Crafting a Nation: Movie Review

Over the last 10 years, there have been several documentaries which examine American craft beer. The first one I watched was American Beer, shot on a road trip to numerous great breweries. A few years ago I reviewed Beer Wars, which examined the economic struggle between large and small breweries. A couple months ago the production company behind Crafting a Nation sent me a DVD copy to review. I finally got around to watching the end of it during my flight to GABF.

Crafting a Nation’s focus is on the rather serious endeavor of opening a brewery. It paints a vivid picture of the time, money, and hope that craft brewers invest into their businesses. However, it fails to put much emphasis on the beer itself; the story it tells is primarily an economic and personal one. I understand that not everyone wants to watch 95 minutes about the brewing process, recipes, etc. but there was virtually nothing about beer itself outside a dumbed-down opening overview of the brewing process.

On the positive side, the movie was beautifully shot, the sound was clear, and it tells a well-developed narrative. The primary focus is on Black Shirt Brewing Co. Through the course of the Crafting a Nation we return to see their progress and setbacks, culminating with the opening night of their tasting room. Over more than half an hour of screen time though, we hear that they are planning to brew a red ale (which apparently describes all of their beers). That is literally all of the information about their beers presented in the movie. More time is spent talking about issues with the water line, wiring, family, and credit card scanner. I know from Jacob's experience with Modern Times that this is pretty accurate in terms of the time spent on brewing tasks, but that doesn't make it interesting to watch.

The secondary focus is on the brewers of St. Louis, brewing in the shadow of Budweiser. Urban Chestnut, 4 Hands, Schlafly etc. There are some interesting discussions about the differences between opening a brewery recently, and in the early days when the public was less interested in local beer.

Many other breweries are seen briefly. Always nice to see Jester King and some other fun Texas breweries. It seems like they must have recorded dozens of hours of footage judging from the variety of breweries visited and people interviewed. It was nice to see so many fresh faces. Moonlight’s Brian Hunt provided some of the more interesting perspective in the film. When the Vinnie and Natalie Cilurzo of Russian River, Jim Koch of Boston Beer, and Sam Calagione of Dogfish Head made their appearances, they were relatively brief.

There is a focus on using local ingredients in Asheville, NC, but the problem is that this isn’t the case for many breweries. Even those breweries shown using local hops often only have enough for just one batch of wet-hopped beer a year. A chef talks about how he likes local ingredients, and buys local beer to pair with his food, the problem is little of that local beer is made with local ingredients.

Consistently the message of Crafting a Nation was that craft breweries are good for the economy and that buying local is the big reason. However, there really isn’t much about why the beer these brewers produce is better than macro-brewers. I think the movie may oversell the economics. As the percentage of craft beer by volume increasingly comes from large expansions by the top 20 craft brewers, the number of jobs per barrel of beer will decrease with economies of scale – 100,000 jobs at 5% of the market, doesn’t mean 500,000 jobs when and if craft beer reaches 25% of the market.

For me the advantage of craft brewers is that they can brew beers that suit the local palate, or a small subset of the population. They can use ingredients that are too scarce, expensive, or time consuming for larger breweries to utilize. They can serve beers either incredibly fresh or beautifully aged, which becomes more difficult the larger a brewery grows. These are the sorts of things this movie was missing.

We see barrels at Russian River, but no discussion of what is in them, or why barrel-aged beer is interesting. No mention of the effort expended to fill and blend the barrels. There are lots of shots of brewing, but no one really talks about their process.

I’m unclear exactly who is the intended audience for this movie. It doesn’t seem like a movie that really tells you much if you are already invested in craft beer. I'm not sure there is enough there to convince someone who drinks only Bud Lite to change their buying habits. In many ways Crafting a Nation seems like a lobbying effort. There is no discussion of the final product, just the people who have taken financial risks to open breweries. There is a slight “government get out of the way” bent to several moments, but that isn’t the real focus.

I’m less interested in beer based on who brewed it, and more on the processes, ingredients, and results. If SAB Miller brewed beers that tasted as good as those from my favorite craft brewers, I’d buy them (I had no problem going out of my way a few weeks ago to sample four Bourbon County Stout variations from the AB InBev owned Goose Island). In terms of percentage, Boston Beer is closer to the global AB InBev production than a 17,000 bbl/year microbrewery is to Boston Beer. I think the biggest advantage of small breweries is their size, and as craft brewers continue to grow, they slowly lose that edge.

Even if the goal for the movie wasn't to spend too much time on of the nitty-gritty of production, I would have been interested to hear why these brewers chose to brew the styles/recipes they did. What inspires them? What did the brewers who’d succeeded wish they’d done differently? What about brewers whose breweries failed?

The movie is worth seeing if you want to hear a few personal stories behind breweries, just don’t expect to take anything away from it in terms of how to brew, or what to drink. I’m still waiting for a movie that really captures what craft beer is about, clearly beer needs to be a big part of that!

Intro to Digital Photography for Beer

Every once in awhile someone asks me what kind of camera I use, so I thought I’d post a write-up to save me the time of putting something together for each request. I also thought I’d include a few tips that I’ve picked up over the years for taking pictures of beer. I should also note, these tips are really intended for pictures you want to share, not just some quick shots, if like several of my friends, you just want a pictorial record of what you drink/brew. I'm not an expert, but I know enough to be dangerous.

Gear
For the last year I've shot with a Canon Rebel T3 with a Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II lens. Not the priciest combo available (~$450 together on Amazon today), but it does everything I need it to for beer. The lens is non-zoom, which has its pluses and minuses. It means that the distance away from the subject (glass) is relatively fixed, but it is an intuitive distance for portrait shots, which is essentially what beer photography is. However, for the price its optics draw rave  reviews for their sharpness compared to much more complex/expensive lenses as a result of the simple design. Do you need a DSLR (digital single-lens reflex) camera, probably not, but it’s like all-grain brewing, having more control over the process gives you creative freedom and allows you to learn.

Subject
The most important lesson of photography is that the subject is important. It’s much easier to take a great photo if the beer and location are pretty. No matter how well a beer is brewed, it won’t look spectacular in a dirty pint glass on a white background. Interesting glasses are a big help, and if they are spotless so much the better. Make sure the inside of the glass is clean too, you don't want ugly patches of bubbles stuck to the sides. With the number of pictures on this blog I’ve had to become pretty creative finding new photo shoot locations in my house to avoid the feeling of looking at the same picture on every post. I've shot next to the barrels, in the attic, outside, and on just about ever table and shelf I own. Props, like ingredients, can be nice to add, but usually it looks a bit too staged for me.

Lighting
I don’t like flash photography for beer. Unless you’ve got a diffuser the reflection off the glass is annoying. As a result I try to shoot in good lighting conditions. Naturally light ideally, but I make do with interior lights when I don't make it home from work early enough to take advantage of the sun. If the lighting is poor, a tripod will really help by allowing slower shutter speeds (the longer the shutter is open the more light can enter the camera, but it can be difficult to avoid motion blur).

Settings
In most situations I prefer a wide aperture (low f-stop) for taking pictures of beer, usually 1.8/f or a click or two higher. This reduces the depth of field, meaning there will be a smaller range of distances in focus. This causes the beer to pop out by blurring the background (meaning you also don’t see the mess in my house). With a lens with an even wider aperture (1.4/f or even 1.2/f) you can get the depth of field so shallow that you won’t even get the entire glass in focus. This can be gorgeous, but my preference is to see the whole glass.

The wide aperture has the added benefit of allowing more light into the camera, making it easier to avoid using the flash in poor lighting conditions. Otherwise I just try to ensure the ISO (sensor sensitivity) is low enough that the picture isn’t noticeably grainy, and the shutter length isn’t so long that the image blurs when shooting hand held (1/80 of a second or higher). Although I recently purchased a tripod so that I can shoot longer exposure pictures without blurring. Check the light meter or LCD display to ensure the shot is bright enough. You may be happier with a slightly brighter or darker shot, so take some darker and lighter shots and see what looks better.

Composition
I’m not an expert at photo composition, so my basic rule is “take a lot of photos.” It’s digital so you don’t need to be too careful with making each shot precise. Move around, change your angle, and fiddle with your settings. Often it seems like the shot is best from an angle where I'm the least comfortable. The further the distance between the subject and the background, the more out of focus the background will be when the subject is in focus. I'll often take a few shots before I open/pour the beer so I can get some good shots before the head starts to sink (a race with most sour beers). When you get something that starts to look good, that’s the time to start dialing it in. Check your white balance, make sure your focus is perfect etc. My lens/camera has trouble with automatic focus when shooting transparent beers, so I tend to shoot in manual mode.

Post-processing
I’m not a big believer in severe image editing in this case. Maybe a slight rotation, crop, or white balance adjustment with GIMP, but I tend to avoid more intensive post-processing. Same goes for filters, they can be fun to play with, but for the blog I try to make my photos an accurate representation of what the beer looks like. As with my tasting notes, I strive to be honest about the results.

Hope this help someone out there! If you’ve got any tips to share please post a comment. I've been slowly working my way through the lecture notes from a digital photography class at Stanford, interesting reading if you want to get nerdy.

New Orleans, Better Beer Than You'd Think

There are a handful of American cities that are regarded as hubs for good beer: I'd put Portland, San Diego, and Philadelphia all in that first tier. These days there are plenty of other places that have a few cool breweries, or a bunch of good bars, but there are still a lot of cities that are not known for their beer scene at all. New Orleans was one of those cities in my mind, sure they have Abita (brewers of a number of most mediocre beers) nearby, but I think of it as a town whose drinking scene is centered around college students slamming florescent colored hurricanes and hand grenades. I was expecting great food, so if I wasn't able to get a decent beer I'd survive (see our trip to Spain).

Before Audrey and I flew down for the extra-long weekend over New Years, I did a bit of research. There were a few more places than I expected in the BeerAdvocate database, and got some good suggestions from replies on Facebook and Twitter. However it is always hard to tell just how good places are when there isn't a huge amount of competition.

We stayed near the French Quarter and Frenchmen Street at a small-cool-eclectic-odd bed and breakfast. The first day we walked around to get a feel for the neighborhood. The next day we took the St. Charles St. streetcar through the Garden District to Casamento's (delicious oyster loaf and stew, but painfully inattentive service).

After lunch we walked to NOLA Brewing, a smallish production brewery that opened a few years ago. We arrived in time for the weekly Friday tour. It turned out the tour consisted of drinking free beer and standing around the brewery. We only stuck around long enough to try one beer each before the line stretched out the door and around the corner, and we decided to move on. However, over our six days in town I got to try most of their beers with the Irish Channel Stout (more bitter and roasted than expected) being the winner.

From NOLA we headed to what I had been told was the best bottle shop in town, Stein's Market and Deli. Not a big place, but it was funny to see Cantillon and Fantôme in abundance, breweries that have become rare on the East Coast (and at prices I don't remember seeing in a couple years - $12.50 for Fantôme Saison?!). Other then a few local beers, they didn't carry much I can't find in DC besides a few Southern breweries like Sweetwater, St. Arnold, and Lazy Magnolia. Before we left we also grabbed a couple knishes and a pickle to snack on as we continued our walk.

With a few bottles in tow we continued east to The Avenue Pub, where we sat in their back courtyard. Another relatively new operation, it has a beer list that could stand up against many of the great beer bars in beer-cities. I had a glass of 3 Fonteinen Zwet.be (a funky porter) and Audrey had a glass of BFM Bon Chien (both were in good shape, although I was hoping for more sourness in the 3F). They had a number of local beers as well, but we figured we could find those at other bars or restaurants.

In general I was impressed that most places we went into had at least a couple local beers from places like Bayou Teche, Tin Roof, NOLA, and Abita. In particular we enjoyed d.b.a (live music and 30 taps), Green Goddess (brûléed, apple stuffed, French toast, and a smoked beer from Bayou Teche), Boucherie (best corned beef sandwich of my life, and a glass of Du Ciel Route Des Épices), and Cochon (braised pork cheeks, house cured meats and a Tin Roof Voodoo Bengal S.P.A). I think the single best thing we had to eat on the trip were the barbecued shrimp at Mr. B's Bistro, particularly the sauce which tasted like reduced shrimp stock, butter, and spices (the Abita Winter I had with it was the best beer I've had from them). I can't remember a single bad thing we ate on the entire trip, even the beignets at Cafe du Monde were excellent despite it being a tourist trap.

Taking a break from eating (not to mention museums, a swamp tour, and shopping) we headed to the Old New Orleans Rum distillery for a tour (luckily the $10 includes both a tour-guide and samples). The tour started out with a cocktail (a not-too-sweet tea with Cajun spiced rum), and then proceeded into the history of the distillery (founded in 1995) and of rum production in general. The molasses is mixed with water and then open-fermented in a large vat by a few pounds of yeast (the taste of the wash was a bit sour, but otherwise inoffensive - sanitation isn't that important when you are going to distill). Once fermentation is complete the distillation begins in a pot still and then proceeds to a column still (repossessed from a French perfume maker). The bulk of their rum is sold unaged, but some is aged in used bourbon barrels for three years (some of the barrels are subsequently sold to a brewery that uses them to age their smoked porter). At the end of the tour we got small samples of all four of their products (including the 10 year aged version, barrels of which survived hurricane Katrina up in the rafters, above the eight feet of flooding they experienced - see the color change in the wood above the fan?).

On our last night we met up with Sal, a homebrewer from across lake Pontchartrain who had emailed me a couple of time for advice. He suggested El Gato Negro for some fresh squeezed margaritas, which were excellent (I went with the pineapple-cilantro, Audrey had the satsuma). We talked about the beer scene and the local culture in general and swapped a couple homebrews. Sadly, I haven't had a chance to open either of the beers he gave me yet since I have been fighting off a cold for the last week. For the flight back I grabbed a muffaletta sandwich at Central Grocery (we'd tried to go around lunch on a previous day, but baulked at the line). Best dinner on a plane I've ever had.

Good beer, great food, fun trip. Not sure where we'll be headed next, but I need a trip to Belgium at some point (maybe a reward once the book is finally done...).

Upcoming Class: Homebrewing Locally

I'll be teaching a class about brewing with local ingredients at Mountain View Farm in Purcellville, VA on Sunday August 14th from 2-5 PM .  The class will cover making beer with ingredients you'd be more likely to find at a farmers market than a homebrewing store.  During the session I'll be demonstrating several techniques while brewing a beer that includes locally grown grain, fruit, and hops. The recipe (even the style) are still to be determined because the farm has not told me exactly what ingredients they will provide.

During the lulls in brewing I'll be discussing how to cereal mash, make herbal teas/tinctures, use wet hops, capture wild yeast, and prep fruit.  There should also be plenty of time to answer questions and tailor the topics to what people are most interested in.  I'll be providing a few samples from my cellar to illustrate the results as well.

It is a perfect time for this class since many brewing ingredients are starting to come back into season here in the Mid-Atlantic.  Over the last few weeks I have picked the first of my hops, and bought sour cherries, blackberries, white nectarines, and methley plums to add to various batches.  It would really be great though if I could find a reliable source for local malt (off topic, but has anyone had a chance to try brewing with anything from Valley Malt? I had a solid beer from Wormtown Brewing that used their malt and had an interesting grainy character). 

If you are interested in attending the class, it is $25/person or $40/couple.  To reserve a spot contact Shawna  at shawna_dewitt@yahoo.com.  If you either aren't in the area or can't make it then I'll be posting a full report on the recipe and how the class went in a couple weeks.  I may be running an intro to homebrewing class at the same farm sometime this fall, but more details on that will have to wait a couple months.

Update:
8/4 There are only seven (of twenty) spots left, if you are interested in coming please sign up soon.

8/11 The class is now sold out. I also found out I'll be using some wheat and local peaches, should be a good combo with the homegrown hops.  Looking forward to seeing everyone there.

Here is a post with some information about what was covered in the class, and the recipe for the beer we brewed.

Visiting Madrid, Granada, and Seville

At the end of May Audrey and I spent nine days in Spain, starting in Madrid before traveling south to Granada and Seville.  Spain is a striking country, with a complex history, rich culinary tradition, and wonderful wine, but finding a good beer was next to impossible.  Almost every street has at least one cerveceria (beer bar) and I saw more people drinking beer than anything else, but the only beers available at most restaurants were bland pale lagers. Ordering a "cerveza" would result in a Cruzcampo, Alhambra, or another fresh, clean, pale lager (often served in an attractive stemmed glass).  The experience conjured up visions of the pre-craft beer US, with lots of beer, but few interesting options.

We did bump into a few somewhat interesting local beers like Mahou Negra (a dunkel), and the oddly named Alhambra Mezquita (mosque) which I can only describe as an old ale lager. There were a couple bars we walked by that advertized a selection of imports, often on display in their windows were 10-20 imported beers (Chimay, Franziskaner, even the exotic Budweiser). The last night of the trip we stumbled into the local mega-department store looking for a few bottles of wine to bring home, what I found were bottles of Westmalle Dubble for 1.60 euros (~$2.25) each (a good deal even with a bad exchange rate).  Spain certainly wasn't a beer desert (like India was), and it seems like a country that is ripe for a craft beer explosion.

The red wine was cheap and generally very good, but when it is nearing 90 degrees that isn't my beverage of choice. Sadly sangria, the Spanish solution to that problem, was hit-or-miss. At some restaurants it tasted like wine with a subtle citrus flavor and light sweetness (wonderful), while other time it either tasted like Hi-C (too much sugar, and with extra fruit like watermelon) or one that tasted oddly of Butterfingers.

The food was similar to the sangria in that some places were great, while others were lackluster. My normal scheme when traveling is to find restaurants that look like the locals go to them (trying to avoid eating in touristy areas or places that look gimmicky). For the most part this landed us at small bars and restaurants where the food fell between iffy and decent. I was disappointed how little variation I saw in things like tortilla (potato omelet) and bocadillos (sandwiches).  We did have some great meals thought, fish soup in Granada, roast suckling pig in Madrid, stewed partridge in Toledo. We also got a number of great tapas on Calle Navas in Granada (like shredded spiced meat mini-sandwiches). It is a great concept to be able to get a small plate of food to try something, and then move on if it wasn't especially interesting or well-done.

It was a busy nine days, but we got to see and do almost everything we had wanted to. 

A few general observations:

Picasso's Guernica at the Riena Sofia in Madrid is still relevant and powerful.

Why are Europeans so obsessed with bottled water, I thought they were supposed to be environmentally conscious?

The architecture, fountains, and carvings of the Alhambra in Granada were stunning.

The number of times our servers disappeared for 30 minutes or more when we wanted more food, or were looking to pay was astounding.

The public transportation systems were clean, on time,and  reasonably priced (compared to America).

Spain would be a difficult place to visit for a strict vegetarian, almost everything had a bit of jamon (delicious thin-sliced salt-cured ham).

Despite my Catholic upbringing, looking at a saint's 400 year old arm bone in a gold case at the Seville Cathedral was still creepy.

The language barrier (I took Latin in high school, Audrey knows Arabic and French) didn't create much trouble for us.  We learned a few key phrases, and hand gestures were sometimes required, but often the people we met spoke some English.

It was interesting to see young people out in the streets peacefully protesting, trying to change their government.

New Site Look

When I posted my blog-year-in-review I asked if anyone had suggestions on ways to improve The Mad Fermentationist.  A fellow beer blogger, Joel, contacted me with some ideas on how to improve the visuals of the blog.  He designed a few new banners and gave me a link to some html code that makes a random one appear at the top of each page.  Joel also suggested a wider post area (up to 1000 pixels), and a new dark wood grain background.  After implementing the updates last night I'm really happy with the way it turned out (I've already got a box of homebrewed sour beers headed his way as a thank you).

Hopefully no one was too attached to the old 1970s wallpaper background.  If you have any other suggestions, let me know. 

Administrative Fermentationist Stuff

The last few days I've been putting a bit of work than usual into The Mad Fermentationist, hopefully the wider page layout and additional tabs at the top make for an easier/cleaner reading experience.  I was getting annoyed by how little of the screen was taken up by the posts on my new wide screen monitor at work and how much stuff was starting the stack up in the column on the left.

In a couple days http://MadFermentationist.Blogspot.com/ will start redirecting to my new custom web address: http://www.TheMadFermentationist.com/ (Sadly MadFermentationist.com was already claimed and redirects to South Sound Photo... damn squatters).  The old Blogspot address (as well as the RSS Feed) should continue to work, so no worries if you can't be bothered to update your bookmark when the change goes down. 

To my own shame I joined twitter a couple days ago (@madfermentation).  At this point most of the tweets are automatically generated when a new post is published here or on BrewLocal, but I have also tweeted notes about the progress of the various batches and experiments I have fermenting.



You can also follow The Mad Fermentationist on Facebook using Networked Blogs using this link.

I also still appreciate all the people who follow this blog the "old-fashion" way by subscribing to the RSS feed:
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If you like the changes or if there are other changes to the blog that you'd like to see please let me know in a comment or with an email to madfermentationist@gmail.com.

Beer Wars Movie Review (rant?)

After my rant last spring about the yet to be released movie Beer Wars, I've been interested in actually seeing it. At that time it was released as a one night only "event" that I didn't have a chance to attend. Luckily I finally got the chance when it became available on NetFlix a few days ago, so I took the hour and a half to watch it and write up my impression.

Beer Wars is a movie that wanders, not knowing exactly what it wants to be or who it wants to cater to. Anat Baron (writer/director) does her best job playing Michael Moore in several silly bits (including a blind taste tests to show that the average beer drinker can't tell the difference between the light macros) and a failed attempt to get an interview with August Busch IV. Despite these forced antics for the most part the movie feels like a boring lecture about the tree tier system, store shelf space allocation, and the influence of beer industry lobby. Sadly the movie isn't about beer (the beverage) so much as it is about beer (the business), but then what can you expect from a movie directed by someone who is allergic to alcohol and considers Mike's Hard Lemonade to be a beer.

Other than the macros, the movie focuses on two beer brands, Dogfish Head and Moonshot. Rhonda Kallman (the founder of Moonshot) was helping to launch Sam Adams long before Sam Calagione (founder of Dogfish Head) brewed his first batch of homebrew, yet it is his brewery that is growing at 40% a year and hers that is struggling to get off the ground. The movie suggests many possible reasons for this paradox (Bud's release of B-to-the-E,a caffeinated “competitor” to Moonshot, poor shelf position, the three tier system etc...) but fails to state the most salient reason, that a caffeinated pale lager just does not appeal to the craft beer crowd. In fact the movie is so obsessed with the gimmick and marketing of beer that there is very little discussion of beer and brewing.

There are some nice cameos from the likes of Michael Jackson, Garret Oliver, and Charlie Papazian, but none of them stick around for more than a couple quick quotes. I enjoyed the segments on Yuengling as well, but the movie gives them too much credit for their brewing tradition when their "Traditional Lager" (which accounts for most of their sales) was introduced in 1987 (years after beers like Sam Adams Boston Lager, and Sierra Nevada Pale Ale).

The fact that the first "artisanal" beer mentioned at the start of the movie is Blue Moon caused me to worry. Later on they do explore the faux-craft macro beer trend, but they never mention that Blue Moon is the most successful of the category; instead Anheuser Busch's Green Valley Brewing gets the focus, but the movie fails to even explore the issues surrounding the use of non-organic hops in "organic" beers.

It seemed that rather than a story about beer, the filmmaker was trying to make something more in the vein of the Omnivore's Dilemma (Michael Pollan's celebrated explorations of America's food system). As someone who loves craft beer already I wanted to see more of the small craft brewers, rather than a (frankly) boring discussion about lobbying, shelf space, three tier system, and corporate takeovers. Those same topics take on a much more important (sinister) roll when you talk about food because there really is a health difference between drinking orange juice and orange soda, while beers on the other hand (whether craft, macro, or import) are relatively equivalent in terms of nutrition. The beer industry also does not pose the same public health risk due to pathogenic bacteria because it cannot survive in beer.

I would have liked to see a more focus on the good points of the craft breweries rather than just the negatives of the brewing industrial complex. For example they could have talked about the infighting in the macro business, compared to the collaboration beer trend in craft brewing; the manipulative use of the three tier system by the macros, compared to a brewery like Stone that acts as a distributor for other great craft beers like Russian River etc... By showing the differences in the market you can begin to get a better picture that the difference between the small and large breweries is more than just the quality of the beer.

In the end I just wanted Anat to say that Rhonda can't blame Bud for all her woes (even as she tries to get them to partner with her). Despite having a talented/charismatic owner and some great beers Dogfish Head has taken more than a decade to slowly grow into a really successful brewery despite a frivolous lawsuit from AB over a couple of their beer names. The idea of a caffeinated pale lager won't be supported by the craft beer movement because it is comprised of people who either are interested in the flavor of the beer or like the natural/local nature of it.

The final image of Anat turning her nose up at a big glass of (macro?) beer was indicative of someone who has no particular interest in beer other than the story of the "beer wars." What is interesting about craft beer to me is the flavor of the beers and the passion of the brewers, not the politics (as important as they may or may not be).

Distilled Hitachino's Nest Wit Cocktail

A couple months back my friend Tracy Jill dragged me to a cocktail night at Bar Pilar here in DC. It was the last night on the job for their weekly mix-master and he was bringing back his favorites from his time there. The bar had a couple decent taps, but I decided to take in the Epicurean delights (at $11 a drink).

Most of cocktails on the menu were riffs on old classics, or interesting new combinations, many with homemade bitters and other exotic ingredients and liquors. I thought most of them were alright, but I have not not had many cocktails since discovering good beer, they either end up too sweet or too boozy for my tastes. The one standout I tried was based on (surprise) Allagash White, with Plymouth gin, orange juice, honey syrup, and some lemon peel. The flavor was great, wheaty/bready, with some spice and just a touch of sweetness and not a lot of ethanol.

Fast forward a couple of weeks and I was in The Wine Specialist on M St buying some beer (while walking back from $4 happy hour glasses of BFM Abbaye De Saint Bon Chien at Pizzeria Paradiso). As I was walking out a clear square bottle with the Hitachino's Nest owl on the cap caught my eye in the sake display. It was called Kiuchi No Shizuku and the label indicated that inside was the distilled remains of Hitachino Nest Wit beer (aged with extra aromatics), it sounded worth $15 for a try. The aroma was not too bad (orange and coriander and maybe a hint of herbal hops), but at 86 proof the alcohol was too strong for my tongue to get past.


Then an idea struck me, why not soften the harsh edges of the distilled spirit with some of the beer it was distilled from, plus a bit of lemon peel to give it a fresh citrus pop. I added a tablespoon of the liquor to each half of the beer (guessing completely on what to aim for). The results were pretty good, the flavor was close to an imperial wit. I think the beer was a bit past its prime, but the fresh citrus peel helped to cover that up. Although not as good as the original blend at Bar Pilar I thought it was a reasonable first attempt. A small amount of honey and orange juice would help to replace some of the sweetness that a bigger beer normally has, as well as some added complexity.


I realize most of you won’t be able to try this exact concoction at home, but gin is along the same lines as Kiuchi No Shizuku (they are both distilled spirits with herbs and orange peel), and any wit will do. Nothing wrong with playing with your beer a little bit from time to time.

Does anyone else have a good beer cocktail recipe to share?

Beer Wars: Brewed in America (Rant)

I realize that this isn’t the sort of topic I usually cover on this blog, so if you couldn’t care less about my thoughts on a movie about the American craft brewing industry which hasn't even come out yet, just skip over this and I’ll be returning with homebrew content shortly.

Beer Wars is a movie about the “fight” of the small independent craft brewer against the evil macros breweries. It is a one night only event (although I'm sure there will be a DVD) on April 16th followed by a live discussion panel that will be beamed to the 400+ theaters nationwide showing the movie.

First off it bothers me to see a bunch of people who run pretty big businesses (Sam Adams, Stone, and Dogfish Head) drumming up anti-corporate sentiments about larger corporations (Bud, Miller, Coors) that they compete against. Could you imagine a movie with great wine makers taking shots at Thunderbird, or great cheese makers making fun of Kraft? I understand that marketing is important, but I think there are better ways to go about it.

Watching the trailer a chuckled a little when I heard Sam (the owner of Dogfish Head) rail against the use of adjuncts in macro lagers. This is a man who uses so much refined sugar (or as he calls it white malt) in his beers that you might guess that he staffed the brewery with oompa loompas.

After seeing the trailer I simply didn’t have much interest in going to see the movie. As a five-year veteran of the craft beer scene I just assumed the movie would end up preaching to the choir (how many non-beer nerds will go to this?) and retread things I had already heard (beer is more than just American light lagers, the macros are trying to maintain their market dominance through marketing, beer store/distributor shenanigans, and lobbying etc...).

What really prompted this post was an email I received Saturday from Chandra Karp who is “working with” New Century Brewing Company to promote the movie. The basic idea I guess is to convince me (and other bloggers) to publish their press release in exchange for a pass to the movie. I found this odd as I had never heard of the brewery, and the other people featured are all big names in the industry (Greg from Stone, Sam from Boston Beer, Author/Historian Maureen Ogle, Todd from Beer Advocate etc…).

It turns out that New Century is based in Boston, but contract brewed by Lion in Wilkes Barre PA (nothing wrong with contract brewing per se, Sly Fox brews some fantastic beers for Southampton). New Century makes two beers, Edison, is a 4% ABV light lager sold in clear bottles and Moonshot ‘69 a caffeine infused golden lager (which has a 1.44 score on Beer Advocate). Are these really great examples of “creative and passionate” craft beer? I have nothing against a light/crisp lager on a hot summer day or a rich caffeinated coffee stout on a cold winter night, but a light beer in a (skunk prone) clear bottle and a pils with 69 mg of pure caffeine added? Come on.

Why the CEO of a small, boring, contract brewery is featured in this movie and following discussion panel is beyond me. These are exactly the sorts of marketing driven beers that I expect from Bud/Miller/Coors, not the flavor driven beers from the great craft brewers of this country (Lost Abbey, Russian River, Surly, Firestone Walker, Tröegs etc…). Here is what the press release has to say about her “Well-recognized as a female pioneer in a male-dominated industry. But it was Kallman’s energy and tenacity however, that caught the attention and inspiration of Baron.” If they just wanted to get another woman passionate about beer on the panel how about Tonya Cornett from Bend Brewing (which recently won small brewpub of the year).

The film maker’s main cred (according to the press release) is from being the general manager of Mike’s Hard Lemonade. I wonder if Sam Adam’s ownership of (and recent settlement with the TTB over) Twisted Tea will come up?

And don’t even get me started on trying to figure out why Ben Stein was chosen to be the moderator for the 30 minute discussion panel after the movie. I loved Win Ben Stein’s Money as much as anyone (and his classic delivery of "Bueller... Bueller"), but in his current roll as a spokesman for creationism I have a hard time believing much he says.

Sorry for the rant, if anyone goes to see Beer Wars on Thursday let me know what you think of it.

To take a look at my impressions once I finally actually watched the movie, take a look at my review.

Casu Marzu, ewww...

A friend just forwarded me a link to a short article about what must be the most disgusting cheese on earth, Casu marzu (maggot cheese). He simply said, "Please never ever make this cheese..."

According to Wikipedia it starts as a block of Pecorino (I would guess Pecorino sardo) that is contaminated with a special type of fly larva (Piophila casei) which partially digest the cheese making it softer. The cheese can be consumed with or without the live maggots (although if you choose to eat them you have to shield your eyes while eating to ensure none of them jump up and hit you.)

This cheese has been outlawed, but it is still available occasionally on the Sardinian black cheese market (I wish I lived in a country that had a black market for crazy or possibly dangerous foods). Shockingly there are several other European cheeses that rely on mites for part of their aging process.

I just flew in from India (and boy am I thirsty)

My two weeks of fun in India are over, and I'm back in DC. This isn't a travel blog, so I'll spare you discussion of the Taj Mahal, smog, Bollywood movies, beggars, Jaipur, haggling, and animals of all sorts. That said this is a food and fermentation blog, so I will talk about the trip from that perspective.

The beer selection was as bad as (or worse than) I expected. I managed to make it the two weeks drinking just 1/2 a bottle of Kingfisher (typical bland macro-lager) and a few sips of local rum that our driver shared with us when we took him out to dinner in Agra. That said the food, and the plethora of fermented milk products, completely made up for it.

The most common dairy product we had was probably the yogurt, which was part of the sauces for many (most?) of the dishes we ate (my two lactose intolerant friends on the trip really appreciated that). That said I didn't actually get to try any of the yogurt, so I can't say if it was substantially different than any other yogurt I have had before.

Paneer (a fresh cheese generally translated as cottage cheese) is another mainstay in Indian cooking, particularly because it plays the meat role in many dishes at vegetarian restaurants (strangely restaurants that serve meat are called non-veg). I found the paneer much softer and more flavorful than what I have had before.

Raita (which was translated as curd) is a side dish that helps to cut through the heat of spicy food. It is somewhere between yogurt and cottage cheese. According to Wiki it is often made by partially straining yogurt (further down this road you would get yogurt cheese). It was particularly popular with puri bhaji (a breakfast of fried puffy bread and potato curry).


Lassi is a ubiquitous tangy yogurt based beverage. In the states they are basically always sweet, and are generally mango flavored. In India there was always a choice between sweet and salty (plus an occasional mango option). I had them served at room temperature several times which was interesting because it really brought out a yeasty aroma (but was a bit disconcerting from a personal health angle). My friend Mat doesn't handle spice well so he often had a lassi to make it stop tasting like burning.


Chass is a less common (and in my opinion less tasty) drink than lassi that is traditionally drank at the end of the meal("to aid digestion"). It was referred to as buttermilk, but it was not thick and tangy like the fermented buttermilk I have always seen in America. Instead it was rather thin and flavored with salt and cilantro. It may be that they are actually using the liquid that is left behind after butter is made, but no one I asked seem to know.


According to one of our guides most of these dairy products are now mostly made at large industrial dairies, so I didn't get a chance to observe any production taking place.

Overall the food was excellent, and extremely cheap. For example the last meal the five of us had in Mumbai (consisting of a couple veggie dishes, biryani (flavored rice), roti (flat bread), a few bottles of water, a chai masala, and a chiku shake) came out to just over 50 rupees ($1) per person. I also found it very interesting that over our travels we saw many of the same names on menus everywhere, but the actual dishes ranged dramatically from city to city and even restaurant to restaurant.

The price of food seemed to have an inverse relationship to how good it was. Some of the best food I tried was at small local restaurants or from street vendors, which always cost less than $.25 per item (we generally just ordered one of whatever was coming out of the hot pan). Luckily I avoided any major gastro-intestinal illness, although I did manage to catch a 3-day cold from one of my friends.

The use of food in the wedding was also very interesting. You can't help but respect a religion (Hinduism) that holds food in high enough regard to weave it into its most sacred ceremonies. Basically every part of the wedding involved putting spices (particularly turmeric) onto the body, eating sweet cakes or sugar, or giving coconuts (I received one from the groom while standing in as the bride's older ear=twisting enforcer brother.)

In conclusion India is a land of many contrasts... OK one gratuitous shot of me in a turban and teal scarf.

Off to India - No Updates for Awhile

After spending a few days visiting my parents (where I got to bottle my Cable Car Clone and Blueberry Lambic) I'm off to India for the next couple weeks to attend a friend's wedding and eat a lot of Indian food (which will make up for the lack of good beer). So don't expect any new posts or any answers to emails for the next two weeks.

I'm sure I'll come back with some good stories and some interesting insights on Indian cooking.

Hope everyone has a happy New Year.

The Genetics of Yeast Flocculation

A friend sent me an interesting article from Popular Science on the genetics behind yeast flocculation: http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2008-11/beer-brings-yeast-together

Apparently the gene and the protein responsible for yeast flocculation (clumping and dropping) have been identified. The article explains the advantage yeast cells gain by clumping together (protection from environmental threats, including the ethanol their fermentation produces), and why it is a good example of kin selection (self sacrifice for the greater genetic good). The article also explains how a similar gene could have led down the path to the evolution of the first multicellular organism.

It is certainly a solid/interesting article, but it only looks at the benefits of flocculation, and does not mention how humans have impacted the evolution of this gene.

When yeast flocculate they pretty much stop fermenting, so if the cells drop early they will miss out on fermenting more sugar and possibly more reproduction. This is why yeast strains that are more attenuative tend to be the least flocculant. If this wasn't the case yeast cells would have evolved to become more and more flocculant, eventually becoming similar to a an acetobacter mother.

Brewers often select for the more flocculant yeast cells by repitching the cells that drop to the bottom of the fermenter after fermentation is complete. As a result most professional brewers have to start a fresh culture of yeast ever 6-10 batches because the yeast can become too flocculant resulting in lower attenuation. To prevent this (before sterile culturing was invented) brewers generally fermented in open tanks and would take yeast cells off the top of the fermenting beer during high krausen. Some breweries still practice this technique, particularly brewers who specialize in German Weissbier (as a result these strains tend to form large krausens and flocculate very slowly).

This is one of the wonderful things about brewing, no matter what you are interested in beer can tie in. Science, cooking, gardening, building, socializing, writing, travel, etc...

Beer Brewers for Obama

Speaking of obscure political buttons, my friend Noah gave this one to me the other day.


Who wants an Anheuser Busch distributor heiress as first lady anyway?

Aging Wine with Ultrasonic Waves

Here is an interesting story from The Telegraph about a machine that vibrates bottles of wine (or any alcoholic beverage) for 30 minutes supposedly making them taste as if they have been aged for years or decades.

What is the "science" behind this amazing invention you ask, "Inventor Casey Jones says the £350 gadget uses ultrasound technology to recreate the effects of decades of ageing by colliding alcohol molecules inside the bottle." It goes onto discuss the effects, "The look and bouquet of the drink is improved and because of the chemical changes, the alcohol is easier to absorb by the kidneys and therefore, hangovers are virtually eliminated."

First off since when does the kidney absorb alcohol? The liver absorbs and processes alcohol in the blood stream. Generally this sort of off-kilter claim is a red flag that something is going on.

Their explanation just doesn't hold water, what in the world would alcohol molecules bumping into each other accomplish? Ethanol is ethanol, you aren't going to change that with 30 minutes of vibration. They might be talking about higher (fusel) alcohols, as far as I am aware they can mellow slightly through oxidation and esterification, but if you ferment something too warm or fail to cut off the heads and tails of a distilled spirit correctly these headache inducing compounds will always be present.

The article states that it would work on whiskey as well, but as the old joke goes: What do you get when you age a bottle of 20 year old of whiskey for 10 years? A dusty bottle of 20 year old whiskey. It is the oak and the oxygen that enhance the flavors of something aged in a barrel, not just time.

Even if it could make a bottle of wine taste 10 years older, most cheap wine doesn't turn into a great wine with a couple years of age. Great aged wine (or beer) is very good when fresh, but improves with age. No amount of age will fix a poorly made alcoholic beverage.

It disappoints me that this sort of junk can make its way into a reputable newspaper. When did a paper doing a story on a product become free advertising with no critical thinking or research into it?

Norwegian Beer Train

My friend Mat is over in Oslo Norway at the moment and sent me a picture of an event at Valle Hovin Stadium that involves a train car beer barrel/keg. I don't have the slightest idea what is going on, but it looks like a blast

Well it's not fermentation, but coffee roasting is fun too (plus you could add it to a stout)

For the last few months I have been refining my coffee roasting technique. I realize that it isn't fermentation, but it has the same virtues of being easy to do at home and really tasty. There are two methods I have used, one uses a $15 dollar popcorn popper (a) and the other just a frying pan with a lid (b). You need a popcorn popper that you don't use for popcorn as the oil from the beans will making for a poor tasting corn snack, you also want the sort of popper with slots cut in the sides not holes in the floor.



















Step 1: Get some high quality green coffee beans. I personally like Ethiopian best, but use whatever you like to drink. You might be able to get some from a local coffee store that roasts their own or from a local homebrew store (like I do) even the internet is a good place to shop. Green coffee beans (unlike roasted beans) have a basically unlimited shelf life.

Step 2a: Turn on the popcorn popper and wait a minute or two to let the air heat up.

Step 2b: Place an oven thermometer into your frying pan, put the lid on and adjust the heat until it rests around 500 degrees (remember the setting for future roasting).

Step 3a: Put 1/2 cup of green coffee beans into the popcorn popper and place the top back on with a bowl for the chaff (bits of coffee skin) to blow into.

Step 3b: Put 1/2 cup of green coffee beans into the pan and put the lid on.

Step 4a: Wait until the beans start to making a popping noise (this is the moisture in the bean turning to steam and expanding to crack the bean). Place a bowl where you would normally catch the popcorn to catch the papery chaff (skin) of the coffee bean that is ejected.

Step 4b: Shake the pan like you are making Jiffy-Pop until the beans start to making a popping noise.

Step 5a: Keep waiting until the popping stops and then wait a few minutes until you just start to hear the beans popping for a second time.

Step 5b: Keep shaking until the popping stops and then wait a few more minutes until you just start to hear the beans popping for a second time.

Step 6a: Turn off the popper and slowly stir the beans as they continue to pop, the longer you wait the darker the roast will be. Stop it right away for a light roast keep going until the popper stops for a dark roast.

Step 6b: Turn off the heat and keep shaking the beans as they continue to pop, the longer you wait the darker the roast will be. Stop it right away for a light roast keep going until the popper stops for a dark roast. You can take a look occasionally if you want, but be careful not to lose too much heat.

Step 7: Pour the beans out into a metal strainer and shake until the beans are pretty cool. After they cool completely put them in an airtight container and store them for up to a week. The flavor peeks the the day after roasting.

Both methods produce tasty coffee in about the same amount of time (5-7 minutes). The popcorn popper allows you to see the beans as they roast and you get to avoid shaking a pan every time you want to drink coffee. The pan roasting method allows you to avoid buying another gadget and makes you feel like a cowboy.

(More pictures coming soon)

Fermented Clothing

I've had plenty of ideas for crazy fermentation projects, but making dresses from acetobacter produced cellulose certainly wasn't one of them. It is certainly interesting to see a fermentation byproduct that isn't consumed, but sadly if the "fabric" doesn't stay wet it becomes very fragile.

"He noticed that when oxygen got into the vats and turned the wine into vinegar, a slimy, rubbery layer grew on top.

This layer was cellulose, produced by acetobacter bacteria as a waste product when they convert wine into vinegar.

To ferment fabrics, Cass and his colleagues deliberately let vats of wine go off to produce cellulose.

And to get the shape of a dress, they lifted the layers of slimy cellulose off and laid them over a deflatable doll.

After each dress was complete, they deflated the doll and removed it, leaving the dress intact."

http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2007/03/15/1872191.htm?site=indepthfeature&topic=latest