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The Next Session Visits A Beer Garden

March 23, 2018 By Jay Brooks Leave a Comment

For our 134th Session, our host will be Tom Cizauskas, who writes Yours For Good Fermentables. For his topic, he’s tackling Beer Gardens, or more specifically, “What (and Where) is a Beer Garden?”

Here’s what he means by that question:

What is a beer garden? Or what isn’t a beer garden? Or what should a beer garden be? Or where is a beer garden?

Is a beer garden a place of foliage and shrubberies? Or is it a plot of concrete with umbrellas? Is a beer garden an outdoor bar? Or an outdoor Biergarten pavilion with Gemütlichkeit und Bier? Or is a beer garden to be found at a brewery with a hop trellis de rigueur?

Is a beer garden to be found outdoors, or can it be, alternatively, an interior third place, an arboretum with beer? Is a beer garden a real thing or is it a Platonic ideal, an imagined gueuzic nostalgia? Or is it a place indeed, once or often visited, not Bill Bryson in the woods, but Lew Bryson in a beer garden? If so, where is it? Tell us (with or without Lew).

According to the Beer Bloggers Conference, there are over 1,000 active “Citizen Beer Blogs” in North America, over 500 “Citizen Beer Blogs” throughout the rest of the world, and another couple hundred industry beer blogs. So, jump in folk. Please contribute!

The Beer Garden at Bohemian Hall in New York City.

So by Friday, April 6 — which by the way is New Beer’s Eve — or thereabouts, give us your take on beer gardens. To participate in the April Session, simply leave a comment at the original announcement and leave the URL to your post there, or tag him on Instagram or Twitter, or by posting a link and comment on his Facebook page.

At the Duff Gardens beer garden.

Start A Homebrewing Conversation For The Next Session

January 30, 2018 By Jay Brooks 1 Comment

For our 132nd Session, our host will be John Abernathy, who writes about beer at The Brew Site website. For his topic, inspired by the news that BA and AHA founder Charlie Papazian recently announced his retirment, has been thinking about homebrewing and is calling his topic Homebrewing Conversations. Essentially he’s calling for anything about “homebrewing — the good, the bad, your experiences, ideas, (mis)conceptions, or whatever else suits you, as long as it starts the conversation!”

Here are some suggestions Jon has about how you could approach the topic:

Do you homebrew, and if so, for how long? How did you get started?

Talk about the best beer you ever brewed at home—and your worst!

Are you a member of a local homebrew club (or even the AHA)? Tell us about your club.

Describe your home set up: do you brew all grain? Extract? Brew in a bag? Unusual mashing/sparging/etc. methods?

Have you ever judged a homebrew competition? Talk about that experience.

Are you a BJCP or other accredited beer judge? Talk about the process of becoming certified/official.

Never homebrewed/not a homebrewer? No problem! Consider these questions:

Do you know any homebrewers?

Have you ever tasted someone’s home brewed beer?

Would you ever be interested in learning how to brew? Why or why not?

So by this Friday, February 2, or thereabouts, start your homebrewing conversation. To participate in the February Session, simply leave a comment at the original announcement and leave the URL to your post there, or tag him on Twitter or on Facebook (or even Instagram) with your post, and I’ll round up all the entries early next week.

New Session: Three Things In 2018

January 5, 2018 By Jay Brooks 12 Comments

For our 131st Session this month our host will be me, from the Brookston Beer Bulletin, stepping in because I hadn’t realized no one had offered to host until it was pointed out this morning on Twitter. For my topic, I’ve chosen Three Things, a quick session topic as we look ahead to what this year, and beyond, will bring to the world of beer. So here we go, three quick questions for you to ponder and answer extemporaneously as best you can from your perspective.

Question No. 1

For our first question of the new year, what one word, or phrase, do you think should be used to describe beer that you’d like to drink. Craft beer seems to be the most agreed upon currently used term, but many people think it’s losing its usefulness or accuracy in describing it. What should we call it, do you think?

ANSWER: ____________________

Question No. 2

For our second question of the new year, what two breweries do you think are very underrated? Name any two places that don’t get much attention but are quietly brewing great beer day in and day out. And not just one shining example, but everything they brew should be spot on. And ideally, they have a great tap room, good food, or other stellar amenities of some kind. But for whatever reason, they’ve been mostly overlooked. Maybe 2018 should be the year they hit it big. Who are they?

ANSWER 1: ____________________

ANSWER 2: ____________________

For our third question of the new year, name three kinds of beer you’d like to see more of. It’s clear hoppy beers, IPAs and all of the other hop-forward beers they’ve spawned, are here to say. There seems to be a few other styles that are popular, too, like saisons, barrel-aged beers, anything imperial and also sour beers of all kinds. But lots of other previously popular beers seem sidelined these days. What three types of beer do you think deserve more attention or at least should be more available for you to enjoy? They can be anything except IPAs, or the other extreme beers. I mean, they could be, I suppose, but I’m hoping for beers that we don’t hear much about or that fewer and fewer breweries are making. What styles should return, re-emerge or be resurrected in 2018?

ANSWER 1: ____________________

ANSWER 2: ____________________

ANSWER 3: ____________________

So stop what you’re doing and start a new Session post. Now would be good. To participate in the January Session, today, Friday, January 5, write your post as soon as feasible, then leave a comment below or shoot me an e-mail or copy me (@Brookston) in your Twitter feed with your link. Don’t think about it too long, just give the first answers that pop into your head.

California Brewery Count Hits 900

December 12, 2017 By Jay Brooks 2 Comments

Today the California Craft Brewers Association announced another milestone in California breweries has been reached. There are now 900 breweries in the Golden State, which means that over 9 out of 10 California resident now lives within 10 miles of a brewery.

Here’s the press release:

“The craft beer industry has tripled over the last five years, up from 300 breweries in 2012 to just over 900 breweries in operation today, according to data released by the nonprofit trade association representing the industry, the California Craft Brewers Association (CCBA). California is home to more craft breweries than any state in the nation, with nearly 92 percent of the state’s 39.5 million residents living within 10 miles of a brewery.

’11 percent of the craft brewing industry’s total $67.8 billion economic impact comes from California,’ said Bart Watson, Chief Economist at the Brewers Association. ‘These data highlight the powerful economic impact craft brewers have in California and across the nation.’

According to the CCBA report, the total economic impact of craft breweries in California exceeds $7.3 billion. This figure is derived from the total impact of beer brewed by craft brewers as it moves from breweries to distributors to retailers as well as non-beer merchandise sold at breweries and tasting rooms.

By the Numbers:

Craft breweries in California supported nearly 50,000 full-time jobs with an average wage of $55,000 a year.
California’s craft breweries paid $1.49 billion in taxes in 2016, including $868 million in state and local taxes and $617 million in federal taxes.
California’s craft breweries produced 3,295,221 barrels of beer in 2016. Breweries exported 1.17 million barrels, which is greater than the total craft production in all but five states in the nation.
The number of licensed breweries grew by more than 100 in the last year – more than any state in the country and an increase that was greater than the total licensed number of breweries in 34 states.

‘The positive impact of craft breweries on the state of California goes far beyond just the benefits of tax revenue, manufacturing jobs and tourism,’ said CCBA executive director, Tom McCormick. ‘Craft breweries also have a tangible influence on the growth and development of their region, investing in their community, employing their neighbors and supporting local nonprofits. Craft breweries are the living room, the town hall and the gathering place for their community.’”

Design Your Perfect Beer Festival For The Next Session

November 15, 2017 By Jay Brooks Leave a Comment

For our 130th Session, our host will be Bryan Yeager, who writes on his eponymous Bryan Yeager website. For his topic, he’s asking what would the perfect beer festival look like to you, and has called his topic Create Your Own Beerfest. Surely, you’ve been to a beer festival and thought, “I could do better.” Here’s your chance.

Here’s Bryan’s full explanation:

There are actually so many regional, local, and niche beer fests these days, we’re hearing a bit about “beerfest fatigue.” And I get that. Can you really hit 52 of ’em a year if you live somewhere near Portland, San Diego, Denver, Chicago, Philly, NYC, etc? As someone who attends more than my fair share, sadly not all are created equal, but one I may not care for is probably someone else’s annual favorite. Things to ponder:

Size matters: When building your own fest, are you striving for a crowd of Oktoberfest proportions in the millions, an epic party of many thousands, or more intimate few hundred?

Styles matter: From GABF where over 7,900 beers across every imaginable style (and mash-up) were available for sampling to themed events such as barrel-aged beers or holiday ales, to the plethora of IPA fests and some other single-style fests, would the event of your design be a grab-bag or exhibit razor-sharp focus?

Locavore vs Globe Trotter: After deciding what kind of beers to feature, or even before, think about if you’re inviting your local breweries or ones from your Brewery Fantasy League. Are attendees going to be more tempted to support local or to get a taste of beers from breweries they don’t already have access to? Let’s put aside for a second how hard it can be to bring in a brewery that’s not already licensed to distribute in your home town if that’s where this event is.

Location, location, and timing: The most important element of a successful event is its location. Followed by location. Followed by timing. When and where is this fantasy beerfest of yours? Is it in a city rife with events (meaning they’ve proven to be popular) or one starved for such a fest (but who’s to say if the locals will support)? And does it take place in the summer at the height of beer drinking season or a less-crowded date where it can shine on its own?

Etcetera. There’s a lot more that goes into organizing a beer fest. (I know from experience in producing some that have turned into annual events and some I’ve let slip away as a one- or two-off.) So if you want to opine about your favorite kind of glassware (or hated glasses you always see), ticket prices, food vendors, or anything else that you hate witnessing or wonder why we don’t see something like we should, add that, too. Finally, end with a note about why you can see trying to make this fantasy fest a reality or why you’ll never advance this idea of yours beyond the Session post!

So how would you create a beer festival? What elements would you like to see, or what would you get rid of? Where would it be held? How many people would you allow? Food? Music? Glass or plastic? Tokens or all-you-can-sample for one price? How long would it last? Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. Simply leave a comment at the original announcement and leave the URL to your post there, or tag him @yaeger when you post your perfect beer festival on Twitter.

Next Session On The Hunt For Missing Local Beer Styles

October 20, 2017 By Jay Brooks Leave a Comment

For our 129th Session, our host will be Eoghan Walsh, who writes Brussels Beer City. For his topic, he’s asking “what beer style would you like to see being brewed in your local market that is not yet being brewed?” and has titled his topic Missing Local Beer Styles.

Here’s a fuller explanation:

In 2017 it might seem odd to think that there are beer styles missing from our local markets. We seem to be living in an era of almost ubiquitous choice – where almost every style of beer is available to us either in bars or online, and where new styles quickly break out from their local markets to be brewed by craft or independent breweries around the world. Often though, this choice feels like one between an IPA, a session IPA, a double IPA, a NEIPA, a black IPA (although, really?), West Coast IPA, fruited IPA, etc.

You get the picture.

Local means local

And outside of large metropolitan areas, areas with a large craft beer culture, or regions without recourse to online shopping the spread of different or new styles can remain limited. That’s not even to mention the local or regional styles that disappeared in the last 50 years. And that’s why the theme of this month is styles missing from your local brewing scene’s canon. And you can take local as a relative concept, depending on your context – your town or municipality, county, region, even country if you really are isolated. And local also means brewed locally, not just available locally. Essentially: what beer style would you like to see being brewed in your local market that is not yet being brewed? Simple enough question.

Eoghan then suggests some themes you could consider:

The “Dodo” – a local or regional style that has died out and not yet experienced the same revival of the likes of London Porter or Göse.
The “One-hit Wonder” – that one one-off or limited-run style from a local brewery that was never made again, to your eternal dissatisfaction
The “I used to be cool once” – a style that burst through in the first flushes of the “craft beer” revolution, but which has since died a death, albeit one now much-lamented
The “Phoenix” – narrowing your focus from the style to a specific exemplar of said style, that is no longer in production, from a particular brewery – think of the birth-death-rebirth cycle of a Thomas Hardy’s Ale for example.
The “Contrarian” – you could always take the contrarian approach, and call out a style being produced locally that you’d really rather not see again. Ever.

So what local beer styles do you think are missing from where you live? There’s a lot out there, so I imagine it’s hard to know what’s not there. But have a drink, and start thinking about what’s not in your glass, but should be. Simply leave a comment at the original announcement and leave the URL to your post there.

Black Diamond Brewery Closes

October 17, 2017 By Jay Brooks 1 Comment

Just saw on their Facebook page that Black Diamond Brewery in Concord closed on Tuesday under mysterious circumstances, to say the least. Apparently, when coming into work Tuesday morning, brewery operations and production manager, Shawn Whitaker, found this taped to the front door.

And earlier today, this was posted on their Facebook page:

“Due to unfortunate circumstances the locks have been changed and Black Diamond Brewery is closed for the foreseeable future. Thank you to everyone who supported us during our 23 year run!”

Also, the brewery’s website domain name expired October 6. So the obvious guess is they got into some kind of financial bind, and perhaps we’ll learn more in the coming days or weeks, but for now, that’s all we know.

Sonoma Pride Beers To Help Raise Money For Fire Victims

October 14, 2017 By Jay Brooks Leave a Comment

In the wake of the horrific Northern California wildfires that decimated parts of Sonoma, Napa and Mendocino counties, some of our breweries are doing something about it, helping to raise money for those who’ve lost everything and many others who have been affected by this still-unfolding tragedy. A couple of years ago, Vinnie Cilurzo, at Russian River Brewing created the label “Sonoma Pride” for a series of beers. They’ve done two releases — Amasa and Dauenhauer — so far (one each year) and have given recent event have decided instead to call this year’s beer simply “Sonoma Pride” and “100% of the sale of this beer will donated directly to this fundraising effort.” They’re working with the King Ridge Foundation and on October 31, they will release the new Sonoma Pride beer at Russian River Brewery and select retail outlets. You can also sign up to be notified by email when it’s released. They’re also accepting direct donations on the Sonoma Pride website and have launched a line-jumping offer for next year’s Pliny the Younger release in February. For every $25 donated, “you’ll be entered into one or more chances to win line cutting privileges to the 2018 Pliny the Younger release at Russian River Brewery.”

And that’s just the beginning. Bear Republic Brewing, has also announced they’ll be joining that effort. Here’s the draft press release that will be released early next week (so it may change a little):

Bear Republic Brewing Company is proud to be joining forces with Russian River Brewing and the King Ridge Foundation, and will be brewing a Bear Republic version for the Sonoma Pride release. We are a little late to this effort because our starships are running on impulse power.

We are are currently working on additional collaborations to be brewed with other Sonoma County breweries to support the victims and firefighters of the 2017 Sonoma County wildfires.

Bear Republic will be supplying ingredients and manpower to St. Florian’s Brewery in a mutual aid effort to brew another version of Sonoma Pride. We are currently working on the details with 101 North Brewing for a similar collaboration, with the efforts supporting the rehabilitation of Cardinal Newman High School, the alma mater of the brewmasters of 101 North and Bear Republic.

Many of the BRBC family members have lost their homes and have little to rely on. For the next 30 days, 50 cents on every case of Bear Republic beer sold will be donated to raise funds to help those affected. We are reaching out to our wholesalers and asking for their support through matching funds up to 50 cents per case or a one time donation.

Many of our distributors nationwide also committing to this cause, making it a truly national effort.

As we are coming together to support this cause, we ask that you consider supporting one of our own. Bear Republic’s Head Brewer Rob and his wife Cami, both employees of Bear Republic, lost their home recently to the fires. While there are many people in the same boat out there, anything will help in supporting them. Please donate if you can at GoFundMe.

Bear Republic’s brewpubs will be offering FREE MEALS to the first responders involved with the local fires at both restaurant locations in Healdsburg and Rohnert Park, California.

Thank you for your continued support, kind words, and prayers during these difficult times.

But wait, there’s more. I’ve also heard from Derek Drennan and Robert Raney, owners of Sonoma Springs Brewing Co.

They’ve also been in contact with Russian River Brewing, and will brew a beer under the “Sonoma Pride” label in the coming weeks, donating the proceeds to local relief charities. And in November, Sonoma Springs will go forward with their planned event, which they began in 2015, to honor and raise funds for local firefighters, specifically the Sonoma Fire Association, with a beer dedicated to them, Sotttile Double Red Ale.

Sonoma Springs will also hold its third annual Sottile Red release event in November (either the 4th of the 11th, depending on when we can get brewing again). This event, from its inception in September 2015, has raised funds for the Sonoma Firefighters Association. It commemorates the response led by the Sonoma Fire Department to put out a major fire in our building back in November 2014, which imperiled the completion of our current brewing facility. This year’s event will provide the community with an opportunity to thank all our local firefighter and first responder heroes who will undoubtedly appreciate such praise after the events of the past week. The beer will be available at the event in November and, for the first time, in cans that we plan to distribute across the north bay.

And that’s what I know so far, there will undoubtedly be additional efforts. I know, for instance, that Fogbelt Brewing will be doing something, but haven’t decided yet what they’ll be doing. Likewise, HenHouse Brewing, which has stayed open through the week, has been announcing collaborations and special brews on their Facebook page, and raising money through the Redwood Credit Union, “a local institution working with our local State Senator to get funds to the right people. RCU did a similar donation portal for the Lake County Fire in 2015 and we know Senator Mike McGuire well, this is an excellent way to help.” For details, go to North Bay Fire Relief.

That’s what I know about so far, I’m sure there will be additional efforts in the coming days and weeks. I’ll update this page as new information becomes available. In the meantime, whenever possible, please support Sonoma, Napa and Mendocino county breweries by purchasing their beer at bars, restaurants, and stores wherever you live, and help the vibrant beer cultures in Northern California continue to thrive and grow.

Next Session: Ich Hätte Gerne Ein Bier, Bitte

August 29, 2017 By Jay Brooks Leave a Comment

For our 127th Session, our host will be Alistair Reece, who writes Fuggled. For his topic, he’s chosen a timely topic: Oktoberfest Beers. This year, Oktoberfest in Munich begins on September 16 and takes place until October 3. So it’s the season for Oktoberfest beers, so it makes perfect sense to write about them this month.

Here’s the full description of this Session’s topic:

Tis the season!! Right about now breweries and beer shops are groaning under the weight of their autumnal offerings, and so for this month’s Session, the 127th of it’s ilk, we turn to one of those autumnal offerings, Oktoberfest lagers.

“Oktoberfest, in September?!” I hear you exclaim, but as I am sure you know, Oktoberfest begins every year in the middle of September, this year on the 16th, and finishes in the eponymous month. So what better way to start the month it all begins in Bavaria than to hunt down a load of beers labelled as ‘Oktoberfest’ or ‘Festbier’, or in some cases both, and have a little mix and match tasting session?

Feel free to dress up for your tasting, dirndls, lederhosen, that Australian backpacker outfit you keep in the back of your wardrobe for special occasions. Hire yourself an oompah band, play the birdy song, and generally get into the spirit of celebrating for the 117th time the marriage of Prince Ludwig and Princess Therese. Whip out the grill and buy all the bratwurst you can find, proper bratwurst that is, from Germany. Shout “O’zapft is!” at the top of your lungs…you get the idea.

Crack open your bottles of Märzen and Oktoberfest beers, or “O’zapft is” and write about what you found. To participate in the September Session, on or before Friday, September 1, 2017 — yes that’s this Friday, in just three days — write a post and leave a comment to the original announcement.”

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