You’ll be A-Pee'in tour.
May 2008
This past March we did the annual Papago European tour. Starting out in Brussels, 19 of us had dinner at a great beer restaurant called Spinnekopke. We basically took over the whole restaurant being that it is a small place and enjoyed some wonderful beers and Belgian cuisine. Doc from BJ’s to this day is convinced that he had a horsemeat stew that night although I think otherwise. After dinner we proceeded to Mort Subite, for some lambics. Mort Subite is described as a brown café because the walls have always been brown from all the smokers. It is over 100 years old and has a lot of charm to it along with good beers. Then we went more modern and hit the Delirium Café, a bar with 2008 beers. Being rather crowded as it usually is on Friday nights we crossed the alley to its sister bar called Floris. Floris has over 300 different kinds of Absinthe and a few of us made quite a dent in the list while some of the others just stuck to beer. Absinthe does not make you hallucinate as some people believe but it is quite strong in alcohol and has a really strong licorice flavor, that is cut down through the addition of sugar in your glass, either by melting a sugar cube by dripping water over a sugar cube over your glass, or by dipping the sugar cube in the absinthe and then burning it over the glass, caramelizing the sugar as it drips into the drink.
The next day we started out at Cantillon for their open brew day and watched them make lambic. One thing that they only have during the open brew days is Faro, a lambic sweetened with sugar and it was quite a good breakfast drink. After Cantillon we proceeded to Sint Niklaas for the Zythos beerfest. The fest features about 150 Belgian beers and goes on for 12 hours a day for two days. The fest is a little bit of an astonishment to some of the Belgians as at times there are probably just as many beer loving Americans at the fest as there are Belgians. The fest ended at midnight, and a few of us were still not done so we went to a couple of the bars in town. At the one bar, Mel from Papago spotted a really unusual beer, Rodenbach Vin du Cereal. It is a 12% sour beer aged for three years in white wine barrels. It was a limited release and each bottle was individually numbered. That night and the next day we cleaned the place out of its inventory. It was one of the best beers I had on the trip. Sunday we did the fest again and tried some of the local cuisine, frikendales sure hit the spot when drinking a lot of beer.
Monday we toured Bosteels Brewery where we received fantastic hospiltality, then were taken out to a restaurant just outside the town for a really nice meal, white tables cloths and all and had a choice of Salmon, Eel or Steak au Poivre courtesy of the Bosteels. After that we headed to Westmalle for one of the highlights of the trip. Westmalle Abbey only gives two or three tours a year and the last English speaking tour was about 5 years ago. It was a really interesting place, especially the bottling line, which was built underground and soundproofed so that the Monks above could not hear it while they prayed. We also discovered one of the strongest tasting mustards I have ever had at the café there.
After that we headed to Cologne for some boring old Kolsch, then down the Rhine towards Frankfurt stopping for a beer or two along the way. In Remagen I had an excellent Bitburger on draft at the McDonalds. We then took the overnight train to Prague. Toured Prague in the morning and headed to Plzen (Pilsen). In Plzen we first toured Pilsner Urquell which has significantly upgraded its tour over the years but still lets the tour taste unfiltered, unpastuerized beer straight from an oak barrel which is a remarkable tasting beer, nothing like the pasteurized beer they send here. We also toured the towns brewing museum before heading to a new place there called the Pils Pub. They have two of them in Plzen and are opening about 10 more in Czech. It was a really great place, first off they serve unpasturized Pilsner Urquell brought strait from the brewery in big dairy tanks and the really cool thing about it is that it is self serve. They have individual taps that are metered at each table and you pay for how much you drink after you are done. It was a really popular place and if you go you really need to make reservations in advance or you won’t get a free table until after midnight.
From Plzen we headed back to Germany to Munich. Munich is one of my favorite towns in Europe because there is so much to do and it is really easy to get around. Some of the highlights there was a good tour of Weihenstephan and a fantastic meal at the restaurant there and the Ayinger bar across from the Hofbrauhaus. The Ayinger bar taps a cask of Helles every night at 5:00 and serves up a mean dish of horseradish soup. One night we were guests of Paulaner for Starkbierfest at the Nockherberg. The fest starts out pretty mellow with everyone listening to traditional German music, eating and drinking liters of dopplebock out of stoneware mugs. It ends with being a rowdy party with dancing and a lot of 70 and 80’s rock music sprinkled in with the occasional John Denver tune. One of the other great beers I had was out at the Andechs monastery. They had a winter beer that was a dark roasty bock beer that was incredible and only available on draft at the monastery.
After that everyone left except myself. I got a rental car and toured around southern Bavaria over towards Stuttgart. Along the way I found a new beer style that I had not had before, a Schwarzweiss, a black wheat beer, that I have since made a batch for at Papago. In Stuttgart I spent some time in a couple of the local brewpubs that are more like American brewpubs than the typical old world German brewpubs that you find everywhere else in Germany. I ended my trip up in Dusseldorf on St. Paddy’s day, drinking a few pints of $8.00 Guinness along with some Alt beer.
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November 08, 2007
Danger,
Danger, Will Robinson. Beer
prices will be going up.
For
the first time in years beer prices will be going up across the board.
The price increases will hit the small craft brewer first and
hardest. As has been reported
in the press recently the cost of raw materials for brewers has been going
up drastically. Malted barley
is up as much as 50% and some hop varieties are up by as much as 600% and
I don’t believe it is going to end there.
It
has been a perfect storm when it comes to the price increases.
Higher
prices around the globe for raw materials are due partially to bad weather
in Australia and Europe, smaller hop crops being planted, stainless steel
(for kegs) and bottle prices rising.
Also, because the dollar just isn't worth as much as it used to be,
it has increased the demand for U.S. grain and hops from overseas buyers.
To top it off gas surcharge prices for shipping has also risen by
30%.
What this means for you is having to pay more for that pint of beer or a
six-pack. People in the
industry that I have talked to say that initially at a minimum prices for
the end product will probably go up at least $1.00 a pint and also for a
six pack across the board. Some
are saying that we could even see a $10 pint soon.
I believe that we could see six packs and bomber prices increase by
as much as 50% next year for some specialty craft brews.
Not to panic you but you might want to put a new fully stocked
refrigerator on your holiday wish list this year. (We will be happy to
special order you cases of your favorite brew to stock your new
refrigerator with) J
Craft brewers don't have the means to hedge against rising commodity prices, like their industrial rivals. But even the mega breweries will be raising prices. Kirin was the first large brewery to recently announce a price increase and has been followed by some European breweries. Most distributors will be raising prices January 1st.
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May 2007
For
many millennia people have known what scientists are only now beginning to
prove, that beer is good for you. Up
until the 19th century, beer was the health drink of choice for
many people simply because clean healthy water or pasteurized beverages were
not available. The water in
beer having been boiled and the subsequent alcohol produced as a
preservative made beer a naturally clean, relatively bacteria free health
drink. Now, even though many
people will only drink bottled water and not tap water, municipal water
supplies are generally healthy and pasteurization has made milk and other
drinks safe to drink but beer drank in moderation may still be healthier for
you than water, milk or other beverages.
The
reason is that scientists are now finding that many of the individual
chemical components of beer that are derived from the malted barley, hops
and yeast are good for you. One
of the first studies that brought this to light actually developed as an
offshoot to a study that French scientists did that has become known as the
“French paradox”. The
French study showed that even though the average diet in France was very
high in fat, that the French people had very low heart disease because of a
chemical compound found in red wine called a polyphenol or flavanoid that
served as an anti-oxidant that was found in large amounts in red grape skins
and seeds that was in the red wine the French drank religiously with every
meal. The compound was found to
have a positive effect on cholesterol levels. The French wine makers were quick to take advantage of this
study in broadcasting it to the world and red wine to this day is still
viewed by many as healthier beverage than beer.
In fact, twice as many men and four times as many women believe that
wine is healthier than beer according to a recent study by the University
of Maryland Center for Food, Nutrition and Agriculture. It
wasn’t until studies done in Denmark and Holland in 2000 that scientists
were able to prove that beer and not wine is actually healthier for you.
Since the first European studies in 2000 there have been four
European Beer and Health symposiums where researchers have gathered to
present their findings and just this past October the first one was
conducted in the United States so the science behind the theory that beer is
a healthy beverage is relatively new.
Beer
is healthier than many other beverages because beer has more nutrients per
serving than most drinks. The
Munich Paulaner monks called their beer liquid bread to help sustain them
during lent. If you are worried
about calories, beer has fewer calories than milk or apple juice.
Vitamin-B in particular as well as carbohydrates, protein and various
minerals are higher in beer than in wine, water or milk.
Certain beers are higher in some individual chemical compounds than
other beers. Dark beers are
higher in polyphenols than lighter colored beers because of the higher
amount of tannin in the dark grains. In the 1920’s Guinness had a marketing slogan that Guinness
was good for you and it looks like they were right. Another style of beer that is healthy for you is Bavarian
style Hefeweiss beer which is very high in Vitamin-B because the yeast,
which is held in suspension and which makes the beer cloudy is chock full of
the vitamin. Some people claim
that Vitamin B-helps prevent a hangover, which while it is not a long-term
health benefit in the short term can make you feel better and drinking a
good Hefeweiss a day is much more fun than taking a Vitamin-B pill.
And last but not least is the fact that beer contains hops and hops
are full of all kinds of healthy compounds that scientists are only recently
discovering may be good for you.
Hops
in beer add an extra level of polyphenols with their anti-oxidant
properties. One of the
component elements of hops which has scientists excited about is a compound
called Xanathohumol. Unfortunately,
in order to get a decent dose of Xanathohumol you need to drink about 20
beers, which is hardly considered drinking in moderation.
Scientists at Weihenstephan University outside of Munich along with
the brewers at the state run Weihenstephaner brewery and the brewers at
Neuzeller Brewery in Germany have been working on adding concentrated
dosages of Xanathohumol which was extracted from hops to both alcoholic and
non-alcoholic beers. At this time the Xanathohumol induced beers from either
brewery are not available in the United States.
Weihenstaphaner’s alcoholic Hefeweiss beer is called simply, Xan,
and the non-alcoholic version is called Xan-Wellness. Xan-wellness has apple juice added to it, which gives it a
non-beer taste. It is drank as
a sports drink by many in Germany and I have found it to be a great
breakfast drink after a rousing night of hoisting liters of beer in Munich.
Until these beers are distributed in the United States I would
suggest that if you want a more concentrated dose of Xanathohumol that you
drink a big hoppy double IPA such as Moylan’s Hopsickle, Dogfish Head 120
minute IPA or Pizza Port’s Hop Suey. Compared to most beers you probably only need to drink a
couple of them a day to get a good dose of Xanathohumol but these beers are
extreme examples of hoppy beers and are not for those who are not full
fledged hopheads.
Alcohol
in beer, in moderation also may be healthy for its relaxing, anti-stress
effects. Going out to drink at
your local favorite bar instead of just drinking at home may help you to
unwind and to help you psychologically through increased social interactions
and might be why social drinkers earn 10 to 14% more money than non-drinkers
according to a recent study by the Reason Foundation.
In Spain, an alcohol and stress study showed that moderate drinkers
feel better about their health than non-drinkers. In every study that
suggests that beer is good for you the one standard theme throughout is to
drink in moderation. The thing
that no one agrees upon on though is what is considered moderation.
Moderation varies between 1-3 beers a week to no more than 3 beers a
day.
Much
of the scientific results about the health benefits of beer have only been
proven in the laboratory in helping to prevent a whole slew of diseases
which include prostrate, breast and colon cancer, heart attacks, stroke,
tooth decay, gallstones, type II diabetes, Alzheimer’s and as a woman’s
hormone replacement therapy. Even
with the scientific tests already done and their results it may take years
before drinking beer is viewed as a healthy drink by the mainstream
populace. It is up to you now
to spread the word and to make yourselves healthier.
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November 2006
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August 25, 2006
To Toast a New Crop, Brewers
Roll Out 'Wet Hop' Barrel;
A Truce in a Bitter Battle
By CONOR DOUGHERTY
First there was Beaujolais nouveau. Now comes beer nouveau.
The end of the growing season has been celebrated by everyone from apple growers to winemakers, but lately brewers have started marking the renewal of their own annual cycle, with beers that are brewed with hops picked only a few hours before. Called "fresh hop," "wet hop" or harvest beers, they begin appearing in late September, typically on tap and lasting only until the kegs run dry.
Harvest ales started showing up in the last decade or so in hop-growing regions like Northern California and the Pacific Northwest. But as the style catches on and more farmers plant hop yards, the beer is increasingly found outside of its traditional home. Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. sold its Harvest Ale in all 50 states last year, up from five in 2000. Late next month Dogfish Head Craft Brewery in Milton, Del., will release its first fresh-hop beer, Fed-Extra Mild, an English-style ale with two varieties of hops: one freshly picked and shipped overnight from the West Coast, and a second grown in an employee's yard. And while the majority of wet-hop beers are poured from tap handles, some brewers are now bottling it. Denver's Great Divide Brewing Co. started bottling its Fresh Hop Pale Ale three years ago, and now the brew is distributed in seven states including Texas, Florida and Massachusetts.
'Liquid Poem' to Hops
The season's first hops are also cause for festival-style celebration. At O'Brien's Wet Hop Beer Festival held at San Diego's O'Brien's Pub, bar owner Tom Nickel plans to serve 35 beers this year, double the number at the inaugural event two years ago. (New names at last year's festival included Hop Trip from Deschutes brewery of Bend, Ore., and Last Hop Standing from Blue Frog Grog & Grill in Fairfield, Calif.) While so-called craft brewers are leading the trend, industry giants have also taken notice: Last year an Anheuser-Busch brewery in Fort Collins, Colo., released its Front Range Fresh Harvest Hop Ale for festivals and at Anheuser-Busch tour centers.
These beers are the latest expression of brewers' obsession with hops, the sticky green cone of the Humulus lupulus plant that gives beer its bitter flavor. Classically, beer has four main ingredients -- the others are water, yeast and grain, typically barley. Before hops, brewers had balanced the sweet taste of malted barley with herbs including yarrow, coriander and ginger. Around 900 years ago they began adding hops, which imparted flavor and also served as a preservative.
Much more recently, hops became a rallying point for U.S. craft-brewers -- a movement that took off in the 1980s as a reaction to the big-brewery beers that critics dismissed as too light, too watery, and too stingy on the hops. Bitter became better for a subset of craft-brew drinkers, many of whom tend to measure a beer's worth in proportion to its hoppiness. The measuring stick is the International Bittering Unit, or IBU, with the biggest beers logging in at 100 plus IBUs. Mainstream brews from Anheuser-Busch, Miller and Coors are typically around 10 or 20 IBUs.
The hop infatuation has resulted in a game of chicken among brewers, who have continued their effort to out-bitter the next guy -- as evidenced by beer labels that boast mixed hops, extra hops or triple hops. Stone Brewing Co. in Escondido, Calif., calls its Stone Ruination India Pale Ale "a liquid poem to the glory of the hop!" Delaware's Dogfish Head has pioneered a pair of hop-enhancing technologies, including a "continuous hopping machine" that adds hops gradually over up to two hours of brewing instead of throwing some in at the beginning, middle and end, as is customary. The brewery also invented a method for delivering a final hoppy hit to kegged beer by running it through a hop-stuffed chamber before it hits the pint glass. Dogfish Head calls the device Randall the Enamel Animal, and some bars and beer stores have also started serving "Randalled" beers.
But for a few months in the fall, brewers stop worrying about more hops and focus instead on fresh hops. When first plucked from its stalk, a hop flower is green and about 60 percent water by weight. For brewing purposes, hops are usually dried and refrigerated, or made into pellets that resemble rabbit food. Wet-hop beers use flowers that have been picked just hours before, so they still possess the volatile flavors that are lost during processing. Brewers compare beer made with these moist hops to a meal cooked with just-picked herbs -- entirely unlike one made with dried oregano and parsley from the back of the pantry.
A fresh-hop beer can often, in fact, be less bitter than a corresponding version with dried hops, and instead is powered by floral, citrus tastes. The retained oils line the inside of the mouth and have a tinge of greenish, vegetal flavors. (Many brewers recommend drinking their wet hops with a glass of water.) It's easy to taste the difference between a normal brew and a fresh-hop version -- though that isn't always a good thing. "If you're not careful you can end up with a beer that tastes like lawn clippings," says Garrett Oliver, brewmaster at Brooklyn Brewery.
Fugglerama #2
Brewing, of course, has a long tradition of following the seasons. Before refrigeration, beermakers were eager to get their hands on the first hops of the season. They tended to make beers in the fall that highlighted them, before switching to maltier beers as stored hops lost their character. (Germany's Oktoberfest is a slightly different story: The two-week festival now marks the fall with copious amounts of beer, but got its start as a wedding celebration.)
Randy Mosher, a beer author and instructor at Siebel Institute of Technology, a Chicago brewing school, says there's little historical precedent for using hops within a few hours of picking. "What people are trying to do with craft beer is put people in touch with their food again, and remind them that they're drinking an agricultural product," he says.
Fresh-hop beers started popping up about a decade ago when Sierra Nevada brewed its first Harvest Ale. The style attracted other brewers, and there are now several dozen versions available. Sierra now makes three wet hop beers, including one using "estate grown hops," while Steelhead Brewing Co. in Eugene, Ore., last year made a pair of fresh-hops, "Fugglerama #1" and "Fugglerama #2," with two varieties of Fuggle hops. There's even a nascent movement among brewers to grow their own: Today in Kearney, Neb., Trevor Schaben, owner of Thunderhead Brewing, plans on heading out to a hops field 10 miles from his brewpub to pick with a handful of customers (it's the brewpub's second attempt at a wet hop).
Though wet-hop beers inspire brewers' creative fancies, they also pose a logistical challenge. Many breweries are set up to use pellet hops, which are much easier to filter out than the leftover plant matter from wet hops. A wet hop requires a special filter or trapping system to keep the debris out of the finished product.
But the bigger problem is getting the hops in the mix before they've spoiled. Victory Brewing Co. contracts a refrigerated truck to collect hops from a grower in upstate to New York then drive straight back to the brewery in Downingtown, Pa. Come fall Russian River Brewing owner/brewmaster Vinnie Cilurzo gathers about a dozen friends and family members to pick hops on a quarter acre plot a few miles from his brewery in Santa Rosa, Calif. As they pick he begins brewing, then throws in the hops as they arrive from the field. Sierra Nevada uses two varieties -- Centennial and Cascade -- that have different picking periods that overlap for a day or so. The brewery sends a truck to collect the last of the Cascade harvest, then to another field to collect the first of the Centennials, then back to the brewery in Chico, Calif. "I never know what day it's going to be," says brewmaster Steve Dresler.
And for brewers who don't have their own hop farm, this often means paying to have fresh hops sent overnight, multiplying their hop tab. One thousand pounds of hops from Washington state grower Yakima Chief, for example, runs about $2,800 for overnight delivery, compared with $400 for the same amount by slower shipping. Because fresh hops contain so much water, brews that incorporate them can require several times more hops by weight, boosting the price even more. Russian River charges $165 wholesale for a keg of its HopTime Harvest Ale, $50 more than it charges for its Imperial Pale Ale, and $6 per pint in its brewpub, $2 more than it charges for other beers.
But for calendar-watching beer drinkers, the once-a-year brew is worth the splurge. "It's like being able to get vegetables from the farmer's market," says beer aficionado Richard Sloan, a computer programmer from San Diego. "You better be there, or they're gone."
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September '06
It has been awhile since I have posted a Ron's Corner. Many of you have asked about the newsletter. Our hard drive fried and we lost our e-mail list. We have passed around the hard drive to a couple of different computer geeks and so far no luck in trying to rebuild it. One of these days, someone here at Papago will just say screw it and start up a new list.