Brookston Beer Bulletin

Jay R. Brooks on Beer

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Finding Balance In The Next Session

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For our 74th Session, our host is Bryan Roth, who writes This Is Why I’m Drunk. His topic is about finding balance in life, recognizing that however passionate or obsessed any of us are about our beer, life is more than just beer. Or as Bryan says it. “Beer is more than the alcohol that goes into it – it’s the passion, history and community. Beer is also just one of many interests I have in my life, whether it’s exercise, continuing my education or keeping tabs on how social media impacts society. Beer doesn’t define me, even if it may be something I can ramble on about for hours and hours. These are all things I love spending my time on, but what about you?” So here’s his invitation to I’m Having a Party and You’re Invited: “The Session” for April 2013:

April’s topic is “Finding Beer Balance.” It’s a discussion I hope will offer a variety of responses as people consider their interests outside of finding the perfect pint.

Is beer your vice? Is beer your reward? Does beer really have to be either? Do you find lifestyle balance through work, hobbies, family or maybe even “Dry Days” like David Bascombe? There are a variety of ways to find balance.

These questions are simply a jumping-off point. No matter what your answer, I’d love for you to join us in April. Here’s how to participate:

Think of a response to post on your blog. Or just leave a response in the comment section – no blog (or blogging experience) necessary.
Post your response on “Finding Beer Balance” on April 5.
Come back to this post and leave a comment with a link to your response.
It’s that easy.

So on Friday, April 5, take a moment to reflect on the other things in your life that are important to you, and how you balance those with your love of great beer. C’mon grasshopper, give us your zen wisdom; a few koans for the pub. What is the sound of one hand drinking a beer? Let us know with your Session post on the first Friday in April.

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Q&A With Ken Grossman

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This is a fun little video, apparently Sierra Nevada “[t]hrough Facebook and Twitter recently invited anyone who had a question for Ken Grossman to toss it our way. He combed through them and had fun answering a few in this video, and he typed up several others at” their blog, in a post entitled Your Questions for Ken Answered. Enjoy. [Note: For some reasons the graphics with the questions are displaying right now, but hopefully that will be fixed soon, but the answers are still there. For now, you can play Jeopardy.]

Choosing Glasses

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Today’s infographic continues our week of work by Matt Anderson Design of Rochester, New York. He did five beer-themed posters, the third of which is entitled “Choosing Glasses.”

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Click here to see the poster full size.

Beer Color Spectrum

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Today’s infographic continues our week of work by Matt Anderson Design of Rochester, New York. He did five beer-themed posters, the second of which is entitled “Beer Color Spectrum.”

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Click here to see the poster full size.

Green Beer Bottle Physics

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Wired’s Dot Physics blog has an interesting piece up today about Physics and Green Beer Bottles. Hat tip to the Homebrew Chef for the link. To make the point, the author used a UV-Visible Spectrometer to collect data for several different beer bottles, and below is a chart of the results, but check out the article to understand what it all means and why green and clear bottles are a bad idea, unless you have Miller’s Frankenstein tetrahops.

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The Last Barfighter

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This funny spoof of The Last Starfighter — an admittedly guilty 80s pleassure — caught my attention, partly because I have warm spot for the movie, and partly because it’s pretty clever all on its own.

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“The Last Barfighter is the first ever beer-dispensing arcade game,” it’s also an online ad created by Big Boss Brewing of Raleigh, North Carolina. It’s funny on several levels. Within the game, the text during the battle reads “To the Victor Goes the Pour.” And once someone wins, and they’re getting their reward — their cup is filled with beer — the screen reads “DRINK YOUR BEER and GO TALK TO GIRLS.” Good advice for the hardcore videogamer. Enjoy.

BA Releases New Style Guidelines

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The Brewers Association this morning released the 2013 Style Guidelines. According to the press release:

Updated annually, this year’s version defines 142 styles of beer, up from 140 in 2012.

Compiling the guidelines annually is a collaborative effort, and the 2013 version incorporates more than 100 suggestions from U.S. and international beer judges and experts, brewers and beer lovers. This year, Adambier and Grätzer styles were added for the first time. Both are historic pre-Reinheitsgebot styles that are making a slow revival among U.S. and international brewers. Adambier and Grätzer are historically smoky ales, with the former thriving in and around Dortmund, Germany, and the latter brewed primarily in Poland.

Changes were also made to the guidelines for American wheat ale, reflecting a growing trend in the craft brewing and homebrewing communities by which all-wheat grists are used in the brewing process.

A pdf of the new guidelines can be downloaded at the Brewers Association website.

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Yeast Evolution Due To Reuse

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Today’s infographic is almost a humorous one, although it does illustrate a brewing principal, that of how genrations of yeast can be propagated for homebrewing. It was created by the Half Moon Brewer. Whatever you do, avoid the zombie yeast. I actually have one of those yeast stuffed animals in my office. I probably won’t be able to look at it the same way again.

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Click here to see the chart full size.