Inside the brewing of Sixpoint’s Mad Scientists’ series #14 Grätzer (A.K.A. Grodzisz). Brewmaster Jan Matysiak and head brewer Pete Dickson share about investigating and creating the rare smoked-wheat brew.

+ Slate says: “The craft beer industry’s love affair with hops is alienating people who don’t like bitter brews.” Read the article by Adrienne Ho. Bear Flavored Ales has a rebuttal. Personally, I am a fan of all beers and my interest in hop depends on the mood, the situation, and what’s available.

+ Whether you’re looking for hops or not at your local bar, here’s some information to help you decode beer menu names.

+ Now that you know what you’re getting into with the menus, here’s The 12 Hottest Craft Beer Bars in America Right Now as chosen by Eater.

If you spend any time on the forums over on BeerAdvocate, you know that the questions were flying non stop leading up to this years Dark Lord Day. Would the ticket buying process improve? Would the Floyds do something to curb second hand sales of tickets? Would it be at the park? What would the variants be? What about the allotments?

Part of the reason for all of these questions is that Three Floyds keeps information pretty close to the vest. After all, it’s not like any of us won’t show up if they change things up, we want the experience, we want the Dark Lord!

So with plenty of questions and just enough doubt, I stumbled into a ticket again for DLD, and after that there is no going back, literally. After all, this year when you bought a ticket they stamped your name on it, so good luck selling it on StubHub for quadruple the price you paid. And they also doubled the price (to 30$) of the ticket, which gives you nothing more than the RIGHT to stand in line in Munster, Indiana. And it turns out, they didn’t decide to just let the bartenders follow a metal band on tour or get their full back tattoo pieces finished, they actually used it to improve the festival experience!

Going from 2012 to 2013 was like going from a backyard BBQ to an actual festival. I know the event has grown like crazy in recent years, so it was quite a treat to show up and see Port-O-Lets as far as the eye could see and an gigantic area full of picnic tables and even a legit music stage. Yep, we didn’t know where we were at first. But after the shock wore off, it turned into the best beer festival you could ask for. Why? Well here are 25 reasons off the top of my head, in no particular order.

1) Fantastic weather
2) More room to roam
3) Mostly great people all around
4) New Dark Lord bottle art
5) The brewpub was closed, so less reason to get there super early
6) Cycle Brewing Nooner
7) Jackie O’s Oaky Golden Pucker
8) 2009 Fred From The Wood
9) Bells Batch 7,000
10) Hill Farmstead What Is Enlightenment?
11) White Chocolate, Chocolate Rain and Black Tuesday side by side by side
12) 3 Liter bottles of Supplication and Temptation
13) Barrel Aged Speedway Stout
14) Beachwood Full Malted Jacket
15) Mother Of All Storms
16) 10th Anniversary Utopias
17) Cantillon Iris
18) Three Floyds Cat Moves
19) Jolly Pumpkin La Roja Grand Reserve
20) Hill Farmstead Vera Mae
21) Cantillon Blåbær Lambik!
22) Sun King Pappy Van Muckle
23) 2011 Bourbon Barrel Dark Lord
24) BA Dark Lord with Vanilla Bean
25) BA Dark Lord Moscatel

Yeah, that was just some of the highlights of this years Dark Lord Day. The only low point was the long wait in line to buy our allotment of Dark Lord this year. I was in Group D and there were several bottlenecks which kept us waiting for nearly three hours. But at the end, I was happy to get my allotment, plus a bottle of Moscatel Barrel Aged Dark Lord. And with empty pockets and full backpacks we left another Dark Lord Day. The best one yet, and hopefully not the last for me.

(Yes, I’m drinking Bourbon Barrel Dark Lord. This picture kinda proves it.)

How was your Dark Lord Day experience?

Last summer I visited Ommegang in Cooperstown for my brother-in-law’s bachelor party weekend. The beauty of their location is unforgettable, and I find myself referring to the photo I took above of their outdoor patio in moments when I need to go to a peaceful place in my mind.

Ommegang’s Brewmaster Phil Leinhart has been with the company since 2007. Prior to joining the organization, Phil had spent time at Siebels Institute of Technology in Munich, Germany, and had worked for Anheuser-Busch, Manhattan Brewing, Harpoon Brewery, and Paulaner Brauerij. I had the opportunity to speak with him earlier in the month when he was visiting NYC. We spoke about his history with the brewery, collaborations, the schedule of Game of Thrones beers, and more.

Robert Duffy: At this point, what’s your average day like? How much time do you get to spend brewing, versus doing beer, press, etc?

Phil Leinhart: I have a team and I am not on the floor brewing really. I have a team of great brewers that I direct. I’m more involved in larger projects right now, the bigger picture.

RD: How big is the brewing team?

PL: Right now we’ve got eight full time brewers.

RD: What were the first beers that you consider your beers at Ommegang?

PL: All the beers have to go through me. At Ommegang we have an innovation manager, Mike McManus, and he is responsible for formulating beers on the pilot system and brewing them, whether those recipes come from him or other brewers or from me and then we go through a process of tweaking recipes, test brewing, tasting, test brewing again, tasting …

Every beer doesn’t originate with me. We have several brewers who are good brewers. They have recipes from home brewing or whatever and it’s a way to let them spread their creative wings, so to speak, and because, like I say, I operate on many different levels.

Formulating a beer is a very small thing and that’s the way it works. In fact the Game of Thrones recipe came from one of our brewers, Justin Forsyth, and it’s a not a complex malt brew or anything, but he just did a nice job of balancing the different malts to get that color and that little bit of residual sweetness, with the honey malt.

It’s just a common question with people who aren’t in brewing think everything is about formulating the beer and it’s actually a very small part. I like to say it’s the tip of the iceberg. Definitely the recipe is important, but just as, if not more important, is how you process that recipe.

RD: How did the collaboration with Barrier Brewing for “Barrier Relief” come about?

Phil Leinhart

The next day we just started brewing and then after seeing on the news all the destruction along the coast, Simon Thorpe, our CEO, said it would be a great opportunity to see if any breweries were hit bad and help out in any way we could: give them hops or malt or brew beer for them. After a few calls we found out about Barrier Brewing and how hard they were hit. They were pretty devastated.

Talking between Simon and those guys, we decided to brew a Belgian IPA. They sent me the formula and I just adapted it to our brew house.

RD: Do you try to do a lot of collaborations or do they randomly come about?

PL: We purposefully try to do a lot of collaborations, but it is something I would like to do more of. I have a lot of friends in the brewing industry. I have a drawer of breweries that we could do a collaboration with, but then it’s not just up to me.

RD: Speaking of collaborations, how did Iron Throne, the Game of Thrones beer come about?

PL: HBO approached us. As you may know, HBO’s offices are near Times Square and they often go to BXL, which we’re pretty well represented. They liked our beer and I guess when Game of Thrones came out they just saw our name, our whole history, the symbolism, the griffin on the label and all that, and they just thought “That’d be a really great partner there.”

They called us and it was probably a year and a half in the making with negotiations. At first, there were some misgivings. I had my own personal… I’m like, “Does this mean we’re getting too commercial?” I just had concerns that way, but I think the show is enough of a niche, kind of like us in a way. It’s not mainstream necessarily, although it seems to be getting that way, but it was a really good fit.

It just gives us more of an opportunity to create different beers. It’s not like we’re taking an old beer and re-purposing it and putting a different label on it. We’re actually putting it through the whole innovation process, coming up with a unique formula and test brewing, test brew again and test brew again, and so it just gives us more of a creative outlet.

We’re contracted to make three more, another one this year and then two more next year.

RD: How important is your location in Cooperstown to the vision of the brewery?

PL: A big part of our story is the location. A term used today a lot is “farmhouse brewery,” but we really are, in a literal way, a farmhouse brewery. You’ve been there so you’ve seen we’re in the middle of fields. They’re spreading manure right next door. Especially with the cafe now and the concerts that we are having, we like to talk about the whole Ommegang experience, not just the beer.

RD: Ommegang recently changed all of the packaging. Do you get involved in that?

PL: I weigh in on it, give my opinion of things, but I don’t get too involved. I didn’t drive that project but I definitely put my two cents in. It is interesting how the marketing firm did that whole job, that whole project. They came out and met all of us at the brewery just to get a feel of what we were about before they even started putting ideas together.

I think it’s nice and it gives us a much more cohesive look. It was the marketers talking like we need to have a common thread through all our labels, so somebody can look at our label and say “That’s Ommegang!” That makes a lot of sense to me and we’ve seen quite a large uptick in sales this year. I don’t know whether it’s our re-branding or the Game of Thrones, maybe a little bit of everything.

I hope to use “hop blocking” in a conversation soon.

They called it the Bourbon County Stout tasting to end all Bourbon County Stout tastings. Well, maybe I just called it that because the lineup was phenomenal. If you like Goose Islands sometimes elusive, always amazing Bourbon County Brand Stout, abbreviated affectionately by beer dorks everywhere as BCBS, or BCBCS or BCBVS or well, you get the idea. Then this tasting is one you might dream about.

We didn’t end up tasting every Bourbon County Stout and variant ever created, but it was damn close and there were some ‘custom’ variants and desserts to offset whatever might have been missing. Here was how things went down.

The first blind wave…

To start we had four different Bourbon County vintages put in front of us. We didn’t know what years would be represented, but were told that the 2006 and the 2012 were part of the mix. What ended up happening though is we were lied to. It’s true that the 06 and 12 were in front of us, as well as the 2009. What we didn’t know was that Bourbon County Rare had been substituted as the fourth blind competitor. I’m not going to lie, I gravitated towards the Rare right away. Of the four glasses it was the one I couldn’t stop drinking. So, naturally I thought it had to be the 2006 vintage.

I ranked them blind this way.
1) Bourbon County Rare
2) 2006 Bourbon County
3) 2012 Bourbon County
4) 2009 Bourbon County

Among our group, this is how it shook out.

1) Rare – 8 1st place, 4 2nd place
2) 2012 – 4 1st place, 7 2nd place
3) 2006 – 1 1st place, 2 2nd place
4) 2009 – lots of last places…

What can we learn from this blind tasting? Well, first off, Rare is still badass and even though a couple people didn’t rank it #1 or even #2. The 2012 batch, which many have said is as good fresh as any in the past, is tasting fantastic still about 7 months since bottling, and the 06′ is decent, although most agreed is past its prime. Also, the 2009 was weird, it had a bit of a acidy taste in my opinion. Either it’s at an awkward stage or just wasn’t a great batch.

We didn’t go blind with the rest of the BCBS stuff, but here are my personal tasting rankings for the other stuff we tried, along with the blind beers.

1) Bourbon County Vanilla (2010): This was my first Vanilla taste and it didn’t let me down at all. Not only does it smell amazing still, but the vanilla finish is simply fantastic.

Recommendation: Trade for it like a madman!

2) Bourbon County Rare: Like I said before, still a badass beer and almost a 1a ranking for me. It’s still plenty boozy with just enough of those Pappy barrels tingling on the tongue.

Recommendation: Trade for it like a madman!

3) Bourbon County Cherry Rye: The most recent BC variant in our tasting really surprised me this time. I’d had it before and enjoyed it but didn’t feel the need to go out of my way to acquire more. But now I just might. The cherry is toned down just a tad and isn’t cloying whatsoever. If you don’t like cherry, it doesn’t matter, this is a great beer.

Recommendation: Get your hands on a bottle.

4) Bourbon County Stout (2010 / 2006 / 2011): I’m grouping these together because they were all excellent and it would be tough to rank one ahead of the other. The 06′ wasn’t a favorite for many when tasted blind, but I found it mellow, smooth and really tasty. The 2010 and 11′ were both fantastic and just about in their prime in my opinion. I don’t know the ideal age for BCBS, but if I had a gun to my head I would say two years.

Recommendation: Drink the 06 now. Drink the 2010 now and sit on the 2011 a little longer if you have the patience.

5) Bourbon County Stout Coffee (2012): This years Coffee version is still tasting really really good. The Intellgentsia Coffee or maybe it’s still just fresh enough but I really loved it. I had another bottle back in December though and there was more coffee present, so as you might expect, the fade is on.

Recommendation: Drink it if you have it as soon as possible.

The rest of what we tried, with minimal notes. (Sorry, it was a lot)

Bourbon County Stout 2012: It’s only 7 months old but it really might end up being one of the best batches ever. I can’t wait to try this again at the one year mark, and the two year mark.

Recommendation: Hoard it.

Bourbon County Stout 2007, 2008: These two were very close for me. Neither was particularly offensive but neither stood out enough to rank them any higher.

Recommendation: Trade it.

Bourbon County Coffee (2010): I was really surprised to still get a solid coffee flavor when tasting this one. If I was drinking it along I’d probably rate it higher, but next to the 2012 it wasn’t as good.

Recommendation: Drink it now.

Bourbon County Bramble Rye: It’s been compared to Bourbon County plus Robitussin by many and it’s still not difficult to see why this was one of the least popular BC variants. It still has a heavy raspberry and blackberry flavors but the rye whiskey barrel is almost non-existent to me at this point.

Recommendation: Trade it.

We also got to try Bourbon County Stout aged in a coconut for three days, which was better than you might think, and BC with peanut and chocolate, which I hope becomes an official variant in the future.

My recipe for Bourbon County cupcakes was utilized, and there were three types of Bourbon County Ice Cream on hand as well.

I have to admit, I fell in love with Modern Times Beer as soon as I saw the packaging, designed by Helms Workshop:

This soon to be launched brewery was founded by San Diego’s Jacob McKean, who after working at Stone Brewing for 2 years has set sail to open his own operation. Besides releasing all of their beer recipes as open source, Jacob has also been detailing all of the behind the scenes information on starting the new brewery. It’s definitely required reading material for anyone who may have similar ambitions.

As for their Kickstarter campaign, it’s one of the slickest and most thoughtful campaigns I’ve seen in awhile. As of writing they are $6K away from their $40K goal with a few weeks to go.

What makes this campaign so perfect is the quality of rewards, production of video, and overall sincerity (and humor) of the content. Another bonus is his inclusion of other Kickstarter projects into their reward system, such as letter pressed items and a custom freaker. Looking at his Kickstarter profile, you can see Jacob has been using the site for a long time, supporting 11 projects and counting. He gets it.

Here’s hoping this project gets funded! I’ll just need to figure out how to get to San Diego for the opening party….!

Ohio Brewery Makes History with Foil Swan

(Cincinnati, OH) – Mt. Carmel Brewing is shunning the popular growler in lieu of what experts are touting as a modern marvel in carry-out draft beer technology. Mt. Carmel has become the first brewery in history to utilize the foil swan as a means for taking home draft beer from their on-site taproom.

“Far too much time has gone by with people lugging these uncivilized glass jugs home. We want to bring some civility to the experience,” said Patrick Clark, MCBC’s Brand Manager. “What is more fancy than a foil swan? Nothing! That is what!”

The revolutionary packaging comes just in time for the release of MCBC’s arguably most fancy beer to date – Ardennes Belgian Quad. The brewery spent more than 2 hours developing its aluminum prototype and settled on a model reinforced by the proprietary foil manufactured by Athens’ based Big Mamma’s Burritos.

In response to criticisms that the container is extremely awkward to carry, lacks the basic structural integrity to hold carbonated beverages and doesn’t securely hold liquids, Clark stated “It’s a freaking foil swan!”

The brewery plans to roll out both a 32 oz and 64 oz version. As well as a 66 oz, 15 oz, 41 oz and 29 oz size. When asked about the multitudes of sizes Clark responded “These damn gooses are hard to make the same all the time.”

The Mt. Carmel Brewing Company taproom is open 12pm – 4pm Monday through Thursday, 12 pm – 7pm Friday and 12 pm – 5 pm Saturday. Bring your own foil for a discount on your Swan fill.

NPR recently ran a story about Amy Stewart's new book, The Drunken Botanist. It's a beautiful piece of work and seems like a great read.

Sake began with a grain of rice. Scotch emerged from barley, tequila from agave, rum from sugarcane, bourbon from corn. Thirsty yet? In The Drunken Botanist, Amy Stewart explores the dizzying array of herbs, flowers, trees, fruits, and fungi that humans have, through ingenuity, inspiration, and sheer desperation, contrived to transform into alcohol.

Joshua Bernstein writes about Radiant Pig, a new small brewery that recently opened in New York:

First things first, the brewery is the brainchild of Rob Pihl and his girlfriend, Laurisa Milici. For years, Pihl had been an avid homebrewer in his Manhattan apartment. Milici loved drinking beer. So it was sort of a no-brainer that, when they were looking to make a break from their advertising gigs, that they turn their passion into a profession. (full story)

Tröegs recently installed a hop gun. It looks like this:

+ How Beer Gave Us Civilization from the New York Times

Sly Fox Beer‘s new 360 Lid turns cans into cups with a simple pull! I’m never one who gets sucked into gimmicks, but this seems practical in a “why isn’t everyone doing this” sort of way.

A German-style golden lager brewed with imported German Pils malt and Saaz and Hallertauer hops. This light-bodied beer offers a gentle, dry finish. A perennial favorite in the Sly Fox pubs and our brewer’s go-to session beer. Helles Golden Lager in a can offers wide open flavor and aroma.

I’ve been a fan of Sly Fox for awhile, and in January visited their brewery in Pennsylvania. Definitely worth a trip.

I went through Kickstarter’s offerings to find a few cool projects that are currently looking for backers. Check them out, and if you know of any other great Kickstarter projects going on now (even non-beer related), add them to them to the comments.

The TapIt Cap
The TapIt Cap is a patent-pending design that ensures the beer in your growler remains fresh and carbonated.

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The Perfect Beer Drinking Vessel and Private Keg!
Beer kept COLD, FRESH, and CARBONATED for 24 hrs. Crafted from 18/8 stainless steel, vacuum insulated Growler and Keg dispensing!

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Prairie Artisan Ales barrel aged beers
Prairie Artisan Ales is setting out to create 100% barrel aged beers. We need your support to get this truly artisan project going.

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Los Angeles Ale Works
Los Angeles Ale Works is a brewery based in Los Angeles, California. For over 3 years we have been hard at work business planning, refining recipes, designing our brand, and acquiring the proper licenses for the first phase of our project, gypsy brewing. After purchasing our kegs and marketing material and paying for the initial batches, we are ready to take this project to the next level.

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Black Label Brewing Company
Help us become Spokane’s first green nano-brewery, sprouting from the fertile soil of the Pacific Northwest into fruition!