Choc, Marshall to collaborate on new beer
Breaking beer news! Choc Beer and Marshall Brewing announced today they will collaborate on a new beer — Wild Brew Belgian-Style IPA. The beer will be brewed in recognition of the annual Wild Brew beer festival in Tulsa. It will be available May 3 in 22 oz. bottles in Oklahoma and western Arkansas. Here’s the news release sent out today by Choc and Marshall:
TULSA, Okla. (March 4, 2010) – Marshall Brewing Company and Choc Beer Company are pleased to announce Wild Brew, a limited release collaborative beer that will be brewed in recognition of the annual beer festival in Tulsa, Okla. The Wild Brew beer will be available in 22 oz. bottles beginning May 3 throughout Oklahoma and Western Arkansas.
“Immediately following the successful 2009 Wild Brew, members of the Wild Brew planning committee contacted Marshall Brewing Company and Choc Beer Company about the possibility of brewing a collaborative beer for the 2010 event,” said Eric Marshall, brewmaster of the Marshall Brewing Company. “We are excited about the opportunity to work with our good friends at Choc for a cause we both support. The collaboration began in November 2009,” Marshall continued, “and we determined the beer should reflect the style of both breweries.”
With the flip of a coin, Choc Beer Company of Krebs, Okla. was chosen to host the brewing and bottling of this year’s Wild Brew beer. “It is exciting and refreshing to have other brewers and their ideas in our brewery,” said Michael Lalli, Choc Beer Company brewmaster.
Wild Brew beer is a Belgian-style IPA, reflecting the strengths of Choc Beer Company and Marshall Brewing Company. Choc is known for its award-winning Belgian-style Signature ales and Marshall Brewing Company for their flagship Atlas India Pale Ale.
“We are honored that two great Oklahoma breweries collaborated on this project to raise awareness for such a wonderful cause,” Kari Culp, co-chair of the Wild Brew planning committee said.
The 12th Annual Wild Brew will be held on Saturday, July 31st. This year’s event will be held at the Exchange Center at Expo Square in Tulsa.
Tickets are $50 and must be purchased in advance, and attendees must be 21 or older. To purchase tickets or to become a sponsor, please visit www.wildbrew.org or call (918) 633-1308. Sponsorship opportunities are still available.
Scots, Germans battle for strongest beer title
If you typically drink beers in the 4% to 6% ABV range, then maybe get into something in the 9% and higher range, you’ll feel the difference pretty quickly. (No, those are not magical elves lighting small fires inside of you!) So imagine how you’d feel if you tried drinking a beer with an alcohol content of a whopping 41% ABV? Some beer fans in Scotland and Germany have that opportunity as a pair of breweries battle it out for the title of world’s strongest beer. The title was held by Germany’s Schorschbraeu brewery, with a 40% beer called Schorschbock. Scotland’s BrewDog brewery recently bested that with a 41% percent offering called Sink the Bismarck. The battle is not without controversy, of course. Schorschbraeu officials are accusing BrewDog of storing the beer in whiskey barrels that lend leftover alcohol to the beer. And Scottish health officials have deemed BrewDog’s quest for big beer “irresponsible.” My take is that if 40% beer is irresponsible, than so is whiskey, vodka and any number of other drinks. What are your thoughts? I’ll paste the news article on the story below:
| Germans, Scots Battle for Title of World’s Strongest Beer | \ |
| Thursday, 04 March 2010 11:12 |
| Two small breweries – one in Scotland, the other in Germany’s Bavaria – are engaged in battle, each laying claim to producing the world’s strongest beer.It started out as a silly contest between BrewDog in Scotland and the Schorschbraeu brewery in Germany. Since then, it has escalated into a serious contest that has the beer world enraptured.Both have spent months trying to see how much alcohol they can cram into a bottle of beer, making them the target of regulators concerned that they are promoting irresponsible drinking with the results of their battle.The latest offering from the Scots – Sink the Bismarck – is a clear shot across the bows of the Germans, hearkening to the 1960 film of the same name in which British ships chase the German battleship Bismarck across the Atlantic in 1941.The Bismarck was eventually sunk. The Scottish beer has 41 per cent alcohol, one percentage point more than the German brewery’s Schorschbock.
With alcohol levels like that, these beers can hold their own, in terms of alcohol, with drinks like whiskey and vodka. The Scots want to bring beer to a “new level,” according to James Watt, managing director of Brewdog. He says beer’s “awful reputation” in Britain is a thing of the past. But, while Watt wants to highlight the taste and exclusivity of his product, Scottish health officials characterize his brewing art as irresponsible. Georg Tscheuschner, the brewmaster behind Schorschbock, says he is sceptical of Brewdog’s latest record. He suspects that the Scots stored their beer in old whiskey barrels, which let the beer soak up some of the whiskey’s alcohol content. He’s busily checking out his theory. “I want there to be a fair competition,” says Tscheuschner, who is also head of the brewery in northern Bavaria. But he also plans to stay competitive and soon release a beer with 45 per cent alcohol by volume. Such an alcohol content can be achieved by putting the beer through his “Icebock” process, whereby the beer is frozen. The ice crystals are then separated out, with the remaining liquid containing a significantly higher concentration of alcohol and sugar. However, there are no plans to mass produce either high-alcohol beverage. A 0.33-litre bottle of Sink the Bismarck sells for 40 pounds (62 dollars). The Schorschbraeu brewery produces limited annual runs of 1,000 bottles. There have been 95 bottles of its 40-per-cent “Record Beer” made so far, with each bottle costing 99 euros, a speciality for collectors and connoisseurs. |
Oklahoma beer news: March 3
Here’s the latest news from the Oklahoma craft beer scene:
-Tulsa’s Marshall Brewing is hosting an event called Marshall Brewing Co. Class from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. tomorrow (Thursday) at the brewery, 618 S Wheeling Ave. Head brewer Eric Marshall will lead the class on a tour of the brewery and discuss the history of Marshall beer and how it is manufactured. The class will include samples. Call the brewery — (918) 292-8781 — for more info.
-COOP Ale Works is celebrating an anniversary: One year ago today the first pint of COOP was sold, at the 51st St. Speakeasy. Congrats, guys!
-Choc Beer will have a sampling at Sauced Pizza in the Paseo on Friday during the monthly First Friday Gallery Walk. For more info., call Choc at (918) 423-2042.
-Also in Choc news, the brewery, as well as COOP, has joined the Web site www.breweryfans.com. The site allows you to get more info about craft beer, provide feedback about the beers, and most importantly track where certain beers are available.
Home brewing measure easily passes Oklahoma House vote
“This is ridiculous. These people have this as a hobby, they make their own product and they share it with their friends. …This is one of those issues that makes us look stupid to the rest of the country.”
-Rep. Joe Dorman, D-Rush Springs
Thank you, Joe Dorman. It appears at least one person down at the state Capitol has his act together. The quote above is from debate today on the house floor about House Bill 2348, the measure to legalize home brewing of beer in Oklahoma. The measure passed the House easily by a vote of 76-19 and now goes on to the Senate for consideration. I’d like to take this moment to explain a couple things:
-Beer and other forms of alcohol are legal beverages in this state.
-The home brewing/making of other alcoholic beverages like wine and cider at home is considered legal in this state.
Perhaps this is news to Republican Rep. Russ Todd of Cordell, however. Here are some segments from Capitol reporter Michael McNutt’s story on the issue:
“What’s next?” asked Rep. Todd Russ, R-Cordell. “California has marijuana legalized. We complain people are making drugs in their houses right now and yet we’re going to go and pass a bill that says this (home brew) is not a bad drug.”
…
Russ said he also worried legalizing home brewing could lead to more alcohol problems by allowing “more of an access to the citizens of this alcoholic beverage.”
…
Russ told his fellow House members to think twice before voting for HB 2348, “and if you go to church Sunday remember how you voted today.”
To his credit, Rep. Colby Schwartz, R-Yukon, the author of HB 2348, and Dorman as well, put the smack down on all of Russ’ “theories” about beer and alcohol. Read the full story (to appear in Thursday’s edition of The Oklahoman) right here:
BY MICHAEL MCNUTT
Capitol Bureau
mmcnutt@opubco.com
Despite a lawmaker worried it could lead to legalizing marijuana, a measure that would allow Oklahomans to legally brew beer for their own use won easy passage Wednesday in the House of Representatives.
House Bill 2348 would allow Oklahomans to brew up to 200 gallons, or about 80 cases, a year for their personal use. They must get a permit from the state’s liquor agency, just as people who make wine or cedar do now. Beer made for personal use would not be subject to excise tax.
It’s legal for Oklahomans to make wine and cider, but state law excludes beer brewing, said Rep. Colby Schwartz, author of HB 2348. Many brew beer for their own use, to serve guests and to enter beer-making competitions.
The prohibition is rarely if ever enforced, said Schwartz, R-Yukon. State liquor agents are hard pressed to enforce liquor laws at commercial establishments, and they don’t want to go to people’s homes to check for brewing operations.
Anyone caught brewing beer at home now could face a fine of up to $5,000.
HB 2348 passed 76-19. It now goes to the Senate.
“What’s next?” asked Rep. Todd Russ, R-Cordell. “California has marijuana legalized. We complain people are making drugs in their houses right now and yet we’re going to go and pass a bill that says this (home brew) is not a bad drug.”
Schwartz said the selling of beer is legal in Oklahoma; people just can’t brew it for their personal use.
“If you want to have a debate and carry a bill out here that outlaws all alcohol in Oklahoma, you can do that,” Schwartz said. “What I chose to do is to bring the homemaking of beer into parity with what is already provided for wine and cider.”
Russ said he also worried legalizing home brewing could lead to more alcohol problems by allowing “more of an access to the citizens of this alcoholic beverage.”
Schwartz said most home brewers are responsible, often spending thousands of dollars on equipment. It takes time to make the beer compared with being able to buy beer or alcohol now for immediate consumption.
Russ told his fellow House members to think twice before voting for HB 2348, “and if you go to church Sunday remember how you voted today.”
Rep. Joe Dorman, D-Rush Springs, said he thought conservatives were against government interfering with people’s lives. It’s not an issue about people’s character — at least three of the Founding Fathers made their own brews, he said.
“Samuel Adams has a beer named after him,” Dorman said.
“This is ridiculous,” he said. “These people have this as a hobby, they make their own product and they share it with their friends. …This is one of those issues that makes us look stupid to the rest of the country.”
The Thirsty Beagle now on facebook!
It’s pretty obvious that having a blog and a Twitter account is soooooo February 2010. So now The Thirsty Beagle has a blog, a Twitter account AND a facebook page. And if you’re reading this, you’re invited to become a fan. And so is your mother. And your grandmother. Hell, even uncle Bill who always takes his shirt off and leaves back hair on the couch. He’s invited, too! Just go to facebook and search for the page called “The Thirsty Beagle.” Cheers!
A tale of two Olympic weeks and a BCS update
OK, I have sufficiently recovered from the wild gold medal celebration following the Canada-USA hockey game to put up a blog about it. Needless to say, I’m feeling quite positive about the entire Olympic experience. And talk about a turnaround for Canada at the Olympics. At the end of week one, I blogged that the games had become a nightmare for Canada. They weren’t winning medals, the weather wasn’t cooperating and organizers were being accused to creating dangerous conditions for several events. All we needed was a little curling and a little hockey (three golds, one silver) to turn our luck around. Anyway, long story short, Canada set a record for most gold medals at a winter Olympics and finished off the games with really the only medal that counted — the hockey gold. To say the least, if Canada had blown that game after being about 25 seconds away from gold in regulation, it would have cast a heavy shadow on the closing ceremonies that kicked off about two hours later. Plus it would have sent me into a serious bout of depression. Like, OSU sucking at the Cotton Bowl depression. (Although I didn’t end up spending like $400 on the Canada-USA hockey game, so, maybe it wouldn’t have been that bad.) So I ended up having a good pretty good weekend. When you throw in the OSU-Kansas basketball game on Saturday, it was excellent. Speaking of basketball, it is indeed March, which means one thing and one thing only: this! That’s right, March Madness! In fact, the first four days of the NCAA tournament have officially been declared by The Thirsty Beagle to be one of the year’s five major beer/sports holidays. (The others are the Super Bowl, Thanksgiving weekend football, late December/early January bowl games and conference tournament week in basketball.) You may have realized that NCAA tourney selection Sunday is only 12 days away. Well that’s not the only thing that’s 12 days away. The Thirsty Beagle’s third annual Beer Championship Series is also a mere 12 days away. That’s right, we’re going to unveil the first beer conference and open voting, working our way toward the 64-beer bracket. So mark you calendar: March 14 is the big day.
Oklahoma beer news: March 1
Hello beer fans! Here is the lastest news from the Oklahoma beer scene:
-Marshall Brewing has announced a second date for its Polo Grill beer dinner. Because of overwhelming demand for reservations for the first dinner — set for March 24 — a second dinner has been scheduled for March 31. The Polo Grill is at 2038 Utica Square in Tulsa. The five-course dinner will include Sundown Wheat, Old Pavilion Pilsner, McNellie’s Pub Ale, Atlas IPA and Big Jamoke. For reservations, call (918) 744-4280.
-Choc 1919 is on special this week at Byron’s, $6.49 for a six pack.
-I know this is a bit late (I was in Chicago for a few days and too cold to post a blog) but if you’re looking for any COOP Oak Aged Imperial Stout, you’re probably out of luck. The last two known kegs of the beer were tapped Saturday night at the Sapphire Bar at a season finale party. Hopefully the season we’re ending is winter, and warm temperatures are around the corner.
-Tulsa People posted this article, with info. about Marshall and Choc.
-Mustang Golden Ale is now available at Dan O’Briens at Memorial and May in OKC.
-Here’s an article published recently in The Oklahoman about the growth of craft beer in Oklahoma.
-McNellie’s in OKC is having a pint night tonight. Buy the beer, keep the glass. Their Web site says tonight’s pint night is Guinness Collector (2 of 4). Starts at 5 p.m. Limit one glass per customer.
