Last year, one of the highest rated segments of the Beer Blogger’s Conference was the “Night of Many Bottles” where participants were encouraged to bring local, unusual, or hard-to-find beer to a free-form tasting. With more than 100 participants last year, there were literally hundreds of bottles waiting to be sampled. What I thought was the most interesting bit of that evening was not that there was an infinite selection- but more of what the beer bloggers became as the night progressed. We each became advocates and salesmen of our own favorites. Being the only blogger from Maine in attendance last year, I thought it was my duty to bring attention and respect to east coast beer. Last year I brought Rising Tide’s debut beer, Ishmael, and Maine Beer Company’s Peeper Ale. Both are outside the box beers – an alt and a great, crisp pale ale with lots of hops – that you wouldn’t expect from little old New England.

This year, I received support from many individuals, businesses and beer folks in order to attend this year’s conference. One of the key supporters of my journey was a local brewery, Rising Tide. I think the brewer, Nate Sanborn, has done a terrific job with the three brews he has released so far, and I can’t wait to see what comes next. So, I decided to bring along my favorite Rising Tide beers to share them with the beer blogging community; Ursa Minor and Daymark, both as a thank-you to the sponsors, but also to continue my tradition of sharing the best of Maine beer with the rest of the beer blogging community.

Ursa Minor is labeled as a “Weizen Stout” and I just can’t get enough of it.

“Dark as squid ink and moody as the sea, Ursa Minor is our take on a winter wheat beer. Starting with a German wheat-beer yeast and a base of malted wheat, we added a blend of dark crystal and roasted malts to create a wheat stout. Redolent of dark fruit, weizen yeast esters, and roasted barley, Ursa Minor is perfect for an icy winter’s eve.” – label text

When shopping for Daymark, I noticed that there were still a few bottles of this winter release around and I snatched them up immediately. A few months on the shelf also mellowed the brew just enough to make it super special. The thickness of the mouthfeel and the nice roastiness is what I love about this beer. At the conference, it was the first bottle I had opened for me, and the one that went the quickest.

Daymark, my new favorite summer beer from Maine, was up next. This one is a “Rye Pale Ale” and has some great, bright hoppiness to it, and is made with local rye.

“Chart a new course with Daymark as your guide. We start with a classic, clean and crisp American pale ale brewed with spicy Columbus and Centennial hops. Then we accent the grain bill with rye grown on small local family farms right here in Maine and malted to our specifications at Valley Malts, an artisanal malt house. Finally we dry hop the finished beer for a bright floral aroma.” -label text

It has almost a subtle lemon flavor and it just goes absolutely perfectly with any summer meal. In a large bottle, it’s a little unusual to bring this to a picnic, but I am seeing more people ordering this with meals and sharing the bottle like a bottle of wine. At the conference tasting, a lot of bloggers appreciated that there was a major difference between this and some of the sticky super hoppy brews of the Pacific Northwest, but in a good way.

Having beer bloggers (especially those from the Pacific Northwest, California, etc.) sample maine beer made me start to seriously ponder my blogging focus. I love – LOVE – being an amplifier of what’s going on in New England Craft Beer, and I adore thinking about the ways in which craft beer in New England is completely different, but not less worthy than West-Coast brews. The reality is that New England Beer (vs. West Coast Beer) isn’t an apples to apples comparison. The best IPA in New England is not the same, nor comparable to the best IPA in the West because it’s an entirely different culture of craft beer, a different philosophy of brewing. I plan to write more on this topic later, but it was great to have the opportunity to think about it.

And, if the satisfaction of sharing wasn’t enough, I was thrilled to hear comments and see the word spread about the beers that I brought, like this:

For more information:
Rising Tide Brewing Company
website: www.risingtidebeer.com
email: risingtidebrewing@gmail.com
twitter: @risingtidebeer

You can make beer with a few hops, or a lot of them, but it’s hard not to make beers with tons of them if you’re as surrounded by them as you are in the Pacific northwest.

According to the Oregon Hop Commission:
The Oregon Hop Commission consists of 35 hop growing business entities from 24 families. The majority of hop growing entities include third and fourth generation Oregon growers. Oregon produces approximately 17% of the U.S. market share, which is about 5% of the hops grown in the world.

I was surprised that the tons of hops produced in Oregon is only 17% of global market, with most of them being grown in Germany, followed by the state of Washington. Having never seen hop production or farming at all, it was one of the things on the conference schedule that I knew would be a really interesting experience.

We boarded a bus precisely at the peak of rush hour, and prepared for a forty-five minute drive to Goschie Farms in Silverton. It ended up being a two and a half hour drive. This would have been horrible except that, unlike any other commute I’ve ever been on, this one had beer for the journey.

Widmer Brothers, Full Sail and Ninkasi Brewing had hopped on board (hehe, hoppy puns) with great beer. A little odd to be drinking while a passenger, we all got over that and stated discussing the beer. I learned the history of brewing in the northwest from Widmer Bros., and got to taste their historic Altbier. Ninkasi brewer Jamie Floyd shared several brews, including a cream ale named Nuptials that was first brewed as a wedding gift for an employee. All and all, great foresight of the organizers for providing us with “on board” information and a chance to meet some of these big names in the beer industry.

We eventually arrived at the hop farm and I can’t even describe the aroma to you as we stepped off the bus. Fresh hops – literally only harvested minutes ago – filled our nostrils with delight.

The first sight that we were greeted with was an open industrial garage and Tettenanger hop vines swinging from aerial hooks. A gentle shower of leaves and petals floated down as the hops literally swirled around us. I’ll share a few pictures of the scene below – but they probably don’t do justice to the live scene. I was amazed that the voyage that the hops take through processing.

We saw the raw vines come in, swirl gracefully around the bend, and then be thrashed, jostled, and transported all around the small processing facility. Conveyor belts and ladders and grates and moving metal everywhere – a symphony of green and industry. I was impressed by the constant work – people were always doing some part of the long process – and by the smiles on the faces of the workers. I don’t know if that was just for us, but they really seemed to enjoy what they were doing.

The second building housed a heater where the hops were dried – and yet another delicious aroma. The hops were laid out 3 feet thick, just drying and awaiting bailing. It was really a romantic beautiful sight. The green hops just laying there waiting to be made into sweet, delicious beer.

We didn’t get a chance to go though the hop fields, but just seeing how the key to great beer gets harvested was amazing. It was the first day of their harvest – so we were lucky to see it all in action.

The Goshie family was generous enough to open their farm to us to view this marvelous process, as well as provide a beautiful dinner. Their more than 100 year old farm (of over a thousand acres in size!!) was a beautiful sight, especially in the golden twilight hours of the afternoon.

A photo of the epic hop brownie by Chris, the awesome beer photographer from Beer Simple (http://beersimple.blogspot.com)

As we ate dinner on the grounds of the hop farm featuring some delicious bratwurst, home-made saurkraut, peach and blueberry cobbler and epic hop brownies, I began to understand the northwest hop obsession. Embracing this ridiculously fresh resource, brewers in the northwest are poised to make something fresh and beautiful.

Thanks are due to the Goschie family and to all of the dedicated hop growers out there that make it possible for us to enjoy such delicious beer. Cheers!

Keynote: Fred Eckhardt & John Foyston

“Fred is [an eighty-two] year old former Marine and Buddhist who teaches swimming classes to children back in his native Portland, Oregon. . . . He wrote a book on how to homebrew lagers in 1969, ten years before homebrewing was relegalized. His 1989 book, The Essentials of Beer Style, has become a kind of Rosetta Stone for homebrewers and those who judge homebrew competitions. “Eckhardt (as mentioned by Ken Wells of The Wall Street Journal) is a soft-spoken, diminutive, roundish man with blue twinkling eyes and a white mustache and goatee. Imagine Shakespeare’s Puck reborn as a beer mensch.”

The first time I ever watched Fred Eckhardt speak, it was in an interview on BrewingTV. Brewing TV + Fred Eckhardt

The keynote was a little bit less of a keynote than it was a “fireside chat” with Fred and John. John acted as pseudo-moderator and probed Fred for his infinite wisdom. There were many notable quotes and comments – and a lot of laughter.

John Foyston and Fred Eckhardt talk craft beer revolutions.

As profound as it was to think about the dark ages of brewing and people like Fred that helped haul the brewing industry up by the bootstraps to its glory today, I was just happy to hear him talk and joke. When he was out of beer, he stopped mid-sentence and told the audience he was out of beer. The Beer Wench promptly refilled his glass, and he then said the best quote (in my opinion) of the evening.

Fred: “People ask me, Fred, what’s your favorite beer? And you know what I say? The beer in my hand.”
Audience member: “What’s your second favorite beer?”
Fred: “I think that’d be the next beer in my glass. Especially if it’s free beer.”

Cheers Fred. It was a privilege to be in his audience, and I want to thank Fred and those like him for paving the way for people like us and for this industry to grow.

Introduction by Julia Herz from the Brewer’s Association

Julia Herz is a craft beer institution – in all the best ways. She’s the Craft Beer Program Director over at the Brewer’s Association (see CraftBeer.com) as well as a blogger and outspoken advocate for many craft beer hot topics, including food pairing, women and beer and the legitimacy of craft beer in the US and the world.

Julia addressed an eager crowd – there was beer at every table as well as pretzel necklaces. (Last conference the opening speaker had to compete for the attention of starving participants scrounging for anything to eat).

Julia Herz (Brewers Association) addresses Beer Blogger Conference attendees.

At the end of the presentation, she challenged the audience with a question, “Where do you want to be?” I thought a while and didn’t actually pipe up, but there were some fabulous goals stated by others.

The few that I remember:
-Elevate Craft Beer to the same level of importance as a Wine List, instead of an afterthought.
-Encourage educated craft beer servers, bartenders and retailers
-Bring local beer into the national spotlight

I thought about this for a while and I tried to picture the best goal I could have as a blogger. I know I can’t cover entire all the beer in the world. And I can’t make everyone happy. But I can be a vocal, active and strong advocate for the beer that I know – the beer in New England. And I want to elevate my level of advocacy and be even more vocal, and it’s time for me to stop being timid. I’m ready.

Where do YOU want the industry to go?
What would you like to see?
And what steps can we all take to make that happen?

The craft beer world is in our hands, and now that we have the power, we need to decide what to do with it.

Today, the balance of the Rocket Fuel account went to $601.
I am – officially – “fueled” and couldn’t be more grateful for the 19 fuelers who have now made it possible for me to attend the 2011 Beer Blogger’s Conference in Portland, OR.

All of the “fuelers” are below. THANK YOU to everyone who helped, donated, retweeted, +1′d, etc.

Hollie Chadwick (ME)
Larry Clow (NH)
Chad Lothian (ME)
Alex Molnar (FL)
Warren Riess (ME)
Matt Roberge (NH)
Sylvia Scharf (MA)

Seth Mellen of FromMyMellen.com
Ilya Feynberg of KaBoga.com
Jessica & Marlene of MyHoppyPlace.com
Steve of AllGoodBeer.com
Stephen of NewBrewThursday
Michael of BullyStickDirect.com

Rising Tide Brewing Company (Portland, ME)
Yeastern Homebrew Supply (Dover, NH)
Tully’s Beer & Wine (Wells, ME)
Smiley’s (Dover, NH)
The Great Lost Bear (Portland, ME)

Rewards are coming, and now to look for some flights. Thank you so much!!!

I have been seeking and hoping for more “normal” images of women enjoying, brewing, and talking about their love of craft beer for a while now. “I am a craft beer drinker” accomplished that by keeping a pretty even gender ratio within its declaration. But there’s been little in the mainstream media to keep women’s place in craft beer a normal thing to see.

I admit, probably because I’m on the East Coast, I didn’t hear about this movie’s development until just before it is to be released. The Love of Beer is a documentary about women in the beer industry in Portland, OR, and will be released during PDX Beer Week (coincidentally the same weekend as the beer blogger’s conference…). I have not seen the movie, but the trailer gives me great hope.

The Love of Beer from Lingering Illocutions on Vimeo.

I sincerely hope that I can make it to the Beer Bloggers Conference this year (wanna help that happen?) so that I can meet someone of the women responsible for this, as well as re-affirm that we (women) are not alone as craft beer lovers!

As for anyone not in the Portland, OR area – there is information about how you can find this documentary online at their website (http://theloveofbeermovie.com/) and facebook page.

Cheers!

I have been following @phil_from_MD on twitter for some time now and at some point missed that he is responsible for something that I came across that seemed almost too awesome to be true – Chocolates that contain hops.

These hoppy chocolates (adorably called Hopolates) come in light and dark varieties, are adorably shaped into beer steins. I have written about beer and chocolate pairings before, but never about hop flavors actually contained in chocolate. So of course I ordered them.

You can order them online at www.hopcandyinc.com. Currently they’re sold in 1/2 or 1lb boxes, and come in light and dark. You can then choose from one of four hop flavors: Amarillo, Cascade, Northern Brewer and Nugget. Though, if you put a note in w/the order he’ll send you a variety set – which is exactly what I decided to do.

The first ones I tried were the Cascade + Milk Chocolate. In retrospect, that was the right thing to do – start with the most relatively mild flavor of hop – but I ended up being sad that I all I tasted was some really tasty chocolate. But then, I tried the other flavors. The bitter bite of the hops is a great complement to cut the richness of the chocolate (which is of very high quality, by the way). The hops come in at the end, and it’s not like drinking a chocolate flavored IPA so much as it is like eating a chocolate infused with a little citrusy, bitter twinge. They were awesome.

Now, I am biased on this one, but I think that I liked the milk chocolate better than the dark chocolate. I am going to qualify with saying that I am not a dark chocolate lover – I enjoy it but I like milk chocolate better. I think it’s that the dark chocolate has some bitterness in it already, and is more of a parallel than a contrast. But I think that’s going to boil down to a personal opinion.

All and all – a really fun treat, and I think they’d make a fun and really different gift for beer lovers in your life. (So much better than more pint glasses, right?!). I urge you to check these out if you can.

Those of you who know my current work/life situation, this is no small task. I currently leave my house at 7:30 am, and return somewhere around 7:30 pm. I also spend a total of two hours of driving each week day, so I have plenty of time to think about posts, but not to write them. Well, I’m making the time now – and I’ll write one every single day. If you have suggested topics (I’m sure I’m going to need some next week) please feel free to leave them in the comments.

Attending the Beer Blogger’s Conference is very important to me – as I rarely (if ever) get a chance to interact with fellow beer writers from other parts of our country. I think we could all learn a lot from each other – so I am hoping that this will be yet another opportunity that I’d get to interact with the craft beer blogging community. So blog-a-thon posts start tomorrow (or today if I get really ambitious!).

Thanks very much for your support – I look forward to hearing your post ideas!!

Want to donate now? Click the "Fuel This Project" button above!

Last year, the first-ever Beer Bloggers Conference was held in Boulder, CO, and was an astounding success. I attended with more than 200 other bloggers and shared tips, tricks, and learned a lot about blogging, beer and collaboration. This year, the US conference is in the city of Portland, OR, on the opposite coast of where I live in Portland, ME. This marks the second year it’s been a very far distance to travel (though the 2012 conference is slated for an east-coast venue).

I found the conference to be an extremely valuable part of my professional development as a writer and blogger, and helped me to form collaborative partnerships with several other bloggers including podcasts, guest posts, and getting a chance to discuss some of the most interesting topics in craft beer! As bloggers in such a niche industry, it is really important to have a chance to discuss aspects topics that are important. As a ‘veteran’ beer blogger (A good majority of beer bloggers have started in the last 1-2 years) I also feel that I can provide valuable mentoring advice to new bloggers to help make their blogs even stronger.

To defer the costs of attending the 2011 conference, I am seeking sponsors to help get me there. While my tax return last year allowed me to attend the conference little outside help, this year is proving to be more difficult to collect the airfare in particular – which is what my goal of $600 is reflecting.

If you’ve ever gotten a laugh out of my site, or found a review valuable or interesting, I hope that you might be willing to chip in just a little towards helping me become a better beer blogger. Each level of donation comes with a reward – so it’s not entirely a selfless act! I hate to sound like public TV and ask my readers for anything other than their great comments, but I am hoping that you can help to get me there.

It must be the full moon.

I walked downtown on the misty, rainy and beautiful type of night that only can happen in a rainy New England spring. Light from street lamps oozed through the haze and the faint, blue glow of the neon signs of Sebago brewing beckoned me towards Middle Street. Sebago Brewing Company is famous around here for their Full Moon Cask Nights but this night, in particular, was special. It was the last cask night in their current location before moving further down the block to a bigger and better space. And, being American Craft Beer Week, I was not planning to turn down the opportunity for great craft beer.

I arrived, regrettably, later than I wanted to, but the party was still in full swing. Cooler/kegs of beer were positioned throughout the upstairs and downstairs of the restaurant and it was a little challenging to figure out what was going on. Each station had its own glasses, so you just went up to one you wanted to try and paid a few bucks for a sampling glass full of beer.

What made the event interesting was that Sebago wasn’t just pouring their own brews, but there were other beers from the region and beyond being shared there as well. I missed out on Lunch, the new beer from Maine Beer Company, but did get to sample some Sebago Grand Crue (a blend of their Bourbon Barrel Aged Full Throttle Double IPA, Barleywine and Frye’s Leap IPA) and loved how the hopiness of the IPAs played with the sweetness of the barleywine. Next, I sampled their 2010 Barleywine which was both delicious and warming, it smelled wonderful – the barrel aging made it nice and red, and the hoppiness was a pleasant surprise.

While I was there, I got a chance to talk with Luke Livingston and Michael LaCharite of Baxter Brewing. Only 4 months into their brewery’s life and they’re already talking about expansion, and next beers they’ll be brewing. I’m really happy that they’ve found success so quickly, and I think the summer will be a great boon for them as well. Their canned beer has made national news, and the demand for it is definitely growing. I got the rare treat of actually trying their Xtra Pale Ale on cask, and it was perfect! I don’t normally love casked beer I will admit – sometimes there is just a taste I don’t like – but this was almost meant to be casked. It was light but fresh and full of flavor. I think it might be my favorite casked beer that I’ve tried. I ordered two.

I also ran into a friend in Portland who is well on his way to opening a brewery. I won’t spill the beans quite yet, but I can confidently say that you will really like his beer (I’ve had it, and I even helped make an early batch!), and that it’s definitely filling in a missing hole in the New England beer scene.

Overall, it was a great event with lots of great people. (It is the people that make the beer taste even better sometimes). I wish Sebago luck in their new location. Once it opens, I’ll be checking it out and seeing how Portland adapts to the change.