We start off the week with nine alcohol related laws in NC, not exactly beer specifically, but much of it still applies.
We have hit the mid-Summer drop off, everyone at the beach or vacation while we have a few stories for the week not the pace of a few weeks ago.
Murphy & Rude Malting Co. has an operational merger with Carolina Malt. Just like some of the mergers that we have been seeing in brewing, at a certain point for cost efficiency it makes sense. Malting equipment, just like brewing is expensive, Murphy & Rude have a larger range of roasted malts so their equipment with Carolina’s scale of base malt production makes operational sense and I suspect they will expand their offerings in the next year.
For the last few months I have been wondering what breweries would brew for the US 250th anniversary, if anything special. We have the New York library collaborating with TALEA Beer Co. to make one of George Washington’s beers, it’s not new Boston Beer Co. also brewed a Founding Fathers pack, and have again. I remember trying them the first time they were released in the 2000s, the root beer stuck out to me as the oddest of the four. Both the beers featured Molasses as an ingredient not surprising for the time because that was the most easily accessible sugar in the United States then. If added at the end of a boil it will ferment, but some of the roast character will follow through to the finishing flavor. It’s a fun ingredient to play with.
Back to NC we have Old Armor Beer Co. making their America 250 to celebrate. I hope to try it before it’s gone, but I am not sure they currently distribute to the Triangle.
Obviously only one big event this week, have a Happy 4th of July with friends, family, and of course Carolinas beer! If you see any 250th Anniversary brews, please let me know I’d like to highlight them.
HomebrewCon in Asheville last weekend, it is the longest and largest homebrewers conference in the world. It was hosted by American Homebrewers Association (AHA). They successfully sold out the event with over 1,100 attendees. I was pleased to attend* and experience it for the first time. Compared to the current vibe at craft beer industry events, there was a palpable sense of excitement about the gathering. With the splitting from the Brewers Association it was great to see their first major event a success. In addition it was great to see Asheville busy again after Helene.
The weekend started off for me at the Brewing Network’s 21st Anniversary party. Having been a listener since nearly the beginning, it was great to see many old friends and catch up. It was hosted at White Labs which a friend calls the best brewpub in Asheville. Wood fired pizzas and regularly rotating taplist is great, but what really sets them apart is they often have the same base beer with different yeasts used for fermentation. It really showcases how much yeast selection matters to a beer. The live music was quirky and great. The highlight of the event was a toast featuring Tasty’s Janet’s Brown ale. Mike “Tasty” McDole is the stuff of legend to BN fans aka the BN Army. He loved interacting with homebrewers, professionals and everyone around the industry. It’s been almost six years since we lost him, so it was great that ValleJo Brewing recreated his beer, in fact they went through production logs from when it was made commercially and even spoke with past brewers to ensure accuracy. It was delicious and I’ll provide a more detailed review soon.
Friday started at a booth pouring a coffee blonde ale and orange beer catching up with friends. Yes, the coffee beer tasted of coffee and the orange smelled like bright orange juice. Also yes, my day started off with a beer. It’s a homebrewing conference so of course we drank during it. Both beers were well brewed and started to follow my one rule at the conference, often I don’t drink certain styles but for the conference if it was offered I had to try a taste. It doesn’t mean I had everything at every bar, but I selected options I wouldn’t drink at home. From there I wandered a bit and arrived at a panel discussing homegrown hops and their use in beer. In Raleigh we tried growing hops, but the ground doesn’t get cold enough, long enough to allow the plant to reset its life cycle properly. So it was great to hear of their success at the same latitude just further West. Next up was 4 Tips to Improve Your Beer Judging Approach by Mirella Amato. With the Style Spotlights being an element of the blog I have been looking for ways to improve my descriptions. She was very enthusiastic with a great ‘holistic’ knowledge around beer and other beverage related subjects. My next session was the AHA General Session with Justin Crossley, BN founder. He made a great point that this hobby is the only one that has created an entire industry. It is true, I can’t come up with another example. While I wanted to listen to Gordon Strong talk about Mead Guidelines, instead I went to hear fellow BN Army member Keith Mycek discuss Driving Membership Engagement in These Changing Times. With the changing demographics, we discussed ways to engage with younger generations. Part of the approach revolves around not just a beer perspective but all the fermentables approach. Another angle is how the communication, a website and email works fine with many people but other methods like Discord, text message, or apps all have a role to play.
While still Friday, Club Night and the Expo floor deserve their own explanation. The trade show is like any industry or hobby event, but of course beer is pouring from booth clubs and vendors. They were booths for brewing equipment, raw ingredients like yeast and brewing educational programs. At Club Night a gathering of 35 homebrew clubs from across the US showcased their creativity both in designing the booth and what’s on tap. Often they will all dress in a theme of costume, I was aware of it but it presented one aspect I hadn’t considered. As you go through the halls Friday, gangs of people pass by dressed in the same garb like some post-apocalyptic Jets and Sharks performance. As contrast at the Craft Brewers Conference bands of brewers may wander by but generally they are wearing different gear from their brewery. Then during the Club Night was a mix between beer festival and carnival featuring a prison booth, pirates, and others. The aspect that surprised me was how much AI graphic creation was incorporated at Club Night. Booth backdrops, menus, or even tap handles featuring back stories on the brews.
Saturday featured some great panels, starting with Randy Mosher. He was a ball of energy proclaiming ‘I read millions of pages on sensory research so you don’t have to’. It was a capacity crowd in the room. His latest book is Your Tasting Brain and I look forward to discussing more with him about it. After that was Ken Schramm discussing Mead and Fruit. It seemed that roughly a third of the panels were other fermented topics besides beer, but for good reason as they were all packed. Ken wrote The Compleat Meadmaker and has a meadery in Michigan. Oh, and he makes awesome mead too! His panel was definitely a different take on the approach, while he did have a portion of typical speaker portion about a third of the way in he introduced a set of rockstar panelists to give their impressions on tasting different meads based on use of fruit. Amongst the panel was the aforementioned Randy Mosher, Gordon Strong, and AHA Director Julia Herz. While Ken shared a tasty mead during the program perhaps the best aspect was he brought enough of what the panel was sampling to the mead sharing session later in the day so the audience could join in.
Next up a friend mentioned the AHA membership meeting and I decided to join him. I am not much of an organizational meeting person, but I found this session to be one of the most informative of the conference. With less than a year they couldn’t give a full financial report, but to their credit a conference that ran on rather large losses under Brewers Association operation to a profit at this year’s conference. The analogy of building an aircraft while in flight was mentioned about the organization but for all the problems of the year the conference ran very smoothly. I wasn’t aware that the two organizations strained against one another recently but emotions were bare on certain topics. The two big messages were that the organization is moving ahead to promote a fermentation forward direction, not just beer driven. Secondly, the committees are approaching their work from the perspective of what member driven focus needs, a challenge when you consider they operate on a small staff and volunteer committees. With a membership at the beginning of the year of 19,000 it’s a healthy audience to represent.
Afterwards was the Mead Makers Meet Up, it was great to see all the creativity within the membership. If there was a downside at the Meet Up, it was the same as Club Night, too many folks in too small a space, but a few mead makers took initiative and removed a few tables from the space which helped. The last big event was the National Homebrew Competition (NHC) awards ceremony. It is broadcast by the Brewing Network so even if you have a beer in the contest but can’t make the conference you can watch the results live. It features two rounds of competition. First the regional competition, second the national. Interestingly this year they structured the fees in a new manner, you could pay all at once or you could just pay the regional and if you advanced then paid a second fee. It seemed more approachable for the new brewer. The contest features 40 different categories across Beer, Mead, Cider, and Perry. The contest featured almost 3,600 entries from across the US and beyond. There are joyous shouts from the clubs as names are called, especially from the winners fellow club members. For those winners who don’t have a club the audience cheered “Team Join a Club!”
Here are all the Winners in attendance.
While the potential hosts for 2027 weren’t announced, they did indicate Homebrewcon would return in July so watch for the announcement.
It’s not to say there aren’t challenges in the hobbyist community, the AHA believes the total membership may continue to level off or drop during the year. They are still establishing organizational operations, seeking out new ways to engage and entice the younger generations into fermentation science. Also homebrew shops have been closing around the nation. Arizona Society of Homebrewers members mentioned that for the 5 million people in the Phoenix market there is a sole shop to support homebrewers. So there are challenges ahead.
Overall as a year approaches since the separation from the Brewers Association, I think it’s been a positive change for the American Homebrewers Association. They are more member focused and there was a great deal of positive energy from the membership and staff. I can’t wait to see where the organization goes from here. A big thanks the AHA staff and over 50 volunteers that made it possible. As for me, starting as a homebrewer, worked at homebrew shops, then go professional it was fun to spend the weekend watching and hearing people share their passion for brewing.
Legend Brewing is selling its production space and partnering with Hardywood. This isn’t the first time they have helped each other out. There is nothing wrong with partner brewing as long as both sides keep communication open and stay true to the original beer. Like with Stone and Firestone Walker deal it can help both sides. Problems arise when changes aren’t discussed or quality standards for the contracted brew aren’t maintained.
South Carolina
Charleston magazine has a great read on the modern craft history in the town, including the changes that have driven the industry rise across the state. Also in Charleston Two Blokes Brewingopens a second taproom.
In Myrtle Beach, South Coast Beer Project talks in the comments about the ‘family friendly’ attractions and their struggles with them. In Third Space areas it’s a real challenge is parents letting their children run around unsupervised.
In the Triangle while Fullsteam‘s American Tobacco Campus project is still in build out, Sean is taking advantage to show you the progress on their Instagram feed.
Plenty to do in events this weekend with Petty Thieves doing a brand relaunch, Altered State hosting 4th anniversary and the Cape Fear Botanical Garden hosting it’s Wine and Beer festival.
It was reported over the weekend that the Brewers Association may be shuttering book publications. I haven’t seen confirmation and their website has no mention of it. I hope the report was a mistake or if true that some organization picks up these titles and they stay in print, but given the state of the market I have my doubts. I looked through my brewing library and roughly a third are books they published. So if you’ve been thinking about picking up a specific title now may be the time to buy them.
Liquid it’s a simple straightforward word, but when I hear it said around the beer industry it’s like nails on a chalkboard. In general it comes from someone who is a distributor or a salesperson. I know they don’t intend the phrase as an insult but to me it ignores the hard work that goes into making a great product. All that said, Mr. Lohman makes some good points about distribution.
South Carolina
No news this week.
North Carolina
Triangle
We do now have confirmation that both Vicious Fishes Brewery taprooms are closed. (While the taprooms were listed on the website last week as of posting they have been removed.)”The latest closings were led by a payroll withholdings mistake, that put a block on the brewery’s ABC permit renewals.” According to sources, while ABC does reach out to industry about potential problems, often companies will hold off processing permits until close to the deadline and if they have a hold from DOR over taxes then it may take some time to clear. While we wish them best of luck moving ahead without a taproom in this market it’s a difficult road ahead.
Bottle shop news is the hot topic of the week. Trophy Brewing ownership has sold State of Beer to North South Hospitality. The part of this story I hadn’t considered was the second bottle shop they had opened about two years ago. The State of Beer on Morgan is rebranding to The Bend Bar. In other news, Triangle Wine has had quite the roller coaster ride at one point up to five locations. Morrisville and North Raleigh were sold off and rebranded. Southern Pines closed about two years ago, at the time a former staffer mentioned to me that Southern Pines was the most profitable store, but also the most expensive to operate. So news of Cary and Holly Springs locations closing didn’t surprise me.
The week’s events feature Homebrewcon in Asheville, let’s get a beer if you are in attendance.
I selected the Audacity of Hops in part because of the 50th anniversary of the Judgement of Paris. I read Dathan and Jen’s recent recreation experience and it got me inspired. When I was teaching the Wake Tech program as part of the introduction I did a basic review of craft beer history. While it doesn’t relate directly to craft beer, the Judgement of Paris and the Slow Food movement were to me always from the same cradle, a turn away from industrial food and drink and the beginnings of a more bespoke path we are on.
The Audacity of Hops by Tom Acitelli is a history of the craft beer movement. It starts with Fritz Maytag buying Anchor Brewing and ends in 2012 with Budweiser being sold to create InBev in 2012. I regularly consult it when writing to make sure I get my facts and timelines straight. It is easy to read and consists of four sections each containing many background and insights to the industry at that moment. Even though I have read it completely, interesting stories continue to jump out at me. For example “The national brewing community is asshole-free” is attributed to Paul Philippon, formerly the owner of Duck Rabbit Brewery, in 2004. While I knew the concept, I didn’t realize he had first said it.
Another Carolina chapter features Durham with discussion of Weeping Radish, Daniel Bradford and his work with All About Beer magazine. In that chapter Acitelli highlights great writers who took inspiration from Michael Jackson and are still helping tell craft beer stories today. The chapters are short so if you need something light for a commute or flight it will be perfect. If you are a craft beer enthusiast or just looking for a great read at the Beach this is the book for you.
Brewers Association is pushing 2D bar codes or more commonly referred to as QR codes. They have been around since 1994. I have been experimenting with them for over a decade. Supply seems greatly outweighs the demand from the public or vendors in general for their use.
I first played with them at beer festivals, I would announce on social media a ‘secret menu’. If you scanned the QR code I’d have a growler of a special release hidden in our cooler for the public to sample, but I never poured a drop. Either the public didn’t know or simply didn’t care, far more interested in enjoying the festival than playing with their phone. At another brewery we went so far as to include them on the can label, but again the public wasn’t using them. I would bring up that at a weekly meeting we should discuss those numbers but they were never mentioned. The person who had proposed the idea was very into technology but the results weren’t worth mentioning.
That is not to say they can’t be useful in the brewing world. Often bags of malt will have a Certificate of Analysis (COA). QR codes are very for pulling a COA up to study and potentially save for record keeping for Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP). While not required for traditional brewing but as NA beer and other non-alcoholic beverages (THC seltzer) are becoming more common it’s a necessary practice. The other area I have found them of use was keg tracking. With the right software you can see a keg’s status, location, and maintenance history but in a more practical sense I found it an excellent backup to the kegging log. In the kegging log we would record the beer, batch, and how many and size(s) of kegs were used in a batch. It was a paper log that I’d enter into our production database regularly. Occasional I would note a batch would be finished, but the yield was low. I’d check our keg tracking software and discover kegs that hadn’t made it into the log.
Much like 3D televisions, those offering the technology are pushing more than the market is demanding it. But I suspect we will see great adaptation over time, just not from a consumer perspective.
Back to August 2013, when I reflected to a year of working at a brewpub. It’s definitely more a social interaction as a role rather the production environment. I compared the brewhouse to Mercedes Benz and while German built it had certain quirks that made it unique. The system used a step mash rest on many of the beers, it involves start the mash (think oatmeal mixture) at a lower temperature and over time raising it. In today’s era of well modified grains it doesn’t have the necessity except for wheat beers. It was a fun system mostly automated valves. To learn it I mapped each valve and location, then sat down in the brewpub and reviewed all the brewing steps and how they would proceed through the system. I took that list and map up to the brewdeck and by the third brew I had memorized it.
Time passes so quickly, I knew my one year mark as Pub Brewer was approaching but it zipped past this week. It seems then a fitting time to write a post on what I have learned.
Production and Pub brewing are different animals, while production may have tours occasionally, a Pub Brewer is a public face to the beer. Tours and talking with people with questions is a regular requirement. Who knew giving tours of the Capitol so many years ago would have prepared me for this task. At times I can delve into brewing minutiae but most folks want the basics and be entertain on the ride. This interaction is not just limited to customers, but there is a constant cycle of trying to get restaurant staff trained on the house beers, brewing process, and other basics. So if you don’t enjoy the education aspect of brewing I would suggest a production environment is better suited to ones skills.
In previous jobs there were always smart folks around. I could ask for a second opinion and get feedback, but in the brewpub it all ends with me. It’s not to say my supervisors aren’t very helpful and supportive, but they are more than an hour away so if I am in the middle of a problem it’s up to me to diagnose and solve it. This may be the best part of the job, it can be frustrating but the joy of solving a puzzle is fun, heck it may be as joob as the brewing.
As for the brewing it has been a fun and challenging year, first I taught myself how the system worked. My favorite comparison is that the brewhouse is like a Mercedes Benz, it runs like a dream, but if you try to start it in 3rd it will kick you. We made a couple repairs when I started so it won’t be another few weeks until I hit a year brewing on the system, but then my numbers will be pretty close to the project 600 barrels a year on the system. I would perhaps brew more in a production environment but I don’t know if it would be as much fun. This year if the numbers continue on the current track I’ll probably brew more.
(Summation) hard work, odd hours, but more enjoyable than other.
Never got to 600 in the year, but I was on to the next job about four months later. The company stopped brewing operations at the location and left equipment as showpiece. They never bothered to even pull the grain from it’s storage space such the waste.
Congratulations to Tidal Creek Brewhouse on their 6th anniversary. I was aware of them, but haven’t the opportunity to visit yet, I’ll correct it next time.
North Carolina
Western NC
Both Highland Brewing and AMB get shout outs in the latest edition of Brewer magazine. The interview with Leah is great because it examines the challenges of reshaping their space into a destination location.
Triangle
Wanting to invest in a brewery and potentially make money back, Gizmo Brew Works is seeking investors. It’s no secret that they filed for Chapter 11 protection a while back and hopefully this program will help get them back on their feet.
Vicious Fishescloses their Cary location with that being their production space, what does it mean for Angier their last location? Since it doesn’t feature regular taproom hours I suspect a full closure looming.
Mordecai Beverage Company is also closing. It has always struck me as funny when the media declare it as Raleigh’s first brewery and bottle shop, which simply wasn’t true. Around 11 years ago the first one opened where I was working. I was against the concept, because we would never have as many options as a Total Wine a half mile away and it made sales more difficult because bottle shops rightly thought we were competition. Within 6 months we closed the bottle shop portion and remained a brewery. Perhaps it amuses me because the first person who wrote about Mordecai as a bottle shop and brewery had written an article at Compass opening that made it a major point to mention it and forgot their own words. That doesn’t mean the concept doesn’t work, Glass Jug Beer Lab has had success with it. But I think it’s because Chris and Katy built their brand and later added the brewing component into the mix.
This weekend features South Coast Grand Opening party and Joymongers 10th Anniversary, check out all the fun at events.
Back to a post from 2013, recently I was at an industry event, an established friend in the industry asked for tips for a new guy we were chatting with and I went with this Trust Your Gut. Anytime I have ignored it’s hurt an outcome, anytime I paid attention it’s resolved it.
It is the one thing I have learned the last few years. If my gut reads something is wrong when I check invariably there is a problem that needs to be corrected.
Case in point I brewed a beer last week and a few minor things stick out in my mind looking back. That pump is running a little louder-harder than normal. The grain bed seemed to settle in a higher and odd position to normal. My gravity during mash out was lower than normal. We get our grain pre-milled, but the shipment didn’t get milled, or crushed, properly so when I went to empty the mash tun I discovered that fact. Looking back at all these little things they clued me in there was a problem but I didn’t know exactly what until it was too late. From now on I will double-check each bag of grain to make sure it has been milled. Thankfully it was the first of a two batch session so I was able to compensate on my next wort(batch) and even them out.
If you didn’t clean it, assume it is dirty.
If you didn’t check it, assume it didn’t get done.
In the end you have to remain mindful of your surroundings not just to get the job done right, but also safely.
Okay, I’m getting around to Hazy IPA, for as long as I’d been brewing I never made one until about 5 years ago. While not the biggest fan of the style, I drink them when out because I want to see what people are doing in the space.
Hazy IPA, or New England IPA, is described by BJCP as “An American IPA with intense fruit flavors and aromas, a soft body, smooth mouthfeel, and often opaque with substantial haze. Less perceived bitterness than traditional IPAs but always massively hop-forward.” Alchemist Heady Topper is often regarded as the originator of the style. The soft body comes from a good amount of oats and often wheat malt. The abv is between 6-9%. It’s golden to light amber in color, often in the orange range. As it mentions reduced bitterness comes rarely if any bittering addition, rather mostly a combination of late addition hopping in the kettle and dry hopping often during fermentation and post-fermentation.
Why are Hazy IPAs so damn expensive? A number of factors are at play. First the amount of hops being used. In your big national brand beer may use around .5 pound per barrel of beer (31 gallons), craft brewers have moved that needle closer to 1.5 pounds per barrel, then better examples of Hazy IPAs I have seen are using between 4-6 pounds per barrel. The next factor is the hops being used in these beers. Old school hops will average between $8-12 a pound depending on market conditions, newer hops (since 2010) are running around $13 to $15 a pound if not more. The last major factor is yeast, when the hops are added during fermentation, some of the hop oils will coat the yeast cells, reducing their ability to properly reproduce and ferment, so a fresh pitch is required after the use. Live yeast culture for a brewery can run hundreds of dollars per batch.
Hops: Dolcita, Citra, Mosaic plus Lupocore, Prysma
I’d been holding off this style spotlight until I could find this beer. Proceeds from the beer will go to ARCHR (Asheville Regional Coalition for Home Repair), which supports low-income families that are still rebuilding from the hurricane’s flood and destruction. But it wasn’t just Hi-Wire and NoDa collaborating, also Haas (hops), Country Malt Group, and Hart Print all donated ingredients and printing. It struck me as a solid IPA, with plenty of hop punch, but the body kept it quite drinkable. So if you see it, buy some and support Western NC recovery.
Dense white and resemblance of pale orange juice with an aroma that matches the nose. I’d like a bit more aroma on this beer. The flavor hints at dry tannic finish. It was the only can that had a date 5/11/26 so it was fairly fresh.
Hops: Freestyle Hops Co. Cold Pressed Hop Juice from New Zealand or Wai-iti, Superdelic & Nelson Sauvin
Dense white foam with pale gold color that almost looks like OJ that had been left in the refrigerator too long. Bright hop aroma in the nose. The flavor fell a bit flat like it was old or 100% hop extract. You need a portion of organic material from the hops to round out the hop oil, you can use as much as 75% replacement rate but in my experience I’d never go all oil. It leaves a point of confusion, because the Freestyle is what the Untappd listing describes for the beer, but the can itself had the later hops listed.
The deepest orange of the day’s beers and also the least murky in appearance. Strong hop aroma with notes of Citra. Also the most bitter of the days beers, but not in a bad way it more balanced it. Something about it reminded me of Sweet Tea, the beer almost bordered on a West Coast IPA.
Side note, I kept going back to OJ in descriptions, but I don’t really eat tropical fruit so admittedly my descriptors are a bit one note. Often descriptions will mention tropical fruit character. That’s why I keep trying to better understand Hazy IPA as a style. That’s all for today, but I am sure it’s a style we will return to again.
