Need more excuses to drink good beer with good friends? Me too. So recently some friends and I came up with a great one: we love to do craft projects, and we LOVE to drink craft beer. Why not put them together and start a Craft While You Craft Night?!

For our first meeting we did a selection of beer and cheese pairings combined with a pinhole art project from designsponge.com. Crafting guru Lauren provided the tools for the project, and I selected some beers and cheeses to sample before, during, and after the project.

For our second meeting we decided to make a beer-themed project, using something most beer-drinkers always have plenty of: bottle caps. Using epoxy, mosaic grout, corkboard, plywood circles, a glue gun, pin-backs, and a few other handy craft supplies, we fashioned some coasters, trivets, earrings, and pins out of our bottle cap collections.

However, before we started crafting, we did a tasting of our favorite Summertime brews. Lauren started us off with a very summer-y beer cocktail: shandy. Shandies can be made a number of ways, but this one was a simple half & half mixture of sparking lemonade and Endurance Arctica Pale Ale. It was bubbly, sweet, and delicious. We then moved to Rebecca’s selection, American Darling, Pretty Things’ “Lawnmower” Lager; then Diana’s, the People’s Pint Natural Blonde Ale – both crisp, clean selections perfect for a summer afternoon. Ready to “spice” things up a little, we moved on to my selection, the Luciernaga Belgian Pale from Jolly Pumpkin. This brew is refreshing and slightly tart, with hints of spice, citrus and apple – a perfect summer-to-fall transition beer. We ended with Heather’s selections: first some Saison Dupont, one of the best saisons around, and we ended with some Ipswich Summer, an unfiltered and citrus-y Blonde. The tastings and the projects went very well!

If you’re not a Craft-er (but still love Craft Beer) there are lots of other possible Beer-tivities that might be right up your alley:

For the film buff: host a movies & craft night – pick a classic (or kitchy) flick and pair it with a selection of beers. You could also do a TV show beer night. Why not drink craft beer (or beer cocktails) during your weekly Mad Men screening instead of downing martini after martini. You’ll stay sober longer and you don’t even have to buy olives!

For the foodie: try a potluck food and craft beer night – everyone brings a combination and you get to explore the flavors that come out when you pair beer with various foods. Or you could go all out and take turns hosting a Craft Beer Dinner where each course is matched perfectly with a particular craft beer.

For the sportsfan: pre-game with some craft beer and then switch to something more session-y when the game starts. There’s no reason to drink swill just because you’re drinking for hours. Don’t be peer-pressured by promises of “Drinkability.”

For the overly-literate: mix up your book club meetings with a tasting before or after you discuss (before, if you’re looking for a more exciting discussion.) Or if you host a weekly Scrabble or Trivial Pursuit night, why not make it more interesting by trying some craft brew while you play.

For the beer-lover with no other beer-friendly hobbies: why not just host a no-frills craft-tasting night? Sometimes the best choice is the simplest one.

Do you have friends, beer, and some way of putting them together? Let us know your favorite craft-ivities, and don’t forget to use the hashtag #mybeer to tell us what you’re drinking!

Several recent news stories have reminded us once again of how much growth and change the craft beer world is constantly undergoing, in particular the purchase of Independent Brewers United, the producers of the Magic Hat, Pyramid, and MacTarnahan beers, by North American Breweries (NAB). NAB is the company responsible for such questionable “brews” as Labatt Blue lager and Seagrams’s Escapes wine coolers. Understandably, many in the craft beer world are a bit concerned over this news, as Magic Hat and Pyramid are  the 8th and 5th largest craft breweries in the country, respectively. Some are also reading the resignation of Magic Hat’s president and co-founder following this deal as another bad sign.

And while I agree that the signs don’t look great, this may actually turn out to be a good thing. If NAB changes the recipes to existing beers I will be the first to be outraged, but I haven’t seen any evidence that that’s their intention. Like many, I would prefer to see craft brewery ownership remain local and independent as much as possible, but it’s going to be tough to maintain that business model as craft beer continues to grow. The fact of the matter is that as craft beer continues to gain in popularity, larger business interests are going to increasingly take note and want part of the action. The influx of money-driven investors could easily go poorly, but it could also provide growing craft breweries like Magic Hat and Pyramid with more money to expand and continue to produce amazing beers. The better bargaining power that comes with consolidation is after all probably one of the main reasons that Magic Hat and Pyramid  created the Independent Brewers United in the first place. This is extremely important with the Three Tier distribution system currently in place, the pitfalls of which were covered extensively in the movie Beer Wars.

My bottom line is that change is inevitable, and I’m strongly opposed to drinking or not drinking a beer simply because of who made it. I try to judge my beer not by the label but by the taste. In my experience  independently owned craft breweries are almost always tastier than the corporate stuff, and that trend may continue, but I’m trying to keep an open mind. The sale of Magic Hat and Pyramid is uncharted territory, there are few precedents to reference for guidance so we are all going to have to be patient and see how this plays out.

The history of spices in beer is as old and varied as beer itself. Despite the fact that hops have become the predominant spicing agent used in most contemporary styles, that was not always the case.  In areas where hops are not native or easily grown the role of hops was frequently played by another bitter and/or mildly anti-septic plant, such as marigold, burdock, juniper, or heather. In fact, during the Middle Ages, a substance known as gruit (a mash-up of various herbs and spices) was used to provide the same preservative and flavoring benefits that hops can provide. As recently as the Renaissance, spicing beer was still fairly common all across Europe. Grains of Paradise (a peppery member of the ginger family) was particularly popular and was most likely used to cover over the stale or sour flavors of beer that had been improperly made or stored.

However, as regulatory practices worked towards more standardized beer production, spiced beer remained traditional in some regions and was legislated, regulated, and even shamed out of popular use in others. For this reason, spices are a much more common element of styles produced in regions like Belgium than they are in Germany (where the Reinheitsgebot limited beer ingredients to the big four) or England (where for a while even the use of hops was forbidden in certain ales.)

Though spices are uncommon to many beer styles, if you’re both a beer-lover and a spice-enthusiast (like me) there are still lots of styles you can explore. For the purposes of keeping it simple, I want to talk about three of the spiciest beer categories:

Fall & Winter Seasonals (Pumpkin beers, Winter “Warmers”, Holiday beers, etc.)
Cooler weather means warmer beers, so these seasonals combine the natural warming effects of alcohol with the natural warming effects of certain spices. Pumpkin beers tend to spice with the same ingredients that we know and love in our pumpkin pies. In fact, the core spices used in most cool-weather brews will be things you could find in any given kitchen: cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, cardamom, allspice, and vanilla. among others. In addition to these types of warming spices, Winter beers frequently add fruit flavors to mimic the classic Wassail experience.

For a Pumpkin Ale try Dogfish Head’s Punkin Ale, Brooklyn’s Post Road Pumpkin, or Smuttynose’s Pumpkin Ale – all of which feature a subtle (instead of overwhelming) pumpkin-spiciness.

For Holiday or Winter Brews try the Sam Smith Winter Welcome, Anderson Valley Winter Solstice, or the Dubuisson Bush de Noel.

Belgians
As legendary beer writer Michael Jackson noted, “the Belgians are the greatest users of herbs and spices in beer.” And you don’t have to be a serious beer expert to feel the truth of this statement. A wide range of Belgian brews feature spice as a prominent ingredient -most notably, Belgian witbiers and saisons. Traditional spices include coriander, sweet and bitter orange peel, black pepper, grains of paradise, and sweet gale – all of which provide the sweet, spicy, and summer-y flavors that you except from those styles.

For a classic Witbier, just pick up a Hoegaarden (unfortunately now owned by InBev) or an Allagash White.

For a Saison try Saison Dupont, Foret, or Ommegang’s Hennepin.

Experimental

Though the Belgians may be the reigning spice champs, the American craft scene is giving them a run for their money with a collective penchant for spices and other unorthodox ingredients. In addition to all the classics, many American brewers are using herbs, flowers, and even chili powder to play with styles and flavors.

Boston-based Pretty Things Beer and Ale Project makes a Rustic Stout with rosemary. Rogue offers us a a beer spiced with Chipotle peppers (their Chipotle Ale, which tastes exactly like what you’d think,) a few variations on Juniper beers (John John Juniper and the Juniper Pale ale,) and even a Chamomile Ale (of same name). Dogfish Head seems to use every spicing agent under the sun, including basil (Black Thai), lemongrass (Namaste), crystallized ginger (Pangea), chiles (Theobroma), and juniper & black tea (Sah’Tea).

Got a favorite spice-y beer? Let us know by tweeting with hashtag #mybeer!

For this week’s installment of The Crafted Can, I took on Young’s Double Chocolate Stout, from British brewery Wells and Young. This 5.2% beer isn’t only packaged in a can, as you can also purchase it in bottles. However, you get a special treat when you buy the canned version: a cartridge of nitro called a widget. The 12oz. can is given extra length to house the widget.

A widget is like a little plastic ball with a tiny hole in it, either floating in the can or secured at the bottom. At a certain point in the canning process, nitrogen is injected into the can. The nitrogen expands when the can is sealed, gas and beer are forced into the widget through the tiny hole. When you open the can, the pressure drops, and the nitrogen flows through the beer. It greats a large amount of tiny bubbles that give the beer a solid head and adds a creamier texture.

If Yoo-hoo where to make a dark chocolate version of their chocolate water, this stout would be the alcoholic equivalent. The chocolate flavor is very straight forward, being brought by real dark chocolate along with chocolate essence. The aroma is straight up chocolate milk. I kept getting baffled by the effect caused by the widget. The only way to describe the texture is “creamy,” but since there’s no dairy causing that creaminess, it almost feels like it’s a bit watery.

My final verdict is that if you like dark chocolate, you’ll think this is a not-bad beer. It’s definitely drinkable, and you could probably drink a few without feeling too full.

Rating: 3 (Worth a try)

For the past month I’ve been in charge of Saturday brewery tours at the Chelsea Brewing Company. Four months ago, I never would have though myself capable of giving an informative and in-depth brewery tour. However, the hands on education I’ve been receiving has really beefed up my beer knowledge and more importantly, it has giving me a real, physical understanding of the beverage I’ve spent the last several years studying while enjoying the occasional pint.

One of my favorite parts of giving tours is hanging around after giving my spiel and chatting. More than once, I’ve had the opportunity to educate curious beer drinkers about the suds in their glass and introduce them to new flavors. A few people have told me that they had no idea how complex brewing was and were amazed to discover the wide spectrum of flavors an accomplished brewer can achieve with just water, malt, hops and yeast.

When I first began brewing commercially, the process of achieving those various tastes overwhelmed me. Unlike many of the folks on my tours, I was fully aware of the variety of flavors that the basic beer ingredients could create and even knew a bit of the science behind it. However, the more I observed and experienced first hand, the more I felt lost in the process: I constantly fretted about variances in temperatures and time differentials; The threat of a boil-over stressed me out; I worried that I would never be able to operate the brew house alone would spent my off time pouring over brewing manuals and beer books.

As time wore on and I participated in the brewing process more often I learned to relax. I gradually began to understand the little nuances of brewing and things slowly started to click for me. Recently, I’ve found myself correctly identifying certain flavors and even brewing techniques found within the glass in my hand.

One event that really helped me put all of this in perspective occurred while I was running the hopback during an IPA brew. Basically, a hopback is a vessel that brewers use to stream hot wort (i.e. unfermented beer) through whole leaf hops. This process occurs at the end of the brewing process and allows the wort to take on a lot of the flavor and, more importantly, the aroma of whatever hop variety the brewer chooses to highlight in that particular beer.

As is the norm at the brewery, I was asking thousands of questions about the hopback. After about ten minutes I asked our head brewer how to tell whether or not the process was going smoothly. He took the paddle I was using to stir the hops from my hands and gave a quick stroke throughout the bud-filled hopback in front of us.

“Feels good,” he told me. “You don’t want it to thick, but you don’t want the wort running to thin.”

“So it’s all a feel thing,” I asked in reply.

“Of course it is. It’s not rocket science. It’s beer.”

Last week we covered some of the great places and great beer we had while in Chicago, but that wasn’t all the town had to offer. While the Goose Island Brew Pub and Miller’s Pub were a lot of fun, there were plenty more beer-centric locales to try while in town; fortunately we got to try two of them.

The Hopleaf Bar

This is one of the premier beer bars in the Chicagoland area. It’s known for its eclectic collection of beers from all around the world and its friendly atmosphere. While I was there I got the chance to try the Two Hearted Ale, from Bell’s Brewery, one of the most respected craft breweries in the Midwest. It was a tasty treat with piny and citrusy hops to spare. I also enjoyed a glass or two of the St. Louis Gueuze Fond Tradition from Van Honsbrouck in Belgium. It was a really lovely sour ale with a tart taste and smooth finish. Although it might not seem like it at first, gueuze and other wild ales with a sour taste to them are enormously refreshing in the hot and and humid months of summer. That little bit of lip-smacking tartness goes a surprisingly far way towards cooling you down.While at the Hopleaf I also had my very first Newcastle Summer ale. I was a bit surprised that Newcastle, a brewery synonymous with brown ale would be trying their hand at a wheat beer. Unfortunately, after having a few of their new brew, I have to suggest that they stick to what they know. It was a fairly generic summer brew, not too far from a Blue Moon.

The Map Room

The Map room is another of Chicago’s greatest beer bars. This place is a bit unique in that it’s not just a bar, but a coffeehouse as well. To accommodate these sometimes conflicting passions, the place is open from 6:30am to 2am most days of the week. Although the crowd that shows up early for a cup of joe is probably not the same folks sticking around for last call, it was clear from our brief visit here that all were welcome. We didn’t try any coffee, but their beer selection and beer eduction classes made it clear where their passions lay. I sampled some of the Ska ESB,  another of the growing number of craft ales available in a can. It was tasty but more of a pale ale than a traditional ESB. I followed that up with some Bockor Cuvee Des Jacobins Rouge, which is a hard enough to say when your sober, let alone after you’ve had a couple. This sour ale was similar the the Fond Tradition we tried earlier in our trip but noticeably much darker. I also sampled Köstritzer, which is a really amazing Schwartzbier, or black lager, and New Belgium’s Belgo, a tasty IPA with five different types of hops in it.

Everyone from Team Beeriety had a blast while we were in Chicago and hope to return one day. If you’re in the area be sure to check out these bars, or let us know about your favorites in the comments.

Recently some of Beeriety crew headed to lovely Chicago, IL to take in the sights, sounds and tastes of The Second City. While we were there, we got the chance to check out many of Chicago’s best beer bars and sample some of the tasty brews that we just can’t get in our home base of Boston. Here’s a quick run-down of where we went and what we drank.

Goose Island Brew Pub

Goose Island is the signature Chicago craft brewery, so it only seemed fitting to start our trip at their Wrigleyville brewpub – right in the shadow of Wrigley Field, home of the Cubs. We visited the one across the street from Wrigley Field, home of the Chicago Cubs. It was a beautiful day, and the place was crowded with baseball fans preparing to head over for an afternoon Cubs-Phillies game. To get things started off I order a flight of beers: 312 Wheat, Honker’s Ale, Summertime Ale and India Pale Ale. After that I finished up with a Maltilda. Goose Island has recently expanded into Boston so I was somewhat familiar with some of their beers, but I was excited to try more. I can’t say any of them were amazing, but they were all solid, dependable beers. Much in the same way Sam Adams makes good, but not astounding brews, I’ve found Goose Island to be a reliable source of a decently tasty brew.  Rating: 3 out of 5 – Worth a try.

Miller’s Pub

This historic restaurant is where I got to try my first beer from Three Floyds Brewing out of Munster, IN. This a brewery I’ve heard about for many, many years as one of the best in the country, so I was pretty excited to give them a try. Thankfully their Alpha King, Pride & Joy and Gumball Head beers did not disappoint. They were each wonderful takes on the pale ale, ESB and wheat ale styles, respectively. There was a great deal of subtlety and finesse to these beers that reminded me a lot of the brews of Dogfish Head, another amazing brewery from an unlikely location (Delaware). Rating: 4 out of 5- Must Try

Billy Goat Tavern

This little place was made famous in the early days Saturday Night Live with the “Cheeseburger! Cheeseburger!” sketch, and it’s not far from the truth. A menu with 3 items on it and a small bar make for an interesting experience. I happily enjoyed several of their house lagers, which which were watery, bland and gross, but perfectly suited to the rundown decor. Rating: 1 out of 5 -Steer Clear

Tune in later in the week when I’ll cover my visits more of Chicago best craft beer bars.

When summer comes around, so do the fruit beers. What’s better than a crisp, refreshing fruity beer on a hot summer day? And what fruit just screams out its loyalty to summer more than a watermelon? I’m sure it was this kind of conclusive reasoning that brought 21 Amendment Brewery to create their Hell or High Watermelon Wheat Beer.

A bit about the beer first. 21st Amendment describes it as, “A straw-colored, refreshing beer with a kiss of watermelon aroma and flavor.” The watermelon flavor is added via puree during a secondary fermentation. It’s 4.9% alcohol by volume. As I took my first few sips from the can, I thought, “Wow! It doesn’t have the syrupy type of fruit flavor that a lot of fruit flavored beers have!” Nor did it seem like a terribly fake watermelon flavor that you find in kids’ lollipops. For a split second, I thought I had found a nicely balanced fruit flavored beer.

But after that split second ended, something didn’t feel right. The watermelon flavor was light, yet it still managed to overpower the beer flavor. It almost was like I was drinking a watermelon drink with beer flavor, which then made the experience a bit more awkward. I’m not saying I was hoping for some kind of complex wheat beer to be the base of the drink, but I also didn’t expect that it would be lacking in the flavor department, either. The bottom line is that I felt as though I was drinking an ultra light beer.

Unlike the Snapperhead IPA, which I would never recommend to anyone, I’d say give this one at least one try. Get a few friends, split a six pack, and see how you feel about it. I don’t think it’s a totally undrinkable beer, but other comrades of mine thought it was a bit unbearable. This very well might be one of those beers that you either really like, or can’t stand.

Rating: 2.5- Worth a Try/Just Okay

Today we debut the first post from the newest member of the Beeriety team, Alicia.  Among other topics, she’ll be researching and reviewing craft beer in cans, a recent development which has received much attention.

Cans of beer? Those must be cheap brews you find at frat parties. This is what I first thought when I was introduced to craft beer, but it turns out I was wrong – apparently, quite a few breweries can their craft beers. So now my question is, do they stand up to the rest? I have proudly taken the challenge of searching for the best canned craft beers. I want to know why some choose cans over bottles. I want to know the pros and the cons of fermentation. I want to talk to the cult followers and the prestigious shunners of this great category. Where did this all start, where is it now, and where is it going?

The first beer of this series is Snapperhead All Malt IPA from Butternuts Beer and Ale, based out of Garrattsville, NY. An interesting looking can greeted me, very yellow, with a fish on the front, rocking out to some tunes on a cassette player. I immediately thought of what I’ve been told when looking for fine wine: stay away from cute illustrations of animals on the cover. In this case, I think they hit the nail on the head.

The smell isn’t an IPA. The taste isn’t an IPA. This just isn’t a great IPA.

When they say “All Malt,” they aren’t kidding. At first smell, it seemed like I was about to drink a slightly maltier version of a cheap American lager. On tasting, the malt overpowered the hops, leaving my mouth very confused as to what I was drinking. As I forced myself to look past the malt, I found not as much hop flavor as I had hoped for. And after about two and a half cans of it (and this is someone that will drink as much craft beer until I can’t stand), I was sick of it.

This not the ideal way to start my journey into the crafted canned beer world, but they all can’t be winners, right?

Rating: 1/5 – Steer Clear

Friend of Beeriety Justin Lloyd recently began working at Chelsea Brewring Company in Manhattan as a cellar man. Below is the latest in his series of articles about what it’s like to work in the brewing industry.

The last month at Chelsea Brewing Company has been like a crash course in everything from brewing technique to boiler maintenance. Unlike most jobs, being an employee in the brewery forces one to become proficient in many things that at first may seem completely unrelated to beer. However, after a few weeks it now seems obvious to me how essential things like properly functioning heat and consistent pH levels in water are to the job.

Everyday I spend on the job just adds to the knowledge being crammed into my head. It is an amazing feeling, albeit a completely dorky one, to finally grasp why carbon dioxide dissolves at certain pressures or exactly how a temperature difference of 5-degrees affects the mouth feel of a stout. The two brewers are dropping this knowledge on me all the time and little by little I’m starting to fully understand what exactly goes into the beverage I enjoy so much.

Three months ago I would have been content to sip on a pint after a hard day of work and just relax. While I still love my end of the day tipple, I often find my mind wandering to the inner workings of my glass. No longer is a Pilsner just a Pilsner, not by a long shot. Nowadays each sip of that golden liquid is accompanied by thoughts of whether or not the brewery undertakes the traditional German techniques of decoction brewing. Offerings from small, American microbreweries now find me preoccupied with thoughts of filtering versus temperature shocking for clarification. Ever since I learned about the important role enzymes play in all-grain mashing, I can’t get the phrases beta-amylase and alpha-amylase out of my head.

At first all of this thinking seemed excessive, but now that I’m started to understand and see these principles and techniques in action, my enjoyment of beer has gone through the roof. The more I learn about the stuff the more I want to taste and try, study and understand. While I was giving a brewery tour last weekend a couple came up to me afterwards and asked me if I ever get tired of beer. I could only chuckle and shake my head no as I sipped from my glass of Ale. How can I get tired of it when there is so much more to learn?