See what happens?

This is what happens when you let some Jersey City riff-raff move into your neighborhood. A couple of months later the town brewery almost collapses.

Looks like all of the recent snow and ice caused some dangerous sagging in the River Horse's roof. No word yet on whether or not there will be any impact to production. I'll try to swing by there in the next few days for some investigative journalism.

I was worried about all of the recent snow being a problem for us. We have an old house and all of that heavy snow sitting up there on the roof was making me nervous. Luckily we didn't have any problems. Quite frankly, I'm surprised we didn't hear about something like this sooner.

The article from the Hunterdon County Democrat shows a picture of the Columbia firehouse, one of Lambertville's four volunteer firehouses. It doesn't say whether or not they were the house that responded, but I did take note of the picture. Columbia was just recently recommended for closure. Saving a brewery is way bigger than fishing kitty out of a tree, so if they were the responding house, I say they need to stay open.

Latest stupidity from BrewDog

I hate to come across as a crotchety old grouch these days, but I couldn't help but post a link to this great article on the latest batch of nonsense released by the attention starved hype machine that is BrewDog. Big props to the author for pointing out the incredible lameness of a brewery called BrewDog and their even more ridiculous and pompous press release:

''This is the beer to end all beers. It's an audacious blend of eccentricity, artistry and rebellion; changing the general perception of beer, one stuffed animal at a time.

''The impact of The End Of History is a perfect conceptual marriage between taxidermy, art and craft brewing. The bottles are at once beautiful and disturbing - they disrupt conventions and break taboos, just like the beer they hold within them.''

WAAAAHHHH WE NEED ATTENTION!!!!

I knew the first time I saw a beer on the shelf called "Punk IPA" that I didn't want to drink anything that these people were coming out with. But I'm really please to know that I can't afford to even think about tasting their latest crap. And what's that, I shouldn't judge their End Of History beer without tasting it? Who cares. They suck.

Down With The Quitness

Kudos to Great Lakes for getting a headline on espn.com today. I've definitely never seen a craft brewery get a headline on a major sports website, so good for them.

Maybe I was wrong about jumping the shark after all.

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!!!!

Greg Noonan passes

I browsed over to the BJCP site just a few minutes ago and was completely stunned to see the news of Greg Noonan's passing on the front page of the site.

For those who don't know, Greg was the founder and brewer at one of the best brewpubs around - if not the best brewpub around - the Vermont Pub and Brewery. When I went to the Vermont Brewer's Festival in July with R, we hit the VPB several times and I posted about how great it was shortly after our visit. He was also the author of several brewing books, notably Brewing Lager Beer and the Scotch Ale volume of the Classic Styles Series.

I also met Greg after completing the American Brewers Guild course a couple of years ago. At the conclusion of the course, Greg gave us a tour of the VPB and spent some time chatting with the graduates of the class over a beer. He couldn't have been more friendly and accomodating. He also left us with really great advice for the future.

Cheers, Greg. Rest in peace.

Stumbling across some beer press

I'm used to actively pursuing my beer coverage. I have my blogs that I read, my magazines that I subscribe to, and the regional beer rags that I pick up whenever I'm at a bar or restaurant that has them around. Also, the AHA's Tech Talk forum has just started sending out a daily compilation of headlines and links to interesting articles from around the world. Yet another reason to sign up for your AHA membership.

The Tech Talk forum recently hipped me to this article about a dude who's set up a small scale hop farm in upstate New York. New York State was at one time the premier hop growing region in the states until disease wiped out the farms (downy mildew, I believe - don't quote me on that). So I was pretty psyched when I read about someone who's not a brewer by trade bringing hop farming back to the region. Even if it is in a very limited and fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants capacity.

I'm not used to just randomly stumbling across beer coverage, however. That's why I was surprised when I browsed to one of my favorite recipe sites and saw a big colorful spot for an article on beer and food pairing - complete with a big Ommegang bottle right smack in the middle. This article doesn't cover any new territory for those of us in the know, but it is pretty cool to see something like this getting front page coverage on a very reputable cooking site. And they do tell the truth:

"Beer may actually be more food-friendly than wine is."

Upcoming Jersey City Oktoberfest events

I've been unable to locate any info on the Oktoberfest "parade" on Grove Street in JC, but in the meantime, here are a couple of things going on:

Through 10/27, Zeppelin Hall will be celebrating Oktoberfest with oompah bands, dancing, food, beers, etc... Haven't made it down there to see how often they're actually doing it up, but it's a nice space and worth checking out. It's pretty reasonable and the beers have been in good shape each time we've been down there.

From this Thursday, the 24th through Saturday, the 26th, Iron Monkey will have some Oktoberfest and pumpkin beers on tap with a six pour sampler available. The Monkey's a pretty cool spot, though definitely much smaller and more upscale than Zeppelin if you're looking to chow down.

And for some non-JC Oktoberfest news that completely blew my mind up, check out what's going on at the Milford Oyster House. This is a pretty serious hike from JC, but sounds freaking awesome. Oysters and a pig? And Oktoberfest beers? Ate here with R a few months back and it was excellent, so I would completely advocate checking this out if you have the chance.

Who owns lime?

I've seen a few articles in the past couple of days about a lawsuit filed by A-B/InBev/Labatt and friends against a Canada's Brick Brewing Company over their Red Baron Lime product. There's no question that Bud Light Lime has been the greatest success story for A-B to hang their hat on in recent years - probably bigger for them than Blue Moon has been for Coors. In their terms they'd probably say that they're protecting their brand and their share of the market place. But make no mistake. This is a shot across the bow, definitely intended to scare any of the little guys out there who try to fuck with their shit (sorry for the language, I've been watching a lot of Kenny Powers clips lately).

The plaintiff's claims are twofold - that Brick is ripping off their label and design, and that their product is inferior and will somehow damage the reputation of Bud Light Lime. The latter is just ridiculous and really warrants no real consideration. People aren't stupid. They don't look at the shelf and think that A-B is responsible for every product they see (even though A-B would certainly love for that to be the case). Just like I can buy two different jars of salsa and decide to keep buying the one that I think tastes best, I can pick out which of the two lime flavored beers is superior. Or I can just keep moving - but that's another story.

As far as the design goes, as much as I hate to say it, maybe A-B has a case here:

It's definitely not blatant, but I have a hard time believing that the similarities are coincidental. And when you compare Brick's Laker Lager label and marketing designs to Labatt Blue, I think there's precedent.

You see, they're McDonalds, I'm McDowell's. They got the golden arches, mine is the golden arcs...

"New Dry's" strike in Maine

Wow. It never ceases to amaze me what people in this country actually care about.

So this Rep. Webster character votes to pass a law basically stating that children can't see adults consuming alcohol because he's afraid of kids walking into a grocery store and seeing adults standing around drinking liquor. He's accomplished his goal. But what else has he taken a giant dump on? Does this mean that you can't have a festival in a park - like the fantastic Vermont Brewer's Festival - without putting up a giant opaque wall around the whole thing? Theoretically this would eliminate the possibility of having any kind of festival or tasting outdoors. Did he and the other legislators up there actually think about this thing or did they just pass a law that a bunch of neo-prohbitionists pressured him to pass?

Webster represents Freeport Maine. I wonder if he's heard from his constituents at Freeport Brewing Company or Gritty McDuff's?

Me and my big mouth...

Boy do I wish I hadn't come across that last article that I blogged about. Part 2 of George Lenker's series on amateur beer writers started an avalanche of crappy reading to clog up my browser windows.

First off, I finished Part 2 and couldn't believe what I was reading from a professional journalist. I was actually looking forward to reading some constructive, well-thought-out criticism of amateur beer writing - the kind of thing you'd expect from someone who is a "real" journalist. Instead the article/blog post/whatever it was turns out to be some stream of consciousness bellyaching. I mean, if you're not going to give us at least one concrete example of what you mean, who cares? What's the point? The whole thing comes off as more amateurish than the writing he's complaining about.

Of course, it looks like it took no time at all for the bloggerati to start the attack. And for Lenker to respond, blaming everyone else for mis-understanding him. If he were smart, he'd use the hereforthebeer blog post as an example of what's wrong with amateur writing. On the internet, everyone is an expert, and you can put words in someone else's mouth (never said they sucked, never called them losers) without any real repercussions. And the tone of their response was even more childish than Lenker's original piss-into-the-wind complaint.

Thanks for nothing, guys. Now where will I get those precious minutes back....

What's that you say? It gets worse?

Of course, from the hereforthebeer post, I wind up linking over to an article recapping an incredibly important moment in craft beer history that went down at the most recent Savor event in DC. I'll let you read it for yourself. I know, this is big time stuff. I hope you're sitting down....

The great Sam Calagione, the greatest brewer of all time, the most important and handsome man in craft brewing today, gave us the formal definitions of Beer Geek and Beer Snob. I'm sure that as this happened the heavens parted and Sam touched the Lord's finger like in Michaelangelo's Sistene Chapel, and the $115 that all of the attendees paid for admission (plus the additional cost of attending the Salon) were simultaneously used to wipe the ass of some yuppie event planner.

I'll spend the rest of my day trying to figure out what important piece of information was shuttled from my brain to make room for the Beer Geek and Beer Snob definitions.

Seriously - do people really care about this shit? I have to be honest, all of this garbage really got me thinking. It just seems like a funny sign to me. It made me think back to the '90's when the microbrewing scene experienced an adjustment (went bust, whatever you want to call it) because there were a bunch of people involved for all of the wrong reasons. All of this attention paid to a bunch of trivial shit feels wrong to me. That plus the recent BA numbers and some other things I've seen in the news gave me a funny feeling that maybe we're peaking here. Maybe I'll post on that later.

Sorry, now I'm getting all stream of consciousness myself. Who cares, I'm an amateur!!!!

This means you (or me, rather)!

George Lenker (The Beer Nut from The Massachusetts Republican) presents an interesting take on the subject of beer writing. He's taking issue with the value of the ramblings of amateur hacks, such as myself.

Professional journalists are making their way through the 21st century media landscape as best they can and it's always interesting to hear them explain their value over that of the folks who make up the blogosphere out on the internerd. Generally speaking, I agree with the notion that there's a lot of garbage out there these days and it's not always easy to separate the facts from the opinions of a bunch of blowhards. But when our "professional" media landscape is dotted by (and often dominated by) the Glenn Beck's and Rush O'Reilly's of the world, it's not hard to turn around and point a finger back at the journalists who are supposed to be "fair and balanced" <pukes in mouth a little>...

Lenker's piece is the only one I can think of that is focusing this discussion on beer writing. And I'm interested to read what else he has to say. If he takes the Beer Advocate review nerds to the woodshed, I'm all for it. However, I'm hoping that he acknowledges some of the drivel coming from his colleagues as well.

Beer Petitions

Came across this interesting new site today. And it looks very new. There's hardly anything up there for NY, and nothing for NJ or PA.

I'm curious to see if this takes off. If it does, I'll be even more interested to see if it has any impact. If I were a retail store, craft beer bar, or distributor, I'd definitely keep my eye on it to see if I'm getting any requests.

I Am A Home Brewer Video

For those who saw the "I Am A Craft Brewer" video that Greg Koch of Stone presented to the Craft Brewer's Conference, here's the home brewers version:



I haven't really investigated the roots of this so much, but it would appear that some home brewers got together on one of the message boards and filmed their own versions and edited them together. Kind of cool, I guess. I sure wish they would have left out the lame corn and rice finger-wagging that Sean pointed out in the craft brewer's video. I won't rehash the lameness of that, read it on Sean's blog. He did a better job of explaining than I would have.

And of course.... Sam Calagione has to be in everything, doesn't he (3:35)?

Iron City's Pittsburgh plant closes shop

Lew Bryson has had several posts on this subject, and here's the latest. I'll let you jump over to his page for the details as he's an insider and can explain the situation much better than I.

A few years back I toured the IC facility with R and it's definitely up there on our list of most memorable brewery tours. A few bulletized thoughts that pop into my head as I lament the loss....

• The massive cereal cooker. The shallow conical bottom of the giant kettle where the corn grits got boiled before making it into the mash came out of the ceiling behind the mash tun and brew kettle. Kind of crazy that the boiling grits were in a huge vessel right overhead.


• The massive brew kettle. One of the things that was so cool about the IC brewery was that it was so huge and you actually got to get up close to the equipment. The only other brewery as big that we'd ever been to was Matt up in Utica, but up there you only get to see from a distance. Peering right down into the 120bbl kettle (may have been larger) and seeing the copper baffles and internal calandria was really neat. The ladder from the manway down to the bottom always stuck with me. I can't imagine feeling very comfortable climbing down into a kettle like that, no matter how long it's been off.


• The water treatment plant. This was actually the first area of the brewery that we went into. What a dungeon! If I were making a horror movie I would totally want to film something in that room. Crazy looking rusty equipment and water dripping everywhere. Not exactly a great start for introducing customers to how you make your beer...


• The beer hall. The very nice gentleman who gave us the tour (and it was just the three of us) started and finished the tour in this room while his father sat and waited for us to finish. It was a really cool room - reminded me for some reason of the wedding scene in The Deer Hunter. The kind of place where you could see some kind of oompah band on the stage while all the old timers hoisted their steins and sang along. Great stuff.

I'm with Lew in that I think this will really hurt them. I know I won't feel compelled to drink IC next time I'm in Pittsburgh. I used to enjoy getting one before or after a Pirates game when we'd go. Kind of a "when in Rome" kind of thing. Not anymore though. The authenticity, sadly, is gone.

Faulty Coors Light

Caught wind of this little news nugget today. I would really love to know what went wrong with this beer and how far it's off from what they would consider a proper Coors Light. Maybe they realized that the water they're brewing with down there in Georgia didn't actually come from the Rockies? ROTFLMFAO!!!!!!

Seriously, if anybody in the Southeast has one of these suspect Cooooors (in my best Sam Elliot voice), mail one up to me in JC. I can't promise you any compensation, just a "thanks" on this world famous blog.

The real Beer Wars

It's on, folks. After reading Jeff's post at Beer Stained Letter the other day, I also received the following in the AHA's daily Tech Talk mailing. From Charlie P:

"Some of you are aware of the headline discussions in Washington DC
this week and last week regarding proposals to dramatically increase Federal
Excise Tax on brewers and other alcohol beverage industries. Brewers
Association staff and those who are working on behalf of the Brewers Association
in Washington, DC are in daily and regular communications on how to best
represent small brewers concerns in these very critical discussions.
Dramatic excise tax increases would be harmful to both small brewery
businesses and to the existing American beer culture of enjoyment and
responsibility.

In order to gain strategic ground before any
Federal Excise Tax increase was proposed, the Brewers Association earlier this
year teamed up with the Beer Institute to help introduce two bills advocating a
reduction in Federal Excise Tax. These two bills are House Bill H.R. 836 and
Senate Bill S.1058. They are helpful as both a defense and as a proactive
initiative. H.R. 836 has 178 co-sponsors. S.1058 introduced last
week has an initial 7 co-sponsors in the Senate. These two bills can help
us push back on proposals to dramatically increase excise taxes on small brewers
and the industry as a whole.

Earlier this year small brewers were
asked by BA to call their Representatives and ask them to sign on as co-sponsor
of H.R. 836. Soon they will be receiving information asking them to
call their Senator to become a co-sponsor of S. 1058.

In addition
to the threat of Federal Excise Tax increases, the Administration's new budget
outline proposes the establishment of annual user fees to fund TTB's agency
budget, which in effect would be an additional tax on brewers and other related
industries.

Brewers Association is involved in expressing concerns
on behalf of small brewers and beer enthusiasts on these two legislative
matters. You may hear from us in the near future regarding actions which
you can be involved in on these matters.

The Brewers Association
feels it is of utmost importance during these critical times that the beer
industry present a united and coordinated effort on the federal level.
This is why we have teamed with the Beer Institute to help us represent
our constituencies. If you are involved or are considering being involved
in any other Federal initiatives that would be relevant to American small
brewers, please let us know about them."

So there you have it. Stay aware. Take your vitamins. And get ready for war!!!!!!!

Beer Wars Live - no review required

I had intended to write up a review of my Beer Wars Live experience. Then I came across this. I guess there's not much more to say.

OK, I can think of two more things to say...

There has been a lot of noise from the beer nerds over Rhonda Kallman. Everybody's all up in arms that she was portrayed as one of "the little guys" when she's not a "real" craft brewer. Fine, she may lack authenticity from a craft perspective, but she's certainly more of a "little guy" as far as this movie is concerned than Sam Calagione. The man is wildly successful in the face of all of the abuse that craft brewers take from A-B (sometimes allegedly, sometimes absolutely). He's built up a 75,000 bbl a year brewery with distribution all over the country. Oh, and not to mention that he's built the most super-exclusive beer brand on the planet and is selling twelve ounce bottles of 120 Minute IPA for $11.

Puh-lease. Forgive me for rolling my eyes yet again over all of the attention paid to Sam Calagione, the coolest kid in class. It's funny how all of these people who've heard Sam's story a hundred times and can probably recite his bio from memory have no problem with the amount of screen time he's given, but they're spitting mad over Rhonda.

And Ben Stein moderating the panel at the end of the movie was hilarious, for all of the wrong reasons. His hyper-capitalist douchebaggery was on full display. Clearly unprepared to discuss the topic at hand, it was really funny to hear how excited he got when Greg Koch described Stone's average 47% annual growth over the last ten years. Beer, not so exciting for Ben. Big numbers, percentages, growth? BOING!!!!

New beer documentary: Beer Wars

So there's a new beer documentary called Beer Wars coming out. The angle seems to be craft beer vs. the mega breweries. Looks interesting:



There has been a lot of hype around the craft beer scene the last few years, and not all of it very well informed (witness this recent dumb article). So I tend to be skeptical. Also, there appears to be a healthy dose of St. Sam in this, which is a real eye roller for me. But I think this is definitely worth checking out. The simulcast panel discussion is intriguing enough to get me out there.

Brewers under fire in Oregon (of all places)

News out of Portland is that some dumbass politicians want to raise Oregon's excise tax on beer by 1,900% (not a typo). Finally, an answer to all of America's economic problems!

I wish I could say that I'm surprised, but I'm not. With all of the indiscriminate taxation against tobacco that has gone on over the years, I guess it was only a matter of time before someone shifted their bullseye onto our favorite beverage. Plus, this is really just grandstanding, isn't it? The excise tax probably won't be raised to the proposed amount. This is more than likely just some headline grabbing in order to highlight that Oregon's excise tax is much lower than other states, and to gather support to raise it to a level in line with other states.

But I am surprised that this is happening in Oregon, a state that has helped put craft beer on the map. Frankly, I have an easier time imagining something like this happening in a back asswards state like New Jersey than somewhere that they've supported the scene as long as they have in Oregon. And it does bother me when legislation like this has such a big impact on small businesses. It's easy to turn a blind eye when giant corporations that have been conspiring to slowly kill people for decades (i.e. big tobacco) get taxed left and right. And easier when their product isn't your vice. But this kind of thing is really going to hit home with brewpubs and small breweries - the kinds of businesses that local government should really be encouraging people to support.

President Obama is "Always Good For A Beer"

Politics aside, you have to love that The President Of The United States Of America says something like this (0:36):



And is photographed on the campaign trail at a brewpub doing this: