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[K9ACT]

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Bud would kill for this.

Jack K9ACT

[W3SLK]

When are you handing out 'free samples' Jack? 

[KB2WIG]

Congrats!!

[K9ACT]

When are you handing out 'free samples' Jack? 

Every Oktoberfest, of course.

js

[k4kyv]

Jack, my kid is assistant brewmeister for a microbrewery in Nashville.  They have the brand name Yazoo. As might be expected, he sometimes brings me samples. http://www.yazoobrew.com/home.php

Something I think would be kool, and might be a hit, would be for a small brewery to brew up a special run specifically for hamfests, and name it "807".  It's somewhat passé now, but I recall when I was first licensed, a beer was often referred to over the air as an 807.  I suppose there is a vague resemblance between the shape of the old longneck bottle and the shape of an 807 tube.

It would be nice to be able to find some real beer served at the concession stands at hamfests instead of just that Bud Lite slop and its ilk.

I would say Bud Lite is to beer as slopbucket is to radio.  

[K9ACT]

I would say Bud Lite is to beer as slopbucket is to radio.  

That is to kind to Bud.  They are farther from beer that smoke signals are to radio.

By definition, beer is made from Barley malt, hops, water and yeast.

You will not see semis filled with barley malt in front of Bud plants.  That is delivered by Priority Mail in 1 lb packets per million gallons of beer just so they can put it on the label.  Likewise with one hops flower per batch.

What you will see are strings of tank cars with corn syrup because it is dirt cheap compared to malt.

What they sell is a carbonated, alcoholic corn beverage that has nothing to do with beer.

That's the "good" stuff.  Lite is made by adding water and more carbonation to reduce the alcohol, calories and flavor for the "American taste".  Your not supposed to notice that the cost is about half of the regular stuff but the same selling price.

Years ago the American Brewer's Association had to create a phony class of beer so that Budmillercoors could take home ribbons.  They couldn't possible compete on flavor with any real beer so we now have "American Lager" as an official beer style.

And the mush brained masses can't get enough of it.

I like the 807 idea.  Maybe I will do that for Oktoberfest which has evolved into a hamfest over the years.

I need some ideas on what would make it 807ish.  A bit of that glue from the bottom of the base?  Blue dye for that gassy look?  Smoke for the smokey look?

js

[k4kyv]

What they sell is a carbonated, alcoholic corn beverage that has nothing to do with beer.

That's the "good" stuff.  Lite is made by adding water and more carbonation to reduce the alcohol, calories and flavor for the "American taste".  Your not supposed to notice that the cost is about half of the regular stuff but the same selling price. 

But they add grain alcohol to bring the alcohol content back up.  That way, the high school kids can enjoy the alcohol "buzz" without having to "endure" the taste of beer.

I like the 807 idea.  Maybe I will do that for Oktoberfest which has evolved into a hamfest over the years.

I need some ideas on what would make it 807ish.  A bit of that glue from the bottom of the base?  Blue dye for that gassy look?  Smoke for the smokey look?

If it is served on tap, maybe patches of blue embeded in the glass to simulate the glow from impurities that many mistake for gas.

In bottle form, the brown glass simulates the brown bakelite base of the tube.  Maybe the amber colour of the beer would simulate the the warm glow of the filament.  You could run a contest seeking input from hams for the best idea for the 807 beer label. 

If you were really into the commercial business, you could design a special bottle that is actually shaped like the glass envelope of an 807.

[Ed/KB1HYS]

Hmm I like the idea. An 807 style beer bottle with REAL BEER inside. Served exclusively where ever AMers congregate.

If I ever started a micro brewery that is what I would call it

Ed's REAL BEER. 

I have to confess though, I do like Ballantine XXX ale. It has a stronger flavor that the young-uns don't seem to like and it's pretty cheap.  But I 'cut my teeth' on it and it's the only brew I like enough to go out of the way for.   Some of the Sam Adams stuff is good too.

For Pub Drinkin' a black & Tan is FB.

[K9ACT]

But they add grain alcohol to bring the alcohol content back up.  That way, the high school kids can enjoy the alcohol "buzz" without having to "endure" the taste of beer. 

That would be a waste of money.  The stuff is so tasteless and weak that they have to drink twice as much to get a buzz.  Neat marketing trick.  Water it down, charge the same and sell twice as much and claim it's better for your health.

Here is another trick.  Guess what they do with the alcohol removed from the ever more popular non-alcoholic beers?  They add it to their regular swill and sell it as "malt liquor" and of course charge more.  Or worse yet and unproven but likely, they water lite down to such an extent that they have to use the NA alcohol to bring it up to 3.5%.

To be fair, the dairy industry has been doing something similar for decades.  They promote low fat milk as good for you and turn the skimmed cream into butter or sell it as cream.  But you have to try real hard to see any difference in the price of low fat vs whole milk at the retail level.  The farmer of course gets screwed because he is paid by the fat content.

>If you were really into the commercial business, you could design a special bottle that is actually shaped like the glass envelope of an 807.

That would be cool and might even sell to non -hams, with a revolutionary pop-top plate cap.
Or... you unscrew the base and chug it because you can't put it down.

 We keg all our beer.  Bottling is too tedious on a small scale.

As a point of interest, Miller seems to have "found an old recipe" that they are going produce in draft only.  What a joke.  Schlitz at least went to the trouble of printing labels for their farce.

When you're out of Schmidling Brau, you're out of beer.  It's the beer that made Marengo famous.

js

[k4kyv]

For the past 100 years, people have been lulled by marketing gimmicks to develop a taste for having their beer served freezing ice cold. This dates back decades in N. America,  but with the advent of "globalism" it is now occurring throughout the rest of the world. The reason? It promotes public acceptance of an inferior quality product that is cheaper to produce:

The world started the (20th) century with a new dominant style: clear, pale, rounded in flavour and served cool. These beers were probably for the most part still pretty tasty and served at only a cool cellar temperature.

But the public's new taste in beer had been very much to the advantage of larger brewers. Their smaller competitors lacked the capital needed to invest in the new brewing and cooling equipment which lager required. Artificial refrigeration was first developed in the 1870’s. It’s no coincidence that the total number of breweries in Germany peaked at around 19,000 in the 1880’s and then went into a decline which has continued until the present day. There was a rapid concentration of the industry throughout Europe and the USA as the scale of brewing increased.

In short, more beer was brewed, but by far fewer companies. Beer had been transformed from a craft product, made on equipment little more sophisticated than that found in a kitchen, to an industrial commodity manufactured in sophisticated factories.

The real problems began when brewers began to realise that as they served their beers colder and colder they could also make them blander and blander without their customers complaining or even appearing to notice. As blander also means cheaper, this was good news for those trying to maximise their profits.

Increasing homogenisation had another effect; the difficulty in differentiating between rivals products by their flavour left the consumer open to the influence of other factors, such as advertising. This happened first in the USA, where nationally-distributed lager brands began to appear at the turn of the century. Refrigeration allowed the beer to be transported longer distances and it also meant that the product had less chance of offending anyone. Beer was marketed as a cool refresher rather than as a drink to savour.

By the 50's, American beer was pale, thin, almost tasteless and freezing cold. The parallel development of the soft drinks industry, spurred on by some of the same technological advances, strengthened the public perception that drinks had to be ice-cold to be refreshing.

This trend first ran its course in the USA, then Australia and in the last decades has started everywhere in the world, even in such heartlands of beer tradition as Germany. It's something which should greatly concern anyone with an interest in appreciating the flavour of what they drink.

The Big Chill

[K9ACT]

A very interesting test of a beer is to leave half a glass stand for a few hours and then overnight if it passes the few hour test.

It's hard to be objective with beers that are lousy out of the bottle but most beers become something close to vile after a few hours.  A  good beer tastes better because it has had a chance to breathe and warm up a bit.  Really good beers only lack carbonation by morning and are still just as tasty.

In spite of all the chemicals put into beers to help them hold a head, beers with no protein, collapse in seconds.  The protein comes from malt and is totally lacking in corn or rice syrup used by the mega breweries.

Real beer will hold a head for hours and leave a "Belgian lace" inside the glass.  Really good beer, will support a head like soft serve ice cream if poured properly.

The Big Chill is interesting and a good read but let's not forget that ale is still made with minimal refrigeration and served that way 50-60F and has lots of character resulting from the higher alcohols produced at these temps.

Lager became popular because it would ferment at low temps and had a much longer shelf life not because it tasted inherently better.

Good India Pale Ale is tough to beat.  Bass and Guinness are variations on Bud.

js