Category: Beer in the news

Great articles that you should read.

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Room Key and a Craft Beer

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Dogfish Head brewery has announced plans to open a hotel, the Dogfish Inn, sometime in or around spring 2014.

Each room will have a mini-fridge that you can fill along with beer glasses and a bottle opener on the wall.  This is a trend that I think will accelerate in the coming years.  Craft Beer tourism is big.  McMenamin’s runs a few boutique hotels and resorts.  (I even had my wedding reception at one!)  Rogue has their own Beer and Breakfast.  And Stone has been toying with the idea as well.  Much like a casino wanting it’s whales on the premises, a brewery wants its fans close by too.

Maybe you can stay the night and try their Moondust beer.

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Single Malts from Cismontane

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Looks like that Cismontane is starting a science project and we will be the beneficiaries!

It is a Single Malt Series, let the brewers talk about it, “Years ago I conceived a project that would captivate the scientific and artistic mind of the brewer: single malt beers. I’m very happy to say that we are finally doing it.

Think of it this way, if we completely understand the behaviors of various malts we have more control of any subsequent beers that we generate. This gives us artistic ability through scientific testing.
We have partnered with Best Malz out of Germany to do a series of single malt beers with all of their base and specialty malts.  The specialty malt beers will differ in that they will be blended with a base malt. The base malt will be selected based on least amount of color and flavor.
The purpose of the study is to understand the effects of various malts in the brewery, and the resulting beers. We will control all of the variables of the brewing process except the type of grain used. We believe that each grain will affect the following variables that we can measure in our brewery: extraction rate, change in pH, attenuation, and color. This will also affect many variables that only you can measure with your nose and tongue.”
 
Materials
·         Water (R.S.M.’s finest) enough to get that kettle to 16 bbl of beer!!!!!!!
·         Yeast (Cali ale baby) ~5gal pitch 1million cells / ml / °P
·         715 lbs base malt grains (our variable)
o   Best Malz – Pilsner
o   Best Malz – Vienna
o   Best Malz – Munich
o   Best Malz – Heidlburg
o   Best Malz – Red X
·         Hops (Northern Brewer – single addition at 60min for 16 IBU)
·         Brewer (the Citizen)
·         Brewery and all its stuff (Cismontane Brewing Company)
 
Method
We will brew a beer where all the ingredient’s processes will be exactly the same with every batch. The one variable that will change is the type of malt. Below is a list of the controls:
·         Mash temp: 152
·         Quantity of grain: 715lbs
·         Run off from mash to kettle: 465gal
·         Hop Addition: 35oz Northern brewer with 10.9% alpha acid at 60 min
·         Boil time: 120 min
·         Yeast: California ale yeast pitching rate 1million cells / ml / °P
·         Fermentation temp: 66 °F

·         Water: We will add water to the kettle to have 16bbl of beer before we transfer to the fermenter.

I am a big proponent of tests and experiments like these.  They really open the eyes to what a single ingredient change can do to a beer.  Mikkeller has done it with hops, yeast, barrels.  White Labs does different yeast strains in their brewery and now Cismontane.

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Double Barrel on the Venice canals

While I was whiling the beer hours away at various spots in Portland, some major SoCal news hit.  Not that I would have scooped anybody but I would feel remiss if I didn’t weigh in on Firestone Walker’s announcement that they are heading to a location in Venice which depending on traffic may still be as far away as Firestone Walker in Buellton.

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So it won’t be perched on the canals.  Probably not enough parking for that. But this is where it will be, “The property is located on West Washington Boulevard near Lincoln Boulevard. Adam and David selected this site after more than two years of searching. It’s not a main street or restaurant row, but it’s still accessible.”

The goal being to “establish a third leg along the coast, complementing our existing locations in Paso Robles and Buellton.”  I am all for Firestone being here but it wasn’t as if I felt neglected by them at all.  Part of the joy of visiting them was the excuse to visit the majestic new BarrelWorks in Buellton or hit up Paso and the surrounding sights.  Now will people take them for granted?  To a certain extent, some beers like Solace and regular Union Jack and DBA get short shrift in the rush for barrel aged products and double this and that.

Best case scenario is this new spot becomes the hub for the off-the-wall events like Deconstructed or Walker’s Wild Ride that have been high points in my beer experiences in LA.  Hopefully it can be a center for food and beer pairings.  Sour seminars and the like would be great too.

The best sign about this move is that our fair city (adopted or native) is getting the attention of breweries.

 

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BrewDog TV

Next month, BrewDog takes to the small screen.  Will it be able to contain their hijinks?

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Here is the 411, ““Brew Dogs” premieres September 24 at 10 p.m. It stars Scottish “beer evangelists” James Watt and Martin Dickie, who own the UK’s fastest-growing brewery. James and Martin have come to America with a vital mission: to prove that the drink of the masses doesn’t need to taste mass-produced. In each episode, they will visit a different American beer town, celebrate distinctive craft beers and create their own locally-inspired draft.”

One of their stops along the way is the fabulous Belmont Station in Portland.  I am anxious to see how they view one of my favorite beer locales.

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Bell’s in SoCal

I don’t think we here in Los Angeles will be getting Hopslam anytime soon.  But there are rumblings that Bell’s may follow Boulevard and Goose Island and Clown Shoes and Cambridge into the SoCal area.

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But I can easily make do with Oberon…. “An American wheat ale made with European ingredients. Belgium wheat malt and Czech Saaz hops provide a spicy, fruity balance to this seasonal ale.”..

….or Expedition…”The darkest beer we make; this Imperial stout contains double the malt and five times the hops of our Kalamazoo stout and is perfect for cellaring as its complex character will evolve over time. Available October-March.”

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A Hopumentary

I caught this on the Facebook recently and thought that I should pay it forward as it were.  It covers a lot of ground that we know and love about our craft beer industry but what I like about it is that they are talking to people that I and most likely many people haven’t seen or heard about.  If it gets more butts in seats at City Beer then it is well worth it.  So take a watch…..

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Dry River Brewing

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1st – Check out this Kickstarter video

2nd Find their beer before anyone else at these events:
JULY 5    Grand Performances – Nina Simone
JULY 13  NELA Art Gallery Night
JULY 14  Permaculture Networking at The Shed

If everyone pitches in, we could be having their beers by the end of the year!

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Color me Pickled

OK, I gotta be honest.  I love the creativity and I do not want to stifle it.  BUT, with all the great beers out there, I can’t see myself buying this offering….

“Angel City Brewery is proud (and a bit puckered) to announce the arrival of Pickle Weisse. Starting today, Pickle Weisse is on tap at the brewery’s Public House for a limited time only.”

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“Angel City’s Brewer Joe Moakley has a passion for pickles. Actually, Joe has a lot of passions. He can fix anything and cook everything. When he’s not brewing beer, he plays the ukulele, produces kimchee, farms coral, and yes, makes pickles. One recent day Joe had a light bulb moment. Starting off with Angel City’s base Berliner Weisse recipe, Moakley and brewer Dieter Foerstner decided to add Joe’s very own secret pickle recipe into the mix and voila – Pickle Weiss – a tart, light-bodied, straw-colored ale blended with pickles. Sounds pretty good paired next to a burger right about now, doesn’t it?”

What say you?  Is there a market for savory beers?  Or is it just novelty?

 

 

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more Beer as History

Via The Beer Babe and the Strawbery Banke Museum comes this peek at East Cost craft beer history.
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“Four Portsmouth breweries – The Portsmouth Brewery, Redhook Brewery, Smuttynose Brewing Co., and Earth Eagle Brewings — are working together with Strawbery Banke Museum to present this year’s special exhibit, “Tapping Portsmouth: How the Brewing Industry Shaped the City,” opening May 1, with additional sponsorship from Kennebunk Savings Bank.To celebrate both the extensive history of brewing in Portsmouth and the extraordinary conjunction of major breweries, brew pubs and home brewing styles and ingredients (including heritage plants, herbs and hops from Strawbery Banke) on the Seacoast, the brewers are creating three collaborative beers.
… • A Colonial-style ale, brewed at Earth Eagle, made from turnips, a splash of molasses and spruce tips;
• An Industrial-era porter will be made at the Portsmouth Brewery with Strawbery Banke ginger and molasses;
• A “super hoppy” IPA, Stride Wide Ale, at Redhook”That Porter sounds like a great beer to have in hand while checking out the exhibit! 

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The Hub

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“Rural communities, and this country’s rural way of life, face unprecedented challenges. The country pub, which has been at the heart of village life for centuries, is disappearing in many areas. Providing services from the pub, such as a post office or a shop, keeps an essential service in the village.”

If you have a royal highness in your corner, that carries a bit of weight and the Prince of Wales seems intent on carving out a niche as a supporter of small business and keeping the flame lit in rural pubs. And what better place then where people gather to celebrate either a sporting event victory or a wedding.

Why is that important to us in Los Angeles?  Well, firstly craft beer is being pushed forward here by the places that sell the beer and secondly, due to the economic downturn there are many storefronts that are empty and filled with dust.  Why not have a bakery/pub/bookstore mix? Or a pop-up pub? Take a page from this organization and revitalize areas.

(If you do find yourself in the English countryside, check out one of the inns or pubs on the list on their website and pop in for a pint and support a good cause.