Journal of the American Homebrewers Association, Volume 1, Number 1.

In December of this year, Zymurgy Magazine will celebrate its 40th anniversary.

In December 1978, the American Homebrewers Association —led by Charlie Papazian, Daniel Bradford, Charlie Matzen, et al.— launched the magazine (then a pamphlet), only two months after brewing at home had been delisted as a federal crime.

'Zymurgy' is the seventh-to-last entry in our Unabridged Dictionary. It is defined as 'a branch of applied chemistry that deals with fermentation processes (as in winemaking or brewing),' and is used as a fancy word for the profession, hobby, or fellowship of brewing beer.

— Merriam-Webster Dictionary

• Read more at American Homebrewers Association.
• Related: What will President Jimmy Carter be remembered for?

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Pic(k) of the Week: A porter at the brewhouse.

This is the glorious, raisiny, chocolatey St. Charles Porter (without either of those ingredients added or needed) of Blackstone Brewing, in Nashville, Tennessee.

• Original Gravity (OG): 1.056
• International Bittering Units (IBUs): 34
• Color: 26 Lovibond
• Alcohol-by-volume (abv): 5.8%
• Hops: Centennial, Willamette.
• Malts: 2-row pale, Crystal 60L, Belgian Special B, Chocolate malt, Flaked barley.
• Yeast: Ballantine Ale (Chico)

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If you were learning to brew-at-home in the U.S. back in 1988, you probably were an acolyte of one of two how-to-brew gurus: nuclear engineer Charlie Papazian or English teacher Dave Miller. Although I began with the former, I decamped to the latter, who, that year, had published "The Complete Handbook of Home Brewing."

Three years later, Mr. Miller turned pro, the first brewer for Schlafly Brewing in St. Louis. In the mid-1990s, he moved to Nashville, Tennesse to open Blackstone Brewing, that city's first 'craft' brewery.

Mr. Miller continued brewing at Blackstone until only a few years ago. A co-proprietor, he still returns autumnally to brew the brewery's Oktoberfest. Blackstone downsized recently, closing its brewpub, but it has maintained its large production facility, with a public taproom and a permanently visiting food truck.

Three decades ago, it was Mr. Miller's recipe and procedure for brewing Porter that hooked me on the craft. Today, Blackstone brews its award-winning St. Charles Porter, to Miller's recipe.

In early February 2018, I visited Nashville for a few days. I didn't meet Dave Miller while there, but I did meet his beer. It may have taken me thirty years, but, at long last, I was to taste his porter. At his brewery. In his taproom. On draft. Words in a book became real. Glorious.

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Ninkasi-speed, Charlie Papazian!

Whoa!

Yesterday, on his 70th birthday, Charlie Papazian —the 'godfather' of American 'craft' brewing and American homebrewing— announced that, after his more than forty-year career, he is retiring from the [U.S.] Brewers Association —the advocacy group for small and independent American breweries— that he founded in 1979 (or more properly, its predecessor, the Association of Brewers).

Educated as a nuclear engineer, a homebrewer by hobby, Mr. Papazian, has an extensive curriculum cerevisiae.

• He founded the American Homebrewers Association in 1978, when homebrewing in the U.S. was still technically illegal. Today, the hobby is legal in all 50 states. Papazian's efforts were a crucial part of that evolution.
• In 1982, he organized (with Daniel Bradford) the first-ever Great American Beer Festival —since held annually, and considered the premier annual national competition for American breweries.
• In 1996, he organized the first, now bi-annual, World Beer Cup.
• In 1976, he self-published his seminal how-to, The Joy of Homebrew, formally published in 1984 as The Complete Joy of Home Brewing. He is the author of several more influential books on homebrewing, beer, and mead.

In December, Mr. Papazian donated his "charismatic" wooden spoon —the 'high-tech' instrument with which he has brewed and taught homebrewing to several generations of hobbyists and professionals— to the Smithsonian's American History Museum for its American Brewing History Initiative.

Mr. Papazian's advocacy was in no small measure instrumental in shepherding the successful revival of good beer in America. His books inspired and educated successive generations of homebrewers, many of whom would later convert their avocations into 'craft' beer professions (including the author of this blog).

Ninkasi-speed, Charlie! Thank you for all you've done —and continue to do. And, now, as you have long admonished us in your books and in person:

"Relax. Don't worry. Have a homebrew."

...or two!

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Pic(k) of the Week: Graham Wheeler, homebrew guru, R.I.P.

Sad news.

Graham Wheeler —the author of several editions of a seminal homebrewing guide published by U.K.-based CAMRA (Campaign for Real Ale)— died in late November 2017. His books provided instruction for several generations of budding homebrewers, British and stateside. Many of those amateur brewers —it would be safe to surmise— went on to brew professionally.

I already had been brewing when Wheeler first wrote Brew Your Own Real Ale at Home in 1993, but the book wet my whistle for Bitters. And I haven't lost that since.

Thank you, Mr. Wheeler.

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Pic(k) of the Week: Farewell, 44.

White House photographer Pete Souza poignantly posed this image of the 44th President of the United States, President Barack Obama, and First Lady Michelle Obama, gazing at the Chicago, Illinois, skyline, as the conclusion of Obama's second presidential term was drawing near.

Wistfully, I and many Americans thank the Obamas for their eight years of White House service to our nation, and wish them a hale and hearty future.

And, you know, '44' —President Obama— is the nation's first President, since George Washington, to brew beer. He is the only President ever to do so at the White House —our first Brewer-In-Chief.

His successor-to-be will not. '45' is a lifelong teetotaller.

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Baltimore's journey from Planet Beer 1995 to HomeBrew Con 2016.

There was a frantic knocking on my office door. "Tom, come quick. Big problem!"

It was May 1995 and I was the brewery manager for the Oxford Brewing Company, Maryland's first 'craft' brewery, now long closed, but then located southwest of the city of Baltimore, Maryland. In June of that year, Baltimore would be hosting its first-ever American Homebrewers Association national conference, and Oxford Brewing had been asked to brew the official beer.

The theme for the conference that year was Planet Beer. So, Oxford's beer was to be I.P.A., Inter-Planetary Ale, in style, of course, an IPA - an India Pale Ale. A bad pun, I know.

Knocking at the door was Alvaro Spencer, our laboratory technician. Mr. Spencer had worked in the beer business in South America for many years, albeit for large capacity industrial lager breweries. He had signed on to help us build a rudimentary laboratory and institute quality control measures. He ushered me to our production board, where he pointed at the specifications for the IPA: 6.5% alcohol by volume (abv), 55 International Bittering Units (IBU). He had never before seen or brewed beers of such high alcohol or hop content, and for such a small-capacity brewery.

In his charmingly accented English, he worriedly exclaimed, "What is this EEE-puh? Too big. Too much IBU. No good!"

American Homebrew Association

The American Homebrew Association was founded in 1978 by homebrew guru Charlie Papazian, even though homebrewing would not be legalized until the following year. Today, the AHA has a membership of 46,000, although the association estimates that as many as 1.2 million Americans brew at home.

HomeBrew Con 2016

Now rebranded as HomeBrewCon 2016, the AHA's national convention returns to Baltimore this week for only the third time in its 38-year history. The Conference is also the site for the National Homebrew Competition.

In 2015, 7,663 entries were judged at twelve first round judge centers across the United States. First Round winners advance to the Final Round of the competition at the AHA National Homebrewers Conference. Final Round winners receive gold, silver or bronze medals in 28 style categories.

In 1979, 34 entries competed in the first AHA National Homebrew Competition held in Boulder, Colorado.

At that first Conference in 1979, there were 200 attendees. The AHA has no figures for conference attendance in Baltimore in 1995, but the year before, in Denver, there had been 428. In 2005, in Baltimore for the second time (with the not-snappy theme of "Beer By The Schooner, Ale By the Yard"), there were 857 attendees and 4,128 beers judged. This year, it estimates 3,200 attendees, up from the 2,800 last year in San Diego with 7,663 beers judged.

But HomeBrewCon 2016 is not only for homebrewers. In addition to the Conference itself (and the judging of the nations' best homebrew), which runs Thursday through Saturday, 9-11 June, there are events throughout the week —not just in Baltimore, but in Washington, D.C., 45 miles to the south —with many events open to non-homebrewing good-beer fans, as well. Of many, a few of note:

• Tuesday, 7 June, 12-5pm.
  In Washington, D.C., beer author Stan Hieronymous co-brews an "American Primitive Beer" at Right Proper Brewing with head brewer Nathan Zeender during an open-house of the brewery's new production facility in Brookland.
  ▶ Details.


• Wednesday, 8 June, 10am-1pm.
  Maryland beer historian Maureen O'Prey leads a beer-history walking tour of the Brewer's Hill neighborhood of Baltimore Maryland, with Baltimore Beer Week co-founder, Dominic Cantalupo.
  ▶ Details.


• Wednesday, 8 June, 12-4pm.
  Hand-crafted tap handles. Mark Supik & Company woodturning shop makes tap handles for many Maryland breweries and nationally. See how, at its Highlandtown neighborhood workshop in Baltimore.
  ▶ Details.


• Wednesday, 8 June, 7:30-11pm.
  A special screening of Brewmore Baltimore, a feature length documentary chronicling the history of the brewing industry in Baltimore, Maryland, narrated by two beer historians, Maureen O'Prey and Rob Kasper (past columnist and editor at The Baltimore Sun). At the Pratt Street Alehouse in downtown Baltimore, with beer served, of course, from host Oliver Brewing Company.
  ▶ Details.


• Wednesday, 8 June, 12-3:15pm.
  The BJCP (Beer Judge Certification Program) is a certifying entity for American beer judges (for both homebrew and professional competitions). The organization is, of course, present in Baltimore this week, conducting exams for judges. But in addition to that, it's holding a series of seminars, open to both judges and civilians, with such topics as Understanding Sensory Perception of Beer, Pre-Prohibition Porter, Understanding and Judging Flavor Additives in Beer.
  ▶ Details.


• Thursday-Saturday, 9-11 June.
  HomBrewCon itself begins in Baltimore on Thursday, 9 June and concludes on Saturday, 11 June, with a Grand Banquet at which the winners of the concurrent National Homebrew Competition are announced.
  ▶ Details.

IBUs & Postscript

IBUs - International Bitterness Units - are a measuring scale of bitterness in beer, literally the amount of dissolved alpha acids in a beer contributed by hops. One IBU equals one part per million of isohumulone, or 1 milligram of alpha acid dissolved in 1 liter of beer.

Most industrial lagers clock in at around a dozen or fewer IBUs. Thus, Mr. Spencer felt he had good cause for concern over the 55 IBUs of Oxford Brewing's Inter Planetary Ale. We decided, however, to brew it without any modifications.

Afterward, when Mr. Spencer tasted the finished result, he dropped all of his earlier objections. He had become a fan of 'too-big' beers. And Inter Planetary Ale was served to the attendees at the 1995 AHA "Planet Beer" Homebrewer Conference.

For me, to this day, IPA remains "EEE-puh." Even though, today, 55 IBUs would be considered quaint. Even though I do get puzzled looks when I pronounce it by name.

"Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft"
The Carpenters, 1977

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In Praise of Porter. (The Session: Beer Blogging Friday.)

The Session is a monthly event for the beer blogging community, begun in March of 2007 by Stan Hieronymus of Appellation Beer and Jay Brooks of the Brookston Beer Bulletin.

On the first Friday of every month, a pre-determined beer blogger hosts The Session: Beer Blogging Friday. He or she chooses a specific, beer-related topic, invites all bloggers to write on it, and posts a roundup of all the responses received. For more information, or to ask to host, go to the home page.

For The Session: Beer Blogging Friday #109, Mark Lindner —of By the Barrel: The Bend Beer Librarian— is the host.

For The Session 109—my first as host—I would like us to discuss porter. It seems that this highly variable style has not been done in The Session before.

“The history of porter and the men who made it is fascinating, for it deals with the part that beer has played in the development of Western Culture. Conversely, of course, much of porter’s growth was the result of profound changes in the nature of British society. It is also a microcosm of how our industries have developed; events in porter’s history explain the structure of the modern brewing industry, not only in Britain, but in the other major Western countries.

Porter is intimately tied in with the Industrial Revolution, in which Britain led the world. Through the growth it enabled the brewers to achieve, it was instrumental in the development and technological application of a number of important scientific advances.” (Foster, Terry. Porter. Brewers Publications. P. 17).

I am not talking about your long dead relative’s porter—although you might be—but about all of the variations currently and previously available. Hey, feel free to write about the porter of the future or some as-yet-unrecognized sub-style of porter.

I am not a librarian, and none of my long-departed relatives ever owned breweries (that I know of). But I believe that the history of our heritage —whether beer or otherwise— can show us our common roots and point to our common (or uncommon) futures. Beer as liquid history? To repeat, yet again, this trope: well, yes.

As to porter substyles, I believe there is porter — Platonic or 'I can't define it but I know it when I taste it'— and then there are other things, infused with kitchen-sink ephemera. Give 'em a great name, like Double Imperial Coconut Killer ale, but, please, be honest and respectful: not porter. Modifiers heaped upon modifiers yield differences of kind not degree.

I began brewing at home in the late 1980s. Porter was my go-to brew. In 1992, I trepidatiously entered an enth-generation batch in the Spirit of Free Beer, a contest organized by B.U.R.P. —Brewers United for Real Potables— a Washington, D.C.-area home brew club.

The recipe was not complex —especially as contrasted with today's so-called 'extreme' beers of high alcoholic strength and exotic procedures— but, at 5.5% alcohol by volume, it was flavorful enough to garner a silver medal.

I went on to brew professionally, but porter would remain insinuated in my soul. That bakers chocolate nose; whiff of dark fruit and pine cone; chocolate-malted body; more-ish but not boozy; that brisk slap of a finish.

At the risk of sounding elegiac: is porter dying in the U.S.? I find it harder and harder to find examples on tap or in bottle. If so, that would be a shame: a neglect of tradition and a loss of a delicious thing.

But, then, when I can still drink something sublime like this, I smile, mollified.

Porter from Port City Brewing (of Alexandria, Virginia) won Silver Medal at 2015 Great American Beer Festival, at which the brewery took top honors as Small Brewery of Year.

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What will President Jimmy Carter be remembered for?

It was an important day for 'craft' beer on 14 October 1978. Back then 'craft' beer wasn't known as 'craft' beer. In fact, it only barely existed. America was awash in American 'light' lagers.

That 'craft' beer exists -- and thrives-- today, you should first thank President Jimmy Carter for what he did on that day.

When Prohibition was repealed in 1933, lawmakers decided to again permit citizens to produce small amounts of wine and beer at home. However, due to a stenographer's error, the 1933 law failed to include beer, and, for the next forty-four years, the insalubrious omission stood as law. No congressperson believed it politically expedient to demand the right of his or her constituents to brew beer at home. As late as the 1970s, the federal penalty for home brewing was as much as five years in prison or a $10,000 fine.

That is, until January 1977, when Barber Conable, a House of Representatives Republican from New York, would introduce bill HR 2028. Alan Cranston, a Democrat from California, introduced a similar bill in the Senate, along with Senate co-sponsors former NASA astronaut Senator Harrison Schmitt (R) of New Mexico (R), Senator Dale Bumpers (D) of Arkansas, and Senator Mike Gravel (D) of Alaska.

The next year, 1978, these bills would become House Resolution 1337 and Senate Amendment 3534. And, on 14 October 1978, President Jimmy Carter would sign the combined bill into law, putting beer-making at home on the same legal footing as wine-making at home.

The law took effect a few months later, on 1 February 1979, but even so, it did not actually legalize homebrewing. Rather, it revoked the federal excise tax on homebrew, for up to one-hundred gallons per adult per year and a total of two-hundred gallons per household per year. (Two-hundred gallons is the approximate equivalent of eighty-nine cases of beer.) Actual legalization —the right to brew at home without fear of the police knocking at your door— would require state-by-state approval, as provided under the 21st Amendment to the Constitution.

Several states acted quickly; several did not. It would take until May 2013, for homebrewing to be legal in all fifty states, when Alabama (and Mississippi just preceding it) approved.

In the 1970s and 80s, there was a strong correlation between homebrewing and 'craft' brewing, with former homebrewers (some possibly benignly illicit, others, later and legal) going on to become brewers and owners at the few, new, microbreweries —what 'craft' breweries were then called. ¹. In fact, in 1978, when Carter lifted the homebrewing restrictions, there was only one microbrewery in the U.S., New Albion Brewing, in California. (Or two. ²) There, Jack McAuliffe would brew an ale with a hop that had been released only five years earlier, Cascades, whose 'grapefruity' flavor quickly became the hallmark of the American Pale Ale style. In 1981, two homebrewers, Paul Camusi and Ken Grossman, opened their microbrewery, the Sierra Nevada Brewing Company, and the microbrewery movement had begun in earnest.

Nearly four decades later, homebrewing and 'craft' beer again seem to be dancing partners. As the number of breweries in the U.S has surpassed 4,000, homebrewers are the driving force behind many of those small and very-small breweries opening at the rate of almost two per day.

Here's the late, great 'Beer Hunter', beer writer Michael Jackson, as recorded in 2004, reminiscing, with wry wit, on that important legal change, and the significance of homebrewing in America.

Enjoying that 'craft' beer you're drinking today? Thank a homebrewer; and thank President Jimmy Carter.

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Birthday in Beer: Charlie Papazian turns 65.

Charlie Papazian celebrates his 65th birthday today. It's a milestone for Mr. Papazian, and, by extension, for the entire modern 'good beer' revival movement in the United States —homebrewing and 'craft' brewing alike.

Educated as a nuclear engineer, Mr. Papazian, a homebrewer by hobby, founded the American Homebrewers Association in 1978, when homebrewing in the U.S. was technically illegal. Today, the hobby is legal in all 50 states. Papazian's efforts were a crucial part of that evolution.

In 1979, Mr. Papazian founded the Association of Brewers, now the Brewers Association (of which he is president) —the primary advocacy group for small and independent breweries in the U.S.

In 1982, he organized the first ever Great American Beer Festival —since held annually, and considered the premier annual national competition for American breweries. In 1996, he organized the bi-annual World Beer Cup.

In 1984, Mr. Papazian published his seminal how-to, The Complete Joy of Home Brewing. This book would inspire and educate successive generations of homebrewers, some of whom would later convert their avocations into professions (including the author of this blog). The book is still in print, now on its 3rd edition.

Mr. Papazian's iconic admonition has long been: "Relax; don't worry; have a homebrew." Inscribed with that, here's my dog-eared ('photo-shopped') 1991 autographed edition of his book.

The late, great beer writer Michael Jackson wrote the book's forward. This is the final paragraph:

Wherever my travels take me in the United States, and whichever commercial beers I am asked to taste, whether by a magazine, a scientific institute, or a brewer, I always seem to finish up in someone's garden at the weekend, enjoying their own home-produced vintage. My hosts almost always turn out to be members of the American Homebrewers' Association. It happened again the other day, in Washington, D.C. My hosts were a physicist and his schoolteacher wife. They had friends present, an executive in a government agency and a couple of journalists from a famous newspaper. We enjoyed that same pleasure usually experienced in cooking together, except that we were brewing. While we went about it, we sampled the recently matured product of their last brew. "Let's drink a toast," suggested our hosts. "Lets drink to Charlie Papazian." We did, and so will you.

Have a happy birthday, today, Charlie!

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(Good beer) history is made in Alabama and Mississippi

From the American Homebrewers Association (AHA): For the first time, homebrewing is to become explicitly legal in all 50 states of the United States.

The Alabama legislature has passed a bill that, once signed by Governor Robert J. Bentley, will effectively legalize homebrewing throughout the state. Alabama will be the last state in the nation to legalize homebrewing. Alabama is the last state holding out against legalizing homebrewing. In March 2013, Mississippi became the 49th state to pass homebrew legislation. The AHA has been working with Right to Brew for five years in order to get the Alabama bill passed.

"Homebrewing has been an integral part of the history of America, so it’s thrilling to know that soon all 50 states will support this growing hobby and long-standing tradition," said Gary Glass, director, American Homebrewers Association. "We appreciate the backing of all of the homebrewers, the dedicated grassroots efforts of Right to Brew and the legislators who have worked so diligently to make homebrewing a reality in Alabama. We are especially grateful to Representative Mac McCutcheon who introduced this bill and has fought long and hard for its passage, along with Senator Bill Holtzclaw."

Homebrewing became federally legal in 1979, though the 21st Amendment predominantly leaves regulation of alcohol to the states. Therefore, even though homebrewing is federally legal, it is up to individual states to legalize homebrewing in state codes. Once the Alabama bill is signed by Gov. Bentley, it will be the first time since pre-Prohibition days that homebrewers in all the states can legally brew at home.

The hobby of homebrewing has seen exponential growth in recent years. The AHA estimates that more than one million Americans brew beer or make wine at home at least once a year. Alabama is home to an estimated 5,000 homebrewers who will soon enjoy brewing without the restrictions of a state-wide ban.

Congratulations to the AHA and the home-grown groups of homebrewers who were instrumental in achieving these victories. In Alabama, that was Right to Brew and Free the Hops. In Mississippi, it was Raise Your Pints.

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I got the geography wrong in the original draft of this post. Thanks to Craig of Raise Your Pints for the correction. And, congratulations!

Cool Yule #7! Beer Books for 2011: Designing Great Beers

Cool Yule! 12 Beer Books for 2011
Not a list of the dozen best-of-the-best books about beer of 2011, but, rather, my list of 12, some personal delights, others of unique or deserved merit. Some of the books have been published this year, while others are worthy chestnuts.

Between 20 November and the Winter Solstice, I'll reveal my selections.

Then, on Christmas Day: put your feet up, pour yourself a good beer, and read a good book. Or, better yet: give a friend the gift of a beer and a book. December 22nd may be too late to arrange shipping by Christmas (unless available as an e-book), but it's time sufficient to pay a visit to your local brick and mortar —and book— store.

So ... cue seven swans-a-swimming.

Cool Yule Beer Book for 2011:
#7

Designing Great Beers
The Ultimate Guide to Brewing Classic Beer Styles

Ray Daniels
paperback: 404 pages
Publisher: Brewers Publications (US, 1996)
ISBN: 0937381500

My previous selection, The Best of American Beer & Food, was a cookbook. Cool Yule #7 is a recipe book as well ... of beers.

Designing Great Beers was written by Ray Daniels, highly regarded as the brains behind the Cicerone Program, a certification for restaurant servers on beer knowledge, just as sommelier programs train servers of wine. But Mr. Daniels has quite the extensive resume in the furtherment of good beer. From his website:

• Author, editor and publisher of more than a dozen books on brewing and beer
• Diploma graduate and senior faculty member at the Siebel Institute of Technology
• Internationally known beer judge
• Organizer of scores of beer tasting events including Chicago’s Real Ale Festival (1996-2003)
• Experienced beer marketer, past director of the Brewers Association Craft Beer Marketing Program

His Craft Beer Institute was and is integral to education on real ale. From one of his "Perfect Pint" sessions in the 1990s, I still have a pencil packed away from an even earlier run of his for Chicago-land political office. That unsuccessful campaign was good beer's gain!

Designing Great Beers is divided into two sections. The first is recipe formulation. This is not a how-to for brewing step-by-step. There are other books for that. But, even for beginners, these chapters will reveal the reasons why they are following those simpler steps and procedures. Daniels provides formaulae and charts for determining extract, water adjustment, hop bitterness, yeast attenuation, etc. I would wager that even professional 'craft' brewers have used these chapters for reference.

There's one quite valuable formula that Daniels has created just for the book —the BU:GU. Technically, it's the ratio of bittering units of the hops used to the gravity units (the amount of fermentable sugar present before fermentation). In plain English, it's the perception of the bitterness of a beer. Simply because a beer contains a lot of hops doesn't mean it will taste bitter; just because a beer is not of high alcoholic strength doesn't mean it won't pack a hoppy punch. It's the perception of bitterness —the balance between malt and hops— that the BU:GU addresses. Great stuff, and useful for those reductive "How many IBUs?" conversations about beer.

The second part of Designing Great Beers is about brewing to 'style.' Daniels' definition of 'beer style' is one of the better I've read.

A beer style comes into being when several brewers, often in close geographic proximity to each other, create beers that share a similar set of distinctive traits. These traits include body, alcohol content, bitterness, color, and profile. In the end, the traits of a style incorporate the variation seen from brewer to brewer [emphasis mine] while still defining a formulation that is generally distinguishable from other styles of beer.

Perhaps the most important function of style is beer flavor. <...> This shorthand is very useful for communication between brewers, retailers, and consumers. It allows brewers to tell others what they have brewed without long, drawn-out explanations.

In today's milieu run amok of 140 or so 'styles,' it's quaintly refreshing (pun intended) to find only 14 chapters of styles. That the book was published in 1996 in very little way outdates its style information. Quite the contrary!

Daniels started with published guidelines as a baseline, but rather than relying on them unquestioned, he researched actual historical commercial records and homebrew competitions, identifying and quantifing style parameters. Daniels' work predates and anticipates, by more than decade, much of the current style revisionism of such historians as Martyn Cornell and Ron Pattinson.

As valuable as this book might be for brewers of avocation or profession, the wealth of information in Designing Great Beers will help anyone —even a non-brewer— appreciate the flavors in beer and more easily identify them. For a proto-brewer, Designing Great Beers can help provide a practical understanding of brewing; for a beer consumer, the skill involved. For all, it can provide an historical understanding of styles, and why and where they developed. By gaining an understanding of all of this, the reader will better enjoy the next well-made beer she brews or drinks. And the next.

And, after reading, consider taking the next step, by becoming accredited as a Beer Cicerone.

Anyone can call themselves an expert on beer. [Emphasis mine.] But when consumers want great beer they need help from a server who really knows beer flavors, styles and brands. They also want to buy from a place that understands proper storage and serving so the beer they drink will be of the highest quality. Too often great beer is harmed by improper service practices.

The website is: www.cicerone.org. You can follow Ray Daniels on Twitter @Cicerone_org.

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Cool Yule for 2011, so far:

• #8: The Best of American Beer & Food
• #9: Beer & Philosophy
• #10: Evaluating Beer
• #11: Windows on The World
• #12: The Story of Brewing in Burton on Trent

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• For on-line purchasing, I link to the Brewers Association book store, or to the marvelous resource, BeerBooks.com. When not available there, or if published as an ebook, I link to Amazon.com.
  
• The 12 Books for Christmas 2009: here.

Thank a homebrewer today!

An important milestone was reached on this day, 14 October, thirty-three years ago, 1978.

When Prohibition was repealed in 1933, lawmakers decided to again permit citizens to produce small amounts of wine and beer at home. However, due to a stenographer's error, the 1933 law failed to mention beer. Thus, even though it became legal to ferment wine at home, homebrewing remained illegal. For the next 44 years, no congressman would find it politically expedient to demand the right of homebrewing for his or her constituents.

That is until January 1977, when Barber Conable, a House of Representatives Republican from New York, would introduce bill HR 2028. Alan Cranston, a Democrat from California, introduced a similar bill in the Senate, along with Senate co-sponsors former NASA astronaut Senator Harrison Schmitt (R) of New Mexico (R), Senator Dale Bumpers (D) of Arkansas, and Senator Mike Gravel (D) of Alaska.

The next year, 1978, these bills would become House Resolution 1337 and Senate Amendment 3534. On 14 October 1978, President Jimmy Carter signed the bill into law.

The law did not actually legalize homebrewing. Rather, it revoked the federal excise tax on homebrew, for up to 100 gallons per adult per year for a total of 200 gallons per household per year. (200 gallons is the approximate equivalent of 89 cases of beer.) Actual legalization would require state-by-state approval, as provided under the 21st Amendment to the Constitution. Only Alabama Aand Mississippi still explicitly forbid the practice. [UPDATE: As of May 2013, homebrewing is now legal in all 50 states.]

Homebrew and 'craft brew' had a strong correlation in those days. In 1978, there was only one 'craft' brewery. In 1981, Sierra Nevada Brewing Company began its operations - founded by two homebrewers - and the craft beer revival had begun in earnest.

Buy a homebrewer a beer today, or better yet, drink one of hers. And, then ... thank her!

Pic(k) of the Week: Judging Procedures

It was the finals of the DC Beer Week Homebrew Competition

... and Bill Jusino, steward for the competition, conferred with the judges about the scoring of the beers. The competition was organized by the DC Homebrewers Club, and held at the Red Palace, in Washington, D.C., on Saturday, 20 August 2011.

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• Pic(k) of the Week: one in a weekly series of personal photos, often posted on Saturdays, and often, but not always, with a 'good fermentable' as subject. Commercial use of the photo requires explicit permission, as per Creative Commons.

The Session #41 - Craft Beer Influenced by Homebrewing

The Session is a monthly event for the beer blogging community begun by Stan Hieronymus at Appellation Beer, and co-moderated with Jay Brooks at the Brookston Beer Bulletin.

On the first Friday of each month, an inviteded blogger hosts The Session, chooses a specific, beer-related topic, invites all bloggers to write on it, and posts a roundup of all the responses received.

For more information and to host a Session, go to the archive page at the Brookston Beer Bulletin

Here's how hosts Jeff and Tom Wallace of Lug Wrench Brewing Company announced the theme for The Session #41 - Craft Beer Influenced by Homebrewing:

As demonstrated in prior Sessions, topics typically come from the host's area of passion – something they have a strong affinity towards. For Tom and me, the real pathway in our appreciation of Craft Beer has been through the hobby of homebrewing. <...> In the end, it wasn't until we got a little friendly nudging by Stan and Jay that our topic for the 41st Session coalesced. The chosen topic: Craft Beers Inspired By Homebrewing. How has homebrewing had an affect on the commercial beer we have all come to love?

"What's the spice," I asked the bartender, unable to identify a subtle background flavor in the pint of Midnight Sun Porter I was drinking.

The beer had traveled to this pub in Alexandria, Virginia, from the Williams Brothers Brewery in Scotland, a voyage over land and sea of some 3,500 miles. It had been shipped in a firkin (a 10.8 US gallon cask). Live yeast within —from the fermentation— had provided a measure of protection against staling and infection.

At the pub, the seal was broken, and the beer was hand pumped from the cask, pint by pint. It was remarkably fresh-tasting, more so than it may have been in a bottle or keg. Dark dark brown, creamy, with an off-beige head of foam, a not-so-bitter roastiness, toasty, toffee-like, herbal, with whiffs of licorice and dark berry fruit, ... and what was that spice? Ahh, it was ginger root, a small amount of which had been infused in the wort.

What's the homebrew connection? Here, from the brewery website:

A long time ago, in a home brew shop not too far away......
A lady of Gaelic descent came into the Williams owned homebrew shop in Partick, bearing a translation of a 17th century recipe for 'Leanne Fraoch' (Heather Ale), Inherited from her Gaelic family. It was her goal to try to recreate recipe made famous by the old legend of the Pictish king who supposedly threw himself off a cliff after the English king captured & tortured his son in an attempt to coax the recipe from the Pict King. This translated recipe was developed in homebrew size quantities by shop owner Bruce Williams to the recipe that is used today.

The brothers began their professional career on a very small scale; their brewery's capacity, and roster of beers, grew in stages. Finally, in the mid 2000s, they moved into the "New Alloa Brewery at Kelliebank, Alloa, where [they] are the last remaining brewery in the old Scottish brew capital."

In the early 1990s, a former tech industry executive in the US was casting about for a new venture. He knew little about the beer business, except that he liked beer, especially beers from the UK. So, he thought, "why not?" He researched the business, and, with his wife, founded an artisinal-beer import company.

Soon thereafter, the duo met the charismatic Bruce Williams. They were quickly convinced to import Williams' "Historic Beers of Scotland." A substantial segment of the brewery's growth would be derived from those US sales, and the import business would grow as well, exponentially, and include a distribution arm in the state of Maryland. Just this past April, Patrick and Sherri Casey sold their company, Legends, Ltd., and retired.

Drinking the Williams' porter, I thought back to how a homebrewed porter had played a role in my professional 'craft' brewing career.

I began brewing at home in the late 1980s, encouraged by my younger brother, initially 'educated' by Charlie Papazian's Joy of Homebrewing, and patiently assisted by a good friend. In 1992, I entered a batch of porter in the Spirit of Free Beer, a contest organized by B.U.R.P. —Brewers United for Real Potables— a Washington, D.C. area home brew club.

The recipe was not complex —especially as contrasted with today's so-called 'extreme' beers of high alcoholic strength and exotic procedures— but, at 5.5% alcohol by volume, the porter was flavorful enough to garner a silver medal.

That simple success got me hooked.

A year after the contest, I enrolled at the Siebel Institute to study zymurgy (beer-making). A few months after that, I apprenticed at the Oxford Brewing Company, then near Baltimore, Maryland.

From there, I would go on to brew at several other breweries, opening two, and owning one.

I've been 'out' of brewing for several years. For a period in the mid 2000s, I sold beers for the Caseys (including those of Bruce Williams), and now I am selling beer and wine for a living (and writing this blog).  I don't refer to myself as an 'ex-brewer' because the yearning to brew remains too intimate and too strong. Rather, I regard myself as 'brewer without portfolio.'

Good brewing insinuates itself into one's soul. "Another one of those tasty porters, please," I asked the bartender.

Real ale at home in Virginia

On a chilly Saturday afternoon, thirty or so homebrewers attended a 'real' party in northern Virginia. The Herndon Wort Hogs were celebrating a style of fresh beer called 'real ale.' I was an invited guest.

Real ale?
Unfiltered beer that is naturally carbonated, and served from the vessel in which some or all of the fermentation occurred ... which is already a description of most homebrew.

Herndon Wort Hogs?
A homebrew club in the town of Herndon in northern Virginia, named in part after wort —the sweet liquid extracted from barley malt before it is fermented. I didn't ask about the "hogs".  All attending were well behaved.

At any one time, many at the party would abandon the warmth of the living room (and the Olympics on TV) to stand outside on the porch, where members were using 4 handpumps —called beer engines— to dispense the 'real ales.'

The real ale here had been conditioned —that is refermented, providing gentle carbonation—  within 5 gallon kegs. Called 'Cornie's for short, Cornelius kegs were originally designed and used for dispensing soft drinks and sodas.



When beer is re-fermented within 10.8 gallon casks — firkins— the beer is referred to as 'cask-conditioned.' There are other sizes of casks with other unique names.

Good food, good company, and, oh yes, 15 kegs of 'real ale.' Some were good. Some were very good. And most were 'session' strength: that is, less than 5% alcohol by volume, the level to which much cask ale in the United Kingdom —its ancestral home —was produced during the 20th century.

A special thank you goes to our hosts Lynda and Wendell Ose (pronounced "OH see"). They volunteered (sacrificed?) their home as the festival site when another had become unavailable.

• More photos here and here.
• More on 'real ale' here.
• Wendell contributed an essay on brewing real ale at home for February's The Session: Beer Blogging Friday.

Homebrewed Real Ale

The topic of this month's The Session: Beer Blogging Friday is Cask-Conditioned Ale. In addition to inviting beer bloggers to contribute, I reached out to non-blogging beer folk (and, yes, they are many).

The following is a contribution from Wendell Ose.

Writing this as the first inch of an expected 20 inch snowfall begins to accumulate here in the DC burbs of northern Virginia and borrowing the melody from 'Frosty The Snowman', I author a new lyric, "There must have been some magic in that firkin cask we found 'cause when we drank the ale inside we began to dance around."

But wait, there's another song to screw with, "I've never been to England but I kinda like the Real Ales. Up here In NoVa, not Arizona, what does it matter?"

I'm ashamed to admit it but I've never been to England although I've had the pleasure of drinking plenty of imported cask ale that has made the trip here to enlightened DC bars as well as 100s of homebrewed real ales and a few local pub-brewed commercial examples over the last decade. I've been homebrewing for 17 years and many of my creations have been brewed in the cask ale tradition.

Wendell Ose (l); Nick Funnell (r)

I've had the good fortune to win homebrew club Brewers United for Real Potables BJCP sanctioned Real Ale Championship in 2000 and 2007. The 2007 winning beer, an English Mild Ale, made me eligible to enter the 2008 GABF Pro-Am Competition in Denver. English ex-pat Nick Funnell, head brewer for local Great American Restaurants' Sweetwater Tavern, allowed me to brew a 15 barrel batch with him that advanced to the final 6 beers of 58 GABF entries from around the US. I based my recipe on one Nick had contributed to a Brewing Techniques Magazine Beer Styles article back in the 90s.

My homebrew club, The Wort Hogs, has its 4th Annual Real Ale Party scheduled later this month so I brewed two ales for that event this week, a Best Bitter and a Northern English Brown Ale, a sweet version that's a close cousin to my Mild Ale. (Btw, recipes and process info available on request.)

I love to brew real ale as much as drink it, probably because of my short attention span. You can brew one today and be drinking it at its peak in 7 to 10 days. Now that's fresh beer and freshness and liveliness are what cask ale is all about. A well made, Ordinary Bitter at about 3.5% ABV, naturally and lightly carbonated can be magic in a glass, magic in a bottomless glass for that matter since it seems like you can drink them one after another and still walk/drive away safe, sound and feeling good all around. If you're drinking a lovely English-style ale and it seems like you simply can't enjoy enough of it, chances are you're drinking a cask ale at its best.

Find one or brew one, and as The Great One [the late Michael Jackson, the beer writer] suggested, "do it a favor and drink it."

Wendell Ose is an award-winning homebrewer, and an avid supporter of local breweries.

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The Session: Beer Blogging Friday is a monthly event for the beer blogging community begun by Stan Hieronymus at Appellation Beer, and co-moderated with Jay Brooks at the Brookston Beer Bulletin.
On the first Friday of each month, a predetermined blogger hosts The Session, chooses a specific, beer-related, topic, invites all bloggers to write on it, and posts a roundup of all the responses received.

More here.

BURP Real Ale Festival

If you live in the greater Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, and you're a fan of cask-conditioned ale, there's good news for you this weekend. It's the B.U.R.P. Real Ale Competition & Festival, Saturday, Nov 7, 2009, noon till 6, in suburban Maryland.

B.U.R.P. —Brewers United for Real Potables— is the D.C. area's premier homebrewers' club, founded in 1981.

For this festival, members have brewed cask ales in several categories; many of the beers will be judged the evening before. On Saturday, all the beers will be served from firkins, pins, and converted Cornelius kegs, and with beer engines and simple taps.

There is one catch, however. As the festival is held at the private home of a B.U.R.P. member (as are most of the monthly meetings), the address of the location is known only to members.

The solution? Become a member here.

Some terminology:

• Firkin: 10.8 gallon cask.
• Pin: 5.4 gallon cask.
• Cornelius keg: 5 gallon keg used in the past for soft drink dispense. Common now in homebrewing.
• Beer engine: a handpump used to pull beer from a cask to a tap at a bar.
• Real Ale is a neologism coined by CAMRA (Campaign for Real Ale), a cask beer consumer advocacy group in the UK. The term refers to cask-conditioned ale: "beer brewed from traditional ingredients, matured by secondary fermentation in the container from which it is dispensed, and served without the use of extraneous carbon dioxide."
  

BAM! Emeril cooks with homebrew(er), organically

Jason Nuzzo lives in the Washington, D.C. area. He also happens to be a good beer fan, a homebrewer, and a home cook.

In December of 2008, he got the chance to combine all three interests with chef Emeril Lagasse. He won the opportunity to cook with the chef —and, at least with one dish, to use his own homebrew as an ingredient.

It all airs Monday evening, tonight (10 August 2009), on Discovery Channel's Planet Green. The 30-minute program will air several times, but initially at 8PM. The segment is called "What's Brewing".


The show's premise is on cooking within parameters of the green movement, but by using easily purchased ingredients.

Jason took it one step further.

When open casting was announced, he informed the producers that he often entertains large groups at his house and would like to learn more about cooking with beer, that is, cuisine de la biere. (YFGF wonders how to inveigle an invitation to Jason's house, now that he's received his Emeril training!)

Jason did a screen test, and succeeded against the other contestants. " I didn't come across as too goofy," he laughed.

The segment was shot 7 December 2008 at the Whole Foods in the Fair Lakes region of Fairfax, Virginia. It features Jason, Chef Emeril, and Chef Sal, a corporate chef for the Whole Foods chain. Jason was also assisted by his friend Yong, who may or may not have made the final cut. "We'll wait and see," Jason said. Other parts of the program were shot at Clipper City Brewing Company in Baltimore, Maryland.

Emeril prepares four different dishes, which could, together in one evening, comprise a great dinner:

• A salad with a dressing prepared with Oxford Organic Raspberry Wheat (from Clipper City Brewing of Baltimore, Maryland.)
• Asian Style Mussels Meuniere. cooked in an organic India Pale Ale (from Wolaver's of Vermont.)
  
• A choucroute, (a stew of sausage, sausage, sausage ... and some sauerkraut) prepared with Jason' own homebrew, a porter (dark ale) infused with coriander, allspice, cinnamon, and cloves.
  
• Espresso ice cream, churned with Peak Organic Espresso Ale. (Emeril emphatically adds an "x" to espresso, almost as if he's defying you to correct his pronunciation. Jason, being the invited gracious guest, demurs.

Three short clips are available for viewing on the website:

• Chef Emeril discusses organic beers with Lee Hitchins, the beer manager for the Whole Foods Market in Fairfax, Virginia.
• Emeril cooking the choucroute.
  
• Emeril making the stout/espresso ice cream. (Emeril emphatically adds an "x" to espresso, almost as if he's defies you to correct his pronunciation. Jason doesn't. After all, it IS Emeril's show and Jason is a gracious guest.

Jason currently resides in the Washington, D.C. area, but he hails from Maine. In fact, his hometown paper —The Kennebec Journal— ran a story about him:

"It was a great time," Nuzzo said. "It was nice because the whole premise of the show was to support the green movement. The products are grown organically and locally. It's trying to cut down on the carbon footprint."

He said his home brew proved particularly popular with show staff.

"They took it out back and drank the rest of it," he said.

"Anything else," I asked?

Other than saying "okay" once too often, Jason thought the experience was "a blast." He found Emeril to be gracious and laid-back, but, befitting teh chef's skill and celebrity status, he was "definitely intense." (After all, Emeril is known to spontaneously exclaim, "BAM!)

"I would do it again," said Jason. "Considering that some stories about beer only emphasize stupid drinking tricks, programs like this will be beneficial for the craft brewing scene."

More photos from the day of the shoot: here.

IBU-er madness

There was a frantic knocking on my office door. "Tom, come quick. Big problem!"

It was May 1995 and I was the brewery manager for the Oxford Brewing Company, now closed, but then located just outside of Baltimore, Maryland. The city would be hosting its first American Homebrewers Association national conference, and Oxford Brewing had been asked to brew the official beer.

The theme for that year had been Planet Beer. So we were brewing Inter-Planetary Ale. The beer was in style, of course, an IPA - an India Pale Ale. Bad pun.

Knocking at the door was our lab tech, Alvaro Spencer. He quickly walked me out to our production board, and pointed at the schedule and specifications for the IPA: 6.5% alcohol by volume, 55 IBUs.

Alvaro had worked in the beer business overseas for many years, albeit for large capacity lager breweries. He had never seen or brewed beers of such high alcohol or hop content.

In his charming, accented English, he exclaimed, "What is this EEE-puh? It's too big; too strong; too many IBUs. It's no good!"

IBUs - International Bitterness Units - are measures of bitterness in beer, literally the dissolved alpha acids contributed from the hops. One IBU equals one part per million of isohumulone, or 1 milligram of alpha acid dissolved in 1 liter of beer.

In 1998, I wrote a review of Tuppers Hop Pocket Pils. It included this passage describing a scene I observed at a beer festival, now over ten years ago, in Washington, DC:

At the 1998 Mid-Atlantic Beer and Food Festival, at least 40% of the attendees were women. This a proportion that had been growing at this festival since its inception five years earlier. For the most part, these women were bucking the conventional wisdom that women only drink sweet, flavored, or fruit beers. They were sampling all of the beers. (This illogic, unfortunately being practiced by some craft breweries of pandering to the least common denominator is similar to the process that led the big American brewers to dumb down their offerings.)

Particularly intriguing was a conversation between two women who appeared to be just past the minimum age. They were standing in line, eagerly waiting to receive refills of Hop Devil Ale, an India Pale Ale, brewed in Pennsylvania by the Victory Brewing Company, that is big, bold, very bitter, and very aromatic.

These women, however, were not remarking upon the bitterness of the beer, but, rather, upon its hoppiness, that is, its fresh herbal aromatics.

Too often, many of us refer only to bitterness when we talk of hop quality, as in the macho muscling in of as much 'hair-on-your-chest' bittering as possible. We forget about the appealing bouquet that hops impart to beer. Hops are herbs, after all.

In a business that prides itself on romantic notions of craft, it's strange that non-romantic acronyms —such as IPA, DIPA, IBU, abv, etc.— run amuck, as at governmental agencies. So, for me, I.P.A will always be "EEE-puh."

And Mr. Spencer? He soon became a fan of 'big beers'.

This year's National Homebrewers Conference is scheduled for 18-21 June 2009 in Oakland, CA. Tickets can be purchased at www.beertown.org

Big Brew and The Desert Island Hop 5

In 1988, Congress designated May 7 as National Homebrew Day. To celebrate the event, the American Homebrewers Association (AHA) created the Big Brew.

On the first Saturday in May, groups of homebrewers worldwide meet at designated brewing sites to join in a collective toast and then brew one of several recipes selected by the AHA.

Apropos, Jeff Alworth at Beervana a few weeks ago wondered what five hop varietals he would want if he were stranded on a deserted lush island. His answer:

The list is predictable and pretty much maps to the major brewing regions, emphasis on NW (Cascades, Chinooks, Hallertauer, Kent Goldings, Saaz).

Homebrewer and writer Thomas Vincent at Geistbear Brewing Blog selected Fuggle, Saaz, Hallertau, Challenger, and Cascade.

My Desert Island 5 would be, in order:

1. East Kent Goldings (for its buttery earthiness)
2. Mount Hood (for its New World citrusy rendition of Old World spiciness)
3. Zatec or Saaz (floral/spicy)
4. New Zealand Hallertau (dark fruit)
5. German Northern Brewer (piney).

I might add (grapefruity) Cascade as an honorable mention if only for its US brewing ubiquity. But, no, I would not choose some of its pungent US brethren. Please, no cat-litter box aromas for me.

Jeff notes, with evident relief:

But you know, then I think: thank god I don't have to limit myself to just five hop varieties.

Brewer or drinker: what would be your choices?