Mint Chocolate Porter

Now that I’m back from my trip out of town for Thanksgiving I’m happy to be able to start posting again!

One of the great things about Thanksgiving is all of the old friends and acquaintances that come back into town for the weekend. I caught up with all kinds of people I hadn’t seen since high school. That meant that while they described their bank jobs, positions at insurance companies, or careers in the exciting field of human resources I got to talk about driving around the country drinking beer with the brewmasters who make it.

Needless to say, I’m still happy about my decision to write a book about beer!

I don’t know about you but when I’m around old friends we tend to scheme. A couple of people tried to talk to me about the possibility of someday opening a brewery. I had to explain that more than anything else you need two things to open a brewery. Money, and talent as a brewer. I have neither. Although I still have little to no desire to open a brewery I’m still working on my talent as a brewer.

One specific friend of mine, Connor Krause, wants to start brewing and has some unique ideas to try out. We batted a few things around and finally landed on the decision to make a mint chocolate porter. Assuming it comes out well I think it will be the perfect drink for a cold winter evening, especially around the holidays. Connor lives about forty five minutes north of me but we’re trying to figure out a time that works out well for both of us to brew.

I’ll keep you updated on the process as it comes along. Also, the Bavarian hefeweizen turned out very well. It feels strange to drink a hefe in the winter but beer is beer and I’m still proud I managed to brew a decent one regardless of style.

Trumer Rube Goldberg

This video has been floating around the internet for a couple of days now and I thought it was WAY too cool not put up. It's a Rube Goldberg machine made by the people at Trumer International. Watch to the end, I think I might need to install one of these at home!

Yes, I know the video overlaps the side bar. However, you can still watch the video and that's way more important than my cloud of tags!



I found the video on the Brookston Beer Bulletin website. Also, here is a link to the Trumer website (where I couldn't find the original video).

Writing Update

A lot of people have been asking about the progress so far on my beer trip. Currently I’m back in Des Moines, the trip is over, and I started writing the book about my journey early last week.

The book is going to be split into chapters based on the cities I was in. Some chapters such as the one on Little Rock, Arkansas will be short (I only spent one afternoon in town at one brewery). Some, such as the Saint Louis chapter, will be much longer. While in Saint Louis I made it to six breweries and did interviews at each one.

Within each chapter I will be talking about what I did in the cities, the history of the breweries I visited, I will include parts of the interviews I conducted, some of the beer related history of the city, general stories from my travels, and a few other goodies.

After getting started I was already having some serious issues working on the first chapter on the topic of homebrewing. I got myself into a cycle of writing a few pages and then starting to edit. By edit I mean deleting absolutely everything I had written and starting from scratch again. It’s a nasty cycle to be in, even worse than writer’s block. Too many ideas, too many different ways to start, it’s not pretty.

Yesterday afternoon I had an epiphany; I didn’t have to start from chapter one. Instead I began writing about my trip to Boulevard Brewing Company in Kansas City and Free State Brewing in Lawrence, KS and so far it has been incredibly productive. In fact, things are rolling along so nicely that I’m going to get back to it right now!

One last thing, don’t forget to check out the facebook page for All Hopped Up. I’ve been putting up pictures from each stop of the beer trip.

I'm BAAACKK!!!!

It has been far too long. Nearly a month has gone by since I decided to put the blog on hiatus and simply enjoy myself on my incredible beer trip. I was spending far too much time writing a blog about my trip and not nearly enough going out and enjoying myself in these amazing towns I stopped in. It’s going to make for better articles in the long run because instead of hunkering down in a hotel room to write a

(the picture is of my friend Alyse at Rahr Brewing in Fort Worth where she got to sign a burbon barrel)

new post I went out to bars and brewpubs to talk to people about their local beers. No worries though, I was taking copious notes at each tour and recording every interview so I have more than enough information to work for each post about a brewery visit.

Just to give you a heads up about what is on the way my last post was about my visit to Trailhead Brewing Company in a suburb of Saint Louis, it was my thirteenth stop. Before I got back to Des Moines I made it to another nineteen breweries in five more states. Those include everything from the behemoth Miller and Anheuser-Busch facilities in Milwaukee and Saint Louis to tiny brewpubs in Champaign, Illinois and Saint Paul, MN. City breweries and rural breweries are represented. Those who contract out their brewing to other breweries, and some who brew by contract for others. The large, the small, the new the old, pretty much every type of brewery you can imagine.

I’m also going to be splitting up posts about the beer trip with posts about various other beer related topics. It’s going to be a hybrid between how the blog began back in July and how it was with posts about my beer trip.

Watch closely for new posts, they should be going up daily from here on out. Please ask questions, leave comments, and let me know if there is anything you would really like to see discussed on here.

For now, Cheers!

Delays, Delays, Delays...

Sorry, I know I haven't been posting as much as I should. In fact, since going to Trailhead Brewing Co. in Saint Louis, my last post, I've been to five other Saint Louis breweries, one in Champaign, and three in Chicago. All of my traveling along with spotty internet connections has really limited what I can write and post.

Long story short, I'm kind of changing how I do my travel blog. I don't want to half-ass any posts about these great breweries I'm touring and the great people I've been interviewing so I'm putting the blog on the back shelf and focusing more intently on my tour. I think that will make for better postings in the long run. Posts will still be coming as often as I can write them, but it isn't going to be one a day like it had been at the start of the trip.

I'll still be writing a post about every one of my stops but they're probably going to be spread out over a longer period of time. I'm thinking that most of the rest will be put up interspersed with other articles of the type I was writing before my trip began.

If you have any questions feel free to email me at allhoppedupblog@gmail.com

Thanks for reading!

Thirteenth Stop – Trailhead Brewing

I’m going to start doing a series of short articles about the brewpubs I visited in Saint Louis. Although wonderful, I made it to four of them and thought you all might get a little tired of hearing about just one city. So instead I’m condensing each down to a short entry. No fears though, I’ll still have a full entry on my incredible trips to Schlafly’s Bottleworks and Taproom as well as the behemoth Anheuser-Busch facility.

Now, Trailhead Brewing Company in Saint Charles, MO.

Trailhead is a brewpub in a historic area of a historic town. The neighborhood is full of little shops and bars that all fit in perfectly to the late nineteenth century vibe I was getting. Trailhead is no exception. Sporting everything from a beautiful brick exterior complete with water wheel to a 12,000 square foot interior Trailhead’s building’s history provides an excellent air of history while you eat but doesn’t cram you in like many historic buildings are forced to.

I walked in with my wonderful Saint Louis hosts Mark and Danielle who had suggested we eat dinner there. The server was young and didn’t know too much about beer but still did his best. We ordered the spicy chicken wings as appetizers and I got a sausage platter for dinner. Wings, knockwurst, weisswurst, bratwurst, sauerkraut, and potato salad. These are some of my favorite “beer foods” and none of them disappointed. The kraut wasn’t excellent, but all of the sausages were which more than made up for it.

The beer was nothing to write home about, but it certainly wasn’t bad either. I’m usually not a fan of fruit beers but their Riverboat Raspberry went well with the spicy wings. I wouldn’t have ordered it but it came with my beer sampler. The easy highlight of the sampler was the seasonal pumpkin spice ale. I was a big fan of the big flavor that had just enough nutmeg and cinnamon to balance it out.

Despite being a little pricey Trailhead is absolutely worth the trip to Saint Charles.

Up next will be a post about my incredible trip to Schlafly.

The Homebrewing Guest Blogger Returns!

Welcome to another whenever-I-feel-like-writing post on home brewing! From here on out I'd like to move from general brewing procedure to more specific brewing information. Truly, you don't need this knowledge, but that's like saying that, in order to eat, all you need to know is how to make sandwiches. You'd stay alive, but the boring flavor of sandwiches and lack of creativity involved in making sandwiches would be numbing.

I hate working at Panera.

Anyway, knowing more about brewing and the science of brewing can help you create better tasting, more consistent beers. The result of a little learning is a more flavorful, more complex brewsky that you can feel proud of.

So, mashing!!

Mashing is a complex process, involving enzymes, carbon sugars, and complex by-products that ultimately affect the final flavor of your beer to a surprising degree.

To begin with, the grain used in brewing contains several different carbon sugars. Mashing itself is the process of breaking down the grain structure using enzymes present in the mash in order to more effectively extract the sugars for fermentation. Different enzymes are most effective at different temperatures and pHs so manipulating these factors during your mash can be extremely beneficial. I’ll spare you the boring chemistry and simply tell you that your mash can be manipulated to most effectively break down the grain.

The technique I’ll teach you here is called multi-rest mashing. It involves resting the mash at certain temperatures, activating specific enzymes in order to break down key parts of the grain. The procedure is simple:

1. Heat your mashing water to between 114 and 119 °F
2. Add the grain and stir constantly until the temperature drops to 104 °F.
3. Maintain that temperature (plus or minus 2-3 degrees) for 20 minutes.
4. At the end of 20 minutes, apply heat again, stirring constantly, until the temperature reaches 140 °F.
5. Turn the burner off and hold at temp for another 20 minutes.
6. Apply heat again and raise the temperature to 158 °F.
7. Turn off burner and hold for the final 20 mins.
8. Mash out as normal and continue brewing!

From experience, the resulting beer is world’s better. The difference is immediately noticeable (beer is more developed, mature, with a smoother flavor profile) and the procedure itself truly isn’t that difficult. The most frustrating part of multi-resting is maintaining the temperature, but with practice you can master it.

So that’s it! If you have questions about the science involved or the execution of the procedure, feel free to leave them in the comments section and I will promise to attempt to remember to read them and maybe give an honest effort to possibly answer them.

But seriously, if you have any questions or comments, hit me up.

Twelfth Stop – Diamond Bear Brewing Company

I chose to add Diamond Bear to my tour largely because of its convenient location between Fort Worth and Saint Louis. It seemed like too far of a drive without a stopping for a tour at least once. Before arriving I send out calls and emails to each brewery I’m headed to so as to make sure someone will be around to give me an interview and/or a tour. Diamond Bear was one of the very few that never responded to my requests.

I was going in blind. I researched each brewery before my arrival but because of Diamond Bear’s lack of response and my short time I skimmed their history and that’s about it. The plan was to drive up from Fort Worth, go on the tour, and drive on to Springfield where I would stay the night with a friend.

Lucky for me Chuck Heinbockel, my volunteer tour guide, and others made that significantly more difficult than I was anticipating. He and I sat down in the small, but cozy taproom and started talking. Eventually we were joined by Adam, the “taproom attendant,” Bonz, a colorful new employee and avid homebrewer, and the brewer from a local brewpub that stops by on Saturdays to hang out.

Chuck is the embodiment of passion for beer. He is a professional landlord owning stakes in buildings all around Little Rock. I’m making an assumption here, but I think he does pretty well for himself. Still though, he comes down to the brewery on weekends to give tours in exchange for a free case of beer.

Over the last few years Chuck has really started getting into the world of craft beer. His self described “beer quest” began when he tried Abbey Grand Cru from New Belgium at an event hosted by the Little Rock Art Center called Art on Tap. Since then, he has been a changed man.

Chuck became a regular at Vino’s, a local brewpub, where he greatly enjoys the imperial IPA. He also started watched closely for beer events and tastings in the area and got involved with Diamond Bear Brewing as a volunteer.

I never would have guessed but the tour he gave me and the 15 other happy drinkers yesterday was only his fifth. I was complimenting Chuck on being such a quick study and he admitted to having forgotten to pass around the examples of brewing grains and hops. Once he realized it he brought them over to the table where we had been talking and gave me his explanation. There aren’t all that many ways to describe grain and hops but Chuck still managed to throw in a few extra tidbits I hadn’t heard other places.

My favorite was when he showed me the ratio of toasted to regular malt for their porter. He compared it to when you’re cooking gravy. When you’re getting those little caramelized bits it’s extremely important to scrape them up so your gravy will taste…like gravy. However, it doesn’t take too many of them to flavor quite a bit of liquid. Stout beers are the same. The toasted malt is extremely important, but it doesn’t take too much of it to flavor your beer but what you do throw in really packs a punch.

It’s safe to say at this point that as much as I’ve absolutely relished my interviews with various brewmasters and brewery owners, I might have enjoyed by other interviews even more. Speaking with a volunteer tour guide gave me a unique perspective on Diamond Bear Brewing that couldn’t have been matched by anyone else. The same could be said of my interview with Peter Takacs, the manager of quality assurance at Spoetzl Brewing in Shiner, TX. These different people in different brewery positions are showing me a whole new side to the world of brewing.

The book version of All Hopped Up will include much more from my conversation with Chuck and a bunch of stuff I learned about homebrewing from Bonz, who is sending a recipe for his popular jalapeño amber homebrew. I’ll probably post the recipe as soon as I get it, so watch close!

Eleventh Stop - Rahr & Sons Brewing Co.

One visit just wasn’t enough for me. Monday afternoon I went by the brewery in Fort Worth to interview and have a few beers with Fritz Rahr, the brewery’s founder. Although wonderful I had to be sure to make it back Wednesday evening for the open house brewery tour.

In the interest of full disclosure before anything else I should mention that I harbor an extraordinary bias when it comes to anything Rahr. While in college at TCU in Fort Worth I was a regular at the Saturday afternoon Rahr brewery tours and a frequent “sampler” of their products. Rahr’s was also my first American brewery tour when I was of legal drinking age. Because of that, the fact that Rahr is “proudly brewed by a Horned Frog” (fellow TCU alum), and my nostalgia for college nights drinking it on my apartment’s patio with friends, Rahr will always be one of my favorites. There you go; I’m a big, biased fan.

Monday the focus of much of my conversation with Fritz was on the last ten months of Rahr’s operations. Or rather, non-operation for much of it. On February 11th 2010 Fort Worth received 12.5 inches of snow in slightly under 24 hours. I wasn’t keeping track but I would be SHOCKED if that didn’t double how much snow fell in Fort Worth in my four years there. North Texas is used to the occasional sleeting, maybe even a little ice here and there on cold nights. 12.5 inches of snow though? Even a seasoned Iowan like me thinks that would be miserable.

Fritz was supposed to be meeting one of his brewers to get a new batch of beer going on that fateful morning but in light of the snow called and told him not to come in. While still in the five o’clock hour a call came in from Rahr’s alarm company to alert Fritz that the brewery’s sprinkler system had activated; he needed to get to the brewery as soon as possible. Worried about his business he hopped in his car and turned on the radio. On the way he heard reports of damage around the city and started putting two and two together. Massive amounts of snow. Sprinklers running. A flat roof. It could only mean one thing, the roof had collapsed overnight under the weight of the snow.

He arrived at the brewery he had poured so much of himself into over the last five and a half years and was greeted by firemen who were ripping down the overhead door to get in. The damage was catastrophic. In some areas the only thing holding the roof up at all were the fermentation tanks.

The call he received about sprinklers had been more than accurate. They, along with a broken water main, had poured over a foot of water into the brewery. The cooler was crushed. The bar was destroyed. Their bottling line was ruined. Some fermentors were damaged. The list, of course, goes on and on, and on.

Despite how it sounds so far, this really isn’t a tail of defeat. Rather it is a story of rebirth. Rahr worked with Farmers Insurance (about whom Fritz only has the best things to say) and rebuilt. In the four/five months of non-production the brewery created a new identity for itself with new labels and a new logo. They also changed some things about their overall brewing setup they would have liked to have done anyway and a new tasting bar was built that backs up directly to their new cooler.

Even when not producing beer the staff of Rahr was hard at work with one of their partners, CGC marketing, to create a viral video series titled “what brewers do when they’re not brewing. It stars Fritz, and Rahr brewers Austin Jones & Jason Lyon and if I may say so myself, is very funny.

Here is a link to view all ten of the videos.

Now Rahr is happily back in full production and is continually expanding capacity. I’ll be talking about all things Rahr in the book. That will include the rest of my non-roof related conversation with Fritz, A bit of my chat with a former plumber/current Rahr employee, the origins and history of Rahr, and tales of my trip out to the brewery Wednesday night with some old college friends.

Up next I’ll be at the Diamond Bear Brewing Company in Little Rock, Arkansas.

Tenth Stop - Real Ale Brewing

I’m only putting up a mini post about Real Ale in Blanco, TX because truth be told, it was a mini visit. I don’t want to say that my trip to Blanco wasn’t an afterthought, but it wasn’t really at the forefront either.

After spending the early afternoon at Independence Brewing Company I knew I was going to be cutting it close to make it in time for Real Ale’s last tour of the day. As I waved goodbye to Amy and Rob Cartwright at Independence I slammed on the accelerator to try and get to Blanco by four o’clock. The problem was that I only hit the accelerator for 2 of the next twenty minutes; the traffic in Austin was horrendous.

When I pulled up to Real Ale the final tour had started a few minutes before I got there. I saw the last couple people in the group walking into the brewery so I ran along and joined in. The tour was easily and without question the worst brewery tour I’ve been on to date.

No, not because the guide was uninformed or anything like that. Despite my late arrival I was a far cry from being the last one to arrive. First it was a bus from a retirement community that unloaded 10 or so octogenarians that shuffled over to us. Besides moving slowly and one persistently whistling hearing aid they weren’t bad.

The second was a group of seven twenty-somethings. They spent the entire tour standing directly behind me loudly talking. Never once did they whisper or say something under their breath, they just kept talking in at full volume. I couldn’t hear the guide so I politely turned around and asked the pony-tailed asshole to please quiet down. He apologized and said they would stop talking.

That didn’t do a thing, they incessantly kept at it. One little known fact about me is that when I’m angry I get eloquent. “Hey dude. I can’t believe you dudes keep talking. I mean dude, its just not cool, I can’t hear anything dude.”

I don’t believe I’ve said the word dude in normal conversation since the late nineties. For some reason though I thought it would be best way to address my problem would be to drop it a half dozen times in two poorly crafted sentences. The response was an appropriate “sorry dude.”

One of the few things I actually heard was that like many breweries Real Ale disposes of their spent grains by giving them to a local cattle rancher to use as feed. I’ve heard rumors at other breweries and I know some like Independence in Austin occasionally get some meat in exchange for the grain. From the sounds of it Real Ale has a deal for big thick T-Bones for their grain. Not too bad for getting rid of their waste product!

Despite a lame tour the tasting room was still a lot of fun. I got to speak briefly with a couple brewery employees that were hanging around. I also got to sample a few of their beers and get the full story about why their Fireman’s 4 Ale has completely different packaging from the rest of their beers. It was something I had always been curious about and one of the main reasons for my trip.

In the book I’ll tell you all about the Fireman’s 4 Ale, their tasting room, and some history of Real Ale Brewing Company. Oh, and I forgot to take pictures until I was driving away. Sorry they’re terrible.

Ninth Stop - Independence Brewing

I’m realizing that breweries tend to be built where rent is cheap. Because of that I’m slowly gaining a great appreciation for breweries that aren’t in neighborhoods rough enough that I get shifty-eyed when cruising by in my Toyota Corolla. It has significantly stood out in a few of these areas to say the least!

My assumption that all city breweries I visit will be in bad areas left me pleasantly delighted when I found Independence Brewing Company of Austin Texas. It’s in a nice, relatively new warehouse/office park.

That wasn’t all that impressed me right off the bat either. My dad has owned a family business for almost exactly twenty years now so I have a certain appreciation for any true family business. When I hit the door at Independence I was met by the husband/wife co-owners Rob and Amy Cartwright, their one month old daughter Ruby, and their two dogs Jasper and Indy. I don’t know how it could get to be much more family-oriented than that!

More than any of that, it was just a fun environment. I know that every brewery is full of hard workers and Independence is no exception, but they seemed to have some kind of “X” factor that made everyone love walking in the door for work. It might have been the relaxed atmosphere, the cool bosses, or the dogs just hanging out. It may have had something to do with Rob cooking up some BBQ on the grill out front. He had a full rack of ribs, some hand-twisted sausage, and a beer can chicken going. Of course, not just any can though, a custom made one that he could pour Independence Brewing’s Convict Hill Oatmeal Stout into. Rob and Amy even invited me to stay and eat with them but sadly I had to move on and get to Real Ale out in Blanco, TX.

Despite the fact that Austin seems to be a new mecca for craft brewers (at least seven are currently in development stages), Independence is currently the only one that bottles their beer. They still do a brisk keg business. In fact, Rob told me that their keg business has been increasing over the last year to take back a majority of their business.

The increase in keg sales is great but Independence still has one beer that ALWAYS sells out of bottles in a matter of a few days of when it goes on sale. Oklahoma Sucks. It’s an amber beer that goes on sale the week before the annual football game between the University of Texas and Oklahoma. The beer is a creative idea that came about when Rob and Amy found out that a brewery in Oklahoma sells “Texas Sucks” year round.

Watch for the book version of All Hopped Up where I’ll tell you about some of the amazing events hosted by Independence Brewing, more about Rob and Amy, and some other neat stories about the brewery.

Eighth Stop - 512 Brewing Company

The 512 Brewing Company is located in a nice new warehouse park. As has been typical on these trips so far I got there fine but thought I was in the wrong place. 512 has absolutely no signage in front of or on their building. If it had not been for the half open garage door I could see the fermentation tanks through I wouldn’t have found it.

When I did manage to find it 512 it didn’t even matter for a bit. No one answered when I knocked so I went around to the open garage door and hollered in. Even then, no response. It took a few minutes of silence before something blared from the speakers. It was the video series “drunk history.” If you’ve never seen it I highly suggest checking it out. It’s just some drunk guy trying to explain events in history. I’ve got a lot of respect for any brewery willing to take a break in the middle of the day to watch funny videos of drunk people.

At the brewery I spoke with the owner/brewer Kevin Brand. We had a long conversation about how he got started, how things have gone in the two years they’ve been in operation, and how 512 is going to expand.

As it currently stands 512 can barely make enough beer to keep up with the orders they get. And that’s after they had just expanded. Luckily that means that 512 can continue to expand and not worry about overproducing. In fact, Kevin told me that he is going to be expanding into the rest of the warehouse he currently shares as soon as possible.

Every successful brewery has to have something unique. Something that sets them apart or makes them different from the thousands of other breweries in the world. If they’re the first brewery in a city, that can be a gimmick. They’re “Houston’s brewery” or something like that. In Austin, a town with quite a few small breweries cropping up in and around town, you really do have to make a statement if you’re going to get notice. I think 512 has done that with one of his beers, the pecan porter.

The pecan porter comes off extremely well. It is made from locally grown pecans, organic 2-row and Crystal malts, and some black and chocolate malts. It has a nice aroma to it, but I couldn’t really smell much in the way of pecans. That didn’t come until I actually took a sip. The flavor was full and malty with some of the taste of pecans leaking through the malts. When tasting this beer I thought about how it would be an excellent starter beer for someone who thought they didn’t like porters/dark beer.

Since my visit to 512 I’ve gone to Independence Brewing Company in Austin and Real Ale in Blanco, TX. Today I’m headed up to Fort Worth so watch for either or both of those posts to be coming soon.

Seventh Stop - Spoetzl Brewery

I’ve always been a little confused as to why the Spoetzl Brewery in Shiner, TX refers to their beers as “Shiner Beers.” Sure, I could have checked their website or any number of research materials but instead I went to the brewery.

Shiner, TX is pretty out of the way between Houston and San Antonio. So instead of making you head down to Shiner to figure it out for yourself I might as well tell you. The Spoetzl Brewery was started in 1909 by the Shiner Brewing Association to make only one beer, Shiner Premium. Their famous bock beer wasn’t introduced until 1913 when it became a seasonal offering.

Shiner Premium must not have been too stellar because in 1913 the Shiner Brewing Association started a search for a real brewmaster. Eventually they found Kosmos Spoetzl. He was arrived in Shiner in 1914 and purchased the brewery in 1915, which was when the brewery took his name, Spoetzl. However, the identification of their products as “Shiner Beers” never really stopped after the brewery’s name changed, hence my confusion. The name wasn’t the only thing changing with the new leadership though. In just his third year at the brewery in 1916 Kosmos started bottling his beer.

Shiner is one of very few breweries that managed to survive prohibition intact. Spoetzl converted to produce ice and “near beer” during those dark years. My tour guide noted that the near beer produced in Shiner was not produced to be made with no alcohol but instead had the alcohol removed before distribution…usually. Apparently Kosmos was occasionally a little forgetful and would leave the alcohol in the beer when selling to some locals. Kosmos led the brewery until his death in 1950 when his daughter “Miss Celie” took over operations.

You might notice that my pictures at Spoetzl are kind of lame. That’s because Spoetzl’s picture policy is kind of lame. They don’t allow any pictures to be taken while on the brewery tour. Because of that I was limited to just taking pictures around the outside of the facility.

After public relations rep Anne Raabe gave a tour I was on she was kind enough to answer a few of my questions. She also went out of her way on an extremely busy day to try and track down brewmaster Jimmy Mauric or his assistant brewmaster to have a conversation with me. Both of them weren’t even in the town of Shiner that day, but she did find Peter Takacs, manager of quality assurance, for me to talk with.

I’m actually grad I got to talk with Mr. Takacs instead of a brewmaster or owner. His job and his perspective on beer/brewery were completely unique from anyone else I’ve spoken with so far on my tours. We talked for quite a while about the quality assurance process at a brewery and some of the most in-depth history of brewing anyone I’ve spoken with has imparted to me. All of that and more will be coming in the chapter about Shiner in my book.

Sixth Stop - Saint Arnold Brewing Co.

It’s another brewery in a warehouse district in a rough area of a big town I’m not familiar with. In fact, Saint Arnold’s itself is inside a big 100 year old former frozen food warehouse they renovated and moved into in 2009.

Saint Arnold was started in 1994 by Brock Wagner with two goals in mind. First was the Brock wanted to brew and sell the best beer in Texas, something he believes he has accomplished. Second, he wanted to create something that Houston could be proud of. This one is something that any beer fan can agree on. Brock has created a company that any city would be proud to have; Saint Arnold is a regular at community events and has a strong record of philanthropy.

When I tour small breweries I have usually been going on tours led by and speaking with an owner/founder. That makes sense for a small facility without too many employees. However, Saint Arnolds is one of the top fifty largest craft breweries in America. So yes, I was a little surprised when I was speaking with Lennie Ambrose, who works in events and marketing, and he suggested I take the brewery tour led by Brock Wagner.

There were two reasons the actual brewery tour was the shortest I’ve been on to date. First, the brewery layout is extremely logical. The brewhouse directly overlooks all of the fermentation tanks. It is just a simple set of stairs between the first and second halves of the tour. Reason two; we didn’t see any of the Saint Arnold bottling line. That’s not a huge deal, but I think a lot of people really enjoy seeing hundreds of bottles whizzing by every minute being filled, labeled, and capped. C'est la vie.

On the other side of the coin, Brock was an absolutely hilarious tour guide. He was constantly making jokes about all kinds of things. When explaining the brewing process he said that you can really brew using any kind of grain. That’s everything down to and including your morning Grape Nuts. He doesn’t suggest you try using fruity pebbles though, he thinks that’s how the make Miller Chill.

Also, after a detailed explanation of how yeast works and is utilized he also simplified it by saying “Basically, yeast eats sugar, pisses alcohol, and farts CO2.” I’ve heard similar explanations, but never phrased so elegantly.

In the book I’ll be featuring details of my conversation with Lennie Ambrose, some notes on the very, very unique events hosted by the brewery, background on Saint Arnold (both the brewery and the saint), and beer in Houston, TX.

Next posts will be Shiner and 512 Brewing.

Fifth Stop – Live Oak Brewing Company

Live Oak Brewing in Austin isn’t in the best neighborhood, they don’t use fancy marketing, and their facility isn’t the most picturesque. None of that matters. When you produce consistently excellent beer that you’re knowledgeable and passionate about you get a free pass on those periphery things.

I made it to Live Oak in Austin and met with owner/brewer Chip McElroy. I was also lucky enough to speak briefly with brewmaster Steve Anderson. The most significant thing I will say about my talk with Chip is that I learned more from him than I have from any single beer conversation I’ve ever had.

I know what wort is. I understand how yeast works. I get what hops add to the flavor of beer. Basically, I know the basics.

Chip however, is a fountain of knowledge. More than that, he’s completely happy and willing to share that knowledge. In fact, it seems like a mission of his to spread the word about good beer to the masses.

One of the many things we talked about was the Live Oak Hefeweizen. Currently, the hefe is ranked on Beer Advocate as the number 67 beer in the world. It also comes in as number two in the hefeweizen category. Not too bad for a little brewery in Austin that doesn’t bottle or can their beer. In fact, it’s downright tough to get their beer.

This is a list of cities where they have at least one tap:

Addison, Alpine, Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, Kerrville, Marathon, New Braunfels, Plano, Rockdale, San Antonio, San Marcos, Temple, and Waco.

That’s right, 15 cities. All in Texas.

I looked through Beer Advocate and it seems like most of the ratings of Live Oak beers don’t actually come from cities where they distribute; they come from people who got it in trades. That means someone filled a growler from a bar’s tap and drove it to places like Michigan, Pennsylvania, Florida, or Canada. I can’t imagine they’re getting anything close to the fullest flavor once the beer is driven twenty-four hours in a growler. And yet, it still ranks extremely well.

The Live Oak Hefe is one of their year-round beers brewed in a traditional Bavarian style. The head on it is thick enough that it could probably support your weight if you were inclined to try standing on your beer. The aroma gives off a clear scent of bananas and maybe a little bit of cloves and vanilla.

In the book I’ll write more about the Live Oak hefe, the new brewing facility they have planned, and all kinds of history and general brewing knowledge that Chip shared with me.

Since going to Live Oak I hit Saint Arnold’s in Houston yesterday and Spoetzl brewery in Shiner, TX today. Posts coming soon!

Fourth Stop – Coop Aleworks

That’s “coop,” like where a chicken lives. Not Co-op, like where hippies do their grocery shopping. I found that out fairly quickly after arriving at Coop Aleworks and hearing co-founder/general manager/sales/marketing guru and all around busy man JD Merryweather refer to it as coop. Initially, I was very confused.

It was explained to me that the name “Coop” is actually a combination of a couple of things. First, it’s a play on “co-op.” Coop strives to identify with their local community so “co-op” is an homage to the multitude of grain co-ops around the state of Oklahoma.

Next, coop is a play off of “coopersmith.” That’s a person who makes barrels. Coop has made and is currently making a few beers that are aged in bourbon barrels from Templeton Rye (Iowa pride!). If you’ve ever had Templeton Rye then you should know the intensely good flavor that will be imparted to the beer from those barrels. It makes a lot of sense for coop to identify with their barrel-makers when the barrels they use were full of such delicious spirits.

One thing about the Coop logo that I think is important to point out is the use of an anvil’s image. That partially comes from a blacksmith’s usage of an anvil. It was also incorporated because at the founding of Coop the partners wanted their to convey an industrial image.

The largest reason I added Coop Aleworks to my itinerary at the last moment was their commitment to sustainable brewing. They participate in the wind energy program from their electricity provider. They use ultra high-efficiency equipment whenever possible. And Currently they exclusively kegs their beer. Part of that was because of the cost restrictions of bottling, but part was also because that is the most environmentally responsible way to sell beer. Kegs can be used and reused many, many times with nothing but a simple washing and sterilization.

Despite the fact that Coop will soon be branching out and canning their beer even that was an environmental choice. Oklahoma City doesn’t currently have a glass recycling company so aluminum was the natural choice since it is recycled in their main market.

As with my posts about my first few stops I only have so much time and space here so most of the interesting goodies will be going into the book. The final thing I wanted to touch on here was the outstanding art Coop utilizes for their beers. The drawings for five of their six beers are put together by different artists. The final beer, DNR (for “do not resuscitate”), is a picture of two feet with a toe tag sticking out from under a sheet. The photo is taken by JD Merryweather, who outside of his positions with the brewery also has over 25 years of experience in professional photography. I think it’s hilarious.

Yesterday I went to Live Oak Brewing Company in Austin. Watch closely for a post about it to be coming up in the next day or so.

Third Stop - Free State Brewing

My last post said my next stop would be down I-35 at Coop Aleworks in Oklahoma City. Short answer, I lied.

Longer answer, I had it on very good authority from many people that I would be a fool to pass on a trip to Free State Brewing in Lawrence, KS. So instead of moving on I went to a KU football game (which they won handily) and had lunch at Free State Brewing.

Free State Brewing opened its doors in 1989 as the first legal brewery in Kansas in over 100 years. That’s understandable in a state that so many early advocates of prohibition called home. However, now Kansans seem more than ready to down a couple of pints of Free State beer. That was pretty well evidenced when my friend Emily and I tried to get a table around 1:30 in the afternoon and still had to wait a half hour; their line was out the door.

Free State is currently running a 14 barrel system in-house at their brewpub. They also just recently started bottling their beers for distribution in the immediate area.

With some time still left to kill after walking the neighborhood we took a seat at the bar to sample the beer. While sitting I tried out the Oktoberfest and the lemongrass rye. The Oktoberfest had a clear copper coloration and had an aroma that smelled a little like freshly baked bread. The first flavors resonate at the front of the mouth with fairly sweet malt. Then it slowly transitions into something with a more hoppy characteristic. It isn’t anything that completely blew me away, but it was extremely drinkable. Something I could easily see myself sitting down and having a couple of.

I was extremely full and had to be driving later so I only drank one more pint (something I deeply regret) before calling it quits. The second beer was one I chose because it is a completely different beer from the Oktoberfest, the lemongrass rye. The Rye was extremely refreshing with a LOT of lemon coming through in the aroma and flavor. In the aftertaste the lemon transitioned to a much more malty taste. It was a good beer, but I thought it could have used a little more bite.

I truly wish that I could have taken the time to sit down and really sample what Free State has to offer but alas, there are only 24 hours in a day and the need to drive can really ruin a good beer tasting. Oh, and if you were curious I had the turkey bacon facaccia sandwich with peppered bacon, lettuce, white cheddar, and chive mayonnaise. As good as it sounds, it tasted better. Next time I’m anywhere near Lawrence I’m going to be stopping in at Free State and really giving them the time they deserve. As far as samples go though, I was pretty impressed with my brief visit.

I stopped in at Coop Aleworks today and talked to J.D. Merryweather all about who they are and what they do. That post will be coming very soon!

Second Stop – Boulevard Brewing Company

I barely know where to begin with this one. I suppose I should start with a HUGE “thank you” to Julie Weeks, the Marketing Communications Manager for Boulevard. She went above and beyond to make sure that I was taken care of today on my visit to Boulevard.

<--Me with Boulevard brewmaster Steven Pauwels

Boulevard’s bottle caps and much of their other artwork features drawings of their iconic brick smokestack. As I drove down Southwest Boulevard looking for the brewery I was more than a little frustrated from the complete stoppage on I-35 on my way into Kansas City. My mood sank even further when I realized that I must be lost because I had driven significantly past where the brewery was supposed to be. The landmark I had been searching for, the ubiquitous smokestack from all of their advertising, was shrouded for repairs. Also of little help to me was the fact that the side of the brewery facing the street is is just simple red brick that blends perfectly into the neighborhood. Aesthetically it’s nice, but I giant gaudy flashing sign would have been of significantly more help to me!

The building’s back is much more impressive! Four foot tall lettering spells out “Boulevard Brewing Company” across the roof and the architecture of a modern brewery is clearly visible. I was still forty minutes early so I took the opportunity to make a few laps around the brewery complex. I was impressed by the employees leaving with six-packs of beer to take home. I was later told that most of it was the brand new Smokestack Series beers that were being packaged in 12 oz bottles for the first time ever. Sure, they were going to have to let them sit in a cool, dark place for a couple of weeks, but they still get to take home what is absolutely the freshest beer around.

The one sad thing about my walk around the brewery was the number of broken Corona bottles strewn around the outside. Sure, the brewery is in a Hispanic neighborhood and it isn’t the richest area in Kansas City, but you can do better than THAT! You’re literally standing on the property owned by an excellent craft beer maker and you’re drinking….Corona? I don’t think I could do that if I tried!

Once inside my afternoon consisted of a tour of the brewery and an absolutely delectable lunch with each course paired to a Boulevard beer that was prepared by the executive chef of Lidia’s Kansas City, Dan Swinny. Each month Boulevard does one of these “Brewmaster Luncheons” featuring different local chefs. The event is limited to 35 participants but every month hundreds of people are vying for those spots. Then a lottery is drawn to see who is lucky enough to attend.

Are you ready to be jealous? If so, read on.

The lunch consisted of butternut squash stuffed ravioli in sage brown butter and toasted almonds paired with the relatively new Amber beer. Brewmaster Steven Pauwels said that he and Swinny chose that combination because of the way the toasted almonds and the sweetness of the amaretto in the pasta filling match with the amber. The meat course consisted of a succulent lamb shank coated in Venetian spices with sweet potato Swiss chard mash that paired masterfully with Boulevard’s Sixth Glass beer from their Smokestack Series. Finally for dessert we were treated to a copa of Boulevard stout ice cream, barley malt ice cream, and Boulevard stout granita. Atop all of those were lightly toasted grains of barley. This pairing was with another beer from the smokestack series, Long Strange Tripel. Despite being one of my favorite beers from Boulevard this pairing didn’t work nearly as well as the others. The amber and sixth glass matched almost seamlessly with the food. They each complimented the dishes in an ideal way which brought out the flavors in both the food and the drinks. The tripel was great, the desserts were great, I just wasn’t in love with how they mixed.

While the food was being served Steven Pauwels walked from table to table to talk beer with the diners. His friendly demeanor, in-depth knowledge, and passion for what he does helped make a great event even better.

In my book I’ll be detailing some of my conversation with Pauwels, the history of Boulevard, and many of the interesting things I found out about the brewery today. The important thing to take away from today’s post is that if you’re in the Kansas City area make sure you’re putting your name in for the lottery every time one of these evens happens, you’ll be happy you did!

Up next I continue south of I-35 to the Co-op Ale Works in Oklahoma City.

First Stop - Des Moines

The first official stop to my beer trip came Monday night at El Bait Shop in Des Moines, Iowa. I figured that since I’m going to a ton of breweries in cities all over the United States I should start the trip off here at home. And if that’s what I’m doing, then what could possibly be more appropriate than to hit up a homebrewing event?

I obviously couldn’t show up to a brewery to find out much about homebrewing so instead I did the next best thing; I went to a meeting of the Iowa Brewer’s Union. When I showed up there were something like forty five people, 10 5-gallon kegs, 3 or 4 growlers, and a whole bunch of bottles of homebrew. All of the beer was brought in by members of the club to share with everyone.

The beer selection featured many of the standards such as a Belgian whit, an amber, and other basics. However, a couple were a little more…outlandish. One keg was full of a watermelon beer, something I’ve never heard of before. I’m still not sure if I liked it or not, but I can absolutely say that it was extremely unique! There was also an extremely potent coffee stout brought in by Lauri G, a local barista, that utilized coffee beans ground for a French press. I also enjoyed a brown ale that had a lot of vanilla in it.

The brewers I spoke with were all incredibly friendly and extremely knowledgeable. When I was tasting the vanilla brown ale I was speaking with a guy about the Saints v 46ers game. All I did was mention that it had a pretty strong vanilla flavor and he told me all about how it was probably from extract and not vanilla beans. Of course, I called bull&#!^ and asked how the hell he could tell.

Apparently this guy is for real; I checked when I got home. If a vanilla beer uses vanilla extract instead of beans the flavor and aroma will all emanate from the beer. If beans are used the aroma comes through clearly in the head of a beer. See? I learned something!

The last important thing to remember is that it is completely illegal to sell homebrew. So those 10 or so kegs, multiple growlers and the multitude of bottles were all free for the taking. Free beer every third Monday. Not just that, but unique beers that you’re never going to be able to try again. All free. And still only 40 people show up. I’m always shocked when I walk in a place with free beer and there aren’t 500 people around.

That’s all for tonight. Remember folks, this is only a taste of my evening at the Iowa Brewer’s Union. I got interviews with new members, old members, and current and past group leaders. All of that and more is going to be included in the book I’m writing about the beer trip I embark on Friday. I’m driving all over the country touring breweries and getting interviews with the people who make all the delicious beer I love. Stay tuned for more posts and a ton of pictures from all of the stops I make.

I’ll be at Boulevard Brewery in Kansas City Friday, watch for the post soon afterward!

Awesome Bottle Opener

I usually check in on the blog Neatorama.com fairly frequently. They’ve got all kinds of interesting articles about all kinds of nifty things of interest. One of my favorite things about the site is that beyond articles they have a lot of very cool products for sale.

I just wanted to tell you briefly about two of them. The first is a unique bottle opener. I’m too young to remember them, but aluminum cans used to have pull tabs that came completely off when you opened a can of soda/beer. The Neatorama shop has just started selling a an oversized pull tab that is a working bottle opener.

I’ve got a giant collection of beer koozies and I’m just starting to collect interesting bottle openers. I feel like this would be an ideal addition to a fledgling collection. The only problem is that it is 2-3/4” by 1-3/4” in size. I’m pretty sure that I would manage to lose this thing before too long. It would be excellent until I lost it though!

The second thing that I’m kind of digging is the “Hopside Down Beer Glass.” It is a pint glass shape but the interior is cut out to resemble the top of a beer bottle. When filled it looks like you’ve got an upside down bottle in your pint glass.

Just a couple gift ideas for your favorite beer blogger. I keep saying that, but no one is taking me up on it yet. Work on that everyone!

Personalized Beer Labels

So this is a beer bottle. I’m sure you’re familiar with those. This one originally held Sam Adams, the Boston Lager I think, but I’m not positive.

It is just one of many that I use when I try homebrewing. I always save most my pry off bottles when I’m drinking at home so they can be refilled with my own beer later. Here is the problem, they’re ugly, especially when the labels have been removed. I’m typically not too concerned about aesthetics, especially when it comes to beer, but it still bothers me a little.

You can make your own labels with a few kids of label-maker things. You can get labels that you run through your printer too. Usually either one of those options turn out looking like crap. I know, I’ve tried both.

I just found a website that may well be the solution, myownlabels.com/beer. There are two major draws to the site. First, you can print very few. As few six that are all together on a single sheet. Then you can buy the matching neck labels and back labels to go along with your basic front label.

The other huge draw is the fact that they’re cheap. The most expensive labels are $1.17 each. That’s a little pricey but the lower end goes all of the way down to $0.39. Even with the most expensive label, matching neck label and matching back label it comes out to $2.14/bottle. With each 5 gallon batch of beer averaging 45-50 bottles of beer that comes out to about $122.00/batch. The six pack carriers only come in increments of six, so you would need 12 for a price of $16.00.

That’s a little expensive, but it’s also the absolute most expensive option. While no, this wouldn’t be something you did every time you made up a batch of homebrew it could be pretty neat if you’re doing something classy. Maybe a wedding or something. Either that or maybe you just want to class up a six-pack or two to give away, that would only run you twenty bucks or so for the expensive ones!

If you homebrew, it could be a great thing to check out for something special. If you end up ordering one send me a picture at allhoppedupblog@gmail.com

My Homebrewing Attempt: Bottling

Last week I put up an article about the cooking stage of my attempt at homebrewing a Bavarian Hefeweizen. Today, the bottling!

I checked on my brew a day after I put it in my fermentation bucket. True to form it was bubbling away as the yeast ate my priming sugar and pooped out alcohol. Is that not the most magical thing you’ve ever heard of? Well, the yeast kept kicking out alcohol and bubbles through the airlock for the next three or four days. Then I let it sit a few more days and it was time to bottle it up.

I brought up my beer in the fermentation bucket, sanitized the heck out of my bottling bucket, and I was ready to go. By the way, yes, it is extremely important make sure that everything is sanitized again. Even if you’ve already taken care of it, it won’t hurt to do it again.

I always have trouble getting the flow going between the fermentation bucket and the bottling bucket but once it gets started, it doesn’t stop. I use the extremely simple method of putting the first bucket higher than the second and using a hose as a siphon. I filter the beer with a wire mesh thing I found in my kitchen. Filtering the beer isn’t actually all that important for the first ¾ of the process, but gets pretty crucial in the last bit. The bottom of the fermentation bucket is always covered with a weird sluldge. Filtering is a huge help, but don’t even try to get that last part filtered, it won’t work (I tried once). So when it starts getting low, just give up.

The bottling process is simple, but a little tedious. I attach my siphon hose to the bottling bucket nozzle and the bottle filler goes on the other end of the hose. This was my first time using a bottle filler because before this, I couldn’t figure out what the heck it was. It works extremely well and solved the biggest problem I had in past bottling experiences. That problem was that I would always over or under fill the bottles. The filler puts just the right amount of beer in and when you pull it out, leaves just the right amount of air in the top of the bottle.

Once bottled and capped the beer needs to sit in a cool, dark place for a week to condition. After the week you can either leave the beer where it is or move it to a refrigerator. Either way, the official suggestion is that it needs to age for another three weeks. Personally, I always make sure to add another week or two to that for good measure. To me, it usually tastes a bit better.

By the time my homebrew is ready for drinking I’ll be on my beer trip. I think I’ll be in Fort Worth when it’s ready to drink, maybe I’ll bring a six-pack with me. I’ll let you know how it is when I try it out!

My Homebrewing Attempt

I’ve only homebrewed a couple of times. I’ve had a couple of disasters, but mostly just mediocre beer. I’ve tried a pretty decent number of homebrew that was delicious though, so I keep trying. I figure that even if my batch sucks, I can always boil some bratwurst in it!

This time I bought the Bavarian Hefeweizen ingredient kit from Beer Crazy in Urbandale. It’s a fairly simple kit (which is needed for a guy like me). Instead of having to steep the grains I got one that uses malt extract. The only ingredients were a couple cans of malt extract, liberty hopes, yeast, and priming sugar.

As with most things, the process is simple but the devil is in the details. If you’ve been following the homebrewing guest blog series written by my friend Ian then you’ve got this down, but I’ll give you the brief version.

1st – Sanitize everything you’re going to be using. Then do it again, just to be safe

2nd – Boil 1.5 gallons of water.

3rd – Stir in 1 can of malt extract and 1 oz liberty hops, return to a boil for 35
min

4th – Remove from heat, add second can of malt extract and 1 oz liberty hops

5th – Return to boil for an additional 15 minutes

6th – Put 2.5 gallons cold water into your fermenting bucket (vessel if you want to
sound fancy)

7th – Slowly pour your hot mixture into the fermenting bucket

8th – Once mixture cools to under 90 degrees, sprinkle 1 pack yeast over mixture.
Wait 10 minutes, gently use 1 or 2 spoon strokes to stir yeast in.

9th – Put airlock in the lid of your fermenting bucket and leave it alone for about a week

Coming soon I’ll put up a post about the bottling process. For now, isn't that picture of the bottom of my fermentaion bucket disgusting?

Pabst Raps

Coming pretty soon here I’ll be doing a lot of things. Upgrading the blog (I already added nifty tabs, more are to come later), leaving on my beer trip (the 23rd), and I’m going to be writing a few articles for beerandvideogames.com. They found me last week and asked if I would be interested in writing a few articles for them from time to time so I am jumping at the chance. I’ll let you guys know when something of mine goes up over there, but you should really just check out the website regardless. It’s a pretty awesome place for big dorks like me!

All that aside, I think it’s pretty obvious that I’ve been watching the Beer and Videogames posts pretty closely since I originally heard from them. Today something went up that was just too good to not link to. Apparently Pabst is putting out a blue vinyl record full of rap songs out that are all about Pabst Blue Ribbon. Only 300 are being printed and they're being given out tonight in Boston.

This link is to the original article on Beer and Videogames and includes two pretty impressive excerpts from the record.

Go. Listen. Enjoy.

Fight On Intrepid Warriors!

Cheers to you the Society of Beer Advocates (Ironically, SOBA)! They’re fighting the good fight for all of us. They’re a volunteer-run organization in New Zealand that is currently in month 18 of their lawsuit against DB Breweries (the bad guys), also of New Zealand.

So here is the situation. DB Breweries makes a lot of beer. Good, right? Yes. The problem comes with what DB Breweries does outside of their beer. They make a product called Radler (German for bike) which is basically a shandy beer. That would be, for all intensive purposes, beer with 40 or 50% carbonated lemonade or citrus soda. It is German in origin and dates back to sometime around the early 20th century.

I’m personally not a huge fan of Shandy beers. They’re nice on a hot day. They’re low in alcohol because of the non-alcoholic mix-ins. They’re pretty damn refreshing though. Still, none of that is the point. The problem is that many breweries make Radler, but DB Breweries has trademarked the word. When the good folks of SOBA found out they filed suit to have the trademark declared invalid.

It is ridiculous to think that a company could trademark a beer style. If DB Breweries is allowed to trademark a beer style, then what is to stop them from trademarking “ale” or “lager?” Sure, it sounds outlandish, but I thought it was supposed to be IMPOSSIBLE to trademark a beer style.

The scary part is that I read in this article that SOBA could be forced into bankruptcy by the situation. Apparently DB Brewing has sent a letter to SOBA saying that they would probably sue them for the court costs associated with the trial. That would most likely put them under.

They’re still fighting though. And I say fight on you intrepid warriors! You’re doing the whole beer-drinking world a huge favor.

Guinness: Good Things Come To Those Who Wait

I’m a blogger. As far as I know that means I’m supposed to work on sketchy/limited sources, anonymously attack anything or anyone, and of course, use subpar grammar. At least…I think that’s what it means to be a blogger.

Okay, so maybe I try to avoid that stuff (except the grammar thing), but it’s still in there. Newspapers check their sources. They have their journalist’s names out there for anyone to see. Oh, and the grammar is usually stellar. I’ve got a lot of respect for newspaper writers and that is one of the reasons that when I see a good newspaper article about beer, I’ll usually toss up a link to it.

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That’s the plan for today thanks to an excellent article written by Lauren Marmaduke (I think it sounds like a fake name too) of the Houston Press about Guinness’ “Good Things Come to Those Who Wait” advertising campaign that aired from 1998-2007.

The name of the campaign alludes to the fact that you’re supposed to let your Guinness sit for about 120 seconds after pouring before you take your first sip. That was something I hadn’t known before going to the Guinness Brewery in Dublin. Once I was educated by a bartender in their tasting room, Guinness became a new beer to me. If you’re not waiting to drink your Guinness, you really are missing out. And no, this isn’t just me being an elitist, beer snob prick, it makes a big difference. Hence the advertising campaign.

The article is a good one with interesting information about all five of the embedded videos. Also, notice that each video is about the amount of time you’re supposed to let your Guinness rest before drinking. However, if you don’t feel like spending seven minutes watching Guinness ads (even though they’re awesome) then be sure to watch the second, The Surfer, all of the way through. It was voted by the Sunday Times in Great Britain as the greatest ad of all time. That’s some pretty high praise!

Okay, here is the link. Go. Watch. Enjoy!

Homebrewing Guest Blogger: I got a job okay?

Welcome to the third installment of my whenever-I-feel-like-posting column about brewing your own beer! Last week (month?) I clued you into the equipment you’d need to become a brewmaster and this week I’ll be piloting my truth plane and carpet knowledge-bombing your brain with the steps it takes to successfully make your first batch (war jokes aren’t in poor taste are they?)

You may need some additional items if your kitchen does not have them already. These items include (for a 1 gallon batch) a stockpot (about 6-10 qts.), 12 empty swing-top bottles (Grolsch bottles or similar, can be ordered online), a strainer, a funnel, a thermometer, honey, and a lot of ice. Once you have these items collected, you’re ready to get started.

Alright, this first step is the most important. I honestly cannot stress enough just how important this is and believe me, when I hear people say that, my brain immediately shuts off. In this case, however, it really does make or break your beer.

Take the sanitizer included with your Brooklyn Brew Shop kit (or the sanitizer you diligently purchased yourself), mix in the proper ratio (given on the package), fill a measuring cup and a spray bottle with the stuff, and sanitize everything. Sanitize the spatulas, funnel, strainer, pots, and your dog. Soak the item, let it sit for a minute, then wipe down with a paper towel (you’re going to go through a lot of paper towels, they’re the most sanitary). Also, keep your tools in the cup of sanitizer to ensure that they’re clean for use.

Once you’ve sterilized your neighborhood, measure the amount of water indicated in your recipe and heat in a pot until it reaches 160 °F. Mix the grain in the water until the temperature drops to 150 °F. This mixture is called the “mash” and should resemble oatmeal (but will not taste like it). Cook this mash for 60 minutes, checking the temperature periodically and applying/removing heat as necessary to stay within the 144-152 °F range. At the end of this 60 minutes “mash out” by heating to 170 °F while stirring constantly.

In a separate pot, heat 1 gallon of water to 170 °F. Set up a strainer over another pot (called a “lautering tun”) in your sanitized sink and pour the mash through the strainer, collecting all the grain in the process; this is called “lautering” (not Lautnering; stop watching Twilight). Take the gallon of water and slowly pour it over the grain, rinsing the sugars from the grain. Recycle this liquid through the grain one more time and you have yourself some good ol’ fashioned “wort”!

Take the wort and apply heat until it boils. Once the wort hits a low boil, add your hops at the prescribed times given in your recipe and stir constantly throughout. The boil lasts 60 minutes and is probably the hardest step. If your boil is too hot, you’ll lose fermentable sugars. If your boil is too low, you won’t get as much out of your hops. It takes practice, but you’ll get it brewmaster. At some point your wort will foam up (called the “hot break”). Simply lower the heat and keep stirring to avoid boil over.

Alright, once the boil is done you’re almost home. Fill your sink with ice, and lots of it. Take the pot off the burner at the end of 60 minutes and place it in the ice bath until it cools to 70 ° (this will take a while). Set up your strainer and funnel over your fermentation jug and pour your cooled wort through it to introduce oxygen. Take your prepared yeast and “pitch” it (toss it in the jug). Shake the jug aggressively and I mean aggressively; I usually set mine on the floor and shake it all over the place. Put your rubber stopper and airlock filled to the second fill line with sanitizer in the top of the jug and place in a cool dark place for two and a half weeks. Note: skip the part in the BBS directions where it talks about a blow off tube since blow off tubes usually just result in the loss of valuable yeast.

And you’re fermenting! It may have made your fiancé complain about the smell (but I’m not bitter) but you’re well on your way to completing your very first batch of homemade beer.

Next time I’ll be discussing bottling and some of these steps in more detail. As always, if you have any questions for me feel free to leave them in the comments section or send me an email at barker.ianjohn@gmail.com.

Cheers!

Musical Beer

Designer Matt Braun has come up with a pretty neat product. He calls it “Tuned Beer.”

You know how every now and then you get bored (or drunk) and start blowing across the top of your bottle to make that noise? As you’ve no doubt realized in your scientific experiments the tone is higher if there is more liquid remaining in the bottle, and lower

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as it empties. What Matt did was to make special marks on the bottles that tell you exactly what note you’re blowing dependant on how much beer you have left.

That is cool by itself, but there is more. The bottles have ridges on the sides that you can drag a stick over to make some other sort of percussion noise. I think it is supposed to sound something like a washboard.

I’m not sure where these little sticks are coming from but they can also be used on the bottom of the unique wooden six-pack carrier. All six “beer slots” are a different size so they can be used as drum heads with different sounds.

Matt Braun’s website has a little note that answered my biggest question. “Yes, a small batch of microbrew was produced and sampled with great success. Tuned Pale Ale is currently seeking larger brewing and distribution options.”

Here is Matt’s statement from the website: “Tuned Pale Ale is a product that explores the musical affordances in everyday objects and promotes social spontaneity. While drinking beer, people become musically encouraged and often start making music with objects around them. This product aims to promote more of this type of social interaction. This product aims to inform users about the musical qualities of existing bottles and to make the bottle a better instrument.”

I’ll keep an eye on his site to see if he ends up getting his beer put into production. I sure hope he does, I’m pretty curious about what note I’m blowing on my Boulevard unfiltered wheat right now!

Check out the link here

Beer Style Poster

I haven’t posted too many links as of yet, but this one is worth it. It comes to us via the website PopChartLab.com. The site must be pretty darn new because as of yet there are only two items available. It looks like they’re going to be offering T-shirts in the future, but just the two posters for now.

The first is a “grand taxonomy of rap names.” Although it has absolutely nothing to do with beer, it is still mildly interesting. I imagine that if I listened to rap it would be significantly more alluring to me.

The other item they have up for sale is a poster under the title of “The Very Many Varieties of Beer.” The poster is a foot and a half by two feet tall and features a beer glass prominently in the middle. The meat of the poster is the cloud chart of different styles of beer.

The first division is obviously between ales and lagers. Then it breaks further into sub-categories such as going from AlePale AleIndia Pale AleDouble IPA. Then when it gets to the terminating style it gives a couple examples of each. In the earlier example the beers they chose were Dogfish Head’s 120 Minute IPA, Flying Dog’s Double Dog Double Pale Ale, and a beer I’ve mentioned a few times, Brew Dog’s extremely high-proof beer, Sink the Bismarck.

It could be a handy poster for anyone who is just getting acquainted with the world of beer, or just something neat for anyone who appreciates beer. The price of $25 isn’t too bad for a big poster, but I’m a pretty cheap guy, so I’m usually not a good judge of stuff like that. Regardless of that though, I want one. Feel free to buy one for me!

Beer Pops Redux

Just like ice cream, my first batch of beer popsicles was an impressive defeat. I should just start by assuming that any time I am freezing beer, it won’t turn out well. In round one of beer pops I did my best to match a recipe used by a restaurant in New York. Much to my chagrin, I even used Tecate, their beer of choice. I didn’t have proportions to work off of so I made six beer pops with varying amounts of sweet simple syrup and lime juice in each.

Every single one was awful. It tasted like…..frozen Tecate with sugar and lime in it. Makes sense.

In round two I did my best to forget any guidelines I had found in my research for the first batch. I went out and bought one of the nifty “pick six” packs from the grocery store. I didn’t choose my favorite beers, but instead went for six that I thought might actually make a pretty decent popsicle.

Here is what I ended up getting:

Brau Brothers’ Strawberry Wheat
Sam Adams’ Blackberry Whit
Big Sky Brewing’s Summer Honey
Capitol Brewing’s Wisconsin Amber
Fort Collins Brewery’s Chocolate Stout
Mike’s Hard Pink Lemonade


Each sample was split into two plastic cups to be frozen. One was frozen as-is but the second had something like a tablespoon or so of simple syrup (one cup of water boiled, then dissolve 1 cup sugar). I was pretty surprised by which ended up tasting good as beers vs. as popsicles.

Here are my brief thoughts on each and a picture of my friend Eriq; he didn't want to try any beer pops.

Strawberry Wheat
w/o syrup: Pretty darn good popsicle. Had a bit of a bitter aftertaste, but still good.
With syrup: One of the best popsicles. The taste of strawberry came through pretty strongly and the simple syrup did a pretty good job of reducing the bitterness. Surprisingly good for a beer I didn’t like drinking straight.

Blackberry Whit
w/o syrup: The only one of the bunch that tasted better without being sweetened. Another beer that I’m not a fan of drinking that surprised me as a popsicle.
With syrup: Very similar to how it was with syrup, but didn’t seem to have a “complete” flavor.

Summer Honey
w/o syrup: Could taste a slight hint of honey, mostly just tasted like an ale that got too cold on accident.
With syrup: The sweetener brought out the flavor of the honey a little more prominently to the front of the profile. Tasted okay, but not something I would make again.

Wisconsin Amber
w/o syrup: Rough finish to this one. The beer itself is delicious so tasting it frozen just depressed me.
With syrup: Much better than without syrup. Had hints of the flavor of straight Wisconsin amber but wasn’t close enough to make me wish I was drinking that instead of having it as a popsicle.

Chocolate Stout
w/o syrup: In the words of my friend Ken who was joining me for the tasting session. “This tastes like feces.”
With syrup: Tasted a lot like a chocolate phosphate. Sweet and chocolaty but also still nice and malty. Very high recommendation on this one!

Mike’s Hard Pink Lemonade
No syrup in either of these two. It’s not like it needed to be any sweeter than it already is. The pink lemonade was my last ditch “I’m going to make one of these work no matter what.” I figured that it would be a popsicle pretty much no matter what I did to it. It turned out to be exactly what I thought it would be. It tasted like a popsicle I had when I was a kid. Well….not exactly like one I had when I was a kid. It would still be pretty good for a summer party at some point though. I wouldn’t buy a Mike’s Hard Pink just for drinking, but for freezing? Yeah, I would do that again.