The friends and family at the Spoetzl Brewery in Shiner, Texas, obviously know how to celebrate 100 years of brewing beer.
A message from brewmaster Jimmy Mauric promises if you email you celebratory wishes they’ll post your message the brewery break room.
– Pennsylvanian Dale Van Wieren has recorded every beer he’s drank since 1971 and tomorrow he’ll knock back No. 10,000. Don Russell has the story.
– Yule Beer Blog Photo Contest returns. You’d already know this if you were reading Beer for the Holidays.
– A six-pack of holiday beer suggestions: Samuel Adams Holiday Porter, Rogue Santa’s Private Reserve, Goose Island Christmas Ale, Stoudt’s Winter Ale, Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale and Alaskan Winter Ale.
– Women of Craft Beer: A Quick List. Pioneers, brewers, advocates and more.
– How do you know beer’s hip? They’re loving it in Hollywood and the rest of Los Angeles.
– Looking ahead. Deschutes Jubel will be back in February. From the press release: “This ‘Super Jubel’ was discovered by accident two decades ago when a clumsy burglar didn’t realize the weight of his stolen keg of Jubelale. He dropped it outside to freeze in the season’s sub-zero temperatures – only to be discovered the next morning by Gary Fish, Deschutes Brewery owner. More than half the liquid in the keg had frozen and the remaining beer was a very cold, highly concentrated ‘Jubelale on steroids.’ It was so good that the brewers set about recreating it, coming up with an annual ‘Super Jubel’ that is aged in oak barrels. A limited amount has been available on tap every year, 2010 will be only the second time that the brewery has bottled up this brew for sale. The first time it was available by bottle was a special millennium edition in 2000.”
– MillerCoors has launched GreatBeerGreatResponsibility.com, a “consumer website designed to educate consumers about its corporate social responsibility initiatives.”
A blackened bottle of beer found in the wreck of the Hindenburg zeppelin is expected to fetch thousands of pounds at auction, according to the BBC.
The bottle was found by a fire-fighter cleaning up the American airfield where the German airship exploded in 1937. The bottle will be the most expensive ever bought if it meets its estimated price of £5,000 ($8,337) on Saturday.
The airship was engulfed by flames as it landed in New Jersey, killing 38 people and injuring 60. New Jersey firefighter Leroy Smith found six bottles of Lowenbrau beer and a pitcher intact on the scene of the crash.
He buried his secret find so he could collect them later, as the area had been sealed off by the authorities.
Mr Smith gave the other five bottles to his colleagues.
Most of the others are now lost, although one was given to the Lowenbrau company after the death of Mr Smith’s friend.
The silver-plated pitcher, which bears the logo of the Deutsche Zeppelin Reedrei, the zeppelin airline company, is expected to reach £12,000 ($20,000).
More than 70 years later the bottle won’t attract that sort of price for what’s inside.
“You wouldn’t want to drink it – it is probably quite putrid to taste,” auctioneer Andrew Aldridge said.
American craft brewing pioneer Greg Noonan, 58, died Sunday in his home after a brief battle with cancer.
Noonan opened Vermont’s first brewpub in 1988 and two others after that but his influence was national. His 1986 book Brewing Lager Beer: The Most Comprehensive Book for Home- and Microbreweries
became something of a guidebook for those opening small breweries in the 1980s and ’90s. He Later wrote Scotch Ale in 1990 and Seven Barrel Brewery Brewers’ Handbook: A Pragmatic Guide to Home Brewing in 1996, then updated Brewing Lager Beer in 2003.
Like many who would soon be commercial brewers Noonan started out making beer as a hobby at home. He was working as a manufacturing manager for paper and wood products companies in Massachusetts when news of microbreweries opening on the West Coast inspired him to go pro.
“I specifically sited my brewery in Burlington because it’s where I wanted to live. I admired the politics in Vermont,” he said. He spent three years lobbying the Vermont legislature to legalize brewpubs.
“That first year, it was a real sell,” he said 10 years after opening in the pub. “There was no built-in awareness of what a brewpub was. (Consumers) would look at you and think ‘You are a brewery, you must make Budweiser.’ There was no style awareness.”
His local impact was obvious. For instance, John Kimmich, who later started the award winning The Alchemist brewpub in nearby Waterbury, sought out Noonan to learn the trade. Kimmich waited tables and eventually became head brewer at Vermont Pub & Brewery.
“Greg is a major reason that The Alchemist is a success,” Kimmich says. “He’s been a wonderful mentor. He’s got the blending of the chemistry knowledge with the esoteric side of things.”
Like many other brewers, commercial and amateur, Kimmich said he still has a dog-eared copy of Brewing Lager Beer in his brewery. His book was the start of Brewers Publications, the publishing wing of the Brewers Association.
That book was quite a legacy to leave behind but Noonan left much more.
This call to help the breweries of Wisconsin comes from Support Your Local Brewery:
Hello Beer Enthusiasts,
Tomorrow, Tuesday October 13th, at 10 a.m. there is a committee hearing scheduled at the State Capitol regarding Assembly Bill 287, that would raise the tax on all beer produced in Wisconsin.
The position of the Wisconsin Brewers Guild is to stiffly oppose this bill from becoming law. The bill would raise the tax on breweries under 50,000 barrels of production from $1.00 to $10.00 per barrels. The proponents for this bill have argued that this is a small amount and that the tax has not been raised since 1969.
What they have not chosen to report is that Wisconsin ranks in the top 5 in our country with a total tax impact of over 40% of the cost of beer going to one tax or another. They also report that the average (so they call us) beer consumer would not mind having the price of beer go up and that this is easily supported by residents of Wisconsin. I guess you are not average citizens as I have yet to meet a beer enthusiast that is favorable of seeing their beer go up in price.
Although this would be a “production” tax, the reality is that, because all beer must be sold through a 3 tier system, the cost would be successively marked up by the distributor and the retailer. The impact of this tax will likely result in an increase of .50 cents a glass or $2.00 per case on every brand of beer.
Additionally, the State has collected nearly 400 million dollars over the last 40 years and has yet to allocate monies to the initiatives that would be funded with this additional revenue (law enforcement grants and alcohol abuse prevention and treatment programs). Why not, I would like to know. Now they are pursuing taxing all of us to support new spending of unproven programs, during the worst recession of our life time. This is a bad idea.
We need to stop this now. If you wish to take action on this, please reference the links below and do the following:
Contact your Representative and express your point of view – they will appreciate it.
Tell your friends that are not on this list.
Attend the hearing tomorrow at 10:00 AM (see below). Plan to arrive early and register your point of view.
Cheers!
Carl Nolen
President
Capital Brewery
Wisconsin Brewers Guild
To find your Representative Visit:
http://www.legis.wisconsin.gov/w3asp/waml/waml.aspx
This month for every case of Samuel Adams Boston Lager sold in Massachusetts and Rhode Island 50 cents will go towards Samuel Adams Brewing the American Dream, a philanthropic program created last year by The Boston Beer Company to provide financial support and services to low and moderate income entrepreneurs in the food and beverage industry.
When Boston Beer founder Jim Koch sent a letter to distributors in Massachusetts and Rhode Island in September about plans for the brewery to contribute 25 cents from each case sold to the program he didn’t expect was that all six distributors in Massachusetts and Rhode Island would offer to match his donation. But they did, increasing the contribution to 50 cents per case of Boston Lager sold in both states.
In June 2008, The Boston Beer Company partnered with ACCION USA, the country’s leading not-for-profit micro-lending organization, to launch Brewing the American Dream. The program has provided loans to 31 food & beverage entrepreneurs in New England, saving or creating more than 240 jobs.
Earlier this year, The Boston Beer Company brewed a special beer, Samuel Adams Boston Brick Red, available on draft and only at bars and restaurants in the Boston area. For each keg of Boston Brick Red enjoyed throughout the city, the brewer made a donation of $4.
“The effort with Boston Brick Red has gone very well; we’ve raised nearly $10,000 for the program, and it’s been a great way for beer drinkers to join with us to support these individuals looking to realize their business dream,” Koch said. “So, we started looking for ways to expand that effort. We’re hopeful that the donation made through sales of Samuel Adams Boston Lager in October will lead to funding many more loans.”
Homebrewer Ben Miller (center) thought he was having a pretty good day Saturday when he found out his beer was one of three big winners in Samuel Adams LongShot homebrew contests. But it was about to get better.
Little more than two hours after the New Mexico homebrewer closed his eyes and sighed when he heard Samuel Adams founder Jim Koch announce his barley wine would be one of three beers sold next year in the LongShot variety pack he heard his name again. He and Jeff Erway of Chama River Brewing in Albuquerque captured the gold medal in the Great American Beer Festival Pro-Am competition for Herbal Joe’s Columbarillo IPA.
This is the fourth year for the Pro-Am competition, and Erway had a beer reach the final table of the first one in 2006. Then he was the “am” portion of the team, brewing his entry at Blue Corn Cafe & Brewery in Santa Fe along with Daniel Jaramillo.
The LongShot package will include Miller’s barley wine, an old ale from Michael Robinson of New Hampshire and a saison spiced with pepper created by Jeremy White, who won the Samuel Adams employee competition.
Miller and Robinson first won regional competitions — entered by 1,300 homebrewers nationally — to advance to the finals, which were judged blind by panel that includes Koch. He gets only one vote.
Remembering the barley wine he said, “There is a lot of fermentation complexity that consumed the alcohol.”
The winners will travel to Boston later this year to help brew the beers that will be released next spring in the 2010 LongShot package.
Now in its third year, Reunion – A Beer for Hope has welcomed four regional breweries as production partners for 2009. Bison Brewing, headquartered in Berkeley returns for its third year. Joining Bison are Terrapin Brewing in Georgia,
Pizza Port Brewing in Southern California, and Elysian Brewing in Seattle.
The original idea behind the Reunion beer is a colleague of Pete Slosberg, founder of Pete’s Wicked Ales, and Alan Shapiro, a former employee of Pete’s (and who now owns SBS Imports), developed a type of cancer known as Myeloma that affects the bones. Pete and Alan, along with Dan Del Grande of Bison Brewing, created a special beer to help riase money for The Institute for Myeloma & Bone Cancer Research . Sadly, Virginia MacLean passed away in June of 2007, but the search for a cure goes on, as does the Reunion beer project.
The 2009 Reunion beer is a Double Wheat Ale with a hint of lemon, based on the original Pete’s Wicked Summer Brew. The recipe for this year’s brew was conceived by Pete Slosberg and Brian “Spike” Buckowski of Terrapin. Each brewer has adapted that recipe to meet the requirements of their production facility and place their individual stamp on the beer. It is available in draft only.
Bison President and brewer Dan Del Grande describes their version of Reunion as hazy golden with a pronounced citrus nose. Fruit and subtle spice notes dominate the pallet, with a rich, soft finish. It is brewed with Pale Malt Torrified Wheat, Accidulated Malt, Weyerman Wheat and Great Western White Wheat. It is bittered with Sorachi Ace hops and spiced with orange peel, lemon grass, rhubarb root and coriander. The beer is 7.2% a.b.v.
“I am thrilled to have Bison return as a brewing and fundraising partner for 2009,” noted Reunion co-founder Alan Shapiro. “Since we created this project in 2007 they have been an enthusiastic partner and I look forward to tasting another fantastic Bison beer.”
“As in the past two years, Pete’s original recipes inspired me to brew some exceptional beers in tribute to Virginia and all those who battle cancer. It is my pleasure and honor to add in this small way to the cause.” added Del Grande.
Reunion Double Wheat Ale will be sold at on draft only at approximately 15 pubs and bars in the Bay Area. Bison will be making a donation to IMBCR for every keg sold. As these locations are confirmed they will be posted online.
For additional information on Reunion-A Beer for Hope please visit the Reunion website.
Oregon Bounty, which promotes travel to Oregon and specifically its local food and beverages, is sponsoring a very cool contest. They’re offering seven “cuisinternships” to local artisan businesses. You can be an intern chef, cheesemaker/choclatier, distiller, fisherman, rancher, winemaker, or — the coolest of the seven — craft brewer. Winners get an all-expenses paid trip to Oregon which includes round-trip airfare, six-nights lodging, and $1,000 cash spending money. You’ll then intern for five days.
You can enter online with a two-minute video and/or your 140-character essay on why you deserve to win an Oregon Bounty Cuisinternship. That’s basically a twitter post; a tweet. The deadline to enter is coming up; it’s Friday September 18. There’s also an FAQ if you have any questions about the contest.
The brewery Cuisinternship is with Jamie Emmerson at Full Sail Brewing in Hood River, Oregon. I’ve known Jamie for a long time now, and he and the staff of Full Sail couldn’t be nicer people. Plus, Hood River is an absolutely gorgeous part of the world.
Here’s a sample of what you’ll be doing if you win: Tour the Great Western Malting and Hop Farm, learn about mashing and the mash tun, learn about sparging and the lauter tun, understand the spice of the beer and the contributions of the hops and kettle, pitch the yeast (the magic ingredient), look under the microscope in the lab, partake in bottling at 500 beers per minute, fill kegs, and — most importantly — taste the rewards of your hard work. Whew, that doesn’t sound too bad, does it?
Here’s how the website describes it:
Along the shores of the mighty Columbia River Gorge, get a week-long lesson from some of the country’s craft brewing pioneers. From the hop farm to the mash tun to the microscope, you’ll feel, smell and taste beer from beginning to end. If you can tear yourself away from the tasting table, explore the charming town of Hood River, unofficial U.S. capitol of windsurfing, beer drinking and hanging out.
I’ve also been asked to judge the submissions and help pick the winner, so be sure to answer the question. “Why do you deserve to win?”
This may be hard for some of you to believe, but sometimes there’s more to a beer festival than just the beer. I return to the Oregon Brewer’s Festival every year. The beers change and there’s plenty of great (and some not-so-great) brews to dissect and discuss. But in a town as big and beery as Portland why limit yourself to a few acres of Willamette River bank for the entire time? With a little digging I discovered an impressive list of fun peripheral events open to beer lovers during the festival week.
This year, during the Oregon Brewer’s Festival week, I attended several beer-themed meals, marched in a beer parade, tasted a mind boggling number of craft beers, and attended my first-ever beer-themed golf tournament … the 5th Annual Sasquatch BrewAm. That barely scratched the surface of what was available.
The evening before the Oregon Brewer’s Festival opened I attended the Annual Brewer’s Dinner at Tom McCall Park. There the general public (that had the forethought to buy a ticket) can rub elbows with brewers, founders, and writers of microbrew legend.
The food (choice of pork or salmon dinner) was pretty good. The beer selection, 26 beers provided by Northwest breweries (many of which were not available at the festival) was stellar. The most memorable was 10 Barrel’s Sinister Black Ale. Why? After trying over half of what was available, I’m not sure if it was the name or the taste that burned it into my top-of-mind-awareness. I believe I was impressed by both. Proceeds from the dinner go to the Oregon Brewer’s Guild. If you plan to attend, buy your tickets 3-4 months ahead of time.
Opening day of the Oregon Brewer’s Festival begins with a big brunch (which, like the brewers dinner the night before, sells out every year.). Full Sail’s Brew Crew was leading the parade that kicked off the 22nd Oregon Brewer’s Festival so this year the brunch was held at Full Sail’s downtown tasting room and McCormick & Schmick’s Harborside Restaurant at 307 SW Montgomery which is just a hop-skip-jump-stagger-stagger up river from the main event.
After an exceptional brunch (not easy to do in mass food preparation) all the usual suspects assembled outside with Art Larrance and Full Sail’s Brew Crew with the ceremonial cask. (The parade is open to anyone who’d like to join in.)
This year’s official band “the Transcendental Brass Band†kicked us off with a lively tune and we set out for Portland City Hall where Mayor Sam Adams would join the parade.
This was the first year the mile-long parade actually had a parade permit so we weren’t restricted to the sidewalks and had the Portland police controlling traffic on the parade route.
With the city police running interference, it didn’t take long for the parade to arrive at the seat of Portland’s power. Unfortunately, Mayor Adams’ meeting ran a little over, leaving several hundred festively clad constituents, with their own band, standing in front of city hall like some sort of well-organized public revolt. If I’d thought of it I would have started the chant, “We Want Beer! We Want Beer!†that would’ve given the media something to talk about. But before I could come up with something that clever Mayor Sam Adams and a small entourage came bustling from the building and we were off again.
The OBF parade follows a different route each year, exposing beer culture to a new audience of bewildered residents who are drawn from homes and business’ to see what the hubbub is all about. Full Sail’s Brew Crew threw Mardi Gras beads to them (without requiring the traditional New Orleans anatomy reveal) and many joined the procession.
By the time we reached Tom McCall Park, our numbers had swelled into the hundreds. It was then, as happens every year, a misinformed security detail became a bottle neck when they tried to check ID’s on hundreds of people attempting to get out of the street and through the entrance to the festival. As also happens every year, our numbers won out and security finally threw up their hands and let everyone in (most had been checked and tagged at the brunch anyway).
After a brief opening ceremony where the official OBF Mallet was passed from Jamie Emmerson of Full Sail Brewing Co., to Gary Fish of Deschutes Brewing Co., next years lead brewery, it was time to tap the opening cask. Mayor Adam’s nervously took the mallet and tap. He lined the tap up with the keystone, gave it a mighty whack, and to the horror of all of those watching, promptly broke the ceremonial mallet. Luckily he did drive the tap in with sufficient force and no precious beer, or blood, was spilled.
The opening cask beer this year was Full Sail’s barrel aged Bourbon Amber Ale which I found to be a delicious beer with strong bourbon influence and notes of vanilla and caramel; perfect after a filling breakfast and a brisk march through the streets of downtown Portland. See Oregon Brewer’s Parade Pictures here.
Attendance at this years Oregon Brewer’s Festival supported Art Larrance’s Statement “Beer is recession proof!†which correlates with my own hypothesis “When times are good, folks drink beer. When times are bad, folks drink more beer.†Despite temperatures in the 90’s, pretty warm by Oregon standards, this year’s 22nd annual event enjoyed record attendance of 72,500. OBF offered 81 different craft beers from 15 states across the country. Like past years, the fruit beers were the top sellers, and I found more than a few that meshed perfectly with the hot day.
Without breaking this down into a long litany of tasting notes let me simply mention a few of the beers that hit the spot on those hot summer days: Alaskan White Ale, Kona Coconut Brown Ale, 21st Amendment Hell or Highwater Watermelon Wheat, Moylan’s Pomegranate Wheat, Cascade Brewing’s Raspberry Wheat, Bear Republic Crazy Ivan, Caldera Hibiscus Ginger Beer, Rogue Latona Pale Ale, Pyramid Haywire Hefeweizen, and Oakshire Overcast Espresso Stout.
The Oregon Brewers Festival began in 1988 with the purpose of exposing the Portland public to microbrews from the then fledgling American craft brewing industry (There were only 124 craft breweries across the US). 13 breweries participated that first year, with a total of 16 beers on tap. An expected attendance of 5000 bloomed to 15,000 and OBF was born. Today, there are more than 1,400 craft breweries in the US and Oregon has 73 brewing companies operating 96 brewing facilities. There are 30 breweries operating within the Portland city limits, more than any other city in the world; the Portland metro area boasts 38 breweries, more than any other metro area in the world.
See Oregon Brewer’s Festival Pictures here. For more information, visit the Oregon Brewers Festival website.
Sasquatch BrewAm 2009
The wee hours of the second day of the Oregon Brewer’s Festival found me in a strange land where blackberry bushes fenced the fairways and giant banana slugs snarled from their thorny depths. It was my first time at the Sasquatch BrewAm, a golf tournament where you can play a round of golf with a celebrity brewer, sort of like the ProAm, because they use golf clubs and a ball, but that’s where any similarity ends.
The tournament commemorates and celebrates the life of Glen Hay Falconer (aka Sasquatch) a famous and infamous Northwest brewer.
In short, here is how it worked; 105 brewers and enthusiasts gathered at McMenamin’s famous Edgefield Resort distillery where the west course 20-hole pitch and putt waits to make you cry like a little girl.
Mixed teams of beer industry professionals and enthusiasts are created and sent to different holes to begin playing some of the worst golf seen since Scottish cave dwellers began smacking rocks with crooked sticks.
Each team member pitches for the green. The closest ball to the pin sets the putting distance for the team to the hole. Best score is recorded for the hole. Sounds easy enough until you factor in a few variables. Due to the previously mentioned blackberry briars and saber-toothed banana slugs, if you get more than a few feet off the green or the fairway, chances are you won’t find your ball. The good news is if you are brave enough to stick your hand into the thorny thickets, you’ll probably find someone else’s ball, or several someone else’s balls.
Another variable is the course itself, if you have a classic parkland-style golf course featuring lovely tree-lined fairways, undulating bent grass greens, and strategically situated ponds and bunkers in mind forget it. This 20-hole course is built into the steep, briar lined sides of a hill that gently rises up at approximately a 45 degree angle from the Columbia river valley up up up to the edge of the resort’s property. Part of the course description says it “offers stunning views while you work on your short game.†It should also offer free oxygen at the upper holes.
Okay what have we covered here…stickers, slugs, steep terrain…oh yeah, mustn’t forget the beer stations. Because when you’re trying to catch your breath as you contemplate an 80 foot hole with a 60 foot drop in elevation, you really should have a beer in your hand. Beer stations where strategically located throughout the course to insure no one gets too dehydrated, or serious, or sober, during this Northwest shank-fest.
Finished or not, everyone was called into the resort just after twelve o’clock to determine the winners, award prizes, and get some food in our bellies.
Who won? The low score winner was a group from Lompoc but some say their score sheet was a work of fiction that would have made Stephen King proud. But the great thing about the BrewAm…No one cares! All in all, it was a lot more fun than I anticipated and I plan to make the BrewAm a regular part of my OBF celebration week. See Sasquatch BrewAm Pictures here.
If you’d like to join in next years fun, visit the Glen Falconer Foundation website.
This is just a snapshot of my 4 days in Beervana. If you plan to attend the Oregon Brewer’s Festival next year, do your research on peripheral events and make a plan, buy your tickets early, and come prepared to have lots and lots of fun … see you there!
Finland is becoming famous for it’s quirky sporting events. Over the weekend, couples from all over the world competed in an international wife-carrying contest. What’s the draw? Well, the winner gets his wife’s weight in beer. Here’s more:
The “First Ever” short-film festival on the subject of BEER will debut at the Monterey Beer Festival on June 5th, 2010, from 12:30pm to 5pm. Do you love beer? Have you ever thought about being a filmmaker? Or perhaps you’re already a professional or even amateur filmmaker. If so, here’s your chance to showcase your talent with a short (3 minutes or less) film about beer. The deadline for submissions is May 1, 2010 and the form and rules can be found on the Night That Never Ends website. It’s free to enter your film.
There are four separate categories for you to submit a film under:
Organizer Jeff Moses expects lots of lighthearted looks at brew, including personal stories about drinking beer with friends or visiting breweries. He also anticipates a few entries by “serious brewers” who’ll reveal the exact steps to making beer. Moses says being a bona fide beer connoisseur isn’t necessary for the creative process — just having a “connection” to brew should suffice. He also suggests “filmmakers throw back brewskis after shooting and avoid keg stands so they’re actually able to finish their projects.”
The Short Pour Film Fest will take place on June 5th, 2010, during the Monterey Beer Festival (and is free to festival attendees) at the Monterey Fairgrounds, 2004 Fairgrounds Road, Monterey, California, 93940 and will be free of charge to Monterey Beer Festival attendees.
Short Pour Film Fest honors both individuals who have achieved excellence in short filmmaking and amateur filmmakers. This unique short-film festival showcases film making talent on the subject of BEER.
Films will be shown in the historic â€King City Roomâ€, a 10,000 square foot building at the Monterey Fairgrounds (home to The Monterey Jazz Festival & The Monterey Blues Festival).
If you are headed to Denver for the Great American Beer Festival in September beer is probably your top priority, so first the news about a unique beer tasting.
More than 80 percent of the tickets for the Denver Rare Beer Tasting on Sept. 25 are already sold. The event in the afternoon at Wynkoop Brewing benefits Pints for Prostates, an awareness campaign aimed at encouraging men to have regular prostate health screenings and PSA tests.
Each brewery at the event will be pouring one unique beer, including some vintage aged beers and brews that were made in extremely limited batches as part of special projects. Ticket information can be found here (and a list of some of the beers that will be available at Wynkoop follows after the other news).
– The fourth annual Boulder County Brews Cruise will feature two bus trips that visit the original four Boulder County breweries – Avery Brewing, Boulder Beer Company, Left Hand Brewing Company, Oskar Blues Brewery – from the very first cruise. The trip begins at 8 a.m. Sept. 23 from downtown Denver.
The cruise includes seat on the bus, free samples at each stop, a light breakfast, lunch, and a commemorative T-shirt. Last year’s cruise sold out. Ticket information.
– The Simpsons are one of the sponsors of this year’s GABF. They are scheduled open each session of the festival with a ribbon cutting ceremony.
Now back to beer, and some of those that will be at the Rare Beer Tasting:
Allagash Fluxus ’09: This saison from Maine is brewed with sweet potatoes and black pepper, weighing in at 8.3 percent alcohol by volume. Jason Perkins will represent the brewery.
Alaskan 1999 Vintage Smoked Porter: The last known draught keg of the 1999 vintage of Alaskan’s much decorated Smoked Porter. This beer will be served alongside a sample of 2008 Alaskan Smoked Porter for comparison.
Anheuser-Busch Pilot Batch: This is an experimental beer from Anheuser-Busch so rare that only brewery insiders and a few lucky beer journalists will ever get the chance to taste the brew. Get ready to be surprised. Kristi Saviers will represent the brewery.
Brooklyn Wild 1: This beer started off as a batch of the popular bottle-conditioned Brooklyn Local 1 farmhouse ale, then spent nine months in Bourbon barrels and then it was bottle conditioned with Belgian re-fermentation yeast and a strain of Brettanomyces bruxellensis. Only 80 cases were made for consumption by Brooklyn Brewery staff. Garrett Oliver will represent the brewery.
Deschutes Black Butte Porter XX: Brewed in 2008 to celebrate Deschutes’ 20th anniversary, this 11 percent alcohol by volume beer was pulled from the brewmaster’s private library. This beer starts off as a Double Black Butte Porter, has cocoa nibs and Bellatazza Coffee Roasters’ Sumatran and Ethiopian beans added, then it is aged in ex-Bourbon barrels. Brett Porter will represent the brewery.
Dogfish Head 2006 Raison D’Extra: This is a super charged 18 percent alcohol by volume version of the popular Dogfish Head Raison D’Etre. The brewery has not made this brew for the past two years.
Foothills Barrel Aged Total Eclipse Stout: One of only 10 kegs of this beer in the world. This North Carolina brewery took its award winning stout and aged it for three to four months in ex-whiskey barrels that previously held 23-year-old Pappy Van Winkle Bourbon. Jamie Bartholomaus will represent the brewery.
Harpoon 100 Barrel Series Glacier Harvest ’09 Wet Hop Ale: The 28th edition of Harpoon’s 100 Barrel Series, this deep copper colored beer is made using fresh Glacier hops. Todd Charbonneau will represent the brewery.
Highland Big Butte Smoked Porter: Winner of the Highland Cup homebrewing completion and based on a recipe created by Alex Buerckholtz, this beer is only available for a very limited time in North Carolina. Features smoked German malt and Fuggle hops. John Lyda will represent the brewery.
New Glarus Golden Ale: This Belgian-style ale is the first of the Wisconsin brewery’s R&D Series and previously was only available at the brewery. The 7 percent alcohol by volume beer is bottle fermented with Brettanomyces yeast. Dan Carey will represent the brewery.
Reunion – A Beer of Hope: This Double White Ale was collaboratively designed and brewed by four brewers across the U.S.: Bison Brewing and Pizza Port Brewing in California, Elysian Brewing in Washington and Terrapin Brewing in Georgia. This Belgian-style witbier uses sweet orange peel, coriander, lemongrass and rhubarb root. Sales of the beer support The Institute for Myeloma & Bone Cancer Research. Daniel Del Grande and George Allen from Bison Brewery represent the brewers.
Rogue John-John Hazelnut Dead Guy: Named for Rogue Brewmaster John Maier and Rogue Master Distiller John Couchot, this brew starts off with Rogue’s famous Dead Guy Ale that is aged in Rogue Hazelnut Rum barrels. Brett Joyce will represent the brewery.
Saranac Imperial IPA: Part of the New York brewery’s limited release High Peaks Series this ale features 10 different hop varieties and 10 different malts.
Stone 2008 Old Guardian Barley Wine Aged in Red Wine Barrels: This 95 IBU barley wine has a massive malt character that is made even more complex thanks to the barrel aging. Greg Koch and Mitch Steele will represent the brewery.
Stoudt 2007 Barrel-Aged Reserve Old Abominable Barleywine: This vintage barleywine from Pennsylvania was aged for 10 months in oak whiskey barrels before being keg conditioned. Carol Stoudt will represent the brewery.
Wynkoop 2008 Barrel Aged Berserker Mead: This 11 percent alcohol by volume mead was made using Colorado wildflower honey and has spent about 20 months in barrels that were formally the home of Stranahan’s Colorado Whiskey. C. Andrew Brown will represent the brewery.
Jay Sheveck has been working on a film about the early days of craft brewing, Beer Pioneers, for fifteen years. Now slated for a summer of 2010 release, he’s just released a teaser trailer and it’s work a look. I, for one, am looking very forward to this one.
As of today Widmer Brothers Brewing is about halfway to it goal to raise $10,000 for Big Brothers Big Sisters by Aug. 11, officially Brother’s Day in Oregon.
The Widmers will donate $1 for each humorous e-card sent from the brewery’s website.
The company also will donate $1 for each person who becomes a fan of the brewery on Facebook.
“Our effort to support Big Brothers Big Sisters is a personal commitment,” Kurt Widmer said. “We know firsthand the value of strong role models and of course, the importance of brotherhood.”
“I just hope Kurt remembers to buy me a Brother’s Day present this year,” added his brother Rob.
Brother’s Day was made official last year when Aug. 11 was proclaimed a holiday in the State of Oregon and the City of Portland.