Jesse Friedman and Damian Fagan of Almanac Beer Company stopped by to talk about their beer and what it's about. it's an interesting take on how to launch into the brewing business. which is to start of brewing smaller batches of seasonal beer which you can hear about on the podcast or read on the Almanac website. before the name was Almanac it was going to be called Old Oak Beer Company. but a deep trademark search showed that they might have problems with that name so the two owners decided to rebadge the company prior to having any beer in the market to avoid future confusion. 

barrel aged beers have proven to be popular in market. and while European beers have been made in wood barrels for centuries it hasn't been until the last decade that barrel aging was done in the American market. and this is especially true for beer distributed outside of the brewing area done intentionally instead of just a brewers experiment made as a novelty for the people that visit the brewery.

somebody will point out that some US breweries have had their beer on wood since they started brewing it. yet it's not the flavor of the wood that is the reason. in the case of beer that is "Beechwood Aged" the wood is used to increase the surface area available to the yeast. it also makes a neat marketing differentiation for the product.

the homework was to try beer that is barrel aged. we gave a few examples on the show. and if you aren't sure what is or isn't a beer from a barrel program ask your retailer or beer geek. or you can ask here as well.

http://www.almanacbeer.com/

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Good noon! Recorded in San Francisco on 10/17/2010.

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