DC a Beer Destination?

Interesting article in The Examiner on DC as a beer destination.  The article promises a follow-on about Virginia beer as well.  Likely to be Charlottesville-heavy, although I developed a public Google map of breweries in Virginia that shows them clustered in Northern Virginia, down 95 to Richmond then 64 east to Tidewater; and another stretch down the Blue Ridge (including Charlottesville).

Historical Brews

Interesting article in the New York Times on Great Lakes Brewing attempting to re-create an ancient Sumerian beer.  Better yet, the recipe (such as it is) is contained in a song.  What better way to honor beer?  Oh--it's actually a hymn.  To Ninsaki, no less--the Sumerian goddess of beer.

Anchor has done an interpretation of this beer before, but I've never been able to try it.  Dogfish Head, however, is great at more than just IPA's--they also have a line of historic/ancient beers as well.  Most are limited release, like their Birra Etrusca Bronze, which they recreated from an analysis of beer found in Etruscan tombs, and Ta Henket, made according to an ancient Egyptian recipe.  Their Midas Touch, however, is available year-round; it tastes more like a spiced mead to me, but it's a very ejoyable, different brew.

Unfortunately, it does look like Great Lakes has no plans to release their creation commercially.

Collaboration

I'm on the fence regarding collaborative brewing. I'm not talking about collaboration between breweries, like Avery and Russian River teaming up to make "Collaboration Not Litigation Ale", or breweries teaming up with a noted homebrewer, like Stone and Randy Mosher making "Dayman Coffee IPA". Things like that make sense: you basically have an all-star team working on a beer, and by throwing together groups that don't normally work together I imagine you break out of your comfort zone, learn a bit about your partner's style of brewing, and get to work on a really envelope-pushing beer without too much risk (since the expectations are different than if it was just another beer in your standard lineup). I'd consider something like Sierra Nevada's "Beer Camp" to be an extension of this.

(Tangent: These collaborations aren't just limited to two partners, by the way; I saw in the March/April 2010 issue of Imbibe that Russian River, Lost Abbey, Allagash, Avery and Dogfish Head all collaborated on a sour ale called "Proximus". I'd love to try that.)

No, what I'm talking about are the "inspired by"-type beers, where a brewery "collaborates" with some public figure to produce a new beer. A few I'm thinking of:

• DC Brau and D.C. United: "The Tradition".  Apparently the team approached the brewery about producing a beer, which makes it akin to a brewery making the house beer for a sports arena. 
•  The Flying Monkeys and Barenaked Ladies: "BNL Strong Beer", a chocolate Imperial Stout.  The head of Flying Monkeys, Peter Chiodo, admits it's his recipe, and the band simply approved it.  It doesn't strike me as anything more than branding--it's their name slapped on a product they had little to do with (although the band members apparently did come in to help dump ingredients into the vats).
• Dogfish Head and Pearl Jam: "Faithful".  Chido claims that Pearl Jam essentially just allowed their name to be used in this beer honoring the 20th anniversary of the album "Ten".
• Cambridge Brewing Company is making a beer honoring slain MIT police officer Sean Collier, who was killed by the suspects of the Boston Marathon bombing.  I have to admit I'm really uncomfortable with this, even though it's being done with the full approval of his family, and some of the profits are going to the officer's favorite charity.  It still feels like an attempt to profit off his death to me.  I think I would be more comfortable with it if all, rather than some, of the profits were going to charity.
• Dillon Dam Brewery and Denver Art Museum: "DAM Gogh", a beer honoring Van Gogh.  This one actually seems like an appropriate choice: the brewery has a history of Van Gogh-inspired beers, and there was a real effort to tie the beer in with the subject.  It's a bier de garde, chosen because Van Gogh so often used the average French citizen as a subject.  It also uses anise to tie it in with absinthe, the drink the artist famously imbibed.

Some of these seem more like marketing gimmick than collaboration.  Some of them strike me as crass attempts to make money.  What do you think?

Mapping the Rise of Craft Beer

Very interesting article in the New Yorker on the rise of craft beer in the United States: http://www.newyorker.com/sandbox/business/beer.html.

Virginia was pretty much in the middle on all counts: we're 12th in total number of craft breweries, 28th in total production, 12th in overall increase, and 30th in craft breweries per population.

Most of the data isn't really that surprising.  The biggest states are California, Washington, and Colorado; followed by Oregon, Michigan, Pennsylvania, New York, Michigan, Texas and Wisconsin.

In terms of growth, however, the order is much different: Alabama leads the pack (not surprising, considering the official stance on craft beer has changed rapidly recently; see the recent legalization of homebrewing there); Minnesota, Connecticut, Nevada and Tennessee round out the tops for growth.  Again, this makes sense: since they started so low there's lots of room for growth.  It is interesting to see craft beer spreading away from the West Coast, however.

Perhaps the most interesting to me was breweries by population: suddenly Vermont was in the lead, with 20 craft breweries for every 500,000 people.  Oregon, not surprisingly, was second, with Montana trailing close behind.  California, surprisingly, had barely a fifth of Vermont's density, with 4.2 craft breweries per 500,000 people.  Perhaps this is a commentary on the vast population of California than anything else, but I found it surprising nonetheless.

NoVa Summer BrewFest

For the first time in several years, I will be volunteering at the Northern Virginia Summer BrewFest!  My dad volunteers every year and loves it.  The last time I volunteered I was assigned to run spin art for the kids, which was fine--but this year I get to be a pourer.

The big email with all the instructions for volunteers, etc. came out today.  Good stuff, and it appears pretty well organized.  Best of all is the section labeled 'Related Information - "The Fun Stuff"'.  It's all about learning about the beers and brewery you'll be working with so you can discuss it with the patrons, as well as learning as much as you can about the other beers available at the festival.

You can understand why this excites me.  I only wish I knew beforehand which brewery I would be assigned to so I could do some homework!

Brewers appearing at the brewfest:

• Abita Brewery
• Allagash Brewing Appocalypse Brew Works (Louisville, KY)
• Baltimore-Washington Beer Works (Raven)
• Bell’s Brewery
• Blue & Gray Brewing
• Blue Point Brewery
• Boston Beer Co.
• Bold Rock Ciders
• Brewery Ommegang
• Capitol City Brewing
• Climax Brewing
• Corcoran Brewing
• Crispin Cider
• DC Brau Brewing
• Devils Backbone Brewing
• Dominion Brewery
• DuClaw Brewing
• Evolution Craft Brewing
• Firestone Walker Brewery
• Flying Dog Brewery
• Fordham Brewing
• Gordon Biersch Brewery
• Goose Island Brewing
• Great Lakes Brewing
• Green Flash Brewing
• Harpoon Brewery
• Heavy Seas Brewing
• Highland Brewing 
• Kona Brewing
• Lagunitas Brewery
• Lancaster Brewing
• Laughing Dog Brewing
• Left Hand Brewing
• Legend Brewery
• Long Trail Brewing
• Lost Rhino Brewing
• Mad Fox Brewing
• Magic Hat Brewing
• Miller Brewing
• New Belgium Brewing
• New Holland Brewing
• Peak Organic Brewing
• Port City Brewing
• Redhook Ale Brewery
• RJ Rockers Brewing
• Schlafly Beer (St. Louis Brewery)
• Shocktop (Anheuser-Busch Brewing)
• Sixpoint Brewery
• Smuttynose Brewing Somerville Brewing (Slumbrew) (MA)
• St. George Brewery
• Starr Hill Brewery
• Stone Brewing
• Terrapin Beer Co. Three Brothers Brewing (Harrisonburg, VA)
• Three Heads Brewing
• Troegs Brewing
• Vintage 50 Restaurant & Brew Pub
• Widmer Brothers Brewing
• Williamsburg Alewerks Brewing
• Wild Wolf Brewing

Several of these are new this year.  I won't lie; there are some I'd prefer to others (Lagunitas, Bell's, Stone, for example--and I would be over the moon if I was assigned to Firestone Walker, though I'd probably consume all of the Wooky Jack if they had it) but I'll be thrilled with whomever I'm assigned to.

Time to start doing some homework, and the teacher hasn't specified what's going to be on the test yet...personally, I regard this as a valuable educational experience as well as a test of what I've learned so far.