The Great American Beer Festival was held this past weekend in Denver, CO, and what a weekend it was. We’re still recovering from all the fun we had this weekend…none of the fun ingesting hundreds of microbrews in Denver, though. We had a much classier weekend filled with college football, Pabst, and enormous pieces of pizza. Jealous?

Regardless, the GABF has released their list of winners in the 80 different beer categories, along with best brewers and breweries in the country. The winners–as expected–in the brewery of the year awards were Blue Moon, Utah Brewers Cooperative, and Mad River Brewing Company! And if you haven’t heard of all of those breweries, check out the list and you’ll find a massive collection of some of your favorite breweries raking in award after award. Or not. Seriously, where did all these breweries come from? Pizza Port? Devil’s Backbone? Yazoo Brewing? Am I alone here not knowing 50% of the winners?

I think the one thing this shows is how strong the craft beer movement is in the United States. Just look at the over 140 entries in the American IPA category, and look at the full list of winners. It’s extraordinary.

So cheers to all the winners. You’ve already made my week either much more cheerful knowing that I have at least 200 more breweries I need to sample beer from.

Check out the full list here or skip on over to the full .PDF version here.

Stay out of my beer. Thanks.

The Atlantic’s food section has a good look at one of the more bizarre beer styles that I can really think of: oyster stouts. A few months ago, I gave my thoughts on the subject where I pretty much panned the style since I hate oysters. Have my thoughts changed? No. Am I still interested in trying an oyster stout? Well, maybe. Clay Risen tried three that are on the market (Harpoon’s Island Creek, Flying Fish’s Exit 1, and Porterhouse Brewing Co.’s Oyster Stout), and came back with some mixed results.

Oyster stouts are exactly what they sound like: brewers shuck in five or six bivalves per barrel during the brewing process. By the time the beer is done, the oysters have completely dissolved, leaving behind just the faintest hint of salinity. Beware, though: Some brewers, like Marston’s, don’t actually use oysters in their oyster stouts; the name is simply to suggest an appropriate accompaniment. Still others, like Massachusetts’s Cape Ann Brewing, will use shells, but not the oysters themselves, to balance the mineral content of their water.

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And about that beer: While the Harpoon and Porterhouse are both dry, even astringent, Irish stouts, the Flying Fish is a creamy British export stout, with about twice the alcohol content of the other two. Its milk chocolate and roasted flavors are much better complements to the subtle saltiness of the oysters than the bitter chocolate and tobacco flavors I got from the Porterhouse and Harpoon. I found the Porterhouse thin and excessively briny, while the Harpoon was bland with a finish of old coffee grounds. Neither was particularly bad, but neither was anything I’ll look for again.

Not exactly a rave review of oyster stouts, but it’s still a developing genre. Has anyone out there tried any of the offerings, and what do you think? Anyone thinking of dabbling in the art of brewing an oyster stout on their own? How about Crab Leg Kolsch, or Lobster Lager? Not saying I’ll drink them, but go for it.

The Atlantic — Brine in Your Brew: Sampling Oyster Stouts

Move over cans and bottles, the future of beer is here. Well, maybe not the future, but a damn cool looking beer sampling unit: the BeerVault. There seems to be some high-tech science behind the newest creation from Australian design firm Jones Chijoff.

The BeerVault fits the high-end beer bottles into UV-filtering clear acrylic canisters, which are backlit and suspended above the bar. Each beer is kept under the same pressure as it was while in the bottle, thus preserving its taste, while also keeping it chilled and ready-to-serve via a clear volume of liquid glycol that surrounds it and circulates through a chiller.

It also makes ordering beers easier. One of the ideas behind the whole bar is that people will be able to order their beers based on the color!

BornRich — Australian firm designs BeerVault for high-end beers

Someone get Sam Calagione on this case immediately. It looks like some divers searching for buried treasure..er…champagne off the coast of Sweden in the Baltic Sea have unearthed what could be the world’s oldest drinkable beer, dating to somewhere around the early 1800s. That sounds great, but too bad the beer is clearly bad by now and undrinkable. What’s that? Someone tried it?

Bjorn Haggblom, a spokesman for the researchers, says they found a handful of beer bottles this week while salvaging champagne discovered near the Aland Islands in July.

He said researchers who tried drops of the dark, foamy liquid liked the taste of it.

Swedish beer expert Goran Winbergh questioned whether it would still be drinkable because beer is perishable.

Um, so who’s waiting for the “Divers Die After Trying Beer from Ancient Shipwreck” headline that will show up in the newspapers in a few more hours? This is why we need Sam. Get him over there; have him test it; and have him replicate it. We can even go ahead and just call it something badass like Pirate’s Blood. There, we already have a name. You have your assignment, Sam.

The Associated Press — Recovering bubbly in Baltic Sea, divers find beer

The Huffington Post has a pretty stock list up today about the world’s best beer cities. Gotta love these features from HuffPo that clearly try to just get reads for having “beer” or “bikini” in the title. What’s that? It caught my eye? And yours, too? Goddamnit.

Either way, it’s hard to disagree with most of the picks (Portland, Berlin, Bruges), but there are some oddities on the list, like Mexico City (really?) and Burlington, VT. Burlington, VT, home of the famous and much-loved on this blog, Magic Hat Brewing Company! What wild and funky beers they have!

Set between two beer-bustling cities – Montreal to the north, and Boston to the southeast – Burlington, Vermont is a university town with one of the best brew cultures in New England. Home to the quirky microbrewery Magic Hat, visitors can do as the local beer lovers do and sample homegrown brews such as #9, Fat Angel, and Blind Faith IPA, to name a few. Church Street, a four-block pedestrian-only zone buzzes with vibrant bars with top-notch beer on tap, including Vermont-brewed Otter Creek and the Long Trail beer collection, whose specialty beers change seasonally.

Yeah, whatever. When you need ten cities to fill out the rest of an article, you just start writing stuff in. “Oh, look HuffPo Intern 1, there’s a Magic Hat in the work fridge!” “Oh, awesome, HuffPo Intern 2. Let’s include that in our list!” “Neato!”

Regardless of the list, it did get me thinking of the better beer cities not just in the world, but in the U.S. Is D.C. getting closer to cracking a top ten, or has it already? Do number of breweries matter, or just the variety of beer bars and beer selection? I’ve got to think Denver would make my list, and certainly somewhere in Michigan. Anywhere in Montana making a push? What does everyone else think?

The Huffington Post — The 10 Best Cities For Beer Lovers to Visit

Probably, at least, because it’s a new week and a new one of these studies. But we’re beer drinkers around here, so when we hear about good health relating to our infatuation with craft beer, we’re joining the bandwagon. This study, though, actually is quite surprising. It states that people who drink in moderate amounts  actually live longer than people who don’t drink at all. And the real shocker: heavy drinkers (more than 3 drinks a day) live longer than non-drinkers as well. Whoa.

Moderate drinking, which is defined as one to three drinks per day, is associated with the lowest mortality rates in alcohol studies. Moderate alcohol use (especially when the beverage of choice is red wine) is thought to improve heart health, circulation and sociability, which can be important because people who are isolated don’t have as many family members and friends who can notice and help treat health problems.

But why would abstaining from alcohol lead to a shorter life? It’s true that those who abstain from alcohol tend to be from lower socioeconomic classes, since drinking can be expensive. And people of lower socioeconomic status have more life stressors — job and child-care worries that might not only keep them from the bottle but also cause stress-related illnesses over long periods. (They also don’t get the stress-reducing benefits of a drink or two after work.)

Not exactly the most rousing support of going out and becoming an alcoholic, but definitely a curious report to be sure. As always with these studies, be careful. I think we know that drinking in moderation certainly won’t kill you, but still can lead to certain types of cancers. But it does sound like you’re more apt to have a good time and be more carefree. So pick your poison, really.

TIME Magazine — Heavy Drinkers Outlive Nondrinkers, Study Finds

Who wants to burn the fuck out of their mouths with Miller High Life in Texas!?

The State Fair of Texas coming September 24th. No one can prepare themselves enough.

The Washington Post has a nice quick read about one of the true founding fathers of the craft beer movement, Jack McAuliffe. McAuliffe started his own brewery in 1976 in an effort to recreate the beers he tasted in Scotland while stationed there in the Navy. However, as often was the case with microbreweries pre-1980, McAuliffe’s brewery closed. But enter Ken Grossman, master brewer from Sierra Nevada.

To celebrate 30 years of brewing, Grossman coaxed McAuliffe (now in his 60s and living in San Antonio) out of retirement to collaborate on a limited-edition anniversary brew.

Brew day was May 25. “I hadn’t seen him in 25 years at least,” Grossman said about McAuliffe, who he said had been in an automobile accident the previous year and had lost the use of one arm. “Mainly he supervised and sampled.”

Jack and Ken’s Black Barleywine Ale recently debuted in 25.4-ounce corked bottles. A deep mahogany color with a ruby glint, the heady brew has a sweet, almost sugary taste up front, giving way to a bittersweet chocolate flavor mid-palate and a hoppy, slightly floral finish.

I’ve seen the Jack and Ken’s Black Barleywine out in stores recently and I’ve scoffed at the higher price and the lack of the memory I have from tasting the Fritz and Ken’s Stout. However, after reading this great profile, I think I’ll have to grab a bottle of the barleywine. Not often do you get such a great back story on the beer you’re drinking. Plus, this beer was a joint effort between two of the legends in craft beer, featuring one you’ve never even heard about.

The story really is worth the read, and Jack McAuliffe even gives advice to all aspiring homebrewers.

“Your skill set is extremely important,” he stresses. Ideally, it should encompass disciplines as varied as metallurgy and accounting. “You have to be interested in microbiology, to know your way around a laboratory. You have to know how a sewer system works.”

Well-read sewer technicians, take note.

The Washington Post — A founding father returns to the fore

*If you’re into reading just the headline of a story, that is. See, a group called CAMRA, an advocacy group pushing real ale, has come up with a great claim that beer is actually healthier and filled with less calories than wine. And it will help you lose weight! But not really.

“Not only that,” it announced earlier this month, “but swapping wine for beer, for just one week, could save as many calories as a half-hour jog.”

So if you want to stay fit, throw away those old trainers and get drinking. Of course this was probably not the message Camra was trying to get across, but that subtlety may have been lost on the crowd of 60,000 at the Great British Beer Festival, where the announcement was made. You can imagine the contented sighs, the odd burp and the collective patting of the great British beer belly.

To back up its claims, Camra commissioned a report which states: “A half-pint of 3.8% bitter has 85 calories, a medium glass of red wine has 119 calories and a bottle of 5% alcopop has 179 calories.” There is also evidence from the Czech Republic, whose per capita beer consumption puts all others to shame. A study of 2,300 drinkers there found they put on almost no more weight around the abdomen than non-drinkers.

So there you have it, everyone. Next time you go to the bar, make sure you order the super low ABV beer in the standard half-pint glass that all bars have at the ready. And make sure to not drink more of it than you would wine. Because THEN, beer will be healthier than wine, or whatever the hell alcopop is. Crazy Brits.

Herald Scotland — Tom Bruce-Gardyne on the so-called “myth of the beer belly”

It is no secret that the craft beer section at the supermarket is filled with beers from the major brewers: MillerCoors and ABinbev. Many of the staples you see at parties during the summer such as Leinenkugel and Blue Moon are all brewed by MillerCoors. Their popularity has led MillerCoors to launch a new Craft Beer and Import division, Tenth and Blake Beer Co.

“You are seeing a tremendous amount of consumers gravitating to craft beer,” [Tenth and Blake CEO Tom] Cardella said. “Consumers are being more discerning about beer.”

Although some consumers have traded down to less expensive beers during the extended economic downturn, a substantial number continue to seek greater variety and have turned to higher-margin craft and import brews, Cardella said.

MillerCoors executives see the move as a way to keep its sales growing as the economy slowly improves. Crafts and imports are outperforming MillerCoors’ premium flagship brands such as Miller Lite and Coors Light, which have posted flat or declining sales.

What an observation. Who knew that people cared about what kind of beer they were drinking? I believe this switch has much more to do with how the beer will be marketed and is an attempt to separate their craft beers from Miller and Coors brand. But I also wonder if a beer in such large scale production as the Blue Moon products is really “craft beer.”

The Blue Moon portfolio, which includes Belgian White, Rising Moon, Honey Moon, Harvest Moon and Full Moon, has been growing at a clip of more than 20 percent in 2010, Cardella said. MillerCoors is expected to produce about 1.5 million barrels of Blue Moon products this year.

Regardless of motivation, I’m sure we’ll all get to see some new and exciting marketing for these beers in the future. Just imagine if Blue Moon Summer Sampler had a window on the side so you could see what your were drinking? or maybe the moon will turn blue when your beer is cold?