The media has been flooded in the past 3 months or so with stories about the world-wide hops shortage – if you don’t know about it by now, you’ve been living under a rock; beer drinker or not – so I don’t want to beat a dead horse but I think this afternoon was the first time it’s really hit home for me.

This afternoon I was in Gray, Maine doing something for my day job, so on my way back to the office I stopped in to pay a visit to my favorite Local Homebrew Supply Shop (The Hop Shop in Gray) and say hi to Ed, the owner. So anyway, we got to shooting the breeze and I asked him how he was making out with the shortage (we hadn’t seen each other in a few months); he just looked at me with a completely serious face and said, point blank, “it fucking sucks!”

What hops varieties he can get (most varieties aren’t available) he’s rationed to 10 pounds an order – which is next to nothing compared to what he was ordering pre-shortage. He has to offer creative alternatives to nearly every customer through his doors because they simply cannot brew what they’re looking to brew. Ed has even had commercial breweries call him begging for a spare 10 pounds.

The good news for Ed, he explained, is that homebrewers should be fine. Experimenting and adapting recipes is at the core of homebrewing, so doing so will be embraced. And, if you’re brewing 5 or 10 gallon batches of beer, chances are you’re only adding one or two (certainly not more than four, usually) ounces of hops. And the big, commercial breweries will be fine too – they have the leveraging and bargaining power necessary to secure the hops they need at the price point which they demand. Who suffers the most are the small-time, local breweries we all know and love. They brew too much to be able to get by on homebrew rations but cannot leverage the price or pounds they really need.

Nor could Ed really offer any insight to when the madness will end. Some aid will come in the fall when its harvest season again but,

“Australia is in the midst of a 5-year drought, which doesn’t seem to be ending any time soon… I mean, it’s their summer right now and we’re not seeing anything. And any new plants that are planted around the world, take at least three years to reach maturity, so we’ll be waiting at least that long for things to return to normal”.

What it will come down to is adapting, experimenting, and creativity. But that’s really what craft beer is all about, right? That’s what sets it apart from the big boys – it’s a craft; an art form. As Ed told me today,

“It might mean fewer hop-heavy IPAs but I’m not ready to change the name of my shop quite yet”.

(image by portlandbeer)
[tags]hops, beer, hops shortage, homebrewing[/tags]

From the Great Lost Bear:

The Sebago Brewing Company has become the New England Patriots in the frequence of winning the “big one” in our Annual Brew Pub Cup competition. This Thursday January 31 (TODAY) we are opening up the proceedings to the beers of Sea Dog, Sunday River Brewing Co, Bray’s Brew Pub, Federal Jack’s and of course Gritty McDuffs.

Kai Adams will be on hand encouraging one and all to drink Sebago selections, as will Mike Bray of Bray’s Brew Pub and lots of other locals. Each beer selection from the competing breweries for $2.25 a pint between 5-9pm. Each pint bought counts as a vote for the brewery. The brewery who sells the most pints will win the coveted Brew Pub Cup. I’ll be there; will you?

I understand the importance of taxes and know that without the revenue they produce for states and for this country, virtually nothing would be able to function. But that being said, the proposed Senate Bill 232 in the state of Maryland seems a little absurd! According to a snippet of the bill here,

Increasing the State tax rates for alcoholic beverages in Maryland from $1.50 to $4.50 per gallon for distilled spirits, from 40 cents to $1.20 per gallon for wine, and from 9 cents to 54 cents per gallon for beer; expressing the State tax rates for alcoholic beverages alternatively as 89.1843 cents for each 0.75-liter container of distilled spirits, 23.7825 cents for each 0.75-liter container of wine, and 5.0625 cents for each 12-ounce container of beer; etc.

For those who don’t want to break down the math themselves – the new bill would increase the tax on liquor in the state of Maryland threefold the tax on beer sixfold! According to the Beer Activist (Chris O’Brien),

taxes represent 44% of the retail price of beer. This compares to 33% for bread and 36% for boats.

That’s right, the percentage of beer taxed is greater than the percentage of a boat. A BOAT!! And, unless something changes, for the People of Maryland, that will soon just be the tip of the iceberg… Anyone willing to rig up a mash tun on my boat?

“A Taxing Proposal in Maryland” [Beer Activist]
“Proposed outrageous alcohol taxes in Maryland” [hop-talk]
(image by tpatch)
[tags]taxes, beer, Maryland, Senate Bill 232[/tags]

As Monday draws to a close, the Super Bowl looms near (it’s this coming Sunday, February 3rd, for those who may have been living under a rock). Even for someone — like myself — who isn’t a huge football fan, the Super Bowl is still a television event not to be missed.

But what really makes or breaks the day of the game for me every year is what I have in my cooler for the evening. This year I’ll be bringing four beers I’ve stashed away for awhile to the table couch: Sam Adams Holiday Porter and Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout (get it?), my last bottle of Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale, and a bottle of Smuttynose Robust Porter.

How about you, what do you have hidden away to celebrate the Patriots inevitable victory with? Let us know in the comments![tags]beer, Super Bowl[/tags]

Did you know that there is legislation in place banning most craft beer from Alabama? Yeah, me either. But now there’s a group who is trying to do something about that. And, to get their voices heard, they’re calling for a Birmingham-wide boycott of Anheuser-Busch products!

Free The Hops / Alabamians For Specialty Beer, is a grassroots consumer group working to change the current Alabama legislation — which limits all beer sold in the state to an ABV of no more than 6% — and, according to the group’s president, Stuart Carter, his group is calling for the boycott because of the anti-craft beer lobbying efforts of Birmingham Budweiser and the distributor’s vice president, Pat Lynch. According to the press release,

Lynch’s lobbying efforts against the local Jefferson county bill for the higher ABV limit led to the Free The Hops supported legislation (HB-728) failing last year, Carter says.

So the members of Free The Hops are fighting back,

“The members of Free The Hops,” Carter says, “will no longer purchase or consume any Budweiser products in Jefferson County. And we urge all of our non-member supporters to do the same.”

Apparently, Alabama is one of only three states in the U.S. that limit the ABV for beer to only 6%. However, it is the only state that limits beer containers to a size of no more than 1 U.S. pint (16 ounces).

Good luck Free The Hops!

(original image by throughmystomach)
[tags]Anheuser-Busch, Budweiser, Birmingham, Alabama, Free The Hops, beer, craft beer[/tags]