Upcoming brew plans and SCH competition

A big thanks to the Stoney Creek Homebrewers whose second annual competition was a huge success this past weekend. I went down to the General Lafayette Inn with some entries and to judge. I wound up judging Belgian Strong Ales in the morning (as usual) and Amber Hybrids in the afternoon.

It was a real treat to have two short flights. The more competitions I judge, the more I find that doing shorter flights (in this case eight in the morning, seven in the afternoon) makes the whole process much better. I think that it makes the day go more smoothly for everyone involved and allows the judges to provide better feedback. I don't care what kind of expert you are and how great your palate is, once you start to get into ten, twelve, even more beers in a flight, you're going to have some fatigue. So great job by the SCH crew in keeping it tight.

I was also quite pleased to place with a few of my entries. I was particularly happy with how my Dortmunder Export did, as that's a recipe that I've been tweaking and trying to perfect for a while now. The feedback from the judges was definitely very flattering.

Speaking of lagers, I've got my WLP925 yeast starter working as of last night. I plan on brewing Friday night. I'll get my spunding valve all ready to go this week in preparation. The brew will be something along the lines of a helles. I have a bunch of Weyermann Pale Ale malt laying around and I want to use it up before it goes bad, plus for the first try with this yeast I want to do a very clean, basic kind of a beer. I think I'm going to do almost 100% base malt (with a dash of cara-pils) and no aroma or flavor hops. Boring, I know, but I think that this will be the best way to judge the flavor profile of this yeast.

New NJ Beer Book - Jersey Brew

There's a new book out about the history of brewing in New Jersey. Sounds like a pretty interesting read. Hopefully Santa leaves a copy under the tree for me this year. He knows I've been good...

New Jersey was once a huge center of brewing in America - particularly in Newark. I'll look forward to reading up on this history. It's also nice to read that the author spent some time on the current craft breweries in the state and is giving them some publicity. We need more people advocating for New Jersey breweries like this. The more people talk about and take an interest in NJ beer, the more local bars and stores will get interested in carrying them.

$19.95 at beerbooks.com.

BYOBNJ

I came across this op-ed piece in the Asbury Park Press about the NJ state liquor license policy and it left me scratching my head. The gist of the it is that NJ does not make a beer/wine only license available for restaurants, making it much harder for joints unable to secure a liquor license to stay in business. Basically you're either a BYOB establishment or you have a full liquor license.

And anyone who's done any research on opening a bar or restaurant will know that you don't just apply for a liquor license, wait for the state to process some paperwork, and you're in business. Liquor licenses are controlled by municipalities and the number available is fixed based on the population of that municipality. According to the state's ABC handbook, it's one liquor license per 3,000 residents (with exceptions, of course). And I think you'd be hard pressed to find a municipality that has available licenses. 99.9% of the time a license is transfered when someone sells an existing business.

The head scratching on this author's part comes from having dined in NJ establishments where there's a limited selection of beer or wine only available for sale. I know that I've been in places where you can buy beer or wine or bring your own. I don't want to name names because I don't want to get anyone in trouble if they're bending any rules. But with no liquor license, how is an NJ restaurant selling beer or wine?

One thing I can say for sure is that if there were a beer/wine only license available, it would definitely make the opening of a certain someone's fantasy idea brewpub much more feasible. Just throwing it out there, Trenton.

River Horse - Meet the Brewer Night at LITM

Thought I'd take the opportunity to post some actual Jersey City beer news. From the Garden State Craft Brewer's Guild newsletter:

Come by to LITM to meet River Horse reps and sample
great beers. The event takes place Wednesday, November 18th from 6 to 9 PM.
Featuring all year round beers plus two special releases.

There's nothing on either brewery's site yet about this, so this is all the info available that I know of at this time. River Horse makes some pretty good beers - I especially enjoy the Special Ale. They're starting to get some more distribution up in Hudson County, so check them out.

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On the homebrew front, I'm about to start revving up the WLP925 yeast in a starter for my next brew. I can't wait to see how this yeast performs. I don't really care about all of the German tradition and having to lager a beer for six weeks. If I can get good clean lager beer in two weeks, I'll be super pumped.

I've also got two versions of R's Favorite Oatmeal Stout now - same recipe, one fermented with lager yeast, the other with an ale yeast. Should be tapping up the ale version soon, so it will be interesting to see how they compare. I have a feeling that given the strong malty flavors in this beer, the impact of the yeasts on the flavor will be subtle.

I also have one of my all time worst beers on tap now, a Dunkelweizen fermented with a dry wheat beer yeast strain. It's pretty brutal. Some of it is recipe, some is the yeast. I'm about ready to give up on dry yeasts at this point.

A week and a half until the Stoney Creek Homebrewer's Amateur Brewing Championship at the General Lafayette Inn. What are the chances that they'll have the PPV of the Cotto-Pacquiao fight at the bar? Slim or none?

Reno International Canned Beer Festival

Here's another article that I came across and thought was pretty cool. A festival celebrating canned craft beer is a pretty cool idea whose time has definitely come.

I've been of the belief that cans are the way of the future for the craft beer industry and the tide is (very) slowly shifting. More and more craft brewers are taking advantage of the can and I've been trying to make a point of picking them up when I see them in local stores. As a matter of fact, 21st Amendment is now being distributed in NYC and NJ, and I picked up a sixer of 21st Amendment IPA a couple of weeks ago at The Palisade in JC Heights.

By the way, The Palisade is the best beer store in Hudson County. Don't know if I've pointed that out in this space before...

From a beer quality perspective, cans have an advantage over bottles in that they are completely impervious to light. Cans also now have a thin lining (some kind of a ceramic, I believe) that prevents the beer from reacting with the aluminum in the can, so forget about any idea that you have about a tinny or metallic taste coming from canned beer. Get over it.

From the brewer's perspective, the relatively recent availability of the small scale canning line is the big development. Small canning lines are relatively inexpensive (relative to a bottling line), less complicated, and easier to operate. Some canning lines can successfully be operated by one person - think about how heavy a pallet of empty bottles is vs. a pallet of empty cans.

The problem for a brewer using cans is that they're pre-printed, meaning that you have to order a ton of them up front, which is a significant investment. You can't just slap a new label on when you come out with a new beer. But then again, ask any brewer running a bottling line and 9 out of 10 will tell you that the labeler is the biggest pain in the neck on the bottling line.

So buy some canned beer. If you have "a thing" against canned beer, get over it. It's all in your head. Besides, when you're done with it you can crush it in your fist or against your head. Or you can shotgun one. Try that with a bottle.

Support Rock Art Brewery vs. Bullshit

I've been following this story for a few days now. The long and the short of it is that the makers of Monster energy drinks are suing Rock Art in Vermont over their Vermonster Barleywine. Check out this video to hear Matt Nadeau from Rock Art tell the story himself.

You can really hear the frustration in Matt's voice in this interview. He's genuinely hurt by this action, and who can blame him? I can only imagine how I'd feel in his shoes right now. If I ever realize my dream and manage to open a brewery, I don't think I'd be able to react in the kind of composed fashion that Matt is, so I give him a ton of credit. I'd either go all ninja on the Hansen headquarters - penetrate the CEO's office through an air duct and pee all over his keyboard - or drop dead of a brain hemorrhage as soon as I got the cease and desist order.

You know what to do. Support Rock Art. Don't buy anything made by Hansen. Better yet, contact Hansen and let them know what you think here.

I would also note that I had the Vermonster at the Vermont Brewer's Festival last July. Matt was there to lead a very informative beer and cheese pairing. If you see the Vermonster out on the shelves, pick it up. It's a great barleywine.

And another note - Rock Art has a Save the Vermonster page set up on their site. It states:

"Rally cry for Rock Art by rockers:danzig "mother""

No idea what that means, but I love it. Get pumped!!!!