A huge congrats to Joe & Linds on their first gold medal at the Great American Beer Festival for their Shadow Saison hibiscus ale. Joe is behind so many amazing beers, but it’s fantastic to see them recognized for their craft, their research, their love, and their care with their brewery, Musings Fermentation Underground. Way to go!
Category: Beer Culture
Plug for Hop Exploration Kit
I just wanted to put in a plug for the Hop Exploration Kit from 33books.com. The kit allows you to try a couple different hop varieties to see what each offers.
It’s not easy to learn hop varieties unless you live near a brewer who does single hop series. And even then, you can really only try one at a time usually. I’m a fan of single hop beers for the purpose of learning more about hops. I’m also a fan of brewing single varieties (though I no longer have my gear). But extracts allow you an easy way to learn more about single hops.
I’ll readily admit that hop extracts aren’t as good as brewing with whole hops. But that just isn’t convenient. This kit will allow the budding lupulin fan to really learn more about which varietals really speak to you.
Kickstarter for Oregon Public House
I’m a fan of the Oregon Public House and I wanted to share their latest kickstarter to expand their “brewery” to offer additional beers. The DoGooder IPA is a strong start, but a few more offerings would be excellent.
Yakima Chief and HopUnion merging
From the hop desk at Brewpublic: Yakima Chief and Hop Union to combine operations.
This is probably of limited interest to most, but I’ve been a fan of the work of both for several years and have posters from each with hop varietals (including storability) and cone pictures that have adorned previous office walls, the garage, etc. I’m hopeful that this means that Yakima Chief will pick up some of the cult marketing acumen that Hop Union has created, and that I’ll be able to one day order a ball cap or a beer koozie with the Yakima Chief logo on it. Or maybe just a big ‘ol Simcoe hop cone. Yup, Simcoes are awesome.
I wonder if they’ll use the opportunity to change their name to Yakama? (i to a – it’s a tribal thing)
Map of 2012 Craft Beer-ness
After a delay, I finally noticed a post from Linds regarding this NYT interactive map of Craft Brewing. The data are from 2012, but it’s still an interesting ecosystem that seems to ignore the trend of larger mergers and acquisitions. My attention to the craft industry has waned a little in the last couple years, but I’m not surprised by the number of new pubs opening. Good luck, young upstarts!
9th Annual North American Organic Brewers Festival
One of my favorite annual events, beer-related or not, is back at Overlook Park again through Sunday, June 30th. Check out the North American Organic Brewers Festival for some relaxed mood, some music and food, and of course, an exciting lineup of organic beers.
Oregon State Microbe: saccharomyces cerevisiae
On an already incredibly celebratory day, this bit of brewing related news comes from my turf. Oregon officially recognizes brewer’s yeast, saccharomyces cerevisiae, as the state microbe. That’s right, we’re the first state to officially designate a state microbe.
Really though, besides Aspergillus oryzae, what other microbe does as much to contribute to our culture and economy? Way to go, humble heroes!
An Idiot Move
In a “life imitates art” display of use of the Idiot trademark, Coronado Brewing Company is suing Elysian for Elysian’s use of Idiot in their Sauvin IPA. I’m on the verge of heading to San Diego for work and had collected a list of breweries to try while I’m down there. Coronado’s legal exercise just made that list a little shorter.
Banquet draft tower – for all your office party needs
I built this banquet tap tower for Michelle’s office christmas party in December. It’s a simple block of CVG Douglas fir with a hole straight-thru for a beer spigot and a partial groove in the bottom that allows it to be attached to a desktop with a C-clap. It started out as a part of a jockey-box, but after reading a fair amount, I decided that for the purposes of a party (or a wedding), the 5-gallon kegs usually get finished before they can cool down, and having the keg under the desk in a bucket of ice would be cheaper and less foamy than trying to get a jockey box dialed in.
Anyway, it worked well, looked nice, and was fun to make with some scrap I had laying around. I re-sawed some of the CVG fir to glue to the sides so that it would be CVG all the way around. It seemed a shame to have only 2 pretty sides. I didn’t finish it – and I probably should given the wet nature of beer – but unfinished fir just looks so lovely. Personally, I like it better with the short tap-handle. Next step will be to make a matching handle.
Dr. De’s Special Bitter – A PCC 50th Anniversary Tribute Beer
McMenamins is tapping a special beer this Wednesday, February 1st, brewed in honor of my employer’s 50th Anniversary. The beer, Dr. De’s Special Bitter (get it … DeSB), was brewed in honor of Dr. Amo DeBernardis, the person who founded and directed Portland Community College through it’s formative years. Oddly enough, Dr. Bernardis was a student at Kennedy School (a proper student, not like us), so it’s somewhat fitting that McMenamins be doing the brew.
This is pretty cool news and I can assure you that I’ll be stopping by Chapel Pub to sample the honorary beer on Wednesday. I hear it’ll be available at the nearest pub to each of the 4 main campuses – Chapel, Mall 205, Rock Creek Tavern, and John Barleycorns.