It's funny how quickly things change in the beer world.  Just 3 months ago (or thereabouts), Brewdog was releasing Tactical Nuclear Penguin.  I wrote an article against Roger Protz to defend the achievement, and we talked a bit about the brew. Now, just a couple months later, the record of 32% has been surpassed twice, and a third record is on the way. I thought I had more time.  What do I mean?  When Brewdog released their beer, I thought to myself, "Why can't I, as a homebrewer, go after the record?  Even if I don't beat it, it will be fun to try."  So, I embarked on the arduous task of making a huge Chocolate Vanilla Bourbon Imperial Stout and vacillated between the two names above as a fun tongue-in-cheek reference to taking down a Tactical Nuclear Penguin. Go for the gold, right? Well, where did I end up?  The answer is still in the wings.  I didn't get quite the yeast performance I wanted, but I'm still in the process of finding out.  I suppose the record seems a little moot at this point because a German company is about to release a 45% beer.  However, I had fun and ...

We just got our 100,000th hit.  To some of you that might not mean a lot.  In fact, people who visit this site get over 100,000 on their sites in a pretty short span of time.  My little bro regularly reminds me of how many hits Finish Line gets in in much shorter span (he does a lot with their web side).  Let me tell you now without an ounce of equivocation or disappointment that I'm thrilled about our 100,000th hit.  The first month that we were a site we saw a whopping 514 hits for the whole month.  Now, a year and a half later, we are seeing our 100,000th hit.  The information and traffic has grown immensely in that period of time.  Simply stated, we've seen a very consistent amount of growth on the site leads me to believe we will see our next 100,000 more hits over a much shorter span of time.  Obviously, we have a turtle vs. the hare approach to growth.  I'm not sure a meteoric rise would be the best thing for us.  But I would be remiss not to add a few other points. First of all, it really did take quite a ...

In the past few months a bit of chatter over the slight rise in the cost of beer has risen over the various media venues.  This is to be expected as weakened dollar and fragile global economy has and will continue to drive up the cost of commodities.  Externally influenced factors aside, there has also been a bit of a buzz over higher priced beers whose cost is influenced by factors other than market fluctuations.  There are numerous factors that affect the price of any given beer, and I need not head down a rabbit trail that's already been paved, but I do want to address this particular cause of disgruntlement, as I saw a great case of "expensive beer shock disorder" tonight. At my usual bottle shop tonight I examined a 750 ml bottle of Brooklyn Brewery's latest release of Black Ops, again, for the second week in a row.  There was a certain amount of hype going into the release of this beer, and rightfully so.  The ever respectable Garret Oliver put a considerable amount of TLC into this beer:  11.6%, aged in oak bourbon barrels, and bottle conditioned with champagne yeast. I first saw Black Ops over a weak ...

As our readers know, I homebrew.  Not only do I homebrew batches, I experiment often.  I might add a whole new dimension or a subtle change to a brew.  For instance, the other day I posted about roasting my own cocoa beans at home—not an easy thing—so I really appreciate good chocolate even more.  For my part, I like to take one gallon of my brew aside and experiment with it.  Recently, I added some blueberries to an oatmeal stout I had recently brewed with some pretty nice results.  I bottled it the other day, but then I thought, "What about these blueberries?" My wife and I don't like wasting anything.  We cook carrot tops, beet greens, broccoli stems—basically anything that is edible and is subsidiary to the actual vegetable or fruit.  Everything gets used, so I speculated that the blueberries might have more life in them.  I also had some wort I had frozen from a hydrometer reading of a brew.  I figured it was sweet and sugary, so I could find a use for it. I also had some cocoa beans left from roasting.  The result?  Beer wort jam. I took some fresh-squeezed lemonade we had made and used it ...

Many people who brew or want to brew are often somewhat hesitant about mashing.  It seems like a step that could easily get out of control.  This generates a feeling of consternation for the extract brewer.  I waited a long time to make the leap, but I'm so glad I made it that I'm hoping you make the leap soon.  I've personally noticed a marked improvement in my beers, so much so that I haven't brewed an extract beer since I've started mashing.  Honestly, if you do a little more work, you get a great reward. The most unfortunate part when I learned to mash--in fact, for my whole brewing career--is that I never really had anyone to offer me a guiding hand along the way.  Perhaps this is why I feel compelled to be that guiding hand for those who wish to navigate the world of mashing.  Here we go: this promises to have a fair amount of expatiation. There are several types of mashing that can be performed on the basis of beer style.  Wheats, for instance, call for a more intense process than an IPA. If you want to mash, it would behoove you to get a book like ...

Summer or Winter, I love a good wheat beer.  There is more to the style than might meet the eye.  Almost immediately, many people think of Hefes when the term "wheat beer" comes up.  Well, I wouldn't want to truncate this post to that degree.  Actually, Nate wrote a very nice post about wheat beers for our Styles of Beer Series, so I don't have to go to in depth.  But there are many types of beer which to consider--mostly because they are somewhat hybrid types of beer--and I'll add a couple to what Nate had on his post.  At any rate, here are some wheats that I believe are good examples of the style. Wheat Bock/Double Bock: This is one of the wheat beers that is a great winter beer, although I will enjoy it in the heat of summer.  Wheat bocks are a very strong style of wheat beer that often uses a lager strain in addition to an ale strain and/or undergoes a lagering period.  They are thicker, stronger, and often darker than a normal wheat beer, yet they are oddly refreshing.  To me, the quintessence of the style is the classic Aventinus by Scheider and Sohn's.  The ...

By now, I'm sure many of us have seen that there has been a sort of call to arms to purchase, rent, or peddle the Beer Wars movie.  So, what are we waiting for?  Look, there are aspects of the movie that we could all site as being selective, whatever other criticisms we might have.  But I think the thing that we can all agree on is that monopolies are bad unless you are playing the Parker Brothers version and land on a fully loaded Free Parking spot. Here's the thing: the basic message deals with the fact the all aspects of the market place are dominated by the big boys. Distribution independence is a rare commodity, and everyone is in bed with the big players.  I wish that I was simply being hyperbolic like I love to be, but the issue is real.  I remember a while back that a certain other website was grousing about not being able to get Stone while they were planning a new facility in Europe.  But maybe the fingers could have been better spent pointing right down the street at Budweiser.  Either way, fair distribution and a level playing field are veritable impossibility. Have you ...

I posted about a beer tasting party that I had last year.  I had a blast and people learned a ton about beer.  I also learned how much I love doing this sort of thing.  Well, some time has passed, and I'm almost a year older.  In fact, I am a year older.  Wednesday (17th) was my 30th birthday, and I had to work.  Fortunately, my wife and some friends planned an epic bash for me on Tuesday.  We partied like it's...well, let's just say it would have been a nice last night on planet earth. I'm writing this with the hope of inspiring more intentionality about sharing beer with neophyte friends.  Something as simple as the difference between a lager and an ale sparked some interest at my party.  With the exception of one or two other people, I was really one of the only craft/import beer lovers.  It's a unique opportunity to expose some people to the sheer beauty of the beer world.  We had  some magical stuff happening that night, and I wanted to share the list.  We can all see that it's not a cheap venture, but it's certainly a beautiful one. At this tasting, I did a ...

I suppose it is only human nature to want to outdo your neighbor, at least in a survival of the fittest mentality.  However, in this world capitalist economy we lose our way.  Case in point, within seconds of my father putting his mower away his next door neighbor hastily makes sure to remove his retired self from the lazy boy and mow his pristine yard.  Heaven forbid his yard not be the best trimmed in the neighborhood, if even for a moment.  I love visiting every summer just to observe this asinine behavior. Of course, a beer analogy ensues. In 2002 Samuel Adams wowed the world with it's release of a monster of a beer, Utopias, which boasted an ABV of 27%.  Go ahead and search around online for it.  A quick google search revealed a several year old bottle for $599.99.  Sam Adam's spends years making this beverage, aging it in used liquor barrels. Sam Adam's inadvertently started the big beer race, and it seems to have picked up speed in recent months.  First off, let me state that there is an overwhelming trend of bigger beers.  It seems the higher the ABV, the more interest a beer generates.  Remember The Bruery?  ...

Here is a continuation of our series on what factors affect the price of beer.  The rest of the posts can be found here. The law of supply and demand seems like a simple concept.  Almost everyone takes the idea for granted, but it's amazing how little we actually think about it.  In a consumer based economy, this law is a pillar to purchasing.  Simply stated, there is a certain amount of a given commodity; let's say beer could be the one we'll talk about.  There is not an infinite supply of a given beer.  Naturally, this is irrelevant if no one wants said beer, but the real sticking point may be seen when a lot of people want the beer.  Ideally, the amount of beer will meet (or come close to meeting) the desire for it. The reality is that if more people want a given beer than there is of that beer, brewers are in a position to charge, within reason, what they want for the products.  The ideal position for a brewer seems to fall firmly within this sphere of economic situation.  Of course, care must be taken not to extort nor to alienate one's customer base, so brewers ...