Erik Lars Myers's Blog, page 2

The idea behind seasonal-only brewing.

Since Mystery Brewing Company‘s appearance on Crowd Rules in May and the introduction of our brand idea on a national scale, I’ve seen a fair amount of discussion online (and in my inbox) about our “no flagship brand” model with varying degrees of agreement or disagreement. I thought it might be a fine time to talk about what seasonal-only brewing means to us, how we do it, why we do it, and why I think that it’s the future of craft beer.

Why seasonal-only?

It’s...

Announcing the 3rd Mystery Beer Class/Cicerone Prep Group

It’s back again! This little course began as the idea to make a Certified CiceroneTM study group for an upcoming exam, but others wanted to take it to just learn about beer, and it sounded like a great idea. Now, by popular demand, it’s back for a third time.

This time, we’ll have the advantage of experience under our belt, and we’ll have a much more focused class. If enough people in the class are interested in the Certified CiceroneTM exam, we will do our best arrang...

Podcast Episode #5: Cans vs. Bottles

Ah, the new classic debate of the craft era: Cans vs. Bottles and which one is better for your beer.

In this podcast we:

Get back on the podcasting wagon
Talk about how bottles and cans are filled
Talk about the benefits and detriments to cans and bottles and why some people prefer one or the other
Talk about the 3000, no.. 1000, no… 500.. err.. well.. probably 100 year headstart bottles have over cans in the marketing department

Glad to be back in the recording chair – I hope you’re...

Craft vs. Crafty – A Late Entry Into the Debate

This is a very late entry into this debate, and there’s a good reason why: I’ve been having a hard time articulating to myself just why I think the debate has been so… well.. wrong. I tried recording a podcast about it, but I was just a rambling mess (more so than usual) and so I felt like the best way to approach this was through writing.

To cover the backstory: Back on December 13th, a few high ranking members of the BA wrote an article in the St. Louis Dispatch titled Cra...

Podcast Episode #4: Ingredients

This podcast is designed as self-reference. Yeah, weird, right? Not really – I already know that down the road I’ll want to be able to talk about ingredients in a really specific manner and so this is a general overview of the five ingredients of beer so that I can point people back here.



Wait. What.. five?

Yeah. You heard me. You’ll have to listen.

This covers water polarity, hop bitterness, why IBUs are terrible (but metric!) measurements, what malting is, why barley is g...

Podcast Episode #3: The Three-Tier System

Just what exactly IS the three-tier system? Is it good or bad? Why do some people seem to hate it, and if it’s so awful, why do so many people use it?

All this, plus Mystery’s search for distribution and why we ultimately decided that self-distribution wasn’t for us.

Podcast Episode #2: Aging Beer.

I get the same question all the time: “Do I have to keep this beer refrigerated?”

The short answer is, yes. All the time. But let’s talk about why and the instances where people don’t refrigerate, for better or for worse. Aging, skunking, and staling, and why your craft beer store isn’t keeping their beer the best way (and why it really can’t until you change your buying habits).

Enjoy!

The (slight) reinvention of Top Fermented.

Someone brought it up to me again the other day: You should get back to blogging more.

And, you know? I agree… for a couple of reasons. For one, it’s cathartic. It’s a nice release to be able to commit thoughts to words and publish them, even in a vanity forum like this blog, but also because there are a lot of topics that I’d like to see discussed in the world at large that I feel like I can at least introduce, and hopefully see out and about.

However, what with this...

Balance and harmony in craft beer.

You know, I’m frequently pretty ranty on my blog as of late and a lot of that comes out of the fact that the blog is, in many ways, an outlet for me. But today I’m looking for an outlet for a whole different kind of piece. Today I want to talk about harmony.

So, for a long time, while I was starting up Mystery I was hounded by a certain someone in the local beer industry to continually define what made my beer different. The answer – at the time – was that my beer is,...

Celebrating IPA Day without IPA.

God I wish this was going to be a long post, but it’s not.

Tomorrow is IPA Day, and I can’t get behind it.

Nevermind the fact that IPA is the first jumping off point for every beginning craft beer enthusiast that is trying to get as far away from premium lager as possible. Nevermind that the vast majority of IPAs are over-hopped and over-wrought and are just one-note hop bombs with very little subtlety or nuance.



Look at your calendar and look at all of the SUCH-AND-SUCH Day holi...