Tag Archives: Schlafly

2011 – The year in Beer

Posted on January 2, 2012 | 2 Comments

So, another year is in the books, which means another hour spent on New Year’s Day employing my children to sort and count the bottle caps collected from the previous year. As always, these simply represent every bottle of beer opened in the Nelson household during the previous year, regardless of who consumed them (though the vast, vast majority was me).

Total caps: 490

Breweries Represented: 28

Breweries with more than 10 caps (and % of total):

Schlafly – 17.8%

Firestone Walker/Nectar Ales – 12.4%

Budvar – 9.4%

Stone – 8%

Homebrew – 7.3%

Founder’s – 5.9%

Bell’s (all Two-Hearted) – 4.9%

Weihenstephaner (all Festbier) – 4.9%

Goose Island – 4.9%

Moosehead – 4.5%

Odell – 4%

Capital – 3.2%

Sierra Nevada – 2.2%

As “interesting” as these raw numbers are, I must add a few points for context. First, thanks to the generosity of Portland-bound friends Zac and Kate Duncan, I returned to the privileged class of people with kegerators, when Zac and Kate donated theirs to my cause.  Since that point, I’ve enjoyed the following:

1/4 bbl of Odell St. Lupulin

2 – 1/4 bbls of Odell IPA (2d keg in progress)

1 – 1/6 bbl of Urban Chestnut Zwickel (which lasted all of 7 days during the worst of this hateful summer’s heat)

1 – 1/6 bbl of Founder’s Red’s Rye

1 – 1/6 bbl of homebrew (still in progress)

So, taking the kegs into account,  Odell was far and away the most consumed brewery this year, basically tripling Schlafly. I’m very much in love with Odell’s IPA, and their St. Lupulin and (incredibly boringly named) Red Ale, all of which meld a serious punch of hop aroma and flavor, with a velvety malt load that just works for my palate. Founder’s also would get a significant bump, and Urban Chestnut would jump into the ranking.

Also missing from the above numbers are canned craft beer. I know I went through a couple of 12 packs of Capital Supper Club (thanks, Annie!) , and several (4, 5, 6?) six packs of Ska Brewing‘s Modus Hoperandi. I just did a crap job (read – no attempt at all) to track those this year. Sorry to the fine folks at Capital (who’d be finer if they distributed to St. Louis!) and Ska. Love your beers, but caps are easier to keep than cans.

Finally, I feel a need to explain the Moosehead entry. I grew up in Michigan, and, during college, Canadian beer was cheap.  Really cheap. In fact, when I moved to St. Louis, a case of Moosehead bottles at the store where I worked would set you back all of $12, and it was the most expensive of the Big 3 Canadian brands. When we were too flush with cash for bottom tier stuff like Weidemann’s, Beast or Schaefer (all at about $5 a case), but not spendy enough for craft, we went Canadian.

So, the summer of 2012 went through a rather oppressive phase. This isn’t uncommon (especially for someone from Michigan), but I was desperate for a beer I could chill and swill. I had been reading some mysteries set in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula during this period, many of which featured Canadian beer prominently. This triggered a nostalgic craving for some basic Canadian suds. Moosehead being the freshest of those at the Schnuck’s, I went with it. And enjoyed it. I might even do it again.

Previous years are here:

2010

2009

2008

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The Year in Bottled Beer Drinking – 2010

Posted on January 3, 2011 | 1 Comment

As always, my children were put to work on New Year’s Day sorting and counting the bottlecaps I have collected over the previous year.  For those who are new to this game, I collect the caps from every bottle opened for drinking at my house and keep them in a big jar.  This includes bottles opened by guests, at parties, etc. and were not all consumed by me!

2010 was my first full year without a kegerator, which definitely boosted the number of caps (I also kept track of cans in a spreadsheet and these are included in the numbers below).  The total for the year was 756 beers consumed.  The brewery breakdown is as follows for all breweries that had ten or more beers consumed:

Homebrew – 16.1%

Schlafly – 15.3%

Bell’s – 8.2% (over 2/3 was Two-Hearted)

Ska – 7.1%

Budvar – 5.5%

Weihenstephaner – 4.6% (all Festbier)

Sierra Nevada – 4.1%

Founder’s – 3.7% (all Red’s Rye, except for a single Breakfast Stout)

Capital – 3.6%

Big Sky – 3.4%

Lagunitas – 2.5%

Southern Tier – 2.2%

Ayinger – 2.1% (all but two were Oktoberfest)

New Glarus – 2.1%

Odell – 2.1% (all St. Lupulin)

New Belgium – 1.4%

Tallgrass – 1.4%

Pedantic aside:  Jolly Pumpkin likely would have made the list, near the bottom, but their caps are plain.  This year, I’ll be sure to identify them myself.

2010 was definitely the Year of Beer for me.  For whatever reason, my wine consumption was much lower than normal, and whisky was negligible until the last couple of months of the year.  I was pleasantly surprised to see homebrew already taking the quantity crown since I only resumed brewing part way through the year.  I expect its lead to increase in 2011 as I’ve been brewing regularly, and, apparently, drinking my homebrew regularly as well (that hasn’t always been the case).  In 2011, I’ll be shooting for better balance between beer, wine and whisky, and overall lower consumption.

Oh, and hey Capital! You see that you clocked in at #9 overall when you’re not distributed within  250 miles of my house? Please get a distributor in St. Louis.  I’m far from the only one who would buy a lot, as we have a severe craft lager deficit!  My consumption of Budvar would disappear if I could get Capital Pilsner here.  Thanks.

Previous Years are here:

2009

2008

Pedantic aside: My kegerator was up and running during ’08 and ’09, so the bottled numbers are much lower than this year.

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Drinking Domestic for a year – a shameless, but sincere, stunt

Posted on September 2, 2010 | Leave a comment

I love lagers.  A good 30% of my beer consumption is probably in the form of lagers and, as they’re not something I’m capable of producing with my current homebrewing system, I continue to buy them.  Sadly, they’re not something many domestic craft brewers do well.

There are a couple of craft examples available locally that are good (Schlafly Pilsner and Helles, and New Belgium Blue Paddle), but they’re not really in the same league as Budvar, Pilsner Urquell,  and the seasonal Ayinger Oktoberfest and Weihenstephaner Festbier I’ve been enjoying.  That’s not as bad a diss on the domestics as it may seem – we’re talking about being compared to absolute world class beers here.  And, when said top notch lagery goodness is sitting in the cooler beside them and in good shape for at most a buck or two more a six pack, I admit that I choose the imports at a very high rate.

However, two of my favorite domestic lager brewers may be making their offerings available in St. Louis.  Capital Brewery from Madison, Wisconsin is already in the state, having secured a distributor in Kansas City, but hasn’t made it to St. Louis yet.  I’ve been a big fan of theirs for years and, with relatives in Chicago and Wisconsin, I regularly load up and schlep supplies back.  But it is painful knowing that they’re actually in the state, but just not available here.

Now word has come out that Victory Brewing from Downington, Pennsylvania, may put some of their newly-increased capacity to use by bringing their fine line of lagers (and ales . . .) to Missouri as well.  Their outstanding Prima Pils is one of my favorite beers – full stop.  How much do I love Prima?  Well, if you check my list of kegs from the glory days when my kegerator was functional, you’ll notice that I went through a half barrel (that’s 15.5 gallons for those not in the know) of this fine beer.  What doesn’t show from that list is how quickly it disappeared  and how little was consumed by people other than yours truly.  I love this beer.

So, here’s the deal.  WHEN (not going with any “ifs” here) both Capital and Victory show up on the shelves  in St. Louis, I will commit to drinking nothing but domestic craft beer for at least an entire year from that date.  No imported lagers, no Cantillon, Fantôme, or Mikkeller (my other import weaknesses).  Zero.  For at least a year.  Plus, I’ll blog and tweet and write about my experiment throughout the year, giving full credit to the fine folks at Capital and Victory for finally pushing me to full domestic consumption.

So, what say you Capital Brewery and Victory Brewing?  Will you take me up on it?  Any other St. Louis beer lover’s willing to join me?  I’d love to see these two breweries in town, and can’t wait to be drinking their terrific beers.

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New Excitement for Brewing

Posted on March 10, 2010 | 1 Comment

Two forces have converged to really motivate me to pick up the mash paddle again after a really slow pace over the past 15 months or so.  Having brewed since 1994, I know that enthusiasm ebbs and flows, but this has been one of my longer (though not the longest) periods of low activity.

The prime driver for my rekindled flame was an interview I did with a Wash U. grad student about homebrewing last week.  I met Antonio via introduction by Schlafly‘s Stephen Hale at the pick-up location for Fair Shares, our local CCSA, of which Antonio and I are both members.  Talking about why I got into brewing in the first place, and my philosophy on designing beers got the creative juices flowing.

The clincher was a sudden realization of how much money I was spending on beer since the demise of my kegerator.  I was recently very excited that Founder’s Red’s Rye was on sale for $7.49 a six pack, which is a fine retail price. But, that’s still $30 a case. I’ve never brewed to save money, but I know I can brew beer for half that or less, and my beer is pretty damn good.

The only mitigating element on this enthusiasm is the realization that I’ll be back to bottling my homebrew. I haven’t bottled since 1996 or so.  First there were Party Pigs (which I always had excellent luck with) and then corny kegs. Unfortunately, with no kegerator and no dedicated beer fridge, there’s room for neither in our regular gotta-hold-stuff-for-a-family-of-four fridge.  So, bottles it is, despite memories of what a pain in the ass it is.

This coming Sunday, weather permitting, should be my first non-teaching homebrewing session in about a year.  I’m excited that I’ll be drinking homebrew again in about a month!

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2009 – The year in bottled beer

Posted on January 7, 2010 | 6 Comments

Continuing the tradition, the kids awoke early on New Year’s Day looking forward to counting the past year’s bottle caps.  Seriously.

This was a transitional year as my kegerator died in early December.  Prior to that, I was well on track to meet my goal of less than 150 bottles opened.  Obviously, when draft was no longer available, bottles spiked, particularly since it was the holiday season and more drinking than usual was done by visitors and yours truly.

So, the overall total was 181 bottles opened in the house.  This year’s breakdown for breweries with more than 10 caps was as follows:

22 – Schlafly – 12.2%

17 – Capital Brewery – 9.4%

14 – Bell’s Brewing – 7.7%

13 – Short’s Brewing – 7%

13 – Southern Tier – 7%

11 – Pilsner Urquell – 6%

I also had caps from 15 other breweries (as well as 32 unidentifiable gold or black caps), which showed pretty good variety given the relative small sample size.  This next year will be interesting as bottled beer will be my exclusive source of malty goodness.

My goal is to not spend any more on beer than I did in 2009, which will be a bit of work given that draft beer represents a hefty savings over its bottled equivalent.  I’d also like to cut out any beer, like Pilsner Urquell, that’s brewed by bigass corporations, and increase the percentage of local beer.  We’ll see how that goes.  With Andrew doing a good job of keeping fresh Capital Pilsner in stock at Bon Vivant, I should be able to avoid the temptation of the sub-$15 12 packs of PU at Schnuck’s, even if it means drinking a bit less pilsner as a result.

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Yes, I am that geeky.

Posted on January 2, 2009 | 7 Comments

Part and parcel of my decision to make a kegerator was to reduce my consumption of bottled beer.  As a cheery self-check, I keep all of the bottle caps from beer opened at my house (whether I drank them or not) in a big container and add them all up at the end of the year to see how I did.  So, the kids and I had fun on New Year’s morning counting, sorting and practicing “practical” math.

This year was much better than last, with a total of only 225 caps in the container.  Here are the brewery totals:

38 – Bell’s Brewery – 16.8%

22 – Left Hand Brewing – 9.7%

18 – Capital Brewery – 8%

14 – Avery Brewing – 6%

14 – New Belgium Brewing – 6%

14 – Sam Adams – 6%

None of the other breweries in the stash cracked 10 caps.

The single biggest drop over last year was for Czech Pilsners (Budvar and Pilsner Urquell).  Combined, these were my top source of caps in 2007, but Budvar’s move to distribution by A-B (and 33 not carrying it anymore as a result), and a half barrel of Victory Prima Pils in the kegerator for a good chunk of the year really put a hurting on my consumption of Czech Pils.  I’m very surprised that Schlafly didn’t crack 10 caps (there were only 8), but I think having a keg of their Oatmeal Stout on has disuaded me from picking up as many bottles as I normally do.

Goals for this year?  Less bottles, more kegs.  Reducing bottles to 150-ish seems very plausible.  I also really need to turn my kegs more quickly (a hearty thanks to Dylan and Andrew for their patience on this front).  Once I work through the slight bottle backlog I have, bottled beer is out of the main fridge, and back into the kegerator.

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Pizza Beer and Wine – Chapter 2

Posted on November 19, 2008 | 4 Comments

Tonight’s Pizza:  A bit closer to our “normal” homemade pizza routine.  We have TJ’s crusts again, because I remembered just as I was about to fall asleep that I should have made crusts last night.  Given that making a batch of crusts is an hour-long process (though 45 minutes of that is waiting), I settled for asking Liz “any chance you could stop by Trader Joe’s tomorrow and grab crusts?”  Since we have crusts, I assume she answered in the affirmative.  We are, however, back to whole milk mutz/Parmagiano-Reggiano combo for the cheese, fresh Italian sausage (spicy) from Viviano’s, and homemade pizza sauce from San Marzano tomatoes, Kim’s homemade red wine vinegar, salt and oregano.What's with TJ's crust and huge bubbles?

Tonight’s Beer:  Riffing off a suggestion made by Mike over on Stlhops forum, I decided to pour a Schlafly Oatmeal Stout.  I have this on draft right now, and have enjoyed some similar beers with more traditional pizza before, New Belgium’s 1554 springing most readily to mind.  Schlafly’s Oatmeal is not too roasty (which can easily clash with the acidity of the tomatoes), and has a slickness of body from the oatmeal that I’m interested to pair with this pie.

On its own, this one has a roasty, grainy nose.  It’s nice and malty on the palate with a slight touch of fruitiness from the yeast.  Good length too.  I find this seems (for no reason based in reality) to have a bit more body on draft than it does in bottle.

Tonight’s Wine:  2001 Nino Negri Valtellina Superiore Inferno.  This should be a serious pizza wine contender here.  Seven year old mostly Nebbiolo (just a touch of Pinot Noir and Pignola Valtellinese) from a Northern Italian region known for its elegance, finesse and acidity.  I’ve not had this particular bottling before, so there is a touch of uncertainty here.

This is a very pale clear burgundy with the slightest touch of browning.  Very floral nose backed up by some acidic blackberry notes.  Surprisingly delicate in flavor but with great length.  It’s deceptively light and lively.

Tonight's contenders.

How’d it work out?:

Well, the wine was a clear winner for me this time.  It was just one of those magical wines that seems to refresh and energize with each sip.  It cut effectively through the richness of the cheese and sausage without pushing them completely off the palate.  Instead it left a lovely synergy of fatty goodness, tingly acidity, and just a blush of fruit.  There is a scratch of tannins left in this wine that come out when one drinks it just with the crust.

The beer fares better than most in my experience.  It doesn’t actively clash with the pizza as so many do, but it doesn’t compliment it either.  Going from pizza to beer is like changing the channel – there’s something completely different on the palate all of a sudden, and no pizza remains.  It does manage my typical beer/pizza reaction when I get down to the crust – the roastiness becomes actively bitter and the alcohol, depsite being half of what the wine has, is suddenly center stage.  This round goes to the wine for my palate.

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Oktoberfest Bier round-up

Posted on September 19, 2008 | 14 Comments

I do generally love (despite what you’ll read below) Oktoberfests.  It’s a great style for the (finally) cool nights of September.  Each year I get around to trying the offerings from quite a few breweries, and this year is no different.  While plenty of Oktoberfests are still on the shelves, I figured a little retrospective was in order.

First, a bit on my ideal Oktoberfest.  I’m not a stickler on color.  It simply doesn’t matter to me – yellow gold, orange, amber, reddish, whatever.  I think of Oktoberfest as being primarily about malt – a bit on the rich and intense side, sure, but not caramelly or sweet.  And, the malt needs to be clean – no rough edges here, please, it’s a long-lagered style.  Don’t have the time/space to do it right?  Don’t do it then.  The big malt requires substantial hops in my mind as well.  There needs to be enough bitterness to balance all that malty goodness, at the very least.  I also like some spicy German-hop nose candy as well.  It matches well with all the malt.  A good Oktoberfest also needs to beg to be drunk in quantity, even if I can’t.  Ideally, I want to stare in disbelief bordering on annoyance at how quickly my glass was emptied.

Weihenstephaner Festbier – This by far and away my favorite example this year.  It’s a lighter color than most Oktoberfests, tending more to a full gold, rather than into the amber range.  It’s got a burst of spicy German hops, tons of clean malt flavor, nothing cloying, and enough bitterness to give it a good snap at the finish.  Glasses of this beer just disappear.

Sam Adams Oktoberfest – This is usually a solid example, and that’s about as high as it reaches this year.  I noticed no real difference between the draft and bottled versions this year.  This one is more of a malt bomb than the Weihenstephaner, and I would prefer more hops.  But, the malt that’s here is quite clean and stays away from the caramelly flavors that can get over-played in this style.

Capital Brewery Oktoberfest – I had high expectations for this one, given how much I generally like Capital’s lager offerings.  As a result, this was probably the most disappointing Oktoberfest I’ve tried this year.  It just sort of lays there.  Not a lot of maltiness, next to no hop.  It’s a little rough on the finish too.  Surprising, and in a “gosh, I think that mole has gotten bigger” way.

Schlafly Oktoberfest – I’ve found Schlafly’s Oktoberfest to vary quite a bit over the years.  For the last couple, the emphasis has been very much on a clean malt presence almost to the exclusion of everything else.  This year’s rendition continues that trend.  It’s very clean, with nothing other than the malt in evidence.  I don’t get hops at all, and there is not much complexity to the malt.   It’s leaps and bounds better than it used to be back in the Briess malt days, but now (like the Pale and Scotch Ales) it suffers from being so clean that it lacks character.

Left Hand Oktoberfest – Another disappointment, given the quality fo the Left Hand beers I’ve had so far.  This one goes for a full-throttle caramel character.  The color is a rich Amber-red, and there’s little mystery how the color got there after a whiff and a sip.  Way too much caramel/crystal malt character for me.  It’s really difficult to even drink a bottle of this at a time, let alone thinking about more than one.

This is obviously not a comprehensive survey of Oktoberfests available to me.  My favorite, year in and year out, has been Ayinger, but I simply have not seen it on the shelves yet this year, and missed out on the first (of two) kegs that Dylan got for 33, so I’ve not had it yet.  Ditto some of the other German faves, though these are more troubling, and need date-checking as many are year-round beers now, yet only make an appearance on shelves during the August to October season.

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Three’s company.

Posted on April 14, 2008 | 5 Comments

Well, I did it. I added a third tap to the kegerator. It didn’t cost much, and boy am I loving it. Having a commercial beer and a homebrew on tap was great, but more choice (I can do any combination of commercial or homebrew between the taps) is even better. Right now I’ve got two commercial beers (Reissdorf Koelsch and Schlafly Oatmeal Stout) and one homebrew (a low gravity session ale of very mixed breeding, but good aroma and taste) on, and that gives me enough of a selection that I’m not tempted to cheat and buy bottles to supplement my options. That fact that my checkbook is still stinging from buying two kegs in one trip may have something to do with that, I’m sure . . . .

So, why now?  Well, word on the street is that the excellent Ventmatic faucets are disappearing from the marketplace again, as a result of some litigation over the relevant patents.  I love these faucets and wanted to grab a third one that matched my other two before they were gone.  Once that financial hurdle is overcome, it’s really not much of a question whether one should spend the additional $20 to get the bits needed to make that shiny new third faucet active or whether you should just stash it away on a shelf until “later.”  So, I spent about 5 minutes with a hole saw and a wrench, and voila!  Three draft options where there were once only two.  I also took a suggestion I read about online for an inexpensive drip tray, and promptly converted a $12 stainless steel 12″ mud pan from Home Depot to a much higher purpose.  I’ll post a picture of the completed kegerator soon.

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Bell’s draft is coming back!!!!!

Posted on March 19, 2008 | 7 Comments

Well, this made my day. I don’t have a date specific yet, and there appear to be some conditions on it from the Bell’s end, but we should be seeing Bell’s draft back in Missouri very soon. Oberon will be first, with others to follow. I’ve gotten bits and pieces from distributor, retailer and Bell’s sources, and the picture appears to be a consistent one – it’s coming back, the return is imminent, and expect to see more tap handles than just Oberon and Two-Hearted.

Personally, I’d love to see Bell’s bump a whole lot of the Boulevard Pale/Wheat tap handles that are around town. These are virtual clones of the even more widespread Schlafly Pale/Hefe duo, and there is no reason to offer both. Let’s go with our local version of this, and get more Bell’s in! A tap that would rotate Oberon (which is easily twice the beer of either of the Missouri American wheats) in the Spring and Summer with Porter or Kalamazoo Stout in the cooler months, and a Two-Hearted tap would be an excellent combo that would cover a lot of bases for many bars. More beer-centric places could also have a tap that rotates Bell’s Pale (a very solid APA that I’ve been revisiting lately) and Amber, and/or a specialty tap for things like Special Double Cream Stout, HopSlam, Expedition Stout, etc.

There are two big challenges to this plan. The first is the ability of Glazer’s, the local Bell’s distributor, to take on Summit, the local Miller distributor who also handles Boulevard, Coors, Sam Adams, Guinness, Corona, PBR, Leinenkugel’s and Heineken. Glazer’s seems to emphasize their spirits and wine portfolio much more than their beer, whereas Summit deals in beer only. Summit can also pitch a “complete” beer list to non-imaginative bar owners that includes well-known macro, import and big craft brands. Glazer’s needs to see what Bell’s does in other markets across the country – not just Michigan where is a major force, but also how it managed to succeed in the uber-competitive Chicago market, and St. Louis-size cities like Indianapolis and Minneapolis.

The second challenge is getting bar owners on board with the quality and variety that Bell’s offers. Bell’s has an incredibly solid line up, and can fill many holes in even simple beer lists. Bell’s Pale is a great example for which there aren’t local or import alternatives. Ditto the amazing line-up of Bell’s stouts. There just isn’t anything like it out there. Kalamazoo Stout, for example, is sooooo different from Guinness, and such a food-friendly beer, that it should be on tap in lots of places. Again, there is simply no local or import offering that covers this ground. I know that there is inertia to change from places with smallish beer lists, but Bell’s provides such a wonderful opportunity for expansion of offerings, and rotation of taps within its line-up, that it seems an easy sell to any marginally beer-saavy bar.

So, we’re being given a great beer gift and a tremendous opportunity. To my fellow beer lovers, I challenge you to ask for Bell’s at your local joints, and drink it when you see it. Not just Two-Hearted, but all of the other worthy offerings as well. To Glazer’s, GET TO IT! You’ve been given a second shot at a superstar brand with a product vastly superior to most of its competitors and very competitively priced to boot. You can and must sell the hell out of it! Finally, to the bar owners and beer buyers – give Bell’s a chance – not just Two-Hearted – but the other brands as well. Look at how well Bell’s sells around its distribution area. Sure, there is some initial ignorance to overcome, but the potential for growth of sales is immense.  This is an easy opportunity to make your establishment stand out, rather than being just another place that offers the same old line up of Summit-distributed beers.

As for me, I know I’ll likely have kegs of Bell’s in my kegerator all the time once it becomes available again, and no, it won’t just be Two-Hearted. I’m thinking of their Porter (my favorite version of the style) or Kalamazoo Stout. Mmmmmmm.

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