Opening a Beer Bottle - Do Not Try at Home

Life has been very busy of late, so I have not had much time to write about beer and homebrew for Lug Wrench.  But I saw a post of this YouTube video on Hop Talk tonight and I was intrigued.  What other innovative mechanisms have humans developed to access the insides of a sealed beer bottle (I also needed a laugh after a long day at work)?  So, I typed "beer bottle opening" in a YouTube search and was entertained.  I decided I had to share my favorites with the Lug Wrench audience.

Chainsaw used to open beer.  The chainsaw operator has a very steady hand, but I would not recommend this method for serving any special or aged beer samples.

As the title exclaims, this has to be the most expensive beer bottle opener in the world, and one that takes incredible hand-eye coordination.  But, if you have a helicopter and some duct tape, you are all set.

Interesting cultural message here, if you believe what they state - Scandinavians are supposedly taught this trick to open a beer bottle at a young age.  Innovative and does not waste beer like you might think when you first watch him setting it up.

Warning from your dentist - do not try to break this record.  Pretty please.

Piece of paper used to open a beer bottle.  You are much more likely to have one of these handy than a chainsaw, helicopter, other beer bottle, or be willing to pay your dentist a fortune.  Thus, more useful.

What are your favorite beer-related YouTube videos?  Feel free to leave a comment and a link.

Cheers,

TW

American Craft Beer Week

This week, May 14 - 20, has been designated American Craft Beer Week by the Brewers Association.  Given the popularity of the concept of "beer weeks" in recent years, it seems hardly surprising that the Brewers Association would loosely organize events in a week to highlight the American craft beer industry.  Several years ago, select cities in the United States with a strong craft beer industry began to promote their breweries through an organized series of events, spanning a week or more.  Such beer weeks highlighted specific breweries through tastings and food pairings, as well as brewer talks, seminars and other educational opportunities.  Some of the original beer week cities include San Francisco and Philadelphia, and they are still going strong.  These beer weeks, along with many others, have gained popularity until they have grown to such a proportion that one could one even hope to attend even a fraction of the hundreds of events events held during the larger beer weeks (see CraftBeer.com site for listing of known beer weeks).

If taken as a general indicator of the health of the craft beer industry, I would say the growth of beer weeks is a good thing.  While they seem to becoming a bit over-done, they do present an opportunity to attend events that are normally not available.  If you can make time to attend an American Craft Beer event, I would encourage you to consider one of the rarer events, such as a brewer panel discussion, celebrity beer dinner, or rare beer tasting.  You can find a listing of American Craft Beer events here.

But whatever you choose to attend, supporting your local craft brewery is never a bad thing.

Cheers,

TW

Local 2012 World Beer Cup Winners

Jay Brooks, of the Brookston Beer Bulletin, recently posted information on 2012 World Beer Cup.  The World Beer Cup, run by the Brewers Association, is an international beer competition that occurs every two years.  The purpose of the competition is to promote the international beer culture and draw attention to the growing craft beer market.  It differs from the Great American Beer Festival competition primarily in that it works hard to pull brewers in from across the globe.  Admittedly, though, the great majority of entering breweries come from the United States.  The World Beer Cup features a panel of internationally renowned beer judges, who evaluate over 90 different categories of beer and award a gold, silver, and bronze medal for each category.

In 2010, the World Beer Cup featured 642 breweries from 44 countries and 47 U.S states.  These breweries entered 3,330 beers in 90 categories.  It also saw Devils Backbone Brewing Company named Champion Brewery and Brewmaster Small Brewpub, which is of particular importance to me because they are one of my local breweries.  It seemed very improbable that a small brewery from rural Virginia would place so highly on the international stage, but they did it and have continued to earn accolades.

This year, as announced by the Brookston Beer Bulletin, the World Beer Cup continued to grow.  The 2012 competition evaluated 3,921 beers in 95 categories from 54 nations.  The 218 judges handed out 284 awards to breweries from 21 countries, representing a 18 percent increase over the 2010 competition.  As in the previous World Beer Cups, the grand majority of the awards were garnered by the United States, with California earning 55 medals and Colorado with 27 medals.  The next closest country was Germany, with 23 medals and then Belgium with 8 medals.  India Pale Ale was the beer style with the most entries, 150, which is hardly surprising.

Local breweries (to Jeff and I) that won medals include:

• Devils Backbone Brewing Company, Roseland, VA - Gold in Vienna Lager
• Blue Mountain Brewery, Afton, VA - Silver in American-Belgo-Style Ale
• Hardywood Park Craft Brewery, Richmond, VA - Bronze in Herb and Spice Beer
• Rock Bottom, Arlington, VA - Bronze in Coffee Beer
• Great American Restaurants, Centerville, VA - Silver in Extra Special Bitter
• Cambridge Brewing Company, Cambridge, MA - Gold in Herb and Spice Beer
• Boston Beer Company, Boston, MA - Gold in Wood and Barrel-Aged Strong Beer
• Cisco Brewers, Nantucket, MA - Silver in Belgian-Style Flanders Oud Brewin or Oud Red Ale
• Wormtown Brewery, Worchester, MA - Silver in Robust Porter

It is a treat to see breweries that we have visited place highly in the World Beer Cup, in some cases with beer we have even tried.  I hope our local breweries do as well in 2014.

Cheers,

TW

Poll: How Many BJCP Styles Have You Brewed?

Like all our prior blog posts, this post takes a moment to memorialize the results we received on the most recent blog poll.  The readers' responses to the question "Of the 80 BJCP Beer Styles, How Many Have You Brewed?" are presented below.

Total Votes: 18

More than a majority of the voters have only tried homebrewing a handful of beer styles.  If we setup another poll that asked which styles people have brewed, the prototypically styles would be the most prevalent (i.e. APA, IPA, ESB, English Brown, etc).  The other question that is bouncing around my mind is whether the voters who voted are relatively new to homebrewing and hence the 1-15 styles brewed, or if they are old hands at homebrewing and prefer only brewing their favorite styles.

On the other side of the coin, I was surprised that the maximum number of styles anyone who voted was 31-45.  I was certain there would be folks in the 46+ range, but we never got a single vote.  It made for a very skewed result.

After rolling up my own "Styles Brewed" list, the idea of expanding my styles has weighed on my brewing plans.  Let us know what styles you may want to try in the near future.

Slainte!

-JW


"No soldier can fight unless he is properly fed on beef and beer."
-John Churchill