What’s a seal?

While enjoying a bottle of Boulevard 2013 Rye on Rye tonight I became curious about what others do when opening big bottles.  Sometimes I open big bottles with the assumption that I’m floating this bitch tonight.  Other times I’m not sure if I’ll enjoy the entire bottle or not.  Many times I worry about what’s lurking in the fridge and what really happens when that fridge light goes out.

So please fill out the poll, I’m curious what you all do with while enjoying big bottles.

Cheers!

Kapalua, HI resort rubber ring seal

Go Dawgs cork seal

working rubber cork

 

 

BAMAbeer

Back 40 line up

Recently I was lucky to have the chance to sample some new beers that we’ll see soon in Athens and Georgia. Back 40 Beer Company was founded in Gadsden, AL in 2008 and recently brewed their first production batch at their facility in Jan. 2012. I just so happened to be in LA, you know, lower Alabama in 2009 and happen to find their brown ale. I’m not a brown ale fan, but this was a gorgeous marina with a small restaurant that had a dive feel to it, serving beer in plastic cups. Since then their Truck Stop Honey Brown ale is probably still my favorite brown ale. Later that year it would win silver at GABF and give Back 40 a rocket launch into the craft beer world.

Naked Pig w/ pizza

One thing that I love about the presentation of their beers is the food pairing aspects. Wine has long-lived by the belief that each wine style pairs well with certain foods. There is no reason that craft beer can’t live and prosper off the same mentality and I believe it should. My wife is a perfect example of needing to cleanse your palette while sampling. Her facial expressions of trying a DIPA I’m drinking after she’s had some gummy worms is priceless. If you’ve ever been to a beer dinner you know this all too well. Especially if each course is paired with two different beers, one to marry the flavors while the other is for contrast. On their well laid out website, bottle labels, packaging and even promotional flyers I had, all listed the recommended food pairings in picture format. A chili pepper suggests that the Freckle Belly IPA pairs well with spicy dishes.

Naked Pig pale ale suggests pizza as a food pairing. Not all pairings have to be over the top.

Kudzu Porter w/ pork bbq

Kudzu Porter even recommends ice cream, i.e. dessert as a pairing. Some may ask why would I drink a porter with dessert? Because of its rich, roast-y flavors from the malts has you thinking coffee. Which many of us enjoy during dessert. I however did not pair my porter with dessert. I went with the pork option and finished off some bbq after I smoked a pork butt earlier in the week. I kept it Athens local by throwing in some Phickle Pickles hotties on the sammich with an okie on the side. I went deeper into BAMA local by having some Golden Flake chips, aka BAMAchips.

Freckle Belly w/ pork chops

This was my first taste of the Freckle Belly IPA and it’s actually an IPA. Many today taste as if they target the lower end of the BJCP guidelines for bitterness. But this one is near the top of the 70 IBU limit, hopping out (see what I did there?) at 65 IBU. As I mentioned before the label has a chili pepper on it and I do love spicy dishes. Pork chops were on the menu, so I made some spicy mustard-peach bbq sauce and went way over board on drowning my chop in sauce. But the spiciness of the sauce highlights the bitterness of the hops. This is a die-hard pairing for sure.

Still my favorite is the Truck Stop Honey Brown that I enjoyed with a third generation recipe from the wife’s family. It’s simple and we make it with ground turkey breast which doesn’t over-power the other ingredients like red meat does. The earthiness of the mushrooms pairs great with this ale. I’ll post the recipe later today, so watch for an update. Still my favorite Back 40 and brown ale.

Truck Stop Honey w/ turkey spaghetti

Here in Athens we may not care much for BAMA football, but their beer is getting better and better coming out of our step sister state to the left. Will #BAMAbeer ever be better than #GAbeer? I won’t vote no, but they have some tough competition. I’d put Terrapin against anyone’s favorite. I’m not sure exactly when we’ll see Back 40 around Athens or Atlanta for that matter, but I was told soon. So keep an eye peeled for it and if I can get my hands on a shirt, I’m the guy around town wearing a Back 40 shirt.

Cheers!

Why I love beer cans

Why I love beer cans is mainly because it pays the bills. I work for an aluminum recycling company, the largest in the world in fact. If I could afford a canning line for my 30 gallons or so of homebrew a year, I would. Even with all my love for aluminum cans, there is no lost love for beer bottles either. Glass is a great product also. There are a ton of people who will fight for either. The trend lately is for everyone to favor the aluminum can however, getting the name ‘the personal keg’. The main contributor to skunky beer is light, and that’s not possible with a can. The can is sometimes called the most engineered product in the world and if you’ve been in any aspect of the aluminum can industry you’d understand that statement. If you ever get a chance to see a can maker facility, I’d highly recommend it. Though unlikely, if you get a chance to visit an aluminum rolling mill, it’s just amazing. There is an episode of Modern Marvels about making cans, it’s entertaining and educational.

The reason for this talk though is the comments coming from Lagunitas Brewing Company last week and how they would be the last brewery to put beer in cans. Their points are valid, but skewed slightly and heavily weighted in favor of glass. Here are some of his points:

Then nobody mentions that when Aluminum is recycled a large portion is vaporized when burning off the inks and melting. Glass recycles 100%.

That large portion he mentions is roughly 5%. We thrive every day to improve it. The can itself in our process is 98.5%, consistently. Some products recycle at 95%, while others are at a loss of 8%. None is a ‘large portion’.

Even more Glass requires lots of energy in the form of heat, for sure. Aluminum requires that- PLUS huge amounts of electrical current too!

The electrical energy is required to produce aluminum, not recycle it. The energy savings to recycle aluminum compared to producing new aluminum is 95%, along with a 95% savings to the environment. Whereas the energy savings to recycle glass is only 5-30%, that may mean it’s more energy friendly to produce glass and more difficult to recycle glass with a big energy savings. But I don’t think anyone would recycle glass for a profit if it’s only a 5% savings. Every pound of recycled aluminum saves 7.5 kilowatts of energy. The amount of aluminum recycled for one year is enough energy to power Philadelphia for six years.

Oops… made a hole in the world… but the beer is greener! http://t.co/Bl3e0xz9

bauxite mine

Yes, that’s a bauxite mine, and it’s frightfully ugly. But what are the main ingredients in glass, mainly brown glass? Sand, Soda ash, Limestone and the coloring in brown glass is from iron and sulfur. Ever seen pictures of a limestone mine? Not pretty either.

limestone mine

Thankfully, er hopefully, the trend will continue to put craft beer in cans as Sierra Nevada and New Belgium are beginning to do, along with small breweries like Mother Earth in North Carolina and Red Hare right here in Georgia. A few interesting facts about cans, the aluminum from a recycled can is back on the shelf in the form of a new can in less than 60 days. Somewhere around 1980 it took 20 cans to equal 1 pound of aluminum. Today it takes 32 cans to equal a pound of aluminum. What does that mean for the beer drinker? The beer is chilled faster and stays cold longer since there is less metal in the body of the can trying to return to ambient temperature. The lid itself has pretty much stayed the same thickness, though we’ve seen the changes in tab design.

I could take the extreme action here and say I will be the last person buy another Lagunitas beer. But I won’t go to that extreme, because frankly, they make good beer…even if it’s in a brown bottle that contains sulfur. The point that I wish Lagunitas would have made is to please recycle. Whether it be their product, others, a bottle or a can. The very next night after fuming about his slighted opinion on aluminum cans, owner Tony Magee announced he would return to Chicago to open their second brewery. Good luck to Lagunitas, and all the breweries making the decision to come to the ‘right coast’.

Sly Fox beer infographic
(image credit to craftcans.com)

Please recycle and continue to enjoy your canned craft beer in even more surreal places than before.

Prost!

6 pack education

style list

How about a six pack that educates you and has a working function all the while you enjoy some good craft beer?  No, the education isn’t learning how far you can flip a bottle cap.  And no, the function isn’t becoming a good dancer while sharing your mix six pack.  Leon Farmer and Company has introduced mix six packs into some local craft beer stores around Athens.  To supplement the ease of carrying Leon Farmer and Co., along with help from Brian Roth, Sr VP, Director of New Brands and Marketing, designed an educational, and surprising functional carrier.

process map

All four sides of the carrier, including the bottom, have useful information for the new beer lover.  And even useful information for the aged veterans and homebrewers.  One end lists all the major BJCP ale and lager styles with a short description.  The other end has a beer tasting sheet to write down any tasting notes you may like to capture.  Along with a brix and abv scale, plus a table with the amount of pints in each size of keg.

One side has a process map of the brewing process at a brewery.  This same side has a list of proper glassware and the styles of beer to pour in each.  People often wonder why you would need a different type of glass, or a glass at all.  Glassware enhances the features of a beer.  For starters it allows you to see it.  I like to see what a beer has to offer.  Is it clear, does the color match BJCP guideline for the style, or is there any yeast?  It’s much easier to smell in a glass than a bottle.  If you’re drinking a light domestic you might not care what it smells like.  If it’s a nice coffee stout with a deep tan head, pour it into a snifter to really enjoy the big coffee aroma.

hops and flavor wheel

The bottom of the carrier is a homebrewer’s essentials.  A flavor wheel used to identify off flavors or even good flavors you’re picking up from the beer.  The biggest benefit that I enjoy is the hop list.  Broken into categories by region and even has all four Noble hops listed in their own category.  So if you’re enjoying a beer with Noble hops, you now know which they may be.  Try to educate yourself on which hops have which aromas and tastes.

head ruler

The function of the box?  There’s a ruler to use when the box is stood on end to measure the amount of head on a standard pint glass.  Finally another use for a 3″ ruler right?  Ales should be poured with a 1″ head, while lagers should have a 1.5″ head.  This is to release the carbonation in the beer.  Which is exactly why you burp more when drinking from a bottle and not pouring yourself a nice pint.

So grab yourself a carrier the next time you’re out shopping for a variety of craftbeer from our friends at Leon Farmer and Company.

Cheers!

Beer connected

Beercloud

To innocently steal Apple’s iPhone logo – ‘Beer!  There’s an app for that.’  Before we get into this I have to add that I do not in anyway condone anyone using apps to drink and drive.  BUT… if you have a driver, there is a plethora of beer apps out there for your connected lifestyle.  While I think most of these are also available on the Droid Market, I can’t honestly talk to that.  Whether you are simple ‘beer folk’, a ‘beer snob’ or in the middle of the road, a die hard ‘beer geek’, you can find any kind of app to accomplish what you need.  There are apps as simple as searching to find more information on the six pack of craft beer that you didn’t see in the cooler last week, or to find what beer to pair dinner with.  There’s apps to find a good beer store, brewpub, brewery or restaurant that has a prestigious selection of craft beer.  I even have an app to build and brew your very own beer.  It’ll even send push notifications to you when it’s time to rack or bottle said brew.  While I don’t have it, since my ‘beer cellar’ is, uh, pretty much non-existent, there’s an app to track your own beer inventory.

Beercloud – is a decent, not superb search engine for beers.  It does however include a sommelier tab.  Which I use from time to time on what beer to pair with our meal.  But more than often, I know our menu at home, now what beer style do I want to pair with that?

Pintley

Pintley – is a nice search engine on craft beer.  You can even track the beer you’ve had and where you enjoyed it.  In the new version 2.0, the app will award points for adding to your wish list, adding tasting notes, etc.  A nice thing to some, not so nice to others is the fact that there is no time limit.  So you can sit at your home watering hole and ‘tag’ all the beers you’ve ever enjoyed.  For instance, oh yeah, I had a sip of a Dogfish Head 120 Min IPA two years ago at a buddies bar.  Tag!

Find Craft Beer

Find Craft Beer – is part of beermapping.com.  It’s use is as simple as the name, to find craft beer.  Use it to search within a 50 mile radius of your current location, or an input town.  It lists everything by category, from bar, to beer store, brewpub, homebrew shop and breweries.  It relies on the accuracy of beermapping.com however.  For instance in Athens, there are two Trappeze Pubs.  One being spelled with only a single ‘p’, Trapeze.  It also rates the site based on user feedback.  Five Points West bottle shop is higher rated than the original in Five Points.  This was even before the remodel of the west side.  So proof again that it relies on user feedback, and this may or may not be accurate.

Untappd

Untappd – is nothing more or nothing less than Foursquare for beer.  Instead of a location, you check-in to your beer.  You can add the location that you are having said beer.  Send the status update to Twitter or Facebook or not.  There’s a rating system of 1-5, plus you can add a 140 character status with your check-in.  You can also unlock badges, just like Xbox Achievements or PS3 Trophies.  Check into 100 different beers and there’s a badge for that.  My last blog post on the Dogfish Head takeover at Aromas I had three ancient ales, well that unlocked a special badge.  One of the toughest for me was to unlock the venue badge of having 10 beers at a bar between 6pm-8pm during the week.  Sounds easy unless you’re at home or at work during those hours.

iBrewmaster

iBrewmaster – is my on the go homebrewing buddy.  I can build my own recipe from hundreds of ingredients, or from a recipe included in the app.  Plus, more like +1, Northern Brewer recently allowed iBrewmaster to include all of their own recipes.  This even includes the Pro Series recipes from Surly Brewing.  Yes, that surly.  Yes, I’m cloning their Furious and Cynical.  My buddy has cloned the Coffee Bender already.  Like I said in the opening, according to your own schedule, seven days from brewing, you’ll get a push notification to rack your beer.  Another 14 days you get another to bottle your homebrew.  It calculates your IBU, ABV and every thing else.  This is by far the most expensive app I’ve paid for.  Yet $7.99 is a steal for this app.  BeerSmith for the pc is $20.  Yet iBrewmaster will do almost all the same as BeerSmith for more than half the price.  Plus it’s on-the-go.

Prost!

Beer Growler: Free Glass Wednesday

I read a quote from Jimmy Fallon the other day that went something like this.  “Thank you microbreweries for making my alcoholism seem like a cool hobby.”  (My wife is literally going to kick my ass for saying that)  The same quote can now apply to The Beer Growler if you enjoy drinking good draft beer, or have a glass collecting fetish.  This is from their latest email:

We just Tapped Lost Abbey Avant Garde Ale. We are giving away a free Lost Abbey glass ($6 Value) with a Growler fill of this delicious Brew!

A Fill is just $16. Glasses are limited so come on by if you want one of tehse glasses for your collection.

We will be tapping a special keg every Wednesday!  You will receive a free paired glass with whatever special beer we tap for that day.

 

Cheers!

The Beer Growler

I’m just returning from a business trip to Alabama, which was bust on the craftbeer front.  Then again, I went to get some work done, not enjoy myself.  So it was nice to receive that email and see the Facebook post just before returning home.

Lost Abbey Avante Garde

Once I was home, I changed into shorts, water the flowers then hit the road.  I hung out with Paul for a while since I haven’t been in lately.  He reaffirmed that this is a every Wednesday deal, dubbed, Free Glass Wednesday.  Several known growler shops out of state have a rare beer day during the week.  This drives customers in during the week, and not just on the weekends.  When you’re advertising free glassware, it may or may not be a rare beer.  Because some brewers may not keg some of their rare beers, actually saving them for bottle conditioning.

bierde de garde & saison

Speaking partically about this weeks beer, Lost Abbey Avant Garde, a biere de garde.  These are similar to a Belgian Saison, although this French version obviously uses different yeasts and ferment out before the heat of summer.  The Lost Abbey glass, as Paul puts it, is probably the less appealing glass that will be available.  I will say however, it’s made for drinking with a wide mouth and is easily held by the hand.

Something else new at The Beer Growler is the bottle rinser.  Used after sanitizing to rinse the growlers just before filling.  This saves water and it’s super cold water, so it gives the growler a nice chill to go along with the chilled kegs.  Keeping your craftbeer nice and cold aids to keeping it as fresh as possible.

I’m just returning from Alabama and leaving for England in two days.  Work has to go on, so the Belgian Siason homebrew has finally finished fermenting after 24 days.  Since it’s akin to a biere de garde, they had a family photo shoot.

growler rinser

England will be 10 hour work days and I don’t have international calling or data usage on my iPhone.  Which totally sucks not being to call Sarah or check in pints on Untappd.  I hope to take some pics when we are out for dinner.  I hear the hotel is worth a few pictures on it’s own.

Until I swim back across the pond,

Prost!