There still is plenty of winter to taste

This week I got out to taste all (or at least most) of the special releases for the Love on Tap event at Seacrets. The Kohana Chocolate Cherry Stout by 3rd Wave, XO Stout by Evo, and the the Sofa King Sexy Stout by Backshore Brewing. All were dark roasty and tasty. We’ve still got tickets to the event, and Doug still has classes to learn about brewing coming up, so get busy drinking or get busy learning (or both). Looks as if this might be a winter warmer podcast.

Tastings are critical

This story is about wine and spirits but tasting is at least as critical for beer. I probably is more critical. Giving people not only a sense of what the beer tastes like but also helping them improve their vocabulary. Most important, though, tasting helps people break down the walls that prevent them trying new things. After all, it’s only a taste and it usually is free. There’s nothing to lose.

In-Store Tasting Is a Primary Promo Strategy

In-Store Tasting Is a Primary Promo StrategyTastings are probably the most effective tool wine and spirit suppliers have to make a direct impact on moving more boxes while building the brand. Here’s a list of some of the other lessons of a successful tasting program we relearned.

Growth in a region

This is a kinda cool story that provides maybe a little bit better context for craft beer’s leveling out. Locally, I’m not sure how many more production breweries we need, but nationally apparently there’s still a little room left.

Beer economist: For somebody to grow, somebody has to shrink

“There’s still growth out there, but it’s harder to find.” That’s the message about the craft beer market that Bart Watson, chief economist for the Brewers Association, conveyed to an assembled crowd of brewing industry professionals at the Duke Energy Convention Center Wednesday morning.

Winter Warmers never are boring

I was fortunate enough to have a couple of really good dark beers this week. As we face the last few weeks of winter, let’s think about why winter warmers are so, well, safe feeling this time of year.

Warm up your winter with strong beers

Now that the celebrations of the holiday season are in the rearview mirror, the cold dark nights are a quiet, reflective time for some. For others, this is the time to get outside for some snowshoeing or cross-country skiing. Whatever you spend the winter doing, strong beers are a great complement to…

Beer archeology in action

We covered this story earlier this year, but it is fun to bring it back and talk about the ingredients. One of the new wrinkles is that there’s a supposition that the Chinese thought barley was a brewing ingredient but not a cooking ingredient, which says a lot about how much they loved beer.

Stanford Students Brew Beer from 5000-Year-Old Recipe

Students at Stanford University used a 5000-year-old beer recipe from China to brew their own beer, recreating one of the world’s oldest known alcoholic beverages. The beer recipe was uncovered by a team of archeologists including Stanford professor Li Liu, who decided it would be a fun exercise for her class to recreate the drink.

Homebrewing and recipes

Water and Mash pH

Water chemistry for brewing is a complex topic, which is why entire books have been written about water and brewing. Unfortunately, many of these books assume you have a good knowledge of chemistry, along with microbiology and brewing.

Belgian Ale Caramelized Apple and Onion Tarts Recipe

Jackie Dodd’s The Craft Beer Bites Cookbook is a celebration of beer and the people who make it. It’s about the communities we build in our taprooms, the parties we host to share our beer, and the beer lovers who become our most trusted friends.

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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, or you can follow along on our Facebook page. Of course, you always can subscribe on iTunes as well. If you’re looking for Doug and Homebrewing stuff, you can find their Facebook page here.