Category: Uncategorized

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British Beer Video

Proud of British Beer from Society of Independent Brewers on Vimeo.

I am a fan of each of these short craft beer manifestos and the British “Pride” video is another great addition. I love that they talk to the farmers and the store keepers as well. It really is a chain of people and I like that they bring them into the fold too.I

I know there is backlash at the craft beer videos. I think it is misplaced though. For a couple of reasons, each one is a snapshot of where we are and where we might go in the craft beer industry and secondly, there are still way too many people drinking crappy beer. So if each of these videos add more to the ranks of the good beer drinkers then they do the job.

So be snarky about the line readings or say the music is too melodramatic. But the heart of being proud of craft beer is beating in these videos.

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Brewer’s Union Local 180

Some cities and states claim to be the premier beer destination and I don’t doubt their credentials. But for width and depth, the state of Oregon is in a league of it’s own.

Sour ale house. Check.
Belgian. Check.
Cask ale? Check below…

Brewers Union Local 180 is owned by Ted Sobel. His goal is to serve all of his beer, cask conditioned and stored in firkins.

Here is a sample of a past beer list to whet your taste buds:
Wotcha A La Amarillo Best Bitter
Good With Bacon Amber Special Bitter
Cumbrian Moor English Porter
Union Dew I. P. A.
MUTT O. R. A.
Tanninbomb Oak-Aged English Old Ale

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You + The Bruery =

a great homebrew contest!

Check out the full press release….
“In celebration of The Bruery’s continued growth, the incredible support from our fans across the country and our humble beginnings as homebrewers ourselves, we will be holding our third ever homebrew competition; this one set to determine our 300th batch.
The first place recipe of the competition will be brewed as our Batch No. 300 and the winner will have the opportunity to assist us in brewing the batch on our system if they so choose. The first, second and third place winners will also get various forms of swag.
Along with the chance to have one of your very own recipes brewed and distributed, you will also be helping us raise money for those in need, as the entire $10 entry fee will be donated to Lestonnac Free Clinic, devoted to providing free, comprehensive medical care to the poorest of the poor in Orange County, CA.
Please read the below rules carefully before submitting and good luck to all!
Cheers!
The Bruery

Entry information, terms and conditions
-Entries must be received at The Bruery by January 31st, 2011.
-Only the following BJCP categories will be accepted: 13F, 16, 17, 18, 22 & 23.
See http://www.bjcp.org/styles04/ for more information.
-This is an AHA/BJCP sanctioned event and all entrants must be AHA members (this way the resulting beer can be entered in the GABF Pro-Am competition!).
– This competition is only open to beers brewed by entrants at home, not at a commercial brewery or a Brew On Premise.
-Entries must be sent to 715 Dunn Way, Placentia, CA 92870, Attn: Batch 300
-Each entry has an “entry fee” of $10 (checks made out to “The Bruery”) – 100% to be donated to charity.
-Entrants can submit as many entries as they would like. Each submission must have it’s own recipe sheet and $10 entry fee.
-Each entry must consist of 3 bottles of 12oz or larger (but not bigger than 750ml).
-The downloadable form at www.thebruery.com/batch300 must be submitted along with your entry.
– In order for the winning batch to be brewed, we will require the winning brewer submit the recipe to us. The Bruery intends to produce this batch as a one-time offering, although we reserve the right to brew this recipe as a year-round or a seasonal offering without further compensation to the winning brewer. We will use our best efforts to brew this batch as similar to the winning beer as possible. However, there may be some variation due to the availability of ingredients and brewing system differences.
-The Bruery reserves the right to change the name of the beer.”

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Beer Blogger Conference – What I Learned

There was a lot of technical talk at the Beer Bloggers conference. About 1/2 of it was over my head. I know my widgets from my meta tags and/or trackbacks. But that is the smaller mechanical issue. I was searching for something else.

I wanted to know if I was on the right track with this blog. And I think, I am. Am I there yet? No, and I have no timetable either.

I post what excites me about the craft beer world. Is it groundbreaking journalism? No. Is it a regurgitation of already posted news? Sometimes. But that is acceptable to me. Why?

I want this blog to show my passion for beer, breweries, events and the industry. Like a squirrel before a bottle of BrewDog’s End of the World gets shoved up it’s…(sorry), I enjoy searching for and bringing back beer nugggets.

There was alot of good advice about how long it takes to monetize your blog and the ways to do it. People carefully explained how to adjust posts to your readers desires.

To me that is not as important as bringing the world of craft beer to my reader(s) in a short but fun way. And when I highlight a brewery in Louisiana or Alaska, it may be a list of a couple beers pulled from the brewery website but I want to push this information in front of casual but curious craft beer drinkers and travelers. I started the 50 Beers from 50 States quest to learn more about our country’s beers but I also hoped to intrigue all of you enough to try something new or at least learn something new.

A question was posed (rather too critically and rather grumpily, to my ear), why blog about beer and why go to a conference about it? Apart from the obvious reason of meeting people with the same passion, I wanted to learn from other bloggers on how to best accomplish my goal. I could not ask readers to go on this search without doing some searching myself. (And I implore that everyone keep on learning).

What I am trying to say is that I want to challenge you, the reader, to drink better and more varied beer. And this blog will evolve to do that better.

That is what I learned.

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Is it Halloween or Christmas

Holiday seasonals seem to be showing up left and right. Though I give this one a pass because of the name.

Love the Rankin-Bass.

Here are the specs: “This mythological beer emerges from the depths of our brewery every winter. Made with Cascade, Centennial and Simcoe hops and six organic malts, “A-Bomb” has a complex floral, spicy and citrus hoppiness backed up by just the right amount of malt sweetness. 7.3% ABV.”