Brookston Beer Bulletin

Jay R. Brooks on Beer

Socialize

Bravo for the Winners

By

Okay, I promise that was the last bad Bravo pun, but yesterday at Drake’s Brewing in San Leandro the 2nd annual Single Hop Festival & Washoe Tournament took place. This year, 21 breweries made an IPA using only Bravo hops, following roughly the same recipe. The recipe called for mostly 2-row malt, along with Munich and Crystal 45, though the exact malts was left to each brewery. The 21 breweries used seven different ale yeast strains and nine of them filtered the beer. Hop additions were specified in the directions, though mash and fermentation temperatures were left to each brewery.

I was asked to coordinate and lead the judging, and I took a hedonistic approach, meaning we used a standard of which beer would you buy for yourself and a friend. Since they were all IPAs, we didn’t dwell on style considerations. I divided the judges into teams of three each, and gave each group seven random beers, from which they each chose two to push forward to the final round. We were then joined by Mike Sutton, who works for S.S. Steiner (the company that developed the Bravo hop variety) and chose our three favorites from the six. Sometimes when I judge deadlocks are broken by a simple vote with the beers getting the majority of votes being declared the winner. While I understand the rationale for this method, I do not personally like to use it because it’s my feeling that all of the judges should be satisfied with the results, not just a majority. For this reason, I prefer to use more of a jury-like approach where ten angry men talk it out until all can agree with the results. This approach does tend to take longer, but I think the result is a more well-thought out decision that each judge can feel good about. This year, the winners we chose were:

  1. Bison Brewing
  2. Russian River Brewing
  3. Sonoma Coop’s

The three other beers that made it to the finals were, in no particular order, from Firehouse Brewing, Seabright and 21st Amendment. The Bravo hop proved to be far milder than last year’s Summit hop and overall made for a better-tasting beer. There did seem to be less variation, too, but also Bravo did not have bold signature aromas the way Summit did. That’s not better or worse, just different. It seems like Bravo should blend well with many other hops and should end up being a successful hop over time. Now that’s my idea of a fun afternoon. The only thing that would have made it better is if I could have played washoes.

Washoes,

Beer and Barbecue.

Shaun O’Sullivan, from 21st Amendment Brewery, James Costa, from E.J. Phair Brewing, and Vinnie Cilurzo from Russian River Brewing.
 

For more photos from the Single Hop Festival, visit the photo gallery.
 

Bravo For the New Hop

By

Countless new hop varieties are created every year, so many in fact that they are given only a number. A hop has to really prove itself worthy before it actually gets a name. For example, Hop #01046 began its life in Prosser, Washington at the Golden Gate Roza Hop Ranches. During the summer of 2000, a female hop known as Zeus was cross-pollinated with a male known simply as #98004 (whose mother is in effect Nugget hops). Its lineage, therefore, is “50% Zeus, 18.75% Nugget, 25% USDA 19058m, and 6.25% unknown.”

The following year, seeds were collected and the plant was grown in a greenhouse for the next two years, and screened for powdery mildew resistance, along with gender, vigor, and cone type. By 2002, #01046 was exhibiting higher than usual alpha-acid percentages with good resistance and several other very positive attributes. The next year, 2003, #01046 was asexually propagated and rhizomes from the original plant “were dug, divided and planted into multiple greenhouse grown containers.” Eventually, 4,000 softwood-cutting plants were created and then grown at two different locations, the original Roza ranch and also at Golden Gate Emerald Hop Ranches in Sunnyside, Washington. These plants represented the second-generation of the hop plant.
 

 

Over the subsequent three years the hops were grown, sampled, tested and analyzed on a variety of factors. These tests confirmed that the new hop had good resistance to disease, along with exceptionally high yield and high alpha-acids percentages. The hops were harvested and processed into 200 lb. bales, which were tested using the ASBC (American Society of Brewing Chemists) spectrophotometric method and showed “average alpha-acids level of 17.5% and beta-acids level of 3.5%.” The alphas were almost exactly the same as Mom (Zeus) but with much less loss of alpha-acids in storage, a good sign.
 

 

In 2005, third-generation plants were created and a large-scale field test was conducted at the Emerald Ranch. Declared a success, #01046 was re-christened “Bravo” and S.S. Steiner, who operated the hop fields in Washington, filed a patent application. 2006 yielded the first commercially available Bravo hops.
 

 

For every one of these success stories, there are hundreds that never make it. But even getting this far doesn’t guarantee a hop’s success. How it works in the beer is the final and arguably the most important test. So what will it taste like in your beer? Nobody’s certain, though there is a great way to find out. Tomorrow you have an opportunity to sample at least 21 single hop IPAs, using only Bravo hops, made by breweries from around northern California. Drake’s Brewing in San Leandro is hosting their 2nd annual Drake’s Brewing Beer Festival and Washoes Tournament. Each brewery will also be serving some of their other available beers so you’ll have plenty of other beers to sample, as well. But it’s a great educational experience on several fronts. First, you get to try a new hop in its debut in a commercial beer. Second, you can see firsthand how different brewers using different equipment but the same hop and the same IPA recipe can craft 21 beers that all taste distinctively different (at least that was the experience from last year when Summit hop was used at the festival). It should be a fun time. Come join us at Drake’s for a memorable afternoon of beer, food, music and games. See you there.

 

Bravo Hop Characteristics:

Alplha Acids: 14.-17.%
Cohumulone: 29-34% of alpha acids
Beta-Acids: 3-5% w/w
Total Hop Oils: 1.6-2.4% v/w

 

7.14

Single Hop Festival & Washoe Tournament (2nd annual)
Drake’s Brewing, 1933 Davis Street #177, San Leandro, California
510.562.0866 [ website ] [ directions ]

NOTE: The patent filing lists Bravo as #01046 but the photo shows #1046. So far, I’ve been unable to confirm which is correct.

 

Marston’s Gobbles Up Old Thumper

By

Marston’s, who brews Banks, Mansfield and Jennings as well as the eponymous beers, is buying out the regional Hampshire brewery, Ringwood, whose most well-known beer is undoubtedly “Old Thumper.” The pricetag is £19.2 million pounds (or just shy of $39 million dollars) and also includes Ringwood’s pubs in and around Hampshire. Six months ago, Marston’s also bought Eldridge Pope for £155m ($314.5 million U.S.).

According to a BBC article, “[t]he acquisition will boost Marston’s presence in the South of England and enhance its range of regional breweries which include Midlands-based Banks’s.” Alistair Darby, Marston’s managing director is quoted as saying. “We plan to develop its excellent brands as part of our strategy to meet consumer demand for premium ales with local provenance and heritage.” And here I thought they just wanted to make more money.

Ringwood Brewery has an interesting history. It’s situated in the relatively small town of Ringwood in Hampshire, which is in southern England, about 20 miles from the coast and 85 miles from London. The town is part of the rural district of Hampshire and is essentially a market town located along the River Avon and adjacent to “New Forest,” the largest remaining unenclosed pasture land, heathland and old-growth forest in England. By 1811, Ringwood was a bustling community and at one time boasted four breweries, but the last one — Carter’s — closed around 1923. Fifty-five years later, in 1978, Ringwood Brewery was opened by Peter Austin, who today is considered to be the “father of British micro-brewing.” Not only was he one of the first small breweries to open in modern times, but he also helped save cask beer from extinction.

The yeast Austin brought with him from the now-defunct Hull Brewery in northern England is today known as “Ringwood yeast” and is a popular ale strain used by countless small American craft breweries. Alan Pugsley, who learned brewing from Peter Austin, is the co-owner and master brewer of Shipyard Brewing in Portland, Maine. That’s also the reason that Ringwood’s “Old Thumper” beer is made under license by Shipyard for sales in North America. To learn more about how Ringwood Brewery greatly influenced the craft beer movement here in the United States, through Alan Pusgley, there are two illuminating interviews with him online by Lew Bryson and Andy Crouch.

Despite Marston’s claims that they’re only in it to “meet consumer demand for premium ales with local provenance and heritage,” I can’t help but be suspicious of yet another big brewery chain swallowing up a smaller one. These things rarely go well for the one being bought. There’s a lot of heritage in the Ringwood Brewery and it would be a crying shame if it was lost to another economic decision by a large company that only cared about its bottom line. And apparently I’m not the only one. CAMRA has also made its concerns known about the acquisition in a Publican article by Adam Withrington. CAMRA believes this buyout by Marston’s may have a “domino effect” for increasing the consolidations of pubs and breweries, a trend I personally thought was fairly well-established in England as already taking place.

From the Publican:

CAMRA chief executive Mike Benner said: “The practice among larger breweries of acquiring smaller competitors is a race where the only loser is the consumer who is often denied a locally brewed beer.

“As one of the larger breweries buys a brewery and expands their estate their competitors start hunting for their next purchase to keep up. CAMRA’s fear is that an increasing number of smaller breweries will be lost if this race continues and consumer choice will suffer as a result.”

CAMRA’s fears arise from a significant number of small local breweries being bought and closed down by bigger regionals over the last three years. Greene King has purchased both Ridley’s in Essex, Scottish brewer Belhaven and Nottinghamshire brewer Hardys & Hansons and closed all three breweries. In 2005 Fuller’s bought Hampshire regional brewer Gales and closed its brewery in Horndean.

The Ringwood Brewery in Hampshire, England.
 

John White’s Final Trip

By

I was at the Celebrator offices Monday night, doing a tasting of wheat beers for the next issue, when the sad news came in that John White, the tireless supporter of great beer passed away at 62. I never met the man, but know plenty of people who have and sang his praises. He ran the White Beer Travels website, a terrific resource for beer travelers and also beer-themed travel adventures known as “White Beer Travels Beer Hunts.” According to the website, White passed away on July 2 and a service celebrating his life was held on the 9th in his hometown of Grimsby, England.

Carolyn Smagalski has a moving tribute on her website, Bella Online, entitled “Tribute to a White Knight.”

John White with Michael Jackson in 2004.
 

The Milwaukee Beer Party

By

In a modern day version of the Boston Tea Party — but without the Indian costumes or a ship — Wisconsin beermakers staged a protest today by dumping out kegs of beer into the Milwaukee River. The Milwaukee Beer Party, which is what I’ll be calling it, was held to bring attention to Wisconsin SB 224, a state Senate bill that would make things more difficult for small local brewers.

From the AP article:

Basically, it divides small brewers into two licensed classes — those who want to serve food as brewpubs, and those who seek to bottle and distribute their product on a larger scale. The latter would face new restrictions on food service.

The brewers, who acknowledge they’re not savvy about the legislative process, say it’s not fair for new beer makers to have to decide their fate that early.

“Every business takes on a life of its own,” said Jim McCabe, proprietor of the Milwaukee Ale House. “For the guy that wants to start a brewery tomorrow, he’s got to make decisions early in his business life that aren’t possible.”

After countdowns in English and German, the kegs were opened with mallets that spewed suds across the deck and into the Milwaukee River.

The whole issue started when the Great Dane Pub opened a third location in the Madison area, but couldn’t sell its own brews because the law only allows two such operations per chain.

The brewers are also upset that the law was introduced on July 3 and is already scheduled for a vote Wednesday in the Senate’s Transportation, Tourism and Insurance Committee.

“This is just a run-of-the-night operation that’s being ram-roaded down our throats,” said Russ Klisch, owner of Lakefront Brewery Inc. in Milwaukee and president of the Wisconsin Brewers Guild. “There are so many questions out there that have been unanswered.”

It appears that lawmakers were unaware if the consequences of the actions and amendments are in the works, according to Terry Tuschen, a spokeperson for the bill’s sponsor, Senator Fred Risser (D-Madison). “Everybody’s working hard to fix what needs to be fixed,” Tuschen said. Still, if you live in Wisconsin, it probably can’t hurt to contact your local state senator’s office and ask them not to support the bill unless those provisions are amended or removed.

 

The Milwaukee Beer Party
From Channel 3 Wisconsin
 

The Official Beer of Planet Earth

By

Now that’s a slogan: “The Official Beer of Planet Earth.” Butte Creek Brewing Co., the other little brewery in Chico, California, announced today that they will be revamping their entire packaging and introducing two new slogans, “Organic Pioneers” and “The Official Beer of Planet Earth.”

From the press release:

Golden West Brewing Announces Redesign of Butte Creek Organic Ales and Lagers

CHICO, Calif. — Golden West Brewing Company, Inc. announced today that it has completed the redesign of its core product line of Butte Creek Organic Ales and Lagers. The new labels, six-pack carriers, and case boxes released today in select markets eventually will be in all 25 states where Butte Creek is sold.

As part of the redesign of the brand, Butte Creek is using two new marks – “Organic Pioneers” and “The Official Beer of Planet Earth” – as cornerstones of its marketing campaign for the organic ales and lagers.

“We are very excited about the re-branding of Butte Creek Organic Ales and Lagers and believe our updated design is necessary to compete with recent entrants, such as Anheuser-Busch, into the organic beer category,” said John Power, President of Golden West Brewing.

Golden West Brewing has filed applications with the United States Trademark and Patent Office (“USPTO”) for both marks and hope the marks will be successfully registered with the USPTO. However, there is no guarantee the USPTO will publish the marks for opposition.

As part of the redesigning and marketing campaign, Golden West has secured new vendors for the glass and six-pack carriers that should reduce overall cost of these key raw materials.

“A limited price increase that went into effect July 1, combined with more effective purchasing of glass and cardboard, should improve our gross margins in the current third quarter of 2007,” Power said.

Golden West also announced the completion of a private placement of 282,000 shares at $0.33 per share to provide additional working capital. Details of the placement are contained in the Company’s Current Report on Form 8-K covering the financing.

About Golden West Brewing Company, Inc.

Golden West Brewing Company, Inc. was formed in 2003 and completed a small self-underwritten public offering in 2006. Golden West through its wholly owned subsidiary, Golden West Brewing Company, acquired the assets and certain liabilities of Butte Creek Brewing Company of Chico, California in August 2005. Founded in 1996, Butte Creek Brewing Company is one of the pioneer certified organic microbreweries in the United States

 

Beer Is Good For Your Lawn

By

lawn-mower
According to lawn expert, Brad Fresenburg, beer can make your grass more green, thanks to the carbohydrates in it. Fresenburg is an extension and research associate at the University of Missouri at Columbia and he’s testing an internet lawn mix called “The Perfect Lawn Tonic” that uses five common household ingredients, one of which is beer. KSDK CBS Channel 5 in St. Louis, Missouri has asked Fresenburg to try out the tonic scientifically.

The five ingredients are beer, non-diet soda, mouthwash, household ammonia, and dish soap. “It’s really a home remedy that is simulating a lot of the bio-stimulants,” said Fresenburg. “There really isn’t anything in the ingredients that are going to be harmful to grasses.” Fresenburg believe the beer will benefit from carbohydrates in it to feed microbes that are in the soil.

When asked if the tonic will work, Fresenburg replied. “Yes and no, but it is going to do what they say it’s going to do as far as green color and maybe perhaps having a lawn look a little more green and lush,” said Fresenburg. “Especially at this time of year when grasses are struggling a little bit due to drought and perhaps turning a little bit brown … it will help with that effect.” At the end of the month, Fresenburg will be re-interviewed to gauge the results.

Here’s the tonic recipe:

The Perfect Lawn Tonic

1 beer (except light beer)
1 can of non-diet soda
1/2 cup mouthwash
1/2 cup household ammonia
1/2 cup dish soap (except anti-bacterial)

Mix all ingredients and pour into a 10-gallon hose end sprayer.

Spray on lawn after mowing — just enough to wet the grass.

Reapply every three weeks.

Bravo for Bravo

By

July 14, from Noon to 6:00 p.m., at Drake’s Brewing in San Leandro, California you’ll have another unique opportunity to taste at least twenty beers all made with the same hop, but with different malt, yeast and water. This year’s hop will be Bravo, a new variety that was “cultivated as a result of a cross in 2000 at Golden Gate Roza Hop Ranches in Prosser, Washington.” The new hop was only patented last year, and is distributed exclusively by S.S. Steiner, who donated the hops for the beers in the festival.

Drake’s Brewing Company 2nd Annual Beer Festival and Washoes Tournament will also feature music by The No Cover Band, The Shuffle Kings, and The Doormats. Your $35 admission price includes unlimited sampling, a commemorative glass, t-shirt and an entry into the Washoe tournament. This should be a lot of fun. Perhaps I’ll see you there.

From the press release:

Drake’s is about a 15-20 minute walk from the San Leandro BART station. Buses run up and down Davis Street. Cabs are available at the BART station. We are located at the loading dock area around the back of the Wal-Mart. Hope to see you here.

 

Some photos from last year’s inaugural festival:

Drake’s brewer Rodger Davis, Dave Keene from the Toronado, Melissa Myers (also from Drake’s), James Costa from E. J. Phair, along with beer enthusiast Motor.

The Washoes Tournament underway.
 
 

Breweries Attending & Brewing the Same Hop IPA
 

  • The Beach Chalet
  • Bear Republic
  • Bison
  • Blue Frog and Grog
  • Devil’s Canyon
  • Drake’s
  • E.J. Phair
  • El Toro
  • Firehouse Grill
  • Half Moon Bay
  • Magnolia
  • Marin
  • Rubicon
  • Russian River
  • Sacramento
  • Seabright
  • Sonoma Chicken Coop
  • Stone Brewing
  • Thirsty Bear
  • Triple Rock
  • 21st Amendment
  • Valley Brewing

 
 

7.14

Single Hop Festival & Washoe Tournament (2nd annual)
Drake’s Brewing, 1933 Davis Street #177, San Leandro, California
510.562.0866 [ website ] [ directions ]
 

Searching For the Holy Aroma

By

According to Wired Science, scientists from Down Under (the Department of Food Science, University of Otago, in Dunedin, New Zealand, and the Australian Centre for Research on Separation Science, Department of Applied Chemistry, RMIT University, in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia more specifically) have published a paper identifying the chemicals creating the spicy aromas in noble hops using four different hop varieties: Target, Saaz, Hallertauer Hersbrucker, and Cascade. (That’s what’s being reported, target and cascade, of course are not noble hops.) They’ve now succeeded in finding the chemicals responsible for “spiciness,” using “two-dimensional gas chromatography mass spectrometry.” The equipment takes “individual chemical[s] from the hops in a two-step process, and then weighs the individual molecules to identify them.” There are nearly 1,000 separate chemical components that contribute to the aromas just from hops so this was definitely like looking for the proverbial needle in a haystack.

Dr. Lingshuang Cai and Jacek Koziel at Iowa State University

 From the Wired article:

When the test results came in, five chemicals stood out from the others. All of them are terpenes. Geraniol, which is named after geranium flowers and obviously has a floral scent. Linalool, has a floral and spicy scent. It is also found in mint, cinnamon, and rosewood. Eugeneol has a spicy, clove-like aroma. Beta-ionone has a complex woody and fruity scent. Caryophyllene is found in black pepper.

Terpenes are a class of chemicals that are often responsible for the unique scent of food, perfume, and beverages. In 2002, other researchers showed that adding a tiny amount of a particular terpene to a very bland beer made it smell fantastic, but not quite as complex as a premium brew.

From the Abstract in the Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry:

The “spicy” character of hops is considered to be a desirable attribute in beer, associated with “noble hop aroma”. However, the compounds responsible have yet to be adequately identified. Odorants in four samples of the spicy fraction of hop essential oil were characterized using gas chromatography-olfactometry (GC-O) and CharmAnalysis. Four hop varieties were compared, namely, Target, Saaz, Hallertauer Hersbrucker, and Cascade. Odor-active compounds were tentatively identified using comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography (GC×GC) combined with time-of-flight mass spectrometry (TOFMS). An intense “woody, cedarwood” odor was determined to be the most potent odorant in three of the four spicy fraction samples. This odor coincided with a complex region where between 8 and 13 compounds were coeluting in each of the four spicy fractions. The peak responsible was determined by (i) correlating peak areas with Charm values in eight hop samples and (ii) heart-cut multidimensional gas chromatography-olfactometry (MDGC-O). The compound responsible was tentatively identified as 14-hydroxy-ß-caryophyllene. Other important odorants identified were geraniol, linalool, ß-ionone, and eugenol.

Bottle Top Cake

By

While I may not be a fan of the beer, this is a pretty impressive cake made to look like a Heineken crown! Perhaps more amazing is that this is easily one of the less impressive ones displayed at Hemmy’s Awesome Cake Art. It’s my daughter Alice’s third birthday today, but we went with a princess cake for her, which is what she’d been telling us she wanted for weeks now.