Another wildly successful Afternoon has come and gone. We're sure that if you were in attendance, you'd agree that this a fun event--certainly more fun than mowing your lawn. The Top Ten homebrew entries, in no particular order:

IMPERIAL AMERICAN BROWN ALE
by Jim Bianch

BELGIAN PALE ALE
by Greg Lupo

AMERICAN RYE BEER
by Daniel Hubin

BELGIAN DARK STRONG ALE
by Joe Eckhart (2006 winning brewer)

OATMEAL STOUT
by Peter Precario

CALIFORNIA COMMON BEER
by Dustin Braun, Nathan Stewart and Tim Donnel

SCHWARZBIER
by Mathew Boehm

AMERICAN PALE ALE
by Steve Kocsis

ROBUST PORTER WITH BOURBON AND VANILLA BEANS
by Scott Brandewie

AMERICAN PALE ALE
by Shane Green

Thanks to all the homebrewers who participated, and to all the brewers who stopped in to make Afternoon With The Brewers the communal event that it is. We couldn't do it without you.

Oh, yeah. The winner. We did have a winner in this year's contest, as is tradition. See if you can guess the winner by looking at the list, and reading the following.

Come next year, we'll be drinking a dark beer-- a lager at that. The alcohol content will be in the 4.8-5.0% range, and it will be opaque. It should end up with aa chocolately or coffee-like flavor. It is often served with chunky, dark breads and cream cheese. It also pairs well with brisket and sauerbraten. The beer you will be drinking next year:

SCHWARZBIER by Matthew Boehm

Congratulations, Matthew, to all the finalists and everyone who came out searching for the finest beers in the land. See you next year!

WHILE YOU WERE AT AFTERNOON WITH THE BREWERS...

...here are a few pics showing what I was up to.

While in Alaska, drink Alaska, don't you think?

All you can eat dungeness crab and Alaskan Amber in Ketchikan. Am I the only one who thinks he looks like David Crosby?

At Issaquah Brewing Company, now owned by Rogue, Issaquah, Washington
Until 1988, Issaquah was a sleepy hop farming community. It is now yuppified (and they no longer grow hops.)
Is that the revolution we want?

NEW SUMMER MENU

In addition to a great new beer from Barley's we've kicked off the summer with our updated Summer Menu. We've kept all your favorites, and added some exciting new items. Gooey Pale Ale Chili Cheese fries and Barley's Gates of Hell Chicken Strips, for starters. Can we interest you in Barley's BBQ Pretzel Chicken or Cobb salad?

Pale Ale Chili Cheese Fries, Cobb Salad and Philly Burger

BBQ Bacon, Philly and Southwest burgers rounds out our other classics. On the more delicate side, may we suggest our new Salmon Baguette sandwich & salad? Chicken Cordon Bleu and Diablo Chipotle chicken sandwiches from our grill go mighty fine with our award winning ales.

Grilled Chicken Diablo, Salmon Baquette & Salad and BBQ Chicken Wrap

BBQ or Sweet Chili Chicken are two of our seven wraps. Our summer entrees include Black and Tan strip steak and bacon wrapped pork loin. We even have a gouremt mac and cheese that includes white cheddar, smoked gouda and white truffle oil.

White Truffle Oil Mac & Cheese, Black and Tan Strip Steak, Jumbo Ice Cream Sandwich

New for dessert include old fashioned peach cobbler, New York creme brulee cheesecake and our jumbo ice cream sandwich. Well, what are you waiting for? Get your buttocks down here!

Check out complete details here.

TOP TEN BEER COMMERCIALS

While we know you love Barley's ales, we don't do commercials. We leave that to the big boys. A website called CamelTap has compiled the top ten. As you quaff a pint of ours from your growler at home, enjoy a few commercials from them. Cheers!

BREWING AND THE GLOBAL ECONOMY

Who knew you had to have both an economics AND a political science degree just to brew beer?

As we enter 2008, here at Barley's, we're facing challenges we've never seen before. Rest assured, though, that we're working hard to ensure you feel minimal impact.

First, our planet is simply out of hops. Hops are grown thorughout the world, but principally in Great Britain, Germany, Australia, and here at home, in the Pacific northwest.

Harvest time for hops is generally in late summer and early autumn. At that point, this finite supply of hops is warehoused for use throughout the year. The larger breweries (do we have to name them?) contract for their needs at the beginning of the year, and commonly, for longer periods.

We craft brewers scramble for the rest. During our history, that's worked out just fine. Until a few months ago.

We are faced with a worse situation than a hop shortage. We cant get hops. Four reasons:

• A warehouse fire in California last fall took out a 1,000,000 pound supply of hops for the coming year;
• Over the last ten years, hop production has slowly fallen as farmers planted crops that might fetch them more dollars;
• Poor hop crops due to weather, particularly in Germany and Australia; and
• The US initiative to step up production of ethanol had many hop farmers plow under their vines to grow corn instead. Did you know that a year ago, corn sold for $2 a bushel, and now fetches $4? The ethanol industry in the US consumed one third of the entire worldwide corn supply! That explains why food costs you more at the grocery store, but we digress. For us, it means fewer hops are being grown.

We've scrambled, and continue to look for hops anywhere we can get them. Right now, we've got at least a six month supply. We'll continue to accumilate as we can. Right now, we're waiting to hear if we can get Cascade hops from Argentina, of all places.

Right now, we've got you covered. It's not without cost, though. Hop prices have doubled, and in some cases, nearly tripled.

Grain is another story. You know we import our grain from Great Britain. We know it makes a difference in our beer, and we'll continue to use it. However, with the US dollar as weak as it is, we're paying dearly for using non-domestic grain. When the US Dollar buys less Euros, we feel the impact. In the past six months, our British grain cost is up 50% or more.

We let you know all of this for two reasons. First, we hope you understand that the price of your pint will cost you a bit more now. We don't like to raise prices any more than you like to pay them, but we're bumping a pint up just a quarter. We trust you understand.

Second, we feel that we've got a great opportunity here. As we find that we can't brew some of the beers you've grown fond of, we will be coming up with new recipes that reflect the raw materials we find as we search the planet. We'll brew the best we can with what we have. This may mean entirely new beers that you've never had before.

Hop Envy IPA is the first result of our efforts. (See, you have nothing to worry about.)

Life's an adventure, and we'll be taking this trip together. We thank you for your support all these years, and we hope you stop in to experience the results of the changes in the wind.

Here's to a great 2008!

15th ANNIVERSARY PARTY
&CHRISTMAS ALE TAPPING

Our fifteenth annual Anniversary Party was a huge success and a lot of fun. You people know how to welcome a new beer... we've only got three barrels left, and it's only been on less than three weeks!

Click on image to see anniversary action from 2006!

Thanks to Mike Taylor and Maggie Brennan from WCBE 90.5 FM, our guest tappers this year, as well as to the entire staff for putting on a great show.

For those of you who weren't there, be sure to stop by for Christmas Ale and Mother Earth Fifteenth Anniversary Ale. It's an organic strong ale, coming in at a whopping 8% ABV.

Happy Holidays from everone at Barley's!

NEW MENU and
Lunch and Dinner Features

New Menu

We're excited about our new menu. You'll notice that we've added our award-winning ales to several dishes, such as Barley's Ale Grilled Ribeye Hoagie or Brewhouse Meatloaf Plate.

We've added a tasty Smoke Chicken Ravioli, and... why don't you just check it out right here?

New Lunch and Dinner Features

We've created our daily offerings with exciting new items such as Sunday's Steak and Eggs feature.

You can view all our daily lunch and dinner features here. It's going to be tough to decide what day to come in, we think. Of course, we're here every day. so you may as well be, too!

Adult Beverage Treats

You know us for our great award-winning ales, but did you know we also know how to make a mean drink? Or that we serve some pretty incredible wines? We also serve peaty, briny single malts and some of the best bourbons from Kentucky.

In case you'd like to peruse our beverage menu before coming in, here it is, fresh off the press!

HAPPY HOUR AND NIGHTLY SPECIALS

What goes great with beer? Especially Barley's ales?

Well, one answer has to be the great food put out by Chef Jason's kitchen. Now, we've made it even better with our Happy Hour and nightly specials.

5 for $5

Happy Hour wouldn't be Happy Hour without a few gems to wash down with your favorite Barley's brew. We've now got five great bar morsels to go with your $3 pints from 4-7 PM every Monday through Friday. We call them 5 for $5.

• Fried pierogi with marinara dipping sauce
• Tortilla chips the quesa dip
• Fried mac-n-cheese bites with ranch dip
• Cheese quesadilla
• Three mini cheeseburgers

But that's not all. We've got new nightly specials seven days a week. There's something for everyone sometime during the week. For some of you, it may even be several times a week.

THE COLUMBUS MICROBREW FESTIVAL at the NORTH MARKET

It was a great day for quaffing the best the City has to offer. Nearly three dozen different local beers were served to almost 2,000 beer fans.

Many of you who saw me at the food demonstration asked if I would post the recipe for Brewdood's Three-Meat Four-Alarm Chili that you saw me make and that you sampled. Here is the link. Enjoy!

That's it until next week. If you have any questions, comments or concerns, write to me.

Cheers!
Brewdood