Survey Says

We surveyed 100 people from around the Washington, DC metro area to evaluate the newly minted Firenze Ale. In retrospect, checking to confirm participants were of legal drinking age would have been a good idea. With any luck the judge will understand that this was all done in the name of science. Here's the feedback we obtained before the fuzz showed up:

Firenze pours a beautiful golden-amber color as if it were in a commercial with the Swedish bikini team. The foamy top is a nice off-white that settles well and leaves a web down the glass as you drink. Carbonation is neither overpowering nor is the brew flat. The armoma is that of an Italian (or English) ale but a bit weak. Firenze comes in at 2.89 percent ABV but only 140 calories per serving. Rather than saying the only thing Firenze lacks is solid flavor, the Marketing Department at DBB suggests that Firenze is "never-filling, always refreshing, and has an easy-drinking taste."

That, my friends, is drinkability.

Cheers!

A Star is Born

This evening we take a look at North Coast Brewing Company's Blue Star Wheat Beer and we are impressed. When poured into a pint glass from the 12 oz bottle it starts clear and finishes cloudy (think Allagash White) - probably our fault for not knowing this brew is not filtered. It's a bit startling to see the transformation but fortunately this was our second (or third) bottle for the evening so we were not deterred. Now, a sophisticate drinker would do homework first and find out that around mid-pour you should swirl the bottle and finish. We are not very sophisticated so it went from quite clear to London fog without warning.

The color is a pale, golden color - exactly what you would picture wheat to look like if it were made into a liquid. The head (that's what she said) is a familiar eggshell white and thins out in short order. You can certainly smell the wheat and a lemon or citrus as well. This is a good summer beer - crisp taste with a quick, dare we say refreshing, finish. A bit sweet and the wheat you smell follows into the flavor. The carbonation is probably just above what you would normally expect in a brew - if there's a fault, that would be it. Otherwise, we will keep this beer on the summer schedule (particularly in the humid, misery that is a Washington, DC summer).

The one major drawback of the beer is that the logo on the bottle looks strikingly similar to a this one:

Cheers!

Spring (Break) Fever

This is the peak season for conglomerate brewers of light beers. It's as if you can buy only Bud Light, Miller Lite, or Coors Lite in Florida or Cancun. OK, you can find good Mexican drug cartel powder in Cancun but there's still plenty of watered down beer. (Don't worry kids, they never go after the young, attractive, American tourists with seemingly endless supplies of disposable income).


Thus we introduce the first in our series of Spring Break '09 stories. Admittedly, there is a certain level of cross-over with "Nothing Good Happens in Florida" but residents of the peninsula state can at least take solace in the fact that most individuals featured in Spring Break '09 will be from other states. We lead off the series with this 20 year old student from Georgia:

According to the article, she's sitting on the curb drinking her Bud Light with her posse but without a care in the world. When the fuzz moves in, she refuses to provide "biographical information" or personal identification. What does underage, public intoxication while refusing to cooperate with authorities get you? "[A]n April 14 court date."

Cheers!

got beer?

In a major blow to dairy farmers across the country, and to the "got milk?" advertising campaign, Dr. Katherine Tucker of Tufts University announced that drinking a glass or two of beer (or wine) may build bone density. You need three glasses of milk to get the same effect.

In the Reuters article, Dr. Tucker said "the effect of alcohol on bone mineral density (BMD) that she and her colleagues saw was "larger than what we see for any single nutrient, even for calcium. It's not ambiguous. It's very clear."

According to the "got milk?" Web site "Drinking three glasses of milk a day may significantly reduce your risk of bone disease and fractures. Consuming milk later in life may slow the rate of bone loss and help maintain bone density."

One or two glasses of beer. Three glasses of milk. You do the math.

What did Dr. Tucker's study say about drinking more than 1-2 glasses of beer (or wine) daily? Go read the study.

68 Reasons to Attend SAVOR

If you're still on the fence about attending SAVOR in Washington, DC on May 30, 2009, you might want to think about the 68 breweries that will be there - each bringing 2 brews. That's 136 samples, people.

Breweries scheduled to attend (subject to change):
Abita Brewing Company
Allagash Brewing Company
Anchor Brewing Co.
Arcadia Brewing Company
Avery Brewing Company
Blackfoot River Brewing Co, LLC
Blue Point Brewing Company
Boscos Brewing Company
The Boston Beer Company
Boulevard Brewing Company
Breckenridge Brewery
Brewery Ommegang
The Brooklyn Brewery
Brown's Brewing Company
The Bruery
Capitol City Brewing Co.
Captain Lawrence Brewing Co
Clipper City Brewing Co
Coronado Brewing Company
Deschutes Brewery
Dogfish Head Craft Brewery
Firestone Walker Brewing Company
Florida Beer Company
Flying Dog Brewery
Flying Fish Brewing Co.
Foothills Brewing
Full Sail Brewing Company
Gordon Biersch Brewery Restaurant Group, Inc.
Great Divide Brewing Company
Great Lakes Brewing Company
Harpoon Brewery
Heiner Brau
Hook & Ladder Brewing Company
Hoppy Brewing Company
Karl Strauss Brewing Company
Lagunitas Brewing Co
Left Hand Brewing Company
Legend Brewing Co.
The Lost Abbey
Magic Hat Brewing Company
Moon River Brewing Company
New Belgium Brewing Company
New Holland Brewing Co
Odell Brewing Company
Oskar Blues Brewery
Rock Art Brewery
Rock Bottom Brewing
Rogue Ales
Russian River Brewing Company
The Saint Louis Brewery, Inc
Saranac/ The F.X. Matt Brewing Company
Shmaltz Brewing Company
Sierra Nevada Brewing Co.
Ska Brewing Co.
Smuttynose Brewing Company
Southampton Publick House
Sprecher Brewing Company
St. George Brewing Co.
Starr Hill
Steamworks Brewing Co.
Stevens Point Brewery
Stone Brewing Co.
Stoudt Brewing Co
Troegs Brewing Company
Two Brothers Brewing Company
Uinta Brewing Co & The Four + Brewing Co
Upland Brewing Company
Weyerbacher Brewing Company

24 Bottles of Beer on the Wall

Today we bottled a full case of 12 oz. bottles and a one gallon jug of Firenze Ale. The final gravity was 1.010. The recipe calls for a final gravity of 1.014 so we were a bit off. We added just under 3.76 ounces of priming sugar (original recipe calls for 3/4 cup for five gallons or 4.75 ounces) for our four gallons. The aroma was good with an amber red color. We have relatively high hopes for this one. The wait time for Firenze is much shorter than for our previous Perk-A-lator Stout so we'll offer up a final review in just about 2 weeks.

Cheers!

Reel Big Fish - BEER

Cheers!

Nazi Death Camp Beer

Sure, American high school kids can't find Iraq - or their home state - on a map but they probably know more than their cousins across the pond. In the United Kingdom history is rarely a priority. Specifically, World War II history. Specifically the Holocaust.

According to our friends at Fox News, a recent study finds that 10 percent of high school students in the UK were not sure what Auschwitz was and 2 percent think it's a beer.
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"We are not surprised by the results, although we are disappointed," said Stephanie Rose, of the London Jewish Cultural Centre, who helped conduct the poll. "If we are not careful, the Holocaust will disappear into the realms of history like the battle of Trafalgar.
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Not surprised by the results? I mean, seriously?

A Kick to the Groin for Kansas

It's not often we pay enough attention to follow up on a story. You'll recall that we reported news from Kansas that there's a movement afoot to allow grocery stores and gas stations to sell regular beer (meaning not 3.2).

Today we learned that the bill in the Kansas Legislature quietly died in the state's Senate.
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From KansasCity.com: The effort to allow Kansas gas stations and grocery stores to sell full-strength beer died a quiet death this week in a Senate committee.

A motion to send the bill to the full Senate died for lack of a second.
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Empire Bleeding Budweiser Red

Apparently evil empires are just as likely to suffer the effects of the current global recession as the rest of us. Yesterday Anheuser-Busch InBev announced that it is slashing corporate bonuses and dividends while rolling out a new marketing blitz for it's leading seller Bud Light. Marketwatch said revenue surged 35 percent mainly due to taking over Anheuser-Busch. When adjusted for volume, revenue increased closer to 5 percent but even this is attributed more to price increases than anything else. The end result is that 4th quarter profits for the behemoth were down 40 percent and Goldman Sachs downgraded ABIB from neutral to sell.

A related story...
In a move to that will surely endear ABIB to the hearts of US beer drinkers, the giant squelched a rumor that the company was considering a move of corporate headquarters. ABIB is opening a New York office and will start reporting financials in US dollars (which led to the rumor).
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“Leuven is and will remain home to our global headquarters, center of strategic decision making and primary office,” wrote A-B InBev spokeswoman Marianne Amssoms in an e-mail to the [St. Louis] Business Journal.
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Thus ensuring most American beer drinkers are not tempted to upgrade ABIB to neutral.

We really hope Steven Spielberg doesn't sue us.

March Means Beer Madness

Ripping off names of popular events for your own endeavor is nothing new (anything that ends in "apalooza" should be banned from existence). The Washington Post is doing it's own take with the bracket competition Beer Madness; not to be confused with the original March Madness, Mini-Madness, or even the English ska-band Madness.

We are not disappointed by the Post's sad attempt at naming this event. Nor are we insulted for getting snubbed as judges for the competition. To the contrary, we're just excited to see beer take an almost-front seat in a major newspaper. So, on to the highlights.

First Round
Lager Division: Gordon Biersch Marzen beats Clipper City McHenry Old Baltimore Style Beer. A chain brewpub beats out the locals from Baltimore...way to go judges.

Ale Division: Honkers Ale beats Lord Chesterfield Ale. hmmm...one sounds like an old, grumpy English gentleman. The other sounds like boobs.

Dark Beers Division: Brooklyn Brown and Kalamazoo Stout advance. We are big fans of both so kudos to the judges for getting this division right.

Specialty & Fruit Division: Who cares about beer brewed with fruit?

Tune in next time for our in-depth analysis of Round 2 winners and losers.

Beer Snob Slashes Friends

The ABC affiliate in Sarasota, Florida reports that an otherwise fine, upstanding citizen was arrested for stabbing three people in a beer argument. To everybody's surprise, the stabbing occurred in a trailer. Says the report:

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...deputies arrested 50-year-old Amilcar Guerra for the stabbing of three men. Deputies say Guerra became upset over the brand of beer two of the men had purchased.
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"I'm telling you man, you bring Miller Lite to my trailer one more time I'm goin' to cut you." (That may not be an accurate quote.)

Obama Drinks Beer at Wizards Game

We're not sure why this is news but here are pictures from Reuters of President Obama having a beer while taking in the Wizards v. Bulls game last week at the Verizon Center. According to reports, after finishing the beer the President demanded that the Secret Service let him fly the helicopter.

On the Seventh Day We Brew

Today we steal a page, literally, from the Legend's playbook. A friend passed along Charlie Papazian's Microbrewed Adventures. As one would expect in anything written by Mr. Papazian, the book closes with a chapter of various recipes scaled down for the homebrewer. In keeping with our Italian theme we bring you Firenze Pale Ale. Below are the details - for better or worse. If you want to know how brew it properly you will have to purchase the book.

So, with the latest storm of the century bearing down on the nation's capital, my trusty assistant (pictured) and I spend a day in the kitchen together. We opted for the all grain recipe (which loosely translates to all day brewing).

Original Gravity: 1.042
Final Gravity: 1.014 (or something close to it)
Primary Fermentation: Approximately 7 days
Secondary Fermentation: Approximately 7 days - preferably in a cellar (55 degrees F)
8 lbs Munton's Pale Malt
12 oz Briess Crystal Malt
1.5 oz Golding Leaf Hops (5% alpha)
1 oz Fuggles Hop Leafs (5.7% alpha)
1 oz Fuggles Hop Pellets (4.7% alpha)
1/4 tsp Carlson Irish Moss
White Labs European Ale Yeast
3/4 cup corn sugar for priming

Add 9 quarts of 140 degrees F water to the crushed grains, stir, and hold at 132 degrees F for 30 minutes. Add 4.5 quarts of boiling water, bring temperature up to 154 degrees F, and hold for 30 minutes. Raise the temperature to 171 degrees F, lauter and sparge with 3.5 gallons of 171 degrees F water. Collect approximately 5.5 gallons of runoff. Add 60-minute hops (Golding Leaf Hops) and bring to a full boil.

Boil time is 60 minutes. At 30 minute mark of the boil add 30-minute hops (Fuggles Hop Leafs). At the 50 minute mark add the Irish Moss. At 55 minutes add the final hops (Fuggles Pellets). Strain and sparge the wort into sanitized fermenter. Bring the total volume to 5 gallons by adding cold water if necessary. Aerate the wort very well. Pitch the yeast at 70.3 degrees F (70-75 degrees F).

From the recipe (b/c our brew just started doing its thing): Primary fermentation is approximately one week. Secondary fermentation is also approximately one week recommends cellar the brew at 55 degrees if you have the capability.

While you are brewing we recommend you quench your thirst with the Great Divide Brewing Company's DPA Denver Pale Ale.

Cheers!