Event Recap: Craft and Draft Octoberfest Celebration at Music Farm

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Hello, friends. If you were expecting the next installment in the Octoberfest video review series, I have a bit of a curveball for you. This will formally mark the first in a new occasionally occurring series called "Event Recaps". Any beer festivals, special tastings, or other beer events I attend, I will do my best to provide either a written or video recap of the event.

The event in question is last Sunday's Octoberfest celebration curated and run by local bottle bar Craft and Draft and held at the Music Farm concert venue in Columbia. Check out my video recap:

 

I also have a few pictures from the event:

 

As an aside, I promise my video editing skills will improve.

The next video in the Octoberfest beer video series will be posted tomorrow. In that video, I will discuss the release order for the next few videos. See you then. Cheers!

Beers in Review: Been awhile

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It's been awhile since I've done one of these. Admittedly, the start of football season has skewed my bar-visiting habits quite a bit, so I'm going to the beer bars less frequently right now. Regardless, I have a bunch of beers to write about now, so let's get to it!

Starting off our group of beers is one of the few Octoberfests I'll actually be writing about; rest assured, you will be able to check out plenty of Octoberfest beer reviews on the YouTube channel in the coming weeks!

Samuel Adams' Octoberfest had a nice copper color and brought a pretty strong malt backbone to play with other assorted relatively sweet notes. Most obvious were some mild fall spice notes--mostly cinnamon and I think nutmeg (they all kind of blend together for me)--and some very nice darker fruit notes. I picked up plum and hints of raisin and cherry as well. A slight caramel note also came out of the malt backbone. Overall, despite the potential for a sugar bomb, I found this beer to be fairly balanced. The sweetness was moderate and thankfully not overpowering.

Next up is a collaboration between New Belgium Brewing Company and Avery Brewing Company. Officially under the "Fat Tire and Friends" banner, Fat Wild is an American Wild Ale, and it shows, as the drinking experience leads off with a funky tropical fruit introduction. While other flavors came and went throughout the drinking experience, the funkiness was a constant companion that intensified as I reached the end of my glass of the ale. Other notes included a mild, caramel-sweet maltiness, as well some mild berry notes. I also noted the relatively unique mouthfeel of the Fat Wild as I drank it. I found it to be highly carbonated, and almost frothy, almost as if it were a cream ale or under nitrogen. It was an unexpected, though not unwelcome, feeling.

Our final beer of the day is a local White IPA from Swamp Cabbage Brewing Company. It pours a pale yellow color, similar to a light white wine, and the beer plays very much like a wheat beer to open, and an IPA to close. Some cloves and other spices, along with perhaps some mild graininess, before giving way to a mild piney hit and a decent amount of bitterness that carries through the back end of the drinking experience and lingers well after drinking. I felt this was a decent attempt at a somewhat difficult style.

Video Review: Victory Brewing Anniversary 20

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As promised, the latest video review, featuring a beer in celebration of Victory Brewing Company's 20th Anniversary!

In addition to the upcoming videos I mentioned in the review, I also may have some stuff from an Oktoberfest festival I will be attending this weekend. Expect some written reviews, if nothing else.

Six-Pack of News, Volume 11

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Hello, everyone! I have some programming notes for later on in this post, but let's get to the news!

In Volume 10 of this news series, I threw some love towards the first and only brewery in the country of Jordan, Carakale Brewing Company. Now, thanks, in part, to fellow beer reviewer Rod Jones, here are a couple of articles about Carakale. This Vice article is a couple years old, but the Fox News article is from earlier this month and also includes interviews from other Arab brewers.

After roughly two years of success from their "Not Your Father's" alcoholic soda series, Small Town Brewery is adding Mom to the mix. The line-up will begin with Not Your Mom's Iced Tea, which will be released shortly.

A new beer-filling system designed to create the perfect head inside a beer growler, bottle, or can was featured on the hit ABC reality show Shark Tank, with seemingly positive reviews from the investors on the show. The system, named Fizzic, is available from Amazon and Brookstone.

In some news of personal interest, Cape May Brewing Company, about whom I wrote an in-depth review here, is a finalist for Manufacturer of the Year at the 2016 New Jersey Manufacturing Awards. The winner will be announced on October 7th--watch this space.

Finally, the Wall Street Journal published an article today about the supply-and-demand difficulties surrounding some specialty hops. Mostly focusing on supply shortages, article author Tripp Mickle talks to multiple small brewers about these supply issues, and how they have affected breweries' bottom lines.

One last thing: some programming announcements for the video review part of this site. There will be a review of Victory's anniversary beer tomorrow, then the month of October will soon be upon us. And what better way to start the month than with an Octoberfest series! Three videos, six different beers, beginning Saturday, October 1st, with the 2nd and 3rd parts coming the first half of next week. The Octoberfest videos will be videos 47-49, which means I will be making my 50th video in the next couple of weeks. To celebrate the milestone, I have a special side-by-side planned for that video, which will be released the week of October 10th. You can check all of those videos out, along with the 45 I've already made, right here!

Video Review: Queens Blvd Session IPA

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Check out PRB's latest video review, the Queens Blvd Session IPA from Queens Brewery.

 

Also, as I mentioned in the last video review, I have started creating playlists of video reviewed beers, sorted by style. So, you can check out all of the IPAs I've reviewed in one list, or all the Hefeweizens. At this point, most playlists have 4-6 entries, though this will obviously grow. As the video reviews grow, these playlists can also help to track down old reviews by limiting the number of reviews through which to search. Playlists have also been created for Pale Ales and Dark Beers/Porters/Stouts.

Beers in Review: Here We Gose

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Frankly, I spent all my brainpower coming up with a witty title. That up there, that's what you got. We'll get to the gose in a bit.

But we'll start with another offering from Rogue Ales. Charlie 1981 is an American Strong Ale (and it shows, sporting an ABV of 9.1%) that pours a reddish-brown mud color. I found this beer to be quite tasty. Vanilla notes, specifically vanilla bean ice cream, lead the flavor profile, giving way to lots of cherries, some plum, and other fruits. There was a slight note of straight-up alcohol that affected the flavor profile a bit, but otherwise I found this beer to be delicious.

Next is Prairie Flare Gose from Prairie Artisan Ales. As I poured it, it had a massive amount of head (at least 2 fingers in an 8 oz. glass). With a fair amount of bubbles rushing up through the glass, and the color, it very much reminded me of sparkling wine, though it was maybe a tad more yellow than most sparklings I've seen. This gose has a nice flavor balance of sweet and salty. The winey look carries into the flavor a bit, and the mentioned coriander is evident in the finish, while the orange/citrus note floats over the entire tasting experience. Fairly tasty, with no overpowering flavor note.

Finally, Elysian Brewing Company's Blood Orange Pale Ale. A hazy orange-gold color, the Blood Orange Pale is bright and citrusy with a very mild hop bite. There is also a hint of pine hoppiness, with a juiciness that opens up as it warms up a bit. There is also a citrusy sweetness that opens up later, as well. A decent pale ale, overall.

Six-Pack of News, Volume 10

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Business-as-change organization B The Change Media recently released a list of over 200 companies who are using their business organizations as forces of good. New Belgium Brewing Company made the list, honored as Best for the Environment and Best for Workers, in addition to winning an overall award. The accompanying article talks about New Belgium's accomplishments, including their employee ownership program and aggressive reuse and recycling efforts.

As I do frequently, I ask you to permit me a bit of local interest news. With thanks to my mother (Hi, Mom!), a new brewery just opened in my old hometown of York, PA. Collusion Tap Works opened its doors this past weekend, boasting a diverse line-up of 24 different beers at their tasting room and bar.

The legendary Oxford English Dictionary added "kegerator" to its extensive list of entries in its September 2016 update. Of course, they also added "moobs", "Oompa Loompa", and "YOLO", so evaluate this news as you like.

I've given my own thoughts on the matter, but here is some detailed debate on the Big Beer takeover of many craft breweries. Aaron Goldfarb at Serious Eats took a look inside A-B InBev's High End headquarters and chatted with some of the leaders of those breweries. Jacob McKean at San Diego's Modern Times beer rebutted many of the claims from the Serious Eats article (including ABI's Blue Point Brewing Company--who have a flagship Toasted Lager--making the bizarre claim that they are now working with the world's best lager-makers). Finally, Patrick Clinton at The New Food Economy wades into the whole debate with some points of his own, including some reflections from the larger food industry. All are worthwhile reading. For the record, I tend to side more with McKean--big shock, I know.

Schlafly's Ambassador Brewer, Stephen Hale, tells St. Louis's Riverfront Times about his 5 preferred styles of beer for the upcoming fall season.

Finally, this isn't news, per se, but I invite you to check out the first and only craft brewery in the Kingdom of Jordan, Carakale Brewing Company. It is among the safest and most stable countries in the Middle East, but I would imagine such a venture is still incredibly difficult, given the overall turmoil in that region of the world.

Video Review: New Belgium Citradelic

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The latest video review is New Belgium Brewing's Citradelic Tangerine IPA. Check out this tasty beer!

 

Also note that as there are now some 40 videos on the YouTube channel, and nearly all of them are beer reviews, I have started sorting the videos into playlists. The Travel/"Reflections" videos have all been put together in one playlist, and I've started sorting the beer reviews by style. Currently

Beers in Review: Late-ish

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I'm writing this at a later hour than I normally like to write, so let's just get into today's beers.

First up is the Honey Kolsch from Rogue Ales. Rogue's farm near their brewery in Oregon sourced the honey for this Kolsch from over 7 million bees kept on the farm. This beer pours a straw yellow, and is nice and light with mild sweetness, including a not-too-strong honey note. Doughy and yeasty notes are also prevalent, all leading the way to a nice biscuity malt finish. I found this beer to be quite tasty.

Next up is New Holland Brewing Company's Sundog. Pouring a deep copper color, I found notes in this beer I really liked, but I also found something a bit off. The beer has a strong malt backbone with bready notes and a whole lot of caramel. The finish was kind of strange--I felt like I was getting a nutty note, but there was also some sort of off flavor. It seemed like maybe something metallic, but I had trouble placing it. The front half of this beer was decent, but the back half was a bit of a killer. I would give it another try, perhaps in bottles (I got a draft) or at another locale.

Finally, from Freehouse Brewery, their Battery Brown Ale. The beer poured a pretty light cola color, and brought a massive malt bill with huge burnt sugar notes, along with toffee. There was a slight hint of a straight-up burnt note, but it blended well with everything else going on, so that it was not off-putting. Despite the dark candy-like notes, this beer carried just a hint of sweetness. A whole of what I like from brown ales in this Battery Brown. The brewers call it "quaffable...for all seasons", and I completely agree.

Video Review: Thomas Creek Class Five IPA

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Hi, everyone! After catching a cold last weekend, and spending most of the week still stuffed up, I feel un-stuffed enough to resume doing videos. I'll be working to get caught up for missed time, and the first video of my triumphant return features Thomas Creek Brewery's Class Five IPA. Enjoy!

Six-Pack of News, Volume 9

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Some fun little tidbits in today's news round-up. Let's get to it!

This is an article from last month, though it fell in a gap between Six-Packs of News, but with the calendar now flipped to September, this seems relevant. Draft Magazine reported about a shortage of pumpkins to create fall beers. While the shortage is in its second consecutive year, many brewers are finding ways (though, not without headaches) to make up for the shortage, including leveraging additional pumpkin suppliers or acquiring excess stores of pumpkin puree. We will have to watch the next couple of seasons to see if this shortage becomes more critical for brewers.

Draft Magazine also recently posted an article noting 5 key beer statistics, including most successful new brands and multiple analyses about craft beer growth.

Next, there is a football game being played this Saturday at Bristol Motor Speedway in Bristol, Tennessee. Up to 160,000 people are expected to be in attendance for the game between Virginia Tech and the University of Tennessee, and ESPN's David Hale reports that over half a million beers have been ordered for the game.

A company called BetterBuys, which I would best classify as a business optimization consultant, recently discussed brewery automation with six Philadelphia-area craft breweries and tried to find out if such automation took the "romance" out of brewing for these brewers.

Earlier this week, Vinepair columnist Will Gordon posted a list of the "8 best beer bargains". This list includes 7 great craft beers and Pabst Blue Ribbon. They can't all be winners, I guess.

Finally, just today, Vinepair also released their rankings of the 50 states in the US, based on number of craft breweries and gallons of craft beer. My own South Carolina clocks in way down in the low 40s, with just over 1 brewery and 0.7 gallons produced per 100,000 adults 21+. Find your own state here.

On a personal note, today marks the unofficial one-year anniversary of Pourly Reviewed Beer. Between this day in 2015 and October 27, 2015, I made a whopping SIX beer-related blog posts. Thus, I consider the OFFICIAL one-year anniversary the day I started writing with true consistency: October 28, 2015. I will have much more to say on that date. Still, this is a bit of a landmark, and I just want to thank everyone who has read this blog, and special thanks to my family for their support.

Beers in Review: I am Gruit

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Hello, everyone! I am back, and mostly better from the bug that sidelined me for part of the holiday weekend. I even have a couple of beers to write about, including two collaborations, one of which is a largely long-forgotten style that I had never heard of before.

That beer, you may have guessed, is known as a Gruit. It's a style of hopless, herbal drink that goes back into medieval times and further, gradually getting phased out throughout Europe between the 11th and 16th centuries. Gruit uses bittering herbs instead of hops in the brewing process. This particular Gruit, called This Is How We Gruit, is a collaboration between Tradesman Brewing Company in Charleston, SC and the owners of the bottle shop Craft and Draft here in Columbia. Pouring a muddy gold, this particular Gruit was brewed with ginger, mugwort, juniper berries, rosemary, and several other spices. This beer is very straight-forward--ginger and massive herbal notes come through unabated. It is not sweet, and possesses a very slight bitter note, and a somewhat odd herbal aftertaste. I regret to say that I only finished about 3/4 of a pint. I didn't dislike the beer, by any stretch, but it was drastically different from anything I had ever had before, and by about the halfway point of the pint, I found it to be quite taxing to drink. I pushed through a few more ounces before tapping out. Still, no regrets in having this beer; it was a neat drinking experience.

Second is an offering from Revelry Brewing Company and Octohops Homebrew, both in Charleston, SC. The Octohops guys have been competitively homebrewing for awhile, and they teamed with Revelry to brew a version of their Wise One Hefeweizen which will be entered in next month's Great American Beer Festival Pro-Am competition. The beer pours hazy gold, and has a nice depth of flavor. Mild grain notes blend well with nice spice notes. I detected a hint of citrus as well, I think. The beer is bright and crisp. A nice hefe for the ongoing hot weather here in South Carolina.

Finally, I have Shiner Strawberry Blonde from Spoetzel Brewery in Shiner, Texas. The beer pours a nice golden color, and while my nose is still a bit stuffed up, I had no trouble whatsoever picking up a mighty and pleasing strawberry aroma coming from the beer. The taste has less of the strawberries, but they are still a notable presence in the flavor profile. The beer is quite carbonated, so that the overall effect is very much like that of an unsweetened strawberry soda. A cool effect is that you can pretty well taste all the parts of the strawberry, as in the fruit AND the seeds--there is also a bit of a green plant note, almost as if the stems were also added during the fruit add for this beer. There may also be a slight grainy note, as well, though that just may be me interpreting the greenery notes. The aftertaste is slight but not off-putting, as it almost totally evokes the strawberries. 

Beers in Review: Under the Weather

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I had strongly hoped to do a video review today, but I'm feeling a bit under the weather. My fingers are working perfectly fine, and I have a handful of beers from earlier in the weekend to cover, so let's cover them!

Last month, I had my first offering from a new brewery in Columbia, Bierkeller Columbia, who are dedicated to making high quality German-style beers using simply core ingredients. I found their Braunbier, a dark lager, to be terrific. I was similarly impressed with their Kellerbier, which poured a delightful, slightly hazy gold color. This is supposed to be a little on the hoppy side, but as with the Braunbier, I found the malty side spoke to me more. The beer did open with some mild dank hop notes that quickly gave way to caramel malts. Regardless, I found this beer to be delicious. No matter what Bierkeller was going for, this was another tasty offering from that team.

Next is Mad Hatter, an IPA from Mad Hatter Brewing Company. This beer pushes hard towards becoming a "hop bomb", staying just on this side of overpowering. The bright, citrusy hop notes are accompanied by delightful floral aromatics and a moderate bitterness that just sort of lays on top of the overall drinking experience--very much present throughout, but, again, it's not an overwhelming presence. A solid IPA.

Up next, I try the next installment in Shmaltz Brewery's second offering in their 50th Anniversary of Star Trek series, called the Trouble with Tribbles Golden Anniversary Ale. Now, I enjoyed the first offering, which was a Red Session IPA. I recall being a fan of the beer, which had an impressive malt/hop balance and delicious malt flavors. Unfortunately, I was less impressed with this entry. This beer played like a mild Pilsner, as it was a bit peppery with a mild grainy sweetness. I also got an overall bitter note that just wasn't jiving with me. To me, this beer was just okay.

Finally, from Wooden Skiff Brewing Company, a Kolsch called The Tourist. Pouring a nice, light gold color, this beer was grainy-sweet and, quite simply, beer-like. It had a mild malt presence and was quite smooth and fairly refreshing. Really solid, a highly drinkable beer.

Video Review: Sierra Nevada Beer Camp West Latitude, plus Beer Camp rankings

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There are two videos in today's entry. The first is the final review from the Sierra Nevada Beer Camp Across America series, a beer called West Latitude Session Rye. It was made by Sierra Nevada, along with Bear Republic Brewing Company, Faction Brewing Company, Mad River Brewing Company, Magnolia Brewing Company, and Maui Brewing Company. Check it out:

 

The second video features my personal rankings of the six beers in the Beer Camp Across America series. That's right here: