Beer Draft Kits » beer draft kits

How to Share Your Homebrew With Your Kids: Spent Grain Recipes

Beer Draft Kits — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 12:52:44 +0000

Spent grains photo from Flickr user therealjonnyx

Making beer is a lot like making tea. Except when you’re finished making tea, you drink the tea and throw out the leaves. When you’re finished with the first step of making beer, you put the brew in a giant bucket and throw away a massive glob of wet grains.

Or do you?

It’s a shame to toss all those delicious-smelling grains that you carefully chose to make a delicious brew. Some people compost them, although some people have had bad experiences with how that turns out in the compost pile. Clearly the only sensible thing to do is eat them and all the protein and fiber goodness they have to offer. If you’re not ready to use them all (and how could you?!) as soon as the brew leaves the stove, you can refrigerate them for a day or two or freeze them for longer. And if you haven’t tried homebrewing yet, this is just a bonus reason. It also means you can share your brew with your kids, since this is before the alcohol enters the picture. If you’re feeling really industrious, you can work in a science lesson about yeast and fermentation!

Read the rest of the recipe in Ruth Suehle’s post at GeekMom.

Front Street Brewery now accepting entries for competition

Beer Draft Kits — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 02:46:54 +0000

WILMINGTON, NC (WECT) – Home brewing has become popular among Wilmington beer enthusiasts lately, and now, locals are getting a chance to have their homemade brews sold on tap.

As part of the fourth annual Lower Cape Fear Homebrew Competition is coming up, Front Street Brewery starting accepting entries Wednesday.

Each entry will be sampled and rated by a panel of beer brewing experts.

The winning home brewer will be allowed to recreate their brew to be sold at Front Street Brewery. Organizers are excited because they say local home brewers do a lot for them.

"The home brewers are what makes us," said Kevin Kozak of Front Street. "This is where the craft industry got started with people making beer at home. So, we like to throw it back to the home brewers, the people making beer at home and give them a chance to get some feedback on their beer and just have a great time."

The registration fee is $20 per entry, and participants must register before Feb. 10

Micro-brews: Small-batch beer-making finds itself in vogue

Beer Draft Kits — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 09:05:35 +0000

Click photo to enlarge

Brooklyn Brew Shop's Beer Making Book' by Stephen Valand and Erica Shea.

Thank goodness Erica Shea has a small kitchen.

I'd like to think if Shea's Manhattan apartment had a bigger kitchen, the recent movement in small-batch beer brewing might never have been born. And I wouldn't have seven bottles of chestnut brown ale, eight bottles of special bitter and 2 gallons of 90 Schilling Scottish Ale sitting in my spare bedroom.

For years, the magic number for home brewers has been five. Beer recipes are formulated for 5 gallons. Pre-packaged beer-making ingredients come in 5-gallon proportions. Brewing equipment - stock pots, fermenting jugs, bottling buckets - is geared for 5 gallons. Whether you're a beginning beer-maker or veteran brewmaster, you're likely making 5-gallon batches.

That's how Erica Shea and Stephen Valand started out. Recent college grads living in New York City, Shea and Valand got interested in home brewing and quickly found that Shea's Manhattan apartment kitchen was simply too small for all the equipment needed to make beer. So they started making beer in Valand's apartment, which had a much bigger kitchen.

All was well, Valand explained in a recent phone interview, until his roommates got tired of Shea and Valand taking over the kitchen every other weekend for their beer-making adventures. Deciding they needed to get back to Shea's kitchen, they embarked on a plan to scale down their brewing exploits.

They formulated recipes to fit 1-gallon batches, and they literally took a saw to some equipment

to make it smaller. They traded a 5-gallon glass carboy [beer fermenting jug] for a 1-gallon jug, and small-batch brewing was born.

The differences between 1 gallon and 5 gallons should not be underestimated. Sure, the process - the actual brewing of beer - is the same. But the equipment needs are vastly different.

A few months ago I assisted my son, Nathaniel, in making a 5-gallon batch in his Sacramento apartment. Hauling around the 5-gallon carboy, setting up a propane burner on his patio, running a hose to the patio, immersing the wort chiller in the boil - this was all more than I had envisioned in making beer.

I could see why people in apartments or small houses might not want to get started on this hobby. The setup and equipment storage can overwhelm a small space.

During Christmas, Nat was home and I mentioned Shea and Valand's book, which had crossed my desk at work. Nat looked at it and said, "Dad, you could brew beer on your stove. You've got the pots, all you need to do is spend a few bucks on equipment."

The thought of making beer in the kitchen, with everything contained to the countertops, was too much to resist. It didn't take long to turn a recipe from the book into reality.

And that is the concept Shea and Valand are trying to share.

"Everyone is amazed they can do it at home," Valand said. "If they like cooking, this is a natural extension of that. People have really warmed up to the idea."

The two beer brewers and entrepreneurs turned their hobby into a business, Brooklyn BeerShop, in July 2009, and have seen the operation grow into a 6,000-square-foot warehouse. Valand said the shop is one of the few sources of 1-gallon brewing equipment and information, and is growing "greatly and rapidly."

They are now on a nationwide tour, touting their book, "Brooklyn BrewShop's Beer Making Book," which contains information for beginners and 52 seasonal recipes, all formulated for 1-gallon batches. The tour includes a Bay Area stop later this month.

Their mantra is simplicity, and to that end, they are making it extremely easy to get started. They sell a kit that contains every piece of equipment you need to get started, along with the necessary ingredients. With $40 in hand, you can go to a Whole Foods store, Williams-Sonoma or Urban Outfitters and pick up a kit, take it home, "just add water" and you've got beer.

"The key for us is to simplify without dumbing it down," Valand said.

Their recipes are all-grain, as opposed to a mix of packaged extracts and grains, which is a common method for beginning brewers. They also sell pre-packaged 1-gallon grain ingredient kits that you can order from their Brooklyn shop.

So, does the concept really work?

I've now brewed three small batches on my stovetop. I've made mistakes in temperature, gauging the amount of water needed and forgetting to take the yeast out of the refrigerator early enough. I've spilled sticky mash over the kitchen and made an ice bath that sloshed over the pot, onto the counters and down to the floor.

My last batch I dubbed "TBD," not because I wasn't sure how it would turn out, but because I had so many missteps I decided it was a "Total Brewing Disaster."

In the end, I hit the specific gravity I was shooting for and it might turn out to be the best of my three batches.

For me, small-batch brewing works. I've got the space to brew 5 gallons if I want, but I don't want.

I don't want to store the equipment. I don't want to sanitize lots of big pots and buckets, And I don't want to have 40-50 bottles of the same beer sitting around. You can share it, trade it away and drink it, but 5 gallons is a lot of beer.

On the flip side, your 1-gallon batch will yield 10 bottles at best. I greatly underestimated water loss during boiling in my first batch and I ended up with closer to a half-gallon. After hours of brewing and a couple of weeks of waiting, capping seven bottles of beer was a bit of a letdown. But it's a learning experience and I vow each batch will be a little better than the one before.

The beauty of beer is it's simplicity. It's a process that's centuries old and you don't have to be an expert to brew a decent batch of beer. Beer brewing can be as simple - or complex - as you want it to be.

I'm choosing simple. I like the fact I don't need much space to store my equipment, the fact that I can sparge the mash in a colander and pot, that I can set up a simple water bath on my kitchen counter.

I like the fact that I can experiment like a madman and if my beer turns out great, fine, and if not? Glad I made less than a 12-pack.

Thank goodness for Erica Shea's small kitchen.

Mike Blaesser is a longtime Sentinel newsroom employee. He is currently the Sentinel's Internet director.

If You Go

Beer-making classes

On Feb. 13, the 'Beer Making Book' tour comes to Hands On Gourmet in San Francisco for an evening of beer making. You can join book authors Erica Shea and Stephen Valand of Brooklyn Beer Shop in making beer-inspired food dishes alongside Hands On Gourmet chefs while learning all the brewing steps, from grains to suds. The cost is $50, which includes a signed copy of the book. The class runs 7-10 p.m. Visit hogbrew.eventbrite.com for details or to register.
Love Apple Farms in Santa Cruz is presenting a workshop, Home Brewing Basics, on March 4. Dave Bossie, an award-winning home brewer from Ben Lomond, leads the class, which runs 2-6 p.m. and costs $95. Topics include the history of beer, styles, ingredients, equipment and techniques. Love Apple is at 2317 Vine Hill Road. Visit www.growbetterveggies.com or call 831-588-3801.

At a Glance

Tips from a first-timer

Want to make the jump into home brewing? Here are some tips from a first-timer.

If you have a friend who is a home brewer, by all means invite them over to help. No matter how much you read or how many videos you view, there is nothing like having an experienced brewer at your side. You'll be amazed how many steps are so much clearer when someone helps you along.
If you're not so fortunate, head to the Internet and search for beginning brewing tips. For every term and step you find, search for a corresponding YouTube video.
Invest in a Brooklyn BeerShop kit and follow the directions. They have mastered the art of clear, concise instructions.
Don't brew if you don't have an afternoon or evening free. This is going to take a few hours and you have to pay attention to what you're doing. You can't but the pot on the burner, walk away and come back in an hour.
Practice siphoning before you have to siphon.
No shortcuts: a 60-minute boil means 60 minutes. Maintaining a 155 degree mash means 155 degrees.
Keep a mop, sponge and plenty of dish towels handy.

Books

Erica Shea and Stephen Valand's 'Brooklyn BrewShop's Beer Making Book' [Clarkson Potter, 2011; 175 pages; $19.99] has lots of tips for the beginning brewer, and 52 seasonal recipes in 1-gallon batches.
First published in 1996, Ray Daniels' 'Designing Great Beers' is as relevant as ever. If you want to know the science and theory behind grains, hops, water and every other possible factor that makes a beer what it is, this is a must-read.

Video

The Brooklyn BrewShop has produced a number of short, informative videos that take you step-by step through the brewing and bottling process. And the music is nice to listen to. www.brooklynbrewshop.com.
YouTube. Need we say more? It seems that every person who has ever brewed a batch of beer has made a video on some aspect of brewing. From general information to esoteric treatises on fly vs. batch sparging, YouTube has it covered.

Local resources

If you're looking for equipment, organic grains, pre-made kits or just information, Seven Bridges Cooperative is your local resource. It is at 325A River St. in Santa Cruz. Call 831-454-9665 or visit www.breworganic.com.

Interview: Square Kegs Founder Rich Forsythe

Beer Draft Kits — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 21:42:13 +0000

In Lincoln Square, beer has become a civic priority. Pet store owner, Lincoln Square Chamber of Commerce board member, and avid homebrewer Rich Forsythe helped found Square Kegs, the Chamber’s homebrew club, in early 2011. Forsythe’s and other beer lovers’ advocacy led to last summer’s Pairings in the Plaza and last Saturday’s Winter Brew. As we mentioned in our recap, the Chamber is also planning a Summer Brew, a three-day outdoor beer festival on the last weekend of July.

Forsythe has lived in Chicago, and Lincoln Square specifically, for most of the past twenty years. A biking enthusiast, he worked for Cannondale before opening Ruff Haus Pets (a great spot to get high quality, ethically- and environmentally-friendly-produced pet food, by the way) by the Rockwell Brown Line stop in 2001.

The Saturday prior to Winter Brew, we met Forsythe for a beer at Rockwell’s, a quiet neighborhood bar just across the street-level L tracks from Ruff Haus, to discuss Lincoln Square, Square Kegs, and Winter Brew.

A quick note to current and prospective homebrewers: To be honest, prior to this conversation - which occurred the same day that Chuck was in Wicker Park covering Brew Ho Ho and when Maria’s tapping of rare kegs brought in hoards of beer nerds, many of whom were members of Homebrewers' Pride Of The Southside - we didn’t realize that Chicago had caught homebrewing fever so badly. If you’re making beer, check around; chances are there’s a homebrewing club nearby.

Chicagoist: Your dad was a homebrewer. Was that unusual for the time?

Rich Forsythe: He was part of that mid- to late-'80s homebrewing renaissance. That’s what led into that first wave of craft beer in the States. I don’t know if it was unusual. My dad’s a bit of a hobbyist. He likes beer and is into doing. It’s a DIY mentality. Thriftiness. I think homebrewing is a great hobby because it combines cooking, science, and gear, which are all things that I like.

C: How did Square Kegs come about?

RF: Square Kegs was created because we were at a [Chamber board] meeting, discussing the wine strolls that they do in the neighborhood, which are really successful. They’re essentially wine suppliers setting up shop in local businesses. Businesses provide an appetizer and you get groups of people that just move down the street, head business to business, get in, drink some nice wine, get some nice hors d'oeuvres. It’s just a way to very informally introduce people to the businesses.

So we were in a planning meeting and someone posed the question, “Why do we always do wine? Can’t we do beer?” So we decided to try to do something beer-related. That was the creative moment of Square Kegs.

C: Why did you start Square Kegs rather than immediately do something like Winter Brew?

RF: We wanted to do a lot of different things. We wanted to do something like a beer stroll, but we also wanted to have events. And I always wanted to do a homebrew club. I’ve gone down to the Chicago Beer Society meet-ups at Goose [Island]. It was alright, but that club...like, I have old ‘80s Zymurgy magazines from when I was brewing the first time with my dad, and there are pictures of those dudes in those magazines that many years ago. It was their club. It wasn’t the new wave’s club. I felt that it had gotten to the point that it didn’t have the spirit that I wanted from a homebrew club.

It’s like when I race bikes. When you go out on a training ride, there’s a guy that’s faster than you, there’s a guy that’s just your speed, and then there’s a guy that’s always slower than you. And you need to ride with all three of them to get good. You need to be able to chase that fast guy to get better. You need to have that competition back and forth with that person at your level. And then you need to know how to be a leader with the guy below you and help him bring him up. And that teaches you a whole different way. So that’s how you become the complete rider. To me, that’s anything that’s craft. When you’re learning to do something, you benefit from all three of those people.

Anytime that I hang out with someone that’s a way better brewer than me - which happens a lot, I’m intermediate at best - I want to glean everything I can from their process. When I brew with guys in my group, it’s a free flow of information. There’s no posturing. We just kind of do our thing. We’re not chasing, we’re not leading, we’re just brewing together, and free-forming. And then anytime I’m asked to bring someone through their first process, it’s always a challenge. I can’t go by the seat of my pants anymore. I gotta break it down and look at the process through their eyes and I’ll usually discover something that I used to do but that I don’t do anymore. I didn’t think that was happening at that particular meet-up.

Around the same time that [the discussion of beer at the Chamber board meeting] happened, one of my brewing friends comes in [to Ruff Haus Pets], we’re chatting about what we’re going to do next, and someone overhears us, and they’re like, “Oh, you guys homebrew?” And then we start talking and find out that they live right over there. And before I knew it, there’s like 10, 15 people within a stone’s throw of the store that are homebrewing. Why aren’t we talking more? So that’s Square Kegs. It’s kind of an umbrella that could cover the craft beer enthusiast and the homebrewer. And from the Chamber’s perspective, it's an umbrella to do events like Pairings in the Plaza and Winter Brew.

C: What other activities is Square Kegs doing?

RF: We started a monthly homebrew meet-up on the last Thursday of every month. Much like the wine stroll, it’s always a business, and the business changes.

C: Do you just hang out and talk shop?

RF: Yup. We try to do a little 15-minute program where we talk about something that’s been on people’s minds. We’ve done temperature control, yeast starters. We did a competition. And then we did a group brew where there was six of us that all brewed the same recipe with different variations. Base recipe with all grain, then with extract. Then the same recipe with the changing of the yeast, all grain, then extract. So we had two yeasts that we used, then we also did an all grain version of each one. Then we met up at Fountainhead and we had the beers so we could go head to head. This is the same recipe with just a different yeast. So I actually brewed 10 gallons, split it up and pitched two different yeasts. So the only thing different in my beers was the yeast.

C: And you could taste the difference?

RF: There was a decided different between the two beers. I boiled all 10 gallons in the same pot, fermented them in two car boys but in the same room at the same temperature. Everything between those two beers was really consistent. I used an English yeast and a Scottish yeast, and the English had a lot more fruity esters and the Scottish had a more malty profile. And the Scottish was not as clear as the English. The English ales really flock out and clear up. The Scottish ale didn’t. Historically, Scottish ales, they’d kind of would lager them a little bit so they would store them and then they would clear them. So the Scottish ales that I’ve brewed, if I wait long enough and I crash them, they’ll clear up. But it takes that crashing-

C: Crashing?

RF: Dropping the temperature to freezing. It was kind of interesting to see that experiment. I learned something because I’ve used both those yeasts and I was always wondering, had I done something wrong? Why wasn’t my Scottish ale clearing the way my other ones would. Now I know, that’s just what the yeast does.

So we did that. It was really two meetings, because it was the brewing meeting and then it was the recap. We try to keep it informal. Most of our meetings, the good stuff is just drinking each other’s beer and asking what you did. You learn a lot that way.

C: That sounds pretty collegial.

RF: It’s a really good group. The people that have been showing up, it’s the full gamut, from first time brewers to guys that have over 100 batches to their name. It’s a very free, friendly exchange of information.

C: How many people are in the club?

RF: We don’t do dues, so the only way to really gauge it is how many people like us on Facebook. But I can tell you on any given meeting, we get about 30 people or so.

C: All guys?

RF: No. We probably got a dozen girls that show up from time to time. Some of them are hard core - they’re there every time - which is a big difference from the first time I was brewing. It was a total dude’s thing. But now the women are getting involved, which I think is excellent. Really, in many ways, women were the first homebrewers. You used to brew for your house, and that was under the cooking thing. It wasn’t this hobby. It was, “You want beer? Make it.” There’s no liquor store, you know? So a lot of those farmhouse ales? That was the farm wife that brewed those beers just like she made the food.

C: How did Winter Brew come about?

RF: There are two components of Winter Brew. On the homebrew side, we wanted to host a BJCP-sanctioned contest.

C: How do you get it sanctioned?

RF: You sign up, and you have to have BJCP judges. The reason we wanted to do that is because we wanted meaningful feedback for the people who entered, and you’re going to get that when you have an official homebrew contest, with guys that are trained to give good feedback. It’s one of those things that really helps people with their process, so we thought that would be the most valuable thing to the homebrewers that we were talking to.

On the craft beer end of things, we wanted to template a festival for future events. As we look to summer, we’re going to have a three-day larger event. Working on details, on location. We’re not at the point where we can tell people it’s going to be here, but we’re looking at the last weekend of July, three days, local beer, local food. [Author’s note: Lincoln Square Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Melissa Flynn has since said the summer festival will take place in the parking lot across the street from the Old Town School of Folk Music.]

We want to create a more refined festival mentality. One that’s about quality over quantity. It’s about what you’re drinking not how much you’re drinking. That’s the niche in this neighborhood. So with Winter Brew, we wanted to template a craft, local festival that targeted that demographic which we’ve been successful with. Which ties right into our farmers market, our Thursday concerts, it’s that same sort of person that’s hitting the farmers market, they’re also into the beer that’s brewed down the street. There’s a sense of ownership and pride and community that I think comes from that mentality. And we’re really lucky that we got Half Acre, Metropolitan brewing [here in the neighborhood]. And we got Fountainhead, Bad Apple, the Grafton. I’m so happy that I can go drink good beer. Even now, these guys [Rockwell’s] used to have two beers on tap. They got a new owner, the guys that have been here working since the beginning with the old owner got a little more opportunity to express themselves and their desires for the place. And now we got a pretty good tap list here, and it rotates. When the stuff rotates, it means the people are drinking it.

C: For the competition, how many judges will there be?

RF: In the neighborhood of 35 judges.

C: How many will be BJCP judges?

RF: Almost all of them. We also have some brewers. You can have so many non-BJCP. Doug [Hurst], the brewer from Metropolitan, will judge. We got Randy Mosher, who’s judging best in show. You just have to have enough BJCP judges that you’re getting feedback. James Lewis is our BJCP judge on hand who’s organizing that element of it. He has judged a lot and had helped put on a homebrew competition up in Wisconsin.

And then Tony [Black], he actually went and stewarded at Spooky Brew to learn about the stewarding process. Stewarding, those are the guys that organize the beer and get them to the judges. The judges just sit, they’re brought a flight, they judge the flight, and then they go get another one. It’s the stewards that make sure they got what they need. He’s been getting all the beers in and organized by their styles, getting them ready to transport.

And Brew Camp, that was the drop-off point. Right when Square Kegs started, Brew Camp opened, which is the homebrew store over on Belle Plaine, and Jared [Saunders] and Whit [Nelson] have jumped in feet-first and been totally supportive of Square Kegs. They got really involved with this homebrew contest. They hosted the registration site on their website. Their background is in web development so they were really helpful in tweaking stuff and making sure everything was working the way it should. They were the drop-off point so they’ve been carefully taking care of over 1,000 bottles of beer.

C: Are there other neighborhoods that have this much beer activity going on?

RF: I don’t know. To me it just seems like, there are so many in this hood. I don’t know if it’s more guys living in houses where you got a basement, you know, because there’s a fair amount of gear. I don’t know why, it’s just like that. I’ve been brewing at my house, and I’ve found that there’s maybe five to six brewers on my block and the block over. It’s crazy. Everyone who’s coming to these things are coming from the hood. There’s just a lot of homebrewers in this neighborhood.

INNOVATION ECONOMY: Making microbes that can do the dirty work

Beer Draft Kits — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 05:13:46 +0000

On the edge of Boston harbor, just a short walk from where Harpoon harnesses the power of yeast to produce tasty beverages, researchers are designing new kinds of microorganisms that might one day scrub wastewater clean, crank out fuel for our cars, or keep hospital equipment perfectly sterile. While making beer can be traced back to ancient Mesopotamia, this new field -often called “synthetic biology’’ or “engineered biology’’ - belongs to the 21st century

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Vancouver stabbing sends 1 to hospital

Beer Draft Kits — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 20:20:16 +0000

Police say a 24-year-old Vancouver man is recovering in hospital after being stabbed early Saturday morning.

Officers responded to reports of a fight between a group of men in the 800 block of Granville Street shortly after 4 a.m. PT.

When officers arrived, they found a man suffering from a stab wound to his upper body.

He was taken to hospital and is being treated for non-life threatening injuries.

Police say there have been no arrests and there are no suspect descriptions.

Sell beer and wine in B.C. supermarkets, groups say

Beer Draft Kits — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 04:27:21 +0000

There’s a growing call for beer and wine should be sold in B.C. supermarkets.

"Common sense would say, ‘Why are we not going to grocery stores and being able to buy wine,’” says Ian Tostenson, head of B.C.’s Restaurant and Foodservices Association.

Some in the province’s wine industry agree.

"There's 200-plus wineries in British Columbia now,” said Christine Coletta, of Haywire Winery in Summerland. “We're all working really hard to do a great job and deliver a great product, so if we can get better distribution for our wines, that would be fantastic.”

Coletta said food and wine are a basic pairing, and supermarkets should sell both.

The B.C. Government Employees Union has not endorsed the notion of supermarket sales, but it also is pressuring the government to update regulations to have the province’s liquor stores open on Sundays.

The union calculates an extra $150 million in revenue for the government from Sunday liquor sales alone.

Making some alcoholic beverages available in grocery stores got a mostly positive response from those CBC News talked to on the streets of Vancouver Friday.

"That would be very convenient for me," said one woman.

Another said, "I think it would be convenient. In the United States all the grocery stores do."

The Rio already has a licence to serve during live events, as do other venues like the Orpheum, but current regulations hold that movies and booze cannot be offered at the same time.

Not everyone is in favour.

As far back as the 80's, calls to sell beer and wine in food stores drew protests.

Some worried about loss of union jobs, others about making alcohol too widely available.

It's a worry some consumers still share.

"If you put it in the grocery stores, it just makes it more accessible and I don't think it’s the right idea," said one man we asked.

The province has said it’s considering some changes to the province's liquor laws and is looking at what the possible implications would be.

For now, alcohol producers are hopeful about seeing their own product on store shelves.

“I would love to be able to go to the corner store and get a bottle of Haywire,” said Coletta. “I think it would be great."

Farmhouse Beer May Help Md. Farms & Waterways

Beer Draft Kits — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 23:07:14 +0000

BALTIMORE (WJZ)—Locally grown most often means farm-raised food. Well, one local grower wants to expand that to farmhouse beer.

Alex DeMetrick reports now it’s an untapped market.

Adam Frey’s farm is family owned. He’d like to keep it that way, but in a global market it isn’t easy.

“If somebody in Brazil can release a bushel of soy beans for 10 cents, you gotta go up against that, and we’re trying to offset that a little bit because we’re trying to do beer,” Frey said.

Beer is a product not normally associated with Maryland farms. Frey is trying to convince state legislators to allow the kind of micro-breweries you see in cities to be built and operated on farms.

After all, in this part of Frederick County wineries are thriving.

“There are four vineyards within bike riding distance of this farm,” Frey said. “There’s not a lot of farmhouse breweries out there right now.”

And unlike farms turned into vineyards, making beer means growing a variety of crops. Instead of grapes, barley and wheat would be raised. These grains make ideal cover crops, which soak up fertilizers before they wash into waterways and the bay.

Hops would also be raised. It’s a tiny crop in Maryland right now, but one needed by beer makers worldwide.

Frey’s plan isn’t so much to turn a farm into a brewery, as it is to brew beer to keep the farm.

“And basically create something more than just a family farm. Give us a few extra options as far as farming goes. It’s me against the global market. We need some kind of buffer in there,” Frey said.

Frey does have supporters for his plan: legislators who will submit a bill in Annapolis to open the door to farmhouse brewing.

No Deals for Beermakers After Buying Spree

Beer Draft Kits — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 05:57:56 +0000

January 25, 2012, 3:12 AM EST

By Clementine Fletcher

Jan. 25 (Bloomberg) -- Global brewers, after spending $195 billion on acquisitions in the last decade, may slow the pace of deals in 2012 as beermakers struggle to maintain profit growth amid rising costs and weaker demand in the U.S. and Europe.

The two biggest companies to emerge from the spree, Budweiser owner Anheuser-Busch InBev NV and SABMiller Plc, are best positioned to profit with a presence spread over Africa, Asia and Latin America, while smaller rivals Carlsberg A/S and Heineken NV may suffer from their higher exposure to Europe.

Brewers will be “just getting through 2012, keeping their heads down, managing price and trying to keep input costs down,” Trevor Stirling, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein, said. “It’s going to be tough for everyone, and particularly Carlsberg and Heineken.”

More than $21 billion changed hands for beer assets in 2011, topped by SABMiller’s A$10.5 billion ($11 billion) takeover of Foster’s Group Ltd. That made it the busiest year since 2008, when InBev NV paid $52 billion for Anheuser-Busch Cos. As sales volume growth decelerates and the cost of making beer rises, companies including the integrated AB InBev, Heineken and Carlsberg may focus more on running their own businesses this year than buying others.

Carlsberg shares have dropped 25 percent in Copenhagen in the past year and Amsterdam-based Heineken has dropped 4 percent, compared to gains of 14 percent at SABMiller and 13 percent at AB InBev. Carlsberg said in November that it plans to eliminate as many as 150 jobs across Europe.

Reduced Forecasts

Heineken and Carlsberg both cut their forecasts last year due to tough conditions in Europe and Russia. Grain harvests have also been relatively poor in the area this year, according to Stirling, which could lead to sustained high costs in 2012 weighing on their margins.

The amount of beer sold may rise 3.1 percent from 2012 through 2016, slower than the 4.9 percent increase in the four years ended 2008, according to analysts at Nomura including Ian Shackleton. Commodity costs are higher, including malting barley, a key ingredient in beer, which has risen 65 percent since the futures contract started trading in May 2010.

“It’s unlikely that growth will return to historical high levels of 2005 to 2008,” Nomura wrote in a note. “The cost of business is set to rise.”

Beer Volume

Beer volume and revenue growth may be particularly limited in Europe and the U.S. as brewers compete for sales amid economic turmoil and high unemployment. SABMiller, the first brewer to post results for the three months through December, reported declining volumes in both regions, as every other unit grew. Carl Short, an analyst at S&P Capital IQ in London, said “recessionary conditions” may return to Europe this year.

Beermakers may have to rely on internal cost cutting as price increases may be limited. Carlsberg and Heineken may have a “really tough time managing the pricing mechanism,” said Anthony Bucalo, an analyst at Banco Santander.

Carlsberg, which exited or sold sites in Switzerland, Finland, Germany and Norway since 2009, may close more breweries and cut costs, according to Nomura analysts.

AB InBev should deliver $270 million of so-called synergies this fiscal year from the Anheuser-Busch acquisition, and Heineken will give details of a new cost-reduction plan when it reports full-year results Feb. 15.

Trading at Premium

Analysts at Nomura and UBS AG have reduced their outlooks on the beverage industry, which also includes spirits companies. The stocks “already command a significant premium to the market,” according to Nomura’s Shackleton.

Deals including Heineken’s purchase of Fomento Economico Mexicano SAB’s beer unit in 2010 and SAB’s takeover of Foster’s have previously helped brewers diversify into faster-growth regions away from the U.S. and Europe. With Brazil’s Schincariol Participacoes & Representacoes also off the market after Japan’s Kirin Holdings Co. swooped in last year, big acquisitions may be tough to find in 2012.

“There are fewer assets out there that move the needle,” said Anthony Bucalo, an analyst at Banco Santander. “We’re going into a period where companies are inward-focused.”

Carlsberg could make small acquisitions in Asia. The Danish brewer’s biggest deal in 2011 was buying 30 percent of China’s Chongqing Brewery Co. for about $31 million.

Any buyer with an eye on Corona brewer Grupo Modelo SAB, Groupe Castel and Turkey’s Anadolu Efes would have to wrangle with family ownership and existing joint ventures.

Expanding outside Europe and the U.S. isn’t necessarily a quick fix for brewers. SABMiller said Jan. 19 that Foster’s pro- forma sales slid 6 percent in the quarter ended Dec. 31, raising concern from some analysts that benefits from the acquisition could be harder to come by.

“Realistically, it’s probably not on anybody’s agenda” in 2012, Bucalo said. “This looks like kind of a low-drama year.”

--Editors: Sara Marley, Rick Schine

To contact the reporter on this story: Clementine Fletcher in London cfletcher5@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Sara Marley at smarley1@bloomberg.net

No Deals Brewing for Beermakers After $195 Billion Buying Spree

Beer Draft Kits — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 00:33:05 +0000

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No Deals Brewing for Beermakers

More than $21 billion changed hands for beer assets in 2011, topped by SABMiller’s A$10.5 billion ($11 billion) takeover of Foster’s Group Ltd.

More than $21 billion changed hands for beer assets in 2011, topped by SABMiller’s A$10.5 billion ($11 billion) takeover of Foster’s Group Ltd. Photographer: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg

Global brewers, after spending $195 billion on acquisitions in the last decade, may slow the pace of deals in 2012 as beermakers struggle to maintain profit growth amid rising costs and weaker demand in the U.S. and Europe.

The two biggest companies to emerge from the spree, Budweiser owner Anheuser-Busch InBev NV (ABI) and SABMiller Plc (SAB), are best positioned to profit with a presence spread over Africa, Asia and Latin America, while smaller rivals Carlsberg A/S (CARLA) and Heineken NV (HEIA) may suffer from their higher exposure to Europe.