First State Brewers Blog

Diageo to sell 50% of Dublin’s Guinness brewery
Diageo, the world’s largest producer of alcoholic drinks, today admitted it will sell half of Guinness’ historic home in Dublin and cut 250 jobs as part of a £520 million investment plan.

The company said it will continue to brew the Irish stout at St James’s Gate, situated on the banks of the River Liffey, but will close properties around the brewery as well as shutting two smaller production plants in Kilkenny and Dundalk. The company will build a new brewery close to Dublin, which will open in 2013.

Diageo pledged to keep open the St James’s Gate site, where Arthur Guinness started brewing in 1759. The company will also continue to run the Guinness Storehouse museum, one of Dublin’s biggest tourist attractions.

Read the rest here.

Click on the image above to check out this event in Philly this week! Sounds great! Is anybody going?

Hop prices are insane, and many varieties are getting very scarce. We’ve heard it time and time again over the past few months. Luckily our local homebrew shop, HDYB, has secured a good cache of hops and through their smart rationing policies, they should be able to give you the variety you seek in some form, either pellet, plug, or whole. In case you don’t know the policy: Maximum of 4oz per customer, only 3oz of any one variety. If you find yourself in there for anything, its probably worth making use of this and buying 4oz of hops, even if you don’t need them.

I am fortunate enough to be sitting on my own cache of 8-9 lbs of hops, which should only require occasional augmentation from Joe & Marlana. Many I have not come up with a gameplan for yet. I think next year will be one of significant experimentation and reformulation of recipes - many of my favorites that use Columbus, Simcoe, and Magnum hops will require substitution or retirement until the current crunch is over. I have several that I am pretty excited about using (and using up):

1. Summit hops (1 lb whole)- Citrusy, and 16.5%AA. I think these will go great with some Amarillo, Centennial, and maybe some Pacific Gem. Some homebrewers have said they didn’t know whether to brew with these or smoke them, they were so “aromatic”.
2. Mt. Rainier (8 oz pellets) - Herbal, slightly minty and some say has a licorice taste and aroma. Time to crank out some new dark beer (porter or stout) recipes for this one. These came from an informal hop swap with Ric at Stewart’s, and I traded him 8oz or 16oz of Sorachi Ace whole hops for them (I can’t really remember how much). The american brown he brewed with the Mt. Rainiers was outstanding.
3. Warrior - (~8 oz pellets) - Strong bittering hop and good replacement for my Magnum usage due to its low cohumulone content. I’ve had these since our big club buy from NCMS two years ago, but have never managed to work my way through all of them. I even gave about 8oz to Joe & Marlana at one time.
4. Horizon - (~5 oz pellets) - English dual-use hop with nice aroma and bittering qualities. I’ve only used it once before, when Mike Castagno and I brewed a split batch of english brown ale with it back in early 2006. I’ve been meaning to get back to these hops for quite a while.

I am also eyeing (with significant salivation) a new high %AA variety over at Puterbaugh Farms, Bravo, which sounds like it is a super-centennial. At almost $30/lb, it’s not cheap - but it IS whole hops instead of pellets, and sounds like it could be awesome in an IPA (probably with some Summit, Amarillo and Centennial). If they are still available after Xmas, I may have to sweet-talk the wife into letting me get some.

My recent brewing activities have got me re-energized about brewing next year, and I am looking forward to the next time I fire up the propane burner. I hope to do several more cooperative brews with other folks next year (Brian and Heidi & David jump to mind), and need to do a better job preparing for the local competitions - some have gone by with me having nothing to submit.

This sounds like something out of a Strange Brew movie! LOL!

POLICE HUNT FOR STOLEN GUINESS!

posted Friday, 30 November 2007
By Diarmaid Fleming - BBC NI Dublin correspondent.

Gardai in Dublin are on the lookout for 36,000 pints of beer stolen from the Guinness brewery.

More than 400 kegs were stolen in what is likely to be the largest carry-out of drink this Christmas.

A man drove a truck into the yard on Wednesday, and left with a trailer containing 180 Guinness kegs, 180 Budweiser kegs, and 90 Carslberg kegs. Police estimated the haul to be worth at least 64,000 euros (£46,000), at wholesale prices.

However, this figure would be considerably more if Dublin pub prices were charged. The robbery occurred the same day as a special Garda operation known as Freeflow was launched to ease traffic congestion and combat drink-driving over Christmas.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

Freeflow officers manning many checkpoints across the city are expected now also to be on the look out for any large quantity of stolen drink flowing through Dublin’s traffic.

The stolen trailer has since been found at Slane Hill in County Meath. It was empty.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

Found this article on FoxNews.com.

Study: Canadian Beer DrinkersThreaten Planet
Thursday , November 29, 2007

 

Scientists have found a new threat to the planet: Canadian beer drinkers.

The government-commissioned study says the old, inefficient “beer fridges” that one in three Canadian households use to store their Molson and Labatt’s contribute significantly to global warming by guzzling gas- and coal-fired electricity.

“People need to understand the impact of their lifestyles,” British environmental consultant Joanna Yarrow tells New Scientist magazine. “Clearly the environmental implications of having a frivolous luxury like a beer fridge are not hitting home. This research helps inform people — let’s hope it has an effect.”

The problem is that the beer fridges are mostly decades-old machines that began their second careers as beverage dispensers when Canadians upgraded to more energy-efficient models to store whatever Canadians eat besides doughnuts and poutine.

University of Alberta researcher Denise Young, who led the study, suggests that provincial authorities hold beer-fridge buy-backs or round-ups to eliminate the threat — methods that Americans use to get guns off the streets.

I’ve got a drinking problem, I know - namely the lack thereof!!! For the first time in a long time, I’ve got a surplus of beer in my basement. In fact, I’m almost at 100% utilization of my available kegs, despite having alot of beer in bottles too. Brewing big batches (10 and 20 gallons) is certainly part of the cause. Couple that with a significant drop off of visiting friends & family, and Donna and I both having allergies that have curtailed our consumption… and my basement has filled up. I wish I were in this position back in June so I could have coasted through the summer months and not struggled with hot fermentation temperatures and warm ground water that had to be chilled with ice.

We have in kegs right now:

* 2.5 gal Gnarleywine (Brewed in 2006)
* 2.5 gal Tripel (Brewed in 2006)
* 10 gal Peated Scottish (5 of which is spoken for)
* 5 gal Ginger Pale Ale
* 5 gal Travelers & Tourists Dubbel
* 5 gal Saturday IPA
* 10 gal American Brown
* 5 gal Blackberry Dunkelweizen
* 5 gal Irish Red

Which totals up to 45 gallons in kegs pending rotation through the kegerator, so I think I will be doing relatively little brewing until the end of the year… might be a nice change of pace.

I also finally got off my duff and made some tap handle labels. Only one of them am I particularly pleased with - the Saturday IPA I brewed with Brian. I hope we brew this beer again sometime in the future, but given the fact that Columbus and Simcoe hops have become incredibly scarce (and expensive!!!), I think it might be a few years until the hop growing industry recovers. Scott Bieber tried some when he and Marty were over here last Sunday, and he seemed pretty pleased with it. Marty liked the peated scottish too - he threatened running off with my keg

Also, it appears that my level sensor testing inspired a fellow brewer down in Australia. Arnie has had an automated home brewery for years, and is constantly upgrading and improving his designs. I hope one of these days I’ll be able to pull together an automated home brewery as well, but priorities have put it on hold for now. Its just as well - I still have alot of work to do on the control and user interface software. Check out Arnie’s site, as well as Aussie Homebrewers where he is a frequent contributor to the forums.

Yes, ‘How Do You Brew?’ has officially moved to their new location at the Shoppes at Louviers on 203 Louviers Drive, Newark DE, 19711 across from the Bank of America complex on Paper Mill Road. Marty Drinan and Scott Bieber were on hand representing the First State Brewers to help Joe and Marlana with the move.

Joe and Marlana have their work cut out for them as the mess you see around them needs to be cleaned up and moved to their new store!

Here, Joe is busy carrying merchandise out of the store.

Careful with that! That’s a grain mill your moving!

Every available vehicle was needed to move as much as possible in one trip!

Reality sinks in when you take down your sign!

Here’s the new store! Looks great, doesn’t it?

There is so much shelf space! Joe will now be able to stock everything he has always wanted to carry!

Marlana is busy getting that inventory plugged into the computer!

Look for the new store to be open this Saturday, October 6th!

So little time, so much to do. I’m not sure where it all goes, but I won’t be torturing you all with a lengthy blow by blow. Instead, consider this post more of a drive-by.

• I suck as a hop grower. I must the only man on the planet that can’t grow Cascade… but that’s probably because I’m trying to do it on a 3′ high fence. My Liberty hops were totally decimated by beetles. My Nuggets did OK despite everything.
• I’m brewing 15 gallons of Choking Sun Stout this weekend. Woot.
• I’ve got mad amounts of beer in kegs and bottles downstairs.
• I took 3rd for my Abbey Brown and a joint 3rd with my buddy Brian for our Gnarleywine in a competition on Saturday. Read Brian’s blog for details.
• I totally loathe coming up with tap handle labels anymore. I’m not sure why. Two of my taps currently have “Saturday IPA” and “Peated Scottish” written on the back of a business card. Fancy, huh?
• I won’t be making the club meeting this Month. Gotta drive to NY to help my parents move that weekend.

So no, I’m not dead. I’m just up to my eyeballs in crap. I’ve been doing freebee development work for Donna’s old boss in Atlanta for the past few weeks, and I think I finally got that monkey off my back… so more I should have more time to blog and bore you all with my activities soon enough.

As you probably have heard by now, the Beer Hunter, Michael Jackson, has passed away. I was shocked when I read John Biggins’ email. Heidi Derr just sent me an article by Lew Bryson that had me in tears. The comments on Lew’s post tore me up!

I remember when I first got into brewing close to 20 years ago and watching “The Beer Hunter” on the Discovery Channel. Soon after watching it on TV, I ordered a copy of the video for my self. The First State Brewers made many trips to the University of Pennsylvania to see him at the annual Book & the Cook beer tasting event. On one occasion I got him to sign my copy of the World Guide to Beer.

Through Michael Jackson’s video and writings, I developed my interest in beer and my desire to travel to other beer brewing regions of the world. My travels to England and Germany are proof. I’m sure he will be in my thoughts when I go to Ireland next Spring, as well.

So, this weekend I urge you all to seek out the best beer you can find and salute the life of this great man!

UPDATE: Also, thanks to chazzq for alerting me to an obituary in the Washington Post.

The First State Brewers have been on 2 international beer tours. The first was a trip to Germany in 2002. The 2nd trip was couple of years ago split between York, England and Marburg, Germany. Now, plans are being made for a trip to Ireland!

We are looking at possibly going around St. Patrick’s Day or Spring Break of 2008. If you’re interested in joining us, please let me know.

Here’s a Google Map that I will be updating with possible destinations. Click on the thumbnails to get a description of the attraction. Zoom the map in to see all the attractions at that location. If you know of a place we should visit that’s not on the map, please let me know so I can add it!

View Larger Map