Rob and Charles join me to discuss all things beer in the area…

http://traffic.libsyn.com/beerstoyou/october2012-bty.mp3

I can’t speak for all of you but I am pretty sure at least a few of you are happy to see a new posting. You probably thought I was finally struck down by someone throwing a beer-bottle at me again while cycling. NAh, I have just been busy…

A lot of cool things have been taking place in the Charleston area beer community. Here is a run-down.

K.R.A.Z.E  is open for membership – The Kanawha Regional Association of Zymurgy Enthusiasts kicked off its membership drive and held its first official meeting a few weeks ago at Bruno’s. Membership is currently free (Donations accepted) and we now have 49 members. If you are interested in craft-beer or brewing this is THE local loose-collective of other like minded folks. Joining is as simple as joining via the K.R.A.Z.E Facebook (remember the periods) page and showing up at a meeting. We are holding meetings on the third Thursday of the month coinciding with ArtWalk. Further details available on the Facebook page.

Oktoberfest Beers Abound- Folks please get out there and help us drink-up all of the Festbier that is hogging the downtown tap-space! They are all pretty good but I am getting tired of them! Pies and Pints has Ayinger, Great Lakes, Widmer, Bridge Brew and so-on. Just about very decent beer-bar in town has one or two on tap. I really like the Ayinger and the Widmer. Sam Adams is pretty good this year as well. Great Lakes is good but a bit sweet for me.

Bramwell Oktoberfest This Weekend – Usually the event is held on the second Saturday of October but for some reason it was moved to the first weekend for the 2012 edition. Many of the KRAZE-ies will be there. Event Details Here

The Return of Blackwater Brewing – After many years of declining from their original mediocrity, the owners of Blackwater Brewing in Davis, WV have sold out. According to John Yevuta of Mid-Atlantic Brewing News, Lincoln Wilkins a PhD in Neuropharmacology and a former apprentice brewer at Abita has purchased the brewery and is currently brewing six beers. They are on the docket to be at Bramwell this weekend. I can’t wait to taste their brew!

This Saturday (September 22nd) starting at noon, Pie and Pints in Downtown Charleston will be tapping the kegs for it’s first Oktoberfest celebration. I am looking forward to the event and plan to be there promptly at noon in full Lederhosen and Trachten when PnP beer czar Ryan Heastings taps the first keg! Appetizers will $2.00 off until 3pm and the beer will run til it stops…

Ryan has forwarded me the stellar beer list…. (He’s getting pretty good at beer-porn)

Pints:

Ayinger Oktober Fest-Marzen, Aying, Germany:

Aromas of rich, smooth, nutty malt, with an underlying herbal hop note. Flavors of German dark bread and lightly toasted nuts, with a fairly crisp, slightly floral, finish.  5.8% abv $5.75 (No Pitchers)

Bridge Brew Works Oktoberfest, Fayetteville, WV:

Aromas of graham crackers and subtle floral hops.  Flavors of rich but balanced malt notes, with underlying continental hop flavor, before a crisp, clean finish.  5.8% $5/15

Flying Dog Dogtoberfest Marzen, Frederick, MD:

Complex Munich- and Vienna malt-derived aromas of bread, grain, and caramelized raisins.  Flavors of more malt, before a very pleasant floral hop-derived finish. 5.8% abv $5.5/15

Great Lakes Oktoberfest, Cleveland, OH:

Hints of rich bready continental malt and herbal Teutonic hops peak through in the aroma. Flavors of slightly roasted nuts and toffee, before a lightly floral, semi-sweet finish. 6.5% abv $5/15

Widmer Brothers Okto Festival Ale, Portland, OR:

Pleasant aromas of dark caramel and toasted bread. Flavors of toasted grains, ripe fruit, and pleasant, slightly floral finish. 5.3% abv $5.5/15

Not Oktoberfests, but Cool German Styles:

Bridge Brew Works Kolsch-style Ale, Fayetteville, WV:

Light aromas of warm cereal, with a subtle background herbal hop note. Pleasant flavors of bready malt and light bitterness, before a crisp, clean finish. 4.4% abv $5/15

Franziskaner Hefe-weissbier, Munich, Germany:

Yeast-derived aromatic notes of banana and clove.  Flavors of more spice and tropical fruit, with an underlying malt sweetness, and a refreshingly fruity finish. 5% abv $5/15

Bottles of Oktoberfest-bier and Other Cool Germanic Stuff:

Ayinger Ur-Weisse, Aying, Germany:

Banana and clove aromas.  On the palate, malt and yeast predominate, with a balance of fruit and bread-like yeast. The finish shows light fruit and clove. 5.8% abv. $6.5

Ayinger Brau-Weisse, Aying, Germany:

The aroma shows characters of banana, and a slight grain note. The palate shows the same, before a nice banana character.  The finish is quite dry and nicely fruity.  5.1% abv. $6.5

Great Lakes Eliot Ness Vienna Lager, Cleveland, OH:

Aromas of rich grain, slight raisin, and caramel. Flavors of the same, along with a subtle underlying grassy hop note, before a clean, malty, finish.  Certainly one of the classic examples of the style. 6.2% abv $4

Spaten Oktoberfest Ur-Marzen, Munich, Germany:

Aromas of floral hops, along with moderate raisin notes. Flavors of floral and spicy hops, along with pleasant, if mellow, notes of ripe fruit and toasted bread, before a nearly balanced finish. 5.9% $5.5

Widmer Brothers Marionberry Hibiscus Gose, Portland, OR:

Aromas of floral, spice, tart, and fruity notes.  Flavors that begin fruity and floral, before transitioning to a lightly piquant tartness and refreshing finish.  5.5% abv $5

Weihenstephaner Vitus Weizenbock, Freising, Germany:

Aromas of banana and clove, with a muted note of roasted nuts. Flavors of more yeast-derived fruit and spice, along with notes of fresh bread. 7.7% abv $6.5

Weihenstephaner Korbinian Doppelbock, Freising, Germany:

The aroma shows sweet, toasted caramel and nutty notes with earthy and sweet herbal accents. Flavors of sweet caramel and nutty notes again at the

http://traffic.libsyn.com/beerstoyou/sept2012-1.mp3

Here

Click Here to Listen!

Music stolen from:

Download Here if you like it!

Even though I try to stay up to date on new and upcoming breweries and even though I visit Quebec for business a few times a year, I was totally unaware of Belgh Brasse Brewery…

Belgh Brasse is a micro brewery based in Northern Quebec in the Abitibi region. After doing a little online research, I found out that they started in 1999 but went out of business only to be purchased by a Belgian trained Brewmaster named Jean-Louis Marcoux (with a little help from the Canadian Government by way of loans). They apparently kept the lights on by brewing a generic lager while developing their Belgian Style series called “Mons Beer”, named after a famous beer-city in Belgium. These days though, there seems to be something very corporate about the website and the way the beers are being presented. They are being imported by a large beverage company in Rochester called Geloso (HQ in Montreal). That coupled with the website has me wondering if they (Geloso) now have some control in the business. It appears that Geloso are involved in the manufacture and peddling of alco-pops and cheap wines etc. Mons Beers are a stand-out in the product mix.

Mons Beers were released to the US earlier this Spring and are now trickling in to the Charleston market via Proud Eagle. There are three beers; all are bottled in corked 750ml and are distinctly trying take on a Belgian flare. Mons Abbey Witte is a witbier style ale, Mons Abbey Blonde is just what it says, a blonde ale and Mons Abbey Dubbel is a darker ale reminiscent of most Belgian dubbel beers.

I have had the pleasure of tasting the Mons Abbey Witte while at Pies and Pints (Mons Beers are also available at your local beer retailer as well). The beer has fresh snap to it with a distinct vanilla/nutmeg character that I found delicious and different from many beer of the same style. This wasn’t the typical “over-coriandered” spice bomb and did show restraint. This makes it more pairable with a wider range of food in my opinion.

I am looking forward to trying the other two beers in the Mons range. I’ll report when I do in a comment to this post.

Sure, I like to write but reporting, well that’s a task best left to the pros. With that said I submit to you a report of my visit to last weekend’s Beer Blogger Conference held in Indianapolis. Charleston’s own Charles Bockway (www.craftbeerrestaurant.com) and I spent two and half days learning how to improve our craft while tasting lots of beer. This is the event’s third edition in the USA and my first. The Indiana Brewers Guild was instrumental in convincing the conference organizers to choose Indy; a great choice in retrospect.

The conference was held amidst Indianapolis Craft Beer Week so there was a center of gravity to pull in some good speakers, brewers and content. Bloggers were treated to a VIP ticket and vist to the Indiana Microbrews Festival and a pairing luncheon featuring craft beers from Leinenkugel’s craft division.

Here is a quick rundown of other events that I consider the highlights.

Keynotes – Julia Herz of the Brewers Association and Garrett Oliver of Brooklyn Brewing both spoke on where Bloggers fit into the Craft Beer info-space.

Monarch Beverage- Representatives from Indiana’s Miller-Coors wholesaler discussed their craft brands portfolio and there was also a discussion of the three tier system along with Dan Kopman co-founder of Schlafly Brewing. I must say I am now convinced (as are most craft brewers) that the three tier system must be preserved. The value-added and the investment required to properly distribute a brand is something small brewers would rather leave to the wholesaler tier. The only remaining sticking point are franchise issues that literally are harder to dissolve than a marriage in many states. We took a tour of the 500000 sq ft facility and climbed around on a 15 million dollar robotic loading system that handle the top 30 case products that Monarch distributes, none of which are craft beers.

Spiegelau Glass Demo- Spiegelau rep Mike Rutkowski and Brooklyn Brewmaster Garret Oliver conducted a telling and remarkable demonstration of how craft beer really can shine when served in the correct glassware of good quality. A direct empirical comparison of each Brooklyn beer in the correct Spiegelau glass versus the typical bar pint was indisputably favoring the Spiegelau glass in all cases.

Night of the Many Bottles- Bloggers were asked to bring along a few interesting beers from our region to show-off during a tasting session. Bottles were organized by region. Charles brought Bridge Brew Works Trubbel and Jackie O’s Sour Dark Apparitionand both received very good commentary.

Randy Mosher - It’s always great to hear someone as passionate as Randy reaffirm beer’s place in history. Randy is legendary beer writer, author and home brewer from Chicago.

Sun King Blogger Hospitality-  Our final event (post agenda) was to attend a hospitality lunch at Sun King Brewery’s awesome tasting room in downtown Indy. Locally made Charcuterie, bread and cheeses were laid out and the tasting taps were pouring. I was impressed by such a facility only after threes years of operation. Sun King also had an impressive display of GABF and World Beer Cup medals mainly for their Cream Ale. Sun King beers are only available in cans and kegs.

http://traffic.libsyn.com/beerstoyou/july2012.mp3

Music for this episode stolen from…

Available here…

http://www.amazon.com/The-Resistance-Muse/dp/B002GZQYMK/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1342123611&sr=8-4&keywords=uprising+muse

The Nation’s Capital was certainly not given any waivers when it came to bearing a bit of the brunt from the rare Derecho Windstorm that wreaked havoc on a big swath of America the Beautiful. DC residents like many of us were without power during oppressing record breaking heat.

DC area’s Port City Brewing Company must live by the philosophy that if life gives you lemons you make lemonade (or in their case, beer). Though the brewery was basically able to self generate enough power to keep all of their in process beer from ruination, some of the fermenting beer apparently suffered a slight temperature upset. Apparently 60 barrels of a lager style beer had suffered a slight over temperature to more like what is the normal temperature range for fermenting ale. The resulting beer was not what they were shooting for but not that bad either. the result-”Derecho Common Beer”, a beer with its beginning reminiscent of the California steam-beers of the San Francisco Gold Rush era where lager beers needed to be fermented at higher temperatures due to the warmer climates and lack of refrigeration (it was not yet invented).

Derecho Common Beer will only be available on tap in the DC area. There are only 120 kegs of the stuff, so get it while it’s hot… Pardon the pun.

Pies and Pints Downtown Charleston will be rolling out all beers “wheat” during the event billed as “Wits and Weizens at Pies” next Saturday from noon to 4pm. Six of the seven taps will be pouring wheat bases ales, with a special on draft appearance of Weihenstephaner’s Vitus wheat bock. The event will also double as a special release of Widmer’s Marionberry Hibiscus Gose, a wheat ale that is based on a recently emerging style of spontaneously fermented beer first brewed in Leipzig Germany. The seventh tap will be pouring Bridge Brew Works latest summer release “Kolsch”, a light crisp ale that contains a minimal (10%) of wheat.

The main styles represented will be Belgian style white ales (Witbier) and Bavarian style wheat ales (Hefeweizen and Kristalweizen). All of these styles enjoy a wide acceptance among folks who do not consider themselves beer lovers. They are very tasty and easy to drink. “I think this is the most (perhaps in addition to “Support Your Local Saturday”) approachable event we’ve done so far, and it would be great to pull in some BMC drinkers to illustrate to them that there is a whole world of out there that isn’t high in alcohol, hoppy, or “dark.” comments PnP’s Beer Czar Ryan Heastings.