Just the coolest damned thing

Check out this event on the Michael Jackson Toast list:

"MESZ in the UERIGE-Hof
Bergerstrasse 1, Dusseldorf, North Rhine-Westphalia
Description
On Sunday we want to open a fresh barrel of UERIGE Sticke (Unfiltered, about 2 weeks before Sticke-day) to remember Michael Jackson and his work in Düsseldorf. We start at 8 p.m. MESZ in the UERIGE-Hof, the place where Josef Schnitzler met Michael the first time in the early Eighties."

Now...is that just pretty damned cool, or what?

Elk Creek Cafe & Aleworks: "three in the tanks."

News from Millheim, PA: Elk Creek Cafe & Aleworks is "actually going to happen," Tim Bowser tells me. They've got TTB approval, his brewer, Tim Yarrington, best-known for his award-winning beers at the Long Valley brewpub in NJ, has three beers in the tanks, and the PLCB inspection is on Thursday.

The place looks great, too. Tim sent the picture you see, and said Tim has "turned it into a very sophisticated facility."

Millheim's a long way out there, probably easiest to reach from State College. But it's worth the trip just for the scenery, and it's a cute little town, too. And now...it's got a brewpub. We should have word on the actual opening soon; you'll see it here. Brewpubs springing up in the beautiful rural back-country of Pennsylvania: Spring House, One Guy, Elk Creek, Voodoo, Sprague, North Country, and I hear that someone's re-opened...no, we'll do a separate post for that one. You're just not going to believe it.

Saison Imperiale -- De Proefbrouwerij

I got a great box of samples from SBS, courtesy of Alan Shapiro, with mostly De Proef and some De Proef/Lost Abbey collaborations. I had the first one tonight: Saison Imperiale, a Belgian Farmhouse Ale that De Proef brewed once...for now. I didn't read any tasting notes or background on this -- except that I know De Proef, and they make some wild stuff, literally.

So I was expecting a DuPont-like beer, only bigger...but when I poured a beer with a distinctly coppery color, and a funky brett edge in the nose, I wasn't surprised. And this is a unique beer, or at least a rare one. It's 8.5%, malty/sweet in the body, but funk-edged the whole way through, that kind of cheesy rim that brett brings, the horsey/iron stuff. The fun thing is the pleasant amount of body that the malt and size of this one brings to brett beer. Brett beers usually run thin, at least in my experience. This has some malt to it, which I like.

Overall? I'd say, make it again, Sam. Hey, just got an e-mail from Alan: De Proef is making the Saison Imperiale year-round now. Excellent!

SBP: Market Pressures come to bear on SBP

The big story in brewing circles is cost of ingredients (Stan mentions it here). Guys are talking about the price of hops going way up -- maybe to the point that not everyone will get the hops they want -- and the price of barley going up steeply under the demand of land to grow fuel for the Big Ethanol Boondoggle. We're looking at stiff price increases -- a couple bucks a case -- just so brewers can keep up.

What do I think about all this? Well, I'm reminded of something Fritz Maytag said (to a bunch of rye whiskey distillers and bottlers we got together for a Malt Advocate roundtable interview) about the crunch of sharply increased demand for rye whiskey and low aged stocks of the same:

Can I comment on the age thing? Broadly speaking, the whiskey world thinks that older whiskey’s better. It’s like the wine world used to think that older wine was better. And I submit to you that older whiskey is different. Wonderfully different. And many older red wines are wonderfully different. They’re not better, they’re old. And that’s wonderful. But I submit to you that, especially because we have a big shortage of rye whiskey, you are all going to discover the beauty of young rye whiskey.

Yes folks, I think a lot of brewers and drinkers are going to discover the beauty of lower-gravity beers.

What Does John Know? A lot, actually

My friend, my boss, John Hansell, has been doing Malt Advocate for over 15 years. But he's been a Scotch whisky and bourbon lover for a lot longer than that. That combination of amateur and pro experience has netted him an astounding network of connections, and he's wired in to almost every whisk(e)y company on earth.

He's decided to share that knowledge with the world in a brand new feature on our magazine website called What Does John Know? Essentially, when John finds something out -- like the new Balvenie 17 Year Old Oak Cask he wrote about today, or the two new Wild Turkey releases he talked about last week, or the Glenfarclas Family Casks (which I was lucky enough to taste a few with him in July) -- he'll tell you.

If you like whisky a lot more than most folks, you'll want to check this often. Cool new feature, and believe me, John's plenty obsessive enough to keep it current!

Michael Jackson Toast: the Final Push

Folks,

The Michael Jackson Toast planned for September 30 (9:00 PM Eastern) is starting to pick up participants. But at this point, bars/brewpubs/homebrew clubs only have 11 days to publicize their part in it, and get people aware. They need to get on board NOW. You can help them make that decision.

I know beervolk who have printed off a handful of the flyers you can download at the Beer Hunter website and hit the streets, personally going to each beer bar and brewpub in their town (the tireless and peripatetic Sandy Mitchell did it in Baltimore; it took him two days). Get every bar and brewpub you can involved: this is MICHAEL. We owe him a debt of gratitude for all this lovely beer and whisky, and one way to make a down payment is to raise a glass and write a check to the people who are fighting the disease that took him down.

When you successfully persuade them to join (and you will; I gots faith in yez), please ask them to post their info on Upcoming; if they add the "MJBeerHunter" tag to their information, it will go on the feed that's on websites all over: people are looking for where to go, and they want to find that bar!

Let's get busy!

Go ahead, call it Iron City Brewing

It's official: Pittsburgh Brewing is now Iron City Brewing. Read the first news in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette from Len Boselvic's story:

New owners today took control of the brewery formerly known as Pittsburgh Brewing, ending the company's 21-month stay in bankruptcy and promising to invest $4.1 million in the long-neglected Pittsburgh institution.

A group of investors led by Connecticut businessman John N. Milne will operate the Lawrenceville brewery under the name Iron City Brewing, building on the tradition of the 146-year-old brewery.

And another chapter ends in the strange modern history of this big old brewery. $4.1 million ought to be able to cover the debts and leave something for desperately needed upgrades. Now it's up to Pittsburgh's beer drinkers. I've said over and over that Iron City is a fine mainstream lager -- if you like that kind of thing -- and IC Light is one of the better light beers I've had. So Pittsburghers: are you gonna drink advertising, or are you gonna drink local?

September 30 to be Doubly Significant in Baltimore

September 30, as you know, is the date for the Michael Jackson toast at 9:00 PM. It is also, sadly, the last day for Capital City Baltimore; the brewpub is calling it quits after ten years. The landlord in Inner Harbor hit them with a substantial rent increase, and they can't make the nut. A shame; that was a beautiful location, even if it was close to Hooters. If you get a chance, get in before then and help them drink up what's left. (Mid-Atlantic Brewing News scoop artiste Sandy Mitchell sez they're retaining their license, and holds out the hope that they may re-locate; be good to see some kind of move out of Cap City.)

Straub Unafraid of the Dark

Straub Brewery's made one of their boldest moves in years (on the public side; they've actually made some very bold moves inside the brewery in the past few years -- new tanks, new kettle, new bottling line -- but who ever notices that stuff except you and me?): Peter Straub Special Dark beer.

Really, a 'dark' beer from Straub. Here's more of the story from the Ridgway Record (thanks to reader Mark Benson for the heads-up):

“Tom Straub, our brewmaster, has been playing around with the recipe for a while,” said Dan Straub, president of Straub Brewery. “We sampled it at the Tasting in the Wilds in Ridgway and got pretty good reviews.”

The beer, which was influenced by the boch [sic] beer previously sold by Straubs, has been altered in flavor and potency. The president said if he were to make a comparison, the new brew would be on par with Yuengling.

Although slightly more expensive than the light and premium brews offered at Straubs, folks have been flocking to the brewery and local restaurants to give the dark brew a taste.

“This beer is our answer to the rise in craft brewing market. A lot of people are trying different beers. We’re trying to open up an option for them to try something from our brewery that is a little different,” said Straubs Sales Representative Gene Williams.

I assume the "Yuengling" the new 'dark' beer is on par with is Yuengling Lager; dark mainly by comparison with Coors Light, but still. Love to give this new beer a try, but for now it's only in draft; the brewery hopes to have bottles soon.

Wild Turkey increasing distilling capacity

I've got two deadlines I'm working against, so the Bourbon Fest posts will have to wait a couple days, but I thought you'd like to hear a rumor I heard -- and confirmed -- while I was there: Wild Turkey is increasing their distillation capacity, by about 100%. Things are going well in bourbon, folks.