Monthly Archives: July 2007

Wolaver’s Pale Ale

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Wolaver’s Pale AleWolaver’s, the Certified Organic brand from Otter Creek Brewing, has been brewing organic beers for ten years now. Organic beer has been getting a lot of attention lately, in no small part due to Anheuser-Busch getting into the game last year with their Wild Hop Lager and Stone Mill Pale Ale offerings. (Read Ron’s review of Wild Hop Lager.)

Organic beer was in the headlines recently as the USDA attempted to make rules regarding organic beer including this mind-boggler (inserted at the behest of A-B): Hops used in the beer could be non-organic and the beer could still be labeled “organic”, because hops aren’t a primary ingredient. Huh? In a product made with only four ingredients, I’d think they’d all be primary. There was a huge response from craft brewers and beer enthusiasts and the government has back-tracked a bit, but the issue still isn’t resolved.

But, that’s a topic for another discussion. Right now, I’d just like to try one of their beers. They say their Pale Ale…

…is a classic pale ale. Perfectly balanced; creamy and full bodied, with a rich malty flavor and a distinctive, crisp hoppy finish. Delicious with all foods, a great beer for all tastes.

It pours a nice medium amber color, with a decent-sized ivory-colored head. Nice gentle aroma, with a little bit of spice. Plenty of body, and I definitely get that hoppy finish. Pale Ale is probably my favorite style right now, and this one’s pretty good. That it’s organic and thus better for the planet makes it all the better. Worth a try.

Molson Coors three years later

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Molson CoorsThe Toronto Globe and Mail offers their analysis of the Molson-Coors merger three years after it was announced.

The verdict? It’s working.

So, while [investors and brokerage firms] were sleeping, here’s what they missed: The merger is working. After a difficult start, Molson Coors has got its act together. It has cut costs, refinanced debt, opened a new brewery in Virginia and sold more silver bullets to beer-drinking Canucks than ever before. The stock market has responded: In the past year, Molson Coors shareholders have made 38 per cent, including dividends, beating returns from Anheuser-Busch and Heineken.

Molson Coors, three years on

Molson Coors

(via Click A Bottle)

Hop science

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Interesting article over at the Wired Science blog about the chemicals that make the difference between ordinary beer and extraordinary beer.

For years, scientists have been trying to identify the chemicals that give the best beers a noble hop aroma. Using sophisticated lab equipment, three researchers have identified several chemicals that may be responsible for a spicy scent. This is no small task since hops contain as many as a thousand different smelly chemicals and the ones that are most abundant are not responsible for the characteristic aroma. Some chemicals smell much stronger than others. The most potent chemicals are often responsible for the finer points of an aroma even if they are only present at very low levels.

Their results have been published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

(via Hail the Ale!)

Open Source Beer Project – Now it has a name

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Back in June, we previously reported on the Open Source Beer Project being sponsored by Flying Dog Brewery.

Well, things have apparently been going gang-busters. They’ve worked out a recipe and now, most importantly, have chosen a name.

We have decided on a name for the Open Source Beer. Keeping in line with the tradition of Doppelbock names ending in “ATOR” (see the 9th paragraph), the Open Source Beer will be called “Collaborator” as a tribute to all of those that helped us create the recipe.

Collaborator will be the latest edition in the Flying Dog Wild Dog Series. Wild Dogs are limited edition beers that come exclusively in hand filled, corked and labeled 750ml champagne-style bottles. Only 5000 bottles will be available.

Open Source Beer Project

Now, the cynic in me is sure that they’d already picked out that name, which is what led them to deciding to do a doppelbock in the first place. But I won’t let it get the better of me.

Materials are on their way to Denver and the beer is on-track for an October release. It’ll also be entered into the Great American Beer Festival. And, since the recipe is “open source,” anybody could make their own version.

Yard’s breaking up

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Yard’s Brewing CompanyThe people who make beer seem to me to be one big family. And, like all families, there are occasional conflicts.

But major acrimony doesn’t seem to be common. However, the partnership group behind Yard’s Brewing Company in Philadelphia are parting ways.

Founder and co-owner Tom Kehoe is splitting with his partners, Bill and Nancy Barton, and will move the 13-year-old brewery to a new, to-be-chosen location. Production of the beer is expected to continue without interruption.

The Bartons will keep Yards’ hulking brewing facility in Kensington and begin producing a new brand.

The breakup ends an occasionally bumpy, eight-year partnership that saw the beloved brewery grow into the city’s most popular microbrewed brand.

Unfortunate. Mr. Kehoe may be taking his brand and recipes with him, but will the water be the same? There are lots of stories of small brewers who didn’t make it. Will both companies be able to thrive? In the same market? Time will tell, I suppose.

(via Foobooz)

Taste perception

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A scientist friend of Eric Trimmer (Trouble Brewing), who happens to investigate chemical senses, has actually been recently researching beer bitterness and offers a few insights:

We’ve been looking at beer bitterness for a while, specifically hop extracts called iso-alpha-acids. They’re pretty interesting compounds in that they act differently than most other bitter compounds commonly found in foods. We actually think that they might act on a whole different class of receptors than other bitters.

Anyway, the thing about these acids is that they are almost completely imperceptible on the anterior tongue. This is another thing that sets them apart from most other bitters. Take caffeine, for example. If you make some really strong, bitter coffee and dip just the tip of your tongue in it, you can surely taste the bitterness. Now take some super hoppy beer and stick the tip of your tongue in that. Then take a sip and just let it drip down the back of your throat as you turn your head up to the ceiling. Compare the perception of bitterness on the anterior and posterior tongue. The iso-alpha-acids pretty much exclusively act on the posterior tongue and in the throat.

Trouble brewing: She blinded me with beer science

(Extra points for the Thomas Dolby reference.)

Urban legends of American beer

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Did you hear the story about the guy who attached a JATO rocket to his car, fired it up on a road in the desert, and all they found in the wreckage (on the face of a cliff) was his fingernails embedded into the steering wheel? Or how about how you can get money from Bill Gates for forwarding a message in order to test Microsoft’s e-mail systems? Did you know that Target (pronounced tar-zhay) is owned by the French?

None of them are true. They’re all urban legends.

Wikipedia:

An urban legend or urban myth is similar to a modern folklore consisting of stories often thought to be factual by those circulating them. The term is often used to mean something akin to “apocryphal story”. Urban legends are not necessarily untrue, but they are often distorted, exaggerated, or sensationalized. Despite the name, a typical urban legend does not necessarily originate in an urban setting. The term is designed to differentiate them from traditional folklore in preindustrial times.

I used to hear/read these all the time. When I heard them it was almost invariably some blow-hard in a bar trying to be witty. I also used to get them as those ubiquitous e-mail forwards that seem to clutter everyone’s inbox. Usually within five minutes I’d have a response back out to the sender–and the unfortunates who also received the message–debunking it, usually with a link to snopes.com, The Straight Dope, and/or the alt.folklore.urban archives.

It’s been a while since I’ve received any. Either the people who used to send them to me have wised up, or I pissed them off too much. In any event, urban legends have become a bit of a hobby of mine.

So I reacted with interest and amusement when I saw a press release from Bob Skilnik, author of Beer & Food: An American History, talking about his debunking of five rather popular urban legends about beer:

  • The Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock because they ran out of beer.
  • George Washington was a brewer.
  • Early American brewers used adjuncts like corn to lessen the cost of their beer and increase their profits.
  • There was no American brewing industry until the arrival of lager beer in the 1840s, brewed by German immigrants.
  • National Prohibition irrevocably changed the taste and character of American beer.

Now, of course, the George Washington item is a little disingenuous. Yeah, it’s nothing special that he was a brewer, because everyone was a brewer. But it’s not untrue. And I’ll even admit to believing the first one for quite some time.

While not mentioned in this press release, Skilnik also debunks that rather famous quote, supposedly made by Ben Franklin:

Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.

I can’t tell you how many t-shirts I’ve seen that on.

But that’s nothing. A friend of my cousin went to Japan, and he says that some of those crazy karaoke people are drinking beer made with hydrogen so they can sing the soprano parts and shoot blue flames out of their mouths at dramatic moments…

(via Beer Dinners)

Carlsberg and Mentos

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If you’ve been on the interwebs for more than five minutes, surely you’ve encountered the video by EepyBird.com showing what happens when one mixes Mentos candy with Diet Coke in interesting ways. The guys at Mythbusters even did their own experiments.

Well, beer is carbonated. What happens if you do the same experiment with, say, Carlsberg?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qi_wDFQ7UIQ

(via Nanobryg and others)

p.s. I absolutely loathe Mentos commercials. Granted, I am not in their target market, but they have definitely made me a non-customer.