SAMblog

New Brewpub coming to the East Bay

2011-08-05T08:20:00.000-07:00

El Cerrito will have its own brewpubb in mid-August. Located on San Pablo Avenue next to the historic El Cerrito Theatre and a block from BART. We're looking forward to checking it out!
http://www.bayareacraftbeer.com/beer-news/new-brewpub-opening-in-the-east-bay/

Keg Line Length Balancing

2011-07-16T23:39:00.000-07:00

Here's a great article found at http://www.beersmith.com/blog/2011/07/14/keg-line-length-balancing-the-science-of-draft-beer/

Keg Line Length Balancing – The Science of Draft Beer
...
So how does one design a draft beer system to maintain proper balance at the tap? The pressure drop depends on resistance in the beer line. Beer lines have two types of resistance – one due to elevation change (i.e. the keg being higher or lower than the tap), and a second due to the beer lines themselves which generate friction as the beer flows through the lines.

Lets look at resistance first to keep things simple. Here are some sample resistance ratings for various popular beer lines:

3/16″ ID vinyl tubing = 3 psi/ft
1/4″ ID vinyl tubing = 0.85 psi/ft
3/16″ ID Polyethylene tubing = 2.2 psi/ft
1/4″ ID Polyethylene tubing = 0.5 psi/ft
3/8″ OD Stainless tubing = 0.2 psi/ft
5/16″ OD Stainless tubing = 0.5 psi/ft
1/4″ OD Stainless tubing = 2 psi/ft

Oyster BBQ April 23rd

2011-03-17T20:26:00.000-07:00

Because the last Sun in Apr is Easter, Chuck the Czech can't make it that day ... so we're happenin' on Sat the 23rd instead - same time & place. $12/ea for Malt & 1 guest; $15/guest thereafter; kids under 12 & non-oyster eaters $6.

Bring beer, drinking vessels, an appetizer/salad/dessert, and your own flatware & plates if you want to be really eco-friendly. We'll have plates/napkins/flatware.

Contact Mark Kornmann to reserve - We'll collect at the door.

Oregon back

2011-03-01T08:03:00.000-08:00

An annoying vestige of prohibition killed the Oregon homebrewing buzz last year when it was discovered that taking homebrew outside of your own home was illegal.

Home brewers and amateur winemakers throughout Oregon should lift a glass to the Oregon Senate this week, which unanimously endorsed a bill that would rewrite state law to allow homemade beer and wine to be transported and consumed outside the makers’ homes.

http://www.registerguard.com/csp/cms/sites/web/opinion/25935704-47/brewers-state-beer-homemade-oregon.csp

Exoplanetary Zymurgical Experimentation Underway

2010-09-30T08:57:00.000-07:00

What will humans think of next? Assuring ample tasty beer for astronauts, of course.
Astronauts4Hire, a nonprofit space research corporation, will conduct the tests on an Australian beer that has been brewed specifically for easy drinking in microgravity environments.

http://www.mnn.com/food/beer/stories/space-beer-headed-for-zero-gravity-bar

New Napa Homebrew Comp

2010-09-24T09:15:00.000-07:00

The Napa Bungbrewers have announced a new homebrew competition. It will be held at the Calistoga Inn on February 12, 2011. Paul Keefer will be the Head Judge for the competition.

There will updates and details posted at their website starting in October. http://www.bungbrewers.com/

The 32nd Annual California State Homebrew Competition

2010-09-13T08:12:00.000-07:00

Bryan Gros writes: The 32nd Annual California State Homebrew Competition will take place on Saturday, November 6, 2010 at Stern Grove in San Francisco. We hope you will consider entering the competition. Please see the attached files, or the website for all of the details. We have reorganized the categories this year.

http://www.nchfinfo.org/state-comp

that last thursday thing

2010-08-25T20:43:00.001-07:00

Is happening again at Pi Bar tomorrow night (8/26). See below for more details...

Homebrewing and Drug Detox Tips

2010-08-25T20:25:00.000-07:00

Home brewing is one of the oldest traditions when it comes to the brewing of various beverages....is how it begins, and it just gets weirder. Every square inch of this page is collectively the product of several robots working together to issue some transcendent demon spam.

Just beer-themed "all-your-base-belong-to-us"-style weirdness. Yes, it is the end of the world as we know it, so have a homebrew, and you'll feel fine!

Click if you dare.

Homebrew contests in Oregon illegal!

2010-07-30T22:58:00.000-07:00

Note the telling statement quoted at the end here. Apparently the freedom to be an amateur artisan presumably isn't sufficient to eliminate blatant stupidity.

Earlier this spring, the Oregon Liquor Control Commission was contacted by a licensee to see if they could include home brewers in an event on their licensed premises.

At that time, the OLCC requested a Department of Justice legal opinion to see if there was any legal way to allow this under the current statute (ORS 471.403). The resulting legal interpretation was that under the current statute, home brewers lost their exemption to brew without a license once the product left the home.

Searching for solutions that would allow home brew and wine competitions to be held this summer, the OLCC asked DOJ to take a deeper look at this issue. After consulting DOJ general counsel, we have reached the unfortunate conclusion that no practical alternative exists to allow the home brew competitions legally within the framework of our existing statutes.

“We were really hoping that we could find a legal alternative for this summer’s events,” says Rudy Williams, OLCC Deputy Director of Public Safety Services. “We know that these contests serve as a springboard for professional hopefuls. That is why we are committed to providing our full support to the Legislature to find a permanent fix for this issue in 2011.”

http://www.ktvz.com/news/24370570/detail.html

Critical Mash

2010-06-26T12:22:00.001-07:00

Last Thursday a bunch of Malts gathered at Pi Bar on Valencia near 24th in SF where a lovely beer selection resides for your quaffing convenience. (but don't be a few minutes late ordering the daily pizza and beer special as I was, (it ends at 6:28) it appears the owner was the commandante in charge of a concentration camp in a former life and will have zero sympathy for your pleas for leniency regardless your pitiable reasons or the impressiveness of your association with a table full of hefty beer-world-intelligentia. Kein Verständnis!;)

The suggestion was made to make the last thursday each month a regular event there at Pi, and the suggestion to dub it Critical Mash has sealed the plan with a nifty play on words, and furthermore, encourages attendees to avoid the infernal conveyance known as the Death Monster to attendees of this new event's inspiration. In other words, drink and don't drive!

Hope to see you on July 29th!

Brewing TV

2010-05-28T22:45:00.000-07:00

Lifehacker
Vimeo channel.

48 down, 2 to go

2010-05-28T22:24:00.000-07:00

Oklahoma, the place of my birth, legalized homebrewing a few days ago. (I can finally move back.) The last two holdouts are Alabama and Mississippi. Jon Abernathy reports.

Anchor Brewing sold

2010-04-26T23:10:00.000-07:00

Big news today, Anchor Brewing Co. has been sold to Griffen investment group.

Read it and let's hope we don't weep!: Google news articles.

German Firm Wins Right to Make Beer Called 'Fucking Hell'

2010-03-30T14:35:00.000-07:00

Har-dee-har...and they better hope they make it smuckers good, or it will become the symbol of bad beer everwhere. "this tastes like fucking hell"!

: Der Spiegel

Oyster BBQ April 25th

2010-03-28T19:09:00.000-07:00

Again with the endless oysters! This year the passing of our friend Rick Hendricks will inspire a toast, perhaps with some special beers from days gone by. Contact Kornmann for details.

Alcohol substitute in development

2009-12-31T00:13:00.000-08:00

From the UK Telegraph:
An alcohol substitute that mimics its pleasant buzz without leading to drunkenness and hangovers is being developed by scientists.
The new alcohol is being developed by a team at Imperial College London
The new substance could have the added bonus of being "switched off" instantaneously with a pill, to allow drinkers to drive home or return to work.
The synthetic alcohol, being developed from chemicals related to Valium, works like alcohol on nerves in the brain that provide a feeling of wellbeing and relaxation.
But unlike alcohol its does not affect other parts of the brain that control mood swings and lead to addiction. It is also much easier to flush out of the body.
Finally because it is much more focused in its effects, it can also be switched off with an antidote, leaving the drinker immediately sober.
...

Winter Brew Fest Jan 30

2009-12-17T16:04:00.001-08:00

The Brewing Network hosts its first annual Winter Brews Festival, January 30, at Linden Street Brewery-Oakland.

http://www.thebrewingnetwork.com/ontap

SFBW10 Brewfest at the Beach Chalet

2009-12-16T14:10:00.001-08:00

Aron Deorsey, Brewmaster at the Beach Chalet Brewery writes;

As you may know SF Beer Week is coming up in February.We were sitting around one day brainstorming on what events to do for SFBW10. At first we planned on doing a beer fest and invite other local breweries. But then one of the owners had a great idea: Instead of inviting other breweries, why not invite local homebrewers to showcase their wares?
The event would feature, but not be limited to:

-Tables of homebrew beer available for tastings

-Homebrewed beer competition

-Homebrewing 101-how-to demonstration

-Some brewing tips and supplies for sale etc.

-BBQ available a la carte

Give him a call if you'd like to get involved!
Aron Deorsey 415.386.8439

Beach Chalet Brewery

1000 Great Hwy

San Francisco, CA 94121

Rick Hendricks

2009-12-14T19:09:00.001-08:00

We lost a Malt, an amazing musician and dear friend Rick Hendricks on December 7, 2009. He died after a year long battle with cancer. The news came during a huge gathering of his fellow musicians and friends at the Amnesia Club in San Francisco all gathered to pay tribute to Rick.

Cheers to you Rick, you will be missed.

edit: Here's a video of Rick and clips from the tribute: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qs7YtsCE_c

2009 California State Homebrew comp results

2009-11-10T09:19:00.001-08:00

Best of Show: Rick Reineman English Barleywine
Anchor Homebrew Club of the Year: Bay Area Mashers
Sierra Nevada Homebrewer of the Year: Mike Mraz

full results are in this .pdf: http://www.nchfinfo.org/StateComp/2009Winners.pdf

mark your calendars for Saturday, November 6th, 2010, for the 32nd
competition. Start brewing now!

Craft Beer Personality Profile

2009-11-02T15:28:00.001-08:00

This group is more likely to spend time thinking about beer rather
than work. They are more open-minded than most people, seek out
interesting and varied experiences and are intellectually curious.
Craft-beer drinkers also skew as having a lower sense of responsibility
—they don't stress about missed deadlines and tend to be happy-go-
lucky about life.

Of course they don't even attempt to pigeon-hole the home-brewers...a
real rogue's gallery ;)

http://adage.com/article?article_id=140106

Tapped out: SF Brewing Company

2009-10-29T22:37:00.001-07:00

SF Brewing Company is closing its doors after 24 years.

Allan Paul has sold the place to Absinthe, but they will not be brewing, so the equipment is for sale. The place will be open as SFBC until they run out of beer or whenever escrow closes.

You can make really good sake says Fred Eckhardt

2009-10-08T22:28:00.000-07:00

The Beer Here blog talks about brewing sake, the other white beer: http://blog.oregonlive.com/thebeerhere/2009/10/fred_eckhardt_decrees_the_seas.html

Guinness i-phone app

2009-09-29T17:44:00.000-07:00

Yes folks, you can get an app for pretending to drink a beer, that's old news, but a much more practical i-phone app has appeared allowing you to:

• “Locate a Pint” – Gives you the name, address, telephone number and directions to over 5,000 pubs that serve Guinness Draught, by using the iPhone’s built in GPS. The App allows you to invite friends from your address book in just 1-touch.

• “Know Your Pint” – Keep your bartender on his toes. This App settles how to pour the perfect pint once and for all. Follow the 6 step tutorial to creating the perfect pint, which includes a pint head ruler to make sure every pint is up to official Guinness standards.

• “DrinkIQ” - Important facts and tips to help you make responsible choices about drinking.

The new Guinness Pub Finder App uses the iPhone built-in GPS locator to find the closest pubs that serve Guinness Draught. Unique 1-touch invites make it easy for your friends to join you! The application costs $1.99 and can be purchased on itunes.

this tip brought to you by the 2beerguys blog: http://www.2beerguys.com/blog/2009/09/27/guiness-iphone-ap/

excuse me, 2 bucks? it's an AD for chrissakes!