Bad Beer: Wild Blue Blueberry Lager

You may recall that I previously debated whether or not to blog about bad beer. Debate is over. I'm ready to do it. All questions vacated my mind after I tasted this baddie.

Warning: Contains bad beer.

I had a "Wild Blue" blueberry lager a couple weeks ago, and it was definitively the worst beer I've ever had. Hands down. No joke. I despised it. It tasted like bubbly cough syrup. The only good thing about it was the 8% ABV, but even that didn't matter because I dumped it after I finished about 1/4 of the pint. I was tempted to dump it after only a few sips, but I wanted to give it a fair shake. I thought maybe it just didn't leave a good first impression but would be better after you got to know it. Nope. The first blueberry beer I've ever tried is a bust.

This drain-fodder was brought to us by the ubiquitous (and some would say, evil) Anheuser-Busch (ABInBev). While I don't partake of macro-brewery offerings very often, I do not discriminate and choose beer on that basis. I am always willing to try any beer and judge it based on the at-least-somewhat-objective characteristics of appearance, smell, taste, and mouthfeel. As a matter of fact, I had fairly decent remarks for ABInBev's Shock Top in my May 10, 2011 review.

Via Google+, someone observed that the label appears to show a dog...um, excreting the blueberry and that explains the taste. I think the graphic is supposed to be a depiction of a dog kicking a blueberry, but I prefer the former explanation because it does make sense.

• BeerAdvocate.com users didn't like it. They rated it 52/100, and the Brothers gave it a dismal 42/100.
• RateBeer.com users didn't like it even more. An overall rating of 9/100 is...pretty shabby.
• Untappd.com users rated it 3.5/5.0 bottle caps [1]. I gave it 0.5 because Untappd wouldn't let me give it a 0.

I'm hoping that this is an isolated incidence of bad beer and that it's not because it was blueberry. In fact, I have a follow-up to try in the near future: Blue Point Blueberry Ale. It's in the fridge now, so we'll see!

On one hand, I hope that I am never able to create a series of posts around the topic of bad beer. There are too many great-tasting beers in this world to waste time one the bad beers. On the other hand, I wouldn't mind as much because I would be able to warn you all not to waste your time! We'll see how the cookie crumbles. Prost!


Footnotes:
[1] I think this shows a demographic difference between Untappd users and BA / RB users. Perhaps BA / RB users, on the whole, are more into craft beer than Untappd users.

New Brewery Planned in York, PA

There's a new brewery and tasting room planned to open in York, PA this summer. In July 2013, East York can expect to become the home of Baldy Beard Brewing Company.

These guys are well on their way to starting up the new nanobrewery, but as I'm sure you an imagine, there are probably a million things to consider. With a brewery, of course, you've got to get federal and state licensing. And if that's anything like waiting in the DMV [1] just to update your driver's license photo, well, I'm sure they've got a lot of waiting to do. Even so, their brewing system has already been completed and is ready to be shipped, so please hurry up, PA officials!

I haven't had any of their beer yet, of course, but I can assure you that if it is as good as their creativity, it is going to be rockin'. If you want to see what I'm talking about, check out some of their updates over at their Kickstarter campaign. Speaking of their beer, check out this nice graphic they've put together:

Baldy Beard has also put together an interesting-sounding series called "The Peculiars". These are unique, special-release beers that we can expect to be surprised with on occasion. Some examples include:

• RumpelSTOUTskin - a mixed berry Belgian imperial stout
• Hoppenheimer - a Belgian dubbel IPA
• Missiletoe - holiday Belgian strong ale coming in around 15% ABV(!) and with notes of cherry and vanilla (yum!); limited release in November

I love the creative names they've come up with. I also love their slogan, "Unconventionally brewed, unconditionally loved", as well as their Twitter hashtag, #DrinkWithFriends. All around, I'm pretty excited for this new brewery and tasting room!

Though they haven't received all of the final approvals, Baldy Beard has a good location picked out, and they're working on raising the funds for renovating the place. That's the purpose of their Kickstarter campaign [2]. You can donate as little as $1, but if you pledge at least $10, there are some pretty sweet rewards for you as a backer. The more you pledge, the more cool things you get! Backers need to pledge at least $17,000 in this campaign, or Baldy Beard gets nothing [3]. At the time of this post and after adding my own pledge, 113 backers have pledged $11,350 toward Baldy Beard's goal of $17,000. With only 6 days left, Baldy Beard needs your help! I suggest that if you live in the Greater York, PA area and/or love craft beer, you should definitely consider pledging some money to Baldy Beard's cause. Please also consider "friending" them on Facebook, following them on Twitter, and helping them to promote their cause. We can always use more craft beer in York! Prost!

3/5/2013 Update: Baldy Beard's website has launched! Check it out at www.baldybeard.com.


Footnotes:
[1] Actually, my wife and I just updated our driver's licenses this weekend and were pleasantly surprised at how quickly the process went. Yorkers, I highly suggest hitting up the Runkle's location on Roosevelt Avenue. Of course, if everyone starts going there...
[2] If you're not familiar with Kickstarter, it's a crowdfunding website that allows new businesses to solicit funding from the market in order to get started. Assuming word gets around quickly enough, what a good way to see how much the people want your business!
[3] The way Kickstarter works is that if you pledge money toward their campaign but they don't reach their stated threshold, you do not owe them the money that you pledged. Of course, I'd much rather see them reach that threshold so that we can have some more craft beer in York!

Mudhook Brewing Beats "York Curse"

A year and a half ago, I remember reading a blog post by Philly-based author and beer blogger Lew Bryson. He talked about "The York Curse", whereby establishing a successful brewery in York, Pennsylvania seemed to be impossible. Many had tried; none had made it. At the time of his post, another start-up had just come on the scene: Mudhook Brewing Company. Lew said that if Mudhook were to still be in business in January of 2013, they would have broken "The York Curse". Well, I just checked my calendar, and the time has come to congratulate Mudhook! Way to go, guys!

Mudhook's Storefront

The brewpub is located on the beautiful Cherry Lane, and rather uniquely, it also connects to Central Market York, which is where the brewing actually occurs. The inside space is intimate (there might be 20 tables) and has a warm, inviting atmosphere. It is perfect for a casual dinner with a group of friends. Their pub fare is making me hungry just thinking about it.

The Inside Space (photo from MudhookBrewing.com)

So what's a "mudhook" anyway? Well, they explain that on their site. It's an anchor, which is exactly what Mudhook wanted their brewpub to be for Central Market York: the anchor, the premier place to go in York. In somewhat of a twist, they chose to use a fishhook for their logo, rather than an anchor.

And of course, I've got to talk about their beer! Each of the beers they offer is named in keeping with a fishing theme, which ties in with the fishhook in their logo. Their anchor brews (ha!) include The Panfish Pale Ale, The Hook Hopper IPA, The Redeye Irish Red, and The Deep Sea Stout. They also throw in some seasonal brews, and I have to say, I absolutely love their Oktoberfest (pictured below). They also offer a nice selection of local wines, which is good for my wife who does not like beer.

Mudhook's Oktoberfest is Extremely Tasty

Mudhook has certainly contributed to York's recent cultural upswing. If you live in the Greater York, PA area or happen to be visiting, I recommend that you plan on checking out this atmospheric brewpub. In fact, schedule permitting, I'd be happy to grab a burger and brew with you. Hit me up at JustinsBrewReview@gmail.com, or let me know via Facebook, Twitter, or Google+.

Mudhook, we raise our glasses to you for breaking "The York Curse". Here's to many more years of success. Prost!

The Election Results Are In

It's official: the election for the new logo for Justin's Brew Review is over. The results are in and the winner is...B!

Sorry that you all had to endure the slanderous political ads during this grueling logo election. I was really starting to get tired of A's infamous catchphrase: "We can't afford four more beers!" But I think that it was B's platform promise that really swung the election in its favor: "Read my lips: no new beer taxes". Whatever the case, I'm just glad that it's all over and done with. Now we can focus on the more important issues, like what other White House homebrews we can expect to be concocted over these next four years. (Oops, I just transitioned from talking about a logo election to the real thing.)

For those of you that like numbers (nerd alert, cough cough), here are some charts showing the number of votes and where they were cast:

Join the discussion, get beer-related updates, and don't miss out on exciting opportunities (like voting for a logo) by connecting with Justin's Brew Review via your favorite social media platform:

• Twitter (@BrewReviewMann)
• Google+ page
• Facebook page

Thanks for reading. Prost!

National Lager Day

December 10th is National Lager Day, another one of the random "Hallmark holidays" for beer lovers. [1] I celebrated with a couple Yuengling Traditional Lagers at our favorite local restaurant, The Conewago Inn, or as my wife and I like to call it, "The Inn". If you ask me, there is nothing more "American" than enjoying a classic, time-tested Yuengling brew. In this area, a "Yuengling Lager" is such a standard that you don't have to ask for it by name; you simply ask for a "lager". I like that.

In honor of Lager Day, I'm going to share a few tidbits about the tour of Yuengling's Pottsville, PA brewery that my wife, Diana, treated me to as an anniversary gift one year. (Yes, I know - my wife rocks!)

Front of the brewery. That's Diana at the bottom left.

Established in 1829, Yuengling is America's oldest brewery. It is a 5th generation family-owned operation. The tour guide told us that the current owner, Dick Yuengling, is grooming his daughters to be the 6th generation of owners. Pretty cool stuff.

Here's a picture of the guy that writes this blog

Yuengling also has a brewery in Tampa, Florida (we didn't get a chance to tour the Tampa facility that day...). I'm fairly convinced that they opened the Tampa location for the older Pennsylvanians who retire to Florida or at least spend their winters there. Makes it easy to find their favorite lager. Okay, you got me; that's pure speculation on my part. At any rate, Yuengling is obviously doing something right, because they have continued to exhibit steady growth over the years.

Part of the bottling line

The brewery is in an old building that was obviously not set up with lean systems in mind. First of all, the brewery is situated in a multi-story building, so it is more difficult to complete the manufacturing process. Also, the building is old so things are much more "cramped". I suppose people must have been shorter and smaller back in the day, because it seems like old buildings are always so much more compact than the buildings of today.

Old buildings are often not without opulence.
Here's a stained glass ceiling in one area of the brewery.

It's amazing what you can do in a small space though, because Yuengling produces 2.5 million barrels [2] of beer annually. Google's conversion calculator tells me that's 630 million pints! But compared with the big boys of brewing like AB InBev's Anheuser Busch, Yuengling is tiny [3]. I'm having trouble finding production numbers for comparison at the moment, so I'll go the other way. Compared with many other microbreweries, Yuengling is big! Consider that Dogfish Head Craft Brewery only produces 75,000 barrels a year. Also consider that when Tröegs moved from Harrisburg to Hershey, they planned to double production to 60,000 barrels a year.

Kegs in the cellar / conditioning area

Wrapping up now, the coolest thing about Yuengling was that you could tell it was steeped in tradition and rich in history. The tasting room at the end of the tour had an awesome old bar. The cellar where they condition the beer still had evidence of the Prohibition years [4]. In fact, there were still portions of the brick wall that government officials had erected in an effort to keep people from accessing the cellar, thereby effectively eliminating any chance of making beer.

Yuengling tasting room bar
(Photo courtesy of http://goo.gl/Oz9F6)

I very much enjoyed taking it all in. If you live within a few hours driving distance of Pottsville, I highly recommend making the trip to Yuengling for a tour.

I hope that you enjoyed this National Lager Day by celebrating with your own favorite lager. Thanks for reading, and as always, prost!

----------------------------

Footnotes:
[1] Wow, that opening line was extremely reminiscent of the beginning of my last post. I really gotta get a new hook...or blog more frequently than once a month!
[2] The unit "barrels" is abbreviated as "bbl", but I didn't use it here because I'm not sure how many people are familiar with that abbreviation. Also, I think it's silly that the abbreviation has two Bs. Here's an interesting article that tells where that second B comes from: http://goo.gl/kSLin.
[3] Even so, the Brewer's Association does not consider Yuengling to be a craft brewery because they do not meet the third of three criteria. A craft brewery must be 1) small, 2) independent, and 3) traditional. Even though Yuengling is not considered to be a craft brewery, they are a microbrewery.
[4] On December 5th, we just celebrated the 79th anniversary of the repeal of Prohibition, aka Repeal Day.

Visiting Dogfish Head on #StoutDay 2012

November 8th was International Stout Day, one of the many Hallmark holidays for beer lovers. You may recall that I posted about IPA Day in August, though I opted out for September's Sour Beer Day. I'm not sure if October had a special day since there's already a couple weeks devoted to the beer style and the festival, Oktoberfest. I have yet to find a calendar of all the "beer days", but when I do, you can be sure I'll share.

I'm not entirely sure why there seems to be such an explosion of popularity in these "beer days", but they are obviously designed by and for the craft beer enthusiast (CBE). I believe that "beer days" are partially driven by CBEs wanting to show off to their CBE-friends via their favorite social media platform (many in which Justin's Brew Review participates). Badges like the one pictured above from Untappd are doled out to CBEs who post them to their social media profiles, thereby instilling a sense of community among posting participants. But I believe that the explosion of popularity in "beer days" is also partially attributable to the explosion of popularity of craft beer itself. One article from June 18, 2012 says that "the total number of breweries in the United States now exceeds 2,000--more than at any time since the 19th century, let along the prohibition years of the 1930s". Another article from August 6, 2012 says that in the last year, 350 new breweries were opened. That's nearly one brewery for every day of the year! As the craft beer scene continues to increase in popularity, I believe we'll see a proliferation of complementary products and services, such as the "beer days".

At any rate, I wouldn't typically go out of my way to celebrate a "beer day" and technically didn't this time around either. We just happened to schedule a vacation with my in-laws to Lewes, Delaware that coincided with Stout Day. And of course Lewes is only a few miles away from Milton, which means a trip to the awesome Dogfish Head Craft Brewery! (You may recall that I posted about our last trip there in May.) My wife was kind enough to schedule the tour and tasting on Stout Day. (Yes, she rocks.) And the "off-center" geniuses at DFH decided to provide only stout samples that day, so we rocked out by tasting:

1. Bitches Brew
   (rated 100 overall by 620 on RateBeer users!)
2. Chicory Stout
   (rated 96 overall by 1,634 RateBeer users)
3. Palo Santo Marron
   (rated 99 overall by 1,682 RateBeer users!)
4. World Wide Stout (WWS, from 2011, 2010, 2009, and 2008)
   (rated 98 by the Bros. on BeerAdvocate and 100 overall by 1,898 RateBeer users!)

Judging by those ratings, craft beer lovers obviously love Dogfish Head! I thought that all four beers nailed the style, and I especially liked the notes of roasted coffee in the Chicory Stout. The coolest part, though, was the vertical tasting of WWS. I was able to taste how the beer changed over time. The older it was, the sweeter it got. My favorite of the WWS was the 2010; it had matured nicely without too much sweetness.

How did you celebrate Stout Day? Did you even know about it? What's your favorite stout at the moment? Let me know in the comments or catch me on FB, G+, or Twitter. Prost!

The Election is NOT Over

Yes, you read the title correctly. The election is not over, because you weren't provided with all of the choices. Cast your vote for the new Justin's Brew Review logo today!

Yes, I went there, but I only did it in the interest of making sure your voice is heard. Use the comments section or send me an email at JustinsBrewReview@gmail.com to vote.

Actually, this election has been going on for the last week via social media, and I apologize for not thinking to post it here until now. If you aren't yet connected to Justin's Brew Review on Facebook, Google+, or Twitter, follow the links I just provided and get connected. Or you can always visit my blog later, and click on the social media links at the top of the page to get connected.

Don't miss your chance to have a hand in the future of Justin's Brew Review. Popular vote decides; there is no electoral college to factor in to this decision. Remember: if you don't vote, you can't complain about the outcome.

Prost!