So you want to be a Beer Judge? part 2

The Washington Post is repeating its Beer Madness brackets from last year.

Dave Alexander has conducted several infamous Lupulin Slams — East Coast vs. West Coast IPAs with the brewers present — at R.F.D., his Washington, D.C. beer restaurant.

And now, there's another March Beer Madness.

32 IPAs from across the nation will go head to head in an elimination battle in the National IPA Championship or NIPAC. The first round, and the first set of brackets, is set for February 23rd in Grand Rapids, Michigan.



Beer drinkers can also participate.

All contestants that correctly predict the winners of every round and the final champion will be included in a NIPAC Contest Winners Drawing. Prizes include a full case of beer from the 2008 National IPA Champion, tee-shirts, posters and brewery merchandise.

Who does the judging? Bill Metzger of the Brewing News papers, who is organizing the competition, has told me that the judges are commercial brewers present at each of the beer festivals where the tastings occur.

It's all at: www.brewingnews.com/nipac

Where's the local at SAVOR?

Chris O'Brien — the "Beer Activist" — raises a valid point about SAVOR — the beer and food symposium to be held in Washington, D.C., 16/17 May.

Chris says:

Surprisingly, I don’t detect even a tinge of the local and sustainable craze that has been coursing through the foodie community. Witness the growth of organizations such as Slow Food International, the ‘locavore‘ phenomenon, the 100-mile diet, and the continued double-digit growth in organic food. I suppose the simple concept of beer being a partner worthy of thoughtfully pairing with food is revolutionary enough without complicating matters by weaving sustainability into the agenda. Still, it seems a lost opportunity to showcase fine regional and organic foods from small companies that are such natural allies to the small brewing movement.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ll be perfectly happy to slowly savor a “Shell-fish Free ‘Crab’ Cake” with a glass of saison, but wouldn’t it have been nice to feature a real crab cake instead, made with blue crabs from the Chesapeake bay, and thus providing an educational opportunity about the collapse of this species? Lots of brewers are hip to the local/sustainable food phenomenon and it seems like the industry really ought to make a point of highlighting regional delicacies that are themselves in danger of becoming as rare as good beer was a couple decades ago.

It's that meme again: fresh beer is the better beer, fresh food is the better food.

Organic is the new hip cause — for beer and food — and that's all well and good.

But how gentle to the environment is organic food shipped in from thousands of miles away? Local and sustainable are the valid issues. If organic follows, as it often does, so much the better.

UPDATE: There will be local food.

• Hugh Sisson of Baltimore's Clipper City Brewing will be conducting a Chesapeake Bay seafood (and duck) demonstration with chefs from the Phillips Seafood Restaurant.
• Meadow Creek Dairy from Virginia will be there with its Grayson washed rind cheese.

Chris concludes his blog with resigned praise:

I guess I just want it all. I should just shut up and be happy that they decided to locate Savor right here in my own fair city.

SAVOR promises to indeed be a special event, and, in a way, a watershed moment for craft beer. At least the sponsoring organization — Brewers Association — didn't drop a letter, à la mode, and entitle it SAVR.

What Yuengling did during Prohibition

On Thursday 31 January, a cask of Clipper City Brewing's Small Craft Warning Uber Pils was served at Barley's Taproom & Pizzeria in Greenville, South Carolina . I was there — invited by proprietor Josh Beeby and manager Drew Moren — as the representative from the brewery.

After briefly discussing the topic of kellerbier — naturally-conditioned lager, such as casked Small Craft Warning — I felt the spirit and riffed on the essential meme of beer — fresh beer is the better beer. More pictures from the evening here.

A marketing tin for Yuengling's ice cream hangs on the wall of the main dining room of Barley's.


In addition to brewing 'near beer' to stay in business during Prohibition, Pennsylvania's Yuengling Brewery also operated a dairy.

Josh told me that he believes his sign to be a rare piece of breweriana — collectible historical brewery advertising items. And then he laughed. Two years after he had purchased the restaurant, the previous owner contacted him to obtain back the sign. Josh demurred.

The annual Blue-Gray Breweriana Show is billed as the largest breweriana show on the East Coast. This year, it occurs on February 13-16 in Fredericksburg, Virginia.

Shipyard Brewing and Real ID

I received a notification today that my VISA debit card — and those of many other customers at Chevy Chase Bank — may have been compromised. The bank, to its credit, has taken rapid and proactive measures.

And then I read this at CNET:

Shipyard Brewing Company's Maine ales, handcrafted in a former foundry on Portland's waterfront from malted barley, buckets of hop leaves, and Sebago Lake water, have risen to regional prominence. In 2007, the 14-year-old company shipped just more than 1 million cases.

Expanding sales of Shipyard Export Ale, Old Thumper Extra Special, and Bluefin Stout beyond New England has meant trips out of Portland's airport every other week for Fred Forsley, the company's co-founder and president. Forsley, 47, says his most frequent sales calls are to customers in Florida, New York, California, and Arizona.

But starting on May 11, Forsley may no longer be permitted to use his Maine driver's license to fly out of the Portland International Jetport. Under the federal Real ID Act, which the Bush administration has touted as an antiterrorist measure, federal screeners could be required to reject it as invalid identification.

"I have been assuming the issue would get addressed and streamlined," Forsley said. "But now I can see I have to really pay attention."

Forsley is hardly alone. In just more than three months, millions of law-abiding Americans might face new hassles when traveling on commercial flights if they hold driver's licenses or identification cards issued by Maine, South Carolina, Montana, Oklahoma, New Hampshire, and up to 15 other states plus the District of Columbia that have rejected the Real ID regulations on privacy and cost grounds or have not agreed to comply.

More from CNET.

Of course the beer angle caught my attention: two technology reporters who are 'into' good beer.

But living as I do in one of the states which has refused to go along with this boondoggle, I will suffer the consequences in May, such as a strip search at the airport — even when traveling within the United States — simply because my state's driver's license will then be considered inadequate and suspect.

I suppose I'll have to renew my passport.

The real problem with this de facto National ID card ("Where are your papers?") is not only the move toward increased surveillance (as much as that was increased — legally and illegally — during the last 7 years), and it's not only the estimated 14.6 billion dollar cost the Federal government is mandating upon the states.

No — the real problem will be the increased threat of identity theft. As bad as was the potential threat to my account, this Real ID will create a much more dangerous situation:

Real ID will also create new opportunities for ID thieves to commit their crime. The law requires DMVs to store scanned copies of birth certificates, Social Security cards, and any other documents that individuals present when they apply for a license. It creates a national linked database allowing millions of employees at all levels of government around the nation to access personal data. And it mandates a nationally standardized “machine-readable zone” that will let bars, merchants and other private parties scan personal data off licenses with greater ease than ever before, putting all that information into even greater circulation.

Good luck to Shipyard!

SAVOR tickets on sale now

From the Brewers Association:

Tickets for SAVOR: An American Craft Beer and Food Experience May 16 & 17 in Washington, DC are now available on the official website: www.SavorCraftBeer.com Tickets are $85 each and are available for Friday, May 16 6:30 pm - 10:00 pm, Saturday, May 17 12:30 pm - 4:00 pm and 6:30 pm - 10:00 pm.

Ticket includes:

• Samples from a wide variety of small dishes and appetizers crafted to match the taste profiles of craft beers
• Access to Educational Salons
• Commemorative Tasting Glass
• 2-ounce Samples of Specially Selected Craft Beers
• Souvenir Program
• Craft Beer Tasters Journal

And here's a description of the event:

For centuries, beer and food have been enjoyed together as part of the "good life". The dynamic range of flavors, aromas, and textures makes beer a perfect match for nearly any kind of food. Choosing beers and foods that enhance one another requires attention to the gustatory qualities of both.

We've taken great care to build an event that showcases the compatibility that world-class craft beers have with contemporary cuisine. The menu features more than 30 saporous delights from savory to the sinfully sweet. Several of the menu items at SAVOR are from the new book The Best of American Beer & Food by Lucy Saunders.

Federal City Caterers, which has catered many State Department functions and congressional receptions, will orchestrate the food menu.

"We love American cuisine and we know that craft beers are going to take it to new heights, the way fine wines did decades ago. Nothing stands still in this country, and we're thrilled to join with craft brewers in leading the way to a new future for American and worldwide palates."
---- Deborah Allen, Federal City Caterers

The 48 participating craft brewers will be pouring their versions of many of the world's classic beer styles, such as pilsener, porter, pale ale, and stout. Revered styles like wheat beers, barrel aged beers, and Belgian style beers will be chosen specifically by the brewers to best complement an item from the menu.