myBrewing

Last night I brewed again, this one was for Beth and Ivan's wedding. I'll be kind of proud to have my own keg sitting alongside a couple kegs from Ivan (brewer for Yazoo) as well as a Yazoo keg. Last night's beer was another of my bitters but, yet again, with a little variation. This time I added some biscuit malt which had the effect of lightening the beer a little, it seems. My perspective may have to do with it being dark outside, but we'll see what the end product looks like and how it tastes. I would prefer, however, to get a deeper, richer color. It sure tastes good, though. I used a British combination of Kent Goldings hops for bittering and some Challenger for aroma. I also went back to my favorite English Ale yeast. This should be a good one.

I like having 15 gallons of beer in fermenters at the house. Last night I cleaned out both of my kegs and cleaned my keg lines in preparation for kegging on Sunday or Monday. New, fresh beer is always something to look forward to.

Beer Wars
I don't really have much to say about the Beer Wars movie I went to. It was less than spectacular, and wasn't as focused in direction as I had hoped. Actually, it ended up being more about one person's struggle to get her idea/product to market than anything else. There is more to it, but let's just say it all made sense when it was revealed that the movie director comes from the same segment of the beer market as this other lady (with the new idea). They work on fringe products that are less accurately craft beers than fringe beer(malt) products that are trying to get some market share. (The director's brand was Mike's Hard Lemonade. The other lady was trying to sell a caffeinated beer called Moonshot.)

If you are interested in a perspective from someone who is more knowledgeable of the industry, check out this blog. I appreciate most of what he has to say. I think his argument that craft brewers actually "own" more retail space than their actual marketshare would dictate is accurate, at least in the stores where I frequent. A full half of the Harris Teeter beer section, for one, is devoted to craft brewers, as well as a couple endcaps and free-standing displays. I know this isn't anywhere near the case in rural groceries I have been in, but then again, if they had so many craft beers, they would probably just sit on the shelves. I may be wrong, but I think that distributors and retailers will usually stock what has the best chance of selling to their market....

Anyway... I think it is a great time to be a beer drinker with so many options.