Hi again beer fans and welcome to another Friday.
This week I found lots of things to talk about; we'll start with Quality.
This is from Stone brewmaster Mitch Steele's blog (h/t Beerpulse), and Mitch is referring to a talk given recently by Professor Emeritus of Brewing Science Michael Lewis:
He scolded the craft brewing community for being smug in our success, and cited that most craft brewers don’t have the wherewithal to really deal with important quality issues, especially those that could hurt the consumer. And when compared to large and/or well established brewers across the world, he is absolutely right. Now to be clear, there’s no microorganism that can grow in beer that can make people sick, which is just one reason why it is such an amazing drink. But his examples included bursting bottles, which some of us have had to deal with, and also the rampant use of herbs, spices, foods, and other botanicals in beers. Brewers sometimes don’t list their unusual ingredients that could potentially make some people sick. And he has a point. With the exception of Sierra Nevada, New Belgium, and some of the other brewers who have graduated from microbrewery status to “Regional Craft Brewery”, most of the smaller brewers in the USA have very rudimentary labs, don’t really analyze their beers, and don’t necessarily do all the due diligence required when adding an an unusual ingredient to their beers.
Re quality control, I will mention a beer I drank recently, from a well known San Diego brewery other than Stone, one known for their high-priced 4-packs. When poured, this produced a full glass of foam. All four bottles in the pack were the same. They didn't gush like some of my infected homebrew has, but this couldn't have been what the brewmaster intended, and did not increase my desire to buy more of their expensive ale in the future. Are they expanding too fast to keep the process under control?
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One renowned small brewery that's choosing not to expand is Russian River. Their beer is in such demand that it's hard to find even here in NorCal and
even their own brewpub has temporarily run dry.
“People can't understand why we don't want to grow our brewery,” she (co-owner Natalie Cilurzo) said, “That's the American way.”
But there are other things that are more important, Vinnie Cilurzo said, like a good quality of life and not digging themselves into a financial hole.
(I think the unspoken summary is "we're working hard enough
now").
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I found that on Beerpulse also, it's a great source for beer news, even if many of the announced new products are only available regionally. Just the names and descriptions of the new products are entertaining enough: the annual pumpkin beer season has arrived, with releases from Grand Canyon, Anderson Valley, Uinta, Fordham, Avery and Dogfish Head so far (although one distributor has vowed no pumpkin beers until after Labor Day) plus a "pumpkin shandy" and a "smoked pumpkin cider". This week's Best Name award goes to
Sexual Chocolate Imperial Stout, with honorable mention to likely Kossack favorite
Dirty Hippie imperial red.
And to close with one of the odder things they found, here's the ultimate kegerator.
Dream Arcades, the world’s largest manufacturer and distributor of arcade machines for the home or office, today unveiled the Kegerator Pro 60, the world’s first arcade machine with a 60 inch HD screen that features three taps, so players never have to stop the action to refill their drink, and a built in fridge. The unit comes pre-loaded with over 140 classic arcade games including Ms. Pac Man, Centipede, Galaga and Street Fighter – no quarters needed!
I haven't gone shopping yet and the fridge is currently bare of beer :( Gotta fix that right away. What are you drinking? Are you pouring it from a $5000 kegerator?