Beer Buzz Radio – Beer Trivia, Travels with Barley, and the Future of Beer

On October 23rd's episode of Beer Buzz, brought to you by Mother’s Brewing Company, we discuss some interesting statistics. Sounds fun, right? Well, these numbers are the numbers which show that Craft Beer has been continuing its explosive growth even while the beer market as a whole has stagnated for the past year. We discuss some possible reasons for that and also what could be the long-term effects.

After our first break, we introduced a new Trivia segment which will be airing weekly in which we will ask a single trivia question and award a prize to the winner. This week’s question was a good one involving the oldest brewery in the world which is still in operations. Don’t know what it is? Listen to the podcast to find out.

Sounds like Beer Buzz suddenly got smart or something, right? Well, don’t worry. We won’t get too cerebral on you. We also discuss what it would be like to dry hop with marijuana. According to the internet, it would be an expensive way to make a very crappy beer.

We also discuss Travels with Barley: A Journey Through Beer Culture in America, by Wall Street Journal writer Ken Wells. It’s a very cool book about Ken trying to find the perfect watering hole by traveling down the Mississippi. As he puts it, “I would begin in Minnesota among folk who, geographically speaking, are practically Canadians and by reputation descended from good beer-drinking Swedes and Germans. I would slide down soon enough into the Great Beer Belly of America, for, by lore at least, Midwesterners are presumed to be the mightiest of U.S. beer drinkers."

That’s right. We’re MIGHTY.

All this, a Haiku Beer Review, coming beer events, and a guest appearance by Allen Vaughan. Whew. What a week.

Listen in here.

Cheers!

Beer Buzz Radio – 10/16/2011 - Mother’s Brewing Oktoberfest in the Ozarks, National Learn to Brew Day, and the book that will change the way you feel about big beer.

OK, so that sounds like a lot. And this post is a week late. (We were having trouble with iTunes for a bit last week. It's been fixed.)

On the October 16th episode of Beer Buzz, brought to you by Mother’s Brewing Company, we discuss Mother’s Brewing Company’s Oktoberfest in the Ozarks party, which was a blast. They had two beers, a rauchbier and their harvest ale, which were only available at the event. If you haven’t caught on yet, Mother’s loves to have beers that are exclusively available at their tasting room. They want you to visit them. That’s why they’ve instituted First Firkin Friday at the brewery every 1st Friday of the month. By the way, that’s approaching fast, too.

We also talk about the upcoming Learn to Brew day, which is November 5th, and is sponsored by the American Homebrewer’s Association. It’s a national event geared towards getting those beer fans who have always thought about brewing to give it a try. If you have an interest in brewing, find a homebrewer to show you how to do it, buy The Joy of Homebrewing by Charlie Papazian or How to Brew by John Palmer, or visit the Homebrewery and get started. It’s actually much easier than it seems, and has the bonus of having the ultimate reward at the end – BEER.

Finally, we had a great Beer Lover’s Library on Sunday, when we spoke about Ambitious Brew, The Story of American Beer by Maureen Ogle. This book will seriously change the way you think about American lager companies such as Pabst, Best, and AB. I highly recommend it.

By the way, TAKE THE BEST IN BEER SURVEY. YOU’RE RUNNING OUT OF TIME.

Anyway, listen to the show by clicking here.

Beginning Homebrewing - Get started with an equipment kit.

There's a lot of home brewing ground I want to cover on this blog over the next couple of weeks, since I've not written much on it since I started Beer Buzz with TAG media and Mother's Brewing Company. If you've been listening to the show, you already know that National Learn to Home Brew day is November 5th.

Beer Buzz Radio - The Future of Craft Beer and Our Best In Beer Survey

We covered a lot of ground on Sunday’s episode of Beer Buzz, brought to you by Mother’s Brewing Company. The main topic of discussion was the future of craft beer, but we also covered some great other topics, like the Best in Beer poll (which is now available online) and what we think will be the “next big thing” in craft beer.

Don’t forget to cast your vote for the Best in Beer poll and let us know who is doing it right in Springfield. Listen to the full episode by clicking here.

Cheers!
Ben

Beer Buzz Radio - Best in Beer Survey is Live.

Beer Buzz Radio, brought to you by Mother’s Brewing Company, wants to know where you like to get a beer in Springfield. Take the very brief survey at http://tagsgf.com/bestinbeer. You have until the end of October to take the survey, but don’t wait. If you want to check out the locations before you vote, check out the map of all nominees:

View 2011 "Best in Beer" survey map in a larger map

Beer Buzz Radio - Best in Beer Survey, Bet You a Beer Game, and October Beer Events

It’s October, which means lots of excuses for drinking beer. In our October 2nd episode of Beer Buzz, brought to you by Mother’s Brewing Company, we go over several of the best reasons. First off, we cover several craft beer events going on in the area, including two Oktoberfest events, a Harvest event, and the BIG craft beer event coming up at the Shrine Mosque on November 19th.

Second, we talk about the best reason to drink this month, the First-ever Best in Beer survey. We have our final list of Best in Beer nominees and we’ll post the survey this week. That means you can use the map below to locate and have a beer at each of the venues. Call it “research.”


View 2011 "Best in Beer" survey map in a larger map

We also discuss what it’s like to judge beer in an official capacity, and why the BJCP is a mixed blessing for beer fans. Mostly, I feel that shoehorning beer into style categories is extremely limiting for brewers, but is extremely handy for judging beer for competition. Since I judged my first competition on Saturday, we talk about how having the BJCP scoring sheet in front of me changed my perception of the beer and why that was a good thing.

Continuing the excuse to drink beer, I covered why we should start a “Bet you a beer” movement, which mostly consists of betting your lager-drinking friend that you can find a craft beer he’ll like. The conversation might go something like this: