Right To Brew!

The Alabama State Motto,
"We Dare Defend Our Rights,"
now includes the Right to Brew!

The tragic downside, unfortunately,
of the new Alabama law will be the
spike in emergency room visits by
homebrewers suffering from snake bite
wounds while trying to milk venom for an
adjunct ingredient in their clone recipe
batches of Snake Handler Double IPA.

We really have it made here in the Umpqua Valley and on Planet Beer. For decades Oregonians and citizens of most other states have been free to make their own beer at home, unlike the dry brew kettle residents of the great state of Alabama. Finally, though, folks in the Cotton State have dared to defend their right to brew, now that their legislature has passed a law making Alabama the last state in the nation to legalize homebrewing.
Welcome to the 20th and 21st centuries Bama!

• Year homebrewing became legal on federal level: 1979
• States late to the right to homebrew party: Utah (2009); Oklahoma (2010); Mississippi (March 2013); and last, but better late than never, Alabama (May 2013)
• Estimated number of amateur beer or wine makers: one million
• Gallons of beer per year allowed to be brewed per person in Oregon: One hundred gallons in a household having one person who is 21 years of age or older; or two hundred gallons in a household having two or more persons who are 21 years of age or older.

Info from American Homebrewers Association

American Craft Beer Week

Celebrate American craft beer culture with a pint at your favorite pub, a growler fill from a local brewery, or a six pack to go from the bottle shop cooler.

Happy Mother's Day!

Craft Beer Growth

2012 was a very good year for craft breweries: While the total U.S. beer market grew by only one percent, craft brewers increased their dollar growth by 17 percent and volume by 15 percent, for a total barrel increase of almost 1.8 million.

 

Source: Brewers Association

Eugene Beer Week

Endure the 24 week countdown to the Umpqua Brew Fest by celebrating with our Willlamette Valley neighbors to the north @ Eugene Beer Week. 
When: May 4 - May11
Events: Tastings, Special Releases, Brewers Dinner, and Homebrew Competition
Main Event: Sasquatch Brew Fest Sat., May 4 Hilton Hotel

No more bumping elbows when you bend
your elbow at the new Bier Stein location!
Brewpublic.com

Don't Miss: During Eugene Beer Week, check out the new 12,000 sq. ft. Bier Stein location, now open for business at 1591 Willamette.

Big Brew

What: Big Brew, a worldwide event celebrating National Homebrew Day
Who: You, the brew lover
Where: Singleton Park, 695 N. Curry Road, Roseburg, OR
When: Sat., May 4 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Host: Umpqua Valley Brewers Guild
Sponsor:  American Homebrewers Association

Springtime Promises

Springtime bine climb

April Hop Crop Report: Yep, up they grow with a little Umpqua Valley soil below and April rain and sun from above!

Genus: Humulus
Species: lupulus
Cultivar: Centennial
Genetic Composition: 3/4 Brewers Gold, 3/32 Fuggle, 1/16 East Kent Golding, 1/32 Bavarian and 1/16 unknown
First Created: 1974
Released: 1990
Alpha Acid Rating: 9.5%-11.5%
Works Well In: Pale Ales and IPAs
Source: Beer Advocate

Top 50 American Craft Breweries

Craft brewers made
13,235,917 barrels of beer
last year, which means publicans
poured plenty of pints!

• Boston Beer leads the list of Top 50 U.S. Craft Brewing Companies.*
• California leads the states with 11 breweries in the Top 50; Going up the West Coast, Oregon has four, and surprisingly, Washington has none. 
• Colorado outranks Oregon with six breweries.
• No Portland brewery is in the Top 50, but Widmer, as part of the Craft Brew Alliance merger with Red Hook and Kona, is #9 in the Top 50 Overall U.S. Brewing Companies.

West Coast Breweries in the Top 50

California: 
#2 Sierra Nevada (Chico)
#6 Lagunitas (Petaluma)
#10 Stone (Escondido)
#20 Firestone Walker (Paso Robles)
#21 Anchor (San Fransisco)
#34 Bear Republic (Cloverdale)
#38 Lost Coast (Eureka)
#39 Karl Srauss (San Diego)
#40 BJ's Chicago Pizza & Brewery (San Diego)
#42 North Coast (Fort Bragg)
#46 Ballast Point (San Diego)

Oregon:
#5 Deschutes (Bend)
#22 Rogue Ales (Newport)
#24 Full Sail (Hood River)
#31 Ninkasi (Eugene)

Washington:
None

• Craft brewers sold an estimated 13,235,917 barrels of beer in 2012, up from 11,467,337 in 2011. 
• Growth of the craft brewing industry in 2012 was 15% by volume and 17% by dollars.
• Craft brewers provide an estimated 108,440 jobs in the U.S., including serving staff in brewpubs.

Statistics provided by the Brewers Association.
* The Brewers Association defines a craft brewery as one with an annual production of beer less than six million barrels.

Long Live the King!

Cheers to you, Patron Saint of Beer

It's that time of year when humulus lupulus rhizomes once again begin to send their green shoots out of the earth on their ascent to hop heaven.

Celebrate Spring and  King Gambrinus, who is credited for adding hops to beer.

"My name is Gambrinus,
King of Flanders and Brabant.
I made malt out of barley
And was the first to conceive beer
So the brewers
Can proudly proclaim
That it was a King Who invented Beer!"

Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Closeup of Saccharomyces cerevisiae
When magnified a whole bunch of times,
as pictured above, it becomes apparent that
this little guy and billions of buddies do their business
with a smile after being pitched into the brew kettle.

Oregon has an official state insect and an official state crustacean, so why shouldn't Saccharomyces cerevisiae be the official state microbe? At least that's the proposal of state representative Mark Johnson of Hood River. According to House Concurrent Resolution 12, Saccharomyces cerevisiae is "essential to the production of alcoholic beverages, such as mead, wine, beer and distilled spirits," making it officially worthy of honor and recognition as the state's itsy bitsiest, teeny weeniest symbol.

Scientific Name: Saccharomyces cerevisiae 
Translation: "Saccharomyces" is geek speak for "sugar mold" or "sugar fungus," and Cerevisiae means "of beer."
Nickname: Mr. Happy, a.k.a. Brewer's yeast
Purpose on Earth: To magically convert sugar into alcohol
Size: Really, really small; in fact, even smaller than a flyspeck
Economic Impact: Really, really large--$2.4 billion dollars a year in the Oregon craft beer business

Agua from Thin Air

Lima, Peru’s capital city, receives less than one inch of rain each year, forcing some residents to get their water from dirty wells. Despite the lack of rain, the high humidity makes it possible to harvest water directly from the city’s air, providing a sustainable, alternative source of drinkable water.

Peruvian researchers have collaborated with an ad agency to create an unusual billboard that generates drinking water from thin air. 

While fulfilling its traditional role as an advertising tool, the billboard also harvests moisture directly from the air, which is then processed through a filtration system. 

Capable of producing 25 gallons (96 liters) of water a day during summer, the billboard has provided 9,450 liters of clean drinking water for a nearby community in the three months since it was first installed.

Source: Inhabit.com

Happy March 32nd!

Beervana Operator's Manual

Whether you live in Portland, the undisputed beer capital of Oregon, or are just visiting Beervana with 52 breweries, the most of any city in the world, check out Willamette Week's Guide to breweries, pubs, bottle and homebrew shops, and all things PDX beer.

Portland Beer Guide 2013
Publisher: Willamette Week
Print: $5 at Powell's Books
Quotable: “At a certain level, brewing becomes plumbing.”
(Steinbart's homebrew shop clerk)
Relic: Original Guide, first published in 1994

Good News, Bad News

 
Good News: Water now surpasses soda as the nation’s beverage of choice. An average of 58 gallons of water a year, compared to 44 gallons of soda, are consumed yearly in the U.S.

Bad News: 21of the 58 gallons of water are bottled.

Source: TheAtlantic.com

Buy Oregon

Pub Crawl

Get on your green and down on your knees for this year's St. Paddy's Day Pub Crawl!

The Umpqua Brew Fest is 31 weeks away, but Roseburg celebrates everything Irish this weekend.

WHAT: Roseburg St. Paddy's Day Pub Crawl
WHEN: Sat., March 16
WHERE: The Emerald Isle, a.k.a. Downtown Roseburg
WHY: 1) One day a year when everyone's last name begins with O'! 
2) Benefit for Taylor/Hatfield Memorial Youth Fund

More info @ St. Paddy's Day Pub Crawl

Wall Street vs. Main Street

The Dow exceeds record high, up over 9% this year
and over 100% since 2009.
"Greed is good."
Gordon Gekko

  

"Beer is better!"
Joe Sixpack

Water Log: The Wettest Spot on Earth

“It’s All About the Water” at the Umpqua Brew Fest, but without a doubt it’s always about the water on Kauai's Mount Waialeale, one of the wettest spots on earth. 

Even though it seems like the rain spigot is open every season but summer here in the Umpqua Valley, in comparison to Mount Waialeale's perpetual deluge, Roseburg only averages a relatively light sprinkling of 34 inches a year.

If you plan to scale Mount Waialeale, you can dry off and reward your efforts by visiting the Garden Island's only craft brewery, Kauai Island Brewery and Grill in Port Allen.

That's A Fact:

• Translation: Waialeale means "Rippling Waters"
  
• Location: Kauai in the Hawaiian Islands

• Elevation: 5,052 feet

• Average rainfall per year: 452 inches

• Record rainfall: 683 inches
 in 1982
• Driest year: 218 inches in 1926

Gone To Paradise

Aloha from Maui! 

Maui Brewing Company

 Wish you were beer, er here. 

Back soon...or never!

 

Record Number of U.S. Breweries

2751 and counting...

Open for Business!

328 Jackson   Roseburg, OR

Casey and Jennifer O'Toole,
the Umpqua Valley's newest publicans

Now That's TRUE Love!

Water Matters

Medford homebrewer Steven Wyatt exercises
water quality control, hiking into the woods
to get the goods from the source,
the headwaters of the Rogue River.

A basic rule of brewing is that if you wouldn't drink the water because it's so bad, you wouldn't want to drink the beer either. It only takes four ingredients to make beer, but water is 90 percent of what's in your glass, so it follows, the better the water, the better the beer.

Oregon Public Broadcasting journalist Amelia Templeton reports on a homebrewer's quest to collect the purest local water possible to make a better batch of beer. Full story at OPB Earthfix.

KLCC Microbrew Festival

The countdown clock shows 36 long weeks until the Umpqua Brew Fest, but don't just twiddle your thumbs waiting--head up to the next valley this weekend for the KLCC Microwbrew Festival!

WHAT: Tasting event, featuring 50 breweries from the West Coast and beyond, serving over 100 craft beers. collaboration brew, homebrew competition, and a Music Sale with hundreds of CDs & records
WHEN: Fri., Feb. 8 (5-11 p.m.) & Sat., Feb. 9 (1-11 p.m.)
WHERE: Lane Events Center, 796 W. 13th Ave., Eugene, OR 
WHY: 1) People love beer. 2) Benefit for Eugene's public radio station, KLCC. 3) See reason 1.
COST: $12 in advance, $15 at the door. Beer tickets are $1 for a 3 oz. taste. 

More info @ KLCC

By the Numerals

SUPER BOWL XLVII !!!
Sun., Feb. 3, 2013

UMPQUA BREW FEST IV !!!
Sat. Oct. 19, 2013

Two events so monumental, so colossal, so stupendous, so historic, it takes the largest font, all CAPS, three exclamation points, and Roman numerals* to betoken their significance to the world.

* For those who are Roman numeral challenged, this year it's Super Bowl 47 and Umpqua Brew Fest 4.