News

The Siebel Institute of Technology has announced the appointment of John Hannafan as Director of Education.

Hannafan, who has assisted more than 20 start-up and established brewing facilities, is a graduate of the World Brewing Academy (WBA), a partnership between Siebel Institute of Technology and Doemens Akademie. Shortly after graduation from the WBA program, he took on the role as a brewing supervisor at City Brewing in La Crosse, Wis.

He has taught as an adjunct professor at Siebel Institute of Technology and has been a judge for professional competitions such as the World Beer Awards. He also has served as a Cicerone Certification Master Program section test grader. A member of Master Brewers Association of the Americas and Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA), England, Hannafan is also frequently asked to participate in brewing industry panels.

German brewers say that fracking endangers the purity of their country’s beer.

They have urged Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government to block the tapping of shale gas by means of hydraulic fracturing (known as fracking). The Association of German Breweries said current proposals related to fracking are inadequate to protect drinking water.

“We are concerned that fracking endangers the brewing water that more than half of Germany’s breweries take from private wells,” Marc-Oliver Huhnholz, a spokesman for the group, told Bloomburg. “And that it threatens our absolutely pure beer.” The association has sent a letter voicing its concerns to six Cabinet ministers including Environment Minister Peter Altmaier, he said.

Merkel has agreed on draft legislation in her coalition that would outlaw fracking in some areas. It remains unclear whether a law can be passed before the election, Altmaier said.

Germany’s brewers point to what they say is the oldest food-safety regulation in the world to justify their concerns about fracking. The Reinheitsgebot was drafted in April 1516 at the instigation of Duke Wilhelm IV in the Bavarian city of Ingolstadt. The law states that only malted barley, hops and water may go into beer, with the later addition of yeast, which had not yet been discovered at the time.

By the time you finish reading this two more breweries will have opened some place in the United States. (That’s only a bit of an exaggeration.)

Those who study The Brewers Association’s Guide to Starting Your Own Brewery by Dick Cantwell will almost surely have a better chance of success. The second edition of the guide has been completely rewritten and covers, among other things:

– Business plans
– Financing
– Quality assurance
– Site selection
– Flooring choices
– Branding
– Raw materials
– Distribution
– Regulatory requirements
– Equipment considerations
– Sustainability practices
– Wastewater

Cantwell is co-founder of Elysian Brewing, which has three pub locations and a production brewery. Cantwell recently talked about the book with Eric Gorski of the Denver Post.

Stella Artois Cidre will join the suddenly very popular U.S. cider market next week.

Adam Oakley, vice president of import, craft and specialty brands at Anheuser-Busch, said the cider category is seeing 110 percent growth in the United States.

“Stella Artois Cidre is designed to be savored and is very different from sweeter, domestic U.S. ciders,” Oakley said for a press release. “Stella Artois Cidre has the potential to change people’s perceptions of cider here, offering a refreshing alternative to white wine.”

According to the press release, “Stella Artois Cidre is a crisp, distinctive European-style cider made with apples hand-picked from wine growing regions. Initially it will be available in 26 U.S. states, with further expansion possible in 2014.” Sales to retailers begin on May 13.

Stella Artois Cidre will be fermented in Baldwinsville, New York, using apples picked from wine-growing regions in North and South America. It contains 4.5% alcohol by volume.

The simple taste of beer, not influenced by alcohol itself, apparently triggers the release of the hormone dopamine, which controls the reward and pleasure centers of the brain.

The study at the Indiana University School of Medicine looked for evidence of increased levels of dopamine, a brain neurotransmitter long associated with a alcohol and other drugs of abuse. Researchers used used positron emission tomography (PET) to test 49 men with two scans, one in which they tasted beer, and the second in which they tasted Gatorade. The results were published in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology.

The scans showed significantly more dopamine activity following the taste of beer than the sports drink. Moreover, the effect was significantly greater among participants with a family history of alcoholism. “We believe this is the first experiment in humans to show that the taste of an alcoholic drink alone, without any intoxicating effect from the alcohol, can elicit this dopamine activity in the brain’s reward centers,” said David A Kareken, professor of neurology at the IU School of Medicine and the deputy director of the Indiana Alcohol Research Center.

Research for several decades has linked dopamine to the consumption of various drugs of abuse, although researchers have differing interpretations of the neurotransmitter’s role.

The study participants received a very small amount of their preferred beer over a 15-minute time period, enabling them to taste the beer without resulting in any detectable blood alcohol level or intoxicating effect.

“In addition to the PET scan results, participants reported an increased beer craving after tasting beer, without similar responses after tasting the sports drink – even though many thought the Gatorade actually tasted better,” said Brandon G Oberlin, first author of the paper.