A look at the 1st Annual Summer Beer Tasting and Pool Party.....

Setting up....

This past weekend, I had the pleasure of co-hosting a beer tasting party. For almost a year now, our friend Daniell (my latest guest contributor by the way....) and I have been talking about having a beer tasting party. Well, this past weekend, we finally pulled the trigger on it, and got it done! Being late June, we figured we would also make it a pool party. Being a pool party, I figured summer beer would be the way to go (the pool part never really materialized, since it was 118 degrees that day, no one wanted to go outside in the pool). It was held at the home of Daniell and her husband Bobby (awesome hosts, thank you!). It had everything you would like in a summer pool party tasting! A taco bar, with everything, chicken, beer, pico de gello, ceviche, beans, cheese, tortilla chips, you name it.

Our "Beer 101" display

We even had a sort of "Beer 101" display on a table, with a collection of various beer glasses, with explanations of what styles go with which glass, and why. Even a verity of loose leaf hops, for party goers to smell, and experience.
After some discussion, we figured, rather then have a sort of formal tasting, we would have a blind tasting, and make a contest out of it. We decided to have everyone bring their favorite summer brew, to enter into a blind tasting! Everyone would try each beer that was brought, blindly, and rate them all, and vote on their favorite one. The person that brought the top vote getter, won a prize (a beer glass set!).

Hops!!

OK, I will admit, I really had no idea what to expect. I knew most of the people that RSVP'ed, but not well enough to guess what they might bring for a beer. I was afraid we would end up with a dozen entries of Summer Shandy, a few Sam Adam's Summer Ales, and maybe, if we were lucky, a Mr Pineapple or two.
Again, I had no idea what to expect, but I can tell you, I was SO pleasantly surprised! Not only were there far more people there then I was expecting (so much more in fact, we had to totally change the way we conducted the tasting at the last minute) In fact, of the 19 entries we had, only one Summer Shandy, and the only duplicate, was Mr Pineapple, but lucky, one was a growler, and one was in cans, so we were able to distinguish them from each other. Here is a list of the beers entered and tasted.....

1. Bells Oberon (that was my entry!)
2. San Tan's Mr Pineapple in a growler (that was Mrs Czar's)
3. San Adams Summer Ale
4. Wasatch Summerbrue
5. Breckenridge Vanilla Porter
6. Laughing Dog's Huckleberry Cream Ale
7. Unita Hoo Doo
8. Sudwerk Hefeweizen
9. Stone's Arrogant Bastard
10. Anderson Valleys Summer Solstice
11. Maui Brewing's Bikini Blonde Ale
12. Sam Adams Double Agent IPL
13. Leinenkugel's Summer Shandy 
14. Iron Horse's Irish Death
15. Maui Mana Wheat
16. Iron Horse's High Five Hefe
17. Mr Pineapple (in a can)
18. Iron Horse's Double Rainbow
19. Shock Top

I have to say, I have always been a HUGE fan of blind tastings. When preconception and bias is totally removed from the experience, and all you are going on is appearance, smell, and taste, the results can be surprising. I must say, it was also fun, listening to the comments made about the beers people were drinking, not knowing what they were drinking at all. Some people didn't care much for the beers they brought, others ended up loving beers they would normally have turned their noses up to. Its funny, I am not sure anyone ended up voting for the beer they brought! Sadly, no one voted for my beloved Oberon, but in reading the notes, most people at least enjoyed it!

In the end, the hands down favorite of the evening surprised me somewhat. Not because it wasn't a "good beer", its in fact one of my favorite's actually, but rather because it was by no means what I would call a "summer beer", but Breckenridge Brewing's Vanilla Porter was a hands down favorite. In fact, the only other beers to get more then two votes, were Laughing Dogs Huckleberry Cream Ale (that got 3 votes) and Mr Pineapple (from the growler) got 2..

Cheers!

All in all, it was a great time! I want to send out my sincere gratitude to all of you that attended, for making this evening such a great time. Not only do I hope you had just half as much fun as I did, if you did, you had a great time, but I hope you leanred even just a little something about beer that you didn't know when you got there!

I also want to thank my wife, for all her help and support (and patience) going into this party. Most of all, I want to thank Bobby and Daniell for not only opening up your home to all of us, but for putting forth so much effort to make sure everyone there had a great time, and maybe even learned a few things.

If you were there, and have some comments or suggestions as to how to make our next party even better, either comment below, or email me at thebeerczar@gmail.com, I really would love to hear all comments, good or bad, its only going to help the next time!

If you would like to see all the photos from that day, you can check out the album on my Facebook page here, and please, while you are there, if you haven't "liked" my page, please go ahead and do so!

Keep an eye out for an invitation to the next one!

Thanks again to everyone, it was awesome, so, as I always say....

Until next time

Bottoms up my friends!

The Beer Czar

The Beer Czar, the guest on a pod cast!

Beer Czar and Masked Blogster

A while ago, I was interviewed for the podcast "Maskerpiece Theater" This week, The Beer Czar was asked to to join the Masked Blogster again, as a guest on his weekly panel. Listen to the Masked Blogster, Beer Czar, along with Maser and Mr. E Marquee as they discuss not only the beer of the week (refereed to as the "Bronson of the Week" on the show) which was Oberon Ale, we also discuss Aaron Hernandez, Paula Dean, NBA draft and a few other things. Check it out here.....

Maskerpiece Theater Podcast episode #8

Listen each week, The Beer Czar is going to be the sponsor of the "Bronson of the Week" and may even appear once in a while to discuss the beer! You can get to Maskerpiece Theaters site here to access the link to listen.

Until next time

Bottoms up my friends

The Beer Czar

Sam C. says it best....

Every so often I like to share my opinion on here (OK, maybe frequently). Lately, I've been thinking a lot about the craft beer community and its growth, and inevitable growing pains. A disturbing trend I've seen in recent years, is a sort of "turning up" of the nose at brewery's and beers once considered the best, or at least very respectable. Example, recently, I acquired a bottle of Westvlateren 12. A beer, that for years, was widely considered "the best in the world". For years, you could only get this beer, literally at the gates of the abbey where it was brewed, by appointment only. Well, last fall, this beer was made available, for one time only in the US. Since then, this beer, while still VERY highly rated, it started to take its jab's from the beer community, and the ratings have since fallen a bit. I was on a thread the other day, and mentioned how excited I was to try this beer. I got more then a few responses back ranging from "it wasn't that bad" "I didn't like it" to "don't get your hopes up, this is the most over rated beer in the world". OK, don't get me wrong, I am not saying that just because this beer is highly rated, you have to like. I am just saying, that for the longest time, you would never see anyone say this. It was almost "uncool" to say something bad about it, you weren't taken seriously. Now, its almost the exact opposite. You seem "cooler" if you don't like it. I don't get it? This is why I tend to stay away from Beer Advocate discussion threads, and most beer review sites.

My beloved Oberon

This is an attitude I've been seeing more and more of as of late. A highly regarded beer, or brewery see's a little (or a lot) of success, and all of a sudden the perception is that they are no longer as good as they once were, they "sold out", they changed their recipe or their quality is now  not as good as it once was. Despite the fact, that the only real thing that has changed, is the fact that beer geeks and snobs are not the only ones drinking that beer anymore. It reminds me of a piece I read (and wrote about) on my beloved summer favorite Oberon. The writer said, how he use to love the beer, how it use to be exciting, and new. Now that he goes into a bar, and see's everyone drinking it, and oh god forbid with a slice of orange in the glass, the beer is no longer "exciting and new", and he now feels its "hardly craft" anymore, and over rated. So, when he was the only one in the bar drinking it, it was awesome, now that he's not, its no longer good (or just no longer cool).

Beer geeks seem to be a bit schizophrenic about their growth. They love getting on their soap box to preach the virtues and qualities of craft beer, yet, when a craft brewery gains the success the geeks long for and talk about, they abandon that brewery for one that is newer and cooler, and leave those boring main stream popular beers to be consumed (and enjoyed) by the uninformed masses.

Recently, [edit....OK, I guess a while back...]on Beer Advocate, there was a thread about "over rated breweries" (should I say, in the weekly thread about over rated breweries....). Well, it seems Sam Calagione (founder and owner of Dogfish Head, and one of my personal favorite beer people) read this, and it struck a cord with him, because he responded to it, and he summed it up better then I think I can. This was his response.....

It’s pretty depressing to frequently visit this site and see the most negative threads among the most

Sam C at Whole Foods in Chandler

popular. This didn't happen much ten years ago when craft beer had something like a 3 percent market share. Flash forward to today, and true indie craft beer now has a still-tiny but growing market share of just over 5 percent. Yet so many folks that post here still spend their time knocking down breweries that dare to grow. It’s like that old joke: “Nobody eats at that restaurant anymore, it’s too crowded.” Except the “restaurants” that people shit on here aren't exactly juggernauts. In fact, aside from Boston Beer, none of them have anything even close to half of one percent market share  The more that retailers, distributors, and large industrial brewers consolidate the more fragile the current growth momentum of the craft segment becomes. The more often the Beer Advocate community becomes a soap box for outing breweries for daring to grow beyond its insider ranks the more it will be marginalized in the movement to support, promote, and protect independent ,American craft breweries. 

It’s interesting how many posts that refer to Dogfish being over-rated include a caveat like “except for Palo…except for Immort…etc.” We all have different palettes which is why it’s a great thing that there are so many different beers. At Dogfish we’ve been focused on making “weird” beers since we opened and have taken our lumps for being stylistically indifferent since day one. I bet a lot of folks agree that beers like Punkin Ale (since 1995) , Immort Ale (wood aged smoked beer) since 1995, Chicory Stout (coffee stout) since 1995 , Raison D’être (Belgian brown) since 1996, , Indian Brown Ale (dark IPA) since 1997, and 90 Minute (DIPA) since 2000 don’t seem very weird anymore. That’s in large part because so many people who have been part of this community over the years championed them and helped us put them on the map.These beers, and all of our more recent releases like Palo Santo, Burton Baton, Bitches Brew continue to grow every year. We could have taken the easy way out and just sold the bejeezus out of 60 Minute to grow but we like to experiment and create and follow our own muse. Obviously there is an audience that appreciates this as we continue to grow. We put no more “hype” or “expert marketing” behind our best selling beers than we do our occasionals. We only advertise in a few beer magazines and my wife Mariah oversees all of our twitter/Facebook/dogfish.com stuff. We have mostly grown by just sharing our beer with people who are into it (at our pub, great beer bars, beer dinners, and fests) and let them decide for themselves if they like it. If they do we hope they tell their friends about. We hope a bunch of you that are going to EBF will stop by our booth and try some of the very unique new beers we are proudly bringing to market like Tweason’ale (a champagne-esque, gluten-free beer fermented with buckwheat honey and strawberries) and Noble Rot (a sort of saison brewed with Botrytis-infected Viognier Grape must). One of these beers is on the sweeter side and one is more sour. Knowing each of your palettes is unique you will probably prefer one over the other. That doesn't mean the one you didn't prefer sucked. And the breweries you don’t prefer but are growing don’t suck either. Respect Beer. The below was my favorite post thus far. 

This thread is hilarious. Seriously, Bells, Founders, FFF, Surly, RR, DFH, Bruery, Avery, Cigar City, Mikkeller are all overrated?  Since I’m from Ohio, I’ll pile on and add Great Lakes, Hoppin Frog, and Brew Kettle to the list. Your welcome. 

Hopefully soon we will have every craft brewery in the US on the list.

This is why Sam continues to be one of my favorite characters in the beer community. Thank you Sam! I think I might go get some Dogfish Head to enjoy by the pool today (I just wish they were as good as they use to be, it would make it SO much better!)

Remember, beer is fun, lets keep it that way!

Until next time

Bottoms up my friends

The Beer Czar

Why aren't beers as good when they get popular?

I came across this article on Mlive.com (read it here) today, and had some thoughts about it. There is something I see more and more often in the beer committee that sort of drives me nuts.



Jim Koch



There seems to be this sort of "want it both ways" attitude that beer geeks seem to want. They want craft beer to become more and more popular, and mainstream, but when it does, they start to hate it. Jim Koch wrote about this a while back, that I posted on my blog titled "The Paradox of Popularity (The Paradox of Popularity on the Beer Czar) where he discusses much of the same issues. Beer people call themselves "Beer Advocates" and say they want to promote the craft beer industry and educate people that there are more choices then "fizzy yellow beer" the "Big 3" crams down our throats. Yet, when a craft brewer starts to make it big, like Sam Adams, Dogfish Head, Sierra Nevada and the like, the craft beer community tends to turn their backs on these "sell outs" complaining of a drop in quality, changing recipes, and even how its just "not cool anymore".

This write up about Oberon being overated sparked a lot of these same issues, and displayed them to me pretty clearly. First off, let me just say, Oberon is one of my favorite, ( I even wrote about it here) it not my all time favorite summer brews. Its a crisp, refreshing, drinkable, enjoyable beer, that I am glad we get here in Arizona. The author even writes about when he use to drink it, it was "new and refreshing and exciting" Its no longer new, and I would argue, its never been exciting, but its still every bit as refreshing, why not like it anymore. If all you want is new and exciting, that will always be there, but a good beer is a good beer, and always will be. Oh, and calling it a "sort of" craft beer? It was a craft beer when it was new and exciting, why is it not anymore? Craft beer has to do with the ingredients, and process, not output. One more thing, if someone wants to put an orange in their beer, so what? Let them. If someone wants to paint "Hello Kitty" on their Ferrari, they can, I don't have to like it, and I don't have to do the same, but so what? Its their beer.



Why??





One of my personal hero's

I think the mistake a lot of us make, it making a connection between quality, and popularity. Just because something is popular, doesn't mean its the best, or even good. If that was the case, Bud Light would be the best beer, McDonald's would be the only place to get a burger, clearly, and thankfully, that isn't the case. Just because Oberon maybe Bells best selling beer, its not their best, and I am most of the fine folks at Bells would agree. Margaritaville isn't Jimmy Buffetts best song either...



So what, lots of people love Oberon, doesn't mean we have to stop loving it. Its still the same beer it was. If some hipster can't stand the thought of sharing a good beer with the uneducated masses, that is their prerogative, but please, don't try and sell us on the beers quality, and taste or lack of, when all you liked about it was that it was new, and refreshing, and cool, and you were the only one drinking it. So, raise us a glass of Oberon, hell, even drop a slice of orange in it if you want, and lets greet summer with smiles, and many many pints of this old, unexciting, but still very much refreshing golden orange beverage!!!