Hollis Brewing Company

Interview: Thomas Kolicko, Director of Crafting a nation (part 2)

noreply@blogger.com (Hollis Brewing Co.) — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 15:09:00 +0000

This is the second of a two part interview with Thomas Kolicko director of Crafting a Nation and Beer Culture the movie.

HBC: Why did you choose to make films about the beer industry?

Tom: I grew up in New Jersey I moved here (Colorado) when I was 22 years old. Jersey doesn’t have too many craft breweries, there’s a bunch, and I follow New Jersey craft brewers on Facebook. I want to go back there and see what they have because I know their scene has been growing. The county I grew up in didn’t have a single craft brewery in it, not one. Just recently I found out that one did get founded its supposed to open up by the time I’m planning to head back, they also have a homebrew store there so the seed has been planted.

I have always loved craft beer, but in jersey you go to a bar and you see bud, Coors, miller, corona, Stella and they have Yuengling. In Colorado you see red left hands, you see red A’s, you see odells all these tap handles I hadn’t seen before the Budweiser one was the little black nub hanging out, like the bar was embarrassed to serve it. I wanted to figure out why. I took a class in documentary filmmaking and I wanted to figure out what the beer culture was and the project grew traction from there. I didn’t realize how much support people give these breweries, being a filmmaker; it was cool to see when we launched our trailer how much support we got from telling the story of these guys and I’m like “okay were on to something here, this is really cool”

Beer culture started out to be a 15-minute short project just a general overview. When we released the trailer the amount of emails we got we were like okay, the final cut was 55 minutes. What I liked about beer culture was how it transformed from a film about beer to a film about the American Dream.

HBC: How do you define craft beer? People have lots of different definitions.

Tom: I like that question. I always ask a question with my interviews that stumps everybody I guess this is one of those questions. You know? I would say a craft brewery is a business that is committed to improving the quality of life to a community. There’s beer aspect to this film but the story follows craft brewers but it’s really about the growth of the small business right now in America. What were trying to say is these craft breweries, these small businesses that are socially responsible, sustainable and are committed to making a quality product that in every facet will improve the quality of life in these communities. I think that’s a craft brewery.

You mentioned Widmer, you mentioned the big guys. That can be a slippery slope to go down but they all started somewhere, people go into business to make money and we live in a capitalist society. You as a consumer or people as consumers have a right to support the business you want to support. It boils down to where you want to spend your dollar, who you want to vote for with that dollar. Personally I want to vote for the little guy I want to see the little guy succeed. That’s something I believe in, it’s the reason I want to make this film.

That’s what I think a craft brewery is. A business somebody can believe in and want to see succeed as long as that business is smart, sustainable, responsible and morally conscious that’s the answer to go with.

HBC: Are you a homebrewer?

Tom: I am a homebrewer. That was one of the coolest things about making beer culture. I went from extract to all grain in like 8 months. I’m still working hard so I don’t get to brew as much. Luckily the beers I brewed over break have to age a little so I wont be bottling them until April.

HBC: How are you planning on getting the word out about the film?

Tom: Numerous different ways. Were really focusing on the growth of new media in film. It seems like the traditional system of distribution is kind of going out of the mix. Were looking into several different avenues.

Our deadline for the first final cut is December 12^th with intended distribution through whatever medium around January.

What were trying to do for marketing right now is utilize the tools our web site can give us. Search engine optimization, were doing the whole webisode thing were trying to increase everything that’s new and cool. We have a bunch of avenues that are opening up I really can’t go into too much detail right now. Were going to be doing promotional events, a lot of community outreach starting out here in Denver and branching out nationally from there. Were looking to partner with a lot of small businesses, It’s getting the community involved to get the film out there.

HBC: Anything else I should have asked?

Tom: I wanted to go back to my inspiration to make the film. You talked about my passion for beer, prior to my getting involved with beer I had a job in New Jersey, the last job I had in the state. I was working for a farm to table operation prior to that I never really understood this independent part of the market. That job really gave me inspiration for how small business works, how trade works, how collaborating works. I think that was one of my main inspirations for a “return to normality” as I like to call it.

The film will not be out for a while but there is plenty of activity on Crafting a nations Facebook page and website to keep you interested until then. Additionally, Beer Culture is out and available for download here. I want to extend a big thank you to Tom for taking the time to give me an interview I'm looking forward to checking out Crafting a Nation.

Taking Notes

noreply@blogger.com (Hollis Brewing Co.) — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 16:31:00 +0000

One of the most important parts of brewing is taking good notes. Aside from printing out the recipe you're brewing there are a bunch of other things that you should be writing down, in three months you're probably not going to remember if you were one degree high or low on your mash or how good the crush was on that bag of grain.
I was used to miss some important details when taking notes and I was unhappy with all the spread sheets I was finding online so I decided to make my own note taking sheet.
This is what works for me. The Variables table is for the amount of strike/sparge water as well as the temperature, I use this website to fill out the table, it takes it's calculations from Designing Great Beers by Ray Daniels.
There is a space for your water adjustment information you can note the amounts of chemicals you're adding and the final water profile for that beer. To get this information I use the EZ water calculator V3.0. It can be downloaded as a spreadsheet.
The averages table is something I developed in response to using a RIMS system and having multiple data points for my mash. Home-brew mashtuns are notorious for not holding a uniform temperature throughout so I average 3 of my data points (center grain bed, RIMS output, blichmann thermometer on my mashtun) throughout the mash. I take these average readings and average all of them to get what i call my mash temperature.
The bottom table has a space to keep track of all your cellar activities (racking beer, dry hopping, temperature changes, gravity changes) as well as your attenuation and alcohol by volume. Here I also keep track of my kegging activities (date, C02 pressure applied) and bottling information (date and number of bottles)
Aside from all the tables there is a space to write down your starter information, a space to write the beer you're brewing, the version and the date, and a space to make notes for a starch conversion test.
Usually any other notes I need will be put on the back of the page or on a separate blank page, usually this is where i write information on my flow rates, crush information or anything else that comes to mind. I attach this to the recipe I have formatted in beer alchemy and printed out as well as the receipt from my home brew store giving me a complete picture of the beer.

Interview: Thomas Kolicko, Director of Crafting a nation (part 1)

noreply@blogger.com (Hollis Brewing Co.) — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 18:27:00 +0000

A few weeks back Thomas Kolicko was kind enough to grant me an interview to talk about his latest project Crafting A Nation. Tom also directed the film Beer Culture an expose on how craft brewing embodies the american dream. I want to extend a big thank you to Tom for taking the time to be interviewed.

HBC: What’s Crafting a nation about?

Tom: Crafting a nation is a feature length documentary about how the American craft brewers are building the economy one beer at a time. After Beer Culture the movie came out the biggest criticism we received was “why was it only Colorado?” so after thinking about it for awhile we were at Oskar Blues we were about to do a screening of Beer Culture and we said “lets do a national version”. We understand the story, we know the story the best and I think we can tell it the best and if we don’t do it somebody else will.

Crafting a nation evolved out of there its come down to more of a social cause kind of project, we going to have a very interactive website that backs up everything about the film. You can find more about other breweries; start up businesses and webisodes, business profiles. All types of features that back up the film and support the films message.

HBC: What breweries did you visit?

Tom: For Crafting a nation we just got back from Texas and Saint Louis. We also are following a couple breweries here in Colorado, our main characters are here in Colorado as well. Beer Culture was more of a multi character expose figuring out there is beer culture and why people are supporting it. Crafting A Nation does that to a certain extent but heightens what we initially set out to do with Beer Culture. This ones going to be more character driven, were following three main story lines right now.

In terms of breweries we’ll start with Texas. There’s freetail brewing company, north by northwest, jester king, thirsty planet, there’s so many… Austin beer works, hops and grain. In Saint Louis there’s schlafly, four hens, urban chestnut, perennial and, civil life… I think I got them all. And then out here in Colorado were going to be following a couple brewers that have not opened yet there expected to open within the next month to two months. That’s the cool thing, most of the breweries were going to be talking to have been open for less than three years. Were really trying to focus on how these businesses are growing, why they’re being founded and just showing the economic benefits of craft beer in America.

HBC: Do you have any favorites?

Tom: We definitely have our main characters. We have been in research and development since August trying to hone in on who our main characters are going to be. We narrowed it down by region, in terms of characters we have Scott Metzger of freetail brewing company; I think he still is an economics professor and full time brewer/owner of freetail brewing company. Then Ron Extract from jester king, a cool experience, really revolutionary beer.

On the beer side perennial in St. Louis, artisan ales they have a cool story. I cant talk to much about our main characters I can say that there our main characters for a reason, they are all young, most of the this them is their first big business venture. Its cool to see the amount of spirit these guys have to go out into the world now with the economic times the way they are and try to pursue their dreams and passion.

HBC: You guys had a kickstarter fund, was that always part of the plan?

Tom: Were independent so funding is whatever we can get. Without going into too much detail we have hit a little snag with our funding, were planning to over come that. This film is going to be made regardless were going to knock on every door once if not twice to try to get this thing funded. We have really cool and kind sponsors.

For the film we have raised about 25%. Kickstarter was always part of the plan because it’s a really cool platform where people can get involved with the project, that’s exactly what crafting is. I want to give back to the people that inspired me to make this film.

Its not cheap, we have a really tight knit crew. When you think film crew you think a lot of people, but it’s a couple guys. I recently had to expand, Beer Culture was originally made with five core people and I recently had to add three more.

HBC: So Crafting A Nation is your full time job then?

About two months in (to beer culture) I was working a random nine-dollar per hour job and my company was founded. There was too much of a difference and I took the leap of faith and make this my full time gig. I haven’t paid myself that much yet and the crew is the same were doing this out of passion.

Look out for part two of the interview coming up soon, in the meantime check out http://www.craftinganation.com to watch some trailers and contribute to the production of the film.

Concise Course in Brewing Technology Review 2/3

noreply@blogger.com (Hollis Brewing Co.) — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 16:57:00 +0000

Recently I reviewed the first part of my introduction to professional brewing. I have been keeping up with the course work without any real problems. The weekly chat sessions were condensed because not as many people were showing up as the instructors wanted which means I have to try to do the chats at work so I'm not getting quite as much out of them.

The topics on the life cycle of yeast, yeast management and control of fermentation temperatures were really useful and interesting. The material was presented in a way that the biochemical aspects did not make me feel like I was going to pass out. The filtration chapter was probably the hardest I have come across so far, I feel like the provided material was not terribly clear in describing how a filter operates (in terms where wort flows and where the filtration medium is deposited) but my instructor provided me with some additional information that cleared up my questions.

This week I finally read the module I was most interested in, recipe formulation. There was not a lot of hard data on formulation (there were some slides adapted from Designing Great Beers by Ray Daniels). There were however a few good things to think about regarding the difference between professional and home brewing, like the focus of recipes and brewing in general "homebrewer: art and craft, professional brewer: craft and science" and "The process of consistently producing the beer within defined specifications separates professional brewers from amateurs". The chapter also gave some good tips on taking notes during brewday. It was not what I had in mind but it was still a really useful read.

Beer Alchemy Review

noreply@blogger.com (Hollis Brewing Co.) — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 19:34:00 +0000

Recently I had the idea to review my brewing recipe software of choice, this got me to thinking about the other types of software out there and I decided to get some other bloggers involved to review the software they use.
I use beer alchemy for all my recipes, I liked the look of the interface and the fact that it was mac native was attractive as well. The software retails for $29.95 and gives you the ability to install the software on up to two computers.

Admittedly I don't use all the features the software offers. I mainly use it to write out my recipes and get a target for original gravity, IBU, and color. All of the measurements have options for which method you choose to calculate them. You can keep brew day notes, a record of what you brewed and when and track your inventory. (these are the features I don't use) The software is really easy to jump in and start using, It's fully customizable to your batch sizes, extract or all grain, and addition of new ingredients. To get your recipe onto paper you can either export the files through email, PDF, or as a webpage (I use the webpage so it prints nicely). Additionally you can change the alpha acid amounts on the hop additions, and formulate your grist bill by desired pre boil gravity and percentage of the individual malts and you can create custom mash schedules. It really has all the features you would ever need.
Additionally there is a mobile version of the software available. The mobile version has all of the same features as the desktop version, however, it's not quite as user friendly as the desktop version.

All in all I think the software is totally worth the $30 price, I have no interest in doing all these recipe calculations by hand. I think the simple interface makes it easy to jump right in and start designing recipes.

Here are some links to my collaborators blogs:
BrewMate- Beer & Garden
iBrewmaster- Homebrew Academy
Beersmith 1- Atomic Donkey Brewing
Brewtarget- Shegogue Brew

Book Review: The Brewmasters Table

noreply@blogger.com (Hollis Brewing Co.) — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 18:07:00 +0000

In preparing for the cicerone exam I have been doing some reading on food and beer pairings. Recently I read The Brewmasters Table by Garrett Oliver, it's the best book I have found yet on food and beer pairings.
The book is arranged into three parts; The basics (includes a definition of beer, a brief history of beer and the principals of matching beer with food), Brewing traditions (covers everything from lambic to british ales to the american craft beers), and the last word (covers glassware, temperature, storage and service as well as a reference chart). The second part of the book makes up most of the reading going in depth into every beer styles history, flavors and how to pair the beer.
This book took me awhile to read, it seems like more of a reference book. It follows the same format for each beer and it took me a long time to get through because I kept putting it down and not coming back to it. Still, it gave me a really good base on which to start experimenting with my own pairings and be pretty successful right away. Unlike Tasting Beer by Randy Mosher The Brewmasters Table does not cover how to taste and judge beer but rather tells you the facts you need to know (i.e. flavors) you need to know to pair just about any beer you may come across making it a great for quick reference.
I would recommend it for a book to keep handy for research on specific styles and/or pairings but nor for a book to sit down and read every night. Additionally it's a good study guide for the cicerone exam for the pairing information (the part I'm having the most trouble with) and a good guide for the BJCP exam for all the style information and history.

Concise Course in Brewing Technology Review 1/3

noreply@blogger.com (Hollis Brewing Co.) — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 17:56:00 +0000

Recently I started studying brewing science and technology with the Siebel Institute. Honestly American Brewers Guild was my first choice I really liked the idea that they set you up with an apprenticeship but classes were filled so far in advance I could not have begun until 2014 and I wanted to get a start on my brewing education so I could enter the industry as soon as possible. That being said Siebel has the benefit of being Americas oldest brewing school and working with Dommens in Germany as well as the World Brewing Academy.

Siebel has a series of 3 modules (or classes) that make up the associates program in brewing science and technology (raw materials and wort production, beer production and quality control, finally packaging and process technology). The entire program can be completed at the Siebel campus in Chicago or online (online classes last 3 months each).

I chose to take an additional introductory class called the concise course in brewing technology. It covers the basics of the material from all the other classes. This is ideal for me because I'm currently working on my scientific background at SUNY Albany. The online classes are a combination of reading materials video/audio presentations as well as weekly online chats. The reading materials (and extras) are very thorough but generally the videos are presented by Germans from the Dommens academy and are sometimes a bit hard to understand. The weekly chats are probably the best educational tool and I wish there were more of them, The instructor facilitates a discussion of the topics covered in the previous weeks and answers any questions anybody may have. Additionally at the end of each module there are a series of short answer questions that must be answered and graded by the instructor, the questions are not always easy (a lot of them are) but not hard either. The instructor always provides good feedback on the answers.

In summary I feel the course is good and I am learning quite a bit, I would like to see more discussions but that could be hard to facilitate. My instructor is great he has proven to be very accessible and answers my questions very quickly. He was even kind enough to issue me a letter of introduction to help me in my search for an entry level brewing position.

Bottling

noreply@blogger.com (Hollis Brewing Co.) — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 16:49:00 +0000

Generally when people get really into home-brewing they start kegging and forgo the tedious process of bottling. I must be a glutton for punishment because I keg then bottle. I always keep some beer on tap in the brewery but I like to have a larger stash of bottles to give away and to drink away from the basement brewery.

I could buy new bottles but at about $1 apiece that could get pricey really fast. Usually the promise of some free beer is enough to get many of my friends to save their used bottles for me, also if I need to I have found my local beverage center will sell me their bottles for 10 cents each.

There is some labor involved in cleaning the bottles (usually people are not great about rinsing out the beer) and getting the labels off but I feel like I have a good method)

I make a strong PBW solution (strong= dump a bunch into the rubbermaid container) and soak the bottles for at least a day. This makes most of the labels fall right off (some need a little bit of scrubbing to get all the glue off) also it loosens up some of the nasty growth that develops in the bottom of some bottles.

Also, I reuse bottles several times so this is the first check for cracks or chips, Capping puts a good amount of stress on the neck of the bottle and it weakens them over time.

Next the bottles get a good rinse inside and out and are again, checked for cracks and stubborn bits of mold. Then its off to the bottle tree to be sanitized with some bursts of star san.

Once the bottles are cleaned rinsed and sanitized they get packaged. To keep the insides of the bottle sanitized I line the bottom of a 12 or 24 pack box with foil that i spray with star san and put the bottles in the box upside down (this keeps anything that may be in the air out).

The boxes sit in the fridge until they are ready to be used so they are roughly the same temperature as the beer.

To fill the bottles I use a blichmann beer gun. Its really a great product, a quick blast of C02 purges the air from the bottle and the beer gun then fills it right up. I let a little bit of foam run out of the top of the bottle to ensure a consistent level for all of by bottles, I do loose a little beer by doing this but its not much. All of the filling operations take place on a mimi bottling line I built, It has the bench capper attached to the table and racks for the filled bottles. Once the bottles are on the rack they get a quick water rinse and then are dried and labeled.

Interview: Alan Newman of Alchemy & Science

noreply@blogger.com (Hollis Brewing Co.) — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 18:22:00 +0000

A few months ago news broke about a new company run by Alan Newman, founder of magic hat, and financed by boston beer company (AKA Sam Adams). The only details on the company was that they were going to be a "craft brew incubator", Later news broke about their first acquisition, the angel city brewpub in LA. I was doing research for a post on Alchemy & Science but all i could find were the same two press releases being regurgitated all over the internet. I contacted Alchemy & Science directly to learn more and Alan was kind enough to take the time to give me an interview.

HBC: Why did you guys choose the west coast for your first acquisition?
Alan: ‘cause it dropped in our lap. Its really about opportunity, when we started talking about doing this alchemy and science business we recognized that a lot of stuff we can control. So we started looking for opportunities, there was an opportunity so… you know? ... We took it. It’s really not that complicated.

HBC: So you’re not thinking of nation wide domination?

Alan: WORLD WIDE DOMINATION! ... No not at all. The task is really to just do great world-class beers and do great things for people interested in beer.

HBC: Do you see A&S doing anything outside the beer industry? Maybe getting into ciders or outside the beer industry?

Alan: You know? Not really looking at other industries was really before A&S took this forum. Stacey and I were looking for opportunities to run another business. Its really all opportunity driven. We were looking for opportunities available around Burlington, had beer come up we might have looked at it, beer never came up. So, we were looking for opportunities in other areas. Then I had a conversation with Jim Koch and all that changes.

HBC: That leads me to my next point; we know Boston Beer’s backing is limited to financial backing. Will you also have access to their facilities and distribution to help reach your goals for A&S?

Alan: This is not an attempt to be evasive; the challenge is how do we do things without disrupting BBC? They are a very successful company and one of their concerns as well as one of our concerns is we could become a distraction, so essentially, they are open to us sharing any resources that make sense for the circumstances as long as were not a distraction. Would we ever brew at their facilities? Of course we would, they have some of the finest craft breweries in America and I would love to be able to use their breweries for some of the stuff were doing.

We got some stuff were working on now that would definitely be done at one of their breweries. Because the LA brewery is not up and running yet were doing some new product development at the Boston brewery we will move it all over to LA once the LA brewery is operational but they were kind enough to offer us the ability to get working on some new product development ahead of time. So we took it, wherever there are opportunities to share resources were open to it and there open to it. There really is no master plan on what we will and wont use of their resources were really playing it by ear and figuring out as we go.

HBC: BBC is the biggest craft brewer in the nation and the brewers association changed their definitions of craft to accommodate them. How do you guys define “craft” at A&S?

Alan: I have long, long standing disagreements with the brewers association on their definition of craft beer. There are two issues: What is a craft brewer? And what is a craft beer? and they are very different to me. Had I been involved with the brewers association, which I was not when they made that decision, I would have argued it has nothing to do with Sam Adams. That is has to do with do we want to penalize people for being successful? And if we do how do we ever expect to turn more and more people on to good tasting beer without pushing them all to the big brewers?

To me it was just a natural extension of the brewers association adapting to the times when the brewers association started, when magic hat started, I don’t know that anybody was doing more than 100,000 barrels. I seem to remember that Sam Adams and Pete’s were right around 100,000 barrels, Anchor was right around 100,000 barrels, Sierra may have been right around there and that was the upper limit. Over the years as craft beers have gotten more popular all those business have grown, the idea that Sierra Nevada is not going to be a craft brewer as they pass some imaginary number makes no sense to me. The idea that New Belgium will not be a craft brewer once they break through some false ceiling number makes no sense to me and I don’t think the industry is doing itself a favor by casting out the most successful of the craft brewers.

I think it was a reaction to the times, I think they did the right thing. I think Sam Adams was the first to hit that point and as many things in the craft beer industry Sam Adams is the first. They were early on the scene, they were not the first craft brewer, but they pushed the bounds in many areas in how craft beer was sold and business models. They pushed the envelope all along so its not surprising to me that they were the first to break through that imaginary barrier but I really don’t believe it had anything to do with Sam Adams and was more recognizing that the industry is evolving and we need to make sure the most successful the craft brewers remain categorized to the customer as craft brewers.

HBC: You Acquired Angel City and they were kind of on the ropes when you acquired them. Are you looking only to get struggling brewers as part of A&S?

Alan: That’s your word “on the ropes” not mine. I don’t think you can look at angel city and make any assumptions about future activity from that one action. It was an opportunity that came up. I go way back with a guy named Michael Bowe, who was the founder of angel city, we have know each other about 15 years. Whenever I was in LA we would have dinner together. We just catching up and he said, “well what do you think about buying angel city?” and I said “hum that’s kind of interesting” it really was not a planned activity, it was not indicative of anything else. Every once in awhile I see something written that were out there scouring for all the breweries on the brink and its just not true at all. This was a particular situation and we took advantage, not of Michael at all, I think Michael would agree that we treated him very fairly. We found a way of doing something that made sense to both parties and that’s the only thing it indicates.

Were working on some stuff were going to create from scratch, we continue to be interest in other brands but there is no one focus on how were going to create businesses or grow businesses, were looking at all opportunities.

HBC: You mentioned you have some projects your starting from scratch; can you give any details on that?

Alan: I can’t. If you check back in about a month, the only reason is my experience is nothing is final until its final and I would hate to be out talking about something that doesn’t actually happen. But were in the process of developing something that I think is really fun and cool, were really excited about it and I cant wait until I can talk about it.

HBC: Back to Angel City then; was there any resistance to your involvement in angle city from the local market?

Alan: I haven’t heard a word, everything I have heard has been pretty positive. People are happy; I think the angel city vision was fabulous. I think what Michael was thinking about with angel city and the move he was in the process of making was pretty damn exciting and people are excited by that vision that an experienced builder of craft beer is coming in to help it. It will remain a local LA brewery with a pub. Our goal with it is to really become part of the LA community. What we learned with magic hat was the way to build the business is to really stay involved with the community that you’re working with and I think one of the things we did best when we started magic hat was we were heavily involved in our local community here in Burlington and northern Vermont. Then as we grew we stayed heavily involved in those communities. We worked with a lot of nonprofits, we worked with a lot of organizations, we worked with a lot of performing arts activities and we stayed heavily involved in the communities we were selling our beer in even as we expanded our territory we expanded our reach. Whether angel city ever has the kind of geographic reach that magic hat has, I have no clue but the focus is totally on building a local fan base. How can angel city be a part of the local arts community, how can angel city be a part of the historic downtown renaissance. How can we be part of that community and how can we bring value to that community? That’s really the focus.

HBC: I think that’s what’s great about craft beer; it’s really a catalyst for community activity.

Alan: I agree, and to me that’s the heart of craft beer. It’s the small independent breweries that build roots into the community and really create a symbiotic relationship. I think if you look at the most successful breweries that’s what they’ve all done and the reason that more and more people are trying craft beers.

Usually the way people get converted to craft beer is because there is a brewery in their neighborhood and they go “let me try that” and once they start tasting better beer that made right in their neighborhood they’ll look around and see what else is available, but I think the strength of the growth of the craft category has a lot to do with the small local breweries that are bringing in their neighbors by being part of the community.

HBC: Why the name alchemy & science?

Alan: You know? I always liked the juxtaposition and whether its brewing beer which is, to me; a combination of alchemy and part science; it’s part science and part magic. Business is also the same thing, to me; it’s a mixture of alchemy and science. You can look at the information all you want, you can be methodical all you want but at then end of the day there is a magical element that you cant control. So I guess that’s where it came from, I have always been fascinated by that dichotomy.

HBC: What beers are you guys are into right now?

Alan: Well the beers in our office fridge are mostly Sam Adams ‘cause we really like them and we have easy access to them. Today My go to bee is Sam lager, I always liked Sam lager, I learned to love it when I was traveling around for magic hat because there are many places where it was the only craft beer and its always good, its always fresh. In my opinion it really is a great beer and I kind of rediscovered it, but that’s really my go to beer.

That said, one of my all time favorites is rodenbach. I happen to know the guys that do the importation and distribution of rodenbach and they are nice enough to me that every time they come by they bring me some so I have a nice selection of rodenbach at home. I’ve got a great selection of Sam’s large bottle Belgian beers.

I tend to like Belgian beers most I think, Belgian white is my favorite style, and I love the sours. I tend to like malt over hops. I’m not a fan of the current west coast kill it with hops thing I find that I can only drink one of them, it ruins my taste buds. So if I have a highly hopped beer I usually save it for my last beer of the night. I tend to like malt I love the well-balanced beers.

I want to thank Alan again for taking the time to give me an interview. I'm sure the craft beer community is waiting with excitment to see what alchemy & science brings to the east coast.

Whats the focus ?

noreply@blogger.com (Hollis Brewing Co.) — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 16:48:00 +0000

I have been writing this blog for a few months now and recently i have been being asked what the focus of my writing is. I thought this would be a good opportunity to think about what my focus will be, look at some past posts I have written and talk a little about what i plan on writing about in the future.
Its obvious I write a good amount on home-brewing and I plan on continuing with those posts. One thing I don't think I will continue with is reviews of my own beers. I don't post my recipes online so a highly biased review of the beer on my part is pretty useless. I will, however, continue with posts on my brewing in general or interesting processing of ingredients.
I want to expand the posts I do concerning the professional brewing industry. One of the most popular posts on the blog to this day is the one about New York state hops. I'm already in the process in expanding this portion of my writing.
Finally I have FINALLY started my studies at Siebel ! So there will be many more posts coming up on my experiences in getting a formal brewing education.

In short Im going to eliminate the tastings and beer reviews (I'm not great with reviewing my own product and beer reviews are all over the internet, not to mention taste is very subjective) Im going to keep up the brewing process and ingredient posts like normal while expanding the posts on news/ issues concerning the professional brewing community.
Thank's everybody for reading so far, There are plenty more good posts coming.

Blending for consistency

noreply@blogger.com (Hollis Brewing Co.) — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 17:08:00 +0000

Every year I brew my famous assorted porters which generally include coffee porter, vanilla porter and the base robust porter, additionally, I decided to try some caramel porter this year but that was a resounding failure as i was not able to get the caramel to stay in solution. Because so many people are always wanting some of this beer I decided this year to do a double batch which meant I would have to blend both batches without causing any oxidation or off flavors in the process.

To do this I modified my boil kettle to be a dual use combination/ blending tank and kettle. I split some 3/4 inch vacuum tubing for cars down the middle and placed it on the lip of the kettle. Then i used clamps for woodworking to hold the lid on tight, I put a small hole in the lid so i could purge the entire vessel with C02 and I was good to go.

After the initial fitting of the components We broke down the valve and sight glass cleaned and sanitized everything, rebuilt the vessel, purged with C02 and started racking beer into it. I was able to rack beer i had in corny kegs (not carbed) and from my conical fermentor into the blending tank then back out into corny kegs while only loosing a couple of pints of beer.

Some people think that its unnecessary to blend two batches of the same recipe, especially for homebrew. But I really want to get a consistent product, and i feel like blending separate batches or separate carboys is the way to go. Additionally with my second batch of porter I missed my initial boil volume so blending the two batches was the way to go. Also I have been known to blend two beers if I brew a beer with a flaw so this could be a good method for that too.

Book Review: The Brewers Apprentice

noreply@blogger.com (Hollis Brewing Co.) — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 16:25:00 +0000

The Brewers Apprentice by Greg Koch and Matt Allyn calls itself "An insiders guide to the art and craft of beer brewing, taught by the masters". The book really does not fail to deliver on this statement.
I liked how the book quickly covered the basics of brewing. I know the basics already and I'm looking for more advanced topics in my reading. The book has an introduction by Greg Koch of Stone brewing and the rest of the book is made up of introductions to the various topics the interviews with we respected craft brewers on the things they are considered to be experts in. Vinnie Cilurzo of Russian River is interviewed about bittering hops, Mitch Steele of Stone Brewing Co. is interviewed about water chemistry and Sam Caligone of Dogfish Head is interviewed about using fruit and other strange ingredients. These are really the people who's opinions and methods warrant attention being paid.
It's not all hard brewing information Ray Daniels, founder of the cicerone program, is interviewed about beer evaluation and Ken Grossman founder of Sierra Nevada is interviewed about "making beautiful beer". These are two topics that you wont see in your typical brewing text.
The book is not all text either, all of the interviews have a great selection of photos to accompany them which serves to make things more interesting than just plain text.
I woe not hesitate to reccomend The Brewers Apprentice to anybody remotely interested in brewing. I think the topics were chosen well in that the will benefit new and experienced brewers alike. I can see myself refering back to the book often for troubleshooting, recipe advice or just to look at the pictures.

Beer desert

noreply@blogger.com (Hollis Brewing Co.) — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 10:04:00 +0000

Been awhile since my last post I have been spending the holidays in Spain and there has been nothing really to write about.
That being said I have been looking high and low for some good beer. I can find lots of German beers and a smattering of English beer but it pales in comparison to the flavor of good American craft beer, it's often not fresh and not at all local. I did finally try the local light lager in an act of desperation.
The mahou brewery was founded in Madrid in 1890 by a French entrepenuer. In 1953 the brewery partnered with Philipino owned San Miguel brewery, in the 1960's and again in the mid 1990's Mahou built modern production breweries. In the year 2000 the brewery bought out the 30% ownership stake held by San Miguel making the brewery wholly Spanish owned (amazingly no ABIvbev or SabMiller ownership).
So, how does it taste ?
Surprisingly it tastes like a light lager should, I have yet to get a skunked or light struck glass. It's light and highly carbed, of course, but it has some bready malt character and a nice slightly sweet finish. I can see how it would be good in the oppressively hot Spanish summer months.
It's still not what I like though, it's too light on flavor and really given another good, even acceptable choice I would not drink it. I have been trying to explain the notion of American craft beer to the Europeans but it makes no sense to them, the mention of American beer gets the response of "you mean Budweiser ?, that's crap." .... I know it's crap have you not heard anything I just said ?
Thankfully the wine is really good (and dirt cheap) usually wine gives me a pounding headache but here it seems to not have the effect. I plan on visiting at least one local vineyard/ winery while here.
.... I'm really Looking forward to an imperial IPA and a nice roasty porter as soon as I'm back in the promise land....

Book Review: Beer School

noreply@blogger.com (Hollis Brewing Co.) — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 16:18:00 +0000

Beer School: Bottling Success at the Brooklyn Brewery by Steve Hindy and Tom Potter the owners and founders of the Brooklyn Brewery is one of the best beer books I have read in quite some time. Hindy majored in English in college and did most of the writing for the book. Having written for the associated press for a number of years Hindy knows how to keep the writing easy to read and how to pepper in exciting details (like being robbed at gunpoint or the dangers of the whole organization going under) to keep the pages turning.

The book is intended to be somewhat of a guide for entrepreneurs in general, not necessarily just for those trying to open a brewery or get into the beer or brewing industry. Hindy and Potter chronicle all of their successes as well as their mistakes in an honest fashion.

While the book is not only intended for people opening a brewery it naturally covers many issues one may face when doing so. Hindy and Potter cover issues such as contract brewing, distribution, and building their new brewery starting from the time the two partners decided to go into business together until about 2003, Potter retried from the brewery in 2004 however this is not covered in the book.

Often books on beer and brewing, even ones that deal with the business side of things or telling the larger story of the brewery can get tedious at times. Beer School stays interesting and easy to read for the entire length of the book, probably due to the fact that Steve Hindy had been writing for the associated press for so many years. I managed to tear through this book in about a week which is pretty quick for me. The book comes highly recommended for anybody looking to open a brewery, go pro, become self employed or is just interested in beer and brewing.

Brewery Grants

noreply@blogger.com (Hollis Brewing Co.) — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 17:04:00 +0000

Last week the state of new york and Schoharie county approved $890,000 in grants for Ommegang brewery ($140,000) and Butternuts brewery ($750,000). Ommegang brewery received funds to assist with a $16 million expansion including a wastewater treatment plant and several new buildings. Butternuts brewery is gaining funding to move production into a long vacant industrial park allowing increased production to 25,000 barrels per year and eventually to 100,000 barrels per year.

News of the breweries receiving grant money has not been very well received among residents of Schoharie country and New York State. Many people see the grants for the breweries as unnecessary considering many residents homes were destroyed during hurricane Irene. Further Brewery Ommengang has threatened to leave their cooperstown location, taking the jobs it provides with them if hydro fracking is allowed in their watershed. People don't like seeing them being given free money when they are threatening to leave.

These are not the first two breweries to ever receive grants. Craft breweries are quite often very community oriented organizations. Breweries the size of Ommegang and Butternuts generally employ around 50 to 100 people and support other industries such as distributors, trucking companies and retail outlets. Grant money will serve to keep these community oriented breweries to stay where they are needed and to provide jobs in an area that really needs them.

In short grant money goes towards lots of things, while grant money is available to individuals for housing repairs it is probably not enough. However small business needs grant money too, without grant money to support small business job creation would fall off.

Maybe I'm partial to breweries receiving grant money (especially Ommegang because I love their beers) but I really would like to hope these companies realize the favor they have been granted and will take steps to be even more involved in their communities and provide some support for their neighbors who were victims of hurricane Irene.

ABInbev Belgian Beer Cafe

noreply@blogger.com (Hollis Brewing Co.) — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 17:40:00 +0000

Belgian/ Brazilian brewing giant ABInbev (AKA. World Beer Co or as they see it "the worlds local brewer") recently set its sights for its Belgian Beer Cafe restaurant chain on the United States. Belgian Beer is growing in popularity in the U.S right along the with the growth of craft beer. Belgian Beer Cafe will be a chain restaurant that evokes the feel of a 1920's belgian cafe, it will serve all Belgian beers alongside Belgian food.

The Belgian Beer Cafe in Dubai

Already the chain has been spreading around the world, locations have opened up in 50 cities across 19 countries many of them are found in larger cities but are also found in airports and hotels.
Belgian Brewers not associated with ABInbev have a love hate relationship with the enterprise, on one hand they are appreciative of ABInbev spreading the culture of Belgian brewing around the world, however, they are worried that the mega brewer could do more harm than good to the image of Belgian Beer.
While I'm sure the chain will be immensely popular it would be better to support the small bar specializing in Belgian beer. Hopefully soon a belgian style bar will be opening in downtown Schenectady, From what I hear they will be focusing on belgian as well as craft beer. Supporting the small business man rather than the global brewing giant will ensure small craft Belgian brewers can continue to grow without getting into bed with ABInbev.

Logo Design

noreply@blogger.com (Hollis Brewing Co.) — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 23:02:00 +0000

As we get closer and closer to realizing our dream of opening our brewpub it is becoming necessary to have a logo for our company.
We chose the name Hollis Brewing Company because it is the old family name. Years and Years ago the name was changed by our Great (maybe second great ?) grandfather after a family dispute, he took the last name Hamilton (his step fathers last name) and that is what currently remains as the family name.
We were going for a rustic look that evokes some of the raw ingredients used in the brewing process. Nobody in the massive staff of 2 at Hollis Brewing Company has much if any artistic talent so we had to have people from outside the company do everything.
First off we contacted friend of Hollis Brewing Company Chris DeCelli (http://www.chrisdecelli.com/) to start the work on our concept. Chris is a talented artist mostly focused on painting, we told him some points we were looking for in our label and he came up with the concept to the right (among others).
Next we needed to clean up the image a bit and add a few elements. For this we contacted Josh with brew brand creative. Brew brand creative is an design agency that caters specifically to the brewing industry, they do logos at different price points for professional brewers, home brewers, as well as suppliers and vendors. We sent Josh the concept we worked on with Chris and sent him to work. We wanted to add some barley to the logo and make the hop cone on the top of the logo a little more realistic, still, we wanted to keep the feel of the initial concept.
Above is the first draft that Josh sent to us, the idea was just to give us the feel of the logo he though we wanted to see.
Im not going to go into specific details of pricing of logos here as I would imagine it is on a case by case basis, suffice to say, The price is very reasonable and we own all rights to the image. We liked Josh's initial design and worked further with him on it.

Here was the first finished logo we got from Josh, We liked the direction the logo was heading but felt it was not quite right, we were not in love with the background colors behind the Hollis part of the logo and we wanted to bring the same realism that the barley had into the hop cone. Also, we wanted the 2011 on the bottom changed to 2009 (this was they year we started brewing serioulsy)

Josh worked on those elements we wanted to change and sent us yet another comp.

After this comp we still felt the background color was not quite right, also the hop cone change didn't make it into the comp so we wanted to work on that. We spoke to Josh again and received the logo to the right next, we thought this was almost exactly what we wanted but not quite there. We still were not in love with the background color but at this point we really liked all the other elements.

Here is what we received next, this is also the final comp and now our logo.

This logo is exactly what we were looking for, it has a the rustic feel we were going for and incorporates the barley and hop cone like we wanted, Josh even went so far as to do a little research on his own about the surname Hollis, It a Scottish surname and refers to place of the hollies or place where hollies grow, thats where the holly berries and leafs come from in the bottom part of the logo.

Josh is available for logos still he can be contacted through his website http://brewbrandcreative.com/index.shtml. He is great to work with and has done work for many breweries, home brewers and beer/ brewing related side industries. Currently we have Josh working on the labels for our bottles so look for a post about the bottle labels coming up.

Brewvember/ Pints for prostates

noreply@blogger.com (Hollis Brewing Co.) — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 16:02:00 +0000

This month mens health magazine is trying to spread prostate cancer awareness amongst men. They have dubbed the month of November Brewvember and have teamed up with Fegelys Brew Works (a brewpub chain with three locations) and a home brew shop in Brooklyn. The guys at mens heath will brew a belgian tripple with brew works of which $1 of every pint will go towards prostate cancer awareness, the Brooklyn home brew shop will be donating 10% of the sales of a special beer kit to prostate cancer awareness too.
According to the American cancer society prostate cancer is the second most common forum of cancer among men. 1 in 6 men will be dignosed with prostate cancer in their lifetime, of these men 1 in 36 will die from the disease making prostate cancer the second deadliest cancer amongst men right behind lung cancer.
Rick Lyke was one of these statistics, He was prompted to ask his doctor to do a PSA test (prostate specific antigen) even though he had to pay for the test out of pocket because most health insurance will not cover the test until someone turns 50. Its a good thing he was insistent for the test, Rick turned out to have prostate cancer and early detection saved his life. Rick now advocates men to get tested at 40 rather than 50, even if they have to pay for the test (it costs about $75).
Rick was inspired to try to spread the word about prostate cancer through a medium men were not only comfortable with but often excited about...beer. Through the Pints for Prostates program. The program reaches out to men at beer festivals and through participating breweries and urges them to get tested and to get tested early, additionally they educate men about the statistics regarding prostate cancer and let them know that it generally runs in families.

The pints for prostates program is supported by some of the top breweries, their website lists Jolly pumpkin artisanal ales, Rouge ales, olde mecklenburg brewery, and Pike pub and brewery. Additionally the program is supported by Rob Todd from Alagash brewing Sam Caligone from Dogfish head, Greg Koch from Stone, Garret Oliver from Brooklyn Brewery and Doug Odell from Odell brewing company. Additionally many more brewers/ brewery owners sponsor the program.

Parti Gyle Brew-day

noreply@blogger.com (Hollis Brewing Co.) — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 18:32:00 +0000

Recently we brewed the first of two batches of our famous porter. Every year when we make this beer we like to try to get a second session beer out of the leftover sugars in the mash.
Generally to do a parti gyle beer you would use only the initial and strongest wort for the first beer sparging very little or not at all, the second beer you would rinse the sugars out of the grain (sparging) and get a second lower alcohol beer.
Honestly were more concerned with getting the first beer we send to the boil kettle reproduced the way we originally made it, our method is not exactly a true parti gyle but it does get us two beers out of one grist. We mash and sparge our first beer exactly as you would a non parti gyle beer with the exception that we stop the sparge a bit earlier than we normally would. Once the first beer is in the boil kettle we add some more grain to the mash tun (about 1/4 of the original malt bill) top off with some hot water and let the mash sit while the first beer is finished. Once the boil kettle is free we run off all the second wort add yet more water and run off again (a process called batch sparging), This keeps the gravity as high as possible.
For our second beer this time we were the least careful we have ever been regarding a beer, we didn't measure out any of the hops (nugget for bittering and goldings for flavor/ aroma) or pay any attention to the gravities.
We like this method because it allows us to produce the amount of beer we want and to keep our original recipe intact. The second beer is just for fun, it allows us to get some essentially free session beers and to experiment with hop varieties we may not have used before.

New York State Hops

noreply@blogger.com (Hollis Brewing Co.) — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 13:32:00 +0000

Recently there has been renewed interest in cultivation of hops in upstate and central New York. Browns Brewing in Troy, N.Y recently hosted the Northeast Hops Alliance who is pushing for more hop cultivation in upstate N.Y.
Hops first came to America around 1630 but did not find their way to new york state until 1808. The crop was small for many years supplying only small or farmhouse breweries but by 1830 hop production was serious business. By then end of the century New York was producing about 80% of the nations hops. There was disaster on the horizon though, disease and pests wiped out much of the production in the early 1900's then prohibition made hops an obsolete crop.
Today most of the nations hops as well as much of the worlds hops are grown in the pacific northwest, primarily in the Yakima Valley area of Washington. But a recent New York Times article pointed out that hops are making a comeback in new york state.
I emailed Steve Miller at the Northeast hops alliance for some numbers on the New York hops crop, while he didn't have any hard figures he did provide me with some numbers. In the 2011 growing season New York had about 30 acres of hops, each acre yielded approximately 1000 pounds of hops giving us a total harvest of abut 30,000 pounds (not too shabby). Steve also mentioned that much of the crop is sold as fresh hops and not dried and stored. Steve says that the hops conference (held at the beginning of November at Brown's Brewing in Troy, NY) had 185 participants many of whom intend on planting hops or planting more hops for the 2012 growing season. Many new york state breweries are using locally produced hops in an effort to make their product more local, additionally a farm brewing bill has been proposed, where a farm that grows hops or malt can brew up to 15,000 barrels per year provided they use a large amount of their crop in the beer they produce.
I think this is great, I would like to use some New York grown hops in some beers. Hopefully the amount of farmers specializing in hops will increase and we can see some of the innovation with the new high alpha varieties being developed here that we see out west.

Pumpkin Ale / IPA #5 Tasting

noreply@blogger.com (Hollis Brewing Co.) — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Recently I made a spiced pumpkin ale . This was my first stab at a pumpkin beer and i think it came out decent. The taste is good but the appearance leaves much room for improvement. In a large glass it looks like dirt water, however, if the glass is very small it has a nice orange color like the outside of a pumpkin.
NOTES:
Aroma(12/12): Earthy, slightly sweet, smells like pumpkin pie :)
Appearance(1/3): No head retention at all , beer pours with some head but it fades to virtually nothing, very cloudy (almost turbid), retains a beautiful orange color just like the outside of a pumpkin
Flavor(15/20): Very savory spiced pumpkin pie flavor, earthy pumpkin notes push through the spices, slightly phenolic character
Mouthfeel(5/5):Carbonation slightly high, rich full mouthfeel, mouthfeel could be better with a lower carbonation level
Overall(7/10): Good beer, phenols dominated the flavor before it had some age but are fading fast, Pumpkin makes the beer savory, full tasting and contributes mouthfeel.
Total(40/50): Excellent range

Another recent brew to go through the brewery was an American style IPA dubbed IPA #5. This is the first IPA I have made that I'm really happy with, it still needs some work but it is the best IPA I have mad by far. Also for this beer i used the blichmann hop rocket for the first time
NOTES:
Aroma(11/12): Citrusy hops dominate, grapefruit and other tropical fruit notes, resiny hop aroma, could use more malt presence
Appearance(2/3): Golden in color, bright white head is thick, doesn't hold on for as long as I would like, has some haze could be more clear
Flavor(16/20): Smooth bitterness, grate hop flavor of grapefruit and citrus, some mouth coating bitterness lingers, clean fermentation character, no malt flavors present

Mouthfeel(5/5): Good amount of body to stand up to the hops, carbonation is appropiate and carries some bitterness away,goes down very smooth
Overall (9/10): Great IPA, Could use more early hops to bump bitterness a little more, malt character could be slightly high but could detract form hop presence, needs to be more clear next time
Total(43/50): Excellent range

Spice additions

noreply@blogger.com (Hollis Brewing Co.) — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 16:43:00 +0000

A few weeks ago i published a post about making spice tinctures for my pumpkin ale. The other day I finally got around to adding the spices and blending the beer.
The tinctures i made were very strong, this is by design so I don't have to use too much to flavor the beer.

I started with 100ml samples of the base beer and just did random small amounts that i thought would work. It took about 8 trials to get things right. notes were kept on how much of each spice was added to the mixture, off of a 100ml sample of beer i was using .5ml-1.5ml spice additions.

I ended up having to consult outside help because both my brother and I totally blew out our pallets with the first few trials, our taste was completely off. I had tinctures of nutmeg, ginger,cinnamon and allspice. I ended up leaving out the allspice because we didn't like the flavor it was lending to the beer.

Once happy with the amounts of spice i scaled everything up for 20 gallons of beer and mixed it in the 55 gallon kettle (which was very carefully sanitized). From here i ran the beer of into kegs and put in the fridge to carb, look for the post with tasting notes soon.

2011 Barley crop report

noreply@blogger.com (Hollis Brewing Co.) — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 17:13:00 +0000

A post on probrewer.com alerted me to the state of the 2011 malting barley harvest and prompted me to do some more digging.
The American Malting Barley Association issued a report in September citing an alarming drop in the 2011 harvest. The 2011 crop year is predicted to produce 115,050,000 bushels, this is down 14% from the 2010 harvest (180,268,000 bushels) and down approximately 18% from the 2009 harvest (227,323,000 bushels). These are the lowest harvest/ production levels since 1936. Additionally the planted acreage in the 2011 crop year was 2,559,000 acres, this is down from 2,872,000 acres in 2010.

Barley is an important crop for the U.S. From 2000-2009 the barley growing industry employed 1,885,175 people and contributed $25,029,000.00 to state and local taxes.
As the chart shows the use of most of the domestic barley crop goes towards the beer industry, however, a significant portion of the crop goes towards feed for livestock. The beer/ brewing industry generates many billions of tax dollars and pays several billion dollars in wages as the chart below shows.

The money invested in planting malting and brewing with domestic barley keeps money in the U.S economy. A shortage of barley will drive up the cost of malt for many small brewers, potentially exponentially.(Anhauser-Busch/ INBev as well as SABMiller own their own malt houses) These small brewers are generally running on lower margins than the mega milti-national brewers and in many cases rely on lower prices for raw materials to male payroll.
During the hop shortage of 2006-2007 brewers were able to make substitutions for the hops they were unable to source, however if malts are too expensive for small brewers to source they are unlikely to make substitutions to other sources to fermentable material. Perhaps these brewers will produce foreign produced malt from Canada or even China, draining money from the U.S economy.
Any way you cut it the decrease in production of malting barley needs to stop, brewers large and small rely on malt to make their product. If less barley is available the largest brewers will undoubtedly receive their raw and malted barley first spelling nothing but trouble for the smallest of breweries.

Oktoberfest Tasting

noreply@blogger.com (Hollis Brewing Co.) — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 16:31:00 +0000

This year I'm trying to be more on top of my seasonal beers. So far I'm running a little bit behind but not as bad as I have been in the past. I finished up The lagering period of my oktoberfest and quickly got it into bottles.

I Have had several commercial Oktoberfest's (unlike me professional breweries are way ahead of the curve many were released in mid-september) so i had that experience to fall back on. As usual designing great beers was vital in the formulation of the recipe.

Also for the evaluation of this beer (and all others from now on) I began using the BJCP evaluation sheet and scoring my beers on a point scale.

Aroma(10/12): Rich malt, slightly sweet finish, hints of sulfur compounds/esters, no hop aroma present. Could be improved with more mall aroma or a heavier malt aroma. An added presence of hops in the aroma would make things more interesting too.

Appearance(3/3): Brilliantly clear, long lasting white head, bright copper color

Flavor(18/20): Malty complexity, clean fermentation character, slightly sweet finish, could use more hop flavor

Mouthfeel(5/5): slightly watery, appropriate carbonation level

Overall Impression(9/10): Great drinking beer, goes down easy without blowing out pallet, could use more malt character/body (addition of melanoidin malt or cara pils) additional nobel hop aroma would add complexity at the risk of making the beer rougher on the pallet.

Total Score(45/50): Outstanding range

Colossal deal ?

noreply@blogger.com (Hollis Brewing Co.) — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 17:20:00 +0000

There has been talk all over the internet financial and brewing sites lately of Anheuser-Busch Inbev (currently the worlds largest brewing company) making a mover to acquire SABMiller.
This deal would be huge, it would create a brewing juggernaut with sales on every continent (even Antarctica).
The acquisition is rumored to be priced somewhere in the neighborhood of $80 billion, and would become a reality somewhere around 2013. SABMiller's recent takeover of Australian brewer Foster's for $10 billion slowed down the acquisition.
The merger could spell trouble for ABInbev though, anti trust lawyers are rubbing their palms together in the U.S and China. The new company would likely have to sell off its recently acquired U.S holdings in Miller and Coors brewing companies as well as its control of Chinas CR Snow. ABInbev already has very large holdings in these markets so the selloff would only help.
Some think this deal is highly unlikely to end up going down due to the high price of the takeover. However, when Inbev acquired Anheuser-Busch that was the largest merger to ever take place so the company has shown that they are not afraid of large dollar takeovers.
The craft brewing community does not seem too worried about the impending acquisition. Ours in somewhat of a niche market and many people who drink craft beer are aware of who owns what and actively decide not to drink products owned by large multi national companies. It's not necessarily to say that all brands owned by these companies are producing sub par beer (ABInbev recently acquired Chicago craft brewery Goose Island) but many people working in the craft beer industry and supporting the craft beer industry would rather support their local brewery or a brewery that remains independent.
The numbers don't lie. The brewers association reports that in 2010 the craft brewing industry grew 11% by volume and 12% by dollars with 1,716 operating breweries, compare this to the U.S domestic beer industry which in 2010 was down 1% by volume. The craft brewing industry is rapidly approaching a 10% market share with the increase in a knowledgeable consumer who is looking for something more than a multi-national brewing conglomerate.

Here are some relevant links
Brands owned by SABMiller
Brands owned by ABInbev
Where I got my info
http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/Content.aspx?id=154420
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-10-06/sabmiller-shares-surge-on-report-of-ab-inbev-takeover-talks.html
http://www.probrewer.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=22500
http://www.brewersassociation.org/pages/business-tools/craft-brewing-statistics/facts