Michigan Brewers Guild Summer Beer Festival tickets on sale this weekend!

Even though the snow has barely thawed and winter still seems to have a bit of teasing left to do, that shouldnt stop you from planning a great summer. After all, they seem to keep getting shorter and shorter. With that, one thing you should do this weekend, well actually two, is 1) go to the Fools for Oberon party this Saturday at The Rock in Royal oak and 2) get you some tickets to the Michigan Brewers Guild SUmmer Beer Festival on July 24/25. Held in Ypsilanti, this event sells out quickly and with good reason. The event hosts more than 200 beers from over 30 Michigan breweries. Tickets are available at many of these breweries as well as online.

Friday July 24th 5-9 pm, $25 in advance, $30 at the door, 12 drink tokens
Saturday July 25th 1-6 pm, $25 in advance, $30 at the door, 12 drink tokens
(additional tokens are of course for sale inside the festival)

Get tickets here

.

An American Manifesto

Manifesto: a public declaration of intentions, opinions, objectives, or motives, as one issued by a government, sovereign, or organization.

I found a link to this video through one of my many visited blogs. This is a great representation to the many who are still out there, unaware or ignorant, that the beer they drink has always been, and will always remain the same.

Watch the video here

Frakenmuth in 30 days

30 days to go. Everyone can relate to this statement, as the a 30 day countdown is a pivitol point in any forth coming event. #0 dys until your birthday (at least in the younger years), 30 days until the big vacation, 30 days to retirement! Yeah, right. Well 30 days from today is the largest of the three Michigan craft beer events, Frakenmuth's World Expo of Beer. Entering its 14th year, the festival serves 250 samples from dozens of breweries near and far. technically, the event starts 29 days from now, but I won't make it there for Friday's festivities.

For more info you can try and navigate the official website at worldexpoofbeer.com, but i found it rather difficult and annoying.


.

Honey Weizen

Ten Days ago I brewed a honey weizen that called for the use of one pound of honey in the mix. Honey is a complex elemnt in brewing. Some say they can make it stand out in a beer, some say it just ferments out to more alcohol with no evidence of its existence. In this moderate debate between home brewers, some suggest using honey malt, others say use honey at this or that point and some say both. the great thing is, you get to decide. So in this honey weizen, I decided to take the road less traveled, which is both. I purchased two three gallon carboys this past fall for this exact situation. I want to take a batch and slit it up and experiment.

Ive only done this a couple times before. I had a sour ale that was basically liquid jolly ranchers. I tried splitting the batch into growlers and added all sorts of fruits. Nothing changed much except the color. Adding tart (for the most part) on sour is hard to do. The second experiment was with a pale ale. I had some home grown hops that i needed and wanted to use before they went bad, so I added 2.5 ounces to one of the three gallons and let her sit for about a week. It came out pretty well.

So with this batch i wanted to play with the honey. the recipe has both natural and honey malt. Tonight I took that batch and added another cup of honey to one carboy and split them up. I plan to let it sit another week or so and then prime it out in bottles. The finished product should be ready about three weeks from now. Im very interested to see the outcome, both in mouth feel and honey appearance.



.

Michigan Beer Happenings

In a nearly depreciated economy, Beer is one great exception. The Wall Street Journal profiled the increasing expansion of the craft beer industry, and in doing so, featured a Michigan operation set to open its doors this summer. See how Artful Dodge Brewery thinks it can survive and thrive in Midland, Mi.

http://tinyurl.com/adbofmi

Have you heard that there is a new reccommondation to raise the tax on a bottle of beer in Michigan by five cents? This group is hoping the new tax would raise millions to aid in child foster care, prevention and family aid. Seems like a great cause but that extra tax would be passed onto the consumer and that has many arms up, double fisted.

http://tinyurl.com/mibeertax

Bells Beer was rated 13th in sales by a craft brewery in 2008, and 24th in overall brewery sales. Thats pretty remarkable considering that craft beer sales only equate to six percent of overall beer sales.

http://tinyurl.com/bells2008

Saturday May 2nd : National Homebrew day : Fools for Oberon VI

Saturday May 2nd is just three weeks away and here's two awesome reasons you need to clear the whole damn day!

First, It is National Home Brew day. This is the day that all of us home brewers brew in unison and celebrate the great art that has been practiced 8,000 years before JC did his thing. I'm not certain of my plans yet, but will either be at one of three places; Cap n' Cork, my backyard, or Nick's backyard. If anyone is interested in participating, just give me a shout, all are welcome.

Saturday night is the Fools for Oberon celebration at The Rock in Royal Oak. This is the sixth year for this annual event. David Munro from Bells will be on hand with plenty of giveaways and raffle prizes. Pints are $3 all night. Facebook has the official invitation, just search Fools for Oberon!

The Great Giant Pumpkin

For what it is worth, I had mentioned I believe in my first post that Jolly Pumpkin brewery in Dexter had plans to expand. Well, the cat is out of the bag, or perhaps pumpkin. Founder Ron Jefferies has been named president of Northen United Brewing Company (NUBC), a company that also includes Grizzly Peak, North Peak, Blue Tractor and Bastone. With the creation of NUBC, plans are in the works for the creation of three new tasting rooms / cafes in Ann Arbor, Dexter and Traverse City. Rather than selling and consuming their products on site, these establishments will focus on selling the products of the NUBC. In addition to that, Traverse City will see a 10,000BBL facility where Jolly Pumpkin will expand upon their tasty treats. $6 million has been invested in these ventures, complete with Michigan tax credits and the promise of more than 150 jobs over five years.

Founders Cerise

Founders Brewing has pushed the realms again and is set to expose its latest addition, Cerise. I haven't found much information on this production other than "Using only fresh Michigan tart cherries, this beauty tantalizes with intense flavors combined with a no hesitation malt bill. Adding fresh cherries at five separate stages of fermentation achieves the ultimate balance between tartness and bitterness." All I know is that five stages of cherries (hopefully all home grown in Michigan) has to taste fantastic. No doubt this liquid bliss will be packaged in sets of four bottles, of which I am sure to consume all at once.