Check out the Surger from Guinness. They actually found a way to make their beer even better. http://www.guinness.com

Filed by Paul at 10:09 pm under Industry News
2 Comments

Miller Lite

Rating: 4 out of 5

Brewed By: Miller Brewing Co.

What can I say, this is my favorite domestic, run-of-the mill beer.

Filed by Kevin at 10:22 pm under Reviews
3 Comments

Can you believe it has been over a week since we last posted to the site? Well, you can rest assured we are working hard to come up with our next review.

From an editorial standpoint, we are going to mix things up a bit. Instead of just reviewing beers via a Podcast, we’re going to do it the old fashion way - by typing some of them up. We’ll still give you all the witty, dry (err. drunk) humor that you have to come to expect from our first two Podcasts, but in written format.

In any case, we have updated to Reviews page to identify the beers we have already reviewed, and the ones coming.

P.S., Many of our visitors may not know that we also have an online forum for your hops pleasure. There really isn’t much content as of yet, but we hope to get some people excited about participating. How does free beer sound? Oh wait, that must violate some sort of interstate law; how about the enternal gratitude and admiration of your fellow beer man?

Filed by Kevin at 8:02 pm under Site Related
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Brew Pub:
A bar/restaurant which usually serves food and makes beer to consume on the premises. Typically they don’t bottle and sale other than in very small “take them with you” quantities. One local example is Rock Bottom Brewery. Great food, great beer and you can purchse liters etc. They don’t distribute their beer however.

Microbrewery:
Generally a microbrewery makes and distributes less than 15,000 barrels of beer yearly. The beer is packaged and distributed for off the premises sales. Some brew pubs meet this criteria, but I would still define them as a brew pub.

Regional Brewery:
A regional brewery packages and distributes between 15,000 and 1,000,000 barrels yearly.

Large Brewery:
A brewery that produces more than 1,000,000 barrels of beer annually. Anheuser/Busch, Miller etc.

Beer Marketing Company:
A company who puts their label on a beer that is produced for them.

Filed by Paul at 11:33 pm under Breweries
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On a quest to locate some local area breweries I have come to realize that we really don’t have a whole lot of choices. Quite a few have closed in recent years unfortunately. The largest was a regional brewery, Dubuque Brewing and Bottling who produced 100,000 barrels a year since 1898 and closed in 1998. Most now are microbreweries and only produce on average 1,200 barrels a year. One I came across that is still open is Millstream Brewing in the historic Amana Colonies in Amana, Iowa. Look for a future Podcast episode dedicated to Millstream Brewing. We will try to take a tour of the brewery prior as well. The only other one I could find was called Hardscrabble Enterprise in Hopkinton, Iowa and is still under planning stages.

On the other hand we have a nice selection of brew pubs. Some of the local ones in the Des Moines area are Rock Bottom Brewery (try their Stout, especially with desserts), Granite City Food & Brewery, Court Avenue Brewing, Raccoon River Brewing and Olde Main Brewing in Ames. Again look for future Podcast episodes on each of these local beers.

Filed by Paul at 11:15 pm under Breweries
No Comments

On a whim, I decided to upgrade the publishing system of TheHopsReview.com to a freshly released version of Wordpress 2.0. It really turned out to be a potential nightmare.

All I can say to anyone wanting to do this procedure, is to be sure you backup everything prior to upgrading (like it says in the instructions.) Especially, if you have custom themes in place, as it seems the install wipes them out. When I first went to the homepage, only a blank screen appeared, because our theme had disappeared. OH NO! I just about had a stroke. But, In the end, all I had to do was copy back our custom themes and javascript files and the crisis was averted…

How does it work? The new version of Wordpress is spectacular. The enhanced posting mechinism (WYSIWYG) is certainly welcome. And the AJAX functionality is a nice bonus.

CHEERS!

Filed by Kevin at 8:57 pm under Site Related
2 Comments

We are on a roll

Our second Podcast is official.

In episode #2, we head out to the San Francisco bay, to review a beer that has been virtually handmade since 1896.

Download as a MP3 file.
iTunes users, click here

Links from the Podcast:

• http://www.anchorbrewing.com/beers/

Filed by Kevin at 6:36 pm under Podcasts
No Comments

The Big Book o’ Beer:
Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About
the Greatest Beverage on Earth

Rating: 4 out of 5

Author: Duane Swierczynski

Year: 2004

Publisher: Quirk Books

This book is packed full of all types of beer related information, including the science of beer, general history and often where your favorite beer might be made.

It’s a pretty cheap purchase as well. If you have a little extra spending cash from the holidays, this would be a great book to add to the beer man’s book shelf.

Filed by Kevin at 9:22 pm under Books, Beer Making, Beer History
No Comments

During this time of celebration and the welcoming in of the New Year, enjoy and have fun, just do it safely!

Remember these helpful hints:

• Don’t drink if you are under the age of 21.
• Offer to be the designated driver, and drink only non-alcoholic beverages.
• Eat foods that are high in protein or carbohydrates if you are drinking alcohol.
• If another guest is having too much to drink, engage them in conversation to help slow their rate of drinking.
• Stop drinking alcoholic beverages about two hours before the party is over. Your body will then have time to absorb the alcohol you have consumed.
• Be a friend. If another guest has had too much to drink, help your host not let them drive. Offer to drive them home. Whatever you do, don’t give in. Friends don’t let friends drink and drive!

From TheHopsReview.com: HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Filed by Kevin at 12:45 pm under Site Related
1 Comment

Our first Podcast!

I can’t believe it, we finally made a Podcast. Turns out, this process isn’t exactly as easy as you would think. I think we spend over three hours trying to record a basic nine minute segment. At least we learned a lot in the process and had a good time doing it.

In any case, in this episode, Paul and I review Red Hook ESB amber ale. The consensus? Well, you’ll have to listen to the Podcast to find out…

Download as a MP3 file.
iTunes users, click here

Links from the Podcast:

• http://redhook.com/ales_esb1.htm
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tettnang
• http://www.ebrew.com/hops/willamette.htm

Filed by Kevin at 10:52 am under Podcasts
3 Comments

Interesting product for the Mac user: BeerAlchemy

“BeerAlchemy is designed to help homebrewers create great beer. It takes the drudgery out of recipe formulation and looks after all your recipes too”

Filed by Kevin at 10:08 am under Site Related
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“Humulus Lupulus (hops) are the flowering cone of a perennial vining plant and a cousin of the cannabis variety (sorry no THC in this stuff) that typically thrives in climates similar to the ones that grapes do. Hop plants are dioecious, meaning the males and females flower on separate plants — and the female cones are used in the brewing process. Hops are the age old seasoning of the beer, the liquid gargoyles who ward-off spoilage from wild bacteria and bringers of balance to sweet malts. They also lend a hand in head retention, help to clear beer (acting as a natural filter) and please the palate by imparting their unique characters and flavours. Basically, hops put the “bitter” in beer. ”

source: http://beeradvocate.com/beer/101/hops.php

Filed by Kevin at 12:39 pm under Links
No Comments

Filed by Kevin at 11:13 pm under Beer Making, Links
No Comments

The Brewmaster’s Bible : Gold Standard for Home Brewers, The

Author: Stephen Snyder

Year: 1997

Publisher: Morrow Cookbooks

Question:

I was thinking of getting this book, to familiarize myself with the beer making process.

Does anyone have it, or could they recommend something better?

Filed by Kevin at 11:07 pm under Books, Beer Making
2 Comments

It really is hard to believe that in just a week’s time, we have gone from a simple idea, to a full fledged web site. From what Paul tells me, he should have recording equipment available within the next few days. This means we’ll be able to create our first Podcast, where we will be reviewing our first selection: Gordon Biersch (of course we still have to find it first).

We also have a new member to the staff. Another good friend of ours, Jason McArtor. Welcome aboard Jason!

A couple other items to note:

1. The forum is now active. Please take a look at the categories available and post something relative. We really hope to use the forum to help facilitate a connection between our readers. If there is anything that seems to be missing, as far as categories go, please don’t hesitate to let us know.
2. Design and functionality of the site is basically complete. After some struggles with CSS, I believe we really have something worthy to look at. We hope you agree.
3. I have also implemented the structured blogging plug-in for Wordpress. Basically, through this nifty plug-in, we have the ability to quickly and easily write what is classified as microcontent. In a nutshell, it is very easy for us to write reviews, post about events, write audio/video posts, as well as showcase groups and people. It really is a cool thing, that anyone running a Wordpress blog should look in to.

We’re off to do a hops review! It is our namesake after all.

Filed by Kevin at 8:36 pm under Site Related
1 Comment

Do you have a favorite beer that isn’t mainstream? Submit your frosty favorite and we’ll do a review.

Filed by Kevin at 7:00 pm under Site Related
5 Comments

Welcome to the inaugural first post of theHopsReview.com.

This site was started because we have a passion about good quality beer. With this site, we hope to provide our readers with the best information possible concerning our favorite beverage.

Please feel free to browse the site and comment on how we are doing.

Thank you,
Kevin & Paul

Filed by Kevin at 4:44 pm under Site Related
2 Comments