Clean Beer? You “clean” a fish and wash your vegetables, but how clean is the draft beer you drink?

In the words of Brian Wiggs, Dark Horse Brewing Co. Marshall, MI, “Brewing is 10% chemistry and 90% janitorial”. This statement will ring true for any brewer whether they are a homebrewer or Brewmaster. Keeping your equipment and brewing space clean is the first thing you learn. If you’ve ever taken a brewery tour you’ll notice how amazingly clean and tidy the brew house is. Gary S. Nicholas, Quality Assurance & Control with Bell’s Brewery, Inc Kalamazoo, MI spoke about what the kegs at Bell’s are in store for when they make it to the brewery: “They go through a multi-step cleaning & sanitizing process prior to each fill. We also conduct additional pre-cleaning for kegs that have been out in the market for unusually long periods. We go one step further, slowly cycling through our entire keg inventory and completely disassembling the keg spear valve assemblies, replacing worn parts, and visually inspecting the interior….any kegs that fail a cleaning/filling cycle are set aside for detailed inspection.” What needs to be cleaned out of these kegs? “Typically, you’ll see infiltration of a wide variety of aerobic microorganisms (acetic acid-producing bacteria, wild yeasts, etc.) and anaerobes(A type of bacterium that does not require air or oxygen to live). Over time, these will form a bio-film, a mass of slime that is very resistant to simple flushing techniques.”: said Nicholas.

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First off, I want to say that I totally love the Round Barn Brewery logo.  There, now that that is out of the way, I can bring your attention to one of the first beers we tried at the Beerfest last month.  And also reintroduce you to our friend Tricia, who seems to only show up around here for the festivals right now, but we are working on that.  Anyway, Round Barn Brewery, out of Baroda, Michigan, brought us their Grape Expectations this year.  Click on through to see what Tricia and I thought of it.
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The 2011 Michigan Brewer’s Guild Winter Beer Fest was everything a beer lover born within these great peninsulas could love.  28 degrees, snow, bonfires and of course ounces upon gallons of some of the best beer made on planet Earth.

It’s amazing to see how Michigan beer has caught fire.  Having been in this business for several years, I’ve seen the struggles that most of the breweries have went through.  The times of being run out of stores and bars with the owner laughing at the thought of craft beer is far behind us.  With nearly 7,000 people in attendance on Saturday, this event sold out a month before the gates opened.  There were many beer lovers that didn’t get in this year, but the tickets went on sale December 1st, 2010.  So those that missed out need to move a little faster next year, for tickets next year will go on sale at the same time.  Mark it on your beer fridge, with a steak knife.

Scott Graham Director of the Michigan Brewer’s Guild said: “165 barrels of beer were poured or Saturday” that’s over 20,000 pints of beer!  If that doesn’t say Michigan loves it’s beer no matter what the temperature, then I’ll buy stock in InBev.”

There were 56 different breweries showing off some amazing brews.  The popular breweries had lines that stretched beyond the tents, but with 56 breweries to choose from getting a beer was never a problem.  Some of the special released beers only made it into the hands of those in line when that beer got tapped, but you can’t expect to get every small batch at such a large event.  Plus getting a beer from one of the brewpubs is why I go.

The breweries that distribute had their guns a blazin’, but getting a beer from a brewpub that I’d have Continue reading

You may have noticed a redesign of the website.  We have added community features to try to make your experience more connected with the other users.  Before you could only comment on individual posts.  But now, if you sign up for a This Week in Beer Community account, you can participate in our forums, or join and create groups of other people who like the same styles you like. We have a map that you can access in the tabs across the top to show places where you can find great craft beers.  Don’t see your favorite spot on the map?  Join the Beer Finders group and suggest a new addition.  Have you tried a great beer that you want to share? Join the Beer Reviewers group and let us know what you’ve found.  DO you have a beer you want us to review? or a brewery you think we should feature? let us know in the main This Week in Beer Group. So Join the This Week in Beer Community account to participate in the forums, discuss reviews share your beers and let everyone know how much you love beer.

Two posts in one week? He must have gone mad! This is not the excessively lazy man we thought we knew.  Perhaps he has been replaced by an evil, albeit more productive, clone.  Perhaps it is not Kristoffer at all that is behind this post, perhaps somone hacked into his account for the nefarious purpose of posting more content.  Perhaps is is him, but he felt guilty for forgetting to post anything last week. Or perhaps he just wanted an excuse to drink more new beers (yeah right, I never need an excuse to drink new beers).  Whatever the reason, just enjoy it, and enjoy this Cryptic review of Anchor Steam Beer, by Anchor Brewing Company.

(it was the guilt thing, sorry about missing a week) Continue reading

There are certain things that I just cannot justify buying.  Luckily, science themed beers is not one of those. Imagine my excitement when I found a beer with a big picture of the red planet front and center on its label. And a nice pun-y name is just a great bonus.  So I bought the Bière de Mars from Ommegang eagerly awaiting my chance to give it a try.  So I pulled up a nice beanbag chair, found a little helper to hold my camera and produced the video that you will find below.

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Sup.  I sincerely hope you all had a fantastic holiday season.  I have a few holiday beers that I wanted to share with you, but I decided to start off the new year with _ahem_ perhaps the best beer I had during the whole year. A bold statement indeed, but one I do believe in.  If you have the occasion to try Short’s Anniversary Ale,  and you let it pass by, go ahead and punch yourself in the face for missing out on it.  Seriously folks, drink this beer.  That is all….. well technically no, that is not all.  There is a cryptic review of this fantastic beer after the break.

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Lord I wish I didn’t have to keep using that graphic.  You may have noticed a peculiar lack of updates recently.  it started out as the usual holiday business but has turned into to something much less (or more depending on how you feel about holiday business) enjoyable.  And as much as I would like to be drinking beer to get better, I feel that my wonky taste buds would make my usual unintelligible reviews even less so.  So do please forgive my absence as I try to overcome this malady. I will also try to track down my two other compatriots that have been missing and presumed having a better time than me.  While you are waiting though, feel free to check out our tumblr, twitter, and facebook.  oh and for those who haven’t got their Christmas shopping all taken care of, you can pick up some great TWIB merchandise in our store.

While I continue to try to track down a bottle of Delirium Noel in Lansing, I will give you this Cryptic Review of an interesting beer made with sorghum.  For those that don’t know (I didn’t) sorghum is a plant that looks kind of like wheat but smaller I guess.

Sorghum
Image via Wikipedia

So botony lesson over, check out my Cryptic Review of this interesting beer.

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