Monday, January 23, 2012

Weekly Brew Bits Update: 1/23/12

Definitely seem to be generating some significant interest via these weekly updates. Certainly has me thinking about how to best use these to satisfy your need/interest for relevant and interesting beer material.

In that spirit, I'm making a small modification here this week that should help in weeks that there are more than just a handful of interesting stories to share.

I'll be organizing these weekly updates much like the ever-popular calendar of events...by area.

Everyone has a place that they call home. So, Philadelphia, naturally, will be my first area of interest to group news updates by. Then the bigger regional ring(s). Then, everywhere else in the world.

Thanks for your continued support and feedback. It truly does keep me going.

PHILADELPHIA
~ Philly Beer Week put out an exciting promotional video for PBW '12 and conducted the first organizing meeting this past week in Philly. I have a split-second cameo at 0:09 which was captured during the Hammer of Glory parade segment between Kite 'n' Key and The Four Seasons.

~ This one's sort of a fun inside joke here in Philly, and a good reason to link to Suzy Woods' Beer Lass website, something I haven't done in quite some time.

~ Craig Laban at Philly.com has a preview of the very intriguing upcoming Truffled Old Ale from Dock Street, being released as a "collaboration" with The Four Seasons hotel, the brewery's original neighbor way back in yesteryear.

EASTERN PA, NJ, DE, AND OTHER NEARBY PARTS OF MID-ATLANTIC
~ A local TV station ran a nice piece on the new Tröegs brewery in Hershey.

~ Jack Curtin has a couple of bits about new brewhouse arrivals and installations for Sly Fox in Pottstown, Pa. and Flying Fish in Somerdale, NJ (moving from Cherry Hill).

~ Lew Bryson and Green Leaf Media have reached the $6,000 goal to fund the pilot episode of American Beer Blogger. Continue to give, as I did this weekend (finally), and help them on the way to a full series.

~ The Atlantic took a stab at America's best beer gardens. Philly's Frankford Hall made the list as did other notables (at least from my own first-hand experience) across the country like Zeitgeist (SF), Stone, Bohemian Hall (NYC), and Standard (DC).

~ I'm excited to find some of the recently-released Tweason'ale. Dogfish Head owner, Sam Calagione, is as well and he shares this video to describe a bit more about the beer. You should be able to find it shortly on store shelves near you.

THE REST OF PLANET EARTH
~ San Francisco Beer Week is just weeks away, beginning on Friday, February 10. I'm co-hosting (or maybe I should call it ghost-hosting) another Beer Run in conjunction with Brian Yaeger and Derrick Peterman. Check out all the details for the run at Derrick's site and the whole SFBW '12 shebang at SFBeerWeek.org.

~ Speaking of San Francisco, Bitter American from 21st Amendment is back...year-round...in cans...at 4.4% ABV. Lew Bryson took notice of it and, from the sound of it, loves it as much as I did. As much as I did to call it the #3 Craft Beer of the year over in the place where I've been known to write those things.

~ Stephen Beaumont, took one more shot at bringing attention to what different role players in this great world of beer could do to make all of our experience just a bit better. He threw two more out there this past week, Part 2 of what beer servers should not do --all astute, but #3 is a classic. Also, rules for beer marketers. And, finally, the commenting on his entry of what beer raters should/should not do continued...and who wouldn't have expected it to?! Sensitive bunch.

~ The Brewing Network recently spoke with Chief (aka Jeff O'Neil), formerly of Ithaca and now with Peekskill Brewing. He speaks of the hows and whys that Peekskill Brewery may soon become a much bigger beer geek destination. The interview starts at 2h 23m mark of the nearly 5 hour podcast and runs approximately 18 minutes. The entire Sunday Session was chock full of everything from excellent homebrew advice to Illinois' Destihl Brew Works to this interview with O'Neil. Check it out.

~ Difficult to believe that it's been a year (tomorrow, in fact) that Japan suffered through the beginning of two natural disasters that wreaked so much damage and sorrow. From a beer perpective, here's a little look back on the brewing industry impact from BeerNews.org, incredible pictures from BuzzFeed.com, and a look forward from a Draft Magazine article in 2011.

Unable to uncover more recent updates on the impact to Kiuchi Brewery (Hitachino Nest, et al), I solicited some information from importer B. United's regional sales representative, Jon Lundbom, whose response I've pasted here below and should provide some nice and new information for many you. Cheers!

Kiuchi is back up and running at full capacity -- they are brewing six days/week and it still isn't enough beer to satisfy the market (the US market, specifically). They have resumed work on their expansion and hope to move into their new brewhouse sometime this year. We now have a bulk tank container 100% committed to Hitachino and should have more than 3,000 kegs available in the US for 2012.

We are about to release the Hitachino 3 Days Earthquake Ale, a single batch of beer that underwent a prolonged and uncontrolled lactic fermenation in a mash tank that lost temperature control during the power outage. All accounts that donated to the B. United/Hitachino earthquake relief fund will be receiving free bottles. Toshiyuki Kiuchi will be visiting the US sometime this Spring. While there are no concrete plans as of yet, we will definitely be doing an event at Jimmy's No. 43 in NYC. Jimmy Carbone's "Brewers for Brewers" event was by far the single biggest contributor to the fund.

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