Brewnanza

Announced in Time for Passover – He’Brew Bittersweet Lenny’s R.I.P.A. on Rye

David Martinez — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 00:31:14 +0000

What better way to celebrate one of Judaism’s biggest holidays than with the announcement of a new brew! He’Brew today announced that it will be releasing Bittersweet Lenny’s R.I.P.A. on Rye (try saying that five times fast) and will be available in limited quantities by the end of this month. Here are the stats:

Malts: Specialty 2-row, Rye Ale, Torrified Rye, Rye Flakes, Crystal Rye 75, Crystal Malt 80, Wheat, Kiln Amber, CaraMunich 60

Hops: Warrior, Cascade, Simcoe, Crystal, Chinook, Amarillo, Centennial – Dry hopped with Simcoe, Amarillo and Crystal

10% ABV

Mazel tov!

(via beernews.org)

Want to Meet Some Craft Beer Pioneers? April 1st – Dinner with Ken and Fritz at Anchor Brewing

David Martinez — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 21:20:29 +0000

Along with the highly anticipated release of Fritz & Ken’s Ale (review coming soon, bottles are in my fridge!) also comes a unique opportunity to sit down with Ken Grossman of Sierra Nevada and Fritz Maytag of Anchor Brewing as Anchor Brewing hosts a one night celebration for their collaboration brew. T

Come and join us for a 5-course dinner paired with unique rare and vintage beers, seated amongst the kettles in the legendary Anchor brewhouse.

Tickets for the event can be purchased here.

(via Sierra Nevada)

Breaking – Anderson Valley Brewing Company Sold

Chris Heintz — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 17:14:27 +0000

Anderson Valley Brewing Company from Boonville, CA, makers of NorCal favorite Boont Amber Ale, has been sold.

Trey White, a former exec with United States Beverage is the buyer, by way of a holding company created specifically for the purchase.

I’m not immediately clear on whether this is the same Trey White behind the suspiciously scammy Evolv “health water” company.

Update: Upon further Googling, I highly doubt the above speculation has any merit. Congrats to AVBC on the sale, and the new owners on picking up a great brand.

Also, after taking a look at the press release – pretty spot-on positioning in this quote from founder Ken Allen:

“I have looked long and hard for the right person to whom to entrust our legacy and I could not have found a better partner in Trey White. His passion and knowledge of the craft beer industry, coupled with his respect for the brands we have developed, will make him the ideal person to take the Anderson Valley Brewery to the next level within the growing craft beer industry.“

Well done on the messaging there. *golf clap*

(via Brooks.)

D.O.R.I.S. the Destroyer Being Unleashed on March 26th

David Martinez — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 18:46:35 +0000

Watch out Ohio, a new monster is on the rise. According to a tweet by Hoppin’ Frog Brewery today, March 26 is the set release date for its latest creation, D.O.R.I.S. the Destroyer. D.O.R.I.S. (Double Oatmeal Russian Imperial Stout) the Destroyer is a limited edition brew that takes after its predecessor, B.O.R.I.S. the Crusher, and comes in at a whopping 10.5% ABV.

Darker, richer, stronger and hoppier than BORIS Stout, it is both dry-hopped and first-wort hopped, and available only for a limited time. We will be open that Fri. and Sat. from noon until 6 pm. Sold only in 22 oz. bottles, retail price is $10.99, limit 2 cases per customer.

The Brewnanza staff is particularly fond of oatmeal stouts (Sam Smith anyone?) and russian imperials in general, feel free to send a case this way please!

Iowans Rejoice, Your Craft Beers Just Got More Potent

David Martinez — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 02:12:46 +0000

Today, Iowa governor Chet Culver signed the passing of the Iowa Beer Equality Bill–finally allowing Iowa craft breweries to create brews over 5% ABV. This previous restriction didn’t apply to out of state brewers with distribution within Iowa but any brewer based out of Iowa could not create anything too strong.

Out of state breweries were already selling these higher-proof beers in Iowa, but in-state breweries were restricted to a 5% cap. A movement for Iowa Beer Equality arose to remove the competitive disadvantage Iowa breweries faced. The passing of SF 2088 now allows Iowa brewers to sell many more styles of beer.

Certainly, this is a win for everyone. From the business perspective, this new ordinance gives craft breweries in Iowa the freedom to create more diverse genres of beer, ones traditionally with higher ABV such as porters or barleywine. For the consumer, well, that’s a no-brainer: there’s going to be more beer to drink! I wonder who is going to take advantage of this first.

(via Charlie Papazian)

It’s Not Caturday But We Had to Post This

David Martinez — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 01:58:02 +0000

We here at Brewnanza take our jobs seriously but even we have to let loose and play to the internet’s favorite subject: cats. Sloshspot has brought to the masses a portfolio of beer-loving cat photos and may I say that their tastes vary like the rest of us across the nation. And yes, that’s a Mirror Pond bottle you see nestled in there. Thanks to our resident beer/cat lover Wendy for bringing this to our attention. Cheers!

(Via Sloshspot)

Brewers Association Releases Official Numbers – Craft Up 7% in 2009

Chris Heintz — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 00:21:51 +0000

Surprise! Craft beer still A Pretty Big Deal, continues its explosive growth in 2009.

The latest numbers were officially released by the Brewers Association today, and we’re looking at yet another substantial increase in overall share, and year-over-year growth.

In 2009, craft brewers represented 4.3 percent of volume and 6.9 percent of retail dollars for the total U.S. beer category. With the total U.S. beer industry representing an estimated retail dollar value of $101 billion, the Brewers Association estimates the actual dollar sales figure from craft brewers in 2009 was $7 billion, up from $6.3 billion in 2008.

The total number of U.S. craft brewers grew from 1,485 to 1,542 in 2009, and they produced 9,115,635 barrels, up from 8,501,713 barrels in 2008. Overall U.S. beer sales fell from approximately 210.4 million barrels to 205.8 million barrels.

With craft representing 7% of the market’s sales, it’s obvious why the macros are sweating. Are we heading for the tipping point, and how will it manifest itself? Lots of buyouts and mergers, and another set of big, boring, multinational corporate entities? Or will the indie spirit that permeates the craft biz remain strong despite its growth?

Here’s the BA’s fact sheet, for some more beautiful facts and figures.

(Via Brooks.)

The Cascadian Dark Ale: Deschutes Wants You to Stop Saying “Black IPA”

Chris Heintz — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 19:52:12 +0000

The Black IPA is a bit of an oddity – its looks are certainly deceiving. Black as night, one would expect this emerging style to taste like a heavy, malty stout. But in reality, they’re hop bombs, virtually indistinguishable from your typical wondrous, golden-amber IPA.

This striking similarity in all areas but appearance raises some skepticism in the beer community. Jeff Alworth at Beervana mused in January ‘09, “the idea isn’t to change the nature of the beer, just its color–isn’t that gimmickry, not innovation?”

Deschutes Brewery in Bend, OR takes almost the exact opposite position. Similarities aside, they don’t even want the letters “IPA” anywhere on the label. Indeed, they want to win one for the Pacific Northwest team – and have dubbed their latest release a “Cascadian Dark Ale.”

C.D.A. is a new style of beer that emerged recently in the Pacific Northwest, more widely known as a Black I.P.A. There has been a significant movement and debate in the region to call the style C.D.A., and Deschutes Brewery leads the way with Hop in the Dark.

Like a lot of the craft beer enthusiasts in my generation, the IPA is the style that really hooked me – so I’m rather ambivalent about all the Black IPAs – sorry, CDAs – I’ve tried. I like them, because I like hops. I’ll relish those wonderful piney, grapefruity, pineappley, floral…y flavors no matter what color (or packaging) they come in.

Brewmaster Larry Sidor said in the press release that in addition to a variety of hop characters, “this beer has subtle coffee undertones born from a blend of oats with dark, Munich and crystal malts.” I’m interested to try some newer releases like Deschutes’ latest offering, to see if those malt notes are enough to help this emerging style distinguish itself.

Oh, and good luck with that CDA branding.

(via Campbell Consulting.)

Pucker Up! Inaugural Boulder SourFest Successful

David Martinez — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 10:00:22 +0000

Sour beer?! You bet! TriplePoint relished its first sample of sour beers last Thursday during our weekly tasting (Russian River’s Consecration and New Belgium’s Lips of Faith La Folie) and Colorado had its first ever Boulder SourFest, hosted by Avery Brewing. This sold out event boasted over 400 attendees and 35+ breweries showcasing 60+ sour beers. “Chipper” Dave Butler of Fermentedly Challenged wrote a great summary about the premiere, and hopefully annual, event.

SourFest was at the right time and had all the right beers in my opinion. Attendees were given a “menu” of all available beers plus a commemorative snifter glass with 20 tasting tickets inside. Each sample ended up being around a 2oz pour. Some servers were a bit more generous with their pours than others but generally you were given enough tickets to sample a wide variety of beers created with various strains of Brettanomyces and/or Lactobaccilus yeast strains.

Breweries from all over the country lent a hand in offering their fair share of sour beers. Among the list were notables Deschutes (who brought a sour version of their very popular Black Butte Porter), Dogfish Head, and Colorado favorite New Belgium. I’m with Chipper Dave on this one, thank you Avery for hosting such a novel event. Here’s to a second annual, cheers!

(via: Fermentedly Challenged)

Brewdog Bottles Some Sarcasm

Chris Heintz — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 00:36:41 +0000

Brewdog makes me jealous – I wish I could get paid to package up all of my sarcasm and ire, and simply fling them at the world, unconcerned with outside opinions or consequences. Wait a second – I’m blogging right now! Sweet! All my dreams have come true.

The Scottish outfit is known for its extremely high ABV beers, as well as its…well, spirited promo videos. In response to the mass fervor over some of its higher-alcohol offerings, it even produced a 1% mild called Nanny State, simply to make a point:

Nanny State is our quiet and dignified response to the ongoing controversy surrounding Britain’s strongest ever beer, Tokyo*. Nanny State is a 1.1% ale. We have gone from making Britain’s strongest beer to a brew so low in alcohol it is below the legal classification of beer and not strong enough to be subject to beer duty.

Tony Naylor at The Guardian supposes Brewdog is missing the mark. He says the world needs some mid-range session beers, not this all-or-nothing approach:

It’s all good fun this, but a bit frustrating, too. The world really doesn’t need a 41% beer. Nor a 0.5% in-joke. No, in the face of a relentless rise in beer strengths, what the modern drinker needs and what BrewDog would be better applying their ingenuity to, is a genuinely brilliant, mid-strength session beer. It is a problem which few brewers seem keen to address, but if you a) love beer, b) would like to prolong the ‘three-pint plateau’ (that period on a night-out where you’re funny, chatty and relaxed, rather than dribbling incoherently in a corner), and c) are forever struggling to keep under 28 units a week, then there is almost nothing (good) out there to drink.

Thing is, Brewdog has done a brilliant job at branding. They’re all about the extreme (nay, the eXXXtreme) ends of the beer spectrum, and they’re all about making a point with their products. And what is that point, really? Boil it down, and it’s “Drink Our Beer.” Love ‘em or hate ‘em, Brewdog knows how to move its audience to buy bottles. Beer for punks, right?