Beer, Beer, and More Beer

[Mathguy]

Craft Breweries have really taken off in Eastern NC over the past few years, with a number of new local brands showing up at the pubs and good beer stores.  Have any new microbrews started in the greater DC-Balt area over the past few years ?

[Mathguy]

IPAs are better for one's liver than other beer types

https://vinepair.com/booze-news/hoppy-beer-liver-study/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=pagepost

[bluestreak]

Just drank some Spotted Cow from New Glarus Brewery. My friend smuggled it in from Wisconsin.  It is a delicious farmhouse ale. I love all New Glarus Beers. Totally Naked, Fat Squirrel and Moon Man are my other favorites.

[OldChelsea]

Back from a week in Vilnius and more pretty good East European lager. The local favourite seems to be Volfas Engelman from Kaunas (Lithuania's second-largest city), owned by the same people that put out A. LeCoq in Estonia...not bad. Nothing to quite match the dollar-per-half-litre expeience I had in Sofia a month earlier (see post in this thread some time back) but at a little pub on the edge of the Neris river, under the bridge near the Radisson Blu Lietuva hotel, was Kalnapilis lager for 2 euros 80, about as good taste-wise.

[Ali the Baseball Cat]

Are there roman alphabet signs in Sofia nowadays?  There weren't when I was last there, and cyrillic is a nag at the best of times, let alone when you're off yer heed on cheap pivo 

Back from a week in Vilnius and more pretty good East European lager. The local favourite seems to be Volfas Engelman from Kaunas (Lithuania's second-largest city), owned by the same people that put out A. LeCoq in Estonia...not bad. Nothing to quite match the dollar-per-half-litre expeience I had in Sofia a month earlier (see post in this thread some time back) but at a little pub on the edge of the Neris river, under the bridge near the Radisson Blu Lietuva hotel, was Kalnapilis lager for 2 euros 80, about as good taste-wise.

[OldChelsea]

Are there roman alphabet signs in Sofia nowadays?  There weren't when I was last there, and cyrillic is a nag at the best of times, let alone when you're off yer heed on cheap pivo 

There are a few, but most (including anything with material in it beyond a simple place name) are in Cyrillic.

Interesting thing about the word 'pivo': in just about any other Slavic language the word means simply 'beer' but in Bulgarian its usage is limited to ale (for 'beer' generally they say 'bira', borrowed from Italian).

[OldChelsea]

R.F.D., the 300-beer place a block north of Verizon Cenrre, has closed (citing rent increase): http://www.russianmachineneverbreaks.com/2017/07/11/popular-capitals-bar-rfd-announces-closure-15-year-run/

[Mathguy]

Could they re-open somewhere ?

R.F.D., the 300-beer place a block north of Verizon Cenrre, has closed (citing rent increase): http://www.russianmachineneverbreaks.com/2017/07/11/popular-capitals-bar-rfd-announces-closure-15-year-run/

[tomterp]

Slate's Dogfish Head ("Fairfax")  has Siracusa stout on tap, not shown on the menu. 

Wow.

Combining a roasty Imperial Stout with a jammy Syrah wine, this beer is bold and complex. Notes of coffee, dark chocolate and anise from a blend of roasted malts meld with flavors of plums, cherries and stewed fruits from Syrah grape must in this jet black stout. Aged on American oak to add some light toasty vanilla to the mix.

https://untappd.com/b/dogfish-head-craft-brewery-siracusa-nera/1666054

[Mathguy]

Sounds great Terp - I hope they have this on tap for a few weeks

Slate's Dogfish Head ("Fairfax")  has Siracusa stout on tap, not shown on the menu. 

Wow.

https://untappd.com/b/dogfish-head-craft-brewery-siracusa-nera/1666054

[tomterp]

The Brewers Association is going to roll out a certification of craft brewing that meets certain criteria:

https://www.brewersassociation.org/statistics/craft-brewer-defined/

CRAFT BREWER DEFINED
An American craft brewer is small, independent and traditional.

Small

Annual production of 6 million barrels of beer or less (approximately 3 percent of U.S. annual sales). Beer production is attributed to the rules of alternating proprietorships.

Independent

Less than 25 percent of the craft brewery is owned or controlled (or equivalent economic interest) by an alcohol industry member that is not itself a craft brewer.

Traditional

A brewer that has a majority of its total beverage alcohol volume in beers whose flavor derives from traditional or innovative brewing ingredients and their fermentation. Flavored malt beverages (FMBs) are not considered beers.

Why? 

http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2017/07/28/539760477/craft-beer-brought-to-you-by-big-beer

You may not be aware that Ballast Point Brewing Company, famed for its Sculpin IPA and fruity renditions of the same beer, was bought in 2015 for $1 billion by Constellation Brands, the company that owns Corona. Or that Lagunitas Brewing Company is now owned fully by Heineken or that Goose Island has since 2011 been a brand of Anheuser-Busch InBev, the global brewing giant that owns Budweiser.

These are just three of more than a dozen of the country's most popular and beloved craft breweries that have been purchased by global beverage companies in the past seven years. Indeed, beer brands recently purchased by larger companies now almost dominate many supermarket or liquor store shelves.

It isn't clear how many consumers know this is happening or whether they would care if they did. It also remains to be seen how these transactions will affect how the newly acquired brands taste.

But one thing is clear to craft beer brewers, lovers and lobbyists: They feel they're under attack by what they bitterly call "Big Beer" or "Big Alcohol."

Bob Pease, CEO and president of the Brewers Association, a Boulder, Colo., trade group representing independent craft brewers, says the incursion began six or seven years ago, after large companies, eyeing craft beer's growing market share, tried but essentially failed at brewing their own imitations of craft beer — like the short-lived Budweiser American Ale.

"So in 2011, AB InBev hit on this strategy of just buying the breweries that had the kind of mojo or street cred that they weren't nimble enough to replicate in their own breweries," he says.

Today, AB InBev alone owns 10 brands that until a few years ago were independently owned craft breweries.

The way Pease sees it, this system of taking ownership of craft brands has allowed larger beverage companies to strategically pressure beer distributors and retailers into dropping independently owned beers in favor of their own newly acquired brands. As a result, Pease says, small craft brands are being squeezed out of warehouses, delivery vans and, ultimately, supermarkets as shelves become increasingly stacked with what detractors like to call "crafty" beer.

"You'll find Goose Island on tap practically everywhere across the country, and you'll say, 'I didn't know they were that popular,' and they aren't," Pease says. "The distributors are just pushing these brands out there."

[Mathguy]

Pumpkin Ales are beginning to show up in bars & stores here in OBX.  Does anyone have favorite brands of these ales ?

[GuyFromCO]

Pumpkin Ales are beginning to show up in bars & stores here in OBX.  Does anyone have favorite brands of these ales ?

Hell no. Don't support this crap.

[mitlen]

Ten of us went ridin' today.    Stopped at Antietam Battlefield and then headed to a newer micro-brewery in Hagerstown  ...   Antietam Brewery.    They had maybe a dozen beers.    They don't brew a lot and are only distributed west of Frederick (IIRC).     Pretty nice variety and I thought their Lil Ben's Stout was pretty good (most of the beers are named after Generals at Antietam).    Here's their site:

www.AntietamBrewery.com

[Mathguy]

There's a rumor out there that InBev has given up on buying more craft breweries

https://vinepair.com/articles/ab-inbev-brewery-purchases/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=pagepost

[imref]

Hofbrau Oktoberfest is very good.

[Ali the Baseball Cat]

By the bootful!

Hofbrau Oktoberfest is very good.

[OldChelsea]

Now open at Dulles airport for your pre-flight beer and food needs – the Washington Redskins Burgundy and Gold Club: http://www.flydulles.com/iad/washington-redskins-burgundy-gold-club?_ga=2.121495819.2062433078.1505485430-1898669857.1494528893 – when you need a little memento of The Team That Drives Us All To Drinking before heading overseas (lots of craft brews available plus lager favourites like Stella).

The link only says it's in 'Concourse B' (post-security) without further qualification, but if you remember where Max and Erma's was it's in that general area. (In my case, happily the airlines I normally use all depart from that concourse.)

But should we expect slow service because the Redskins have no running game? (Getting to my departure gate in a short time shouldn’t be difficult though, since the Skins can’t stop the run either.)

[tomterp]

There's a rumor out there that InBev has given up on buying more craft breweries

https://vinepair.com/articles/ab-inbev-brewery-purchases/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=pagepost

They're sort of like weeds.  You pull one and 3 more sprout in its place.

[HalfSmokes]

That and the ones you pull die. I can't think of any microbrew that has maintained quality for long after being bought out. Even Ballast Point seems to throwing every flavor imaginable out there without regard for quality

[tomterp]

That and the ones you pull die. I can't think of any microbrew that has maintained quality for long after being bought out. Even Ballast Point seems to throwing every flavor imaginable out there without regard for quality

Devil's Backbone?   

Hasn't been long enough to do what they did to Dominion I guess.

[HalfSmokes]

Blue Mountain brewery has a nice fall sampler pack (I know it's at wegmans, don't know about beyond that). It's all good stuff, and there is nothing involving pumpkin

[Ali the Baseball Cat]

Their grunion ale is pretty tasty.  Though it could be that the fish it is named for is really cool.  Plus I like saying it.  Grunion.  Grunion.

Even Ballast Point seems to throwing every flavor imaginable out there without regard for quality

[Mathguy]

There is an effort going on to "certify" craft beer in a way like organic food

https://vinepair.com/articles/craft-beer-seal-shelves-organics/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=pagepost

[HalfSmokes]

So they get certified independent craft, how long until inbev breweries are certified independent micro or something else that confuses people who don't know the difference (i.e. everyone). If you think I'm just being cynical, look at all they food labeled natural