Ramblings

Aren’t All Candle’s the Same?

For over 5,000 years, candle’s have been used to make light. This is the primary factor that makes all candles the same.

Just like candles, evidence of Beer production and consumption has been around for over 7,000 years.

When the “Maker’s” of Barley & Hops Craft Candles really thought about it, the combination of the 2 ancient traditions just made sense.

Afterall, a good beer and the right candle have been deemed both the rulers of the night for thousands of years!

What are some of the factors that make a brand or type of candle unique?

• Scent
• Shape
• Color
• Wax
• Wicks
• Blends
• Experience
• The Maker

What are some of the factors that make a craft beer unique?

• Type or Quality of Water
• Malt – For Color & Flavor
• Hops – For Bitterness & Flavor (Florals & Fruits)
• Yeast – Ale or Lager, Fermentation Time
• Experience
• The Maker

As you can see, there is a certain amount of complexity that goes into the creation of both a beer candle and a craft brew.

It Doesn’t Take an Expert to Know

If you have a love for the craft beer or microbrew, more than likely you know just how different they can be. Similarly, if you are a true candle lover – you know what makes a candle a good one, or a bad one.

The Difference a Good Craft Beer Can Make

Brewmasters spend hundreds of hours perfecting their craft. I’ve heard local Kansas City brewmasters say that what makes a microbrew “good” is the experience that goes into it. Where a brewmaster has been, both geographically and in life experience, makes a microbrew what it is. Brewmasters are constantly improving upon their trade, and are very serious about the beer they produce.

Craft beer lovers can be pretty serious when it comes to reviewing and rating a beer. Ranking websites for craft beers – such as Untapped, BeerAdvocate, and RateBeer – are all over the world wide web. Brewmasters know that craft beer enthusiasts and craft beer critics can be a relentless and tough lot.

A good beer can make or break a brand. This is why it is so very important to take their trade very seriously, not only for themselves, but for their tasters.

The Difference a Good Craft Beer Candle Can Make

CandleMeThis really says it best, “A good candle starts with a clean wax, (wax of any kind), a good wick (no lead), and a heat proof container. Add a good quality fragrance oil that is pure and undiluted, and you are well on your way. Then the trick becomes, do all of your parts work together? That is the basis of a good candle. If your parts don’t match up and work together, each part may be of excellent quality, but the marriage is bad.”

What makes a manly scent worthy of a MANdle?

What scents do men really like? Which of those scents would a man want bottled in wax? Do we really need to differentiate candles into a manly and girly category?  These are just a few of the questions that run through my head on the daily.

Top 3 manly smells HE likes, but I don’t

Nag Champa

When my husband gets a wild hair and burns an incense stick from his ancient box of Nag Champa from college, I will. Mostly I think of how much I wished it would magically extinguish.

I wouldn’t say I don’t’ “like” the smell, it is just an overwhelmingly strong smell that, after burning for a couple of minutes, makes my head throb.

Chewing Tobacco

To be fair, I have to share some background information on this one. I grew up in a household with 5 brothers, 2 dads and 2 male hunting dogs. 3 of those brothers chewed tobacco. 1 of those brothers drove me to school everyday, up until my junior year of high school, and every morning I would open the door to find a gag-worthy, nasty chewing tobacco Sonic styrofoam spit-cup. Even writing “spit-cup” makes me cringe. That smell, OMG – that SMELL! Sweaty dank mint meets rotten ass tobacco plus bad-breath, day-old spit.

GAHHHH!

But what is the real reason I harbor such disgust for that snuff? One morning, he had it sitting on the seat and (wait for it) I sat on it. All of that nastiness broke free of the Route 44 nightmare and soaked deep up into my blue jeans and panties. And then, I puked. And puked.

The worst part? He wouldn’t take me home to change. I had to sit in the nurse’s office, all covered in this putrid funk, waiting for my dad to bring me my least favorite pair of jeans.

Fast-forward to today: My husband chews. The horror.

Sauerkraut

Simply put, it smells like a locker room without an actively employed janitor. Barf.

Top 3 manly smells we both like

Pipe Tobacco

Reminds me of my grandfather, Bud. He would sit in his favorite well-worn leather recliner and puff-puff away on his equally well-worn wooden pipe. He always smoked a cherry tobacco blend. Brings back so many very fond memories. Same goes with my husband, Brandon. His grandfather also smoked a pipe. Have you smelled our Stogie from Muskogee? Heaven.

Microbreweries

Craft Beers & Microbrews

For Brandon, the “nose” knows. He loves the aroma of a good microbrew or craft beer. Sometimes I think he will never even get to drinking it! He just sits on his bar stool….sniffing. I used to think it was so weird, almost like watching a dog greeting. Today? I find myself doing the same thing. I have to admit it, I LOVE sniffing out a good brew and sharing it with Marsha, Barley & Hops Craft Candle scentmaster and candle pourer. In fact, this is a text she sent me from the other day!

“Prairie Bomb is DA BOMB!!!”

Espresso & Coffee

Working in coffee shops in every town I attended college was my “thing.” I lived, loved and appreciated a good bean. When I grew up, I lived in downtown Kansas City smack dab across the block from a coffee manufacturing facility. So did Brandon. I have yet to meet someone who DOESN’T like the aroma of freshly ground coffee beans. What makes the bean even better? You can find it’s roast aroma in most Stout beers! DOUBLE SCORE!

Do we really need to make it a gender thing?

This is the part of this “Making of a MANdle” section that is not meant to offend but instead, answer the question of,  “Do we really need to make it a gender thing?”

Do I really want to smear some freshly cut grass on my body and say, “Hey baby, mow me.”

Do men really prefer or long-for the scent of gasoline bottled in wax? Don’t get me wrong, I admit that I love sniffing a little gas when I am filling the tank, but do I want to take it with me? Nope. Do I love the smell of freshly cut grass after my husband or I finally get to mowing? Sure! But do I want my house to smell like my mower? Again, no. And finally, both my husband and I love to cook and BBQ, but when it is all said and done and the kitchen has been cleaned – I really prefer the smell to be gone.

Brian Sinning says, “A Bacon candle? That would piss me off. I wake-up, I smell bacon, I get out of bed early and no bacon.”

I firmly believe that gender plays no part in determining if something smells good. Heck, before I put my nose to a microbrew, I simply assumed it would smell like yeasty funk. Today, after visiting countless breweries and sniffing hundreds of craft beers, I can honestly say that a craft brew candle is one of my favorite smells! Why should we assume that a woman would or could not enjoy the aroma of a good microbrew?

“Is my husband ashamed to say he likes the smell of the perfume Paloma Picasso? Hell no! He knows he’s going to get lucky tonight!” says one of Marsha’s good friends.

Balderdash, I say!

Cheers!

 

What’s in a name?

A living doll transformation for our Apple Crisp Prohibition Beer Candle

At our official product launch party for our amazing craft beer candles, I was asked multiple times how I came up with the artwork for our Hard Coraline Apple Crisp Prohibition beer candle. To tell the truth, we hadn’t intended on scent-matching an Apple beer for our Barley & Hops Craft Candles line. But as we all know, some of the best ideas happen with no planning at all!

This is how our Apple beer candle came to be!

Sniff-n-Tell: The Neighborhood Sniff Tests

If you live in the Kansas City area, you have probably heard of 5B&Co. Candlemakers located in Weston, MO and Brookside, MO. For those people, I am not at all concerned that they won’t be interested in our craft beer candles because they KNOW the quality of candle that Marsha Flowers can produce. I am more concerned about the rest of the world. For those people, the best thing we can do is gather reviews and testimonials. One of our methods for gathering testimonials is to share our craft beer candles with our friends and their friends to sample, and then review.

One of those people was my new neighbor, Rebecca. I sent her a text, asking her if she would mind testing a few of our beer candles. She said yes, but requested an Apple Cider Brew candle scent. Since we didn’t have one, I offered her our Razzperry Tart IPA and Horney Honey Ale because they are the sweetest candles we have. She gladly accepted but almost immediately, I wanted to make her an Apple Cider Brew candle!

Hard Coraline: A Living Doll

The Inspiration for our Apple Beer Candle

It came to me quicker than green grass through a goose. Rebecca’s little daughter, Coraline. This little girl is the closest thing I have ever seen to a living doll…even her voice sounded like it came from a pull-string! It was destined to be so. Rebecca wanted an Apple Cider beer candle and she just happened to have a daughter named Coraline. So are you on my frequency now? Surfing on my good vibrations?

Hard Core Apple = Hard Coraline Apple Crisp Prohibition Beer Candle

I know, right? Brilliant!

Transforming Coraline

The first step was to get a picture of little Coraline with an apple in her mouth, as this is how I saw it. Coraline was more than happy to play along. A few minutes later, I had my picture! The next step was to transform Coraline into a living doll. My daughter is a HUGE fan of Coraline, the movie. If you haven’t seen it, I highly suggest you do. Yes, it is creepy but the 3D stop-motion animation is amazing.

The New York Times says,

“Coraline” lingers in an atmosphere that is creepy, wonderfully strange and full of feeling.

Coraline is somehow stuck between 2 realms. One is Coraline’s reality, the other some creepy existence that seems to mimic her real life but where everyone has button eyes. Creepy, right?  I could go on, but if you like Tim Burton and creepy stuff, I wouldn’t want to ruin it for you.

So herein lies the inspiration. Rebecca’s Coraline somehow reminds me of Burton’s Coraline, but not as creepy. Rebecca did tell me about how Coraline will sometimes sneak out of bed late at night and stand eerily in their doorway until she is discovered.

It was time to turn sweet little Coraline into a creepy dollie. Oh the fun I have! You can see the transformation below.

 

 

 

Anheuser-Busch Wants Local Seattle Breweries to Tap-Out

Is Anheuser-Busch that afraid of the craft beer uprising? Really guys, if you feel threatened – improve your brew recipe or just be the tasteless brew that makes you, well…. YOU! In my opinion, there will always be 3 kinds of brew drinkers: The Craft Brew Drinker, The American Lager Slammer, and The Fruity Beer (?) Sippers. No offense intended. Hey AB, do you really have to try to cut deals with local Seattle music venues to keep microbrews out?  You already HAVE the “American Lager Slammers,” leave well enough alone!

The Seattle Music Venue in Question

Showbox, a local Seattle music bar, was hosting the rock band Overkill in October of 2015. The allegation in question was being investigated by two undercover officers for the Washington Liquor and Cannabis Board.

What they found did seem to put Anheuser-Busch in a questionable position, leaving local microbreweries and Ricky Ricardo saying, “Anheuser-Busch…you got some ‘splainin to do!”

The allegation was, “Small brewer accused Anheuser-Busch InBev of cutting a deal with the music venue to gain exclusive access to its bar, thus cutting off small competitors from a lucrative market.*”

The proof was in the taps. 

The brews on-tap that night were:

• A Goose Island from Chicago
• 10 Barrel from Bend
• Elysian from down the street
• Bud and Bud Light

A rather unassuming selection to the average beer drinking onlooker, but to Craft Beer aficionados – BUSTED! While Goose Island, 10 Barrel and Elysian have kept their own names and handles, they are today wholly or partly owned by Anheuser-Busch*.

But that was not all they discovered.

The investigators counted 15 brews and hard ciders, either on tap or in bottles, that were either partly or wholly owned by Anheuser-Busch.

Average Beer & True Craft Brew Should Not Mix

Yeah, no big deal. Your venue is offering libations from only one brewery’s product line. Not illegal. Go ahead, do your thang but do it with some dignity. The state is charging that Anheuser-Busch, through a 3rd-party distributor, entered into sponsorship contract with Showbox and 2 other venues to achieve a monopoly position. This is NOT OK!

Not surprisingly, Anheuser-Busch denied any culpability at an informal hearing last week, therefore – the case will be heard by an administrative judge in the near future.

Anheuser-Busch has been fined $150,000. Shame on you Anheuser-Busch, shame.

“But you won’t hear from the messenger,
Don’t wanna know bout something that you don’t understand,
You got no fear of the underdog,
That’s why you will not survive!” ~ Spoon

FYI: We will NOT be scent-matching a Busch.

*  DANIEL PERSON, The Seattle Weekly – Read Original Article.