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.