beer

Editor’s Note: This sponsored column is written by Nick Anderson, beermonger at Arrowine (4508 Lee Highway).

One of my favorite aspects of the “craft beer movement” has always been the “anything goes” attitude that permeates through so much of it. For all of the recipes that hew close to tradition, at the end of the day the cardinal rule of beer amounts to “Is it good? Then shut up and drink it.”

I say that so that you know for certain that I am not coming from the perspective of a purist over the new couple of paragraphs as I explain why breweries should use or not use certain words on their labels, or at least take those words into greater consideration.

While I’m not a purist when it comes to beer, I am a bit of a zealot when it comes to words. Words mean things; they have power, and more than a couple of times this year I’ve seen words alter the expectations and experiences people have had with beers.

The most prominent example of this is likely the “Session IPA” phenomenon. Using those words in tandem raises expectations of IPA drinkers, giving them an excuse not to enjoy them (“It’s not an IPA, it’s only ___ percent ABV, and it’s not that hoppy…”) while also implying somehow that Session Ale is somehow “lesser;” not worthwhile. “Session Pale Ales” or “Hoppy Session Ales” would be more accurate, but slapping “IPA” on a label makes a beer easier to sell — or so they say. Marketing wins again, I guess.

Other times, a beer can completely miss its potential audience because of how it’s presented. Twice this year alone, I’ve tried beers labeled as “Sour” (one with the word in its name) that seemed to “miss” with beer fans for different reasons. In one case, the beer was much more a Wild Ale, with a heavy focus on the funky, fruity Brettanomyces wild yeast characteristics. Labeled a “Wild Ale”, that beer would have not only been sought out by fans of Brett beers, but not made promises to Sour fans that it couldn’t keep.

In the case of the second beer, while it was indeed a Sour Ale, it was one where the acidity was muted for the sake of harmony with other elements of the beer (barrel-aging, specifically). Like it or not, in today’s beer environment the word “Sour” carries expectations of highly tart, acidic beers — and with the word “Sour” in its name, some letdown was inevitable.

Combine a slightly different name with a bit of explanation on the label and in your press materials, and suddenly you have a beer that is interesting not only to Sour Ale fans (who now can be pleasantly surprised by how much they enjoyed something so subtly sour) but fans of barrel-aged beers in general, who might have found a new interest thanks to the intriguing bit of acidity racing through the beer.

As annoying as it can be to think about, when you name a beer or put a descriptor on its label, you are quite literally “branding” it. It’s one thing to have aspirations of filling a market niche — or, in the most rare cases, creating one — but you cannot turn a beer into something it’s not through mere insistence. Care must be taken to avoid watchwords that create expectations; there are so many beers out there now — there’s no excuse for shooting yourself in the foot by creating opportunities for people to dismiss your product.

If you’re embracing those watchwords? Well, the beer better damn well live up to the expectations of the devotees of that specific style. Remember, words mean things; don’t just throw them out there.

Enough about that, let’s get to the fun stuff:

What I’ve Been Drinking This Week

It’s been a while, but I haven’t been taking time away from trying new things — I’ve just been pressed for time to take notes on them. Here are the impressions I’ve gotten from a couple of recent releases:  (more…)

Editor’s Note: This sponsored column is written by Nick Anderson, beermonger at Arrowine (4508 Lee Highway).

The big news for beer fans this week is the arrival of a very special, highly anticipated release: Sierra Nevada’s Beer Camp Across America 12-packs. Featuring one bottle (or can) each of collaborations between the California craft beer icon and 12 of the most renowned brewers in America, the Beer Camp 12-packs are only one part of a massive celebration of American beer.

Sierra is taking the Beer Camp on the road with a nationwide Beer Camp Across America tour, with seven stops in various regions of the country offering a day of live music, food, and dozens of different breweries sampling their wares at each stop (Note: if you’d like to try to make it by one of the Beer Camp stops, the last two are in Philadelphia Aug. 2 and in Mills River, N.C. — home to the new East Coast Sierra Nevada brewery — on Aug. 3).

In an April press release, Sierra Nevada founder Ken Grossman explained the rationale behind Beer Camp Across America: “We’re about to open a second brewery in North Carolina, and while that’s exciting for us, it’s an even greater reason to celebrate the future of craft brewers everywhere.”

It’s an impressive undertaking, and all with the aim of promoting and helping the beer industry overall: the same Sierra press release revealed that “a portion of proceeds from the festivals will go to brewers guilds or other nonprofits in the host state of each festival, while a portion of proceeds from the sales of the 12-pack will go to hop and barley research,” a worthwhile cause as the rapidly increasing number of commercial breweries puts a strain on both commodities.

The Beer Camp 12-packs have been popping up and selling out at retailers all over NoVA this week — we’ll only be receiving a handful at Arrowine, probably around the time this column runs, and we’re lucky to be getting even that — so what’s the fuss all about?

Put bluntly this is a 12-pack unlike any that has come before, featuring new collaboration recipes from Sierra along with a murderer’s row of the American craft brewing scene: Allagash, Asheville Brewer’s Alliance (represented here by John Stuart of Green Man and Luke Dickenson of Wicked Weed), Ballast Point, Bell’s, Cigar City, Firestone Walker, New Glarus, Ninkasi, Oskar Blues, Russian River, 3 Floyds, and Victory.

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Editor’s Note: This sponsored column is written by Nick Anderson, beermonger at Arrowine (4508 Lee Highway).

I’m not going to lie to you: the beer world is a little quiet this week. That’s okay — I don’t need everything to be going at a breakneck pace all the time, and it gives me a chance to write a column I’ve been wanting to get to for a while. There’s a good amount of time left in the summer, and many of us are still gearing up for our summer vacations. Here’s a list of beer-related books to read if you find yourself with some free time this season:

Michael Jackson’s Great Beer Guide: All of The Beer Hunter’s books are worth reading — Ultimate Beer; Great Beers of Belgium; Michael Jackson’s Beer Companion — but the Great Beer Guide is my personal favorite. Jackson reviews 500 classic beers in the Great Beer Guide, pulling off the incredibly difficult trick of translating sensual perceptions (sights, aromas, flavors) concisely and clearly, in language anyone can relate to.

The Oxford Companion to Beer: Garrett Oliver of the Brooklyn Brewery edited this nearly 1,000-page tome than includes sections on the history of beer, styles, food pairing, culture, and more. The Oxford Companion is a fantastic reference/time sink, with answers to nearly every beer-related question you can think of. Oliver’s own The Brewmaster’s Table is also highly recommended; a guide to the art of pairing beer with food, it’s a manifesto for the inclusion of beer among the ‘noble’ beverages of the world.

The Craft of Stone Brewing Co.: Liquid Lore, Epic Recipes, and Unabashed Arrogance: What else could the story of Stone Brewing Company be called? Co-founders Greg Koch and Steve Wagner along with freelance food/drink writer Randy Clements tell the history of one of America’s most renowned (and occasionally controversial) craft breweries. Not only does the book go into the philosophy behind Stone, but it gives valuable insight on what it’s like to start a brewery, and includes recipes for some of its beers and dishes featured at Stone’s World Bistro and Gardens. For a deeper look at the craft beer business, check out The Brewer’s Apprentice, by Koch and Matt Allyn, which offers some tips on brewing technique and ingredient information in candid, interview-style section with industry luminaries like Russian River’s Vinnie Cilurzo, Sierra Nevada’s Ken Grossman, and many more.

Brewing Up a Business: The first time I met Dogfish Head’s Sam Calagione was at a beer dinner around the time Brewing Up a Business was released. If you’re a fan of Dogfish Head or interested in what drives its business approach, this is a must-read. As much an autobiography of Calagione as it is a biography of his brewery, Brewing Up a Business  is an engaging read that is also an unexpectedly open and candid mission statement of sorts.

The Craft Beer Revolution: A recent release that I’m about to pick up myself is The Craft Beer Revolution by former AP reporter and Brooklyn Brewery co-founder Steve Hindy. Jeff Alworth at Beervana reviewed the book this week, and it sounds like a fascinating look behind the scenes of the industry as craft beer came to prominence. In particular, Alworth calls the second half of Hindy’s book “a revelation. Here Hindy starts talking about the inside of craft brewing, the blood-and-guts reality that has been largely airbrushed out of the canon.  He treats the flood of money in the mid-90s with more details and insight than I’ve seen anywhere.  It’s a blend of big-picture trend analysis and anecdotes that reveal the more human aspects of that time.”

There are hundreds upon hundreds of beer books out there: do you all have any favorites? Until next time.

Nick Anderson maintains a blog at www.beermonger.net, and can be found on Twitter at @The_Beermonger. Sign up for Arrowine’s money saving email offers and free wine and beer tastings at www.arrowine.com/mailing-list-signup.aspx. The views and opinions expressed in the column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ARLnow.com.

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Editor’s Note: This sponsored column is written by Nick Anderson, beermonger at Arrowine (4508 Lee Highway).

While cleaning out some stuff around the house last weekend, I found an old price catalog from one of my distributor partners from 2005.

In a blog post earlier this week, I had some fun going through it and seeing what was/wasn’t available at the time (no Bell’s or Founders, for example), but in this space this week I wanted to go in a different direction. With plenty of concern over rising hop prices and the impact they’ll eventually have on the cost of beer, and with the discussion of beer pricing in general ongoing, I thought it might be fun to compare 2005 beer prices to where they are today.

Now, I’m not about to go talking about how much a distributor charged or charges for something: what we’ll do today is compare by what I would charge. The results were interesting in ways I wasn’t quite expecting. Sure, some beers have notably jumped in price: in the 750mL format I prefer, Delirium Tremens has gone from $7.99 to $11.99 per bottle. Most increases are shockingly mild, however–Bear Republic’s 22oz bottles (there was no six-pack production in 2005) have only gone up a dollar, from $4.99 each to $5.99 now. Spread out over nearly ten years that’s actually quite impressive, especially for an industry comprised mainly of small businesses.

What really surprised me was how many examples I found of breweries whose prices have held, or in some cases have even gone down thanks to distributor quantity-deal pricing that wasn’t possible when supplies were more limited. Mainstay beers like Hofbrau Lager and Weissbier remain in the price range to hit shelves at $10.99, but prices of $9.99 or lower are possible with the right number of cases ordered. In the case of Anderson Valley’s six-packs — the Solstice seasonal beers to be specific — while the ‘frontline’ price has increased, it hasn’t gone up so much that the retail price has had to move up from $11.99.

Quantity deals on the Solstice beers helps keep it in its price point, as does the fact that the now-available cans cost less at wholesale than the bottles do. Lagunitas six-packs have held steady at frontline, but quantity deals open up the possibility of retail pricing at $9.99 or even $8.99 per six-pack instead of $10.99 or $11.99.

The trend seems to be moderate price increasing on six-packs, while 22oz or 750mL bottles have gone up more significantly. Bucking that trend is Stone, whose six-packs are notably more expensive now than in 2005, while its 22oz bottles have increased only a little bit (bear in mind, this is before special releases like Enjoy By, RuinTen, the Stochasticity Project Series and others that are more expensive than the core Stone lineup).

Even when a brewery’s lineup has jumped in price overall, today production levels are such that distributors will offer retailers deals to get pricing close to 2005 levels, if not outright matching them — provided the retailer is big enough to take on 50/75/100 cases of a single brewery’s beers at a time.

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Editor’s Note: This sponsored column is written by Nick Anderson, beermonger at Arrowine (4508 Lee Highway).

What else did you think I’d be writing about this week? The Independence Day holiday falls on a Friday this year; it’s like a perfect storm of reasons to celebrate, and so we shall. Pool parties, cookouts, World Cup watching parties, you name it — there is reason after reason this weekend to crack open some great American beers.

Here are some of the brews that will be in my cooler this Fourth, and some recommendations for great summer party beers:

Three Brothers Drift: Not only is this my favorite new Session Pale (though at 5 percent ABV, it’s not technically a Session Ale), but it may be my favorite new beer of the summer. An abundance of Citra hops makes for a boldly flavored Pale Ale that is also refreshing; seemingly “evaporating” on the palate as my friend at their distributor says. Each swig of Drift invites you to the next, and you’re happy to oblige. It’s delicious, 5 percent, and comes in tallboy cans — I love this beer.

Devils Backbone Gold Leaf Lager: This is the beer to keep around for those friends of yours who say they just want a “beer.” Anyone can pop open a can of Gold Leaf and enjoy it. A light, easy-going malt profile and just enough hops to keep things crisp make Gold Leaf a great option for big crowds who usually drink more “mainstream” beers.

Abita Strawberry Lager: Don’t look at me like that. My love for Strawberry Lager is well-documented, so of course I’ll have some on-hand for the holiday. Bright in feel, with a bittersweet fruit note that never feels artificial or cloying, Abita Strawberry Lager is a mainstay in my fridge for as long as it’s available every year, and especially this Fourth of July.

Sixpoint Rad: This new seasonal from Sixpoint keeps winning me over a little more with each can I open. A riff on Radler, a blend of soda and beer popular in German-speaking countries and beyond, Rad blends a proprietary fruit juice blend rather than a sweeter soda, with interesting results. While my beloved Stiegl Grapefruit Radler is sweeter and easier to plow through, Rad has a tinge of mouth-puckering grapefruity acidity that defines the beer’s finish. Mandarin orange and peach notes dance on the palate, but Rad never loses touch with its acidity. At 3.2 percent ABV, Rad is a great option for a go-to sipper if you’re going to be outside for long stretches. You can also make cool little mimosa-type drinks with it if you have some sparkling wine around.

Hardywood Capital Trail Pale Ale: If you like your Pale Ales on the earthier, hoppier side, this beer is for you. I’ve developed a mild obsession with Capital Trail Pale since its release near the end of April. It’s a perfect (to me) take on the modern American Pale Ale: lots of dry-hopping gives it a touch of resinous, piney character but not so much that you think it might as well be an IPA. Great beer.

Port City Brewing Downright Pils/Derecho Common: No matter which version of Port City’s Pilsner you opt for, you’ve got a great summer beer on your hands. I personally lean toward Downright myself, but Derecho has a smoothness on the palate and a fullness to its hop character that many prefer, and it is a delightful seasonal release. (more…)

Editor’s Note: This sponsored column is written by Nick Anderson, beermonger at Arrowine (4508 Lee Highway).

(Updated at 3:30 p.m.) I’ve had a thought festering in my head for some time now, but hadn’t been able to crystallize it until a conversation I had with my wife recently. We were talking about Vintage Ads; a repository for images and videos of classic advertisements from yesteryear. My favorite posts on Vintage Ads are often the food-related ones, which tell the tale of American food appreciation throughout the 20th Century.

My wife was pointing out how in the span of a few decades, Americans went from Hot Buttered Cheerios, Squirrel-in-Cider, gelatin-molded veg-all “pie-plate salads,” Impossible Cheeseburger Pie, and frosted ham to a nation of organic, biodynamic, locavore, gluten-free, non-GMO, traditionally-styled/fusion/niche cuisine-craving foodies. That’s when the thought finally came together in my head, as we both realized that beer has taken a very similar path…

We are all Beer Geeks now.

Follow me for a moment: A media star rises, suddenly opening the eyes of an American audience to the history, culture and possibility of their consumables. Most importantly, Americans learn that doing it themselves is easier than they think — and it sparks a revolution. Other celebrities follow, and within a couple of decades an entire industry comes alive, spurred on by those who were inspired by that first exposure, and an American public newly awakened and curious about what it’s been missing out on.

Of course I’m thinking of Julia Child, but I could also be writing about the late beer writer Michael Jackson. In the wake of The French Chef, America discovered more culinary guides: Jacques Pepin, Graham Kerr, Emeril Lagasse, Mario Batali, Anthony Bourdain… hell, throw in Rachael Ray, Paula Deen, and Martha Stewart — it’s a big tent, after all, with room for many tastes and interests. Millions were inspired to start cooking for themselves at home; a small percentage of those went on to careers in the restaurant/food industry. Just like that, you have a revolution in food culture in the United States.

Jackson brought history, context, and a nobility to beer that largely had not been considered by America before him. With President Carter’s passage of HR 1337 in 1978, Americans began making their own beer in greater numbers than ever before; within a few short years, many of the pioneering craft breweries were already up-and-running: names like Anchor, Sierra Nevada, Sam Adams, and Bell’s began to stake out territory for a fledgling industry still seen as a curiosity by much of the country.

Their work found an audience thirsty for world-class American beer. One generation of craft brewers inspired the next to not only push the envelope in terms of flavor, but in the ambitions they had for the reach of their breweries and corporate philosophies.

For all the trends and fads, the overall arc of American interest in food has been a continually rising one. The “foodie” phenomenon has grown to the point where now fast food restaurants are offering “healthy” alternatives and are racing to out-do each other with artisanal-sounding ingredients. Neighborhood grocery stores now stock organic, sustainable, gluten-free items — stuff you had to search far and wide for 10-15 years ago. You can buy organic eggs at the 7-Eleven on Washington Blvd in Arlington now. The foodies have won. There’s no going back; this is the new normal. (more…)

Editor’s Note: This sponsored column is written by Nick Anderson, beermonger at Arrowine (4508 Lee Highway).

“We would suggest that you stick to safer and more familiar territory-maybe something with a multi-million dollar ad campaign aimed at convincing you it’s made in a little brewery, or one that implies that their tasteless fizzy yellow beverage will give you more sex appeal. Perhaps you think multi-million dollar ad campaigns make things taste better. Perhaps you’re mouthing your words as you read this.”

So sayeth the back label of Stone’s Arrogant Bastard Ale. For many of us beer geeks, those words were formative as we began to delve into the world of craft beer. They were a rallying cry; a call to arms against the ‘Big Beer’ industry. The debate over what a ‘craft’ brewery is and when a brewery grows beyond ‘craft’ status has always been vigorous, but for many, television ad campaigns have always been a line of demarcation.

That boundary may soon be put to the test. It’s been nearly twenty years since Arrogant Bastard’s debut, and while a screed like the one on its back label may satisfy the aging punk in all of us, there’s no denying how large and competitive the craft beer industry is now. For some breweries, advertising — specifically television advertising — is going to come into play as a method for reaching new audiences as their distribution grows, while for others it may be seen as a way to cut through the din of an increasingly cluttered marketplace.

A recent article on Advertising Age reported on the recent debut of a campaign by the Craft Brew Alliance on behalf of one of its breweries, Kona Brewing Company. With Anheuser-Busch/InBev owning nearly 1/3 of the Craft Brew Alliance, the CBA’s breweries benefit from access to the InBev distribution network (which is why you see Kona, Redhook, and Widmer beers everywhere now, FYI).

With tasty, approachable recipes like its Wailua Wheat Ale and Longboard Lager, Kona is being positioned by the CBA as a gateway brand; one that can draw in more casual drinkers and those just becoming aware of craft beer. To that end, Kona is now available in 39 states on the mainland in addition to its native Hawaii.

In light of such an ambitious expansion of its potential audience, it makes sense for CBA to take to the airwaves to promote Kona. With the ABI investment in CBA, most craft beer fans don’t consider Kona to be a ‘craft’ beer anyway at this point — so it’s not like there’s any silly sense of ‘street cred’ to lose there.

It’s when beloved craft beers and independents step into the ad game that things start to get more contentious. The best example of this is the Boston Beer Company, makers of Sam Adams, who have been running national television ad campaigns for years. Sam Adams can actually be used in any number of Bugs & Daffy-style “Duck Season/Rabbit Season” arguments over what a ‘craft brewery’ is or isn’t, but the TV ads have long been a point of contention.

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Editor’s Note: This sponsored column is written by Nick Anderson, beermonger at Arrowine (4508 Lee Highway).

Escondido, Calif.-based Stone Brewing Company has been very publicly searching for a location on the East Coast to open a second brewery this year, and it appears that a final decision may be coming soon.

The earliest speculation had Stone settling in Horry County, S.C. near Myrtle Beach; the state legislature even proposed a bill to make South Carolina a more attractive option for breweries in general, which quickly became known as the “Stone Bill.” That bill was signed into law last week by Gov. Nikki Haley, and it seemed like Stone Brewing to South Carolina was a done deal.

This week, however, brought news of a list of “finalists;” locations on Stone’s shortlist for its new facility, along with the 300-plus jobs and  $20-30 million investment it will bring. Horry County was out, although Greenville remains on the list to keep South Carolina’s hopes alive.

We talked about the growing craft beer business in North Carolina’s Triangle region a couple of weeks ago; Greensboro is on Stone’s shortlist, with some reports mentioning Charlotte as well. Philadelphia and Cincinnati have appeared seemingly from nowhere, and then there’s Virginia: Richmond and Norfolk have both emerged as potential destinations for Stone.

The future Stone East Coast would be more than a brewery; like the World Bistro and Gardens at its original North County San Diego location, the new Stone facility would house a brewery, a packaging/distribution center, restaurant, and retail location. Richmond is attractive as a city with a long brewing history, not to mention a hotbed of up-and-coming craft breweries and restaurants.

This isn’t the first time a big-name craft brewery has seriously considered opening a location in Virginia: Sierra Nevada was seriously considering Roanoke before settling in the area of Asheville, N.C. in early 2012 (this is a great rundown of how close Sierra came to deciding on Roanoke).

Virginia’s native craft breweries are making some national noise, and that attention is opening the eyes of the industry to our state’s potential. Green Flash Brewing Company is working to get its Virginia Beach location open in 2015 — might Stone be the next San Diego craft brewer to set up shop in Virginia?

Don’t go putting any money on this on my account, but I’m going to guess “yes.” Stone President and Brewmaster Steve Wagner reportedly has said that Norfolk’s port access is intriguing, and with Stone ready to sign paperwork on the European brewery it has sought for years now (supposedly outside of Berlin, Germany according to Stone COO Patrick Tiernan) that’s going to make Norfolk very attractive. Embedding itself in the emerging Richmond craft beer scene also seems like an awfully good fit to me, too. Look for a final decision to possibly come as soon as next month.

Until next time.

Nick Anderson maintains a blog at www.beermonger.net, and can be found on Twitter at @The_Beermonger. Sign up for Arrowine’s money saving email offers and free wine and beer tastings at www.arrowine.com/mailing-list-signup.aspx. The views and opinions expressed in the column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ARLnow.com. (more…)

Editor’s Note: This sponsored column is written by Nick Anderson, beermonger at Arrowine (4508 Lee Highway).

Just a couple months ago, we looked at how breweries using different formats, packaging, etc. for their beer was re-shaping the beer aisles of grocery stores and retailers everywhere. One of the more notable aspects of this experimentation to me is the rise of the variety pack.

Variety packs used to be largely a method by which breweries would introduce themselves to new customers; a relatively straight-forward sampling of core beers from which people could pick out a favorite. Only over the past couple of years have craft brewers come around to the idea that variety packs could be used as a way to get limited-release beers to the public, while also tapping into potential sale increases not unlike those for seasonal releases.

Unsurprisingly, craft breweries are coming up with new themes and variety pack formats all the time. He’Brew has just recently released its Hops In He’Brew 12-pack featuring some of its best-known, hopped-up Ales along with an exclusive hoppy Lager, but I’m partial to the Holiday Packs — complete with eight beers and candles for you to make your own “beer Menorah” with during Chanukah.

Just this week, Stone Brewing Company sent its special Mixed four-packs to Virginia. The Stone Mixed Pack features four of its 22-ounce bomber bottles bundled together; out of the bunch only one (Imperial Russian Stout) is a special release, but the pricing of the Mixed Pack is very attractive.

When it comes to variety/sampler packs though, the 12-pack still reigns supreme. Devils Backbone released their Adventure Packs this year, which will rotate out some previous draft-only and one-off brews every few months or so along with two of their hit year-round offerings. Hitting stores in Virginia this week is Victory Brewing’s Summer Variety 12-pack, which will include their popular Summer Love and Whirlwind Wit seasonals along with two previously draft-only beers from their Hop Ticket Series.

Sierra Nevada’s Beer Camp 12-pack debuted in 2008, with participants from the restaurant, retail, and distribution sides of the business going to Sierra’s Chico, Calif., brewery to develop recipes with them. The 2014 edition of the Beer Camp 12-pack take the concept to another level: Sierra is teaming with a dozen of the biggest and most influential craft breweries in the U.S. to create all-new recipes in celebration of its new brewery opening near Asheville, N.C. Look for Beer Camp 2014 to arrive later this summer.

As craft breweries proliferate and retail space gets more and more crowded, look for variety packs to be used more often. What are some of your favorites?

Nick Anderson maintains a blog at www.beermonger.net, and can be found on Twitter at @The_Beermonger. Sign up for Arrowine’s money saving email offers and free wine and beer tastings at www.arrowine.com/mailing-list-signup.aspx. The views and opinions expressed in the column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ARLnow.com. (more…)