Brookston Beer Bulletin

Jay R. Brooks on Beer

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Celis’ Return to Texas Doubtful

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In his regular column, The Beer Sphere, in the Dallas/Forth Worth Star-Telegram, Barry Shlachter reports that the “long-anticipated collaboration between Belgian brewing legend Pierre Celis and Texas’ Real Ale Brewing Co. has fallen through.”

From Shlachter’s column:

“Just too many obstacles,” said Brad Farbstein, president of the Blanco-based micro-brewery.

Real Ale’s proposed “Brussels” line of ales based on Celis recipes was scuttled because the state interpreted the deal as violating Texas’ contract brewing regulations.

Complicating the arrangement was Celis investing in his daughter’s drinking establishment in the Austin area, Farbstein said. Texas’ three-tiered system — production, wholesaling and retailing — forbids participation in more than one sector.

Well that’s certainly bad news. It would have been nice to see Pierre return triumphantly to the states.

Session #4 Announced: Drink Locally

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Snekse, of the Gastronomic Fight Club, a primarily food-oriented blog from Nebraska, will be hosting June’s “Session” and will be taking us in a bit of a different direction.

With this Session, he wants to “create a guide book of tasting notes to drinking local.”

The idea here is to be as helpful as possible for visitors to your area. What is the beer/brewery/brewpub that you feel is quintessential to your city? What do the locals drink? What could a tourist drink that would make them feel like they’ve found something special; something that they’re going to miss when they go home?

Here are the rules:

  • You can pick anything commercially made within 150 miles of your house, but try to pick the brewery or brewpub closest to your house (NOTE: the average American lives within 10 miles of a craft brewery).
  • You can select any beer or even a sampler if you want.
  • If you select a single beer, let us know why you choose this beer (e.g. favorite, seasonal, limited edition, best seller).
  • Preferably you’ll shy away from beers with wide distribution outside your immediate area.

It looks to be an interesting way to approach the next Session, and it could be quite revealing. I certainly like the idea of each of us mining our own local areas for hidden treasure. So please join on the first Friday of June, which is also the first day of June. To participate, simply drop Snekse an e-mail “with the words “Session #4″ in the subject line,” and the following:

Include your name, the name of your blog, the URL to your post, the name of the brewery or brew pub that made the beer(s) you drank, where the place is located, the name and style of the beer(s) you drank and lastly, a general description of the availability of the beer(s). If you don’t have a blog, email me your notes and I’ll include them in the round up.

Rally at Raley Field This Saturday

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This Saturday will be the Raley Field Brewfest in Sacramento, California, a benefit for the Northern California Brewers Guild. Tickets are $30 at the door, or you can save $5 by purchasing tickets online.

Here are some of the breweries slated to be pouring:

Rubicon Brewing Company, Blue Frog and Grog Brewery, Butte Creek Brewing Company, New Belgium Brewing Company, Jack Russel Brewing Company, Marin Brewing Company, Moylans Brewing Company, Sacramento Brewing Company, Bison Brewing Company, Trumer Brauerei, Lockdown Brewing Company, Bear Republic Brewing Company, Elk Grove Brewing Company, Brew it Up Brewing Company, Hoppy Brewing Company, Two Rivers Cider, Lagunitas Brewing Company, Davids Ale Works, Black Diamond Brewing Company, Drakes Brewing Company, Valley Brewing Company and many more!

The festival will begin a 1:00 p.m. at Raley Field. “One ticket is valid for up to 10 tastings. Additional tastings can be purchased on-site.”

There will also be music and food available. Come out and support this very worthy cause. The newly formed Northern California Brewers Guild was created to keep good local craft beer available throughout northern California. Help them help you by attending the event and enjoying some terrific beers, most of which were created locally.

5.12

Raley Field Brewfest

Raley Field, 400 Ballpark Drive, West Sacramento , California
916.376.4700 [ information ] [ online tickets ]
 

Water Beats Milk, Ties Beer

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I wasn’t even aware there was a competition among liquids, but apparently it’s pretty fierce. This year for the first time bottled water beat out milk, according to Beverage Digest, and was roughly equal to beer for the year 2006.

According to an article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, “If the trend continues, Americans could be drinking more bottled water than tap water within a few years.”

“Tap water is in trouble,” quipped John Sicher, publisher of industry newsletter Beverage Digest.

Beverage Digest’s figures showed average per capita consumption of bottled water grew from 11 to 21 gallons between 1996 and 2006. Consumption of milk dropped from 22.7 to 19.5 gallons over the 10-year span, while beer consumption was steady at 21.8. Soft drink consumption dropped from 52 to 50.9 gallons, according to the figures.

No word on whether the water in beer is added to the water figures.

Lost Abbey Found-ed One-Year Ago

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Today is the one-year anniversary of Pizza Port taking over Stone’s old brewery in San Marcos and re-making themselves into both Port Brewing and the Lost Abbey. They’ll be hosting what will surely be a great party to celebrate today at the brewery (see details below). Congratulations to Tomme Arthur and the gang at Port Brewing.

Port Brewing’s Tomme Arthur (at left) with Adam Avery (behind bars) and Eric Rose, at this year’s Craft Brewers Conference in Austin, Texas.
 

From the press release:

Fans of great beer will have an opportunity to enjoy Cinco de Mayo Belgian style at Port Brewing Company’s First Anniversary Celebration, Saturday, May 5 at the brewery’s facility in San Marcos, California. The $15 admission will entitle attendees to sample Port’s award-winning line up of house beers, as well as become the first to taste a number of special releases and limited editions from the brewery’s ground-breaking Lost Abbey Belgian-style ales. Additionally, partygoers will have the opportunity to purchase Lost Abbey’s new seasonal issue, Ten Commandments dark farmhouse ale, and the highly anticipated Cuvee de Tomme, a barrel-aged specialty of Port’s brewmaster, Tomme Arthur.

“As the brewery’s first anniversary, we want this one to be something special,” Arthur said. “So we’re not only making it the premier of our anniversary ale, Ten Commandments, but we’re also treating our guests to some special beers that I made and kept hidden in the barrel room just for this occasion.”

Since Port Brewing’s founding, Arthur has established the company’s Lost Abbey label as one of handful of American breweries committed to pushing the boundaries of the centuries-old Belgian Ale style of beer. Nearly 40 percent of the facility is dedicated to racks of French Oak, Brandy and Bourbon barrels in which the Lost Abbey’s signature beers are aged for as long as 18 months prior to release.

The Port Brewing First Anniversary Celebration runs from noon to 9 PM on Saturday, May 5th at Port Brewing Company’s facility located at 155 Mata Way, Suite 104, San Marcos (the old Stone Brewing facility). Admission of $15 entitles visitors to 8 beer tastings and unlimited access to a taco bar prepared by Port’s in-house chef, Vincent Marsaglia.

Neo-Prohibitionist Math

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Sadly, the United States is not the only country with people who want others live according to their morals. A British Bulletin reader sent in a BBC article about Alcohol Concern, a UK neo-prohibitionist organization that refers to itself as the “national agency on alcohol misuse.” In the article, “Call to stop children’s drinking,” they, of course, use the “it’s for the children” strategy and it’s peppered with plenty of alarmist language about an increase in drinking among 11-13-year olds and citing that “[i]t is currently illegal to give an alcoholic drink to a child under five except under medical supervision in an emergency.” Now what might constitute such an emergency I can’t fathom but the only reason I can see for including it is that it implies that the whole of English parentage is putting beer in their baby’s bottles. It makes it easier to push an agenda when you hammer home the extremes rather than the truth. Of course, alcohol laws are different in the UK. Here’s an overview.

The group Alcohol Concern is also asking for a whopping 16% raise on taxes for alcohol products. And they also want alcohol education to be added to the National Curriculum, which in and of itself is not a bad thing but at the same time they want to restrict parents’ ability to educate their children about alcohol in the home. “Alcohol Concern would include meal times at home in the ban on giving alcohol to young people.” So what that suggests is they believe the government should be deciding what alcohol information should be given to kids and parents should have little or no hand in raising them. Now does that make any sense at all? Since when is the government in a better position to teach your children about anything better than you are? As Karen Gardner, who operates the Parenting Cafe, puts it in a rebuttal:

Parenting is about preparing your children for life.

I’ve just helped my 11-year-old son open his first bank account. When I get to a road with my four-year-old, I get him to decide when it’s safe to cross. It’s the same with alcohol. On your 15th birthday you don’t suddenly develop the ability to deal with alcohol, but by the time you’re 15 you are going to parties where alcohol is flowing. If Alcohol Concern got their way, you’d be sending them out with absolutely no experience of drinking at all and they’d go out and sink four vodkas.

The thing that really concerns me about this law is that if it’s made illegal, parents will tell kids, ‘You can’t drink, I’ll go to prison’. Then a child goes out and does drink too much and needs to call home for help, but feels they can’t in case they get mum or dad into trouble. I understand that some teenagers are going out and binge drinking in town centres, but parents who let their kids do that won’t care about a law anyway. All the law would do is stop responsible parents from trying to educate their children. It would infantilise parents.

Perhaps more troubling, though, is Alcohol Concerns own education materials. They also run a website, Down Your Drink, which purports to help people figure out whether or not they drink too much. Toward that end they also offer a three-question quiz to determine your level of drinking.

Forget for the time being that your weight or general health plays no role whatsoever in the equation, as absurd a notion as I can imagine, but then real education is not the goal. My own “drinking pattern indicates a possible increased risk of alcohol affecting [my] health.” Well, that’s not a surprise, but it doesn’t take into account that I’m a big fella or that I’m most often drinking as a part of my work. No matter, they want to alarm and proselytize, not educate.

You have to answer “Never” or “Monthly or less,” “1 or 2” and “Never” to be considered “drinking sensibly.” If you have 1 or 2 drinks 2-4 times a month (that would be a pint or two once a week or less) and you too could be at an “increased risk of alcohol affecting your health.” How absurd. Of all the possible ways to answer the questionnaire, only two will get you an answer of being a responsible drinker. As far as they’re concerned having one or two drinks monthly or less with no episodes with six drinks in one session is exactly the same as having “10 or more” drinks “daily or almost daily.” How is such inflexible thinking in any way helpful or useful?

But there’s one more absurdity to tackle. Take a close look at how they define “a drink containing alcohol.” They consider “1 drink” to be either “1/2 pint of beer,” “1 glass of wine” or “1 single measure of spirits.” So what that means is that 8 ounces of beer, with an average alcohol content of 4-5% ABV, is the same as one glass of wine, whose alcohol content average is around 14% ABV. I’m not sure what the average glass of wine holds, but even at 4 ounces it would pack more of a punch than twice as much beer. Now that’s some pretty fancy math. I’d love to know how they came up with that standard where a pint of beer is twice as bad as one glass of wine.

No wonder they believe there’s such a problem. When you define almost any amount of drinking, no matter how responsibly small, as being a potential health risk — and ignoring any of the many health benefits — then naturally you will believe there’s an epidemic of drinking problems. But then it’s more likely that you believed that to begin with and are using skewed reasoning and questionable statistics to support your agenda and make it sound more scientific. It’s called lying with statistics and it’s not that hard to do, especially when the mainstream media reports it as fact without questioning it either, which happens more often than not.

Take a look at their research team here at the left, undoubtedly a bunch of models. They’re too politically correct in terms of the mix of young and old, male and female, and racial percentages to be the real research team. And those lab coats are hilarious. But that’s the propaganda of trying to make it seem more serious, more worthy of believing. Don’t fall for it. If all looks too perfect or convenient, it probably is. Few issues are as black and white as they try to paint this one.

Drinking is obviously a huge problem for the people who already don’t and want the rest of us to stop. There are and always will be people who will abuse anything, both benignly and harmful alike. But the answer to dealing with such people should never be to take the object of abuse away from everyone. You don’t end up fixing the problem but instead make it worse, plus you end up punishing the people least deserving of such punishment, the ones who can enjoy things responsibly. Prohibition has never worked for anything. Laws prohibiting murder were among the first laws society ever agreed upon, and it hasn’t eradicated killing yet. You teach people it’s wrong and hope for the best. The same is true concerning alcohol. You teach your children about what it is, how to enjoy it responsibly and how not to abuse it. Take that away, and your kids will be ignorant binge drinkers rebelling against society the first chance they get. But the neo-prohibitionists don’t seem able to grasp this and instead want a Stepford society that forces rather than educates. It uses scare tactics and lies instead of reason and understanding. It would be ridiculous were it not for the growing number of people who think it’s okay to want to tell me and you how to live. Why can’t these people just live how they want to and leave the rest of us alone?

Hobnob and Squab with Rob Tod and Odd Cod

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Okay, perhaps a bit too Suessian with the title here, but I’m excited. Beer Chef Bruce Paton’s next beer dinner will feature Maine’s Allagash owner and brewer Rob Tod. It will be another four-course dinner, though Bruce is still working out the menu so I really don’t know if squab or cod will be served. I’ll get it up as soon as it’s available. It will be held at the Cathedral Hill Hotel on Friday, May 25, beginning with a reception at 6:30 p.m. Call 415.674.3406 for reservations. Make your reservations soon, because this dinner should fill up fast and you won’t want to miss this one. Rob is making some great Belgian-inspired beers up in the wilds of Portland, Maine that is, Portland, Maine.
 

From left: Vinnie and Natalie Cilurzo, from Russian River Brewing, Matt Brynildson and a co-worker, from Firestone Walker Brewing, and Rob Tod, from Allagash, taken at last year’s GABF.
 

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Dinner with the Brewmaster: Rob Tod of Allagash

Cathedral Hill Hotel, 1101 Van Ness Avenue, San Francisco, California
415.674.3406 [ website ]

Zatec Is Coming

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In German, the famous hop used in those original Czech pilsners is called “saaz” hops, but in the Bohemian part of the Czech Republic, where they’re grown, the word is “zatec,” named for the town where they were first grown. According to the town’s history, “the name of Zatec was first mentioned in the Thietmar of Merseburg Chronicle in 1004.” Today the town of Zatec has its own hop museum.

There’s also a brewery in town, Zatecky Pivovar, and they’ve been brewing in the same location for a long, long time.

The history of Czech breweries contains only two breweries with proven a tradition of brewing beer in a single location for more than 700 years — Svitavy (1256) and Žatec (1261). The Society of Žatec Privileged Brewers was established in Žatec in 1261. The two beers called “Samec” and “Kozel” were in high demand in Bohemia and at court, requested by nobility and lords, at the table as well as for festive parties.

Merchant Du Vin, the Seattle importer who also brings Ayinger, Lindemans, Orval, Rochefort, Samuel Smith, Traquair House, and Westmalle, among others, into the U.S., will now be distributing Zatec in the States, as well. According to the press release, product should be in the states some time this June.
 

From the press release:

Zatec Bright Lager from the Czech Republic

For a thousand years, the Zatec region west of Prague has been known for the fine quality of hops grown there. Sometimes known to English speakers by the German name — Saaz — this spicy, elegant hop is one of the keys to a beer renowned for centuries.

Brewing in Zatec dates back over a thousand years, as evidenced by records detailing that brewing taxes were paid in 1004 AD. The Society of Privileged Brewers was founded in Zatec in 1261, the cornerstone for the current Zatec Brewery was laid in 1798, and brewing began in 1801.

Made from local Czech two-row barley and local hops, Zatec is produced via very traditional, labor-intensive means: a doubledecoction mash, open primary fermentation, and 45 days of lagering before packaging. It is medium-bodied, with natural, soft conditioning; a hedonistic fresh herbal aroma; and a flavor that is the best of pure grain and spice, with a solid malt middle. Clean, sparkling, and quintessentially thirst-quenching; ABV 4.6%.
In an age of mass production, Zatec is a small, independent brewery upholding classic Czech brewing traditions. Available at bars, restaurants, and stores nationwide after June 1, 2007.

The Zatecky Pivovar in Zatec, Czech Republic.

Buckeye Victory

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Again, vacation put me behind the curve on this one. I learned two weeks ago that there was trouble brewing in Ohio when KevBrews e-mailed me and a BA staff member told me about it at CBC. Even then, it looked like the language that would have been so detrimental to brewpubs wasn’t going to make it through, but I tend to be cynical about these things so I continued to worry.

It turns out the BA‘s new grassroots organization, Support Your Local Brewery, had things well in hand. Here’s their story:

Victory in Ohio Thanks to Support Your Local Brewery Members!

On April 19, Support Your Local Brewery was alerted to a potentially devastating piece of legislation on the fast track in the Ohio House of Representatives. A bill dealing with issues relating to the direct shipment of wine was amended to include language that would have essentially stripped self distribution and direct to consumer sales by breweries and brewpubs.

With a floor vote scheduled in less than 24 hours, Ohio members of the Support Your Local Brewery network were alerted and generated dozens of grassroots contacts to legislators’ offices. By April 20th, the offending provision had been pulled from the bill. Your efforts, coupled with the outreach carried on by many Ohio small brewers, turned this threat back, one which would have almost certainly hamstrung many breweries and potentially closed many brewpubs.

Thanks to all those who answered the call, acted in the best traditions of Support Your Local Brewery Beer Activists and helped to ensure the continued success of the Buckeye State’s small brewing community. Cheers!

KevBrews also received an e-mail response from Jon A. Husted, the Speaker of the Ohio House of Representatives, confirming that the anti-brewpub language had been removed from the budget bill. I’m certainly glad that so many people could be marshaled to the cause in such a timely manner, but the speed with which the entire episode arose left me feeling disconcerted about when this will happen again and whether we’ll be as successful or lucky. I’d like to be able to just say “relax, don’t worry, have a beer” but that little voice inside my head won’t let me, the bastard.

Sprecher Remakes Shakparo Gluten-Free

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I’m still catching up from the last four days of my vacation, when I had very limited internet access (I could check my e-mails, that was all). I’m amazed how dependent on it I’ve become. I can do without a phone, television, radio and even a daily shower but I start twitching like a junkie at the prospect of even one day without access to the internet. I know it’s a little sad, but there it is. So it goes. Anyway, on to more important things.

Sprecher Brewing in Glendale, Wisconsin, announced they will be reformulating one of their limited release beers to be gluten-free, making them the latest established brewery to enter the fray.

Last year Sprecher first brewed Shakparo Ale, a beer made with sorghum, and most likely barley and/or wheat, as well. It was based on a west African recipe. Due to demand from customers suffering from Celiac disease (who cannot have several common grains in their diet, such as barley and wheat) Sprecher decided to begin making it with millet, in addition to the sorghum, so it would be wheat and barley-free.

Sprecher describes their original Shakparo Ale as follows:

Shakparo style beers originated West African and are brewed with sorghum. Our Shakparo is light and refreshing with hints of fruit and spice, and is presented unfiltered as is traditional with this style.

It also had an original gravity of 14P, was aged for 5 weeks, had only 9 IBUs and was 5.7% a.b.v.

OnMilwaukee‘s food writer Amy L. Carlson put it this way.

According to Anne Sprecher, Shakparo is “an unfiltered, light, crisp ale with a cider or fruit profile and a dry vinous aftertaste, it is best characterized as an easy-drinking or session beer perfect for summer gatherings. This beer pairs nicely with lighter fare such as sandwiches, salads, chicken, fish, and spicier foods.”

Sorghum is a traditional grain throughout parts of Africa, and even the Guinness brewed for the continent has sorghum in it. Shakparo is also apparently a time-honored type of local brew, though there is little documentation about it.

One of the few I’ve been able to find online, is the introduction to an article on how to homebrew Shakparo in the brewery.org library entitled “Shakparo: a Traditional West African Sorghum Beer.”

One example of the use of of traditional microbial biotechnology to produce ennobled foods is Shakparo beer, which have an immense social, economic, ritual, nutritional, sanitary role in the Idashaland, Dassa-Zoume, in the Savannah region of Republic of Benin, West Africa. It is brewed mainly from malted guinea corn (Sorghum vulgare, S. bicolor) is an example of the use. Sorghum, also called gros mil in French, seems to be the best cereal for shakparo brewing. Shakparo is a green beer, “wild” fermented,but not so “wild” as Russell and I concluded after private e-mail correspondence; shakparo yeast is somewhat cultured or maintained on an immobilized form on the fermenting vessels(clay pot or vegetable gurd). The beverage has a full body, long aftertaste, a fruity, pleasantly sour taste ( I’m as objective as I can),with a complex estery and organic acid flavor and yoghur and sorghum aroma. It is very thirst-quenching, and it is cloudy and yeasty, with a brownish pink color. The alcohol content ranges from 1 to 8% by volume. A fresh beer bubbles, contains 3 to 4 % alc. / vol and 6 % solids. The enjoyer burp and the typical aroma come back. The traditional form of the product has a short shelf life and must be consumed within a few days after ~ 24 h fermentation.

Shakparo is a traditional sorghum beer brewed by Idasha women, the “grand cru corse” version being consume mainly by man. Long before the rise of western feminism, women of the generally matrilinear beer drinker’s tribes used beer to ensure their power in the society. An Idasha myth reports that a grateful heroic ancestor build the first market for his mother to sell the fruit of her work, most notably her beer. Before “modernization” it was easy to find good shakparo in Dassa-Zoume and the region around region. Every “normal” home has it’s brewery (a part of the kitchen). Mothers teach brewing art and science to their girls before marriage. An Ifa verse which sets the temperance rule report that Beer and his brothers Palm Wine and Raphia Wine consulted the oracle. These beverages are highly esteemed by the thirsty gods of the Voodoo / Orisha based civilizations.

Shakparo can be considered to be in the same family as bantu beer (called kaffir beer before the south African revolution), pombe (East Africa) dolo (Burkina Faso, Mali), burukutu (Nigeria), pito (Ghana and Nigeria), bouza (Egypt, Ethiopia), merisa ( Soudan), hemeket or zythum or zythos, last word of the dictionary (Ancient Egypt), shukutu (Benin and Togo), Tchakpalo (Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire), bil-bil (Cameroon). Tourists and culturally alienated Africans often look upon those products as primitive dirty and harmful stuffs and prefer to drink Becks, Heineken and Kronenbourg.

Despite the cultural importance of traditional sorghum beer, scientific investigations are few and often contradictory and there aren’t any geared towards shakparo specifically.

Still, an interesting development as this small niche continues to grow, especially after the recent introduction of Anheuser-Busch’s Redbridge Sorghum Beer.