One Year of PRB!

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Hello, friends. In case you missed yesterday's video (or didn't watch the whole thing), TODAY is the first birthday of Pourly Reviewed Beer!

To be honest, a year ago, I wasn't quite sure how far this would go.

The initial blogging concept started early in 2015 (as Inside the Keg), and Pourly Reviewed Beer started in what I'm calling the "Beta phase" in September of 2015. But that attempt resulted in just a handful of beer-related posts in a six-week period. Now, a catastrophic flood did play a bit of a role in that inconsistency, but mostly it was on me, and at the end of October I finally hunkered down and started writing pretty regularly.

After a regular posting schedule, I decided to add video to the site, grabbed a YouTube channel, and began weekly video reviews in February. That spring, the Six-Pack of News debuted, creating a dedicated semi-regular/as-needed news platform that had been attempted and abandoned a few times previously. Those first half of 2016 also brought the first theme weeks (Columbia Craft Beer Week in January and St. Patrick's week in March), the first event report (the Columbia Brew Bus in April), and the first in-depth location/travel posts (Posts from Asheville in May and June). The end result was an ever-increasing posting frequency, from about 10 posts/month at the beginning of 2016, to around 15/month in May and June, to what will likely be at least 20 posts in October.

So, where do we go from here?

Well, more of the same, and more frequently, is a start. I'm personally committing to having at least 5 posts per week, in an attempt to make this a site that MUST BE visited daily. This will include my recent commitment of YouTube videos each Tuesday/Thursday/one weekend day. After just doing a couple of events this year, I feel like that will be a big area of potential growth. Columbia has so many excellent beer events year-round now, and they should be shared with the world.

I also need to utilize social media better. Right now, the Twitter page gets some love thanks to some of my fellow beer bloggers and vloggers, but the Facebook page is little more than notices about new blog articles. Both platforms can be better utilized. I started this by linking my Untappd account to the PRB Twitter handle (add me on Untapped, username: PourlyReviewedBeer), but I just need to add my own thoughts and opinions to these platforms as they strike me.

Long form news and opinion pieces could also be a next step, but I will need to see how that fits into my current blogging set-up. Still, it's something worth looking into for the next year.

Now, to the many people I have to thank.

I must start with my incredibly supportive family, who are wonderful in so many ways.

To all the readers and viewers, thanks for stopping by, and stopping by often. Special thanks to those commenters, especially on YouTube. It's made for some great conversation, debate, and networking!

Specifically, to the members of the Columbia beer scene that have stopped by my little corner of the internet, thanks so much, and if there's anything at all I can do to help you out, let me know. I would love to do some collaboration.

 

Thanks so much, everyone, for all of your support. Here's to Year 2! Cheers!

Beers in Review: Assorted trio

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In today's BiR, two breweries are making their site debuts! Let's see who's here!

Leading off is Ithaca Beer Company and Flower Power IPA. Flower Power pours an amber to gold color, and is quite bitey--we'll get to that bit in a moment. A delightful flavor profile leads with a sweetness that reminds me of gummy orange slices, perhaps with the sweetness dialed down just a hair (though, still plenty of sweetness to be found). Further on, piney hops and a great deal of floral aromatics donate the senses. The mouthfeel can be a bit prickly, with perhaps almost too much carbonation. The only real downpoint for me was a hop bite that gradually builds while drinking and even after drinking the beer. It's completely tolerable for one beer, but this would probably not be a session, or even just "I'll have another", option.

Next is a beer from Fish Brewing Company, under their Fish Tale Organic series. Their Organic IPA is an orange-bronze color, and I was impressed by the malt/hop balance in this IPA. Initially, a malty sweetness leads off the drinking experience, shortly leading to citrus and pine hop notes with a minimal amount of bitterness. In addtion, there were also some spicy notes present in the back end of the drinking experience. This IPA features what is, essentially, my perfect flavor profile.

Finally, from two newbies to a fairly common brewery, Redhook Ale Brewery and their ESB. A pale orange to copper color, I first noticed the beer's creamy mouthfeel. A mildly sweet caramel maltiness was the first flavor I picked up, along with some earthy and bready notes, almost like a dense wheat or darker bread. There is also a very slight hop bitterness that mostly comes out in the aftertaste. Despite this now being a Budweiser product, I find this to be a decent little ESB, especially for what is usually a fairly affordable price point.

Beers in Review: Heavy Hitters

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I've got some big beers queued up for this review, so let's get started.

We start off with Thomas Creek Brewery and their Bourbon Barrel-Aged Quad, using Four Roses Bourbon barrels. This beer pours a deep brown and is quite hazy. The leading flavor is a whole lot of sugar, almost to the point of being sickly sweet, with notes of chocolate and dark fruits. Also, there was something in there I couldn't quite identify, flavor-wise, but it was almost making my lips pucker, as if there were some kind of sour or bitter note, but I detected neither. I would imagine such a note would speak loud and clear against the sweet notes, unless they were buried incredibly deep by that sweetness. Checking in at 10% ABV, the boozy note also pushes pretty hard. Despite those last couple of things, this was a damn tasty beer.

Next up is Sacred Heartier Double IPA from Columbia's own Conquest Brewing Company. Another big time beer, but it a totally different way from the Quad, obviously. The beer is a pretty orange color and quite clear. It is possible my palate was a bit skewed from the Quad, but this DIPA wasn't as sweet/boozy as I find most in the style to be. I was not bothered by this at all, as I enjoyed the solid hop presence that brought pine notes and a hint of citrus to the flavor profile. I haven't always been big on Conquest--I find them to be inconsistent, generally--but this was quite the hit for me. I just hope it's the same the next time I try it.

Finally, from Founders Brewing Company is the world-class Breakfast Stout. It's very nearly pitch black in color, with a mild boozy note (ABV 8+%) and some dark fruit. The Stout also brought a little bit of coffee and a slight-but-delightful chocolate brownie note that came through in the end of the drinking experience AND EVEN MORESO in the aftertaste. This beer has a considerable reputation, and it stood up to that reputation in my eyes.

So, this finally marks the end of all my beer reviews from the Craft and Draft Octoberfest party. I tried to save the best for last, but the truth is that virtually everything I had at this event was excellent. I look forward to this being an annual event curated by the great guys at C & D!

 

Video Review: Shiner Kosmos Reserve

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The latest video review is Kosmos Reserve from Spoetzl Brewery, aka Shiner. Check it out!

I'm looking to get into a more regular posting schedule. My goal is to have videos Tuesdays, Thursdays, and once on the weekend, likely Sundays. Mondays, Wednesdays, and Friday (and, frankly any video day, as well) will be dedicated to Beers in Review, Six-Packs of News, and more. The end goal is at least 5-6 posts per week, making PRB a location worth visiting daily.

 

 

 

That's the plan, anyway.

Six-Pack of News, Volume 13

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Welcome to the latest Six-Pack of News, the 3rd news article in 8 days here at PRB. I've rounded up some news and a bit of handy beer knowledge that's worth checking out. Let's start with the big boys of beer, shall we?

Fresh off their assimilation of SABMiller, official World's Largest Beer Company A-B InBev's venture capital arm, ZX Ventures, acquired Northern Brewer Homebrew Supply and its sister company, Midwest Supplies. Northern, the country's largest homebrewing supplier, explained that "[n]othing will fundamentally change in as the result of this deal--in fact, things will only get better." As always, time will tell on such "partnerings".

A couple of higher-ups are leaving Dogfish Head and Surly Brewing.

Vinepair likes their lists, and their latest is a rundown of their favorite Anniversary craft beers. This list includes some widely-distributed brewers (Stone, Great Divide), some of the industry's heaviest hitters (Firestone Walker), and a few smaller releases that might not necessarily make it to your particular area.

Vinepair also tries to be hip while explaining the drastic downturn in pumpkin beer sales in the last two years. As a note, I disagree with one the finale premises of the article, stating that early August is a "seasonally appropriate time" to release pumpkin beers. Week before Labor Day, people! No sooner!

New Delhi, India-based microbrewer Bira 91 used viral marketing to attain a level of success, and now a major venture capital firm has noticed.

Finally, not so much of a piece of news, but some good advice for fans of food pairings. We always see analyses of wines to pair with certain foods. And some breweries have started doing this on their bottles and/or websites recently. But craftbeer.com has made it easy for everyone by making this Beer and Food Pairing Chart. The chart is also available for download.

 

Video Review: Brooklyn Defender IPA

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I'll be honest. The blog is named "Pourly Reviewed Beer", with emphasis on the first two words, for a reason. I don't pretend to be an expert at this stuff, and sometimes, even when the palate isn't cooperating, you feel the need to push out some content. Especially when you haven't done a video review in 5 days. This is The Brooklyn Brewery's Defender IPA. I don't tell you much about, but it truly is a delicious beer. If you should find it, give it a try. I'll try to get back on track for Thursday's review.

Beers in Review: Still working the backlog

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I have some more beers here from the Craft and Draft Octoberfest, so let's get right into it.

First up is an Orange-Infused Golden/Blonde Ale from Cooper River Brewing Company. The name of the beer brings you just about everything you need to know about this beer. It pours a nice gold-orange color, and brings orange and orange rind flavor notes, along with maybe just a hint of funkiness. It's not too sweet, which is good, and has a fairly clean finish, though a bit of a grainy or corny note in the ending.

Next is B.W. BeerWorks, which is operating under the name RavenBeer, and their Annabel Lee white ale. This was a fairly basic, but well executed, wheat beer: hazy, straw yellow with a refreshing lemony tartness, along with some other citrus notes, a very mild sweetness, and some spice notes, such as clove and coriander. The Annabel Lee also brought a clean finish. Again, nothing ground-breaking in this beer, but a fine illustration of style.

Next up was a bit of right turn at the festival, as I dove into Flemish sour style with Oude Bae from Stillwater Artisanal Ales (sorry about that website--it's a bit of a thing). A nice brownish, reddish copper color with lots of sour fruit and a bit of a red wine note. This really isn't surprising, as Oude Bae is billed as a sour ale brewed with Pinot Noir grapes. It's fairly two-note (sour, assorted fruits), but it is a tasty sour ale.

I closed out the straight fruity section of my tasting experiences with a Wild Ale from Crooked Stave Artisan Beer Project called Petit Sour Cassis. It poured the color of grapefruit fruit/flesh and initially had a very slight sour note. The flavor profile was led by mild citrus, almost to the effect of something like unsweetened lemon-lime soda or similarly-flavored seltzer water. There was also perhaps a winey quality in this beer, as well, though I got white wine in this one.That slight sour note also grew as the beer warmed a bit. A really enjoyable drinking experience, and one that I've rarely had.

Layoffs are coming fast and furious from the beer production world.

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I could wait until the next Six-Pack of News to report this, but given the pattern, it feels like it needs its own article.

Draft Magazine and others are reporting that Stone Brewing Company is laying off at least 75 workers, including many long-time Stone employees. Stone cited an "unforeseen slowdown in...growth" among the reasons for the layoffs. The full Stone public comment is included in the Draft article. The layoff is quite surprising, given Stone's ongoing ambitious expansion plans.

Stone is not alone in recent layoffs. The Craft Brew Alliance, who makes Redhook, Widmer, and Kona, among others, recently laid off 12-20 workers in its Woodinville, WA production facility, again noting a decline in production of Redhook beers and lack of demand from a Pabst Brewing offshoot for which the Woodinville facility was making beer.

Finally, MillerCoors closed a plant in Eden, North Carolina last month, impacting over 500 people. This followed layoffs at that same plant that had previously taken place over the summer.

Six-Pack of News, Volume 12

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After a couple of weeks, the Six-Pack is back, and there's plenty to get into, including the recently-completed Great American Beer Festival.

GABF handed out 286 medals to 254 different breweries at this weekend's festival. As a South Carolinian, I'd like to congratulate Revelry Brewing Company and Swamp Rabbit Brewery and Taproom for earning Silver Medals in the Scotch Ale and Bock categories, respectively. You can see the entire list of winners, including Champion Breweries and Pro-Am winners, right here.

Vinepair likes their lists, and in the last few weeks have given their thoughts on the best Fall beers and their favorite beers for tailgating. Some surprises on the latter list--I never expected it to be so Pale Ale/IPA-heavy.

In a follow-up to the last Six-Pack, Cape May Brewing Company was named Start-up/Young Manufacturer of the Year by the New Jersey Manufacturing Extension Program. Congrats, guys!

In what seems to be good news for craft beer drinkers, but really isn't, researchers from Friedrich Schller University Jena in Germany determined that IPAs are less harmful to the liver than other forms of alcohol, per a study performed on rats. Now, the key words are "LESS HARMFUL", as in, "still harmful" to the liver.

In what seemed to be the day's big beer news, Japan's Kirin Brewery purchased a roughly 24.5% stake in Brooklyn Brewery. The transaction, which was valued at "several billion yen" (placing it in the $40-80 million range, roughly) also includes a new joint venture which will be 40% owned by Brooklyn, as well as product development for the Japan market, restaurant development, and an expansion of Brooklyn products into Brazil. It is worth noting that by limiting Kirin's stake to under 25%, Brooklyn can maintain its independent craft brewery designation with the Brewers Association.

Finally, I seem to frequently drop in a story of local/South Carolina interest, and this Six-Pack is no different. The City of Columbia's Board of Zoning Appeals approved a microbrewery that will takeover an abandoned warehouse in the Innovista district in the western part of Columbia. The Columbia Craft Brewing Company has investors and a professional brewer ready to begin operations, as soon as the warehouse is renovated and prepped for operations.

Video Review: Video Number 50! Sculpin-mania!

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This is my 50th video for PRB. I'll be honest--I wasn't sure I'd get past 5 videos. But a weekly video series quickly turned into 2 to 3 videos nearly every week, resulting in 50 videos in less than 8 months. My thanks to all of my readers and viewers for their support.

For this 50th video, I present a very special tasting, centered around Ballast Point Brewing Company's terrific Sculpin IPA. Here it is:

Beers in Review: Notables from Craft & Draft Octoberfest

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Greetings from PRB Northern Command!

 

.....

 

It's my parents' house.

And no, I did not run away from the hurricane (though I hope anyone reading this that was in its path is safe and secure), but traveled up here for personal reasons. But travelling won't stop me from writing about beer! I still have to write about quite a few beers from the Craft and Draft Octoberfest event, and this intro is already overly long, so let's get started!

First up is a seasonal lager from Hi-Wire Brewing. The charmingly-titled Zirkusfest pours a nice deep copper color, and opens up with a slightly sweet malt backbone. Also among the flavors is a semi-sweet caramel note, along with some other burnt sugars. This all leads to a crisp and fairly clean finish. I found this to be a pretty solid Marzen overall, though it was perhaps a bit overshadowed by some of the other offerings at this event.

Next is another fall seasonal, Thicket Autumn IPA by Natty Greene's Brewing Company. Also pouring a copper color, a standard of most fall beers, I was quite impressed by the hop/malt balance. The nice, spicy malts blend well with dank and piney hop notes. I found little-to-no sweetness in this beer, though it should be noted I had this immediately after the Zirkfusfest, which DID have a bit of sweetness to it. Such can be the hazards of reviewing at such an event. I found this to be a really nice beer, though. The balance of flavors was very pleasing to me. I probably need to try to track this down and try it solo, away from all other beers. Perhaps as a video review?

We now switch gears into more fruity selections, beginning with a fruited Berliner-Weiss from Southern Barrel Brewing Company. Wild Bramble pours a pretty fruity reddish-pink color with a considerable amount of haze. The flavors are pretty straight forward; the Berliner-Weiss is made with raspberries and blackberries, and so those tart berry flavors come through in a strong way. This beer is light, crisp, refreshing, and pretty tasty--everything you would want out of a Berliner-Weiss.

Today's final entry comes from Good Times Brewing. Not Your Grandma's Peach Cobbler is a Bourbon barrel-aged Brown Ale. The color follows suit to the style: a somewhat cloudy brown color. While there were some malt hints detectable in this beer, a few other flavors overtook those malts. Peach and peach skin are quite present, along with a little bit of a brown sugar note. There is also perhaps a hint of booze. Even so, a nice tasty beer that brings some differing elements from your standard Brown.

 

Beers in Review: Playing catch-up

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After Sunday's little party, I have whole bunch of beers about which to write, but I'm still playing catch-up from the previous week! We'll see if I'm feeling frisky and want to write about a couple beers more than usual. Let's get started.

Leading off is Picture of Nectar Double IPA from Southbound Brewing Company. It pours a yellow-gold color, and features peach and peach skin flavors, along with some floral aromatic notes and piney hops. I got a mild bitterness on the back end of the drinking experience, as well as some earthiness towards the end. It wasn't too sweet, and also not really boozy, which was a slight surprise for 9.3% ABV. A very drinkable DIPA.

It seems like I've covered a lot of Bell's Brewery lately--the Octoberfest series has aided that perception--and the latest in a series of very good beers from Bell's is their Special Double Cream Stout. As expected, it pours a near-black color, and offers notes of coffee as well as some cocoa and perhaps even a hint of smokiness. It's very tasty overall, with a fairly smooth mouthfeel (again, as expected from a DOUBLE cream beer).

Third up is the highly-regarded Narwhal Imperial Stout from Sierra Nevada Brewing Company. This beer is pretty much pitch black, with some quite tasty flavor notes, including dark fruit, raisins, plums, sweet chocolate and vanilla, and sweet maltiness. It has an incredibly complex flavor profile, with a moderate amount of booziness. This my first tasting of Narwhal, and it lives up to its reputation.

Finally, let's jump into one beer from Octoberfest on Sunday. This Brewdy Peach/Habanero IPA was brewed by Low Tide Brewing Company for The Fat Hen, a French Low Country restaurant just outside Charleston, SC. Pouring a cloudy orange color, this IPA brings plenty of pepper. The Habanero kick is evident from the outset, as a just-uncomfortable-enough spiciness invades the throat upon the first sip and persists even after swallowing. A black pepper note joins it early on, before being joined by the peach and maybe a funk note, as well. The hops come through in the back half of the drinking experience, an experience which includes a bit of a creamy mouthfeel. This is an impressive beer, and the first I had at Octoberfest. It was a hell of a lead-off hitter.