Tag Archives: Craft Beer

This One Time, at Beer Camp …

04 Wednesday Sep 2013

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Sierra Nevada Brewery EntranceAmerican pastimes: baseball, hotdogs, apple pie, and beer. I’m referring to American craft beer. Oh yes it’s enjoyable drinking it, and while on a recent trip to Sierra Nevada Brewing Company in Chico, CA, where I was among a small group of retail industry folks attending a Sierra Nevada Beer Camp®, I learned that it’s incredibly fun brewing up a beer recipe.

Beer camp? Sounds like fun, right? I can tell you it is! And with Sierra’s absolutely first class people and facilities as the platform, it’s as informative as it is fun, and it’s a ton (“tun”) of fun.

Sierra Nevada’s “torpedo” hopping equipment undergoing cleaning/maintenance

Sierra Nevada’s “torpedo” hopping equipment undergoing cleaning/maintenance

Our two full days of camp began with an extensive brewery tour including seeing some behind-the-scenes areas that aren’t part of the regular public tour. Sierra Nevada is very eager to show their spotless, beautiful facilities, and one quickly becomes aware of the quality that permeates not only the beer, but also the brew house and cellar, which are chock full of custom brewing equipment designed by founder, Ken Grossman, including their famous “Hop Torpedo” dry hopping vessels used for hopping up their namesake Torpedo® Extra IPA.

The wort of SN Pale Ale is a sweet grain juice before it’s hopped

The wort of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale is a sweet grain juice before it’s hopped

After the tour it was time for our group to determine the beer style we wanted to brew. Since the beer will come out during fall season, finalists included a “West Coast Spicy Red” with a touch of rye and other spices, and also a hearty yet approachable Brown ale. Some in the group wanted to go “session” strength (low ABV), while others had “imperial” strength in mind (strong). In the spirit of collaboration we landed on a Brown ale that should end up in the 6.5% ABV range, brewed with four malt varietals including a touch of rye malt, plus four hop varietals including Experimental Hop #366.

Of course, there was some beer sampling along the way, and just as I thought I needed some food to go with the beer, lunch in the Sierra Nevada Taproom fulfilled that wish, and to be sure, the food was fresh and fabulous. The large daily Taproom crowds for lunch and dinner speak to the popularity and respect that Sierra Nevada has in the greater Chico community.

Next we hit the road for a tour of the nearby Abbey of New Clairvaux in Vina, CA. This Sierra Nevadais a Trappist monastery in which Sierra Nevada has partnered with the monks to produce the brand of Belgian-style beers called Ovila Abbey Ales. Featuring ingredients grown by the monks on the grounds of the abbey, Ovila ales express homage to the time-honored monastic brewing tradition with a dose of American brewing innovation. Sierra Nevada contributes a portion of the sale proceeds of Ovila ale to the Abbey to help cover construction costs associated with the Sacred Stones project; an incredible undertaking involving construction of an 800 year old Chapter House that came from a Cistercian monastery in Ovila, Spain.

Day two was brew day, and we gathered first thing in the morning in the brewhouse of Sierra Nevada’s pilot brewery; another pristine state-of-the-art facility on the Sierra Nevada campus. Here we discussed the brewing process and reviewed the ingredients for our beer.

Interior of the Chapter House of the Abbey of New Clairvaux

Interior of the Chapter House of the Abbey of New Clairvaux

With ingredients list in hand, off we went to the mill house to fetch and measure the selected grains and pour them into the mill hopper, which then transferred the grist to the mash tun. A trip back up to the brew house allowed us to see our swirling porridge of grains and water, which looked like a very tasty and healthy breakfast.

Lautering of the mash would follow, and the resulting liquid wort would then move on to the brew kettle, so we needed leave the brewhouse again to go to the giant walk-in hops freezer and gather and measure our hops. It’s good to know going in which hops

Discussing our brew in Sierra Nevada’s pilot brewery

Discussing our brew
in Sierra Nevada’s pilot brewery

you want, because while it smells like hop heaven, it’s VERY COLD in the big freezer! Parsed out into green buckets and weighed to the specs in the recipe, we denoted each hop varietal by a different color stripe on the buckets. Some hops are for bittering and some are for aroma and flavor. When back in the brew house, we needed to know which buckets to pour into the kettle at different times of the boil phase of the brewing process – bittering hops early in the boil, and aroma/flavor hops very late in the boil – and the stripes on the buckets helped to ensure we didn’t go astray from this regimen.

L to R: Malted grains of different types, hop cones of different stripes, and a swirling porridge to soon become liquid courage.

L to R: Malted grains of different types, hop cones of different stripes, and a swirling porridge to soon become liquid courage.

Brewers often say that the brewer makes the wort, while yeast makes the beer. This was as true for us as for any pros, and our brewing job for this camp was nearly

During the brewery tour we happened upon some whiskey barrels recently filled with Stout. An impromptu sampling proved it to be delicious.

During the brewery tour we happened upon some whiskey barrels recently filled with stout. An impromptu sampling proved it to be delicious.

complete. Other than selecting a yeast strain to use for fermentation (a Sierra Nevada house ale yeast was used), the brewer’s art largely goes into the making of the wort, which is not yet beer, and the yeast is pitched in to feed on the sugars in the liquid converting them to alcohol and carbon dioxide – making beer. This process takes place in special fermentation vessels over the course of several days to one or more weeks depending on the brew and yeast strain(s) used. The temperature of the liquid is controlled to keep the yeasts happy and encourage them do their magic.

Post-fermentation there is still some art left for the brewer to practice in accordance with the beer style being brewed and the brewer’s desired flavor outcome. This includes barrel aging the beer in used wine, bourbon, whiskey or other spirits barrels, the addition of more hops for flavor and aroma, pitching more yeast in for a secondary fermentation, blending with other brews, and more.

Having been around the wine industry I’ve heard more than one winemaker say words to the effect, “It takes a lot of good beer to make good wine.” And having now spent some quality time in an active brewery I know that brewers share this winemaker motto for plying their craft of making beer.  Drinking great beer begets brewing more great beer!

One of the beautiful solid copper brew kettles that Sierra Nevada purchased in Germany when the Brewery moved to its current Chico location in 1987.

One of the beautiful solid copper brew kettles that Sierra Nevada purchased in Germany and shipped to California when the brewery moved to its current Chico location in 1987.

Sierra Nevada Beer Camp® was a fantastic hands-on experience in a world class production brewery like no other. Beyond the bottles of great beer and informative books available, including our Total Guide to Beer, Beer Camp® provided an educational immersion in the craft of brewing and a first-person experience of the passion that goes into it. It was like being “on-location” on the live set of a favorite story, and having a part in several key scenes.

This experience will be imparted to our Total Wine store staff through our ongoing internal beer education program, which we administer along with our company-sponsored Certified Beer Server (CBS) training initiative for the Cicerone® Certification Program, in which over 725 Total Wine & More personnel have become CBS certified since April 2013.

This Sierra Nevada Beer Camp® ale will be a very limited quantity draught-only brew, with a few kegs allocated to Total Wine and a few each going to the restaurants and pubs owned/managed by my camp cohorts. We plan to feature the beer on growler stations in select Total Wine markets which, as of this writing, are still to be determined.

Cheers,

rob_hill_photoRob Hill, Certified Cicerone®
Author of Total Guide to Beer
New Programs Manager, Customer Experience
Total Wine & More
Twitter: @TWMBeer

Interview With Craft Beer Expert “Dr.” Bill Sysak: Part 2

15 Wednesday May 2013

Posted by in American Craft Beer Week

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Dr. Bill Sysak's CellarIf you missed Part 1 of our interview with Dr. Bill, you missed half of an awesome conversation. Start there and we’ll see you back in a few minutes!

Total Wine: What is your personal favorite food and beer pairing? Everyone really does want to know.

Dr. Bill: One pairing that I think is absolutely amazing is also at the top of Garrett Oliver’s list. Although I often stray from Garrett’s pairing guidelines as I like to take pairings to the next level, there is no improving on a well-aged Colston-Bassett Stilton with an aged barley wine. The earthiness of the cheese with the caramel/toffee/winter fruit notes from the beer is seductively sublime!

Total Wine: Last night we dreamed of a beer pairing dinner battle so awesome, only the top beer pairing experts could compete. The final of the competition was an epic battle between Dr. Bill Sysak and Garrett Oliver in an “Iron Chef” meets “Bobby Flay Throw down” meets “WWE Caged Match” type format. What meal would be your ideal theme and how would you defeat the great Brooklyn Brewery Brewmaster at this game?

Dr. Bill: Ha-ha, I could say a 12 course fast food dinner because knowing Garrett I’m pretty sure he hasn’t had any recently. Seriously though the food doesn’t matter, as I feel I can pair any food in the world and I’m sure he feels the same.

I recently did one of these with famous Canadian beer writer Stephen Beaumont where I beat him in a close competition. I will say it was also on my home turf though. All I would ask is to have the chef plan the menu and not delineate from it. Then give us both the option to taste and pair it prior to the event with a full quiver of 100 beers to choose from. I pair food and beer events without ever pre-tasting the food dozens of times a week for Stone accounts, acquaintances and fans. I know they are really good pairings but tasting the menu first allows you to go outside the box.

A chef is an artist. If I selected 12 chefs and asked them all to cook a Wagyu sirloin medium rare over a parsnip puree with a red wine demi glaze and sautéed greens. We would have 12 different dishes, from the spice rub or lack thereof on the meat, to the amount of reduction, to the greens selected. Not to mention one of them may decide the dish would be better with a truffle butter on the steak. I like to take a completed dish and see where it leads me. I will always have a classic pairing in mind when I see the menu, but then I like to go all the way to the left and all the way to the right and find that unique pairing that sings to my palate. The bottom line is we would all be guaranteed a night of amazing food with exceptional pairings.

Dr. Bill CellarTotal Wine: We noticed that you also have an expertise pairing beer with cigars. Could you give some guidance, perhaps offering a suggestion or two of what cigars to pair with some classic beer styles?

Dr. Bill: Yes although I’m known primarily for beer and food pairings I also excel at pairing wine, spirits, and cigars. I’m currently doing a Beer and Cigar Master Pairing Dinner here at Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens with our president and brew master Steve Wagner. I take two world class cigars, six courses and six beers and do this triangular pairing where the first cigar goes with the first three courses and first three beers and everything works with each other then it segues into the second half of the dinner.

Here is an example of an upcoming menu: http://www.stonebrewing.com/calendar/bistro/pairings/cigar/130521/menu.jpg

When selecting a beer to enjoy with your cigar, here are a few guidelines to enhance your pairing. Finding a beer that complements without overwhelming the cigar is the key to a perfect combination. The most popular kinds of beer to pair with cigars are Stouts and Porters. Strong, dark, malty or slightly chocolaty, stouts and porters pair well with many cigars. Other beers that work well with a number of different cigars are; Barley Wines, Old Ales, Belgian Quads & Strong Ales. If you can find them barrel aged, all the better.

You don’t have to stop there though!

If you have a medium strength cigar with spice characteristics, another option is to find an India Pale Ale, Saison, or Bière de Garde. These beers can hold up to many cigars. Note that double IPA’s with their higher IBU count (bitterness level) have a tendency to overpower some cigars.

Lighter cigars with Claro or Candela wrappers pair well with beers as light as Belgian Wits or German Hefeweizens. The subtle springtime floral aromas of a candela when lit and the sweet grassy flavor work wonderfully with these lighter beer styles.

Total Wine: Finally, are there any special projects you are working on right now? Can you leak some secrets to the Total Wine readers?

Dr. Bill: As you know I always have a number of events coming up here at Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens-Escondido, but with our new Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens-Liberty Station facility coming on line this week expect some cool new events there especially for San Diego Beer Week and the addition of a couple of new festivals there in 2014.

I’m also excited about the Gray Cloud Festivals being put on by the producers of the OC Brew HaHa. Why? Well because they are unique as the first Craft Beer, Artisanal Food, and boutique cigar pairing festivals where hundreds of fans can get together and enjoy themselves. They have a great charity named Yellow Ribbon America and guess who is doing all the pairings.

Finally look for me to revive my audio podcast Expert Drinking. I’ll be adding a third person to the podcast that I am very excited about.

Total Wine: Thanks again for all of your time, Dr. Bill. This was a very informative and entertaining conversation.

A Holistic View of Craft Beer Retailing: Final of a Three Part Series

21 Thursday Mar 2013

Posted by in Beer

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Check out Part 1 and Part 2, of this 3-part series, which discuss:
Part 1: Beer Singles-By-Style, Consumers Pilot Test, Beer Singles = Experimentation, and Fizzy Yellow Beer
Part 2: Too Many Choices, Women Beer Shoppers, “Wine-ifying” Beer, the Restaurant/Bar and Retail Store Experience, and Beer Education.

GETTING BEER STYLES RIGHT

Brewers Assoc & BeerAdvocate Beer Style GuidesWhile not an exact science, and with room for variances based on brewer interpretation, defined beer styles do provide general color, aroma, flavor, and strength parameters within which beers may be purposefully brewed or in which they may fall, even without specific brewer intent, as a basis for characterizing the beer. Total Wine & More follows the Brewers Association Beer Style Guidelines as our standard regarding style definitions and vernacular, and we reference the beer style list on the popular BeerAdvocate.com consumer website, in an effort to ensure that our beer style nomenclature is not only accurate in accordance with a respected industry source (BA), but also in accordance with this popular consumer website which many beer enthusiasts reference in their early and ongoing learning process.

Some styles may seem a bit confusing based on the name on the bottle label, such as “Black IPA”, “Cascadian Dark Ale”, “American Black Ale”. Which is it, or are these three different styles? We know from the Brewers Association Style Guidelines that neither “Black IPA” nor “Cascadian Dark Ale”, by virtue of their omission, is a recognized style name or an IPA at all. These beers arguably do not belong in the IPA style category.

Beer Geek KnowledgeIn our classes and in Total Guide to Beer we teach customers the origin of this style and these various names, and we teach the Brewers Association official style name; American-style Black Ale. Where, then, should it be categorized within a style arrangement? Since the beer is not an IPA and is not part of any other larger style grouping, yet it is usually always strong in ABV (6% +), we have it in the Strong Ale & Barley Wine category.

It is true that if a person were to select a beer of this style from within the IPA grouping, she or he could get the wrong impression as to what IPAs are all about. We believe the same holds true for “Belgian IPA” with its unique aroma and flavor character from the Belgian yeast strain used, making it more suitable in our view to be in our American Belgian-Styles grouping.

There is obviously more than one “right way” to categorize some beers, and we’ve certainly heard from beer geeks looking for “Black IPA” in the IPA section, for example. While by no means perfect, we believe that our beer singles-by-style set is both meaningful and educational for the majority of consumers. As brewers continue to innovate, our beer set will continue to evolve.

THE NOVICES and THE SAVVY (GEEKS)

Questions signpost in the skyWhen launching our beer style arrangement pilot test in 2008 we suspected that some beer geeks may not like it. We “moved their cheese”. It’s new. It won’t initially make sense from “the way it has always been.”

But we also knew a few other important things:

– Make no mistake; we LOVE our beer savvy/geek customers. And we know the geeks are knowledgeable enough about beer to find their way around any beer set for the beers they seek. Novices don’t have that ready-knowledge.
– The reality is the geeks are far outnumbered by the non-geeks, and non-geeks buy a lot of beer, and will buy more if we can help them to navigate the wall of beer and discover flavors (styles) they like.
– In time, many of the geeks will come to actually like the set, perhaps even prefer it, or at least get to know it enough to know how to navigate to their list of beers. Yet, some will eternally dislike it. Regrettably, this will be part of the percentage of customers we won’t please with the way our store is set.
– 80/20 Rule: Where the prior alpha-by-brand set was great for the geeks (let’s say that is 20% of our customers, but the number is really lower than that), and this set was bad or unhelpful or indifferent to everyone else (the novices; the other 80% of our customers), and the style arrangement is more helpful to 80% of our customers, then the style arrangement is the right thing to do.

The pilot findings seemed to bear this out.

WIN-WIN-WIN-WIN

winwin2To be sure, consumers aren’t the only winners from this merchandising formula. All four tiers of the value chain, from brewers to distributors through to customers, are winning with this approach.

Brewers get maximum brand exposure through our buying program; we essentially carry EVERY BREWERY BRAND we can get a hold of in the markets we serve and EVERY year-round, seasonal and special-release beer item carried in distribution of those brands in the market.  Our 6-packs, case stacks, end caps, cold box doors, and other merchandising displays are driven by brand-adjacent displays, while the singles style arrangement helps consumers discover or rediscover American craft brands.

Distributors enjoy large buys and fast product sales from our stores. We work with both breweries and distributors to ensure ongoing brand displays and promotions.

In doing the above everyone wins and then Total Wine & More wins, and then this winning cycle repeats.

FINALLY

Brewery District imageWhen customers step into a specialty store such as Total Wine & More we hope that they are seeking a different beer/wine/spirits experience from that of a grocery store or warehouse club or convenience store. Customers should expect to not only be able to find packs and cases of their known favorites, but also a huge selection of additional choices that often cannot be found elsewhere, all at great low prices.

Customers should expect that, as purveyors of these fine products, Total Wine & More has knowledge and expertise about them and about the many different genres they come in. The ability to categorize accurately by style the many thousands of beers in our portfolio across markets across the chain, and write for each one an informative description that is visible on a shelf talker and via our website, is certainly more than any grocery or warehouse or convenience store is able to do or takes the time to do. Indeed, we would hope this communicates our expertise in craft beer to savvier consumers and beginner consumers alike.

Cheers to beer!

rob_hill_photoRob Hill, Certified Cicerone®
Author of Total Guide to Beer
New Programs Manager, Customer Experience
Total Wine & More
Twitter: @TWMBeer

A Holistic View of Craft Beer Retailing: Part Two of a Three Part Series

20 Wednesday Mar 2013

Posted by in Beer

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Check out Part 1, of this 3-part series, which discusses Beer Singles-By-Style, Consumers, Pilot Test, Beer Singles = Experimentation, and Fizzy Yellow Beer.

OrangeJuice_choicesTOO MANY CHOICES

Scientific studies show that when consumers are presented with too many choices, they often end up making poor choices or no choice at all, or they simply default to an old familiar choice. No experimentation or discovery takes place, even among the wide array of choices. That’s such a shame!

Brewer innovation is breeding lots of choices, but is that ultimately bad for craft beer if there are too many choices for customers?  An article discussing this subject and citing such studies appeared in The New Brewer magazine (a BA publication).

An innovative beer retailer doesn’t say, “Stop. No more Beer!” It is incumbent upon the retailer who offers consumers a lot of choices to help break down and categorize the products into meaningful groups. This provides customers approachable starting points and an opportunity to focus on smaller bites of the pie, within which decisions can be made.

A beer style group arrangement, done strategically in an environment conducive to it such as Total Wine, is an effective way to achieve this, as there are plentiful yet manageable choices within meaningful style groupings.

WOMEN BEER SHOPPERS

Women drinking craft beerConsumer studies also find that women make or influence ~80% of all purchases in the United States. Do women buy beer? YES, more than is generally realized, and Total Wine is paying attention to this. Unlike most men who shop for beer primarily only for themselves (admit it, guys!), women buy beer for others: their friends, boyfriend, husband, brothers, father, as gifts, for parties/social events, and yes, quite often for themselves. Most women prefer meaningful organization of items when they shop. Women know how to shop and they like organization. That is not sexist. It is simple fact. (A clearance bin mish-mash with killer-low prices may be an acceptable exception).

Total Wine store Team Members have many interactions assisting women shoppers who are buying beer for someone else. As with many male shoppers, the extent of knowledge for some of these women shoppers is that the person “likes IPAs” (they may not even know what IPA means. Kudos to them for admitting it and seeking help … men generally do not do that). When shown the style set and it is explained to them, “All of the IPAs are together on these 5 shelves,” often, their eyes light up as if they’ve been given the key to shopping success; they become comfortable and go about reading the shelf talkers, looking at labels, and selecting different bottles. They love it and feel confident and proud about being able to shop, make their selections and make the purchase.  Often times, women come in for one custom 6-pack, and they end up buying two! It has been our experience that women, by and large, really enjoy and appreciate the beer singles set in style groupings.

“WINE-IFYING” BEER

Roughly 35 years ago wine awareness and sales began to grow in the United States concurrent with word being spread that wine is a great accompaniment to food. There were wine dinners. Restaurants began expanding wine lists. There was a movement to educate Americans on wine, to teach that there is more than just “red”, “white”, and “blush” and that there existed more than just “macro” jug wine. Americans were being introduced to discovering different wine varietals, and they grew to know which one(s) they liked. People began feeling more empowered with wine knowledge, and wine – higher quality wine — started selling big. Through it, customers discovered wines from certain brands they liked, returning to buy more.

Rhetorical question: Was that bad for the wine industry?

Beer Dinner Beer vs. Wine Menu“Wine-ifying beer” has been used in a vilifying tone, yet in its most basic and positive form it means trying to educate more people on Craft beer. Who started it and who’s doing it? Answer: smart Craft breweries. How? For one thing, they’ve taken a page from the wine industry and sponsored and hosted beer dinners, during which they espouse beer having a place on the dinner table with or instead of wine. This means beer and food pairings, but not any beer; craft beer, like wine but unlike macro beer, is about different FLAVORS.

We’ve learned beers of certain styles tend to go well with certain foods/dishes. For beer dinners brewers select from their portfolio specific beers of specific styles or flavor characteristics to go with the various courses of the meal. AND, to ensure beer shows well vs. wine in the pairing, brewers feature select “guest beers” from friend-competitor craft breweries in order to get the style needed to make the ideal pairing (perhaps they don’t brew it, or don’t have the right match). They feature competitor craft beers?! “Rising tide lifts all ships.” Yet the cream rises to the top.

Additional nods to wine by craft beer can even be found on beer labels with words such as “harvest”, “estate”, “Grand Cru”, “vintage”, clever iterations of “terroir” and “chateau”, and others that are clearly co-opted from wine lexicon.  Sommelier would have likely been co-opted for beer service expertise had Cicerone® not been introduced.

THE RESTAURANT/BAR and RETAIL STORE EXPERIENCE

Pizzeria Paradiso menu, Washington, D.C.

Pizzeria Paradiso menu, Washington, D.C.

The top beer establishments near Total Wine’s home office in metro Washington, D.C. have great food and world class beer lists. These expansive lists, with up to 500 bottles plus draughts and casks, present the beers by beer style groupings, not by brand. Progressive Beer Directors list beers this way for multiple reasons, including:

1. Customers need a way to break down the expansive list into meaningful, approachable segments. An alpha list by brewery isn’t effective since most customers are relatively new to craft beer. The list may thrill the geeky-ist of beer geeks, but it must be useable by the other 80%-90% of customers who aren’t so beer savvy.

2. Customers can find a style/flavor range and self-select a flight of beers, or choose beers from multiple styles for a flight.

3. Good craft beer pairs well with food, but for specific foods it isn’t just any beer (we learned this from brewery-sponsored beer dinners).

4. It provides service personnel a starting point to assist customers: “What flavors do you like?” “What are you eating?” Servers can then make recommendations referencing the style groupings, helping customers narrow down the selections. The huge list of beers becomes scalable for customers, who can be a part of the process by choosing themselves and not having to rely on the server to choose.

Allowing customers to focus on general flavor profiles adds an educational component to it as well. It’s about what’s desirable to the palate based on the occasion and/or what’s being ordered to eat.

An approach that is appropriate for on-premise retailers with extensive beer portfolios selling beer by bottle and draught is also appropriate for off-premise specialty retailers with extensive beer portfolios selling beer by the bottle. The customer’s advantage at Total Wine is we offer beer to them both ways — by brand and by style; with our 6-packs by brand and singles by style offering a cross reference library of beer.

BEER EDUCATION

women_and_beerConsumer beer knowledge is key to craft beer growth, and we believe breweries, distributors and retailers all have a stake in educating consumers on beer. Beer education is a serious endeavor at Total Wine & More; we offer beer education and tasting classes in our 50+ stores that have classrooms, and we wrote and published a comprehensive 200 page educational beer book, called Total Guide to Beer, that’s available for FREE in our stores (and digitally for free via iTunes at http://bit.ly/iTunesTotalGuideToBeer).

Total Guide to Beer 2013 EditionThis book is full of informative beer style information and lots more including beer history, ingredients, brewing process, food pairings, glassware, tasting process, serving temperature recommendations, and more. With 800,000 copies in print and over 10,000 downloads, this was a large $$Dollar investment by Total Wine for consumer beer education. We did it because we know that customers who know more about beer will be more likely to try craft beer.

Teaching consumers about beer styles is important and the book groups the 90+ individual beer styles described into the meaningful style categories customers find in our craft beer singles arrangement in our stores: Lagers, Wheat Ale, Blonde & Golden Ale, Pale Ale & IPA, Amber/Red Ale, Strong Ale & Barley Wine, Brown Ale, Porter, Stout, American Belgian-styles, and Specialty/Hybrid/other.

Craft brewer innovation is complemented by beer style and flavor groupings on store shelves and restaurant beer lists. In fact they can lead customers to more quickly discover the breadth of style interpretation and innovation across breweries. A parallel can be drawn to the annual Great American Beer Festival and World Beer Cup awards, where beers are judged within style, and as brewers create new beers, new styles are identified and the beers are judged within them. Brands compete in these professionally judged contests and in our stores on the merits of their liquid beer, and the cash-holding consumer is always the ultimate judge.

Check out Part 3 of this 3-part series which discusses Getting Beer Styles Right, The Novices and the Savvy (Geeks), Win-Win-Win-Win, and Finally.

rob_hill_photoRob Hill, Certified Cicerone®
Author of Total Guide to Beer
New Programs Manager, Customer Experience
Total Wine & More
Twitter: @TWMBeer

Celebrating International Women’s Day with our Beer Buying Team

08 Friday Mar 2013

Posted by in Beer

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InternationalWomensDayLogoBelieve it or not, the beer buying team at Total Wine & More is an all-female group of beer enthusiasts! But please don’t judge their lack of beer bellies and stereotypical brewers’ beards. These ladies go out of their way to learn the ins-and-outs of what’s new in the craft beer industry. Whether they’re meeting with suppliers, scanning beer blogs and magazines or sampling the latest IPAs, Julie and Hilary work hard to bring the most popular beers and best prices to Total Wine’s shelves.

March 8 is International Women’s Day. It is a day for women around the globe to recognize how far they’ve come in the equal rights movement and celebrate their accomplishments. To honor the occasion, we would like to feature our women beer buyers in a post about some of their favorite brews.

Julie_beer_buyerJulie is the Senior Beer Buyer at Total Wine & More and has been working at the company for over five years. Julie’s favorite beer would have to be Laughing Dog’s Sneaky Pete. The beer is an American Double/Imperial IPA that is sold in 4 packs and 22oz bottles. It is a hoppy, citrusy beer bursting with notes of grapefruit and just a touch of sweet malts for balance. Julie has a sentimental attachment to the beer as she actually met Sneaky Pete himself!

hilary_beer_buyerHilary is the Sr. Buying Specialist on the beer team and has been working at the company for over two years. Not a huge fan of super hoppy beers, Hilary’s favorite styles include pilsners, witbiers and hefeweizens. Her favorite beer would have to be Abita’s Strawberry Harvest Lager, a spring/summer seasonal with a crisp, sweet taste. It is full of fruity flavors and has a finish reminiscent of strawberry shortcake.

Craft Beer and Thanksgiving, the Perfect Pairing!

16 Friday Nov 2012

Posted by in Beer, Thanksgiving

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Thanksgiving Day often involves relaxation and social time with family and friends, some football on TV, and the anticipation of a big evening dinner. Thus, different beer styles will nicely suit the multiple courses of the evening and keep the taste buds tantalized!

Before dinner: Terrific pre-dinner beers offer clean crispness and plenty of flavors to a fresh palate, with moderate alcohol that won’t overpower the senses. Abita Amber Lager is an easy-drinking Vienna-style lager that’s golden caramel in color with a toasted, bready malt character nicely balanced by mild hop bitterness. For more hop-forward character, Victory Prima Pils is a straw golden colored German Pilsner-style beer with heaps of hops imparting an herbal bite over layers of soft and smooth malt flavor. These pre-dinner lagers slake your thirst and keep the palate clean while prepping it for the food to come.

With dinner: Thanksgiving in my family has always included a traditional turkey dinner with popular trimmings such as stuffing, gravy, cranberry sauce, potatoes, squash and a green vegetable. Several beer styles with autumn-like colors can pair nicely. Bell’s Amber Ale and Scuttlebutt Amber Ale are orange-amber in color and won’t overpower the food with a mild floral, fruity hop character that’s well balanced by sweet malt undertones. With brown gravy and/or the darker meat of the turkey, a Belgian Strong Dark Ale-style beer can complement nicely. Adriaen Brouwer Dark Gold Ale pours deep burgundy in color and offers sweet, bready caramel malts, dark fruit and mild roast character delivering flavorful complexity with an engaging vinous essence. This style is stronger in alcohol; the Adriaen Brouwer is 8.5% ABV.

With dessert: The trend toward increasingly darker beer colors with each course of the day can carry through dessert. Thinking apple, pecan and pumpkin pie here, perhaps with vanilla or chocolate ice cream, both the Schwarzbier and Stout styles come to mind. A Schwarzbier (“black beer”) is a dark lager style originally from Germany that is moderate in alcohol and, as its namesake implies, is a clear dark brown, almost black color. But motor oil it is not. Examples including Samuel Adams Black Lager, and Xingu Black from Brazil, are relatively light-bodied dark beers on a base of pilsner malt in which the dark hue is derived from additional, specialty malts. Decidedly malty in aroma and flavor character with little hop influence, this style evokes caramel and chocolate notes with a very subtle undertone of roasty bittersweetness. It’s smooth and highly drinkable. Alternatively, Stout will generally provide more body and higher alcohol. Pike XXXXX Extra Stout, at 7% ABV, is virtually jet black in color with an espresso-cream tan head. Fresh roast coffee aromas with notes of bitter sweet chocolate and hops deliver a rich and complex character of roasted flavors, caramel, licorice, and hints of vanilla and oak to complement and balance the sweetness of the dessert.

Rob Hill
Certified Cicerone®
Author of Total Guide To Beer
Now available in iTunes Bookstore as a FREE download
Follow me on Twitter! @TWMBeer

It’s International Stout Day!

08 Thursday Nov 2012

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International Stout Day is a worldwide celebration of the iconic beer style, Stout. Taking place in homes, pubs, stores, breweries and restaurants; it’s all about celebrating the craft beer revolution, relishing in this beloved beer style!

The origins of Stout are in London insofar as Stout is an evolution of Porter, however, as history would have it Ireland gets the credit for introducing Stout to the world stage. Dating back many thousands of years prior to the 1700s, the product of Ireland was sweet, un-hopped ales, as Ireland’s cool damp climate was unsuitable for growing hops. This was the traditional Celtic ale. Through the 1700s leading up to English rule of Ireland, which began in 1801, England shipped its hopped ales across the Irish Sea to Dublin, thus introducing hopped ales to Ireland.

Ireland’s Arthur Guinness, who had been brewing the traditional un-hopped Celtic ale since the 1750s, switched in the late 1770s to brewing Porter in his brewery at St. James’s Gate, Dublin, in an effort to counter the burgeoning English domination of Ireland’s beer market. Guinness’s first two beers were named X and XX, with the stronger of the two, XX, later named Extra Porter Stout;“stout” meaning strong. Sales in Ireland took off, and later Guinness brewed a third, stronger beer named Foreign Extra Porter Stout for export to British colonies. One can easily imagine, in the atmosphere of a busy pub, that the repeated call for an “Extra Porter Stout” would eventually be whittled down to simply saying, “Give me a ‘Stout’”. And thus, Stout was born!

We hope you’ll join us in celebrating this classic beer style – to learn more about the fascinating history and different types of Stout check out our Total Guide to Beer, best enjoyed with your favorite brew.

Cheers,

Rob Hill
Certified Cicerone®
Author of Total Guide To Beer
Now available in iTunes Bookstore as a FREE download
New Programs Mgr., Customer Experience
Follow me on Twitter! @TWMBeer

Interview with Woodford Reserve Master Distiller Chris Morris Pt. 2

27 Thursday Sep 2012

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Continued from Part One

September is “National Bourbon Heritage Month” across the U.S.A. as the U.S. Senate declared September as “National Bourbon Heritage Month” back in 2007.

In celebration of this great American spirit, we thought it would be fun to interview some of the key personalities in the bourbon world — to accomplish this we partnered with a loyal Florida customer (and prolific beer and spirits blogger) Rob Steward. Rob describes himself as a passionate beer junkie that started wandering into the spirits aisles.

Here’s Rob, craft beer and bourbon lover

Rob contributed some great questions and and we received some fun and informative responses!

Rob’s interview is with Chris Morris, Master Distiller at the Brown-Forman Corporation’s Woodford Reserve distillery in Kentucky. Chris also serves as their global brand ambassador and is an avid historian of bourbon and Kentucky heritage.

The oldest and smallest distillery in Kentucky traces its origins to 1797 when Elijah Pepper began distilling in Woodford County. This National Landmark crafts Woodford Reserve Distiller’s Select, the official bourbon of the Kentucky Derby!

Rob: Some bourbon makers, including Woodford Reserve, I believe, have matured their bourbons in other barrels. Port and wine barrels have been tried. First, is it still OK to call those bourbons? Or are there bourbon-making rules that put those in different categories? What has been the most experimental additional aging that Woodford Reserve has tried? What’s the craziest barrel that no one has done yet? Why not?

CM: As you note a “bourbon” can only be matured in a new, charred oak barrel. Therefore technically a bourbon “finished” in a second barrel that does not meet that criteria is no longer a bourbon, it becomes a “spirit specialty”. The product descriptor will identify was it is – such as it did for Woodford Reserve’s Sonoma-Cutrer Finish.
That Masters Collection expression’s descriptor was “Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey Finished in a California Chardonnay Barrel”. That is what it was, a finished bourbon and no longer simply a bourbon. We have experimented finishing mature bourbon in fortified wine barrels, still wine barrels, other spirit type barrels and exotic wood barrels. No other distillery has experimented with non-oak barrels. Some of the woods we have used have created some spectacular results but they are probably too costly to use in a meaningful way.

Rob: I understand the heritage that Woodford Reserve has with horse racing and the Kentucky Derby. Woodford Reserve even has its own stable of race horses, right? Have any of your horses ever won the Kentucky Derby? Are any of your horses named with bourbon-themed names? What are they? What are some of Woodford Reserve employees’ favorite horse names?

CM: We are extremely proud of the fact that Woodford Reserve is the first and only “Official Bourbon of the Kentucky Derby”, to have been associated with The Breeder’s Cup, the Belmont Stakes and many other prestigious thoroughbred races. Our Woodford Reserve Stables was an exciting aspect of our continuing relationship with the horse industry. However the program is now suspended. A number of our horses suffered a spate of injuries so we decided to leave horse racing to the experts and concentrate on what we do best – crafting Woodford Reserve. All of our horses had industry related names – my favorites – Angels Share and Reserve My Heart.

Rob: Speaking of the Kentucky Derby, I know they make a famous Mint Julep with Woodford Reserve. How do you feel about mixing bourbon in general? Aren’t high-end bourbons such as Woodford Reserve like other high-end spirits, usually enjoyed without the other ingredients?

CM: Bourbon is one of the most versatile spirits there is. It can be enjoyed neat, on the rocks, with a splash of water, in highballs, sours, smashes (juleps) and many other drinks. And the better the bourbon the better the drinking experience. The fact that the “cocktail” concept was created in America with American whiskey as its base makes me very comfortable with the use of Woodford Reserve in many styles and types of drink. We craft Woodford Reserve for people to enjoy responsibly and if that entails sipping a “Woodford and Ginger” or a Woodford Manhattan we can only respect that as the consumer’s choice.

Rob: If you and I were just chatting about the future of Woodford Reserve and what new cool innovative products were in the works, what would you tell me? Yes, I’m asking what secrets you might share.

CM: Innovation is part of Woodford Reserve’s DNA. We have a number of products in barrel, in warehouse, waiting to take their place in the Masters Collection’s line-up. We also have some new Woodford Reserve expressions biding their time as well. That is as much as I am allowed to reveal!

Many thanks to Brown-Forman and Chris Morris as well as Rob for his great questions!

Interview with Woodford Reserve Master Distiller Chris Morris Pt. 1

24 Monday Sep 2012

Posted by in Spirits

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September is “National Bourbon Heritage Month” across the U.S.A. as the U.S. Senate declared September as “National Bourbon Heritage Month” back in 2007.

In celebration of this great American spirit, we thought it would be fun to interview some of the key personalities in the bourbon world — to accomplish this we partnered with a loyal Florida customer (and prolific beer and spirits blogger) Rob Steward. Rob describes himself as a passionate beer junkie that started wandering into the spirits aisles.

Here’s Rob, craft beer and bourbon lover

Rob contributed some great questions and and we received some fun and informative responses!

Rob’s interview is with Chris Morris, Master Distiller at the Brown-Forman Corporation’s Woodford Reserve distillery in Kentucky. Chris also serves as their global brand ambassador and is an avid historian of bourbon and Kentucky heritage.

The oldest and smallest distillery in Kentucky traces its origins to 1797 when Elijah Pepper began distilling in Woodford County. This National Landmark crafts Woodford Reserve Distiller’s Select, the official bourbon of the Kentucky Derby!

Rob: I understand the former distillery name was Labrot & Graham and it’s very interesting that you tie your bourbons to that history on your bottles. Where does the name Woodford Reserve come from?

Chris Morris, Master Distiller for Brown-Forman

CM: Our distillery site is on its 4th name over 200 years of distilling activity. From 1812 until 1838 it was the Elijah Pepper farm, grist mill and distillery, one of thousands like it scattered over Kentucky. Pepper’s son, Oscar, built our current distillery building in 1838 and named it after himself, The Old Oscar Pepper Distillery. His son, James, sold the operation to Labrot & Graham in 1878. It operated on and off under that name for 126 years.

Our parent company, Brown-Forman, purchased the distillery and renamed it, “Woodford Reserve”, after the county in which it is located – Woodford County, Kentucky. It follows the Scottish single malt distillery tradition of naming the distillery after its location.

Rob: I think the history of your distillery is very interesting and the fact that it’s a National Historic Landmark if very cool. What do you think the founders of the distillery would do and say should they magically start working for the distillery tomorrow? Would they need years of lessons? Would they be shocked or impressed? Would they immediately try to innovate new products?

Oscar Pepper and his distillery team would be amazed at how we have modernized the processes they used to craft bourbon. They would recognize them in the broadest sense – The Five Sources of Bourbon Flavor (grain recipe, water, fermentation, distillation and maturation) – have not changed, but the way they are applied have. They ground their grains with stone grist mill as opposed to a modern hammer mill. They mashed by hand in small mash tuns – adding buckets of water boiled over and open fire, and stirring in the “cracked” grain by hand.

Today we boil in the cooker with steam heat and drop grain in from the scale hoppers. They distilled in small pot stills that were heated over open wood fires. Today we use pot stills 20x larger that are heated by steam coils. They worked all day to produce 6 to 12 gallons of whiskey while we craft over 1000 gallons a day. They matured their barrels in small, single story warehouses. Today we mature in multi-storied open rick warehouses (patented in 1879) that hold thousands of barrels. Oscar Pepper sold his product by the barrel, never bottling it for sale. Today we have a modern, automated bottling hall. I think it is a safe bet to say they would have needed comprehensive training.

Unique copper pot stills

Rob: I’m a craft beer guy turned spirits enthusiast. I know that Woodford Reserve barrels are used in aging some craft beers and that Woodford Reserve has even gone as far as to donate barrels to a group of home brewing clubs.

What do you think about the bourbon barrel-aging trend within craft beer circles? Have you had the opportunity to try some beers that were aged in your barrels? Were you able to pick up distinct Woodford Reserve nuances or was it just a more generic bourbon flavor?

CM: We are flattered that a number of craft breweries seek out used Woodford Reserve barrels for their barrel aged products. I have been fortunate to try a number of them and they have all been delicious. While you don’t taste Woodford Reserve specifically in them you can taste the impact that our barrels make. Our barrels are uniquely crafted according to flavor focused standards at the Brown-Forman Cooperage. Brown-Forman is the only spirits company in the world that makes barrels for its own brands. The Woodford Reserve barrel is made from 9 month open air dried wood that is toasted prior to the charring process. This softens the barrel’s tannic acid profile and gives it a buttery, creamy vanilla note. This makes a Woodford aged craft beer so soft and smooth. Several craft breweries I have visited use various bourbon distillery sourced barrels and you can sure tell the difference between the beer aged in those and a Woodford barrel.

Rob: This may be a strange question, but is bourbon your favorite spirit? If so, what takes second place? Do craft bourbon makers often drink and promote each others’ products? Is it a tight-knit group like craft brewers? If so, if the liquor store just ran out of Woodford Reserve, what are the top 3 craft bourbons that you’d hope they had available?

CM: Bourbon (including Tennessee Whiskey) is my favorite spirit followed by single malt scotch. If Woodford Reserve wasn’t available I always look for the other Brown-Forman whiskies, Early Times 354, Old Forester or a member of the Jack Daniel’s Family. I prefer fully matured whiskey products and I have yet to find a craft bourbon that meets that criteria. This is due to the fact that most of these distillers have only been in business for a few years. I do not consider those brands that are using aged bourbon that they have purchased from established distilleries.

Check out part two!

Fun Day with Harpoon Brewery CEO at Churchkey, Washington D.C.

12 Wednesday Sep 2012

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We had lots of fun on Tuesday afternoon at Birch & Barley restaurant and Churchkey in Washington, D.C., where we met and filmed some video talking with Rich Doyle, CEO and co-founder of Harpoon Brewery and also Greg Engert, renown beer director of Neighborhood Restaurant Group, which includes Birch & Barley on the ground floor and upstairs, the beer enthusiast-coveted Churchkey.

Rich, along with his business partner, Dan Kenary, founded Harpoon Brewery in Boston, MA in 1986, where it has since become an institution and a mainstay in the craft beer movement. Distributed in 27 states in the eastern U.S. (going as far west as Texas), Harpoon bottles 30 different beers (including some delicious ciders), and Rich took some time to tell us about many of them on video which we’ll be releasing soon.

Greg Engert sat down with us on video camera and shared much of his beer wisdom, including beer glassware and pouring beer, fully enjoying the appearance, aroma, taste, and mouthfeel of beer, and his insights on beer and food pairing which come from many years in the restaurant industry where he has worked with fine chef cuisine and many of the world’s best beers.

Cheers to Rich and Greg for their contributions over the years to the world of better beer and the gastronomic pleasures of beer and food.

Yours in beer,

Rob Hill
Certified Cicerone®
Author of Total Guide To Beer
New Programs Mgr., Customer Experience
Follow me on Twitter! @TWMBeer