Meet the Beerdrinker of the Year
We have a winner! John Howell, of Sterling, Alaska, has been named 2010 Beerdrinker of the Year. In order to win the annual competition, sponsored by Denver’s Wynkoop Brewery, Howell had to endure a two-hour cross-examination about beer from robed, wigged “judges.”
Howell goes home with a $250 credit at his local brewpub, free beer for life at Wynkoop, and the adulation of beer lovers everywhere.
VIP Brewery Tours in Today’s NYT
Have you ever bought a VIP ticket to a beer festival? If so, you’re ahead of the trend. The concept has spread to microbreweries, which offer VIP guests a hands-on brewing experience. John Holl, writing in the Sunday New York Times travel section, fills us in on “brew-your-own” travel.
John can also be found at Beer Connoisseur magazine.
Are You Getting an Honest Pint?
The Campaign for Real Ale is best known for saving cask-conditioned ale in England. However, CAMRA has taken up other causes, including fighting “short measure” in pubs. In fact, the English pint glass has a fill line as well as the words “One Pint.”
Beer drinkers in this country aren’t as lucky. The Honest Pint Project explains:
All across the country, restaurants and taverns regularly serve patrons less than 16 ounces of liquid. This isn’t against the law and there aren’t any standards that enforce a uniform measure. The result is a market in which some pubs serve beer in 20-ounce imperial pints while others use glassware as small as 14 ounces.
The project, which started in Oregon, promotes the use of glassware that ensures that a customer receives 16 ounces of beer. A small but growing number of establishments are on the honor roll. We were pleased to see three from our neck of the woods: Liberty Street Brewing Company, Arbor Brewing Company, and Original Gravity Brewing Company, all of them located in southeast Michigan.
Top Ten New Craft Beers of 2009
As measured by sales. Drum roll, please:
(1) Sierra Nevada Torpedo, (2) Widmer Drifter, (3) Sam Adams Imperial White, (4) Sierra Nevada Kellerweis, (5) Sam Adams Imperial Stout, (6) Alaskan White Ale, (7) Boulevard Single Wide IPA, (8) Full Sail Session, (9) Real Ale Sampler Pack, and (10) Mendocino Seasonal.
Hat tip: Jack Curtin’s Liquid Diet.
The Friday Mash (Starkbierzeit Edition)
The people of Munich practice an interesting form of Lenten self-denial. It’s called Starkbierzeit, or “strong beer season.” The city’s top breweries brew extra-potent doppelbocks and serve them amid the Bavarian pageantry of beer halls. It’s an event you have to experience at least once.
And now, The Mash…
Ted Mott, Portsmouth Brewery’s brewmaster, has a video with the details about Kate the Great 2010. Release day is Monday.
The Brewers Association’s new website, CraftBeer.org, was officially launched yesterday morning.
Free Our Beer, a website devoted to making Ontario’s distribution system friendlier to craft brewers, details the red tape involved in “importing” Garrison Imperial India pale ale from Nova Scotia.
Four people from the world of brewing are semi-finalists for a James Beard Foundation award in the “Outstanding Wine and Spirits Professional” category. They are Larry Bell, Sam Calagione, Jim Koch, and Garrett Oliver.
Sticker shock! A can of Surly at the Minnesota Twins’ new ballpark, Target Field, will set you back $10.
Jay, who blogs at Hedonist Beer Jive, found two establishments in Barcelona that specialize in craft beer. Their names: La Cerveteca and Cerveceria El Flabiol.
Finally, the collaboration trend continues. In Madison, WI, Great Dane Pub & Brewing Company and Capital Brewery have joined forces to brew a 14-percent ABV “dessert beer”. It’ll be served in five-ounce brandy snifters.
Beer and Bivalves
Wednesday’s Washington Post had a story by Greg Kitsock which, featured two East Coast microbreweries that brew oyster stouts. Beers brewed with real oysters.
One of these beers is Flying Fish’s Exit 1 Bayshore Oyster Stout. One hundred oysters went into a 25-barrel batch. The other is Harpoon Brewery’s Island Creek Oyster Stout, part of Harpoon’s “100 Barrel Series” of specialty beers. These small-batch beers were brewed to call attention to America’s oyster industry, which has fallen on hard times.
And from Portland, Oregon, comes word that Upright Brewing Company will release its batch of oyster stout tomorrow.
Gravity Head 2010
It’s now online: the New Albanian Brewing Company’s Daily Gravity Form This 16-pages pdf file has everything you need to know about the Gravity Head 2010, New Albanian’s annual celebration of “the brewing world’s biggest and best.” The festivities begin on Friday with 15 kegs of high-gravity beer.
Belgian Blind Tasting in Today’s NYT
Eric Asimov, who has the enviable job of writing about beverages for the New York Times, assembled a panel to conduct a blind tasting of 20 Belgian and Belgian-style beers.
Three of the four top-rated beers were brewed in America. And being Michiganders, we were pleased to learn that Jolly Pumpkin Oro de Calabaza earned top honors, and that Leelanau Good Harbor Golden Ale was ranked fourth. Both are brewed by Dexter’s Jolly Pumpkin Artisan Ales, where Ron Jefferies is the man in charge. Asimov had this to say about the beers: “While the Good Harbor was funky, the Oro de Calabaza was spicy, fruity and floral, with soft carbonation and fresh, vibrant flavors. Same man, different yeasts, at the least.”
SAVOR Ticket Sales Begin Wednesday
Thinking of attending SAVOR, the Brewers Association’s event highlighting “American Craft Beer and Food Experience” on June 5? The location is the National Building Museum in Washington, DC.
Better hurry up. Tickets go on sale tomorrow.
Ludwig thinks that’s one fine line up of breweries paired with some mighty fine good eats. General admission is $95.
Update: The D.C. Beer blog reports that SAVOR sold out in just ten minutes.
Blooper of the Week (And It’s Only Tuesday)
From a story in The Province (Vancouver, BC) about drunken Olympics fans: “And 23 bylaw tickets were issued for drinking in a public place, at $230 a pop.”
Ludwig wonders how big the fine would have been had they been caught drinking alcohol instead of pop.