Cask & Vine’s What’s On Tap: Bert Bingel of Bert’s Better Beers
Born in Germany. Graduated from Franklin High School, NH. Served as a US Navy Hospital Corpsman. Worked in IT for 25 years before selling beer. Married to Harriet for 35 years. Two daughters Margaret and Sarah. Home brewer for over 20 years. BJCP Certified Judge. Member of Brew Free or Die. Hobbies includes: brewing, playing guitar, beekeeping, gardening.
Bert’s Better Beers: Website | Facebook
Michael’s Home Brew! – Listen for a description and review
Bert’s Better Beers’ Draft Pick’s of the Week:
1. Rodenback 2011
2. Founder’s KBS
Listen for our reviews!
Kettle to Keg’s In the Kettle: BJCP Judging – What is judged?
Ale Communications:
The Seahawks got busted by science for selling watered-down beer
The Seattle Seahawks have been accused of doing something shameful and wrong to the great sports fans of the Pacific Northwest.
According to a study conducted by KOMO News in Seattle in conjunction with a local laboratory, the beer at CenturyLink Field has lower levels of alcohol than is advertised by the breweries. It’s not just Seahawks fans who are affected, either. The Seattle Sounders of MLS play at the stadium as well.
Some of the brews had alcohol by volume levels more than a half percent lower than the advertised number. This is actually a pretty serious thing, since federal law prohibits vendors from selling beer with ABV levels more than 0.3 percent below the advertised number. READ MORE
The Beer Bug™
The Beer Bug measures the actual specific gravity, alcohol %, and temperature of your fermenting beer every minute and sends that information to your own free account online. After set up you can log on at the TheBeerBug.com or via an app on your phone to see exactly how your fermentation is doing. Three graphs are created for each of your beers to log how specific gravity, alcohol %, and temperature changed over the course of the fermentation. The Beer Bug gives you the knowledge to make better beer, saves you time, and is a whole lot of fun to use.
Knowledge is power. Understanding what happens during fermentation, and how to control it, is often what separates good brewers from great brewers. The Beer Bug is the tool that gives you that information. Ever wonder what the lag time is on your beer… the real lag time between pitching and when gravity begins to drop? Is my yeast working? How much does fermentation raise temperature? When should I adjust temperature up at the end of fermentation? Or even more simply, what temperature did my beer really ferment at? You learn all that and more. READ MORE
SABMiller Considers Best Route to a Global Beer Brand
LONDON—In 2002, soon after acquiring Miller Brewing Co. from Philip Morris Cos., the newly formed SABMiller PLC unveiled its plan for world beer domination: It launched Pilsner Urquell—a premium Czech lager—into the U.S.
Beer battle brewing in the Bluegrass State
FRANKFORT, Ky. – A move by the world’s largest brewer to run the beer distributorship in Owensboro, Ky., — as it already does in Louisville — is causing a beer battle throughout the state that could spill into next year’s legislative session. Depending on which side is talking, the decision about whether Anheuser-Busch can have a second beer distributorship in Kentucky either will hurt craft breweries in the state and discourage larger out-of-state breweries from selling their product in Kentucky — or it will have no impact on beer drinkers whatsoever.
Anheuser-Busch, the American arm of Belgium-based Anheuser-Busch InBev (ABI), is trying to buy an Owensboro distributorship in a deal it says poses no threat to consumers, citing its ownership of a Louisville regional distributorship since 1978.
Typically, one sees a three-tiered system with a beer producer, a separate distributor and retailers. Budweiser products are already sold in the Owensboro area, but Anheuser-Bush wants to take over the existing distributorship. READ MORE
Elitism, or something else? Millennials and the war on Big Beer
Sleek black-and-white bottle design. Strong, lingering taste. A boozy alcoholic punch.
None of these scream Budweiser, Miller or Coors, the three big brands in American beer. Yet in the past few years, all three have introduced new product lines reminiscent of increasingly popular craft beer and even hard liquor. Brands like Bud Light Platinum, Budweiser Black Crown and Miller Fortune veer sharply away from the formulas that produced America’s most popular beers.
What’s behind the pint-size pivot? READ MORE
THS 158: Boards and Brews!
THS 73: Great North Aleworks
Meredith
December 5, 2014 at 11:15 amhi! listening to this podcast now, and wondering when you judge beers, do you know the name and brewery? or just the style?
mhp
December 10, 2014 at 3:25 pmMeredith,
The tastings are blind. Entries are coded upon registration, and judges only ever know the style and sub-style, with a space for the brewer to leave a brief description of any specialty ingredients or processes. Many judges don’t even want friends to tell them about beers they enter in contests, in case they end up judging them.