About Beer

Beer for the Holidays

2009-11-20T05:59:09Z

With Thanksgiving here in the US just a week away and Christmas a little over a month away we are just about ready to enter the holiday season.� This time of year brings lots of reasons to eat and drink well with friends and family and so it is time, once again, for me to admonish you to serve beer with your feasts.� You know you want to and with a wider selection of beers available today than ever before, not to mention the great holiday seasonals that are hitting the beer store shelves, you simply don't have an excuse not to.� Make it beer this year!

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Beer for the Holidays originally appeared on About.com Beer on Friday, November 20th, 2009 at 05:59:09.

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Are Estate Beers Better?

2009-11-20T05:48:39Z

There seems to be a growing trend of brewers looking locally or even in their own backyards for brewing ingredients. While most craft and regional brewers don't have the resources to produce a complete estate beer like Sierra Nevada, a lot are looking closer to home for their ingredients. Locally grown hops and barley offer a lot of advantages - lower shipping costs, supporting the local economy, sustainability issuses and consumers tend to like the idea. But does it really make a difference in the glass?

I'm not saying that the trend should be stopped or even slowed. I'm all for it for the reasons listed above but I don't see that it really makes a difference in the taste or quality of the beer itself. At least it hasn't been demonstrated to me. Does wheat grown in Wisconsin really taste different in beer than wheat grown in Belgium? Would hops grown in Germany create a remarkably different beer from it's clone grown in Yakima?

I don't know. It would add an interesting, new dimension to beer if that were the case.

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Are Estate Beers Better? originally appeared on About.com Beer on Friday, November 20th, 2009 at 05:48:39.

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The End of Coffee Stout?

2009-11-17T11:11:50Z

I'm a big fan of coffee stout. It was one the first styles I homebrewed and I always grab a six pack of it when I notice a new one at the beer store - an increasingly rare event. And here might be the reason why.

The FDA sent a letter to nearly thirty makers of caffeinated alcohol products. It basically said that this particular combination has never been deemed safe and is, therefore, unsafe. The companies have 30 days to prove that the FDA actually did call the combo safe sometime in the past or they will have to stop making and selling the stuff.

Presumably, this came about because of the drinks made by putting energy drinks together with every type of alcohol from light lager to vodka, which I've never tried. But my beloved coffee stout and any other beer brewed with caffeine are included. The press release points out that any amount of caffeine counts. And the list of beverage companies that received letters includes Ithaca Beer Company because of their coffee sweet stout, Eleven.

So, where will this end up? I have no idea. The press release from the FDA seems pretty firm but that could just be the way these things go. Even if there is a dangerous side effect to ingesting huge amounts of caffeine with alcohol it seems some percentage would be allowable.

The other alternative would be decaf coffee stout but that's starting to sound too much like an annoying order at Starbucks.

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The End of Coffee Stout? originally appeared on About.com Beer on Tuesday, November 17th, 2009 at 11:11:50.

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�5,000 for a Single Beer? Oh, the Humanity!

2009-11-13T08:55:23Z

Did you know that a six pack of beer survived the crash of the Hindenburg? For a long time hardly anyone did. When fire fighter Leroy Smith found the six bottles of Lowenbrau beer and a silver pitch among the wreckage he hid them. Later he gave five of the bottles to colleagues.

Most of the beer has been lost to history. But Leroy's bottle survives along with the pitcher. Both are being auctioned with the beer expected to fetch �5k and the pitcher �12k.

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�5,000 for a Single Beer? Oh, the Humanity! originally appeared on About.com Beer on Friday, November 13th, 2009 at 08:55:23.

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To Sell a Brewery

2009-11-13T08:42:17Z

Like all beer lovers, I occasionally fantasize about owning my own brewery. But what if you could own one of the most iconic brands out there? Well, now you can! (Provided you have $300K in your wallet.)

Pabst is up for sale. Yep, once again the brand is looking for a new home. Most of us know the recent troubled past of the once dominant American lager. With the recent surge of popularity of PBR, it looked like the troubles might be in the past.

Not so. The current owner, Kalmanovitz Charitable Foundation, has been told that they need to unload their profitable asset. See, Kalmanovitz is a charity and, as such, is prohibited by the IRS to own a for-profit company. Kalmanovitz has been ordered to sell Pabst - actually it was ordered to do so some time ago but finding a buyer has proven rather difficult. The IRS granted an extension to 2010.

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To Sell a Brewery originally appeared on About.com Beer on Friday, November 13th, 2009 at 08:42:17.

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Taking Stock of the Beer Market

2009-11-13T08:28:18Z

Things just don't seem to be turning around for the business of big beer. For most of this first decade of the 2000's the big brewers haven't been able to find their footing. 2009 isn't promising any sort of turn around.

Here is how the numbers are stacking up. Despite fiddling with prices and continued aggressive marketing SABMiller, Molson Coors and Anheuser-Busch Inbev are all seeing declines in their volume sales. World wide, Miller is down 1%, Coors is down 2.9% and ABI has slipped 3.1%.

At the same time, US craft brewers are still improving with sales by volume up 5% for the first half of 2009. Their pace has slacked a bit, last year it was up 6.5% for the same period. But, it's still heartening to see that, even in this economy, people are turning to the sometimes more expensive and always more flavorful craft beer segment.

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Taking Stock of the Beer Market originally appeared on About.com Beer on Friday, November 13th, 2009 at 08:28:18.

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Empty Keg Retrieval

2009-11-08T13:03:22Z

Ever wonder what happens to empty beer kegs or beer that has sat too long in a keg to be drinkable. Here's an interesting little profile of one company that specializes in handling empty kegs. Who knew?

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Empty Keg Retrieval originally appeared on About.com Beer on Sunday, November 8th, 2009 at 13:03:22.

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Know Your Trappist Ales

2009-11-06T07:14:50Z

Here's a website that every beer lover should spend some time getting to know. The International Trappist Association closely guards what products, including beer, can be called "trappist" and carry the Authentic Trappist Product label.

Right now only seven monasteries can put the label on their beer. They include Achel, Chimay, La Trappe, Orval, Rochefort, Westvleteren, and Westmalle. In order to do so, the monastaries must follow certain rules: the beer must be brewed within the monastery walls, it cannot be brewed as a profit making concern, it must be secondary to the monastic way of life and it is to be constantly monitored for "irreproachable quality."

Also, beer isn't the only product these monasteries produce and sell. They have everything from mushrooms to cosmetics to silk paintings.

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Know Your Trappist Ales originally appeared on About.com Beer on Friday, November 6th, 2009 at 07:14:50.

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More Homegrown Beer Ingredients for African Brewer

2009-11-05T21:06:52Z

For a few years now, SABMiller has been contracting with small African farmers for grain for the company's African breweries. The company recently announced that they plan to more than double the raw materials brought in through the program by 2012. With around 82% of the stuff going into beer being imported currently, this seems like a smart move. I don't know a lot about this program - this article is the first I've heard of it - but it seems like a good thing.

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More Homegrown Beer Ingredients for African Brewer originally appeared on About.com Beer on Thursday, November 5th, 2009 at 21:06:52.

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Your Beer and Psychographics

2009-11-03T13:03:04Z

What does your choice in beer say about you? I like to think that if I'm drinking a particular beer at a particular time it only says that this is the beer that I'm in the mood to drink.

Apparently not.

As reported over at Advertising Age a recent study by the market researchers at Mindset Media shows that the brand and type of beer that we choose - or choose not - to drink places us in specific statistical categories. For example, Bud drinkers are 42% more likely to drive pick-ups, Corona drinkers are 92% more likely to buy recycled products and craft beer lovers are 52% more likely to be fans of the sitcom The Office. (No mention of whether they mean the original British series or the new US version.)

Of course, these are statistics so not everyone will fit the form. But it's still interesting stuff. Makes me wonder if I've been wrong to rail against beer marketers all these years who are selling a lifestyle and not a product. But then there I go thinking like a typical craft beer drinker, being all open-minded and intellectually curious and stuff!

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Your Beer and Psychographics originally appeared on About.com Beer on Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009 at 13:03:04.

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