Unintended Consequences

Certainly it would be hard to imagine on one's own that controversy surrounding relatively disgusting products marketed primarily to those with a vested interested in getting as obliterated as is chemically possible, Joose and Four Loco, would greatly affect craft beer.

But shortly after I heard that Joose and Four Loco were being pulled from the shelves if they didn't fundamentaly alter their products, I began wondering about the implications of this FDA intervention.

What about that double imperial coffee stout I enjoy grabbing from Hamilton's every once in a while?

Looks like someone at the NYT had the same thought, and decided to demonstrate it by tracking down someone I know only from her (grating) role in Beer Wars:

Ms. Kallman, a co-founder of the company that makes Samuel Adams, came up with the idea for a caffeinated beer around 2003, when energy drinks like Red Bull were soaring in popularity. She left Samuel Adams in 2000.

“I was looking at what consumers were drinking, and clearly it was caffeinated — look at Red Bull and Starbucks and even Mountain Dew,” Ms. Kallman said during an interview at her home overlooking Cohasset Harbor. Her office, a single desk, sits behind a couch in the living room. She is the company’s only employee.

And while everything from water to energy drinks with caffeine were selling briskly, Ms. Kallman’s amped-up beer was not. She re-introduced the beer in 2006 with more caffeine — 69 milligrams, about twice that of a can of Pepsi — and a bit more alcohol.

Kallman makes the case that, at just 5 percent ABV, her beer is incorrectly
being lumped into a discussion of drinks that are intentionally high in
alcohol and caffeine, which is meant to be the FDA's major concern,
anyway.

For fear of being cute, I can't help but recall her sales pitch to someone in
a bar during Beer Wars that explained Moonshot as "basically the
ultimate party beer."

NYT's writer gives a podium to Jay R. Brooks, a beer blogger who
says other beer dorks (that's you!) consider Moonshot a novelty beer,
but don't think it's very similar to Four Loco:

Mr. Brooks, who vehemently disagrees with the F.D.A.’s action, said that Ms.
Kallman’s beer became unfairly caught up in the regulations.

“There’s nothing about what she’s doing that makes it similar to Four
Loko,” Mr. Brooks said. “She was the dolphin that got snared in the
net.”

Though I don't honestly believe there's such thing as a free market, and I generally accept that the government has a job to do when it comes to ingesting things that might make us sick, I identify with the libertarian leanings of the many beer bloggers who are coming to Kallman's defense.

The target is drinks that are designed to be comsumed in large doses, and that become dangerous when that design is met. But it's nearly impossible to design a regulation that seperates Four Loko from Great Divide's Yeti Imperial Stout.

It's comforting if you're the type of person who drinks the latter to seperate yourself from those who drink the former under a rickety argument that, well, yeah, I drink the Yeti sometimes with the intention of feeling some degree of inebriation, but, ya see, I also am primarily doing it for the taste, so, ya know, it's different. Governance doesn't really work that way.

I'd like to think it'd be easy to set some baseline limits of what constitutes a safe cocktail of alcohol and caffeine, under which responsible parties like Great Divide can flourish and above which Joose cannot operate.

Freely I admit that I don't know much about the science here, and whether that's possible. But I have to ask, what happens if the drink-'till-I-puke, meathead contingent recognizes the loophole, and decides to set its challenge at eight Yeti's in an hour rather than four Four Lokos, and someone dies as a result? What's to say the baseline doesn't just get moved perpetually backward until it isn't a baseline of compliance, but rather a full-scale prohibition?

Ultimately, I think the FDA has little choice but to treat the matter as they treat spray paint, cough syrup, nitrous oxide, and any other number of legal products that can, nonethless, be used in ways other than their intended purpose and lead to physical harm.

Brew Masters review

It's never fair to form resolute conclusions on a TV show based on its pilot. For the sake of Brew Masters, a show I truly wanted to like, I'm going to observe that rule and not be too harsh.

Pilots need to introduce a show and its principal characters to a new audience, setting up both an immediate plot for the episode at hand, and long-term themes that project what the show intends to become in the not-too-distant future.

As such, they're prone to a sort of hand-holding exposition, wherein people are constantly telling you exactly what you're supposed to think about someone or something, with little in the way of organic evidence that those conclusions are in anyway valid.

In the case of "Bitches Brew," the pilot ep of Brew Masters, this comes in the form of a hammer-over-the-head insistence by the show's creators that we see Sam Calgione and his Dogfish Head Brewing Co. as a Jeffersonian symbol of individual liberty and a quintessentially American endeavor, respectively.

Sam's a local guy with humble beginnings, we're told ad nauseum, and his brewery bucks conformity, is a bastion of innovation and is above all else true to its ideals of experimentation--freedom-- in the realm of drinking beer.

In short, they spend 30 minutes spoon feeding the conclusion you came to the first time you read "off-centered ales for off-centered people" on a Dogfish beer bottle: damn, these pretentious fucks really take themselves seriously.

And you'd be right to think so, whether the thought was born from a bottle of beer or from a formulaic reality show on the Discovery Channel. But that doesn't mean they don't make good beer, nor does it mean the show can't be good.

The first episode was bad, to be sure.

Half of it was devoted to an assemblyline mishap devoid of even the token drama, heightened by a score of frantic string notes, to be sure, characteristic of most reality shows.

A piece of machinery is lost, most likely in a beer bottle. Assembly must halt until the part is found. If the part isn't found, $7,000 of beer will be lost to the Milton, Del. sewage system so as to avoid a lawsuit. Ten minutes of explaining the stakes follow. Then the part is found. Crisis averted.

The other half of the episode is legitimately interesting, and if it is the basis of the series, I expect to continue tuning in each week.

Sam wants to make a limited-edition beer to coincide with the anniversary of Miles Davis' seminal recording, Bitches Brew.

Incorporating flavors and traditions from Africa with those of America, the Bitches Brew beer will look to reflect the culture-fusing relevance of jazz generally, and Davis' 1970 hybrid record specifically. It'll be a dry imperial stout fused with an African-style honey beer made with gesho root.

The episode's at its most interesting when Sam and the other brewers are discussing the beer, how they'll achieve the desired flavors, and the self-imposed deadline within which they're working so they can unveil the offering at, Savor, a hoity-toity beer snob event in D.C.

Along the way, there are hints that Sam is the passionate advocate for good beer, and all relevant denunciations of cultural hegemony contained therein, that his company's marketing department keeps telling you he is.

When he's discussing the beer with impressed connioseurs at the event, it's a window into the finer aspects of his job and the trendy craft-beer scene in general. He and the experts engage in thoughtful consideration of what they're drinking, trade sincere suggestions for improvement, and Sam explains his intentions in more honest terms than we were provided during his talking-head segments in the rest of the episode.

For a man whose niche celebrity revolves around the fact that he's an honest hardworking chap just like you, and honest hardworking chaps like us are the backbone of this country, Calgione comes across as decidedly insincere and ready-made for much of this episode.

In the rest of the episode, he comes across as a talented guy who cares a hell of a lot about making good beer.

Of the above two scenarios, one is the basis for a show I want to watch, and the other is a basis of a reality show on Discovery's sister network, TLC, that premiered a week ago.

*I haven't had Bitches Brew, and since it's a limited release, I'm unlikely to do so while living in San Diego. Maybe Jason can find it at a store and provide some notes on it.

Boulder Brewing Company Hazed and Infused

Poured from a bomber into my new Duvel Tulip glass

I love this beer. As you can see it is a dark amber color with a frothy thick head. Slightly cloudy and inviting (isn't all beer?)

It smelled of dank, toasty hops. It was a bit floral with notes of pine. Herbal may be a better way to describe it. 

I love the taste, it was quite hoppy, I can taste what I smelled. Full bodied beer the flavor is robust. There is not much of a deviation from the initial hit of the herbal hops, I like this.

It felt rather heavy on my pallet and the carbonation was slightly higher then most ales but I feel it fit this beer well.

Like I said before, I loved it. 

JMo's Rating: 4

Belgian Family Brewers St Bernardus Abt 12

This one was special! I poured it from a bomber into a snifter.

This beer was a dark maroon color with a thick foamy head. It was very bright and inviting.

The beer smelled delicious, I got some sweet grape caramelly smell along with some raisins notes. Very fruity smell followed by a bit of a hoppy alcoholic finish.

The taste was slightly sweet and smooth. I tasted some grapes and raisins along with a touch of alcohol. It had similar wine characteristics with a light fizz. This may have been the best "built" beer I have ever tried. The balance was so precise along with the combination of flavors.

This beer had a light feeling that commanded attention to its complexity.

This beer reminded me of a Resurrection. I could tell that this is one of the finest beers brewed in the world. However, my personal tastes favor hoppier dryer beers. Although I can appreciate that I may never taste a beer brewed this perfectly again, I can't say that it was the best beer that I have ever had. If you get a chance to try this, you would be a fool not to. Its is certainly for a special occasion or a treat to yourself. I certainly will be trying this again in the future.

JMo's Rating: 3+

Green Flash Imperial IPA

Since this is our first post I would like to address a couple points. When we rate beer it will be on a scale of 1-5, 1 being average and 5 being perfect. We don't bash beers on this blog, we just give honest opinions based on how we personally viewed the experience.

I bought a 22oz Bomber, left it outside in the 50 degree weather for about an hour and poured it into a snifter.

The beer was a medium amber color with very light carbonation and a thick creamy head. 

Once I brought the glass to my nose I was knocked back by the strong floral and piney smell. Very piney! I had a flashback to being in the woods. I could almost taste the hops by the smell alone. It was quite interesting, I have never smelt such a dank pine before. 

The taste was very similar to the smell. The hoppiness of it was delightful. I was able to get a tinge of fruit, something bitter like a grapefruit accompanying the piney hops. There were several flavors I enjoyed, obviously, the hops (I can't get over how piney they were!) were the alpha male of this beer but the supplementary flavors worked well to balance it out.

Even though the flavors were robust, the mouthfeel was rather light and smooth. The alcohol was hidden very nicely. The carbonation was light and enjoyable, certainly not overpowering. 

Overall, I was impressed with this beer. It was not what I expected which is always fun. I have never smelled or tasted hops like this before. I think i said "it's so piney!" several times during the consumption (and this post). The beer started strong and finished strong. I am attracted to beers that set themselves apart from others. I can appreciate the brew-masters who take risks to create something different. This was a successful risk in my opinion considering I have never tasted hops that were this potent. It was easy to drink and I will definitely buy it again.

JMo's Rating: 4