The year that has come and gone has seen probably my biggest uptick in consumption of craft beer. I didn’t keep track the entire year but according to Untappd, the beers that I managed to log in their system since July were a total of 220 beers of which 175 were unique. I also started a personal review log on my 30th birthday in September and it is already more than half full. On to the good stuff.

Best all around brand: Firestone Walker. FW takes this top spot because of the lack of what I thought were amazing beers from New Belgium’s Lips of Faith line this year, which would have been my top pick last year had I done this list. I hadn’t experienced any FW beers before the Washington Brewer’s Festival, normally I steer clear of the hoppier styles when I’m spending my dollars. But my girlfriend and I were put in charge of a shift running the booth for Firestone Walker since our good friend that normally does it was in San Diego for NHC. This lead to trying all 4 beers we had on tap, I wasn’t loving the Union Jack or Nectar IPA at first but they grew on me. The Humboldt Brown, Nectar Red, and DBA were all superb. This lead to purchasing Velvet Merlin and Solace as well, none of them disappointed. Everything they bring out will get an automatic buy from me. (Note: Because of my volunteering I was given a free case of FW beers, a t-shirt that didn’t fit me and a hat my girlfriend stole. Velvet Merlin and Solace were purchased with my own dollars.)

Most lackluster all around brand: Shiner. Summertime meant good time to pick up a sixer of Shiner Bock and sit back to grill. When the Shiner Family pack came out I gave that a shot as well as many of their other 12oz selections. My best rated Shiner beers were Bock 3/5, Bohemian Black Lager with 4.5/5, and Holiday Cheer with 4/5. But the downside was the mostly 1/5 ratings for Double Wheat, Kosmos Reserve, Old-Time Alt, Hefeweizen, and Blonde. They didn’t live up to the bottle’s description or the style they were marketed as.

Most hit and miss brewery: Dogfish Head. Thanks to all the hype around their short lived TV show everybody and their brother makes these beers disappear off the shelves whether they are good or not. They also win my most overhyped beer with Bitches Brew, this one I blame on Fat Tony, he really wanted to try it so I found a bottle. I think it would age really well but it was medicinal to me and not worth the price tag or hype. Punk’n was not bad, but I like Pumking better. Palo Santo Marron was also in the middle but the two I really loved were the Chicory Stout and Burton Baton, I would drink Burton Baton until the end of time if it wasn’t almost $4 for 12oz.

Best place to spend a night drinking out of town: Cascade Barrel House. Two trips this year to Cascade, one early in the year and then once again for my 30th birthday. The second time we stayed in walking distance and closed that place down. My notable favorites here were the staff, I nearly fell in love playing the shut the fuck up game with Cory that when I came back and found Grant in his shoes I nearly cried, but then after an hour or so of bullshit from Grant and his trusty man child Biscuit the night got better and better and by the end it was all blending beers to try and everything under the sun, I literally had one of everything on tap that night and about 5 of some things that you could never experience again due to the live barrels used making up these outstanding beers before my very eyes. You can be sure I’ll be back again and again.

Place I really wanted to spend more time at: Upright Brewing. I didn’t know they had limited hours when we went to Portland in September and we nearly missed out on it completely. We arrived about 30 minutes before closing, I was able to get a sampler flight of everything on tap, I loved everything but the lagers, especially the smoked lager, I had a really bad experience with a smoked beer that I’ve never gotten over yet. But the Blend Love was phenomenal as well as Upright 1-4. The company of people also drinking there was great, I spent my time talking to a self professed “old jew” homebrewer that was in town from California (by way of the Bronx) to look for a new place to live, this guy was a riot and I could’ve spent all night talking to him and his wife. The downside, no fuckin bottles of any sours to take home, which means all I got was 4oz in my taster and by the time I was done with that they had already stayed past closing time so no time for a pint. I follow them on twitter and next time they bottle up Blend Love I think a road trip is in order.

My favorite beers this year:
Aged Bottle of Le Terroir that we found at the Co-Op, actually 9 of them and we did buy them out, I guess no one knows sour beer there, absolutely love this beer.

Anderson Valley Winter Solstice, the best can of beer I had all year, caramel, toffee, vanilla, and nutmeg flavors all mingling perfectly with the malts.

New Belgium Lips of Faith Prickly Passion Saison, the stand out beer of their line up this year, I wasn’t impressed with Kick, Clutch, or the Fresh hop. This beer made up for that, I would drink this beer year round. Nice fruit up front but not overpowering like Wailua Wheat from Kona. All the flavors work together with the belgian yeast profile to make a delicious drink.

Beers I should have drank but still haven’t and are sitting in my fridge waiting: Foggy Noggin Olde Cruz, Foggy Noggin Anniversary, DFH World Wide Stout, 4 different St. Bernardus beers, Boulevard Bourbon Barrel Quad, Hellshire II, Abyss 2010, Weyerbacher Rapture, and 5 Jolly Pumpkin Farmhouse beers. Looks like it’s going to start off as a great 2012, complete with my better notes.

Jamil Zainasheff wrote one of the best intro books to homebrewers with Brewing Classic Styles. Being a user of BeerAlchemy, I like using the suggest a recipe feature that bases choices off my current inventory. But for that to work you need all the recipes in the software. I searched high and low but didn’t find these anywhere.

So here they are. All 90 recipes from Brewing Classic Styles in BeerXML, ProMash .rec file, and native BeerAlchemy .bar. All are setup for 5 gallon batches, your brewing software can calculate the differences for scaling.

Download zip file with all recipes in 3 formats.

Update: 11/3/2011, Reddit user encloser has kindly sent in a BeerSmith export of the recipes.

Update 2: Another redditor rj3d has posted a combined BeerXML file of all the recipes in one file. Mirror here

Notes: Since I built these for my ingredients list all US 2-Row specifies Gambrinus Pale Malt and US Cont. Pils is Gambrinus Pilsner Malt. Also, anytime in the book he never specifies which variety of Hallertau so I selected the closest varietal in AA%, so your results will vary.

This does not include the Extract or Partial Mash versions of the recipe as I don’t use them. You can use these recipes to alter and make it fit to the extract versions if you buy the book.

If you don’t already own it, go and buy the book, I left out all the descriptions and copyrighted material.

Copyright law does not protect recipes that are listings of ingredients. Nor does it protect other mere listings of ingredients such as those found in formulas, compounds, or prescriptions. Copyright protection may, however, extend to substantial literary expression—a description, explanation, or illustration, for example—that accompanies a recipe or formula or to a combination of recipes, as in a cookbook.

“Do you want to sell sugar water for the rest of your life, or do you want to come with me and change the world?”

There will come a time in every brewers life where you are going to want to chill your boiling wort down and want to do it accurately. All of them are working as a heat exchanger, both objects trying to reach an equilibrium. There are many types of heat exchangers, but only 3 are very popular with the homebrewing crowd.

The simplest is the Immersion chiller, which is usually copper but could also be stainless steel. The Immersion chiller uses chilled water or other coolant, the downside is you are worried about surface area with these as the larger the surface the more area for heat exchange. One major issue is that it’s trying to cool down all your wort, your kettle, and your burner/stand all at once which is hard to do and will expend excess energy that you don’t need to use to cool. The other two work in a similar fashion, the counterflow and the plate chiller. Both use chilled fluid moving in the opposite direction of wort flow to exchange heat. Counterflow chillers are usually a large copper pipe that has a smaller copper pipe inside of it and bent in a spiral much like an immersion chiller. Plate chillers used multiple plates for surface area and a counter flowing fluid to chill. Both of these methods remove the kettle and other surface heat from the equation so you aren’t spending time cooling down more than your wort, but how do you know what the temperature is of your chilled wort?

Immersion chillers make this part easy. You just watch the thermometer on your kettle or the one in your hand. But this become a bit more complicated when it comes to counterflow/plate chillers. You want to know what the exiting temperature is on your plate to know if you need to back off on your chilling water or the hot wort. There aren’t a whole lot of options that are off the shelf ready for these things but here are the two that I’ve tried out and what worked best for me.

The Blichmann ThruMometer ($30 MSRP), not the most accurate of readings. The ThruMometer uses a liquid crystal thermometer that reacts to the temperature of the piece of machined aluminum that is it stuck to. There is no moving parts to break which is a plus if you’re clumsy and like to drop things. But it is very difficult to make sure it’s reading correctly and you are left to guess which shade of blue is the “accurate” shade of blue for that temperature range. My biggest gripe with this is that it only available for 3/8″ sized hose. Unfortunately everything in my Blichmann brewhouse is 1/2″, ball valves, barbs, hose, fittings, etc. Which means you have to buy extra hose, barbs, and fittings to make this work. That will be OK if you’re starting out and just building a brewhouse but really sucks if you’re already set up for something else. I was able to get it to clamp down on the silicone hose to use this but it tore up the hose and looked really terrible along with some dripping.

After putting up with the ThruMometer and getting frustrated with the hose connectivity I decided I wanted a better solution. Something that was easier to read and reacted quicker. I came up with a better solution using some spare parts laying around the brewhouse.

My plate chiller has 1/2″ MPT threads on all the connections. I used a stainless steel tee and a 1/2″ threaded “short” thermometer. I put this on the exit of my wort side of the plate chiller so when the wort crosses it you get a perfect temperature reading and it reacts quickly to changes in temperature to really dial in the temp you want to pitch at.

Originally published in the April Newsletter for the Greater Everett Brewers League.

There will come the time where you will want to precisely control the temperature of something or another. It could be your mash with a RIMS system, fermentation temperature in a fridge, or even a converted freezer that is now a kegerator. You’re going to want a adjustable “high” termperature thermostat and there are quite a few options out there but not all of them work well for all things.

On the low end of the price spectrum (which seems to have gotten more exepensive since I last bought one) you have the Analog controllers, these work without a digital controller and usually have a larger temperature differential, current models range from 3 to 4 degrees +/-. This means if you set your target temp at 40, it will warm up to 44 before the switch trips and starts cooling, it will go down to 36 before it shuts off. This is a large swing for fermenting and I would not suggest using something with such a large differential, they however work decently for converted freezers and serving beer with, but other than that, take a pass. The probes are large and are prone to breakage or inaccuracy if pinched and are not readily replaceable. They can be found at a reasonable rate used, they used to sell new for around $45 but it appears that they now sell for prices around $65 to $70 which makes it a worse idea than ever before for it’s limited functionality.

Stepping up to digital gives you a large array of choices, displays, purposes and customizing. The least customizable of all these is the Digital Johnson Controls (A419) it allows for either heating or cooling, but can’t do both without changing a setting, probes are replaceable and you can buy them pre-wired or without wires for custom installations. It is similar the the single stage Ranco controller and neither of them have a way of fine tuning the probe differential, you will have to calculate any variance in your head. My personal Ranco controller reads 5 degrees higher than it actually is. Both models can have a custom set on and off differential from 1 to however many degrees you want the temperature to swing. This makes them useful for nearly any purpose. The digital sampling rate may take it 10 to 15 seconds to respond to a shift in temperature but it’s a small price to pay for a smaller temp differential. These can be troublesome in some setups as they do not have any overshoot compensation, which means on a RIMS system you might overshoot your mash temp as killing the heat doesn’t stop carry over. Prices range from $65 to $130 depending on the options, if it’s dual stage and how long the cables that come with it are, if any.

Then you can step up to the highly customizable digital controllers. In this segment there is a even larger variable but will require some electrical know how on your part. First in the easy to understand group are the LOVE controllers by Dwyer Instruments. These are panel mount controllers than come in a large variety of options. They are great for mounting in doors or small junction boxes, have light up displays that are easy to read from across the room with a quick glance. The LOVE controller of choice for me is the single stage Love TS2, but for about $9 more you can pick up the dual stage version (TSS2). It will cost you another set of power cables but you can always put that off until you need it, better to have the option than regret not having it later. LOVE TS2 controllers can use both PTC and NTC temperature probes which come in a variety of lengths and types in Brass, PVC, Stainless Steel, and resin coated brass. Check the stats as many of them can be submerged in water without the need for a thermowell. They can easily be switched to heating or cooling and have the same 1 degree differential as other digital controllers. The total cost is also more difficult to calculate as there is some variable in construction costs but it’s about $15 for a junction box and a extension cable to make it all work, which brings the cost in the range of $75 to $90.

Now we take a step into craziness. Proportional–Integral–Derivative controllers also known as PID controllers. Depending on what type you get these will actually learn your heating and cooling systems to adapt and give the most accurate temperature possible. There is a steep learning curve with these and tons of options as well. I use the LightObject JLD612 which can be purchased for under $40 but they do require a relay as they only support 3 amps on the internal switch. This adds $10 to $20 to the price and will require a larger junction box and possibly a heatsink for your relay depending on the amperage needed. These controllers work best for precision control, they have a very fast sampling rate and with a PT-100 thermocoupler (probe) it has a resolution of 0.1 degree. They also offer alarm trigger options if something hits a set temperature it will trigger whatever you have hooked up to it. Which is a necessity for glycol pumps as you will want to know if something has failed and the temperature is rising. They also have all the features of the LOVE controllers and many even have dual displays so you can see the target temperature and your current temperature. Your total cost with a PID system will range between $60 and $100 depending on your probe selection, relay amperage, and mount selection.

This is a article I wrote for the GEBL February Newsletter, since the new issue is out and I figured I would post this up here.

Here is a problem that will plague everyone eventually. You want to keep as much of the vegetal hop matter out of your fermenter as possible but there are so many options out there with a wide variety of pricing. You have the top end market with the Blichmann HopBlocker, the middle range KettleScreen and the really cheap and reusable bags. I have tried all of them and you might be surprised at what I found works the best.

Starting at the high end $50 range we have the Blichmann HopBlocker, essentially it has two special qualities which are being over and under engineered at the same time. You get two sizes of perforation around a tube, it has a large surface area which prevents clogging from loose pellet hops but it has a major flaw, tipping. When installed in Blichmann BoilerMaker kettles the hop blocker does not fit snugly and will move around quite a bit this becomes a problem when the time come to raise the guard up to reveal the smaller holes when the wort gets to a lower level, this is when it stops blocking and will suck a hop cone in and clog up the valve leaving you stuck with a bunch of hot wort and nothing you can do about it. The problem could be easily alleviated by a small removable cap on the bottom, but Blichmann is aware of the problem but opted for the open bottom because it is easier to clean. This is a huge failing and is why my HopBlocker sits in the bottom drawer of my brewing toolbox. You may actually have better luck installing this in a non-Blichmann kettle, if you use the right fittings you can make it tight and snug so it would rest on the bottom of your kettle but with all the tool-less designed parts on the BoilerMakers, this is a no go. Works terrible with whole leaf hops because of the tipping problem and doesn’t keep out the loose pellet hops because the larger holes at the top.

Down the monetary scale we have the $20 Bazooka Kettle Screen. It’s simple stainless steel screen that has been folded to create a 11” filtering surface, these work great with whole leaf hops and are simple to install in any system with a ½” NPT fitting. The downfall of these is the surface area is so small that loose pellet hops will clog up the screen and you end up scraping it off to get after your wort but then end up stirring up the trub and stuff you’ve gotten to settle out. I still use this is my keggle setup from time to time, it’s inexpensive and does do a really good job when using whole leaf hops. The major downside is that it is hard to clean, I give mine a thorough hosing with a high pressure water from the garden hose, it beats trying to clean it with a brush. You can also toss it in your dishwasher.

But the cheapest and my preferred method of keeping hops clear of my fermenter is using bagged pellet hops. You can pick up an assortment of vegetable washing bags in many sizes at your local grocery store. My local PCC carries 4 sizes and the most expensive one is about $2. Flip them inside out putting the hard to clean out seams on the outside. You can get yourself a fleet of bags for under $20 and they come in handy for dry hopping, oak chipping and a variety of other uses and if you want to go really cheap, steal your wife’s old nylons. Bagging works the best for pellets as you don’t lose much in the way of utilization and it doesn’t require larger bags as whole leaf hops do. You can also tie all the bags together and then lift them out when the time comes, keeps nearly all of the hops out of your fermenter and won’t clog up your chiller or valves. You might also try bagging your HopBlocker if you have one, I might just give that a shot.

Shopping links: (I make no money from any of this and all products were purchased with my money, no paid reviews here!)
Purchase Bazooka Screen at MoreBeer!
Purchase Blichmann Hop Blocker at Northern Brewer
I couldn’t find a good online source for the same bags I use, many homebrew shops sell hops bags as well.

After spending a couple months with both I am finally ready to give them a thorough write up. The challenge here is to find a Stainless Steel Conical Fermentor for under $600 that can ferment a 10 gallon finished batch in.

We have the homebrew market king Blichmann Engineering, just a dollar shy of $600 is the 14.5 Fermenator with 1/2″ threaded ball lock valves.

Then we have Portland, OR company Stout Tanks & Kettles with their 14.5 gallon conical for $450. Now at this price you wonder if it’s skimping on features and the answer is no. Sanitary Tri-Clamps are standard, as well as a sanitary thermowell with thermometer. They now also have an even more stripped down model for $410 without the thermowell or thermometer, but I would recommend spending the $40 and still puts us well under the $600 challenge.

The Exterior:
Blichmann comes in stainless with legs that attach directly to the conical, the lid uses a band that seals with a screw and nut combo and can be lightly pressurized (3psi) to help racking out the beer. There is a small access lid you can take off similar to a Corney keg lid with a overpressure relief built in, it’s great for pitching yeast in as the large domed lid itself is a pain in to get off as you have a 2″ thread to unspin to get the lid all the way off. There is no thermowell so you have to get a stopper thermowell or tape your probe to the side of the conical which leads to less accurate readings than measuring inside.

Stout comes in mirror finish polished stainless, the conical sits in a stand that holds it upright and doesn’t attach with anything more than gravity, eliminating more parts. The lid sits on top and is held down with force from a cross beam above with a screw that applies pressure to a plate. It’s quick to get on and off but doesn’t like to take light pressure as well as the Blichmann it will do some whistling but you are still able to rack into kegs with the use of co2 pressure, the seal on the lid will not take anything above 3psi. The thermowell accepts Love and Ranco probes with ease or you can use the included dial thermometer for monitoring the beer’s temperature.

The Interior:
Blichmann likes to tout their weld free interior but it’s all for naught with the lousy design of the dump valve, it uses a large nut on the bottom with tons of space for stuff to get it and cause problems it’s a pain to take apart and clean and leads to scratching even when you are super careful, plus there is tons of o-rings that you will need to replace over time. The second lousy part of the dump valve is the elbow that is needed due to it’s low profile legs, this will clog up with any moderate amount of yeast and will be rendered useless. The one leg up Blichmann has is a racking arm, however the design does not lend to easy cleaning and the assembly can be a pain in the ass and if you’re not careful you will ding and scratch up the interior of your fermentor.

Stout’s internal welds are polished and you can barely tell where they were made, they are excellent welds and there is fewer places for nasties to hide, there is zero threaded connections and everything uses industry standard sanitary tri-clamp fittings which are super easy to get parts for and really easy to clean. There are no lips to clean under like the Blichmann and the inside is polished to a mirror finish like the outside and the dump valve is straight down, no bends for the yeast to get caught in.

Filling up and moving:
Once you’ve sanitized and reassembled everything, filling each fermentor is as easy as the next, just get the proper connector and hook up the the racking port, both come with barbed adapters for hoses, the Blichmann barb is plastic, the Stout barb is stainless, both do the job though. The area where the Blichmann wins over on this part is the option for Wheels ($99 add on) and the inluded fold down arms for carrying, neither of which the Stout tank has. The Blichmann is easy for two people to carry with the arms and they fold away nicely for putting in a fridge for temperature control. The Stout tank does have two points where you can carry it from but they are lower and not really designed for it which makes it slightly awkward to carry. However both of them would do well with a $20 furniture dolly from the local hardware store. The Blichmann will not easily fit in a upright freezer/fridge with the casters attached, it is a giant pain in the butt and I ended up taking the casters off wasting the $99 I spent on them.

Racking:
This is where the method of your yeast collection determines which you would prefer. I’ve adapted by collection technique to not utilize the racking arm anymore, but I will list both methods. Both work equally as well for top cropping, with the Stout nudging out the Blichmann because of the ease of getting the lid off, Blichmann could improve their system by adding a latching system and replacing the long nut and screw combo, but once the lids are off on each top cropping your yeast is a piece of cake.

Collecting from the dump valve. When I first got the Blichmann I would let the whole batch ferment out and then use the adjustable racking arm to pick up just the beer and leave the yeast in the cone, however this lead to clogging the dump valve and I would have to add lots of sanitary water to thin out the yeast enough to get it to flow, plus I was collecting all the dead or lame yeast as well as the good stuff all at once and it lead to lots of rinsing and more work to get the yeast ready.

The new method I use which came from Chris White & Jamil’s Yeast book is collecting yeast via the dump valve in intervals. I will collect 1/2 quart from the dump valve after one day of fermentation, anything that comes out is going to be trub and dead yeast that flocced out quickly, you just toss this stuff. Then I wait a couple days for fermentation to start slowing, I collect 1/2 quart to a quart from the dump and I will rinse and save this yeast. I will then crash cool and rack off another 1/2 to one quart of yeast. This gives me a good mixture of flocculant and less flocculant yeast and this way I don’t have as many dead cells and the yeast cake isn’t near the racking port on the Stout tank as it doesn’t have a an adjustable racking arm, if you aren’t dumping yeast then you are going to end up with quite a bit in your kegs. that you will have to wait to drop out. This method works best for myself and works on both conicals and eliminates the need for a adjustable racking arm.

I have however been in contact with Stout and they are working on an optional racking arm for their conicals, last I heard they were hoping to have some to test out in the next month or so, I will be purchasing one to test it out when they do as you can also drop the racking arm into the yeast to rack it out that way as well.

Final thoughts:
Both are great, it just comes down to value for your dollar. If you were to get a Blichmann with the Tri-Clamp features of the Stout you are looking at well over our $600 budget and you would need to spend $829 or more for a Fermenator with Tri-Clamps, once you use Tri-Clamps you will never want to go back to anything else. I had no idea how easy it was to clean and the seals are super easy to replace and allows me to keep separate sets of rubber for sour beers and regular beers, this can’t easily be done with the threaded fittings on the Blichmanns.

For the price you can buy two Stout conical fermentors for the price of one Blichmann with Tri-Clamps, that is some serious value. If given the choice I would trade my Blichmann for a second Stout one anyday.

I liked the Stout ones so much I will be using their fementors for my Commercial Nano Brewery and have already purchased a 40 gallon conical from them and will be buying more in the future. I have however stuck with Blichmann for my pots, I purchased Blichmann Boilermaker kettles for my Nano but I’m not as worried about tri-clamps and sanitary connections on my hot side and still use Blichmann burners and a Therminator for chilling.

As some people out there are taking kick-backs and getting deals on their gear in exchange for reviews I want to point out that I purchased all equipment at full retail with no discounts from anyone and have taken zero dollars from either company at the time of writing this review. I purchased my Blichmann gear from Austin Homebrew Supply. Stout can only be purchased direct.

Hey everyone. I’ve had some really good feed back on the opinion piece and still can’t seem to get a straight answer out of the Washington Brewer’s Guild on their take on the other initiative 1105, which is backed by the people that currently distribute their beers. Coincidence? Who knows.

Anyway, things are ticking along nicely here at Justice HQ, been working on the fermentation chambers and adding automation/electrically controlled gas burners. Which in itself is amazing not having to bend over and fiddle with a lighter just to bring the temp up.

I just had my 29th birthday this weekend and I’m looking forward to what this year is going to bring. More news as it happens or I happen to get a chance to post about it.

Still in the works are work logs from all the stuff I’ve been building without time to post, I’ve also learned quite a bit about refrigeration and am now EPA certified for repair of small appliances (anything with less than 5lbs of refrigerant) which came about when there was a freon leak in a Kegerator I was working on, it’s all repaired and back in working order.

Normally I don’t want to get too political, but this time I am actually kind of pissed off about it and how the Washington Brewers Guild (WBG) is handling it. The Washington Beer Blog has a write up with their opinion and the opinion of the WBG on it. See them for their take, I am going to dissect it and give my counter point. Plus I get to use some mild profanity, which has always been a hobby of mine.

I am here to say that I am voting YES on initiative 1100 and here is why you should too, despite what the Washington Brewers Guild is saying.

For years craft breweries have been saying how horrible the three tier system is and that we need to abolish it. Now here comes the chance to whack away at the Washington Liquor Control Board and the craft breweries decide that they would much rather hide behind the status quo.

What are they afraid of? Competing with “Big Business”, this is horseshit. The big players are seeing decreased markets and this isn’t going to get fixed by allowing them to have lower prices, they pay a higher tax rate per barrel and have a much higher overhead than the craft brewers in Washington face. They also make really shitty beer. People are still going to buy the beer they like and price hasn’t been the tipping point, especially with many breweries getting away with murder charging $6+ for a 22oz bottle of beer. I’m looking at you Rogue! No one wants to pay pub prices to drink at home.

I-1100 negatively impacts the craft brewing industry.
WBG makes claims that this new way of competing will crush all our small breweries. Let’s be honest, these places are not competing with the large breweries that they are worried about being able to “give discounts, free product and services to obtain shelf space or handles at big box stores, chain restaurants, and other retailers.” They really are kidding themselves if they think they don’t already do this. Yes, it is illegal, but no one is making any arrests or sending out fines, we know this goes on and I am not surprised at all. This just makes it legal. But don’t belittle your product, be glad that people have to bribe to get their brand of booze into a place when people are clamoring to get yours in. We’re smarter and more innovative than they will ever be. We can beat them.

The WBG also makes claims that this will cause a “race to the bottom” that too is complete bullshit. There will be some that want to drive their prices down as far as they can, but as we have seen in the last couple of years. Cheap beer isn’t doing so well. Shitty beer will continue it’s fall no matter how cheap it gets. You don’t have to sink to their level. This comes back to treating beer lovers like idiots.

I-1100 deregulates a prospering, innovative industry.
Now this is where WBG gets into some scaremongering. It’s really dumb too. They use the deregulation of phones, airlines, and banking as reasons to fight againt this initiative. This is essentially a food manufacturing sector that has had too much government control on it. The examples they chose are poor and are all based on services and not manufacturing. Telephone calls are the cheapest they have ever been. Banking collapsed because people are greedy and the same can be said about the Airlines. This isn’t the same issue we’re talking about here and they should throw it out of their argument.

WBG wants to yammer on about “Tied Houses”. Does the WBG think that Washington beer lovers are that dumb? People will notice when only one brand of beer is being served at a bar, it will be public knowledge is one of these places exists and if that is what people choose, then they probably weren’t your customer to begin with. Plus this is only a potential problem and is one that I don’t think will materialize. People like have a choice, and the places that lack a good selection or carry just one brand of beer will suffer and eventually die off in our market. Washington Beer Lovers AREN’T IDIOTS! Stop treating them like they are.

I-1100 takes away consumer choice.
Oh on the contrary, I think it will actually give consumers MORE choice. Consumer demand will still drive the marketplace and we shouldn’t be so quick to judge customers and think they can easily be swayed by marketing and a lower price. If it sucks, people won’t buy it. The craft industry needs to stop selling itself so short and think that everyone is out to destroy them. I know when I read opinions of the WBG on this issue it sounded like chicken little was running around talking about the sky falling. We will survive because we make better beer, plain and simple.

In closing, the WBG needs to chill the fuck out and have a beer. If things somehow manage to get to their worst fears then they can roll out an initiative of their own next year to repeal any of the changes they don’t like, this is one of the beauties (and downfalls) of Washington’s initiative system. Don’t like it? Got enough people that agree with you? Get it on the ballot!

I-1100 will get the state out of the alcohol business and allow more stores to open and compete, bringing more jobs to the state and allowing consumers to win with fair pricing on hard alcohol which has been extremely overpriced thanks to the state’s monopoly.

I-1100 will also allow for companies to skip the middle man and sell straight to the store, this is great and will allow for more products to get into more locations as the craft industry knows it can be difficult to get a distributor to even carry your product to offer it on shelves.

32 states already have laws like this on the books. Including California, which has a large craft brewery industry. They managed to make it, and I know Washington Craft Beer will too! Stop being so negative WBG, and think about how you will use this to make the state BETTER! You will play the cards you are dealt, and if it’s what the voters of this state want, then so be it.

Many people out there want to espouse on this issue but don’t have a stake in this fight. I do. I am betting all my personal belongings to live the dream and start my own craft brewery here in Washington state. I’ve already spent thousands of dollars and I don’t even have a location to call home yet so I can start the year long process of paperwork. I care and I have my own money on the line. But I, as a lover of Washington Beer and guy who is risking his entire life’s assets, I vote yes. Because we are better than they are and Washingtonians aren’t idiots and know the difference when it comes to mass marketing crap and the home grown beer they love (but still manage to buy more from Oregon, California, and Colorado). We need to focus on making Washington Beer #1 IN WASHINGTON!

I know there are people that will disagree with me, and that is great. The more we discuss this issue the more we can find out what really needs to be changed. Without debate and disagreements our country would be pretty lame.

I am Nate McLaughlin, Washington native, tax payer, business owner, home brewer, founder of Justice Brewing LLC, and I vote Yes on I-1100.

Just wanted to let you know that my name was approved by the State and I have formed Justice Brewing LLC for the purpose of starting a Nano-Brewery. I have been networking with the fine folks over at Foggy Noggin and 192 Brewing to get the scoop on how it’s been to open a small brewery. So far the consensus is about 2 years once you find a good location. But I’m hoping I can learn enough from their experiences to get it done in a decent time.

If you live in the area I suggest you take out some time some Saturday and visit the other Nano Breweries in the area, they make some damn good beer and I can’t want to share my creations with them.

The next order of business is to launch the website (JusticeBrewing.com) and then starting talking to a couple cities to get a feel on where I should spend my money.

Also, I am still working on the articles for the website that I mentioned below. I’ve been working swing shift and it just kills my creative process. But this should all be changing soon when I go to days. I love my job at Google, but I really wanna get this brewery stuff up and running! I have started concocting my “signature” beers for the brewery and I have two of them ready to go for production with about 5 more under consideration, including some sours beers, which I think we are seriously lacking in this state.