This podcast episode had a few things about homebrewers going pro, including a comment, by Brewers Association director Paul Gatza, that 90% of professional craft brewers started as homebrewers. IIRC, the same statistic was mentioned by Ken Wells, of Travels with Barley fame on the July 16, 2005 episode of The Beer Show. This statistic must be listed somewhere on the Brewers Association website.
Tag Archives: Beer
Beer Riot and Sunday Opening
Sunday and evening hours: You can bank on it
Chicago — the town Billy Sunday couldn't shut down — always had a tough time keeping the Christian sabbath free of trade. An 1845 Chicago law prohibited taverns from opening on Sundays, but the ban was unpopular with Irish and German immigrants, according to the Encyclopedia of Chicago. When Mayor Levi Boone tried to enforce the law in 1855, it led to the Lager Beer Riot.
Well, there was more to the riot than the schedule issue, but it's interesting to see this take on it.
Picaroons
Great beer, right here: Fredericton’s Picaroons brews medal showings
And the Taproom in downtown Fredericton is a great place to try it out!
Awards for NB Breweries
New Brunswick breweries kick butt: Moncton's Pump House named 2005 Canadian Brewery of the Year
Congratulations to NB brewers!
Lived in Moncton for a while and in Fredericton for just a bit. NB beer geeks (including some "Members of Barleyment") may feel that their province has little to offer beer-wise, but those awards may tell another story…
Open Source Beer
Beer Recipe Under Creative Commons
Speaking of "free as in beer" and "free as in speech," this one was mentioned on the HomeBrew Digest tonight.
Yes, beer and geekness go together well.
And, for this homebrewer, it's a good way to wrap up ramblings about Creative Commons, academic freedom, and references. Well, as good as any. Linking to a site describing the probability of seeing a man with a paddle and a jar of Tremclad hitchhiking on the highway would only have been mildly more entertaining. Musing about the effects of a warm bath with sea salt and cayenne pepper would have been slightly more confusing. Ranting about how underused "Twéla" is as an official first name in Quebec would have been too specific. And not posting anything would have been irrational.
😉
Canadian Microbreweries in 1985
Designer beer – Selling Suds: The Beer Industry in Canada – CBC Archives
Part of a series of archived clips on the beer industry in Canada. Relatively little has changed in the last 20 years for the macrobreweries (except for the fact that they've been bought or have merged). Microbreweries and brewpubs still have a long way to go in terms of market share but there's certainly more beer diversity now than there was in 1985. Also, awareness of craft beer seems to have increased quite a bit.
Other clips are quite interesting too.
(US) National Homebrew Day
In 1979, the American Homebrewers Association originally claimed National Homebrew Day to be the first Saturday in May. On May 7, 1988, Congress officially recognized National Homebrew Day. Homebrewers around the world use the day to celebrate beer and brewing and attract attention to their hobby.
No idea Congress had recognized it. Wasn't 1987 the year homebrewing was made legal again?
Two Radio Pieces on Beer
Chicago Public Radio – Audio Library: Eight Forty-Eight
One is partly a repeat from Steve Dolinsky’s TV report mentioned earlier but with more contextual information. The other one was originally broadcast in 2000 and features Bob Skilnik (who put up an elaborate excerpt from his book right here).
What’s interesting about all of this, apart from the situation of Chicago in the world of beer, is that beer seems to connect to several social phenomena. I’ll need to read Skilnik’s books at one point, especially as he emphasizes the class struggle in the Prohibition movement, but I also think there’s a lot to say about what’s happening now.
For instance, Dolinsky’s extended piece here has a more elaborate comment Hopleaf’s Michael Roper about “artisan” beer in Belgium. Yes, all beer geeks know about this, but it’s interesting to see that these ideas are being brought to a larger audience. As opposed to wine, which tends to be known for its origins, beer is more rarely associated to specific regions or traditions. Well, then again, people probably think of Mexico as a beer producer because of Corona and Sol… 😉
At any rate, two interesting radio pieces about beer, now available online.
Google Groups : Michiana Brew
Google Groups : Michiana Brew
I just set up an informal mailing-list to help people I've met in South Bend appreciate beer and brewing together. We'll see if it works…
Beer and Brewing in South Bend and Elsewhere
Ok…
Been living in South Bend since August, talked to a number of people about beer and brewing. Sent long messages to some of them. Hopefully, didn’t scare them off too badly… 😉
Thing is, there’s a lot of resources for/about beer and brewing. Here’s
just a few to get people started. And once you get started, well, anything can happen.
Local/Regional
Relevant for North Central Indiana and some other parts of the MidWest
- Legends of Notre Dame
- Mishawaka Brewing Co.
- Quality Wine and Ale Supply [Added: 24/03/08. Thanks, Andy C!]
- Zeke’s
Beer pub in Dowagiac, MI. - Indiana Beer
- Great Lakes Brewing News
- Chicago Beer Society
- Grape and Granary
- Theta Ridge Coffee
Beer pub on Notre Dame Campus. The site has their beer menu…
Michiana’s only brewpub, at this point. They have some limited brewing supplies.
A homebrew supply shop in Elkhart, which might be the closest “LHBSS” to Mishawaka/South Bend. Looks like they have an extensive selection and decent prices.
A site about beer events in Indiana.
A beer newspaper which is distributed for free at Legends and MBC. Jim Herter, business manager for Notre Dame’s food services, writes for the Indiana section.
Group of beer lovers and homebrewers. They do cool events like “Thirst Fursday” the first Thursday of each month.
A mail order brewing supply shop which has a good selection and ships to Northcentral Indiana pretty fast. There are other homebrew supply shops, including online, but this is the one that my friends in town have been using.
Importer of green coffee beans. As other beer lovers seem to enjoy fresh coffee, I thought I’d mention this one.
In my humble opinion, the best liquor store for beer in South Bend is City Wide Liquors’ downtown location:
109 E. Jefferson Blvd.
(Across from Keybank, down the street from Century Center)
South Bend, IN 46601
574-287-8652
General Beer Sites
Lots of information about homebrewing
- Palmer’s How to Brew
- Papazian’s Complete Joy of Homebrewing
- HomeBrew Digest
- Beertown
- Real Beer
- Bodensatz
A homebrewing book available online for free.
A good, inexpensive brew book for beginners and intermediate brewers.
A mailing-list for homebrewers and a “library” of brewing information.
Some of the library’s stuff is a bit old but the mailing-list is a cool place to contact brewers.
A site for different brewing associations, including the American Homebrewer Association
A general site about beer with a lot of information about brewing.
A site with lots of info about homebrewing.
Miscellaneous Beer Sites
- Beer Judge Certification Program
- Rate Beer
- Michael Jackson the Beer Hunter
- Beer Advocate
- PubCrawler
- All About Beer
- Siebel Institute
The most useful thing, IMHO, are “style guidelines” that are used for homebrew competitions. I hope people won’t get too stuck on the details as some of it is very arbitrary. But it’s a good way to get information about some styles, like “Irish Red Ale” or “Dunkelweizen”…
A site where one can rate beers they try and/or read people’s comments about beers. Some of these comments are a bit strange and those people tend to like specific types of beer, but it’s sometimes a good way to choose a beer you want to try. Hops are liked by raters and so are strong full-bodied beers but the best-rated beer is in fact a Belgian Trappist…
The best-known beer writer, not the youngest member of the Jackson 5.
I mostly use it to look for beer pubs across the US and in other places, especially when I travel. Many places have lists of brew- and beerpubs and may even do pubcrawls for beer geeks…
Another site listing beer pubs in the US and elsewhere. Actually, I was confusing PubCrawler with BeerAdvocate. They accomplish similar goals…
A brewing magazine.
A very serious institute where you can get a degree in brewing technology. Education you can actually use!