This April marks the one year anniversary of TheFerm.org. When we opened the proverbial doors a year ago, we began with the bar set so low that failure was not an option. At our core, we are a drinking related blog. However, if you are looking for savvy wine reviews (then you probably won't ever find your way to this post) you'll probably need a subscription to some premium content site. If you want expert beer reviews, go to Beer Advocate or Rate Beer. (Seriously people, 95% of all beer blogs are just regurgitated versions of what already exists in one of these awesome online resources. And if you were offended by the previous statement, then you are probably one of the 5%. Look, I subscribe and read beer bloggers that give reviews; I just don't write beer reviews… much. OK, enough parenthetical text.)

We are who we are, and I am who we be… or something. While I am but one of the motley crew of professionals interloping in the online writing world, if there was one thing I'd like improve in Year Two (no, not avoiding the occasional and inadvertent ticking off of Cathy Matusow), it would be writing some shorter posts. "Tasting Flight" is my first attempt at this resolution.

The idea behind the posts will be to present a few random notes about things I've seen, read, or tasted recently. I'll keep it semi-brief and just make a few comments before presenting you with links to other people's work. Think of it as a scratch and sniff version of stuff on my brain at the moment.

1. Beer Taxes
   Taxes on beer have been a hot topic over the past year in several states. On the national scene, Charlie Papazian and the Brewers Association have been supporting H.R. 4278, which would half the excise tax for small brewers from $7.00 to $3.50 per barrel for the first 60K barrels and from $18.00 to $16.00 on barrel 60,001 to 2,000,000. More recently, I've been reading about states also scrounging for more things to tax to cover budget deficits. While cigarettes and gasoline are easy, but already heavily taxed items, fat taxes are picking up momentum with lawmakers. A recent proposal in the state of Washington to add a huge tax on mass-market beers is getting a lot of attention. Is taxing Bud-Miller-Coors beers (~$0.43 more per 6-pack) the magic bullet for states scrambling for cash? Does it surprise you that it is Democrats, who win elections by representing the little guy, are the party behind the beer tax?
   
   
2. The Wine Purse
   Let's face it, box wine will never be fashionable because it has the word "box" in it. But a wine purse… this could catch on. If that spigot pops off for travel, this thing would be great for sporting events! Especially filled with bourbon.
   
   
3. "Home" Brewing
   Ronald Walcher and wife Jackie Jenkins are small brewery owners in Arlington, WA who have run into a small problem lately: They are too popular. Skookum Brewery, which the two run out of their home on a small 10 barrel system, opens their tasting room Friday from 3:00 PM – 7:00 PM and Saturday from 2:00 PM – 5:00 PM. Their neighbors (at least 47 of them) have asked the County for help to force Skookum to move its tasting room because of the traffic it brings to the neighborhood. But if you guys are picturing a neighborhood getting slammed by hundreds of beer drinkers, think again. This is a farm town. Neighbor please! Cheers Skookum.
   
   
4. Hot, Hot, Hot!
   I've read about two universities planning breweries in the last few weeks. Where was this idea when I was in school? In March, the LSU chancellor announced the intentions to open a microbrewery on campus. Appalachian State University has also given the go-ahead to faculty to start a microbrewery. According to the article, The University of California at Davis and the University of Denver are also leading this trend of educational breweries. My only suggestion for the App State brewery is that they somehow incorporate their promotional song in the tasting area. Hot.
   
   
   
   
5. 140 Character Review – Real Ale Devil's Backbone
   (because I drink and have thoughts on beer, but I'd rather write about App State's promotional video)
   Real Ale Devil's Backbone. 1st time in bottles this yr. Belgian tripel w/ in-house candy sugar. 8.1%ABV. Fruity&Strong. Love it. #craftbeer
   
   
6. Dr. Analytics, Web M.D. – "centennial hops odor pee cat"
   (helping the lost Googlers who mistakenly land on our site)
   I'm going to assume this Googler was drinking a Stone Ruination IPA with his friend and this conversation happened:
   Dude 1 – Wow! The hops in this beer coat your entire throat. It practically ruins your taste buds. Says here it is loaded with centennial hops.
   Dude 2 - *cough* This is going to take me a while to drink.
   Lady Friend – Greg Koch is like soooo dreamy.
   Dude 2 – This beer smells like cat pee. Didn't a Golden Girl or Designing Woman pass away today? I might have to pour some or all of this out for my homegirl.
   Dude 1 – Cat pee!? Are you high? And how do you know what cat pee smells like anyway?
   Dude 2 – Dude. Cat pee city up in this.
   Dude 1 – I'm Googling Centennial hops from my Andriod phone right now.
   Dude 2 – And… what is taking so long
   Dude 1 – I found this great blog called The Ferm. Who wants kolaches?
   Lady Friend – Me!
   aaaaannnnnd scene…
   
   For what it is worth, in my experience cat pee is an aroma I've seen in a few white wine reviews (and it is a good thing, not a bad thing). I suppose some citrusy hops, such as centennial, may have the essence of feline urine, but I wouldn't know… mostly because I'm not a litter box connoisseur.
   
   
7. BONUS TASTE: A Horrible Turn
   Some of you may have read my homage to the amazing online musical Horrible Turn, which is a prequel to Joss Whedon's Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog that starred Neil Patrick Harris. Chance McLain's movie was recently nominated for a Streamy Award (the Academy Awards for web television) and Chance wrote a great post recapping the whole experience. I highly recommend you check it out.
   

OK Stop. Before you guys say anything, I just want to remind you that Rome was *not* built in a day. Maybe next Tasting Flight post will be shorter.

Countdown is a list of news items, videos, or just ruminations that involve imbibing or are just more entertaining with an adult beverage. After all, life is life, but talking about it with a drink makes it more interesting. Feel free to sound off on any of the topics in the comment section.

5) Get busy, It's Your Earth Day!
Yesterday was El Dia de la Tierra folks, which means it's either time to recycle for one day or contend that global warming is a hoax. I'd rather sit back and watch the debate with a cold beer (it's hotter than ever outside!).

But what is that beer's footprint? According to an article in The Daily Campus not listing its source (but if it comes from The Daily Campus, you know it has to be true), "the amount of water required to brew one keg of beer can be as much as 232 gallons." Now I don't have a calculator, but if 15.5 gallons are in a keg, then that is like 14.967742 times the amount of water in the final product! Shocked yet? Relax... breathe... and drink up... Wine is worse, but even wine is not as big of a water hog as beef, apples, or soybeans.

If you are asking, "SirRon, I'm a yuppie Smart Car driving suburbanite. What should I drink?" I suggest having a Fat Tire. The employee owned New Belgium Brewery in Fort Collins, CO has been wind powered since 1999. The brewery also collects its wastewater instead of sending it down the drain and off to the local wastewater plant. Instead, they add an anaerobic digester to the wastewater, which breaks down the organic matter and gives off methane. That methane is then captured and used to fuel an engine that creates electricity for the brewery. But wait, there is more! The waste heat from turning methane to electricity is then captured to make hot water that is used as heating in brewery. How about *that* for being miles from ordinary? That's cogeneration folks. Take that Corona!

I can brag on New Belgium because I got a chance to visit on a detour from GABF. As innovative as they are, NB has nothing on craft beer pioneer Sierra Nevada's green efforts... but enough nerd talk.

4) Nice Lamp Stamp
Just kidding on the nerd talk. Want a reminder that there are people working on things much cooler than your work? The folks at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York are developing nanotubes that are flexible and thin enough to be placed under the skin. The "nano skins" are low power and can receive data wirelessly (can you say endless tattoo possibilities?). Somewhere there is a girl who got a drunk tat of "Klye" on her lower back who now realizes her children will not have to go through the same embarrassment as their mother.

After you are done reading everything on at theferm.org, swing on over to the Philips website to see a super creepy video of electronic tattoo possibilities.

Hey, I said *after* you finished reading everything!

3) Long Island Iced Tea Party
Your drinking habits are going to probably cost you a little extra in the future. Several states are simultaneously jumping on the bandwagon and raising taxes on alcoholic beverages. New York is raising taxes fairly modestly, amounting to just pennies more per bottle of wine or six pack of beer. However, this "floor tax" will be applied to the stocks of wholesalers and retailer. Expect your liquor store to start carrying a lot less in the future... and New Joisey liquor stores to start getting more business. Nice one yanks.

Oregon is also looking to raise beer their taxes. Recent legislation will tax beer sold in Oregon from effectively less than a penny a glass to $0.15 (hey, that better be a fair pint pour!). The state expects $165M per year to be collected from the 1,900% tax hike. Why do 61% of Oregonians favor the tax? Because the tax will allow the funding of alcohol, drug crisis, and suicide prevention programs... how can you say no to that? I have no official comment, if you know what I'm sayin'.

The Oregon Partnership (whoever they are), recently circulated a news release with their propaganda. I found the quote below rather interesting:

"It's about time the national and international companies that sell their beer in Oregon need to pay their fair share of the $3 billion a year for alcohol-related crime, violence, lost productivity and health costs," says Pete Schulberg. Communications Director of Oregon Partnership. "Guess who's been paying for it up to now? Oregon Taxpayers, that's who."

$3 billion dollars!? Is it too much to ask for a list of data and/or assumptions for that calculation? Since, according to the OP, 90% of the tax will be coming from breweries outside Oregon, I guess the B-M-C evil empire will be the ones saving the lives of troubled Oregonians (since they control most of the beer market anyway). I suppose I can live with that.

2) Do These Beer Goggles Make My Face Look Fat?
In "I'm glad my tax dollars didn't pay for that" news, a recent UK study discredits the beer goggle defense... at least when it comes to underage and "mature" faces (I saying guess "old" is passé). Thank you Professor Vince Egan of the University of Leicester for your dedicated research.

"We found that while alcohol consumption significantly inflated attractiveness ratings for participants looking at sexually mature faces with high levels of make-up, greater alcohol consumption itself did not lead to overestimation of age," said professor Egan. "Consumed alcohol had no effect on men estimating the age of either mature or immature faces."

I thought the beer goggle hypothesis had already become a theory or a law based on a thorough study in 2003 by some other bleeding edge researcher.

I'm happily married so I'll just roll with whatever the expert-o-the-day is saying. My problem has always been how attractive those shots look after 6 pints.

1) I Got My Mind on My Vino and My Vino on My Mind
Maureen Ogle, please read this! Having trouble understanding the fundamental differences in artisanal cheese maker and Velveeta? Certainly Velveeta could make artisanal cheeses, but why don't they? Conversely, doesn't Jane Cheesemaker want to be Velveeta? I had to listen to you and Ben Stein derail a near dream team beer panel during Beer Wars, so you should have to commit a few minutes to The Ferm's thoughts.

The intra-industry Little Guy/Big Guy dynamic can be seen in a recent NYT piece. Eric Asimov recently posted a great profile of Randall Grahm, owner of Bonny Doon Vineyards. Mr. Grahm started small in 1983, but quickly grew his business by making mass market wines. Being a true winemaker who appreciates the craft of both growing grapes and crafting wines, he recently took a sharp detour on the road to become "The Man." Rather than follow the dollar at the expense of the product, he chose to sell significant parts of his company and scale back. "Instead of being a great marketer," he wants to make wines that are distinctive and unusual. Bravo!

Sorry to pile on Beer Wars again, but this point was misrepresented in the portrayals of Sam Calagione and Greg Koch in the movie and live panel. These guys are brewers first... marketers second. Ugh, don't get me started.

While I rant (off keyboard), be sure to read NYT's curiously wine-centric "drinking blog" for the great profile piece on Randall Grahm. It's a good read on an important figure, but unknown face to most of the public, in the wine making industry.