Archive | February 6th, 2010
Beer Profile: Hitachino Espresso Stout
Image courtesy corebrewing.com
Kiuchi Brewery, Ibaraki, Japan
Profile by Ken Carman
An over abundance of head greeted the glass and lasted a while. There was a distinct coffee/espresso aroma which follows through to the mouthfeel and the taste. Pitch black, as one would expect.
Espresso rules the roost here; in fact so much it’s just too one-dimensional. There is just a bit of sweet that clings to the roof of the mouth, but not much else. Needs to have more depth, malt-wise. Carbonated espresso is simply not that interesting. Pull back on the espresso and add malt complexity would be my advice.
Hops? What hops? Of course, style-wise, not necessary, but a tad might add to the complexity.
Millie, my wife, thought at first it was not that espresso-y, but as it warmed she said it started to dominate along with a dark chocolate-sense. I would agree but the dark, bitter, almost sugarless stuff one uses in cooking, doesn’t eat straight, and dare not feed to the dog because it will kill him. The taste buds tend to not like it straight either.
Post a comment...Discover the Industry’s Hidden Gems: Nanobreweries
by Professor Good Ales on Sat, Feb 6, 2010
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Written by Joe Sixpack/For the Appeal-Democrat, Marysville, CA
Megabreweries churn out millions of barrels of beer every year. Microbreweries make thousands. So what do you call a company that brews just 100 or so barrels of beer each year?
A nanobrewery.
A couple dozen have cropped up across the country in the past two years, operating quietly out of basements, garages and even storage units. They brew as little as a barrel (the equivalent of 13 cases) a week and distribute extremely limited supplies to, perhaps, 10 or 12 area bars.
It’s an under-the-radar trend that’s part of the growing local food movement and, frequently, the result of career dissatisfaction.
At Healdsburg Beer Co. in Northern California’s Sonoma wine region, owner Kevin McGee takes weekend breaks from his job as an attorney to brew a single barrel, which he sells to a handful of restaurants.
“I like making beer — that almost goes without saying,” said McGee, who brewed 30 barrels last year. “I like all the things that go into creating something. Being a lawyer can get you kind of frustrated, just shuffling paperwork. This is so much more creative.”
Nanobreweries are no mere hobby. They are professionally run and fully licensed, just like any brewery. They just happen to be exceedingly small.
At Aldergrove Brewing in Marysville, Wash., for example, the batch size is a minuscule one-third barrel — a mere 10 gallons of beer. (By comparison, the batch size at mid-size craft breweries ranges from 50 to 120 barrels.)
At Schooner Exact in Seattle, the original brewhouse was so small, they had to put the fermentation tank in the brewer’s living room.
For beer lovers, these places are hidden gems; you’re never really sure where their tap handles will show up, and the quality may run from fair to superb. It’s a throwback to days of yore, when brewery deliveries were only as reliable as the company mule.
Or, in the case of the tiny Breaker Brewing Co. in Plains, Pa., Chris Miller’s family Toyota Scion.
Breaker Brewery’s 16 Ton Imperial IPA
Miller, 36, and his friend, Mark Lehman, 38, founded the brewery last April, installing equipment in the basement of an addition on Miller’s house.
They brew once a week on a 1.5-barrel system that produces about 45 gallons of suds, and distribute it to 11 local bars and restaurants in the region’s old coal-mining towns.
Both still work full time for the local phone company.
“It’s crazy, especially with two little kids,” Miller said. “But it’s what both of us want to do.”
Like most small brewers, the pair started out as homebrewers, cooking up batches for their families and friends. “We thought we could do better than a lot of the beer we’d been drinking,” Lehman said. “We knew there’s got to be more to beer than Coors Light.”
After years of stovetop cooking, Miller said, “I think we just said to each other, ‘It’s time to take the next step.’
“Starting a microbrewery could cost you a million bucks,” he continued. “We decided, let’s build small, build it ourselves and test it along the way.”
They fabricated the kettles out of steel drums they found on eBay; their tap handles are crafted from chair legs purchased at Home Depot. They have no advertising budget; they filed all of the necessary legal paperwork without the help of a lawyer.
They figure they spent about 20 grand to set up the brewery, including liability insurance and licensing fees.
The payoff has been more than just dollars and cents. “Going into a bar and having three or four people recognize you as a brewer, they’re drinking your beer and having a good time …” said Lehman. “That’s so satisfying.”
Joe Sixpack appears Wednesdays in the Appeal-Democrat.
Hurt by Remote Control
by Lutin Muse on Sat, Feb 6, 2010
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Written by Ken Carman
Why did I go away?
How can I explain?
Living with hurt
By remote control
Would have drained
My sane
Hurt
Without a single touch
Hurt
With just a look
Hurt
By being there
Yet hardly there at all
You could not hear
Though your ears
Had been told
All that was left
For me
Was hurt
By remote control…
Some ways
Too easy I’d say
To use my mind
And replay
The more marvelous days
But also ponder
Days seemed cursed
Yet I will never
Ever
Miss the worst
Of the worst
When your laughter became
A blood stained razor
Each knowing smile
Each sarcastic smirk
A hammer claw
Intended
To rip me apart
I couldn’t even start
To drain my life down
Misery’s black hole again
So since I couldn’t even start
To protect my own heart
Or silence my head
I killed us instead
Such a suicide
Still leaves ghosts
But they do my bidding
Not yours
Though I hope
If told
You’d say you had no intent
To hurt
By remote control
Does it matter?
What was once warm
Had turned
So damn cold
You
Held all the cards
I
Decided to fold
And then
Never again
Be hurt
By remote control
Though
I sense
You might
Some nights
Wish you owned
Some device
To torment this heart
Just so then
Once again
You could
Push my buttons
Flip those old
Painful
Levers
I severed
So very long ago
Hurt…
By remote control
__________________________________
©Copyright 2010
Ken Carman
all rights reserved
Anniversary’s Slender Thread
by Lutin Muse on Sat, Feb 6, 2010
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Author’s note: published on the 36th anniversary of when I met my husband
Written by Millie Jenny C.
Anniversaries pass by year after year
Sometimes it seems we joined hands only days ago
Others… a lifetime ago.
We’ve spent so much time together…
seems I’ve known you all my life.
Now our time together…
is not together all the time.
Gaps between time spent walking hand in hand…
distances between us in miles…
not in the love we feel.
Distances to travel to reconnect…
spend time together.
Stresses that occur from time to time…
in any relationship.
Let us remember always…
they are only minor stresses.
As time is stretched and reshaped…
as we grow together…
sometimes grow separately…
when we are apart.
But the connection, the tether, between us…
is there always… times together… times apart.
Love goes on along the slender thread
we started weaving nineteen years ago
and we will continue weaving… patching it when needed.
As the years and anniversaries…
pass into tomorrow.
__________________________________
©Copyright 1996
Millie Jenny C.
all rights reserved
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by Professor Good Ales on Sat, Feb 6, 2010
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