The Dram Shop

Month: April 2015

By in What's on Tap 0

How to Choose Your Next Beer

Okay, so here’s the situation: You finally managed to organize a group of friends to go out for drinks, and you’ve decided to try a new place with a large number of beers on tap (not going to name any names here). You arrive, and begin to peruse the menu, and there it is; that feeling of paralysis. There’s just too many choices, and you’re not sure what you’ll like. You don’t want to spend your hard earned cash on a beer that doesn’t add up.

Well, here’s some good news about your situation. Contrary to popular belief, craft beer is not snobby. If you’ve thought about bringing pretentiousness to the party you can leave it at home. The truth is, we love to talk about beer. And most people who enjoy craft beer love to talk about it too. All you really need is a starting point. Maybe it’s a beer you like, or a flavor you tasted that one time when you had that beer at your buddy’s BBQ. If you’re telling somebody who knows the beer selection well, chances are they can give you a few options that you’ll love.

The other great thing is that these days there are more and more options of different beers from different breweries, and they are almost all pushing the envelope on style. Basically, there’s never been a wider variety of high quality craft beer than there is right now.

It’ll help however to have a few terms handy, so let’s do a super quick fly by on brewing and beer classifications. Brewers are adding all kinds of crazy ingredients into some beers these days, but in it’s simplest form, there are four main ingredients in beer: water, yeast, grain, and hops. Different beers use different grains, and although barley is most widely used (most ales), wheat (think Hefeweizen and Witbier), and rye are also common. These grains are soaked in water and roasted, making sugars in the grain available. This is important because the yeast is going to be hungry, and it’s going to eat some of the sugars, producing both alcohol and carbonation, and also leaving some uneaten sugars that provide sweetness in the beer. I’ve heard it described as “yeast eats barley, farts beer.” Not the most eloquent description, but not all that inaccurate either.

Speaking of yeast, there are three main types:

  • Top Fermenting Yeast—Used for ales and ferment at higher temperatures.
  • Bottom Fermenting Yeast—Used for Lagers and Pilseners and ferment at lower temperatures.
  • Wild Yeast—Yeast and Bacteria present in the environment used for Belgians, Sours, and Lambics.

Lastly, but certainly not least, we have hops. Although historically used as much for a preservative as an agent*, the modern use of hops is all about flavor and aroma. Hops are added during the brewing process, adding bitterness to the beer and providing a counterpoint to the sweetness from the grains. Hops can also be added afterwards directly into fermenters in a process called dry hopping, which adds a strong hop flavor and aroma, while adding less bitterness to the beer.

We hope this gives you a general understanding of different beers. And remember, if you have any questions, want to compare and contrast some different styles, or just want to talk beer, come see us at the Shop!

*The popular IPA style which stands for ‘India Pale Ale’ are the hoppiest beers out there. This style was originally hopped so much so that the beer could make the trip by boat from Britain to India and not go bad along the way.

 

By in History 0

The Story of the Growler—”Rush the Growler!”

For a lot of folks these days the growler has become a ubiquitous part of life. Often times, the story goes something like this: You have a small herd of growlers roaming around somewhere between your kitchen and garage. You cull a couple from the herd here and there to take down to your local brewery or growler fill station and fill them to the brim with your favorite beverage. You take them home or on an adventure, and enjoy the libation within a few days. You try to remember to rinse them out when they’re empty. We emphasize the word ‘try’ here. Then, they probably roll around in the backseat of your car for a while before being returned to the herd. And the process can begin again…

That story may sound familiar, or maybe not, but the history of the growler in the U.S. has more in common with the way we use them now than you might think. And in many ways, The Dram Shop’s model is more similar historically to the way growlers were used originally in this country.

The use of growlers was, as is usual, a case of necessity being the mother of invention. It may be hard to believe, but there was a time in this country when beer was largely unavailable outside of a tavern or saloon. In the mid 1800’s, with the lack of pasteurization and modern bottling techniques, large scale bottling was practically non-existent. Bottles that were available were out of the price range of ordinary citizens. It sounds crazy, we know. And apparently folks back then thought so too, which is why growlers came to be used.

Growlers originally were buckets made of tin, glass, or pottery that would be brought to a tavern and filled on the spot. The growlers would then be taken to a job site or home, often times by a young men referred to as “bucket boys.”

The "Bucket Boys"

The “Bucket Boys”

The process of growler delivery was called “rushing the growler,” as most growlers had no lids and were to be consumed immediately. This began the tradition of a growler being for fresh beer. We like to think of them as a ‘mobile pitcher’.  Multiple growlers would be carried by hanging the handles on a pole. The pole would then be carried, moving 6-8 growler buckets at once.

Prohibition-rushing-lunch-growlers-beer-pails-1909

As the temperance movement that eventually brought about prohibition in 1920 gained speed, the act of filling growlers was outlawed in as many as twenty cities across the US. The proud tradition then lay dormant until it was revived by the modern craft beer industry in the late 1980’s.

So the next time you stop by The Dram Shop to fill a growler, and you don’t have time to stay for a cold one, just tell us you’d love to stay but you’ve got to “Rush the growler!”

Although we don’t sell tin buckets as growlers, we do sell a variety of glass, insulated and plastic growlers (for wine too!) to fit your needs. Here are our three different size amber glass growlers, and you can find more on our shop page. 

unnamed

Read more about The Dram Shop in the Missoulian’s Business Section and in the Missoula Independent’s recent “12 Things to Love About Missoula” (see #4)

Sign Up To Our Mailing List