Top craft brewers, brewing companies announced
The Brewers Association today released its annual list of top 50 craft breweries and brewing companies based on beer sales volume. No real surprises. Here are the top five craft breweries:
1. Boston Beer Co. (Sam Adams)
2. Sierra Nevada Brewing Co.
3. New Belgium Brewing Co.
4. Spoetzl Brewery (Shiner)
5. Deschutes Brewery
And here are the top five brewing companies:
1. Anheuser-Busch Inc.
2. MillerCoors Brewing Co.
3. Pabst
4. D.G. Yuengling and Son Inc.
5. Boston Beer Co.
You can see the Brewers Association lists in their entirety by clicking on this here link.
Choc announces home brew winner
The winner of the 2011 Brew at Choc’s Home contest is a smoked IPA by homebrewers Dave and Michele Darity. Here’s the news release Choc put out today to announce the winning brew:
KREBS – Choc Beer Company is excited to announce Dave and Michele Darity’s Smoked India Pale Ale is the winner of the second annual Brew at Choc’s Home Competition!
The Daritys’ brew was chosen from a field of many creative smoked beers. The Daritys and Choc plan to brew the recipe at the Choc brewery in the next few weeks. The brew will be available for purchase across Choc’s distribution network later this summer.
This year, entries were limited to smoke beers. The judging process was divided into two stages, preliminary and brewmaster’s judging table. During preliminary rounds the brews were divided into flights, and judged blind against the Beer Judge Certification Program style guidelines. After preliminary judging the best brews advanced to the brewmaster’s table. At this point recipe reproduction, creativity, and overall quality were used to determine the winner.
“The beers were great again this year,” Choc Brewmaster Michael Lalli said. “I am very happy with the creativity of all the brewers and am very excited to brew Dave and Michele’s beer.”
The Daritys are an accomplished homebrewing team. The couple has won awards at many homebrew competitions. Most recently the couple won five medals and third place in the best of show category at the Bluebonnet Brew-off in Irving, Texas.
Brew at Choc’s Home is an annual homebrew competition conducted by Choc. The winning brewer teams up with Choc to brew at the company’s Krebs brewery. The brew is sold throughout Choc’s distribution network. The brew is also entered in major commercial beer competitions including the Great American Beer Festival.
Latest update on first Oklahoma Craft Beer Festival
Pictured above you have the newly released logo for the first Oklahoma Craft Beer Festival, scheduled May 21 in Bricktown. Tapwerks general manager Greg Powell today sent out the most detailed description of the event we’ve had to date. The highlights:
-The festival will be in the two parking lots between Tapwerks and America’s Pub.
-Two sessions are scheduled: 1 to 4 p.m. and 5 to 8 p.m.
-The cost is $30 per person and includes admission and a commemorative sample cup.
-There will be live music and food from Big Truck Tacos, Hot Dog OKC and a food vendor to be determined.
-All of Oklahoma’s craft brewers are expected.
-A portion of proceeds from the event will benefit charity.
-Ticket sales are expected to be capped at 600 per session. (I’ll post more once additional ticketing information is available)
May 21 can’t get here soon enough!
Breaking beer news: COOP to release new beer
This just in across The Thirsty Beagle news wires: Oklahoma City’s COOP Ale Works is set to debut a new beer, possibly as early as next week. COOP Farmhouse Ale is the name. The beer has been aged with tart cherries and is the first commercially brewed sour beer in Oklahoma, COOP reports.
Some key info about the beer:
-6 percent ABV
-Will be available on tap only, and only in limited quantities, at Republic Gastropub, Tapwerks, Drunken Fry, Prohibition Room in Oklahoma City, and The White Owl in Tulsa
-The beer is considered a seasonal, but due to a rather difficult brewing process, COOP can’t guarantee it will be released/available again next year. (So that means you better get some while you can!)
So why is there such a limited quantity of the beer? And why was it so hard to make? I’ll let COOP brewmaster Blake Jarolim answer those questions:
“Our Farmhouse Ale was a small batch attempt to provide Oklahoma with the type of beer that has trouble making it across our borders. We fermented this beer with a normal ale yeast and then inoculated it with a wild yeast/bacteria slurry that was cultured in the brewery. It aged for a couple of months before we added 40 lbs of tart cherries and let it age for a few more months. When it reached an appropriate level of tartness, we kegged it, tried it, and loved it!
“Sour/Wild beers have grown very dear to me over the past couple of years. I enjoy them not only because they taste unbelievable, but also because nature, circumstances, and setting have so much to do with the final result. I very much enjoy the experimental nature of forging these beers. So, we hope to make this a seasonal release, but we will have to wait until next year to be sure.”
So there you have it, beer fans. This sounds like a real treat. Be sure to grab a pint while you can. Based on Blake’s description, seems like there’s no guarantee COOP can recreate the exact same recipe next year, so this could be quite the unique release.
Like running and beer? How about at the same time?
McNellie’s OKC and Red Coyote this week announced the first James E. McNellie’s OKC Pub Run. You can choose to take part in a 4-mile run or a 1-mile fun run, or you can do what The Thirsty Beagle will do, and take part in the 4-mile Stout Challenge. Stout Challenge participants must finish two 12 oz. pints during the race and another at the finish line to complete the challenge. Male and female winners of the Stout Challenge will receive $300 (first), $150 (second) and $50 (third) house credits at McNellie’s. The race is set for 3 p.m. May 14, with the start and finish at McNellie’s, 10th and Walker, and the race winding through Heritage Hills and Mesta Park.
I’m just going to come out and say it. OKC hosting a running/beer drinking race: Greatest. Idea. Ever.
For more information, or to sign up, click the old mouse right here.
Bracket challenge winner and sports musings
The NCAA basketball tourney wrapped up yesterday in grand 1946 fashion as the Huskies of Connecticut defeated the Bulldogs of Butler University by a count of 12-9.* With the tourney over, it officially brings an end to the first Thirsty Beagle Bracket Challenge!
Congrats go to Clayton Howell of Edmond for picking the winning bracket! Howell’s Final Four picks of Kansas, Florida, North Carolina and Connecticut only hit on one out of four, but that was more than just about everyone else. So well done, Mr. Howell. Your prize will be in the mail shortly.
Meanwhile, been thinking about some different sports things lately…
-While the NCAA tournament was decent — the first couple days as usual were fun — the final game was pretty indicative of college basketball in general. Not a ton of great players. Not a ton of great games. It doesn’t help that OSU and OU have become relatively irrelevant over the past couple years. And it certainly doesn’t help in this area that the Thunder have soared to pretty astounding levels of popularity. Just seems like people don’t care as much about college basketball anymore, and then when you do care, you get a clunker like last night.
-Speaking of the Thunder, is it just me, or does this team need to run more than just one or two plays each game? I know when you have Durant and Westbrook, sometimes the best play is to have Durant or Westbrook shoot. But man, when those two aren’t hitting shots, the offense looks terrible. Granted, the team has won like 15 of the past 20 games, so all is obviously not lost.
-Thank god for baseball season. Had to throw that out there. Especially as a Toronto fan. With both the Leafs and Raptors almost guaranteed to miss the playoffs AGAIN, I don’t have much to cheer about these days. With the Jays kicking things off this past weekend, things are really looking up. Until June. When the Jays drop a 12-game losing streak and fall into AL East irrelevance again. Good times.
-Spring football practice is great, but is there any way we can institute some kind of spring league with real games we can go to? I’m needing a college football fix, and September is too long to wait, I’m afraid.
*Not actual score.
Mustang to release cans
Mustang Brewing Co. announced today that it will release 12-packs of cans of its Golden Ale and Washita Wheat beers. The release date has been set for May 1. Here’s what Mustang President Tim Schoelen had to say about the news:
