First State Brewers Blog

Today marks the beginning of the Chinese Year of the Rooster. My best friend’s wife, who is Chinese, says if you eat noodles for New Year it brings riches. Also, drink a Tsingtao with it.

Jane Hautanen (Jane Doe)

There was a small article in the News Journal today with the headlines, “England’s pubs getting longer hours.” I thougt that was interesting, since we will be spending a few days in York, England at the end of March. A quick search located the following article in the BBC News: Britons ‘fear longer pub opening’. Now, I don’t believe that for a second. I think that article is an invention of the British press trying to push an anti-drinking agenda, if you ask me.

They have these crazy laws over there that close all the pubs at 11:00 p.m. Supporters of the law change say that the early closing causes people to get trashed early and all pour into the streets at the same time. This, it’s said, is causing rioting in the streets. Changing the law to allow pubs to be open 24 hours will eliminate the need to binge and eliminate the mass exodus at any particular time.

However, according to this article, Britons are scared that longer drinking hours will create MORE drunks. I kind of doubt that. Like I said, I doubt this article is accurate. I think most Britons welcome the longer drinking hours.

Unfortunately for us, this law won’t go into affect until next November. I guess that means when we go, we will have to drink heavily before the pubs close!

John Biggins discovered this article in Spiegel Online.

With Brewery Closures, Germany Faces Brauereisterben
Germany and beer have long been synonymous. But that is changing. With Monday’s closing of two large breweries, the crisis facing the industry appears to be deepening. An aging population is partly to blame. But beer, as it turns out, just isn’t cool anymore.

Beer no longer “cool” in Germany? Well, they sometimes serve it warm, but I don’t think that’s what this article is talking about. I find this very hard to believe. Myself and a few other members of the First State Brewers went to Germany 2 years ago and we’re going back again at the end of March. Beer seemed just fine with the folks we visited with 2 years ago. I’ll let you know if beer is still cool after we go back!

I saw this story on Newschannel 8 last night. Someone once said “WAVY” were terrible call letters for a TV station.

Jane Hautanen (Jane Doe)

Little by little I am getting the recipes page done for FSB.com… At the moment it only displays recipes (and even then not everything it will eventually), but I still need to work on the index page that will show them by brewer, style, etc. At least it is a start. I’m having to learn PHP as I code, so the going is a little slower than I’d like… but since I finally managed to get PHP installed on my home webserver, I don’t have to upload to test anymore (I can actually test locally), so things are going a little faster.

I’m utilizing the BeerXML standard as the basis so our members will be able to output from whatever software they are using (BeerSmith, ProMash, etc) and post it on our site.

As a preview, check out THIS LINK to see recipes.

I also significantly reworked the sidebar div section based on some web design advice I got from my cousin, Drew. The design is actually alot more flexible and stable now and will be easier to maintain going forward.

EDIT: The link above has been updated with real recipes… more too come from the past few meetings.

Hi, Scott, et al. Tried to post a response but stupid Blogger wouldn’t let me. The answer is yeah, I still have my brewing equipment, but haven’t brewed in a long time. Then again, I haven’t microwaved a TV dinner or warmed up a piece of pizza in my kitchen in a long time, either.

Jane Hautanen (Jane Doe)

The Book and the Cook

Saturday March 12, 2005
Michael Jackson - Michael Jackson’s Great Beer Guide (Tutored Beer Tasting)
Penn Museum - (215) 898-3900
Museum Catering, 3260 South St. Philadelphia, PA

Come hear international beer expert Michael Jackson, and taste exciting pairings of contemporary microbrews with foods that complement them. This tutored section will be followed by a general tasting of additional microbrews from the US and around the world complemented with food from Museum Catering Company. Guests must be 21 years of age to attend. Three seatings. Advance reservations required.

Tickets at the Annenberg Center after February 1, 2005 $45

Scott,

Here is some info for immediate release to the first State Brewers:

I just received my “Book & the Cook” flyer from U of Penn, announcing the annual beer tasting with Michael Jackson. The 15th annual–gee, we must’ve attended the first annual! Do you want me to scan it and send it to you? It is coming up on March 12. Cost is $45. Do I detect a club function coming up?

Cheers,
Jeff

Walt B. sent me the link to this article in the Wilminton News Journal about a low-interest loan the Dogfish Head Brewery is receiving to upgrade it’s facility.

Low-rate loan to help brewery expand

Well, my bastard child of an abbey dubbel and a hefeweizen (dubbelweizen) is mellowing out a little. I may even come to accept it without making funny faces as I drink it. I’m sitting here drinking my second pint as I type. And I sampled my Oak-aged vanilla porter last night - it is also coming along nicely. Its more oakey than vanilla at this point … but I guess I shouldn’t be suprised. I seriously overused the oak chips. I think I’m going to have to rack to a tertiary w/ no oak and another vanilla bean in a couple weeks here.

I finally got off my slack butt and posted the December meeting minutes and the January Wort’s Hoppening on our site. I also am working on a recipes page…. It’ll probably be a few weeks before the recipes section is up and running, however I am working on it.

I was going to work on a blog page, but Scott was so hot to get one he got this set up Just kidding. Blog wasn’t next on the list… its always been a recipes section.

As Scott posted, the AHA homebrewers conference is in Baltimore this year. We royally suck if we can’t get something together for it. Granted it apparently starts Thursday, June 18 and goes to Saturday… but that still leaves the Friday night and Saturday for us to haul our beer-swilling butts down there. I actually think there are a few other regional clubs we could hook up with and have a great time if we actually developed some… oh… what’s the word I’m looking for… initiative?

The Return of Chazz’s Brew News

I read the other day that Anheuser-Busch was coming out with a new alcoholic seltzer water (their products do not deserve the honorific “beer”) with caffeine in it. Not surprisingly, quoted authorities described it as miserable, but is that a surprise? As long as A-B, Miller, and other producers of alcoholic seltzer water (hereafter i will refer to this group as “Coorsweiser”) are run by people more interested in cornering shelf space than in producing quality beer, we will continue to get concocted trash of this sort in never-ending attempts to corner shelf space. Ice beer crashed and burned, red beer crashed and burned, i hereby predict that caffeine beer will crash and burn. (I must admit that lite beer has been commercially successful, unfortunately this success just encouraged the jerks.)