Craft Beer Magazine

The craft beer revolution has been successful. The rebels have gained the sympathy of the public; the empire of macro-beers is cracking. So keep drinking craft beer, keep home brewing.

Admittedly, I have not gouged the time to brew out of my schedule. But I may as well read about it, right? The iPad restarted my reading habit, especially in connection with magazines, beer magazines.

Okay, fine, I’ve only got three right now. Whatever. Let me speak of one: Craft Beer Magazine.

Here’s what I liked about it: brevity. The articles are bare bones, succinct. If you’ve been using e-reader apps (like iBooks) for any time at all you’ll be familiar with how to use this app. Still, it opens with a one page tutorial. Then there’s the contents and then the first article which is a concise history of the Revolution (craft beer revolution that is). That’s right, no letters from editors or any other introductory material.

There are a few more articles, all very terse, that cover craft beer’s global rise, the science of canning, a beer app, beer and health, beer cooking (including a beef stew recipe) and a beer review to wrap things up. Also included is the first episode of a new web series called Brew Age, capturing craft beer makers in the San Francisco area. And there are some informative pictographs.

Its so compact it seems more like a newsletter than a magazine. In this age of blogs perhaps the content is appropriate. However, while it makes the magazine a quick read it does mean it lacks some color, some verve.  (However, the beer review did give me a beer to explore).

If you’re expecting information on formulating home brew recipes or the like, this is not your magazine. But, if you like beer appreciation, if you want to read shout outs to expanding and up and coming breweries, and maybe get a little bit of beer news, Craft Beer Magazine could work for you.

Sent from my iPad

The Brewer’s Barrel

It’s been thirteen months since I have brewed a beer.  It’s been approximately twenty-five months since I have brewed a successful beer.  Yeah, the last one just, sort of, kinda, well … exploded.  I had planned an awesome Winter of Brewing, beginning in October of 2012.  This did not occur.  Life conspires.  Time expires.

As with most home brewer’s, however, creating Art In A Glass is in my blood and eventually I shall return to it just as the Jedi returned to a galaxy far, far away.  And whence I do I’ll begin with old recipes that I have stored on my computer.  Once I need more I’ll be looking online.  Like I haven’t been doing that anyway.

Some brew recipe sites are difficult to navigate.  I like this one at the moment:  The Brewer’s Barrel.  It’s a clean site, nice fonts, good colors, easy to read.  Those are seriously important factors for me.  The site does not allow you to create your own recipes.  It is a compendium of recipes from home brewer’s around the country.  The home page lists popular recipes and newest recipes.  You can also choose to see all recipes.  They are grouped by style and indicate if they are All Grain or Extract recipes.  This site is a great starting place for a Brew Day.

While it doesn’t let you craft your own specialized recipe it does have a practical option that other similar sites seem to lack.  Once you’ve found the recipe you like you can click “Buy Ingredients.”  The Brewer’s Barrel is connected to a home brew supply company in Chicago called Brew Camp.  Once you click their link you can buy the exact ingredients in that recipe.  Now, it sends the order immediately to Brew Camp.  You’ll get an email confirming your order.  Make sure you’re ready to order when you click the link and enter your information.  The guys at Brew Camp will send you a confirmation email within a few hours and contact you for payment.

The homebrewing community is a social place and Brewer’s Barrel capitalizes on that.  Go on, check it out.  Add your own recipe.  I hope to get around to brewing it one of these days.

Alpine Spring by Samuel Adams

Yard work beckons me. I laugh in its face. It’s henchman, the wind, blows detritus in my face. The Spring Games are on.

After recruiting teenage assistance weeds are slaughtered. Trash is discarded. Fences are erected. The rest shall have to wait for another weekend.  Seems like a good time to start the AlphaBeer Tour.

A is for Alpine Spring.

The Vitals:

• Brewer: Boston Beer (Samuel Adams)
• ABV: 5.5%
• Categorized as: seasonal/kellerbier

That Smell …
Flower blossom. Honey, buy not honeysuckle (which is, like, a standard spring smell, right?). I also imagine ginger and lemon.  Those sound like a good names for twins.  And I know just which ones.

In Appearance …
It resembles a wit – cloudy, milky, opalescent, yellow champagne.  It maintains a good mousse like head. Very white. It lingers.

But The Taste …
It has the circus character of a wit but the honey makes it sweet – overly so for my tastes. But I also like the juxtaposition, the contrast. I could discern no tartness or bitterness, no serious hops impact from Tettnang other than the flowery smell.

Join Me For A Plate Of …
Yeah, cuz I had something to eat while doing yard work …

The Conclusion of the Matter …
This is a spring beer but it is redolent of the homes of old people from my youth in the late seventies, early eighties. I received visions of yellow and green carpet. Or a casino replete with a cigary coating on tongue. Hmm. Weird.  It’s also like kissing … Renee Russo. She’s older now but still attractive.  Hmm, again.  Lingering is good descriptor. This is a drink that is … weird, yet not terrible. It’s drinkable, not necessarily repeatable. .

Kingman’s Wine Festival

I will shock myself with this statement: Kingman got an event right.  It was the Third Annual Kingman Wine and Food Festival held May 18th at the Firefighters Park over on Detroit Avenue.  Seriously, it was a good time.  It helped that the weather was magnificent, to be sure.  Let me thank the owners of Slightly High Maintenance.  They invited us (mostly my wife) to this event.

 

It was a quiet day, unfettered, unchained to work, to a desk, to responsibility.  I wasn’t interested in hobnobbing with the haut monde of Kingman.  Nay, just wanted some wine.

My wife and I entered the park through a nice landscaped area, picked up our glasses, got the wristbands and were inside with no hassle or trouble.  It was disturbance free, and even friendly – a definitely new attitude for this town.  After we found our table my next stop was Redneck’s Southern Pit BBQ  trailer for a beef slider.  They had a pork slider, too, but it was sold out by the time we arrived.   My wife chose Siren’s Cafe for a chicken pasta salad.  Then we were off to drink.

Studio Vino in Tempe, Arizona had two splendid creations – a green apple Riesling and a blackberry Merlot.  Drinking the Riesling was like drinking a liquiefied Jolly Rancher.  They sold out of both wines early in the day.   Pillsbury Wines had a tart Roan and a chardonnay that was just hard to drink.  But the most fun was at our table’s private tasting presented by our very own Stetson Winery.  I say “our very own” because, you know, it’s here in Kingman.  Out in Valle Vista.

We chose their Cultured Cowboy chardonnay and the Root 66, a Rhone style blend.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Root 66 was the table favorite.  Thanks to Don Stetson for providing the wine.

After finishing off those two bottles we dove into two blackberry Merlot’s from Studio Vino noted above.  Thanks to Stephanie at Slightly High Maintenance for that.  She bought the last two Merlot’s the winery had at the festival, I believe.  And they didn’t last the afternoon.

So, to the organizers of this festival:  bravo!  This was well done.  Please work with the group that organizes Kingman’s Oktoberfest beer festival.  It needs a tad more elan.  If it were to follow this pattern in regard to convincing brewers from around the state to present their concoctions, well, we’d have a couple of premier events for the citizens in this town.

iPhone Drives Man To Drink

Alas it will be late tonight ere I can imbibe. There’s a Sam Adams Alpine something-or-other awaiting consumption.

Well, waiting to be drank. Mayhaps that sounds better.

Just Missing One Thing

As I trudged through Mordor with my own particular One Ring, the all encompassing eye of the sun watched me.  But there was no ash from the fires of Doom.  There were no legions of orc whipping me to march ever faster to a dead city and a hopeless war.  There was no slinky frog man ghosting my steps.

Nope, just me and my shadow.

Still, I was dang thirsty.

Blue sky makes me want amber beer.

But, alas, it was not to be.  Not today.

A Glass of Friday – Indio by Cervecería Cuauhtémoc Moctezuma

This beer seems appropriate to finish the week with.  (No, I cannot pronounce properly the brewer and distributor of Indio, Cervecería Cuauhtémoc Moctezuma).  Earlier in the week, I had a portion of the El Bandido burrito, a specialty at my favorite Mexican restaurant in town, El Palacio.  We had a Mexican-y concoction for dinner last night.  My wife and I went to El Palacio once again this night, whence I ate the El Pardino burrito and she had the Godfather burrito.

Now for the beer.  (Had Negro Modelo at dinner).  Let me regale you first with photo’s.

The label is actually kinda cool, the more I look at it.  Sort of a Spartan/Mayan mashup going on.  I like the color scheme, too.  Platinum Hulk.

That Smell …
It smelled a little sour and was fizzy around the edges.   Interesting.  I guess I could also say it was bready, grainy.  In a strange turn of events it was also redolent of banana peel.  I say that because it sounds better than saying it’s bananay, which isn’t really a word.  So you get the idea that it has a banana like smell without, you know, saying an un-word.  Anyway …

In Appearance …
It’s grand appearance is that of burnt … noodle.  You know, like when a macaroni noodle throws itself over the edge of a pan and is engulfed, briefly, in the flames of the oven burner.  That kind of brown – a brownish orange.  It has astonishing clarity.  The beer is topped by a thin, off white head.

But the Taste …
It’s not bad.  But it’s not a spectacular craft juggernaut, either.  It’s like, well, a Mexican Amber Bock.  That’s not necessarily bad. Mind you, if Amber Bock was not an AmBev product, I’d drink it.  So, this is now an alternative.  It has a nice, medium body.  No aftertaste, finishes clean like the lager it is.

Join Me For A Plate Of …
I can see it complimenting one of the burrito’s I had above.  I know for sure that it blends well with corn dogs (covered in ranch dressing).  And Taco Doritos.

The Conclusion Of the Matter Is …
Okay, I said it was nothing spectacular and that it reminds me mostly of Amber Bock, so this next statement may seem off.  It reminds of Fat Tire, too.  Fine, some people will say that is off and be all, ‘Fat Tire is pure genius’ and others will be all, ‘Fat Tire is flatly overrated.’  Whatever.  Indio is like it in that it is refreshing, clean, nothing offensive, there’s not a lot of brain/taste power involved.  It’s innocuous.  I can drink Indio and not feel like a traitor to the craft world.  Yes.  Cool.  It’s nowhere near as malty as Fat Tire.  I do like how bright and refreshing it is.  Very little hops interference with the taste.  The malt, while not dominating, is the core.