This week we talk about (among other things) the idea of making a Father’s Day Homebrew purchase. I don’t brew myself or get paid to say this, but The Grainfather is on sale and if I brewed I’d definitely buy one. In this week’s show we talk about why during our Homebrew FAQ.

Father’s Day Homebrew Gift

We usually don’t get too pitchy here, but there is one product I sincerely think is awesome, even though I don’t personally homebrew. The Grainfather is an all-inclusive (OK, mostly inclusive) brewing system designed seemingly for homebrewers who don’t have a garage. It can do five gallon batches right in your kitchen in just the one pot, and can shave as manay as two hours of your brew time while still requiring you to do hands-on brewing.

In this week’s homebrew FAQ, Doug and I talked about the extreme upside of The Grainfather (which happens to be on sale until Father’s Day with time left over for a Father’s Day Homebrew). Swing by Xtreme and check it out.

The Grainfather Connect – All Grain Brewing System (120V)

Click Here to download Grainfather Connect brochure The Grainfather is electrically powered and designed to be used indoors. No need for burners, or hot plates, just plug in and go! It is fitted with a dual element so that the correct power can be used depending on what stage of the brewing process you are at.

Funky Buddha Sells Out Again (Kinda)

This is a nice, if a little weird story. The folks who had started Funky Buddha Brewing and then sold it to the people who own Modelo were toying with starting from scratch again. When they sold out they hadn’t included the one barrel brewery and hookah lounge and had vague designs about re-starting there but instead essentially gave it to an up-and-coming homebrewer who was looking to go pro. You can’t say that it isn’t cool or interesting.

Robot Brewing Takes Over the Funky Buddha’s Brewery and Hookah Lounge | Brewbound.com

Ryan Sentz has handed over the Funky Buddha Lounge & Brewery in Boca Raton, Florida, to family friend and homebrewer Allen Steen, who is transforming the space into the Robot Brewing Company & Quixotic Lounge.

How to Read Beer News

The news and dissemination process for the beer industry, as with a ton of other industries for sure, is best left to people who cover it professionally. This rarely is the case. When you see a craft beer story in your paper it was probably not written by a person with an understanding of the industry and can be a little misleading as a result. If you’re super interested in beer news, check in with the folks at Brewbound or the Craft Brewing Business. CraftBeer.com is another good source, although it is the lobbying arm of the Brewers Association.

U.S. beverage alcohol volumes decline again in 2017, beer category declines substantially

Over the last 40 years, IWSR has built up the world’s largest database on the beverage alcohol market. It claims to understand the market, category and brand performances of products in 157 countries across the world using local market input. Occasionally, IWSR releases market reports,

This week Shawn and Tony talk about beer without hops, why distributors hate taprooms, the takeaway from last year’s beer sales numbers and the tough times they’re having over in Ellicott City, Md.  among other things. If you haven’t subscribed to our mailing list yet, here’s your opportunity to keep up to date with what we’ve got going on.

In the next few weeks we’ll be debuting a bi-monthly interview show speaking with brewers from all over the place as well as a new pairing project matching up cigars and beer.

Old World Beer Without Hops

People mostly drank beer without hops in the millennia before they stumbled upon hops as an additive. In fact, they tried almost all the other bitter herbs first, and some of them are coming back. Medieval beers called gruit are making something of a comeback as brewers try and find the other side of weird. In this week’s show Shawn and Tony discuss making and drinking gruit as a home brewer. From there it isn’t far to figuring adding fruits and brewing up fruit wines and ciders as the season kicks into high gear.

This Once-Extinct, Hop-Free Ale Is Making a Comeback

So you’ve sipped IPAs, chugged stouts, and savored porters, but have you tried a gruit ale? You may not have heard of it, but gruit ale was the go-to beer in the Middle Ages, and it’s now making a comeback. This beer recipe substitutes hops with other botanicals, which infuse gruit ales with a piquancy and sweetness.

The Coming Assault on Taprooms

Distributors are getting a little nervous about how popular tap rooms are. From their perspective every person that buys a beer in a taproom is stealing money from them. That’s because they paid good money to make sure state legislatures all over the country made it the law that they got a taste of every alcohol transaction. The workaround of taprooms not only lets the drinkers have a better selection, it also keeps the breweries solvent in their earlier years and helps them establish themselves as part of communities.

The recent craft brewers conference among other topics the brewers spoke about how to protect themselves as distributors come after their taprooms.

CBC: Industry Stakeholders Share Tactics for Building and Defending Taprooms | Brewbound.com

Taprooms and direct-to-consumer sales were hot topics during this year’s Craft Brewers Convention in Nashville, Tennessee. Two seminars — “Building Your Brand Through the Tasting Room” and “Defense and Promotion of Tasting Rooms” — focused on the phenomenon that has agitated some retailers and wholesalers, but the topic bled into other conversations throughout the week.

Brewery Floods

Ellicott City took a beating in the recent storm and they’re doing what they can to get organized, including collecting money and coordinating the rebuilding effort on the merchant’s Facebook Page. There’s a GoFundMe for the brewery employees if you’re interested in chipping in.

Baltimore-area businesses fundraise, offer jobs to displaced Ellicott City workers (Video) – Baltimore Business Journal

Like many of his fellow Ellicott City business owners, Timothy Kendzierski faces a long road ahead as he pre...

We were off last week as I embarked on a research project for an upcoming additional beer podcast tentatively named, “The State of the Beer.” For the first couple of shows I stopped at a bunch of different breweries between Delaware and Nevada during my #PintsAcrossAmerica tour. Traveling for beer is always something that gives me a little bit of pleasure. The idea of just driving until you find a brewery, having a pint and moving on appeals to the would-be wanderer in me.

If you would like to follow along on my beer journey, you can check out my Untappd account, but I’ll be posting stories of the individual breweries as the weeks progress. If you’re at all interested in seeing what traveling for beer is like, or just want to stay up to date on all the beer happenings we think are interesting at SOTB, you can subscribe to my monthly email list.

Historic Yeast and Yeast History

There’s little that captures the imagination of craft beer enthusiasts, and especially homebrewers, like discovering old timey ingredients. Recently some yeast was collected from a Civil War-era fort. Although they collected a bunch, finding usable yeast was a little more difficult, but Oozlefinch Brewing got it done.

A 200-year-old yeast strain is being used to make a new beer at Oozlefinch

FORT MONROE Most people don’t look for beer ingredients in the nearly 200-year-old mess chest of a Union general. But that’s exactly where Rachel Edwards, assistant brewer at The Oozlefinch Craft Brewery, found yeast for her latest creation – an English Bitter. She swabbed about 20 different places on Gen.

 

 

Speaking of hard-to-find yeast strains, this article talks about the origins of yeast. It looks as if it originated in China and spread out from there along the wind. The coolest part about that is that it means that fruit started turning into alcohol as different yeasts reached different regions. It probably has a lot to do with differing tastes throughout the drinking world.

Genome evolution across 1,011 Saccharomyces cerevisiae isolates

Altmetric: 337 More detail Article | Open Received: Accepted: Published: Large-scale population genomic surveys are essential to explore the phenotypic diversity of natural populations. Here we report the whole-genome sequencing and phenotyping of 1,011 Saccharomyces cerevisiae isolates, which together provide an accurate evolutionary picture of the genomic variants that shape the species-wide phenotypic landscape of this yeast.

 

Traveling for Beer This Summer

There almost certainly is a beer pairing column in my future, but for now here is someone else’s take. Summer is about lighter beers and more of them, generally, but don’t overlook red and scotch ales as well as porters as they’re available because they really can complement the kinds of foods one eats during the summer.

Craft Beers to Feed Your New England Seafood Obsession

The winters in New England seem to last forever, with the first flakes likely to fall somewhere around Halloween. The days get shorter and colder, and the entirety of the sun’s showing for a day takes place in bet...

On this week’s Beer with Strangers podcast we cover the Big Brew event, some of the cool things coming out of the 2018 Craft Brewers Conference and the new approach from the Brewers Association that could really get people to care about whether they’re drinking independent craft beer or not.

#SeekTheSeal

The  “Independent Craft Beer” seal from the Brewer’s Association has been in the news and on our minds lately. While an increasing number of brewers are participating, it is hard to imagine people caring about them as independent beers. Craft beer was a pretty easy sell, because it genuinely tasted better, but now that big beer has kind of muscled in, lots of people are perfectly content to order a Goose Island IPA. This means retailers are happy to carry less independent beer so long as they have a couple beers that can pass.

The new #SeekTheSeal Instagram promotion could change that, enhancing the profile and cool factor for drinking beers that are independent.

How to make independent craft beer mainstream

The Coors Kerfuffle

Pete Coors, the beer one, wrote an open letter about why independent craft beer should stop making it look like big beer are the bad guys. What we get into in the show is the possibility that he really is that obtuse, like, he truly doesn’t understand the tactics at his own company. Alternatively, he’s trying to look like a victim, ’cause this is the last epoch of billionaire white guys, so why not take advantage?

Coors’ letter in the link below has been annotated with craft beer responses point by point and is worth reading if you’re trying to getting a sense of how out of touch Coors comes off.

An Open Letter to Pete Coors: Ninkasi Co-founder counters Coors Chairman’s critique of the craft movement

If you’re wondering what all that noise is: It’s the American beer market airing some of its grievances. The debate started yesterday when Pete Coors, chairman of Molson Coors’ board of directors, posted an ” open letter ” to the Brewers Association (BA), but aimed at the entire craft market, admonishing the BA for being divisive.

A new New Jersey Beer

I was trying to find information on what was going on with this beer and (apparently) forgot to check my brother’s Facebook feed where he said that the company he works for, 902 Brewing and New Jersey Beer Co. would be the breweries making this. More to come as information becomes available.

Big Man’s Brew | Beverage Products honoring Clarence “Big Man” Clemons

Big Man’s Brew, Inc. provides beer and other beverage products such as wine, coffee, energy drinks, sodas, and juices that celebrate the legacy of Clarence “Big Man” Clemons. Clarence Clemons, a music legend and member of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, is at the heart of what Big Man’s Brew provides.

 

The Big Brew, 2018

For our Homebrew FAQ, Doug talked about their choice to make Rocky Raccoon’s Honey Lager and to ferment it using two different yeast strains.

Big Brew for National Homebrew Day – American Homebrewers Association

Celebrate National Homebrew Day Register an Event or Find an Event In 1988, May 7 was announced before Congress as National Homebrew Day. The American Homebrewers Association (AHA) created AHA Big Brew as an annual event to celebrate National Homebrew Day around the world.

Lori Clough, owner of 3rd Wave Brewing in Delmar has had a busy couple of months. The brewery recently hired Jon Talkington to be the new brewery manager and rolled out their spring Juice Box series of limited release beers.

The Juice Box series from 3rd Wave brewing really has taken off over the last year or so. It started with a regular, solid Berliner Weisse called Beach Juice. Beach Juice is tart, but not kill-ya tart, which is why I like it. I’m not huge into the sour beers, but this is just the right amount of sour. You still can taste the malt in the beer.

It was so popular that they spun off a series of beers using Beach Juice as a base.

Lori was on to talk about developing the beers and also to talk about their new brewery manager, Jon Talkington. Jon was a brewer at Dogfish Head for well over a decade and opened Brimming Horn Meadery in 2017. He’s also a great guy and has been on the show before.

This week, Doug and Tony cover putting together a homebrew competition and why they’re great for new brewers to participate in. The short version is that it’s the best way to get honest feedback about your beer from people who are trained to give it.

Mexican Lagers are going to be huge this summer. What are they?

This week Constellation Brands announced a major expansion. The makers of Corona in the U.S. and Modelo apparently think they’re going to sell a lot of beer. They might be right. Let’s take a look at this beer’s origin story.

What makes a Mexican-style lager?

Ska Brewing is responsible for introducing many of us to the idea of an American-brewed, Mexican-style lager (and for snapping up the genius woodchopping pun) with its popular Mexican Logger. It’s the brewery’s third-best selling beer, despite only being available during the summer.

Why we love brew pubs

I barely can shut up about how much I love brew pubs, but I really believe they are the future of neighborhood brewing. Rather than fighting for shelf space brewers can make the beer they want for people who love it. Obviously, lots of breweries have to distribute, and many, like Boston Beer Company, have to. But creating a culture around the brewery where you’re making the beer anyway just makes sense.

Boston Beer to Open Cincinnati Taproom | Brewbound.com

The maker of Samuel Adams is wading deeper into the taproom business. The Boston Beer Company — which makes and markets a variety of beer, cider and FMB products — today announced plans to open a 9,000 sq. ft. taproom just steps away from its current Cincinnati production facility.

Self-Distribution Conspiracy Theory

Do you think this is why distributors hate self-distribution? It would be pretty easy for partnerships among craft brewers to eventually take a chunk out of their dominance.

High Water Brewing Partners with Night Shift Distributing for Distribution in Massachusetts | Brewbound.com

STOCKTON, Calif. – High Water Brewing out of Northern California will now be distributing beer in Massachusetts after partnering with Night Shift Distributing. This latest addition to the distribution mix puts High Water in fourteen states across the country.

I also in the show promised to link to my story about an independent craft distributor. Here it is:

Craft breweries inspire craft-only distributor in Delaware

The writing had been on the wall for Premier Distributing for a little while before it closed, but once the official announcement was made, Marc Steiman faced a tough decision. Premier had been something of a niche distributor of beer and wine in northern Delaware, but Steiman was the engine that powered Sussex County holdings for the company.

#seaktheseal

We’re huge fans of what the Brewers Association is doing to help independent craft beer stand out. What’s exciting about this is that it can work pretty easily.

Seek the Seal: Show Us Your Instagram Photos

I bet this scenario sounds familiar: You walk into a brewery, order a beer,

Home brewing and craft beer culture news this week includes a Revelation Beer tasting, the best way to go from extract to all-grain brewing and whether we really need a 30-pack of craft beer.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit beerwithstrangers.substack.com

On this week's Homebrew and craft beer culture podcast Doug and Tony talk SMASH beers, rapid expansion, $11 six-packs and what makes American craft American.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit beerwithstrangers.substack.com

Last week's show failed to post (sorry guys!), but we have some great stories this week including how "craft' beer is saving big beer, Maryland's commitment to killing local beer and buying beer in the grocery store.

Show notes here.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit beerwithstrangers.substack.com

Shawn joins Tony Russo this week to share his beer thoughts ahead of Super Bowl 52.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit beerwithstrangers.substack.com