The Captain's Chair

Two years in the ground, and my hop bines are finally starting to show some production.

At the beginning of the growing season, I transferred my three bines to a sunnier location in the backyard beneath an existing clothesline pole that I planned to use as the backbone of my trellis system. I trained the bines to grow vertically, using some metal garden stakes and strong twine to create a simple support structure tied to the top of the seven foot pole. From the pole, I then ran a series of thick pieces of clothesline to my garage, providing about 25 feet of additional runway for the bines to grow horizontally.

The idea seemed to work well, as the longest of the Cascade plant’s two stalky trunks has grown to about 18 feet so far this year. Small hop flowers are beginning to emerge from the winding runners, with a few legitimate cones taking shape. It’s a pretty cool feeling knowing that I’ll be able to harvest these guys and use in one of my own beers before the end of the year, perhaps in a fresh “wet hop” style pale ale.

Unfortunately, the Fuggle and Horizon bines haven’t fared as well, only reaching five or six feet with no flower production, which is in line with their growth last year. In fact, the Fuggle bine looks like it is nearly dead, with most of its yellowed leaves withered away to the point where it now more closely resembles Charlie Brown’s Christmas tree.

I haven’t done a ton of research into it, but I suspect these species may be more temperamental than Cascade, as I really didn’t do much in the way of fertilizing (thus the yellowed leaves, likely an iron deficiency), and I watered only occasionally when Mother Nature hadn’t provided recent moisture. Anyone else growing these hops with any luck?

Some pictures from the weekend:

Weihenstephaner Hefeweissbier, Duvel, Schneider & Sohn Aventinus, Unibroue La Fin du Monde, and even Bell’s Two Hearted Ale…all beers now ranked in the top 20 on Beer Advocate’s newly redesigned Top Beers on Planet Earth list. And for once, I couldn’t agree more.

For many of us who closely follow the general goings-on of the craft beer world, and wait with bated breath as brewers announce the next offering in their [insert name of rare beer series here] or host limited release parties of draught-only mega-hopped DIPA’s and waxed bombers of Russian imperial stouts, you likely fall into one of two camps when it comes to how you’ve historically viewed the Beer Advocate Top Beers list. You either 1) look at the list as holy scripture, a true reflection of the beer zietgeist that accurately ranks the top beers on the planet based solely on objective ratings by site reviewers, or 2) a list of beers that are generally considered by most to be “the best” to be had, but also a list that’s significantly contaminated and largely driven by hype and limited availability versus objective sensory evaluation.  

Clearly, I’m in camp #2. And I’ve always looked at the list with a skeptical eye, questioning how beers such as Russian River’s Pliny the Younger, which I recently reviewed with a firm tongue in cheek, could be considered to be one of THE BEST in the world (I think #2 on their old list) when only a few hundred people ever had the opportunity to try it. Is it a good beer? Of course it is. But given the relatively small sample size of reviewers, can it legitimately be considered the best in the world? According to the Alstrom Brothers — the founders of Beer Advocate who recently changed the minimum number of reviews for any beer to potentially make the list from 10 to 1,000 — the answer was a firm no.

And in my opinion, here’s why: Beer Advocate has done a great deal to raise awareness for craft beer made with passion and love by the more than 1,500  craft breweries around our country, and beyond. However, over the years, the community has slowly drifted from fulfilling part of its original stated mission, which is to “wake the masses to better beer options.” In short, it went from truly advocating for craft beer, to acting more as a repository of incredibly inside reviews and discussions on ultra rare, difficult to find beers that only the most determined of beer geeks could ever hope to lay their hands on. Not necessarily what I’d call a truly representative take on how most of the country views the beer category.

So now that Westy 12 is no longer the king of the hill (for now), who are the top contenders? They are beers with critical mass behind them…offerings that a significant number of people view as the best of the best. And in creating a high bar for admission, in one fell swoop we’ve eliminated the majority (not all, of course) of the hype driving many of the old rankings.

To that end, they’ve also created a handful of new sub-lists that break out the rankings by geography, by how poorly they’ve been rated (a “bottom of the barrel” list), and even by how new a beer is to the marketplace (in other words, what beers are getting “buzz”). These newer, often highly limited beers of course have their place…but at least for now, not at the top of the beer world until more folks get on board with them, the economic principle of scarcity be damned.   

I can see only good things from this change. This is a much more credible and realistic list. Regular folks who may not be exposed to the craft world may now truly have an opportunity to understand what this thing is all about, and why people like you and me get so excited when talking about the beer we tried the night before. And in looking at the current list, I couldn’t agree more with how many of the highly available beers, including many that are standard bearers of their respective styles, are positioned. 

No matter what system or criteria you employ, it will never be a perfect representation. But I believe that this change in criteria was truly a move in the right direction. So now that I’ve made my case, what say you?

* Huge footnote to this post…in many ways, my commentary above was significantly negated, considering moments after publishing this, the “Bros” announced that their shift to a 1,000 review minimum to make the top list was in fact an “experiment” meant to solicit feedback on how the lists were generated. Instead of 1,000 reviews as the threshold, they’ve set the criteria at the mean number of reviews across all beers listed on the site, which currently sits at 105. Is 105 better than 10? Yes. Is it statistically more equitable than using an arbitrary number such as 1,000? Yes. But do I agree with the notion that they’ve significantly minimized the hype factor involved in their ranking system by going this route? Absolutely not. The amended list is largely unchanged, and does nothing to fulfill their stated mission of bringing greater awareness and visibility to “better beer options” for the masses.

Hello friends, it’s been a while. My apologies for letting this little beer-soaked corner of the Internet go to seed. But I think I’m back, at least more regularly than I have been of late. 

Since brewing a traditional hefeweizen back in March (which turned out fantastic, despite a mucky sparge), it had been nearly five months since I broke out the mash tun and brew kettles, by far my longest hiatus since I began ardently home brewing about five years ago. So I went back to the recipe vault to pick something well-suited for the coming fall season, with football and leaf raking around the corner.

After some debate between a saison (which is still on the agenda in the near future) and a pumpkin beer (again, something I’ll do soon), I opted for a fairly standard brown ale, probably a little more American in attitude than your traditional English Northern or Southern varieties thanks to the somewhat aggressive hop schedule. The genesis of the recipe itself, which some of you may recognize, comes from the Surly AHA Rally wort provided by Todd Haug, with some minor variations. It’s the same general recipe I employed for my Wild Rice Brown brewed earlier in the year, minus the wild rice, and I also backed off on some of the base malt this time around to try and bring the alcohol down a bit.

Here’s what I went with:

OG: 1.058
FG: 1.015
IBU: 43

ABV: 5.5%
SRM: 16

Single infusion mash at 152 degrees F
Boil Volume: 6.5 gallons
Batch size: 5 gallons

8 lbs. Castle Pale Ale Malt
12 oz. Brown Malt
4 oz. Caramel 80
4 oz. Caramel 120
1 lb. Brown Sugar
1 oz. Willamette (60 min)
1 oz. Willamette (30 min)
1 oz. Columbus (2 min)
Wyeast 1335 British Ale II

The brew day itself went fine, however I think I collected the wort too quickly (about 20 minutes) as my efficiency was horrendous. I missed the mark on the OG pretty dramatically, coming in at 1.040, which will likely put this beer at the 4% ABV range after it ferments out. Technical failings aside, it’s not a big deal in my opinion, as it should make for a more sessionable beer.

As if the excitement of brewing my first beer in ages wasn’t enough, I also invested in a new digital temperature controller that allowed me to convert my basement refrigerator into a fermentation chamber. It was stupidly simple to set up, and I’m now in full control of my temperature settings instead of leaving fermentation in the whimsical hands of Mother Nature depending on how hot or cold the ambient air in my house happens to be.

With this newfound control, I’m planning to brew an Oktoberfest this coming weekend, my first attempt at a lager. I’ll let you know how it goes.