Brookston Beer Bulletin

Jay R. Brooks on Beer

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Researchers Target Beer As Binge Drink of Choice

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There’s more nonsense coming from the CDC, the Center for Disease Control (the same government yahoos who refuse to acknowledge mercury’s role in my son Porter’s autism, as well as millions of other children) who is publishing a study in next month’s American Journal of Preventive Medicine suggesting people are more likely to binge on beer than other types of alcoholic drinks. The CDC apparently surveyed 14,000 binge drinkers in 18 states who told them that they like beer best. Of those surveyed, 67% preferred beer, 22% liked spirits and 11% were winos with a taste for the grape or premixed drinks (don’t ask me why they lumped those two types of drinks together) with 74% of “binge drinkers” having beer either exclusively or in combination.

Of course, it all comes down to your definition of binge drinking, which they define as “five or more drinks in a row.” Now let’s just think this through for a moment. Beer has an average alcohol content of maybe 4.5% abv. Wine has around 14% and spirits, while harder to pin down, has as alcohol percentage far above wine or beer. So of those three types of drinks, which one is it most possible for the greatest number of people to drink five or more of in a single sitting? Anyone, anyone? Bueller, Bueller? Even if you don’t compare equal amounts of liquid consumed but just typical servings it’s considerably easier to down a six-pack of beer than six glasses of wine, six shots of whisky or even six mixed drinks. So it shouldn’t take a genius or even a doctorate to predict that the lowest alcoholic drink would be consumed more often by people on a binge. After all, it’s not really much of a binge if you pass out in under an hour. Not to mention beer outsells wine 4 to 1 and spirits by a considerable margin, too, so why wouldn’t you expect that to remain consistent among “binge drinkers,” too?

Why blame the drink? What is the point of this ridiculous exercise? Should beer be treated differently because more people abuse it, but keep wine and spirits untouched, since their drinkers are among the sophisticated upper class? With beer being more popular why wouldn’t it be proportionally involved in instances of abuse. You would expect that to be the case. I can’t help but thinking “yeah … and … so what.” Once alcohol enters your bloodstream your body doesn’t discriminate between what form it originally came in — inside you alcohol is just alcohol — a chemical compound: C2H5OH. It’s merely societal features that determine which drink people choose.

So what possible policy changes might flow from this study? It just doesn’t make any sense. This seems like a case where the statistics don’t really mean anything useful. All the study appears to do is confirm what you’d expect would be the case if you think about it for a few seconds. Good thing our tax dollars were channeled into something anyone with a high school diploma should have been able to figure out. Is the CDC setting up conditions for neo-prohibitionists to promote making beer harder to access than wine and spirits, the way the state of Tennessee recently did? Heaven forbid we suggest ways to reduce “binge drinking” that involves lowering the drinking age in line with the rest of the civilized world or allow parents to educate their children on how to drink responsibly by introducing it in the home. Those kinds of ideas — which should be taken for granted — are rarely, if ever, even discussed by policymakers and politicians.

An article in Forbes, via HealthDay News, stated that the “study also found that beer was the primary choice of binge drinkers who were most likely to cause alcohol-related harm, such as drinking and driving.” Of course, that could just as easily be that someone with five beers in them is in much better shape to drive (not that I’m saying that they should drive) than someone with five glasses of wine or five glasses of vodka. It’s as if they’re targeting beer precisely because it’s not impairing people enough.

The Forbes piece continues:

“This study isn’t looking at alcohol consumed by people drinking responsibly, or moderately; this is alcohol consumed by people drinking five or more drinks in a sitting, so almost all of them are going to be impaired — if not overtly intoxicated,” Naimi said in a prepared statement. “This is exactly the kind of drinking behavior that leads to so many deaths and secondhand problems that inflict real pain and costs on society, not just the drinker.”

What that statement ignores is what it means to “drink responsibly, or moderately.” That idea has changed over the years. People’s attitudes towards drinking — and driving — used to be much more tolerant. Have lives been saved by changes to the law and to its more statutory enforcement? Possibly, but I remain somewhat skeptical of what statistics have been offered and continue to believe that even if that is indeed the case, that the price that our society has paid as a whole is too high. Education and altered attitudes quite possibly could have done the same thing, without the draconian measures MADD undertook creating a world where people are literally afraid to have a good time.

When I was first old enough to drive (and then drink) five beers over a few hours would not have made me impaired by the then standard of 0.10% blood alcohol level (BAC). By my weight, I could consume seven drinks in one hour and still be under that BAC level. Even under our present standard of 0.08% BAC I can theoretically still have six drinks in one hour and be legally able to drive. That means even if I decided to become a “binge drinker” I could legally do so, and possibly even drive. But most binges involve greater periods of time and thus could conceivably involve even more drinks. I would much rather have my five drinks over several hours of conversation, food or games than quaff it down as fast as possible. But that’s what education and being a responsible adult can do for you. I find it highly insulting that if I have five pints of beer over the course of an evening’s enjoyment that I am branded a “binge drinker,” with all the derogatory associations that entails. I hold down two jobs (one paid, the other a labor of love), pay my taxes, am involved in my community and my children’s schools. I vote, I support local businesses and frequent my local library. But for some I’ll always be an unrepentant deviant because on occasion I drink a half dozen pints in one day? Bullshit.

In the modern, post-MADD, world, the bar for drinking responsibly is growing lower and lower and it is quite clear the neo-prohibitionists will not be satisfied until all alcohol is again removed from society. In a recent story (sent in by Seth. Thanks Seth.) from the San Francisco Chronicle, MADD doesn’t even want people drinking on Amtrak trains, even though there’s no driving involved. Is this study more fuel for the neo-probs? If so it’s more than a little unsettling that my government is helping the cause of another prohibition with my tax dollars. After all, it’s my country, too. Love it or drown your sorrows.
 

NOTE: Davis on Draft also has a nice rant on a different version of this story, his was from MSNBC.

 

Session #6: Fruit Beer

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fruit
This has been a brutal month for me, in the last few weeks I’ve been to Denver, Portland and am writing this from Mammoth Lakes, California, where I’m attending a CSBA meeting and beer festival. So the Bulletin has suffered, but I didn’t want to miss this month’s Session because it’s an idea that I strongly believe in. I’ll try to be brief for this one (at least brief for me) since I have a speaking engagement in a few hours. Our host for the month, Greg Clow, chose fruit beers for this month’s topic and it’s another worthy one.

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The use of fruit in beer, of course, is not a new phenomenon by any stretch of the imagination. The Belgians, for example, have been using fruit in lambics for centuries. I always chuckle to myself when people make allusions to fruit beer not being for men, without having the foggiest notion what their talking about. I’d love to see their face when they try their first sour cherry lambic and can no longer sustain that argument. Fruit beers are, according to taste, for everybody. It’s probably a good idea to like the fruit used in a particular beer, and to have it be not too sweet or not too sour, depending on your own tolerance and preferences. But there’s such a wide range and variety of fruit beers that there’s undoubtedly one to suit any person’s tastes.

Off the top of my head, here’s just a few different fruits that are or have been used in beer:

  • Apple: Jack Russell Harvest Apple, New Glarus Apple Ale, Unibroue Ephemere
  • Apricot: Alpine Apricot Nectar, Cantillon Fou’ Foune, Pyramid Apricot Ale, Valley Apricot Ale
  • Banana: De Troch Chapeau Banana Lambic, Wells Banana Bread Beer
  • Blackberry: Coast Range Blackberry Wheat, Jack Russell Blackberry Abbey Ale, Oregon Trail Blackberry Porter (Jim Koch’s Oregon Brewing also made a blackberry porter)
  • Black Currant: Lindemans Cassis Lambic, Unibroue Ephemere
  • Blueberry: BluCreek Blueberry Ale, Jack Russell Blueberry Beer, Marin Blueberry, SLO Blueberry Ale
  • Cherry: Bell’s Cherry Stout, Cantillon Kriek, Melbourn Bros. Spontaneous Fermentation Cherry, New Glarus Belgian Red, Samuel Adams Cherry Wheat
  • Cranberry: Samuel Adams Cranberry Lambic
  • Elderberry: Ebulum Elderberry Black Ale (I also once had an Elderberry Barleywine at a CAMRA festival in Peterborough that knocked me for a loop)
  • Gooseberry: Grozet Gooseberry and Wheat Ale
  • Grape: Cantillon St. Lamvinus, Cantillon Vigneronne, Concord Grape Ale
  • Grapefruit: Groslch 2.5 Pink Grapefruit, St. Peter’s Fruit Beer
  • Honeysuckle: Barrel House Honeysuckle Blond
  • Kiwi: Bube’s Kiwi-Strawberry Wheat
  • Lemon: Magic Hat Hocus Pocus, Saxer Lemon Lager, Stiegl Lemon Beer
  • Lime: Lakeport Brava Lime, Viking Lime Twist
  • Orange: Buffalo Bill’s Mandarin Hefeweizen, Caldera Dry Hop Orange, Craftsman Orange Grove Ale, Dogfish Head Blood Orange Hefeweizen, Triple Rock Orange
  • Peach: Four Peaks Arizona Peach, Lindemans Peche Lambic, Unibroue Ephemere
  • Pear: Hopper’s Pear Lambic
  • Pineapple: Maumee Bay Pineapple Wheat
  • Plum: J.W. Lee’s Plum Pudding, Watch City Jack Horner’s Plum Wit
  • Pomegranate: He’Brew Genesis Ale (original recipe), Moylan’s Pomegranate Wheat
  • Prickly Pear: Real Ale Brewing Prickly Wit, Sleeping Giant Prickly Pear Pale Ale
  • Raspberry: Undoubtedly the most popular fruit in beer, probably because it works so well. Great Divide Wild Raspberry, Lindemans Framboise, Marin Raspberry Trail Ale, New Glarus Raspberry Tart, Purple Haze Raspberry Wheat Brew
  • Strawberry: Melbourn Bros. Spontaneous Fermentation Strawberry, Pete’s Wicked Strawberry Blonde
  • Tomato: Pizza Beer, Uehara Shuzou Tomato Bibere
  • Watermelon: 21st Amendment Watermelon Wheat

This list is merely to show the amazing diversity of different fruits used in beers. No two are alike, and so saying you don’t like fruit beer is like saying you don’t like people. There’s just too many variables to make such a blanket statement. I think it comes down to perception again of some weird prejudice in the U.S. where fruit in beer is seen as unmanly, as ridiculous a notion as I can imagine. There’s just too many good flavors here to ignore them over masculinity. But I guess that’s more for the rest of us.

When fruit beers became trendy fifteen years ago, there were certainly some that were better than others and a few used too much extract, in my opinion. But at some point there seemed to be something of a backlash for reasons unknown, and a lot of breweries quietly dropped their beers made with fruit. Today, breweries that still make fruit beers are generally the ones where their popularity never waned and they just continued making them without worrying too much about how they were perceived. Customers were buying them, and that was really all that mattered. Happily, new breweries are also venturing into fruit beer and seems pretty clear to me that they’ll always be around, at least as long as people care about flavor and how things taste.

The Plumcots Are Coming, The Plumcots Are Coming!

Russian River Brewing recently added another fruit to the list of fruit beers, the plumcot, which is a hybrid cross between a plum and apricot. It was crossbred by none other than Luther Burbank right in Santa Rosa, just a few blocks from the brewery. That’s why brewer Vinnie Cilurzo chose it, because he could use a local ingredient created right in his own backyard.

Plumcots are also called Pluots, but the two are not interchangeable. Pluots are a variation on Burbank’s Plumcot created by Floyd Zaiger. Pluots are three-quarters plum and one-quarter apricot whereas plumcots are closer to 50-50. Pluots are also a registered trademark owned by Zaiger, a practice that I understand but loathe on many levels.

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The beer is Compunction, a blonde ale brewed with plumcots. It had an original gravity of 1048 and is 5.8% abv. It’s slightly cloudy with golden color and a thin white head. Brett is the first aroma that hits you with fruity esters coming closely behind. The sweetness is puckering and works nicely as a contrast for the Brettanomyces. It’s surprisingly refreshing and light, given its strength. The beer is also aged in wooden barrels, but the beer’s strong flavors don’t allow much barrel characteristics to come through, really only a touch. Another interesting beer from Russian River Brewing.

The Brew Am 2007

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The 3rd annual Sasquatch Brew Am took place Friday morning at McMenamins Edgefield Pub Course. It was for a very worthy cause and sponsored by the Glen Hay Falconer Foundation. I also sponsored a hole again this year at the tournament.

Quentin Falconer addresses the golfers, flanked by volunteers Bob Brewer and Lisa Morrison. A portrait of Glen Falconer hangs on the tree at the left.

We listen as Quentin explains the rules.

Shaun O’Sullivan, from 21st Amendment Brewery, with Gabby and Justine — or is that Justine and Gabby? — and Motor.

The CO2 was out so we improvised and opened up the top of the keg to get the beer out. You know that old saying, “where there’s beer, there’s a way.”

Me at hole 8, which is the one I sponsored this year.

The ill-advised shotgunning of the Watermelon Wheat cans.

My fivesome after we finished our round, with a score of 5 under, from left: John, Ken, Brian, me and Shaun, along with tournament organizer Quentin Falconer.

After the tournament, we relaxed with a buffet lunch in the banquet hall, learned who won what (I won longest putt), and found out who won the many raffle items. A great tim was had by all of us. If you’re planning on being in Portland next year during OBF, you really should consider playing in the tournament.
 

UPDATE: Bob Brewer also has a nice collection of photos from the Brew Am online.

 

Urban Brewery Construction

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Hopworks Urban Brewery, the new brewery owned by Christian Ettinger — the award-winning former brewmaster at Laurelwood Public House — it not yet open and looks to be several weeks away, especially the public area upstairs in their location at SE 30th and Powell. The brewery, which is located downstairs under the bar and restaurant area, is a little closer to completion and apparently the bottling line has already been delivered and is just waiting to be installed. Christian and his assistant brewer, Ben Love (who recently left Pelican Brewery), held an open house for OBF attendees to show off their progress in getting the brewery up and running. They were pouring their IPA (which was, of course, brewed elsewhere) and grilling brats outside the brewery in the back. It was great fun seeing their enthusiasm for getting it up and running. They’re feeling like it’s so close they can taste it. It will certainly be fun to see it next year when it’s fully operational.

HUB brewers Ben Love and Christian Ettinger.

For more photos of the Hopworks Urban Brewery under construction, visit the photo gallery.
 

First Tastes of the Fest

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After the parade on Thursday was the annual media tasting led by Noel Blake. In years past it was conducted before the festival began, but because of the parade this was no longer possible. But that also meant we were crowded around all of the other early festival-goers, which happily turned out not to be as bad as I thought it might be. Noel Blake has been our host of this event as long as I can remember, and he does a great job picking out several representative beers for everyone to sample and also explains what led to his choosing those particular beers.

Noel Blake using a bullhorn so he could be heard telling us about the beer in our glass.
 

Some of the beers we sampled were the following:

Bourbon Barrel Abbey Dubbel. The original goal of OBF was to showcase beers from around the country to educate and expose local consumers to craft beer. So while most of the beer at the festival is either from Oregon or nearby states like Washington and California, there are a few from farther afield. Probably the farthest perennial exhibitor is New Jersey’s Flying Fish Brewery, which has been sending beer to the festival for countless years. This year it was their abbey dubbel aged in a bourbon barrel. Malty and nutty, with some fruity esters and only a hint of the bourbon’s alchemy it was decent lighter dubbel.
 

Not quite open yet, Hopworks Urban Brewery is the brainchild of former Laurelwood brewer Christian Ettinger. They were pouring their Organic IPA, which was made with Amarillo, Centennial and Ahtanum hops. It’s a big hop monster, thick with flowery and citrusy hop aromas and flavors that stick to the roof of your mouth. I also had a chance to visit the brewery, which is still under construction. Look for a later post with photos from the new place.
 

Laurelwood Public House was pouring their PNW Pils, a pilsner with not only traditional Saaz hops but also Brewer’s Gold. It’s so well-hopped that it may as well be a big northwest hop because it’s only reminiscent of a pilsner. Really, it was more of a pilsner on steroids.

 

The TG Triple from Terminal Gravity Brewing in Enterprise, Oregon was one of my highlights for the festival. I’m not exactly sure how to describe it, because there’s no jumping off place to begin since it’s so far from what I think of when handed something called a “triple.” Strong, but not too strong (at 8.5% abv), rich, but not too rich, light, but not too light. It certainly tastes mild for a triple, but that’s not to say it isn’t full of flavor all its own. But really, who cares what it is, what’s important is that it’s a great beer.

 

At the media tasting: Rick Sellers, from Pacific Brew News, Merideth and Chris Nelson, The Beer Geek, and Meagan Flynn (at right) with her assistant, publisher of a new magazine — Beer NW — that will debut in October covering the beer scene in the Pacific Northwest.

Tom Dalldorf, publisher of the Celebrator, Fred Eckhardt, legendary Portland beer scribe, Meagan Flynn and our host, Noel Blake.

 

Mayor Leads Parade to Open Oregon Brewers Festival

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On Thursday, the 20th annual Oregon Brewers Festival began with a brunch at the Rogue Public House on NW Flanders in Portland. Afterwards, Portland’s mayor, Tom Potter, led a parade through the streets of town to the festival grounds at Tom McCall Waterfront Park along the Willamette River.

Mayor Tom Potter with Chris Crabb as the parade begins.

Eventually, after winding through the streets of Portland, everyone massed across the street from the grounds and crossed the street to enter the festival.

The mayor tapped the ceremonial keg and shared the first pint with festival director Art Larrance, and the festival was declared officially open.

For more photos from this year’s Oregon Brewers Festival Parade, visit the photo gallery.
 

Off to Portland

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I’m up waay too early to catch a flight to Portland for the 20th annual Oregon Brewers Festival. I get in at 8 a.m. and then it’s off to the Rogue Public House for brunch before the parade to open the festival at Noon. This is probably my second favorite festival of the year. Time permitting, I’ll try to post photos from the various events surrounding the festival and the festival itself, of course, each day.

Sierra Nevada Bottles Anniversary Ale

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For a long time now, if you wanted to try Sierra Nevada Brewing Co.‘s anniversary ale, you had to drive to Chico and visit the brewery pub, because that was the only place it was available … until now. This year, Sierra Nevada will be offering the 27th Anniversary Ale in bottles. I’ve only been fortunate enough to be in Chico at the right time to try the beer one time, many years ago. It’s great that it will now be much more widely available.

From the press release:

For the first time in its 27-year history, Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. will release its Anniversary Ale in bottles. For years, this coveted beer has only been available in the brewery pub in Chico, California during the fall season when the company celebrates the anniversary of its founding in 1980.

“When we heard people had driven all the way from San Francisco last year to try some of this beer, and how disappointed they were when they couldn’t take some home, we figured it was time to make our Anniversary Ale available to everyone on a consistent basis,” said brewery founder and CEO Ken Grossman.

Despite the pent-up demand, the company has historically only been able to produce its Anniversary Ale intermittently. Yet that hasn’t stemmed interest from devout followers who eagerly anticipate anything new from Sierra Nevada, which has been one of the innovators of the craft brewing renaissance since its founding in 1980.

“Ever since we put out our 25th Anniversary Ale in 2005, the demand to make this an annual beer has increased,” said Sierra Grossman, the company’s brand manager and daughter of the founder. “Since we don’t offer growlers to-go at the brewery, people have been pretty frustrated over the years that they haven’t been able to take any Anniversary Ale home.”

The 2007 Anniversary Ale features prominent usage of Cascade hops– the signature hop used in Sierra Nevada’s most popular product, Pale Ale. It is an American Style IPA with a big, fragrant pine and citrus hop aroma balanced by the sweetness of two-row pale and caramel malt. It finishes with an additional Cascade dry-hopping creating a big hop aroma Sierra Nevada fans will look forward to.

Brestfest ’07

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Saturday was the 7th annual Micro Breweries Battling Breast Cancer Brewfest (a.k.a. “Breastfest“) in the courtyard behind Marin Brewing in Larkspur, California. It’s a festival near and dear to my heart because I lost my mother to breast cancer when I was only 21 (and she was 42). It’s a small, crowded place — especially since it’s become so popular — but it’s worthy cause, as far as I’m concerned. There was a lot of good beer and friends in attendance, plus food, music and some pretty wonderful weather. All in all, a great event.

“Gabby” looking fetching in her pink hat, pouring 21st Amendment’s Watermelon Wheat.

Ken and a colleague, both sporting pink hair, from North Coast Brewing.

For more photos from this year’s Micro Breweries Battling Breast Cancer Brewfest, visit the photo gallery.
 

Hard Drive Crash

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My computer crashed two days ago while running a routine update. The culprit was the hard drive, which has now been replaced. I’ve got my computer back now but I’m still waiting to see if I can get all the data off the old drive. Until then, I’m missing some files that make it possible for new posts to be created. Hopefully, posting will continue again by this afternoon or tomorrow. Thanks for your patience.