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A FRESH BEER INFRACTION

April 25, 2013

gordon-fiasco-2Last night I walked into the local bottleshop on my way home from work to check out a Pittsburgh Beer Week promotion– discounted pints of a certain IPA that comes out at every year at Christmas. Not sure I agree with hanging on to a keg of this particular beer until this late in the year, but I sort of understand it. Some (misguided) people often like age this beer for up to a year, and it seems to hold up reasonably well compared to most other beers in the style.

It tasted pretty good, and I perused the shelves looking for anything new. Lo and behold, they had tallboys of Oskar Blues G’Knight– a beer that holds a special place in my heart. It was a true gateway beer for me, back when it was called Gordon, that helped me understand what a hoppy beer could be. For me, a fresh, piney, danktastic can of G’Knight is about as good as American craft beer gets. But I almost never drink it. I can’t find it fresh.

Oskar Blues has a large presence in Pennsylvania. Most bottleshops have conspicuous (usually unrefrigerated) OB displays packed with sweet looking cans of Dale’s Pale Ale, Old Chub, and the like. The flagship Dale’s does a brisk business and you can generally find new cans of it fairly easily. But G’Knight, whether it’s the elevated ABV, the new name, or some other factor, just doesn’t sell as well. So it tends to sit on the shelves.

The reason I know this is because OB launched G’Knight in 16 oz cans during GABF week. Since then, I’ve kept an eye out for the new format, because new format = fresh beer. I drank some G’Knight tallboys in New York last December for a memorial gathering for Magnus Skullsplitter, and it tasted great. But this is the first time I’ve seen it displayed at my local bottleshop.

So I ask they guy working behind the counter about them– are they new? I’ve had my eye out for them. He replied: “We’ve had them in the back for awhile now. We had some of the regular cans to get rid of, and if we put the new ones out it would highlight the difference. So once the old ones were gone, we brought them out. They’re not that new.”

Ugh. Read the rest of this entry »

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Posted by Slouch Sixpack

RELEASE THE FIRKINS – REAL ALE FESTIVAL RECAP

April 23, 2013

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I’m usually not a big “Beer Fest” guy. While the chance to taste rare beers and rub elbows with brewery personnel always sound enticing, in practice the typical Beer Fest experience often doesn’t live up to the hype, for reasons we’ve laid out before. Given the choice, I’ll take a bottle-sharing session and conversation with good friends, or a trip to my favorite pub, over the bustle and stress of the typical festival. However, there was nowhere in the beer-consuming universe I would rather have been on Saturday than Release the Firkins, Pittsburgh’s first cask ale festival that kicked off the city’s second annual beer week.

THE BEER

The beer was uniformly excellent. One strength of the cask festival concept is that even familiar beers become new experiences when served from a firkin in the proper manner. I’ve had Bell’s Two Hearted Ale hundreds of times, perhaps thousands; on Saturday I  got to taste as it does essentially straight from the fermenter. Another advantage compared to kegs is that breweries can use the vessels as randalls, dry-hopping or adding other ingredients right in the cask, making each firkin a potential one-off. Sure, you’ve had Founder’s Centennial, but the classic IPA served fresh off a double-dry hop is a different animal altogether. You’ve had Weyerbacher Merry Monks Trippel, but what about “Mojito-style” served on lime and mint? Some of the experimentation worked better than others, but it was all interesting and made every tap worth trying.

For me, unsurprisingly, the hoppy beers were the star of the show. I’ve stated my love for Fat Head’s Head Hunter at length, but as the brewery continues an expansion process, it can be difficult to find at the height of freshness around town. The Simcoe double-dry-hopped version at RtF was a perfect distillation of the complexity of this fruity, piney hop- with just a touch of that distinctive cat pee zest people love or hate. I love it, and along with many others returned multiple times to the busy Fat Head’s tap.

If hops aren’t your thing, there were options to suit every taste. The first cask upon entering the festival hall was New Holland’s Dragon’s Milk, which was extremely popular. I heard multiple festival-goers state they’d “never tried anything like it”. I love to witness craft beer conversions, and the New Holland table was a force for evangelism on Saturday. Other highlights from the darker side of the malty spectrum included Flying Dog’s Pearl Necklace Oyster Stout dry-hopped with CTZ and East End’s Chocolate Covered Cherry Stout. Smoked beer lovers had Fat Head’s Up in Smoke, and Pittsburgh’s own Arsenal brought a Centennial Hopped Cider that was absolutely delicious, and their Picket Bone Dry Cider that served as a nice palate-cleanser to the barrage of flavorful cask ales.
Read the rest of this entry »

5 Comments | Beer Culture, Beer Festivals, Beer Industry | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Slouch Sixpack

A-B OFFERS UP NEW BOWTIE CAN DESIGN TO CRAFT BREWERS

April 19, 2013

budweiser-bowtie-canST. LOUIS, April 19, 2013 /BSNewswire/ – This spring Budweiser will introduce a striking and original new beer can — a bowtie-shaped aluminum can that mirrors Budweiser’s iconic bowtie logo; and following the lead from a recent announcement by Sam Adams, Anheuser Busch will allow the can to be used by other breweries.

Beer lovers can see for themselves the new bowtie-shaped can when it becomes available in a special 8-pack on store shelves nationwide beginning May 6.

“This can is incomparable, like nothing you’ve ever seen before,” said Pat McGauley, vice president of innovation for Anheuser-Busch. “The world’s most iconic beer brand deserves the world’s most unique and innovative can. I think we have it here.”

An excited McGauley added: “I mean, if you want to be technical it’s a lot like other cans you’ve seen before, in that it is an aluminum package for beer. But this one is shaped like a bowtie, which focus groups indicate you haven’t seen, or perhaps even thought about.”

The proprietary can, in development since 2010, reportedly cost the brewing giant more than the operating revenue for the nation’s top ten craft breweries combined. It will be available only in the United States in an 8-pack and will not replace the traditional Budweiser can.

To make the new can possible, Anheuser-Busch engineers needed to solve a number of technical challenges, and major equipment investments were required at Budweiser’s can-making facility in Newburgh, N.Y. Significant capital investments also were required to upgrade packaging lines at the Budweiser breweries in Los Angeles and Williamsburg, Va., the first breweries with capability to package this unique can innovation. Equipment used to manufacture the Stealth Bomber was also transported from an Air Force base in Nevada to enable the production of this very special can.

Newburgh, about 60 miles north of New York City and 90 miles south of Albany, is where proprietary equipment is located that shapes the can. Creating the can requires a careful 98-step process — 53 steps to form the bottom half of the can, with an additional 45 steps to form the top portion.

The Anheuser-Busch Global Innovation Group has been investigating potential can innovations for several years, often ordering lunch to be delivered to the office, and many afternoons working past 4 PM.

“We explored various shapes that would be distinguishable in the marketplace, but also viable from an engineering standpoint. Boomerangs, obelisks, several versions of rhombi… we even made a prototype shaped like Spuds MacKenzie.” McGauley said. “Aluminum can be stretched only about 10 percent without fracturing, which requires that the angles of the bowtie be very precise.” Read the rest of this entry »

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RELEASE THE FIRKINS!

April 10, 2013

logo“We’re doing this the right way.”

Hart Johnson, official Piper’s Pub bartender, Piper’s unofficial beer coordinator, and Secretary for Pittsburgh Craft Beer Week 2013, lays out his plans for the city’s first Real Ale Festival: “We’re not rolling the firkins down the hill that day and hoping for the best. Everything will be properly vented and served the way it’s supposed to be.”

The American craft beer scene often resembles The Blob- enveloping and co-opting brewing ingredients, styles, and techniques from all over the world. If it works and tastes good, someone will use it, from New Zealand hops to yeast gathered from a bottle of Rochefort 10. But cask ale served in the British tradition has been relatively slow to catch on at festivals and beer bars in the states. Why? To paraphrase Johnson, it’s a pain in the ass.

Compared to kegs, serving cask ales is a messy and time-consuming proposition. During conditioning, they must be kept be kept at 50-60 degrees and ideally served below 55. They must be handled with care and allowed to sit undisturbed for at least a day to allow the yeast to drop and form a layer of sediment. As any homebrewer knows, carbonating and conditioning in the bottle is an inexact science, and it is the same with cask ales. The level of carbonation in each firkin will vary, and brewers opt to add sufficient amounts of priming sugar to make sure the cask is carbonated enough- after all, over carbonation can be fixed by slowly venting the gas, but there is no cure for a firkin without enough fizz.

Read the rest of this entry »

6 Comments | Beer Culture, Beer Festivals | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
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THE FRESH BEER STORE

April 8, 2013

future2Envision a store that treats beer like what it is- a perishable item that must be consumed at its peak of freshness, no different than produce, meat, or dairy products (minus the food-borne illness risks). Every item for sale in this store requires the producer to display the packaged-on date.

Just like at the grocery store, the most age-sensitive products are kept in coolers around the periphery- in this case the Pales Ales, IPA’s, and other beers that rely on fragile hop oils for flavor and aroma. No more breweries jockeying for sovereign shelf real estate through schwag and more nefarious means­- these beers are grouped in coolers by packaged date: <30 days, <60 days, <90 days. Beyond 90 days these beers are relegated to a separate section of the store, where customers pay the discounted rates due of products past their best.

In the center of the store sit the beers that age with a little more dignity- the malty Stouts, Scotch Ales, styles of the Belgian persuasion. These too, on a more case-by-case basis, are sent to the discount shelf when the time is right. This decision is made by the proprietor, who cares about freshness as much as his most ardent consumer, and who instills this belief in his educated staff. Read the rest of this entry »

12 Comments | Beer Culture, Beer Industry | Tagged: , | Permalink
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THE TEN BREWERY COMMANDMENTS

March 29, 2013

holy_Moses_White_Ale

And the LORD Ninkasi, the Goddess of Grain, then said unto Slouch Sixpack, “Come up to me into the brewpub, and be there: and I will give thee ring-ed napkins of paper, and brewery commandments which I have written upon them; that thou mayest blog them.” And Slouch rose up, and his Brother Barley: and Slouch went up into the brewpub of Ninkasi.

Slouch was covered by the haze of alcohol for forty days and forty nights. Before the full forty days, the Aleheads decided that something had happened to Slouch Sixpack, like bad mushrooms or head trauma, and compelled Doc to fashion a fizzy golden lager, and he built a kegerator  before it.

After the full forty days Slouch and Barley came out from the brewpub with the napkins, and as he came nigh unto the festivities, and he saw the lager, and the tomfoolery, and Slouch’s anger waxed hot, and he wadded the commandments, and tore them asunder.

And the LORD told Slouch: “Go get two napkins of paper like unto the first, and I will write upon these the words that were in the first napkins, which thou brakest.” And she wrote on the napkins, according to the first writing, the TEN BREWERY COMMANDMENTS: Read the rest of this entry »

5 Comments | WTF | Tagged: | Permalink
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A MIXED BARREL FROM VICTORY

March 27, 2013

2013-02-17_17-01-06_951When discussing the greatest brewing states, the same names pop up each time: California, Oregon, and Colorado are on everyone’s list. Michigan and North Carolina continue to make strides. But a real dark horse candidate is Pennsylvania. Consider the following:

  • ► A rich, arguably unrivaled brewing tradition and history.
  • ► The best and most successful US-owned competitor to AB/InBev and Miller Coors mass-marketed lagers in Yuengling.
  • ► Respected and award-winning regional players like Victory and Troegs.
  • ► Entrenched micros that have been making great beer since the late 1900’s (Stoudts, Weyerbacher, Penn)
  • ► Newcomers shaking up the production scene from all corners of the state (Tired Hands, Lavery, Helltown)

Throw in the (very) gradually loosening Blue Laws and vibrant beer weeks in the cultural capitals of Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, and the state of brewing in Pennsylvania has never been brighter. Yet one area this Commonwealth falls short in comparison to other states is that of Prestige Beer. Hype. The White Whales of beer trading circles like Founders KBS, Deschutes Abyss, Cigar City Hunahpu, Three Floyds Dark Lord. Big, barrel-aged beers that throw the beer geeks in a tizzy.

Some may argue that this is not a bad thing. Perhaps there is too much hype in beer. But since I don’t live in Michigan, Oregon, Tampa, or Indiana I have little chance of finding these prestige beers on my local shelves. I do, however, live in Pennsylvania. So the greedy little child in me wants more, despite the plethora of great beer already available to me. I want the barrel-aged barleywines and stouts topping the RateBeer Best of Lists that my friends can’t get. I want to taunt them. I wants to hoards them, my preciousss…

Thus it was with great delight in late 2011 that I read about Victory’s foray into barrel aging with Dark Intrigue- the highly regarded Storm King Imperial Stout aged in bourbon barrels. Since then, I’ve been able to find and sample four of Victory’s barrel beer projects, with mixed results. Read the rest of this entry »

10 Comments | Beer Culture, Tasting Notes | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
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WHAT ARE YOU DRINKING THIS WEEKEND? MARCH MADNESS EDITION

March 22, 2013

hate-dukeIt’s March Madness, and you know what that means! That’s right, a socially acceptable reason to sit on your couch or a pub stool all weekend and drink beer, watching eighteen year-old communications majors hoist far too many three-point attempts, earning millions of dollars in advertising revenue to line the NCAA’s corrupt coffers. Sure, it’s not even quitting time and your bracket is already FUBAR, but let’s focus on the positives… this is one of the great drinking weekends of the calendar year, right up there with next weekend, and, of course, last weekend.

So what to drink? It’s technically spring now, although across much of the country you wouldn’t know it (to our California and Florida readers: the rest of us despise you right now. You’re not so great the rest of the year either. Have fun sliding into the ocean sometime mid-century). So you’re perfectly within your rights to drink anything from the fresh maibocks and saisons popping up on store shelves, to the burly stouts and DIPA’s that keep winter’s lingering chill at bay.

This weekend I’ll be enjoying some Great Lakes Alchemy Hour, my freshman-of-the-year for the 2013 DIPA season- a big, fruity mosaic-hopped beauty that stands toe-to-toe with the NBA-bound Hopslams of the world. And it’s hard to find much in the way of American-brewed sours in western PA, so I’m excited to try a bomber of Uinta Birthday Suit 2oth Anniversary Sour Brown I happened upon recently. I’ll let you know how this one scores at the Aleheads combine. It’s got tremendous upside potential.

So I ask you, Alehead Nation:

What are you drinking this weekend?

11 Comments | What are you drinking tonight? | Permalink
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WHAT ARE YOU DRINKING THIS WEEKEND? ST PADDY’S EDITION

March 15, 2013

It’s a drinking holiday, so you’re in. Clearly. THE MAN wants you to drink Bud Black Tie Something Something. Sentimentality says Guinness. But you have a fridge full of winter-strength beers, a few hours to kill, and a liver that just won’t quit.  You’re an Alehead, goddammit. And you make your own rules. So, I ask, friends:

WHAT ARE YOUR DRINKING THIS WEEKEND?

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11 Comments | Beer Culture, What are you drinking tonight?, WTF | Tagged: , | Permalink
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CHEERS TO A DEPARTED FRIEND: GOOGLE READER

March 14, 2013

You may not remember the first time you used Google- it has become such an integral part of our lives and the way we use the Internet, sometimes it seems like it has always been with us- but I do. It was spring of 1999, in Goose’s room at 8 Webster Ave, Hanover NH. For all his foibles, Goose was always at the forefront of the latest and greatest in technology, before tech blogs even existed. He knew how to make web pages (which seemed at the time like wizardry) and he was great at finding music and other sorts of entertainment, too. His secret was Google. I remember seeing the minimalist screen on his monitor, a departure from the busy, cluttered search engine options like Lycos, Excite, Webcrawler, and AltaVista. And from the beginning, it just worked better than the others. This was just after the two Stanford grad students had moved their eight employee company and its servers out of their garage office, before they’d secured the venture capital that would start the company’s incredible growth.

may-1999

I’ve been enamored with Google products ever since. Be it Gmail, Google Docs, and even Google Wave, I’ve always tried to get in as early as possible and been an advocate for their vision for an open web. There is no other company in the world that is so entwined with my existence or I identify with as strongly- which is why I felt such disappointment at the announcement that they are killing Google Reader, the company’s web and mobile RSS client that allows me to keep up with my favorite websites in one place.

RSS is a technology that pushes new posts from blogs like Aleheads out automatically. It lets me sift through a truly dizzying amount of beer-related content produced every day from bloggers all over the world. It is the backbone behind podcasting, which will slowly but surely kill radio and television as we know it.

Despite its simplicity and utility, the tech world has never been able to monetize RSS and so Reader is being put down more unceremoniously than Old Yeller. They want to push users over to Google+, the company’s social network that is a direct competitor to Facebook.

So far, this announcement among the blogosphere is going over like the proverbially turd in the punchbowl. And with good reason- the people who create all the content you waste your employer’s money reading all day utilize Google Reader to find the newest and most interesting stuff online. Despite the furor, I don’t expect petitions to change anything. The engineers that craft such elegant products have already crunched the numbers, and Reader’s time is at an end. For a company whose visions used to include organizing all the world’s information, focus on the user, and don’t be evil, I think they are making a tremendous mistake. There are other options for RSS readers, of course, but I’m sad to be unceremoniously dumped from the Google universe.

So what does this have to do with beer? Not much. But here are ten great beer blogs and websites I (used to) visit whenever they published new content  through Google Reader: Read the rest of this entry »

4 Comments | A Series of Tubes, Beer Culture, Best/Worst, WTF | Tagged: | Permalink
Posted by Slouch Sixpack

YOU’RE NOT WRONG WALTER

March 13, 2013

Walter

 

CONTEXT

 

Sixpack

 

 

 

2 Comments | Beer Culture, Beer Memes, WTF | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Slouch Sixpack

USA CRAFT BEER 2013, IN A PHOTO

March 11, 2013

Rocky Mountain Oyster Stout - Wynkoop Brewing Company

A bold take on a classic style. Colorado’s granddaddy brewpub releases an experimental beer that keeps up with the Crooked Staves and the TRiNiTYs of the world. Funny concept, hatched over brews, is taken to its absurd, fermented conclusion. Good feedback at GABF 2012. Hype. Visual professionals get involved. Staging, composition. Industrial, artisanal, agrarian.  Slick Videos. Beer can and snifter side-by-side elevate and transcend the other; testicle grounds the image, a visceral reminder of the grass-to-glass process. Read the rest of this entry »

7 Comments | Beer Culture, WTF | Tagged: , , | Permalink
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THAT NOT-SO-FRESH FEELING

February 18, 2013
Image

This beer is older than our last blog post. Not a good sign.

Late February is not the best time of year to live in the northeastern United States. Days are brutish and short. Weather conditions fluctuate wildly; winter storms Magnus and Nemo rain terror upon the morning commuters. You must shovel, and salt. Football is over for five months. Joe Flacco and Ray Lewis are national heroes. Dark times, indeed.

But all is not lost, for you are a beer drinker! February means Hopslam. It means Nugget Nectar and Palate Wrecker. It means bushels of Nugget, Simcoe, Citra, and Columbus packed into this year’s iterations of highly anticipated seasonal offerings from the nation’s best breweries. Depending where you live, these beers are snatched up by thirsty consumers within a few weeks, and often the very same day they are unloaded from the distributor’s truck. On the far coast, Vinnie and Natalie from Russian River feted by the California state legislature beneath the banner: Welcome! Pliny the Younger; hopped, fermented sugar water transcends beverage to become celebrated American institution!

It’s no secret that the utilization of flavor and aroma hops fuel the craft beer explosion in the US. According to RateBeer, nearly 1 of every 10 new beers introduced in 2012 was IPA. And why not? As a beer consumer, once you’ve acquired the taste, a hopbomb always sounds good. I’ve convinced myself that IPA is the ideal beer style to pair with sushi, Mexican food, and barbecue. Is this because the citric/ floral/ coniferous flavors match objectively with raw fish or rice and beans? Naw, I’ve just rationalized a way to enjoy my favorite beers with my favorite foods. I’m an inveterate hophead.

But once you’ve contracted the hoplust, you have a problem on your hands. When the largest grocer in Pittsburgh, Giant Eagle, finally circumvented draconian PA liquor laws through licensing and began to sell beer in stores, I was elated. GE entering the beer market presented Pennsylvania consumers with an economic option between distributors which sold affordable beer but only by the case, and the specialty bottle shops which sold singles and six-packs at dramatically inflated prices. So Giant Eagle’s prices were good, and the selection was surprisingly excellent. But a few years into the experiment, I’ve noticed a disappointing trend- a lot of old beer sitting on the shelves. And a lot of these are IPA’s.
Read the rest of this entry »

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THE ALEHEADS PODCAST: GREG KOCH, STONE BREWING

September 6, 2012

We welcome Greg from Stone Brewing to the show for the first time, where he dishes on their new “Enjoy By IPA”, fresh beer, hops, upcoming collaborations, a kinder gentler Greg Face, and much more.

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THE ALEHEADS PODCAST: FAL ALLEN, ANDERSON VALLEY BREWING CO.

August 23, 2012

Not Fal Allen, but lots of Barney Flats in Bourbon Barrels

After a summer hiatus, we proudly welcome Anderson Valley brewmaster Fal Allen to the show in the wake of their recently announced Wild Turkey partnership. We discuss Barney Flats Oatmeal Stout in bourbon barrels, new AVBC brews on the horizon, Fal’s time as a brewer in Singapore, their foray into cans, the challenges of starting a sour program, and much more.

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THE FIRST RULE OF GOOD BEER CLUB

August 8, 2012

The most compelling and popular posts on this site often rely on utilizing robust online databases and forums such as Reddit/beer, RateBeer, and BeerAdvocate to glean information, lists, or conclusions about the continuing craft beer revolution. However, I’ve started a new job and haven’t posted in weeks. So rather than put in the work to produce something useful for you to read, I’ll just play the blogger card and throw out something apocryphal I’ve noticed in the past week: is it just me, or do you keep seeing strangers walking around wearing cool craft beer schwag like hats and shirts?

We started Aleheads a few years ago- a diaspora of beer loving friends forced through education, employment, and the winds of fate to live in isolation, relying on the blog as a public-facing outlet to take the place of (or rather, supplement) long-winded private emails about our love of good beer. Craft beer consumption in the US was below 3%, and outside your Portlands, Friscos, and Bostons of the world, great selection was hard to come by. Read the rest of this entry »

15 Comments | Beer Culture | Permalink
Posted by Slouch Sixpack

COOKING WITH BEER

May 14, 2012

I find cooking with beer to be one of the most morally vexing issues of our time. Sure, food is good; some may argue a necessity. Food that tastes good is better still… and adding beer makes everything better. Right?

And yet, I was raised to never waste beer- and I’m talking cheap swill of the sort you wouldn’t order for your worst enemy. Beers like Genny Cream and Milwaukee’s Best. During my formative years beer was regarded as a sacred beverage, and you always had to finish your beer. God forbid if you accidentally spilled a beer, you were duty-bound to drink an equal volume of the same in tribute. All-in-all, I think this outlook is good and worthwhile- we live in a wasteful society, and I despise the notion of drainpours… those beers brewed in such a way that they are rated to be not worthy of your consumption. Get over yourself, people. It’s just beer.

That’s why it’s so hard for me to dump a perfectly good beer into food I’m preparing. I like to cook- nothing fancy mind you. I like to grill meat. I like to cook breakfast. By far the favorite culinary weapon in my admittedly limited arsenal is the crockpot. It’s hard to mess things up; most recipes throw out suggested figures like “cook on low 4-6 hours” (I appreciate a large margin for error when cooking). You can throw a bunch of ingredients in the slowcooker before you leave for the day and come back to a home wafting delicious aromas, with no danger of burning your domicile to the ground. The meal can be kept fresh and hot for the whole family, despite staggered schedules and varying supper times.

That’s why I was excited to stumble across a crockpot recipe that is cheap, easy, hearty, and greatly improved by beer. Does my shriveled Alehead heart feel a pang when I added the fermented ingredient? Sure, a little, but it grows three sizes when I sample the final product.
Read the rest of this entry »

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MAY THE FOURTH BE WITH YOU; WHAT ARE YOU DRINKING TONIGHT?

May 4, 2012

Received this email from Doc just now… if you’re in the nation’s capitol, go buy him a beer (or at least a 4-ounce pour). In related news, tell us what you’re drinking tonight.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________

From: Ripped Van Drinkale
To: Everyone
Is it wrong to hang out at Church Key in DC all by yourself while you’re waiting for friends to come to town?  I didn’t think so either. Glad we’re clear on that. Started off with some collaboration from Mikellar and Stillwater called Two Gypsies – Our side. Fine Saison for a humid-as-fuck day. Now I’m getting into some 4-oz pours. Great Lakes Edmund Fitzgerald (for Kid) and Mikellar 19. Pretty much everything they have on draught is some one-off or collaboration between breweries. I’m in love.
-Doc
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________
So Alehead Nation, what are you drinking tonight?
Who, me? Deviant Dale’s and Rayon Vert. Thanks for asking. You are so goddamn thoughtful.

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THE ALEHEADS PODCAST: JACOB MCKEAN, MODERN TIMES BEER

May 1, 2012

An über-beer geek and writer is looking to raise funds for a 30-BBL brewhouse in San Diego? Yeah, that’s somebody I need to talk to… Jacob McKean is in the midst of fundraising for Modern Times Beer and we discuss his experiences working as a social media specialist at Stone Brewing, his Beerpulse Op-ed piece, bringing on famed homebrew blogger the Mad Fermentationist as a consultant, their projected beer line-up (including a homage to Nugget Nectar), and much more.

If you’ve ever thought about taking your homebrew hobby to the pro level, listen to this and understand what you’re getting into.

Follow Modern Times on Twitter, Facebook, and say hello to Jacob if you are attending CBC ’12.

Click below to stream this episode in your browser using the audio player:

Click to download the MP3 to your computer Read the rest of this entry »

4 Comments | All Beers Considered, Interviews, The Maltercation | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
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THE ALEHEADS PODCAST: ME AND TONY MAGEE

April 17, 2012

I get to interview Tony, from Lagunitas. It is awesome. If you like craft beer, listen to it as soon as possible. If not, please move along. That is all.

 

 

 

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11 Comments | Ale Factories, All Beers Considered, Interviews, The Maltercation, WTF | Tagged: , , | Permalink
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