Beer PHXation

The Magical Listical Tour | Lazy, Ass-Kissy, Effective and Odds on Bad for Beer Writing.

2013-05-24T11:03:00.000-07:00

Roll up WE'LL RUIN EVERYTHING YOU READ, roll up for the listical tour.
Roll up TO MAKE OUR IMPRESSION RATES SUCCEED, roll up for the listical tour
The Magical Listical Tour is waiting for your clicks today,
Waiting for your clicks to pay, your clicks pay.

Yesterday a tweet of mine came full circle. (Twitter is useful.)

Bill Night went on to post at the New School Blog: PISS AND VINEGAR: 10 REASONS I HATE LISTICLES. Don't worry, there is no list, but Bill points out that it's lazy, effective and ass-kissy. On the internet, that trio is a cat pic away from having all Four Horses of the Apocalypse.

On how the air of authority masks a lack of content:

What's wrong with making lists? Nothing at all. But the listicle format is so easy to churn out that many paper publications and blogs end up full of vapid, uninformed musings, conveniently shrink-wrapped into easy-to-skim numbered lists. Slap a number on it--and a superlative like "best" or "top"--and suddenly whatever you thought of just now takes on an air of authority. An ordered list might have some meaning if there was some data behind it, but the lists we are constantly assaulted with are nothing more than a bunch of things that happened to catch someone's attention recently.

On the proliferation of sucking up:

I think another part of the appeal is that you get to kiss a lot of asses at one time with a listicle. In these times of social-media log-rolling, listing 186 beers will get your article 186 Facebook thumbs and Twitter retweets just from the breweries themselves. Some percentage of the breweries' followers will go on to share the links, then you re-tweet those as they come your way, and now your listicle is bouncing off the walls of the social media echo chamber.

One thing that Bill missed and Jeff Alworth mentions in the comments is the nature of page views and impressions. Advertisers pay for number of impressions and so if you can break a piece up in 5 pieces you get five impressions instead of one. Farhad Manjoo explains all of this in a Slate article and why there is no technological reason for this type of web pagination. Slate, you will note, breaks articles across multiple pages but does have a single page link on the bottom left of page 1 on every post. Slate was also the publisher of a piece on Hops Ruining Beer. (I put that on a single page for you.) Many on the web were calling the author of that post lazy. Thirteen hundred words is not lazy. Not list lazy.

So what to do about multipage posts that are 5, 10 and 25 clicks long? I used to skip them de riguer. Enter Deslider, a webpage that parses multi-click website slideshows and presents them on one page. Now it doesn't work on The Phoenix New Times standard two page minimum click type of article but it did work for a piece on 25 Breweries to Watch. Compare the original to the deslider version.

Hat tip to Matthew Elliot for pointing out this web tool.

The Blast and the Beerious | Guest Tapping at Sleepy Dog Pub and Bistro

2013-05-23T11:42:00.000-07:00

Just a quick note to let you all know that I am joining the beer pouring circus again tonight at the Sleepy Dog Pub and Bistro in THE GILBERT, home of beer fearing politician and AZ State Senate President, Andy Biggs. You may have seen my other pouring events documented here and here. No fancy photoshop this time, but the theme is Matt Weber's favorite movie franchise the Fast and the Furious!

Behold!

I know what you are thinking. "Butthole" does sound disparaging, but note the British spelling of theater as theatre. We are looking at a fan of the stage here and of course butthole doth disparage the grand proscenium. Matt is playing the thespian in the tradition of Vin Diesel and The Rock. He hath pulled the wool over mine own eyes and yours too! He loves that flick!

Come on down and let's talk Fast and Furious. Our cast tonight:

Me as Vin Diesel.
ASHer Greg "Happy Hour Guy" Garcia as The Rock.
James Swann as an explosion.
Hop Head Fred as another explosion in slow motion.
Matt Weber as The love interest.
Jeff Prior as Another love interest.
Sleepy Dog's Belgian Trippel as a car that we all desire.
Firestone Walker Wookie Jack as a black car we all desire.

As per tradition I will be driving in late across the entire freaking valley and I will limit my glassware breakage to 1 pint glass.

Sleepy Dog Pub & Bistro
1451 E Williams Field Rd, Gilbert, AZ 85295
Phone:(480) 963-1805

Gregory Fretz of Phoenix Ale Brewery Passes at 44.

2013-05-20T14:13:00.000-07:00

The Arizona beer community was stunned with the news of Gregory "Fretzy" Fretz passing on Saturday. Word spread from the beer tents at the Amer-CAN Canned Craft Beer Festival that Fretzy passed in his sleep after after a battle with throat cancer. It was a shock, to say the least, since Fretz had been active all during American Craft Beer Week including an open house at Phoenix Ale Brewery on Thursday. The open house announced the operational partnership with Sonoran Brewing Company. After the festival, industry and fans gathered at the nearby Praying Monk to remember and to hear the words of others. Chuck Noll of Crescent Crown led the crowd with a moving tribute.

Fretzy had been in the beer industry since 1994 with long stints at Pyramid and Deschutes Brewery before co-founding Phoenix Ale Brewery with George Hancock. Gary Fish, President of Deschutes credits Fretzy with developing the Arizona market for brands like Black Butte Porter. Fretz was able to get Deschutes everywhere across the state and he also secured handles in some of Arizona's most iconic destinations including the El Tovar Hotel in the Grand Canyon and at (then) Bank One Ballpark.

Greg Fretz was the namesake for an unfiltered English pale ale and an unfiltered wheat with the pale ale serving as the company's flagship. Fretz was also the driving force behind the Phoenix Brewers Invitational Beer Festival held last December. It will be impossible to separate American Craft Beer Week, the Phoenix Brewers Invitational, AmeriCAN and of course Fretzy's Ales without out thinking of his gravelly voice and ebullient manner. Fretz was able to talk about his treatments with just about anyone and provided comfort to those that knew someone battling cancer. Such is the role that he played in my life.

This is a particularly difficult spring for the beer community as Arizona has lost Professor David Conz in April.

Greg is survived by his wife and two children. Arrangements and memorials have yet to be announced. Our thoughts are with them.

EDIT: Fretzy's wife Stacie has announced a fund to support the family in this dire time.
http://www.gofundme.com/2zyfhw
Greg was the kind of person that would say a few kind words, smile and buy you a beer if he saw that you were down. Please consider sending a few bucks their way.

Expand my what?

2013-05-15T12:43:00.000-07:00

A pallet outside of a palate expansion emporium.

"Stop drinking fizzy yellow stuff. Expand your pallet!!!!" - Source, the google.

I often see "craft beer" as a rallying point to expand one's experience in terms of flavor. Seven times out of ten*, it seems that I'm being literally asked to enlarge the wooden skids in my figurative warehouse (~~wherehouse~~ / ~~were-house~~).

pal·let
/?palit/
Noun
A portable platform on which goods can be moved, stacked, and stored, esp. with the aid of a forklift.
Synonyms
palette - paillasse

pal·ate
/?palit/
Noun
The roof of the mouth, separating the cavities of the nose and the mouth in vertebrates.
A person's appreciation of taste and flavor.
Synonyms
taste - savour - savor - flavour - flavor - relish

pal·ette
/?palit/
Noun
A thin board or slab on which an artist lays and mixes colors.
The range of colors used by a particular artist or in a particular picture.
Synonyms
pallet

There seems to be a natural tendency for this plea to be followed with hit-you-over-the-head descriptions of beers that are barrel aged, bourbon and hop bombs. Presumably, expanding your palate involves detecting the obvious.

Here's another thought. Expanding your palate could also mean improving your sensory on very subtle flavors and the language used to communicate them to others. I'm pleased to see that two valley beer writers have done just that in recent days. Alyssa is relating here experiences on the low numbered BJCP styles (1, 2, 3) brilliantly while Zach smiths out Sunbru's delicate flavors here.

Fizzy yellow stuff. Can you taste the green apple? Sulphur? Cereal? Corn? Expand it man, expand it!

*Made up stat.

The Session #75 | Business of Brewing

2013-05-03T08:20:00.000-07:00

In this installment of The Session, Chuck Lenatti of AllBrews asks that we reflect on the Business of Brewing. He makes that observation that anyone that has brewed has probably considered going pro and he asks that we provide insight to those considering taking the leap. I facetiously tackled some of this in an April Fools post, but that was as much a poke at myself than at anyone else.

I am an observer and student of the business of beer. Let it be known, however, that I have made in excess of $0.00 selling it or promoting it. I also have an extensive background in opening exactly 0 breweries. I am currently consulting no one on their new East Coast brewery. I will also resort to semantic trickery, leaps in logic and made-up statistics to win arguments. Here is my sage advice:

Decide right now if you have the aptitude and the desire for public speaking. No? Then shut up. Hire someone or find a partner that will do this for you. You are making, selling and promoting your business with everything you say, everything that you write and anything that has your name or logo on it. Everything you produce that isn't beer is also a marketing piece for your beer.
Have that gift for gab? Maybe also consider shutting up. You might not be as charming as you think. Get an outside evaluation.
Do not solicit investments on the internet. There are rules. Google it.
Speaking of Google, use it so that you don't run into a trademark issue.
Once you are on a clear track to start up and you're adamant about social media, please note Rule 5.
As a start up, a social media strategy is not required. It may also be a time suck.
All of the see-and-be-seen events with the craft beer world, the facebook mugging with other brewers, "the research" in a glass... These things do not write your business plan or cut your floor drains.
As a business owner, you are a host. You are trading in hospitality (if you are a brewpub) or your product engenders hospitality (if you are a production brewery). When someone is visiting you, they are coming to your home. Are you not that guy? Find someone to run the front of the house who is.
Have an elevator pitch that focuses on the role of your business in the community. Talk about employment, economic growth, sense of community and how your business will be transformative. You are the driver that takes them to the place we all want to go to. Making high quality beer is the gasoline that runs the vehicle. Hat tip to Michael Fairbrother of Moonlight Meadery for that wonderful analogy.
You are going to make mistakes. Some of them will be big and it may be embarrassing. You might even compound on the problem by saying or doing something defensively and hastily. Stop. The mistakes and problems are hardly ever the reason you do not succeed. It's often how you respond to the problem that makes a difference.
Don't read reviews. Get someone to provide you unbiased and unemotional feedback on a regular basis. If you must respond to criticism, answer directly, provide concise information and supply an opportunity to address it off line. Move on.
Ignore quality at your peril.
Treat your water. It's not olde tyme beer anymore.
Kickstarter. Make it a tiny portion of your business plan if you decide to use it. At best, it's a way to move some t-shirts and show that you can put together a campaign. At worst, it can look like begging. It's better to use Kickstarter as KickFinisher. Use it as part of the run-up to you opening.
Your friends. Your friends are your friends whether you make barrel aged unicorn sunshine or an amber ale. You are not making beer for your friends. You are making beer to stay alive, after that you are making beer for you.
Hire a brewer.
Hire a brewer.
You are far better off partnering with a lawyer, an accountant or a bicycle store owner than another homebrewer.
Focus on local. All of your initial resources and challenges are local. Your largest regulatory issues will arise from a municipal inspector, not the state or the federal government. The ultimate hurdle in selecting a site will be gaining neighborhood support. Your customers will not be your friends or family or the beer geeks across town, they will be your new friends and family in your new neighborhood.
You are responsible for educating your customers, not Greg Koch, not Sam, not Vinnie. Most of your new customers never heard of these guys, nor do they care.
As much as you want it to be, "all about what's in the glass", it's not. In fact, what happens outside of the glass is even more important if your beers are solid. Remember, it's hospitality and differentiating your beers from everyone else.
Someone may tell you that your beer sucks. They may be inarticulate, imprecise and rude. They may also be right.
Do blind tastings of your beer versus others in the same style. Be brutally honest.
Is your brewpub a warm and inviting place? Is the service good? Congratulation you're better off than most other service industries and you have delicious beer.
Every beer has a story. Learn how to tell it.
Aspire to be more than a brewer or brewery owner. Be a community leader.
The news media loves beer stories that don't involve drinking and b-roll of people drinking. (Really, it's true.) Remember the elevator pitch.
Tired of hearing business advice from armchair brewmasters and homebrewers? Tough. Shut up and smile or hire someone that does it better than you.

Rock Bands, Taxis and the Three Fates

2013-04-29T18:14:00.000-07:00

It turns out there is a shortage of cool rock band names according to the Wall Street Journal. It seems hard to comprehend until the facts are laid out. Think of all the commercially successful bands that you liked and wrote on your Trapper-Keeper. Now add the horribly short window of your reign of coolness. Think of all the DJs, YouTubers, Guitar Heroes and Karaoke "stars" too that now get online and publish to My Space and Apple Garageband.

Some stats:

A company called Rovi tracks about 1.4 Million artists names;
Rovi adds an average of 6,521 new names a month;
Top band variant names are Bliss (keep this one in mind), Mirage, Gemini, Legacy, Paradox and Rain.

Money quotes:

"Every other name is taken," Mr. Jones explains. "Think of a great band name and Google it, and you'll find a French-Canadian jam band with a MySpace page."

The available supply of punchy one- or two-word band names is dwindling. So, many acts are resorting to the unwieldy or nonsensical.
Among more than 1,900 acts expected in March at the South by Southwest music festival in Austin, Texas, are bands with the names And So I Watch You From Afar, and Everybody Was In the French Resistance...Now! The f-word is part of 100 band names in a media database maintained by Gracenote, a unit of Sony Corp. that licenses digital entertainment technology.

It's a real problem with C&D's and legal challenges coming from big companies as well as competing bands both new and old.

Scottsdale Fate

Is there reason for the beer world to take caution? With 2500 or so breweries and 1000's more in planning it seems like there is plenty of room for creativity. The Brewery Collectibles Club of America tracks 2250 or so US breweries. BeerMe lists 14,157 breweries and 41,753 beers. There are also untold thousands of homebrewers bandying about their monikers on bottles and online. So why is it then, that we have a Fate Brewing Co here in Scottsdale and there is also one in Boulder? The beer world is starting to see C&D letters from other industries. Who can forget the Monster / Vermonster controversy? Or the Santan / Sam Adams glassware bout? Will we see brewery names like strongly encrypted passwords or long phrases like those at South by Southwest?

Imagine 1337@l3Wl_lrk5 or Tortoise Brand Pot Scrubbing Cleaner's Brewing or some phrase from Ipsum Lorem Brewing. Maybe we should ask taxi drivers. From the WSJ article.

Boulder Fate

"A band name should pass the taxi-driver test: You shouldn't have to tell him twice"

Speaking of taxi cab driver advice, Stan Hieronymus re-tweeted some craft beer advice from ESPN's Darren Rovell.

MT @darrenrovell Taxi driver wants to open brewery. When taxi driver told me yrs ago he did real estate knew boom over. HT @craftbizdaily
— Stan Hieronymus (@StanHieronymus) April 23, 2013

Fate No More

If I'm cabbing in Phoenix, it's generally the "to home" leg. It would be uncommon for me to catch a lift from the Sky Harbor airport and say, "To Fate". Phoenix isn't much of a cab town, so I'm curious if I'd end up in Scottsdale, back at passenger departures or at Bliss at what was once formerly Johnny Chu's Fate.

Chow Bella Continues Phoning It In | Misses Top Local Stories

2013-04-22T11:27:00.000-07:00

This is by no means the first time. We've chronicled the problem before. In a week where we lost Dr Dave Conz, the Arizona Craft Brewers Guild hosted a Springfest in Tucson, Four Peaks had its 16th Anniversary Festival and Ed Sipos announces the pre-sale of a landmark book, Brewing Arizona | A Century of Beer in the Grand Canyon State, here is what the New Times chooses to write about in the beer world.

The Elephant Poop Beer: This was blog fodder everywhere and passed around social media. It has no relation to anything going on in the beer world here, but if you're going to write about it why not get a take on it from Cartel since it is a beer brewed from coffee and those guy make beer and coffee. In any case, you might want to link back to your own bad selves since Zach Fowle wrote about Mikkeller Beer Geek Brunch Weasel. Zach, the strongest link in your chain, wrote about the civet cat poop beer in 2010.

The Bud Bowtie Can: Another non-story which you chose to make a story. Bella, you're being hipster while invoking hipster. Here's an idea. How about getting some press over to Dapper + Dash, the local bowtie purveyor. They're smack dab in the middle of a Kickstarter campaign. ($1600 to go with 50 or so hours left.) They've done craft beer events with Tempe Handlebar and Four Peaks. You blew it. You could have re-directed Bud bowtie ire into local good.

Beer Brain Science: Hello? Beer For Brains? Are you guys writing for people that aren't on facebook? Another re-cycled presser and a blown opportunity.

On a more positive track, the New Times enlisted Minerva Orduño Rincón, the founder of Muñeca Mexicana handcrafted food to write about Mexican Beers, "3 Tips for Avoiding Beer Tragedies of the Mexican Variety". It's a topic that needs some attention given that almost all Mexican traditional or inspired restaurants seem to feel the need to automatically include 5 or 6 Mexican macro offerings at the expense of something that actually makes sense flavor-wise.

Unfortunately, the piece relies on snark and humor. We only get hints about what the actual story should be:

I would love to be able to share more on the new crop of Mexican micro-breweries working to develop Mexican beer to include more variety than the pilsners and lagers brought by German and Polish immigrants to Mexico during the 19th century, tasty as they are. Sadly, these beers, including the awesomely named Cervecería Minerva are not readily available in the United States.

That, is in fact, the real story we want to read about. How about an actual discussion about the duopoly that is Mexican beer? Provide some insights on how the regional breweries were gobbled up by Grupo Modelo or Cervecería Cuauhtémoc-Moctezuma/FEMSA. There is nothing wrong with Negra Modelo, Pacifico, Corona, or Tecate in context, but please provide that context. Minerva write that piece please. We'll get you some Mexi-craft beers. We know people.

Finally, Zach continues to write cogent pieces on new releases. He provides context, history and makes reviews interesting. It's not easy work, beer reviews. Most come off as dry or pretentious in the tasting notes. As an old guy, I didn't need so many 80's references in his last piece on the Class of 88, but alas today's newest drinkers were born in the 90's. There is always a place for a Fred Eckhardt reference in a Barleywine review. Some day maybe someone at the NT will also appreciate Fred is also a Sake expert.

Update: Great sounding beer and Chinese food event. Forgets to list beer pairings in a beer pairings? Is a poop reference de rigueur for beer stories now?

Bite My Shiny Metal (gl)Ass | Are We Headed for a Growler Showdown?

2013-04-18T11:45:00.000-07:00

In December, I stopped by a Prescott brewery for a visit and noticed that they were selling and filling Hydroflask growlers with the brewery logo. From a distance they look ceramic because of a charcoal powder coating, but they are double walled stainless steel. I asked someone behind the bar about them and let them the know according to the law, growlers had to me made of glass. That law is Title 4 of the Arizona Revised Statutes and it was the law that opened growler fills to retailers and bars. It states plainly:

4-244. 32

c) A Bar, Beer And Wine Bar, Liquor Store, Beer And Wine Store Or Domestic Microbrewery Licensee Who Dispenses Beer Only In A Clean Glass Container With A Maximum Capacity That Does Not Exceed One Gallon And Not For Consumption On The Premises ...

We joked about how stupid the law was. I even told him that liquor agents were specifically asked about stainless steel and ceramics at a distributor's Q&A and the agents held firm to the letter of the law. He shrugged and that was the end of it. I'm hoping that I did not come across as a smug flatlander, but I have to admit that I marveled at the seemingly under-the-radar nature of rural Arizona.

I've known one other Arizona brewery to fill stainless containers in the North Country. I suspect others are filling for a few customers. I know that every brewery has an interest in allowing their use. It seems silly that the law precludes us from using the vessel of choice for brewers across the world. They may have used glass lined tanks in Latrobe or the old A-1 Brewery, but these days stainless fermentation tanks are industry standard. The material of the vessel can't be a health and safety issue. I defy anyone to tell me how ceramic is materially different than glass in terms of packaging and why the state has an interest in specifying one over the other.

One only need look at the success of the can in brewing and look at the glass strewn highways and parks of the state to realize that the stainless steel growler is going to be a necessary part of outdoor living in Arizona. I guarantee that you will not see shards of steel from a broken hydroflask on the banks of Woods Canyon Lake. No one is going to abandon the metal husk of a growler on a picnic table.

Yesterday things got interesting. I saw a post on Instragram. A valley brewery is selling the shiny metal versions of the hydroflask. I was told that people are getting them filled. There is absolutely no way that the practice will go unnoticed given the brewery's size and the scope of their social media outreach.

So what is going on here? Has there been an enforcement agreement? Is this a test case? An act of civil disoBEERdience? A miscommunication?

I'm unable to get answers from my usual channels. I am headed to the brewery to find out.

Update:

Advice: Buy one. Get it filled. This growler will last you a lifetime. You will save about $8 in shipping. You will hand it down to your children like an heirloom (or lose it like a pair of sunglasses.) Don't expect everyone to honor filling it. If at such time the state mandates that they cannot be filled where you bought it, then fill it with homebrew. At some point the law will be changed to something clear and rational.

Until then, flaunt your pair of steel family jewels.

Last Dave Conz Interview | It's Never Too Late to Learn or be Inspired by Dr. Dave

2013-04-17T08:51:00.000-07:00

Yesterday afternoon, I re-tweeted a condolence for Dr David Conz, who we learned passed away on April 12. It happened to catch the eye of James Spencer of Basic Brewing Radio. James had just finished editing an interview that he recorded with Dave on March 29.

It's a small world that we live in.

I've posted the links to the podcast below. It's good to hear his voice again and see the world through his eyes one last time.

April 18, 2013 - David Conz Tribute
A conversation with the late David Conz, Arizona State University professor and friend to homebrewers and good beer. Introduction by Rob Fullmer, president of the Arizona Society of Homebrewers.

- Dave's Slate article

iTunes | Streaming mp3

We Have Lost Dave Conz

2013-04-15T14:41:00.002-07:00

On Friday, we lost a great man, Dr David Conz. Dave was a warm, personable and engaging figure that moved between intellectual and social circles as freely, easily and simply as a smile. When I met Dave, he was introduced to me as Dr Beer, an Arizona State University (ASU) professor with a CV of varied disciplines that defied logic, that is, until you met and spoke to him. He made it all make sense. His intellectual pursuits led him to sit comfortably between areas of knowledge and learning--an area where he could be a teacher and a student at the same time.

Dave and I had an affinity in looking at beer as a lens through which the world could be better understood, though he obviously stated it much more clearly than I ever hoped to. We were not close friends, but that was only a limitation of time. He is someone that I saw my own potential in. I wanted to treat people like he treated people. I wanted to understand things like he did. Over the years, we discussed a great many projects. This was the year that we were going to push forward. This was the year that our close work would further cement our bonds.

Dave began a class at ASU that he one day hoped to turn into a program: BIS 402, The Cultural and Chemical History of Beer

“This interdisciplinary course traces the development of beer from ancient cultures to the multinational mega-corporations and craft homebrewers of today. We will examine the social, cultural, legal, biochemical, physiological and business dimensions of beer throughout history while integrating students’ areas of concentration. The class will feature expert guest lecturers, field trips to local breweries, and an optional hands-on, at-home (off-campus) “lab” component where students will have the opportunity to make, bottle, analyze and sample their own batches of beer (off-campus).”

It was a wildly popular class and the students that I met were fascinated with the scope and depth of the materials that their professor presented. Notably, the beer industry took interest and anecdotally, I know of many direct hires from the graduates of this class. There were placements at Sierra Nevada, Santan Brewing and Crescent Crown to name a few. I had the pleasure of guest lecturing a class on the beer culture in Phoenix that included segments on urban planning and adaptive re-use.

You'll note in the course description above, that "off-campus" is used a few times and this speaks to the uneasy relationship that ASU has with beer. Dave's passing has, for the foreseeable future, placed the class and program at an end. Many are vowing to bring the program back, but that will be a discussion for another time.

It's here where I have to be careful because some of the early circumstances surrounding Dave's death are based on hearsay. There will always be a degree of uncertainty and speculation about Dave's passing and the testimony of a few will most likely be all that we have. There is no getting around talking about this. Dave lived in the friendly aura of so many and there will be difficult conversations. This is hard. If you are not ready for this, please skip to the video below. It's a celebration of his life and it is ultimately how I will remember him.

These are my own thoughts and I cannot attest that they are the truth. There are two conflicting currents--two ideas that are at odds that lead me to a conclusion. Dave had plans. I know that on the day of the tragic event he and I discussed rescheduling a meeting for a project that we were going to work on in the fall. I know that others got reminder calls from Dave about an event the very next day. He had plans with us.

Whether you choose to believe it was careless, accidental or intentional Dave died by his own hand. This is the opposing force that puts everything that we know into a terrible swirl. There were circumstances, I am told, that may have momentarily put Dave in a place that few of us have ever seen him in. It seems that this was all a horrible, ridiculous, selfish, impulsive, uncharacteristic and hurtful catastrophic act. We are all human and we are all susceptible to periods of flawed thinking, impetuousness, irrationality, madness, violence and destruction. We need not hide from the ugliness within us. We all must believe that Dave would not want any of us to follow him in this path. It is not the way of the gracious, learned and caring man that we love.

Again. I will remember Dave as a colleague and a friend and someone that will continue inspire me for as long as I live. So too will every one of his friends.

Last night, the beer community met at one of Dave's local favorites, Taste of Tops. As many as 100 packed into the small bar and there were easily 80 raised glasses for round of drinks bought by the Arizona Craft Brewers Guild. Among the brewers, homebrewers, distributors and beer fans were many of Dave's colleagues and students. There were also representatives of the many sides of Dave, the friends that knew him as:

The Drummer
The Biodiesel Scientist
The Dancer
The Poet
The Traveler
The Professor
The Motorcycle Mechanic
The Sociologist
The Pilot
The Philosopher
The Lover
The Skater
The Vegetarian
The Chicken Farmer
The Homebrewer

We will all miss him.

UPDATE: My friend James Spencer recorded an interview with Dave on March 29.

Brewing Arizona | A Web Found Sneek Peak

2013-04-11T12:01:00.000-07:00

Will this be the cover of the Ed Sipos book, "Brewing Arizona"? You can catch up with Ed at these the following events and ask him:

April 20: Arizona Craft Brewers Guild Springfest, (Tucson, AZ)
May 18: Ameri-Can Canned Craft Beer Festival, (Scottsdale, AZ)

I ran across a design blog post in February (see below) and ever since it's been difficult to contain my enthusiasm for the book release. I've read the manuscript (more than once) and have been dying to talk about it. It's going to be a great moment when more people know the history of brewing in our state. Some of the very same challenges and opportunities exist today as they did in Territorial times. I think there are going to be some surprises in the book for some people that remember the 1990's craft beer boom. The pictures of the A-1 Brewery are simply outstanding.

You can see this possible cover and a few others that may or may not make the cut at the housedesign llc blog. Good affordable design is something that all breweries have access to now unlike the 1860's (and let's be honest, even the 1990's).

Hey Chow Bella, Let's Avert the Slow Motion Disaster That Was Last Year.

2013-04-03T14:57:00.002-07:00

Hey remember last Spring when you, the Phoenix New Times Chow Bella Blog, created a 100 Tastemakers list and posted a new entry every day leading up to their "Best Of" picks?

That's coming up again for you. I have some advice.

I'm probably the only freak who followed day-by-day to see who from the beer world would be on that list. I've held on to my disappointment in you for a year.

Here is that complete list for anyone interested but let me save my readers some trouble. There were no beer people on the list or at least their beer side was not acknowledged (more on that later). Disclaimer: I have a few friends on the list, I happen to agree with many of the choices. I was happy to learn about the folks that I do not know. Little did I know it, but The Tastemakers list was a sign of disaster to come.

You can make the argument that it's a food blog. Then why have folks on it where wine figure so prominently in their background and no beer personalities? Why have two 2 mixologists and ignore that there are some 35 breweries in the state? Arizona has breweries that have won Great American Beer Fest and World Beer Cup Medals. Our breweries employ 1600 workers and are part of an industry that has many more thousand beer-centric front line professionals. Surely there is room for a brewer, distributor professional or a Cicerone server on that list of 100. The beer community does beer dinners you know. They collaborate with chefs. Some of them are homebrewers. You could mention that.

Chow Bella, don't do this for me. Don't do this for your beer friends or for any other reason than this--your beer credibility sucks and you need to do something about it.

Bella, you have a blind spot and you don't even know it. The Tastemakers list was the tell that you're over your head. In June, you listed Cartel's Jason Silberschlag and we couldn't be happier. Except this... at the time of your writing, Jason was hip deep OPENING A BREWERY and YOU DIDN'T MENTION IT. In July we noticed, that you eliminated some beer categories from the popular vote. All that did was encourage folks to nominate breweries for Best Sports Bar and so on. See, people (readers and ad-clickers) that take part in you poll like beer.

Bella, you have a Certified Cicerone on your staff. He is your best beer resource is he is relegated to the sidelines. All that you have your Cicerone do is beer reviews. Did you know that a core discipline of a Cicerone is to talk about food and beer pairings? Beer and food pairings in restaurants, imagine! See how you could work that into your blog? He's not going to make some of the rookie mistakes I've seen your other writers make. Maybe you should let him edit a story if it involves beer. Maybe if a place features beer, wine and cocktails, you should ask your reviewers to reflect on all of the beverages and not just cocktails.

That your Cicerone works at a beer bar isn't going to bias his opinions on restaurants. I've heard this is your concern--a conflict of interest. You should note that his place of business does not even serve food. Perhaps you're afraid he'll do what tastemakers do and challenge the ancient thinking on beer and dining. Maybe he'll write about the crappy beer list at one of your favorite places. (You know it's crappy too.) Maybe you're going for hipster thing wherein you're so cool you have a beer guy but you don't even acknowledge beer exists in restaurants. That's for you to work out I guess. Alas, you are not alone when it comes to misrepresenting beer. I'll give you some credit. I think the Republic is just lazy.

Bella, you need to do this for you or you'll end up handing out another brewing award to a place that doesn't actually brew beer. You put those business owners in a horrible position of having to accept an award they knew was the result of your willful igonorance.

Evo, Ovo, Cervisia

2013-04-02T10:46:00.002-07:00

My friend Evo Terra is a seriously interesting man. It's probably a crime that he has not been mentioned in this blog before. Last October, he subsisted on a diet of sausage and craft beer losing 18 pounds. In April, he began his quest to eat nothing but eggs and craft beer for 30 days.

Evo is a hop head. An IPA man. He's asked me about egg and beer pairings and I regret to inform him that wheat beers, lighter Belgian styles like wit are the classic pairings.

Fortunately, just about every beer that he likes will overpower the egg and I'm sure he's fine with that.

Cheers Evo! Please stay downwind of me.

For Immediate Release - Arizona Frontier Brewery Consultants

2013-04-01T11:05:00.001-07:00

On behalf of 6 other industry principals, I would like to announce the formation of Arizona Frontier Brewery Consultants. We represent a new kind of company that will leverage new media, new technology and old school strategy. AFBC seeks to identify and monetize your passion. We will create strategic partnerships between beer fans and breweries to propel Arizona Breweries into the National spotlight

I have been hired on as the Public Relations Director for AFBC and I will be the only employee that will not remain anonymous. AFBC is comprised of industry professionals with over 100 years of experience. These individuals will retain their strategic positions working behind the scenes. Our agile strategy will allow us to utilize their existing report-to relations to unknowingly further AFBC goals.

Technical
If you are a brewery in planning we can work with your lack of professional brewing experience. Using our Manu-fast Destiny Plan™, our team will leapfrog your company over the brewing process. Our contract brewery partners can help you take your brand concept to market quickly by using our catalog of 15 base styles and combining them with our database of flavor variations. Additionally, we have 3 extreme barrel flavors to blend with your "catch-ily named beer".

Base Styles*
IPA II
IPA IV
IPA Double and a Half
Russian Imperial Stout
Imperial Stout or Porter
Porter / Stout / Brown (varies by concentration)
BarleyWine
BarleyWine II
Extreme Session
Quiet Storm Imperial Blond
Wheat Clean
Gateway Pale/Wheat
Wheat Clovey
Wheat Banana
*We can make any of these in Black

Extreme Barrel Series
Big Oak™
Bourbon Bomb™
Collab-Cab™

Database of Flavors (sample)
Hoppy Profile
Hoppy Profile Citrus
Hoppy Profile Pine
Hoppy Profile (Wincingly Flavorless Bitter)
Chocolate
Chocolate (ladies)
Fruit
Berry
Chinese Five Spice
Poultry Seasoning (Belgian)
Plate of Shrimp
and many more

In addition to these combinations we can blend with our current clientele to get you flavors of buttered toast, nail polish remover, cabbage and feet.

Flagship? You don't need a stinking Flagship.
All of your beers are Specialty Beers with the AFBC way!

Collaboration
AFBC firmly believes that there is still some mileage left in the collaboration game. We'll pair your second line employees with the second line employees of restaurants, bars, retailers and bloggers. There is a remarkable synergy to be drawn from pairing your keg washers with the dishwashers of the many five star resorts in Arizona. Also consider the 10 fold jump start you will get by having a blogger pre-review her collaboration beer with you.

Film

We have partnered with the Ventura Media Group to do celebrity collaborations. VMG has well placed niche C-listers in music (Stryper), film (Ted McGinley), television (Ted McGinley) and internet (Bad Luck Brian). Ventura Media Group also holds the posthumous rights to Jan Michael Vincent (in pre-negotiation) and Patrick Swayze (ladies).

Marketing
Our team has gathered together the minimum number of reviewers to qualify for ratings on Rate Beer and Beer Advocate. This team has special access to your Limitless Limited Release Program™. Our distribution network insures that your beers will always be available to the AFBC Tastemakers. We ensure top quality reviews by removing the bottom quartile from the program.
As your inventory becomes scarce, our AFBC consultants unveil the 4-Ounce Growler only program and the "We're gearing up for cans" rumor Using our real estate team, we'll concoct a second production brewery story.

4 Ounce Growler - Sharable

Many craft breweries are afraid to make sexy woman advertisements. We will go there.

Brand Concept
We will work with your bad pun, Arizona place name or other dog concept and your crappy logo. You need to keep your identity and we're powerless to fix that. We can't compete with your relatives and their "shop" skills.

Beer Tourism
Haven't got the funds to start a brewery or have the initiative or discipline to create a business plan? The AFBC has a Beer Tourism plan that will keep you in the social media spotlight. We'll whisk you to every festival, every event, every conference. We'll let you name drop the kinds of beer that you'll supposedly make. Hypothetical collaborations, yes of course. Our typical campaign lasts about 18 months. You'll drink plenty of free beer and all you have to do is make the occasional homebrew.

Arizona Frontier Brewery Consultants (AFBC), founded in April of 2013 utilizes the experience of 6 industry professionals and everyone that reports to them in their real jobs. Rob Fullmer, the Public Relations Director is their sole spokesman and point of contact. AZBC has no website, it has no Twitter or Facebook accounts. If you have a problem...if no one else can help...and if you can find them...maybe you can hire...The AFBC.

EDIT: This is, of course a hoax in celebration of April Fools Day. Here are some other's I found.

Boak and Bailey: Meeting the Master - complete with Twitter account going back to close to a year (one I quoted a month back or so.) They got me on the long con.
Beervana: Pope Francis to Trappists: No More Beer

Bonus Edit:
In luck too good to be true, I found that the Papago sign was taken down for a replacement.

I captioned it thusly:

Breaking. The Tohono O'odam tribe of Arizona also known as the Papago tribe C&D @PapagoBrewing. Immediate takedown.

I even got some help form Papago principle Johnny. Screenshots redacted to protect the innocent.

March 30 | Misquote Ben Franklin Day 2013

2013-03-29T15:38:00.001-07:00

http://finedininglovers.com/blog/food-drinks/beer-facts/

Tomorrow marks the fourth year that I have encouraged others to take part in Misquote Ben Franklin Day, a day in which we make up things Ben might have said or could not have said. The roots of this exercise is to vanquish the glurge about beer being proof of God's love. He said this about wine, not beer.

It's been heavily debunked for over 5 years and it simply refuses to go away. Ben Franklin never said it. He said something strikingly similar about wine in a 1779 letter to André Morellet:

Behold the rain which descends from heaven upon our vineyards, there it enters the roots of the vines, to be changed into wine, a constant proof that God loves us, and loves to see us happy.

(Source: Isaacson, Walter. Benjamin Franklin: An American Life. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2003. p.374.)

Though I see just as many instances of the misquotation as I ever had (These pictured examples hit my feed just this week.), at least the numbers of people refuting the misinformation is growing. I'm also keenly aware that some of my beer business friends post signs or have t-shirts celebrating this utter falsehood. Bah! What's a righteous blogger to do? I've actually had a few people now admit that Franklin may not have said it, but certainly may have said something close to it because, after all, he was a brewer.

Was he? I don't actually believe he was. I can't find anything but baseless supposition online. Someone please cite a primary source. The sources I found seem to imply that he thought less of ale than he did wine. In any case, cider, not beer was the concoction of choice in that era. Discussion with citations on these points are welcome.

My latest crusade is the bacteria quote, a quote that uses the word bacteria in a way that would not have been used until decades after Franklin's death.

In wine there is wisdom, in beer there is freedom, in water there is bacteria. -Benjamin Franklin

Bacteria, it is true, was first observed by Antoni van Leeuwenhoek in 1676 though he did not name it as such, referring to them as "animalcules". Further, there was no connection of bacteria to disease until many others contributed findings. This lead to Louis Pasteur's germ theory in the 1870's.

Bacteria was a word rooted in the Latin bacterium, meaning "small rod". It was introduced as a scientific term in 1838 by German naturalist Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg.

Benjamin Franklin died April 17, 1790.

If you think he was that prescient, then perhaps you should tweet or add to your social media status a whopper like these tomorrow!

"In several generations, all of my writings about beer produced in the home (HOMEBREW) shall also apply to a set of conventions which issue forth instructions on a small communication device to be held in the palm of one's hand. All of my quotations on WINE will apply to a set of conventions and instruction which will ensure the matrimony of two libraries. These are not conventional libraries to which we are accustomed... but we have no time for that now. If you remember nothing, place all of your fortunes on the colonial NAVY in the America's cup." - Bejadamus Franklinus.

Upon the condition that one has the time, so too is it that we have the beer. - Ben Franklin

#misquotebenfranklinday

Haven't we ruined this holiday enough?

2013-03-15T15:36:00.001-07:00

There's a movement a-foot to replace the standard Guinness pint on St. Patrick's Day with American Craft Milk Stouts and Oatmeal Stouts. There is no doubt that a good deal of alcohol is poured on that day. It makes sense that our local breweries are eager to hitch on to that green painted wagon.

It's probably fairly easy pickings for a number of us to wag our beer snob fingers at those that drink Guinness or even the green colored macro offerings like Bud and Miller. Resist that, please. It's not a teaching moment. Believe me.

Lest we think we know it all, here are a few things about the holiday that you may not have considered.

It's St. Patrick's Day. You may call it St. Paddy's, but never St. Patty's day.

paddynotpatty.com/

Paddy is from the masculine Pádraig. Patty is from the feminine Patricia. If you've been doing it wrong for years, you may as well get a dubious Chinese tattoo.

The shamrock is not a four leaf clover.

Taking the Lord to the Fourth Dimension.

The shamrock has three leaves which were used as a homily to teach the Holy Trinity by, you know, that guy the day is named after. Put that 4 banger on a shirt and now you look like the dubious Chinese Tattoo guy with a questionable Abercrombie and Fitch T.

Idiot

The green beer thing?

Invented by a New York coroner in 1914. It may as well be a Halloween drink. (It's Curtin's for you!)

I enjoy a Dry Irish Stout and Guinness is a notable BJCP example of that style. Are you going to quibble with me about Murphy's or Beamish? They didn't exist in the US in my formative drinking years, so slag off. You can enjoy your American Craft Milk Stouts and Oatmeal Stouts. I'm OK with that.

Just don't be surprised if someday you find yourself celebrating Zombiecrombie and Fitch Patricia Day drinking a black mint saison with a corned oxtail kimchi fried chimichanga.

Where in the Phoenix Beer World?

2013-03-12T14:30:00.000-07:00

Do you know where in the beer world this photo was taken? Yes, I have obscured part of the logo. What is this? Where is it now? How does it relate to Arizona beer?

The concept is simple. We post a picture that is relevant to the Phoenix area beer scene and you try and identify it. Sometimes there will be a larger story involved, but often there will not. So, for glory and a tip of the glass next time we see you. Please, no social media cheating!

Answer after the jump

The Uptown Brewery opened in Tempe on Southern and McClintock in the Fall of 1997. The venture was funded by the owners of the Streets of New York Pizza chain. Uptown went on to open a second location in Scottsdale in the summer of 1998. An alumni of Uptown was Zach Schroeder who is now a partner of Sonoran Brewing. I am unsure as to whether Zach worked at the Tempe or Scottsdale location. Look for more of these unheralded connections once the Ed Sipos, Brewing Arizona book comes out this fall.

The business change its name to to the Streets of New York Brewery in 2003. The Scottsdale location closed in 2006 and Tempe was shuttered in 2007. For a time Sneaker's Sports Grill set up shop. It's been empty since at least 2010. Today it is Spokes on Southern. You may know of it's owner's other project Boulders on Broadway. Spokes on Southern managed to find some of the old glassware when they took over the property.

Memo to the, "It's Too Crowded Crowd."

2013-03-08T10:20:00.001-07:00

RE: Last Night
The Yogi-ism, "Nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded." applies. It was a good crowd of people at both places I went to. I'm not going to name the places, but these businesses get routinely beat-up about it. If twice as many people showed up last night then there would have been a good chance that I would have twice as many friends to hang with.

We're a fickle bunch in Phoenix. We want to have the beer scene of San Diego but we don't want the crowds. We want to live in the bedroom communities of the Valley, but we want the 'burbs' to have everything the central city SHOULD have.

Having crowds of people for events IS a sign that your beer scene is thriving. Get out of the bubble people or your exhalations will certainly cause it to burst.

Crowded beer scene. Phoenix? or San Diego?

The A(le) Team - Pouring Tonight at Lucky Break

2013-02-28T13:44:00.003-07:00

I've pretty much run out of ideas. Proof below.

James Swann and I have guest-tended at Boulders on Broadway, later we added Hophead Fred and did a shift at Hungry Monk. I dubbed us the Three Card Monte, as we had a President (me), a King (Swann) or a Jester (HHF). We're back tonight at Lucky Break this time with a fourth--Oskar Blues Western Region Rep, Marcus DeGroff.

I'm going with The Ale Team!

On tap tonight will be some treats from Oskar Blues. I understand there is a impromptu 9-ball tourney in the making. There is also a line on the number of glasses I will break. For those keeping track, I've created this handy graph detailing my amateur tending fumbles.

ASH Treasurer, Christian Chandler will be on hand to get those last minute memberships before the ASH Springfest (happening this Saturday) I imagine that he will also take action on that glassware wager.

Now who is who in this A(le) Team thing?
I know it's not fair, because there are a few clear choices here and a fuzzy one or two.

Without a doubt, Face is Marcus. He is the prettiest one of the bunch.
Hop Head Fred is Murdock. There is no questioning that.

And on to the fuzzy. That leaves Hannibal with the person with the highest rank of office (me) over our ASH VP James. Plus, he has a thing for spelling my last name with one 'L'.

You can call James Mr Tea if that helps

Thursday, Feb 28th 6-9PM
Lucky Break
luckybreakaz.com‎
807 E Baseline Rd #101,
Tempe, AZ 85283

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Arizona Beer Week Is Over. Now What?

2013-02-26T14:05:00.000-07:00

We keep drinking good beer, duh. We keep moving forward in growing Arizona's amazing beer scene. Beer Week saw a staggering number of events (400+) hosted at a staggering number of places. Too many? Maybe. Our large, spread-out landscape makes getting to multiple events the same night a difficult, and oftentimes dangerous, task. Also, some of the local diehards would argue there were a lot of functions overly focused on out-of-state beers. No matter your point of view, there's no doubting Beer Week showed the incredible growth in our state's beer culture. Let's look at some of what went down last week.

Strong Beer Fest
The premier beer festival in Arizona, likely the Southwest, kicked off Beer Week in style. Local breweries killed it, and a number of new ones really made their presence known. Not to mention a slew of special suds from non-AZ breweries like Bell's, Marble and Odell. Read a full review here.

Great, Scotch, is this good.

ASH Hot Scotchy Night
The fine folk at the Arizona Society of Homebrewers hosted Hot Scotchy night at two locations this year — The Hungry Monk and Moto. For those not in the know, a Hot Scotchy is the brewer's secret cocktail, in that it consists of the first runnings from the mash (aka wort) and is then blended with a scotch or bourbon of your choice. But I'm not the expert in explaining the specifics of this sweet concoction. Mr. Fullmer tells it best.

Arizona Total Tap Takeover at Taste of Tops

Greg blurrily walks by.

Huge props to long-time Tops Liquors owner Greg Eccles for having the gusto to dedicate all his tap lines to Arizona brews. Derek Osborne's cask of Tatonka Stout aged in Woodinville Whiskey barrels was a real treat. Other standouts included College Street Brewhouse's Death by Chocolate, which was on tap for the first time in the Valley, Oak Creek's Cherry Chocolate Porter and Four Peaks' infamous Sirius Black. Keep it up, Greg.

New Belgium's Eric Salazar hammers it home.

Colorado Cask Night
I missed this last year and wasn't going to make that mistake again. Held in front of a packed house at Flanny's, there were seven special Colorado casks made exclusively for this night: Great Divide Chocolate Yeti spiked with curacao (my favorite); Odell Lugene Chocolate Milk Stout with cherries; Ska Decadent Imperial IPA married with mango and habanero (good, but needed more habanero spiciness); New Belgium Trippel that had been dry-hopped (dank city); Left Hand Velvet Night Milk Stout dry-hopped with Columbus hops; Oskar Blues oSKAar the G'rauch Smoked IPA; and Breckenridge Agave Wheat infused with orange and cloves (too clovey for my tastebuds). 'Nuff said.

Jim Lolli addresses the Monk faithful.
(photo courtesy of David Rojo)

Bell's Eccentric Cafe, Arizona-Style
What many consider to be the main event outside of Strong Beer Fest, The Hungry Monk brought back their popular Eccentric Cafe to the delight of crazily-dressed crafties statewide. Owner Jim Lolli, a Kalamazoo native and one of the friendliest people you'll meet, pulled out all the stops this go-round. Patrons were presented with over 20 Bell's beers from which to quaff, including rarities like bourbon barrel-aged 9000 (perfectly balanced), Cherry Stout and Black Note, the Brettanomyces-laced Kal-Haven Rye, among many others. A wonderful way to round out this writer's AZ Beer Week.

Take Back the Night

2013-02-19T17:00:00.003-07:00

Say my name, say my name.

We have a problem here in the Arizona beer scene. It's a simple and annoying phenomenon. I can't think of the word for it. It's when people (repeatedly) add an necessary word to something? You know, like:

Xerox copy machine
Superbowl Football game
Bud Light Light Beer

It's similar but not the same as RAS syndrome... you know PIN Number, ATM Machine.

The closest thing I could come up with is an overlapping semantic pleonasm wherein a word's semantic component is subsumed by another.

What the Hell am I talking about?

The organization is called: ARIZONA GIRLS PINT OUT.

There is no NIGHT in their name. Never has been. Why do people keep adding it?

You people keep screwing it up so much that even google thinks you're right.

With apologies from me to you, Arizona Girls Pint Out, I'm making up a word for your situation.

Pintmanteau - Not to be confused with portmanteau, a Pintmanteau is the addition of a word or words that were never intended to be there. "Pint" is derived from Girls Pint Out. "Man" is rooted in, "Man how do people keep making this mistake?" Finally the Frenchy, "Teau" signifies a spitting in your direction for screwing this up.

Cheers. I'm glad we fixed that.

There's Nothing Weak About AZ Strong Beer Fest

2013-02-18T15:18:00.001-07:00

The calm before the Strong Beer storm.

In its 13th year, this epic event seems to get better over time like a fine wine, or in this case, beer. Gone are the days when out-of-state breweries outnumbered local ones and garnered most of the attention. This fest oozes local, and boy did the Arizona breweries deliver. From fest favorite Four Peaks to newbies like Flagstaff's Wanderlust, AZ flexed its muscles and really stepped up their game. It's awesome to see so many creative ales being produced in our state, and a plethora of them found their way to the sold-out Steele Indian School Park Saturday afternoon. Here are some highlights...

Four Peaks

I'll take two of each, please. (Photo courtesy of Four Peaks)

Was there any doubt these guys would be the big ballers of the fest? I mean, check out that tap list at right (drool). If you didn't hit up their booth early, you probably missed out on rarities like the 2010 wine barrel-aged Baltic porter with northwest cherries and 2010 bourbon barrel-aged Hopsquatch.

But the big news out of the brewery is something Mouth by Southwest's Jess Harter mentioned yesterday in his SBF review — Sirius Black and Double Knot will be available in 4-packs sometime this year. If that's not enough, look for fall favorite Pumpkin Porter and Arizona Peach in cans.

Nice to Meet New
It was certainly a year of firsts for the fest, as a slew of newcomers made their mark with tasty grog and long lines.

Cartel makes their SBF debut. (Photo courtesy of David Rojo)

Cartel Coffee Lab may be new to the brew scene, but their rich, robust coffee has been perking up Arizona State students since 2007. They'll start selling their beers soon, and you won't want to miss the coffee stout — delish.

Steve McFate's Fate Brewing brings North Scottsdale a legit small brewpub. Steve was on-hand serving up his dank, citrusy double IPA and Figmentation Collabey, a collaborative effort with fellow local breweries Sonoran and O.H.S.O. This brew stays true to the Belgian dubbel style, with a flavor profile of caramel, candied sugar and light figs, which were sourced at Sphinx Date Ranch in Scottsdale.

Mr. McFate serving it up. (Photo courtesy of David Rojo)

Other new arrival standouts included Mesa's first microbrewery, Desert Eagle, Flagstaff's one-man-show nanobrewery, Wanderlust (try Nathan's 928 Local Farmhouse ale), Dragoon Brewing from Tucson, and O.H.S.O.'s wood-aged firkins.

Best of the Rest
Sure, this fest is hometown-focused, but that doesn't mean there weren't other heavy-hitting beers from afar. Bell's 9000 aged in bourbon barrels was sublime — much better than the standard 9000 release. Albuquerque's Marble Brewing wowed with their oud bruin and imperial stout. Last but not least, one of my favorite beers from the fest: Odell's Triple Threat. Yes, this Belgian beauty was brewed at Odell, but the recipe was concocted by Arizona homebrewer Mik HeerBrandt. Mik won Best of Show at the Arizona Society of Homebrewers' Oktoberfest and got to go brew on Odell's pilot system. Good showing, Mik.

Beer Week may have just begun, but it's going to be awfully hard to top its trophy event. But like any good beer enthusiast, I shall soldier on and see what the rest of the week brings. Salud!

The Greatest Arizona Beer Week Event Ever Conceived

2013-02-14T12:59:00.000-07:00

Because you are a reader here, I'm going to make assumptions about the kinds of beers that you drink. You're not like anyone else at work. You are the "beer guy" in your neighborhood. You don't often drink the same beer twice. You are looking for new beers all the time. It may even be distracting to you, so much so that you can't focus on the here and now.

For the most part, the good people that put on beer week cater to you. Special dinners, one off beers, new releases... there is no shortage of events for you during beer week. Last year in my Open Letter to our Readers on Arizona Beer Week I laid out a beer drinker taxonomy:

...there are three types of audiences that Beer Week traditionally caters to: The Beer Geek (for lack of a better word), the Casual Beer Drinker and those that are unfamiliar.

And then there is this. This disruptive force. This amazing re-think everything mold-breaking event. It applies to everyone. We need events like this and more of them because beer is FUN!

I am, of course, talking about Ska Brewing Presents: Breezi and the Deviant Dames Burlesque show at the Yucca Tap Room on Wednesday February 20th at 9PM. Please read no sarcasm into this. I mean it.

Breezi Walton, is a veteran beertender at Valley and regional treasure, Papago Brewing Company. According to Zach Ogle also of Papago, Breezi will be preforming original musical content and well there will be burlesque. Will it be of the Bob Fosse, or Gypse Rose Lee, or Dita Van Teese, or Al Jolson variety? I frankly do not know. It matters not. It's going to be an extravaganza of uproarious proportions I am sure.

UPDATE: More information from Breezi herself, "It's an old fashioned style Burlesque show. Ill be singing dancing. I have 2 background dancers, a stand up comedian and announcers. I choreographed 6 songs that we will be preforming. Some older, some newer. But it's like a funny fun teaser type show.... Costumes props and all."

I repeat: It's going to be an extravaganza of uproarious proportions I am sure.

Get Your Livers Ready, Arizona

2013-02-11T15:59:00.002-07:00

That's right, fellow beer lovers, it's time to prime that liver for the third annual Arizona Beer Week. From Chandler to Flagstaff, this year's festivities stretch the desert landscape with well over 400 beer-focused events.

Kicking off the week is one of the West's best fests, the Strong Beer Festival. In its 13th year, this brew bacchanalia boasts some seriously strong ales. Look for local fave Four Peaks to be the place to hang, with various versions of Hopsquatch, barrel-aged Sirius Black, among many others. Add in another 75+ breweries, and you've got a great recipe for a good time.

I could go on and on about this rare tapping or that beer dinner pairing, but I won't. You'll just have to check back throughout the week for updates on what went down. Until then, stay thirsty my friends.

Your Semiannual Arizona Mead Update

2013-02-07T13:02:00.001-07:00

Mead. It lays silent, still, cool, biding it's time often for years. It's not brash like its cousin beer nor does it get the culture cred as does wine. Generally, mead makers aren't creating a stir by calling out other larger mead makers as not being "Trad" just "Trad-dy". They aren't packaging meads in stoats or getting bragadoccio about freeze distilling. There is no "Enjoy By Fall 2023" mead. Mead has yet to enter into a canned mead is superior to bottled mead phase.

A Cascadian Dark Mead? Puhleaz. No Social Mead-ia Drama for the youngest¹ of the naturally fermented beverages.

In that spirit, I have two pieces of under the radar local mead news items. This is, of course, another non-re-occurring segment called, "Your Semiannual Arizona Mead Update". As we all know, semiannual refers to every 2 years or six months with the annum concurring roughly with fermentation cycle of a typical show mead (give or take) or the occurrence of any medieval reference or anytime I want reference that Pliny the Elder also wrote of mead (militites) and not just hops. Murky stuff.

Arizona's First Licensed Meadery Opens

Actually it's several firsts. Superstition Meadery out of Skull Valley (Prescott) was officially licensed by the state sometime during the summer. Their first releases began to appear at The Raven Cafe in early December. Among the other firsts:

First Mead on Tap made in AZ
First Hard Cider made in AZ
World’s First Bourbon Barrel Fermented Mead

You can see how a list like this could grow, since they are first in everything in that class including first mead owner to buy me a beer at OHSO².

One of the more under-appreciated, yet landmark, firsts may be First Alternating Proprietorship in AZ. That could factor in to many start-up business plans in the AZ beer scene.

That's quite a good show without much fanfare or self-promotion on their part. Help them out here.

New Hampshire Meadery with Valley Connection Distributing in AZ
Yea, I went all TV news-y with "Valley Connection".

The strong home mead making community in Phoenix has always been a fan of Michael Fairbrother's mead. Some met his acquaintance at AHA National Homebrewer's Conferences as a pro speaker or before that even, while he was an amateur. Others know of his story to open Moonlight Meadery. Moonlight was a sponsor of the Brewmeister's Anonymous Mead Cup in March of 2012. ASH member, Steve McKellips won the Best of Show last go-round and was rewarded with an opportunity to make a mead professionally with Michael.

You would think that I'd know if this actually happened or not, but these mead guys--very quiet folk. Downright murky. Moonlight will be distributed by Young's Market. We'll be looking to get Moonlight and Mr. Fairbrother out for an AZ visit soon. (We shook on that right, Michael?³).

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¹Mead: ~2000BC; Beer: ~3500BC; Wine ~6000BC; earliest physical evidence.
²I have a fuzzy memory Jeff.
³We did not shake on that.