Archive for April, 2009

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Mr. Beer

Wednesday, April 8th, 2009

84-lrgThe Contest

Seniõr Paul has come through in spades and has gotten a Mr. Beer to give away on this blog. For those unfamiliar with Mr. Beer check this google page for it out Mr. Beer Premium Edition Home Microbrewery System. Mr. Beer is a great way to get into brewing without the cost or research. It comes with a small fermentor, a kit with I believe pre hopped malt extract, yeast, and bottles that don’t require a capping system. While this doesn’t offer the variation and control of the beers you can make with a proper brewing setup it still can make fairly passable, and even good beers depending on the kit. I know passable isn’t what a beer snob would prefer most of the time, but hey, it’s free, and it’s made by yourself. Anything as cool as that?

The Details

Now we get to the details. The contest starts today, and will continue until May 23rd. Why May 23rd? Well I want as many people to enter within a reasonable time as is possible. Well it also is my birthday, and it’d be cool to give it away then. So how do you enter? Well I’m going to take a page out of Ryan’s blog at Porsche Perfect. For those who don’t know about it Ryan is giving away an actual Porsche on his blog. Here’s the link http://www.porscheperfect.com/porsche-giveaway. Ryan has multiple ways to enter his drawing, and I think it’d be cool to do things that way. Here’s the catch though. I won’t give away all the ways at once. In order to find out you’ll have to check back. Also in case common sense isn’t your forte then just know you can’t win if you are not over 21, or of legal drinking age. I may not be giving away beer, but use your sense God gave you.

The Way In

This weeks way in is so simple a high schooler could win, if they were allowed to participate. All you have to do is leave a relative comment on any of my posts. Every relevant comment you make will get one entry into the drawing. Im probably leaving something out, but I’m writing this on Tuesday night, to post on Wednesday, and I’m tired. Oh yeah, if you get a chance check out Paul’s blog and get to know him at pacificpedaling. Paul is an awesome man who I’ve known since middle school.

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Posted in Free, Give away, News | 5 Comments »

Hopping Out Creativity

Tuesday, April 7th, 2009

Here’s a post I wrote awhile back but just haven’t gotten up.

Picture borrowed from KalamaBrew

Picture borrowed from KalamaBrew

 

Am I the only one annoyed with all the over hopped beers out lately? It seems like every time I walk down the beer isle there’s a new pale ale out with some weird name meant to convey how hoppy it is. When I got into homebrewing it was because it allowed me to not only make beer I enjoyed drinking for a cheaper price, but it also let me get creative. I love adding strange spices, or weird combinations in order to see where it takes the beer. Now it seems to be the only way to get a beer not overloaded with hop bitterness, or hop flavors.

 I understand some people are just hop heads, and they enjoy these beers. What are the rest of us supposed to drink though? Sure I can get my regular sixer of Anchor Steam, or grab a bomber of Oatis. But part of me wants to feel the excitement of constantly trying new beers in my favorite styles. In fact if it wasn’t for my new found enjoyment of wheat beer I don’t think I would have tried much in the way new beers this last few months. Even some of the winter seasonals I tried were on the hoppy side this year, which is unusual.

 Another thing that bothers me are the hop gimmicks. Take Sierra Nevadas hop torpedo. Essentialy they created a french press for beer. But instead of using coffee, they use hops. This is their new marketing ploy. Somehow they are able to extract infinitely more hop flavors then everyone else because they dry hop this way. I say just toss the hops in the brite tank and let them sit a little longer. Or what about the “we hop our beer x amount of times, which is x amount more then others.” Any homebrewer knows that hopping is about utilizing the essential oils and alpha acids, and that the hoping schedule is meant to extract a certain amount of bitterness and/or flavor from the hop. So why would more then five hop editions make beer better?

 What they fail to mention is that the first four or five editions are fairly standard. I do around three with my homebrew. The hop additions outside that are usually layering different hop flavors. Do they really make the beer better? Well they do if you like that stuff. They certainly make the beer more costly to make. It’s up to you if you think the price of the beer improves the flavor.

Hops allow brewers a greater range of freedom with their beer since there are infinite ways to layer their flavors. This is an awesome thing. The problem is it seems most brewers are stuck on hop experimentation. I’d love to see more gruits, or beers with experimental spices. What about a beer that experiments with the malt to a radical degree like their doing with hops? I’m all for experimentation, would just like to see more of it in other categories.

Posted in Ramblings, Rants | No Comments »

Back to Brewing

Monday, April 6th, 2009

uncle-samStarting Tuesday I will officially be back in the swing of things. For those who have been wondering what happened, and why I haven’t brewed in awhile heres an explanation. I work a full time job, but my employer (the state of Oregon ironically) doesn’t take taxes out of my check. So four times a year I’m supposed to send out a tax payment to both the federal government and the state government so I don’t pay through the nose in penalties. Normally though I get by with making two payments to each and then just owing around $800 total on my taxes. That may seem like a bit ta owe, but when you’re expecting it you can just have money set aside.

So anyway this last year things were crazy. I was in England when the first payment came due, and broke (partly from going to England) when the second one was due. This left me two payments to make, which I thought was no big deal. Problem was I forgot one, and wrote out the checks to state and federal for the other. Somewhere in the year though I had lost my forms for paying the federal and didn’t get a new set done up till it was too late for the final payment to federal (got the state one in though). This meant I owed nearly twice what I usually owe in taxes.

What does this all have to do with me brewing? Well I’d only set aside the usual $800 for taxes and had to come up with almost $700 more over the last few months. This is why I haven’t gotten around to brewing the Reese’s (I need a better name for it) yet. Sometime in February I hit panic mode and thought all was lost. I promised myself I would cut back on brewing, beer, and a bunch of other stuff until my taxes were paid. Turns out I didn’t need to freak out like I did. I’m all paid up and with some change to spare. This means tomorrow I get to go shopping for my ingredients for the stout, and get that video I promised.

 

Some good has come of this though. I managed to cut more stuff out of my budget then I imagined was possible. I’ve learned to better differentiate between what I need, and what I want. And lastly I’ve learned I actually enjoy (to an extent) those cheap commercial lagers I make fun of. This is where homebrewing came in handy also. The Rose Red made 5 gallons of beer, which even with giving almost half away managed to keep me stocked in beer for a bit. By the way Carlos, thanks for those belgians. After drinking Michelob lager near the end they were a bright spot in a dreary landscape of beer heck. So this month I’m going to keep track of exactly how much money I spend on beer for myself, and try to review ways to drink beer that are good for people on a tight budget. After all, with the economy potentially going into the crapper people should start cutting back where they can.

Fare thee well Stella Artois.

Posted in Ramblings | 3 Comments »

Top 10 Drinking Songs

Friday, April 3rd, 2009

drinkingsongs1  After yesterday I figured something fun was in order, and I’ve been wanting to do this post for awhile. If your anything like me (and I pity you if you are) then you enjoy hearing a good song about boozing it up. Although this is not a definitive list it is mine. If you disagree then by all means post your 10 favorites in the comments. The only rule is that it has to be a song about drinking, rather then a song you enjoy while drinking.

1) Friends In Low Place – Garth Brooks

I grew up hearing this song, and maybe that’s why it takes number 1. There’s just something about a song that inspires a drunken chorus that’s fun

2) Sittin at a Bar – Rehab

I have no clue why I enjoy this one, but I always have, and probably always will

3) The More I Drink – Blake Shelton

It’s easy to see a little of myself in this song. Whenever I go out to the bar with my sister I promise myself I’ll only have a beer or two. Next thing I know her friends are buying me drinks to try and I’m bumming a smoke or two from her.

4) Family Tradition – Hank Williams Jr.

Another song that is sung in drunken chorus. Just another ole family tradition.

5) One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer – George Thorogood and the Destroyers

This song doesn’t need any explanation. It’s just that awesome.

6) Margaritaville – Jimmy Buffet

Nothing pairs better with a Corona then this song. In fact it can even make a Corona taste good, and that alone is impressive.

7) I Drink Alone – George Thorogood and the Destroyers

Getting two songs on a top 10 list just shows George knew what went well with booze.

8 ) Watermelon Crawl – Tracy Byrd

Even if it is about wine It’s just a good song.

9) All For Me Grog – The Dubliners

It was hard not to make half this list Irish drinking songs.

10) Solan Der Alte Peter

Anyone who has been to an Oktoberfest has probably sang this song, and even if they didn’t understand it, they loved it.

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Posted in Top Ten | 2 Comments »

Future Of Beer?

Thursday, April 2nd, 2009

Man I didn’t get a single comment on my April Fools Day post yesterday. The compitition is still on, so get your friends to vote.

futureI’ve been pondering a lot on where the craft beer industry may be headed, and it seems I’m not the only one. With the crazy growth that micro brewers have been experiencing since the 80′s slowing, and the big brewers getting in the game people are starting to think ahead. The glory days of easy money for brewers have been approaching an end in the Northwest for awhile now. We’ve had longer then the rest of the country to develop a taste for what good beer is. The problem is some brewers are no longer as concerned about profit, they want growth, and I think the market will respond.

 If Brewers Alliance, and other beer stock is any clue of the future then may be changing. Several years ago all it seemed to take to make a profit in the microbrew industry were some good homebrew recipes, some old dairy equipment converted into brewery equipment, and an endorsement from beer snobs. So what’s changed?

 One of the first things is it’s getting crowded. Not everyone is content with being a brewpub anymore. They want to see their beer in bottles around the state. Already with the number of imports, commercials, plus the in and out of state microbrews the beer isle is crowded. This amazing amount of choice may make it hard for the smaller microbrewers to break outside of their local communities.

 Another impact is that the big brewers caught on have been releasing their own version of craft beers, and often it seems they are keeping pace with microbrews at restaurants and bars. With beers out there like blue moon the big guys have shown that they’re taking the threat craft beer posses to them seriously, and that they want to continue in the industry.

 Lastly some microbrews are growing too large. Just visiting the Deschuttes brewery was enough to bring this home to me. These larger microbrewers like Sierra Nevada, Deschuttes, Widmer, Sam Adams, and others have carved out a nich in the market through hard work. The problem is they have gained brand loyalty from their customers, and that may be bad news for start ups in their communities.

Is this a bleak outlook for beer? Not really. It just means the industry may start settling down for the time being. People are content with a beer being a beer, and this idea of finding a holy grail of beers looks to be loosing interest. Could I be wrong in my prediction? There’s a good possibility I am. Im neither an economics expert, nor am I a brewery owner. These are just things I’ve observed lately in Oregons beer market.

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Posted in Uncategorized | 6 Comments »

Surprising Upset!

Wednesday, April 1st, 2009

americanflag01For those who haven’t been following I’ve been trying to get people to go vote for Portland Oregon for the title of beer city USA. Turns out it didn’t matter though as Portland lost. I know what you’re wondering. How could we loose to Asheville? Well we didn’t. Turns out the winner is Beaver Creek, Minnesota. If you look on the poll you’ll notice that there is no Beaver Creek listed. At the bottom of the poll though there is a choice of other. Turns out a large portion of those other votes were for Beaver Creek. In fact Beaver Creek had such a commanding leed that they shut down the poll early and declared them the winners. The small town of 250 took Charlie Papazian and the beer community by surprise. Charlie said on his site “We never thought we would be rewarding this prize to a town without a single brewery.” I’m seriously miffed. How on earth did we get beaten not only by Ashville, but also by Beaver Creek? I think I may just crawl into a hole for the rest of the day. Let me know when the US gets its sanity back.

Happy April Fools Day

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Spring Time For Beer

Wednesday, April 1st, 2009

1781_potapp_flexiblemetal_spring_bigI can’t believe we have made it so far into spring and I haven’t even touched on the seasonals. Even though spring tends to be a free for all in terms of seasonal releases there are two traditional spring beers worth looking for.

Bock

Bock is German for male goat. Sounds appetising huh? Bocks are traditionally malty wheat beers without much in the way of hop flavors. They originated in the area of Einbeck, Germany. Specifically the traditional spring seasonal of bocks is the maibock (pronounced my-bock). Maibocks are usually lager style beers, with a good body, and sweet malt flavors. The color tends to be on the lighter side for a bock. Although you will find bocks as seasonal beers in spring a good maibock is worth a try. Here in Salem The Ram is famous locally for their maibock. Other then that though I’ve been having a hard time locating some good ones that are out now to list for you. If you know of a good maibock on the shelves let me know in the comments.

Irish Stouts

Really stouts are more traditional as a fall or winter beer. But with St Patty’s falling in march there’s a brief space where they become a spring seasonal. In my International Spotlight Ireland post I mentioned that hops were late in making their way to the Emerald Isle. Because of this Irish Stouts tend to have a much roastier grain profile with the bitterness coming from the grain primarily instead of the hops. This style is also known as a dry stout. Although we’ve cleared the seasonal time for these beers there are still some out there. Since Guinness dominates the bottled stout market here in spring the only place you’ll really find American brewed Irish stouts is your local pubs. For Oregon I recommend McMennamins if they are still running theirs.

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Posted in Good Beers, Ramblings | No Comments »

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