Brewery Spotlight: Mayday Brewery

A couple of days ago, I had the great pleasure of visiting the Mayday Brewery in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. For all you non-Volunteers, Murfreesboro sits about 45 minutes east of Nashville and is the home of Middle Tennessee State University and the Stones River Battlefield (Civil War).  Luckily for Murfreeburrowers (I like to think that's what they go by), the city can now add its first brewery, Mayday, to their list of attractions.

Welcome to Mayday Brewery

After numerous years home brewing and three years of preparation after deciding to take the commercial plunge, owners Lee "Ozzy" Nelson and his wife Pamela officially opened their former silk factory doors on November 30th of this year.  Mayday not only already has its own enormous brew space (many new breweries contract out before moving into their own facility), but it also features a great tasting room and bar where four-beer samplers, pints, and growlers flow freely.  I visited on a Thursday evening, and the tasting room was booming with happy patrons eager to embrace their community's first brewery.

Tasting room bar.  Say hi to co-owner Pamela when you visit.

Co-owner Pamela works the tasting room bar serving the breweries first four offerings: Boro Blonde, Angry Redhead Red Ale, Velvet Hustle Distinguished Pale Ale, and Evil Octopus IBA (India Black Ale).  Each recipe has been painstakingly perfected via trial and error by owner Lee for almost two decades.  In addition to the original four, the Jubilee IPA was scheduled to be released several days after our visit, so I unfortunately didn't get to try it.  It's very rare for a new brewery to open with more than one or two beers in the lineup, but Mayday proudly adheres to a "balls-to-the-wall" mentality, and it shows in their decision to brew five ales in the opening month.

Literally, Mayday's balls of steel hang from these steps.  Figuratively, however, they are very much to the wall.

After stints at the Goose Island and Metropolitan breweries and training at the Siebel Institute of Brewing Technology in Chicago, Nick "Wiz" Wisniewski helms the 30 barrel (945 gallons) Mayday system as head brewer and sometimes tour guide.  Wiz expertly adapts owner and former home brewer Ozzy's longtime recipes to a commercial scale. 

Head Brewer Nick "Wiz" Wisniewski.  Despite visiting on a non-tour day, Wiz hospitably volunteered to show us around.

Mayday's 12,000 square-foot facility houses four 30 barrel fermenters, and it takes about three weeks  to fully produce one batch of beer from the milling of the grains to kegging the end product.  By Tennessee law, all fermenter tanks have to be either named or numbered.  Naturally, Lee, who is an avid Ozzy Osbourne fan, named each tank after a member of one of his and this blogger's favorite bands: Black Sabbath. 

Owner Lee "Ozzy" Nelson proudly standing by the Black Sabbath frontman's fermenter.  Rock on Iron Man, rock on.

 Ozzy and Wiz aim to ". . .Make beer that you want to drink more than one of. . .easy-to-drink, balanced beer," and that's exactly what they've managed to do.  All four offerings feature a delicate use of hops that adroitly complement and balance their malt profiles.  By antiquated Tennessee law, all four come in at 6.2% ABV (Evil Octopus sits right at the limit of 6.2%) or below, which adds to the sessionability of the lineup.  If you're a fan of extreme IBUs with no consideration to balance, then these beers might not be for you.  However, if you enjoy well-balanced sessionable brews in the mode of traditional British ales, Mayday's lineup will perfectly satiate your tastes.  In a world gone mad with IBUs and extreme ABVs, a brewery like Mayday is a very welcomed addition. 

Like championship banners, the Mayday lineup hangs from the atrium ceiling

In the long term, Mayday plans on rolling out a canning line and adding more members to their eclectic line of ales.  In the short term, the brewery is very content with their grateful local Murfreesboro fans who, in less than a month's time, have already openly embraced their city's newest, and best in my opinion, attraction.

The cozy sitting room with visitors drinking pints and four-ale samplers

Next time you're driving up to Nashville, or are anywhere in the vicinity, do yourself a favor and stop by the brewery.  Pick up a growler, order a sampler, and enjoy the company of the Mayday crew who like to relax in the tasting room and chat with visitors after a hard day of brewing. You definitely will not be disappointed.

I want to thank the Mayday family for their hospitality and hope to visit again very soon.

 Cheers!

Thumbs up for the Evil Octopus IBA.  My favorite of the four, its eight evil arms signify the beer's eight naughty hop additions

How Long Will My Beer Last?

Today we'll quite masterfully reply to a commonly asked question about one's beer stash: How long will it last?  I literally receive millions of letters a week from rabidly loyal fans about this topic.  (DISCLAIMER: no one actually reads this blog, and it's probably for the best that they don't, but if I did have fans, they would probably be the John-Hinckley-need-a-restraining-order type who send in millions of letters a week.) I digress a bit, but I thought now would be a good time to attempt an answer to this ageless question.

Not now creepily, obsessive, lady-fans, it's time to blog

The number one factor in determining how long your beer will last is its alcohol content.  The higher the abv%, the longer it will last and still taste good. Plain and simple. Although hops and their alpha-acids aid in preserving and disinfecting beer to a certain extent, a brew's IBU spec pales in comparison to its gravity (alcohol) when considering potential shelf life. 

In fact, styles that showcase hops such as pale ales and IPAs make rather poor candidates for aging.  As hop-heavy styles age, the flavor and aroma of the hops begin to dull and become more mild.  IPAs, pales, American reds, et other hoppy styles are really best drunk as close to the release time (or the end of the bottle conditioning/forced carbonation kegging time in home brewing) as possible.  However, if you mistakenly bought a beer that's just too hoppy for your taste, by all means, try letting it mellow out by aging it several months. 

So let's tackle how long your beer will actually last, and still taste as the brewer intended.  Of course these aren't rigid rules, but more of a loose guideline to work from. It's not an entirely black and white issue, but the following chart attempts to set fairly broad parameters for optimum beer life sorted by abv%.  I purposely overlapped the ABV% values, to cover the decimals (i.e. 4% vs 4.5%):

ABV%                       Storage Limit Time for Optimum Flavor
4 or less                      3 months
4-6                              6 months
6-8                              1 year
8-10                            3 years
10+                             3+ years

If you're looking to age a higher gravity beer for a year or longer, some ideal styles include wheat wines, barley wines, Belgian tripels, Belgian quads, strong ales, dopplebocks, and meads/real ciders* (technically not beers, but commonly made by home brewers).  Basically, any high gravity beers that tilt more towards the malty side than their hoppy counterparts will be great candidates for aging. 

If you do plan on aging your fancy schmancy Westvleteren 12, Allagash Curieux, or Sierra Nevada Bigfoot, store your bottles upright in a dark, dry room at about 50-60 degrees.  Each year your beer ages, possible harsh alcohol tastes will begin to mellow, and new complex flavors will begin to emerge, especially in bottle conditioned ales (the yeast is still in the bottle and very much alive). 

If you want to compare an aged ale to a more recent bottle, The Brickstore and the Porter Beer Bar are great Atlanta locations that have a vast collection of in-house cellared bottles.  If you don't have a cellaring bar near you, start your own aging program NOTE: An extraordinary amount of will power is required. 

The Brickstore's massive cellar.  A great place to chain and wall in a buddy over a glass of Amontillado if so inclined.

So get to aging, and in a week you can tell me how it's going in your next batch of letters.  By that time, the restraining order should be in full force.  Ttyl.

Home Brewing and the Zombie Apocalypse: A Survival Guide

 In the last post, we briefly discussed why purchasing a normal home brew kit makes much more sense than the maligned alternative of Mr. Beer.  Hopefully, you took my advice and are now a proud owner of some authentic home brew gear. If not, perhaps this post might prod you along in making that purchase.

As I'm confident you all know by now, a zombie apocalypse is fast approaching. This new world order will put every living soul's survival skills to the most extreme test.  Fortunately for us, many of the components found in real home brew kits will prove to be necessities for surviving in this cruel world.  As a home brewer born and raised in Georgia, the home of The Walking Dead, who briefly interned at the CDC, I feel uniquely qualified to author this guide on how to utilize home brew equipment and accessories to thrive in the perilous environment of the impending zombie apocalypse.

When a zombie meets a home brewer

The featured equipment is owned by most if not all home brewers.  When the mysterious virus spreads, we need simply to board up the doors and windows, go to the garage or basement, and collect the following components from our home brew stash:

Tubing
Brewer's Use: Siphoning beer to/from pots and carboys and bottling
Zombie Apocalypse (ZA) Use: Siphoning off gasoline

Plastic tubing is used at just about every stage in home brewing to transport our beer from one receptacle to another.  In the ZA, we will use our brewing tubes to siphon off gasoline from the abundant supply of wrecked cars piled up everywhere.  In addition to fueling our cars, we will also combine this gasoline with another brewing necessity to make arguably the most effective primitive zombie weapon: the Molotov cocktail.

Bottles
Brewer's Use: Hold fermented beer
ZA Use: Molotovs, storage

The standard 5 gallon batch of beer translates to a little over two cases of 12oz bottles.  As long as we haven't completely transitioned to kegging, each batch will require us to have about 50 bottles on hand.  Most brewers have much more than that laying around.  Using our tubing, it's recommended to fill at least 30 of these bottles with our siphoned gasoline for Molotovs.  Other than a bulldozer or more sophisticated explosives, the best way to take out a slowly approaching herd of zombies is of course the Molotov.  Why the good folks on The Walking Dead never produced an arsenal of Molotovs while holed up in the barn is beyond me.  Needless to say, We will also utilize our bottles as beer and water vessels for easy transport.

Zombies hate Molotovs

Propane Burner and GasTank
Brewer's Use: Boiling Wort and heating water for mashing and sparging
ZA Use: Cooking, boiling water, explosives

Once we upgrade from partial-mash to all-grain brewing, we will need a large 10 gallon pot.  If you have an electric stove or even a standard gas stove, heating that much volume to a boil would take a hot minute (pun intended).  A propane burner gets the job done much quicker.  It also allows us to brew outside so possible boil overs or other messes don't soil our nice floors.  In the absence of electricity, our propane burners will prove to be an integral part of our survival.  As long as we stocked up on full propane tanks, we can cook, brew beer, and sterilize water for months.  We could of course gather wood to make a fire, but we all know what happens when you wander too far in the ZA (RIP Dale and Sophia).  In addition to cooking, the propane tank/Molotov combo is a great way to wipe out a massive herd.  Just roll a tank to an approaching group of zombies and follow up with one of our trusty Molotovs.

Cleaner and Sanitizer
Brewer's Use: Cleaning and sanitizing anything that comes into contact with yeast after our boil
ZA Use: Cleaning and sanitizing zombie bits

Star San is a great dual-purpose zombie/beer sanitizer

Getting zombie brains all over your newly found katana, morning star, or hatchet is just a bummer.  Luckily, we already own cleaning and sanitizing solutions home brewers use to make sure our yeast isn't contaminated by harmful microorganisms.  Just fill a bucket (which we also have in our home brew stash) with a water/sanitizer solution, and let your weapons soak for a while.  Because we won't know exactly how the virus spreads, it's good to cover our bases.

The Beer
Brewer's Use: Drinking
ZA Use: Sustenance and bartering

Since we already have everything required to brew, let's make some beer in between zombie herds. Due to the new nomadic nature of our existence, we probably won't have much free brewing time. We might want to consider brewing partial-mash batches, which takes far less time than all-grain.  In all-grain, we produce our own wort (the product of mashing) from our fresh grains, whereas in partial-mash, we use prepackaged malt extracts in place of mashing.  Using malt extract sheds about 2.5 hours from the brewing process, because we skip the mashing and sparging processes.  Since we won't have the means of controlling our external temperatures, we will have to exclusively brew ales.  Ale yeast is more forgiving and, depending on our desired style, it ferments between 65-78 degrees, which is a workable range in a Southern zombie apocalypse.

Our zombie ales will serve two primary functions.  The obvious one is of course sustenance.  In a previous post (Light Beer and Beer Calories), we went over the caloric content range of beers.  A 12oz spans from about 120-400 calories depending on the alcohol content.  While accompanying baked beans and squirrels, our ales will provide a good bit of zombie-fighting calories and nutrients.  Zombies tested, brewers approved.

 The home brews will also serve an economic purpose.  Since monetary currency will be worthless, our new economy will revolve around the barter system.  If some shells bought the whole island of Manhattan, think about how much a couple of cases of beer could get you in the apocalypse.

The Dutch bartered for Manhattan with $23 worth of beads and shells.  Chump change compared to what two cases of beer could have afforded.

 Any group that counts you as a member will be an economic powerhouse as long as the precious commodity is well guarded. The three most valuable members in any zombie apocalypse group are a doctor, mechanic, and of course, a brewer.

 Water treatment chemicals and pH tester
 Brewer's Use: Modifying the pH and hardness of our mash and sparging water
ZA Use: Measuring pH of possible water sources and treating it as needed

 Depending on your location, the water you use may need some treating to reach proper brewing pH and salinity levels.  Mash Stabilizer, gypsum, lactic acid, and calcium chloride are all brewing tools available to alter pH levels of the mashing and sparging water.  In the ZA, securing safe drinking and brewing water will be a necessity for survival.  With our pH kits, we will be able to test and treat (along with our pots and gas burner) potential sources of water and lower/raise its pH level as needed. 

Miscellaneous
In addition to all of the equipment and products listed above, some other dual purpose items you can be creative with in our brewing kit include thermometers, funnels, bottle cappers, 6 gallon jugs, large spoons, stirring paddles, strainers, brushes, carbon-dioxide and nitrogen tanks, and copper tubing (wort chillers). 

 Now that you know how home brewing Today will save your life in the inevitable event of a zombie apocalypse in the future, just make sure you bring some extra pint glasses along for the ride.  Wouldn't want to break your only one and end up like this guy:

"That's not fair at all. There was time now. There was all the time and beer I needed...! That's not fair!"

Holiday Brewing Wishlist: Say NO to Mr. Beer

Now that it's getting close to the holidays, a lot of you will have a great opportunity to have someone else buy you your first home brewing kit, especially if you've been relatively good this year (set the bar low for best results). Perhaps you've even already expressed your interest in home brewing to a close friend or loved one.  That's good, but you still have some work to do.  Almost without fail, your benefactor will type in "man gifts" into Google, and somewhere on that list of results, they will see Mr. Beer. Undoubtedly, they will think:

"$50 for everything he'll need to brew? Why, that's amazing! I'm totes a savvy shopper lol. Now that my holiday shopping is done, I can watch quality programming on the CW Network for the remainder of the day!"

If you happen to receive a Mr. Beer through such logic this holiday season, kindly thank the gift-giver and calmly proceed to hurl the kit as hard as you can against the wall while screaming your favorite battle cry (Leeeeroy Jenkins!, By the power of Grey Skull. . .I have the powerrrr!, and the Xena squeal are all recommended for the situation at hand).

It's highly appropriate to summon the power of Grey Skull upon smashing bad gifts

 All of the above may be a bit of an overreaction, but desperate times call for ridiculously stupid measures.   While picking up the plastic shards, express gratitude for the gift, and then  recite verbatim the rest of this post to explain that whole smashing thing. 

"I'm sorry for what I just did, but it had to be done, because there can be only one.  Although I am most grateful for your intentions, you just spent $50 on a plastic piece of junk that completely bastardizes the brewing process.  Purchasing this for me was the equivalent of buying an Easy Bake Oven for an Iron Chef."

Mr. Beer: Home Brewer:: Easy Bake Oven: Iron Chef (Great Dishonor)

  "If I were to pick up the pieces and glue it back together (but I won't), brewing with this junk would consist of pouring an old can of pre-hopped malt into a pot and heating it.  Since this malt, which could have been sitting in this can for years, has already been pre-hopped, I will never know what it's like to smell and use real hops.  Nor will I ever get the chance to take in the aroma of freshly ground grains, because I will never come across them using this kit."

"I will also never know what it's like to actually brew, because all I will have done is dump a can into a pot and heat it.  When I tell people I'm a home brewer, each time I will have to make the motions of drawing an air-asterisk with my finger.  Then people will ask what I'm doing with my finger, and I shall feel shame and regret for using Mr. Beer and calling myself a home brewer.  I will most certainly lose friends over this ignominy." 

"On top of the sensory shortcomings of Mr. Beer, the instant-like kit only yields 2 gallons.  Had you done just slightly more research than Googling "gifts for guys" you would have come across real home brew kits for $15-30 dollars more than what you paid for this plastic monstrosity.  With a starter kit from Midwest Brewing, Northern Brewer, or even Amazon, I would have been able to conduct partial-mash brewing while using real hops and crushed grains.  The starter set at Midwest even frequently goes on sale for 10% off, making it a couple of dollars more than Mr. Beer. These kits would also yield 5 gallons, which is of course, 2.5x the yield of Mr. Beer.  Since the ingredient kits for this equipment don't simply consist of a can that may or may not have been on the shelf for decades, my beer would have also tasted much better.  Fresh ingredients would have surely produced better beer.  With real brewing equipment, I would have also been able to declare I'm a home brewer without clinching my teeth and doing the whole asterisk thing."

"In conclusion, I sincerely do thank you for the thought.  Take solace in knowing very little has changed between you and me, and I think in time, I will be able to fully forgive and forget that this happened.  Now that you know real starter kits are only a pittance more money than Mr. Beer, I am confident you will make more informed decisions in the future.  I'm glad we had this talk."

You're welcome.

The Three-Tier System aka The Third Wheel

 The Three-Tier System aka The Third Wheel

  Today, I thought it might be thrilling to learn a little more about the business side of beer by covering the infamous three-tier system.  The three-tier system describes a ubiquitous piece of state legislation that requires all sales of beer and other alcohol to go through a distributor/wholesaler before ending up in an off-site (package store, grocery store etc.) or on-site (bar or restaurant) retailer.  Under the three-tier system, the journey of your 6-pack is as follows:

Brewery- - - -> Distributor/Wholesaler- - - - ->Retailer- - - - ->You

Note: If your beer is foreign, "Importer" would be the next step after the brewery.

At each step, the price of the beer is marked up to satisfy each level's desired profit margin.  On top of applicable taxes, by the time you pick up your favorite brew, there have been up to three (if imported) price additions.

Break it up You Two
So why do most states have this law?  In the fun era before Prohibition, breweries had an enormous impact on retailers.  Not only did most of them own financial stakes in local watering holes, they also provided bars hardware, furniture, taps, etc. in exchange for exclusivity deals.  The more beer the bar could sell (and the drunker the patrons became) the better for the brewery and the more rewards the bar received.  As you can imagine this retailer/brewery symbiotic relationship rubbed followers of the Temperance Movement the wrong way (and really, what didn't?).  Upon the glorious repeal of the 18th Amendment via the 21st Amendment, states, which were now given the authority to regulate their own alcohol sales, adopted the three-tier system in an attempt to break up producers' influence on bars.  To stop a brewery from getting too cozy with a retailer, the three-tier system adds an awkward third wheel to the relationship in the form of the distributor.

Distributors were jealous of the steamy relationship breweries and retailers had

Because of the laws, breweries cannot directly sell any of their products to retailers or consumers.  However, they can give away their products for free to consumers.  I'm sure many of you have gone to brewery tours and "bought" beer fresh from the source.  However, that pint glass with your "free" samples is what you actually purchased.  The beer was just a free thank you gift "nudge-nudge, know-whatta-mean, know-whatta-mean?"

"That beer was free? I bet it was, I bet it was. Say no more, say no more."

 


The Courting
When a new brewery hits a market for the first time, one of the most important decision their leadership will make is which distributor they want to represent them.  A distributor provides a cooled warehouse and trucks to store and distribute a brewery's beer to hundreds of retailers in a state.  They also  directly communicate with retailers and can heavily influence what and how much a restaurant, package store, bar, or super market sells.  Distributor companies vary from state to state, and a brewery must choose a different one for each market.  When a brewery wants to debut in a market, distributors will battle each other in attempt to court the brewery.  How much time and resources these gentlemen-callers will spend marketing and pushing a beer to retailers is a key consideration for the producer.  Once a brewery chooses their suitor, the lucky distributor reps all of the producer's different labels to retailers.  It's extremely difficult and costly for breweries to change distributors midway, which adds even more importance to the initial selection. 

On the distributor's side, it's of the utmost importance to choose breweries with eclectic and, more importantly, good products.  A distributor only has so much warehouse space, so they're none too pleased when they have shelves full of  products they can't sell. 

Let's Distribute! (But how?)
1) Distribute (duh)- Distributors deliver their brands from the warehouse to all the many retailers across the state.

2) Rep and Promote- In addition to brewery reps, a label is also promoted (or neglected if a brewery chooses poorly) by the distributor. Good distributors also have in place strong relationships with retailers.  A simple recommendation from a distributor to a pal of his at a package store could get your beer on the shelve.

3) Service- Distributors directly deal with taking and filling the retailer's orders and requesting more barrels or cases from the brewery to meet the local market's demand.  They, with the help of brewery reps, also ensure customer service and suggest retail pricing.  In addition, distributors provide maintenance teams to service keg systems or other hardware issues a retailer may be experiencing.  Not selling beer due to a system malfunction is a huge no-no that distributors and breweries never want to happen. 

I know that wasn't the most exciting topic, but it's a fairly important one with regards to knowing how the beer industry works, and as we all know, knowing is half the battle!!

"You kids want to buy some beer?"