Category: Opinion

my humble and correct opinion

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The Firkin for March 2010

Words like green, recycle, envio-friendly are seen alot in the craft beer industry. Primarily because you have to be a bit of a rebel to start a brewery. And, unfortunately, earth awareness, is still a fringe effort.

That is why I am all for ballooning a trend that I have heard about from various beer media sources. Captured by Porches Brewery in Portland charges extra (I believe $1) for their bottles. So you buy their Invasive Species IPA and it costs more. But! You can return the bottle to the brewery (unwashed) and you get your buck back.
The same deal for retailers who buy a bunch of Miskatonic Dark Rye.

Because the bottles cost a bit over a buck, CBP ends up not losing any money on the deal and they help the environment!

I think that any new brewery should be offered a tax incentive to enter this type of program. Or if money is a problem, how about offering speedee service on label approval in exchange for a bottle return program?

Every day we read about new breweries opening. Eagle Rock in California, Revolution in Illinois to name two. Imagine if all the breweries opening in 2010 came on board as a bottle return participant. That is a lot of glass being recycled.

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Session # 38 REMINDER

Just a reminder that the next first Friday Session is coming up the day after the April Foolishness.

To refresh your memory, here is the topic:
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With Kate the Great Day a recent memory and the day of the Dark Lord fast approaching, I started thinking about what beer or beers that I would get up at 4:00 in the morning, drive across state lines, stand in a long unmoving line in the cold and rain for the chance to taste with a crowd the size of Woodstock.

So here is my question to you (with a couple addendums).

What beer have you tasted recently (say, the last six months or so) that is worthy of their own day in the media sun?

And to add a little extra to it, how does “great” expectations affect your beer drinking enjoyment?

AND If you have attended one of these release parties, stories and anecdotes of your experience will be welcomed too.

To join in:
1) Publish your blog post by Friday, April 2, 2010.
2) Leave a link to your blog in the comment section of this post or put your response in the comment section or email me your link to beersearchparty@gmail.com.
3)On Monday, I will post a round-up with comments and links to all entries.

Thanks to Stan and Jay for starting this fun communication and for giving me the opportunity to host.

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Safety 1st – Craft Beer 2nd

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For those who must go out and party in honor of casting snakes off a cold, wet island, PLEASE, AND I MEAN PLEASE!

Do not drink and drive.

Use your smartphone and get a taxi. Tweet a sober friend to take you home. Don’t endanger anyone else. It is selfish.

(Tomorrow, we return to normal fun beer posts)

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New plan for St. Patrick’s Day

You would expect a craft beer fan to love St. Patrick’s Day.
Well, I don’t. Not because of the Irish people mind you. But because of how it has become an “excuse to drink too much” day.
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Imagine you are Brandon Roy of the Portland Trailblazers. He is the best in the NBA (just saying). Now imagine one game a year where you have to play hoops with players from the couch potato league and not LaMarcus or Camby or Rudy Fernandez. That is what St. Patrick’s Day is to me. People who gulp neon green beer, just to get drunk. People who don’t drink Irish Stout all year, show up and get plastered. Then moan over getting pulled over by the cops.

Afficionados like me then have to deal with the anti-alcohol people the rest of the year because of these bone-headed bingers.

Of course, in this analogy, I am nowhere the beer guy that Brandon Roy is the basketball all-star.

Here are my proposals:
1. Use St. Patrick’s Day to cleanse your palate. Then return to normal craft beer imbibing the next day. Your tastebuds need a break after all the DIPA’s you’ve had anyway.
2. Avoid the crowded bars and drink a special beer at home with friends. This year, I am opening and sharing Bridgeport’s Highland Ambush. You won’t have to deal with long lines at your favorite beer bar and being pinched by strangers or faux Irish dancing.

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HOPS!

Harpoon Brewing is releasing a new single hop ESB using a brand new hop, here-to-for unseen, named Delta. Delta is the latest in the line that also includes Teamaster and Nelson Sauvin hops that will be seen and tasted more as they become more widely available.

When I saw this posted on the wonderful BeerNews website, I knew I had to re-iterate something that I think every beer geek should do.

I highly suggest sampling any single hop offering that you can find. Then take notes on the aroma and the flavors you get. Once you have done that. Go online and either Google or Bing your way to a description of the hop you sampled and compare and contrast.

These new varieties stem in part from boundary pushing that American brewers are pursuing as well as from the scare of a hop shortage a few years back. I am continuing my interwebs search for a comprehensive and graphically cool listing of hops that isn’t all agriculture words. No luck yet, but once I do, I will post it here.

This way, you can grow your hop knowledge. (Pun intended)

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Tweet that Brew

I am not a Twitter sort of guy. I am not a long winded writer to begin with so condensing further would probably not help me improve my style or grammar.

That being said, people really dig it. For every luddite there seems to be 10 Tweeters. Since, it is my self-appointed job to get everyone to drink better beer, I will not leave the tweeters out.

Go to Twit A Brew and you can instantly review (in 140 characters or less) your thoughts on the beer in front of you.

According to the creators, “My real hope for this site is to help people explore and share all the wonderful beers that are out there.”
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The Beer Wench

To get a different vantage point on the world of beer sometimes you need the opinion of a Buckeye fan..wait..you need the opinion of The Beer Wench.

All I had to do was read her, “about” page to know that she takes this seriously but also with a grain of salt. Beer drinking should be serious fun. Not to put words in her mouth, here is what she says about her and her informative blog…
“I aspire to be the “female version” of Michael Jackson — a beer evangelist harnessing an affinity for writing to spread the good word of beer all over the world.

I have called myself many names before, such as “beer brat”, “beer geek” and “hophead,” but no title seems more appropriate than “The Beer Wench.” To me, “The Beer Wench” is unpretentious and playful, which is exactly the main mantra of this blog.”

(Plus she does a great job of profiling other beer bloggers.)

So get reading already.

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CraftBeer.com

Today is beer on the interwebs day. Because you shouldn’t just take my word for it. There are plenty of web voices about beer that we all should listen to. So here is the first site you should bookmark…
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…. You can visit this Brewers Association created site at craftbeer.com

There are featured breweries, beer and food pairing suggestions and a boatload of information and it is presented in a very classy way with a soothing color palate and layout.