I’m back from Munich, and the trip was incredible. Dr B. (my Dad) and I spent 6 days exploring Munich, Bamberg, and other parts of Bavaria. Let me fill you in on the best part of the trip: the beer.

My thoughts on the Munich beer scene

Beer is part of daily life in Munich. It’s more ingrained into the DNA of Müncheners than it is in Americans. At your meal, you get a beer. On the train, you get a beer. When you’re just hanging out, you get a beer. And they don’t get out of control, either. You won’t find much overt drunkenness (outside of festivals, of course).

There aren’t the same stigmas that we have about drinking beer, especially when it comes to women. Everyone drinks beer. I even saw numerous occasions at beer gardens where parents would pass their glass to their little kids for a few sips. Looking around it was obvious that we were the only ones who thought it was strange.

If you’re looking for beer style diversity and experimentation, this is not the place to find it. C’mon, this is the country of the Reinheitsgebot. However it’s one thing to read about it and another to experience it. At most restaurants the beer menus are clones of each other. There are three types you will certainly find: Helles, Weizen, and Dunkel. If there’s another it’s probably a pilsner, and beyond that a doppelbock may show up. Seasonal specialities appear as well, like Maibock, Oktoberfest, etc.

As an American craft beer drinker you may find this lack of selection rather boring. After all, we’re used to going to a beer bar and having access to a huge range of styles. I wasn’t disappointed though, and I’ll tell you why:

• The beers are steeped in tradition. You know what you’re drinking has been shaped over centuries, something no American beer can claim.
• Even though you find the same beer styles everywhere, they’re all slightly different. It’s interesting to taste all the different takes on a Helles, for example.
• The beers are delicious. Going back to the first point, these are not shot in the dark test batches. They’re polished to perfection. Plus the beers are incredibly fresh.

Another great thing is that the default beer is not a light lager. If you just order a “beer” you’ll probably get a Helles. Ok so that is a light lager but it’s not a Bud Light. The Helles you get in Munich is flavorful and delicious. The most “macro” brand there is Löwenbräu, but even they had a doppelbock that was pretty good.

Beer Hotspots

The Hofbräuhaus
You can’t go to Munich without going to the Hofbräuhaus. It’s without a doubt the most famous beer destination in the city. Yes it’s full of tourists, but it’s one of the top beer destinations in the world, and hell, it’s fun. You can’t help but get caught up in the atmosphere, not to mention the beer is excellent.

Liters flow freely at the Hofbrauhaus.

The Dunkel and Helles at Augustiner Brau.

Seehaus is smaller and was our favorite. It’s in a beautiful spot, located on a lake in the park. They serve Paulaner beer and the weizen really hit the spot on a warm day.

Seehaus Beer Garden in Munich's English Garden

Drinking Salvator at the source. Can't beat that.

As is the case with most things in Munich, this beer garden was spotless. Hundreds of picnic tables fill the courtyard which is covered with enough trees to shade every inch. We drank the Salvator which was very good (not as good as a doppelbock I’ll mention below though). I was hoping for a 1/2 liter as it’s a strong beer and I wanted to try something else, but no way jose, only a Maß. I didn’t put up a fight and was feeling pretty good after polishing off a liter of doppelbock.

Andechs
Kloster Andechs is a monastery/brewery located about 45 southwest of Munich via train. It’s an easy day trip from Munich on the S-8 to Herrsching, a beautiful little town on Lake Ammersee. Once there a €2 bus ride took us up the hill to Kloster Andechs.

The church on top of the hill at Andechs.

Hallertau hops growing at Andechs.

If you’re in Munich and want to try Andechs beer but don’t have time for the trip down there, you’re in luck. They own an excellent restaurant called Andechser Am Dom in central Munich. There is still nothing like drinking the doppelbock from the wooden cask at the brewery, so do whatever you can to get in the trip.

Best beer of the trip: Kloster Andechs Doppelbock

Up next is all about drinking beer in Bamberg, a side trip of our visit to Munich.

When something is hot, everybody wants to ride its coattails.

Craft beer was up 15% in 2012, while the beer industry as a whole was up only 1%. Craft beer is hot, and marketers want a piece of it.

There are two recent examples of the term “craft beer” being abused.

The first was at Yankee Stadium this year when the baseball season began. See the picture below.

That’s right – a “Craft Beer Destination” with all MillerCoors products. As you can imagine, there was a huge backlash. They eventually changed the name to “Beer Mixology Destination”. It’s a horrible name but it’s an improvement…I guess.

Another example came via a tweet from the Colorado Brewer’s Guild:

Stella Artois, Redhook, Heineken, and Corona. Not one of them a craft beer. Nice try, Safeway!

This starts to get into the whole craft vs. crafty thing which has been beaten to death. I don’t like the BA’s definition of craft beer, but this blatant false advertising is pathetic. Big brewers and beer vendors are trying to capitalize on craft beer’s success to mislead consumers and justify higher prices.

In my fantasy world there would be no “craft beer”. It would all be beer, and all beer would be good. In the meantime, however, these perpetrators should be called out for their deceptions. It was good to see the backlash at Yankee Stadium and hopefully the embarrassment taught others a lesson.

These are just two examples but I’ve seen many more. I’m sure you have too. Let me know in the comments a time that you saw the term “craft beer” being abused.

As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, I’m headed to Munich in May.

Part of my brutal training regimen is drinking a ton of German beer. We’re planning on spending one or two days of the trip in Bamberg, which is about 140 miles north of Munich. It’s home to the Rauchbier style of beer, or “smoke beer”. No liquid smoke in these though. This is the reaaaal deal. They produced it via the authentic practice of smoking the malt during the kilning process.

Schlenkerla is the most famous Rauchbier producer. They are widely distributed in the U.S. and if you haven’t tasted it, you likely recognize the label.

I had Chris and Jeremy from Pintwell over to help me out in a group that we are morphing from our BJCP study group into what we’re calling The Denver Tasting Lab. We tried five of the Schlenkerla beers:

1. Urbock
2. Marzen
3. Weizen
4. Doppelbock
5. Lager

Schlenkerla Tasting: Urbock, Marzen, Weizen, Doppelbock, Lager

Putting the rauchbiers head to head

Not that the smoke flavor was bad. On the contrary, I loved it and how rich and natural it was. It’s just that I felt the lager and weizen had more complexity and were less one-dimensional than the others. The lager was especially impressive in how subtle the smoke was but also how critical it was to the overall flavor profile of the beer. It’s truly masterfully crafted.

Credit has to be given to the Marzen which I would call the granddaddy of them all. It’s the most intense and left me with a severe craving for bacon.

Here are some thoughts from Chris and Jeremy:

“The thing that sticks out in my mind is that most of these beers had a very pleasant, natural, but not overpowering smoke aroma, unlike some domestic versions which contain the artificial stuff or which overwhelm such that each one feels like smoking a pack of cigarettes. Also, any one of them would be great to pair with a nice grilled meal.”
- Chris

“The thing that sticks out for me is the flavor of bacon in the marzen. There have been a few breweries to attempt a bacon beer, but this one does it naturally and without trying. I love it when a beer is able to bring flavors to life without being over-the-top.”
- Jeremy

This was an incredibly fun tasting and I highly recommend you try it out. A word of warning though: if you do this tasting, save these beers for LAST. The aroma filled the room and I was tasting smoke in my mouth the next morning.

Have you tried the Schlenkerla beers? Which ones?

The beer industry has latched onto Kickstarter in a major way.

The fundraising platform with its social nature and quirky promo videos is the perfect fit for a new brewery looking to raise some cash. A search for “brewery” brings up 137 results.

Now we’re seeing all sorts of beery ventures, beyond just breweries. Here are some cool ones I’ve been following:

The Drink Tanks Growler

Growlers are great, but they have their drawbacks. The major one is that after you open the growler, the beer quickly loses its carbonation and goes flat.

This growler solves that problem by essentially turning the growler into a mini keg. It has a lid with a built-in tap system. You can dispense the beer from a hosed picnic tap and inject CO2 with a standard CO2 cartridge. This keeps the beer carbonated until the growler is empty.

It’s a very innovative product and they have blown past their fundraising goal of $30,000 by raking in a whopping $176,000 as of this post going up. All signs indicate that they’ll sell a ton of these, even with a $65 price tag which is a good deal higher than the $10-$20 most growlers cost.

Check it out

The TapIt Cap

Looks like there’s some competition in the growler market!

The TapIt Cap is similar to Drink Tanks, except this is a cap and not an entire growler. It fits on the standard threaded growlers that are very popular. Like Drink Tanks, it uses a picnic tap and CO2 cartridge for recharging.

I like the flexibility offered by the TapIt Cap. While not as sexy as the Drink Tanks, you can move it between growlers and it is cheaper (website says under $50). Bonus points for being made in Denver.

They have also exceeded their fundraising goal of $80,000.

Check it out

The eDrometer Digital Hydrometer

Get ready to drool homebrewers – it’s a digital hydrometer. No more wasting ~ 6 oz. of beer to take a hydrometer sample and then squinting to read the gravity. Just send a few drops into it and the digital display will give an accurate readout.

One thing you won’t drool over is the price. $500! I love the concept, but I just don’t see many homebrewers putting down $500 for a digital hydrometer. Personally, taking a gravity reading the old-fashioned way isn’t that big a hassle. Yes I hated reading the tiny lines on the glass hydrometer, but for $20 I picked up a precision hydrometer which solved the problem. With 7 days left and $15,000 of the $35,000 goal funded, it’s going to be a stretch to make it. I hope they stick with the idea and are able to make it cheaper.

A similar product with more bells and whistles is the BeerBug. It sits on top of your fermenter and can send the gravity in real-time to your computer or smart phone. Bad ass, and it looks like it will be available for $200.

Check it out

Modern Times Brewery

Despite all of the beer gadgets, Kickstarter still has a strong presence of new breweries. One in particular that I want to highlight is Modern Times. It stands out as being one of the best brewery Kickstarter campaigns I’ve seen.

Aside from the great video and rewards, what sets it apart is the work that’s already been done in launching the brewery. They have done a ton prior to coming to Kickstarter: they have a rock star team of employees, a location, and fantastic branding. Rather than tweaking their beers as they go, they hired homebrewerer extraordinaire Mike Tonsmeire to develop and brew the test batches. As a consumer, I appreciate this.

I think many breweries put the cart before the horse and come to Kickstarter too early. Personally, I’m more likely to give money to a startup that has already done some heavy lifting and has skin in the game.

Check it out

I don’t know what role Kickstarter will play a year or two from now. Will it continue to be a major platform for funding breweries, or is it a fad that will disappear? There are already grumblings out there from consumers getting tired of new breweries hitting them up for money. It’s understandable in areas already becoming saturated with breweries, but my guess is that cities or neighborhoods without many craft breweries will still show strong support for new entrants.

Would love to hear your thoughts.

In early May I’m taking a beer trip to Munich, Germany. You could say that I’m excited.

In 2006 I spent a day in Munich while traveling in Europe. I almost wish I hadn’t because it was so much fun I didn’t want to leave. It’s been a while, but I’m finally going back.

I want to make sure I do it right though, so I thought I would share with you my plan of attack. I also know that many BillyBrew readers have been to Germany and I’d be an idiot to not tap into that knowledge. I’ll be traveling with my photographer aka Dr. B aka Dad. He’s always wanted to go to Germany and I’m glad we can do this trip before he becomes an old(er) fart.

Here is the gist of the trip:

• 7 days in Munich and visiting other parts of Bavaria.
• Will use the excellent (and cheap) MVV public transportation system
• Breweries – lots of them. There are the obvious ones right in Munich – Schneider, Hofbräuhaus, Spaten, Paulaner, etc. The tough part is narrowing down the ones outside of Munich to visit. Weihenstephan is a must. As is Ayinger. I’d also really like to see Kloster Andechs and Weltenburg. Salzburg isn’t even that far…
• Beer gardens – lots of these too.
• Will visit Bamberg, home of many Rauchbier producers like Schlenkerla as well the Weyermann malting company. Bamberg is a bit of a hike from Munich and I’m seriously considering spending the night there to take full advantage of it.
• Frühlingsfest is like a mini-Oktoberfest and will be taking place while we’re there. It looks ridiculous and I don’t think we should miss it.
• Assuming we survive to the end of the trip we’ll do a day that is (gasp) not centered around beer. I’m dying to visit Neuschwanstein Castle so we will travel there. Hopefully the castle tour serves beer…

How am I preparing for the trip? I’ve been doing my homework for sure. Here is what I’ve found especially useful.

Books and Blogs

How could do I do this trip without The Beer Drinker’s Guide to Munich? It has very detailed guides on breweries and beer gardens with maps and essential travel info. It doesn’t go much into the beer itself, but for an American traveler unfamiliar with the city it is as the cover says, indispensable.

Brewing with Wheat has also proved very helpful as has Stan’s blog of course.

Speaking of blogs, Beervana has been another great source of info. Lucky for me, Jeff is in the middle of writing a beer book and has had some stellar posts recently about Germany.

Beer

In the past I would glance at the German beer section, raise an eyebrow at the impossible names, and move on to the American craft beer selections. Sure I’ve had the flagships from the big names, but I never ventured much outside of that territory.

Lately, however, I’ve made an effort to drink my way through the entire lineups of German breweries. I want to be familiar with them when I’m there as well as answer that age-old question, “Is it really better at the brewery?” I’m guessing the answer is “yes”, but I want to find out for myself ; )

Duolingo

The German language is tough and I didn’t take it in school. I’m not expecting to be able to have a conversation in German but I would like to read basic signs, menus, etc. and know how to pronounce things correctly. I’ve been using Duolingo for language learning and have progressed pretty quickly. It’s been shown to be as or more effective than Rosseta Stone, not to mention it’s free. Do check it out.

Duolingo doesn’t focus much on beer though and those brewery names are tricky. I was able to find this gem of a playlist on YouTube with German brewery pronunciations. Don’t feel bad if you’ve been way off on some. I have too.

Any tips?

As I said above, I’d be foolish not to ask for reader feedback. Who’s been to Munich? Have any tips?

Wood aging isn’t new. It’s what was used to ferment, age, and transport beer before there was anything better, like stainless steel.

But that doesn’t mean breweries aren’t innovating with wood.

Not content with simply “wood-aging” beer, craft breweries are experimenting with new creations made with this ancient technique. We’ll look at some of the different methods that are being used in today’s beers, along with examples.

When we say wood-aged, we’re usually talking about barrel-aged, although that’s not always the case as I’ll show in a couple of examples below. Oak barrels can lend all sorts of interesting flavors to the beer: char, toast, vanilla, caramel.

A brewer has all sorts of options when deciding what types of barrels to use:

• Char or toast level
• French or American Oak
• The barrel’s previous use

One very important factor is whether the resulting beer will be sour or not. Non-sour, or “clean beers” are usually aged in barrels to extract the oak and/or the character of whatever liquid previously resided there. They want to keep souring microbes out. Whiskey barrels are a good choice for clean beers because the whiskey will have killed off any bugs residing in the barrels.

By sour beers, I mean beers that are intentionally inoculated with bacteria and/or wild yeast such as brettanomyces. Sour beer producers may use barrels for a couple of reasons. Like clean beer brewers, they may want to pull the wine/spirit flavor out of the barrel, in which case they’ll need to use fresh barrels. But oftentimes they only use barrels as a way to store their microbes. The porous barrels provide a cozy home for the bugs which build up their populations over time. For this reason you’ll see many sour beer producers buying barrels from clean beer producers – they only want the wood, not whatever beverage the wood previously stored.

Now here are some examples for you to try.

Wood Aged & Barrel Aged Beer Examples

Breck's Well Built ESB is aged in whiskey barrels

Whiskey

Whiskey barrels are without a doubt the most popular choice for aging. With the right beer in them they can balance flavors and make a whole greater than the sum of its parts. Higher alcohol, malt-forward beers are the best candidates whiskey barrel-aging.

Whiskey barrels are also a smart choice from a marketing perspective if the whiskey is a brand name, like Maker’s Mark.

One of my examples is Breckenridge’s Well Built ESB which is aged in Colorado whiskey barrels from Stranahan’s (conveniently, one of my favorite whiskeys). Stranahans is made from 100% malt – the impact on the beer is debatable but it does feel more authentic combing two all-malt beverages. American single malt whiskeys are not very common but they are on the rise and I’m sure beers aged in their barrels will be as well.

Since bourbon is so popular in America it’s the most common form of whiskey barrel aging. The most famous bourbon aged beer has to be Goose Island’s Bourbon County Stout, aged in Heaven Hill barrels. Bourbon is made (by law) with at least 51% corn, so it is going to lend different flavors than a single malt whiskey.

Finally there is the less common rye whiskey barrel aged beer. The heavy dose (at least 51%) of rye lends a spicier character to the spirit and beer. One commercial example is the Rittenhouse Rye from FiftyFifty’s successful Eclipse series.

When brewers want to brew a big, clean (not sour) beer they often turn to whiskey barrels. Imperial stouts and barleywines are the most common but more unusual choices like ESBs and porters are popping up too.

Cedar

The only cedar aged beer I’ve had is Cigar City’s cedar aged Jai Alai. I found it much too spicy and pungent, but some age would have probably tamed it. As I mentioned above, wood ≠ barrel, and this is one of those cases where that’s true. Cedar blanks are used in the fermenter.

For another example, it looks like Jester King makes a cedar aged beer – I would love to try it.

Oak Aged Yeti

Oak

Oak aged could mean a few different things. You come across many beers that are “Oak-aged” and what this usually means is that oak chips or cubes are used to impart flavor on the beer. The chips are added to a stainless steel fermenter, so you can’t call these beers barrel-aged. Some people look down their nose at beers aged in this manner because it is not traditional. I think this is overblown. It can be done right or it can be done wrong. Oak Aged Yeti is aged with oak chips and is a fantastic beer.

If a barrel has been reused a few times by a brewer it might be called oak-aged because it’s not pulling any other flavors out, but more often than not it’s referred to as barrel-aged. Barrels can also be scraped and reconditioned in order to get more oak flavor.

I’m not aware of many beers aged in new oak. It’s a very powerful flavor and would overwhelm the beer. It sure sounds like Cigar City’s Hunahpu’s Imperial Stout – Virgin Oak Barrel Aged was aged in fresh oak, and the reviews seem to confirm that.

Give Cigar City credit for being very experimental with wood aging.

Tequila and Rum

Tequila is a newer form of beer aging. As you can imagine, it is catching on South of the border. The Mexican brewery Cucapá had a tequila barrel aged barleywine and the Guadalajara-based Minerva Brewery makes an Imperial Tequila Ale.

An American example is Golden Road’s El Hefe Anejo out of Los Angeles. I tried it at The Great American Beer Festival and was pleasantly surprised how at well the agave flavors mingled with the beer and were not too dominant.

Rum is another uncommon one but you will find examples here and there. Maybe it’s because I live in Colorado, but I can’t think of rum barrel aged beer without immediately thinking of Avery’s Rumpkin – a huge pumpkin beer aged in Gosling’s rum barrels for six months.

Crooked Stave Nightmare on Brett. Brandy and Cognac barrel aged.

Brandy & Cognac

These are spirits made from distilling wine. They have a sticky sweetness that carries over to the barrel and eventually to any beer that occupies it. There are a handful of beers aged in these barrels, the most famous likely being The Lost Abbey Angel’s Share.

Crooked Stave makes a brandy and cognac aged version of their Nightmare on Brett. I’ve been fortunate enough to try both. I’m not sure where the Cognac barrels come from but Chad Yakobson said in an interview with Embrace the Funk that the brandy barrels are from Heaven Hill distillery.

Wine

Wine barrels tend to be more popular with sour beer producers because they have a more neutral flavor compared to say, whiskey barrels. Wine barrels are also frequently reused unlike American whiskey barrels which the law requires to be fresh for each batch. That means the impact of the oak is more diminished in wine barrels.

French oak and American oak are both used for wine and hence sour beer aging. French oak appears more popular because it is more porous than American oak, but it’s not without its drawbacks.

Says Russian River’s Vinnie Cilurzo to Brew Your Own magazine,

“There is a belief among brewers that French oak is better because it is more porous, so the bugs and critters can stay impregnated in the oak longer and more easily. This may be true, but it will also aid in the barrel more easily picking up Acetobacter over time — this is something that I don’t like.”

Speaking of Vinnie, one of my all time favorite beers is Russian River’s Consecration, aged in Cabernet Sauvignon American oak barrels. RR is fond of wine barrels and contrary to some sour brewers who only want the barrels for bug storage, RR wants to pull the wine flavor into some of its beer, like Supplication with its distinct Pinot Noir flavors.

Although wine barrels are more common for sour beers like Consecration, you will find a few used for clean beers. Here in Denver, River North Brewery makes a beautiful version of their White Ale (Witbier) that is aged in Chardonnay barrels. It’s a good example of using the right barrel for the beer.

Go try some

I linked to the beers on Untappd so you could add them to your wish list. Add them, drink them, and tell me what you think.

I’m not going to pretend that wood aging makes a beer better in all circumstances – it doesn’t. There are plenty of barrel aged beers I’ve tried that would have been better off in stainless. But wood can add some interesting flavors and it’s worth seeking these out.

What are some of your favorite wood/barrel aged beers?

Photo credit

It doesn’t always take a growler-full when cooking with beer. Sometimes just a dash will do. A small amount of the “secret ingredient” can leave your guests mystified and delighted. What IS that!?

Sriracha anyone?

This recipe only uses 1 tablespoon of beer but it turbo charges caramelized onions. Yes, caramelized onions. Those brown delicious wormy things that go well on just about everything from fajitas to burgers to pancakes.

Here is a simple recipe for beer caramelized onions:

• 4 medium sized yellow onions
• 1 tbs beer (see below)
• 1 tbs olive oil
• 1 tbs unsalted butter
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 1 tsp brown sugar

Slice the onions about 1/4″ thick. Reader tip: If you slice a lot of veggies, especially onions, I highly recommend a V-Slicer. I was able to cut all 4 onions to a perfect size in under a minute. The possibilities are endless with this thing.

Melt the butter and oil in a non-stick skillet over high heat. Stir in the salt and brown sugar. Add the onions and stir often for 5 minutes. Turn the heat down to medium-low and cook for at least 40 minutes. Yes it takes that long but it’s worth it!

Before the magical transformation...

Muahahaha....

When the onions are fully browned, pull the skillet off the heat and stir in the beer. Don’t add so much beer that it turns into a sauce, but don’t skimp on it either. I found 1 tbs to be the sweet spot but a little more wouldn’t hurt.

All done!

Let’s talk about the beer for a sec. I went with Bitch Creek Extra Special Brown as seen in the picture above. It’s a great beer and added some nice toasty flavors to the onions. It’s a more bitter brown ale so you might want to use something more balanced towards the malt, but since I didn’t cook the beer it didn’t make the onions overly bitter.

The finished product

I decided to eat the onions with pork chops made with homemade bread crumbs. It’s a great combination, but you the onions will go well on many things. How about getting really hard-core and putting them over beer brats?

You can even store them in the fridge for about a week.

Now go make some beer caramelized onions and eat them as you watch the Ravens win the Super Bowl this Sunday (note: If you read this after the Super Bowl and the Ravens lost, well, that is embarrassing).

5 weeks.

That’s how far away the BJCP exam is.

For some background, I’ve been wanting to become a certified beer judge for years now. Last January it was one of my New Years Resolutions to pass the exam; a group of us formed to study for it.

There is a huge demand for the BJCP and not enough resources, so the earliest we could schedule it was March 2013. In hindsight, I’m glad we’ve had over a year to study because it’s a ton to learn and a whole lot of fun.

We’ve been fairly consistent about meeting every two weeks. The study sessions generally go like this:

• Choose a BJCP style category (the next one in line)
• Someone brings bottled examples of the style
• We read the guidelines, taste the beer, and fill out scoresheets

We haven’t been too disciplined about formally judging beers because it’s much more fun to just sit and talk about them, but that will now change as the exam is right around the corner.

A Change of Approach

In 2012 there were changes to the BJCP exam structure. You can read all of the details (pdf) if you wish, but to sum it up:

• The exam used to be a combination of a tasting exam and a written exam. They are now separate exams, and you must pass the tasting exam before becoming eligible for the written exam.
• There is now an online entrance exam which you must pass in order to take the tasting exam.
• The tasting exam consists of judging six beers (compared to the previous four) and comparing your scores against those of the exam proctor (a National or Master judge).

So the individual exams and their sequence is this: online entrance exam -> tasting exam -> written exam.

The exam we have in March is the tasting exam. To me, it is a relief that we’re no longer doing the written exam. When we learned of the changes we altered our strategy. Since we no longer need to be as well versed on technical topics (brewing techniques, beer style attributes, etc), we could focus strictly on tasting, judging, and learning off-flavors.

Yes, you do need to know those technical topics and style guidelines for the online entrance exam, but it is nowhere near as in-depth as the written exam. I passed the online exam recently and it’s not that difficult if you have a good base knowledge of beer styles and some brewing experience.

Off flavor kit & our delicious base beer.

The Home Stretch

The strategy for these final weeks is judge, judge, judge. We’ve made it through all of the BJCP styles and are now just going to concentrate on filling out scoresheets.

No one is a “natural” at filling out scoresheets. Even if you have the best palate in the world, it doesn’t mean you are good at giving feedback to homebrewers.

Filling out scoresheets with other judges is critical. You need to calibrate your judging and discover any blind spots you may have. If you score a beer at 40 and another judge gives it a 20, that’s not good. In the tasting exam, the farther away your score is from the proctor’s, the more points you lose.

I know I need work at judging. If I took the exam today I’d be in trouble. But I’ve made big strides in the past year and as long as I buckle down between now and exam time, I’m confident I’ll do well.

Besides, it doesn’t take much to convince me to drink more beer.

My “beer mood” is constantly changing, but one style that I can drink day in and day out is Berliner Weisse. It’s refreshing, tart but not sour, and light enough that you can have multiple multiple multiple pints.

Given my love of matching beer and food, I had to track down the best bites to go with a Berliner.

When finding the right food to pair with a beer, one of the first things I consider is intensity. Berliners are light bodied and generally 3-5% abv, so the food cannot be too powerful. Ribs, rich dessert, or anything smoky will overpower the beer, so you can rule those out. If you think about a beer dinner with multiple courses, you would place the Berliner towards the front, with the appetizer not the entrée.

That’s when it hit me.

Berliner Weisse and French Fries

French fries are the perfect pairing for Berliner Weisse.

Fries are salty, oily, and starchy. A good Berliner cools the hot fries and wipes the palate clean. The salty/sour combination is a winner (My love of Gose beer and margaritas makes sense now).

You can’t use limp, soggy fries though. Find some good ones that are crisp and fluffy. Here in Denver, Jonesy’s is known for having the best fries in town and even the country.

I picked up some of their Bacon Mac & Cheese fries and paired them up with Crabtree’s Berliner Weisse.

Crabtree Berliner Weisse and fries from Jonesy's

It absolutely kicked ass. Crabtree is hard to find outside of Colorado so a couple other Berliners I love are Fritz Briem and this recent discovery from the German brewery Bayerischer.

French fries aren’t exactly a fine dining experience, but not all beer pairings have to be. When you eat fries, you eat a ton of them, and you need a beer that goes down just as easily. Berliner Weisse is the beer the job.

What foods, if any, have you paired with Berliner Weisse? Who makes your favorite french fries?

As home to 168 breweries, the Great American Beer Festival, and some of the best craft beer in the country, you wouldn’t think there would be much for Colorado beer drinkers to be unhappy about. However, we are once again having the annual debate about the “Grocery Bill” which would allow full strength beer to be sold where you buy your food. A quick primer if you’re not familiar with it…

Colorado grocery stores and convenience stores cannot sell beer that is higher than 3.2% alcohol by volume. To get “full strength beer”, you must go to the liquor store.

I moved to Colorado from Virginia in mid-2010 and was unaware of this law. A friend nearly dove in front of me to block me from buying beer at King Soopers. I had no idea it was 3.2% beer.

Here’s one of the arguments from craft brewers and others who oppose the bill: Small liquor stores (aka “Mom and Pop” stores: see below) make most of their money selling full strength beer. If grocery stores are allowed to sell full strength beer, shoppers will start buying their beer while picking up dinner instead of visiting the liquor store. The small liquor stores will go out of business. Because it’s unlikely that grocery stores will stock the more limited and high-end craft beers, consumers will have reduced access to these products.

To be upfront about where I stand, I don’t buy many of these arguments and fully support the sale of full strength beer in grocery stores.

Supporters of the bill are quick to point to other states that don’t have a grocery store restriction where craft beer is thriving – California, Washington, and Oregon being the prime examples.

The Myth of the “Mom and Pop” Liquor Store

The main argument of those who oppose the grocery bill is that it would put mom and pop liquor stores out of business.

Let me tell you about these establishments…

'Mom and Pop' doesn't always mean a good selection

How can we put pappy out of business?

While these places do exist, the reality is that most liquor stores are nothing like this and frankly they are horrible from a beer perspective. Walk down my street and you’ll see three within three blocks.

They are dirty, have bars on the windows, and vagrants are drinking vodka outside. The beer selection? Amidst the Bud and Coors are a couple of shelves of Fat Tire and Avalanche. Be careful though, they’re usually past their expiration date. The owners barely speak English and know nothing about their products or beer. I once made the mistake of asking for a beer made in Belgium and was pointed to Fat Tire.

These are many of the “Mom and Pop” liquor stores that we’ll lose with the grocery bill, and I won’t shed a tear when they’re gone (note: I don’t believe as many will go out of business as people predict, but that’s another issue).

Not that it matters who the owner is, but the value they offer the customer does matter. If you can’t compete on selection, customer service, or price, then why should you remain in business? It shouldn’t be because of government protection.

Will We Really Lose Access to High-End Craft Beer?

The notion that we won’t go out of our way to purchase specialty beers is preposterous. Do wine and cigar enthusiasts simply accept whatever the grocery store has to offer? No, they go to specialty shops for them.

That’s what will happen with craft beer. I would love to be able to pick up a six-pack of Odell IPA at the supermarket, and when I am in the mood for Crooked Stave I will make the drive to the bottle shop.

For me, it’s all about consumer choice. As long as there is demand for high-end craft beer (and there is), there will be a merchant there to provide it.

That may mean some small liquor stores who don’t provide much value anyways close their doors. It may mean that grocery stores carry a good but not great selection of craft beer. It may mean we have less liquor stores overall but more that specialize in high-end craft beer. That is all fine by me.

Overall things are pretty damn good here. I can’t complain much, but I hope for a day when obscure, outdated alcohol laws are a thing of the past. Not just in Colorado, but across the country.