I happened recently to run into Andrew Rothacker the Director of Lancaster Community Supported Beer (Lancaster CSB) and he recognized my work here at the blog.  That was a first.  It was a chance encounter that was way too short but the timing was just right.

If you are unaware Lancaster CSB has brought the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) concept to craft brewing.  What better place to do that than in Lancaster County.  CSAs are in abundance in Lancaster and are growing.  People have started to give a damn about where their food comes from and in turn are looking to support local farmers. CSAs are a natural and easy way to meet that need.

Lancaster CSB is no different.  I have championed the importance of local brewers from the start on this blog.  Lancaster county and Central PA are were the majority of my beer money goes.

I have been aware of Lancaster CSB for about a year.  I first ran into these guys at the 2014 Lancaster Craft Beerfest and thought their idea was great… but time got away from me.  I failed to sign up.  Shame on me.

Luckily, I ran into Andrew and I have now remedied this.  I am a member of Lancaster CSB for the upcoming Fall/Winter session.

You should consider it too.  It’s an easy way to support local breweries in the area. Not only is it great way to support local breweries but for all you get it’s pretty damn cheap.

Membership starts at just $60. For that you get a growler, gift cards to each of the six participating breweries for a growler fill each month and a 10% discount on merchandise at the brewery when you visit.

I know… who needs another growler? But these ones are nicely designed and the premium growler is very nice looking.

The Fall/Winter membership is open until September 25^th and runs from October to March of 2016.  Participating brewers for this upcoming session are:

Liquid Hero Brewing

St. Boniface Brewing Company

Union Barrel Works

Wacker Brewing Company

Mad Chef Brewing Company

Snitz Creek Brewery

That is a nice line of up area breweries.

Lancaster CSB is doing this for reasons I understand and support.  Andrew explains their thoughts and motivation behind the business this way:

“You really don’t have to go across the country to find really great beer. There is so much good beer being brewed right here in Lancaster and the Lancaster area. Through Lancaster CSB, I am trying to give breweries access to new audiences at the same time that I am curating the local beer experience for the average beer enthusiast.”

Yep. That sums it up for me.

If you are looking for a unique way to experience the various breweries in and around Lancaster signing up to be a member of Lancaster CSB is the way to go.  You should hurry to sign up as the fall session is open for new members until September 25^th.

Check it all out at www.LancasterCSB.com.

I started this blog several months ago. I knew that after writing up posts on Facebook about the beers I was drinking I wanted to try to do it both more regularly and fully. What I did not know was what various directions I would want this blog to go.

I have not posted here in a few weeks.  My day job has been very busy and that one pays the bills. Mostly I have not written because I have scrapped the same post multiple times and could not get it right.  I did not want to write it, so I am writing this…

I had some bad beer.  I was at a local brewery and the beer was just not good.  I thought about posting about it on Untappd but decided that cap rankings and ~140 characters was not enough to explain the problem. I worked on doing a post here and it never felt right.  I did not want to slam a man’s work, his business and livelihood. I did not think I was up to the task nor willing to be as intensely critical as I thought I would need to be.

So I scrapped the post.

Which leads me to this: There are many bloggers writing about beer. Many of them are very, very good. Yet we lack sufficient numbers of quality bloggers taking the craft brewers to task.

I can understand why; it’s a dirty job. I do not want to do it either.

Maybe I am not reading the right ones or enough of them. From what I read most of the writing of individual beers or brewers is overwhelmingly positive. With over 3,000 craft brewers in this country and more coming everyday there are inherently many that are just not up to snuff.  I have had plenty of lousy beers from local and national craft brewers.

It can be hard to be a critic. It is hard to write critical words about what is the livelihood of some really great people.  In most cases these breweries are small businesses, employing a handful of people, and still trying to find success.  A negative review of their beer or their brewery is threatening to their business.

I don’t want to be that guy.

But what if beer bloggers fail to write critically of a brewery?

I believe what we see is critical reviews permeate through Untappd, the Beer Advocate forums and Twitter.  This is not sufficient nor appropriate.  It is impossible to provide important critical reviews via 140 characters.  I refuse to believe it can be done properly.  Telling a brewery that their hard work is only worth one and a quarter caps does even less.  The forums of the various craft beer communities are a hotbed of baseless opinions and attacks.

The one blogger I see taking on this need for critical review is Don’t Drink Beer.  It is very entertaining and certainly well written, but at times it can be so biting as to appear mean spirited. I still love that blog.  It is fantastic. It just seems alone.

Look… I don’t think I have all the answers.  I don’t necessarily feel comfortable telling a brewery in print that their products are lousy.  But with the recent news that brewers are practically a full proof business investment it seems that the need for critical review will only grow.

I am conflicted.  I believe there is insufficient critical review for an industry that is no longer “The Little Engine That Could” and has entered a respectable level of maturity.

So will I be doing critical reviews here on this blog?  Maybe… but when I do it will be with great difficulty.

Postscript: As strange a source as it seems I think the character Alton Ego from Ratatouille states beautifully the role of a critic:

“In many ways, the work of a critic is easy. We risk very little, yet enjoy a position over those who offer up their work and their selves to our judgment. We thrive on negative criticism, which is fun to write and to read. But the bitter truth we critics must face, is that in the grand scheme of things, the average piece of junk is probably more meaningful than our criticism designating it so.”

Update 9-15-15: Theo Armstrong of ZerØday Brewing had this to say in response to my post on Facebook.  I thought it worth adding here.

“Some perspective from my side of the fence… A good brewer should be their own harshest critic. We generally welcome and appreciate well thought out constructive feedback, both positive and negative. Will we always agree? No. Will it hurt a little to hear? Hell yeah. At the end of the day it’s better for the industry.

Generally a Brewers frustration is when we see things like a half cap Untappd rating on an IPA with comments like “I hate IPAs.” Or “not good.” Or “Just ok.” This kind of feedback gives us nothing to learn from.

Write your reviews. Understand that the people busting their ass making that bad beer will probably read your reviews. If they get butthurt reading a negative review of their beer on the Internet they probably have no business making beer or anything else for the public.

The negative feedback I value most is from customers who have the guts to talk to me about my beer directly.”

The nice thing about having a diverse selection of quality breweries in the Central PA area is that there are ever changing number of beers being tapped.  If you are in the area here are some new ones you should take the time to check out.

Phresh Hop APA by ZerØday Brewing Company.  This American pale ale was brewed with local malts from Deer Creek Malthouse.  When the folks at Zeroday went out to pick up the malts they were told the Cascade hops had flowered early.  Theo and company got the chance to hand pick 25 pounds of fresh hops.  About 14 hours later those hops were in the boil.

This crisp and light bodied ale is floral and slightly spicy in the nose.  The flavors of pine and hops resin are in abundance; as is alpha acid for a proper bitterness. This beer is a great demonstration of how local ingredients can make for a unique experience.

ØØ1 – Double IPA also by Zeroday is the one you should try first when arriving.  ØØ1 is the beer that takes Zeroday from good to great.  In my initial review from their opening week I was impressed how right out the gate each beer was good; that the beers did not taste like they had just opened. I thought the ceiling on this brew house was very high.  This beer signifies I was right. ØØ1 is balanced. Tons of hops but low bitterness. The hops shine through from start to finish with floral and resin flavors in the nose and hanging around for long lingering finish. This beer gets dank as it warms up; not a bad thing.  This boozy beer never drinks as big as it should, coming in at nearly 10% ABV.

Moo-Duck Brewery in Elizabethtown tapped two interesting beers recently. The first is The Remedy Honey Chamomile Wheat.  Brewed with chamomile at three different junctures, the soft calming herbal flavors come through in the nose, the flavor, and the finish.  Drinking of apple and earthy tones the flower infused light ale was sweetened in the finish with a honey backbone. After a hard day of work this beer is soothing. Easy drinking and as calming as the tale of Peter Rabbit who was sent to bed with a cup of chamomile tea.  I would not mind being sent to bed with this beer. Chamomile has many health benefits and I hope to get all of them after drinking this beer.

The Remedy is exactly the kind of beer Moo-Duck should be famous for: herbal, flowery, and earthy. When I think of flavor profiles for this brewery, I think of those three. The best beers they make are herbal, flowery, and earthy.

Moo-Duck used the National IPA day holiday to debut The Big Mango Imperial IPA.  This big IPA is nicely hopped without being a bombed out bitter. Big in the name is fitting as the beer sits at 11% ABV and it drinks big. Sweetness in the finish from the week of rest on mango puree, the nose is a little wanting but the finish is nice and dry with plenty of mango flavor. This was a nice beer and I picked up a growler to take home.

Columbia Kettle Works recently brought Sun-Kissed Gose to their taps.  This unfiltered sour wheat is brewed with coriander and sea salt, then rested on fresh navel oranges.  The orange flavors come through fresh in the aroma.  The beer has a pleasing whiff of orange oil and yeast.  Light bodied and refreshing to the palate it disappears quickly from the glass. The coriander was not evident but the sea salt played nicely with the slightly sour tang at the end.

If you are lucky, CKW will be tapping Citra Session IPA this weekend. (Update: It is on tap!) I got to try this beer at the Hops & Clocks event and it was outstanding. If you like Citra based beers it is an excellent spotlight on the citrus, tropical and grapefruit notes brought forth by this very popular hop variety.

The Marzens, Oktoberfests, and Pumpkin beers are already starting to show up.  But the above beer deserve your attention now before they are gone.  Soon enough the heat and long days of August will be cooling off. There will be plenty of time for those beers.

---

Special thanks to Brandalynn Armstrong for the Phresh Hop photos.

Let me be your Anger Translator.

So the Bourbon Barrel Aged Sunny Side Up was quite a hit. The first day it sold out. 300 gallons sold out in seven hours.  Albert Kominski ran out of Crowlers. It was a little “cray-cray” as the kids like to say.

After getting the hook up on some more Crowlers from ZerØday, day two was shaping up to be another busy one.

BBA Sunny Side Up was tapping at 4 pm and people were queued up for it; rightfully so.

Then some time after 7 pm Al took to Instagram to say: “We are out of crowlers, we are out of 1liter glass growlers. If you have a 1liter glass growler we will fill it. Otherwise it is DRAFT ONLY FOR BOURBON SUNNY SIDE UP.”

I was happy for Al.  It was a resounding success.

Success means more beer. If he can sell it this fast the first time out the gate then it will mean another chance some other day.

Of course the craft beer community is fraught with people that are NEVER happy.

An Instagram user mad3air immediately commented “Drove 2 hours only to find this when I got here. If you had told me bring my own, I would have. Terrible practice.”

I slammed mad3air and so did a number of others. He had it coming.

A quick search of BeerAdvocate.com shows that the forums were busy with users posting “ISO BSSU Pizza Boy Crowler” or similar calls looking to make trades.  One guy appeared to even be offering Canadian Breakfast Stout in a trade.

The demand was impressive and the word through social media was out. BBA Sunny Side Up was good and going fast. Who could have known?

On Instagram Al responded: “No beer we have ever sold from ANY brewer has sold more than 2 ½ kegs in a day. We could [have] never prepared for this, ever.”

But my point is this… Some craft beer drinkers have an entitlement problem. I discussed this previously regarding the costly price of craft beer. But from a different perspective I see another problem, entitlement to the product. 

Look, no one promised anyone access to anything.

The part of mad3air’s post that bothered me was “Terrible practice.” It was an insult to the business and the business practices of a well-regarded brewer and proprietor.  It is clear that mad3air thinks Al owed him something before he even crossed the threshold of the establishment.

Similar attitudes are expressed online when discussing distribution decisions. People slamming a brewery for not distributing to a certain region or not expanding fast enough to keep up with demand of a specific product.

No one promised you anything. Beers sell out. Demand exceeds supply. Get over it. Luckily, there are literally thousands and thousands of other good and great beers to take its place; order something else. The entitlement is grating and makes you look silly.

Finally, before signing off this post it must be noted the Al did offer to go above and beyond and was more than willing to help where he could saying to mad3air “Next time message me personally, I would find a growler for you if it’s possible.”

That is a good practice and shows the willingness Al has to honor the customer… even if they don’t deserve it.

Update: Al gave mad3air his personal growler of beer that he was going to take home. Now that is going above and beyond. 

No, sir.  I don’t like it. 

Joshua M. Bernstein writing for Bon Appetit talks about taking his 20-month old daughter out for a beer to Brooklyn’s Threes Brewing among other brewing establishments around the country.

The overwhelming response to this article, as far as I can tell on social media, has been “FINALLY!” or a supportive “Yes!”

I think this is totally crazy.

Some background… I am a father of two beautiful kids. I love them more than anything else in the world. I love being a father.

But I don’t want them at the brewery with me.

Nope.  Don’t want it.

Being a parent is exhausting. It is the hardest job you will ever love and I do it with joy through the exhausting hours and sleepless nights.  But I am not doing it when I am having a beer at the brewery.  More importantly, people don’t want to see me parenting at the brewery.  This is not all about you and your kids.

Some places are for adults.

Places are where adults have adult conversations about adult subjects while drinking adult beverages. I am not interested in curtailing this adult activity due to the presence of children; mine or others.

Quoting from the story: “Just because you’ve got a 20-month-old, it doesn’t mean you don’t have the social desire to try the new kick-as stout that someone is making…”

I get that your desires have not changed but your life has. You don’t need to take your kid to the brewery, just like you don’t need to try said “kick-ass stout.” I get it… but being a parent means I miss out on stuff.  It happens.

Bernstein also goes on to tout that introducing kids to the community helps to “not demonize something.” I think this is a stretch. It is entirely possible to teach children to later as adults imbibe responsibly or about the benefits of a social libation without taking them to breweries as a baby.

Yes, I understand Bernstein’s point about the kids come first, and that there are rules about having kids at breweries after 7 pm or later.  I appreciate that if his kid melts down he leaves the establishment. I get it that historically beer gardens were family affairs.

Historically, kids were in the labor force too. Sometimes kids just don’t belong certain places.

I don’t go to breweries as frequently as I like. When I do it’s for a shorter time than I would otherwise plan. This is due to being a parent. It’s my first responsibility. I balance my desires with the needs of my kids and the inherent responsibilities that come with it. Its called being a grown up.

Does this mean I think you should not take your kids to the brewery?  Hardly.  I am not that judgmental. Just don’t ever expect to see mine there.  I am there for adult time.

The below link is from the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and is a quick write up about Steve Sloan, Owner and Brewer at Roundabout Brewery in Pittsburgh, PA.  It is easily one of the best profiles of a brewer I have read in a long time.

After I moved from Pittsburgh more than a decade ago I lived in Midtown Harrisburg.  Steve and his lovely wife Dyana were neighbors.  Steve was then head brewer at Appalachian Brewing Company.  This was during my formative years of craft beer drinking.  When I first met him, I remember saying “Whoa! You make the stuff.  That is amazing.”  Steve’s reaction, “Yeah, it’s no big deal.”

After leaving ABC, Steve brewed for Firestone Walker Brewing Company and then at Church Brew Works which won national Best Large Brew Pub by his hard work and genius.

And yes… He is a genius.  Just read the article.

I have stopped by Roundabout twice… both times it was amazing.  The Ginga Wheat is the best example of using ginger in a beer hands down and is one of my absolute favorite wheat beers. The Hy-PA is devastatingly good.

(Side note:  My Roundabout stemmed is by far my preferred glassware; as Untappd followers can attest.)

There are many reasons I miss my hometown… The exploding craft beer culture in the area adds to my longing.  I am glad to see Steve settled there.

Now go read the article… http://triblive.com/lifestyles/fooddrink/8705719-74/sloan-brewery-brewing