The 12 Beers of Christmas

Last year, in typical fashion, we waited until the last minute to start a series on the best brews for the Christmas holiday.  This year, we're going corporate and starting the Christmas firestorm before Thanksgiving (thanks for the tip, GTB).  Next year, we'll start around Columbus Day.

On the first day of Christmas, our trusty assistant brought to us one heavy hitter.  The other 11 Christmas brews should be on alert because the bar is set high right out of the gate.

Great Lakes Brewing Company makes many good brews - Lake Erie Monster is among our favorites.  The Christmas Ale though is what the holidays are all about - you expect a gift and are "happy" to receive anything because that's what the holidays require but then you get this gift totally out of left field that seems like it was made only for you and the person who gave the gift "gets you".  Our holiday plan is to drink as much GLBC Christmas Ale as possible so this may be a short series.

Brewed with cinnamon, ginger, and honey, this beer feels like the holidays.  It pours a nice amber-red with an mild light brown head that doesn't last particularly long (that's what she said).  Generally, the term "balanced" is overused in craft reviews but this time we mean it.  This beer is a bit on the sweet side but it is well balanced by the spices so you get great flavor from start to finish.  The sweet side keeps you coming back for more and the spices warm the cockles of your heart (that's what she said).  We didn't really pick up the Hallertau and Cascade hops in the aroma or in the flavor but we're still confident they are in the beer.  For those who care, the Christmas Ale has a slew of medals - most don't care.




PS - We don't care if you call it Christmas, X-mas, Happy Holidays or anything else.  Chill out and have a beer.

The Hollywood Beer Post

Straight from the TMZ newsroom we bring you the stories that matter.  If it involves a celebrity then it matters so we'll get right to it.

Dr. Jones Verifies Age - Harrison Ford, famed actor in the Star Wars movies (the good ones), the Indiana Jones series, and countless other blockbuster films was asked for identification while out on a recent beer run.  Mr. Ford is 68 years old.  According to the report, the guy behind the counter said everybody gets carded.  Said Mr. Harrison "I went to buy some beer the other day and got carded! I said, 'I'm 68-years-old'".  Our best guess is that the clerk was confused by the earring and wanted to know if it was Ford or Ed Bradley.

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Mi How You've Grown - Miley Cyrus continues to act with maturity beyond her years.  This time by having a cold one at the tender age of 17 in Spain.  The good news is that the drinking age in Spain is 18.  The bad news is it's still underage drinking.  Don't worry about Ms. Cyrus getting in trouble because for Spanish authorities "underage drinking is simply no big deal".  No word on who her mother was sleeping with at the time - apparently it was not Bret Micheals.

Nobody Circles the Wagons

A few months back we talked about the brewing renaissance in our adopted hometown.  Today, we're bringing you a brewing renaissance in our actual hometown, Buffalo, NY.  Sitting on the shores of Lake Erie, Buffalo has a rich brewing history.  Well, it did through the mid-1970s when the last brewery in town, the Iroquois Brewery, closed its doors.  But in it's heyday Buffalo boasted more than 35 breweries.

It's a tough economy in upstate NY but the people of Buffalo are tough too.  Since the collapse of the steel industry, the region has struggled to rebuild its economy.  Urban planning consists of little more than looking for a silver bullet (a great read is Power Failure).  The Adelphia Tower collapsed with the rest of the cable company.  Bass Pro was never coming.  The new Peace Bridge is coming next year, again.  NFTA still owns the waterfront.

Sounds pretty bleak but it's always darkest before the dawn and every cloud has a silver lining.  It's not clear if you can see the silver lining just before dawn but that's not the point.  The medical corridor has been quietly revitalizing parts of the city and seems to be poised for major gains.  Buffalo is a micro-financial center with headquarters for HSBC*, M&T Bank, and First Niagara.  Yahoo! opened a data center nearby and Verizon may be next.  Moog and Fisher-Price are nearby.  CNBC recently ranked Buffalo-Niagara the second best place to relocate to in the US.  Forbes called it the third most affordable to live in.

And, now Buffalo is rebuilding its brewing community.  Flying Bison is back and better than before.  The Blue Monk is open for business.  Pearl Street Grill & Brewery continues to be an anchor for downtown.  This long-winded ode to home leads us to Community Beer Works - the newest brewing endeavor in Buffalo.  We've mentioned CBW in the past but today we bring you a conversation with Ethan Cox, one of the founders of the company (special thanks to CBW's Dan Conley for pulling this together).  Enjoy!

Background

DB:  How did you get into brewing and how did it become a business idea?

CBW:  Well, there are nine of us collectively in this thing, and we vary from investors & advisers to homebrewers & jacks-of-all-trades.  So, we have varied paths to get here.  Myself, I’ve been homebrewing since college, though grad school and even still.  I’ve been a lover of all things beer for a while, and this was just a natural consequence of a bunch of things coming together.  Did I chose it, or did it choose me?  I wonder.

DB:  Can a nanobrewery really be profitable?

CBW:  We’re not anticipating being in the black right off the bat, like any startup.  And, it’s only sustainable, in our eyes, because we see a limited period of “sweat equity” (= no pay) and rapid growth.  That said, what’s “profitable?”  Some of these breweries are sustainable at a hobby level or slightly more, and I’m sure their owners are really happy with what they do and the level they’re doing it at.  Our business plan and financials will quickly allow some 4 to 5 of use to make a good living making good beer, and that’s essentially the minimum we’re shooting for.  Not like we’ll avoid exceeding expectations, mind you!

DB:  The raging debate in the craft industry is around defining a “nanobrewery”.  Care to provide your definition or is this much ado about nothing?

CBW:  We don’t want to get embroiled in a debate about categories--doesn’t that happen enough in beer already?--but, we are grateful that people before us have paved the way for making a startup of this size a viable idea, and for documenting the process.  We were reading about all these great brewers like Hess and Blind Bat, and we thought: “There it is, it’s for us, let’s do that.”  As to when, precisely Sam Adams is no longer “craft” and questions of the like- here: I like some of Sam’s beers and I buy them sometimes, and Hair Of The Dog, too.  Isn’t that good enough?

The Brewery

DB:  Who will make your system?

CBW:  All the BTUs and controls, and as well, the heat transfer system, are being fabricated by Chris Breimayer at Psychobrew, in Michigan.  We looked initially at a Sabco--who doesn't?--but thankfully, with some input from Paul at Blind Bat, we realized that maybe 10 gallon batches was too crazy, and that 1.5bbl was just crazy enough.  Then we had to shop for some stainless, and we found Stout tanks & kettles in Portland. John Watt’s products are just beautiful, and he was able and willing to build us the kettles we really wanted to have on the burners- it’s a RIMS, and it’ll be nice and precise.  The tanks he’s assembling are also custom-sized for our batches, and they’ll be air-cooled in bays we’re building off our walk-in cooler.  It’s a bit unconventional, perhaps, but we can rock it.

DB:  According to reports, CBW hopes to have a series of nanobreweries across the city.  Is CBW operating like a franchise?

CBW:  Well, for time time being, we just want to get one brewery open, for sure.  As for expansion, we’ll see exactly which way that goes when we can better analyze our growth curve.  We are interested in doing other projects in the area, but not necessarily a series of nano-breweries.

DB:  You getting any help from the good folks at Flying Bison?

CBW:  Oh, of course.  We’re trying to learn as much as we can on our our own, but Tim is an excellent brewer and a super resource, he’s very approachable.  As we continue our transition from paper to brick-and-mortar brewery, I know we’ll be drawing on all the brewing resources in the community. As a bunch of current and experienced homebrewers, too, I know we’ll be soliciting advice from both the industry and the hobby levels- I talk to Ian & Bert at Niagara Traditions homebrew shop frequently.

The Brew

DB:  Want to tip your hand on what you will brew?

CBW:  Our main beer will be an American Pale Ale, we just love a good session beer, and it is the quintessential American microbrew revolution beer, perfected in Northern California, but certainly something we can do and do well.  As homebrewers, we’re off and developing prototypes even now.  We like the style in part because it makes for a good, local beer, in that freshness really matters for good hop expression.  It is just a beautiful well-rounded and approachable brew.

We’re also going to have a saison right off the bat, which is because we love the complexity and depth of that style: it pairs with so many kinds of food, it’s a style with a great history, it has beer geek gravitas, and quite frankly, we all like to suck ‘em down.  They are a challenge to brew and will need some real attention, but we’ll also hand-bottle, cork, cage & label them initially and it’ll be a fun offering.

DB:  Is there a Dumbarton’s Ale in the business plan?

We’re definitely planning to do lots of one-off batches, that’s the beauty of a small and flexible beginning.  What kind of beer is a Dunbarton Ale?  I somehow suspect it is got some Scots to it, so that’s good because a slow, cold ferment is definitely a Buffalo-style beer: Let’s talk!

Activism

DB:  You’ve indicated plans of incorporating urban farms and community gardens.  How will they be incorporated into the work of the brewery?  Do you risk trying to do too much?

CBW:  We’re very much committed to responsible brewing and business practice- it’s just the kind of people we are but also we think it’s the way to be a successful business.  We’re far from the first brewery to incorporate green practices into the brewhouse, and we’ll be limited initially, too.  Green doesn’t mean DIY, all the time.  We’re looking at solar water for pre-heating our brewing water- this will save money on gas, primarily.  Worms will eat our spent grain, and that in turn will contribute to a aquaponic fish farm on the west side- it’s perfectly symbiotic, apparently worms love grain, so all we have to do is arrange the transfer.  As for gardens- on down the road, maybe some minimal hops, or specialty grains which we lovingly malt ourselves, enough for something like an “Urban Estate” ale?  We’ll see, but we’re not afraid to put our ideals into our business.

Last Thoughts

DB:  Planes, Trains, and Automobiles or The Natural?

CBW:  It’s gotta be Planes, Trains and Automobiles.  We’re comi-tragic!

DB:  Thoughts on the new Sabres uniforms?

Fuck Yeah!  Old School Rules!

DB:  What else should we know about Community Beer Works?

Our favorite air-guitar player is definitely Bjorn Turoque

If You've Got it, Flaunt It

After

We've long supported equality issues here at Dumbarton's Beer and today we're one step closer to achieving that dream.  Spanx, popular among the ladies, recently unveiled its lineup for men and we say it's about time.  Why do women get to keep physical secrets but not men? 

Soon enough men will be walking down the street as women whistle at them like, well like construction workers.  Nobody will really know if that man is chiseled from hours at the gym or hiding man boobs and a beer gut because he's just coming from the local tavern.

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A spokesperson from the company said: ‘There’s no chance of a sagging bum with this range’, and are designed to ‘firm and flatten’.

The American founder of Spanx, Sarah Blakely, said: ‘We applied out 10 years of knowledge and expertise in compression fabrics and transforming the body to this first-of-its-kind collection for men.’
Source: MetroUK

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Is that Dumbarton's Beer pictured?  We'll never tell.

We Know It When We See It

Excuse the pun, but there's been a brouhaha in recent week's over the label design for Lost Abbey's Witches Wit.  With Halloween right around the corner the timing couldn't be better.  The Pagan, Wiccan, and even the Deaf-Pagan communities are up in arms over the label, which features a witch in what appears to be a medieval town center, being burned at the stake in front of the townspeople. 

Deaf Pagans Crossroads is but one example of a Pagan priest offended by the label.  Recently, a letter to Lost Abbey was posted saying "[a]s an ordained Pagan minister and long-time practicing witch, I am TOTALLY DISGUSTED with the label you are using for your Witch's Wit beer." (Emphasis not added.)  Comments to the post included phrases we can all agree upon in matters like these:  "way over any bounds of decency", "is inappropriate", "in very bad taste", and of course the obligatory comparisons to the Holocaust with "you can’t put a lable (sic) of a Jew being gased (sic) and justify it by writing a paragraph about the horrors of genocide."

This all started when the New York Times ran a piece about Vicki Noble's accidental run in with the brew.  Ms. Noble likes beer but does not like the label.  For those of you not in the know, Ms. Noble is a feminist leader who "is famous in the pagan and Wiccan communities for her astrology readings, shamanic healing and writings about goddess spirituality".  According to the Times, she sent an E-mail to various contacts expressing outrage over the label calling it hate imagery and comparing it to images of the Holocaust and lynchings.

The Lost Abbey line of brews is known for religious bent in their labeling.  In the craft brew world, brewers and drinkers have come to appreciate labels as art.  Yes, labels are marketing tools but they are art as well - somewhere, Warhol is smiling.  Even if it's not art (who's to say, really?) it's probably protected by the First Amendment.

Since we're not Constitutional lawyers or members of the Tea Party we decided to put our best men on the case.  While Lost Abbey may be changing the label you can't un-ring the bell and we need to know if this is art, marketing, offensive, or pointless filler because we have nothing else to write about.  Our best men went undercover and filed this report (you be the judge):

Thar She Blows!

In many ways, this blog is like the novel Moby Dick.  While motivations differ, like Captain Ahab we are in search of one specific thing.  For the Captain, it's the fierce great whale Moby Dick.  For Dumbartons Beer it's the perfect beer.  So it was, we were on yet another wandering journey through the beer aisle looking for our white whale when we stumbled upon Cisco Brewers Whale's Tale Pale Ale.

What makes the Whale's Tale worth discussing?  First, the name rhymes and that's just fun.  Second, Cisco Brewers is based in Nantucket, MA leaving open the possibility of endless childish "poems".  Finally, Cisco Brewers makes shatters the beer-wine barrier by brewing both.  Some wineries force the "wine is for the average joe" and other breweries push "beer can be as sophisticated as wine".  Cisco puts both philosophies into practice and proves both are right.  Just for giggles, they offer a distillery too.  So, basically, it's Nirvana.

All of this is well and good if the beer is good (we didn't stumble upon their vino or their spirits - yet).  It turns out the beer is good.  For reasons best left unsaid, we're unable to pour this fine brew into a glass but let's be honest for a moment - most people are concerned with a beer's taste.  Light, dark, head retention, lacing, yadayadayada - how does it taste? 

It's an English Ale that is best described as a mellow brew.  There's a lot of good, earthy flavor.  The hops are prominent and the floral aroma is comforting.  The Whale's Tale doesn't have a lot of "depth" and is not overly complex, as some beers tend to be.  This is a beer that reminds you of a simpler time - a nostalgia that can only be brought forth by lovers of the sea.  We're land lovers but we are happy we found the Whale's Tale and will surely grab more Cisco brews (be it wine, beer, or spirits) if we can find it - and we recommend you do the same.

A Penny Saved is a Beer Earned

We are not a nation of savers.  It's not clear we ever have been - at least not in recent years.  Don't believe us, check out the chart below. Yes, the marketing folks at Nationwide Insurance claim it's our national pastime but we all know Americans are much better at spending than they are at saving.  Like it or not it's a consumer economy and we're a consumer girl.

Not only are we bad at saving the country is stuck in a recession.  Well, officially the recession is over but few people are feeling the positive vibes.  During these difficult times, stories abound of folks doing their part to cut a few corners and save a few pennies (like these poor souls).  Sure, growing your own garden, bagging your lunch, or renting out the guest house can help but we found something better.  Our friends at the Western Bank in Vietnam recently launched a nationwide promotion that offers authentic German Bitburger beer for making deposits.

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"Tropical Vietnam has a long tradition of beer drinking, introduced by French colonists in the late 19th century....

Authorities have been trying for months to get banks to cut interest rates, both on loans and deposits, so lenders have had to get creative in the fight for depositors."
-Reuters
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Of course, there's a catch.  And like any good lender we're putting the fine print at the bottom.  Depositors get one large can of Bitburger for each deposit of 7.5 million dong (don't worry, it's only $385 US) through November 25, 2010.  You can thank us later for not reducing the font size to 1.5.