summer with City Provisions, a Chicago-based catering company with an environmentally conscious ethos. “We take a bus to a local farm, Faith’s Farm in Bonfield, IL, and talk about the sustainable raising of farm animals such as chickens and pigs, on the bus ride down. When we arrive, we tour the farm and have a wonderful beer and food pairing dinner, with all provisions from Faith’s Farm.” It’s almost twelve hours of travel and talk, bonhomie and beer, and a chance for participants to really unwind from city life through a relaxed feast on the farm.

In a move which will surely have repercussions (good ones, I would say), the Kennett Square Brewfest will pay the full tavern price for its beers for 2009. Jeff Norman informed me of the change in an email this morning, acknowledging that the move is primarily due to wholesaler pressure and noting that “we might be the first 501c3 federal non profit doing so in the region.”

Kennett Square organizers had hoped to continue the practice initiated last year of paying a honorarium to the breweries rather than full price, but apparently recognized that would probably mean several local crafts and some  from other parts of the country would be absent if they held to that position.

I suspect we are seeing the dawning of a new and fairer reality. The days of brewers or wholesalers eating some or all the costs of  beer for events where virtually all other suppliers and entertainers are fully compensated are drawing to a close.

Not that any party should not be free to donate its products or services to any charitable (or other) cause they might wish, but that should be a matter of choice rather than expectation. Indeed, I could see a middle ground approach which might involve the parties negotiating wholesale pricing in those instances where appropriate or where the cause is particularly important or appealing to individual brewers.

Let’s be clear on this. There is no no decently run beer event which will fail or not be able to raise significant charitable funds because they pay for the beer.  For-profit festivals should always have been paying full price and it is absurd so many brewers did not make that stand long ago. I would go farther and insist that, if there is charitable component to a for-profit festival, it be made clear up front to both participants and potential attendees just how that amount is determined.

I would hope that this policy change provides an incentive for more smaller breweries to show up at Kennett Square this year and at other venues which adopt the same practice going forward. Doing so would still involve a commitment of travel expenses and time on the part of brewers and/or their staffs, of course, so it’s not a given that it will happen, but at least one justifiable reason for not participating has been removed.

Yesterday, you sold Zappos, the awesome online shoe retailer that will pay your return shipping if you don’t like your new kicks, for $800 million to Amazon.com. Great deal, right?

Well… perhaps not. According to reports we only tangentially understand, Sequoia Capital — the venture capital firm that originally invested in Zappos — forced you to make the sale instead of holding out for an IPO. (More details here.)

Luckily for you, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos — one of the smartest (and seemingly nicest) guys in the business world — says he’ll let you run your company as a separate entity. Of course, talk is cheap… just like your shoes.

So let us buy you a beer. If you don’t like it, we’ll pay the return shipping.

Just returned from two weeks in Sardinia. Some crap lagers, some interesting micros, wonderful food, good local wine. I’ll give you the highlights as soon as I get around to it. The blog seems to be doing all right, publishing itself even with me away. Do you enjoy the series of Oslo beer places? [...]

If you’re able to make it to Flat Earth tonight and Jeff is hard at work instead of out celebrating, don’t forget to wish him a happy birthday. And I bet he wouldn’t turn down any cake. Chocolate cake would probably go nicely with a glass of Black Helicopter.

Greetings,
Cygnus X-1 will make it’s return tonight just in time to celebrate Jeff’s birthday. The weather will be perfect tonight for tipping back a few so stop by and grab a growler tonight.

Here is what we’ll have tonight.
Belgian Pale Ale
Element 115 Lager
Cygnus X-1 Porter
Hep Cat Ale
Black Helicopter Coffee Stout
Sunburst Ale
Northwest Passage IPA
Unfiltered Cygnus
Unfiltered 115
Double Dry Hopped Unfiltered Angry Planet - Limited amounts
Sasaparilla

Cheers!

Surly Brewing company is set to release another beer in cans.  Hell debuted last year as a new seasonal draft only offering, but this year you'll be able to take Hell home.  Hell is a traditional Munich Helles style Lager.  From the can, "Finally, a Surly beer my German mother will drink!  She says this one tastes like a bier from back home.  Not unlike a Zwickel Bier from Germany, Hell is not filtered and fermented with lager yeast.  American hops take a backseat to the Pils malt sweetness and fresh bread aroma.  The color is well...hell (Deutsch for light).  It's fiendishly drinkable.  And you don't have to sell your soul to get another." 

It isn't quite yet known when the cans will come out yet, but maybe late August.  You might want to grab more than a four pack, as this stuff goes down really easy.  Draft will be out sometime earlier.

Chico, CA (07/22/09)—Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. is honored to announce the release of Estate Ale—one of the world’s only estate-made beers brewed with 100% all-natural, locally-grown hops and barley, which are produced at the brewery in Chico, California. Inspired by the renowned winemaking region of its Napa and Sonoma neighbors, Sierra Nevada is the first brewery to develop its own terroir. This beer is brewed with ingredients that reflect the flavors of the environment and the seasonal rhythms of nature.

The wine industry is fond of speaking about the individual flavor characteristics that it takes from its environment. This terroir is present in all growing things that are tended with passion and care. The environment that builds flavor is more than simply the soil or the climate: it is also the passion and commitment of the grower. Sierra Nevada’s location near the convergence of the mighty Cascade and Sierra Nevada mountain ranges—and its roots in the heart of California’s fertile Central Valley—offer an environment unique in the world. This volcanic backdrop and productive earth each lend character to the water, hops, barley, and yeast.

Chico Estate Ale is the product of years of tending the soil, building an environment around the brewery, and even more years of planning. It began in 2003, with the planting of the first experimental hop yard in the field adjacent to the brewery. Over the years the field grew, and the hops along with it. The quality improved: the rhythm of planting, tending, and harvesting was established. In 2008, the brewery released Chico Estate Harvest Ale for the first time, utilizing the fresh-green flavors of these homegrown hops. The brewery was so pleased with the result that it decided to take it further than anyone else and produce a 100% estate-made beer.

That fall, the brewery made the decision to expand the hop field and plant a test plot of barley onsite. The goal to make an estate beer seemed farfetched. Countless times, the brewery heard that growing malting barley in the hot, dry Chico climate was impossible. Despite the objections, 26 acres of two-row barley went into the soil in January of 2009. By May, the waist-high green barley was waving in the Northern California wind, and by June, a healthy harvest was a foregone conclusion. The brewery never intended to release a 100% estate-made beer in 2009, but as in all things, Mother Nature dictates and we react. The brewery found itself with thousands of pounds of the finest malting barley and acres of the world’s freshest wet hops: Estate Ale was born.

Sierra Nevada’s estate-made beer is a decades-long dream finally seeing reality. Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. prides itself in environmental stewardship and responsible brewing practices. This “Hop Harmony” philosophy is part of a larger movement toward creating a natural and sustainable brewery. Efforts include recycling and composting, water treatment, bio-fuel production, and water conservation. In 2009, a recently completed solar array (one of the largest private installations in the country) combined with four fuel cell generators to produce between 80 and 90 percent of the brewery’s total energy needs on-site.

Founded in 1980, Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. was one of America’s first microbreweries and remains highly regarded for using only whole-cone hops and ingredients of the highest quality. Sierra Nevada has set the standard for artisan brewers worldwide as a winner of numerous awards for its line of ales and lagers, including the flagship Pale Ale, Torpedo, Porter, Stout, Kellerweis, four seasonal beers, Harvest Ales, and a host of draft-only specialties.

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Newstead Tower Public House is hosting another in their line of monthly beer dinners with this dinner featuring selected Belgian beers. The date of the dinner is July 29th at 7PM. The cost of this event is $40 and reservations are required. You can make reservations by calling 314-535-7771.

Tags: beer dinner, belgian beers, newstead tower pub

There are koozies and then there are koozies. Southern Brand sells the second variety, including a $15 Cowhide Koozie made from real animal. According to a release:

“We start with some beautiful and diverse pieces of long-hair cowhide and hand-stitch ‘em to some high-quality neoprene, creating a sorta little cozy scuba suit for your can or bottle. These babies will keep a beer 40 degrees or below for 35 minutes.”

If the cowboys had these babies they might never have captured the Wild, Wild West.

When you get to the top of your respective industry, you have two choices: rest on your hard-earned laurels or continue pushing yourself to new heights. While no one would disrespect the former choice — everyone loves laurels — there’s something romantic and impressive about following the latter path.

That’s exactly what the brewers at Sierra Nevada Brewing Company chose to do. Always a bastion of brewing brilliance, the Chico, California institution is releasing Chico Estate Ale, one of the first “estate” beers. Estate Ale features 100% all-natural, locally-grown hops and barley that came from Sierra Nevada’s fields. The beer will be available soon.

Now take a break guys. You’re making the rest of us look bad.