TRY THE FREE 6 PACK NEWSLETTER HERE

What’s up, beer geek! This is The Beer Scholar 6-Pack weekly newsletter, a short clean email featuring 6 bulleted links with brief descriptions for each.

Howdy, beer geek! This week I got zero things done beyond catching up on season 9 of Alone because after 2.5 years on the run I finally got the 'Rona. I'm vaxxed and boosted, but it was still absolutely brutal. I got a Paxlovid script and within 12-24 hours of taking the first dose I went from feeling like warm death to feeling like I had a minor flu. Very cool. I can't even imagine getting this virus if I weren't vaxxed at all. Luckily, I never had any loss of aroma or taste, which has always been my main concern with Covid-19 (that'd be a bit problematic for my beer sensory work, nowutimean?). And so, as I sit here tapping this out on Friday afternoon, I'm still feeling a touch crappy, but this weekend I'm gonna be ready to party. The reason - after 6 months in Portland, OR, the sun FINALLY came out and it isn't raining. I literally did put a blow up pool in my driveway yesterday and I laid in the sun on a float while reading about landrace barley strains. Huzzah! 

As always, here are 6 dope links for your Friday 6 Pack. Enjoy.

TBS 6-Pack

STONE SELLS OUT TO SAPPORO

Rock and a Hard Place — Ultimate Anti-Sell-Out Stone Brewing Resolves Search for Buyer, Sells to Sapporo by Kate Bernot for Good Beer Hunting. Arrogant Bastards Greg Koch & partners sold to Sapporo for $165M and…what would've been earth shattering crazy in ~2012 probably just makes you yawn today. Tbh, I hope Greg enjoys his new vacation home. Mostly, I hope Stone’s employees end up in a good situation. My money is on them unionizing like Anchor’s employees did after Sapporo bought Anchor. Go unions! Psssst Stone employees - start organizing for a vote now, while the takeover mess is still in progress and the investor class is busy. 

IS STARCH THE 6TH TASTE?

A Sense for Starch by Nick Houtman. Sensory scientist Juyun Lim at the Center for Sensory and Consumer Behavior Research at Oregon State University discovered in 2017 that people could taste maltodextrin, a food additive starch previously considered tasteless. Dr. Lim was able to determine it's NOT our sweetness receptors that are sensing dextrin. So what could it be? She said: “From the standpoint of human evolution, this makes sense. We get 60 to 70 percent of our calories from carbohydrates, which include starches.” Research to ID the sensors is ongoing, it may have to do with saliva breaking down the starch.

A DEAL WITH THE DEVIL (BIL)

How Anchorage’s Gabe Fletcher Packs Character into Barrel-Aged Barleywine. So that's why they're SO EXPENSIVE, ha! 95% floor malted Maris Otter, 5% crystal for nuance, as much grain as fits in your mash tun, no sparge, boil for a really long time, ~35 IBU plus a shot of fruity new school hops in the whirlpool, pitch an absolutely obscene (~8x normal) amount of BSI-28 Scottish Ale yeast on ~37°P (1.164) wort, aim for an FG of 10–14°P (1.040–1.057) but lower is better, if it gets stuck give it a starter of Fermentis SafBrew HA-18, put it in a used bourbon barrel that ideally only aged bourbon in it for one year so there’s still some woodiness to it, do that again in a second barrel, maybe do it again in a third, carbonate to 2.2 volumes. Voila, easy peasy!

INTERESTING/DEPRESSING IRI RETAIL DATA 

June 2022 IRI “New Product Pacesetters” Data. Want to know what products are blowing up at the grocery store? IRI can tell you. It’s a sad lot, "Truly®." A new-in-2021 Dr Pepper & Cream Soda blend sits at #1, ugh. In the booze department we’ve got Corona Hard Seltzer at #3, High Noon Sun Sips hard seltzer by E & J Gallo Winery at #4, Truly Iced Tea from Boston Beer Company at #6, Michelob ULTRA Organic (lol) Seltzer at #7, and so delish LIFE CUISINE Nestlé frozen dinners at #9. But watch out, Topo Chico hard seltzer by Molson Coors is climbing the ladder. Woof. I judge. Other trending items include Jack’s Links “meat” and Rogue and On! smokeless tobaccos. Oh, and remember that “19 Crimes” wine with Snoop Dogg on it? It’s the highest ranking wine for new sales, of all time. WTF people. There’s a time and a place for every beer, it’s not about snobbery. Americans are just depressingly predictable in their desperate rush to either consume foods that taste like nothing or to become diabetic and diseased ASAP.

WITH SOME FAVA BEANS & A NICE CHIANTI?

My Dinner with Hannibal by Avery Gilbert. This made me lol. And it’s true, I recall there was amazing food and aroma sensory imagery in the Hannibal Lecter books. They did OK at moments in the movies, too. (YouTube clip of the line quoted above)

TESTIMONIAL

Shout out to Cameron at Fort George Brewing in Astoria, Oregon. He wrote me last week to say:

“I purchased your Certified Cicerone exam study guide in December and wanted to reach out to say thank you. It was a critical resource that helped keep me organized and focused. I took the written exam in May and received my results this week. I passed the written test with a 93% and no worse than 91% in any of the exam categories. I'll be recommending your course to anyone I know who is pursuing the Certified Cicerone.”

Cameron is a published author of several books and is an instructor at Portland State U on top of his beer game action. What a mensch! Thank you, Cameron! P.S. I recently went to a Portland Beer Week event and tasted three epic BA barleywines from Ft. George, they were just fabulous. I also got recognized there by someone who is currently using my CBS Guide, what a trip! Cameron, if you're reading this, please let me buy you a beer next time you’re in Portland!  

Have a lovely weekend, y'all!

Chris