johnlittle.com

I just discovered this website for brewers.

Check it out.

Tons of great information.

Check out this video tour of Chimay’s brewery. The narrator traces the history of Belgian beer making from around 1060 a.d. to the present time in only 10 minutes, highlighting the incredible Chimay brewery, one of only 6 authenitic trappist breweries remaining in the world. And yet Chimay is advanced enough to use a centrifuge prior to bottling. American brewers can only hope to make beer as good as these monks make. This makes me want to learn to make bread and cheese too!

Check out these stories published in 1885, 1892, concerning hop prices. Compare this to hop prices today.

DEALING IN FUTURES BEGUN.; OPTIONS ON HOPS QUOTED ON THE HOP DEALERS’ EXCHANGE.

January 12, 1892, Wednesday, Page 9

Dealings in futures were begun yesterday at the Hop Dealers’ Exchange, when options were quoted on New-York State, Washington, Oregon, and California hops for February, March, April, May, June, and July delivery. Brokers seemed shy of each other, and at the first call differences between prices bid and asked ranged from 3/4 to 3 3/4 cents per pound.

I’d settle for the $9 lb hops used to cost when I first started brewing. Cascades at Northern Brewer are currently $52 per lb.

Read the full articles below. They’re interesting.

January 12, 1892 NYT article about hops

June 17, 1885 NYT article about hops

Came across this information here.

Alabama Breweries History: Montgomery Alabama

Brewpubs have been around a long time. In the late 1800s, there were over 4,000 breweries–every town had at least one. George Washington, John Adams, James Madison and Thomas Jefferson had financial interests in microbreweries: William Penn founded Philadelphia’s first brewpub in 1685. The first recorded history of beer brewing in Montgomery Alabama cited Charles E. Hall as the founder of the original Montgomery Brewing Company. Prohibition put poor Charles out of business in 1919. But in 1992, acknowledging the microbrewery renaissance, Alabama passed its Brewpub Act with the intent of revitalizing Alabama’s historic districts–thus allowing this Montgomery Brewing Co. to (re)open on October 27, 1995.

I came across this interesting bit of information on the Texas A & M website while reading about the current hop shortage.

Hops were introduced to North America in 1629. They were grown for domestic use in Virginia as early as the mid-17th century, and became an important crop by the early 19th century. In 1808 the first commercial hop yard was established in New York, and production remained in the Eastern states until crop diseases related to the moist climate moved farms to the West Coast. Today, hop production is concentrated in Washington, Oregon, and California.