Throughout history, Beer-the mild-mannered beverage of the common man, has bore witness and has even acted as “catalyst” in many events that shaped the world as we know it. From the bloody Battle of Worringen to the heated debates on the issue of American independence and the “spark” that eventually propelled Hitler to power, The infamous “Beer Hall Putsch”. A pretty spotty resume to say the least. (save for its role in American Independence). It conjours up reminders of Lucipher in the Rolling Stone’s “Sympathy for the Devil” but in actuality beer’s role has been more like “Forrest Gump”-”just happy to be there”.

To make beer the whipping boy is to ignore beer’s role in everyday life. Beer is a “social lubricant” with no equal. Nearly all of us know this, it doesn’t need to be taught, it’s almost instinctive. Hence, the role of beer being used to patch-up the ailing poll numbers of a President who spoke too soon…

Today President Obama brought us what is now known as the “Beer Summit”.

Here is my personally selected beer menu for the event:

President Obama - Stone Arrogant Bastard

Vice President Biden - Weyerbacher’s Blithering Idiot

Professor Gates - Blacksheep Best Bitter

Officer Crowley - Stone Old Guardian

I have promised myself “never again”… Never again will I find myself in a position where I accidentally plan a vacation at exactly the same dates as Festivall. How embarrassing? I am a Festivall board member for God’s sake! Yes folks, I missed the entire bloody thing and while the cat was away, the mice did play! 

While doing my part for wine/beer relations trudging around to almost too many wine tasting rooms in Sonoma County California, my I-phone was alive with beer-mail from home. The first reports came in almost immediately. It seems that anyone who attended the “Blues and Brews” event on the UC lawn on Friday evening was subjected to what a friend of mine, Pete Dailey described as “Fermentation Discrimination”. The attendees were subjected to the humiliation of being tagged and marked as they drank beer! That’s right folks! Each attendee was given a wrist-band that had check boxes for six beers. The boxes were checked-off after each beer purchase. Check marks in all six boxes did not get you in the “Mug-Club” either, it got you “benched” for the rest of the game! Were the event organizers just trying to do the right thing or was this a clear case of “Beverage Profiling” aimed at beer drinkers?

Turn the clock forward to the next evening on the same UC lawn. This time the event was “Wine and all that Jazz”, a great event, showcasing the art of WV wine makers. The price of admission includes a tasting glass, unlimited small tastes of wine and the ability to buy full bottles for consumption right there on the UC lawn. Wrist-bands were worn by the attendees proving they were of legal age and that they paid admission. No check-boxes in sight.  

I have listened to several “eyewitness” accounts of both events and the verdict is in… Many people at the Wine and Jazz event were what we heathen beer drinkers refer to as “Sh&t Faced”. Many, many more than at the low-class, heathen attended “Blues and Brews” event. The fix was in. How could we mere ”low-class, irresponsible and unwashed beer drinkers  have possibly won “The Drunkest Crowd Award” with the six-beer limit and beer that contains half the alcohol of wine?  Hasn’t anyone ever heard the song “Eton Rifles” by The Jam?

I won’t go as far as calling myself a “coffee Snob” but I am pretty close. After all, coffee and beer have a lot of things in common, especially if you like bold roasted flavors. I have always contended that the people who insist they hate dark beer, but then have a cup of black French roast coffee in the morning are just in denial.  

I am the only “real” coffee drinker in my household. My wife and daughters will drink something that they like to call coffee, but after they add all of the vanilla or caramel syrup and the rest of the “foo-foo”, they are basically drinking something more akin to hot cocoa. My flying “café solo” has probably cost me many dollars over the years.

When I am in town, I work from home with coffee as my co-pilot in the morning. This means I wind up grinding my beans and making a nearly full pot of coffee, because anything less just doesn’t seem to work out with my Melitta drip coffee-maker. I wind up drinking one large fresh cup and basically dumping the rest after some time. Sometimes I even disgust myself by being miserly and re-heating the cold and oxidized leftovers in the microwave… Yuk!

In recent years there has been a wave of new “single-serve” technologies that promised to deliver the ultimate coffee experience, one cup at a time. I tried the pods, The Nespresso cups and I could never agree with the hype. The coffee always tasted watered down.

I have been a “single-serve” skeptic for a long time. For me, the physics just didn’t work out; how could you possibly get three different serving sizes from what already appears to be “not enough ground coffee” for a proper cup? Then along came the K-cup technology from Keurig. Sometimes, you have to throw caution to the wind and last week (backed by the Sam’s Club return policy) I picked up my new Keurig B-66 Single Serve coffee maker. The unit came with 90 different K-cup coffee servings to try. What the heck…

My coffee drinking life has changed dramatically. I am not going to tell you that the unit is perfect. The taste of the coffee will depend on the brand of K-cup coffee you use (just like “normal” coffee). I have found that among the included samples, Timothy’s brand seems to be one of the best, followed by Newman’s Own. Green Mountain tastes like crap and the tea? Yes they actually are selling K-cup tea… Forget about those and just use the machine to dispense hot water (Tea is already single-serve!)

Now back to physics. How does this thing make a decent cup of Joe with half of the coffee normally required? First of all the unit brews the coffee by dispensing the water directly over the grind under pressure and at the exact 192 degree temperature. This maximizes extraction (without bitterness) and because the K-cup has a built in filter, the coffee is very finely ground to give more surface area. The fine grind would never work in a drip coffee maker due to the lack of pressure and relying on gravity. This isn’t rocket science folks… (actually it is).

What about the cost and availability of K-cup coffee? I am going to be purchasing my Coffee via Amazon.com, but they are available at Target stores and Sam’s. The Timothy’s Kona blend I just ordered will cost me about 30 cents a cup. Not bad for a good cup a Joe. My experimentation has determined that Timothy’s and Newman’s coffees are just about perfect when selecting the medium size cup which is 7.25 ounces. The coffee seems a bit watery when using the large cup setting and very strong on the small.

As an “almost coffee snob”, I can vouch for this K-cup technology. I now find myself having an occasional evening cup of Timothy’s De-Caf Columbian; something I couldn’t have done before without wasting a lot of coffee and a lot of Dinaro to boot.  

I really appreciate the fact that so many of you post useful and excellent commentary on the BTY site. I am asking those interested in sounding-off to share their vision and thoughts about how they think the craft-beer market will develop in West Virginia. What do you think it’s going to take? What is your advice for the beer wholesalers?

I think the capability and access to post fresh commentary is what makes the Blog-space so exciting and it makes “Beers to You” everybody’s beer blog…

Who’s up first?

Well Actually, the winner is the malt beverage Kool-Aid called “Joose”. Those guys must have been waiting just across the Ohio River with truckloads of that non-redeeming swill. And the there’s Witches Brew, but that was cheating.

If you really want to know who the winner is of “The First Craft Beer above 6%abv to Legally be sold in West Virginia since Prohibition”; here it is and I got mine… (Thanks Rob Absten for the sighting…)

Earlier today I spoke with Greg Robinson who is over communications for WVABCC. He introduced me to Cindy Clark who manages beer licensing and approvals and we had an informative and cordial conversation. It seems we are all excited about the prospect of great “World Class” beers coming to the Mountain State. Apparently there has been a flurry of activity at the WVABCC with new label approval applications appearing everyday and they assure me they are working quickly to approve them.

Of course the fact that an already established brewery or importer is submitting new labels for approval doesn’t neccessarily mean that the beer will appear on a WV retail shelf anytime soon; it justs paves the way for the distributor to sell the product if they so choose.

Greg did hook me up though… Here is the current list of approved labels of all beers between 6% and 12%ABV as of July 9, 2009! —–> list-of-approved-labels-that-are-between-6-12-1.pdf

Have at it you Beer Geeks!!!

Well folks, I know it’s been a few weeks and postings have been kinda slow. I have been traveling for business and haven’t had the time or the inspiration to write a heck of a lot. First of all, I was bummed that I was not able to be in town for Festivall and take part in the many events but especially FestivALE, Blues and Brews and Wine and all that Jazz. Based on reports from friends and readers, FestivALE met with much apathy from most of the participating venues and many of the venue staff were unaware of that their employer was even a part of such a thing. We will have to do a better job next year… As for Blues and Brews and W&J, I will have much to say about those events in an upcoming blog.

Okay, now down to business… As of July 9, 2009, West Virginians are allowed to purchase beers with alcohol content up to 12% by volume (abv) at local retailers. My early reports show that there was no rush by wholesalers or retailers to offer any of this brew for sale on “opening day”; not even cheap malt liquor as many of the new beer law’s opponents feared would happen. I did hear that a few stores were still trying to get rid of the last of the “Witches Brew” that has to be over a year old by now. (Please don’t buy this unless you are certain that it has been stored cold, if so, it’s probably fine)

Folks, I told you before that this change of law alone will not create a craft beer Nirvana in West Virginia. There are many more troubling legal issues to overcome and we cannot forget that we are a very small market. The legal hurdles and the costs for new breweries to sell here are way out of line with the incremental business potential. I would conclude that the biggest problem of all though, is ignorance and apathy by the beer wholesalers. If these guys aren’t interested in the market, then we are screwed…   

Event News:

Ohio Brew Week 2009 July 12th to 18th

Go to: http://www.ohiobrewweek.com/ for details…