Appreciating Beer

(I know this is a long blog. If you're not into that, skip down to the "Brown bottles = good" section)

Wine is seen as a high-class drink because people think wine has so many intricate flavors that only the very well educated are able to appreciate. I find it hard to believe that most people REALLY taste the difference between a syrah and a cab. I mean come on, be honest.

Beer is seen as the everyman's drink. Beer is for people who don't care about the intricacies offered by wine and who just want that robust, bubbly, hoppy, grainy taste. So they open up a can of Budlight and figure that's the best it's ever gonna get. The most marketed beers are the most popular. Corona, Budweiser, Newcastle, Miller, and Coors are the only options most people choose from even though they taste like urine if we're all honest. So if a person likes dark colored beer, they list Newcastle as their favorite beer of all time. My friends, this should not be so. Instead of throwing out a list of beers that are good you ought to try, let me just give you a vision and an education for good beer. You see, beer can be as much of a "high-class" experience as wine, you just have to know about it.

I will write a series of blogs containing my thoughts on how to appreciate beer as an art. Here's a tip to start you out.

BROWN BOTTLES = GOOD
CLEAR, GREEN and BLUE BOTTLES = BAD

A simple way of choosing good beer at the store is to look for beer in brown bottles. It shouldn't be hard - most beer is found in brown bottles. Avoid clear bottles (corona, newcastle) and green bottles (heineken, stella artois).

The reason is that beer can be chemically altered by blue light rays in a matter of minutes. The blue light creates a chemical reaction in beer, the product of which is the same chemical found in skunk spray. Gross. You don't notice it because that's what you think beer just tastes like. But next time you open up a corona, think of a skunk and you'll notice this time. Why do you think they advertise adding a lime to the beer? The citric acid counteracts that aroma. There's no hiding it, it's still gross. Brown bottles protect the beer from harmful rays so you're ensured better tasting beer. Not all beer in brown bottles is good beer, but at least it probably won't be skunked.

These companies know that this is bad for the beer. The reason they use these non-brown bottles is solely for marketing. If they can get the beer to look more appealing to you, you're more likely to buy it. Don't support a company that forfeits quality. Now you know better and you can begin enjoying better-tasting beer!

More advice on how to be an educated beer drinker to come...

First Tasting of Brew No. 11

Today Jono and I shared a bottle of our most recent brew, the Wassailweizen. It was a beautiful, cloudy light orange color. Since we bottled it last week, it had very little carbonation and no head. However, it was very cider-y, to the great enjoyment of our taste. The apple, cinnamon and clove came through very nicely! I will taste it in another week and see how it is then. This one has the potential to be a very delicious ale and may become your holiday favorite.

Magnetically Drawn to a Pillbox Membership

For those of you who need more incentive than frequent, delicious, homebrewed beer, all Pillbox Brewery Club members will be receiving a free Pillbox Brewery magnet! You know you want one.

Memberships are fun! (and cheap):

Porter (6-pack of every batch) - $40

Stout (4 6-packs, one 12 pack of your own design) - $35

Amber (4 6-packs) - $20

IPA (2-packs of every batch) - $12

Pale Ale (email updates, club card, whimsical invites) - FREE

Email me or just send me a check with your name, address, and phone number!

Bottling the Wassailweizen

Today Jono and I bottled the much anticipated Wassailweizen! Here are some of the photos from our adventure along with some educational commentary on a process about which you may know nothing.

To the left Jono is enjoying a taster of the pre-conditioned (non-carbonated) beer. It's always fun to try the beer at the early stages. It has alcohol and great flavor, but no carbonation. Although the beer always tastes premature at this stage, you get an idea of its potential. Jono compares it to seeing a child and imagining what they'll look like at 35.

This beer is super sweet and leaves you feeling as if you've just sipped cider. Cloves, cinnamon, apple, and orange flavors are all clearly present.

The first step to bottling your beer is getting the bottles clean. Because I recycle many of my beer bottles, we need to scrub the labels off, clean, rinse, and sanitize 50 bottles.

We add about 2/3 cup sugar to the beer, giving the yeast something to consume in the bottles. Their metabolic conversion produces ethanol and CO2 (alcohol and carbonation).

Following tradition, we had to take a break to enjoy our most recent brew, Jim Whitaker's Bitaker ESB. Delicious!

We fill each bottle carefully via that handy-dandy spigot. You want to leave about an inch of air space to allow for pressure change.

Sealing a cap on each bottle ensures sanitation and locks in the CO2 so that each beer is carbonated.

I hope you enjoyed learning about bottling! Hopefully I'll get to share one of these with you!

Membership Packages

**edited on Dec. 10, 2010 with current facts**

Good News!

Memberships to the Pillbox Brewery Brew Club are now available! Here are your options:

Russian Imperial Stout - $45 per year:

Your choice of 50 Pillbox Ales per year

Including one batch of your custom design

A Pillbox Brewery member card, magnet, newsletters and T-Shirt

Porter Membership - $40 per year:

Your choice of 50 Pillbox Ales per year

A Pillbox Brewery member card, magnet, newsletters and T-Shirt

Stout Membership - $35 per year:

Your choice of 40 Pillbox Ales per year

Including one batch of your custom design

A Pillbox Brewery member card, magnet, newsletters and T-Shirt

Amber Membership - $20 per year:

Your choice of 30 Pillbox Ales per year

A Pillbox Brewery member card, magnet, newsletters and T-Shirt

IPA Membership - $12 per year:

Your choice of 20 Pillbox Ales per year

A Pillbox Brewery member card, magnet, newsletters and T-Shirt

Pale Ale Membership - FREE:
Emails, updates, whimsical invitations to share a beer with me
A Pillbox Brewery member card, button pin, and poster

If you think of your own package, tell me what you want and we can work it out. Every member will be placed on an email list and given updates and invited to any of my brewing or bottling sessions. Also included in every membership is the option for free home-brewing lessons/collaboration.

If you would like to sign up, please send a check (or no check if you're doing the Pale Ale Membership) to

Pillbox Brewery at 433 2nd Street, Encinitas CA 92024 with the following information:

Name
Address
Phone number
Membership option

Brew No. 11: Wassailweizen

Inspired by Mrs. Lippman, this is going to be an amazing holiday beer! Imagine a delicious, sweet german hefeweizen walks into an alcoholic version of Mamma Lippman's holiday wassail. The result will be incredible!

Recipe:

6lb wheat DME
1lb british malted barley
1lb 40L malted barley
1lb carapils
1.5oz tettnaner hops @ 60mins
o.5oz tettnanger hops @ 17 mins
hefe yeast WLP300
0.5oz bitter orange peel
2 tsps cinnamon
1 tbs whole cloves
1 gallon apple juice

brewed: October 25, 2010
apple juice added: October 29th, 2010
bottled: not yet
stats: tbd