Category Archives: Brew

This really happened.

In the summer of 2011, I made my nearly-annual visit to the Hanna Basin of Wyoming. I had two students with me who had never experienced the West before and were a little surprised by the difference in culture from western New York State.

I had explained to them one of the things that is a ‘thing’ in the West is drive-through liquor stores. To this day, I don’t know how this does not encourage drinking and driving, but whatever. There we were in the tiny, tiny town of Hanna. We had stopped to get water and check out the grocery store. Across the way from the grocery store was the tiny tavern and liquor store of Hanna.

Back “in the day” when I was a graduate student working in the Hanna Basin, the grocery store and the liquor store were kind of OK. I had even bought them out of (their only 6-pack) of New Belgium’s Fat Tire. Since I graduated, the town has dwindled horribly. The hardware store was gone and the grocery store was mostly bare shelves – but I could have bought some game meat there.

I had forgotten to pick up beer in Laramie before we left, so I decided to avail myself of the liquor store.Continue reading “We Don’t Have Those “Exotic” Beers Here”

An important thing one must consider when thinking about opening a brewery is who your clientele might be. I mean, what is your market. To explore this, I took a little stroll to my local grocery store (shown as number 3 on the map below).

Our town is small, so we have a small grocery store. It’s not a chain. So far as I know, there is only one other Breen’s store, and it’s about 20 miles away in an equally small town.Continue reading “My Local Beer Market”

I’m taking an online course on the Business of Craft Beer. Thus far, it’s been really interesting. One of our recurring homework assignments is to go out and taste different styles of craft beer.

Yes. I am required to try four or five different beers per week.

O torture of tortures! Twist my arm.

I sent my husband off to find some craft beers to have on hand for my homework. I think he did OK.

Continue reading “Thirsty Thursday – What Am I Drinking?”

One of the fun things about the Business of Craft Beer course that I’m taking online is thinking about beer in different ways other than just drinking it.

This week’s module has focused on the primary ingredients of beer: Water, Malt, Hops, and Yeast. We had the option to take a field trip to a local homebrewing store and explore hops, yeast, and malt. For me, as an avid homebrewer, I decided to take advantage of all the ingredients I have in my beer fridge and think about them a little more critically than I usually do.

I focused on malt. I pulled out every package of malt in the refrigerator that was already opened and tasted it. I have oats, rye, wheat, and many, many styles of barley malts.

It was very interesting to learn how much the flavor of individual malts can influence the flavor of the finished beer. We tend to think about craft beers in terms of how hoppy they are, as IPAs are all the rage right now.

The truth of it is that the bulk of a beer’s flavor comes from its malt. This flavor is modified by the strain of yeast and types of hops used, but it’s all built on the basis of the malt. So choose your malt carefully!

I’m taking an on-line course on the business of craft beer. I’ve learned a lot in only the first week.

Among the great take-aways I got from last week’s first module for the course is that not everything that claims to be craft beer really is.

To produce a true ‘craft’ product, the brewery must be small and must use ‘traditional’ recipes. This makes sense. Before we called these drinks ‘craft,’ we referred to the breweries as micro-breweries. Some were even so small as to be called nano-breweries. What’s brewed by these craft breweries are beers that tend to be flavorful and rich, hoppy perhaps, or fruity, quite unlike the weaker lagers produced by the major breweries (macro-breweries or ‘Big Beer’).

When most people think of craft beer, they think of IPAs or seasonal ales. Something that one might purchase for a special occasion.

But there’s one more caveat to being a true craft brewery. A craft brewery is independent of Big Beer. That is a craft brewery is less than 25% owned by a brewery that is itself not a craft brewery.

Several brands that a treated like craft really are not, because they are largely owned and run under the umbrella of Big Beer. The truest of beer snobs won’t drink that stuff.

Go here and learn who the biggest craft breweries were in the United States in 2014. Notice that some of the most popular craft-ish brands aren’t there, but you might just see them in the footnotes as owned by Big Beer.

Once you’ve done that, go out and support independent, traditional, and small craft breweries.

Cheers!

Modern beers, both those from the big breweries and those from smaller craft breweries, are nothing like the original ales that people started drinking thousands of years ago.

There are several ways to attempt to recapture the flavor and character of ancient ales. The first is to find ancient recipes. One of the oldest was written some 3800 years BC, etched onto clay tablets.  A poem written around 1800 BC in tribute to the Ninkasi, the Sumarian goddess of beer, contains a fairly detailed recipe that was attempted by Anchor Brewing Company of San Francisco.

The Hymn to Ninkasi
Translation by Miguel Civil

Borne of the flowing water (…)
Tenderly cared for by the Ninhursag,
Borne of the flowing water (…)
Tenderly cared for by the Ninhursag,

Having founded your town by the sacred lake,
She finished its great walls for you,
Ninkasi, having founded your town by the sacred lake,
She finished its great walls for you

Your father is Enki, Lord Nidimmud,
Your mother is Ninti, the queen of the sacred lake,
Ninkasi, Your father is Enki, Lord Nidimmud,
Your mother is Ninti, the queen of the sacred lake.

You are the one who handles the dough,
[and] with a big shovel,
Mixing in a pit, the bappir with sweet aromatics,
Ninkasi, You are the one who handles
the dough, [and] with a big shovel,
Mixing in a pit, the bappir with [date]-honey.

You are the one who bakes the bappir
in the big oven,
Puts in order the piles of hulled grains,
Ninkasi, you are the one who bakes
the bappir in the big oven,
Puts in order the piles of hulled grains,,

You are the one who waters the malt
set on the ground,
The noble dogs keep away even the potentates,
Ninkasi, you are the one who waters the malt
set on the ground,
The noble dogs keep away even the potentates.

You are the one who soaks the malt in a jar
The waves rise, the waves fall.
Ninkasi, you are the one who soaks
the malt in a jar
The waves rise, the waves fall.

You are the one who spreads the cooked
mash on large reed mats,
Coolness overcomes.
Ninkasi, you are the one who spreads
the cooked mash on large reed mats,
Coolness overcomes.

You are the one who holds with both hands
the great sweet wort,
Brewing [it] with honey and wine
(You the sweet wort to the vessel)
Ninkasi, (…)
(You the sweet wort to the vessel)

The filtering vat, which makes
a pleasant sound,
You place appropriately on [top of]
a large collector vat.
Ninkasi, the filtering vat,
which makes a pleasant sound,
You place appropriately on [top of]
a large collector vat.

When you pour out the filtered beer
of the collector vat,
It is [like] the onrush of
Tigris and Euphrates.
Ninkasi, you are the one who pours out the
filtered beer of the collector vat,
It is [like] the onrush of
Tigris and Euphrates.

Continue reading “Some Ancient Gruit Ale and Beer Recipes”

What is beer?

Today, Beer is a drink that people enjoy in social situations. It’s a privilege, but not a necessity of life. In the United States, big brands like Budweiser and Coors dominate the market, but are now often poo-pooed in favor of the Craft Beer movement. Craft beer involves smaller breweries that create beers that are more flavorful than Bud or Coors, and often much higher in alcoholic content.

In the past, beer was more utilitarian than it is today. It’s unlikely that modern people would really recognize a beer from the Renaissance as a beer. Go back further to medieval times and beer as we know it barely existed, but fermented drinks like beer did.Continue reading “Brewing Beer: History and Basics”