New Belgium in Entrepreneur Mag

My brother-in-law Chris informed me that Entrepreneur had a piece on micro-brewing this month, and he was right—it's all about New Belgium and its co-founder, Kim Jordan (who apparently just split with her husband, the other co-founder, if anyone's, you know, interested). The gist is that it's a near-$100 million brewery with the soul of a micro-brewery, because she bikes to work and wears jeans and thinks conservation is "sexy." Whatever. My take is, she created something she was passionate about and people really like—the culture doesn't make the product successful, it's the reverse: a successful product allows that culture to exist. If New Belgium weren't making insane money, they'd be spending a lot more time trying to be profitable and a lot less time watching "An Inconvenient Truth" in the breakroom and listening to Phish. Anyway, good for the smallest macro-craft brewer in America.

San Antonio's Freetail Brewing Company

My bro-in-law David had said if possible, we should visit Freetail, a nearby brewpub. The requisite amount of wheedling and complaining made this happen, as the wife and sister practically insisted we get out of their hair for a few hours. So we headed down to the road to the Freetail Brewing Company, a modest-sized place but very nice--one wall slides up like a garage door to open entirely, so you can look out over a huge area, a quarry or something. The weather was great, and the beer selection was awesome: a few different varieties of IPA, a brown, a standard pale, a Belgian Wit, a saison—in all, probably a dozen or more, but only 3 that appear to be year-rounders. Most of the beers there seem to be made in small batches and sold until they're gone. I enjoyed the Hop Brutality IPA and it was okay; the Hopasaurus Rex was better, and the Hopothesis (available for the first time that day) at an insane 12.5% ABV and 125 IBU was ambrosia.

The service was spotty, and the brewmaster seemed a little too cool for school, for some reason. That said, the beer was awesome, the pizza was very good and the atmosphere was ideal. Thanks to David for taking me, and to anyone, check out Freetail when you're in San Antonio!

More Texas Craft Beers

As I'd hoped, the need to feed my family happily coincided with an opportunity to sample more Texas beers. I visited the awesome Gabriel's Liquor Superstore on Blanco Rd. and received excellent advice from the resident beer aficionado; after recommending Real Ale (which I'd tried the day before) and Shiner (meh), he suggested I try either Houston-based Saint Arnold or Austin-based Independence Brewing Company. Not knowing when I'd be in Texas again, I did the responsible thing and picked up six of each.

I started with the Saint Arnold Elissa IPA, and I had high hopes. I was decently satisfied—only Cascade hops are used, and the body was malty enough, but there was a slight metallic tang at the finish that didn't thrill me. Maybe my expectations were too high, because it wasn't a bad beer at all.

That said, my expectations were suitably dampened enough that I found the Independence Pale Ale to be a delightful session beer, dry-hopped with Cascade and Saaz hops to provide a subtle hoppiness—it is, after all, a pale, less hoppy than my standard go-to faves Odell 5-Barrel Pale Ale or Sierra Nevada Pale Ale but a nice effort nonetheless. I look forward to sampling more of Independence Brewing Company's offerings (especially their seasonal Stash IPA, hopped FIVE TIMES. Ay caramba!) in the future.

Sampling Beer from the Texas Hill Country

Greetings from San Antonio! A 5-day visit to the sister's house to visit our new baby nephew has, unsurprisingly, proven an opportunity to enjoy beer I can't get in Kansas City. After a 2-leg flight on delightful Southwest airlines (seriously, they're great) and a brief ride in our rented Chevy Aveo (seriously, it's a clown car) we arrived at my sister's place just before a flash flood hit. It wasn't long before I realized the only beer in the house, an 18-pack of Bud Light, wasn't beer at all—just an empty box in the fridge. Cruel fate! But an opportunity to venture out into the heart of the tempest in my tiny Aveo, to the H-E-B supermarket just down the street.

I was anticipating a poor selection, and I couldn't have been more wrong: this place had a GREAT selection of beers, including my favorite: Dogfish Head 90-Minute IPA. However, in the interest of budgeting, I ended up purchasing my second favorite, Dogfish Head 60-minute IPA. I also picked up a sampler six-pack from the Real Ale Brewery in Blanco, TX—something local, and a variety to boot. Upon returning, I immediately cracked open a Dogfish Head 60-Minute, and it was good. Not 90-minute good, but still damned good. I followed it with the Full Moon Pale Rye Ale, and I was underwhelmed. I tried the Rio Blanco Pale Ale, and it was better, but not great. The Brewhouse Brown Ale was the best of the lot, but it was a Brown (i.e. relatively boring). That was yesterday.

Today we took the kids to the children's museum in New Braunfels, which was very nice. We came home, the kids played, I watched Doctor Who on my laptop, and at 5 I finally cracked today's first beer: another Dogfish Head 60-Minute IPA. And I thought, you know, this is really good, so NATURALLY whatever comes after is going to pale by comparison. And trying the Real Ale Pale again, I thought, this isn't too bad. Not remarkable, a bit thin, not terribly memorable, but not bad. So kudos to Real Ale, a brewery that is not as good as Dogfish Head, but that doesn't make them a bad brewery.

Expect more reviews—I'm here 3 more nights.

The fastest growing segment of alcoholic beverage is…wait for it…

Cider! Interesting to know, especially since there's a presumably delicious M&B hard cider doing its thing in the carboy as we speak (hat-tip to Tom Cizauskas).

Scottish Ale

Tried one of our Scottish ales the other night. Paired it with homemade pizza - a nice choice. Have to say, this beer is one of my favorites we make. I would rank it second behind our APA. A nice dark brown to mahogany color. No hop aroma which is appropriate for this style. Could do a better job of holding a head but just the right amount of carbonation (Matt, I know would say it is undercarbonated but for this style it actually is right on target). Smokiness upfront upon tasting but not overpowering. Fades to a nice maltiness and just the right amount of bittering. Slight astringency at the finish. A slightly weaker body - on par with an English pale ale. A good session beer and would probably be great on draft. I would say it is a perfect Fall beer and good for an afternoon of drinking and watching college football (which is the plan for tomorrow).

Carboy Watch, Day 4

As our good friend Professor Higgason would say, huzzah! Three carboys bubbling away; that is, the stout (at right, obviously) is bubbling away, whereas the APA appear to have seen a lot of action right away and now are just churning. Probably could have used more head space in the first carboy, but what the heck. Looking forward to bottling day a few weeks hence, and with luck, Ben's cider will be done as well. Updates to come.

Moonshine Over My Hammy

North Carolina: 929 gallons of moonshine seized by ATF agents. Give the man credit for making the best of a rough economy.

Summit Beer Review…and BREW DAY!

There's a special feeling in the air…the wife and kids are getting out of the house…it all adds up to one thing: BREW DAY! Like the proverbial ant, toiling away to prepare for a long winter, we're brewing 10 gallons of our flagship Bearded Man APA today, and 5 gallons of Christmas Milk Stout (a first for us). Cross your fingers.

And Ben is back from the land of cheese (congratulations, Sean and Holly Kitchell) and brought the family over last night, bearing gifts from New Glarus and Summit Brewery. Here's my takedown:

• Summit Octoberfest: Good. A little hoppy, bouncy with a fruit flavor I couldn't quite identify (citrusy, I guess). Good for a fall session beer.
• Summit Kolsh: Nice, but not crazy good–the Guild's kolsh is better, in my humble opinion. But not bad, light with a slightly spicy finish. Reminds me a lot of Schlafly's Kolsh.
• New Glarus Pils: Very good Pilsner, smooth and full-bodied enough that you know you're not drinking light beer. Superior to Boulevard's Pils in terms of flavor and body, and that's saying something.

Follow-up to last weekend: The Scottish Ale is much improved, keeps a head and has a very nice smoky taste, though I still think it could be a bit more substantial. The Stout is as good as it's going to get, which isn't to say it's not good, but it came out more like a porter than a stout, IMO (but drinkable, certainly). And the Hefe–you'll recall it was split into two batches–drew mixed reactions. Batch 1 is perfect, exactly what a hefeweizen should be, and Batch 2 is potentially contaminated, so if you hear the sounds of a man crying when you pass my house, it's me pouring a case of bad hefeweizen down the drain.

All told, it's nice to have Ben back, nice to be brewing again, and nice that I still have a six-pack of New Glarus offerings in my fridge. Next review will discuss NG Spotted Cow and Alt Bier.

Wisconsin Pilgrimage

So I returned from the promised land Sunday. Have to say Wisconsin is a wonderful place. Beautiful trees, cheese curds, sausage and sour kraut, polka, and most importantly beer! Was able to pick up a six pack or five of New Glarus beer which we hope to enjoy this Saturday at our next brew session.

I do have to say though that the Leinenkugal's visit was a dud. Not only did they divulge that their beer is made with corn as a significant portion of the gain bill (to smooth out the flavor we were told - what a load of hooey) but all their "flavoring" from coriander, orange peel, berries, and lemon are extract added to the bottle post fermentation. Throw in the fact that the free samples are limited to two (2!!) 7 oz. sample glasses makes for a disappointing afternoon. They bill themselves as a "craft" brewery since they still do some things "by hand" and then proceeded to show us on the tour the entire automated brewing process. The only "hand" added ingredient was a 5 gallon bucket of hops. The old brewery building was cool and the two copper kettles were pretty neat. But overall I would have to say the tour was a bust. Think I will pass on the Leinie's the next time I am at the liquor store.

Did stop at a pretty cool microbrew in downtown Minneapolis - Town Hall Brewery - on the way to Wisconsin for lunch. Enjoyed their West Bank Chicken Club and their Smoked Porter seasonal. Very good. Especially since the weather was 40 degrees and drizzle. Set the mood nicely. Picked up a growler of their IPA and Tripel that were enjoyed later in the motel room. After lunch visited the Mecca of liquor stores - Surdyk's in Minneapolis. At some point, any passionate beer and wine aficionado must come here. Was able to pick up several sixers of Summit beer out of Minneapolis - again will be enjoying some of these this weekend with Matt.

To top it off, what would a trip to Wisconsin be if not for the champagne of beers - Miller High Life?! Was able to enjoy many of these at the wedding - which, yes we did make it to. All in all, I would count this as a successful trip.

Home Brewing for the Adventurous and/or Lazy

God bless the blogosphere, without which we would never know that inside of a week, you can turn Welch's frozen grape juice from concentrate into something that will get you drunk (scroll all the way down). We're cooking up some hard cider as we speak, so I can't be too snobbish; anything that encourages the average Joe to be more adventurous is a good thing, in my book.

M&B Brew Review—Late Summer Brewing Session

Once again, I've jumped the gun. After bottling on the 24th and 25th, I pulled out one each from our batches of Stout, Scottish Ale, Hefeweizen (carboy 1) and super-Hefeweizen (carboy 2)*. The results are as follows:

1. Stout: Not ready
2. Scottish Ale: Shows promise, but not ready
3. Hefe: Ready enough, but I think it will improve
4. Super-Hefe: Not ready.

I told wifey I'd had enough—I was just going to forget all about this beer for about three months. She took that to mean I wouldn't be drinking ANY beer for three months. We had a good laugh sorting all THAT out (by which I mean, I laughed and she did not). Patience is critical to good brewing, and that's always been a challenge for me. So I'm finding comfort in the knowledge that in several weeks, I'll have a lot of REALLY good beer to enjoy.

* We split the hefeweizen between two carboys, and carboy 2 had more yeast in it, so it carbonated a lot faster, seems to have some subtle flavor differences, etc. Hence "hefe" and "super-hefe."

Four Peaks Brewery

While Ben is enjoying his liquor store tour in the land of cheese—possibly attending a wedding, if there's time—I've just returned from a two-day trip to Scottsdale, Arizona, where I was doubly-delighted: first, because I had a fantastic meal at Oregano's (N. Scottsdale Road and Shea location)—salad, flatbread & artichoke dip, scampi with HUGE shrimp, excellent rigatoni, deep-dish pizza and pizookie for dessert*; and second, because I was able to enjoy beer from Tempe's Four Peaks Brewery. I still maintain that you can't fairly judge beer on tap outside the brewery—too many variables—but the Kilt Lifter Scottish Ale (their flagship) was very good. Subtly smoky, very drinkable, and better at colder temperatures than fuller-bodied Scottish Ales, so for me it was refreshing (and allowed me to enjoy a couple of them). The Hefeweizen was good as well, if unremarkable—a solid hefe. So, nice to know I'll have something to look forward to when next I visit the Phoenix area.

* I was with two other people, so no, I didn't eat all this food myself.

Wisconsin here I come!

So tomorrow I (Ben) am off to Wisconsin for a good friend's wedding - but looking more forward to the chance to pick up some really, really, REALLY good Wisconsin beers. Namely New Glarus beers. If you've never had the chance to try any of their brews - I would HIGHLY suggest you find a way. Spotted Cow, Dancing Man, and you can never go wrong with their special brews. Also looking forward to touring the Liny's brewery tomorrow. Not as good as they once were pre-take over from Miller but still worth a good stop. Between stopping at some microbrews, liquor stores, and Liny's I think we may make it in time for the wedding. Plan to bring many brews back for Matt and I to enjoy over our next brewing session this coming week!