May 24, 2012
There are certain cities that Aleheads speak of in hushed tones. Cities that have embraced craft beer culture and feature wonderful, local breweries, taprooms, beer festivals and more. These are the cities that Aleheads are proud to call home. Cities where groups of Aleheads make their pilgrimages to wallow in the craft beer revolution and imbibe a few too many tasty brews. San Diego, San Francisco, Boston, Denver, Chicago, Asheville, Seattle, Philly…these cities all have so much to offer a true Alehead.
But even the most rabid homer knows that one city towers above all others when it comes to craft beer. One city has made craft beer such an integral part of its culture that it has added “Beervana” as one of its many official nicknames. That city? Portland, Oregon. Read the rest of this entry »
11 Comments | 
Beer Culture, Travelogues | Tagged: Bailey's Taproom, Beervana, Belmont Station, cascade, Deschutes, Green Dragon Tavern, Hair of the Dog, Hopworks, Horse Brass Pub, Oregon, Portland | 
Permalink
Posted by Barley McHops
May 17, 2012
For once, sanity prevails.
During my recent trip to Portland (more on that in the coming weeks), something amazing happened in Alabama. I would be remiss in my duties as an Alabama Alehead if I didn’t let our readers know about the situation.
The day before I left for Oregon, the Gourmet Bottle Bill was on the Special Order Calendar in the Alabama House. Thanks to the tireless efforts of Free the Hops, the grassroots organization that is the heart and soul of the Alabama craft beer movement, the Gourmet Bottle Bill had passed the Alabama Senate and the House’s Economic Development and Tourism Committee. To get to the Governor’s desk, it just had to pass the House. Read the rest of this entry »
12 Comments | Beer Legislation | Tagged: 750, Alabama, Big Beers, Bomber, Free the Hops, Gourmet Bottle Bill | Permalink
Posted by Barley McHops
May 8, 2012
Spring is in the air, folks. Amidst the rain and gloominess stands the promise of summer and all the wonderful things that come along with it. The smell of fresh cut grass and barbeque will mingle on decks and patios across the nation. Golf courses will be overwhelmed with people in shorts and t-shirts. Lakes and beaches everywhere will be teeming with the masses – and doesn’t beer taste good under the hot summer sun?
The “summer feeling” you’re looking forward to also means big money to brewers of yellow, fizzy beer. In a completely unscientific survey of beer commercials on cable TV, it turns out that they all had three features in common: Read the rest of this entry »
3 Comments | Beer 101 | Tagged: Kölsch, Keller, Maibock, Summer, Tea Beer | Permalink
Posted by Barley McHops
May 7, 2012
The evening was unseasonably warm. The hour grew late. The fat, bone-white moon hung overhead…pregnant with a sense of ominous foreboding. We did not heed the signs. We were not prepared.
It all began harmlessly enough. A group of foolhardy compatriots gathering under starlight to sample a selection of fermented treasures. There were rich, redolent barleywines. Bracing, bitter IPAs. Strong, complex Imperial Stouts. There was no hint of the terror to come. No indication of the foul, remorseless beast…biding its time.
We talked of past glories and future plans and laughed loud into the night. At that moment, disarmed by the strong ales we had consumed and the convivial atmosphere, the beast chose the perfect moment to attack. Read the rest of this entry »
9 Comments | Tasting Notes | Tagged: Rogue, Bacon Maple Ale, Voodoo Doughnut | Permalink
Posted by Barley McHops
May 2, 2012
If you’ve read these pages often, you’ll have heard the constant drum-beat of our contributors telling our local legislators to support pro-craft beer laws. I’ve prattled on incessantly about the need for Alabama to keep breaking down the obstacles to craft beer growth in the state (not to beat a dead horse, but if you haven’t written to your local rep about the Gourmet Bottle Bill, it will be on the House calendar tomorrow! Get on it!).
One of the key points in these screeds has always been the idea that freeing up the market for craft beer will create economic growth. Naysayers could argue that even the “freest” beer market simply wouldn’t have much of an impact on a local economy. Well, to those who say “nay”, I simply say this: Asheville, North Carolina. Read the rest of this entry »
2 Comments | Beer Industry, Beer Legislation | Tagged: Asheville, New Belgium, North Carolina, Oskar Blues, Sierra Nevada | Permalink
Posted by Barley McHops
April 30, 2012
SB294, the “Gourmet Bottle Bill” will be on the Alabama House calendar this Thursday, May 3rd according to Free the Hops. Currently, Alabama law restricts beer sold in the state to 16-ounce containers or smaller. Alabama is the ONLY state in the US with this restriction on the books. SB294 changes that restriction to 25.4 ounces which would allow the sale of 22-ounce and 750-ml bottles, but NOT the more “controversial” 40-ounce bottles.
13 of the 41 “wet” counties in Alabama have actually changed their local laws to allow the sale of larger beer containers. However, the counties containing Alabama’s four largest cities and the majority of its citizens (Birmingham, Huntsville, Montgomery and Mobile) have not passed these laws. Passing SB294 would change the laws at a state-wide level which would allow the citizens in every wet county in Alabama to purchase large-format beer bottles and cans. Read the rest of this entry »
5 Comments | Beer Legislation | Permalink
Posted by Barley McHops
April 20, 2012
One of the most ubiquitous trends in the craft beer world over the past few years has been barrel-aging. While some time spent mellowing in a nice, toasted oak cask can add wonderful complexity and character to a brew, there are some major hurdles to overcome if your brewery wants to start a barrel program.
First, and most obvious, is the cost. If you want to age your beer on any sort of mass-production scale, you’ll need a LOT of barrels. And a good oak barrel doesn’t come cheap. Most breweries purchase used barrels from the wine or spirits industry (which is why you see so many bourbon and scotch-aged beers). But even used barrels, when purchased in bulk, add up. And don’t forget that the styles of beer that age the best are expensive-to-produce, high-gravity numbers like Imperial Stouts and Barleywines. You’re already plunking down a lot of cash just to purchase the ingredients to make those big beers. Add the cost of brewing the beer to the cost of your aging program and you’re shelling out big bucks for the privilege of brewing that prestige beer you’ve been dreaming of. Read the rest of this entry »
9 Comments | Beer Industry | Tagged: Barrel Aging, Beechwood Aging, Wood Chips | Permalink
Posted by Barley McHops
April 19, 2012
A few weeks back, Maxwell Arndt, co-founder of Swag Brewery asked if the Aleheads would mind helping him get the word out about his new venture. We get a lot of requests like this which is mildly amusing to those of us who remember when 10 hits a day on our site was a big deal.*
*Now we get more like 12 hits a day. Suck it, Google!
Anyways, I usually turn such requests down. We’re a little too self-righteous to serve as a PR machine for other companies and to be honest, why would any business really want to align themselves with us? Read the rest of this entry »
6 Comments | Beer Industry | Tagged: Beer Outfitter, Swag Brewery | Permalink
Posted by Barley McHops
April 18, 2012
Faithful readers know that I’ve all but given up on writing tasting notes. In the early days of Aleheads, I cranked them out with reckless abandon. It was a fun way to keep a running catalog of the beers I was consuming and it made for a quick and easy post when the site didn’t have much new content.
Over time, I started seeing tasting notes as a bit of a chore. For starters, I’m not very good at them. I LOVE craft beer, but I don’t have a particularly refined palate or sense of smell. My wife can pick out about 10 times the flavor and aroma notes that I can. Hell, I let my three-year-old take a whiff of an Imperial IPA the other day and she picked out some lemon scents that I hadn’t even noticed. Beyond that, tasting notes get mind-numbingly repetitive when you write them in volume. There are only so many times you can write about “toffee notes” or “a touch of grapefruit in the nose”. Craft beer might have a seemingly infinite number of variations, but we seem to always go back to the same few descriptors when writing about it (or at least I do). Read the rest of this entry »
4 Comments | Tasting Notes | Tagged: Beer Cellar, Citra DIPA, Hoarder, Kaggen! Stormakts Porter, Kern River, Narke, Smiley Brown | Permalink
Posted by Barley McHops
April 17, 2012
When it comes to beer aficionados, there’s no question that the true fanatic will know multitudes of facts – both mainstream and obscure – about the brewing, distributions, and consumption of their favorite beverage. They’ll know where to find the best microbrews in the U.S., they’ll have a strong understanding of hop content, and they’ll invariably have an opinion about every brand in the local grocery store. In short, they can be expected to be just as knowledgeable about beer as any single man with money can be expected to know about hot sugar daddy models in his area. But in my recent talks with big beer drinkers, I’ve realized that many of us can be found surprisingly lacking when it comes to one crucial talent: pairing the right beer with the right dinner foods. Read the rest of this entry »
4 Comments | Beer Culture | Tagged: Beer, Food, Pairing | Permalink
Posted by Barley McHops
April 1, 2012
I, for one, welcome our new corporate overlords.
Let me start with the worst-kept secret in the beer blogosphere. The rumors that you have probably heard in the comments section on our site over the past few weeks are indeed true. Aleheads has sold a teeny-tiny (and I do mean teeny-tiny) piece of our ownership to the Tenth and Blake Beer Company. Before the backlash begins, allow me to say that I KNOW this announcement reeks of hypocrisy. I can’t really argue with that, but please let me at least attempt to explain…
Over the past year or so, Aleheads has posted some harsh words about MillerCoors’s infestation of the craft beer world via their craft wing, Tenth and Blake. While we certainly stand by much of what was said in those posts, we’ll admit that those missives were naive at best and reactionary at worst. The truth is, the craft beer pie is getting too big for the macros to ignore. Tenth and Blake’s creation and subsequent involvement in craft was, frankly, inevitable. Read the rest of this entry »
13 Comments | Beer Industry | Tagged: Aleheads, MillerCoors, Tenth and Blake | Permalink
Posted by Barley McHops
March 19, 2012
For quite some time now, I’ve been curious as to why I can buy Founders’ Centennial IPA, Breakfast Stout and Double Trouble in Alabama but can NOT purchase their best-in-class Scotch Ale, the Dirty Bastard.
Thanks to Free the Hops, we now know why. Apparently a bureaucrat (and I say that with all the freighted baggage the word implies) from the state’s Alcoholic Beverage Control Board has decided that the word “bastard” is too offensive to the delicate sensibilities of everyday Alabamans to allow such a beverage to be sold here. Of course, this could conceivably make sense in a “won’t someone think of the children” vein…if children could actually BUY alcoholic beverages. Which, last I checked, they can not. Read the rest of this entry »
20 Comments | Beer Legislation | Tagged: ABC, Alabama, Dirty Bastard, Founders, Scotch Ale | Permalink
Posted by Barley McHops
March 16, 2012
A hopster admiring his wares.
BROTHER BARLEY: Well Slouchie, it’s finally happened. The anti-Alehead backlash has officially begun.
A strange op-ed piece from The Good Men Project has been making the rounds amongst beer geeks recently in which it claims that no one really “likes” craft beer…they just pretend to because it’s the cool, new thing. Then today, you forwarded out a Vimeo video which satirizes a novice Alehead as they decide to get into craft beer by buying the “best beers in the world” on eBay and starting a blog within the first few hours of getting into craft beer. The latter was fairly amusing and definitely skewers a particular segment of the Alehead population and the former seems to have been written with tongue planted firmly in cheek.
Still…despite their satirical bent, these posts seem to be the first warning shots in what I fear will almost certainly turn into a barrage of anti-Alehead screeds. You can almost sense the first, faint stirrings of a culture war about to be unleashed. And Big Beer will, no doubt, take full advantage with a Macro vs. Craft ad campaign in the vein of the old Mac vs. PC ads. Read the rest of this entry »
8 Comments | Aleheads Dialogue, Beer Industry | Tagged: Aleheads, Backlash, Beer Geek, Hopster, Jumping the Shark, Tipping Point | Permalink
Posted by Barley McHops
March 12, 2012
Slouch Sixpack passed along this interesting little map created by the Tax Foundation. It shows the beer excise tax rates by state and, lo and behold, Alabama has the worst rates in the lower 48 (shocking, I know!). Compare Alabama’s $1.05 rate to Oregon’s $0.08 rate (over 13 times (!) lower), and you can probably guess which state is a craft beer mecca and which is JUST starting to emerge from the dark ages of the Big Beer Hegemony. Read the rest of this entry »
3 Comments | Beer Industry, Best/Worst | Tagged: Alabama, Excise Tax, Income Tax, Property Tax, Sales Tax | Permalink
Posted by Barley McHops
March 7, 2012
The Aleheads have labeled 2012 as the Year of Craft Beer, and at this point in the year, we see no reason to change that statement. Pro-Craft legislation is being pushed in many states. This year will likely see the opening of the 2,000th (!) brewery in the US. And, perhaps most importantly, the media has taken a shine to the craft beer revolution. Stories about the growth of the industry have appeared in newspapers and in blogs far and wide.
As craft continues its meteoric rise, trends have come and gone. We’ve seen the growth of barrel-aging, extreme-hopped beers, private labels, wild ales, and sours. Black IPAs had their moment in the sun…as did hefeweizens. The birth of high-end, beer-centric gastropubs has been a welcome development as has the replacement of macro taps with local crafts at dive bars throughout the country. It’s certainly a heady time to be a craft beer enthusiast. Read the rest of this entry »
9 Comments | Beer Culture, Beer Industry | Tagged: Craft Beer, Fads, Future, Trends | Permalink
Posted by Barley McHops
March 1, 2012
Who makes this beer again?
Yesterday, Doc sent out an e-mail to the Aleheads asking if any of us had sampled Batch 19 yet. During a recent trip to VA, Doc was half in the bag after tucking into some delicious Bell’s Two Hearted and HopSlam pints. His bartender, taking pity on him, apparently suggested he scale back on his ABV intake by partaking in a Batch 19 instead. Doc said he enjoyed the beer…until the next morning when he discovered that Batch 19 is brewed by Tenth and Blake (the “craft” division of MillerCoors). That didn’t change his enjoyment of the beer from the night before. But it did add some context that made him question the experience.
This morning, the Czar forwarded the rest of the Aleheads an excellent article from the West Coaster (an on-line publication representing the San Diego craft beer scene). In it, the author compellingly argues against the current practice in which Big Beer markets their “craft” products without giving any indication of who is actually brewing the beer. Blue Moon is the best/worst example. Their beers are wholly brewed by Coors, but their bottles claim they’re produced by the “Blue Moon Brewing Company”. Doc had no idea who made Batch 19, and indeed, as the West Coaster author notes, neither the Batch 19 bottles nor the tap handles mention that they are brewed by a huge multi-national. Read the rest of this entry »
40 Comments | Beer Industry, Beer Marketing | Tagged: Anheuser-Busch InBev, Batch 19, Big Beer, Blue Dawg, Blue Moon, MillerCoors, Shock Top, Tenth and Blake | Permalink
Posted by Barley McHops
February 29, 2012
The King of Beers.
After publishing our “Best Breweries” post, a few commenters asked if I could expand the list to include the next 10 American breweries (I had only looked at RateBeer’s Top 10) and perhaps look at some of the top foreign breweries as well. I agreed that this was a worthy endeavor (or at least as worthy as such an inane exercise can be) so I decided to look at RateBeer’s Top 25 overall breweries (which includes 20 American and 5 foreign ale factories) and crunched the numbers the same way I did in the original post.* Read the rest of this entry »
3 Comments | Ale Factories, Best/Worst | Tagged: Best Breweries | Permalink
Posted by Barley McHops
February 27, 2012
Our long national nightmare is over.
I hesitated to post about this last week, but what the hell. As the guy who named Weyerbacher as having the most egregiously horrible beer labels in the craft beer world, I figure I owe them a shout-out for finally redesigning their old logo which was about as drab and ugly as any out there. Read the rest of this entry »
3 Comments | Beer Marketing | Tagged: Beer Labels, Grand Moff Tarkin, Jester, Weyerbacher | Permalink
Posted by Barley McHops
There are certain cities that Aleheads speak of in hushed tones. Cities that have embraced craft beer culture and feature wonderful, local breweries, taprooms, beer festivals and more. These are the cities that Aleheads are proud to call home. Cities where groups of Aleheads make their pilgrimages to wallow in the craft beer revolution and imbibe a few too many tasty brews. San Diego, San Francisco, Boston, Denver, Chicago, Asheville, Seattle, Philly…these cities all have so much to offer a true Alehead.
