The third edition of the Mash Tun Festival  takes  place June 22th, 2-6pm, 2013 in Bridgeport, the Community of the Future.

The festival features over thirty of the world’s best breweries pouring over sixty six different brews. Flagship and rare beers will be poured alongside one-of-a-kind concoctions at the stunning Bridgeport Art Center at 35th and Racine. The festival will be held in the 19th century atrium and the Center’s lovely sculpture garden. Local chefs and food trucks will be vending. Craft spirits and wineries will also be sampling their wares and you will help decide which brewery will win an award for making the best beer.

We are hosting an awards ceremony this year and will be giving out  awards to brewers that make the best liquid in these categories:

Hopped and Confused
The Bold and Beautiful
Every Day is Like Sunday
WTF Is This

Participating Breweries include:
Against the Grain, Ale Syndicate, Artisanal Imports, Breckenridge,  Baderbrau, Ballast Point,  Begyle, Destihl, Deshutes, Evil Twin, Finch’s, Five Rabbits, Founder’s, Gigantic, Great Lakes, Greenbush, Half Acre, Lagunitas, Lake Effect,  Mikkeller, New Belgium, Petrus, Pipeworks, Red Streak, Revolution, Scratch, Solemn Oath, Stone, Summit, Three Floyds, Two Brothers, Tighthead, Vandberg & De Wulf and others.

The festival is a celebration of the release of Mash Tun: A Craft Beer Journal issue #3. The Mash Tun is a publication put out by your buddies at Maria’s Packaged Goods & Community Bar and The Public Media Institute, a non profit arts and culture organization based in Bridgeport.  Mash Tun is our paean to craft beer. It follows the pleasures and aesthetics of craft beer and how it intersects with food, culture, and society.

Join us:

Tickets are on sale now for $45.  We  have a limited number of tickets available. Click here to purchase. After purchasing via paypal your name will be added to the RSVP  list, please present your ID at the entrance. Proceeds from the Festival will go towards a Family Fund for our friend, Carissa Hinz, whose life was taken unexpectedly last June 14.

The Mash Tun  is a private, RSVP only event. By purchasing  admission to  Mash Tun Festival: The Invitational you will become a member of the Mash Tun Society, a craft beer and food club that presents programming throughout the year. Admission includes a copy of Mash Tun Journal, issue #3,  unlimited samples of over 60 amazing ales and a commemorative tasting glass. You must be 21 years and/or older to attend.

Mash Tun Society members receive discounts to our events, which include Art of Beer Exhibitions, Tastings, and our forthcoming Brewers Summit and Conference in 2014.

Questions? Email ed@mashtunjournal.org

USE THIS LINK IF YOU LIKE TO PUSH BUTTONS:

THE POUR LIST:::

Against the Grain Bo and Luke
Ale Syndicate Sunday Session
Ale Syndicate Municipal
Allagash Curieux
Allagash WhiteBaderbrau Lager
Ballast Point Fathom India Pale lager
Ballast Point Thai Chile Wahoo Wheat
Begyle Allium Rheum
Begyle Redonkulous
BOM Hell
Breckenridge Agave Wheat
Breckenridge 471
Deshutes Class of ’88
Destihl Clarice Belgian Strong Dark Ale
Destihl Black Angel Stout
Destihl Andronicous Pale Ale
Destihl Vertex IPA
Evil Twin Falco IPA
Evil Twin Lil B
Finch’s Wet Hot American Wheat
Finch’s Secret Stash Stout
Five Rabbits Huitzi
Five Rabbits Missionario
Founders Doom
Founders Porter
Gigantic IPA
Gigantic Whole in the Head
Great Lakes Wright Pils
Great Lakes Lake Erie Monster
Greenbush Remnant of Dragon
Greenbush Loud Mouth Soup
Greenbush Mr. Hyde
Half Acre Bourbon Barrel-Aged Baumé
Half Acre Akari Shogun
Half Acre Navaja
Lagunitas Undercover Investigation Shutdown Ale
Lagunitas Fusion 16
Mikkeller Beer Hop Breakfast
Meantime Barleywine
Pipeworks MYstery Beer
PipeworksMystery Beer
Petrus Silly Sour
Petrus Aged Red
Revolution Rosa
Revolution Mother of Exiles Pilsner
Revolution Dictator Blonde Doppelbock
Revolution Coup D’Etat SaisonScratch Carrot-Ginger Saison
Scratch Chambourcin Dark Strong
Summit Meridean
Summit Saga
Solemn Oath Famine
Solemn Oath Ultra High Frequency
Stone Ruination
Stone Levitation
Tighthead Irie IPA (India Pale Ale)
Tighthead Chilly Water (American Pale Ale)
Tighthead Guinea Pig Stout
Tighthead Scottish 70
Three Floyds Tiberian Inquisitor
Three Floyds  Jinx Proof
Two Brothers French Press
Two Brothers Hopcentric
Vanberg and Dewulf Green Jack Trawlerboys Bitter
Virtue LedBury
Virtue Lapinette
Virtue Red Streak

Mash Tun Journal and Maria’s Packaged Goods & Community Bar have teamed up with Chef Won Kim of Brew Ha Ha to bring you another counter-cultural visual and brewery arts exhibition and happening. This edition, called Over The Influence: The Art of Beer, takes place May 18,  2013, 5-9pm at the Co-Prosperity Sphere ( 3219 S Morgan Street) during Chicago Craft Beer Week.

Join us for an evening of imbibery and art. Enjoy work from artists and designers inspired by the aesthetics of craft beer and how it intersects with food, culture, and society. Complementary beverages by Half Acre Beer Co., Solemn Oath Brewery, Spiteful Brewing , Journeyman Distillery, Maria’s Ginger Beer and outsider brewers. Flesh for Food will be vending vittles.

Admission is $30 and is by rsvp only. You must be 21yrs and older to attend. Proceeds of the event go to the Public Media Institute, a non profit grassroots arts organization based in Bridgeport, the Community of the Future.

Over The Influence: The Art of Beer includes work by:
Catie Olson
Phineas Jones
Rebekka Erin Moran
Eric Olson
Chaos Brew Club
Jeriah Hildwine
Michael Kiser
Scott Holterhaus
Scott Shellhammer
Nathan West
Ben Laskov
Uriel Correa
Jose Alejandro Rodriguez
Joey Potts
Anne Heisler
Shawnimals
Ruben Aguirre
Solo rm
Czr prz
Vyto
Max Bare
Erik Brown
+ others

- by Ed Marszewski

Some readers of Mash Tun Journal might know that we are building our own brewery here in Chicago.  So in late March I  went to the annual Craft Brewers Conference in Washington DC  to see how the revolution in craft brewing looks in person. By taking a snapshot at some of the trends and fads currently in the industry I hoped to come back better armed with insight and guidance as I embark with my brothers and our friends on our collective liquid dreams.   [ Disclaimer: All crappy photos in this post were taken with my Iphone ]

The conference took place in the lovely Washington Convention Center taking over the main exhibition hall and dozens of conference rooms that featured seminars on everything from: Writing your own Brewery Business Plan;  to Surviving the Bubble: Analytics for Strategic Decisions, to Brewing with Wood. I  went to a few of the sessions for Start Ups. For newbs and recently inspired brewery entrepreneurs, these panels were helpful in giving some basic facts and structural advice. It was nice to hear from brewery owners regarding return on investment formulas and warnings of hidden costs. It was also good to remember that new breweries are going to have a hard time buying simco, citra and mosaic hops.  But for the most part the couple of Start Up panels I attended seemed rather pedestrian and imparted some low level info. If you are starting a brewery my suggestion is that you talk to a brewery owner. Or talk to super pros in the industry, like Mash Tun contributor and Master Cicerone, Dave Kahle. This is one of the best reasons for putting out our Mash Tun Journal. We get to talk to these amazing guys. And I know you’ll glean more information having a one hour conversation with them than by going to a Start Up seminar.  But then again our endeavor is no longer a brewery in planning. We are about to make some beer. So perhaps I should have gone to other panel tracks. Which I did.

In between sessions I visited the Trade Show which featured over 400 vendors and businesses. The $400-600 price of admission was probably worth  just this facet of the Craft Brewers Conference. It is important to meet the people that make the equipment that help you brew beer and talk to the people that sell you the raw materials. I systematically went through the hall and met some of our current and perhaps future vendors.  For a brewer there is nothing more exciting than seeing piles of hops strewn all over the tables and floors of a convention center (unless you have a stainless steel fetish, and if you do, you will have a field day here). The one big thing I noticed  about this year’s trade show is that it was a huge opportunity for many vendors to drum up some new business. To date there are 2,347 breweries in operation. 409 of them just opened in 2012. And there are about 1300 of them in planning mode right now. Most of the businesses at the trade show are going to make some nice coin re-selling tanks made in China and hops grown in the great northwest. And I am certain hundreds of hoppy-eyed dreamers were trying to figure out where they were going to spend their imaginary investment capital while walking the aisles of the trade show drinking free beers and stuffing schwag in their bags.

On a side note, the Made in China quip is an interesting facet of the craft brewing business. I love the fact that making craft beer creates American jobs ( over 108,000 in fact!). But unless you have been sleeping for the past twenty years, you must know that China makes almost everything we use in manufacturing. And the same holds true for the brewing universe. Tanks are made in China. Brewhouses are made in China. Glassware is made there, too.  I asked many vendors about this China thing and they pointed to labor and material costs.  Some talked about a deficit in skilled labor to do all that welding and forming. I shrugged.  I do know that the quality of equipment made in China varies, and you have to ask around to figure out which vendors have shitty gear. I also know that most of the big stainless is tricked out and assembled here in the States by a few companies.  I saw one shit head vendor at the show who was touting that their tanks were dedicated to American Veterans and that if you purchased from them you would be supporting the troops. They of course failed to disclose that their tanks were not made in the USA. Also at the show were some Canadian, German and Czech manufacturers that make good equipment, albeit at a higher cost. Everyone knows that “You get what you pay for.” So if you are a capital strapped cholo and you want to save a few thousand bucks buying a hybrid Chinese/ US manufactured product, go for it.

For nano brewery guys the most interesting booths were probably those featuring small brewhouse and test batch systems. If you are undercapitalized you may want to start small and check these guys out: Sabco has been selling their Brewmagic 1/2 barrel system (6K) since the late 90s and they work pretty well from what I have heard from the peanut gallery. Many a retired brewer has one of these in their garage. At their booth the Sabco guys were touting a new two barrel system they just developed called Nano Magic. It comes complete with fermentation tanks and other gear for about 55K. If that is too steep a price tag then you might want to go with a More Beer! Braumeister system. They are all electric and come in two barrel and four barrel configurations costing between 16K and 36K respectively, but without tanks. We have already purchased a four barrel system from Psycho Brew, a couple of guys who make steel in Michigan and it cost us about 15K. Our friends at Pipeworks Brewery started on one of these and come highly recommended. We just installed ours and are just about ready to brew. ( Below is a photo of a Braumiester rig )

I went to some other conference sessions about Selling Craft Beer and they were eye opening. I was enlightened by various statistics and figures and was particularly enthralled by the data presented by Guest Metrics. Some random facts gleaned from my notes:
• Craft beer is now available in over 50% of On Premise accounts. That means that over half of all the bars and restaurants in the country are serving the good stuff.
• The top craft beer styles are IPA, Seasonals and Pale Ales. Not a surprise.
• 13.2 million barrels of beer were sold in 2012, a 15% increase from 2011.
•  The average case price of craft beer  to a retailer is  $33.21. ( for 12 oz bottles and cans)
• The average brewery makes 500 barrels of beer a year.
• Exports of craft beer have grown to 190,000 barrels ( mostly to Canada)
• The top five states for new brewery openings are: 1. California, 2. Colorado, 3. Texas, 4. Washington, and 5. Michigan.
• In general the most gains in the retail market are beers that cost over $6/ glass.

But here is the most interesting stuff about the craft beer industry:
There are almost 2,600 craft brands in the US. This is a 24% increase from last year. And of these 2,600 breweries the largest 204 brands sell almost 80% of ALL the craft beer!  And just fifteen of these craft brands sell almost 50% of all the craft beer by volume! That is pretty insane. That means the remaining 2,143 breweries COMBINED only sell 20% of all the craft beer made in America. When I heard these figures I freaked. But then I calmed down. According to an analyst and economist from Brooklyn Brewery, the majority of growth in the craft beer market, where predictions keep calling of a 15% growth rate per year, is coming from these 2,243 + breweries. The little guys are gaining high rates of growth while the top 204 are competing for 1-3% growth a year. And that made me think that maybe our little brewery has a chance if we make high quality beer and do a good job selling it.

I was sitting on some couches taking a break between presentations and these two guys pulled up next to me and started an impromptu interview.  I eavesdropped on them and  I heard the founder of a regional brewery talk about how unrealistic and naive many of the attendees were at this year’s conference. He also noted those insane statistics that I mentioned above and warned of shelf space battles and quality issues from the next generation of breweries coming down the line. After I heard him say, “Everyone thinks they are gonna be the next Sierra Nevada,” I interrupted. I said, “I don’t want to be the next Sierra Nevada and I don’t think most of the people coming to the conference do. I told him I just want to make great beer for my community. I also mentioned that although the craft beer segment was getting crowded and he had to keep in mind that most of the growth was coming from the small guys, these nano guys.  He mentioned that was true, but it was important for the small guys to know what they want to get out of brewing. You gotta have realistic goals. If you are getting into brewing and want to make it rich, you are in the wrong game. He indicated that mid-sized and regional breweries have small margins. So if these new brewery start ups  want to simply pay their bills and give themselves a salary that they would probably do just fine. We talked a bit more about how important the quality of beer should be and that you can’t just make “good” beer, you have to make “great” beer or get all lost in the super market. I agreed. Super cool guy.

The last session I attended was called Eclipse: Big Brand, Tiny Brewery  by the hot shit 50/50 Brewing Company out of Truckee Nevada. And they were fantastic. They served beer to all the attendees of their panel and were pretty honest and forthright about how they started and what their schtick was. The husband and wife team gave a nice powerpoint where they explained how they do everything from janitorial duties to brewing and did a walk through of their strategy. 50/50 uses an 8 1/2 barrel system tucked into a 900 sq ft facility and they make about 900 barrels a year. They suggested to the start uppers in attendance that they forgoe raising major investor money and use their own cash, like they did. They emphasized the importance of hiring a great brewer who has technical skills and vision. And the rest of the their plan was pretty simple. They chose to do a simple high quality brand that had a high margin of profitability. And it worked. These are guys who make the Eclipse beers, those $30 bomber bottles of barrel aged Russian Imperial Stouts which are highly regarded and praised in the beer geek community. The beer is a very small batch, and the bottles are wax dipped and hand assembled. The thing that gave them national notoriety was the fact they used 23 year old Pappy Van Winkle barrels in their first batch. After that they started branching out and each year they create batches from 4-7 different brands of whiskeys  to impart their beers with the different characteristics. Beer geeks love it and often purchase the entire series. Another interesting facet of their plan was the idea of selling futures. Customers are able to rep-order batches of the Eclipse series and this up front cash gives the brewery enough operating capital while the beer ages for six months. I really liked these guys and they helped affirm my belief in good branding and aesthetics and share a commitment to making awesome beers.

The last day of the conference was pretty hazy for most. After a few days and nights of tap takeovers, drinking, meetings, seminars and schmoozing you could tell most people were pooped out. Upon the recommendation of my buddy, Lincoln Anderson, we went to Nandos for some African fast food. It was awesome, like most of the food we had while in town (we ate at Toki Underground, Rasika, and even Teaism ). As I sat there devouring a second plate of spicy chicken, I went over my experiences  that week and it validated decisions we have made for our brewery. I know that we have a long way to go, but I also know we are on the right track. While hanging out with 6000 + of the worlds craft beer cognoscenti  I felt part of the excitement, camaraderie and enthusiasm that makes the craft beer world such a seductive and beautiful place to be. If you need something to crush your doubts about taking part in the draft beer movement, you should attend the conference next year. It will only help all you liquid dreamers and adventure capitalists out there.

The third edition of the Mash Tun Festival will take place June 22, 2013 in neighborhood of Bridgeport, the Community of the Future.  The festival features some of the world’s best breweries . Flagship and rare beers will be poured alongside one-of-a-kind concoctions at the stunning Bridgeport Art Center at 35th and Racine. The festival will be held in the 19th century loading dock and the center’s sculpture garden.

The festival is a celebration of the release of Mash Tun: A Craft Beer Journal issue #3. The Mash Tun is a publication put out by your buddies at Maria’s Packaged Goods & Community Bar and The Public Media Institute, a non profit arts and culture organization based in Bridgeport.  Mash Tun is our paean to craft beer. It follows the pleasures and aesthetics of craft beer and how it intersects with food, culture, and society.

We are hosting an awards ceremony this year. Mash Tun will be giving out at least four awards to brewers that make the best beer in these categories:

Hopped and Confused
The Bold and Beautiful
Every Day is Like Sunday ( session beer)
WTF Is This (experimental)

Participating breweries and beers to be poured will be announced in May. Tickets will go on Sale in May.

Call for Participation: Over The Influence: The Art of Beer

Mash Tun Journal and Maria’s Packaged Goods & Community Bar are are teaming up with Chef Won Kim of Brew Ha Ha to bring you another visual and brewery arts exhibition and happening. This edition, called Over The Influence: The Art of Beer, takes place May 18, 2013 at the Co-Prosperity Sphere ( 3219 S Morgan Street).

We are seeking work from artists and designers inspired by the aesthetics of craft beer and how it intersects with food, culture, and society. We are looking for work in any media. Please email edmarlumpen(at)gmail.com if you would like to submit to the show. Please send a  description of the of the work and enclose 1-3 jpegs of previous work. Deadline is 4/20/13 for proposals.

Words and photos about the previous show:

Under The Influence: The Art of Beer

Good Beer Hunting

Girls Like Beer Too

Article written by Robert Benenson. Photos by Benenson

It’s not likely that the principal partners at Hop Head Farms — an important new hop-growing project in southwestern Michigan — would ever have crossed paths but for one thing: they love craft beer.

Nunzino Pizza, a son of Italian immigrants, grew up in the working class west Chicago suburb of Berwyn. Though he aspired as a youth to be an artist, a mailroom job at the Chicago Board of Trade led to a lucrative career as a commodities trader. This, in turn, provided him with capital that he invested several years ago in a startup brewpub that you may have heard of — Revolution Brewing. Revolution has not only been successful in its own right, but has been the engine for an economic revival in Chicago’s long-sagging Logan Square neighborhood.

Jeff Steinman grew up across Lake Michigan in the shore resort town of St. Joseph, Michigan. Steinman obtained a degree in ornamental horticulture from Michigan State University and worked at plant nurseries for many years. He later moved to a part of rural southwestern Michigan not far from tiny Hickory Corners, where Hop Heads Farms now is located.

Bonnie Steinman, Jeff’s wife, grew up in a Detroit suburb but had family who farmed in southwestern Michigan She developed a lifelong fondness for gardening and ultimately, an expertise in integrated pest management. The Steinmans loved to drink craft beer, which led them into experiments in hop-growing, first in a backyard plot and then on three-fifths of an acre of rented land, part of a grant-funded organic hop project.

The three connected in the summer of 2011. A handful of hop-growing pioneers had sparked a revival beginning in 2006 by planting a few dozen acres up north in the Traverse City area. Pizza had researched and determined that growing hops in Michigan could become a big thing, ultimately challenging the century-long dominance of three northwestern states: Washington, Oregon and Idaho.

Tapping both his backgrounds in agricultural commodity trading and Chicago craft brewing, he came up with a plan for a multi-million dollar project financed by himself and other investors, and then conducted a search for “the right people that could handle production and quality.”

He and the Steinmans hit it off almost immediately. “Jeff and Bonnie were at the very frontier of it all,” Pizza said. For Steinman, who wanted to expand beyond the couple’s little starter plots, “it was an opportunity to jump in with both feet.” They also wasted no time, taking less than a year to go from a proposal to putting 15,000 plants of five different hop varieties in the ground across 15 acres.

The farm, located about a half-hour drive northeast of Kalamazoo and northwest of Battle Creek, has up to 40 arable acres, and the Steinmans hope to double their cultivation in 2015.

They rolled high on a brand new, German-made Wolf WHE-513 harvesting machine that cost a sweet $250,000, a price that has prompted most small growers to rely on used, reconditioned equipment. They have built their own processing facility, enabling on-site handling of the fragile flower ”cones”, the part of the hop vines that go into beer, and hope this will prompt other local farmers to start growing hops themselves.

They have also taken leadership in creating a consortium of Michigan hop growers and brewers a supportive community of mutual aid, especially since many microbreweries like to promote themselves as part of the “buy local” movement. The Steinmans organized a symposium at Hickory Corners’ one tourist attraction, the Gilmore vintage car museum, on March 3 — more than two months before Hop Head Farms began its first planting.

Nunio, Bonnie & Jeff

Bitter Can Be Sweet

Humulus Lupulus is not a wizarding incantation from the Harry Potter stories. Rather, it is the Latin genus name for the vine plant that produces the cone-shaped flowers known as hops. It is from the family Cannabinaceae, which, yes, includes cannabis, more familiarly known in its varieties as “marijuana” or “hemp.”

Short’s, a craft brewery located in the northern Michigan town of Elk Rapids, pays tribute with an India Pale Ale called Huma Lupa Licious, described on the label as “a complex malt and hop theme park in your mouth.”

According to the Oxford Companion to Beer, hops “are the ingredient in beer that provides its backbone of bitterness, increases its microbiological stability, and greatly influences its taste and aroma.” Depending on which kind of hop is used — a guide on Beer Advocate’s website lists 30 different varieties — the flowers can impart flavors that are fruity, floral, herbal, resiny or sweet.

The other great definer is the degree of bitterness, measured in International Bittering Units (IBUs), imparted by hops. All beers have hops, though it can be hard to tell, especially with the very light beers that have long dominated the American market. On a scale from 0 (lowest) to 120 (hoppiest), beers such as Miller Lite, Bud Light and Coors Light come in at about 10. That compares to around 40 for a traditional Bohemian pilsner, 40-70 for American IPA, 50-90 for Russian Imperial Stout and a mouth-puckering range of 60-120 for Imperial IPA.

Until the 1970s, nearly all the domestic beer consumed in the United States was of the lighter varieties. But with the advent of craft brewing pioneers such as Sierra Nevada and Anchor Steam in California in the late 1970s, and Boston Beer Company (better known for its brand name Samuel Adams) in the early 1980s, it soon became clear a beer-drinking revolution was under way. Microbreweries cropped up across the country, including now-nationally known outfits such as Goose Island in Pizza’s hometown of Chicago (bought out by InBev Anheuser Busch in 2011) and Bell’s in Kalamazoo, not far from where the Steinmans live. The new wave of microbreweries not only featured beers that were brewed in small batches, but ones that featured higher IBUs on their labels. Revolution, the Chicago brewpub, has several recipes tailored to the growing numbers of hoppy beer cultists. Their “Double Fist,” with an IBU of 90, is described on their website as a “strong pale ale [that] packs a serious punch with massive hop flavor.”

Art vs. Availability

Pizza says he met Josh Deth, the developer of Revolution, at a point in his life when he was ready for a change from commodity trading. And the craftsmanship from which craft brewing derives its name appealed to his artistic side.

“Everyone I meet here has had some passion for artisanship,” Pizza said.

But he also learned a practical reality. Hops can be hard to obtain in the quantities that brewers need. A warehouse fire in Yakima, Wash., that destroyed 4 percent of the U.S. hop crop in 2006 combined with an international shortage caused mainly by bad weather in Europe in 2007 to put price and supply pressures on microbrewers. Mass brewers’ long-term contracts give them first dibs when there is a crunch, leaving the micros with few options.

This planted the idea in Pizza’s head of starting a farm accessible to Midwestern artisan brewers that could help them deal with supply issues and where they could, as he put it, “seeit and touch it while it was growing.” Michigan, where outfits up north such as the Michigan Hop Alliance and Old Mission Hop Exchange were already processing the crop, emerged as the favorite locale for the project.

Michigan already had a hop-growing industry in the 19th century. But it was undermined by pests and disease just as the hop farms in the Pacific Northwest were becoming established and transportation improvements made shipping the crop long distances viable, according to Rob Sirrine, who specializes in hops at Michigan State University’s extension service at Suttons Bay.

But Sirrine — who organizes an annual tour of hop farms in the Traverse City area for current and prospective growers each August — added that there is no reason hops should not be able to thrive in Michigan. “They grow anywhere from 35 to 55 latitude, so we’re right smack in the middle of that right here on the 45th parallel,” said Sirrine, who added that hop vines “grow kind of like a weed.” He also said that the sandy, well-drained soil of the region is perfect for growing hops.

Small Can Be Big

No one is yet claiming that Michigan will elbow the Pacific Northwest states aside in the niche world of hop growing anytime soon. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistical Survey issued an annual report on December 21, 2011, and it still recognized only Washington (23,320 acres in cultivation last year), Oregon (4,202 acres) and Idaho (2,265 acres) as hop-producing states. Michigan, with an estimaded 100+ acres of hops planted even with the addition of Hop Head Farms, clearly has a long way to go.But Sirrine said hops could become a growing business in a state that, because of the longstanding troubles of the state’s auto industry, has a crying need for diversification. One reason, according to Sirrine, is that the smaller-scale operations rising up in Michigan can provide more of the small-batch quality desired by microbrewers than the big operations out West.[smd1]

“That’s where I think we can compete with them because they’ll load the hops in there about three feet deep with these huge furnaces underneath and they’ll run them at 140 degrees,” Sirrine said. “Here, we can dry them at a lower temperature because we don’t have as much to dry. If you dry them at 110, then there’s less degradation of quality.”

Then there is the issue of proximity to the growing community of craft brewers in Michigan and nearby states such as Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin. Jeff Steinman points out that Hop Head Farms is located within about an hour’s drive of between 20 to 30 breweries. Steinman said his farm is well-positioned to fulfill short turnaround orders, because their state-of-the-art picker will be capable of clearing a half-acre per hour of their Cascade, Centennial, Chinook, Magnum and Nugget hops.

There are plenty of brewpubs, too, such as the Walldorf in nearby Hastings, whose brewmaster, Sam Sherwood, has contracted to use hops from Hop Head Farms. “The brewpubs are thrilled,” said Bonnie Steinman. “[But] it’s a slippery slope until you get established.”

Not surprisingly, brewers are taking a “trust but verify” approach to the hop revival. Nonetheless, Pizza’s connection to the Chicago beer world is extending his farm’s range to a city where craft brewing is rapidly expanding, creating not only a market for dried hop pellets (used in most beers) but also for wet hops right off the vine, used in seasonal harvest ales and for which absolute freshness is crucial.

Their prospective Chicago customers include Greg Shuff and Brant Dubovick, the principals at DryHop, a brewpub that they expect to open next winter in Chicago’s Lakeview East community.

Dubovick, the head brewer who formerly held a similar position at Pittsburgh’s famed Church Brew Works, said about wet-hopping: “We’ve already talked to Nunzino and he told us that he’d meet us halfway between Chicago and Michigan. Drop them off at a rest stop.” Shuff, DryHop’s owner joked: “Yeah, we’ll do a deal.” Dubovick added, “I have every reason to believe it’s going to be a quality product. We’d like to be a farm-to-table brewery, buying Wisconsin hops and Michigan hops.”

This year’s difficult weather conditions, marked by excessive heat and little rain, made the first year challenging at Hop Head Farms. But thanks to an irrigation system and a lot of TLC, by mid-Agusutthe plants were healthy and green, and some were already flowering. They were just a little shorter than the partners had hoped.

But Pizza is bullish that the always-risky investment he has made in an agricultural venture will pay off. “It’s just changing everyone’s old opinions about where [hops] can be grown,” he said. “We’re not the first. We’re just going to be the best.”

by Paul Durica

On a trip to Mexico City as a young boy, Oscar Neebe learned the truth about his grandfather, the man whose name he shared. An uncle had taken the fifteen-year-old to a May Day celebration and stopped at the Palace of Justice along the way to point out a large mural by Diego Rivera. It included a reference to the bombing that had occurred in Haymarket Square in Chicago in 1886. Eight anarchists were put on trial in connection with the bombing. Among them was Oscar’s grandfather, the original Neebe, remembered, if at all, as a saloonkeeper on Halsted Street.

Long before Neebe ran a bar, he and his brothers sold yeast to breweries and helped to organize the first union of brewery workers in Chicago. And before that, he had worked as a tinsmith, a bucket-maker, a ship’s cook, and a bartender. He even worked as an office manager at a newspaper, the working-class German-language Arbeiter Zeitung (which is how he ended up on trial and sentenced to fifteen years at the penitentiary in Joliet). Oscar Neebe had many skills, many of them practical , but wherever he worked, he invariably got into trouble for standing up for the rights of his fellow workers.

The bombing in Haymarket Square has been called many things—an affair, a riot, a massacre, a tragedy—depending on who happens to be telling the story at the moment. What all can agree on—capital and labor, police and anarchists, the politicians and the press—is that a public meeting had been called for  the evening of May 4 in response to the suppression of a strike that ended in the fatal shooting of two strikers bypolice at the McCormick Reaper Works, manufacturer of the famous mechanical reaper. As a large public market capable of accommodating an audience of thousands, Haymarket Square had been selected as the site for the meeting, but its organizer, August Spies, editor of the Arbeiter Zeitung, shifted it one block east and one block south onto a less congested side street in order to avoid provoking the police. As a result, the Haymarket affair (or riot or what-have-you) didn’t even occur in the Square. The speakers had been selected that day and the meeting started almost an hour late.

According to witnesses, the crowd never numbered more than 3,000, perhaps as low as 1,500: a mix of laborers (then participating in a nationwide push for an eight-hour work day), political radicals, and the curious, including Chicago’s mayor. Around 10:30 PM, with a storm threatening and the mayor on his way back to his mansion, the third and final speaker, Samuel Fielden, was wrapping up his remarks when a detachment of close to 180 policemen marched up the street a mere block from the station .  The police came armed and the crowd, now only a couple of hundred, was wary. Before either side could say or do much of anything, someone threw a bomb into the ranks of the police. Fifteen minutes of gunfire followed the explosion. Eight officers ultimately died as a result of the wounds they sustained that evening, as did an unknown number of the public. Scores were wounded. Chicago had become the site of the first major act of urban terrorism in the United States.

Oscar Neebe did not make it to Haymarket that night. Apparently, while seated at a bar and enjoying a beer, he’d seen one of the 20,000 handbills that Spies had printed up urging working men to attend the meeting. According to Spies’ testimony, Neebe’s made a passing remark about the inevitability of violence in the struggle for the eight-hour day after learning of the incident at McCormick. When Spies, Adolf Fischer, and Michael Schwab (all worked for the Arbeiter Zeitung) were arrested in connection with the bombing, Neebe, as a member of the board of directors, slipped into the editor’s chair in order to ensure that the newspaper continued publishing. For his efforts, he too was arrested.

As even the prosecution would later concede, Neebe had nothing to do with the bombing in Haymarket Square. But he wasn’t merely, as some historians have suggested, the wrong person in the wrong place at the wrong time, an accidental anarchist—he was, in truth, a socialist. His commitment to increasing wages, shortening hours, and improving working conditions – particularly for women and children – had produced  real world results, as in the case of the founding of Brewers Local No. 1. Appropriately for a yeast manufacturer, he had become radicalized while working as a bartender at the age of seventeen:

Here I had a chance to see and study the life of the working people. Mostly workmen from the McCormick Machine works stopped there, and many of them made good wages. I saw and heard how it was made; I saw that foremen received commission and royalty from poorer workmen; saw how sneaks and spies watched every word the workmen said, to report the same to the foremen, and saw good workmen sent away.

Neebe worked at the bar during his first stint in Chicago in the mid-1860s. Although born in the United States, he had gone back to his ancestral Germany for his education. He returned to New York at the age of fourteen and from there, went to Chicago. The move was the start of an odyssey that took him from Cleveland to Philadelphia to New York again before finally settling in Chicago in 1877. The yeast business he established with his brothers  gave him a certain measure of autonomy, but, once again, his work brought him into contact with those less fortunate. As he followed his route to work through the working class neighborhoods on the city’s southwest side, he frequently saw “mothers cry, as they had to send their little ones (who by right belonged in school) to the factories or stores so they could live.” By this time a father of two, Neebe devoted himself to the cause of ending child labor.

The Haymarket trial began in June and ended in August. The police could never identify the bomber, so the organizers of the meeting were put on trial instead, along with other radical labor figures. Their words and beliefs were held up as a provocation for acts of violence and used to establish their culpability in the bombing. His children were allowed to see him only briefly during the trial and not at all after he was sent to the prison. At his sentencing, he asked to receive the death penalty so that his children could “go to the grave, and kneel down beside it” while they would not be allowed to “go to the penitentiary and see their father, who was convicted of a crime he didn’t have anything to do with.”

Of the eight on trial, all but Neebe were sentenced to hang. Four were eventually executed. A fifth committed suicide in prison, and two others joined Neebe at Joliet after asking for and receiving clemency from the governor of Illinois. At the penitentiary, Neebe was Prisoner 8376 and initially worked at making harnesses for horses. His wife had died, leaving his children, for all practical purposes, orphans. He had not been allowed to attend the funeral. But he did have friends on the outside.

Almost immediately after his sentencing, the brewery workers Neebe had helped  unionize began to help him. In December 1887, the Beer-Brewers and Malster’s Union No. 1 transformed their second annual dance at the Northside Turner hall into a clemency campaign for Neebe. Beer-related events often served as sites for political organization in the city. Beer gardens and beer halls offered informal places for meetings and discussions, and even the more politically-oriented workers halls, like Zeph’s Hall and Grief’s Hall, which were close to where the bombing had occurred, had first-floor, fully-stocked saloons. The first mass protest in Chicago in 1855 had been in response to the enforced  closing of bars and saloons on Sundays and an increase in the cost of liquor licenses. The Lager Beer Riot, as the incident was called, marked the entrance of the German and Irish communities into Chicago politics. In the immediate aftermath of the Haymarket bombing, many of the city’s bars and saloons were once again closed, as police and politicians worried about the possible outcome of cold beer combined with heated talk.

The effort for clemency on the part of the brewers’ union in Chicago joined up with a larger national campaign, which in the early 1890s led a new governor of Illinois, John Peter Altgeld, to review the transcripts of the Haymarket trial. Altgeld concluded that all of the men, but especially Neebe, were innocent of the crimes of which they had been convicted. In June 1893, the three in prison were pardoned and made their first public appearance, appropriately enough for Neebe, at a brewers’ union meeting.

Neebe would subsequently marry a woman who had been active in the clemency effort. She owned a saloon on Halsted near the stockyards and later, she and Neebe managed one on Randolph, which became the site of frequent political meetings. Neebe played an active part in the founding of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) in the early 1900s, an attempt to form one union for all trades; however, as a neighborhood saloonkeeper, he practiced an everyday activism. A year after his pardon, he appeared in court, this time as the plaintiff. A man had broken into the cellar of the bar and stolen a valuable bottle of wine, but Neebe, realizing that the unemployed man had a family, refused to press charges. How could he take a father away from his children over a bottle of wine?

Neebe had more children with his second wife, including the father of Oscar William Neebe, who would learn about his family’s past from a Diego Rivera mural in Mexico City. Oscar Neebe, the committed socialist and bartender, died in 1916 at the age of sixty-five. The Tribune would report in 1902 that his establishment had a place of honor near the stockyards , among what had become  the “longest row of saloons in Chicago.”

By Dave Kahle ( from Issue 2 )

With over 2100 breweries in the US and another 1200+ in the process of opening, a common question these days is: “When will we reach a saturation point?” The difficult part of the equation is that the saturation point is a moving target. As more people turn to craft beer, that point increases with them.
The problem with so many brands and choices is that many of them don’t move off the shelf fast enough. Presumably, this is the definition of a saturation point. Many of the beer stores and bars try to create an identity by carrying as many different beers as possible. It sounds great in theory, but not in practice, as a number of the beers will collect dust and eventually be too stale to enjoy.

The larger regional breweries have the cash to hire sales staff that not only help to push their beers, but can pull old beer before it’s sold. Smaller breweries don’t have this luxury, and even those that do have their staffs stretched thin. Those larger regionals also have more visibility as they make enough beer to distribute in several dozen states. Regional breweries that currently make over 100,000 barrels per year are likely to distance themselves further from the smaller craft brewers as this wave of new breweries fights for the consumers’ attention. In fact, it’s already true that most of the beer sold in our country is made by a couple of macro lager breweries and a small percentage of the craft breweries make the majority of the craft beer.

So what’s wrong with old beer? Old beer won’t make you sick, it just tastes bad. Most craft breweries consider their beer to be in good condition anywhere from 3-6 months after packaging. What they don’t tell you is that these terms apply only when the beer is handled properly. This means constant refrigeration, storage out of direct light, and shipping with minimal agitation from brewery to distributor to retailer to place of consumption. The hardest part is keeping the beer cold. Many breweries don’t ship their beer in refrigerated trucks, most distributors have limited refrigerated storage, if they have any at all, and most retailers have limited cold storage and sell most of the beer warm from a shelf.

Oxidation happens much faster at higher temperatures. In fact, according to the Arrhenius equation, the rate of a chemical reaction doubles with every 10 degrees Celsius increase in temperature. With this in mind, if the maximum amount of time for a craft beer to remain fresh under refrigeration is 6 months, then the same beer at 75 degrees F, might only be fresh for 2 months.

The flavors of oxidation in beer are papery, wet cardboard, tomato, molasses, black current (ribes), grape candy, honey, leather, sherry and vinous. The last four of these might be considered a good trait in a purposely aged beer. Some people like to age beer that has a high alcohol content (>8% ABV) or has roasted or sour flavors. These stronger flavor profiles will often mask some oxidative flavors while time will reduce hop bitterness, adding to the appeal of some styles like barleywine or imperial stout. Darker beers will also benefit a small amount from antioxidants found in dark malts, however, cellaring beer is not always successful and the likability of aged beers is quite subjective. The papery, wet cardboard flavors come from a compound called E-2-Nonenal (Trans-2-Nonenal). This is primarily from oxidation of fatty acids in beer. Less assertive beer styles have a tough time hiding these flavors, so light lagers and pale/amber ales are often the victims of Nonenal.

Highly hopped beers, while having the ability to mask some flaws, will take a turn for the worse more rapidly then other styles. With time, hop bitterness decreases, can become harsh, and hop aromatics, which are quite volatile, will dissipate. Russian River and Stone breweries will note on some of their well-hopped beers that aging is not appropriate. In fact, Stone recently released a beer with the “best by” date as its name. Hopefully more breweries will follow their lead. Sierra Nevada, New Belgium, Oskar Blues and Lagunitas have all begun the process of opening additional facilities in hopes of delivering fresher beer to Central and East coast markets. Of course they are all saving money on fuel and shipping costs, but better beer quality is another good reason for the new brewhouses.

To be clear, we aren’t discussing spoiled or contamined beer, “since brewers can now largely control biological instability, it is probably flavor instability that determines the shelf-life of the product.” (Bamforth)[smd1] . Many will point to alcohol levels, PH, hop acids or pasteurization as stabilizing factors in beer, and they are, but these help to restrain or eliminate microbiological beer spoilers and have little to contribute in curbing oxidation problems. In fact, pasteurization will increase oxidative staling effects by heating the beer; additionally, the lower the PH, the higher the rate of staling. Hop resins “afford anti-microbial properties and foam stabilization but also comprise precursors of staling and of the skunky aromas that develop in beer exposed to light” (Briggs[smd2] ). Bottle conditioning, on the other hand, can help to scavenge oxygen and extend the flavor stability. It will also naturally carbonate the beer. Bottle conditioning consists of adding a small amount of yeast and often, sugar, to the beer just prior to packaging. It is primarily seen in large format bottles, but some breweries will condition all sizes. Sierra Nevada is well known for bottle conditioning with a barely visible amount of yeast in all of their bottled ales.

Date codes are inconsistent and often hard to decipher. Many breweries use the Julian calendar to indicate what day of the year the beer was packaged. You might see a series of numbers on the bottle around the neck or the base; the first number might indicate the last digit of the year, while the next three digits are the Julian date. Sometimes you’ll find that the first three numbers are the Julian date. And fortunately, you will often see a clearly stamped “bottled on” date in this form: 9/4/12. Other times you might find a “best by” date instead. Some regulation or standardization of date codes is necessary. If you could clearly find the bottled on date, the brewery could still stamp it with all of the other necessary codes it needs to indicate at what time, place, bottling line, etc., the beer was packaged. What if milk was sold with a hard-to-decipher date code? Obviously, old milk can make you sick, while old beer shouldn’t, but you get the point. The consumer should know what they’re buying.

Since shipping is harmful to beer flavor, you might want to look for beer that was never shipped in the first place. By this, I mean buy beer directly from your local brewpub or brewery. If the laws allow it, buy a growler of beer that just finished conditioning in the last day or two. If you can’t get to the brewery, look for local beer at the store; it’s often some of the freshest brew in the house. This is always a rule of thumb to follow when traveling, too.

Back to the original point: with so many beer choices, and saturation in some markets, you are likely to buy beer that isn’t fresh or maybe you get suckered into buying too much beer at once. You wanted to try so many new beers at once that half of your fridge is full of out-of-date beer. What can we do as a consumer? Look for date codes and shop at stores that move beer quickly (this often doesn’t mean the store with the biggest selection). While perusing the aisles, ask the staff what’s freshest, but don’t over buy and look for beer that has been bottle conditioned. Definitely buy local and as with produce, shop for beer that’s in season rather than going for a specific style to ensure unpolluted flavor. Choice is great, but I choose beer that tastes like the brewer intended it. Fresh.

Maria’s Packaged Goods & Community Bar and Mash Tun Journal are teaming up with Chef Won Kim of Brew Ha Ha and a bunch of brewers to bring you a new visual and culinary arts happening called Under The Influence: The Art of Beer. This counter-cultural culinary and art event  takes place Saturday, November 3, from 5-10pm, at our gallery, the Co-Prosperity Sphere (3219 S Morgan Street). You can read about the underground craft beer scene in Chicago in the current issue Mash Tun Journal.

The Under the Influence show features work from artists and designers inspired by the aesthetics of craft beer and how it intersects with food, culture, and society. The exhibition comes paired with unlimited pours of over 2 dozen beers including brews from Revolution Brewery, Sixpoint Brewery, Duvel, Ommegang, and 6 secret guest brewers.

This curated selection of art, food and beer is our first foray into experiencing ways artists of all stripes are influenced by craft beer. The exhibition features mixed media, photography, painting, live painting and live silk screen printing.

Visual Artists include:
Michael Kiser, Ben Laskov,  Sixpoint, Peter Boutsikakis, Eric Olson,  Scott Marvel, Chris Hammes, Revise cmw, Joey Potts, Shawnimals, Ruben Aguirre jr., Veggiesomething, Czr Prz, Solo rm, Uriel correa and others

Liquid Artists: Sixpoint, Duvel/Ommegang , and 6 secret guest brewers.

Culinary treats are provided by Food For Flesh.

You must RSVP for this event. Tickets for this one day event are $25 and include unlimited pours and complementary food.
Please purchase tickets online by going directly to this link to paypal.  Or visit the Under the Influence website

You may also purchase tickets in person at Maria’s Packaged Goods & Community Bar.

Chicago’s Underground Homebrew Counter-Culture
By Jessica Murphy  (girlslikebeertoo@gmail.com )

There is a certain allure in attending an event that is outside of the mainstream; to being one of a select few who are in the know. This attitude has been present for years in the realms of underground music and art but has just recently occurred in the world of craft beer. While the craft beer scene is booming in Chicago and beyond, so too is the independent and creative spirit of homebrewing. And if you have had a chance to attend one of Chef Won Kim’s homebrew events over the last year, you know that Chicago is a hotbed of small-batch brewing talent. While Chicago has a long history of homebrewing spearheaded by clubs such as Homebrewer’s Pride of the Southside (HOPS) and Brewers of South Suburbia (BOSS), homebrew events have not expressed the indie spirit quite like Won Kim’s Brew Laughter Series.
These events had their origins in February 2010, when homebrew collective Low Dive Brewing approached Kim to see if he would be interested in pairing their beers with hisfood. They started hosting intimate beer dinners with each course paired with a Low Dive beer .That culminated in a few barbeques with Kimmanned the grill and Low Dive passed out their beer. In July of 2011, Chef Kim and about five homebrewers and homebrew collectives came together to participate in the first of the official series of homebrew events, Brew Ha Ha. “It all started with such a simple idea to pair good beer (that you can’t find anywhere) with food and has escalated into a full-on curated fest,” said Kim.

So, why have such events become so popular? According to Josh Garrett of Powell Brew House, the reason any indie scene is interesting (whether it be music, art or beer) is because established producers end up stamping out creativity in their attempt to appeal to a large customer base. “I think more and more people are insulted by these companies suggesting that their tastes can be reduced to such common denominators,” said Garrett. “So they are all about craft beers and spirits, rappers that say ‘f you’ to Def Jam and release their albums on a Tumblr site, and higher quality, more unique experiences across the board.” According to Andrew Lautner of Low Dive Brewing, this underground movement is a community at its purest. “Craft beer is obviously a booming market right now; there’s an interest in quality and uniqueness in many aspects of life, and that goes for beer as much as anything else.”

But Chicago is undergoing a craft beer renaissance right now with established breweries popping up at a record pace; why the desire for these underground homebrew events? Well, it goes back to wanting to feel a connection to the brewing community and a desire to support local, homegrown initiatives. “It’s refreshing to be able to experience the possible future of beer as some of these homebrewers are on the cusp of turning professional,” said Kim. Most (if not all) brewers at established craft breweries started their careers as homebrewers, and the homebrewers and homebrew collectives that have participated in the Chef Won Kim events will be the established breweries of tomorrow. Or sooner.

Ryan Burk participated in the Brew Ho Ho event under the moniker 2^nd Story Brewing and now he is a cider maker for Greg Hall’s Virtue Cider. “I’ve reached my aspirations, for the time being, and I credit Won [Kim] for getting me excited enough about this culture to make it my life,” said Burk. Jason Klein and Brad Shaffer participated in the Halloween-themed Brew Hey Hey and are now almost ready to begin brewing professionally as Spiteful Brewing. And Heavy Hand, the grand prize winners of August’s Iron Brew, will be brewing their coffee IPA at Stone Brewing Company for distribution throughout the United States. Just remember, you had it at a Chef Won Kim event first.

There are many benefits for these brewers to participate in such events, most importantly to get their beer in the hands of thirsty Chicagoans. “We never had the chance to pour our beer for more than 10 people outside our beer geek circle of friends and family. The homebrew series gave us exposure to hundreds of new people and additional critical feedback from people outside our circle,” said Mark Levy of Bent Grid. But these events mean so much more than just serving their beer at a fest. “Being involved in a large, vibrant culture of homebrewers is definitely my favorite part of these events,” said Garrett. Similarly, Burk said:“My favorite part has been meeting so many inspiring people that I now call friends. I feel like we’ve been creating our own culture here in Chicago and it seems to be growing; it’s really exciting.”

As amazing as these events are, they are in danger of going by the wayside thanks to conservative interpretations of the liquor control laws. Earlier this year, festival goers were astounded to learn that event organizers of the Peoria Jaycees 20^th Annual International Beer Festival were told by the Illinois Liquor Control Commission (ILCC) that they needed to exclude the homebrew tent that had been a part of the festival for the last 19 years. While the legalities of late have been providing barriers for homebrewers to participate in festivals, I have no fears that these events will continue to grow and flourish thanks to the creativity of festival planners in how these types of events are organized and marketed. “We can exist in the legal gray area of private clubs and events,” said Garrett.

Ashley Brandt, an attorney who writes the Libation Law Blog, offered some guidance on this issue. “The bottom line is that if these statements reflect some policy, it would seem that the state may be interpreting the Illinois statute in too narrow a fashion with regard to where homebrewers can let their family and guests drink their beer,” said Brandt. He further discusses that most states and even Federal Regulations contain specific language allowing one to transport homebrew to contests and events where the general public may imbibe. The fact that the law is being interpreted so conservatively, and that other states, such as Wisconsin, have successfully challenged this interpretation and can now pour homebrew without fear of persecution, I feel it is time for the homebrewers of Chicago to band together and get the law changed.

These underground events exude an independent spirit and a ”down-with-the-man” mentality that has been evident in other creative realms but just recently has appeared in the world of craft beer. It’s about freedom; even the smallest, most unconventional craft brewery still has to consider commercial issues such as label approval and whether their beer will sell. Not so in these events; the brewers brew what they like to drink and utilize exciting ingredients not normally found in beer. “I do it for the love, creativity and passion behind these brewers. It does get a little overwhelming, but in the end becomes worth it when I see happy, well-fed drunks. It brings an Asian tear to my eye,” said Kim.