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Light beer?

Posted: April 29th, 2011, 3:56pm CEST by Al

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Matt’s Big Announcement

Posted: April 28th, 2011, 6:29am CEST by Matt

I have an announcement to make, and it directly affects all of our readers. So….

Okay, so it might not be the royal wedding, but I do want to clue our readers into some changes with the web’s best comic strip, “Beef ‘n Beer,” namely, the name. I am changing the title of my comic strip “Beef ‘n Beer” to properly reflect the direction my characters have been taking for the last six months. As I myself have settled into married life and fatherhood, so have the characters of “Beef ‘n Beer.” Also, when I began the cartoon, my wife Alisa and I didn’t know what kind of baby we were going to have, so I guessed. I guessed wrong. Lilly has been our fictional child up until now, but in real life we had a boy, and his name is Lucio. Therefore, not only am I changing the title of the comic strip to HOMEBROOD, I am also changing Lilly to Lucio. I figure if I am going to make fun of a baby, it should be mine.

So don’t be confused at the new title, HOMEBROOD, and don’t think you’ve had too many beers when you see the baby is in blue onesies, even though you probably have. Say hello to Lucio, but don’t say goodbye to the same beer humor you’ve been used to.

Frederick Beer Week Events

Posted: April 26th, 2011, 5:02pm CEST by Al

Frederick Beer Week is fast approaching. As you may have heard on episode 2 of our nascent podcast, there are five days/nights worth of events planned. Some require that you book ahead of time, so don’t delay. (The Brew Fest in particular is expected to sell out.)

Sadly, the laws of physics prevent me from attending all the events being as they are the same time in different places, but I’m going to attend as many as I can.

Here’s the list of events with information updated as of today:

Tuesday, May 10

Flying Dog Kick-Off with Chef Bryan Voltaggio

VOLT Restaurant in downtown Frederick, Maryland
6 to 9 pm
$45 per person, includes 4 beer samples and small-plate pairings
Reservation through VOLT required

Battle of the Bubbles Homebrew Competition Judging

Barley and Hops in Frederick, Maryland
7:30 pm
$5 per person

Heavy Seas Loose Cannon Cask Night

Bushwaller’s Irish Pub in downtown Frederick, Maryland
6 to 8 pm
Free Heavy Seas pint glass with your first beer!

Wednesday, May 11

Beer Judging Certification Program Tasting Class

Location: TBD
Time: TBD

Cocktail Beer Pairings

Brewer’s Alley in downtown Frederick, Maryland
Time: 7:30
Price: TBD

Enjoy cocktail-style beer pairings with locally-sourced food from Dorsey’s Meats, Palmyra Cheese, and The Perfect Truffle

Thursday, May 12

Alive @ Five Happy Hour

Carroll Creek Amphitheater in downtown Frederick, Maryland
5 to 8 pm
$5 cover, featuring Brewer’s Alley beer (added cost)

Heavy Seas Firkin Night

Mt. Airy Inn in Mt. Airy, Maryland
Time: 6 to 8 pm
Free Heavy Seas pint glass with your first beer!

Alive @ Five After-Party with Flying Dog

Greene Turtle in downtown Frederick, Maryland
7 pm to close
Flying Dog on draft and on cask
Featuring an in-bar scavenger hunt with prizes

Friday, May 13

Flying Dog Sampling

Ye Old Spirit Shop
5 to 7 pm

Frederick Tap Takeover

Bushwaller’s Irish Pub in downtown Frederick, Maryland
5 pm to close
Only Flying Dog, Brewer’s Alley, Barley and Hops, and Heavy Seas beer on tap!

Friday the FIRKteenth

Hollow Creek Golf Club in Middletown, Maryland
6 pm to close
Heavy Seas firkin and live music from Paul Pfau

Saturday, May 14

Beer Brunch

Mt. Airy Inn in Mt. Airy, Maryland
11 am to 2 pm

FBW Brew Fest

Stillpoint Farm in Mt. Airy, Maryland
Noon to 6 pm

Admission: $20 for 21+ (includes 4 beer tokens), $10 for designated drivers and 21-, Children under 13 free
Beer from Flying Dog, Brewer’s Alley, Barley and Hops, and Heavy Seas
Featuring live music by The Jug Band, The Polka Dots, and The Fieldhands; artisanal vendors; food; hay rides and more.

Proceeds benefit HandsOnFrederick.

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Davidson Brothers – Business must be Good

Posted: April 24th, 2011, 12:44pm CEST by Ron

Bill Dowd reported that Davidson Brothers brewpub headed for a fixup. This tells me that business must be good, which is a great thing for them, the city of Glens Falls, and us. Davidson’s has always been a favorite of mine for the beer and atmosphere. The city has put a good deal of effort into beautifying the streets and last fall I enjoyed a great evening meal out on their street side dining. As great as it was, I did note that while the streets have been improved, little has been done to the restaurant itself over the years.

Co-owner Rick Davidson says the project is ready to begin, with a $450,000 budget, once approvals are received for the exterior and interior spruce-up of the 15-year-old business. The plans call for replacing the wood facade on the front and side of the building with brick, repairing and painting existing brickwork, new windows and signage. Inside, new heating/air-conditioning and basement prep kitchen, and various touchups.

I hope it works out and I can’t wait to see the improvements. (perhaps I’ll bring the entire Hop-Talk crew at Oktoberfest!)

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Get ‘Em Started Young

Posted: April 23rd, 2011, 9:05pm CEST by Matt

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Hop Talk Podcast #2 – The other Kevin Smith

Posted: April 23rd, 2011, 12:15am CEST by Al

Enclosure: [download]

What?! We did it again?

Yeah. Sorry. Well, not really. We had a great time. We might be getting the hang of this.

Download it here: Hop Talk Podcast ep. 2

…or subscribe with iTunes

Show notes: Frederick Beer Week:

May 10-14, 2011 in and around Frederick, Maryland

For a complete list of events, visit frederickbeer.com (@fredbeerwk on Twitter, Frederick Beer Week on Facebook)

“Battle of the Bubbles”, the official homebrewing competition of Frederick Beer Week. For more information: bob.brewcompetition.com (Hurry! Entries must be submitted by April 30)

We talked to Kevin Smith, beer journalist and driving force behind Frederick Beer Week

Kevin covers Maryland for Mid-Atlantic Brewing News as well as a craft beer column for the Frederick based want2dish.com.

Companies/products mentioned in the podcast:

Flying Dog Brewing
Brewer’s Alley
Barley and Hops
Volt and Bryan Voltaggio
DuClaw
Heavy Seas
Stillpoint Farm
Distillery Lane Ciderworks
Orchid Cellar

What we drank:

Ron: Lagunitas Brown Shugga
Max: McSorley’s Irish Black Lager
Don: Sierra Nevada Torpedo
Al: Flying Dog Raging Bitch
Special guest, Kevin Smith: Flying Dog Snake Dog IPA

Spot a discrepancy? Something missing? Let us know. contact@hop-talk.com

Follow us on Twitter: @hoptalk and @hoptalkron

Charlie Bamforth on Mashing

Posted: April 22nd, 2011, 2:35pm CEST by Al

I dabble in homebrewing, and the chemistry of brewing is very much a mystery to me.

However, the latest BeerSmith podcast (#14) has Dr. Charlie Bamforth going into some detail about what the enzymes are actually doing during the mash.

And it’s fascinating.

Dr. Bamforth is the Professor of Brewing Science at U.C. Davis, a chair that is endowed by Anheuser-Busch, and I think I could listen to this guy all day.

If you’re a homebrewer, or even remotely interested in how grain turns into this lovely concoction, give it a listen.

Mashing with Dr Charlie Bamforth – BeerSmith Podcast #14

Hop Stoopid

Posted: April 18th, 2011, 5:34pm CEST by Al

I don’t get to buy bombers very often, so beers sold in only the 22 ounce packaging I often miss out on. Not so this time.

It’s taken me a while to get around to having this. (So busy. But, not your problem.) My wonderful wife actually found it for me in a wine store.

They say:

For those mornings when you have to cut right to the chase, this is the one. Sure to blast through just about anything still lingering from the night before, this mouthful of Hops and huge rich Malt has a gaurantee[sic] built right into the name!

I say:

Golden in color with orange highlights, off-white head. I get a little bit of pineapple and apricot in the aroma. For 102 IBUs it’s not nearly as much of a tongue-stripper as I expected. How does one balance something like this?

I will gladly have this again.

Lagunitas Hop Stoopid Ale

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Henry Weinhard’s IPA

Posted: April 14th, 2011, 1:58pm CEST by Ron

Henry Weinhard’s IPA, available April 1, 2011, is going to be a year-round beer added to their family of brews. It pours a copper penny in color with an abundant creamy head. Pleasantly hopped, lightly sweet with a mild body behind it makes this IPA go down easy.

The beer is a session IPA. At 6% ABV, it borders on “session” status, but from an IBU (43 to be exact) and drinkability standpoint, this a great session IPA. The hop bitterness is pleasant and won’t leave you waking up the next morning questioning that “I’ll have just one more” decision you made.

It is brewed with a blend of two-row and Caramel malts along with a blend of three different hops – Galena, Cascade and Citra, all from the Pacific Northwest.

Henry Weinhard’s IPA out of Hood River, Oregon, is in a limited distribution, available in Washington, Oregon and Alaska.

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Top 50 U.S. Brewing Companies – 2010

Posted: April 14th, 2011, 3:22am CEST by Al

Top 50 U.S. Brewing Companies – 2010 originally appeared on Hop Talk.

The Brewers Association just released their list of the top Brewers and Craft Brewers.

Below is the list of Top 50 Brewing Companies (based on volume):

Anheuser-Busch Inc. – St. Louis MO
MillerCoors Brewing Co. – Chicago IL
Pabst – Woodbridge IL
D. G. Yuengling and Son Inc. – Pottsville PA
Boston Beer Co. – Boston MA
Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. – Chico CA
New Belgium Brewing Co. – Fort Collins CO
North American Breweries* – Rochester NY
Craft Brewers Alliance, Inc.* – Portland OR
Spoetzl Brewery* – Shiner TX
Deschutes Brewery – Bend OR
Independent Brewers United (IBU)* – Burlington VT
Matt Brewing Co. – Utica NY
Minhas Craft Brewery – Monroe WI
Bell’s Brewery, Inc. – Galesburg MI
Harpoon Brewery – Boston MA
Boulevard Brewing Co. – Kansas City MO
Goose Island Beer Co. – Chicago IL
Dogfish Head Craft Brewery – Milton DE
Alaskan Brewing and Bottling Co. – Juneau AK
Long Trail Brewing Co. – Bridgewater Corners VT
August Schell Brewing Co. – New Ulm MN
Stone Brewing Co. – Escondido CA
Abita Brewing Co. – Abita Springs LA
Brooklyn Brewery – Brooklyn NY
Lagunitas Brewing Co. – Petaluma CA
Full Sail Brewing Co. – Hood River OR
Shipyard Brewing Co. – Portland ME
Summit Brewing Co. – St Paul MN
New Glarus Brewing Co. – New Glarus WI
Great Lakes Brewing Co. – Cleveland OH
Anchor Brewing Co. – San Francisco CA
Iron City Brewing Co. – Pittsburgh PA
Kona Brewery LLC* – Kailua-Kona HI
Rogue Ales – Newport OR
Firestone Walker Brewing Co. – Paso Robles CA
Winery Exchange Inc. / World Brews – Novato CA
Sweetwater Brewing Co. - Atlanta GA
Mendocino Brewing Co. – Ukiah CA
Flying Dog Brewery – Frederick MD
Victory Brewing Co. – Downingtown PA
Gordon Biersch Brewing Co. – San Jose CA
BJ’s Chicago Pizza & Brewery, Inc. – Huntington Beach CA
Stevens Point Brewery Co. – Stevens Point WI
Odell Brewing Co. – Fort Collins CO
BridgePort Brewing Co.* – Portland OR
Cold Spring Brewing Co. – Cold Spring MN
Rock Bottom Brewery – Louisville CO
Oskar Blues Brewery – Longmont CO
Straub Brewery – Saint Marys PA

*Top 50 Brewing Companies notes: NAB includes IBU August-December; CBA includes Kona October-December; Spoetzl is part of Gambrinus Company; and IBU is January-August only (sale to NAB); Kona is January-September only (sale to CBA); BridgePort is part of Gambrinus Company. Flavored malt beverages are not considered beer for the Top 50 rankings.

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Hop Talk Podcast episode 1

Posted: April 12th, 2011, 4:21am CEST by Al

Hop Talk Podcast #1 – I laughed, I cried… originally appeared on Hop Talk.

(fixed link to file)

Ummm…what?!

So, after one too many get-togethers where the four of us sit around and talk about beer and everything else, have a great time, and somebody says “we should be recording this”…well, this time we did it.

It’s rough. Very rough. Very, very rough. But that’s mostly by design. It is really us just talking, although we did pick a few recent beer news items to kick around just so it wasn’t a total ramble.

We had a lot of fun. So much so, we’re going to do it again. (There. You’ve been warned.)

I hope you enjoy it. If you do, or even if you didn’t, drop us a line.

Download it here: Hop Talk Podcast ep. 1

…or subscribe with iTunes

News:

Anheuser-Busch InBev acquires Chicago-based Goose Island.

Anthony Bourdain alleges that the “Brew Masters” series on the Discovery channel was cancelled due to pressure from big brewers. Discovery’s position is that the show didn’t find an audience, so was cancelled.

Brewers Association: Craft Beer sales were up by 11% in 2010 (by volume). Up by 12% by dollars.

Brewers Association Reports 11 Percent Volume Growth for U.S. Craft Brewers in 2010

Listener mail:

Cathy from Scotland wants to know where to find Old Speckled Hen on draught in Edinburgh. Do you know? Drop us a line: [hop-talk.com]

What we drank:

Ron: India Pale Ale from Henry Weinhard’s
Max: Midas Touch from Dogfish Head
Don: Storm King Imperial Stout from Victory Brewing Company
Al: Old Man Winter Ale from Southern Tier Brewing Company

(The Unofficial Hop Talk Beer Rating System)

Related Posts:

On tap

Posted: April 8th, 2011, 1:30pm CEST by Al

On tap originally appeared on Hop Talk.

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Untappd

Posted: April 4th, 2011, 2:12pm CEST by Al

Untappd originally appeared on Hop Talk.

I’ve been playing a bit with Gowalla and Foursquare, a couple of services that let you use your smartphone to “check in” to the places you go and meet up with your friends. They each, to different degrees, make a game of it. Foursquare gives you points and you can become “Mayor” of places you go to frequently. Gowalla give you pins for places you visit, lets you find and collect objects, and more.

Anyway, it didn’t take long after starting with these that it occurred to me that it would be cooler if I could, instead of places, check in with whatever beer I’m drinking. There are apparently such apps in existence. One such is Beer Garden (iPhone only). Another such is Untappd.

The mechanics to Untappd are similar to other check-in services. You have a “Friends” list where your alerts go to and come from. There’s “The Pub” where you can see a stream of the latest activity. As you check in to different beers you earn badges, such as “Winter Wonderland” (have five different Winter Warmers). There’s “trending beers”, both for micro and macro beers as well as “trending places”.

As with other Social apps, you get out of it what you put in. It’s interesting to see what other people are drinking and what the most popular beers are at a given time. Recently added: Recommendations, based on your favorite styles and what your friends are drinking.

Untappd is a web app, so it will work (they claim) on Android, iPhone, Blackberry, and Palm. (It works fine on my Droid.) Of course, this means you need to have a network connection in order to use it. They also offer connections to auto-post your Untappd status to Facebook, Twitter, and Foursquare. In an interesting twist, you can not update your beer status more often than ~~fifteen~~ ten minutes. (Update: They’ve changed the cooldown to ten minutes.)

I have only ~~two~~ one significant complaints, and ~~they’re~~ it’s related to their decision to make the app a web-only app. [See below] They don’t allow you to check into beers if you visit untappd.com with your desktop web browser. I spend a lot of time working at my desk and enjoying a beer while I do so (I write a beer blog, after all); I would prefer to not dig out my device just to “check in” to a beer I’m drinking.

(Greg Avola, one of the co-founders of Untappd, informs me that one can indeed check in to a beer from a desktop browser. Wooty-woot!)

My other complaint is with their “report” functionality. You can report a beer or brewery with incorrect information in order to get it fixed. Unfortunately, you can’t do that with a desktop browser either and, at least on my Droid, the drop-down menu to choose the reason for the report just does not function correctly.

Other than that, I’m having a blast sharing my beer choices in the moment. If you’d like to “friend” me in Untappd my username is al-at-hoptalk although you might be better off searching for “Al E”. If you already follow Hop Talk on Twitter (@hoptalk) or Facebook (facebook.com/hoptalk) you should be able to use the import tools Untappd offers to find me. I’d love to see what you’re drinking.

Related Posts:

Spring Shopping

Posted: April 2nd, 2011, 9:44am CEST by Matt

Spring Shopping originally appeared on Hop Talk.

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Beer belly

Posted: April 1st, 2011, 3:57pm CEST by Al

Beer belly originally appeared on Hop Talk.

Words fail me.

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Beer news sampler

Posted: April 1st, 2011, 1:54am CEST by Al

Beer news sampler originally appeared on Hop Talk.

A six-pack of beer news items that caught our eye.

A-B InBev takes controlling stake in Goose Island
Not much of a surprise, really. They’d already owned a pretty large chunk of it.

Local businesses not happy with A-B InBev’s new acquisition
Craft brew fans can be a passionate, opinionated bunch.

A-B InBev CEO Carlos Brito named one of the best 30 CEOs
I have a feeling that making good beer was not one of Barron’s criteria. “Cost-cutting” comes to mind.

Discovery show Brewmasters cancelled. Rumor says it was pressure from the big brewers.
So says Anthony Bourdain, anyway.

Flying Dog sues Michigan Liquor Control Commission
This isn’t the first time Flying Dog has had a First Amendment tousle with a government entity. This time it’s over their 20th Anniversary beer: Raging Bitch. (Which happens to be their best-seller and a personal favorite.)

Automated home brewery in a laundry room
Want!

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NanoBryg rss syndication » Hop Talk » April 2011

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Hop Talk (16 unread)

Light beer?

Posted: April 29th, 2011, 3:56pm CEST by Al

Matt’s Big Announcement

Posted: April 28th, 2011, 6:29am CEST by Matt

Frederick Beer Week Events

Posted: April 26th, 2011, 5:02pm CEST by Al

Davidson Brothers – Business must be Good

Posted: April 24th, 2011, 12:44pm CEST by Ron

Get ‘Em Started Young

Posted: April 23rd, 2011, 9:05pm CEST by Matt

Hop Talk Podcast #2 – The other Kevin Smith

Posted: April 23rd, 2011, 12:15am CEST by Al

Enclosure: [download]

Charlie Bamforth on Mashing

Posted: April 22nd, 2011, 2:35pm CEST by Al

Hop Stoopid

Posted: April 18th, 2011, 5:34pm CEST by Al

Henry Weinhard’s IPA

Posted: April 14th, 2011, 1:58pm CEST by Ron

Top 50 U.S. Brewing Companies – 2010

Posted: April 14th, 2011, 3:22am CEST by Al

Hop Talk Podcast episode 1

Posted: April 12th, 2011, 4:21am CEST by Al

On tap

Posted: April 8th, 2011, 1:30pm CEST by Al

Untappd

Posted: April 4th, 2011, 2:12pm CEST by Al

Spring Shopping

Posted: April 2nd, 2011, 9:44am CEST by Matt

Beer belly

Posted: April 1st, 2011, 3:57pm CEST by Al

Beer news sampler

Posted: April 1st, 2011, 1:54am CEST by Al