Every year around this time, beer judges and professional brewers meet at various venues around the country to sit and judge the National Homebrewing Competition — or simply NHC. For a homebrewer, this is the “Big Leagues”. The NHC is sanctioned and organized by the American Homebrewers Association and with over 5,000 entries, is the largest homebrewing competition in the world. The competition is open to any homebrewer, anywhere on planet earth or beyond as long as they can get their beers in on time and in the appropriate bottle.

Last week, four other area judges and I took part in the NHC “first round” judging for our region. Judging was done at Gordon-Biersch Brewing Company in Columbus, OH. Our region consisted of nearly 700 entries, which were sorted out into BJCP beer-style classifications and judged according to the beer style that they are supposed to embody. (more…)

EITOR’S NOTE: Gazz “Beers to You” blogger Rich Ireland had good things to say about the last “Fest of Ale” at South Charleston’s Ramada Plaza Hotel Comedy Zone, which he helped to emcee and which drew more than 80 people for brew and laughs. Head there this Friday, April 18 for Vol. 2. of the event, starting 7 p.m.

It starts with a short ‘Beer 101’ session and then 11 samplings of craft beer with food pairings to match and comedy on the side served up by Jody Kerns and Mike Storck. Admission is $25 per person, which includes the beer, food, entertainment and a chance at prizes during the evening. Call 744-4641.

ONLINE: www.comedyzonecharleston.com

Most of you probably think that maintaining a blog is easy. All you need is a passion for a subject or a good reason to rant, and a computer to log on. When I started doing this over a year ago, I kind of thought the same way. I felt like I had so much to say about beer, that I would never run out of ideas or subjects to blog about. I quickly found out that as far as blog ideas go, it’s either feast or famine with me.

I was thinking about a subject to write about for this upcoming week and I thought of all the great blogging opportunities that I either missed or just never got around to. My inner self exclaimed “There you go Richie boy! Your blog for the upcoming week has almost written itself”!

So here goes. I present “The best beer blogs that never came to be”… (more…)

The “Beers to You” Mythbuster poses the question: Does Budweiser suck?

First we have to define the word “sucks.” In the context used it would seem that the word is being used to say that Budweiser is a beer of low quality. As any of my regular readers know, “Bud” has played the role of “whipping boy” in many of my previous articles. I personally do not enjoy drinking the beer (and only do so under duress), but that fact has to do with flavor and nothing to do with quality.

Budweiser, along with just about every other macro-brew, are beers of compromise. They are designed for the masses. Millions of dollars are spent to test market these beers before they are brewed. The goal is to make a beverage that is ‘flavor neutral,’ but still barely passes for beer. Bud is brewed with barley malt, but then they use other fermentable ingredients to keep it lightly flavored and still give you a buzz. Hops are used sparingly as not to impart much bitterness or flavor. Bud is brewed at breweries all over North America in very large batches. (more…)

The next time you’re strolling down your grocer’s beer aisle, take notice at how many craft beers are billed as “Pale Ale.” Sure, there may be some qualifiers on the label like “English Style Pale Ale” or “India Pale Ale”; but there’s no doubting pale ale’s ubiquity in today’s craft-beer market. But what is pale ale and what the heck’s the difference between English-style or India-style pale ale? I hope this primer will help de-mystify pale ale and hopefully make your next craft-beer purchase a bit easier.

The “Ale” family of beer consists of a wide variety of styles and flavors; many more than its cold-fermented counterpart, lager. Popular styles such as stouts and porters are ales along with the puckeringly sour lambics of Belgium and also the wheat beers of Germany. The yeast strain used for fermentation determines if beer will be a lager or ale.

Given all the varieties within the ale family, how does a consumer make a buying decision based on the name “Pale Ale”? Such a one-dimensional name could describe many styles of ale. There are plenty of ales which are pale in color but aren’t Pale-Ales. Belgian lambic beers are pale, but if you mistakenly threw one of those back thinking it’s going to taste like the pint of ale you drank at an English pub a few years back, you are in for a real sour surprise. (more…)