After a long hiatus, the house beer makes a triumphant return. This batch will be a little higher in alcohol as compared to the last few as the efficiency seems to be around 75%. This is a straight forward American Pale Ale. A touch of caramel ending with citrus notes from the hops. Originally derived from Abita’s Restoration Ale. For those of you counting, this is batch #36 on the brew rig.
Brew session went well. Looking forward to having this on tap again!
Ingredients:
| 20# |
2-row Maris Pale Malt |
| 2# |
Carapils |
| 24 oz |
Crystal 40L |
Hops:
| 1.5 oz |
Cascade |
7.5% AA |
60 Min |
| 1.0 oz |
Centennial |
9.2% AA |
15 Min |
| 0.5 oz |
Centennial |
9.2% AA |
0 Min |
Yeast:
| (2) US-05 Fermentis Safale – Fermentiing ~@65F |
Yield:
Stats:
| OG: 1.064 |
IBU: 27 |
SRM: 9.1 |
Interesting chatter over the last few days about a new alcohol tax bill in Maryland. Over the past weeks I’ve outlined Maryland’s Wine Siege. Now this gem. Deceptively named the “The Lorraine Sheehan Health and Community Services Act of 2010”. The house bill is here. The senate version is here.
Synopsis:
Increasing the State tax rates for alcoholic beverages sold in Maryland from $1.50 to $10.03 per gallon for distilled spirits, from 40 cents to $2.96 per gallon for wine, and from 9 cents to $1.16 per gallon for beer; providing for the distribution of the additional revenue to special funds to be used only for the purpose of providing additional funding for specified health services; etc.
Brandon Miller-Millhouse summarized as following:
“A Maryland Brewery" Brews 40 Barrel batches
40 bbl = 1240 gallons presently taxed at $111.60
with bill passed that same single batch would be taxed $1,438
…So lets say a brewery right now sells a gallon of beer for $5 (just an example) this tax makes them to have to raise the price of their product to say $7.50-$8 per gallon. The Distributor has to mark it up to retain their profit margin ($10-$11)and the retailers have to mark it up retain their profit margin ($13-$15) and WE are left paying Stone Six-Pack Prices for everything…oh and I almost forgot the 6% MD sales tax.
BTW – Brandon reads this blog, so if you’d like to leave him feedback, do it here. I won’t be handing out his email address.
Conclusion
Just another example of how clearly broken Maryland’s three-tier distribution system remains. I completely understand wanting to raise the taxes to be more in-line with other states, but don’t provide that comparison to me regarding states that don’t have a bogus three-tier distribution system in place. The reality is, the distributors don’t care because they are going to add their costs on regardless of what this bill does just as Brandon has previously outlined.
Opinions and comments welcome.
Last evening, I had the pleasure of trying Troegs Nugget Nectar on firkin. A seasonal brew they describe as a Imperial Amber. Coming in @ 7.5ABV and 93 IBU’s, this beer can be a real beast.
While the beer was OK, it wasn’t the experience I had hoped. I don’t think it was cellared properly. While you may think this isn’t too big of deal, the beer was as cloudy as many of the primary fermentations I’ve run and so active that they were pouring foam into pitchers, then into my glass. The result – real ale with all the natural carbonation knocked out of solution. 
On the positive side, it was amazing how 93 IBU’s were masked in this beer. It was extremely easy drinking and enjoyable outside of my other experience.
I hope my little story tells you how important a good cellar man is to real ale. You can’t have one without the other.
Update #1 (2/19/2010 1pm): This is not an attack on the place of business that served the firkin, I really enjoy the variety of beers served, the food and the staff. In fact, I purposely didn’t even mention their name because I didn’t want Google holding onto that forever. I merely wanted to tell of my experience and elicit feedback and thought. FWIW, I will continue to enjoy great beer at this great pub. I am fascinated by real ale and will continue to seek it out.
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