Beer PHXation

Tonight! Go See This Beer, Women, Music Film Thing! Or Maybe Friday. Better Tonight Though.

2012-02-22T11:30:00.001-07:00

A little twitter discussion about blogging and PR between @boakandbailey and @agoodbeerblog got me to thinking about all my Arizona Beer Week posts and tweets and the level of hucksterism my reader(s) are willing to tolerate from me. Disclosure: I have opinions and I have an agenda.

Go read this from Boak and Bailey, because it's fun and it's true. That's the under-the-covers side of blogging. How do the blogs you read manage that relationship? Maybe you have suspicions.

We are an opinion blog and we celebrate and admonish the beer and beer culture we see in Phoenix. We're also involved in many beery enterprises, alliances (some secret) and societies too, so you're likely to catch a good dose of that here. Lately, you've bore the brunt of the Arizona Society of Homebrewers (ASH) PR Machine. We try and be transparent.

I want you to go to this --> Your Downtown Beer | My Valentine to The Love of Beer Movie

Why? Here's what I stand to gain: My club sponsors it. I put the idea together. I flew the filmaker, Alison, out for it. I like Four Peaks. I asked them to be a part of it. Film Bar? Love them too. Wouldn't have done it anywhere else. ASH is a large club and we aren't wanting for members. We like to get the word out about beer. We make the beer scene better and everybody wins. We'll all look cool and may even break even on the deal if it is well attended.

You? It's a great event in a part of town that is growing in to the next cool beer destination. It's an event that shows that Phoenix Beer Culture is more than Arizona flagship beers and out-of-state limited release chases. This isn't the same old beer dinner routine. This is art, music, film beer in a funky environment. It's eminently affordable too.

The main story tellers are women. What about that? Well why not? I'll let Maureen Basenberg, one of our panelists lay it out. This is from an IgnitePhoenix preso from last year and it provides a fitting backdrop.

Can't make it tonight? Go Friday. There will be less hoopla, but this film is a good time. Go.

The Brewer's Secret Cocktail

2012-02-16T14:00:00.000-07:00

The following appears in the most recent Food & Flourish Magazine

The Hot Scotchy
Nick Sofranac, used with permission.

There is an arcane ritual known almost exclusively by brewers and it involves a cocktail called the Hot Scotchy. There is no singular recipe as no two cocktails are ever the same. No one really has a grasp on when or where it started. It has never been served to the public in Arizona. All of that will change on Monday, February 20 when Arizona Beer Week collides with Arizona Cocktail Week.

The Scotchy is made (perhaps clandestinely in professional circles) by collecting a pint of the hot unfermented concentrated malt sugar of a beer mash (wort) and topping it off with a few ounces of Scotch. This may seem like a simple arrangement until you recall the many varieties of Scotch. Multiply that number by the thousands of grain combinations that comprise the 90 beer styles recognized at the World Beer Cup and you begin to see the Scotchy’s unique potential. A brewer’s wort bill will change the flavor profile of the toddy – a delicate pale Kölsch-style Four Peaks Sunbru, a malty amber SanTan Epicenter and an inky-dark and roasty Sonoran Inebriator will create markedly different drinks. Brewer’s wort is sickly sweet and lacks a transition from mid palate to finish. The addition of Scotch pulls out the grain flavors and adds an electrifying richness to an already velvety hug.

Andy Ingram, Brewmaster at Four Peaks Brewing, has kept the Hot Scotchy tradition alive since the beginning days of the brewery. “We do a Hot Scotchy for every new beer that we make,” said Ingram, the most recent was born from a soon to be released Robust Porter. As to the origin of the cocktail, Ingram confirmed what I had always suspected. The Scotchy followed the brewing traditions of Europe, rode the free-wheeling US craft beer wave in the 90’s and passed down by word of mouth. “It’s an esoteric thing. We learned about it from Barry John, a career brewer for the Young’s Brewery in London.” Barry retired from Young’s after 35 years and took up residence in Scottsdale. He came down to the brewery for a day to give some brewery advice and stayed for 10 months." Similar oral traditions continued in other parts of the US. The most recent resurgence is led by bloggers, like Portland’s The New School and homebrewers that took a cue from a 1998 classic style book on Brown Ale by Ray Daniels.

Not everyone has access to a 7 barrel brewhouse mash, the precious mother of the beer business. Thankfully, homebrewers are famously oblivious to budgets, brewing timetables and are quick to popularize the obscure.

In Phoenix, on the Monday of Arizona Beer Week members of the Arizona Society of Homebrewers will be issuing Scotch ready wort for 2 select locations in the Valley. Should you find yourself at Moto or The Hungry Monk, know that you have found the rare beverage to combat a Sonoran desert night with warm comfort.

Brewer's Cocktail - The Hot Scotchy

Feb 20 | 6:30pm - 10:30pm

Moto

6845 North 16th Street

Phoenix, AZ, 85016

(602) 263-5444

The Hungry Monk

1760 W Chandler Blvd # 2

Chandler, AZ, 85224

(480) 963-8000

Open Letter to our readers on Arizona Beer Week

2012-02-15T13:47:00.000-07:00

Beer businesses are putting the final touches on their Arizona Beer Week events as we close in on the February 18 launch. Events have been live January 20th and things are really beginning to take shape.

From what I have heard and seen, this year's events will overshadow last year's inaugural offerings. There will be many guests and special beers. With just a week, many of these events are sure to conflict and everyone here will have to make some tough choices. In my mind 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.

There is no doubt that an event with Doug Odell serving a one off beer is right in the wheel house of many of our readers, but on that same day there may be an Arizona tap takeover or an educational event or a dozen other events that will fall off your radar. Having a Sonoran tap on at a bar you would never set foot into may not be a big deal to you, but those events are far more important to the health of our nascent beer industry than any event that you and I attend. Those events need some love too and that is where I am calling upon you to take action.

You have a neighbor, a friend, a co-worker, a relative that falls into the other audience groups. It's your job as a leader in our beer community to get them more involved in the beer scene. Note that I say, "scene". The scene is the whole package and not just the beer in your glass. Your friends may not like the same beer you do, but the scene is the thing that we can all work on that improves all of our experiences.

There has been a good deal of discussion about criticism, snobbery, service, over-rating and pricing from the businesses that make up our beer community (many of whom lurk here). Here is where WE put our money where our mouths are Are we as a community, providing good service? Is our snobbery a help or hindrance? Is our worth as a group and beer clique over-rated? Would we stand up to the criticism if the breweries reviewed us? Is our the focus on the extreme and the rare money well spent?

Great beer, events and personalities will come and go, but the residents of the Valley will remain. We owe it to ourselves to use this week to build a greater beer scene and involve more of us in the community.

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

2012-01-27T12:39:00.000-07:00

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

2012-01-24T13:15:00.000-07:00

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

2012-01-23T17:06:00.001-07:00

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

2012-01-10T16:32:00.001-07:00

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…

2012-01-06T17:09:00.000-07:00

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

2012-01-03T16:51:00.001-07:00

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.

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

Answers after the jump.

Winner gets bragging rights and a beer from yours truly.

Making Thirst Worthwhile - Papago Brewing Co.
Craft Beer for Beer Drinking - Santan Brewing Co.
840 Million Years in the Making - Grand Canyon Brewery
It's the Altitude - Lumberyard Brewing Co.
Arizona's Finest Microbrewery - Sonoran Brewing Co.
Phoenix's Newest Brewery - Phoenix Ale Brewery
Proudly Serving Authenticity - Presecott Brewing Co.
Here It Is - Mother Road Brewing Co.
Home of Tucson's Oldest and Newest MicroBrewery! (no longer in use) - Barrio Brewing Co.
Artistry and Science in One Delicious Beverage Sleepy Dog Brewing Co.
The Proud Voice of Arizona's Breweries - The Arizona Brewers Guild

How many did you get right?

Is it surprising that some breweries just don't have a tagline?

I perhaps forgot the best one, "Beer Like Your Mom Used to Make" by Flagstaff Brewing Co. It might not be original, but it made me laugh.

Well this post had plenty of traffic but really only one guesser, so Zack prevails!

What Does CBS Outdoor Have Against Sun Up?

2011-12-21T12:51:00.001-07:00

April 2011

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

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

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

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

Meth and Craft Beer. Advertising Gold.

Related: Where in the Phoenix Beer World?

The Great Divide

2011-12-14T12:30:00.001-07:00

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

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

Invitation: The Role of the Third Place

2011-12-05T11:06:00.001-07:00

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

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

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

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

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

Levine Machine - Site of the TEDx salon.

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

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

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

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

What We Don't Know

2011-11-09T13:32:00.002-07:00

The ACBLG provisional logo
with the Franklin glurge.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Session #57: Rob's Beery Confession

2011-11-04T10:25:00.002-07:00

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

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

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

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

The Scheidt list

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

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

Guilt?

Jupiler. Exhibit A

Shame?

Cheese Pizza. Exhibit B.

Nope!

Exclusive Announcement: Rare Affair - Hot Scotchies

2011-11-03T16:35:00.003-07:00

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

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

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

The author and Oak Creek's Jim Strelau

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Best Way To Enjoy Beer...

2011-11-02T13:51:00.000-07:00

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

Drink In Situ

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

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

Learn the Brewer's Intent

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

Get a Proper Serving

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

Drink With Others

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

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

Introducing Project ZUTROB

2011-10-27T10:35:00.002-07:00

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

The Distinguished Panel

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

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

The Zepto Brewhouse

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

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

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

Where in the Phoenix Beer World?

2011-10-25T15:59:00.003-07:00

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

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

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

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

Answer after the jump.

The answer was incorrectly guessed as the Watering Hole at the Chandler Whole Foods Market. That tells you how effective James Swann has been at getting inside of beer lover's heads.

Joe Smith, in the private Arizona Craft Beer Lovers group on Facebook correctly guessed, Moto. Moto will be hosting a Beer for Brains event to promote the RareAffair on Friday, October 28th starting at 4 PM.

The beers:

Dogfish Head - Chateau Jiahu
Rogue - John John Dead Guy
Nectar Ales - Black Xantus
Lost Abbey - Angels Share
Port - High Tide
Alaskan - Perseverance
Moylans - NorCal IPA
Left Hand - Sawtooth Nitro

Beer For Brains RareAffair Releases Beer List

2011-10-25T15:01:00.002-07:00

The Beer for Brains Foundation released a partial list of beers for their RareAffair event on November 5th. If you haven't already read about one of the best curated beer festivals in the country and the wonderful cause it supports, read about it here.

Hat tip to @lucklyss for breaking the story.

Read her analysis here: http://drinkbetterbeer.wordpress.com/2011/10/25/beer-for-brains-rareaffair-list-of-brews/

Here is a list of highlights for me:

Boegedal*
#130

Cambridge Brewing Company
Great Pumpkin Ale 2011

J.W. Lees*
Harvest Ale – Calvados

Brouwerij Van Steenberge N.V.
Gulden Draak Quad

Lurgashall*
English Mead

Napa Smith Brewery
Bonfire Imperial Porter

Nils Oscar*
Barley Wine

*denotes VIP Only beer.

My Rant About (the royal) You and the RareAffair™

2011-10-18T16:11:00.002-07:00

While we are all waiting for the Four Peaks shoe to drop, let's all take some time to do the right thing.

This BeerPHXation byline is, "A local Phoenix Metro beer culture celebration and admonition." Get ready for a dose of admonishment. It's been over 2 weeks and it's starting to make me sad. A call has been made to get the Beer for Brains page 1001 likes on Facebook. That should be easy enough to do. Doing this should be it's own reward. It should not take this long to get it knocked out in a healthy beer culture.

I wrote about The Beer for Brains Off-Centered Experience last year. It was Louis Dolgoff's first event to raise money for Brain Cancer. The event had disappointing attendance given the overwhelming number of rare beers that were to be freely poured that evening. If you've been in the beer scene for the last 2 years you know the story of Laurie Dolgoff. I'll repeat it here for those that are new:

In 2009, Dolgoff lost his wife of 30 years to an extremely aggressive form of brain cancer known as glioblastoma ultiforme - the same cancer that killed Senator Edward Kennedy. Laurie Dolgoff died shortly after her 55th birthday – 29 months after her initial diagnosis. Dolgoff, a craft-beer industry sales manager and event promoter for Dogfish Head Breweries, created the Beer for Brains Foundation because of the cutting-edge care she received at Barrow Neurological Institute. Through fundraising events like the Off-Centered Experience, Dolgoff hopes to help them find a way to extend the lifespan and quality of life for brain cancer patients.

There is another event coming November 5th re-branded as The RareAffair™. Presumably some might have scaled the event back after such a set back. Fortunately for those that have made a commitment to the RareAffair™ the event is even bigger and the beer list it more expansive. Again, getting 1001 likes is child's play. I'm not sure where they were on October 3, but they are at 870 as I write this.

The Beer For Brains Foundation
First contest is easy...It's late but we will roll it out this evening anyways. The 1001 person to LIKE our page will get into RAREaffair FREE! Tell your friends to spread the word about this great cause~

· · Share · October 3 at 10:24pm ·

Again it should be it's own reward, but there is a FREE ticket to someone that is able to click a button and yet there it sits. Pathetic. We have 5 million people in the valley. If this was Philly this would have been done in a single day.

A SINGLE DAY!

Rewarding the nth member to click isn't the best strategy because it rewards late comers. I get that, but Fuck. Go do it. Help someone else win, right. All I hear about is how craft beer people are good people. This isn't right.

Secondly there is an individual, Cara, on that page giving away her ticket for a convincing post:

Hey everyone! I have won a ticket to RAREaffair and do not need it because I am already VIP! I am giving my ticket to the person who tells me why they deserve it here on The Beer For Brains Page. Tell me why I should give it to you! I will pick the winner on October 21st. :) Happy Posting~

Bless her, but there are 9 posts. Most of them just to tell her thanks. Additionally the post is up on the private Arizona Craft Beer Lovers page, a group with 250 some odd members. Many of them are going, I'm sure, others are in the industry, but these are supposed to be beer taste makers. (That's market speak for people who are supposed to influence others.) There are a handful of responses in that post. There are more posts on where to find Angel's Share.(Crisis Averted! He found it.) Somewhere deep in the bowels of that group in a post I pointed out that there is a big difference between showing up and doing something. Cara is doing something. Lots of others are just showing up.

I have challenge the members of the Arizona Society of Homebrewers (ASH) to have 100 members come to the RareAffair™. We are over the halfway hump and I still believe they will come though. Once they hit 100, I am doing a raffle to pay one member's money back even if it is a VIP ticket. I've been using the bully pulpit in the club and everywhere else. As President of ASH, I often tell people that I have to be a dick to everyone as a group and love everyone individually. I imagine that people are tired of listening to me. That's OK. Listen to these people. Don't take it out on Lou or the RareAffair™.

Take it out on cancer.

Four Peaks to Announce New Brewery Location Tomorrow [Final]

2011-10-16T17:48:00.002-07:00

Tomorrow, Four Peaks will announce the location of the new production facility that will supplement the 40BBL brewhouse on 8th Street in Tempe. Four Peaks has brewing almost around the clock to meet production and has been searching for a second brewery for some time now. An announcement was expected at the end of August, however, the diligence process took longer than expected.

The location will feature a larger brewhouse and a simple beer only taproom and no restaurant. The taproom was the final negotiation point to work through. That hurdle was cleared last week.

Although the location has been known to a few industry people, we'll wait for the Four Peaks announcement. We can definitively say that the Mesa location written about in the Arizona Republic was ruled out as well as a site in Chandler which would have required the use of heating oil to fuel the brew kettle.

A Four Peaks insider officially referred to the site as the "Annex", but unofficially called it FPWTBS or "Four Peaks Without the BS" because there will be air conditioning, ample parking and fewer college students.

Want a hint? Give your Regards to ... to Teddy, and also Ted Golden.

Four Peaks currently has a taproom in Scottsdale which does not have brewing capability.

UPDATE: Nothing has changed as of today, October 19th. The information is still solid. We await the official word from Four Peaks.

UPDATE 2: Several ASH members reported that they were told the location last night at the ASH Peaktoberfest. Membership has its benefits.

UPDATE 2.5: I'm told that a press release has been drafted and its release is expected soon. Four Peaks Brewsletter comes out tonight? Fingers crossed.

UPDATE FIN:

Here is the presser-

Four Peaks Brewing Co. Selects Second Brewing Facility Site

TEMPE, ARIZ. – Oct. 19, 2011 – Sometimes, all roads lead to home.

After an exhaustive search for a second brewing location, Arizona’s largest and most popular craft brewery leased an industrial property in Southern Tempe and will be brewing more of its ever-popular beer by next summer.

But Four Peaks isn’t closing the door on potential new restaurant sites throughout the Valley.

“We scoured the Valley for a historic production facility with quintessential Four Peaks character and the infrastructure necessary to be operational in the timeframe we needed,” said Four Peaks Co-Owner Jim Scussel. “There were a number of properties in Phoenix, Scottsdale and Mesa on our short list, but unfortunately remediation of every one of the historic properties would have taken longer than was possible for us.”

Four Peaks’ craft beer popularity and its position as Arizona’s favorite local brewery accelerated the search. In fact, demand for Four Peaks’ craft beer will reach 40,000 barrels in 2012, which is capacity at their facility in the historic creamery at 8^th Street and Dorsey in Tempe.

“We simply need to make more beer, ASAP,” said Co-Owner Andy Ingram. “This second location gives us the room to be creative and experimental, and add new varieties to our award-winning lineup.”

Four Peaks Pumpkin Porter has amassed a cult following. More seasonal and specialty beers will be introduced after the second production facility is operational.

“We are happy to have the new Four Peaks brewing facility in Tempe and will work with Andy and Jim to find new ways to continue the outstanding partnership with this hometown brewery,” said Tempe Mayor Hugh Hallman. “We consider Four Peaks to be a part of Tempe’s vibe and a great corporate partner.”

The new facility, located near Broadway Road and Hardy Drive, will initially create 20 jobs and will cost more than $3 million when complete. The lease was signed Oct. 17.

“To accommodate Four Peaks’ aggressive timeline, we moved quickly to negotiate a lease and have already begun improvements to the building,” said Mike Sacco, Vice President of EastGroup Properties, which owns the building. Four Peaks was represented in the ten-year lease by Anthony Nocifera, Principal with Abitare Realty Advisors & Investment Corp. EastGroup was represented by Curtis Brown and Bob Crum of Ross Brown Partners.

As background, Four Peaks issued a request for proposals for suitable sites. More than 25 sites were submitted, including Downtown Phoenix warehouses and the famed Sunkist Facility in Mesa. Four Peaks toured the preferred facilities in Summer 2011 and sought the advice of adaptive reuse experts to determine the scope of the renovations necessary.

The new Tempe facility, though not a historic property, had the shortest development timeline and from a logistical standpoint, works well with the current facility.

“Tempe is home,” Scussel said. “We’re proud of our history in Tempe and look forward to additional opportunities.”

And here is the precise location.

Want a hint? Give your Regards to ...[Broadway] to Teddy [Roosevelt] , and also Ted Golden.

EDIT: 2401 W Wilson Not the building above, Tucked in the Industrial Park.

The Session #56: Thanks to the Big Boys

2011-10-07T12:37:00.003-07:00

In the 56th occurrence of The Session, Reuben Gray of The Tale of the Ale asks us to consider the contributions of and thank the large breweries.

I want people to pick a large brewery or corporation that owns a lot of breweries. There are many to chose from. Give thanks to them for something they have done. Maybe they produce a beer you do actually like. Maybe they do great things for the cause of beer in general even if their beer is bland and tasteless but enjoyed by millions every day.

[...]

If you honestly have nothing good to say about a large brewer, then make something up. Some satire might be nice, It will be a Friday after all.

I thought I would approach this post by recalling my earliest memories of "big" beer before I was a consumer (legally). Along the way my relationship moved from being a fan of the products made by these awesome faceless and monolithic enterprises to a period in which I hated them for being awesome faceless and monolithic enterprises. In the present, there is a mix of personal feelings. Inevitably what you get is a haphazard and complicated mix of praise, snark and disdain. I think most of the beer people I interact with feel similarly.

Thanks for the hummable catchy tunes, "If you've got the time, We've got the beer" and "When you say Budweiser, you said it all" which the Wisconsin Badgers appropriated so nicely.
Thanks for Rodney Dangerfield, Bob Uecker and Boog Powell. Thanks for making funny commercials. Thanks for the "Great Taste/Less Filling" arguments that you inspired in the 70's in my grade school lunch room.
Thanks for building industry in my hometown of Milwaukee. Thanks for the brewhouse cathedrals you built in my Grandfather's and Father's time.
Thank you for underwriting the Superbowl?
Thanks for the many tours we used to take at Pabst and Miller whenever we had a rain out as a Lifeguard at the County Park Pools.
Thank you Guinness for making a murky, mysterious and flavorful beer at a time before there was craft beer. Thank you for making people believe you were potently alcoholic when you were delightfully sessionable at a time in college when I abandoned my Gin and Tonics for you.
Thank you for making most of your beers with an SRM of less than 6, so I can instantly discern a table full of drinkers and be polite and non-condescending when talking about the beer that they enjoy.
Thank you Pabst for helping me re-understand marketing. Thank you for the mural campaign.
No thanks for swallowing up all the regional breweries, but thanks for bringing some of the brand name back. Thanks for Primo, Sixties recipe Schlitz. Thanks for Tenth & Blake Batch 19. Still waiting for Andeker and Blatz Culmbacher.
Thank you for throwing around meaningless brewing ideas and insincere marketing mumbo-jumbo such as cold brewed, vortex bottles, triple hopped, cold tasting and venting. Irony makes me happy.
Thank you for your canned beer R&D dollars. I can now drink this beer at the bottom of the Grand Canyon and this one while I clean up.
Thanks for making some terrible commercials lately.
Thank you for Mitch Steele and Charlie Bamforth.
Thank you for freighting kegs of Pilsner Urquell and Czechvar into my desert to compete against yourself.
Thank you for making us aware that you have a legal team. Thank you for being synonymous with evil. Thanks for being the boogeyman. Thanks for not letting that get you down. Thanks for the recent multi-national merger drama and the impending sequel.
Thank you for pairing so well with ennui.
Thank you to your distributors for encouraging employees to learn to homebrew and partnering with ASH here in Phoenix.
Thank you for making this a difficult question to answer.

Cheers Big Boy Breweries of all sizes!

Where in the Phoenix Beer World? And Who? And Why?

2011-10-06T15:48:00.000-07:00

Do you know where in the beer world this video was taken? And Who? And Why?
No cheating by going to YouTube or other Social Media, you either know it or you don't. Hint: It's not in Phoenix, but all of the people are from the Valley.

The concept is simple. We post a picture that is relevant to the Phoenix beer scene and you try and identify it. In this case it's a video. 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.

Awards, Accolades, Explanations and Announcements

2011-10-03T17:45:00.003-07:00

Awards & Accolades
Back from Great American Beer Festival (GABF) and there's much to talk about. If you want a local's first hand account go check out Patrick here. For a recap of the Arizona winners go here and here. All of the 2011 winners deserve congratulation, but we should remember that last year Arizona breweries racked up 6 medals including 3 golds as compared to this year's 4 overall and 1 gold.

I'd like to talk about some of the Arizona beers that won and a little about strategy. After all, this is a competition!

Explanations
The first question I was asked by everyone was if I had ever had SanTan's Mr Pineapple Wheat, winner of a silver in the Fruit Wheat category. The answer is no. I'm not aware of anyone that has, although I haven't asked my cadre of SanTan regulars yet. An entry for the beer was created on September 1st on Untapped yet there are no check-ins for it. It does not have an entry at Beer Advocate or Rate Beer. The BA clearly states that that each entry must be commercially available as named:

All beer brands entered in the Great American Beer Festival must be commercially available exactly as entered by brand name. “Commercially available” means the entered brand has been available for sale at retail under the exact brand name as entered on the GABF entry registration form prior to the competition entry registration deadline. Source: GABF

So what gives? Was there some funny business??? No. I don't believe so. SanTan is known for its small batch experimentation using a homebrewer's set up. This is all speculation on my part, but a batch or two may have been made by the brewery in anticipation of Maui Brewing's arrival after the Ameri'CAN' Beer Festival in Chandler at the end of May. In any case, there is this photo taken by iTappd on June 18th which was the same day as the SanTan Luau. Case Closed.

When I tweeted that Four Peaks has won a bronze for Hop Knot, several people wanted to know who won the IPA category and who had a better IPA than Hop Knot? Well, technically all 176 American-style IPA entries. The winners of that category were:

Category: 51 American-Style India Pale Ale – 176 Entries

Gold: Elevated IPA, La Cumbre Brewing Co., Albuquerque, NM
Silver: Deviant Dale’s, Oskar Blues Brewery, Longmont, CO
Bronze: Head Hunter IPA, Fat Head’s Brewery, North Olmsted, OH

Hop Knot won the bronze in a different category, American-style Strong Pale Ale.

Category: 50 American-Style Strong Pale Ale – 103 Entries

Gold: Pako’s Eye P.A., Snake River Brewing, Jackson, WY
Silver: AleSmith IPA, AleSmith Brewing Co., San Diego, CA
Bronze: Hop Knot, Four Peaks Brewing Co., Tempe, AZ

So even though Hop Knot wears an IPA banner on every can, it's not an IPA as seen in the eyes of Brewers Association and the brewers at Four Peaks wisely decided to enter it into the proper category. Not an IPA you say?

If we look at the specs for Hop Knot we the following:

Hop Knot's Color (SRM) is 8 which fits into both styles as they have the parameters 6-14 SRM.
In terms of bitterness, Hop Knot has 47 IBUs. Its not bitter enough for the IPA category which requires 50-70 IBUs but it tends toward the higher side of the scale for American Strong Pale which ranges from 40-50 IBUs.
The alcohol range measured in ABV for American Strong Pale is 5.5% to 6.3% whereas for an IPA it spans 6.3% to 7.5%. Hop Knot is 6.7% which technically places it in the IPA range but not by much.

I'm making a broad generalization here, but Hop Knot fits the American Strong Pale Ale category strategically better because it hits the high end of the IBU range and it also exceeds the alcohol percent (imperceptibly so). It's common for brewers to hit either the high end of specs or the low ends to stand out from the crowd. With an American-style, you always want to hit the high side. That's the prevailing theory.

I had the La Cumbre Elevated IPA, Dale's Deviant (brewery only, not in a can) and the Alesmith at the GABF. I don't prefer one over the other over Hop Knot given that I'm not judging it to style. The Alesmith is available in Phoenix, so a side-by-side comparison would be a fun exercise.

There is a good deal of hype surrounding Four Peaks Pumpkin Porter. It's a popular beer that despite the breweries efforts, sells out much quicker than everyone would like. Just take a moment and consider that BJs Brewhouse in Chandler took a silver at GABF for its Pumpkin beer. It's a good time to head over to the brewery and give brewers Derek Osborne and Jeff Huss a tip of the pint.

Announcements
I'm not sure how many of you are aware that Draft Magazine is headquartered here in Phoenix. Chris Staten, Draft Beer Editor, and a number of anonymous ASH members judge the beers at the back of each issue. Chris writes a nice post GABF piece on re-focusing the palate with a comfortable local (and solid) choice.

Speaking of ASH, the homebrewing organization drew a few notices from the Arizona Republic and the Phoenix New Times. ASH was named Best Underground Beer Society and was among the Top Ten Oktoberfests in Arizona. Some of the copy in those two links are not accurate, so please check out the ASH Oktoberfest information from the source.

Finally, I've written a column for Food and Flourish Magazine called, "Hi Wine, Beer Here". It was written for an audience that values it's food flourish as you can well imagine. I think you'll recognize some of the elements I've been harping about-- for most of you this is well traveled ground. Share it if it speaks to someone you know. It's on digital page 36, if the flash technology is supported by your computing rig. Otherwise, the html version should suffice.

And an Urbanist Shall Lead Us

2011-09-28T14:54:00.007-07:00

This is not the beer culture we were looking for .

As someone studying the whys and what-fors of beer culture, I've been doing some catch up work on reading some of my favorite Phoenix urban bloggers. I've often said that our beer culture's development corresponds to the same reasons why there is a Walgreens, Water Store and Nail Salon every 2 square miles in the newest "master planned" developments. The conveyor belt of strip malls and Power Centers is a reflection of our preference for the automobile. As a commuter city that favors the personal mobility of the car, we've made some obvious trade offs when it comes to enjoying beer. The most obvious negotiation is the tap-dancing that we do when we take up the wheel after enjoying alcoholic beverages.

Car favoritism influences our disconnected beer culture in subtle yet profound ways too. We used to have dozens of warehouses in the sports districts that now are home to US Airways Center and the Chase Ballpark. Phoenix was a way station for the fruits and vegetables that made their way from California's Imperial Valley and Yuma's Lettuce Belt on their journey east. With the gradual move from rail cars to trucks as the preferred means of moving produce and with the mistaken belief that the sports complexes needed more car parking, warehouses gave way to parking lots.

There's famously no parking at Wrigley, Fenway or Madison Square Garden and that doesn't seem to stop fans. There is certainly much more before and after game nightlife at those places then there is outside of Chase Ballpark. A downtown Phoenix property owner can turn over a great deal of cash in the short term on a parking lot at the expense of perhaps incubating some mixed use businesses in a funky warehouse. Restaurants, bars, breweries, retail all put a high value on such spaces, but we have too few of them here. Have you noticed the extreme efficiency the city undertakes to whisk you and your car out of downtown after a game?

There are people here in the Valley that are devoted to resisting such things. They know about walkable distances, curbscape, and the effect parking lots have on disrupting the connective tissue of a community. While it may be obvious that they understand buildings and their uses, they are as interested in the spaces in between buildings. They have an eye for detail and they understand the subtle and nuanced things that make our lives better and our experiences richer.

I was struck by a post by Taz Loomins on Blooming Rock called The Life Thats' Passing Phoenix By As We Sit In Our Cars. I've met Taz. She does not drink alcohol, let alone craft beer (and I hope that she won't be offended by the context) but she so vividly describes the deficit driving in the city creates when compared to walking.

In contrast to the exciting energy of walking in the city, I noticed this morning how isolated I felt in my car. I was in the very same spot as when I was walking, but my experience of the city was completley different. In fact, I hardly experienced the city at all, other than the necessary awareness of my surroundings required to drive safely. The sounds of the city were completely silenced within my sealed, air-conditioned vehicle. I could not smell the city smells or hear the sounds of cars outside. It felt as if I were in a bubble, as if I were by myself, when in fact I was sharing the road with many other people, who I’m sure, also felt as if they were alone.
This is the kind of experiential deficit that happens in Phoenix because we are such a car-centric city. The visceral experience of walking in the city is a world that seems unavailable to us Phoenicians as we’ve become so addicted to the convenience of cars. Today, such a hot summer day, may not be the best day for a post like this. But the heat is just an excuse that we use to forgo the connective experience of city walking in order to lead convenient, easy, anonymous lives in our cars.

I sought beer culture because I felt that same experiential deficit. You are reading this because you know of the richer experience that I am talking about and you sometimes feel for people that have yet to even understand what they are missing. If you are a lover of good beer you have to be a fan of walking a city and engaging all of your senses. If you are one of my urban friends, think about walking into a bustling vibrant pub and selecting the least objectionable beer they offer. You've just selected the automobile of beers and you are driving away from the full sensory engagement that beer can offer you.

Please read what Taz has to say. She asks that you perform an exercise in walking in the city. You could easily take one of her points into consideration when thinking about beer or urban living, "Take note of what’s missing."

Here are just a few blogs that I read that inform my opinions on Phoenix life. There are many others. I hope that some of them will chime in and correct any mistakes I've made.

http://vanishingphoenix.com/
http://bloomingrock.com
http://www.levinemachine.com/
http://phxdowntowner.org/
http://www.phxrailfood.com/

If you're coming at this blog from the beer side, I hope you take the time to check some of them out. If you're an urban enthusiast, please take some time to introduce yourself to us, let us know who to read and I'll be happy to tip a beer with you.