Craft Brew Tax Cut Proposed

Bloomberg has a great article today about some proposed legislation to give tax cuts to craft brewers:

This legislation would roll back excise taxes on small brewing companies by anywhere from 11 percent to 50 percent. The current tax rates, adopted in 1976 before the rise of micro- and craft breweries in the 1990s, have never been updated, requiring many brewers to pay levies calibrated for much larger operations once considered small.

Looks like some Ohio brewing folks are part of the push to make this happen:

The push for changes in the tax code is being led by the Brewers Association and a group of brewers and brewery employees, including Patrick Conway, a founder of Cleveland- based Great Lakes Brewing Co.; Greg Hardman, of Cincinnati-based Christian Moerlein Brewing Co.; and Steve Hindy, president of Brooklyn Brewery

Interesting that part of what this legislation would do is reset the ceiling so that some of the larger craft brewers, like Boston Brewing company, would still qualify. The makers of Sam Adams may seem like a big brewery, but as the article points out, they still only produce one 50th of what AB does. Sam Adams and Yuengling, also mentioned, are much more interesting choices than pretty much anything AB puts out, so I love to see them get a leg up on the macro-brews.

BrewTensils Brewing 101

Live in the Miami Valley and want to know how to brew or improve your brewing chops? Check out the brewing school at BrewTensils. There are four sessions, with the first one next week. From their website:

Introduction to Brewing

Brewing 101 – January 12th – 7pm to 9pm

Just the basics, this class covers what each piece of equipment in your brew kit is used for, as well as walking you through your first batch of beer.

Pre-req: A desire to brew great beer starting with your first batch!

Cost: Free!

In depth look at Ingredients

Brewing 102 – January 19th – 7pm to 9pm

Ever wonder what alpha acids are? Lovibond rating have you confused? Want to know the difference between 2-row and 6-row? This class is designed to demystify the ingredients used in the brewing process. With better understand of the ingredients used, it is a small step to take your beers to the next level.

Pre-req: It is usually a good idea to have your first batch under your belt before this class.

Cost: $5 paid at the start of the class.

How to Keg

Brewing 110 – January 26th – 7pm to 9pm

This class covers the trials and tribulations of setting up your own kegerator at home. You will also learn now to keg your own beer and how to maintain your whole system. This class is useful for anyone who wants to setup a kegerator at home, brewer or not.

Pre-req: The desire to have beer on tap at home.

Cost: $5 paid at the start of the class.

Introduction to All Grain Brewing

Brewing 201 – February 2nd – 7pm to 9pm

All grain brewing seems like a crazy amount of work and calculations. We help you realize that it’s a pretty simple and straight forward process to get into. This class walks you through the terms used in all grain brewing, as well as the equipment, and finally the process.

Pre-req: It is usually a great idea to have a few extract batches under your belt before you attempt all grain brewing.

Cost: $5 paid at the start of the class.

Brewing: Bison IPA to start the new year

Monday I got together with a few other dads from our kids' school to show them how to brew. I wanted something that was straightforward, something that would be tasty but not too technical.

I opted for a West Coast style IPA. The recipe was an extract plus grains, with the excessive 2 row simply because I had it laying around:

8 lbs liquid extra pale malt
2 lbs 2-row pale malt
1 lb Crystal 60
1 oz Citra (13.6 AA) @ 60 min
1 oz Cascade (5.6 AA) @ 30 min
1 oz Cascade (5.6 AA) @ 1 min
Wyeast WLP041 Pacific Ale Yeast with Malta starter
Full boil, immersion chilled

Brew went off fairly smoothly. Forgot that pellets would clog the stainless steel chore boy I use as a filter, so I had to fish that out post-chill.

Also didn't realize that this yeast had such a long freakin' lag phase. Nearly 24 hrs, which would normally have me panicked except that the White Labs forum has tons of accounts of slow starts.

Bubbling away now. Will move to secondary in two weeks. Thinking about siphoning some off to age on bourbon soaked wood chips.

Yuengling in Ohio

My latest Dayton City Paper article ran today, covering the Yuengling in Ohio phenomenon. I'll be honest, when my editor and I first discussed the piece, I was dreading it. I was headed to Three Floyds and FOBAB that weekend and thought, jeez, if we should be excited about any beer coming to Ohio, it should be Three Floyds--monster craft brewer that tops most trades and best lists, not Yuengling, a pale lager with a cult following.

But in covering the story, I grew to appreciate the beer. Not everyone loves the Three Floyds giants, but most folks can get behind Yuengling. It's not the most complex beer in the world, but I don't think it's trying to be. It's price-point takes aim at the Budmillercoors of the world, not of the craft brew set (it's about a $5-6 sixer). More than anything, it's likely to act as a gateway beer, turning folks onto flavor who would normally drink pale yellow macrobrews.

And there are some really cool stories associated with the beer. The brewery's history is interesting, given how far back it dates (seriously, Andrew Jackson was president and several of the midwestern states weren't even part of the union yet!). But what got it for me was how much people who drank Yuengling had a connection with the beer. I wish I could have printed everything that Matt, Benjamin, and Sarah had to say about the beer. It's true that it was like coming home for them.

And that I do understand. In college, at Ohio U, The Union always served Schlitz at insanely low prices. I think bottles were under a buck ($.90?), and we were poor, so we drank a lot of Schlitz. I have a lot of fond memories associated with that brand, even though I know it doesn't stack up to Three Floyds, etc. I'll tend to chose a craft beer almost every time, but if an old college friend showed up with a case of Schlitz, I'd be perfectly happy to help him or her work through it.

Ohio and Texas Beer Laws

Two interesting brew laws in the news this week.

First, it looks like brewers in Ohio will be allowed to offer samples onsite without having to purchase an additional liquor license. Before Wednesday's ruling, brewers that wanted to offer tastings onsite had to purchase an additional license, at a cost of ~$3,900 annually. Here's a write-up in today's Akron Beacon Journal. (Thanks to Natalie at Belmont Party Supply for the heads up on this one).

Second, it looks like Texas may finally get its act together and eliminate the arcane and ridiculous naming convention that it forces brewers to use in the state. Texas law currently mandates that beers under 4 % ABV be labeled "Beer" and anything stronger is labeled either "Ale" or "Malt Liquor." The law is absurd because an ale is designated an ale not by its strength, but simply by the type of yeast used to produce it. Texas also blocked efforts by breweries to allow customers to know where to buy their products. Yesterday a ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Sam Sparks overturned the laws, citing that they are unconstitutional. Big victory for Texas beer aficionados and brewers. Here's the write-up in the Star Telegram.

Send Beer

Beer2buds is an awesome concept too long in the making. The site lets you buy beers for your friends, even when you are 200+ miles away. Here's how it works:

1) Add your friend's contact info and some money via PayPal.
2) You friend gets an email or text with a redemption code.
3) Your friend goes to the website, picks a bar, and gets a voucher (print of via iPhone) to take to their local bar.
4) The bartender at the local pub redeems the voucher for a beer or cash.

I posted a link to the site, you know, in case anyone wanted to try it out by buying me a cold one.

Note: So apparently it isn't working here in Dayton yet, but there's a spot where you can suggest bars to add to the program. Feel free to send some notes to our local better beer bars.

Sours Beers in NY Times

See Eric Asimov's review of sour beers. Interesting, Huffington Post names sour beers as a food trend to watch in 2012. I'll believe it. Most craft beer geeks I know already consider sour to be the new hoppy. Cascade Kriek was named as the top beer in the tasting (see my write-up of Cascade from our recent trip to Portland), but I was pleased to see a couple of Jolly Pumpkin brews on the list, too.