Tuesday, September 13, 2016
Monday, September 12, 2016
2016 Cerveza Mexico Festival with the BA EDP - Via Brewers Association
The Brewers Association would like to inform all Export Development Program members of the 2016 Cerveza Mexico Festival, November 4-6, 2016. The Brewers Association Export Development Program is hosting a pavilion at the 2016 Cerveza Mexico festival in Mexico City in November. This will be our second year at the festival. If you would like […]
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October Craft Fair Announced - via Due South Brewing
It’s time for local art & crafts to come together with local craft beer at your local brewery!
Due South Brewing Company is hosting a craft fair on October 15 from 1 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Brewery patrons will be able to peruse wares from more than a dozen local artists and crafters. Attendees will find pottery, jewelry and accessories, photography, wood crafts, and more!
In addition to a selection of on-site brewed beer, Piggy’s BBQ & Seafood food truck will be on site. Further, for those interested in the brewing process, the brewery’s regular tour schedule will be in effect.
There is no cost to attend, but drinks, food, and crafts are available for purchase. No pets please. Brewery visitors must be 21+ after 6 p.m. Rain or shine, this is an inside event.
Note to Vendors:
If you hand-make products you would like to sell at our fair, please email service@duesouthbrewing.co
Spots are free, but limited. You will be notified by 9/27/16 if you have been selected to display.
Most of the spots are already booked for this craft fair, but no worries, we will be having a lot more and we’ll be able to accommodate more artists once we complete our taproom renovation in 2017.
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The Anatomy of a Beer Faucet - via AHA
Whether you own a kegerator, are building a home draft system, or simply want to know what’s going on behind the scenes when the bartender pulls a pint of your favorite IPA, it’s nice to understand how beer gets into your glass.
So we’ve broken a typical beer faucet into its component pieces to show you how the magic happens.
- Handle/lever: This is the bit you pull to make the beer come out. Every faucet has a different design, but most levers actuate either a forward-sealing (shown here) or rear-sealing valve that starts and stops the flow of beer. The lever itself is composed of several smaller parts that depend on the overall design of the faucet, while the handle (the tapered black piece) can be removed and replaced with any number of custom pieces. (Pro tip: Always pull the handle near its base by placing your thumb on the front and the index and middle fingers on the back and pulling forward. Pulling on a handle from the very top gives much more leverage and can inadvertently damage the faucet!)
- Faucet body: Fundamentally, this is just a curved piece of metal—stainless steel in this example—that directs the flow of beer into an awaiting piece of stylistically appropriate glassware. At the upstream end, an external thread pattern matches the inner threads on the coupling nut (4) that, when tightened, pulls the faucet against the shank (3). A circumferential series of teeth mates with an opposing set of teeth on the downstream end of the shank to keep the faucet from freely rotating.
- Shank: The shank is a thick, cylindrical chunk of metal with a thread pattern (7/8″-14) on the outside and a bore through the middle. Beer travels through the bore, and the external threads accept a lock nut (6) that keeps everything securely in place. The shank is what connects the room temperature outside world to the refrigerated inner sanctum of keg storage. Shanks come in varying lengths to accommodate everything from the thin shell of a draft tower to the thickest of walk-in cooler walls. The inner bore diameter of 1/4″ or 3/16″ should match the hose barb diameter of the tail piece (9). The downstream end of a shank may include a small sleeve.
- Coupling nut: This holey little ring-shaped widget mates with the thread pattern at the upstream end of the faucet body (2) and ensures a tight seal between the faucet and the shank (3). Tightening and loosening a coupling nut is best achieved using a special faucet wrench. They cost all of about three bucks, and they’ll keep that shiny metal from getting scratched.
- Flange: The flange is typically black plastic, but stainless models are also available. It’s more or less a cosmetic piece that hides the inner workings of the shank (3) and makes it all look nice and tidy. It also has the added benefit of keep the whole thing from falling backward into the refrigerator or draft tower.
- Lock nut: This flanged hex nut matches the threads (7/8″-14) on the shank (3) and, when tightened, keeps the shank from falling forward through the wall or draft tower. The lock nut is best loosened and tightened with a 1-3/16″ wrench.
- Washer: A small rubber washer creates a tight seal between the business end of the shank (3) and upstream components (8 and 9).
- Beer nut: We’re all beer nuts, right? Well, in this context, a beer nut is a 1″ hex nut with internal threads (7/8″-14) that tightens onto the end of the shank and secures the tail piece (9). (Pro tip: This is the very same industry-standard beer nut you use to connect tail pieces to Sanke couplers.)
- Tail piece: This is where the rubber meets the road. The beer nut (8) compresses the tail piece against the end of the shank (3) with the washer (7) in between to create a leak-free seal. The tail piece features a hose barb (most commonly 1/4″ and 3/16″) that connects to the beverage line.
So there you have it—the inner mysteries of the beer faucet revealed. Armed with this basic knowledge and a couple of wrenches, you have everything you need to assemble and disassemble your own faucet. Cheers to that!
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Justin Rick - Via Brewers Association
What’s your current position at your brewery, and how did you get started in the craft brewing industry? I am currently with Saltwater Brewery [in Delray Beach, Fla.] as the head of brewing. I graduated from the Master Brewers Program at UC Davis in 2008, and shortly after was hired at Stone Brewing as an […]
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Sunday, September 11, 2016
Charleston Beer Week 2016
From brewery to bartender, from keg to glass, Charleston Beer Week is back and celebrating the craft beer community of Charleston, South Carolina. With 14 produciton breweries and numerous craft beer focused pubs & stores, the city has much to be joyous about. Taking place September 11th - 17th, Charleston Beer Week is an entire week dedicated to events hilighting the wide varity of local & unique beers.
Join in the celenbration by unlocking this year’s comemorative badge. Check-in to any beer at one (1) particpating venue listed here between September 11th - 17th and unlock the “Charleston Beer Week (2016)”. Be sure to add the participating venue to your check-in for it to count.
Find out more about Charleston Beer Week and check out all the events over at http://ift.tt/VcMMkZ.
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Friday, September 9, 2016
10 Facts From YCH Hops’ Hop & Brew School 2016 - via AHA
I had the distinct pleasure of traveling to Yakima, Washington for a few days during the annual hop harvest season to take part in YCH Hops annual Hop & Brew School earlier this month.
Along the way, I got to meet some awesome homebrewers, craft brewers, industry veterans, and YCH Hops employees all while cramming as much lupulin-laced knowledge into my brain that I could possibly fit. If you ever have a chance to visit Yakima Valley and attend Hop & Brew School, you will not be disappointed!
So here’s a few takeaways of mine for you hop freaks out there:
1) The Yakima Valley is home to one of the most fertile and productive growing regions in the world. The desert-like conditions of the area coupled with the abundant irrigation provided by the Yakima River create an ideal environment to produce hops. With its long, sunny days, the Yakima Valley is one of the few areas of the world where new plantings of hops in the spring have the ability to produce a full crop in the first year.
2) Hop bines can grow up to 12 inches in a single day. The hop farmers in Yakima train the bines to curl up the trellis cables by hand. They will train the bines to grow clockwise or counterclockwise for healthy growth depending on the direction that the sunlight hits that particular hop field.
3) Developing a commercial hop variety takes at least 11 years. Each year, the hop farmers will plant about 40,000 new seedlings for trials. Of those 40,000 seedlings, only about 20 of them will eventually make it to commercial release (0.05%). New hop varieties will be selected based on quality brewing attributes. These include characteristics like high alpha acid content and unique aroma and flavor profiles.
4) Hop harvest takes approximately 30 to 40 days for a commercial farm to complete, often running 24/7. Different varietals of hops are collected at different times throughout the season, although the order of cultivation can vary from harvest to harvest. Typically, the hops with the highest alpha acid content (CTZ, Citra, Warrior, etc.) are harvested last. The 2016 Hop & Brew School attendees (August 30 to September 2) witnessed harvesting of mainly Centennial hops.
5) Male hop plants don’t produce any of the essential oils needed to make beer, so commercial hop farms are made up only of female plants. A small amount of acreage at commercial hop farms is devoted to male hop plants, but these are only used to cross-breed new experimental varieties of hops. Hop farmers are also using them to further advance research into hop gene mapping, and non-GMO marker assisted selection.
6) Hops actually grow on a bine. A bine plant differs from a vine because it uses its shoots instead of its tendrils to climb. Since there is currently no commercial machinery with the ability to tie the wires that hold bines in place, all wires and cables in commercial hop fields are tied by hand every year. Some hop farms will have upwards of 2.5 million knots tied by hand.
7) The majority of the world’s commercial hop production occurs in regions between 35 and 55 degrees latitude. In the United States alone, more than 90 million pounds of hops are produced every year, making up 40 percent of the world’s hop production. About 75 percent of US hop acreage is contained in the Yakima Valley, with an average farm size of 450 acres.
8) Hop farming in the Yakima Valley dates back to the 1800s. Hop cultivation can be traced back to the Hallertau region of Germany in the year 736, but commercial hop production for brewing was not documented until 1079. Six centuries later, hops made their way to the United States. Many of the farms in Yakima Valley have several family generations of hop-growing heritage.
9) The 2016 anticipated commercial hop production is up 16 percent from 2015. The state of Washington alone will produce 69,537,800 pounds of hops on 37,588 acres. Oregon will be next up with 12,180,200 lb. grown on 7,709 acres, followed by Idaho which will produce 10,054,800 lb. on 5,586 acres. In case you don’t have a calculator handy, that’s 91,772,800 lb. of hops produced on 50,883 acres!
10) The top hop varieties grown at YCH Hops in order of acreage are Cascade, CTZ, Centennial, Simcoe, Citra, Mosaic, Chinook, Nugget, and Summit. Of those top 10, four have been released since 2000, making up about 28 percent of the top 10. The USDA lists 41 hop varieties in 2016, 19 of which have been released since 2000.
Bonus Fact! You can experience Hop & Brew School yourself by signing up to attend in 2017. Just visit ychhops.com to receive updates on the 2017 session. Registration will open on Monday, June 5, 2017. In the meantime, if you want to learn more about hops, be sure to pick up a copy of Stan Hieronymus’s book For The Love of Hops.
Information from this article is provided by YCH Hops and USA Hops. Pictures all taken by Matt Bolling
Matt Bolling is the Events & Membership Coordinator at the American Homebrewers Association. All of his life, Matt has been partial to having a variety of hobbies, and homebrewing is one of his favorites. When not making tasty brews, Matt also loves skiing, hiking, fishing, and pretending to like golf
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