Commentary: Things That Crush My Barley

Rant #1:  BEER RETAILERS NOT STORING IPAs IN COOLERS!

IPAs are delicious and distinct beers.  What makes them unique compared to other beer styles is their high hop character, balanced by a nice dose of sweet malt.  Without their aggressive hop flavor and aroma, you might as well call them pale ales.  IPAs, more so than other beer styles, are perishable products, just like milk, orange juice, lemonade, etc.  So my question is, why do most retailers leave them sitting on the shelf in room temperature?!  They wouldn't keep milk and other dairies in room temperature, so why would they think its satisfactory to not keep IPAs cold?  

In fact, there was a bottle of an organic IPA sitting on the shelf that I was looking over at Lee's Discount Liquor a couple days ago.  Right on the bottle it said, "This beer is perishable.  Keep refrigerated."  What part of that do the retailers not understand?  They are not like jars of peanut butter or jelly, where you can keep it at room temperature until the first time you open it and then have to stick it in the fridge afterwards.  IPAs must be kept cold at all times, even if they haven't been open.  I mean it says it right on the bottle and they still don't store them in the cooler!  The main reason they have to be stored cold is to keep the hops fresh.  The longer it sits in heat or room temperature, the faster the aroma and taste of the hops fade and eventually become undetectable, essentially turning it into a pale ale, or even causing them to spoil faster.  Don't get me wrong, there are a limited number of IPAs that sit in the front coolers, but instead of storing the extras in a back storage cooler or something, they just the throw the excess bottles on the shelf and sell them.  And sometimes this bigger question is: "How long have they been sitting there?"

The ones that really suffer because of most retailers' improper care and storage aren't just the consumers, but the brewers themselves.  These guys worked hard to craft great IPAs and make sure their hoppy beverages leave the brewery in peak condition, in both taste and aroma, only for them to be ruined by the distributors and retailers.  The problem is the average beer drinker doesn't know all the intricacies of IPAs.  So when they buy and drink a retailer-caused mediocre IPA with faded hops right off the shelf, they assume its the lack of talent from the brewer.  For example, "Oh man, this is a crappy IPA.  Its too sweet and not hoppy enough. This brewery sucks!"  It never enters their mind that it might be the fault of the distributer and/or retailer they bought it from.  If you don't believe me, go buy a local IPA from a store that is sitting on the shelf and try it.  Then go to that brewery and buy a bottle of the same beer and drink it.  I guarantee you 9 times out of 10 that it will taste completely different.  That's because they know how to take care of their beers.  Being a hophead and IPA-lover myself, I have drank subpar IPAs, despite them being fresh and handled/stored carefully.  I am not here saying that every IPA that tastes mediocre is the result of poor handling habits by retailers.  There are a bunch of average and sometimes even poor quality IPAs I have drank onsite of the breweries.  I'm not saying its a bad thing that the average drinker doesn't know or think about this, but it is not fair to the breweries that can actually does produce quality IPAs.  As a result, the good breweries lose customers, beer sales and profits, all because retailers don't bother to learn about the products they carry or even bother to read the care instructions on the bottles themselves.  It just really pisses me off!  Well, that's my rant for the day.

Video: Hangout with the Brewers

Yesterday I joined in on viewing a live "hangout" with the brewers from Stone Brewing Co. (Greg Koch), Dogfish Head Brewing Co. (Sam Calagione) and Victory Brewing Co.  It is an interesting conversation, especially when they start talking about how the collaboration between the three breweries to creat Saison du Buff came about.  Check it out!

Commentary: My Experience With the Certified Cicerone Exam

(I can't believe it has been almost four months since my last post!  Man, time flies!  But I am finally back  and happy to be blogging again.  I apologize to my followers who have been waiting for new postings during the last 4 months.)

I would like to mark my return by talking about a beer exam I took a couple months ago called the Certified Cicerone exam.  Let me start with a little background information on the Certified Cicerone Program.  It was started by Ray Daniels, a beer enthusiast and author of several books about beer.  Due to his strong involvement in the craft beer movement, he is widely respected throughout the craft beer industry.  He felt those in the beer world are not taken as seriously as they should and did not get the recognition they deserve.  Seeing as wine experts are known as sommeliers, why not have the equivalent of that for the beer world?  So that is what he did.  He pitched the idea to various people that make up the craft beer world and agreed with the idea.  So that was the birth of the Cicerone Program.  The term cicerone is an old term for one who guides visitors and sightseers to museums, galleries, etc. and explains matters of historic and artistic importance.  Ray Daniels believes a beer cicerone guides people into the world of beer and shows them all the intricacies of it all.  And thats why he decided to use the title Cicerone.  There are three levels in the program:  Certified Beer Server, Certified Cicerone and Master Cicerone.  You must pass the Certified Beer Server exam in order to take the Certified Cicerone exam and must pass the Cicerone exam to take the Master Cicerone exam.  Each of the three certifications are on extremely different levels.  FYI, the Master Cicerone exam is insanely hard and my hat goes off to the 3 or so Master Cicerones in the country.

After taking and passing the Certified Beer Server exam with ease, I decided to take a shot at the Certified Cicerone exam.  A Cicerone must have expert knowledge in the various areas of beer, including brewing, beer styles, the history of different beer styles, draft systems, food and beer pairing, beer off-flavors and much more.  It is a grueling exam to say the least.  The exam consists of 4 sections: Short answer/fill-in-the blank questions, a few essay questions, a tasting section and a demonstration.  I do not want to give too much away or go any more specific than that because I respect the test and what it represents.  Anyways, I took the four hour exam in San Diego, CA after studying for about two months.  It took place during the World Beer Cup that was being held at the same hotel and the exam. (I tried to sneak into the World Beer Cup after the test to no avail).  There were about fifteen of us taking the test.  The occupations of the test takers ranged from brewers to beer representatives and beer distributors.  I did well on the written and demonstration parts of the examination, but struggled with the tasting portion, as did everyone else after discussing the exam with them after we finished.  A score of 80% overall (and at least 70% in the tasting portion) is required to become a Cicerone.  Overall, it is an extremely tough and humbling test. While I came up just short of becoming certified, I am scheduled to retake the tasting section hoping to improve a few percentage points to nudge my overall score into the passing range in a few weeks.  So that is my experience with the exam.  It was a fun thing to do and I enjoyed every minute of it, even the studying. I mean, how can I not enjoy studying when the topic is beer?!  If you are interested in the Cicerone Program, visit www.cicerone.org.