And that's why I love craft beer.

This past week was relatively uneventful for me in the realm of beer, so I am going to share a story with you. This story is about events currently unfolding in the craft beer world. This story is just one example of how the community of craft beer is a strong one, and will support their fellow brewers and craft beer fans at a moments notice.

There is a brewery in Minnesota called Surly Brewing Company. You may have heard of it, or probably have not. They've been in business for 5 years now, and only distribute in Minnesota and New York. The brewery was started by Omar Ansari in a warehouse in the industrial district of Brooklyn Center, Minnesota. Interestingly enough, just to become a brewery, they already had to change a law on the books. As told in their "History" page on their website, this doesn't get much mention, so it must've been a very minor hurdle. This was only a hurdle in their city, since they share Minnesota with other breweries such as August Schell, Summit, Town Hall, Fitger's, and Flat Earth, to name a few.

Since starting five years ago, Surly has rapidly grown in popularity. Most of their beers can be found in the higher ranks on RateBeer and Beer Advocate. Of course, when someone brews great beer, word gets out, and more people want to try this "great beer." Surly started distributing to New York last year, after being open for only 5 years, and their business in 2010 increased by 32% over 2009. They must be doing something right.

Living in Colorado, the "Napa Valley of Beer," it's easy for me to forget that not every state has as beer and brewery-friendly laws as we do. It appears to be easy for breweries to cross the lines from only selling pints and growlers at the brewery to distributing kegs to local bars and restaurants to selling their beer in liquor stores and back again. I'm not claiming to be familiar with the nuances of Colorado or Denver liquor and beer laws, but the observation stands that it appears relatively easy. Minnesota doesn't have it quite so easy.

Currently, the Minnesota laws state that breweries that produce under 3,500 barrels a year are classified as "brewpubs," and can sell beer on-site to customers, but not distribute to liquor stores. Breweries over 3,500 barrels can no longer distribute their beer on-site. I'm sure that people can still come visit the breweries, take their tours, and talk about beer. They just can't have a pint there afterward. No growlers, bottles, or cans either.

Not to be judgmental, but I can't imagine how much of a bummer that must be. Imagine going to a popular brewery, such as Odell's, Oskar Blues, Avery, Great Divide, Bristol, or a wealth of other breweries whose production is above 3,500 barrels a year. Imagine meeting friends and strangers alike there, comforted knowing that everyone has been drawn there to share the art and enjoyment of craft beer. Imagine taking the brewery tour, talking with the employees, talking with the brewers, smell all of the smells that come along with beer being created. Imagine, then, that you have to leave, since you can't have a glass of their freshly created beer while visiting the brewery. That, to me, is unfair. Part of the art and culture of craft beer is being able to share it with people, being able to share it with everyone who wants to come see your brewery, and everyone that wants to buy it at their local liquor store and share it with their friends and family at home. Imagine going to an art show where all you can see it paint, paintbrushes, and canvases, and to see the finished art you have to go to your local art store. Imagine going to a restaurant, but you can only watch the chefs make food, and to buy it you have to go to the grocery store.

This "bummer" is where Surly is right now. Because of their growth, and the demand for their beer, Omar has created a vision for Surly Brewing Company. This vision is a twenty million dollar, 60,000 square foot brewery, restaurant, bar, beer garden, and event center, which will draw beer fans and tourists alike to the destination. The bummer: the vision, as it currently stands, is illegal in Minnesota. So, naturally, Surly has taken to the streets, calling out to their fans to help change the law so that they can follow through with their dream. Their call to action appears to be working, with the help of friends and allies.

This is what Surly's new facility will look like

There is a liquor store in St. Louis Park, Minnesota. Not just any liquor store, a beer store. They carry only beer. The name of this store is The Four Firkins (how fitting, right?), and they are one-of-a-kind in Minnesota, and I'm having a hard time thinking of any similar place in the country. The Four Firkins is like every craft-beer-lover's dream. They have nothing but shelves and shelves of craft beer. Not only do they have an enormous selection of really really good beer, but they also share it. They have weekly beer tastings, at the very least, which will leave in their wake an impressive display of empty bottles. Often times, the owner, Jason Alvey, will pop open a bottle of beer simply because a customer is curious about it and wants to taste it before they buy it. Was I wrong about "every craft-beer-lover's deam?" I didn't think so. Oh, I can't forget to mention that they're also trying to get a Minnesota law changed, so that they can sell Four Firkins-branded apparel at their store. Seems like craft beer in Minnesota is having quite a battle these days.

Being that Surly Brewing Company and The Four Firkins (henceforth known as "the Firk" because I'm tired of typing their full name) reside in the same state, it's only natural for them to be battle brethren. This past Friday, the Firk held an event to get signatures in support of amending the law in favor of Surly. They were offering tastes of Surly brew as an incentive, and it worked. They rounded up 300+ signatures, and most of the main cast of Surly Brewing Company dropped by to support the event as well. What a party that must've been, with all of that supportive energy in the air. I can only imagine how proud both Jason Alvey and the Surly brew crew must've been to see all of those fans of craft beer out to support their cause.

That momentum has had an effect; a bill has been created for Surly. This bill is now being lobbied, and even stands a chance at becoming a law. That would be a great and proud moment for not just Omar and his crew at Surly, but for Jason Alvey at the Firk, and all of the craft beer community in Minnesota. Honestly, I'd be proud too, and I'm sure that Surly has friends around the country that would be very happy for them. That's what I love about the craft beer community; it's not about who's beer is better (okay, at GABF it is), but it's about sharing the love for the art that is craft beer with everyone else who is even remotely interested in it. It's about supporting everyone else who is pursuing their passion in creating wonderful beer to share with everyone else. It's about sitting down at a dinner party full of wine drinkers and sharing a beer with them that makes them say "Wow!" It's about soaking up the vibrant, jovial environment of camaraderie at your local tap house, brewpub, or brewery tap room. It's about finding that crazy rare beer and sharing it with a few of your closest beer buddies. It's about watching the process of beer being created, from making a stew from precious malted grains to the bewildering microbiological spectacle that is fermentation to adding crazy ingredients like pink peppercorns and chili peppers, and finding inspiration in every minute of it.

And that's why I love craft beer.

On the subject of coveted beer...

Since I started blogging a couple weeks ago, I've been keeping notes on what I intend to write on the next week's Tewsday Brewsday post. This week, I've kept a bunch of notes, but I haven't been able to come up with a cohesive theme, a central idea to tie them all together. The thoughts and notes are all there, just very nebulous; very scattered and disorganized.

Normally I write my post on Monday night, then proofread and publish it on Tuesday. At least, for the entirety of my past 2 (two) blog posts, that's been my "system" that has "served me well." However, this week has been a little different, what with Valentine's Day, my brother's 21st birthday, and my 1-year anniversary with my beautiful girlfriend Robin going on. Monday rolled around, but I didn't get anything typed, and I decided I was going to wait until today, Tuesday, to write my post. Today came and I couldn't get any thoughts to stick, so I decided to wait for inspiration to strike me.

I am currently beginning a new adventure. No, not blogging. No, not homebrewing. No, not more beer. Well, okay, almost any "adventure" I have these days has to do with beer. So nevermind on that last one. My new adventure is this: I am currently embarking on the slow, but eventual, journey of gaining employment at a local craft brewery. This journey is certainly going to be a time commitment on my part. Of all the breweries that I've been able to talk to about how their employees get their jobs, most of them have said that "spending time in the taproom getting to know the employees" is key. Thus, my slow journey. The speed at which I can travel down this path is carefully balanced by a couple factors: 1. The amount of time, money, and beer that I can afford to expend and intake, respectively, balanced by 2. The fine balance between being there frequently enough that I can get to know the people that work at the brewery in a natural, organic manner, and being there too much and just being "that guy who's always at the tap room."

One such brewery of interest is Great Divide Brewing Company. With a current capacity of somewhere between 25,000 and 30,000bbl, distributing to 28 states as well as several different countries, and being one of the most decorated breweries in the country (16 GABF and 4 world cup medals), they are a prime target as they are growing to meet demand for their beers, which requires more helping hands as time goes on. Hopefully I can eventually be some of that help.

My very first visit to Great Divide's tap room was this past Saturday, after a morning at the Denver Art Musem followed by lunch at Pints Pub. Pints Pub is a very convincing British-style restaurant, complete with a big red phone booth out front to mark its location. The two biggest draws to this pub (other than the great food) are that it has the largest selection of single-malt scotch whiskey this side of Britain, and that it brews authentic British-style ales, including two live ales - cask-fermented and cask-conditioned. I have fallen in love with their Lancer IPA cask ale. The smooth carbonation, the entirely different body of flavor brought out by the cask conditioning, combined with the fact that it's just a very well-made British IPA make for a delicious pint. Robin didn't care for it much, the cask flavors weren't very much to her liking.

After finishing lunch, we headed out to Great Divide, which is located at the north end of lower downtown Denver (LoDo as it's called), in a converted dairy factory. This made for an easy conversion to a brewery, as all of the necessary plumbing and electrical was mostly present when they moved in to the building in 1994. The tap room itself is surprisingly cozy, with a good sized bar and a couple tables being all they have room for. They have eight of their beers on tap, and a refrigerator with most of the rest of what's not on tap. You can get a glass of almost anything that they brew. The exception, of course, is seasonals that are currently exhausted, and the rare specialty such as Barrel-Aged Yeti, Hibernation, or Old Ruffian.

Being that we went there on a Saturday, the tap room was unsurprisingly packed. Locals and out-of-towners alike crowded into the tap room and patio, patiently waiting for their turn to take the tour of the brewery or get their hands on a glass of Great Divide beer. We patiently waited our turn, so that I could fulfill my mission: I was attending a dinner party for my brother's 21st birthday later that evening, comprised of mostly wine-lovers, and I wanted to bring beer to share with convert them. We got the attention of a bartender, and asked "What beer goes with steak?" He replied "Yeti or Claymore." Yeti is their Imperial Stout, rich with flavors of chocolate, roasted barley, and coffee; Claymore is their scotch ale, dry-hopped a little bit to give the big malty body a nice balancing bite. I decided to go with Claymore. After getting my growler filled with delicious Scotch ale for a scant $10, then subsequently taking a tour of the brewery, Robin and I departed.

I arrived at the dinner party a little bit early, which gave me time to catch up with friends and family. We chatted about the finer points of "which beverages to drink when you want something good," and "which to drink when you just want to drink," balanced with discussions of global politics and finances. A good balance, I'd say. When the time came to gather 'round the table and partake of a steak feast, it also meant the time had come to decide what beverage we'd be having to compliment the meal. Since I had announced that I brought a beer to pair with the steak dinner, everyone who was drinking opted for a measure of Claymore, rather than red wine.

As the group took their first few bites, I smugly anticipated the response to the ale paired with the steak. Slowly, but surely, people took a couple bites of their meal, then took a quaff of the dark caramel-colored Scotch ale in their glasses. As not just one, but all of them said, "Wow, this beer is really good," I politely smiled and replied, "I'm glad that you like it, and I'm glad that I could share it with you." Of course, I was thinking to myself, "It's about time you realized there's more to beer than the painfully bland representatives in green glass bottles." The rest of the night was filled with raucous, jovial celebrations for my brother's 21st birthday.

Yesterday was my inaugural "business" visit to Great Divide on my slow but steady mission of employment. I spent a couple hours at the tap room and had a few great conversations over a couple great beers. I shared my story of success in sharing the growler of Claymore with the bartender, who replied "That's the kind of story I like to hear. The one where people get converted." I talked to a couple visitors from the east coast about the differences in beers we can get here vs beers they can get there, and which ones of our respective opposite categories we would love to see in our respective states. I also talked to a gentleman from California about Russian River's brewery, Pliny the Younger, and homebrewing.
To elaborate, Pliny the Younger is the "big brother" of Pliny the Elder. Both are brewed by Russian River in California. Pliny the Elder is a double IPA, which is ranked as the #8 beer in the world, according to ratebeer.com and it is available throughout Russian River's distribution network. Pliny the Younger is a "triple IPA", is only available in select markets, and rarely at that, and is ranked #3 in the world. If that doesn't speak to just how good Pliny the Younger should be*, then I don't know what does. Falling Rock Tap House should be getting two 5-gallon kegs of it in the near future, to be tapped about a week apart. The last time they had two kegs, the first ran out in 23 minutes, and the second in only 12. I can only assume the beer is that good.

*Disclaimer: I have not actually been lucky enough to taste the delicious lupuline nectar that is Pliny the Younger


Needless to say, after a tasty Hades Belgian Golden Ale and a Belgica Belgian-style India Pale Ale, as well as several great beer-centric conversations, inspiration had struck, and another entry into the tales of Tewsday Brewsday has been crafted.

Until next week, cheers! Craft beer on, and craft beer often!

On a Sour Note...

I started homebrewing at the end of December 2010. The first beer I brewed was a porter, a kit I bought from my local home brew supply store. It was my maiden voyage into the Sea of Brew, the first of many yet to come. Potentially similar to anybody who has tried their hand at home brewing, I was sure that I knew what was coming through the whole process, from boiling the wort to racking to secondary to bottling. At least, I knew what I had read online in forums, and the first chapter or two of The Complete Joy of Homebrewing (which I still need to finish reading). Of course, the actual process went a little less smoothly than anticipated. All in all, I felt like I pulled off the whole brewing process from boiling to bottling pretty smoothly, other than forgetting to take an original gravity reading, having to restart the siphon a half dozen times when I racked it to secondary, having no idea what temperature it was fermenting at other than "the temperature my apartment's at," and forgetting to boil my priming sugar until I had fully prepared everything else for bottling. With the help of my girlfriend Robin, who's excellent assistance will be recruited for future bottling operations, it even felt like bottling the beer - which I would argue is the most complicated step of the whole brewing process - went smoothly. 2 cases of 22oz bottles later, my first beer was bottled and set aside, and I would be tasting the first bottle in 2 weeks to check how the carbonation process and conditioning were progressing.

Fast forward two weeks. I had been to Left Hand and Pumphouse the weekend before, and had sent an email to Avery to get more information about what had happened at the release of Margarete. The email I received back impressed me, with honesty, clarity, and insight into the business end of brewing that I had not previously encountered or considered. I wanted to share this email with all of you, so here it is, reprinted with permission of the author:

Hi Jake,

C.V. Howe here, Marketing Director for Avery Brewing Company. 

Jake, I'm really sorry to hear that the release last Friday left a bad taste in your mouth.  We make these beers because A. we are REALLY passionate about beer (just as you are, I assume) and B. because they are fun and we love throwing parties to celebrate them with our biggest fans!!!  It pains me to get emails like yours, since we try our best to get as much great beer as we can into the hands of those that really appreciate it!

I'm not sure if you've been to any of our prior Barrel-Aged Series releases.  If you have, you'll know that we've always had a 6 bottle limit on these beers.  This system was very effective for us for releases 1-5, and unfortunately a good amount of folks walked away empty handed last Friday at Margarete.  Obviously the huge demand for Margarete was not anticipated.  To put things in perspective, we sold a total of 54 cases of Quinquepartite, No.5 during the release event in September.  That was across the course of 4 hours (6PM-10PM), with folks trickling in all evening after the initial rush at 6PM.  59 cases of Margarete sold in 1.5 hours.    Why the huge increase in demand?  Your guess is as good as mine.  The marketing and advertising for all 6 BAS releases has been virtually identical. 

As the person in charge of the ticket giving and sales operation last Friday, I can promise you that the 6 bottle limit per customer was strictly adhered to.  Every person who made it in the door was given 6 tickets, and if they only had 5 when they got to the front of the line, they only bought 5 bottles.  Several customers did come in groups, or in couples, and on a few occasions we did give people a case box to more easily carry their six packs out among themselves and their friends. I can see how that might have sent the wrong message to those standing out in the cold.  

In retrospect, do we wish that we had decided to do a 2 bottle or 3 bottle limit?  Yes.  Did past experience with these releases leading up to Margarete suggest a 3 bottle limit? Certainly not.  Can you trust us to take the necessary steps to ensure a more equitable distribution of the beer at the release of Dihos Dactylion on 2/25?  Absolutely.

When it comes down to it, these beers have a real element of scarcity to them (have you seen our cellar? It's not real big.  And smaller still when you consider that a good percentage of the beer goes down the drain because it doesn't meet our standards.)  Going forward, we plan to make sure that those who make the biggest effort will get the best odds of walking away with beer.   Bottom line, you're gonna have to make an effort (showing up two hours after the release starts isn't likely to hack it), but if you make the effort and follow our instructions leading up to the release you will have a much better experience.      

Look for our new plan in the upcoming edition of The Monthly Mash and on our website, http://www.averybrewing.com/ in a few days time.  

Cheers, and I hope to see you and your friends at Dihos!!!!

C.V. Howe 

 As mentioned, I was humbled by the honesty of C.V. However, being the beer geek that I am, I was instantly intrigued by the mention of a beer that I had not yet heard of, "Dihos Dactylion." A quick Google search gave me just a teaser of information, in the form of a label and a quick description.

The text on the label reads:

"No. 7. Mumbles. Squints. Tie-dye V-necks. Popped collars. Moccasins. Marlin Shorts. Vermont. Was a butcher, then a brewer, now a quitter. We'll miss you, man!

BREWED WITH ROCKY MOUNTAIN WATER, MALTED BARLEY, IMPORTED SPECIALTY BELGIAN MALTED BARLEY, HOPS, BRETTANOMYCES YEAST, SACCHAROMYCES YEAST, LACTOBACILLUS, AND PEDIOCOCCUS."

The obvious details: 10.25% ABV, Barrel-aged in Cabernet Sauvignon barrels, and sour. Now for the name of the beer, "Dihos Dactylion." 

"Dactylion" translates into "The tip of the middle finger." 

"Dihos," however, does not directly translate. There is a Greek word, "dichos," which means "without." I would surmise that this is what they intended, as this would make the title of the beer "Without the tip of the middle finger."
[Update: from <http://en.allexperts.com/q/Greek-2004/proper-grammar-1.htm> :
"...there's a similar expression in Greek: horis metania.'horis'...means without and 'metania'...means regret. It could also be as: dihos metanoia.'dihos'... also means without."]
Now to tie it all together. The description hints at someone moving on, perhaps leaving Avery Brewing Company. Sleuthing Avery's website, I navigated to the Staff page to look for clues. Reading several staff members' blurbs, I came across one that was a perfect match, Jeff Rizzo:

“The second of two Vermonters on the Avery staff, Fred…moved to Boulder shortly after [graduating Keene State College in 2006]. Since October of ’06 Fred has served Avery in all aspects of brewing, proving himself particularly adept at learning the art and science of crafting beer. Outside of the brewery you are apt to find Fred killing it in tye-die V-necks, original Frogskins, his favorite pair of moccasins as well as the occasional button down Polo…”

Mystery solved. Dihos Dactylion is a "farewell beer" to a crew member of Avery, and they're parting with friendship and with fond memories, "without the tip of the middle finger." It is ironic, then, that this will probably be a particularly sour beer.

[UPDATE: from a Facebook post by Avery:
"Dihos Dactylion, our newest release in the barrel-aged series. Five saison yeast blend for primary ferment, secondary with house Brett then soured in Plumpjack wine barres for 18 months."]
Now that I had cracked the code of the next Barrel-Aged beer from Avery, it was time to check on the progress of my own beer. I pulled the bottle of my porter out of the refrigerator, poured it into a glass, and...

It was sour.

The lactic acid flavor was a sure sign that my inaugural batch of homebrew had been contaminated, later to be determined that it was my bottling process. As I pondered this unexpectedly sour beer in my glass, the irony struck me. In two weeks' time, I would be waiting in line to purchase a beer that showcased the very flavor that indicated I had ruined my first batch of homebrew.

Cheers! See you next week!

Newton's 3rd Law of Beer

As Sir Isaac Newton states in his 3rd Law of Motion, "for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction." Little did I know that this would become the theme for the evening this past Friday.
For the past few months, I had been eagerly anticipating Avery Brewing Company's release of the 6th beer in their small batch Barrel-Aged Series, Margarete. Avery Margarete is a stout, brewed with sour cherries, and aged in bourbon barrels, clocking in at a hefty 15.43% abv. They were scheduled to release just 59 cases of the beer at 6PM on Friday, January 28th, at the brewery. Sounds pretty awesome, no? Well, that's what I was expecting. I had attended the release of the 4th in the series, QuinQuePartite, and was operating based on my experiences there. I thought that if we made it to the brewery by 8, I would be able to get my hands on two bottles of Margarete. So, as I was getting ready to leave my apartment at 7, I got a text from my friend Cedric that sent my heart into the pit of my stomach:

"They just ran out..."

More than a little concerned, I gave him a ring. "Yeah, they just ran out. They even pulled out extra cases... I guess some people were lined up at 4:30 yesterday. I saw people walking out with cases full of it though, and asked the guy selling them if there was a bottle limit, and he said no..." Aaaand no Margarete for me. He, his wife, and his dad were meeting my girlfriend and I at Avery to celebrate his dad's birthday. I suggested that if he wanted us to meet them somewhere less crowded, I'd be all for it. [Edit: I called Avery the following Sunday, they said that there was a 6-bottle per person limit for the beer] On our way up, Cedric notified us to meet him at Lefthand Brewing. We arrived 30 minutes before last call, and my eyes were greeted with several treats on the tap list, including Fade to Black no. 2, Wake Up Dead Imperial Stout, Wake Up Dead on nitro, and oak barrel aged Wake Up Dead.

After finding our friends, and finding out that Cedric and his dad were drinking Wake Up Dead on nitro, I knew what I had to do. I walked up to the bar and ordered the oak barrel aged variety of Wake Up Dead. After warming up to proper drinking temperature, it was delicious. It had great oaky, vanilla tones over a good, slightly roasty, chocolate base.  As we sat and drank our beer, I talked with Cedric's dad about homebrewing.

Cedric's dad, John, had an "issue" with his latest batch of beer. He brewed an Imperial Brown Ale, which showed signs of promise in early bottling. As time went on, a maple flavor made its presence known, but John hadn't used maple in the brewing process. When I opened one of the bottles I had, I noticed a faint ring of residue at the waterline on the neck. The carbonation was very lively, but the beer wasn't overly foamy, and didn't foam up when I opened it. Talking to John, he thought he might have narrowed down the cause. Currently, he homebrews in "sections." He only has a 3-gallon carboy and a 6 gallon bottling bucket. He brews half a batch, then when it's done in the primary, puts it in the bottling bucket. Then he brews another half batch, and does the same. This adds up to a full 5-gallon batch. However, he uses a full pitch of yeast for each half batch. usually when he bottles, he marks the bottles that come in at the end, so that he can keep track of where the bottles with the most trub are. With his Imperial Brown, he didn't mark the bottles, so he doesn't know which bottles have more sediment than the others. He supposes that I got a couple of the bottles that have the most sediment, and that I just hold em tight for a while, and hopefully they'll turn into a pretty darn tasty brew in a few months. I've got my fingers crossed, I guess we'll see!

Like I said, we arrived at Lefthand 30 minutes before they closed, and by the time this conversation - and my beer - were finished, it was time to move on. We were mulling over options, when, with much vigor and fortitude, John proclaimed, "Let's go to the Pumphouse!" It had been decided, and we departed. We showed up at Pumphouse (a popular and long-running Longmont brewpub and restaurant) 30 minutes before the restaurant side closed. At least it can be said that we were consistent.

The draft list held promise; all of the standards, plus a few gems. We got a table, ordered some appetizers, and I started out with their Imperial Stout. Tasty, albeit standard, but definitely drinkable. Cedric got the Red Alert (American Amber), Cedric's wife Becky got a delicious berry mead from Redstone Meadery, and John got their 4-Alarm Copper Ale. I ordered a taste of one of their special brews, "Sour Barrel-Aged Springtime Saison." This small taste, it came to pass, deserved much deliberation. The aroma I picked up was of old, earthy, dry wood. Cedric noted blueberry, with a subtle hint of strawberry. Upon tasting, there was a delicious flash of tartness, similar to what you might find in a fresh, wild raspberry. This was followed by flavors of blueberry, currant, strawberry, and clove, or as John put it, "graham cracker."

After taking a taste of the beer, John posed a question: "Grapes are to wine as what is to beer?"
"Hops?"
"Malt?"
"Yeast?"
Yes, yeast. He concluded that, because yeast is responsible for an amazing amount of flavor in beer, it could be said that the varieties of yeast are to beer as the varieties of grapes are to wine. Now, this certainly warrants some discussion. For many styles, such as hefeweizen, pilsener, lager, certainly belgian ales, and wild fermented styles such as lambics, the yeast carries as much weight, if not more, than the rest of the ingredients. I would suggest the same could apply to non-blended varieties of wine such as cabernet sauvignon, syrah, riesling, chardonnay, etc. I'll leave the rest of the discussion up to those who want to comment.

Not only is yeast an extremely important factor in the overall flavor of a beer, it's also one of a brewer's best tools for consistency. It's fairly easy to acquire the same hops, grains, and other ingredients, and on a large scale, breweries usually start taking control of their water chemistry too. With yeast, they have to make sure to keep the same culture and use it on every batch of the same beer. That's where the consistency comes in. If they were to switch the yeast for whatever reason, there would be a noticeable shift in the flavor of the beer, which could potentially be bad for business. Amazing how much effect those little yeastie beasties have on beer, eh?

The consistency with which they brew some of their beers can also be what affords them the ability to explore new styles and recipes, too. That's the glory of one-off and special-release beers. There's no expectation of consistency, since the beer is probably only going to be brewed once, so the brewers can really go all out and explore different realms of style than they normally do. Perhaps trying a wild-fermented or sour ale, perhaps a crazy stout brewed with sour cherries and aged in bourbon barrels, which nobody will get to try... Alas, Newton's 3rd Law of Beer had been satisfied. I missed out on Margarete, but I got to taste not only a very well done oak aged imperial stout at Lefthand, but a true gem of a sour at Pumphouse Brewery in their Sour Barrel-Aged Springtime Saison.

Thanks for reading, and until next time, cheers!