Saturday, January 23, 2010

Save the Brewer...Save the World.

Craft Brewers have a bad habit of slamming the big "formerly" American breweries. I avoid doing that because I have good friends that work for the South Africans that own Coors, and those beers certainly have their place, like at a baseball game on a sweltering July afternoon. Still, the best place to be at Coors Field is not behind home plate but rather in "the cellar" of the stadium's Blue Moon Brewery drinking the incredible liquid creations that Tom and John have won so many medals for that if you melted them down you could build another brewery with them.


I do however have a favorite big brewery slamming joke, the classic: "Drinking Coors is like making love in canoe....fucking close to water." Light beer is after all, a watered down version of their regular beers, which in turn are watered down versions of classic European lager styles that we make.


Fact of the matter is that all beer is mostly water and that brings me, finally, to the point of this post. Not only does drinking beer directly at the brewery guarantee you the highest quality beverage, as Augie Busch himself said in a Budweiser commercial, "The best beer is in the Bright Tank..." nothing good happens to beer after it leaves the love and care of the brewers (kind of like sending your daughter off to college.) But because water is so heavy, and even with recycling, packaging is so environmentally unfriendly, if you truly love the planet you should drink beer at it's source.


The math is pretty straight forward: it takes about 25 pounds of malt and hops to make one keg, or seven cases , of beer that weighs 160 pounds. A pallet of malt translates to ten pallets of kegs or 15 pallets of cases that will be shipped out all over the country requiring that many times the amount of fossil fuels. Moreover, kegs then need to be returned for cleaning and refilling. Bottles and cans are even worse as they require natural resources, on top of energy for shipping, to generate them and the labels, six packs, and cartons that contain them. Just like refilling a bottle of water makes more sense than spending a fortune and filling landfills, and our breweries use the water out of the pipes but with filtration better than Brita.


And its not just energy and natural resources you save by drinking better beer at the brewery, you might just save the health if not the life of your brewer. When I was a strong spry twenty-something cellar rat, I never thought twice about humping one of those 160 pound kegs up a flight of stairs, or stacking them three high on top of each other in tight coolers. But by the time I turned 40, as with most of my craft brewing colleagues, my back was shot and I eventually had to have my right ankle fused with 8 titanium screws and cadaverous bone marrow (which would be a great zombie movie device.)


If a craft brewer is responsible for 1,000 bbls of production in a year, that means he has moved approximately 50,000 pounds of malt, and 100,000+ pounds spend grain at the end of the brewing process. If the beer is simply going into a serving tank, other than humping hoses for cleaning and taking kegs to festivals the worst of the damage is done. But if the same sad sap is in a production plant, he is having to haul probably an extra 400,000 pounds of kegs and cases.


So drink at the brewery, and foil this Chiropractor's Conspiracy!






Friday, January 15, 2010

Beer, it's what's for dinner.

What beer goes best with food? The simple answer is, "yes." Though there is a ton of talk lately about pairing different exotic dishes with specific styles of quality beer, which is something we have been doing for 20 years, what you prefer is what's best.

The enthusiasm to elevate beer to the erudite plateau of wine is best illustrated by the unfortunately monikered phenomenon of the "Gastropub," a dining concept that sounds more like an intestinal disease. Are we going too far? I worry we risk losing touch with the simple reality that beer is food, and therefore provides the perfect compliment.



Pizza and beer, need I say more? They are both born of grain and nothing washes down the dough like the bright bubbles of beer, cleansing your pallet and leaving you ready for more. Whether the basic Margarita, or a gourmet goat cheese with pate and truffle oil pie, there is nothing better than beer to sip at its side.

Just about any beer compliments pizza, but other pairings can be more complicated. The basic rule of thumb is light with light, for example Golden Export or Southern Flyer with salads and chicken. Bigger beers go better with heartier fair, such as Marzen or Vienna with Meat Loaf or Gorgonzola Bone-In Ribeye. And it always seems to come as a surprise how well the dark roasted coffee finish of a Schwarzbier compliments a Double Chocolate Fudge Cake.

But if you prefer a Hefeweizen with your Mushroom Swiss Burger, or a Iron Horse Stout with your Grilled Chicken Cashew Salad, then good on you. The only rules you have to follow are your own.

If you feel adventurous check out http://www.craftbrewing.com/ for a gastronomical guide to the delights of beer and food.

Prost!

Friday, January 8, 2010

And the Winner Is: Our List of Medals

World Beer Cup
1998 Silver Medal: Iron Horse Stout: Sweet Stout
2002 Gold Medal: Iron Horse Stout: Sweet Stout
2002 Bronze Medal: Vienna Lager: Vienna Style
2004 Silver Medal: Iron Horse Stout: Sweet Stout
2004 Silver Medal: Vienna Lager: Vienna Style Lager
2004 Bronze Medal: Espresso Stout: Coffee Flavored Beer
2006 Gold Medal: Schwarzbier: German Style Schwarzbier
2010 Silver Medal: Golden Export: German –Style Marzen
2010 Bronze Medal: Marzen: Munchner-Style Helles

Great American Beer Festival
1998 Gold Medal: Sweet Magnolia Brown Ale: American-Style Brown
2000 Bronze Medal Iron Horse Stout: Sweet Stout
2003 Gold Medal: Rocket Red Ale: American-Style Amber/Red
2004 Gold Medal: Czech Pilsner: Bohemian Style Pilsner
2006 Gold Medal: Weizenbock: German Style Wheat Ale
2006 Bronze Medal: Golden Export:Münchner-Style- Helles
2007 Gold Medal: Czech Pilsner: Bohemiean Style Pilsner
2007 Gold Medal: Schwarzbier: German Schwarzbier
2007 Silver Medal: Sout Side Pilsner: International Style Pilsner
2007 Bronze Medal: Hefeweizen; German Style Wheat Ale
2007 Bronze Medal: SommerFest: German Style Kolsch
2007 Bronze Medal: Altbier: German Style Brown Ale/Dusseldorf Style
2009 Silver Medal: Czech Pilsner: Bohemian Style Pilsner
2009 Silver Medal: Dunkel: European Style Dunkel
2009 Bronze: Altbier: German Style Brown Ale/ Dussledorf Style
2009 Bronze: Golden Export/ Munchner Style Helles