Oktoberfest is over in Munich, but here in the more literal-minded U.S. we’re going to keep celebrating Octoberfest for the rest of the month. There are beer festivals pretty much every weekend from here on out including (probably) the Good Beer Festival this weekend, the Snow Hill Octoberfest next weekend and, of course the Shore Craft Beer Fest OCtoberfest at the end of the month. It’s also a great time to talk about beer because even the people who aren’t total devotees are thinking and talking about beer.
Brewing at home
In this week’s Homebrew section, we review this post about common mistakes, mostly because, well, they’re common. This podcast was kind of founded on the premise that people would tell funny stories about their brewing experiences, so this is just the right story. If you want to tell your own, reach out to Tony and he’ll arrange it.
Props to EVO
There’s something about large format beers that make me feel a bit like a hypocrite. I’m always (or at least often) on about pushing the more accessible beers but I’ll take a bomber for tasting pretty much any day. And this certainly is one. We’ll discuss bottle aging and what makes a Flemish beer a Flemish beer (for those of you who don’t know).
You know what we’re not tired of talking about? Hops.
In case you missed last week’s show, Doug gave a (very) brief history of how a hop shortage gave rise to some of the more popular hops we have in beers now. Scarcity is the mother of invention and all that. This week, I saw some really interesting reporting on how the next great crop of hops are already being experimented with as a way of diversifying. Even better, the reason growers even can develop new hops is a direct effect of the diversity among brewers and breweries, which is to awesome. This is the story I read:
Here’s my summary:
Huff love
I’ve been talking about how the beers and breweries in the region are remaking Delmarva as we know it. Unfortunately, not a whole lot of people are familiar with Delmarva. I was fortunate enough to be able to hip them in this Huffington Post story. For what it is worth, it is a lot easier to get something on the Huffington Post when you’re not asking for money, but it still was pretty cool to have it go.
The shore version is, Bud probably will save more money in the first week of the tax breaks than a place like 3rd Wave will this century. But (and this is what makes it so exciting) there will be room for a billion more small breweries because it will be so much more affordable.
Fallout
This is complicated. I will support any brewery that opens within 100 miles of my home (and if you don’t shame on you), but as the Bud merger takes shape, it’s time to look at the difference between taking an opportunity and exploiting a trend.
I LOVE brewpubs. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it a billion times. If you make good food and good beer, you will succeed. In the future I envision, brewpubs will be the norm, as they have been for most of civilized society.
Drink Local, drink Saisons
I love Saisons. All the Saisons. I didn’t even know this part of their history until now. The spicy, thick beer always has been my friend.
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In case you didn’t know, these are the show notes for the Beer with Strangers podcast. If you’re interested in the show it’s at BeerWithStrangers.com. Of course, you always can subscribe on iTunes as well.
