An essential beer reference

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An e-mail similar to this arrives at least once a day here at Realbeer.com:

“I recently visited [fill in the city and/or pub] and had [fill in the name of the beer]. Since I returned home to [fill in the location] I haven’t been able to find the beer. Can you help me?

Signed, [Desperate/Thirsty/Impatient/Frustrated]

Because Michael Kuderka had a similar crisis a couple of years ago The Essential Reference of Domestic Brewers and Their Bottled Brands was born. (Yes, that’s a title long enough to make you as thirsty saying it as thinking about the words in it.)

“The concept for the book was the result of attending a beer festival at Waterloo Village here in New Jersey, back in 2004,” said Kuderka, who created the book. “At the festival my wife, Cathy, and I watched passionate brewers fill countless foam-topped glasses and we were able to tasted any number of fantastic beers, but when we attempted to find some of these bottled brands at our local retailers, we didn’t have a great deal of success.

“In some cases, we remembered the style of beer but not the brewery; in other cases, we knew the brewery but were not too sure about the exact brand. What was immediately certain, however, was that neither retailers nor I had a quick, easy way to satisfy my thirst for these new brands or to end my ongoing quest.”

Kuderka started by collecting data and logging it into a spreadsheet, but soon realized that compiling a list of all the domestic breweries and their bottled brands would require building a sophisticated database. The book reflects the depth of his information.

It is divided into six sections. Section I provides an alphabetical listing of all U.S. brewers. Section II features Color and Bitterness Comparison Charts, which should help retailers – sometimes as overwhelmed as consumers – understand the similarities in the appearance and in the flavor of styles. Section III opens with detailed descriptions of most of the styles from the color charts, then has a Beer Style Index that shows which breweries offer which styles.

Section IV charts what states breweries ship beer to, while Section V follows with a complete geographic index. Section VI then offers more detail on each brewery’s portfolio, complete with beer descriptions and labels.

The DBBB, and the companion web site, are designed for use by beer retailers, beer wholesalers, convenience stores, supermarkets, and restaurants, but will also be of interest to beer consumers.

Kuderka has targeted the 35,000-plus U.S. retailers of beer. “Eight-nine percent of the retailers we surveyed told us that they were looking for new brands of beer,” he said.

Kuderka quickly learned the U.S. beer landscape is still changing, so is providing updates through his web site, making additions to the database each month. A code providing one-year’s access comes with the book.

Does this mean we’ll no longer receive the “Where do I find this beer for my spouse’s birthday” e-mails? Probably not, but we expect it will improve the choice of what’s available on the local shelves for all of us.

Turn any beer into low-alcohol beer

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Andrew Gordon begins this story in the Olympian with the proper disclaimer: “It might sound like blasphemy, but it’s time to talk about nonalcoholic beer. Now, now, hear me out.”

He’s talking low alchol and flavor.

All you need is an oven, a large pot (brewers already will have this), and an oven thermometer (unless you have a newer oven with precise temperature controls — it’s not unusual for an oven to vary 20 degrees to either side of the temperature setting.)

Preheat the oven to its lowest temperature setting — the boiling point of ethyl alcohol is 173.3 degrees, so you’re aiming for about 180 degrees. Verify that you’re in the ballpark using the thermometer. To the pot, add beer you’ve either brewed or bought, and put the pot into the oven uncovered.

You’re using the oven instead of the stovetop to provide more even, controlled heat, providing fewer changes to the overall character of your beer. In 30 minutes, the alcohol will have boiled away and the brew can be cooled.

The yeasts will have been killed off in the evaporation process, so you’ll need to go to your friendly neighborhood homebrew store to buy some yeast and priming sugar. Boil between 1/2 cup and 3/4 cup of the sugar with a pint of water and add to the brew, then add yeast and mix well, using a sanitized metal spoon. (To sanitize, either put the spoon in the brewpot at the beginning of the evaporation process, or soak it in a mild bleach water solution for five minutes.)

You can then siphon the brew into sanitized bottles or a keg.

There are some other moving parts, so read the whole thing.

New: Dogfish Head, St. Arnold, Leinenkugel

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More new beers or returning seasonals:

Verdi Verdi Good from Dogfish Head in Delaware. Just in time for St. Patrick’s Day – A Dortmunder greened with Spirulina. The website explains:

The idea for the the Dogfish Head version actually was born of beers already being produced in Southeast Asia, namely Myanmar (formerly Burma) and Thailand. The main type of beer made in that area of the world is akin to the Dortmunder/Export type lagers of Germany. Both Myanmar and Thailand have breweries producing a beer which is their regular production lager with spirulina added. Hence, Verdi Verdi Good was born.

Summer PilsSaint Arnold Summer Pils from the Houston brewery of the same name. The Bohemian-style pilsner tends to sell out quickly, and was long gone by the time it captured silver at the 2005 Great American Beer Festival. Teh Pils has been a labor of love from the start for Saint Arnold founder Brock Wagner. Back in 1998 he noted:
“One malt, two hops, but a tough beer.” The malt he uses tends to get doughy and clogs the hydrator. “It’s expensive and hell to work with, but worth the trouble,” Wagner said.

Leinenkugel Sunset Wheat from Jacob Leinenkuegl Brewing in Wisconsin. Due next month and the first new year-round beer since 2002. (The company’s latest seasonal, Apple Spice, was its most successful seasonal launch ever.) sunet Wheat features features a slightly fruity and citrus character, complimented by the gentle spiciness of coriander. Brewed with malted wheat, balanced with pale barley malt and finished with Cluster hops and natural flavors.

A-B to import Tiger beer

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Anheuser-Busch will become the U.S. importer of Tiger Beer from Singapore, the two brewers jointly announced.

The St. Louis Post-Disptach points out that although Tiger Beer isn’t well known in the United States, Anheuser-Busch may be eying the brand’s performance in the United Kingdom as an indicator of its potential. Sold there for more than 30 years, the brand has become the most popular Asian imported beer brand in the U.K. and Ireland.

Tiger Beer is the third new import that Anheuser-Busch plans to add to the portfolio of products sold to its wholesalers. Last month, A-B began importing beer from its Chinese subsidiary Harbin Brewery Group to Los Angeles and Honolulu. Next month, it will begin importing the beers of Dutch brewer Grolsch.

Beer keg theft growing problem

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Today’s Wall Street Journal (subscription required) has a front page story about the growing of beer keg theft. The nut:

A global boom in the market price for commodities, including steel and aluminum, has sent scrap-metal prices soaring. And that has created a tempting target for criminals world-wide in everyday objects that contain metals – from light poles along highways to lowly beer kegs.

The story focuses on Boulevard Brewing in Kansas City. There Neil Witte has came up with a novel way of dealing with the problem, strapping each of his kegs with a large yellow “STOP!” tag with a cartoon cop warning scrap dealers not to buy Boulevard kegs.

The story sounds funny, but it particularly serious of smaller brewers. For instance, 40,000 kegs in Boulevard’s inventory represented more than 20% of the brewer’s fixed assets in 2004.

A different sort of St. Pauli girl

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StoutThe St. Pauli girl has a different look in a new advertising campaign for the German beer.

Instead of featuring the traditional St. Pauli girl in German attire the advertisements in March issues of magazines including Backpacker, Esquire, FHM, Giant, Maxim, Men’s Health, Playboy, Rolling Stone and Sports Illustrated show images that are part girl/part beer.

From the press release:

St. Pauli Girl’s new national print advertising campaign features sophisticated, sexy, yet recognizable female forms that morph into appetizing beer images. Each image in the campaign brings the brand “to life” with maximum stopping power in the magazines that the ads are scheduled to appear. Furthermore, the campaign’s visual treatment reflects one of the Brand’s core equities by extending the appeal of the St. Pauli Girl posters into print advertising in a new and collectible way.

“The experience consumers have with the St. Pauli Girl brand is personal,” said Bill Eisner, partner at Nonbox, the agency that developed the ads. “We wanted to create a visually and emotionally appealing page where they were allowed to fill in the blanks with their own experiences.”

The tagline for the campaign is “You Never Forget Your First Girl.”

Weekly Therapy: The Black & Tan

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Beer cocktails – concoctions that mix two different beers or even beer with a variety of spirits – have recently been touted as a good marketing tool in U.S. bars that otherwise pay little attention to beer as a beverage with taste.

We generally leave it to others to discuss the “joy” of mixing vodka, gin, tequila, cranberry juice and beer (yes, there’s a bar that puts all those in the same glass). After all, brewers worked hard to produce a drink that can be appreciated on its own. But the fact is that blending two beers together to produce something different – and this may take place in the brewery itself or wherever you are enjoying beer – is hardly new.

StoutThe best known mix is a Black and Tan or Half-and-Half, and whether these are the same or different depends on where you order them. With since everybody is thinking about St. Patrick’s Day on Friday, it seems like a good time to review the basics:

– You may use any brand stout or lighter colored ale or lager to make a Black and Tan (many brewpubs do this with house beers), but most patrons of Irish theme pubs in the United States think in terms of Guinness Stout and either Bass ale or Harp lager.

– The layering of a Black and Tan – that is the dark stout floating above the lighter beer – is said to be common only in American bars. When you begin drinking the beers will mix anyway, so some places choose to let them mix as they are poured.

– It is easier to produce a layered Black and Tan if the stout is dispensed from the special spouts use by Guinness, Murphy’s and Beamish as well as those used in some American brewpubs for their own stouts. Also if the stout is pushed with nitrogen. You begin by filling half the glass with the ale or lager. Next, slow the control on the spout tap and pour the stout slowly over the back of a spoon (Guinness even makes a decorative spoon just for this purpose). The stout will remain on top.

The name itself does not come from the use of a black beer and something lighter. It is derived from a political reference to the black and khaki military uniforms worn by the special auxiliary force – “The Black and Tans” – who were brought in to Ireland fight the Irish nationalists in 1920.

Weekend link-o-rama

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Some noteworthy blog posts and other beer discussions of the last week:

Beer: “Official Drink of Knuckleheads” – Can you guess the beer?

News Flash! – A particularly good one from the dependable Beer Haiku Daily.

Celebrating the arrival of Schlenkerla Helles Lagerbier.

Dating Old Rasputin – OK, the title just struck as as funny.

Are we winning? The Realbeer.com community discusses sales trends.

Saying cheers, from afar – Drinking glasses that communicate with each other via wireless.

Brewing and journalism – A curious analogy in The Economist.

Wit before and after – Nice pictures from a Flossmoor Station brewing session.

Mars Attracts! This place in Manhattan once planned to be a brewpub – and still has a brewing kettle on display.

Deschutes showcases outdoors in free DVD

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Deschutes Brewery is giving away a DVD for outdoor enthusiasts.

Rage Films showcases extreme athletes in extreme setting in “Fresh Flicks,” which Deschutes is handing out at on-premise accounts and also online. The breathtaking action includes kayaking the steep drop on Benham Falls on the Deschutes River and rock crawling the Moon Rocks in Nevada. More action features locales such as the White Salmon River, High Sierra, Rubicon Trail and Whistler, B.C.

“Rage incredibly captures many of the thrilling and adventurous pursuits available in the Northwest,” said Deschutes president Gary Fish. “Their films definitely appeal to our audience.”

The preview.

New choices from the U.S. and Belgium

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More new-to-the-shelf beers (seasonals returning, new imports, brand new beers). Information is from press releases.

Saison Imperiale from DeProefbrouwerij of Lochrist, Belgium: Saison Imperiale is a nod to the growing interest in the Saison style, alongwith growing popularity of “imperial-ized” versions of classic beer styles. The beer is light amber in color with an eggshell colored head. It is fermented with two yeasts – saccharomyces and (semi-wild) brettanomyces – giving it a traditional funky farmhouse character. A dash of coriander is also added. It has an original gravity of 1072 (18 plato), yielding 8.5% alcohol by volume. The beer is hopped at 30 IBU’s, using Tomahawk and Goldings.

Otter Creek 15th Anniversary IPA: The artwork for the label was commissioned especially for the anniversary. It features a painting by the well known Vermont artist Woody Jackson. “We chose to feature Woody’s painting on our Anniversary label,” said owner Morgan Wolaver, “because he is a local painter who can capture what Vermont means to us. The scenery in Vermont is so beautiful, and Woody really captured that quality in the painting, as well as the feeling of community. These are the things we care about. Apart from brewing great beer, which goes without saying!”

Stone Old Guardian Barley Wine: The 2006 vintage is the biggest yet, checking in at 11.26% abv. “Nowadays with technology everything is getting smaller, it’s nice to know here at Stone things keep getting bigger,” said Stone CEO Greg Koch. The 2006 Stone Old Guardian Barley Wine will be released in 22oz bottles principally because that is the only size bottle that can hold such a massive-profile beer, but also because it is the only size bottle that can fit the annual rambling soliloquy from Koch. (It says that in the press release.)

Sheep’s Secret Scotch Ale: From the Hartland Brewery in New York. Heartland Brewmaster Kelly Taylor: “Fresh Midwestern pale malts and British roasted barley impart a mellow malt sweetness, light toasted caramel background, and a smooth, balanced finish to this classic ale. 6.5% abv.”

Weekly Therapy: Tomme Arthur Q&A

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You might have heard that Port Brewing, which operates three brewery pubs in Southern California, acquired the former Stone Brewing facility in San Marcos. Now it’s time to find out what that means.

Tomme Arthur, who oversees brewing operations for Port Brewing, provided some answers just before heading off to Belgium with four other American craft brewers.

Arthur created some of the most sought after American craft beers of the young 21st century – an extraordinary range that includes Cuvee de Tomme, the ultra-hoppy Hop 15, saisons with a distinctive American twist and many others – but most have been served only at the Solano Beach facility where they were made or a few special beer events around the country.

Now they’ll be available to a much wider audience – although you won’t see them in your local grocery store soon – and a conversation with Arthur makes it obvious that he’ll have a lot more exciting news in the coming months.


Tell us about the company that bought the former Stone brewery.

TA: A new entity known as Port Brewing LLC. The goal of our new operation is to translate many of the fabulous beers that we as “Pizza Port” have been releasing and take them to a wider audience. We will also be building a new brand known as Lost Abbey as part of our operation.

What’s the system size and yearly capacity?

TA: The system is the former Stone Brewing 30-barrel brewhouse. It came with two 30-barrel fermenters, one 90-barrel fermenter and one 120-barrel fermenter. Total annual output through these tanks alone makes over 5000 barrels possible. This number is subject to change based on fermentation profiles of beers we are contemplating. We also have made a major investment in oak, which we believe will allow us to produce no less than 6 beers per year from these barrels.

How much oak?

TA: We now own 94 oak barrels, both bourbon and French Oak wine barrels.

We have already filled 6 bourbon barrels, and the first beer will spend 6 months breathing in the bourbon before being released later this year.

These wine barrels will be filled with all kinds of critters and fun bugs in the coming months. Some of the Cuvee de Tomme will find a home in these barrels (to offset some of the major bourbon flavor of the new oak blended at bottling time). We will also be releasing a new version of the Le Woody (the blonde version) as well as the Le Woody Brune, which will have a name change and slight recipe variation – different cherries.

We are making a major commitment to barrel aging and look to have six beers available in from wood after about 18 months of being up and running. Two (beers) will be strictly from bourbon barrels, one will be a blend (Cuvee) and three will be from the (bug-ladden) French Oak. All will be bottled. One will be brewed under Port Brewing brand and the other five will all be Lost Abbey beers.

What will be available beyond draft beer?

TA: As part of our expansion we have signed up with Stone Distributing, who will be handling our Southern California Distribution. The first cases of Sharkbite Red have already started hitting stores. This will be the only 6-pack from Port Brewing for now. We anticipate releasing a second beer in 12 ounce-bottles, but will let the market dictate what that release will be.

Our focus for bottling will be on larger format bottles. Most of the Pizza Port beers will be bottled and labeled under Port Brewing and sold in 22-ounce bottles. We hopes to have the first ready by early April. Beers like Shark Attack, Hop 15, Santa’s Little Helper and even new beers from Jeff Bagby (brewer for the Carlsbad pub) like Hop Suey may get a shot at hitting some glass in the not-so-distant future.

For the Lost Abbey, we will use a hood and wire unit. Like Russian River, Allagash and Unibroue we will be bottling in 750ml brown bottles imported into the states. All of the bottled Lost Abbey beers will be bottle conditioned with live yeast. The barrel-aged beers will most likely follow the Russian River beers into the market in 375ml glass. It is quite possible that limited runs of larger bottles may happen as well although, but we have not purchased a corker to do bottles larger than 1.5 liters.

What beers/brands that will be distributed?

TA: Port Brewing Co will be making Sharkbite Red Ale, Wipeout IPA and Amigo Lager for draft distribution. Only the red will be bottled. Seasonal beers will follow when possible.

On the Lost Abbey side, we envision four beers available in 750ml cork finished bottles. The first is Avant Garde.

I love the name of this one for many reasons. The dictionary definition:
A group active in the invention and application of new techniques in a given field, especially in the arts.
Of, relating to, or being part of an innovative group, especially one in the arts: avant-garde painters; an avant-garde theater piece.

This name just resonates what we will be about – finding ways to stay ahead of the curve and at the forefront of expression. The beer will be brewed in a quasi biere de garde fashion. In many ways, we expect it will be a table beer.

It will be brewed to about 6% abv with a lager yeast at ale fermentation temperatures. We will also be custom roasting some of the malt using the restaurant pizza ovens (yummy garlic). We brewed a pilot batch in Solana Beach and can’t wait to make it on a larger scale. The beer will sport a burnt blonde color with notes of freshly baked bread and a certain fruitiness from the yeast combined with Brewers Gold hops and Spalt from the French countryside.

As a brewer, what will you be able to do that you haven’t before?

TA: Not bump my head on the cellar in the brewery for starters. . . .

Then, we hope to stop having to apologize as we have in the past that many of these great beers aren’t available outside of San Diego. Honestly I am most excited about working on the barrel program and developing the Cuvee on a larger scale as well as other barrel-aged beers that weren’t possible in the past. The packaging of many of these “elusive” beers will enable us to be in more places than in the past. We are looking at opening up new states and distribution agreements in the next few years.

Since this deal went public online, we have been flooded with calls from people wanting our beers. While this feels great, we know that we have to take care of our backyard first before we head east.

Where will your beer be distributed?

TA: Initially only in Southern California to begin with. Arizona and Northern California would be next. We hope to have some beer on the East Coast in Philly and DC before the end of 2006.

Another gluten-free beer

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Another gluten-free beer becomes available in April. Bard’s Tale initially will be sold in 11 states, and company co-founder Craig Belser hopes to be nationwide in 12 to 18 months. Although other gluten-free beers already are being marketed, Belser said these beers are honey- or corn syrup-based and don’t taste like traditional beer.

Belser, who lives in Kansas, and Kevin Seplowitz, from Connecticut, first launched the brand more than a year ago, but had production problems in the Buffalo brewery where it is made. It will now be contract brewed in California, though Belser said he hopes to eventually build a brewery in Leawood, Kan.

[Via the Kansas City Business Journal]

Pro-am competition at GABF

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The Brewers Association and the American Homebrewers Association have announced a 2006 GABF Pro-Am Competition in honor of the 25th Anniversary of the Great American Beer Festival. From the BA website:

Here’s how it works. Craft breweries can select award winning homebrew recipes from existing homebrew competitions (competitions held after January 1, 2005 qualify) or through their own competition. The winning homebrewers must be American Homebrew Association members at the time of the judging. The professional brewers then scale up the winning homebrew recipes to be brewed in their brewery and entered in this special competition (GABF registration opens in mid-May).

The brewery will then submit that beer into the GABF competition to be judged against all the other GABF Pro-Am entries. Both the winning breweries and homebrewers will be awarded gold, silver and bronze GABF Pro-Am medals to be presented during the GABF awards ceremony held September 30, 2006 in Denver.

This looks like fun, since one of the rules is that beers that are entered must be served at the GABF.

Bottle cap art

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Once again it’s time for “The art of drinking Tröegs” contest. The rules are simple:

1. Collect Tröegs bottle caps
2. Use the caps to make art. (Don’t limit your thinking. It can be flat, it can be 3-dimensional, it can be anything (as long as you use the Tröegs caps).
3. Submit a photo of your work to Tröegs.

Information at the website.

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