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Session #68: The Novelty Of Novelty Beers

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n-novelty
Our 68th Session is hosted by Tiffany Adamowski who writes at 99 Pours. The topic she’s chosen is “Novelty Beers,” those oddball beers that range from interesting idea to what the fuck were you thinking:

With the onslaught of even weirder beards … erm … beers … than before, I can’t help but wonder if novelty beers are going too far. Or maybe not far enough? LOL! As a merchant of beer, I can see the place for novelty beers, as I am choosing for some customers who say, “I want the strangest beer you have.” We’ve even seen some novelty beers in our top-sellers. But beer traditionalists sometimes frown on these new and bizarre concoctions. And I can’t help but wonder if Martyn Cornell will participate, sharing bizarre but notable historic brews.

And what better time for novelty, than the month that holds Halloween? That’s six weeks from now, so get out and explore the novelty beers out there. Publish your Novelty Beer Session on Friday, October 5th, then share your posts here.

What novelty beer comes to mind when you think: Is this beer just to strange to stay around? Why in the world would they choose ingredients most beer drinkers have never heard of …what the heck is a qatar fruit? If it’s okay for beer to taste like tea or coffee, why not pizza? If wild yeasts are allowed to ferment beer, then why not beard yeast? If oysters, why not bacon? If pumpkin’s good enough for pie, why not beer? Since hops are flowers, why not brew with actual flowers?

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I’ve had beer out of a bottle in a taxidermied stoat, pizza beer, beer containing Sam Calagione’s spit, beer that was 30+ years old (and not built for aging), beer with redwood tips instead of hops and who knows what else. If they brewed it, I’ve tried it. I guess I have no scruples about what I’ll at least try, beerwise, anyway. I tell myself it’s the job, that I should at least taste every beer that someone took the time to make and market. But the truth is I’m keen to try them, often just because of the novelty. As a result, I’ve had my fair share, perhaps more than my fair share, of novelty beers.

Novel, of course, means new, which is why we still call many books of fiction novels, a throwback to when the idea of writing fiction was, well … novel. Novelty, likewise, is also something new, unique and, ultimately, transitory, fleeting, ephemeral. Many people once thought craft beer was a passing fad. Hopefully, that notion no longer holds any weight outside the wishful thinking of many larger beer companies.

Novelty beers are meant to come and go. That’s what makes them novel. If they stick around, and are accepted, they lose their novelty status and become part of the canon. Did anyone except perhaps Vinnie Cilurzo think Double IPAs would take off they way they did? I doubt it.

peanut_peanut

For me, one of the novelty beers that I seek out is one that few people I’ve talked to share my passion for, which is why I thought it a good topic for this Session. I love peanut butter; always have. Creamy, that’s the only way. You crunchy fans? You’re wrong. Such is my passion for creamy peanut butter.

I lived in the south for a few years, where I discovered peanut butter pie. Somewhat like cheesecake in texture, and decadently rich, and often made even better with the addition of chocolate. I became obsessed, and would not only order it every time I’d find it on a menu, but even started actively seeking out new restaurants just to see if they made one. After I moved to California, it became much harder to find, and I only occasionally found any PBP. So far, most are not nearly as good as the ones I had in North Carolina, sadly.

But I did find a restaurant here in the Bay Area — Spettro’s in Oakland — that has a peanut butter specialty that I also love: peanut butter pizza. They take a thin layer of pizza dough, coat it with a layer of peanut butter, then add another layer of dough on top. Next, they make the pizza normally, with just one topping, the perfect choice to pair with peanut butter: bacon. It’s rich and delicious. Yum.

So imagine my surprise when I discovered that people were making peanut butter beer. A few years ago at GABF, someone was talking about it, but they couldn’t remember who made it. I was on a quest. Eventually, I hit pay dirt. It turned out to be, surprisingly enough, a Blue Moon product, and draft only, I later discovered.

So how was it? Pretty good, to my way of thinking. Most of the peanut butter flavor was in the nose, though it lingered through the flavors, too, just not as intensely. A light colored golden beer, it’s brewed with pale, caramel and munich malts; Chinook and Saaz hops (but only 12 IBUs); and weighs in at 5.4% a.b.v.

I later judged with Keith Villa, Blue Moon’s founder who came up with the peanut butter recipe. Apparently, they use jars of creamy peanut butter — JIF, I think he told me — right off the grocery store shelves, and the brewers hate having to spoon it into the kettle by hand. I can only imagine the clean-up afterwards is a nightmare, as well. And so, they don’t make it very often, he told me.

blue-moon-pb

I later discovered that they weren’t the only ones, either. Short’s also made Uber Goober, and I’ve heard that Ohio’s Willoughby Brewing makes a Peanut Butter Cup Coffee Porter, also on draft only. A few others have tried their hand at a Peanut Butter Porter or Stout, too, and a search for “peanut butter” on Beer Advocate turns up 19 different efforts, of which two are retired. A similar search on Rate Beer found 25. So apparently I’m not alone in my love for all things peanut buttery. I just printed out the list to take with me to GABF next week. Fingers crossed, maybe I’ll find a few more peanut butter beers. Now all I need is a raspberry or strawberry beer to pair with it.

My BFF Beer

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bff

Canada’s Random House Publishing runs an interesting website called Hazlitt, where, presumably, they feature their own authors on a variety of topics. The one that caught my attention was by Linda Besner, and it’s an essay about My Best Friend, beer.

She begins by claiming that mankind has been “thinking and talking about beer since 4000 B.C.” She’s only off by as much 5,500 years, since brewing is believed to have begun with the “advent of agriculture in the Neolithic Period of the Stone Age about 11,500 years ago.” I don’t want to dwell on that, because we haven’t even gotten to the meat of it, but it did make me initially skeptical.

The story concerns a study that examined beer commercials from both the U.S. and the Ukraine, described as a “cross-cultural study of beer’s metaphors.” Again, I’m quibbling a bit, because the researchers looked at a total of 37 ads from both nations, not exactly a large number, but the author credits them with having “seen a lot of beer commercials.” I think the average consumer might see nearly that many during the average football game, or certainly over the course of a Sunday watching sports in general. But okay, let’s let them make their point. What did they find?

“While the personification of beer is consistent from Ukrainian to U.S. commercials, it seems to me that the kind of person beer is in Ukraine is different from the kind of person beer is in the States.”

In the Ukrainian commercials, the study notes, “people do not become friends by sharing beer; rather beer drinking occurs among individuals who are already established as friends, which entails a close and trusting relationship.” The people drinking beer together are described as druh, which Dr. Lantolf translates as being like the English concept of “best friend,” rather than tovarysch, which translates as “comrade” or “acquaintance.”

In the United States, it’s almost the opposite. Apparently, we use the term “friend” rather loosely, calling people we hardly know, or have just met, our friends. In other words, many of our friends are more superficial, at least compared to how Ukrainians see them.

To illustrate, they give the example of a Budweiser commercial currently up on YouTube under the name “Magic Beer.” A young man sits alone at a bar, opening a bottle. He pours it into his glass, but, miraculously, once the glass is full, beer continues to spill forth. Quickly, he pours some of the excess beer into the glasses of the men next to him. In the next shot, the bar is packed with carousers dancing to a live Scottish band as beer continues to gush from the magic bottle. The erstwhile lonely young man dances between his new friends, a beatific look on his face. Then he drops the bottle. It smashes on the floor, and the flow of beer trickles to nothing amid ghastly silence. The outraged people around him glare daggers. Those closest to him turn and walk away.

Frankly, I hate these ads. They’re not just superficial, they’re utterly ridiculous. Saying they’re depicting how typical Americans act, or view friendship, seems like quite a leap. I think it says more about the advertisers than the consumers, and maybe even a little about the researchers that they think idealized commercials reflect real life.

Even if I accept the premise, that that may be how some people see their “friends,” I’ve never considered such people my friends. Fair-weather friends, perhaps, but that’s a rather derogatory expression. Is it possible I’m not typical? No, I don’t think so, because I’m pretty sure most of the people I know well feel roughly the same way.

I love beer. I make my living writing about it, reviewing, analyzing it, along with the people and companies who make, sell and market it. I have admittedly made friends, to varying degrees, with actual people who work in the industry. But I’d never mistake the beer itself as my friend. It’s an inanimate object, after all. I may love beer, but in the same way I love potato chips or frites. It’s not the same as another person. Doesn’t everyone know the difference?

beer-friend

Not according to the study, apparently. To wit:

It seems that not only do Americans see beer as a person, they see beer as a person other people like better than them. In this scenario, beer is the cool friend you bring to the party who makes you popular by association. As soon as your cool friend leaves, no one wants to hang out with you anymore. It’s doubtful, Dr. Lantolf says, that the producers of “Magic Beer” and other commercials are consciously depicting shallow friendships: “I think that what they were showing is how Americans typically behave.: Dr. Bobrova is originally from the Ukraine, and she says, “I didn’t expect that American commercials would show this superficial concept of American friendships. I have many friends in the U.S. and we spend time together and I share everything with them as with Ukrainian friends. But commercials show a little bit of a different picture. But then,” she adds, “I’m not a beer person.”

Should I be insulted by that? I’m really not sure. I don’t believe that’s “how Americans typically behave.” Sure, there are certainly superficial people in the world, and I’d be willing to accept that a lot of them live here in the States, but I don’t think it’s something most people aspire too. I don’t think Americans view superficiality as a positive attribute. So when the researchers say they think “Americans see beer as a person,” it’s the people in the commercials who may “see beer as a person,” but they’re not real. They’re actors. It’s not the same thing. The advertisers are projecting an image onto the characters to sell us something. It’s not necessarily a reflection of real people, or real life. Am I off base here?

I know many Canadians quietly don’t think too much of their neighbors, and there are certainly times when I agree with them, at least about how we sometimes behave and view the world. But this one I just don’t quite understand. The author of the piece, Linda Besner, is a poet from Quebec who recently published her first collection, The Id Kid. And they may be fine poems, “sassy and sumptuous,” as her publisher describes them, but I can’t help but think she doesn’t know human nature as well as she might think. But the researchers have even more to answer for, since they’re from the University of Pennsylvania, the same school where Patrick McGovern, author of Uncorking the Past, does his research and teaches.

In the end, however effective advertising can be, I tend to think most people know the difference between it and real life. My old hometown beer — Reading Premium Beer — used to advertise with the wonderful slogan: “The Friendly Beer for Modern People.” I love that phrase, but it’s utterly meaningless. I don’t think beer can be friendly, any more than my cat actually likes me when I rub her belly. Oh, sure, it looks likes she’s smiling, but I know she really thinks of me as the hired help. But actual personification, or anthropomorphisation in the case of my feline companions, of beer is ultimately just as futile. It’s just the advertisers trying to project — maybe that needs a new word: advermorphisation — human characteristics onto inanimate objects. Beer will never be my BFF. The people I drink beer with? Those are my people, my true BFFs.

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Politics & Big Beer Brands

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politics-balloons
Here’s a curious piece of data, showing how which big beer brand you prefer may determine how likely you are to vote in the upcoming election and whether you lean more to the Democratic side of the aisle, or the Republican. The poll was conducted by Scarborough Research and the results written up in the National Journal as What Your Beer Says About Your Politics.

But it’s only the big brands that were tallied, the domestics and the most popular imports. The only one close to craft is Samuel Adams, who in most people’s mind, I think, is straddling both worlds right now. Even so, there are a few surprising results, at least to my mind. I would not have thought, for example, Samuel Adams drinkers would skew so heavily Republican. Maybe it’s the naked jingoism, the patriotic perception of the brand, I don’t know.

The other one that surprised me was that Heineken skewed so far on the Democratic side. I tend to think of Heineken as a brand that people who don’t know any better think is a high end, premium brand, in the same way bald, middle-aged men drive Corvettes to recapture their youth, not realizing it’s no longer the hip car it once was. But maybe that’s just my own bias. In any sort of polling, I rarely fall under the “typical” findings.

Take a look at the chart below and see what you think. Does it make sense to you?

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The chart is tough to see this small, but you can see it full size, or look at on the original National Journal post.

Beer From Beard Yeast, Yes; From Vaginas, No

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women
You most likely remember that Rogue harvested some yeast from the beard of their longtime brewmaster, John Maier, and White Labs analyzed it and propagated a brewing yeast that Rogue in turn used to brew a beer with. Not everyone responded favorably to the news, but in terms of attention and publicity, it’s been a huge hit, with almost every news agency, website and blog writing about it. I made it the subject of part of one of my newspaper columns back in July. A Google search of “rogue beard beer” turns up over 1.4 million hits.

But just when you think things can’t get any weirder, my wife — who’s been working in Shanghai this week — just sent me an article from a feminist blog she reads regularly, Jezebel. Inspired by John Maier’s beard beer exploits, they wrote an article about one more place known for its occasional yeast production that we can write off as a place to harvest for brewing. The article, entitled Just So You Know, You Can’t Make Beer With Your Vagina, answers the question I’m not sure anyone was asking. But now that I know there is an answer, I can’t look away. It’s like that car crash on the side of the road. I know I shouldn’t look, but I just can’t help myself.

Beginning with the premise that “[y]east is everywhere, even (as we ladies well know) buried deep inside our vaginas, waiting to go bad and ruin our week at any moment,” they wonder if anyone could “turn a yeast infection into a full-bodied IPA.” At this point, I’ll let author
Madeleine Davies share the results.

We did some research and, in a word, no. The yeast used in beer is a completely different strain of yeast than the one that causes yeast infections. And there goes your artisanal brewery idea!

The yeast used in beer is called Saccharomyces cerevisiae and works by converting carbohydrates to carbon dioxide and alcohols. This is also the yeast used in bread, which is why baking yeast can be used to brew beer, though it generally makes the end product doughy in flavor and texture. Yeast infections are caused by Candida albicans, a fungus that grows as both yeast and filamentous cells and can cause oral and genital infections in humans. Using this to brew would be entirely ineffective, not to mention, guh-ross.

So there you have it. No vagina beer. I, for one, am relieved. It was one thing to have Sam Calagione and his team spitting in his Peruvian-style chicha beer, and Maier’s beard never bothered me too much, because White Labs removed any lingering ick factor by growing the yeast in their San Diego lab. But in the on-going quest to push the envelope, generate publicity and maybe even make something worth drinking, this may be crossing a line. What do you think?

vergina
Close, but no vagina.

Beer Institute Releases Results Of New Beer Drinkers Poll

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beer-institute
According to the Beer Institute (BI), recent economic analysis has revealed “that brewing and importing accounted for $223.8 billion in the economic output of the United States — with employees earning nearly $71.2 billion wages and benefits, and generating more than $44 billion taxes. In 2010, the last year tax statistics were available, 45 percent of what every beer drinker paid for a beer went to taxes of some kind, which “makes taxes the most expensive ingredient in your beer,” Joe McClain, president of the BI, stated.

The Beer Institute has just released a national poll of 1,000 likely voters, which found strong opposition to increasing taxes on beer. Nine out of 10 voters in the poll agreed that “raising taxes on beer will mean working class consumers will have to pay more.”

The poll also found that self-identified “beer drinkers” are a larger proportion of the electorate than self-identified supporters of either the Tea Party of Occupy Wall Street movement, and were evenly split between Republican and Democratic parties.

Beer drinkers are also more political than the average likely voter:

  • 68 percent of regular beer drinkers say they discuss what’s going on in the presidential campaign with friends or co-workers.
  • 66 percent of regular beer drinkers say they are going to be watching the presidential debates, meaning they are more likely to watch presidential debates than watch the World Series or an NFL game.
  • 25 percent say they will likely donate or contribute money to a political party, cause, or candidate running for public office.
  • 14 percent (or one out of seven) beer drinkers say they will likely volunteer for a political party, cause, or on the campaign for a candidate running this year.

European Breweries Map

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european_union
Pop Chart Lab, who have tackled beer before in graphic form, have just released their newest creation, a map of the Breweries of Europe. At their website, it’s an interactive map, and you can also purchase a poster of it. As Charlie Papazian points out (in his Tweet where I learned about the map), it’s “not complete but pretty good.” It’s hard to see the detail when it’s small, but at Pop Chart Lab’s website, the map is interactive, so you can zoom in to see all of the detail.

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Naked Beer Cans

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nude
This is an interesting design, generic beer cans, made to look as if they were essentially clear and showing the contents inside, albeit in an idealized way. They were created by Timur Salikhov, a designer from St. Petersburg, Russia.

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He starts with the premise “Why hide what good beer looks like?”

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And then he designed the cans to appear as if they were a freshly poured glass of beer. It’s fun concept and apparently he’d like to sell the idea to a brewery. I think the only unfortunate aspect of his design is that without additional branding on the package, it may look too generic. BUt it sure looks like a beer I’d like to open.

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Fermentation Films: A Recap

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film
The Twitterverse was abuzz this morning, and the rest of the day, with a clever little game of substituting a beer term for a word in a movie title to come up with what the hashtag termed a “Fermentation Film.” Usually it’s the adult film world that has the best titles, but there were some pretty clever ones thrown down today by a wide range of people. As far as I can tell, it began around 3:00 p.m. in Great Britain (7:00 A.M. Pacific), before migrating across the pond to the United States. The flurry went on for far longer than any hashtag I’ve ever seen that wasn’t event-based. For nearly ten hours, the beerified film titles kept coming, finally slowing down by the end of the work day, California time.

Below is a list of all of the Fermentation Films tweeted with the hashtag #fermentationfilms, along with the person who came up with it first. I worked backwards, so if you tweeted one and there’s a different name next to it, then your tweet was not the first one with that title. The winner of most duplicated has to be “Yeast of Eden.” I think I saw a dozen of those. I kicked out the duplicates, along with a few that were too close, and also didn’t include a few that either were actual film titles or ones that in my admittedly questionable judgement I didn’t understand or didn’t find worthy. That still left a staggering 440 455 fermentation film titles. [Update: I promised myself I wouldn’t go back, but there were a few new ones I couldn’t bear to leave out, so I updated it. The list is now current through September 26 at 11:00 AM PDT.] There’s a few that still make me laugh out loud and a few that made me groan, but they’re all pretty entertaining. Enjoy.

  1. Acetaldehyde Ventura, Pet Deconcotion (beerblog)
  2. Acetobacter The Future (ctrl-malt-delete)
  3. Ale Dogs Go To Heaven (Collin Simula)
  4. Ale of Despereaux (HomeBrewing.com)
  5. Ale Rider (infamous rascal)
  6. All Quiet on the Secondary Fermentation (All About Beer)
  7. All the Brewmasters Men (Chris Heier)
  8. Alpha Grog (BillF)
  9. An Altbier to Remember (Bull City Homebrew)
  10. American Brewty (Sierra Nevada Beer)
  11. The Andromeda Strain (Sid Boggle)
  12. The Angelic Fermentation (Adam Vavrick)
  13. Annie Hallertau (Brookston)
  14. Any Given Krausen (Armando Garcia)
  15. Anything Gose (Brad C.)
  16. Apocalypse Brau (Meredith Whitfield)
  17. Apollo 13%AA (Chris Heier)
  18. Apple Pulp Fiction (Kevin Bagshaw)
  19. Arsenic and Belgian Lace (Jessica Vander Velde)
  20. Arsenic and Old Lacing (Lisa Grimm)
  21. The Attenuation Commandments (Simon H Johnson)
  22. The Autolysis Strikes Back (Chris Heier)
  23. Backdraught (JP)
  24. Ballast Point Blank (Abe Froman)
  25. The Bamberg Club (Lisa Grimm)
  26. Barley and Friends (Ramblin’ Road)
  27. Barley and Me (Beer n’ Loathing)
  28. Barley and the Beast (Beer Kristine)
  29. Barley Legal (StarCitySuds)
  30. Bar Trek (Eclecticmess)
  31. Bar Wars (Cloten)
  32. Battlestar Malolactica (Beerburgersbees)
  33. Beauty and the Yeast (Andy Parker)
  34. Beer and Loathing in Las Vegas (Brooklyn Pour)
  35. Beetlegueuze! (The Beer Jesus)
  36. The Big Chelan (Beer Kristine)
  37. Big Fat Gypsum Wedding (Beerburgerbees)
  38. The Big Lebrewski (Jon Page)
  39. Big Trub In Little China (Alistair Reece)
  40. Black Hop Down (Mike Sawicki)
  41. Bock, Scotch and Two Smoking Rauchbiers (Chris Heier)
  42. Bock to the Future (Bill Benedict)
  43. Bock Trouble in Little China (Lisa Grimm)
  44. Bond, Lovibond (Brookston)
  45. Bottleship (Marshal Jhakov)
  46. Boys in the Mt. Hood (Beer Kristine)
  47. Bravehop (Justin Stewart)
  48. Breakfast Stout at Tiffany’s (Bruce_F)
  49. The Breakfast Trub (Sid Boggle)
  50. The Brett-fast Club (Beer Kristine)
  51. Brett First at Tiffany’s (James Campbell)
  52. Brew Day Afternoon (John Williams)
  53. BrewDog Day Afternoon (Dave Morton)
  54. BrewDog Millionaire (Oscar)
  55. Brewer’s Millions (paramnesiac)
  56. Brew Lagoon (Tim Bluhm)
  57. The Brews Brothers (Kevin Bagshaw)
  58. Brewstand by Me (Brad Nixon)
  59. Brewster Cogburn (Martyn Cornell)
  60. Brewsters Billions (Cloten)
  61. Brewty and the Yeast (Joshua Adams)
  62. Bride of Firkinstein (Beer n’ Loathing)
  63. Brite Tank, Big City (Steve)
  64. Broadcast Brews (Citra Loves Sorachi)
  65. A Brux Tale (Tommy Kelley)
  66. The Bucket Grist (Pierre Lachaine)
  67. The Buy Centennial Man (ctrl-malt-delete)
  68. Cantillon up the Khyber (Denzil Vallance)
  69. Cape Beer (Alicia Coulter)
  70. The Carboy in the Plastic Bubble (BevacquaFan)
  71. Carboy Wash (Jeremy Teel)
  72. Carboys Don’t Cry (Joel Kennedy)
  73. Carboys in the Hood (HomeBrewing.com)
  74. Carboyz N Tha Hood (Steve)
  75. Cassavablanca (Dave Morton)
  76. Casualties of Wort (Ethan)
  77. Catcher in the Rye Malt (Alicia Coulter)
  78. Centennial Man (Adam Vavrick)
  79. Charlie Wilson’s Wort (HomeBrewing.com)
  80. Chasing Amylase (Spencer O’Bryan)
  81. Children of a Lesser Quad (Jeremy Danner)
  82. Children of the Barley (Gary Valentine)
  83. Chill Hazed and Confused (Kevin Kozlen)
  84. Chocolat Malt (Lonerider ATL)
  85. Citizen Racking Kane (Brad Nixon)
  86. Citizen Strain (Sid Boggle)
  87. Citramancer (Adam Vavrick)
  88. A Citra Named Desire (BOAB Brewhaus)
  89. City Slicker II: The Legend of Brewer’s Gold (Mike Sawicki)
  90. Clan of the Cave Beer (hashtag_ninja)
  91. Clash of the Titan IPA’s (Matthew McGavic)
  92. Clear and Present Pilsner (James Laska)
  93. A ClockWit Orange (Texas Brewnette)
  94. A Clockwork Oranjeboom (mark pitsch)
  95. A Clockwort Orange (Oscar)
  96. Coal Miner’s Lauter (Jack Highberger)
  97. Conan the Beerbarian (Boozy Beggar (Seth))
  98. The Conicals of Riddick (ctrl-malt-delete)
  99. Cool Ship Luke (Mike Tinker)
  100. The Cylindroconicals of Narnia (ctrl-malt-delete)
  101. Dances with Worts (All About Beer)
  102. Dark Crystal (Dominic Driscoll)
  103. Dark Lord Knight Rises! (Indy Brew Chef)
  104. Das Boil (Alistair Reece)
  105. Das Reinheitsgebot (StarCitySuds)
  106. Das Wort (Jeremy Teel)
  107. Dead Barm (Phil Mellows)
  108. Death Of A Saaz-Man (Craft Beer Monger)
  109. Debbie Does Decoction (Kevin Kozlen)
  110. Debbie Does Diacetyl (Luke Otter)
  111. Debbie Does Dunkelweizen (Armando Garcia)
  112. The Debittered Black Knight (Austin B Harvey)
  113. Decoction Haunted Hill (ctrl-malt-delete)
  114. Diacetyl Another Day (ctrl-malt-delete)
  115. Dial M for Malt (Brow_Down)
  116. Dieacetyl Hard (Mike McGuigan)
  117. The Dirty Krausen (Citra Loves Sorachi)
  118. Dogfish Head Afternoon (mark pitsch)
  119. Don’t Tell Mom the Brewmasters Dead (Marc Rea)
  120. Don’t Tell Mom The Baby Citra’s Dead (ctrl-malt-delete)
  121. Double Diamonds Are Forever (Brookston)
  122. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Hop Bomb (Brookston)
  123. Dry Hop (Chris Johnson)
  124. Dry Hop 2 (Chris Johnson)
  125. Dry Hop With A Vengeance (Chris Johnson)
  126. Dry Hop 4: Live Free or Dry Hop (Chris Johnson)
  127. Dubbel Impact (New Belgium Brewing)
  128. Duck Rabbit Soup (Meredith Whitfield)
  129. Dude, Where’s My Caramel Malt? (kortney)
  130. Easy Radler (Richard Hamilton)
  131. Edward Saazerhands (Jeremy Danner)
  132. 8 Gyle (ctrl-malt-delete)
  133. Eis Age (Jeff Merriman)
  134. Eisbock to the Future (Dave Morton)
  135. Empire of the Tun (Tucker Craig)
  136. The Empire Strikes Bock (Nick)
  137. Endless Summerfest (Dave Mulligan)
  138. The English Papazian (Chris Heier)
  139. Enter the Flagon (Robert Norman)
  140. Eraserheadretention (Russ)
  141. Ernest Goes to Beer Camp (Kevin Kozlen)
  142. Falconers Flight of the Phoenix (Bob Weden)
  143. Fantastic Vorlauf (ctrl-malt-delete)
  144. The Fast and The Furious [Surly Brewing] (Isaac Sparling)
  145. Fatal Attenuation (Citra Loves Sorachi)
  146. The Faucet Shank Redemption (Brad Nixon)
  147. Fermenting Nemo (Abe Froman)
  148. The Ferminator (Christopher Graf)
  149. Ferris Brewers Day Off (Phil Gallagher)
  150. Fever Pitch (David Bishop)
  151. A Few Good Ales (Fabricio Cannini)
  152. The Fining (Martyn Cornell)
  153. Firkinstein (Beer n’ Loathing)
  154. Fight Trub (ctrl-malt-delete)
  155. (500) Hops of Summer (Liberty Village Beer)
  156. A Floculation of Dodos (Dave Morton)
  157. Flocculation The Musical (Daniel)
  158. For a Few Gravity Points More (Brad Nixon)
  159. Frankensteinecker (Jeremy Danner)
  160. Friday The Thirteenth Degree Plato (Bull City Homebrew)
  161. From Beer To Eternity (Bill Fowler)
  162. Full Fermentation Jacket (Martyn Cornell)
  163. Full Metal Steam Jacket (Brookston)
  164. Gentlemen Prefer Blonde Ales (Bruce_F)
  165. The Germinator (infamous rascal)
  166. G. Heile-Men (mark pitsch)
  167. The Girl Who Played With Firkins (Jordan)
  168. The Girl With The Flagon Tattoo (Gregg Speirs)
  169. The Glucose Chainsaw Massacre (ctrl-malt-delete)
  170. GoldingsEye (Brookston)
  171. Goldingsfinger (Brookston)
  172. Gone With the Wort (Brookston)
  173. Good Dry Hopping (Joel Kennedy)
  174. Goodhellas (infamous rascal)
  175. The Good, The Bad and the Barley (Brett Jones)
  176. The Good, the Bad and the Fuggly (Dominic Driscoll)
  177. Gorillas in the Grist (Jeremy Danner)
  178. Gose Busters (rossthefireman)
  179. Grain Expectations (Martyn Cornell)
  180. Grain Man (Gregg Speirs)
  181. Grains of Paradise Canyon (Alicia Coulter)
  182. Grains of Paradise Lost (Bob Weden)
  183. Grainspotting (Steve)
  184. Great Flocculations (ctrl-malt-delete)
  185. The Great White Hop (Kevin Kozlen)
  186. Green Flash Gordon (Texas Brewnette)
  187. The Green Hop Mile (Kevin Bagshaw)
  188. The Grist of Wrath (Tommy Kelley)
  189. Grist Tracy (Chris Heier)
  190. Guess Who’s Coming to the Beer Dinner? (Neil Witte)
  191. The Gueuze Brothers (BryanDRoth)
  192. Gueuzebusters (Martyn Cornell)
  193. Gueuze Morning Vietnam! (SteveC.)
  194. The Gueuze, the Bad, and the Ugly (Rachael Weseloh)
  195. Gueuze with the Wind (Timothy Robert)
  196. The Hallertau of Steve (Rimmy.)
  197. Hard Cider House Rules (StarCitySuds)
  198. Harold and Malt (Kevin Kozlen)
  199. Harold & Maudite (Craft Beer Monger)
  200. Harry Porter & the Chamber of Saisons (Jordan)
  201. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallertau (Lisa Grimm)
  202. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Rauchbier (Stacey Butler)
  203. Harry Porter and the Sorcerer’s @StoneBrewingCo (MellodyBrewing)
  204. Hellesboy (Lisa Grimm)
  205. Hellesboy 2, The Golden Barley (Tucker Craig)
  206. Henry: Portrait Of A Cereal Killer (Adam Vavrick)
  207. The Hersbrucker Proxy (Dan Griffiths)
  208. Homebrew Bound (Marc Rea)
  209. Hopageddon (Beer Kristine)
  210. Hopback Mountain (Kevin Kozlen)
  211. The Hop Back of Norte Dame (Alicia Coulter)
  212. Hopback To The Future (Ten Inch Wheels)
  213. The Hopfather (Beer Notes)
  214. Hop Gun (Jessica Vander Velde)
  215. Hopocalypse Now (Eclecticmess)
  216. The Hoppit (Lonerider ATL)
  217. Hoppy Gilmore (Rob Thomas)
  218. Hops and Glory (Beer Kristine)
  219. The Hops of Wrath (Brookston)
  220. The House of Isinglass (Gregg Speirs)
  221. How I Brett Your Mother (ctrl-malt-delete)
  222. How IPA Won the War (Lisa Grimm)
  223. The Hunt For Red Oktoberfest (Alistair Reece)
  224. The Hunt for Red Hoptober (Jordan)
  225. I Know What You Brewed Last Summer (Davey Welch)
  226. I-Krausen (Cheshire Brewhouse)
  227. I’m Gonna Git You Suckeromyces Hard (Mike McGuigan)
  228. InArrogant Basterds (Jeremy Teel)
  229. In Brews (Abe Froman)
  230. Indiana Jones and the Last Glissade (Hoplanta)
  231. Indiana Jones & The Last Grande Cru-sade (Dave Morton)
  232. Indiana Jones and the Tripel of Doom (kortney)
  233. Inherit The Wort (Craft Beer Monger)
  234. In the Heat of the Mash Tun (Brookston)
  235. The Iron Cask (StarCitySuds)
  236. The Isinglass Menagerie (Jeremy Danner)
  237. It Came from Malted Barley (Chris Heier)
  238. It’s a Wonderful Lite (DPW)
  239. Jackie Nut Brown (Jason Budday)
  240. James Blonde (Jeff Merriman)
  241. John Tucker must Diacetyl (StarCitySuds)
  242. Judge Brett (Chris Heier)
  243. Kevin And Perry Go Sparge (ctrl-malt-delete)
  244. Kissing Jessica Stein Beer (Nicholas Guarracino)
  245. Kölschbusters (__beertooth)
  246. Kolsch Encounters of the Third Rind (Sierra Nevada Beer)
  247. Kolsch Runnings (Alistair Reece)
  248. A Krausen Splendid Suns (Ten Inch Wheels)
  249. Kvass Gordon (Lisa Grimm)
  250. Lactobacilli, Robot (ctrl-malt-delete)
  251. Lacto to the Future (Jeremy Danner)
  252. A Lager Of Their Own (Collin Simula)
  253. Lager Than Life (Andrew Emerton)
  254. The Lauter King (Craft Beer Monger)
  255. A League Of Cicerone (Adam Vavrick)
  256. Left Hand That Rocks the Cradle (Matt Drummond)
  257. Little Krausen The Prairie (ctrl-malt-delete)
  258. Lock, Stock, and Two Aging Barrels (Matt)
  259. Look Who’s Brewing Now? (Marc Rea)
  260. The Lord of the Beers: Fellowship of the Cicerones (Chris Heier)
  261. The Lord of the Beers: The Two Trippels (Chris Heier)
  262. The Lord of the Beers: The Return of the Bud (Chris Heier)
  263. The Lord of the Ringwood (Lisa Grimm)
  264. Lord of the Ryes (Jordan)
  265. Lost Encounters of the Third Tier (Danny A.)
  266. The Lupuliners (Mike Sawicki)
  267. A Mad River Runs Through It (Adam Vavrick)
  268. Malt, Hops & Two Firkin Barrels (pdtnc)
  269. Maltlock (Wade Reid)
  270. The Maltose Falcon (StarCitySuds)
  271. Mandy Does Maris [Otter] (Russ)
  272. A Man for All Saisons (Neil Witte)
  273. The Man with the Golden Ale (Andrew Ignatz)
  274. The Man with the Goldings Gun (Martyn Cornell)
  275. The Man With Two Grains (Grainne Walsh)
  276. Marley and Mead (Christian Williams)
  277. Mary Proppins (Jeremy Danner)
  278. Märzen Attacks! (Citra Loves Sorachi)
  279. M*A*S*H (James McIntyre)
  280. Masher and Commander (Joel Kennedy)
  281. Mash Me If You Can (BillF)
  282. Mashmen (BillF)
  283. Mash of the Titans (Robert Norman)
  284. Mashraker (Andrew Ignatz)
  285. Mashtun Impossible (kyle)
  286. The Mash Tun in the Woods (Chris Heier)
  287. Meet the Floccers (Jeremy Danner)
  288. Me, Myself & IPA (Bob Weden)
  289. Menace II Sobriety (Adam C.)
  290. Men In Black IPA (Men In Black IPA)
  291. Men in Bock (Jennifer Pesek)
  292. Midnight Carboy (Beer Notes)
  293. The Milling Fields (Kevin Kozlen)
  294. The Miracle of Morgan’s Kriek (Bruce_F)
  295. The Missouri Hot Breaks (Martyn Cornell)
  296. Monty Python & the Holy Ale (Cheryl b)
  297. Mr. Smith Gose To Washington (Nicholas Guarracino)
  298. Mrs. Stoutfire (Patrick Delahunty)
  299. The Munchener Candidate (Brookston)
  300. My Blue Paddle Heaven (Eclecticmess)
  301. Natural Born Millers (Adam Vavrick)
  302. New Glarus When it Sizzles (Citra Loves Sorachi)
  303. 9 1/2 Weeks of Lagering (Russ)
  304. Ninja Turtles: Secret of the Brews (Marc Rea)
  305. Northern Brewer by Northwest (Brookston)
  306. Oast of Hop Street (Alistair Reece)
  307. The Odd Dubbel (Peter Culos)
  308. An Officer and a Lauter Tun (BillF)
  309. Of Briess and Men (Jeff Merriman)
  310. Of Saccharomyces And Men (Martyn Cornell)
  311. Old Gueuzers Young Teasers (Joanna)
  312. Oliver Grist (Rachael Weseloh)
  313. One Brew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (infamous rascal)
  314. One Fining Day (Kevin Bagshaw)
  315. 127 Sours (Jordan)
  316. On the Wurterfront (infamous rascal)
  317. Orval-y Girl (ctrl-malt-delete)
  318. Pale Ale Rider (StarCitySuds)
  319. The Pellicle Brief (David Bishop)*
  320. The Perks of Being a Hopflower (John Williams)
  321. Perle Harbor (Brookston)
  322. Pint Club (Cloten)
  323. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Perle (Brookston)
  324. Pirates of the Carrageenan (Dave Morton)
  325. Pitch Black (pdtnc)
  326. Planet of the Ales By Tim Burtonisation (Beerburgersbees)
  327. Pirates of the Carbonation (DPW)
  328. Polestar Wars (Matt Drummond)
  329. The Propagation (Adam Vavrick)
  330. Pulp Fermentation (Craft Beer Monger)
  331. Raging Boil (Tommy Kelley)
  332. Raiders of the Last Hops (Kief Wahoo)
  333. Raiders of the Lost Sparge (Brookston)
  334. Raising Amarillo (Brookston)
  335. The Rauch (Nicholas Guarracino)
  336. Rebel without a Gueuze (infamous rascal)
  337. Reservoir Dogfish (StarCitySuds)
  338. Revenge of the Pilsners (Kris Fruin)
  339. Robo-Hop (Craft Beer Monger)
  340. The Rocky Hallertau Picture Show (Beer Kristine)
  341. Romancing the @StoneBrewingCo (Alicia Coulter)
  342. Room At The Top-Fermenting (Sid Boggle)
  343. A Room With a Brew (Bob Weden)
  344. Saison Golden Pond (Dave Morton)
  345. Saison of the Witch (Nate Nolan)
  346. Sauvin Private Ryan (Nate Nolan)
  347. Saving Private Reinheitsgebot (James Laska)
  348. Saving Private Rhizomes (Mike Sawicki)
  349. Saving Private Rye (FV7)
  350. Saving Private Stock Ryan (DPW)
  351. A Scanner Dunkelweizen (rossthefireman)
  352. Schaefer’s List (DPW)
  353. Schindler’s Grist (ctrl-malt-delete)
  354. Schlitzizen Kane (StarCitySuds)
  355. School of Bock (rossthefireman)
  356. Sexy Yeast (Christopher Graf)
  357. Shandyman (Jeremy Danner)
  358. She’s Reinheitsgebotta Have It (John Porter)
  359. The Shiner (Meredith Whitfield)
  360. The Silence of the Lambics (ctrl-malt-delete)
  361. Singin’ in the Grain (DPW)
  362. Six Degrees of Plato (Brookston)
  363. SlumDogfish Head Millionaire (Jeff Pelletier)
  364. Some Like it Hopped (Cameron Lang)
  365. Some Like It Hoppy (Brookston)
  366. Some Like it Hot Side Aeration (Brad Nixon)
  367. Sofie’s Choice (Marshal Jhakov)
  368. Some Like it Sour (Win Bassett)
  369. Sorachi Ace Ventura: Brett Detective (Kevin Kozlen)
  370. Spargeicus (Steve)
  371. Spargent Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Tucker Craig)
  372. Spatencus (Texas Brewnette)
  373. Splendor in the Mash (Norman Benson)
  374. Spongebob Yorkshire Squarepants (Ten Inch Wheels)
  375. Stanges in the Night (Beer By BART)
  376. Starsan Troopers (Oscar)
  377. Star Trek: the Next Fermentation (Alicia Coulter)
  378. Star Warsteiner (Ethan)
  379. Star Worts (StarCitySuds)
  380. Star Worts: A New Hop (Thomas Johnson)
  381. Stomp the Yard Glass (StarCitySuds)
  382. Stout of Africa (Bayou Beer Society)
  383. A Streetcar Named Decoction (Brookston)
  384. A Streetcar Named Dimethyl Sulfide (All About Beer)
  385. Super Mega Yeast vs. Uber Octopus (Craft Beer)
  386. Tank Gose (Lisa Grimm)
  387. Terms of En-Beer-ment (Stacey Butler)
  388. That Thing You Brew! (Andy Hille)
  389. There’s Something About Beta-Amylase (ctrl-malt-delete)
  390. There’s Something About Malting (Brookston)
  391. There Will Be Brett (Bull City Homebrew)
  392. Three Floyds and a Baby (Kevin Lansing)
  393. There Will Be Trub (SnailTrax)
  394. 3:10 to Yakima (Bull City Homebrew)
  395. Tim Burton Union’s Nightmare Before Christmas (David Kenning)
  396. A Time to Mill (Cole Lundquist)
  397. To Heffe and Heffe Not (Norman Benson)
  398. Tomme (Kim Sharpe Jones)
  399. Tomme Boy (Cheryl b)
  400. Top Tun (Kim Sharpe Jones)
  401. TransPorter (Patrick Delahunty)
  402. The Treasure of the Sierra Nevada (Brookston)
  403. The Trippels of Belleville (New Belgium Brewing)
  404. Trouble with the Cuvée (BryanDRoth)
  405. Trubber (Gregg Speirs)
  406. Trub Romance (Neil Witte)
  407. True Grist (Shane O’Beirne)
  408. Twelve [Golden] Monkeys (Cheryl b)
  409. 28 Days Lauter (Jeremy Danner)
  410. 24 Hour Parti-Gyle People (ctrl-malt-delete)
  411. 2001: A Spalt Odyssey (Craft Beer Monger)
  412. The Unbearable Lightness of Brewing (Brad Nixon)
  413. The Unbearable Lightstruck of Being (John Porter)
  414. Union Jack CIty (Armando Garcia)
  415. Up in Rauch! (Doug Ellertson)
  416. Up in the Airlock (BevacquaFan)
  417. Vatman (Jeff Merriman)
  418. V for Vorlauf (Brad Nixon)
  419. Voyage To The Bottom Fermenting Of The Sea (Sid Boggle)
  420. Wayne’s Wort (Beer Notes)
  421. War and Yeast (Wolfbrau)
  422. Wedding Cold Crashers (Andy Parker)
  423. The Wedding Mashers (Nicholas Guarracino)
  424. Weekend at Breweries (John Williams)
  425. Weisse Guys (JP)
  426. The Weiss the Wit and the Hefeweizen (Chris Heier)
  427. Westmallerats (ctrl-malt-delete)
  428. Wet Hop American Summer (Matt)
  429. When Harry Met Saccharomyces (Brookston)
  430. When Sparge Attacks (Marc Rea)
  431. Where The Wild Hops Are (Kief Wahoo)
  432. Where the Wild Yeast Are (Alistair Reece)
  433. Whitelabs Can’t Jump (David Bishop)
  434. White Men Can’t Hop (Davey Evans)
  435. The Wild Bunch (Christopher Graf )
  436. The Willamette Man (Lisa Grimm)
  437. Wise Gueuze (Richard Hamilton)
  438. Withnail and IPA (Dan Griffiths)
  439. The Wizard of O.G. (Brookston)
  440. The Wizard of Saaz (Citra Loves Sorachi)
  441. The Wizard of Sparging (Liberty Village Beer)
  442. Wort and Peace (kortney)
  443. Wort Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest (Alistair Reece)
  444. Wort Games (Lisa Grimm)
  445. Wort Locker (FV7)
  446. Wort of the Worlds (Justin)
  447. Wyeast Earp (BevacquaFan)
  448. Wyeastern Promises (Justin)
  449. The Yeast Count of Monte Cristo (Kevin Bagshaw)
  450. Yeast is Yeast (Sid Boggle)
  451. Yeast Of Eden (Ten Inch Wheels)
  452. Yield of Dreams (Gary Valentine)
  453. You Cantillon Take It With You (Jeremy Danner)
  454. You Only Lager Twice (Brookston)
  455. You’ve Got Malt (Neil Witte)

* As far as I can tell, this was the first Fermentation Film title to be posted on Twitter, making David the originator of today’s fun.

Working For A Beer

By

money
How long do you think you have to work before you can have a beer? I don’t mean how long before you think it’s time to take a break and enjoy a pint. No, I mean how long do you think you have to work in order to earn enough money to buy yourself a beer?

In the Economist’s Daily Chart, Thirsty Work, they detail the efforts of analysts at the Swiss Bank UBS to figure out how long the average German worker would have to work in order to buy him- or herself a half-litre of beer at Oktoberfest. They discovered that it would take “just under seven minutes of work.” But it’s not the same in every nation, as the chart below details. The avergae appears to be about 20 minutes of work for a beer, which doesn’t seem too bad. The worst place was India, where you’d have to work “nearly an hour” to make enough for a beer. The United States, I’m happy to say, is at the bottom, which is a good thing. It only takes us about 5 minutes to earn enough for a beer. Hell, I think I earned two beers just writing this post.

beer-and-labor