| How To Ruin Craft Beer 101 For BeerNexus.com Thank you for signing up for Professor Big G’s online class. Since we shouldn’t be gathering together, I decided to follow the lead of many of the top-notch universities in the land, go virtual and use the internet as my communication vehicle. Please make sure to take good notes as there will be surprise quizzes along the way; open can and bottle are allowed of course. As to my teaching credits I regularly attend the highly rated Cloverleaf Tavern U and have one MBA (Masters of Beer Appreciation) and am currently working on my seventh PhD (Professor of Hops and Drafts). The “Leaf” is consistently ranked one of the best beer bars in the Northeast and I am proud to be one of the thousands of learned folks who have and currently do attend this institution of finer drinking. Let’s get started… Section One: Bigger is ALWAYS Better We all know this to be absolutely true so let’s take a few scenarios and do the math: • The dent that the extremely nice person who was parked next to you put in your rear fender and when you first saw it after yelling “#$%^&*” you said “couldn’ t they have made it a little bigger and more noticeable…” • The XXXL hat you bought, not because you have a big head, but because it was on clearance and you couldn’t resist. Of course, it covers your eyes so you’ re now dealing with a bloody nose because you didn’t see the wall in front of you. • If only the kidney stone you just passed was a little bit bigger so you just could have just passed out from the excruciating pain rather than really have to feel it. • For those who can remember the gas shortage in the 70’s when you could only buy it on alternate days of the week and you sat in long lines just to get to the pump hoping they wouldn’t run out before your turn and six months before it started you bought a huge 4 door hardtop with a 390 4 BBL cubic inch engine, which now sits in the driveway more than it’s on the road. • Your CAT scan just revealed a golf ball sized tumor and you were hoping it would be more like a baseball, with striping instead of dimples of course. • The whole “Super-Size” craze where many of the “wholesomely delicious” fast- food places made bigger burgers and stocked bigger cups so we could drink even more soda and we now have a ton, no pun intended, of obese and diabetic people. • You bought the 42 oz baseball bat as you want to crush the ball when you hit it but it takes you so long to swing it through the zone the pitcher has already thrown two slo-pitch strikes over the plate (yea Spring Training has finished and the regular season starts today!). Before we discuss these examples let’s have a quick multiple-choice question to see how this may apply to craft beer. Take a minute to ponder this. Question 1 - A 16 oz 12.5% ABV Imperial Stout is always better than an 8 oz pour? a. Definitely since I can’t see straight now this should straighten out my eyesight. b. Yes, but only if you drink it through a straw. c. I’ve only had one beer and after this I’m Ubering home d. Actually, if the bar or bartender is going to give me a 16 oz pour of this, I’ll order 2! Typically, we tend to think that bigger is better, but as we’ve just seen it’s really case specific and yes that can certainly apply to multiple aspects of craft beer. More to come on that but on to our next section. Section 2 - Freshness has no relation to craft beer, unless of course you think about the following • Craft beers’ middle name is fresh! • Brewers try to package their beer when they think it’s reached the optimal flavor, aroma and appearance. • Beer is a kind of organism, i.e., something that lives and breathes (but hopefully not oxygen) and begins to lose some of its luster and brilliance once packaged. • One of the main ingredients, those big beautiful gorgeous hops (yes, I’m getting excited…and thirsty) are their most flavorful when fresh and it’s that hop profile that begins to fade. • Freshness is now viewed as so important many breweries are putting either canned/bottled on dates or freshness dates, which Sam Adams actually started doing in the 1980s. • Some breweries are keeping more of their beers refrigerated and many stores have reconfigured their cooler section to handle more local refrigerated crafts. Section 3 - For this section I’ve included a link to February 10, 2021 interview that was, to say the least, interesting. It’s quick, approximately 2 minutes 30 seconds, and pay close attention to the numbers; you may have to replay it just to grasp the numbers so take a few notes. I’ll begin again in ten minutes just to make sure everyone’s had ample time to spend with this. https://abc7news.com/localish/raleigh-beer-garden-record-for-most-beers-on- tap/10327316/ Okay, hopefully everyone’s had time to review and digest this amazing beer interview. First Question – who’s interested in going to the Raleigh Beer Garden to drink draft beer? Well, I see a bunch of hands raised and thumbs up. My first inclination is to immediately fail you all, but this is about learning so no that’s not the right approach; make sure you have no distractions, pay close attention and let’s do some analysis of this. Next Question – how long would it take to try all 222 North Carolina beers on the Second floor assuming you try three flights of four beers each day. That’s 12 a day, divided into 222; 18.5 days and you may want to add a few as maybe you miss a day here or there or have a few light days with only two flights. Next – how long would it take to taste all 144 on the First floor; again, assuming three flights of four or 12 a day, that’s another 12 days, although they carry many of the commercial beers available also like Bud, Coors Light, Corona, PBR, Blue Moon, etc. so you won’t need the 12 days on the First floor. They are a Beer Garden so I don’t have a problem with them carrying those; hard to believe but lots of people still drink them. So, it would take almost a month to try every beer you’d like to try, but unless you’re a craft beer newbie you’ve probably had some of these already so maybe you’ll only need three weeks. Next – if there are 144 on the First and 222 on the Second, that’s 366 drafts. It states they own the Guinness World Record for the most beers on tap at 397. My understanding is that Guinness checks and you can’t just call them up and tell them what you have and they blindly accept whatever you’re saying but if the other floor is only liquor then where are the other 33 beers on tap; is that their private stock?!? I did see almost 20 ciders and meads on their menu so maybe they were included… Now let’s do some deeper digging. Our smiling buddy Wes says they rotate 20-30 off each floor per month and at least 30 a month total. Well 30 total is 15/floor, so what is it, 20-30 or 15; it makes a difference, albeit slight in this case. Let’s be generous and say they rotate 30/month on the Second floor. With 222 it would take 7.4 months to go through every draft, BUT that’s assuming they’re all purchased at the same rate. That doesn’t happen in any bar or restaurant, some are more popular and will move more quickly than others. So, when you walk in there are about 15 really fresh beers and another 15 that have been on 2-3 weeks. There’s no paper list and their online menu doesn’t tell you what’s fresh or running low as they don’t want to advertise to the educated craft beer drinker the ones on for 6-7 months...or maybe longer. If they did why would you try another of the other 192 unless they’re stouts, porters or barrel aged? It’s a little better on the First floor since rotating 144 at 30/month is a mere 4.8 months; if it’s actually 20, then you’re at seven months. Initially you were probably thinking all the servers are craft beer savants as “they need to know their wall.” Well, if only 20-30 change a month once you’re there awhile and have learned what’s on it shouldn’t be that hard to swap out an average of one a day. There was something else I found interesting when they showed the cooler; all the kegs were half barrels. We know that many of our craft brewers use sixtels on smaller production, one off and high abv beers so I was surprised to not see one. Now they didn’t say which bar it was so maybe it was the international but still there should be quite a few non-North Carolina crafts in that bar; so not one sixtel… Additionally there was absolutely no room in there to walk or move around so I’m guessing they probably change beers at night or in the morning rather than during a shift since there’s no rush with so many available. A full half keg weighs about 160 pounds so they better be bringing in some football lineman to lift them onto the shelves as most of us aren’t doing it. Let’s think about this from the craft brewer’s side; are you excited or repulsed if the Raleigh Beer Garden wants to carry your beer, knowing it could be on for seven or more months. Look if you’re brand new you’ll take any draft line you can get, but if you’re somewhat established, I’m hoping you realize this isn’t a great proposition for you. If we taste your old, losing taste beer and don’t like it are we more or less likely to try any of your other beers?? Unfortunately, they probably order most from a distributor and the brewer doesn’t have a clue. On to Wicked Weed. I went to their website and looked at their “About” section. They opened in 2012 and obviously made good beer as they continued to expand and grow. And there it was, my suspicion confirmed in the next to last sentence; “In order to continue the growth they had seen in the past six years, Wicked Weed Brewing entered into a partnership with Anheuser-Busch family of craft breweries.” I’m glad I found that before I went to the top fifty list of craft breweries on the CBA, as duh they wouldn’t be on it. I was wondering how any craft brewery, and I’ll include Boston Beer, Sierra Nevada, Founders, Bells, etc. could possibly supply 200 different beers on tap at the same time; and why would they ever want to is the more important question. I guess if you have some A-B help you can do a bunch of variants on a bunch of beers, although I’m not sure how exciting that is. And what about smiling Wes? Well, hey he doesn’t own the place, he works there and unless you’re independently wealthy you need a job, so he’s doing what he was hired to do so it’s not really fair to trash him, but let’s just say I’m not overly impressed. I remember when we first started getting the 60 tap bars and then 90 or more. Yes, I was initially excited until I went and realized I had no clue how long any had been on. I do remember a not great rating and commenting on my Untappd on a choice in an unnamed 90 selection bar. A couple of days later the brewery commented that the beer was old and shouldn’t be on draft any longer. I appreciated that and think that brewery is smart to monitor when consumers are checking in their beers as they can learn from that. Well, I see we’re running out of time; hopefully you’ve all gained a little insight to make your drinking experience better. And in closing always remember these three words; “FRESHNESS TRUMPS SELECTION!” so make sure you are “Thinking before drinking” and if you wind up in a place like this maybe ask for a taste first to try to determine if it’s still fresh. Class dismissed, let’s go have a delicious fresh craft beer. Glenn DeLuca writes about beer and culture of drinking. He may be reached by writing thebigG@beernexus.com. *** *** *** |
Glenn DeLuca
Outtakes from a life of beer.
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| A special thank you toast to all my readers as my column moves over to the New Beer Nexus site - see you there for a new article each and every month. Cheers! |
