March 31, 2011
Anyone who’s spent any time at all chatting with other beer apprecionados about the various superlative brews they’ve sampled has compiled a list in their head of which beers they aspire to someday drink. Some are difficult to find because of geographic location (either because the beer isn’t distributed to wherever they live, or there’s a pesky ocean in the way, or what have you), or they’re simply brewed in very small batches that disappear quickly. Or, at worst, both may be the case. I certainly have a few on my list of ‘beers I must drink before I die’, and crossing a beer off that list is a pretty awesome feeling (though they tend to get replaced quickly).
So fellas, enlighten us: What are the top three beers on your beer bucket list?
Please list in order of preference, even if it hurts. Read the rest of this entry »
10 Comments | 
Beerford's Conundra | Tagged: AleSmith, Bucket List, Cigar City, Deschutes, Portsmouth, Prestige Beers, Russian River, Three Floyds | 
Permalink
Posted by Beerford McBrewin'
March 29, 2011
Listen closely.
Did you hear that? That sound? Like a can of watery, tasteless swill smashing through the window of your local craft brewery?
That was the warning shot. The shot across the bow of craft beer. That was the sound of Anheuser Busch taking it up a notch. The sound of them kicking the tires on this whole “good beer” thing everyone has been talking about. It was the sound of them offering $38 million to purchase Goose Island…and Goose Island accepting. It was the sound we’ve been dreading. Read the rest of this entry »
12 Comments | Beer Industry | Tagged: Anheuser-Busch, Goose Island, InBev, Selling Out | Permalink
Posted by Barley McHops
March 28, 2011
Well, it happened. Some of the people living in and around Chicago would have told you that it was only a matter of time until Goose Island allowed itself to be bought out, but now Anheuser Busch has gone and done it, for around $38 million dollars. Not too shabby for the shareholders.
Thus ends the long stretch of independence for Chicago’s oldest “microbrewery.” Founded in 1988 by CEO and owner John Hall, the two Goose Island brewpubs have been Chicago staples for a long, long time as far as craft beer is concerned. Personally, I’ve never been to one, as the Goose always came off to me as the big boy in town, and not a place one actually had to visit. Still, this is a sign of the times. Read the rest of this entry »
20 Comments | Ale Factories, Beer Industry | Tagged: Anheuser-Busch, Goose Island, goose island anheuser busch, goose island buyout | Permalink
Posted by Kid Carboy Jr.
March 28, 2011
Doc and I recently rendezvoused in New Orleans for a bachelor party and the first weekend of Mardi Gras. A good time was had by all, we’re told. Photographic evidence supports this conclusion. And we are inclined to believe that it is most likely true. After all, who doesn’t enjoy 70+ degree weather in February, the finest examples of American culinary execptionalism, and, of course, boobs? Nobody, that’s who. Although the lion’s share of our visit involved a slow and deliberate crawl to the finest craft cocktail lounges in town – Bar Tonique was the unanimous favorite – the visit offered a chance to sample Abita’s S.O.S. (“Save Our Shores”), a pilsner brewed to assist with the rescue and restoration of the Louisiana environment following the catastrophic Deep Water Horizon oil spill. Read the rest of this entry »
Comments Off | Tasting Notes | Tagged: Abita, Deep Water Horizon, New Orleans, Nola, Oil Spill, Pilsner, SOS | Permalink
Posted by Sudsy von Brüe
March 27, 2011
I’m sure these won’t actually be the last words written on these pages about the Bell’s/Northern Brewer situation, but I thought I would at least make a valiant effort to “wrap it up”, so to speak. I’m sure many of you are tired of reading about this tempest in a teacup and since I’m the one that sparked the firestorm, I’ll also attempt to be the one to snuff it out.
For those that haven’t bothered reading our recent posts, let me summarize the situation for you without any commentary or emotional language: Read the rest of this entry »
7 Comments | Beer Industry | Tagged: Bell's, Cease and Desist, Legal, Northern Brewer, Three Hearted, Two-Hearted | Permalink
Posted by Barley McHops
March 27, 2011
This is the end. My only friend, the end. We’ve finally reached Sunday, which is either the end of the week if you’re like me or the beginning of next week if you’re like everyone else. The “Beer of the Day” journey culminates with Sunday, so named not for the Lord in our English language but for that giant ball of fire known as The Sun. Pretty simple I suppose. I won’t bore you with the details on why this post was written. If you’ve made it through the first 6 days I’m sure you can figure out what comes next. If this is your first visit to the site, click back on your browser and start surfing through the rest of the week to see what beer I chose for each day. Probably best to scroll down the page and start on Monday, but I understand if you get lost on the way. We’ve had some good content this week. Back to this post. The Sun is a tad important in the world of brewing (And the world of living I suppose). Without the Sun I’m sure you can figure out that we’d have no barley, no hops, really no anything. Most importantly, we’d have no beer. Let’s pick a good beer from a fun style that celebrates that very body that our world truly does revolve around. Read the rest of this entry »
Comments Off | WTF | Tagged: BDSA, Beer of The Day, Belgian Strong Dark Ale, Midnight Sun, Monk's Mistress, Sol, Sunday, The Sun | Permalink
Posted by Ripped Van Drinkale
March 26, 2011
Loyal readers need no introduction to the topic of today’s Aleheads Legal Corner. As we’ve previously written, our former friends at Bell’s Brewery sent a cease and desist letter to Northern Brewer, ordering Northern Brewer to stop using the name “Three Hearted Ale” for its clone of Bell’s Two Hearted Ale. While Northern Brewer was as gracious as possible in responding — and expressly threw cold water on Brother Barley’s call for a boycott — the Internet has been less kind.
What’s the issue here? Well, if you believe Bell’s barely apologetic explanation (which we scorned), “A trademark that is not defended becomes worthless.” (The response also claims Bell’s had never heard of Northern Brewer, even though it’s arguably the biggest player in the home brewing industry.) On the flip side you have the 2 billion irrational people who comprise the Internet, many of whom think the problem is that Larry Bell is a dick.
Naturally, we asked our two legal experts, Baron Sudsy von Brue and Commander Pint O. Chug, to weigh in. Read the rest of this entry »
7 Comments | Beer Industry, Beer Marketing, Brews in the News, Homebrewing | Permalink
Posted by Commander Pint O. Chug
March 26, 2011
As it is now the weekend, the Beer of the Day selections for this Saturday and Sunday will be a bit brief. First, no one wants to read a long post on the weekend. We like long posts when we’re at work or when we’re on the can (usually at work), but weekends are reserved for doing things that hopefully don’t revolve around a computer. Second, I’m short on time. I’ve enjoyed writing these posts the past few days and thinking about styles of beer that I haven’t tried in a long time, but they do take some serious time. And lastly, I’m drunk*
*Please note that I’m writing this post well before the 3AM Saturday morning time-stamp that is written into the publish date. It’s Thursday night, the Bruins just smoked the Canadians 7-0, and I’m celebrating. Read the rest of this entry »
2 Comments | WTF | Tagged: Aventinus, Beer of The Day, Saturday, Saturn, Schneider, Weizenbock | Permalink
Posted by Ripped Van Drinkale
March 25, 2011
Shouldn't Vladibeer have been reviewing this one?
I love Adam Avery’s beers. Avery may never get the absolute MOST attention for their releases, but they’re almost uniformly solid. I’ve mentioned before that I’m actually not that big a fan of the regular Avery IPA for whatever reason, but I love beers like The Maharaja, DuganA, The Kaiser and New World Porter. They make a ton of beers, like to experiment, and are just all-around solid. Avery’s hometown of Decatur, IL, is even currently where I work and make my own home.
That said, I’ve only had The Czar once in the past, and remember thinking that it was good if not great at that point. I thought I would give a bomber of this year’s Czar another shot. This tasting took place a few months ago. Read the rest of this entry »
2 Comments | Tasting Notes | Tagged: Avery, Avery Brewing, Avery the czar, the czar imperial stout | Permalink
Posted by Kid Carboy Jr.
March 25, 2011
Goddess on the mountain top
Burning like a silver flame
The summit of beauty and love
And Venus was her name
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Friday. So named for the lovely, beautiful bitchin’ chick known all the world over as Venus, Friday is quite simply the best day of the week. Whether you consider this the 7th day of the week, as many had in the past, or the last day of your work-week, as many of us do today, Friday is a day that’s meant for drinking. As we’ve done all week, it’s time to come up with a beer that’s befitting Venus that comes from a style that most of us don’t stock in our stores on a daily basis. If Bananarama can come up with a whole song dedicated to the Goddess of love, I’m sure we can come up with a tasty beverage. Read the rest of this entry »
3 Comments | WTF | Tagged: Beer of The Day, De Dolle, Dulle Teve, Friday, Tripel, Venus | Permalink
Posted by Ripped Van Drinkale
March 24, 2011
The Washington Post has put together a fun little March Madness bracket with beers standing in for the 64 teams. While I have some quibbles with the voting (the judges panel often differs wildly from the overwhelming people’s choice), I think it’s a great way to drum up interest in craft beers since everyone loves bracketology.
My biggest qualm about the endeavor, however, is that the beers have no relevance to the teams actually playing in the NCAA tourney. To remedy that, I decided to match up a brew with each team in the Sweet Sixteen. How did I determine the entrants? Read the rest of this entry »
11 Comments | WTF | Tagged: Brackets, IPA, March Madness | Permalink
Posted by Barley McHops
March 24, 2011
We’ve had a good couple of days coming up with a tasty beer and beer style to represent the Gods, planets, and other celestial bodies that the days of the week are named after. So far we’ve got Rock Art’s Black Moon IPA for Monday (Day of the Moon), Ommegang’s Bière de Mars for Tuesday (Day of Mars), and The Bruery’s 7 Grain Saison for the God of grains on Wednesday (Day of Mercury). Now we’ve reached Thursday, Day of Jupiter, and that’s associated with non other than the mighty, hammer-weilding Norse God Thor. I’ll just assume that Thor drank his beer from the still pulsating brain cavities of his enemies, but what beer would he drink? These are the kinds of questions that keep me up at night. Read the rest of this entry »
9 Comments | WTF | Tagged: Baltic Porter, Baltic Thunder, Beer of The Day, God of Thunder, Thor, Thursday, Victory | Permalink
Posted by Ripped Van Drinkale
March 23, 2011
The Aleheads protest outside Bell's Brewery HQ
Yesterday Brother Barley created a bit of a stir regarding the cease-and-desist letter from Bell’s Brewery to Northern Brewer, calling for a boycott. Today Bell’s finally awoke to the shit-storm of animosity the event precipitated, and issued the statement below. Everything In italics is my interpretation of what Larry Bell is really trying to say to the craft beer and home brew communities… because I’m pretty good at reading between the lines, ya know?
To All Interested:
Yesterday, Northern Brewer posted on their Facebook page about a cease and desist letter that they received from Bell’s Brewery, Inc. I apologize that Bell’s has taken so long to respond to this issue, but all members of management were travelling to the Craft Brewers Conference yesterday and could not get a response posted. (Because of course we don’t all have Blackberries, IPhones, laptops, or office staff working back at HQ; also, I couldn’t figure out how to spin this whole thing without sounding like a total D-bag. Still can’t, actually.)
On March 18, 2011, representatives of Bell’s Brewery, Inc. sent a letter to Northern Brewer regarding that company’s use of Three Hearted Ale for a homebrewing kit. This letter was sent out at a time when Bell’s is having to defend it’s trademarks including Two Hearted on several fronts (But mostly land and sea). Because we are finding ourselves in this situation, we believe that is necessary to correspond in writing to those we feel are infringing on our mark (Our attorneys have advised us that letters are preferable to text message pics of my genitals). We do not know the owners of Northern Brewer nor were we familiar with the products they offered until recently (Just because I was a homebrewer for many years before starting Bell’s, which began as the homebrew shop we still operate, are obviously a little maniacal about competition, and Northern Brewer is one of the biggest and most well-known homebrew sites in the country, how could we possibly be familiar with Northern Brewer or their products?). From a legal perspective a phone call was not going to provide the documented defense that we need as we try to defend this trademark now and in the future (Of course, a courtesy phone call with a follow-up letter would provide us with our necessary “documented defense”; but I digress). Read the rest of this entry »
20 Comments | Ale Factories, Beer Industry | Tagged: Bell's Brewery, Cease and Desist, Homebrewing, Northern Brewer | Permalink
Posted by Slouch Sixpack
March 23, 2011
Ah, the blessed Hump Day. While it’s still only the 3rd day of the week in my mind, the simple fact that Wednesday is the bridge to my weekend creates anxiety on one side of the hump and bliss on the other. You’ve got your folks that say “Too bad it’s Monday” and others that say “Thank God it’s Friday”, but for me I can always look on the bright side of life with the little phrase “At least it’s Wednesday!”. Simple pleasure I guess. Right, back to the subject of beer. For those just joining us, we’re trying to come up with an excuse to re-try oft forgotten styles of beer and we’re doing so by associating a day of the week with a particular beer. Speaking in terms of planets and Gods, Wednesday is brought to us by Mercury, the God of trade and messenger of the Gods. In that sense, I guess any damn beer would do since every beer is traded unless you’re making it yourself. But we can do better than that. Let’s dig a little deeper and see what beer best represents Mercury, thus best representing the middle of the work-week and Wednesday. Read the rest of this entry »
5 Comments | WTF | Tagged: 7 Grain Saison, Beer of The Day, Mercury, Saison, The Bruery, Wednesday | Permalink
Posted by Ripped Van Drinkale
March 22, 2011
Just minutes after I posted a feel-good story about the growth of craft beer, BeerNews.org posted another ugly legal story revealing the dark side of the industry. This time, the transgressor is none other than Aleheads favorite, Bell’s Brewery.
It seems that Northern Brewer, a huge internet beer community and one of the best homebrewing sources in the country, sells a clone (a homebrewing kit) of Bell’s classic Two Hearted Ale called “Three Hearted Ale”. And Bell’s Brewery, in all their wisdom, has decided to issue a Cease and Desist letter to force Northern Brewer to change the clone’s name.* Read the rest of this entry »
45 Comments | Beer Industry | Tagged: Bell's Brewery, Cease and Desist, Lawsuit, Northern Brewer, Three Hearted, Two-Hearted | Permalink
Posted by Barley McHops
March 22, 2011
We’ve used the phrases “Craft Beer Movement” and “Craft Beer Revolution” so frequently on these pages that you’d think we spend all of our time writing manifestos and predicting the demise of the powers-that-be.
But those phrases don’t mean much if the numbers don’t back them up. If craft beer is growing at a plodding pace or staying stable, there’s no “movement” and certainly no “revolution. Even if the industry is growing quickly, it has to be growing faster than other segments of the beer world for it to really be considered a revolution. Otherwise, it would just be part of an overall rising tide. Read the rest of this entry »
1 Comment | Beer Industry | Tagged: Brewers Association, Craft Beer Movement, Craft Beer Revolution | Permalink
Posted by Barley McHops
March 22, 2011
And we’re back! Seriously, after reading that load of crap from yesterday I’m shocked that you’re subjecting yourself to more. Guess you too needed an excuse to try something new in the vast world of beer. Well, today is Tuesday so let’s try to figure out just what it is we’re getting ourselves into. Tuesday is the first day dedicated to the planets, and this day is reserved for that little red wasteland known as Mars. Quick, what first comes to mind when you think of Mars? I knew it – it’s Total Recall! Oh, sorry, was it Marvin the Martian? I’ll just blame the image at the left for that sensory cue. Anyway, Mars is of course a planet but Mars (The dude) was also better known as the Roman God of War. For us English-speaking folks, maybe we should look to the Germanic God of War, Tiu, to really understand why this day works out to be Tiu’s Day (See, it’s Tues-Day). So, let’s figure out what beer we’re drinking to pay homage to the mighty God of War! Read the rest of this entry »
6 Comments | WTF | Tagged: Beer of The Day, Biere de Garde, Biere de Mars, Day of Mars, God of War, Ommegang, Tuesday | Permalink
Posted by Ripped Van Drinkale
March 21, 2011
BEERFORD MCBREWIN’
We’ve had quite a few Conundra which discuss, broadly, what beer pairs well with (thing that’s not beer). Taking that to the next level, Brother Barley recently reminded me that not only does beer pair brilliantly with food, but it can also be a great addition to many recipes. In fact, I’ve had beer-food recipes at one point or another for every meal of the day (mmm, beer waffles). Since the Aleheads are always trying to find ways to include more beer into our lives, I thought this might be a good opportunity for some brainstorming and/or recipe sharing. So boys, tell us what your favorite beer-involved food recipe is.
Read the rest of this entry »
2 Comments | Beerford's Conundra | Tagged: Beer recipes | Permalink
Posted by Beerford McBrewin'
Anyone who’s spent any time at all chatting with other beer apprecionados about the various superlative brews they’ve sampled has compiled a list in their head of which beers they aspire to someday drink. Some are difficult to find because of geographic location (either because the beer isn’t distributed to wherever they live, or there’s a pesky ocean in the way, or what have you), or they’re simply brewed in very small batches that disappear quickly. Or, at worst, both may be the case. I certainly have a few on my list of ‘beers I must drink before I die’, and crossing a beer off that list is a pretty awesome feeling (though they tend to get replaced quickly).
