Ebenezer's 2010 Belgian Beer Dinner

This is absolutely epic! A very elegant and high end beer dinner with excellent Belgian Style Ales .

Info from the Beer Advocate here

More commentary from Beer News here.

Sign up for the event at the Home Brew Chef website here.

The even is held on August 19th. Check out the menu below:

Brewers Association 2010 Mid-Year Craft Beer Growth

Discoverd At BeerNews.org



“While craft brewer sales volume climbed 9 percent in the first half of 2010, overall U.S. beer industry volume sales are down 2.7 percent so far,” noted Paul Gatza, director of the Brewers Association. “There is a movement by beer lovers to the innovative and flavorful beers created by America’s small and independent craft brewers. More people are starting to think of craft-brewed beer first when they buy in restaurants, bars and stores.”

“Entrepreneurs across the land are creating jobs by opening new microbreweries and brewpubs, and we are also seeing many homebrewing hobbyists going pro by starting what have been referred to as nanobreweries,” Gatza added. “Super tiny microbreweries or brew pubs, that make beer for a very localized network of taverns and stores, are starting to become a trend, primarily in the states that allow self-distribution as a means of getting beer to market.”

Pliny the Elder Beer Wins 2 Years in A Row

"Pliny the Elder died on August 25, 79 AD, while attempting the rescue by ship of a friend and his family from the eruption of Mount Vesuvius that had just destroyed the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum. "

Ok, enough History, Zymurgy heralds the Hoppy "Pliny the Elder" Beer as the best beer TWO YEARS IN A ROW.

The Beer Advocate also has some good things to say about this beer.



Thanks to Pivovar Freshnock for the pic.

Blogger Sucks

Damn Blogger, forcing me to post to blog.smartbrewer.com instead of using the incorporated smartbrewer.com/blog.

I think Google is being evil because now there's a stupid NavBar on the top of my blog that no one wants.

-Andy

Point of Origin?

So the title is a little misleading. I have a problem with Smart Brewer that I cannot really solve. When a user adds a Malt to a recipe it might look something like this:

2-Row Pale Ale Malt

Or This...

American 2-Row Pale Ale Malt

Or This...

Great Western 2-Row Pale Ale Malt (US)

Or This...

Great Western 2-Row Pale Ale Malt

I guess the main issue is that I cannot have every variation of every vendor and country of origin for each malt. Can I? I think I'll go back to square one without using any Vendor specific malts in my "Fermentables Table". I can also make the Country of Origin optional.

-Andy

Fixed the "My Ingredients" Bugs

Sometimes a picture is more valuable....

Here's a picture of my current ingredients, looks like it's working well.

Feasibility of a 1/2 Barrel Startup?

So, most people know a barrel of beer in the U.S. is 31 gallons and a half barrel (the kind most people buy) is 15.5 gallons. This is generally the largest home brew setup people can build in their homes. Occasionally people get as big as 20 gallons but 15.5 gallons is pretty big.

Is it feasible to start a brewery with a 1/2 barrel system?

In theory, maybe, in practical application, no.

Here's why:

Say you can brew 5 days a week at 15 gallons per day. That would be 75 gallons of beer per week or 300 gallons per month. Of course, there are always problems with production when getting started so say that 300 gallons is now 280 gallons per month. One gallon holds 128 ounces or roughly 5.8 bottles of beer per (at 22 ounces). So 5.8 bottles x 280 gallons = 1,624 bottles of beer per month.

Ok, now hypothetically say you can skip the distributor and sell directly to the retailers for $2.50/ bottle. If the bottle, label, water, propane comes to $1/bottle there's a $1.50 profit per bottle.

$1.50 x 1,624 = $2,436

Take into account the Tax man because this is alchohol and subtract %40. Your take home profit would be $1,416 dollars.

Feasible yes, profitable, not really.