BC's craft beer boom fuelled by homebrewers |2| Brewed Awakening blog | The Province
Today, we hear from our beer writer, Steven Harrell, who judged the event. Way back in 2009, some Oak Cliff Dwellers brought together eight home brewers for a friendly competition behind Eno's in the Bishop Arts District. Five years later, on Sunday afternoon, this was the scene: Over 60 homebrew teams pouring 200-plus different beers for a crowd of over 1,500 people. Brew Riot is, without question, Dallas' best homebrew contest, is damn near the top of the list for beer events in general, and is perhaps the best single example of how Dallas' beer love has blossomed in the last few years. There's something refreshing about how homespun and community-based it is. Folks stream past booths pouring Dallas' most popular local beers like Peticolas and Deep Ellum to get a first look at the unknowns -- something usually foreign to the Dallas psyche. Suggestive labels that would never be approved by the TABC are proudly hung behind booths. Groups of homebrewers, normally very protective of their hard-crafted treats, freely pour them for any random person with an approved sample cup. Most times, I'd rather hear about your "great" food truck idea than about the brewery you've been "thinking about for awhile now." But at Brew Riot? Anything is possible. A few years ago, an unlicensed Lakewood Brewing Co. poured beer. Four Corners and Peticolas are also Brew Riot alumni who successfully made the jump to legit businesses. I talked to Stacey Spillers, who runs the event with her husband, Matt. She emphasized the importance of the home brewers to the experience. "It's very special to make something and choose to share it with someone else," she said. "It's their passion for their hobby that makes Brew Riot work. We wanted to create a forum for that exchange to happen." As a judge, I probably had more than my fair share of brews during the days leading up to the event. But, since it was a blind tasting, I can't fully give credit where it's due to some of those that I wasn't able to go back and track down once the official blinders came off. Either way, here are a few of my favorites from the event. If I missed any, feel free to tell me about it in the comments. Mox Nix Brewery, Texas Breakfast Stout-- My oh my. Founders Breakfast Stout is one of the country's most coveted beers, and these fellas made something even better. I can't overemphasize how good this was. The oatmeal, coffee, chocolate, and grains all blended with just enough milk sugar to hold it all together. I would buy a six-pack tomorrow. And then another the next day. On Rotation's Jalapeno Saison-- I actually blind-tasted this one at judging, and proceeded to tell my friends and family about it for the next week. Somehow, the brewers extracted the flavor of jalapeno without letting the spiciness overpower your palette. And, in a saison? You're crazy, homebrewers, and we love you for it. Steam Theory's Triple IPA-- Hops on hops on hops on hops. But, it wasn't overly hoppy. Does that make sense? Does anything make sense? We just want to live in our perfectly-hopped world without your judgement. The Manhattan Project's Half-Life American Pale Ale --The Manhattan Project team thoroughly dominated the day with four appearances on the scoreboard. My favorite brew from them was their American Pale Ale, just because it so fully fit into the textbook description of what it should have tasted like. After a day of cherry-chipotle-stouts and watermelon hefeweizens, it was nice to taste beer again.
Source http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/cityofate/2014/05/brew_riot.php
Plainfield brew shop readies its own suds - chicagotribune.com
Most of those stories involve an a-ha moment when they realized that homebrew could be both delicious and easy to make. Its part of what Chris Booth of Dans Homebrewing Supplies calls a snowball effect. Theres people that make homebrew, and then people drink their homebrew and theyre like, Really? You made this? And then they come in and they start making stuff, says Booth, co-owner and manager of the East Hastings store thats long been a hub for homebrewing in the Lower Mainland. Started by Dan Small, a legendary figure in local homebrewing circles who passed away last year, Dans Homebrewing has seen business boom over the past few years. Yet despite this chain reaction and the diversity of people who take to homebrewing, it takes a certain type to make good beer. Essential traits include attention to detail (measurements and timing can be crucial the length of the boil, when ingredients are added, for example); patience (conditioning beer, particularly lager, can take weeks); and cleanliness (the smallest contamination can spoil a whole batch, though this can also lead to some serendipitously delicious creations). Booth says a good brewer shares many attributes with a good chef. Someone thats got a good palate and balance. You dont need to be a rocket science, but if you know the science it definitely helps. A good sense of taste and judgment and creativity, says Booth, an experienced homebrewer himself. Overall, theres a particular mix of art and science, theory and practice to the process. You need to know some science behind the whole brewing process but then you have a lot of space for flexibility and creativity, says David Bowkett, a homebrewer who went on to set up Powell Street Craft Brewery in East Vancouver. Ive always liked doing things myself and being hands on. David Bowkett at Powell Street Craft Brewery in Vancouver. Im an engineer originally and I find it does tend to attract a lot of those types, says Chad McCarthy, another long-term homebrewer. theyre very much do-it-yourselfers, inventors that like to build equipment. This surge in interest in amateur brewing has resulted in an interesting mix of people that gather for the monthly meetings of VanBrewers , Vancouvers homebrewing society. Co-founded by Graham With in 2010, VanBrewers quickly gathered more than 100 members. A huge amount of homebrewers came out of the woodwork, recalls McCarthy. Tons of people like me brewing in their basements not knowing anyone else existed. VanBrewers quickly became known as a place to get inspiration and education. We offer quite the resource for people to improve, says Scott Butchart, who took over as VanBrewers president after With stepped down to focus on his job. Obviously when most people start out theyre not so great and they struggle a bit. People say they come to our meetings and they leave with 100 per cent more knowledge than they came with we have a really well rounded, well experienced group that can help you. VanBrewers president Scott Butchart with a sleeve of his homebrewed brown porter. That help comes from the collective knowledge of the many and variously skilled people who attend VanBrewers meetings. Such as the web designer with the award-winning barley wine; the opthalmologist who some say makes the best lagers in Canada; or McCarthy, an electrical engineer-turned lawyer whos a certified cicerone a beer expert on par with a wine sommelier as well as a national-rank beer judge. Im not as accomplished as a brewer but Im interested in the science of it and the judging aspect of it, training yourself to know what a beer should taste like and if it doesnt taste right, what might be wrong and provide advice to people, McCarthy says. (Theres) a little bit of an art to it as well as a science. Electrical engineer-turned lawyer Chad McCarthy is also a long-time homebrewer, member of VanBrewers, certified cicerone and beer judge. Hes pictured at an educational off-flavours class he taught last year. * * * With all this focused intensity among a tight-knit group of skilled crafters, itll come as little surprise to learn that some homebrewers can become obsessed. A phrase that seems to be in common use in brewing circles is going down the rabbit hole. And indeed, homebrewing offers a Wonderland of possibilities thats only limited by the crafters imagination and availability of ingredients. Tak Guenette left the rabbit hole for a brewing job at Steamworks in 2012, but he still burrows back into it several nights a week. Not content with his full-time position at the Vancouver brewpub, Guenette finds the time to brew up to four batches a week in the den of his apartment. I do have a bit more of a creative freedom to do odd things, Guenette says of his homebrewing.I can brew something exactly the way I want it, something with my tastes in mind. Steamworks brewer Tak Guenette with his homebrewing setup at his Vancouver apartment. Guenette says he began homebrewing because he simply couldnt find the styles he wanted to drink. Since then, hes become a local expert in lesser-seen English stylessuch as mild ale, which he often conditions in a traditional cask. He does admit his double brewing duty is slightly excessive. His fiancee, with whom he shares his apartment, likely agrees. We made an agreement when we moved in to a larger place, a one-bedroom plus den, that I put everything into that one small room so she can close the door and not look at it. And I think were both happy with that, he says. Guenette and With are just two of several homebrewers who have made the transition to commercial brewing. They got in when they were young, eager and looking for work. For established professionals in other fields such as Butchart and McCarthy, the idea of brewing full-time appeals, but its maybe not quite so practical. The hours are long, the pay is modest and theres concern that the aura of brewing would lose its lustre. I would like to be a professional brewer but I have a job that pays me well so its kind of hard to justify, says Butchart, 32, a purchaser/planner for an aerospace tooling company. Also, Id like to keep it my hobby and not make it work, a necessity to get paid. McCarthy, 41, did give some serious thought to putting his beer qualifications to work when he was between careers. For me personally, given how expensive Vancouver is to live in and that I would be starting at square one in a lot of ways, it didnt look realistic to me, he says. But, you know, my eyes are open. Stay tuned for part three
Source http://blogs.theprovince.com/2014/05/26/craft-beer-starts-at-home-how-homebrewers-are-fuelling-the-b-c-beer-boom-part-2/
Browns fan bottles home-brew Johnny Man'z Ale - Local - Ohio
CDT, May 23, 2014 As the craft beer renaissance continues in Chicago's suburbs, one Plainfield home-brew supply shop is getting ready to offer up its own homemade suds. Chicago Brew Werks, a supply shop and taproom that opened about a year ago at 14903 S. Center St., will be offering its own Werk Force Brewing Co. beer at its taproom bar by next week, according to Amanda Wright, who started the shop with her husband, Brandon Wright. The supply shop has featured a small bar serving other craft beers since it opened. But after seven months of getting the required federal and state licenses, the supply shop is ready to become a brewery. "We just received our final state license about a week and a half ago," Amanda Wright said on Thursday. "We started brewing immediately." Amanda Wright said her husband handles most of the alchemy involved in creating new and delicious beers, and he has so far been crafting pale ales and India pale ales, more commonly known as IPAs. "He did a few of his staple beers, just to get us started," Amanda Wright said. The modest brewery features an electric brew house, which Amanda Wright said allows a bit more precision on the part of the brewer. "The kettles are actually heated by electric probes," she said. "It's a lot more efficient, energy-wise, and Brandon has a lot of ability to tweak the temperature more precisely, so he has a lot more control over the beers." The couple currently has just a two-barrel setup, meaning they are just producing small one or two-barrel batches, Amanda Wright said, "which is extremely small compared to other breweries." Still, a smaller production means the brewery can experiment and fiddle with different grain and hops combinations, she said. "Obviously everyone has hopes and dreams of big breweries, but we're able to do small, experimental batches," Amanda Wright said. "We're excited to be a small research-and-development brewery. We can do a lot more fun stuff that the larger breweries might not try out." These initial beers will only be sold from taps, she said, but plans are also afoot to sell take-away growlers of the product once they figure out how to balance demand. Right now, the team is brewing almost daily to build up stock, she said. "We are trying to feel out our demand in the taproom, to ensure we don't run out of beer on day one," Amanda Wright said. "Once we have beers on tap, we'll be consistently changing them." While her husband handles most of the hands-on brewing, Amanda Wright said she loves the sense of community that their shop has generated and enjoyed. "I love the community, and that everyone's enthusiastic about craft beer and being local," she said. "I like the energy of doing something new and making something with our own hands and able to serve the community that way." Brandon Wright said last year that he's enamored by the fact that small tweaks to a recipe can create a completely different brew, and that brewing is an art. "Except for using different types or colors of paint, we have grains, hops and yeast," he said. "We can totally design things from the ground up to suit our tastes and styles."
Source http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/suburbs/plainfield/ct-new-beer-place-plainfield-tl-0529-20140523,0,7067945.story
And then it hit him -- Johnny Manz Ale. Slavin has a refrigerator full of his new ale. (Photo courtesy Chris Slavin) Cleveland Browns fan Chris Slavin was looking for the perfect name for his new Belgian-style golden ale. And then it hit him: Johnny Manz Ale. Its a clever homage to Cleveland Browns rookie quarterback Johnny Manziel, the media sensation and latest quarterback savior for a long-suffering fan base. Yes, Johnny Football mania is alive and well in Northeast Ohio. Slavin, a 33-year-old machine technician from Grafton, made the beer at The Brew Kettles brew-on-premise operation in Strongsville three weeks ago. Photos of the label, which feature an image of Manziel in uniform and a beer bottle protruding from his face mask, started popping up on Facebook and Twitter this week after the beer was bottled. Now, Johnny Manz Ale is blowing up on the Internet with every sports website from Bleacher Report to the Sporting News reporting on it. I got a lot of people who want a bottle, Slavin said Thursday. But Im pretty sure its totally illegal to sell them. I made them for my own personal use. He added that hes not really a home-brewer and this was only the second time that he has made a beer at The Brew Kettle, which allows people to come in and brew a small batch of beer under the tutelage of a professional brewer. His friend, Jesse Kazmer, did the Photoshop work on the label. Slavin described himself as a huge Manziel fan, saying he loves the quarterbacks style and hopes hes around for a long time. He added that he hasnt heard from Manziel about the beer. Theres likely no way the NFL would allow a beer label to feature the Browns logo, and about as much chance as Manziel giving his blessing for his image on the label. Hopefully I wont hear from a lawyer or Manziels mom, Slavin said. The only thing Im trying to get out of this is a job in marketing and to drink one with Johnny Manziel, he added with a laugh. As for the beer itself, Slavin described it as high alcohol, clocking in at 8 percent alcohol by volume. It was made with plenty of candy sugar. Its smooth and really easy to drink for a high-alcohol beer, he said. Its really sweet and it kind of tastes like banana. If youre disappointed that you cant get your hands on a bottle of Johnny Manz Ale, dont despair. Theres another Cleveland Browns quarterback-themed beer available. Bernie Beer, a brown ale named after former Browns quarterback Bernie Kosar, is being produced by the Bernie Beer Co. at Cellar Rats Brewery in Madison. Its available on draft at Heinens grocery store locations and there are plans to can the beer this fall for football season. Its doing fantastic, Cellar Rats spokesman Joel Sandrey said. Were going full force with Bernie Beer Brown Ale. Rick Armon can be reached at 330-996-3569 or rarmon@thebeaconjournal.com . Read his Ohio Breweries blog at www.ohio.com/beer .
Source http://www.ohio.com/news/local/browns-fan-bottles-home-brew-johnny-man-z-ale-1.490165
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