Commentary: The Big Bottle Conundrum

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As I noted during Thursday’s Six-Pack of News, many breweries are starting to reduce or eliminate the use of the so-called “bomber” bottles—bottles that are typically in the 22-25-ounce range. As noted by Zach Fowle in this article at the online version of Draft Magazine, there are multiple reasons for this change. The first justification is availability, and is just flat out math: if a brewery brews a standard amount of a unique beer each year, that brewery can make many more 12- or 16-ounce bottles than 22-ounce bottles. The second reason is financial, and also distills down to simple math. As Fowle notes:

“While some customers may have balked at paying $17 for a single bottle of beer (the MSRP of Firestone’s 22-ounce Vintage Reserve bottles), a smaller bottle at close to half the price might be more palatable. (It’s also just good buisness: Why sell 22 ounces of beer at $17 when you can sell 12 ounces for $10?)”

Frankly, there’s little to no way to sensibly argue these first two points. Who really wants to debate that “beer SHOULDN’T be more widely available and more cost-conscious”?

The third and final point is more subjective: beer consumers don’t want to drink a full bomber bottle of beer. I can understand this sentiment from one angle: the big and heavy beers that tend to come in such bottles might be too much for some drinkers. Typically, these bomber bottles are used for higher-end beers (as an example, the beers that resulted in the original article: Firestone Walker’s Vintage Reserve series). Personally, bomber bottles, even of big beers, don’t bother me at all. In fact, I tend to buy nothing but singles or sampler 12-packs of beer, and a lot of the beers that come in these big bottles are damn good, even special, beers. I don’t mind having almost two beers’ worth of some awesome Imperial Stout, and I’m surprised that there’s a lot of push back from the craft beer community on this matter. But the data must say I’m wrong, given 1) the push for smaller bottles mentioned in this article, and 2) the little bit of data I’ve seen suggesting that growlers (which typically come in 32-64-ounce volumes, or 2-4 pints of beer) have begun sliding in popularity.

Ultimately, as at least one brewer put it in the article, it comes down to customer demand. If the community’s not buying larger bottles of beer, then breweries are going to stop producing and selling them. I as I said, I like the larger format bottles. I find it is a splitting of the difference between buying a single 12-ounce beer and having to buy a 4- or 6-pack. It would seem I’m in the minority though; I’ll just have to make my money talk for me and hope the bomber format survives.

Commentary: Et tu, World of Beer?

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Since its arrival in Columbia, SC a few years ago, I have been a fan of World of Beer, a semi-national chain of craft beer bars. I was especially impressed early on, when our particular branch did not stock pale macro lagers like Budweiser, Coors Light, and the rest. Within a year or so, they started stocking such beers in cans. While I was not a fan, I could at least acknowledge the potential market share being surrendered by not offering these beers, though why people would go to a craft beer bar and order Bud Light is beyond me. Still, as long as those tall boys were stashed away in a fridge in the corner, out of sight and out of mind, they weren’t bothering me at all.

Then I stopped by WoB last week, and saw this:

 

If you look closely at the left-hand side of that row of taps, you will see none other than a Bud Light handle.

Bud Light…and I’ve been told this is a company-wide addition to tap walls. Et tu, World of Beer?

I freely admit that I have held World of Beer to a higher standard, but that’s because this is a bar that prides itself on setting that higher standard. Their website openly brags about having “550+ different beers from around the world”. And I’m sure they are still holding to that impressive benchmark, or at least awfully close to it. That high quality carries through to the staff, who I find to be highly knowledgeable and passionate about the craft beer they sell. This passion reflected back to me, as I felt pride AS A CUSTOMER to be able to look at a 50- or 60-tap wall, and have the most common thing on it be Stella Artois. I love being able to find a dozen local beers, and a few relatively rare offerings that I have ZERO chance of finding most anywhere else.

For right now, yes, this Bud Light thing is just one tap, out of 50-some. There is still plenty of room for great beer. But that’s right now. Can the addition of Bud Light to the tap wall result in a slippery slope? How long until it’s joined by its big brother Budweiser? Or Miller Lite? Or any of a dozen or more macro lagers? The drinkers of these beers can be awfully hard to ignore—that’s a lot of market share being given up. It would be easy to populate a tap wall with these macros.

I urge World of Beer to remain strong. You cannot let the macro lager culture take over your tap walls. There’s enough macro lager culture already; this being Super Bowl Sunday, there’s a fair chance we can look forward to another commercial mocking craft beer. We, the craft beer lovers, must remain strong against this culture. World of Beer establishments are beacons of this craft beer culture, and their foundations are the thousands of great craft beers that can be found across this country and all over this world. It is my wish to no longer see Bud Light or other macro lagers on the WoB tap walls.

Commentary: Pennsylvania Being Dragged into the 21st Century is a Good Thing!

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For decades, the liquor laws of Pennsylvania have been an antiquated joke. As the website Porch Drinking mentions in this article, “If you wanted to purchase a case of beer, a 6-pack, and a bottle of wine, you would have to go to three separate stores.” Beer distributors were only allowed to sell cases and kegs, while smaller packages (six- and twelve-packs) were available in bars, restaurants, and certain stores, but one could only buy 192 ounces at a time at non-distributors. This really made buying beer for those house parties back in college a pain in the neck. An additional restriction in Pennsylvania was limiting the purchase of wine and liquor to state-controlled stores.

Now, Pennsylvania had previously entered roughly the year 1997 by loosening some of its liquor laws, and further reforms passed by the state legislature and signed by the governor will finally bring Pennsylvania close to being in line with many other states. The Porch Drinking article linked above has an excellent summary of the newest reforms, as well as a history of the changes of the past few years. (Despite the date of the article, the latest round of reforms just recently took effect.) The biggest point of contention among these new reforms is the allowing of beer distributors to now sell any quantity of beer they wish. This includes six-packs as well as growlers, whose smaller size and presumed optimal freshness have made them a trendy option to novice and veteran craft beer drinkers.

Critics of this final reform claim that allowing distributors to sell six-packs will drive business to these businesses and away from bottle shops, grocery stores, bars, and others. Many in this latter group may be reliant on beer sales to remain open. If this is truly the case for restaurants and grocery stores, this does not feel like a great business plan. Moreover, beer distributors are not found on every corner, and many places that sell beer now will continue to successfully sell beer because of one major factor: convenience. There are still gas stations with their beer caves and smaller or independent bottle shops that continue to thrive, even when the big alcohol chain rolls into the area.

As someone who once had to navigate the formerly Draconian liquor laws of Pennsylvania, I celebrate the newest liquor reforms coming out of the commonwealth. Legislators, as well as many Pennsylvania citizens, have recognized the needed updating of these. There is more than enough of a market for alcohol that most or all current sellers should be able to continue to survive, regardless of size of the business of volumes of alcohol being sold. Any failures should not be blamed on new laws that greatly deserved to be modernized.

Commentary: How much love should B-Dubs get?

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Earlier this week, my fellow beer reviewer Rod Jones linked an article from the alcohol culture website Vinepair. Now, normally, Vinepair loves their lists, but last Friday, in what was just their second “Craft Beer” post in a month, columnist Kathleen Willcox proclaims that we need to celebrate that great bastion of craft beer culture: national buffalo wing chain Buffalo Wild Wings (which shall be abbreviated “BWW” in this column).
Willcox wants beer nerds across the country to think that “B-Dubs” is going to vast extremes to draw them into their restaurants, proclaiming that, “the bar boasts a sprawling menu of detailed beer choices, which includes the beer’s name, category, and percentage alcohol.” I must be honest: if this is the new wave of Buffalo Wild Wings, it hasn’t hit Columbia, South Carolina yet!
A survey of my local BWW shows your standard selection of macrolagers with a few offerings from the mass producers’ higher end lines or organizations—things like Goose Island IPA, Blue Moon and/or Leinenkugel plus a seasonal, and a Kona or Redhook product. There are also a few of the nationally-distributed ACTUAL craft beers: Samuel Adams, Lagunitas (more on them shortly), and maybe one more, and finally a couple of local notables. In this area, might include ONE ITEM each from Catawba Brewing Company, Highland Brewing Company and Columbia’s own Conquest or River Rat Breweries. I suppose BWW is making an effort, but forgive me if I give them little credit for stocking Kona, Goose Island and other “craft” beers they get off the Budweiser or Coors trucks. At this point, it is also worth remembering that Budweiser is more than willing to openly mock this group of “craft” beers that they want to sell to places like BWW. To Budweiser/A-B InBev, their “High End” group is nothing more than an attempt to recoup market share lost to actual good beer!
And that’s not stunning, given the vast availability of true craft beer, even in a relatively slow-growing craft beer town like Columbia, SC. In fact, within just a few miles of my closest BWW, I can identify multiple bottle shops, bottle bars, and restaurants that are serving high quality craft beer, including a lot of stuff NOT coming off that Budweiser truck! Buffalo Wild Wings claims to want to “[introduce] thousands of Americans who live in rural pockets of the country…to the merits of and differences between, say, fruited sours and bourbon-barrel-aged IPAs”, but they HAVE NOT started doing that yet. I will be happy to change my tune when I see a Westbrook Goze tap at my local restaurant! Until that happens, my local bottle shop will be my destination of choice for a good beer. And, if BWW wants to truly commit to craft beer, they will need to find better partners than Bud and Coors.
Even those attempts to appeal to craft beer drinkers with something special has met with mixed results, at least for THIS craft beer drinker. To their credit, BWW has made strides to pair with breweries to create unique beers for their restaurants. A limited-time collaboration with Redhook was called Game Changer. Now, I may have had it once, and it didn’t really leave an impression on me. But it was obviously successful enough to extend its availability and even create variants of the original. More recently, they teamed with Lagunitas for a hoppy wheat called Fandom Ale. Unfortunately, I found it to be one of the most disappointing craft beer experiences I’ve had in a LONG time. I will mention that I seem to be in the minority, as others, including the previously-mentioned Rod Jones, have had generally positive experiences with the beer. I trust Rod’s judgment, and am completely open to the likelihood that I got a bad keg of the Fandom. Even if that’s the case, delivering and serving great beer is just as important as making great beer in the brewery.
Buffalo Wild Wings IS making some strides to appeal to craft beer drinkers. Without a doubt, there is always something worth drinking. But there aren’t typically a lot of somethings worth drinking, and in that regard, BWW is lapped many times over by venues with far better selections. For us to truly start “[thanking] Buffalo Wild Wings for craft beer”, they must make a much greater commitment to craft beer. There are a number of restaurants which could serve as models—World of Beer or Flying Saucer, in terms of regional chains, though I could name locally-owned restaurants right here in Columbia that could serve as examples of paying due respect to the craft beer world. It’s Buffalo Wild Wings’ choice.

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

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Hello! It is bright and early on Thursday morning here in American, and so allow me to wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving! With the holiday, I'm pushing the regularly-scheduled Thursday video review to Friday.

But don't worry. I won't leave you empty-handed on this Thanksgiving! Perhaps you are doing your final of about 17 runs to the grocery store, because you need extra potatoes or forgot to buy cinnamon for the pie, or dinner rolls, or a turkey or something. And just as you head for the register and pray the turkey in the oven hasn't exploded, you realize that you FORGOT TO BUY BEER!

Fear not, loyal readers! I have a couple of handy guides that will help you pair beer with the legendary Thanksgiving feast!

First off, Serious Eats engaged their on-staff Cicerone (certified beer expert) Mike Reis to break down several styles of beer and their Thanksgiving-appropriateness. He even matches up some of the beers with standard individual Thanksgiving dishes.

Earlier this week, the Denver Post sought a number of opinions, including those of Cicerones, brewery owners, and event planners, to find out the best beers for three categories: Pre-dinner sessioning, main course, and dessert.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! Be safe and sound, and enjoy the day!

News/Beers in Review: Asheville's Burial Beer invades South Carolina!

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This week, Asheville, NC-based Burial Beer Company is celebrating its invasion of South Carolina by holding several events across three of South Carolina's key markets. I'm glad to say the invasion began right here in Columbia, with tap takeovers at local bottle shop Craft and Draft and downtown bar The Whig, with additional availability in the Columbia area.

Burial_SC_Columbia.jpg

Last night's Columbia events are being followed by similar takeovers starting tonight in Greenville and Charleston, where events will continue through the weekend.

Having visited Burial Beer in Asheville, I took the opportunity to check out the takeover going on at Craft and Draft. Their tap line-up included 5 Burial beers.

 

I took the opportunity to check out the two IPAs Burial had on tap, starting with the session IPA (number 3 on the big board).

Burial's Ceremonial Session IPA checks the ABV box for "sessionable" at just 4%. This particular version of Ceremonial was brewed with Eureka hops--it seems they produce various batches using different hop varietals--and pours a hazy straw color, and musters a powerful pine hop aroma. This pine note carries through into the taste, though it's not quite as strong, and blends with some dank notes and a hint of citrus. There is almost no hop bite, just a slight bite in the aftertaste, and the flavors linger for only a brief time after the drinking experience.

The second Burial beer I had at the takeover was the Tuskhorn IPA. This Tuskhorn clocks in at 7.5% ABV, and was made using Citra, Centennial, and Blonde Ella hops. The beer poured an orange-gold color, and was somewhat hazy with just under a finger's worth of lingering pillowy head. Despite being an American IPA, this beer had a powerful hop bite throughout the entire tasting experience, along with tons of pine and citrus notes, including a bit of a lemon and/or lemon candy hint. These massive flavors dissipated fairly quickly in the aftertaste, which I found surprising, given how bold those flavors were.

My congratulations to Burial Beer Company on a successful initial foray into the state of South Carolina. I hope that success carries through for this week's and weekend's events, and long into the future!

Layoffs are coming fast and furious from the beer production world.

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I could wait until the next Six-Pack of News to report this, but given the pattern, it feels like it needs its own article.

Draft Magazine and others are reporting that Stone Brewing Company is laying off at least 75 workers, including many long-time Stone employees. Stone cited an "unforeseen slowdown in...growth" among the reasons for the layoffs. The full Stone public comment is included in the Draft article. The layoff is quite surprising, given Stone's ongoing ambitious expansion plans.

Stone is not alone in recent layoffs. The Craft Brew Alliance, who makes Redhook, Widmer, and Kona, among others, recently laid off 12-20 workers in its Woodinville, WA production facility, again noting a decline in production of Redhook beers and lack of demand from a Pabst Brewing offshoot for which the Woodinville facility was making beer.

Finally, MillerCoors closed a plant in Eden, North Carolina last month, impacting over 500 people. This followed layoffs at that same plant that had previously taken place over the summer.

Breaking News: DOJ Approves Mega-Merger

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I just did the Six-Pack yesterday, but this is too big to ignore.

The U.S. Department of Justice has approved the merger of the world's two largest beer companies. Anhueser-Busch InBev (aka Budweiser, among others) and SABMiller (which includes the Coors and Miller families of beer among its brands) have cleared this final global regulatory hurdle this afternoon, as confirmed by A-B InBev. Now, like the approvals from the European Union, South Africa, and others, this DOJ approval will likely include stipulations. A-B InBev has already had to make plans to divest itself of most of SABMiller's European holdings, and this is expected to continue in the U.S., where SAB Miller will likely have to spin MillerCoors off to MolsonCoors (MillerCoors was an existing joint venture of the two beer companies).

The result will be A-B InBev controlling 29% of the world's beer supply, and the macrogiant gaining an increased foothold and level of access into Africa, SABMiller was originally a South African company, and Asia.

In additional news, MillerCoors bought a majority stake in Athens, GA craft brewery Terrapin Beer Company, up from their previous 21% stake, which was still low enough to call Terrapin a "craft brewery". Between the mega-merger and Goose Island's recent problems, it's hard for me to be super-optimistic about Terrapin's future.

My Ideal Draft Beer Tap Line-up

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In last week's Six-Pack of News, I noted a Vinepair article where columnist Will Gordon made up his ideal draft beer tap list for his hypothetical bar. It seemed like a fun little exercise, so I'm going to do the same: curate a diverse 16-tap beer line-up. A few points:

1) My goal is to find a nice blend of both local (to the Carolinas) beers AND beers with more widespread distribution.

2) Some of the taps are pre-selected, style-wise, while some are more open. I made some changes to a couple categories compared to Will's list. This was simply to suit my tastes a little better. 

3) This reflects a fairly realistic list for a list I could put together here in the Carolinas. While I'd love to have Firestone Walker or Russian River or some other craft legend on my wall, that wouldn't be realistic.

Let's get started.

Tap 1, House IPA: Ballast Point Sculpin IPA-one of the best in the market right now. If I stock this, I might, from time to time, want to use one of my wild cards or rotating IPA slots for one of the flavored Sculpin IPAs, but we'll refrain from that for the purposes of this exercise.

Tap 2, House Pale Ale: Sierra Nevada Pale Ale-this is in part a nostalgic choice, as Sierra Nevada is the first craft beer I ever had.

Tap 3, House Porter: Holy City Pluff Mud Porter-both of my dark beers are going to be local, simply because they are among the best I've had.

Tap 4, House Stout: Duck Rabbit Milk Stout-see above. Guinness would be the easy answer for this one, but there are so many better choices.

Tap 5, House Cheap Beer: Narragansett Lager-this seems to be the new cheap beer, gradually overtaking PBR.

Tap 6, House Pilsner/Lager: Yuengling Lager-a sentimental choice, admittedly.

Tap 7, House Blue Moon Alternative: Harpoon UFO White-in the summer, this would probably become an appropriate summer seasonal like Sam Adams Summer Ale. I had a crazy idea for this one, but I stayed true to something Blue Moon-ish.

Tap 8, House Session Beer: Harp Lager-really, this was my toughest category, as I wanted something of worth and to avoid the macro-brewed pale lagers. Checks in at 4.2% ABV, which works for something sessionable.

Tap 9, House Amber/Red/Brown Ale: Highland Gaelic Ale-admittedly, I swapped out another category for this one for the sole purpose of giving this beer a steady slot on this list

Tap 10, Rotating Pale Ale or IPA: Stone IPA-an incredibly highly-regarded IPA. As this is a rotating tap, some other possibilities would include Founders Centennial IPA, Bell's Two-Hearted Ale, and Westbrook One Claw Rye Pale Ale.

Tap 11, Rotating IPA or Double/Triple/Imperial IPA: Dogfish Head 90-Minute IPA-not really my thing, but I admit it's a great beer. See above for other possibilities.

Tap 12, Rotating Local: River Rat Hazelnut Brown-staying in Columbia for a personal favorite.

Tap 13, Rotating Local: Foothills Torch Pilsner-this is an in-state beer, and I needed a Pilsner. Other locals might include others from Holy City, River Rat, Swamp Cabbage, Coast, and more.

Tap 14, Rotating High-Distribution Craft Legend: Bell's Oberon Ale-though this is a seasonal beer, so others might include Sierra Nevada's Torpedo IPA, some selections from New Belgium, Founders KBS, and others.

Tap 15, Rotating Wild Card: Founders Rubaeus-so as to have a fruit beer on the menu, as well. As a rotation, other options include Sweetwater Blue and one or more ciders, like Bold Rock IPA (India Pressed Apples).

Tap 16, Wild Card: Westbrook White Thai-the one I almost put in for Blue Moon alternative because it is technically a wheat beer. But I got it in. This was supposed to be a "rotating wild card" slot, but I would keep this up permanently.

I'll admit, this was a little harder to curate than I expected. Things like the rotating locals were hard to pick just one. Thanks for checking this out!

Six-Pack of News, Volume 4

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As I mentioned in Sunday's post, I noticed Highland Brewing Company was starting to get into the canning game. Turns out, they had been canning just one beer, but Beer Street Journal reports they will release their second canned beer later this month. BSJ is also reporting that fellow Asheville, North Carolina brewery Hi-Wire is also following suit, canning their new goze, while Longmont, Colorado's Left Hand Brewing just announced a canning initiative starting this winter.

Philadelphia recently played host to a charity "pop-up street pub" run out of a tractor trailer by Deschutes Brewery.

A North Carolina Native American tribe is suing Anheuser-Busch over use of their symbols in Budweiser advertising. If you look at the picture in the link, you can see the circular, multi-colored logo in the upper left hand corner, and the tribe slogan under "Bud Light".

The Travel Channel recently posted an article featuring 6 international hot spots of beer brewing, from Australia to Scotland.

Finally, DraftMag and others reported that Stone Brewing Brewmaster Mitch Steele is leaving Stone at the end of the month after a decade with the brewery. He plans to open his own brewery, calling it "a bucket list thing." Steele is responsible for many of Stone's top beers, including the Enjoy By series and others, and wrote a book on IPAs.

Six-Pack of News, Volume 2

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Hey! We made it to a second one of these! Great job, everybody!

I have the Mumford and Sons cranked, the articles picked, and I'm ready to write. Let's do this!

We'll start with the bad news first. Josh Weikert of beer-simple.com talks about what could happen if the craft beer bubble burst, with a hint of on-target bemoaning the lack of discussions on craft beer quality.

Hot on the heels of last week's article on the craft beer industry's massive valuation potential comes an article from Chris Furnari at Brewbound that says craft beer sales growth has slowed significantly to around 6.5% growth, down compared to last year (17% growth). There may be some cause for concern--nearly flat growth at grocery stores/drug stores/Wal-mart/etc.--but I doubt that the double digit growth seen in this and other sales avenues in 2015 was really sustainable. The Brewer's Association tries to pull out some of the so-called-but-not-really craft beer brands, specifically Blue Moon and Shock Top, to paint a better picture. Those two brands ARE DOWN (to the point of negative growth) significantly, but to cite them specifically without looking at other brands owned by Big Beer is unfair. In fact, some such brands, like Goose Island, Founders, and others are doing exceptionally well.

Onto happier news, Governor John Kasich of Ohio signed Sub H.B. 37 which, among other things, eliminated ABV caps on Ohio-produced beers. Prior to this, there was a limit of 12% on beers brewed in Ohio. Looks like this law may have also made some exceptions for taproom and brewery service.

Web-video service Vimeo has a roughly 20-minute documentary on the beer scene in Charleston, South Carolina, including how the city's culture influences that scene. The documentary is about two years old, but a lot of the spirit and sentiment remain relevant.

Chicago wrapped up their Craft Beer Week this past weekend, and Tribune reporter Josh Noel has some impressions on some possibly lesser-known Chicago breweries.

Finally, beer for dogs! Dogs struggle internally with some of the ingredients in human beers, but a U.K.-based company called Woof and Brew have created a dog-friendly "beer" made of "barley malt, dandelion, flax, and 'chicken flavoring'", aiming to create a common social ritual for both the dog and his/her owner.

 

 

Six-Pack of News: Volume 1

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One of the things I always say when I tell people about how to improve this blog is "I want to write about news more." Well, I want to write about news more. I will try to go in-depth about some issues, but I thought this might be a fun way to throw some interesting stories out there, with just a bit of commentary or a witty quip on my part.

I give you...the Six-Pack of News.

My home state of Pennsylvania has finally started to get themselves out of the Stone Age, at least in terms of selling beer. PA Governor Tom Wolf advocated to and gained approval from the Liquor Control Board to allow six-packs of beer and malt beverages to be sold in gas stations, provided there is a separate point-of-sale for such transactions.

This is a couple of weeks old, but it's still frakking stupid: Budweiser is rebranding itself as "America" for most of 2016 in an obvious attempt to cash in on the upcoming Olympics and election season. I have a number of rebrandings I could suggest to A-B InBev, but I want to keep things kid-friendly here.

Speaking of A-B InBev, this blog some time ago noted their attempts to block out other craft brews from distributors' shelf space by offering financial incentives to distributors that stock a certain amount of A-B InBev products, including their ever-expanding "High End" group of former craft breweries (a group that includes Goose Island, Elysian, Devils Backbone, and many more. Well, this incentive program is being investigated by the Department of Justice over A-B InBev's attempted acquisition of SABMiller, though this particular point is not expected to derail the acquisition.

The awesomely-named Brew Studs found a report from the much-less-awesomely-named Research and Markets group that says the craft beer market could be valued at $45 BILLION dollars by 2019 owing to a growing consumer preference for craft beers. With well over 4000 craft breweries (and counting) in the United States alone, this number, while staggering in a vacuum, seems unsurprising.

While in Asheville over the weekend, I noticed a couple of breweries established East Coast operations there. New Belgium is located in the city's River Arts district, while Sierra Nevada is located outside of the city. North Carolina and Virginia seem to be the hotspots for East Coast operation set-ups, and Ballast Point is the latest to join this push, announcing their intent to establish a manufacturing and retail operation in Botetourt County, VA, near Roanoke.

Finally, the journal PNAS reports that Stanford University archaeologists working in China found a complete set of 5000 year-old brewing equipment, with beer remnants found within the equipment. Analysis of the beer remnants yielded a recipe of millet, barley, Job's tears (a tropical fruit from southeast Asia), and...potatoes???

 

Sunday Funday on the Columbia Brew Bus (with a brand new brewery!)

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So, as anyone who regularly reads this blog knows, Sunday is pretty regularly a blogging day for me. Needless to say, that didn't happen, as I participated in the Columbia Brew Bus's monthly Sunday Funday brewery tour. As an additional bonus, this was CBB's first tour to include the newly-opened Twisted Spur Brewery and Restaurant. More on them later. The tour started at 2pm with pick-up in downtown Columbia, providing transportation to Columbia's 3 commercial breweries--Conquest, River Rat, and Swamp Cabbage, before finishing up at Twisted Spur. At each location, we were provided with 4-4oz samples of each brewery's beer, along with the option to purchase additional pints and also beer to go (growlers or bottles) at cost. Per the guys running the tour, it seemed like this tour is targeted for about 4 hours total, but we blew well past that, not leaving Twisted Spur until 8pm. This was not a problem for me, but just be prepared for some extra time, especially if they continue to include a 4th touring location.

As I've had and written about the first three breweries in this blog previously, I will write about the breweries themselves while only mentioning highlights of the beers I had. This was my first time ever at Conquest and Swamp Cabbage, and my first time spending any meaningful time at River Rat. It was nice, in part, to finally learn where Conquest and Swamp Cabbage are located.

Our first stop was Conquest. They are located in an industrial building (all of these commercial breweries are located in industrial areas near the university's Williams-Brice Stadium) with a very nice bar area along with additional seating and space adjacent to their production area, as well as some outdoor space with picnic tables. The most notable of their four beers were the Coffee IPA, which I reviewed previously, and their Drinking Class Ale. This beer is in the style of an ESB (Extra Special Bitter), but uses some different ingredients for a very different taste. I can't describe it much, really (nice job from a beer blogger, right?), except to say it was very enjoyable but tasted unlike any ESB I've had before.

River Rat Brewery has a decent bar and sitting room, along with a decent amount of grassy outdoor space. They seem to be the most social of the commercial breweries--public areas away from the production space, frequent events like yesterday's charity cornhole tournament (though the other breweries are doing their share of events), and plenty of overall social space. The beer highlight was their collaboration with developing Greenville, SC brewery Birds Fly South, called Touch of Grey. This was listed as an Oatmeal IPA with citrusy notes, but the first thing I was getting was piney and dank hop notes. Now, make no mistake, the citrus was sneaky, always hanging around, but never quite the main feature of the flavor profile. It had very little bitterness, which was nice for a warm Columbia day.

The third brewery was Swamp Cabbage, which has a couple of small sitting areas featuring small bar, along with a very nice deck and open outdoor space beside the production area. A couple of the beers I had had before, of course, but their Peach Pale Ale was a new one for me. The peach flavor was present but generally pretty mild and the beer had a bit of a bitter finish. The SC Stout was also quite good, but the Peach Pale was a better match to the warm day.

Finally, we ended up at Twisted Spur for the final beer flights and some food. I just had an appetizer--chips with blue cheese, cheese sauce, bacon, and balsamic vinegar--and it was very good. In fact, our group of 20 ordered a considerable amount of the menu, and enjoyed most or all of it. Getting to the beers, first was their Southern Belle Blonde, which had a hint of white grape along with some mild crackery notes and a bit of a floral finish. Next was the Dead Head Red, a nicely balanced beer that is a little more hop-forward than most reds. It had mild malt and fruit notes with a decent bite. Third was their Hefeweisen, a very solid execution of the style, with notes of bananas, cloves and other spices along with maybe a hint of bread. Finally, we had the IPA, which hint several nice hop notes with very little bite. Overall, all of these beers were solid executions of their styles, and I look forward to seeing what else they can do as they get more comfortable with their venture (the space has only been open for a week).

With this, the Brew Bus returned us to our original location. Given the potential amount of beer that one can drink on these Brew Bus tours, I strongly urge consideration of a cab or Uber to and from the meet-up point. This was my first Columbia Brew Bus tour, and I would certainly be interested in doing one again in the future. Thanks, guys!

Oh, Hillary...

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Consider this "fair and balanced" blogging.

Remember when Lindsey Graham, Senator from South Carolina, ran for President? It really did happen! He even tried to pour a beer during a campaign stop. It didn't go well.

All the remaining candidates are spending most of their time in New York state right now, in anticipation of their upcoming primaries. Hillary Clinton went to a brewery near Buffalo, NY. Guess how it turned out.

Yeesh.

 

Photo by Glass By Andrew.

I have waited so long to see this article!

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So, it's no secret that I am not a fan of the standard of the fall seasonal collection, the pumpkin beer. While I am happy to say I found a few that suited my palate fairly well, I typically dislike the all-in-pumpkin-pie flavor that many of these beers and the massive amounts of cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and other spices that accompany these beers. Again, moderation is okay, but I find few of these beers practice such moderation.

This recent Forbes article tells me I may not be the only one getting tired of the pumpkin beer craze of the past few years. Pumpkin beers enjoyed reported 30+% growth each of the last few years, but sales fell flat recently, and some major retailers had some of the best-regarded pumpkin beers (such as Dogfish Head Punkin Ale and Southern Tier Pumpking) still in stock in February of this year! This was seemingly confirmed by the heads of the beer-tracking app Untappd, who reported increased check-ins for pumpkin beers "far after the new year, as late as January, February, March, or April."

Some thoughts are given for the decline. One potential reason, which could be a possibly encouraging sign, is that many craft beer novices once purchased these beers, only for them to become gateway beers, with these once-novices now purchasing other, different craft beers. The article also points to such things as the often-bemoaned "seasonal creep"--the introduction of such fall beers as early as July--and beer drinkers simply trying to diversify their beer experiences, though there are mixed thoughts on these reasons.

Personally, I am not going to cry too much over a significant reduction in the nation's pumpkin beer supply.

 

H/t: forbes.com and Tara Nurin

Beer spa!

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I'm presuming spa days are fun. As a guy, I've never done one. Mashable, however, recently reported on a Sisters, Oregon spa involving some of beer's key ingredients in their treatments.

Live many spas across this nation, Hop in the Spa offers many standard spa treatments: Swedish massage, hot stones, various ancient healing treatments. They are also offering treatments such as "microbrew soaks" and utilizing ingredients like barley, herbs, and hops and "hop-infused oils". The idea is that microbrews are made from materials that include vitamins and minerals like iron, selenium, magnesium, B1, B3, and more, and that these vitamins and minerals "will help with insomnia, anxiety, stress and help calm the nervous system down." Per an interview with Mashable, Hop in the Spa plans a future beer garden so customers can relax with a pint after treatments, and to sell branded products via their website.

You check out the "Services" tab in the link above for a full rundown of their beer-related and non beer-related services.

H/t: mashable.com and Sarah Spiegelman Richter

Untappd begins strategic merger, able to go "to the next level"

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Like many craft beer enthusiasts, I use the mobile app Untappd to track the beers I've had over the last few years. When you're reaching into the hundreds of beers (and surely thousands, in some people's cases), it's nice to have something keeping track of which beers you've had. Untappd is an app that looks good, is pretty well designed and, most importantly, is very stable--crashes of the app are incredibly rare, at least they have been on my series of iPhones. So, imagine my surprise to learn that the app has been a 5+ year a part-time labor of love for two gentlemen, Tim Mather and Greg Avola.

Now, these gentlemen have the opportunity to transition into full-time work on Untappd, by merging with Next Glass, which appears to be a drink recipe and analytic app. The merger will not only allow Mather and Avola to work on Untappd full-time, but will allow for the hiring of additional staff, which will help increase feature development speed and means the app "will get new updates, cool features, and even more badges, faster."

Congratulations to the guys at Untappd. I've been a fan and user of the app for years, and hope this results in many great changes in the future!

Link: Full statement from Untappd

Columbia's River Rat Brewery expanding

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We just discussed a beer from the local River Rat Brewery on Sunday, so I was very excited to see a report in Columbia's The State newspaper about River Rat's expansion plans for 2016, an expansion that will allow them to more than double their production capacity and add a canning line and a food truck to their operation.

The expansion is seen as very necessary, as they would likely max out their production capabilities in 2016. The facility additions will ensure they have enough capacity for the future.

Congratulations to River Rat Brewery on their success!

 

Source: The State newspaper