Guest Post: The first beer of an aspiring Beer Baron

Apologies, acolytes. After 12 nights of holiday merry making I made the ill-fated New Years resolution to quit beer for the month of January (and JUST the month of January) as a compromise to my jolly but overworked liver. Needless to say I made it to Friday. Now I'm back on (off?) the posting wagon, and delighted to be back. Which itself is...well forget it.

Today we have our first ever guest post (!!), courtesy of Pat the Beer Baron, who I'm sure is quite the bowler. He writes of that delightful experience we can all relate to: trying our first ever nasty-a** brew, nearly puking, and from there beginning a wonderful, lifelong friendship. Engage!

Ode to Canned Beer: A Guest Blog

Since this is my first Brew Hops guest post, it only seems right to start with my first beer. For most people, their first beer is typically served unceremoniously in a can and something in the depressing variety of Natural Light, Bud Light, or some other watery taste-free substance that your young palette could tolerate while you got on with the business of getting drunk for the first time.

Well, that wasn't me. In fact, I'm quite proud of my first beer: A can of Genny Cream Ale. I stole two cans from my parents' fridge, joined a friend in his backyard and we cracked them open. At that point in my life, it was easily the worst thing I had ever tasted. Bitter, sour, sickly ... I knew beer wouldn't taste good at first, but I wasn't expecting something that bad.

That's what we come to expect from canned beer. Either something tasteless or something foul. But lately, a handful of canned beers have been breaking the stereotype and actually delivering craft beer quality suds that you buy for taste, rather than the hipster status symbol that PBR has become. What follows is a list of my 5 favorite canned beers:

5) Funaguchi Kikusui Ichiban Shibori (Canned Sake)

Ok, it's not a beer. I really only have 4 favorites, but lists have to come in multiples of 5. I thought to myself, Sapporo is a solid canned beer...it always comes in an enormous size...the can is built like it contains nuclear secrets...but then I realized I was just looking for an excuse to mention Funaguchi Kikusui Ichiban Shibori sake, which is absolutely delicious. And affordable. And in a can!

4) Moo Thunder

This stout from Butternuts Beer & Ale is a solid stalwart. My first sanctioned beer with my parents was a Guinness, so I've always been fond of stouts, plus Moo Thunder captures some of the thick coffee flavor of the old Guinness Extra Stout bottles. (Incidentally, Butternuts website deserves a visit of its own. When a canned beer website chooses John Williams' Olympic anthem "Summon the Heroes" as its theme song, you have to tip your cap.)

3) Old Chub

A drunk Scot in a can. This Scottish Ale from Oskar Blues in Lyons, Colorado, which credits itself with starting the canned craft brew craze back in 2002, is a signature achievement, capturing all the carmelized notes and every percent of alcohol content famous to the Scotsmen's second favorite alcoholic beverage. Dale's Pale Ale, their signature brew, is probably more recognizable, but Old Chub is my favorite.

2) Porkslap

A meaty farmhouse ale (again from Butternuts Beer & Ale), this is the beer that first opened my eyes up to how good canned beer can be. It's gotten to the point where I will often go to a bar and choose a can of Porkslap at $3-4/can over the options on tap.

1) Genny Cream Ale

Notwithstanding the above, I went to college upstate where shotgunning Genny Cream Ales was a rite of passage and a feat of strength, much like tribes in the Phillipines that drink turpentine as a display of manhood. So it's probably three parts nostalgia to one part taste informing my choice here, but what can I say, I genuinely love the taste of Genny Cream Ale, two decades after my first, horrifying sip.

Besides, there's just something about a man who chooses to drink Genny Cream Ale for pleasure. That's not a man to be taken lightly.

Brewery Tour: Sixpoint's Craft Ales

Vacation is over and it's time to play catch up and so here is the long overdue recap of Sixpoints!

The Deacon and I started with a glass of Gorilla Ale at the steadfast Bar Great Harry in Carroll Gardens. Enjoying our favorite blend of coffee and beer, we met Ben and Mike (brothers and owners of BGH) playing pinball with Andrew, a co-founder of Sixpoint's Craft Ales.

With just a few minutes to drink while they rallied the troops, we polished our beers and got into minivans for the short drive to Red Hook where the Six Point Brewery sits behind an unsuspecting garage door. Once there, we gathered in the company's headquarters for a quick QA with our guide Andrew and a big plastic cup full of Bengali Tiger.

The "headquarters" is a small studio apartment space with two desks, a kitchenette, two dining room tables, a piano and a custom built kegerator. It was recently renovated and a big change from the office/garage below which they moved out of to make more room for grain. While standing in the office (which felt more like a living room) we learned about the founder's (Shane Welch) market testing via parties at the University of Wisconsin and his trip to NYC to start a brewery out of his car. Like many good things, Shane got connected with our guide for the evening (Andrew) over a glass of homebrew and the rest is history. Check out BaseNow for a colorful interview with Shane on the origins of Sixpoints.

The garage below the living-room-turned-office now houses several 2-ton bags of grain, a motorcycle, a cat's litter box and the Sixpoint Enterprise (a homebrewer's dream machine for creating new beers). Adjacent to the garage is the actual brewery (I use the term loosely while smiling), which consists of one boiler, a mash tun, 5 fermenting tanks and a keg cleaner. Grain is fed into the process from a small chicken-coup-like space built on the roof and the whole brewing process happens in this one cozy space. Because of storage constraints, all the beer is packaged into kegs and shipped out as quickly as possible. To say the least, the operations are modest for such a well known and highly respected New York beer.

Keeping things casual, Andrew richly explained where different beer flavors come from and proved himself to be far from a beer snob providing us several memorable quotes such as: "People ask what type of beer Righteous Ale is. They say, 'Is it a pale ale or something else,' and I just tell them it's a really good beer that people like to drink a lot."

The tour ended with a full cup of double IPA (11% ABV straight from the fermenting tank) and a leisurely, yet frigid, walk back to the comfort of BGH. Several beers deeper than we had left, we made friends with our fellow tourists learning of breweries they had visited and how to get there. It was a night full of learning about how to make good beer, the growth of a small brewery, entrepreneurship driven by passion versus money and how many people love this stuff.

Pics-

Six Points - A Huge Hit!

The deacon and I had a very memorable evening at Six Points Brewery with the fellows from BGH. Details and photos to follow (we're trying to remember just a few of the hilarious things Andrew had to say about beer).

BrewDog Tactical Nuclear Penguin: 32% beer sets world record*

BrewDog Tactical Nuclear Penguin: 32% beer sets world record*


There's a 32% Beer out there. This is uncanny, and I would imagine nearly undrinkable. Sam Adam's Utopia is 24%.

Do I hear 33%? Going once. Going Twice...

Tactical Nuclear Penguin from BrewDog on Vimeo.

Punk rock story of the day

This isn't exactly NYC centric, but tough noogies, this 4 year old downed his mommy's beer then stole his neighbors presents so you have to read about it (he was later apprehended wondering the streets wearing a brown dress from one of the packages, so yeah, he's cooler than you).

The headline reads "4-Year-Old Runs Wild: A child roams the neighborhood, beer in hand," which is awesome enough, but not to be outdone the oh-so-serious news analyst utters the line of the day:

“[The mother's] not sure how her 4 year old managed to escape, open a beer, and steal her neighbors presents from under their tree"

which all in all is pretty incredible. When i first tried beer i was probably 11 and made it through like 3 sips, this kid managed to finish half a beer AND break into his neighbors home to steal their presents, he'll make somebody a great 'rut partner someday

Your 12/17 deacon pick of the wick

*the beer deacon's pick of the week can be a new brewery, beer, bar, or any saint-blessed thing he wants it to be, so long as it pertains to beer culture in the city. Look for his pick on thursdays, what college kids call "thirsty thursdays," or to cite from the brew hop bible, "and on the fourth day the disciples drinketh...early and often."

This isn't technically a "weekend" pick, unless you consider between now and New Years one long extended holiday which I do. Next Tuesday, 12/22, Bar Great Harry is leading a Six Point Brewery tour and after party, taking a lucky 25 of first RSVPs for an exclusive tour of the guerrilla indy brooklyn brewer located in the heart of Red Hook:

BGH and Sixpoint are teaming up for a special holiday event. The evening starts with everyone who signs up meeting at BGH at 6PM. We will take vans down to the Sixpoint Brewery. There we will hang with the Sixpoint folks, get a little tour, and drink fresh Sixpoint beer right from the tanks!

At this point the plan gets a little weird. If it is snowing, we are going to get to-go cups from Sixpoint and walk up to BGH. Sounds like fun in the snow, no? However, if it is not snowing, or if it turns silly cold, then we will just get vans back. At BGH we will have a few cool Sixpoint beers on draft. And they will be cheap.

You can RSVP after the jump. I've already RSVPd with a friend and fellow Six Point fan, and having been to their keg night at BGH i can personally vouch for the quality of their extremely fresh, extremely local brews. They offer a slate of A range graded beers on BA, including their popular Bengali Tiger IPA, Belgian IPA, Abigale Belgian, Brownstoner (my personal favorite), Grand Crue (a mega strong Belgian dark ale) and the amazingly unique Sixpoint Gorilla Warfare Coffee Porter, which is brewed with extremely expensive fresh microroasted coffee grains from Gorilla coffee (the only microroastery in NYC). If you find that baby on tap, you win.

Unconfirmed reports about Otter Creek, re: when the bell tolls, it tolls for thou

Montpelier's Times Argus carries a report by beerscribe.com "beer journalist" Andy Crouch that Long Trail Brewing Co. is on the verge of quietly purchasing Otter Creek and Wolaver's (both owned by Wolaver's, but operated separated). Excerpts from the article:

Long Trail, the Bridgewater Center craft brewery that celebrates its 20th birthday this year, is expected to close on the deal by the end of December.

"I can say that the employees of Otter Creek and Wolaver's were informed of Long Trail's intention to purchase the brewery early last week," Crouch wrote in an e-mail. "The two companies are presently in the due diligence process and both are mum about the future plans for the combined enterprise, including the future of particular brands."

Named after a 90-mile stream that flows into Lake Champlain, Otter Creek was founded in 1991 and purchased nearly eight years ago by the family that owns Wolaver's Certified Organic Ales. According to industry reports, Long Trail brewed about 30,000 barrels of beer a year as of 2005 and distributes in 22 states.

The sale, if finalized next month, could potentially greatly boost Long Trail's slate of beer offerings and expand its network distribution beyond the northeastern United States. It was not clear Wednesday if Long Trail intends to keep the Otter Creek and Wolaver's brands. When Wolaver's purchased Otter Creek the company kept both lines intact and separate.

My feelings on this subject are fairly obvious: craft monopolies are bad for drinkers, they take away choice and dampen local flavors. It's nice to think the bigger company is purchasing the smaller in order to raise its profile and distribution, but inevitably the overlap leads to cannibalization and a reduction in offerings. Case in point: Crouch's suggestion that we'd see a substantial reduction of Otter Creek beers (w/ the exception of the popular Copper Ale) in order for Long Trail to take over their brewing capacity. That means no more Stovepipe Porter, 'Otter Summer, or Raspberry Brown Winter. You're ruining my formative drinking years, guy!

As craft beer continues to "trend" it's inevitable that bigger companies will snap up smaller, but they should remember that us consumers got into this game was for the unprecedented diversity of flavors; we're not going backwards from searching out the best new beers with the freshest and most innovative flavors in order to just drink Sierra Nevada, Sam Adams, Magic Hat, and the other big guys. So yeah. Take that, the man.