Beer News

Tenth & Blake Acquires Crispin Cider

MillerCoors, owners of Tenth & Blake Craft & Import Division, have officially acquired Crispin Cider.  Crispin is based in Minneapolis, Minnesota and is the 3rd largest cider maker in the United States.   Crispin is young – and has only Continue Reading →

Posted in Beer News

2012 Brewers Association Guidelines Adds “Indigenous” Category

The Brewers Association has released the 2012 Beer Style Guidelines which gets updated every year.  The guidelines currently describe 140 styles of beer and are used  the Great American Beer Festival® and the World Beer Cup & more.

For this year, a new beer style has been added: the Indigenous Beer Category.  The description:

 “at least one regional combination of ingredients and/or techniques must be unique and differentiated from ingredients and/or techniques commonly used by brewers throughout the world…Examples of indigenous beers might include current day versions of highly regional and/or historic styles which are not represented elsewhere in these guidelines, such as Finnish-style sahti, South American chicha, African sorghum based beers, and others.” For competitions, brewers will provide 100-word descriptions of why their entry is relevant to the category, to aid judges in their evaluation.

Beers like Dogfish Head’s Urkontinent and Pangea come to mind.  You  might even be able to find Odell Brewing’s new Footprint Ale in the category too.  The full Press Release is available here.  The 35 page outline can be downloaded from the Brewers Association site, or  by right clicking the guidelines link.  [BA 2012 Style Guidelines]

by Reid Ramsay
Posted in Beer News, New Breweries, Videos

Lucky Town Using Kickstarter To Bring Brewery To Beer Starved Mississippi

Lucky Town BrewingLucky Town Brewing is asking for public funding on Kickstarter to bring a new brewery to beer starved Mississippi. The brewery hopes to be based in Gluckstadt.

More on Lucky Town:
Lucky Town’s ultimate goal is to stay true to our home-brewing roots by producing unique, artisanal, handcrafted ales and lagers. We intend to offer at least four year round beers that will roll out in pairs, but we also will be releasing small batch brews throughout the year that will be available in smaller quantities. Small batching will allow us more freedom to experiment with ingredients not normally found in beer that you find in Mississippi, providing for an ever-evolving product range rather than a fixed seasonal schedule. Examples include the southern pit barbecue inspired stout called “Stout of the Rising Sun” which uses smoked grains combined with roasted jalapenos and Lucky Town’s unique take on a winter warmer called “What the Elf?” that has cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, orange peel, figs and vanilla in it to give it a wonderful holiday flavor. Along with these will be the small batch Kaizen Saison, an ever evolving beer used to explore new flavor profiles and push the limits of what beer can be. We will never shy away from using non-traditional ingredients. Expect plenty of things aged in unique barrels, including sour beers that will spend as much as 3 years in the barrel getting funky. [Kickstarter]

by Reid Ramsay
Posted in Beer News, Cool Stuff

Beerjobber.com Promises To Bring Craft Beer To Your Doorstep

Ever wanted a beer from a brewery that isn’t sold in the markets you have access to?  Yeah, we thought so.  Well Beerjobber.com is coming to your rescue.  This new website (currently in beta), will allow you to have beer shipped directly from the brewery to your door.    It will be the first online craft beer market of its kind.  How you ask?  Beerjobber takes care of all of the distribution obstacles and shipping issues.  Brewery to your doorstep.

So what is a beer jobber?  Back in the days before prohibition “beer jobbers” would pick up and deliver beer straight from the local breweries.  Eventually the need for beer jobbers faded away, however today there is a need for a new kind of beer jobber – the online kind.  Thus Beerjobber.com was born.

The premise is simple.  Sign up, log on, and pick the beers you want.  They ship directly from the brewery to your door.  This is made possible by a special license that allows BeerJobber.com have breweries ship on their behalf.  The site has been in beta for months, with 1,500 registered testers, shipping to over 20 states.  On February 13th, BeerJobber opens it’s virtual doors to the public.  There are almost 38 breweries to choose from.

“Beerjobber is a first, and we’re very excited about opening our doors to the public in time for Valentine’s Day in support of those who truly love and enjoy craft beer,” said Sean Nevins, President of Beerjobber. “As a new company, we’re committed to featuring smaller breweries seeking to reach an expanded audience, as well as exposing craft beer lovers to new tastes. We are continually seeking out new brewery partners and encourage consumers to reach out and let us know what breweries they’d like to see on our site.”

Today marks the site’s “Spread The Love” launch celebration, and is featuring a few Valentine’s Day brews like

  • Voodoo Love Child, Vodooo Brewery (Meadville, PA)
  • Rowhouse Red, Philadelphia Brewing Company (Philadelphia, PA)
  • Organic Chocolate Stout, Bison Brewing (Berkeley, CA)

Members can buy this beer for themselves or ship to their Valentine as a gift.
In addition, members will be able to purchase a case of beer as a gift and can opt to have the recipient receive a Valentine-themed email letting them know that a case of brewery-fresh beer is on its way.
Those interested in accessing the site can register to join at www.beerjobber.com.

Select the beers you’d like, add to cart, click ship.  Beer from out of your market at your doorstep… 

by Reid Ramsay
Posted in Beer News

Tenth & Blake Acquires Crispin Cider

MillerCoors, owners of Tenth & Blake Craft & Import Division, have officially acquired Crispin Cider.  Crispin is based in Minneapolis, Minnesota and is the 3rd largest cider maker in the United States.   Crispin is young – and has only been in existence since 2008.

The U.S. cider market is only 0.5 percent the size of the beer market, but has nearly doubled in size since 2005 and grew at 26 percent last year compared with a declining beer market. MillerCoors sees significant growth potential as the UK cider market accounts for 17 percent of its national beer market.

The Crispin business will join MillerCoor’s craft-and-import division Tenth and Blake, and ranks third in a U.S. cider market led by the Vermont Hard Cider Company and then second-placed Irish drinks group C&C (GCC.I) which bought Hornsby’s last November.

While no price was published regarding this deal, it is estimated to be below $100 million.  Crispin will continue to be an independent division of Tenth & Blake.   [Reuters]

by Reid Ramsay
Posted in Beer News, Coming Soon, Napa Smith Brewing

Napa Smith’s Hopageddon Is Bottle Worthy

Napa Smith HoppageddonNapa Smith Brewing (Napa, CA) has seen great success with Hopageddon, a barrel aged imperial IPA. The name suits the beer, as this imperial IPA not only wet-hopped, but aged in Chardonnay & Cabernet barrels.  Tentatively, the brewery will be putting the complex hop bomb (that combines both beer, and the wine country in which they reside) into bombers.

Hopageddon is an end-of-the-world imperial IPA that defies expectations and induces an intense hop-stupor that will leave you wondering what just happened.  At 144 IBUs, Hopageddon glows with a gorgeous fiery orange color and showcases a distinct, full white head.  The added character given by the Chardonnay and Cabernet barrels accentuates explosive papaya and lychee flavors along with herbaceous aromas.  Chewy, grassy, wet-hop flavors, hints of dried apricot, and impressions of barrel tannins are evident in mutiple layers. The distinct Barrel-hopped flavors and shockwave of bitterness lingers on the palate and leaves hopheads with a Post-ahopalyptic yearning for more.  

Style: Imperial IPA (Barrel Aged)
Hops: Chinook, Cascade, Warrior, Columbus, Mt. Hood, Centennial

Availability: Draft. 22oz bombers soon.
Bottle Arrival: TBA

9.2% ABV, 144 IBUs 

by Reid Ramsay
Posted in Beer News

Man Stabbed & Killed After Beer From A Wine Glass Argument

Update: Switched the drinkers.  Osaka was drinking beer from a wine glass.  Hayes (the friend) poked fun at him.  Argument escalated.  Olaska stabbed Wild.

Stupid. Absolutely stupid. An argument arose from the defendant drinking beer from a wine glass in a bar in Naperville, Illinois. William Hayes, a total stranger minutes ago, poked fun at the situation.  The argument escalated, and the suspect tried to stab Hayes.  Shaun Wild, and elementary schoolteacher, was nearby and tried to intervene as did a bar employee.  Olaska tried to leave, Wild tried to stop him, and Olaska stabbed him in the heart.  Olaska eventually admitted the crime to the police, and is charged with 1st degree murder. Police investigating said – “I’ve had a lengthy police career and I’ve never seen anything that made less sense.”

Olaska was drinking beer from a wine glass, and Hayes ribbed him about it, Assistant State’s Atty. Tim Diamond said in bond court.  The incident escalated, Diamond said, and both men stood up. Wild, who was nearby, attempted to intervene, authorities said.

Then Olaska reportedly pulled out his five-inch-long folding knife and lunged at Hayes and Wild. The blade sliced Wild on the arm and went into Hayes’ chest, Berlin said.  As Olaska turned to leave, Wild attempted to stop him, and Olaska then fatally stabbed him in the heart, authorities said. A bar employee named Rafael Castaneda who attempted to step in was stabbed in the arm, a wound that required many stitches to close, Diamond said.  [ChicagoTrib via @beerinator]

Below is the defendant (aka, murderer)

by Reid Ramsay
Posted in Beer News, Cool Stuff, Videos

Will Ferrell Old Milwaukee Super Bowl Spot Emerges

More of these bizarre, yet really funny, and highly localized Old Milwaukee commercials have popped up.  During halftime of the Super Bowl yesterday, Will was seen slow walking through a field in the spot posted below.  Furthermore, the commercial apparently only ran in Nebraska, which is either weird, or just right for the eccentric spots.  The video was filmed with someone’s cellphone. The quality isn’t great. [SBNation]

Digging a little deeper, I’ve found a few more of these videos that BSJ hasn’t published before.  Here, Will is talking about Terra Haute, Indiana

Terra Haute #2

Bike Ride

Terra Haute Rooftop

Crossroads Of America

Bar

Will Ferrel Old Milwaukee

by Reid Ramsay