64 calories and 2.8% alcohol. Might as well drink water. And what the hell is sucralose?!

The Stone Brewing Company have announced that they have plans to open a secondary brewery somewhere in Europe. This is an amazing idea, and something I wish other breweries would start doing as well.

First, let’s look at a company like Dogfish Head, the 11th largest craft brewer of 2010. They have grown immensely, especially recently. They are smart in that they have never wanted to grow too fast. However they are still growing remarkably fast. On the company blog and on Discovery’s Brewmasters show, they have publicly stated that they have had to dump batches of their rarer, specialty brews because it was not consistent with previous versions. When they dumped their 120 Minute IPA last year, it cost the company half a million dollars. People forget that beer contains living organisms (yeast) and simply doubling the recipe does not mean that the exact same beer will come out. The yeast can act differently from one batch to the next, especially when the batches are increased greatly. Besides this, Dogfish Head also regularly makes quite a few different beers that it does not distribute to the west coast. This is done to ensure that these particular beers are as fresh as possible. Recently they also announced that they would no longer distribute to England, Canada and 3 states currently in distribution. This is done so they can better focus on the states with the greatest demand and not simply growing bigger too fast. I’ve always wondered if it would be beneficial for business if they were to open a second brewery on the west coast. They could have their main Delaware brewery focused only brewing enough to distribution the east coast and their west coast brewery doing the same on the other side of the country. They could continue to brew smaller, consistent batches of beer and overall increase distribution to more states with more varieties.

Stone is doing something similar except in another continent. They state that the reason for this is to build their presence in Europe without the costs, financially and environmentally, of shipping beer across the world. They want to ensure that the best, freshest beer that best represents their company is available to Europeans. In addition to this, they will primarily only use ingredients available in Europe whenever possible. Because of this, they will be brewing different beers in Europe than what they currently brew in San Diego. They will still be in a style that is consistent with their brand but new recipes. Again in keeping with their reasoning for all this, the beers that they brew in Europe will not be distributed to the U.S. for the same reasons that they are not currently distributing beers to Europe.

I think this is going to turn out to be a huge success for Stone. They will create a global brand recognition without having to sacrifice quality. It will allow them to create even more unique beers using a greater variety of ingredients and overall increase distribution and sales. All of this can be done than cheaper than what it would cost if they were to try and accomplish these same goals all from their single brewery in San Diego, even if they were to expand it’s size. I would love to see this kind of thing happening more often. It doesn’t have to be in another continent or even country, but a secondary brewery can help a company like Dogfish to continue creating their off-centered ales for more off-centered people in more off-centered places.

I started using Untappd about 5 months ago and last night I reached the milestone of having had 100 different beers. I looked through the list and saw that I have had beers from 42 different breweries from 6 different countries.
The 100th was not as eventful as I was originally planning on it being, but I am glad that it was from a Las Vegas brewery that I had not tried before, Joseph James. I tried their Hop Box IPA, it was super hoppy but not at all bitter, much more of a hop aroma. I had seen it around town before and was very excited to give it a try. I was first introduced to this brewery when I tried their root beer at Ho Foods (Whole Foods). Just from that root beer alone, I could tell that this brewery knows what they are doing. I look forward to trying more beers from this brewery.

The royal family has decided that beer is for the lower classes and has banned any beer from being present at Prince William’s wedding. Specifically: “It isn’t really an appropriate drink to be serving in the Queen’s presence at such an occasion.” Since many associate beer with a drunken frat party with an endless supply of Bud Lite, beer can have a negative connotation. Many think of beer simply as the watered down taste of Budweiser, Miller, and Coors. However, modern day craft beers have complex flavors that any alcohol enthusiast can appreciate. It is a shame the royal family does not see this, especially considering the history beer has had in Britain.

So, in honor of this, here are 6 beers that would be great at a wedding. While William and Kate have not shared their beer preferences, if any, these beers are wedding worthy.

Chimay Grand Reserve
This is a very smooth, amazing beer. It’s bottle conditioned, meaning that it is naturally carbonating and maturing inside the bottle. It is also brewed by monks in Belgium! How is this not classy?

Dogfish Head Midas Touch
This beer is fit for kings! The recipe for this was created by investigating the chemical compounds lining the inside of clay jars buried in Kind Midas’ tomb. It is brewed with honey and grapes, which gives it some white wine-like qualities. Dogfish Head states that this “will please the Chardonnay of beer drinker alike.”

Dogfish Head Chateau Jiahu
Another beer from Dogfish’s ancient ales. Also brewed with honey, this is a very light, crisp and refreshing beer that could easily replace a white wine.

Dogfish Head Red & White
This is a witbier that is fermented with pinot noir juice. The added fermented fruit juice gives this beer a strong tart flavor making it a favorite amongst traditional wine drinkers.

Stone Old Guardian Belgo Barley Wine
This is similar to Stone’s normal Old Guardian Barley Wine, however this one is fermented with a Belgian yeast strain whereas the traditional Old Guardian uses and American yeast strain. The Belgian yeast brings out some floral and fruity characteristics in the beer which pairs perfectly with the strong, distinct taste from the barley and hops used in barley wines.

Coronado Brewing Idiot IPA
An unfiltered IPA from a small San Diego brewery. This beer is served on cask (aged and fermented naturally) giving this beer all the qualities of a good IPA with a smooth, soft texture.

As I mentioned in my last post, Stone is one of my favorite breweries. The beers that they make are very distinct in flavor and are easily recognizable. Arrogant Bastard Ale is a regular favorite of mine. While I was San Diego a few weeks ago, I stopped by the brewery to take a tour. It was incredible to see how efficient a professional level brewery is. The entire space is primarily filled with giant fermenter tanks and a single station with a grain mill and brew tank where all 100,000+ barrels (1 barrel = 31 gallons) were brewed last year. Pipes line the ceiling connecting the brew pots to each other and to all the fermenters. If ever in the San Diego area (North County specifically) stop by the brewery. They have several free tours daily that each end in free samples of some of their beers!

– George Takei

As I mentioned previously, no promises on how long this blog will last. Also as I had previously mentioned, school has kept me too busy to spend time here.
That said, I plan to continue this, but with a new focus:

Beer

I know, I know, this site already is a beer site. Here’s the difference though: this has been unintentional. I have been posting the things that I have been finding interesting. Unintentionally, this has been about beer. I am now intentionally planning on solely writing about beer.

The next obvious question, is why?

I like beer. Specifically craft beer. The stuff that consists of multiple types of grain and hops and the beers that actually taste like it came from plants. In my opinion, beer has a far wider span of taste qualities than any other alcohol. Yes even wine.

But more than that, I like drinking beer with friends and family. This is the way alcohol is meant to be enjoyed. It is meant to bring people together, to laugh and enjoy each others company. Yes, alcohol can be easily abused and can tear people apart. But when used in responsible moderation, it brings people together.

The craft beer community specifically is about bringing people together. Craft beer consists of only 5% of all beer sales. The other 95% go to only 2 companies: Anheuser-Bush InBev and SABMiller-Molson Coors (Yes only 2 companies and those are the actual company names after all the merging). Beer, one of the most quintessential American past times, is dominated in America by companies that are not even American (anymore). Because of this domination, craft beer companies solely focus on actual people, as opposed to advertising and money. Attend any beer festival or visit a brewery and you will see exactly what I mean. Having visited the Stone brewery this past week, I saw employees share their passion for the company in their tours and beer descriptions. I saw employees on their lunch break sharing a beers together in the Stone restaurant.

To that end, I want to people to come together and support real American companies. Companies that create art out of their passion as opposed to creating a product as cheap as possible to improve profit margins. When I had my beer tasting party last month, I loved seeing such a large group of people, gathered around 30+ beers and sharing them back and forth, recommending to each other their favorites, laughing and having fun together.

So what does this all mean for this site?

Living in Las Vegas I will primarily focus on craft beer that is distributed to Las Vegas. I will continue my reviews but add recommendations on where to find it for sale in town. When I go to a bar and restaurant in town, I will write about what their beer list looks like and recommend what to order. As I visit some of the local breweries, I will add posts about their beers. On a larger scale, I will write about the beers and breweries that I admire and recommend (did I mention that I visited Stone? I’m still excited about that). I will write about current events in the beer world and how it affects consumers. I often try to find ways to use beer as an ingredient in my cooking so I will add those recipes here too.

On top of all that, I have been planning to start brewing beer and will likely start in the next few months. There will definitely be quite a bit to write about once I start with that.

Eventually, I will change the domain name to something that makes a bit more sense. In the meantime, please give me your thoughts on what you like and don’t like. I don’t want to keep this up just for myself.

ALC/VOL: 4.2%

Color: golden yellow

Smell: Broccoli

Feel: crisp and well carbonated

Taste:  The initial taste is some sort of vegetable. It’s not broccoli. I can’t put my finger on it. The finish is very pilsner like.

Overall: The brewery calls this an aroma hop ale. It definitely has some sort of flowery, vegetable like aromas to it. I’m not exactly sure how I feel about it. It’s not that it’s a bad beer. It is good, but I’m not exactly in the mood for something like this. The problem is, I’m not exactly sure when I’d be in the mood for this. I might be a bit generous with this brewery since I liked their Witty so much. I don’t want to say it’s bad, it’s just unique. And for that I want to commend them for taking a chance with something different. It may be a bit weird, but it’s still a good quality beer.