The Boston Brewing Company’s label Samuel Adams has just release a set of brews that are something the world of craft brewing should stand up and take notice of. Even though Sam Adams is a year closer to getting squeezed out of the craft brewer classification, it doesn’t stop them from being still connected to their belief in the craft brewing movement.

The have just releases the Samuel Adams® Latitude 48 IPA Deconstruction 12 Pack. Their Latitude IPA has been very well received and to build on it even further, they are giving us an education in the hops used for the Latitude 48. Each 12 pack has two of the original IPA and then 5 pairs of brews that highlight each of the hops used in the beer as a whole.

Included in the twelve pack are:
2 – Hallertau Mittelfruen IPA – “Brewed with only Hallertau Mittelfrueh Noble Hops, contributing a soft bitterness and delicate lemony citrus and resinous pine notes.”
2 – East Kent Goldings IPA – “Brewed with only East Kent Goldings hops, contributing a mellow bitterness and earthy, floral and apricot notes.
2 – Simcoe IPA – “Brewed with only Simcoe hops, contributing a profound bitterness and dramatic grapefruit peel and pine resin notes.
2 – Antanum IPA – “Brewed with only Ahtanum hops, contributing a balanced orange peel, piney, and floral flavor ana aroma.”
2 – Zeus IPA – “Brewed with only Zeus hops, contributing bitterness ans an intense, pungent resinous pine flavor.”
2 – Latitude 48 IPA – ” Brewed with 5 different hop varietals. Asserive but not over powering hop character balanced by a slight sweetness and full body from the five different malts.”

Now wether you end up enjoying all or none of these beers, Sam Adams has to be applauded for expanding the way we think of distributed beers. This provides a clear path to exploring the characteristics that make up the fine beverage many of us love. For the standard beer drinker (Bud, Coors, Miller) this is a great way to expand their pallets with some well explained options all in a stand alone 12 pack.

The rest of the craft brewers should take note and follow the path of educating and expanding you bases with wonderful opportunities such as this one. Having better beer will only get you so far and being able to present not only great beers but a foundational example is worth more in the consumers perception for the next set of bottles they take off the shelf.

http://www.chicagonow.com/blogs/the-beeronaut/2011/03/details-on-the-obama-white-house-homebrewed-beer.html

Beer Culture Trailer 1 from FM Productions on Vimeo.

Beer Culture is a documentary film about the growing trend in Craft Beer set in the epicenter of it all, Colorado. Beer Culture explains the cultural phenomenon behind the growth of craft beer telling it through the stories of struggles and successes of some top brewers in Colorado including, New Belgium, Oskar Blues, Avery Brewing Company, Tommyknocker, Upslope, including much more. This film is set to debut in the Summer of 2011

So here I sit a more experienced, season homebrewer and I want to make sure none of you take the path I did so you can save yourself some money and time. If you are going to build a kegerator set up, please take this one bit of advise. Only buy Perlick 525SS Stainless Steel Faucets. These taps are night and day from the taps you get with refrigerator conversion kits. They operate smoothly, are very sanitary and don’t get stuck by gumming up. They are sealed by a front floating O-ring (see the image/info in this PDF from the company ).

They are a little bit more money but I promise you that if you purchase the standard type faucets, you will go back and purchase the Perlicks in a years time. So save on shipping and time and get them upfront. The standard faucets are approximately 20 and Perlicks are approximately 30, discounts are out there as well.

Already have the standard type, UPGRADE! The time fiddling with them and cleaning them is more than enough justification for the expense. Your pouring experience will be hassle free!

These faucets are available at my favorite internet brewing retailer Northern Brewer.

If you decided to try these stop back and let me know what you think.

Well after Beer Wars came out last year I was hoping the coverage of this amazing fast growing industry of craft beer would get even more coverage. Websites and podcasts started popping up left and right which was awesome (some good, some…well…not so good). Now Discovery Channel has launched “Brew Masters”, Sundays at 10pm. I just finished the first episode and let me say that if the other episode are of the same premise, this show will be watched religiously.

Brew Masters follows Sam Calagione and his excellent Dogfish brewery in Milton, DE ,the home for “Off-centered Ales for Off-centered peoples”. They are well know for there 60, 90 and 120 IPA’s and a army of amazing brews. The first episode tracks the brewery teaming up with Sony to make a brew to be released in conjunction with the 40th anniversary of the original release of Bitches Brew, Miles Davis’ 1970 jazz/rock masterpiece.

Calagione and the folks around him are real funny loving folks you could see yourself having a beer and some good laughs with. The operation of the brewery servers as a back drop to the challenge of creating the Bitches Brew from scratch to production.

The show is off to a great start and if they keep it up, the audience should build. Maybe I am bias since I am a home brewer but I didn’t want the episode to be over. Well I only have to wait till Sunday for the next super brew journey to begin.

Visit the shows site here
Visit Dogfish here