Between their up coming Beerfest and a conversation with a friend I have been thinking about the Carolina Ale House this week. I have had the chance to stop in on occasion and the experiences have left me with this thought, what a wasted opportunity.

It's your typical sports bar but with a decent beer bottle list, the taps however are filled with mostly the light lager crowd and a few usual suspects of national craft beers you could find in any bar in the country. Change out the local college colors on the wall and you could be really sitting in a bar in Boston or Phoenix.

In an age when North Carolina is becoming national recognized for it's growing craft beer scene this seems a shame. I can understand the need to meet consumer demand and I can see keeping a couple of lager taps. That said the rest of the taps could be used to showcase all the great beers North Carolina is producing from Foothills to Old Mecklenburg, Big Boss to Lone Rider, to nearly 40 others. There is a world of options being brewed in their own backyard. Yes they may need to run some beer classes to educate their regular customer base, but there are plenty of people willing to help in that regard including myself. Carolina Ale House live up to your name, it's a great time to make the local crafted beers shine.

News
Duck Rabbit is looking for brewer.

Mother Earth Brewing may start brewing in the next few weeks.

Events
IPA Showdown
Aug 25th 6:30pm
Flying Saucer
Raleigh
$15 gets you into the ultimate West Coast vs East Coast showdown. 9 beers enter, none hopefully leave.

Beer Dinner - Foothills Brewing
Aug 25th 7pm
Busy Bee Cafe
Raleigh

Carolina Brew Fest
Aug 29th 4-6pm and 7-9pm
Carolina Ale House - Briar Creek
Raleigh

3rd Annual Cask Ale Tasting
Aug 29th 6:30pm
Rigsbee Hall
Durham
$40 gets you into this special event with 12 casks from such breweries as Highland, Triangle, Duck Rabbit, Foothills, Aviator, Top of the Hill, French Broad, and Lone Rider.

Beer Dinner - Foothills Brewing
Aug 31st 7pm
Broad Street Cafe
Durham
$30 for a great dinner and beer how can you beat the value on this event?

Beer and Chocolate
Sept 3rd 6-8:30pm
North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences
Raleigh
$25 gets you into this tasting hosted by Julie Johnson Editor of All About Beer. It sounds like a great lineup so check it out.

High Country Beer Fest
Sept 5th
Boone

Big Boss Tour
Sept 9th 2pm
Big Boss Brewery
Raleigh, NC

Triangle Brewey Tour
Sept 9th 1pm
Triangle Brewery
Durham

Asheville Brewgrass Festival
Sept 19th
Asheville

LoneRider Brewery Tour
Sept 25th 6pm
Raleigh

World Beer Festival
Oct 3rd
Durham
Tickets go on sale Sept 8th.

Octoberfest Beer Tasting
Oct 15th 6:30-9:00pm
Brixx Pizza
Raleigh
$5 for four samples, they will have 8 different Octoberfest beers, four on draft, four in the bottle. Breweries from around across the globe and NC.

This week is the 4th Anniversary of Pop the Cap. For those not familiar with it, the effort raised the 6% ABV restriction to 15% on beer, while not perfect it was a huge leap forward for giving North Carolinians access to IPAs, Belgian styles, and barleywines to name just a few beers. I was talking with a native this week, when he first tested for the BJCP, before the lift of restrictions he had to travel as far away as New York to get access to some styles. In fact he said the first time he ever had a Doppelbock was when he brewed one.

My how things have changed with a bustling beer community of over 40 breweries and more in startup mode or planning. These vibrate small business are making a big impact on diversity in the local beer market. One thing I wasn't confident about when I moved here was how vibrant the beer culture was going to be given how many breweries were in the Triangle area. While there were some good pubs, the number of breweries was the same Flagstaff. Fast forward a year and the number of local breweries has more than doubled. While North Carolina hasn't one high accolades nationally yet, I now know it's a matter of time, not quality.

It shows in the eyes of brewers. As evidence...

If you want to see the passion of brewers speak with them about their craft. It shows in people like Mark Doble at Aviator, Mike Morris at Big Boss, er soon to be Natty Greens Raleigh, and Ian Vangundy at Lone Rider as a few examples. And there are so many more I haven't mentioned or had the chance to meet yet.

At least once a week I see or hear of something that reminds me that the local beer culture is exploding and the state is on the cusp of a beer mecca in the making. I feel very fortunate to get to be here and witness it happen. All of this made possible by all the hard work of those associated with Pop the Cap, so thank you everyone.

The AHA sent out this request and Shawn at Beer Philosopher has the whole text. I think it's a great idea and a good base document, that said there is a minor improvement you can add to the letter. Add the number of breweries and people employed locally into the text. It will mean more if they know how many people in their district are working in the field. If you don't have access to the data you can find it here. If you don't have much in your district use the data on how it impacts your home state, it will still be a helpful supporting point. Get out there and support craft beer!

Last night's class was a good experience, it was more of a planning class than digging down into the study guide but with almost 6 months until the exam we aren't in a rush. It started out with a local who has given the exam and judged it giving his perspective on things that are important to study for. This was important because rather than just the 'you do things this way' it gave me a better understanding of the whys. It also gave me chance to see how the exam has changed the last few years. When I tested before it was on the cusp of the change so we had the new style exam but had not been told about them so we walked in a bit blindsided. Not that I am complaining it was just we didn't have experienced locals active in the BJCP at the time of the exam so we didn't have the best study prep.

The group is a good mix of beginners, brewers, and experience folk so it should be a well rounded group. Rather than self study it was decided to do more of a combined group study with some homework. Tastings are part of the program, but the process understanding of brewing should be the part that I expect to be the most beneficial. We will be combining some class elements with the local homebrew club events which will get a more social atmosphere to the studies and keep the class energized I suspect. All and all it looks like a great start to the classes.

Tonight I start another round of classes in preparation for the BJCP exam. The BJCP is the Beer Judging Certification Program. I first took the exam three years ago and passed, but wasn't as prepared as I needed to be for it. It is a difficult exam three hours long and at least in the past a lot of writing required. You have to know beer styles, flavors, and understand the entire process of making a beer. I think the best part of the program is it provides a common language base for discussing beer. The test is in January but between now and then I'll be attending a class to prepare for the exam. I am looking forward to learning more and will try to document the process here.

I am in the process of preparing to teach a German beer style class for American Brewmaster as part of their advanced homebrewing classes. I'll be including Austrian and even Czech styles in the class, but that will probably be the outer limit. I feel pretty comfortable with them or I wouldn't be doing the class. That said I haven't been to Germany recently so I am curious if there is anything new that I may want to mention. I did pickup Good Beer Guide: Prague and the Czech Republic by Evan Rail for the Czech beers. I'll be covering beer styles, beer bar culture(including Oktoberfest), and homebrew recipes. If you have any suggestions please leave a comment or email me geistbear(at)gmail(dot)com.

This month's Session topic “What beer desserts have you tried and liked? Disliked? What beer styles work well with dessert and which ones do not? Do you have any beer dessert recipes that you enjoyed and would like to share?”

This is easy I haven't had any as of yet. I would like to try the float of chocolate ice cream with a nice stout. That said I don't really think much about desserts because beer generally is my dessert if I have any. While I did have a bit of a sweet tooth in my younger years I am just don't have the cravings anymore, perhaps something in my enjoyment of beer fulfils that interest.

Thanks to all my readers who are "Putting Up With" me.

Interesting review on the state of the market in restaurants.