aaron c beals

my co-worker Sophie pointed this article in the New Yorker out to me recently. while it initially appears to be an article about “extreme beer”, it’s more of an excellent writeup on the history of Dogfish Head and Sam Calagione. even if you’ve read Sam’s book, this article provides an alternate view into the psyche of Sam and the process that goes into brewing up a radical beer. the article is a long, but if you’re interested in beer and brewing, you’ll likely not notice — it’s an engaging read and well worth the time.

a while back, my buddy Gordon Bedford sent me a link to a story about Sam Adams sharing hops with smaller brewers in an effort to help them through the 2008 hop shortage.

it’s been about a year now since i brewed a batch of beer, which is just a shame. i wish i could blame it on the hop shortage, but there are many alternative hops available as well as low-hop beers (scotch ale, for example) that can be brewed. sadly, it’s been a matter of priorities. homebrewing got lost in the busyness of working on the house (we renovated the kitchen and family room ourselves), starting a new job and getting two product releases out the door, and following the Celtics epic run to banner #17. Matt and i have been talking about getting back to basics and doing an extract-based brew this fall. more info to come as that plan progresses.

Last night, we hopped a cab out to haight & ashbury. If you don’t know why this area is significant, google it.

It was all I thought it would be and more… The hippie vibe is still strong, and I finally found out where all the Phishheads went once the band broke up.

There were a bunch of music shops, including Amoeba Records (good store, but high prices) and a guitar store (very cool, good selection). And there were a handful of smoke shops selling equipment “for tobacco use only”. Shocking.

I had a moment of reminiscence as I looked around at the dreadheaded 20- and 30-somethings, and I got to thinking. What I liked about the scene was the laid-back atmosphere, the general love for your fellow man, and a willingness to share. Violence was low, if not non-existent. But over time, I started to realize that the laid-back tendencies were tied to general apathy, or in cases where people did feel passionately about something, a general unwillingness to “think big” about getting the message out there.

I also noticed that the selfishness inherent in mankind was starting to show through — in the end, people were out for themselves. This ugly side shined through most clearly in the (unfortunately sizable) drug culture within the scene. Increasingly, people weren’t there for the music, art, or community … They were there to make themselves feel good. It was a shift from focus on others to focus on self.

Anyhow, back to the Haight. We saw the house (710 Ashbury) where the Grateful Dead lived and played, and then walked down to the Magnolia brewpub.

Honestly, from the food to the beer to the atmosphere to the eloquently-written menus, this was hands-down one of the best brewpubs I have ever been to. I had a sampler of flights and then a pint of cask-conditioned Dark Star Mild. Outstanding. Laura had a homemade root beer. For food: buffalo wings as an appetizer, steak and moules frites for dinner, and a cheese plate for dessert. This place was it… the dream… my goal. They even use organic and local ingredients — sustainability!! Some day more people will start caring about sustainability. They’ll have to.

Today on BA, I came across a list of ways you know you’re a homebrewer. The format hits a little too close to Jeff Foxworthy territory for my liking, but enough of these caused me to laugh out loud (or wonder who had been spying on me) that I figured it was permissible. I was going to tag all the lines that apply to me, but I really don’t feel like self-incriminating, so I’ll leave it as an exercise for the reader (with one exception).
You know that you’re a homebrewer …

• If you wander through the isles of the grocery store saying to yourself “I wonder if that would ferment.”
• If you know what a sparge arm is.
• If you have more empty bottles in your house than Teddy Kennedy.
• If your idea of international diplomacy is combining Belgian yeast with British malts and German hops.
• If the FBI raids your house, suspecting that your yeast ranch is a WMD lab.
• If you know the secret motto “RDWHAH”.
• If you’ve been banned from the kitchen ever since the “Boilover Incident of ’99″.
• If you’ve ever tried to improve a Budweiser by stirring in a crumbled hop pellet.
• If you have a hose adapter permanently attached to your kitchen faucet.
• If you wanted to name the puppy “Fuggles.”
• If you own a sterile trash can.
• If you have more than 10 gallons of beer in your home right now.
• If you measure beer in gallons.
• If you don’t think 10 gallons of beer is a lot.
• If you’ve ever used a mop on a ceiling.
• If you have a large stove pot that no one else is allowed to use.
• If you’ve ever driven your car in winter with the windows down and the heat off because you were afraid the cooler in the backseat was getting warm.
• If you’ve ever stumped the tour guide on a megabrewery tour, deliberately.
• If you have a glass that you wash by hand instead of in the dishwasher.
• If you’ve ever said any of these phrases:
  “In a not-frosted glass, please.”
  “Probably dirty hoses.”
  “What kind of beer is it supposed to be?”
  “By weight or by volume?”
  “My yeast is ready.”
  “Aw, crap, twist-offs.”
• If there is a bottle in the refrigerator with an air lock on it.
• If you’ve ever butted into the conversation of total strangers because you overheard the word “sparge.”
• If you can’t remember the last time you popped open a flip-top beer can.
• If you’ve ever cut a hole in a refrigerator door.
• If you’ve ever gone to a redemption center to buy bottles.
• If your 10-year-old critiques the clarity and head retention of her root beer.
• If the owner of the beer store doesn’t remember your name anymore.
• If a waitress has said you’re the first person to ever send a beer back.
• If your kid entered the science fair with a demonstration of fermentation.
• If you’ve ever bought a six-pack of beer just because you needed the empties.
• If walking across your kitchen floor sounds like Velcro.
• If you’ve ever pulled bottles out of other people’s recycling bins.
• If you’ve ever put the kids to bed dirty because the tub was full of soaking bottles.
• If every T-shirt you own is from a brewpub or microbrewery.
• If your key chain has a bottle opener on it.
• If you have a T-shirt or bumper sticker that says:
  “I Brew, Therefore I Am”
  “I Fear No Beer”…
  “I’d rather be home…brewing!”
• If you refer to the foam on a pot of boiling spaghetti as “hot break”.
• If you have several boxes of empties (various sizes and types) in your garage, even though you Keg, “just in case”.
• If you have ever put hops in your coffee, and thought “Hey, that’s better!”
• If you find yourself standing next to another guy at Home Depot holding several brass fittings and a cooler.
• If you can brag that your vehicle can actually hold 40 cornies and still have room in the front seat…
• If you have more refrigerators in your garage than in your house.
• If you have more taps at home than in the corner bar.

A few weeks ago, in an effort to kick the summer blues (heat is very bad for brewing), Matt and I decided to brew up a quick-n-easy hefeweizen, named the Hyde Park Hefeweizen in honor of our travels that day. We started out the day trying to get to the Boston Brewing Company in time for a tour, but failed due to JP’s confusing roads and lack of parking. Following that, we headed for home via Washington Street — which turned out to be the wrong Washington Street (there are 3 in Boston) — and ended up cruising around Hyde Park for a while. Good times.

Anyhow, now that it’s been fermenting for about 2 weeks, it smells like a good brew, which is a far cry from how it started out. The yeast profile said something about some sulphur production, but I didn’t figure that translated to our living room smelling like a rotten-egg/banana smoothie. Let me tell you: it wasn’t pleasant. But now that most of the yeast has gone to sleep and dropped out of suspension, those aromas have gone away (as they should) and all that’s left is a spicy-fresh phenolic scent.

This week, we’re going to be bottling the hefeweizen and pitching a Dunkelweizen on top of the yeast cake from the prior beer. Temperature control is going to be (and has been) an issue, but I’ve been able to work around it by wrapping wet towels around the fermenter bucket. Just have to watch out for the mildew.

So I got the new site up with the main intention of starting to post more, but clearly that well-laid plan failed. Ah, well, there’s always tomorrow.

The good news is that I turned on registration, so if you’ve been itching to comment on posts (the old ones are coming, I promise) you can go ahead and do so. Just click on the “Comments” link below, try to log in, and click “Register” on the login page. You’ll need a valid email, but fear not — I won’t spam you.

Because my night-owl ways have returned for the week, here are some thoughts and links:

• My buddy John introduced me to a new web comic recently — and of course I had to go back and read every strip in the archive. This is by no means the first incident. Ctrl-Alt-Del is similar to Penny Arcade in premise and focus (video-game-centric) but the method of delivery is different (plot vs loose association).
• The Celtics 2006-07 schedule just got released today, and the home opener is against … the Hornets?!? What kind of old-school rivalry is that? The last two years they’ve kicked off the season against the Knicks and Sixers. And before that, it was the Heat, Bulls, Cavs, and Raptors — at least they were in the same Conference. It still frustrates me that teams play divisional rivals (against whom they’re vying for divisional titles and playoff spots) no more often than most other teams in the league. It’s all about marketing to the NBA; gotta make sure the big names hit all the cities to get those butts in the seats, as opposed to, say … playing engaging basketball and building rivalries?
• I have restrained myself thus far and have only made two purchases off of Woot, both of which are getting steady use around here.
• Some day, I’ll have one of these… but until then, I’m going to have to keep using these lesser devices. At least I’ll soon be making one upgrade.

More to come…

I’m sure you’ve seen many reports (most out of colleges) claiming that beer has health benefits, and yes, this is another report from another college research group, claiming the exact same thing. But it’s worth noting, especially if you are one of those rare breed that like their heaping plate of hops with a small side of malt.

Hops for your health [boston.com]