Beercraftsite.com server almost fixed

It’s the video card. As soon as I get an old, crappy PCI video card, beercraftsite.com will return.

-Mark

Beercraft newspaper column #99: In praise of the pub-

In praise of the pub

By Mark Tichenor & Bruce Lish

Beer at its best is not a solitary pursuit.

The most carefully made selections, the vastest collections, and the fanciest homebrew setups ring hollow without people with whom to share.

Beer has been a community beverage since its invention. Often communally made, most cultures established places within their towns and cities where the people could gather, discuss ideas, and often behave in atrocious ways.

In ancient Sumeria, drinking house providers who shortchanged their patrons on measure were drowned in their own beer, which showed how serious societies can get about these things.  It also lent the beer a distinctive piquant earthiness.

In Germany, the breweries themselves usually opened a Bierstube and or a beer garden out front, which quickly became the nexus of their communities.

But nowhere did the public drinking house become as much a part of the national character as in the British Isles. From Georgian times, the pub served as social spot, entertainment hub and home away from home for people from Land’s End to the Orkney Islands.

For Americans, the classic image of the British Pub gelled during World War II, US servicemen on leave brought back fond memories, which wound their way into popular American culture and media.

That image continues to this day. For many bar owners, American love for the pub aesthetic drives décor choices, floor plans and beer selection.

That’s a good thing, because for as long as the pub existed in Britain, certain sections of the government and the population have been at war with the very idea of its existence. Though never as successful as the temperance movement in the USA during the 1920s, influential social engineers in the UK were able to pass laws which, at various times, limited the alcohol content of beer, tightly constrained hours of legal operation, and seriously impeded potential pub owners during the licensing process.

In addition, the tied house system spurred the growth of, but then ultimately decimated the pubs of the UK. Under tied house, pubs were funded by large breweries, and therefore were required to exclusively sell their breweries’ beer. That might have been all well and good when there were hundreds of great British breweries, but as the brewing industry imploded it was a death knell for the social hubs of countless communities around the Isles.

The pub in is still limping along, increasingly in the form of large chains that buy beer in bulk, and operate under such tight margins that they cannot turn a profit unless they confine their offered beer to those brands for which their parent companies obtain those bulk pricing discounts.

Fortunately, the pub ideal lives on in the USA. Nearly every city sports a place or six where folks can still come together in a home away from home, amid comforting surroundings, familiar faces, and unfamiliar beers.

And that aesthetic need not manifest itself in the form of Victorian décor, a giant wooden bar, and a cheery pink-faced publican referring to you as “guv’nor.” The spirit of the pub is now integral to how we perceive friendliness, comfort, and varying degrees of inebriation in dives, sports bars, and even chain restaurants. It’s a friendliness that has permanently modified our culture.

So, even if you tend to be kind of a homebody, it’s a good idea to give your local pub a chance every now and then. If you don’t, you’re using the world’s greatest social lubricant to, well, to only lubricate yourself.

Bruce is a certified beer judge and commercial brewer. Mark owns a laptop and likes beer. For more on beer, check out the beercraft blog, updated regularly, at http://www.beercraftsite.com. Find us on Twitter @beercraft. Send your questions, suggestions, or comments to beercraft@rochester.rr.com.

Happy 2010

The decade ends, and I’m filled with trepidation as to what will befall the craft beer industry over the next ten years. Small beer has now become big business. Brewpubs are becoming suburban chain concept restaurants, and hype is king.

Does brewing remain a labor of love for mavericks and iconoclasts who share a common vision and a comradeship? Or has the business matured into an overtly competitive numbers game that depends on the end user seeing a clothed emperor? Are the early adopters, the people who fell in love with craft beer, still important, or has distribution made craft beer so ubiquitous that many brewers find it more fiscally attractive to “brew down” to a greater, but less sophisticated, market?

I dunno. Come on, beer moguls, prove me wrong.

-Mark

Beercraft Newspaper Column #98: Beer on New Year’s Eve

Surprise them this New Year’s Eve…with the complexity of beer!

By Mark Tichenor & Bruce Lish

Boy, those French sure have a racket going. Their Champagne is the undisputed king of alcoholic beverages, a longstanding symbol of affluence and hedonistic luxury. And often it’s quite delicious. Why wouldn’t you want to pop a bottle on New Year’s Eve?

Well, maybe because the hosts of the party you’re attending didn’t exactly spring for the stuff rap stars swill on TV. In fact it’s quite likely that what’s being poured into your plastic flute, to celebrate the turning of a decade, is not from France, costs less and tastes substantially nastier than a quality craft beer.

Now before you call us gauche, consider the wide visual and flavor variety currently inhabiting the shelves of your local beer store. It isn’t particularly difficult to find a beer that will amaze and delight your fellow partygoers, especially if you focus your shopping on the Belgian beer section.

Our personal favorite for the toast is Lindemans Framboise. The soft yet prickly raspberry lambic is much sweeter and less musty than most of its counterparts, so it’s a beer everyone can enjoy, regardless of palate development. It’s red hue and soft pink head make an aesthetic statement as well.

If you want something chunkier, a good Belgian or Belgian-style dubbel can give you plenty of taste, a sparkly mouthfeel, and a little more bite for your buck. These beers have a slightly tart, cidery quality, and taste as funky and individualistic as the abbeys in which they’re brewed.

Now that so many North American breweries have adapted to Belgian brewing styles and ethics, it‘s easy to find beers of that character, with unique qualities right in your own backyard.

“We will be toasting with La Fin Du Monde because we’re a beer bar and it’s a cool alternative,” says Joe McBane, owner of the Tap and Mallet and an easy guy to get quotes from, considering the frequency with which we sit across from him.

Fin Du Monde, from Montreal’s Unibroue, is a perpetual visitor to McBane’s inventory and looks great in a champagne glass. Both he and the Tap’s bar manager, Chris Schultheiss, liken the beer’s character to champagne, especially because of the pinprick bubbles formed by the fructiferous Belgian yeast.

Fructiferous. We’ve always wanted to say that.

Ahem. Anyway, Belgian is the way Old Toad Cellar Manager Jules Suplicki would go as well, but she hints at a slightly more daring approach.

“I might try an oude gueuze,” she says via the awesome communicative power of the text message. “It’s super tart and has an amazing essence which is champagne-like but still unquestionably beer.”

Gueuze, unfiltered blended lambic served without the sweetness of fruit beers like Lindemans Framboise, can be a challenge for those who haven’t opened their minds and palates to a broad range of beer, but serving one of these to a roomful of beer lovers will speak volumes for your taste, discriminating style, and ability to read 6-point type.

And the elegance goes beyond what’s in the glass. Many Belgian beers, as well as the American Belgian styles from brewers like Unibroue and Ommegang, come in heavy swanlike bottles, caged, corked and ready for presentation to the guests of honor.

Beer instead of champagne is an audacious option. While some people might turn up their noses at your flagrant disregard of tradition, others will be delighted, and more than a little surprised at the way a fine beer fits into such a celebratory moment. You’ll be viewed as keen and worldly, and avoid the certain sparkling wine hangover when the party’s over and the next ten year slog begins.

For the holdouts, you can always yank out a $7 bottle of bubbly.

In other beers:

It would be difficult to live in Rochester and not know that Tastings, Wegmans’ fine dining restaurant, has evolved. Relocated across Monroe Avenue from the Pittsford store, the new Next Door Bar & Grill, which trades some of Tastings’ tradition for a more comprehensive and breezy dining environment. Finally, Executive Chef Chris Brandt and his merry band of culinary troubadors have the space and tap lines to exhibit their appreciation of craft beer and its relation to cuisine.

Next Door is open for lunches, dinners and casual bargoery. Find them at nextdoorbarandgrill.com or just drive Monroe and look for the color green.

Bruce is a certified beer judge and commercial brewer. Mark owns a laptop and likes beer. For more on beer, check out the beercraft blog, updated regularly, at http://www.beercraftsite.com. Find us on Twitter @beercraft. Send your questions, suggestions, or comments to beercraft@rochester.rr.com.

Beercrat newspaper column #97: Gifts.

‘Tis the season for beer

By Mark Tichenor & Bruce Lish

 

Given the season, we should probably be impelling you to spend money. After all, that’s what everybody else is doing.

 

We should probably be insulting your intelligence with the suggestion that you don’t have the mental capacity to figure out what gifts to buy your friends and loved ones, and that you need random columnists’ assistance in choosing the present that makes the perfect statement.

 

Well, considering our dedicated subject matter, we’re obviously going to suggest you give the gift of beer. As for the statement that makes, it depends on the recipient, and, of course, on the beer proffered.

 

Now obviously you won’t give a 30-pack of sub premium  cans, unless you’re participating in your employer’s ‘Secret Santa’ deal (you should probably check your human resources manual first). The Holidays are a time to give something special, and the craft beer scene offers plenty of options that, while comparatively inexpensive, offer a level of luxury that a beer lover would infrequently pay for as matter of course.

 

If you want to bring something classy and delicious to a Christmas party, we suggest Hennepin from Brewery Ommegang of Cooperstown, NY, It comes in a beautiful bottle, corked and caged. The gingery spiciness of this golden, Belgian-style saison ale pairs well with the heavier foods of a holiday dinner. It’s affordable and commonly available around the Rochester area.

 

Hennepin’s presentation makes it a good choice to bring to a Christmas party. The beer exudes an elegance that makes it stand out when placed on a kitchen island among the bottles of boring old wine brought by other guests. If being recognized for your good taste is important to you, a bottle of Hennepin is a way to achieve that goal.

 

For the true beer lover who’s tried it all, we recommend Brewdog Bashah .It’s a collaboration between Brewdog, the hottest brewery in Scotland, and Stone, the most happening brewery in the US.

 

It’s easy for the eye to get lost in Bashah’s’s impenetrable black murk, yet the pale head exhibits a liveliness and foreshadows a relatively light mouthfeel.

 

Cocoa floods your mouth on the sip: not sweet chocolate, but the earthy, roasted tones of bakers chocolate that develop when you exhale after a swallow. It finishes with citrus and pine, lightening the cocoa load, with a noticeable Belgian character.

 

Bashah is a limited release; they only produced a few thousand bottles. But a beer lover who receives this brew as a gift is just as likely to stash it in the cellar as open it on Christmas day. This beer can be a prize piece in a collector’s racks.

Finally, for that easy last-minute gift, there’s the Chimay pack. Chimay is an honest-to-gosh bunch of Belgian Trappist monks who’ve done pretty well for themselves on the world beer scene. Throw down for their gift box and you’ll get a Chimay Bleu a Chimay Red and a Chimay white. The gift pack also comes with a heavy, chunky goblet designed specifically for Belgian trappist ales.

 

Whether you’re shopping last minute, or actually taking the time to fulfill the wishes of a beer lover in your life, delightful beers are available for the occasion. And the best part? You don’t have to get up at three freakin’ o’clock in the morning to get good deals on them.

 

Isn’t that what the Holidays are really about?

 

Bruce is a certified beer judge and commercial brewer. Mark owns a laptop and likes beer. For more on beer, check out the beercraft blog, updated regularly, at http://www.beercraftsite.com. Find us on Twitter @beercraft. Send your questions, suggestions, or comments to beercraft@rochester.rr.com.

 

Server problems

The beercraftsite.com server (my old gaming computer) crapped out on me. It’s running, but emitting a loud, high-pitched whine. Since it’s in my bedroom, that ain’t gonna fly.

Until I get it fixed, beercraft updates will take place here on my old wordpress blog. Jeez, I need a beer.

-Mark

Beercraft 3.0 is now live

The Beercraft Blog is now hosted under its own domain:

http://www.beercraftsite.com

All future positing will be done there. Update your bookmarks and come join us for a pint!

-Mark

This fully armed and operational brewing station…

The newly relocated Rohrbach Brewing Company brewery is ready to produce beer.

The brewhouse, ready to work some mojo

Although the percussive sounds of construction still echo through the converted warehouse, The brewing system is entirely assembled. The first batch to brew will be Highland Lager. Although the month spent not brewing while the equipment was moved has left supplies of the popular Scotch Ale are perilously low, the longer fermentation and maturation time of the Lager requires that it be brewed as soon as possible.

Certainly, Bruce and fellow brewer Jim McDermott have developed their share of grey hairs as they watched their beer stock dwindle like the Aral Sea. Now, their challenge is to replenish the inventory of accounts regionwide.

Fermentation vessels await their precious cargo

And that probably won’t be too difficult. The increased work and storage space will hopefully facilitate a faster workflow, and once the 7-barrel system goes up at Rohrbach’s Buffalo Road location, the brewery will be making more beer than it has in years.

Brewer Jim McDermott makes the final connections

Beercraft news

Beercraft has grown up! Thanks to a rapidly growing readership, we’re turning the blog into a full-fledged standalone website. This will allow more reader features, better presentations, and the simple and hassle-free joy of running my own server.

We will accomplish the move today, barring the nigh-infinitesimal chance of a technical issue. Check back this evening for the new URL. Beercraft is about to be better than ever. And I have you guys to thank for it.

-Mark

Beercraft Newspaper Column #56: Low alcohol, big flavor

Low Alcohol, Big flavor
By Mark Tichenor and Bruce Lish

So how were you feeling under the harsh dawn of New Year’s Day?

A bad hangover, which some of you readers undoubtedly had, can put a person off of alcoholic beverages for quite a while, and rightly so. A hangover is a message from your brain that you were drinking in an irresponsible fashion.

One of the trends in craft beer over the past few years has been to make the occurrence of those hangovers much more likely. Strong beer has been king. The alcohol content of craft brew by volume usually tops 6%, and routinely spikes over 8%. Some of the strongest “extreme” beers pack an alcoholic punch eclipsing wine, up to 22% alcohol by volume in some cases.

These are fine, but it’s difficult to have more than two of these alcohol-bombs and still remain socially acceptable. Fortunately, and especially if you’re cool with drinking imports, there’s a whole range of commonly available beers that offer huge flavor while treading a bit more lightly on the old liver. If you’re planning a longer night out, you can’t go wrong with any of the following.

We’ll start with the obvious session beer: Guinness Irish Stout. Imposing, nearly opaque black, and bursting with dry, nutty, roasty flavor, Guinness does much to explode the myth that high alcoholic content is necessary for a satisfying beer.

Guinness is the beer we use to free beer newbies from their preconceptions. Many people believe that darker beer is stronger and heavier. But the only thing that makes Guinness dark is the roasting of the malt before brewing. A heavy roast results in grain that’s nearly black in color, and the use of this grain in brewing gives Guinness its inky, seductive hue.

Take a look at the numbers. The black beast of Dublin clocks in at 4.2% alcohol by volume, the same as a Bud Light. At 220 calories per pint, Guinness isn’t murder on the waistline either.

Of course, the flavor of Guinness isn’t for everybody. If you prefer a crisper, lighter, clean-tasting beer, a Pilsner might be just the thing. Pilsner Urquell, from the Czech Republic, is the original Pilsner beer (it’s brewed in the town of Pilsen). Over the years, the term “Pilsner” has become bastardized to refer to any light colored lager.

But the original Urquell is packed with flavor. You can taste the sweet malt in each sip, bready, yet light on the tongue. As you swallow, that clean sweetness rounds into a gentle bitterness imparted by Czech Saaz hops, lingering on the back of the tongue and inviting another sip.

Urquell is refreshing enough to drink outside on a hot day, complex enough to stand up to most food pairings, and, at 4.4% alcohol, light enough to make it your “go-to” beer when out with friends.

Our third suggestion comes from the Rhine river town of Cologne (spelled ‘Koeln’ in German). The city’s breweries are famous for their Koelsch- a slightly sweet, light colored low-alcohol ale that serves as an accompaniment to many meals and an excellent social lubricant in the evenings. It’s not the easiest style to find in Rochester, but Gaffel Kolsch has recently been on tap at the Tap and Mallet, and is available bottled at Beers of the World.

While Gaffel Koelsch is in fact an ale, its clean flavor and grassy body seem very lager-like. The key to this beer is balance, with neither the hops nor the malt dominating the flavor. Instead they combine to impart a gentle spiciness with noticeably grain and floral aroma.

Gaffel checks in at an underwhelming 4.8% alcohol, making it a good choice if you’re planning to have multiple brews over the course of an evening.

So who says you have to compromise? Pick one of these beers, or really pretty much any Irish stout, Koelsch, or Pilsner, and you can be assured you’re drinking a beverage that’s absolutely delicious, and is likely to split your bladder prior to splitting your skull. High alcohol content is great from time to time, but moderation hurts less in the morning.

In other beers

The annual Scottsville Ice Arena Winterfest is taking place on Saturday, January 19th, from 5pm to midnight. Included in the $10 admission is a beer and wine tasting from 7-9pm. Head on over to darkest Scottsville and sample the finest from Southern Tier, Rohrbach, Brooklyn Brewery and many more fantastic New York State craft brewers. There’s also music provided by The Meddling Kids and Random Act, and by you if you bring bongos and join the rhythm-optional drum circle.

Bruce is a certified beer judge and commercial brewer. Mark owns a laptop and likes beer. For more on beer, check out the beercraft blog, updated regularly, at http://beercraft.wordpress.com. Send your questions, suggestions, or comments to beercraft@rochester.rr.com.

 

Allagash over a barrel

We headed up to The Old Toad last night for the area’s first taste of barrel-conditioned Allagash Curieux. The place was unexpectedly packed. I’d like to think it was all Beercraft readers, but that probably isn’t the case.

Anyway, the beer itself was a bit anticlamactic to me. It seemed a case of the Belgian Tripel style not quite meshing with the barrel-conditioning. I missed the pinprick carbonation that counters a Tripel’s heavy sweetness, and combining that sweetness with none-too-subtle bourbon notes from the barrels made the Curieux just a bit too cloying.

Still, it was a rich, complex, and skillfully made beer. I just didn’t have the intestinal fortitude to order more than one.

Kira Barnes of UNYHA awash in Belgiany goodness