some of the big stouts like Abyss, XXIII or Serpents and even 15 from Stone all have flavors that will get masked by cold. but even every day Black Butte Porter benefits from warming. in the USofA Guinness is almost always served too cold as most beer bars don't have a choice or way of controlling temperature just for one keg.

call the Beer School Robot!

424-242-3375

Beer School everywhere:

http://www.facebook.com/beerschool

http://youtube.com/beerschool

the other guys on the show:

http://www.alloverbeer.com/

http://www.norcalbeerguide.com/

Follow JohnFoster and BeerSchool on Twitter.com

Be sure to visit City Beer Store, 21st Amendment, and Toronado in San Francisco, CA

Email us at [email protected]

Good noon! Recorded in San Francisco on 9/11/2011.

Beer School and "The Homework is Beer" are a trademarks of Ayer Media, Inc.

© 2011 Ayer Media, Inc.

you've heard it before that "all beer tastes the same" when referring to "factory beer". the best think of these beers as the lowest common denominator with regards to taste, smell and expectations. they were designed with a precarious balancing act in mind which makes a beer that tastes like something, has a buzz inducing quality and is cost effective to make while maximizing profits. add in a little advertising to tell people what they want (and expect) and wha-laa fizzy yellow beer that is consumed by zillions of people.

what we found echos our previous findings:

you can taste the difference between all four of these beers.

they aren't very good when you compare this beers to craft beer.

in the right context any of these beers could be refreshing.

if you do your homework you may come to a similar conclusion.

homework:

get four factory beers and try them side-by-side-by-side-by-side. you don't have to drink the whole beer. be sure to talk about the things that you are tasting: sweet, bitter, crispness, mouth feel and the carbonation. bonus homework is to compare the same beer in bottles and cans because there is a difference sometimes. the cans are better.

beer on the show:

Budweiser, Bud Light, Coors and Coors Light

Dogfish Head Festina Peche

call the Beer School Robot!

424-242-3375

Beer School everywhere:

http://www.facebook.com/beerschool

http://youtube.com/beerschool

Follow JohnFoster and BeerSchool on Twitter.com

Be sure to visit City Beer Store, Toronado and 21st Amendment in San Francisco, CA

Email us at [email protected]

Good noon! Recorded in San Francisco on 8/14/2011.

Beer School and "The Homework is Beer" are a trademarks of Ayer Media, Inc.

© 2011 Ayer Media, Inc.

IPA day is August 4th 2011. take your dumbass friends to the pub to celebrate this specific beer style. or if they just can't take the big boldness of IPA order them something else tasty.

there are a few things that continuously bug us about IPA.

1) none of it is going to India. so there's no reason to call it this anymore.

2) if you look up the recipe for IPA from the books publish 150 years ago you will find something not that much more then the Pale ale of the time.

3) these beers were aged in barrels of unknown conditions for at least 120 before they were consumed. this is very different from the out of the fermenter and into the serving tank in 14 days repeat that the local breweries have to maintain.

4) lots of people order IPA because it's the simplest thing to order on the beer list. having clever names doesn't help the knob buying beer.

5) or they are ordering the beer because its the highest ABV on the list. they aren't drinking it for the hops, balance or aroma. it might as well be Colt 45.

beer on the show:

Pliney the Elder from Russian River

IPA from Bison Brewing

call the Beer School Robot!

424-242-3375

Beer School everywhere:

http://www.facebook.com/beerschool

http://youtube.com/beerschool

Follow JohnFoster and BeerSchool on Twitter.com

Be sure to visit City Beer Store, 21st Amendment, and Toronado in San Francisco, CA

Email us at [email protected]

Good noon! Recorded in San Francisco on 7/10/2011.

Beer School and "The Homework is Beer" are a trademarks of Ayer Media, Inc.

© 2011 Ayer Media, Inc.

Jesse Friedman and Damian Fagan of Almanac Beer Company stopped by to talk about their beer and what it's about. it's an interesting take on how to launch into the brewing business. which is to start of brewing smaller batches of seasonal beer which you can hear about on the podcast or read on the Almanac website. before the name was Almanac it was going to be called Old Oak Beer Company. but a deep trademark search showed that they might have problems with that name so the two owners decided to rebadge the company prior to having any beer in the market to avoid future confusion. 

barrel aged beers have proven to be popular in market. and while European beers have been made in wood barrels for centuries it hasn't been until the last decade that barrel aging was done in the American market. and this is especially true for beer distributed outside of the brewing area done intentionally instead of just a brewers experiment made as a novelty for the people that visit the brewery.

somebody will point out that some US breweries have had their beer on wood since they started brewing it. yet it's not the flavor of the wood that is the reason. in the case of beer that is "Beechwood Aged" the wood is used to increase the surface area available to the yeast. it also makes a neat marketing differentiation for the product.

the homework was to try beer that is barrel aged. we gave a few examples on the show. and if you aren't sure what is or isn't a beer from a barrel program ask your retailer or beer geek. or you can ask here as well.

http://www.almanacbeer.com/

call the Beer School Robot!

424-242-3375

Beer School everywhere:

http://www.facebook.com/beerschool

http://youtube.com/beerschool

Follow JohnFoster and BeerSchool on Twitter.com

Be sure to visit City Beer Store in San Francisco, CA

Email us at [email protected]

Good noon! Recorded in San Francisco on 10/17/2010.

Beer School and "The Homework is Beer" are a trademarks of Ayer Media, Inc.

© 2010 Ayer Media, Inc.

Forties are beers that either come in 40 ounce bottles or cost around $40.

beer on the show:

Pliney the Elder from Russian River

Firestone Walker Parabala

Mikeller Beer Geek Brunch Weasel

the Lost Abbey Serpents Stout

call the Beer School Robot!

424-242-3375

Beer School everywhere:

http://www.facebook.com/beerschool

http://youtube.com/beerschool

Follow JohnFoster and BeerSchool on Twitter.com

Be sure to visit City Beer Store in San Francisco, CA

Email us at [email protected]

Good noon! Recorded in San Francisco on 8/23/2010.

Beer School and "The Homework is Beer" are a trademarks of Ayer Media, Inc.

© 2011 Ayer Media, Inc.

call the Beer School Robot!

424-242-3375

Beer School everywhere:

http://www.facebook.com/beerschool

http://youtube.com/beerschool

Follow JohnFoster and BeerSchool on Twitter.com

Be sure to visit City Beer Store in San Francisco, CA

Email us at [email protected]

Good noon! Recorded in San Francisco on August 16, 2010.

Beer School and "The Homework is Beer" are a trademarks of Ayer Media, Inc.

© 2010 Ayer Media, Inc.

the Firkin Tappers can be found here: http://firkintappers.com/

call the Beer School Robot!

424-242-3375

Beer School everywhere:

http://www.facebook.com/beerschool

http://youtube.com/beerschool

Follow JohnFoster and BeerSchool on Twitter.com

Be sure to visit City Beer Store in San Francisco, CA

Email us at [email protected]

Good noon! Recorded in Boonville on May 7-8 2010.

Beer School and "The Homework is Beer" are a trademarks of Ayer Media, Inc.

© 2010 Ayer Media, Inc.

Ruby, Ruby, Ruby, Ruby

Motor has two favorite beers that he will defend to the end. one of them is Ruby from McMenamins. the McMenamins have made an empire of interesting old buildings around Washington and Oregon. we counted 65 places from there list. it's possile that there were some duplicates. but anything over 10 is a lot of places from a property point of view. okay so we got the fruit wrong because we didn't look it up. it's raspberries not blackberries. same thing if you ask me. one is just darker and they look the same.

beer on the show:

Ruby

Hammer Head (IPA)

http://www.mcmenamins.com

call the Beer School Robot!

424-242-3375

Beer School everywhere:

http://www.facebook.com/beerschool

http://youtube.com/beerschool

Follow JohnFoster and BeerSchool on Twitter.com

Be sure to visit City Beer Store in San Francisco, CA

Email us at [email protected]

Good noon! Recorded in San Francisco on 5/29/2010.

Beer School and "The Homework is Beer" are a trademarks of Ayer Media, Inc.

© 2010 Ayer Media, Inc.

Anchor's Away

beer on the show:

Sierra Nevada 30th Anniversary aka Fritz & Ken

Liberty Ale from Anchor Brewing

Note: these are all local beers for us. and it's why we choose them for the show.

call the Beer School Robot!

424-242-3375

Beer School everywhere:

http://www.facebook.com/beerschool

http://youtube.com/beerschool

Follow JohnFoster and BeerSchool on Twitter.com

Be sure to visit City Beer Store in San Francisco, CA

Email us at [email protected]

Good noon! Recorded in San Francisco on 5/16/2010.

Beer School and "The Homework is Beer" are a trademarks of Ayer Media, Inc.

© 2010 Ayer Media, Inc.

IPA - this is the long though lost IPA show. it was recorded last fall on August 23.

there are a few things that continuously bug me about IPA.

1) none of it is going to India. so there's no reason to call it this anymore.

2) if you look up the recipe for IPA from the books publish 150 years ago you will find something not that much more then the Pale ale of the time.

3) these beers were aged in barrels of unknown conditions for at least 120 before they were consumed. this is very different from the out of the fermenter and into the serving tank in 14 days repeat that the local breweries have to maintain.

4) lots of people order IPA because it's the simplest thing to order on the beer list. having clever names doesn't help the knob buying beer.

5) or they are ordering the beer because its the highest ABV on the list. they aren't drinking it for the hops, balance or aroma. it might as well be Colt 45.

Black IPA is very interesting to me as an evolutionary style. when done correctly it makes a very drinkable beer. however the trend I'm bugged about is using the malt as color not for adding another flavor. the Windmer BIPA tasted like this. don't take that as me not liking that beer. it was very good. but it'd doesn't look like it tastes.

beer on the show:

Pliney the Elder from Russian River

Racer 5 from Bear Republic

Stone IPA from Stone Brewing

Imperial IPA from Anderson Valley

Liberty Ale from Anchor Brewing

Note: these are all local beers for us. and it's why we choose them for the show.

call the Beer School Robot!

424-242-3375

Beer School everywhere:

http://www.facebook.com/beerschool

http://youtube.com/beerschool

Follow JohnFoster and BeerSchool on Twitter.com

Be sure to visit City Beer Store in San Francisco, CA

Email us at [email protected]

Good noon! Recorded in San Francisco on 8/23/2009.

Beer School and "The Homework is Beer" are a trademarks of Ayer Media, Inc.

© 2010 Ayer Media, Inc.