Johnstown Brewing Closed

The story can be found here. Bummer!

Best of luck to everyone involved with that!

PLCB Article in Post-Gazette (part 4 of 4)

Und endlich, hier ist das letztes Stück.

PLCB Article in Post-Gazette (part 3 of 4)

The third part is found here.

There's also the public comment/forum here.

PLCB Article in Post-Gazette (part 2 of 4)

Today's installment can be found here.

PLCB Article in Post-Gazette (part 1 of 4)

For those who don't normally look at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, today starts a four-part series on the monopoly that is the PLCB. Check it out.

A Step in the Wrong Direction

Pennsylvanians already pay 81% tax on their alcohol .. Allegheny County wants to tack on another 10%.

For more information, see Stop Drink Tax.

Why, you ask, does Dan Onorato want this approved by the State? Because of the Pittsburgh Port Authority and it's clusterf**k situation, which you can read about here.

A Step in the Right Direction

A further step towards being able to buy 6-packs at the distributor rather than whole cases...

Post-Gazette article

Odds & Ends

A lot's been going on for the past few weeks; hardly time to read my favorite blogs, let alone post on mine. I'm now full swing into another Fall semester, and it's time to start working evenings and weekends in order to keep from being snowed under with work and research.

Depressing news on the agricultural front for the near future of crops which go into beer. Many sites have visited this issue, so I'll just post a link to an informative discourse by Mr. Hieronymous. Go here. The folks at RateBeer.com had a discussion of same, and many of us who homebrew (even infrequently) don't like the sounds of paying a lot more for our ingredients. Just say no to corn subsidies!

I'm still sitting on my ingredients for a second batch of coffee porter, which is worrisome because I'm almost out of the first batch. I believe that my Hennepin clone is kicked, and the number of Chimay Bleu clones is dwindling, too. Luckily, I have a whole batch of Fantôme clones that will be ready in a few weeks.

A friend of mine (Tom) who jumped head first into brewing last fall (all-grain, no less), got his hands on some soda kegs. He graciously gave me five of them with some gaskets, so I'm going to have to start playing with kegging as my new storage method. We'll most likely get together with a few others and make a large batch of his Christmas beer, which was a huge hit of his last year.

Plans are underway to start an "official" homebrew club here in Indiana. There are at least ten homebrewers I know of right now (and I'm sure more who I don't), and some people who just need a push in the right direction.

The biggest excitement of the last few weeks was how I spent last weekend. I hope to make an actual standalone post on it, but to avoid the suspense .. I was fortunate enough to be able to go to a beer festival (nothing new there), but see it from "the other side of the tap", so to speak.

Friend and Marzoni's brewmaster, Bill Kroft, graciously allowed me to accompany him to Harrisburg to the 10th Annual Capitol City beer festival, which was held at Appalachian Brewing Co I had a blast, but don't know if I could do a whole lot of those - makes for a very long day when you set up, do three 3-hour sessions, then tear down. But it was quite an eye opener to see what goes on behind the scenes and find out what it's like to serve the gamut of beer drinking personalities. I hope to write up something more insightful soon, but probably not until the weekend. Oh, if you're in Harrisburg ... McGrath's Pub is not to be missed.

As I finish up, I'll say that I'm enjoying a bottle of Clipper City Heavy Seas Red Sky At Night, a saison from Clipper City Brewing out of Baltimore. Very nice little ale, and really has some characteristics that take me back to Europe.

Stick A Pin In Me! Voodoo Available Soon.

A good article on Voodoo and Matt Allyn. Can't wait to get my hands on some of this stuff!!!
Post-Gazette article.

Craft Beer Writer Michael Jackson Passed Away

As reported in tons of other beer-related places, beer guru Michael Jackson, author of the first beer book I ever owned, passed away this morning. If ever there was someone for whom to raise a glass, it'd be Mr. Jackson.

Beer Hearing in Harrisburg

From WGAL.com - "The prospect of selling beer in grocery stores and convenience stores was the subject of a legislative hearing in Harrisburg today."

Full article

Comments at the end are interesting, too. Apparently, PA is the 4th worst state for alcohol related deaths. Maybe if people didn't have to buy beer a case at a time? Or if everyone wasn't so hung up on alcohol like it was evil, rather than something to be enjoyed in moderation, responsibly?

Sheetz Selling Beer Again

Well, the court reversed its decision and so now you CAN buy beer at the one Altoona Sheetz (until more lawyers get involved and we see if it gets stopped again).

Meanwhile, enjoy the novelty of buying beer at Sheetz!

Consumers Shafted Yet Again By The State

In today's Indiana Gazette, there is an AP article "Ruling Ends Takeout Beer Sales at Sheetz". On Feb. 1, I linked to the article (see this post) that announced the sale of beer at Sheetz.

My, how quickly February goes. The Commonwealth Court, in a 4-3 ruling, stated that the "retail dispenser license that the PLCB issued for an Altoona Sheetz requires at least some of the beer sold there to be consumed on the premises. ... An entity that is licensed for on-premises consumption is given the additional benefit of selling beverages for off-premises consumption. ... the law makes the right to conduct sales for off-premises consumption secondary to the primary purpose of selling malt or brewed beverages for on-premise consumption at the eating place."

Wankers.

"A lawyer for the 410-member Malt Beverage Distributors Association of PA - which sued to challenge the license - said the association was concerned that Sheetz was essentially operating as a beer distributor".

What crap! If they were essentially operating as a distributor, they'd only be allowed to sell $&#! cases, not six-packs and singles - which is the whole damn point. If distributors are worried about this, then why don't they lobby to be allowed to sell six-packs in the distributor? If they kept their prices low (i.e., cost of case = cost of six-pack * 4), then they wouldn't need to fret over Giant Eagle and Sheetz and Wa-Wa and Whole Foods selling beer. Will that ever happen?

Yet again, the consumer gets reamed because of the PA sanctioned monopolistic control of alcohol sales in the state.

I'm gonna go have a homebrew.

February Beer Club Meeting

You can see the full lineup here. I think it was a great success and we had 11 people at Jon & Lacey's house.

If the homebrewing article runs on Sunday in the Gazette and our new guests spread the word, we'll have to figure out where uptown we can meet. Ahh, the price of progress ;)

Sheetz to Sell Beer

Starting today, the Altoona Sheetz on 17th Street will be able to sell beer. The article can be found here.

PA Senators Protecting Us From Ourselves

This state takes the cake when it comes to ridiculous alcohol laws. The three-tiered distribution system and the state store system is bad enough, but just when you think that things might improve for beer lovers, a couple of people spoil it for the rest of us.

There are those who would have us believe that the state would fall apart if beer was sold in supermarkets, as is allowed in many other states, and that underage drinking and sales to minors would skyrocket. Thanks for ruining it for the majority of consumers in the state.

Article can be found here.

East End Brewing on TV!

This Tuesday, January 30 on WQED at 7:30pm, the boys from Dave & Dave's Excellent Adventure will be visiting Scott at East End Brewing to see what good beer is all about. I can't wait to see that one! Congrats to Scott for great P.R. :)

Local Spotlight on Beer & Wine Making?

So I opened up the Indiana Gazette on Friday to see a small notice under the police blotter for beer and wine makers in the area. Apparently, the Gazette is going to write up a special Sunday Leisure section on the practices - it'll be interesting to see the spin they put on it.

As soon as I saw it, I immediately called the number and left a message (it was after hours, unfortunately). On Saturday, while we had stepped out for an hour, the Gazette returned the call. When I called back, they were gone again. So, I hope that tomorrow I can hook up with the appropriate people and at least give some information about homebrewing - I don't really care if I'm quoted or not, just as long as it's a good article.

As luck would have it, I'm brewing up a batch of Franziskaner Hefeweizen (extract clone recipe) this week as a gift for my father-in-law's birthday. A few friends are coming over to 'help' brew, and I'm going to see if the reporter wants to show up, too. We'll try to spread the word about quality over quantity, the joy of homebrewing, etc., etc. Maybe we'll even get him/her to join our beer club!

I'll let y'all know what happens.

A Big Boost for Latrobe

Good news for the folks in Latrobe - the state is offering more than $4.5M in grants and loans to City Brewing Company for update and expansion of the Latrobe brewing plant. The company has committed to hiring 250 people for the plant.

The full article (AP Business) can be found here at The York Dispatch.

The brewer's lineup can be found here. and their webpage is here.