Category: Blog

Brewers For Brewers Event Raises $12,000 for Japan Disaster Relief

Monday Night, March 28, Brooklyn Brewery hosted the Brewers For Brewers event to benefit disaster relief efforts in Japan. Created by Food Karma Projects, and sponsored by The Good Beer Seal, Beer Sessions Radio (TM) and Chow Ciao Design, the Brewers for Brewers event raised over $12,000 that went into a special account for Kiuchi Brewery (Hitachino) to distribute in their hard hit community.

The beer industry came out in droves to support the humanitarian effort, lending their talents, products, services, and good will to help. Check out the Brooklyn Brewery blog to read more about the event and see pictures of this  great evening. Thanks to all of the participating  brewers, bars, restaurants, and organizations that helped to make  this fundraiser a success.

Brewers for Brewers: Japan Disaster Relief Benefit

On March 28 from 7:00 -10:00 PM at Brooklyn Brewery, 6 New York breweries will join forces to help benefit disaster relief for Japan.

Brooklyn Brewery, Heartland, Kelso, Sixpoint Craft Ales, Empire, Lagunitas, NY State Brewer’s Association, The Good Beer Seal and Beer Sessions Radio (TM) will team up with food from Meat Hook, Jimmy’s No. 43, Waterfront Ale House and local Japanese restaurants to provide an evening of food and beer at Brooklyn Brewery’s great event space. All proceeds will go to a special direct account to Kiuchi Brewery (Hitachino) distribute humanitarian aid  locally.

There are only 300 tickets available at $50 per person. Tickets can be purchased HERE.

To read the letter  from Mr. Kiuchi, click HERE.

Join us to support our friends in Japan.

Helping Japan

Much like everyone else in the world, people in the beer industry have been watching the events in Japan with great dismay. Their current struggle is unimaginable and many of us are searching for ways to help. Jimmy Carbone, founding member of the Good Beer Seal and proprietor of Jimmy’s No. 43 has been in contact with Toshiyuki Kiuchi of Kiuchi (Hitachino). After their email exchange, Jimmy sent this message to The Good Beer Seal:

Beer Friends,

With the tragic Tsunami in Japan, word got back to NYC very quickly that one of our most beloved breweries, Kiuchi (Hitachino) was in the most damaged area of Japan, Ibaraki Prefecture. While spared major damage, their production has stopped and  they have begun to bottle their water supply for survivors. Rather than donate money through a relief agancy, we plan to send money directly according to Mr. Kiuchi’s instructions. He says a friends’ brewery was completely destroyed and would be a good beneficiary of any money raised.

This weekend Blind Tiger Ale House will be holding a silent auction to benefit survivors in Japan. “Since we have friends on the ground in Japan, we figure they will know where the money is most needed.” Dave Brodrick of Blind Tiger said of this week’s fundraising efforts.

We are plannning a fundraiser for the last week March. We will keep you posted.


Museum of Food and Drink

Our friends at Heritage Radio Network are getting behind the creation of the Museum of Food and Drink, an idea whose time has come! The Musuem of Food and Drink will be a place to educate visitors about the production, culture, commerce, and science of food. You can read more about the proposed museum in Edible Magazine. You can help out by joining the kickstarting fundraiser at Del Posto on March 27. Click HERE for fundraiser details.

White Birch Brewing Interview

This past week, Beer Sessions Radio (TM) was happy to welcome Bill Herlicka from New Hampshire’s White Birch Brewing into the studio. The gang talked about “Belgian-Inspired” beers, bottle conditioning and spontaneous fermentation. As with many of our guests, 45 minutes was just the tip of the iceberg! Bill sat down for a brief interview with the Good Beer Seal:


What advice would you have for  those considering home brewing for the first time?

1.Don’t try it assuming you’ll save money. If you value your time for anything it’s much cheaper to buy beer at the store. 2.You’ll be drinking 5 gallons of your brew.  Don’t pick an “easy” style you like thinking it’ll be easier to learn with. 3. Brew the same beer at least twice. Practice makes perfect and if you make a great batch twice you should be able to make anything.  Too often people make a ton of different style beers to start and find the beer isn’t coming out right and they’re not sure why. Making the same beer twice lets you work on technique and ensure you know why your beer is coming out a certain way.

What have been the biggest challenges in terms of getting your brewery off the ground?

Balancing all of the demands.  Time, money, work, personal life. As a small shop I wear a lot of hats. As such the focus has been on beer first and then everything else.  For example the first version of my website was made using Frontpage2000.  I owned the software and it was easy.  Many of my tech friends teased me about how archaic my website was.

Managing growth: The perception of beer is that it’s made in huge breweries. Starting as small as I have there’s an educational step for my customers.  The batches are small because we’re small and sometimes we run out of beer.  I’ve also had a few people tell me I should contract brew. That way I could grow my company faster and take advantage of the marketplace. There are two major problems with that strategy in my book. First is that I like bottled conditioned beer and you don’t find that in the contract marketplace. Second, I would worry that my company’s future is contingent upon someone else’s brewery. What if conditions change?  What if the contract shop doesn’t want to make beer in the time consuming manner I do?  What if everything works and we’re stuck because there is no extra capacity for growth? At the expense of rapid growth I’m much happier controlling the process and keeping everything here in Hooksett.

Could you tell me a bit more about your apprentice brewing program? How does one become an apprentice with you? What can your apprentices expect to learn while working with you?

The apprentice program is a six month program, one day per week. You work the full schedule, bottling, milling, brewing, cleaning. The goal is that once you complete you’ll have had a rounded experience and be ready to move forward with your own business or get a job in the industry. My next openings are for July. The day is a full day, from 9 to 5 or whenever the work is completed. [Apprentices have] opportunities to participate in beer events as a White Birch team member – festivals, tastings, etc.[as well as] he opportunity to make a test batch of your own recipe, recieve critical feedback and release a commercial version of your beer

To get in I schedule an interview to fill an upcoming opening and we discuss the applicant’s goals, favorite and least favorite things about beer and their goals for the future.  If I think thing match between what we can offer, what the applicant is looking for and the applicant will work well with the team then they’re in.

Are there any events or new releases upcoming that you would like our listeners to know about?

In March we’re releasing our new Tavern Ale which is a smoked imperial brown ale designed by our new Head Brewer David Kilgour.  We’ll be doing some tastings and a couple of restaurant events.  Full details will be on our website. On April 12th from 6-8 we’ll be doing an open house to celebrate our next apprentice’s graduation.  Adam Romanow is graduating and he’ll be pouring is black IPA called Nyx.  It’s free to come in and have a sample and tour.


Thanks, Bill!

Time Out New York: The Ultimate Beer Guide

Time Out New York recently released its Ultimate Beer Guide Issue covering beer bars, beer stores, home brewing, beer trends and, of course, Time Out’s collaboration with Sixpoint Craft Ales for the limited Time Out for Porter which is only available at 11 NYC bars. Guess how many are Good Beer Seal bars?

Speaking of Good Beer Seal bars, check out the many listings in this issue that feature Good Beer Seal members! We are proud of our member bars for setting the standard for good beer in New York City.

What is I Taste Your Beer?

On February 1 ITasteYourBeer.com celebrated its official launch and its creator, Hagan Blount, is now poised to do exactly as his site promises. That’s right, he’ll taste your beer. This is no ordinary beer site. Blount endeavors to bring an element of impartiality to his posts. It’s just the facts ma’am.

Hagan sat down to answer a few questions for The Good Beer Seal about his new site.

What was the impetus for I Taste Your Beer?

In 2008, I was laid off.  I went to Costa Rica for what I said was research to start a business, but it turned out to be a motorcycle tour of the entirety of Central America (I don’t really like Costa Rica that much – it’s too Americanized).  When I was there, I decided that what I really wanted to do was drink great beer and talk about it and see if I could get paid to do it.  I arrived back in America and was stumped.  There were so many beer blogs doing a beer a day, I didn’t know what I could do to define myself from the pack.  I ended up starting a food blog instead, learning a lot about photography, videography, and online marketing.  After doing that for a year, I realized that there is no one doing beer porn.  Food porn is commonplace, but beer porn… there is no one truly capturing the beauty and movement of beer out there online every day.  It was then that I decided I could create beer porn and get paid for it by marketing craft beer.

How does I Taste Your Beer Work?

Brewers sponsor days where I give people the facts about their beer.  It’s not a review or recommendation, It’s just the beer information.  Each day, a new beer is profiled.  Also, bars pay me to shoot in their locations and talk about beer – it’s a great way to get inexpensive, exclusive content for a beer bar.  Events can also sponsor days – I am emceeing Get Real NY for the weekend and Ustreaming interviews live.  I’ll be doing the same at the Craft Brewers Conference the week after Get Real. Basically, when you start thinking of promoting a beer, beer bar, or beer-related product or event, I Taste Your Beer gets the word out.

What can your readers expect from your site?

Information on beer presented with a level of quality, care, and attention to detail that you won’t see anywhere else in beer online.

Your site makes an effort not to review the beers, but present the beers as they are with an impartial view. As a beer fan, do you find that balance difficult to achieve?

Most of the promotions are impartial, and I want this to be the case because I want people to know they can trust the information about the beer, but sometimes I just can’t do it.  I just did an Allagash White post.  I’ve been drinking this beer since I was 16.  I just couldn’t possibly be impartial there – I love this beer.  Sometimes I taste a beer for the first time on camera and my face will light up because I like the flavor.  What am I going to do?  I’m pumped to be tasting beer for a living!

Since you’ve launched this project, have you been introduced to any beers you have not had the opportunity/inclination to taste before?

It’s only been a week or so but I’m a huge fan of  Weihenstephan beers.  I can say whatever I want in interviews, so Weihenstephan rocks.  Everything I’ve had of theirs is amazing.  Go buy Weihenstephan.  I love it and you should too. Weihenstephan, Weihenstephan, Weihenstephan!

Are there any upcoming events that you’d like our readers to know about?

Get Real NY on March 19th and 20th!  There will be over 100 cask beers tapped, and I’ll be there interviewing all the beer-erati, brewers, bar owners, and beer enthusiasts for each of the days of the festivals.  I don’t even know if tickets are still available, but if they are, you’ll get to try a lot of beers you’ll never get to try again.  This alone should encourage you to get yourself a ticket.  It’s going to be a ton of fun!





Beer Sessions Radio (TM) 50th Episode Party and New Beer Nation Video Released

Last night at d.b.a in Brooklyn, Beer Sessions Radio (TM) celebrated its 50th episode by throwing a big party. The 50th Episode itself aired live earlier in the evening and featured a roster of venerated guests; Robert Hodson (Union Beer Distributors) Joe Lipa (Merchant du Vin), Dave Brodrick (Blind Tiger Ale House), Shaun Hill (Hill Farmstead Brewing) and James Beard Award winning writer/editor and savvy woman-about-town, Rachel Wharton. Rachel posted a little something about last night on Edible Manhattan’s website.

One of the many highlights of the evening was a premiere showing of Beer Nation’s latest episode about Beer Sessions Radio (TM). The video was released on Beer Nation’s website just this morning and we’re happy to hear their craft beer adventures are now available on iTunes. We’ve become great fans of this entertaining duo, Seth Wright and Mike Winn, who make whimsical and informative programs about the craft beer revolution. Check out the Beer Sessions Radio (TM) episode below, then get hooked and watch more at BeerNationShow.com

Terroir in Beer


Hops

While doing research for a recent episode of Beer Sessions Radio (TM), an article on Diary of a Hop Head about the concept of terroir as it applies to beer came to our attention.


For the uninitiated, terroir is a term usually applied to wine and refers to the specific characteristics of the final product that has everything to do with the region from which it came. Everything from climate, to soil, to water, has an effect on the wine. Since beer is often produced with yeast strains from one place, hops from another, and grains from yet another, many would argue that few (American) beers would have characteristics that are specific to the region of production.

Michael Ironside (the voice behind of Diary of a Hop Head) makes a compelling argument about regional production, water quality, malt, hops and the specifics of the brewing environment all lending themselves to terroir in beer. I won’t spoil it for you. You should read it for yourself.

Mr. Ironside is currently a resident of Paris, France and he is enjoying access to small production French beers and his proximity to Belgium. As a former employee of the Scottish brewer BrewDog, he has spent the last year spreading the word of craft beer (mainly UK and European) through his writing and personal contacts.