Don't Just While Away Your Friday. Do Something.

As it stands right now, there seems to be little AZ support by our Senators and Representatives for a proposed reduction in brewer's excise taxes HR 1236/ S 534.
This legislation had 133 U.S. Representatives and 28 U.S. Senators on board last year.

This legislation would reduce the Federal excise tax (which is a tax above and beyond other taxes) from $7 / bbl to $3.50 / bbl for effectively all AZ breweries (<60K bbls). There is second relief point for larger breweries. All of this is detailed here.

http://www.brewersassociation.org/pages/government-affairs/excise-taxes/talking-points-resources

My understanding is that only Rep Raul Grijalva (AZ-7) has expressed support.

In the Senate, John McCain will almost certainly have to recuse himself because of the Hensley ownership. That leaves Jon Kyle.

In the House, we have Grijalva. The resigning Giffords is a lame duck and her interim replacement will also be a lame duck. David Schweikert replaced Harry Mitchell who was OUR AZ REP on the Small Brewer's Caucus. Mr Schweikert has not taken up that post, nor has he take the time to answer my question about why he thought that that was a great idea. I can't speak to the other Reps, Paul Gosar; Trent Franks; Ben Quayle; or Jeff Flake. But I will be speaking with Ed Pastor and his office.

We all know that our brewing friends are brewing at capacity and struggling to bring us the beers that we love. We know that this relief will certainly go toward new tanks, expansion, packaging and jobs. Will anyone help by contacting your Senators and Reps.

Integration not Collaboration: Sonoran's Seven Wives Saison

The buzz of the last few years in brewing is collaboration. Famously Avery and Russian River Brewing created Collaboration Not Litigation Ale when they realized that they both had a Salvation Ale. The blended creation is probably referenced for starting the recent collaboration "movement" more than it is probably consumed. Since, we have seen a slew of collaborations by Dogfish Head, Stone, Allagash, Boulevard... it may be easier to list breweries that have not collaborated.

In the Valley, we've had Motley Brue and in my opinion, it was one of the most memorable beers that this state has produced.

Now comes Seven Wives Saison from Sonoran Brewing a concept that seems to be firing on all cylinders.

Local Brewery + Local Chef's + Local Ingredients + Local Artist + Local Charity = Sonoran Brewing Company's Inaugural Chef's Series Seasonal Brews!  

Sonoran's 2012 Inaugural Chef's Series is a collaboration of all things LOCAL!. We've teamed up with some of Arizona's finest Chefs; Chef Jeremy Pacheco from LON's at the Hermosa Inn, Chef Eddie Matney from Eddie's House, Chef Lee Hillson from T Cooks at the Royal Palms and Chef James Porter from Petite Mason and Big Earls BBQ in Old Town Scottsdale. Each Chef will design and brew a unique beer with Brewmaster Zach Schroeder using fresh LOCAL ingredients. The first release (March 3rd) is Chef Jeremy's 7 Wives Saison; this brew will feature wheat from Chef Jeremy's Family Farm in Marana, fresh green peppercorns from Singh Farms in Scottsdale, whole fennel & fennel pollen from LON's Garden and Peoria LOCAL Bob McClendon, mesquite syrup from Cotton Country Jams, locally produced orange & coriander. Chef Jeremy came up with the name for his brew as a way to pay homage to one time local artist and founder of Casa Hermosa (now the Hermosa Inn) Lon Megargee. The "7" ingredients are a tip of the hat to Lon's 7 Wives, yes he was married 7 TIMES! We are proud to share with you that a portion of all the March 3rd Tapping Party proceeds will go to benefit our LOCAL charity of choice, the Waste Not Organization of Arizona www.wastenotaz.org. All art work and label design is by LOCAL artist Ellison Keomaka; Ellison also designed both Centennial logos and the Inebriator Stout logo. We look forward to sharing this one of a kind brew with all of you! 

We've seen collaborations before, even restaurants and breweries (Goose Island), but generally not this deep and wide. First it is a Saison, something that we have lamented is missing in our Valley Beer Catalog. This fills that void. Second it is local on 5 levels that the brewery has identified, Brewery, Chef, Ingredients, Artist, and Charity. If you've read anything here, you know that this hits us right in our beer culture soft spot. This is not a Collaboration. It is so much more. This is an Integration of beer and food, culture, and life. Bold words, yes. Let's hope that the beer stands up when it releases sometime in early March.

So there are 7 Wives, 7 ingredients and 5 Local elements. I'll offer the 6th which is Legend - Lon Megargee.  That leaves one more. If we believe the hype about collaboration then the sum is greater than its parts. If this beer signals a new communication line between restauants, artists, farmers, brewers and charity, then Integration is the 7th component.

Outside Looking Inside: This Particular Week in Beer

I'm always looking an an outsider's perspective in things and so I was delighted that Jeff Moriarty took the time to write a brief outsider's inside look at our local craft beer clique. Jeff fooled asked some of us on the "inside" what our favorite Arizona Beers are when we're not pretending to drink the rarest of the rare beers.

Jeff, of course, is one of the founders of all kinds of Arizona social media endeavors. He is the progenitor of the Ignite Phoenix franchise which includes the new Ignite Food. Submissions are open and beer could be on the table.

Read Jeff's synopsis on the Arizona Craft Beer Lover's group and pay attention to the wonderful beer list.
http://moriartys.net/2012/01/list-of-fantastic-arizona-beers-and-breweries/

Arizona Beer Week Events Have Posted
I'm sure we're looking at about 90% of the events and we're waiting for the rest to drop before we make recommendations. You can view the events here. Disclosure: As an ASH Board member, I had a hand in planning a few of them. One thing that I'd like to put on next year's wish list is:

• An RSS feed.
• A data dump for the media (and quasi media).
• A location filter for events. Think Northern, Southern and Phoenix. Phoenix to be broken down by West, Central, East or some such
• A daily map which uses the above filters
• The ability for a user to create a printable customized itinerary
• A place for readers to comment, ask questions, rate and review.

What's on your must do list and what changes would you like to see for next year's events?

Local Trend Watch
Students of German and hardcore Four Peaks fans will probably have a laugh at the beer I saw this afternoon. Vier Spitzen turned up on the menu at Moto and I had to do a double take.  Apparently this was a namekicked around back in the mid 2000's for Four Peaks Hefeweizen. (It means four tips (peaks) in German.) Is this the beginnings of a retro campaign for the impending Four Peaks Anniversary or one delivery guy's inside joke? Time will tell.

Tony is Back
In a post or two last year we made mention that Pitcher of Nectar Distributing (POND) was no longer distributing. This was not true, though POND took on a very low profile as owner, Tony Piccini maintained the bare bones of his catalog and restructured the company. Tony's back with Rock Art, Marin, Sudwerk, Rubicon and spirits from Dry Fly Distilling. Look for more news from POND this year.

Outside the Glass

There are, I'm sure, some well reasoned and insightful blog posts on what 2012 will bring. This one, just hit my feed, though I haven't read it yet. I know that locally, Andy Ingram is preparing a piece for his Arizona Republic Beer Buzz column. [Edit: that Ingram piece now linked here.] Instead of waiting for his to come out and write a reaction piece, I thought I'd say my peace.

I could take a stab about new trends, that I hope will happen or throw our some forgettable statistic that I think will be exceeded. It's tempting to hint at some gossip, I've heard or reveal some things that I know to be true that will come to light with the fullness of time. It would make me look good, but I'm not sure it has any other use.

Here's what I think will happen, because it simply has to. Will it happen enough so in 2012 that I can pull this post up in December and declare victory? Probably not.

I believe that the revolution inside the glass has been won. Small brewers (craft, if you will), proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that they could produce a new product that would support a new kind of brewery (micro, if you will). But this war was a very small war. You can fight it over and over if you want, but the results will be the same and the relatively small war chest (5% market) will be the same. All things being equal, most people have access to innumerable beers that are of superior quality. There is more beer available to Phoenix than anyone can reasonably tire of. Sure there are some that have ticked through 10,000 beers in Beer Review World, but can anyone really tell you anything about beer #746? Or this year's #746? Or the #746 in cans? Or #746 under Brewmaster 1.5 vs 3.5?

As consumers, we've never had it so good. Anyone old enough to remember a time when Andeker and Lowenbrau were considered premium American beers and finding a Import beer bar that serves Ayinger, Watneys Red Barrel was a godsend will confirm this. We have so much access to quality that we've had to create our own enemies. When were not raging against the macro beer industrial complex, we're eating our own. I can't even come to terms with the fact that Sam Caligione has to log into Beer Advocate to tell people his brewery doesn't suck.

It's pretty depressing to frequently visit this site and see the most negative threads among the most popular. This didn't happen much ten years ago when craft beer had something like a 3 percent market share. Flash forward to today, and true indie craft beer now has a still-tiny but growing marketshare of just over 5 percent. Yet so many folks that post here still spend their time knocking down breweries that dare to grow. It's like that old joke: "Nobody eats at that restaurant anymore, it's too crowded.” Except the "restaurants" that people shit on here aren't exactly juggernauts. In fact, aside from Boston Beer, none of them have anything even close to half of one percent marketshare. The more that retailers, distributors, and large industrial brewers consolidate the more fragile the current growth momentum of the craft segment becomes. The more often the Beer Advocate community becomes a soap box for outing breweries for daring to grow beyond its insider ranks the more it will be marginalized in the movement to support, promote, and protect independent ,American, craft breweries.

It's interesting how many posts that refer to Dogfish being over-rated include a caveat like "except for Palo...except for Immort...etc." We all have different palettes which is why it's a great thing that there are so many different beers. At Dogfish we've been focused on making "weird" beers since we opened and have taken our lumps for being stylistically indifferent since day one. I bet a lot of folks agree that beers like Punkin Ale (since 1995) , Immort Ale (wood aged smoked beer) since 1995, Chicory Stout (coffee stout) since 1995 , Raison D'être (Belgian brown) since 1996, , Indian Brown Ale (dark IPA) since 1997, and 90 Minute (DIPA) since 2000 don't seem very weird anymore. That’s in large part because so many people who have been part of this community over the years championed them and helped us put them on the map.These beers, and all of our more recent releases like Palo Santo, Burton Baton, Bitches Brew continue to grow every year. We could have taken the easy way out and just sold the bejeezus out of 60 Minute to grow but we like to experiment and create and follow our own muse. Obviously there is an audience that appreciates this as we continue to grow. We put no more "hype" or "expert marketing" behind our best selling beers than we do our occasionals. We only advertise in a few beer magazines and my wife Mariah oversees all of our twitter/Facebook/dogfish.com stuff. We have mostly grown by just sharing our beer with people who are into it (at our pub, great beer bars, beer dinners, and fests) and let them decide for themselves if they like it. If they do we hope they tell their friends about. We hope a bunch of you that are going to EBF will stop by our booth and try some of the very unique new beers we are proudly bringing to market like Tweason'ale (a champagne-esque, gluten-free beer fermented with buckwheat honey and strawberries) and Noble Rot (a sort of saison brewed with Botrytis-infected Viognier Grape must). One of these beers is on the sweeter side and one is more sour. Knowing each of your palettes is unique you will probably prefer one over the other. That doesn't mean the one you didn't prefer sucked. And the breweries you don't prefer but are growing don't suck either. Respect Beer. The below was my favorite post thus far.

This thread is hilarious. Seriously, Bells, Founders, FFF, Surly, RR, DFH, Bruery, Avery, Cigar City, Mikkeller are all overrated?

Since I'm from Ohio, I'll pile on and add Great Lakes, Hoppin Frog, and Brew Kettle to the list. Your welcome.

Hopefully soon we will have every craft brewery in the US on the list.

Image: Wikicommons

So some of us will keep fighting the war inside the glass. That war is now comparing a Ratebeer 86 to a BeerAdvocate 93. We're creating a new General from within the ranks from the Florida Division and pitting him against General Caligione in the Delaware Regulars as if we are little boys playing with tin soldiers.

The world exists outside the glass my beer brothers and sisters. That is where beer is enjoyed. That's were I live. That's what needs to get better. For the most part, that's local.

The Session #59: I Almost Always Drink Beer, But When I Don’t…

In the 59th edition of The Session, Mario Rubio sets us up with this leading sentence, "I Almost Always Drink Beer, But When I Don’t…".

When I don't, I shut it down. I ask my brain to stop. My first thought is that often I prefer a glass of milk as a nightcap. It helps me wind down.

I do enjoy wine, but not enough to give anyone a list of varietals or even vintners I prefer. I'm not even sure I care if I'm using those terms correctly.

I belong to a wine club. I get shipments from Viansa and Vincent Arroyo. I look for Barberas and anything that's red and seems robust. There are some Arizona wineries getting notoriety lately. I choose those. I consider the flavors, I'm tasting briefly and I go back to enjoying the moment. I don't care about process or micro-climates.

In the summer, I used to make Moscow Mules with Ginger Beer that I made at home. I have a dozen copper mugs to serve them in. the copper melts the ice at a very high rate, making the drink extra cold. It's a desirable quality in the desert.

Speaking of ice, I had a bacon infused whiskey old fashioned served in a applewood smoked glass with one of those Japanese Ice molds.

If someone tells me the right Scotch to drink, I'll enjoy it with them.

I like Whiskey Manhattans, too. I just had a barrel aged one the other day.

It's not beer so I'm just not enthused about writing about it.

Here's a picture of that Whiskey Manhattan. Hope that helps.

Do try the milk. I do recommend that. Skim.

What in the Phoenix Beer World? Taglines

Marketing and advertising.

To some, it's an ugly word. Greg Koch of Stone won't even admit to it.

You could google these and get most of them, but you probably shouldn't. Breweries hire marketing companies to differentiate themselves. If they don't throw money at a problem, they've probably enlisted a clever fan or spent valuable brewing time and considerable brainstorming resources over a beer or two. And let's be honest, they need to differentiate. They need to set themselves apart. Every one of these Arizona breweries has a Pale or an IPA. If we placed them all on a table, how many of our readers would be able to blindly identify them? Now how about the thousands of casual beer drinkers that we know.

Would you bet your life that your brother-in-law would be able to tell a Horseshoe Pale from an Oak Creek Pale. How about Raj versus a Victorian. I bet you can't name a time and place where you could compare those on draft side-to-side.

So take a stab at these, and if you don't know say so. Let's see how effective these marketing bylines are.
No googling. Let's give the breweries some feedback.

1. Making Thirst Worthwhile
2. Craft Beer for Beer Drinking
3. 840 Million Years in the Making
4. It's the Altitude
5. Arizona's Finest Microbrewery
6. Phoenix's Newest Brewery
7. Proudly Serving Authenticity
8. Here It Is
9. Home of Tucson's Oldest and Newest MicroBrewery! (no longer in use)
10. Artistry and Science in One Delicious Beverage
11. The Proud Voice of Arizona's Breweries

Answers after the jump.

Winner gets bragging rights and a beer from yours truly.

What Does CBS Outdoor Have Against Sun Up?

April 2011

In April of this year, the CBS Outdoor billboard in the Sun Up parking lot was the subject of a "Where in the Phoenix Beer World?".

The billboard once featured the Los Bomberos wine bar which closed it's doors on March 6th. It's also had PBR and Dundee Honey Brown as advertisers which seemed to be a slap in the face for a place that makes it's own beer (and very good beer at that).

Still, one imagines that advertising alcohol to brewpub going patrons is not a stretch and granted there have been other billboard ads here that have come and gone.

This month began a new campaign and now I think CBS is just being mean. There is a Castle Boutique next door and a Trails, but seriously? This??

Meth and Craft Beer. Advertising Gold.

Related: Where in the Phoenix Beer World?

The Great Divide

This menu tells me that this business knows nothing about beer or is so cynical about it that they don't want my money or yours.

Here's an idea. Charge me $6, $8 and $12 for the kinds of beers that  less pretentious bars and restaurants  offer.

Invitation: The Role of the Third Place

The 78th Anniversary of the Repeal of Prohibition is today and the occasion warrants reflection on the impact the Noble Experiment has had on the Beer Culture in the US. Unfortunately that reflective discussion won't be happening here, (time is the tyrant these days). I can offer you some interesting reading via Jeff Alworth over at Beervana , who earlier this month compared and contrasted the pub/bar/tavern/cafe experiences in Britain, the US, and Belgium. Play close note to how the differences in each culture's experience with alcohol subtle play on language and the social contracts inherent in navigating the simple act of grabbing a beer and perhaps a bite to eat.

Our post-Prohibition and Puritanical upbringing remarkably causes the obfuscation of the name of the place where we do our beer drinking, Alworth argues:

I suspect our system reflects America's conflicted relationship to booze. We've ended up with so many euphemisms because, as a culture, we've never been comfortable with alcohol. Someone's always trying to inhibit its consumption, and others are trying to consume. So we have a system of oblique signals that shield the offended from the activities of the offenders. There's an old tavern down in Westmoreland--or used to be, anyway--called the Semaphore. I've always thought it was a perfect tongue-in-cheek nod to the issue.

These types of social influences are at the heart of my fascination with beer culture. It is what separates beer drinking from beer living. It is the culture! I've tried to focus on what makes our Phoenix beer culture succeed and fail and have attempted to refine my answer after Andy Ingram's Beer Culture piece in the Arizona Republic. I've discussed beer blogging, touched on walkability (which merits a series of posts) and the impact of local urban thinkers. But there are many more topics to write about and many more conversations that you and I will have to make. Please read on because there is an opportunity this week towards that discourse.

In 2012, I'll complete a series on, "Who will Lead Us" in our journey toward a more robust beer culture. There will be pieces on Brewers, more bloggers, more urbanists and Publicans and other leaders that will shape our beer futures. Big picture things like this should not be daunting, to that end I'd like to invite you to an event that figure into the success of our local beer culture and the growth of Phoenix in general.

Levine Machine - Site of the TEDx salon.

On Wednesday, December 7th, downtown preservation advocate, Jim McPherson and CenPho supporter and social media wonk, Andrew Knochel are moderating a TEDx salon on Urban Placemaking: Design of Third Places. There are four notable local guests that will explore the role of Ray Oldenburg's Third Place and the design that makes these places successful as businesses and community social hubs. The location is an amazing space well worth the price of admission.

If this all sounds like heady (or even stuffy) mumbo-jumbo, allow me to break it off into a few tangible bite-sizes pieces. Third places are where you and I like to drink beer and enjoy meals, but more importantly engage with others, speak freely about issues of the day with old friends and new acquaintances. They are our favorite places. We accept that these places don't always have the best food or beer or maybe even service (but they certainly can be best in all respects) but we keep coming back. We feel as though the building itself is a partner in our sense of social warmth. Though not defined by Oldenburg as such, it has a touch of the Gemütlichkeit one finds at a German Biergarten.

Oldenburg, in his book The Great Good Place, notes that much of our time is spent at home (first), at work (second) where there is an isolated and rigid social structure. Oldenburg's third places are the coffee houses, pubs, cafes where people gather to engage with one another in an atmosphere of equal footing. Circling back to Alworth's piece, third places in England are the (rapidly declining) pubs which were historically the extension of one's living room. In Belgium, they are the cafes and in the US... well we have somewhat of a fractured experience with that. There is a chasm a mile wide when it comes to a generic US bar/restaurant and perhaps our finest beer examples of third places in metro Phoenix. Let's find out why and what can be done.

Join me Wednesday so we can speak the same language and finish off with a downtown beer.

What We Don't Know

The ACBLG provisional logo
with the Franklin glurge.

I've been public about my disdain for Facebook and my preference to Twitter. Twitter is like a river of information. I can grab bits and pieces of news, gossip and distraction that eddy into my purview. I can cast out opinion like flat rocks skipping briefly only to be subsumed by the ceaseless deluge. I can converse, but the interaction is self-limiting.

Facebook seems to be somewhat of a swamp. Lethargic. Of the past.

I've tolerated Facebook recently because of the conversation in the Arizona Craft Beer Lovers Group (ACBLG)- a few hundred or so beer appreciators, homebrewers, beer bar owners, pro brewers and distributors. I was skeptical that this group would be of value to me and I still reserve the right to remove myself from the group (or be removed, one imagines). So far I'm learning things that I did not expect to learn.

Despite the concentration of knowledgeable beer people, I'm struck as to how much this group doesn't know about the business of beer (that has nothing to do with beer), distribution, packaging, the slim margins that the industry faces, the legal landscape, barriers to entry and basic customer service. I'm learning what this beer community doesn't know about each other. I'm finding out that they have expectations that go unmet. There's talk of favoritism, blind localism, "you owe us", "the beer needs to be". Some of the most appreciated figures in the valley feel under-appreciated or misconstrued or come off as quarrelsome. The voice of a few sometimes seems to be the roar of many, when in fact it's just one person's opinion and a "like "thumbs up. It either passed a weakly rebutted challenge or everyone else just gave up.

I include myself in the group that has much to learn on all of these topics. I have made missteps. I have put on the "know-it-all" hat.

I have strong opinions and I have a history of working forums like this for information well before (Remember BBS?) there was an internet. I'm going to share things that I know and my vehemence on some things is somewhat of a challenge to others because I want the best answers to come out. I like to be right, but I also like to be helpful.

The biggest frustration of the whole thing is, frankly, we all don't know how to get along with one another in a social media environment.  Some of the more awkward moments develop because a good number of people don't know that there are a number of industry people lurking in the group. Say something that probably should be handled in private and suddenly in swoop the distributors, or the publicans or the brewer or the beer clubs. The flatness of hierarchy in the "expertism" meant initially that your opinion stood on its merits and encouraged some candor. These days it can be downright cringe-worthy to click on a thread. I wonder how long some of the industry people will keep tuning into discussions that have such a low ratio of signal to noise. It must be frustrating since their time was tight well before this group came around.

One presumes that beer's shared amid our conversations in a friendly pub environment would smooth out the rough edges. There is some talk of meeting in real life. That day could not come soon enough for some.

The Session #57: Rob's Beery Confession

This month’s Session, hosted by Steve Lamond's Beer’s I’ve Known, has the topic “beery guilty secrets.”

I'd like to know your beery guilty secrets. Did you have a particularly embarassing first beer (in the same way that some people purchase an atrocious song as their first record) or perhaps there's still a beer you return to even though you know you shouldn't? Or maybe you don't subscribe to the baloney about feeling guilty about beers and drink anything anyway?

I guess I have unsubscribed from baloney for quite some time now. In the age of when I can say that I have been married 67.8 Kardashians and just about anyone who is anyone has a sex tape, the last thing we need to be embarrassed about is beer. Here is the closest thing that I can come up with.

In 2007, my wife Brenda and I did a beer bar only tour of Belgium hitting Brussels, Antwerp, Ghent and Bruges. It seem silly to think that our guide of great beer at the time was not the internet, but was something that we affectionately called the Scheidt List. The list was given to my by Don Webb- homebrewer, beer tale teller, dear friend and now one of the owners of Seattle's Naked City Brewery and Taphouse. He obtained the hand written from memory list from Don Scheidt who wrote for Celebrator Beer News. The flip side is the bold type faced phrase, "Beer had Good Value but Food has No Beer Value."

The Scheidt list

So over the course of 9 days we hit every place listed on the handwritten stream of beer conciousness put forth by a PACNW beer legend. I focus on Trappist and Belgian classic styles, Brenda stuck to sours, lambics and guezue. Wake. Train. City tour and off to the beer bars from 11am to 2 with an occasional peek outside for a waffle or chocolate. The beers- amazing, bursting with flavor! Even the subtle wit and Belgian Pales exercised the palate in new and interesting ways. The food- rich, wonderful and savory! Moules. Frites. Waterzooi. Stoofkarbonaden. The experience was a sensory explosion day after day, night after night.

On the tenth day it became ridiculous. Taxing. I wanted no more of it. That night we found the most American style pizza joint. We ordered cheese pizza and Jupiler, the number one selling beer in Belgium (is there shame in that?). It is a weak pale lager. I remember more about that evening than the 1984 Chimay Blue I drank the night before at Kulminator. 

Guilt? 

Jupiler. Exhibit A

Shame?

Cheese Pizza. Exhibit B.

Nope!

Exclusive Announcement: Rare Affair - Hot Scotchies

The Arizona Society of Homebrewers (ASH ) have announced today that they will be bringing hot first runnings of a brew day mash to the Rare Affair on Saturday Nov 5th. so that guests can sample the Hot Scotchy or Brewer's Cocktail. First runnings are the unfermented and unhopped malt building block of beer. As a tribute to today's International Stout Day, David Schollmeyer's GABF contending Bucket Hugger Russian Imperial Stout grain bill will be used.

Designated driver guests will be able to sample the drink without alcohol. All other guest will be invited to add some of the available spirits at Rare Affair to mix their own cocktail from among the following available to both Non-VIP and VIP.

• Tullamore Dew Scotch- Various
• Belveniw 12 yr Scotch
• Equador Highland 10 yr Scotch

The author and Oak Creek's Jim Strelau

I was introduced to the Hot Scotchy a few years ago by Oak Creek's brewmaster, Jim Strelau. when I had the good fortune to brew with him on the brewpub's 7BBL system. Sick as a dog with a permasmile on my face, I watched Jim arrive with glasses of Scotch and fashion a ladle out of a cup and string. He pulled off a few draws out of the Elderflower Pear Bier De Garde that we were brewing and mixed up the perfect elixir.

Mentioned briefly here and much more extensively by Beervana's Jeff Alworth, the history of the cocktail is as murky as un-vorlaufed wort. It may or may not have anything to do with the Sternewirth Privilege- the unwritten and perhaps mythic law that requires one to drink while brewing. Jeff smiths it out better than I can and if this doesn't convince you to read the rest of his column and desire a cup of warm comfort at Rare Affair, nothing will.

What happens is nothing short of mystical. Mash runnings are very sweet and flabby--there's no definition to the flavors. The addition of Scotch somehow reverses all this. Like an electric current, the Scotch animates the grains so that you can taste them in HD. The Scotch is likewise a very clear note, but not sharp or aggressive. It has all the flavor of a straight shot, but it's floating amid Mom's comforting malted. Insanely beguiling.

It's been a brewday staple for me ever since and is now an ASH tradition at our brewouts. I'm not aware of it being sold anywhere ever in Arizona. The likeliest places that would have done this would either be Four Peaks or Santan, holders of spirituous liquor licenses. Nothing in recent valley memory serves.

Take heart, should you miss out on this as you can always join the motley band of homebrewers. Once the weather has truly turned into brisk wet windy nights, look for an ASH events during February's Arizona Beer Week. ASH will be serving Hot Scotchies in a few valley locations in partnership with select establishments including Citizen Public House and Moto.

You hear that Richie, Vince? We're doing this right?

UPDATE: I spoke with Doc from BJ's Brewhouse. We'll be getting 4 gallons of Red Goliath first runnings as well. Blustery evening be damned!

The Best Way To Enjoy Beer...

A couple of weeks ago I did some beer judging for ASH and followed that up a week later by judging beers home brewed by employees of Crescent Crown. I enjoy beer judging very much, but the process is actually very hard work. It's satisfying work and pleasiong, but it is not drinking beer for personal enjoyment. I wrote this to try and flesh out the differences. In the process, I can see some crossover to explaining how some monster tastings that occur at festivals or the result of a beer club trade or personal cellar openings can skew beer opinions and create some unwarranted beer geek hype. These are my guidelines, I'd like to hear yours.

Drink In Situ

Drink a beer in its place of origin. Trot down to your local brewery and you should have the freshest example. The brewery has complete control of the beer as they place it in its final vessel. You won't have to worry if the beer was treated well; that it wasn't out in the hot Arizona sun or sat on a dusty shelf.

If you are fortunate enough, travel to the town of a style's origin. Have a Pilsner in Plsen. These days, with some small exceptions, any style of beer can be made in any brewery in the world. It's fun to wrap your head around why a style sprung up from the ground (water), or the air (yeast) or any number of natural or man-made circumstances. The scarcity of some beers and the imperfect world of post prohibition distribution makes traveling for beer one of life's few authentic experiences. It's much more pleasant to be handed a draft beer from a publican than it is to pull one out of a suitcase or swaddled in bubble wrap.

Learn the Brewer's Intent

Brewing is compromise and there are literally dozens of things that have to happen for the beer to get into your glass. The brewer tries to control as many of these things as possible and often has to do something at the expense of another. These decisions impact the beer's flavor profile. Great beers often have great stories but even absent one as told to you by the brewer or the brewery staff, you should be able to piece a narrative together based upon the style or description. Did the brewer intend to hit the top end of the IBU threshold or was she looking to create a beer with sufficient bitterness with a hefty malt backbone? It's quite possible that the beer is not suited for your tastes by design.

Get a Proper Serving

Typically this is a pint, or perhaps two. If the beer has some heft, a 10 ounce snifter might be appropriate. Some of this can be divined from the brewers intent or style guidelines, but most beer is designed to be consumed in 12 to 16 ounce servings. Here is where you have to take off your festival go-er, beer ticker, beer rater or serial sampler hat. There are few beers designed to be enjoyed as a four ounce pour. Fewer to none as a two ounce pour. Brewers design beers to consumed start to finish with the hope that you entertain the possibility of having one or two more of the very same beer. Nobody brews a beer that is best served preceded by a 2 ounce pour of Russian Imperial Stout and followed up by a 1 ounce pour (that you split with your mate) of American Wild Ale. One thing you may have said to yourself  (or heard others say out loud) is, "That was intense, but I don't think I could finish a glass of it." This is very instructive. It may have some spectacular inter-galactic rating, but face it, you wouldn't enjoy it in its natural beer serving state.

Drink With Others

Beer is a social drink that is meant to be shared and enjoyed with groups of people. I often hear people say they don't have a good palate with the implication that they don't physically have the ability to describe beer. We all have the same basic apparatus, the thing that distinguishes the "expert" beer reviewer is associating vocabulary with a taste or sensation. The only way that you can learn this language is to compare notes with others. With a tiny bit of education, talking about beer with others as you drink it can markedly increase your appreciation and enjoyment. Sometimes the best beer you will have is the one that you enjoy with others in a convivial atmosphere. Not a word is spoken about it, yet you both signal your server for one more of the same.

If you can wrap up all of these elements in a beer session or maybe even a couple of them, I think you'll agree that this is the best way to enjoy beer and take part in beer's culture.

Introducing Project ZUTROB

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to judge homebrewed beer made by employees of Crescent Crown. Crescent Crown is the Miller/Coors distributor in the Valley. It is the parent company of World Class Beverages, their craft/fine beer arm. Joining me at the judges table was Uwe Boer from Sun Up, Chuck Noll from World Class beverages, Derek Osborne from BJs Brewhouse and Anthony Canecchia of Santan.

The Distinguished Panel

Tenth and Blake, makers of Blue Moon, supplied the kits to 10 teams of 4. All were given some basic instructions, an Amber Ale kit and a few pointers from your truly the week after Labor Day. The beers, for first extract batches, were good overall. There were some typical first batch issues on some, but nothing out of the ordinary. Everyone walked away with an appreciation for beer's simplicity and nuance.

All of this is to introduce an idea that I have been kicking around for over two years called Project ZUTROB: Zepto Under The Radar Office Brewing wherein I will clandestinely brew an all-grain batch of a single bottle of beer at my office. I don't know if future updates will reside here at this blog or elsewhere. I am in the midst of piloting the office as you'll see below. I haven't yet scheduled Batch 1.

The Zepto Brewhouse

For the office pilot, I am beginning to cook up some unmalted barley to introduce the office to my new "diet". I'll be cooking up different cereals so that my office denizens will become accustomed to sweet grain smells and won't notice when I switch to doughing in an actual mash. 

I'll use a mini crock pot and Ranco Controller to create the infusions to step mash. I'll use a Bubba keg to mash and sparge. The Crock pot will also serve as my boil kettle. Finally the controller and a mini-fridge will serve as the fermentation chamber.

The Crock Pot is, well a crock pot, and not very quick to heat up today's batch of Pearl Barley even on high. Maybe I  should switch to a mini Rice Cooker. Thoughts?

Where in the Phoenix Beer World?

Do you know where in the beer world this photo was taken?
How does it relate to Arizona beer?

The concept is simple. We post a picture that is relevant to the Phoenix beer scene and you try and identify it. Sometimes there will be a larger story involved, but often there will not. 

Hint: Abbott Ale is crossed off their normal list (among others) for an upcoming event.

So, for glory and a tip of the glass next time we see you.

Answer after the jump.