A Devils' Decoction

There's an interview of Jason Oliver of Devils Backbone posted at DesJardin Brewing. It's worth a read and especially so for the discussion of decoction brewing. Decoction is a time (and money) intensive method of mashing barley malt which can add flavors of toasted bread, caramel —and other ineffable oven-cooked characters— to a beer, usually a lager, which are not necessarily duplicated in the malting process.

The decoction 'cooker' at Devils Backbone.
Devils Backbone is located in central Virginia, near to several ski resorts. It's just two years old, but a multi-medal winner already. The building is lovely, the food is good, and ... the beer! If you're not a lager lover after you leave, you're not really a beer lover.

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At his blog Appellation Beer, beer author Stan Hieronymous muses whether decoction actually produces flavors not produced during malting, and, if so, whether the taste difference would be significantly noticeable for all beers.

Clamps & Gaskets: Roundup for 2010 Weeks 49/50/51

A non-comprehensive roundup of the week's
(in this instance, 3 weeks)
news of beer and other things.

Weeks 49/50/51
5 December 2010 - 25 December 2010

• 2010.12.25
  For Christmas, how to go a-wassailing, via Zythophile website.
• 2010.12.21
  Taylor Smack, brewer for Blue Mountain Brewery refutes the myth of buying warm beer vs. cold beer.


• 2010.12.21
  Happy Winter Solstice! Totality of the lunar eclipse occurs between 1 and 3 am ET.
• 2010.12.20
  The Virginia Craft Brewers Guild has been re-launched by the Virginia Manufacturers Association.
• 2010.12.20
  Who actually brews the beer sold at Trader’s Joe’s?
• 2010.12.20
  Cautionary tale for US brewers? Alberta, Canada, cracks down on "high-octane" beers.
• 2010.12.20
  What is the meaning of the phrase "Sans pris de mousse" found on some French language beer bottles?
• 2010.12.20
  Washington, D.C. area bar has been sued for a death caused by an inebriated customer.


• 2010.12.19
  DCBeer.com remembers Washington DC's now closed Brickskeller.
• 2010.12.19
  Discovery News reports that Amelia Earhart may have survived months as a castaway.
• 2010.12.18
  It will always be a "Tropical Hot Dog Night." Captain Beefheart dies, aged 69.
• 2010.12.17
  Dave Alexander talks about the imminent end of Washington D.C.'s Brickskeller; to leave behind beer & memorabilia.


• 2010.12.16
  Devils Backbone Brewpub in Roseland, Virginia, planning new production facility and 2nd restaurant.
• 2010.12.15
  Billie Holiday to Bruce Springsteen. Today would have been the 100th birthday of Columbia Records' talent scout John Hammond.
• 2010.12.14
  A destructive bug has infested Hawaii's Kona coffee fields.
• 2010.12.14
  British beer historian Zythophile explains the differences between old styles: X, XX, AK, KK, Burton Ale.
• 2010.12.14
  Winners of 2010 beer photo contest announced at A Good Beer Blog.
• 2010.12.13
  A look at the long-gone Consumer Brewery of Rosslyn, Virginia.
• 2010.12.13
  A Federal judge in Virginia strikes down the Federal health care law. Via NPR.
• 2010.12.10
  James Moody, jazz great saxophonist and composer. dies of cancer at age 85.
• 2010.12.09
  A list of beer apps for mobile phones.


• 2010.12.08
  Happy 15th anniversary to Heavy Seas Brewing Company of Baltimore, Maryland.
• 2010.12.07
  50-tap drafthouse opening in Columbia, Maryland, as Frisco Grille moves to new digs, and renamed as Frisco Tap house.
• 2010.12.07
  St. Nicholas: Patron Saint of Brewers. Via Brookston Beer Bulletin.
• 2010.12.05
  Amateur photographers post their best photos of 2010 to Flickr.
• 2010.12.05
  The most expensive beer ever: $1,185 (US dollars) bid for Antarctic Nail Ale, in a charity auction.
• 2010.12.05
  Evidence that many 19th century wooden beer casks in Britain were NOT lined (with pitch, etc.). Via British historian Ron Pattinson.

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• Clamps and Gaskets is a weekly wrap-up of stories  not posted at Yours For Good Fermentables.com. Most deal with beer (or wine, or whisky); some do not. But all are brief, and many are re-posts from my Twitter account: twitter.com/cizauskas.
• The Clamps and Gaskets graphic was created by Mike Licht at NotionsCapital.

More Maris Otter, then less

For all you real ale fans —and I'm not referring to over-the-top hopped beers, but fresh, full-flavored lower alcohol beers, in which the character of malt, the soul of beer, is not masked— there's good news in the December issue of What's Brewing, the house organ of the Campaign For Real Ale (CAMRA) in the UK. Maris Otter barley —which many consider to be the premier barley varietal for malting, in terms of flavor and low-nitrogen— had a bumper crop in England, due to winter rains followed by a dry spring and summer.

There is bad news, however.

Even though malting barley often garners a premium price over feed barley and other grains, its lower yields-per-acre can negate that advantage. Furthermore, the price for wheat surged past that for barley during 2010. Many British barley growers reacted by switching their fields to wheat.

Drink your cask-conditioned ale now!

To air in April 2011 - "Brewed on the Bay: The Craft Beers of Maryland"

In April 2011, Maryland Public Television will be airing Brewed on the Bay: The Craft Beers of Maryland, a half-hour documentary on the history of Maryland brewing and the rise of the 'craft' beer movement.

UPDATE: airing 14 April 2011.

Brewing on the Bay will film at breweries throughout Maryland, including all of the state's brewpubs. Those interviewed will include Hugh Sisson, Jim Lutz, Steve Jones, Rob Kasper, Turkey Joe Traber, Volker Stewart, Tom Flores, and other brewers and beer poobahs in the region.

Al Spoler is the brains behind the project.

A former director at Maryland Public Television (MPT), now working as a freelance producer, Spoler may be better known as sidekick to Hugh Sisson of Heavy Seas Brewery on the long-running Public Radio show Cellar Notes, a weekly wine (and occasionally, beer) review program in Baltimore, Maryland. Spoler runs the annual Maryland Governor's Cup Wine Competition, and teaches at Loyola University.

I may have a small part in Brewing on the Bay.

In mid-December at the Olney Ale House, Spoler interviewed me about the Oxford Brewing Company, where, in the early 1990s, I had been a brewer and, later, manager. Begun as the British Brewing Company, but now closed, Oxford was the first microbrewery to operate in post-Prohibition Maryland.




Once aired, the documentary will be available on the MPT website as streaming video; DVDs will be available for purchase.

Pic(k) of the Week: Merry (Easter) Christmas

Unlike his Easter Island brethren, this Moai in Falls Church, Virginia, was wearing a Santa hat.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all, fulfillment, health, and, of course, good fermentables.

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Pic(k) of the Week: one in a weekly series of personal photos, usually posted on Saturdays, and often of a 'good fermentable' as subject.