Author

Alex

How to Remove Beer Bottle Labels

As any craft beer fan knows the art featured on many of the bottles can be really cool and often worthy of display. But what do you do if you don’t want a bunch of empty bottles sitting on flat surfaces around your house? (I have done this and it gets very, very dusty). One thing you can do is remove the labels from the bottle to frame, make into coasters, wear on your head, whatever you want. This is what I decided to do (not the wearing on my head, but the taking the labels off the bottle thing) and below are some instructions so you can do it to.

1.Fill a large pot (I use a stew pot) and fill it two thirds of the way full with warm water.

Behold my ugly stew pot

 

2. Place the pot on the stove on high heat and heat until it is just shy of boiling (full boil can harm some of the labels).

3. While the water is heating fill bottles about halfway full with warm water, so they will sit on the bottom of the pot instead of floating to the top. I tend to do about three at a time but feel free to do as many as will fit in the pot you are using.

Today’s bottle selection

 

4. Once the water in the pot is just shy of boiling turn off the heat and place the bottles into the pot.

 

Everybody in the tub!

 

5.Set a timer for 15 minutes and let the bottles sit in the water and have a nice bath.

6.After the 15 minutes is up remove the bottles from the water and place on the counter to cool.

7.Once they have cooled for a few minutes dump the water out of the bottles and dry the outside with a clean cloth.

8.Now comes the tricky part: removing the label. A word of warning, not every label will come off nice and easy. Some will dissolve in the water. Some will tear as soon as you try to pull them off. Some will flop onto the counter as soon as you pull the bottle out of the water. It’s a game of trial and error. For most labels however, the hot water dissolves the glue enough that you should be able to start at the corner of the label, slide your fingernail under it, and gently pull until the label starts to detach from the bottle. It also works well to start detaching the label from both ends and pulling the label off towards the middle. Each bottle and label is its own special snowflake so often you’ll just have to try your best and see how it goes.

Carefully removing the label

9.Once you have detached the label I suggest pasting it (you often won’t need any glue as some of the adhesive that kept the label on the bottle will still be present) on a piece of card stock or other heavy-duty paper. Beer bottle labels are often flimsy and this will give you a sturdier final product to do with what you will.

The aforementioned card stock

10.Now comes the fun part where you decide what to do with your newly separated labels. I’m a fan of breaking out the Mod Podge and making a collage but do whatever you want, I’m not your boss. Have fun! Be creative! And if you make anything fun post it on Twitter or Instagram and tag it @hophellion and share with the class.

Let’s get crafty!

Till next time-Prost!

Hop Trip Seattle: Part II

Day 1: West Seattle Equals Best Seattle

And here we are, back in the Emerald City. My husband joined me for this portion of the hop trip so we opted to drive instead of fly. Approximately six hours later we made it my sister-in-law’s apartment in West Seattle, our home base for the next few days. Since it took half the day to drive from Bend and with a desire to avoid Friday evening traffic in the city, we opted to stay in West Seattle for the rest of the day. However, as we soon found out, this in no way limited our beer choices.

Our first stop was West Seattle Brewing, the Mothership location, which is located off of Fauntleroy Way (they have a second location called the Tap Shack which is on Alki Beach). The Mothership is a small, industrial space with several tables looking directly onto a section of the brewery floor (my preferred design for a tap room, always love that smell). The tap room has a decent selection of beers on tap (both core and seasonal offerings) and also serves coffee drinks and a small food menu (sandwiches, salads, and pizza). While there I sampled their Alki Lumber Lager, a clean, light lager which was perfect for a warm day in Seattle (shocking, I know) and the Smoke Haze IPA, a decent addition to the hazy IPA trend. Since the Brewers Association added Hazy IPAs as an official category can we call it a trend anymore? Anways, I digress.

The view from the cheap seats-West Seattle Brewing Co.
Alki Lumber Lager

After finishing up some work (it was Friday, guys) we ventured over to The Beer Junction, a combo beer bar and beer store in the middle of West Seattle. The Beer Junction came highly recommended from my coworker and fellow beer nerd Adrian so that combined with the fact that it was walking distance from where we were staying (don’t drink and drive y’all), I had a feeling it would be a winner. I was very happy to be right. Their website claims to have Seattle’s largest beer selection with over 1,300 different beers available in package and a monster tap list with around 40 taps of beer, cider, mead, and kombucha. And it was a beautiful tap list that night, and not only because they had Cascade Barrel House’s Manhattan on tap. The tap list is separated into several categories including: Hops!, Light & Medium Bodied, On the Dark Side, and Rare, Sour, or “Odd & Delicious.” While they did seem to have a love for Central Oregon beers, which I always appreciate, I went for some non-Oregon beers including a Dark Mild from Machine House Brewery (one of the most British ass beers I’ve had in awhile) and a Mahogany Kriek from Grand Teton Brewing. While sipping on these beers we also spent some time perusing their massive bottle shop selection which I believe I have only seen bested by one other place (we’ll keep that one for a future hop trip). In short, it is awesome and if money and storage were no object I would have brought a good portion of it home with me. It’s also worth noting that The Beer Junction is a block away from Ma’ono, a place which serves delicious fried chicken and Hawaiian food.

The Beer Junction’s Tap List
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Hop Trip: Seattle (Part I)

Day 1

After taking a one-hour puddle jumper flight from Bend to Seattle, my first stop in West Seattle (besides my sister-in-law’s apartment to drop off my stuff) was Elliott Bay Brewing Company. I vaguely remember visiting this brewery many moons ago when I still lived in Seattle so I decided it was time for another visit.

Elliott Bay Brewing Company’s original location (they now have four) is located in the heart of West Seattle on California Avenue. The atmosphere is old school British pub with lots of dark wood, a massive bar, and booths with high backs that make you feel like you’re in your own cozy beer drinking world.

 

Day 2

The next day took me to the two breweries located in Seattle’s iconic Pike Place market: Old Stove Brewing and Pike Brewing Company. Pike Brewing Company is a known quantity for me so we headed to Old Stove first.

Old Stove Brewing at Pike Place Market
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Destination Beer: Mirror Pond

In the world of craft beer, like any activity where experience leads to deeper appreciation, I would argue that there is such a thing as starter beers. Craft beers that are easily accessible and often easy on the palate. Gateway craft beers if you will. While the styles of these starter beers can vary depending on taste and location I know without a doubt that when I started to drink craft beer Deschutes’ Mirror Pond Pale Ale was one of my starter beers. Originally released in 1988, Mirror Pond is one of Deschutes Brewery’s core brands which the brewery describes as “a delicious everyday ale whose straightforward single-hop character and smooth maltiness combine to deliver a timeless pale ale.” Here are a few reviews of Mirror Pond if you’d like some more specific tasting notes:

Beer and Brewing

RateBeer

The Beer Connoisseur

Mirror Pond Pale Ale in its natural environment
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Confessions of a Craft Beer Addict (Welcome!)

What is this?

Welcome fellow craft beer nerds! My name is Alex and I am self-proclaimed craft beer aficionado. This is a blog for other lovers of craft beer and people who are interested in finding out more about the people and places associated with this industry. Hop Hellion is the result of my desire to tell the stories behind craft beer, why it is important to people and communities, and how these people and places affect the craft beer they produce.

Who am I?

I’m Alex and I’m a craft beer addict. It’s been primarily a personal obsession that’s been going on for about ten years now. I also work in the industry as a business analyst for a startup that does supply chain and sales analytics for craft breweries and wholesalers. I live and work in Bend, Oregon (a craft beer mecca) and when I’m not geeking out about craft beer I can be found writing (my other great passion). I am also an author and you can find out more about that here.

What can you expect?

There are several things you can expect from Hop Hellion. First, you can expect to find stories about the individuals who populate the craft beer industry. You will find the origin stories of brewers, brewery owners, bartenders, reviewers, and the many other people who have devoted their lives to craft beer and find out what it is about this industry that drove them to it in the first place. Second, I will take you with me on visits to places with ties to craft beer. This could be a place that inspired a beer (such as Mirror Pond, the inspiration for Deschutes Brewery’s famous pale ale) or it could be a trip to a specific place where we explore all of the craft beer stories it has to offer. I love travel and I love beer and there are many places in this world where the two intersect in interesting ways. Third, you can expect to see stories about important news and trends in the craft beer industry as well as any other beer related nonsense I feel like writing that day. In addition, I am creating Hop Hellion in the spirit of inclusivity so if you’re looking for beer reviews or waiting for me to judge certain breweries you’re going to be waiting a long time. That’s not my style and I think all aspects of the world of craft beer can teach us something.

Still with me?

Fantastic! I’m excited to have you join me on this adventure to discover the people and places that create and love craft beer. Be sure to follow the blog and you can also find me on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, and Untapped. Have suggestion of places and people I should talk to? Let me know on Twitter or through the contact form. Happy reading! Prost!

My Top 10 Beers of 2017

2017 was a shitty year in many ways but it was a good year for beer and below I have listed my top ten. Please note, that these are the top beers I drank in 2017, they didn’t necessarily debut in 2017. Also, these do not appear in any particular order (i.e. they are not ranked) and come primarily from the Pacific Northwest since that’s where I live and the beers I have access to.

Matryoshka With Cocoa Nibs & Raspberries by Fort George Brewery (Astoria, OR): This is the dessert beer to end all dessert beers. I have loved Fort George for a long time (their Vortex IPA is a constant contender for my favorite IPA) but this beer is next level. If you love chocolate with raspberry find a bottle of this-you will not be disappointed.

Bourbon Barrel Aged Noggin Floggin by Hopworks Urban Brewery (Portland, OR): Bourbon is my favorite liquor and as such I have a serious predilection toward bourbon barrel ages beers. I sampled this one evening in December at Hopworks’ Vancouver location and the beer list described it thusly: “2009 BA Noggin Floggin – Our Organic Noggin Floggin Barleywine Aged For 7 Years In Heaven Hill Bourbon Barrels Until Absolute Perfection Was Achieved.” An accurate description indeed. This beer is delicious, perfection even, but it is a lot. It comes in a snifter and I would be very impressed by the person who could drink more than one.

Sun Made Cranberry by Oakshire Brewing (Eugene, OR): Of the northwest breweries who have a Berliner Weisse as one of their core brands, Oakshire’s are my favorites. Their Berliner Weisses are on a seasonal rotation, and last years included Raspberry, Cucumber, Blackberry, and Cranberry varieties. I have enjoyed them all but I am including the Cranberry as it was their fall release and was a nice break from the usual fall seasonal one sees. And it you live in the PNW and see a six pack of Oakshire Sun Made next to 10 Barrel’s Crush, pick the Oakshire.

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Hop Trip: Washington

For this inaugural Hop Trip I chose the land of hops and one of my former home states: Washington. I also chose it because I was already going for a different reason which we’ll get to in a little bit. As Washington is a large state this Hop Trip focuses on three specific locations and a couple of stops in between. These locations include Seattle, Orcas Island, and Port Townsend.

Seattle

September 15th 2017

Ah Seattle, a beautiful city that I have a rather complicated relationship with. I lived in Seattle for about three years between 2007 and 2010 while obtaining my master’s degree in Library and Information Science from the University of Washington. I had some good times and some not so great times during those years and I learned that while Seattle is great to visit I did not want to live there. Seattle has many downsides (traffic, gloomy weather, expensive as shit) but one if its big upsides is its beer and as such there is not really a better place to begin a Washington Hop Trip. For this trip I focused primarily on northwestern neighborhoods of Seattle, including Magnolia, Ballard, and Greenwood.

Our first stop was Figurehead Brewing in the Magnolia neighborhood of Seattle. I lived in Magnolia when I lived in Seattle and since I left a couple of craft breweries have popped up in the industrial area of this neighborhood near the Fisherman’s Terminal (where you can sometimes spot the boat from Deadliest Catch). Figurehead is very new on Seattle’s craft scene, founded in 2016 by three homebrewers and utilizes a 7 BBL brewhouse that feed three 7 BBL uni-tanks. Their beers tend to be English and Belgian inspired but there was a least one NW style IPA on tap. The tap room has a fisherman’s wharf vibe and a small patio out front and appears to be both kid and pet friendly (especially since I saw someone’s dog puke all over the concrete floor in front of the bar). Vomit aside, Figurehead has a nice ambiance and good beer. I sampled the Golden Delicious Blonde Ale and the Belgian Bitter, both of which I enjoyed (although the Belgian was better).

Figurehead Brewing Golden Delicious Blonde Ale
Figurehead Brewing Company
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My Craft Beer Story: Alex Bittner

Name: Alex Bittner

Title: Blogger @ HopHellion.com & Data Analyst @ GP Analytics

Favorite Beer Style: I love them all but right now I’m really into farmhouses and saisons.

Fun Fact: I write young adult fantasy novels and I recently publishing my first, Daughter of the Mara.

Beer Snob Scale (1 to 10, I’ll drink whatever to Cicerone): I’d probably put myself at about a 7.

So here’s the thing: I didn’t always like beer. That may sound odd coming from a self-proclaimed beer aficionado but it’s true. My first real drink was a Bacardi and Pepsi while hanging out with friends one night during my senior year of high school. This drink led to several more of the same and inevitably to my first hangover. Not an altogether pleasant memory but there you have it. From there I partook in such girly nonsense such as wine coolers (Bartles & Jaymes, anyone?) and had a few not very nice encounters with a little drink called the Long Island Iced Tea.

Beer didn’t really come into my purview at all until my third year of college when I spent a semester in London. It was there, in one of my favorite cities on the planet, that I first became truly acquainted with that drink we call beer. I was already an Anglophile so the magnetic pull that the British pub had on me didn’t come as a big surprise. I’d had a Guinness or two in my time so I started there. From there I slowly expanded to Fuller’s and Young’s (I frequented Founder’s Arms in Southwark while I was living there) and drank whatever other cheap British beers I could get my hands on.

Founders Arms Pub, Southwark, London

 

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