Archive for September, 2009

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

Dealing With Teatotalers

Tuesday, September 15th, 2009

from theweeklybrew

drink-logo

Recently I started dating again for the first time in over a year. Ironically I, a homebrewer and beer geek, am dating a girl who cant drink, not one drop. Now Rachel isn’t a teetotaler, she is just under contract, and not aloud to drink while under contract. Not drinking while with her has reminded me of something though. There are people out there who don’t drink, either because of beliefs, or for personal reasons they choose not to imbibe in alcohol.

Living with these people in our day to day lives can be a challenge. There are some people out there who see us drinkers at bars, out on the lawn, or around town and automatically assume we are of a shady character. The truth is though many of us drinkers are just as bad. We group people who don’t drink as religious nuts. We chalk up their feelings towards alcohol as ignorance. The reality is everyone has their personal reasons for not drinking.

Personally I grew up with alcoholics scattered throughout my family. Luckily none of these people are in my direct bloodline, yet still, I have seen lives torn apart by alcohol. I’ve watched as even beer kedpt a family member mired in alcoholism and destroyed their relationship with their daughter. I saw first hand my cousin have a strong allergic reaction to a beer. The reality is we live in a world of people with their own demons, their own beliefs, and their own health issues.

More then usual I’ve been paying attention to the people around me and how they tie in with my brewing, and my passion for beer. Also I’ve kept a lookout for peoples reactions to others. Living in a country that is fond of the word “rights”, and seeing the way people act I can’t help but think that we may be helping foster a society that doesn’t view beer like you and I do. I watch beer snobs belittle people who don’t share their sense of taste. I watch as beer lovers get togther and drink themselves to stupidity, and all in the name of good beer (Oktoberfest anyone? Or most beer festivals for that matter?).

Personally I think some brewers and beer drinkers need to wake up and realize life is not all about beer.

I’m not exactly sure why I felt like I needed to write this. Perhaps a little sanity needs to be injected in to an industry run purely on hype, rights, and an idea that somehow your opinion supersedes others.

Anyway take this how you will. I’ll get back in the groove tomorrow. I just needed to type this out so that it was no longer nagging at me. Amazing the effect one rediculous drunk and his comments can have.

Posted in Rants | 2 Comments »

ƒ/Stop Fitzgeralds

Friday, September 11th, 2009

from theweeklybrew (updated the hours)

8323_149287761498_144764496498_3470740_5002953_n

Picture pulled from their Facebook page

ƒ/Stop bills itself as Salem’s smallest pub, and they might be right. I’ve been hearing about it off and on, and even was sent an invite to their soft opening Wednesday. I ended up passing it up for pie with Rachel. I did manage to swing by there today though and chat with Kirk Kindle who runs ƒ/Stop. Kirk has a brilliant approach to the way he runs his pub, and I hope it works out for him. Really I do. The location could be better though. He’s set the pub up as a small community hang out for adults. The walls are covered with an eclectic mix of art and old odds and ends, and there’s room for about 25 people to comfortably gather. This endears me to it naturally, but add to that that my friend Kaylie is a bartender there, and really the reasons not to go dry up.

The first thing I thought when I walked in was oh crap it’s small. After a few minutes chatting though I felt at home. I could easily see myelf showing up with friends for a board game and a few beers, and that doesn’t seem to be off the mark of what Kirk has envisioned. We talked about the things people do there. Kirk mentioned that Salem Beer and Blog group comes around for their meetings and hangs out. Also he mentioned something about a guy possibly doing some Monty Python showings with some friends. Really, it seems to be more about the comraderie then the booze. Kirk does have some booze though. He serves up a rotating selection of Oregon beer and wines. Most of the beers are bottled, but he does have a kegerator with two taps on it. Eventually he plans on having more taps, but for now two is it. Looking around though two feels like enough. It may not have the selection of Venti’s, but I like it still.

There’s alot more to say about the place. Most of it was built or installed by Kirk himself, and he seems like a guy I can respect. Also draught beer is served in imperial pints, rare for Salem. Really though your better off checking it out yourself. Just don’t expect a five star dining experience. ƒ/Stop doesn’t even serve food, they do have snacks though. They are currently open Thursday through Saturday, 4-12. I’m going to send a link of this article to Kirk though so he can correct me if I’m wrong.

If you want more info on ƒ/Stop then check out their Facebook page.

Tags: , ,
Posted in Pubs | No Comments »

Things BMC Drinkers Like

Friday, September 11th, 2009

from theweeklybrew

coors-light-twins

Sorry this is late. I’ve been in meetings all day and am just now sitting down at the computer. In fact let me finish my lunch first…… K done. Man it’s 3 now…. I’m really late posting. I have two posts to write to. Well might as well start out with my proper Friday post first. Keeping with the BMC theme though I’m doing things BMC drinkers like rather then beer geeks.

1) Twins

Coors has spent alot of moola to educate us on how much it’s drinkers love twins. In fact the twins helped us underscore another thing BMC drinkers like, scantily clad women.

2) Commercials

The twins, Bud frogs, and wassssup all came to us via commercials. Great commercials in fact seem to be the best thing BMC has contributed to our society. Sure they pioneered brewing techniques and equipment that is now industry standard stuff, but that was years ago. The commercial rivalries between the corporations are famous. Their commercials…. How many people would really remember them if youtube and tv didn’t always remind us of them constantly?

3) Wearing logos

Beer geeks are guilty of this too, but we tend to limit the brewery logos we wear to t-shirts and hats. BMC drinkers though have lines of products all branded with giant logos. Swimsuits, towels, shirts, gloves, hats, you name it it’s probably branded with their logo. Generally we think of the kind of people who own these items as white trash. The truth is though that college students love this stuff.

4) Drinking Games

Speaking of college students…. I’m not sure why drinking games haven’t infiltrated beer geek culture. Perhaps we’re more refined and mature. Or perhaps it’s because it costs us $7 for a six pack of beer. Either way BMC culture loves its beer games. Among college students your ability to shotgun, chug, or play beer pong can make you a legend. Nevermind the fact that you look like a drunken idiot and barely survive college with a 24/7 hangover. Your a legend now, and that’s all that matters. Maybe they’ll like your legendary party stories at those pesky AA meetings.

Tags: , ,
Posted in BMC Week | No Comments »

BMC Brewing Myths

Thursday, September 10th, 2009

from theweeklybrew

santa_beer

I know I said I’d spend the last 2 days of my tribute to BMC having fun at the expense of the big brewers, but I want to get this out. Ever since Doc Worts comment about Bud containing formaldehyde I’ve wanted to do a post on BMC brewing myths. The problem is where to start? The two most common ones are that and the Coors supports Nazis one. Then I received an email from JR that brought the desire back. JR sent me an ’08 article about Coors addressing barley growers. So without further ado, some of my favorite, but wrong BMC myths that people still believe to this day.

1) Coors supports Nazis/Neo-Nazis, and hates gays/Hispanics/you name it

For some people this may not seem far from reality. After all, it was founded by a guy named Adolph, and the families politics are/were fairly conservative. For some people a name and politics are enough to make you a Nazi. The reality is that there has never been any evidence, nor any legitimate reason to believe that Coors does, nor has supported the Nazi party. This fear mongering is exactly what helped push through prohibition in the first place and led to the confiscation of German owned breweries during the first world war. Also Coors has repeatedly passed tolerance tests from gay and Hispanic groups.

2) Budweiser puts formaldehyde in their beer as a preservative

You kinda want this to be true and false at the same time. In our modern view of corporations it doesn’t seem like a stretch for Budweiser to poison drinkers just to shave nickles from production costs. On the other hand though it is morally reprehensible to think a company could do this. The reality though isn’t necessarily disturbing, but gross all the same. Apparently a study (It’s referenced alot, but I can no longer find it online) showed that formaldehyde was used in the production of aluminum cans in small amounts before the cans were washed and sterilized. The theory was that improperly cleaned cans contaminated beverages with formaldehyde in amounts enough to taste. Formaldehyde isn’t currently used in can production and there is no evidence it’s in modern beer (can’t reliably test 50 yr old beer I’d think). If the study was true then formaldehyde would’ve been in any canned beverage made at that time. Formaldehyde is extremely toxic though so if it was in tasteable quantities then people probably would’ve died.

3) Americans get the crappy beer

This one is almost believable. You hear all these people coming back from Ireland, England or Germany tell you about how much better the beer is there. The reality is they are sometimes right, but right for the wrong reasons. When most breweries make beer they don’t make separate versions. The bottle you get in Scranton, PA is theoretically the same as the one from Munich. The problem is poor storage and handling conditions in the import, distribution, and retail sectors. I can’t count the number of good imports I’ve purchased only to get a skunked bottle, even from reliable retailers. It’s one of the reasons I’m more likely to choose Northwest beers when possible. If you think your beer tastes different then the “real” stuff look on the label. Does it say brewed in Germany? Or brewed in Canada? If it says Canada then the problem is that you really aren’t drinking the real stuff.

4) BMC Brewers no longer use barley in their beers (Thanks JR for bringing this one up)

This one we get to thank the craft brewing hype machine for. After all, according to them there isn’t even enough barley for a consumer to taste the difference between grain and hydrogenated corn syrup based extracts. The reality is brewers do use barley, and as far as I know the don’t use hydrogenated corn syrup. They may use corn, or corn sugar, but as far as I know not hydrogenated corn syrup. Many in the craft brewing industry feel that anything other then an all barley, all grain recipe produces an inferior beer. These people are not afraid to do the sort of rumor mongering that they accuse BMC breweries of doing. The fact remains that every year breweries purchase large amounts of barley that is trucked to their companies. If their not putting it in their beer then I’d wonder where it’s going.

Tags:
Posted in BMC Week | 6 Comments »

Best BMC Recipes

Thursday, September 10th, 2009

from theweeklybrew

light-beer-1

 

Might as well spend my last two days of BMC week doing some fun posts. Here are a couple of my favorite BMC clone recipes from some homebrew forums.

1)  Some two-row and some rice solids. As for hops, show the wort a picture of Hallertau for about 20 seconds. Then lager.

2)  2.5lbs 2-row
3lbs flaked rice
.1oz Cascade 60mins
wyeast 2035
before bottling, piss in the bottling bucket to taste.
should be about right

And of course the obligatory horse reference

Find a beer you like, pour into a bucket. Have horse drink said beer from bucket, collect from other end. Chill for that ”pure” beer flavor.

Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments »

What Do They Bring

Wednesday, September 9th, 2009

from theweeklybrew

There’s been discussion in the comments of this blog recently over corn and other adjuncts. The current belief in brewing seems to be one of corn and rice = bad beer. The truth is though that corn and rice are like any ingredient to a recipe. Used in moderation they can enhance a beers characteristics.

First let’s start off smashing the dreams of those that hate rice based beers, yet love Belgians. Many Belgians are made from invert sugar. This is just table sugar that has had it’s chemical bonds broken down. But table sugar is different from corn or rice right? Chemically yes they are. In terms of what they bring to the party they aren’t. All three ingredients are used to create a drier and lighter beer.

In an all malt beer there are residual sugars left in the beer that the yeast cannot break down. This often comes across as a sweeter taste. Also for higher alcohol all malt beers you need more malt to achieve the alcohol. This will result in a darker color. Combine the two and you have the complaint of light beer drinkers everywhere. A heavy, sweet, and thick beer. Replace some of that grain with straight sugar like in a Belgian Dubel and what do you have? A much lighter, and much drier beer.

Corn and rice are used in much the same way. Their starches are easily consumed producing alcohol without much flavor or color.  Also they are both historicly cheaper then sugar. With their availability, ease of atainment, and price they are more economical then sugar. While they suffer a bad reputation due to both the big guys using them, and the fact that early corn beers went rancid (due to corn oils), modern day brewers can achieve great results using them in moderation.

Tags: ,
Posted in BMC Week | 2 Comments »

Fall Is Here

Tuesday, September 8th, 2009

107mapleleaf

from theweeklybrew

For many people summer is already over now that labor day has come and gone. Fall weather is already settling in here in the valley, and the school year starts tomorrow. This also means that it is now football season.

Football season is the time of year for consuming mass amounts of light lager. So in honor of summers fall, and in honor of football. I feel the need to do some posts dedicated to the whipping boy of beers. First off, a little history.

The Beer That Made Brewing Big Business

Tracking beer prior to 1810 is difficult. We know the names of some brewers, but no statistics such as consumption (consumption numbers are inaccurate anyway) nor any stats on production. Many historians point to this as a sign that beer just simply wasn’t as popular to early Americans as people want to believe. We do know that many spirits were cheap, and easily available, and we also know that British ales were the typical beer produced.

The first year we can track production is 1810, and the total barrelage produced was a measly 180,ooo barrels. Breweries were much more local affairs due to both technology, and demand. People often blame shipping for ruining beer and preventing it’s transport during this time. The truth is that the British had been shipping beer across the world for a long time. More likely distribution costs and slow methods of transportation were to blame. Combine that with a lack of demand, and the only true way for a brewery to get big was in big cities.

The big change in American brewing came when German immigrants brought a thirst for lager to these shores. Immigrants from around Europe helped to boost the beer industry, but German lager was something different to Americans, and they quickly adopted it. A surplus of German brewers, and a higher demand for lager pushed lagers to the forefront, and British ales to the background. The fact that lager was so popular became important when the industrial revolution caused beer production to skyrocket. Even prior to artificial refrigeration brewers were looking for ways to boost production in order to expand their markets. Icehouses began springing up and brewers bought rail lines. Artificial refrigeration though made lager king because it could be brewed year around now. Combine that with early prohibitionists who embraced beer as a nutritious less intoxicating alternative to spirits and the explosion makes sense.

The creation of light lager though is what concerns us. In a time when lager was king, the brewers were looking for something new to brew. Being from Europe, the wealthier ones would spend time back home. It was through a trip home that we were introduced to Budweiser, and the light lager fad. Budweis was a region in Europe that made a pale lager brewed with Saaz hops. The beer was so pale and light, because of poorer soil conditions that the barley was grown in. Low quality barley made a unique beer. Brewers in the US tride to duplicate the lighter beer, but American barleys weren’t conducive to this. Brewers looked to adjuncts. At the time using corn or rice in beer was more expensive, and required some advanced brewing skills.

Beer produced through the new adjunct methods was pale, light, and Americans loved it. In fact at the time adjunct beers were considered higher quality. Many of these light lagers became flagship beers. With increased production capacity more resources were dedicated to the flagships which sold and less to the other lagers. Sorta similar to Widmer Wheat, or Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. It was only natural that these flagship lager beers would grow to dominate the American landscape that was already dominated by lager. The rise of prohibition certified this when it began shutting down smaller breweries that still catered to their German clientele, or their customers from the British Isles.

Tags: ,
Posted in BMC Week, history | 11 Comments »

Things Beer Geeks Like

Saturday, September 5th, 2009

from theweeklybrew

I completely missed my opportunity to mock the geek culture on Friday. I do apologize. This week has been crazy (crazy fun) and I didn’t even realize it was Saturday till I looked at the calendar on my computer not 5 min ago.

Trashing Adjuncts

204237772_100ceefc13

Any true geek knows that adjuncts are the Satan’s sack sweat of the beer world. If you believe a good beer can contain corn or rice then you should re-evaluate your geek status…. Or so geeks say. Beer geeks love to trash American Light Lager especially because it contains other grains besides barley. Very few of them understand the history of light lagers or adjunct brewing, and even fewer know the history of the Reinheitsgebot. This doesn’t stop them though from asserting the superiority of any beer brewed to it’s outdated standards.

The irony of this situation is that non barley beers are becoming more popular with beer geeks. We’re not talking the standard exception wheat has always received either. Many geeks are discovering the blatant spicyness of rye, the gluten free beers of sorghum (rice and corn are gluten free, but unacceptable), also oats are finding their way into more then just stouts now. Still though these adjuncts are acceptable because they aren’t common in American Lager, and if it’s not something that would make it into a can of Bud then it must be good.

Beer geeks even have their own name for beers brewed with adjuncts. You’ll often find them refering to them as BMC, Fizzy Yellow Beer, or just plain crap while quaffing an americanized British ale. Many of these adjunct haters seem to not be as big of fans of lagers overall, but no one considers their opinions suspect. And despite their protests beer geeks can’t deny that adjunct based beers are still extremely popular. This leaves them bitter and jaded. Beer geeks often feel the need to degrade anyone who would drink a beer containing corn or rice. Many beer geeks also feel they have a sophisticated palate because of their disdain for adjunct beers and will ostracize geeks who claim to enjoy a corn/rice based beer.

So next time you see a guy drinking a adjunct based beer embrace your hatred and harness the full power of the dark side of the force.

Tags: ,
Posted in Things Beer Geeks Like | 3 Comments »

Lompoc Proves A Point

Friday, September 4th, 2009

from theweeklybrew

new-old-lompoc-44311

For some reason I’m getting press releases from breweries whom I havent even asked to recieve updates on. Since Lompoc added me to their list without me knowing I feel I can rip on their newsletter freely. Here’s an excerpt.

Other beers on the menu include Smoked Gold, a twist on the brewery’s popular Fool’s Gold that includes the addition of beechwood smoked malt for a subtle note of wood smoke; Flower of the Gods IPA, a summer seasonal hopped with Simcoe and Tettnangers for a slight citrus flavor followed by a spicy finish; Barrel Fermented Red, Lompoc’s Proletariat Red 100% fermented in a vintage white English oak barrel for a malty and full bodied ale with a deep, rich red color and a slight touch of oak; and Bourbon Barrel Aged LSD, a deep mahogany strong ale crafted with seven specialty malts, then aged in bourbon barrels for three months and cellared for an additional 10.

Both Capitol Taps and myself have discussed the obsurdity of this barrel aged fad. If we needed any written proof this is it. As you read the whole press release you get the feeling that they are a stranger enticing you towards their van with candy. Ok, thats an overstatement. You do get the feeling though that their bribing you to come with promises of God smackingly beautiful beers. The truth is every barrel aged beer I’ve had has not been dramaticly different then the non barrel aged version. It shouldn’t after all. This actually ties in with something from Jeffs blog Beervana. There Jeff discusses the habbit of charging premium prices for beers. Barrel aged beers fall into this category. It seems even being in the same room as a wooden barrel can raise a beers price.

Tags: ,
Posted in Rants | 4 Comments »

Are Styles Relevant?

Friday, September 4th, 2009

from theweeklybrew

rainbow_hippy

Last night I was reminded again how much we rely on styles to tell us if we will or wont like a beer. The Salem Beer and Wine group had their get together at Venti’s last night. One of the ladies in the group ordered a pils. It fit the style perfectly. By the time she was ready for the second one though the keg was gone and a new pils from a different brewery was in it’s place. The second pils was cloudy and opaque, over hopped, and had an almost banana/fruity yeast flavor to it. This, according to everyone at the table (myself included) was not a pils. We even talked to the bartender who pointed to the label that sure enough said pilsner.

Now was the second pilsner a bad beer? Absolutely not. Was it a bad pilsner? Heck yes. So the question is where should style come into play?

As a homebrewer I can guarantee that most of my beers are off style. My pale ale was out of the alcohol range it was supposed to be in. My Roggenbier is not even close to what a Roggenbier should be. My herbal saison? You guessed it, off style. This is because I happen to like these beers a different way then the guidelines say they should be. When your homebrewing though it’s not a major deal. Alot of commercial brews though seem to be going the same way. Brew what tastes good and slap it into the category it fits best in. The problem with this though is you get a situation like last nights. Someone orders a pilsner and gets something they didn’t expect, or necessarily want.

So where does that leave styles? For competitions styles are important. They set a benchmark for the beers. For many commercial brewers though styles aren’t benchmarks so much as loose guidelines. This makes it so the average Joe doesn’t know what he’s getting at times. Is it time to phase out style guidlines for commercial brewing? Or should brewers make more of a good faith effort to meet style expectations?

Given the fact that styles have only become truly defined in the last 30ish years I’m not sure how I feel on this issue. All I know is that beer wasn’t a true pils.

Tags: , ,
Posted in Ramblings, Rants | 6 Comments »

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »