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Are you looking for beer to drink or beer information?
Beer is the world’s oldest and most popular alcoholic beverage. It is produced by the fermentation of sugars derived from starch-based material—the most common being malted barley; however wheat, corn, and rice are also widely used, usually in conjunction with the barley. Less widely used starch sources include millet, sorghum and cassava root in Africa, potato in Brazil, and agave in Mexico.
Wikipedia: link
The foam on top of beer is called a head. It is caused by bubbles of carbon dioxide rising to the surface. The carbon dioxide may be produced naturally by the activity of the brewers yeast, or artificially by dissolving carbon dioxide under pressure into the liquid. The density and longevity of the head will be determined by the type of starch from which the beer was fermented. Wheat starch tends to produce larger and longer lasting heads than barley starch.
Wikipedia: link
Other References:
http://oz.craftbrewer.org/Library/Methods/Other/KunzeFoam.shtml
http://www.expasy.org/spotlight/back_issues/sptlt048.shtml
http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/may99/926363970.Ot.r.html
A beer hat (sometimes called a beer helmet) is a plastic baseball hat or football helmet attached to which are two can-holders, from which beer is consumed through a specialized plastic tube that runs from the person’s mouth up along the hat and branching off into both containers. Soda and water are customarily consumed through this hat as well. In the United States, they are often worn at sporting events or during Spring Break.
Wikipedia: link
A beer hall is a large pub that specializes in beer. Bavaria’s capital Munich is the city most associated with beer halls; almost every brewery in Munich operates a beer hall. The largest beer hall was the 5,000-seat Mathaser near the München Hauptbahnhof (Munich central train station) which has since been converted into a movie theater.
Wikipedia: link
Beer style is a term used to differentiate and categorize beers by various factors such as colour, flavour, strength, ingredients, production method, recipe, history, or origin.
Wikipedia: link
Other References:
http://www.beerhunter.com/beerstyles.html
More Beer is the second album by Fear, released in 1985 (see 1985 in music). The album presents a much more polished and metal-like sound than The Record. Frontman Lee Ving spent over a year producing the album.
Wikipedia: link
Stonch’s Beer Blog: Beer, Walks and History
Beer, Walks and History
Published On Mon, 19 May 2008 14:00 Rss Channel: http://www.beerinator.com/beerfeeds2/
Stonch’s Beer Blog: Let them drink beer
Let them drink beer
Published On Mon, 26 May 2008 07:00 Rss Channel: http://www.beerinator.com/beerfeeds2/
Stonch’s Beer Blog: Beer Guerilla
Beer Guerilla
Published On Fri, 6 Jun 2008 07:20 Rss Channel: http://www.beerinator.com/beerfeeds2/
Appellation Beer: Beer From a Good Home: Monday morning musing: Are you a geek?
The photo on the left was taken at our destination last week — Zion National Park in Utah — and the photo at the top on the way there. Whiting Brothers businesses, motels and services stations, operated along Route 66 from 1926 into the 1990s (though their presence was severely diminished before the end).
These remains are located between San Fidel and McCartys (New Mexico), on one of the short patches of 66 you’ll occasionally find paralleling Interstate 40 in Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. There’s no motel in sight and what’s left of the gas station is in the background.
Sierra will be talking about climbing Angels Landing at Zion long after the WB sign has disappeared, but there’s something to be said for being able to make the little stops as well as enjoying the destinations. They are both part of our plan for the next 15 months.
Now back to your regularly scheduled beer programming.
– Cerevisaphile? Lew Bryson asks if it is “time to stop calling each other “beer geek?” And solicits alternative terms. Alan McLeod picks up the challenge, advocating “Beer Nerd.”
You’ll find plenty of ideas in the comments at both blogs.
So far nobody has brought up a suggestion that beer writer Gregg Smith made years ago: “cerevisaphile.” Perhaps just as well.
Lew suggests beer fan. I like that. In fact, we used the term in “Beer (Eyewitness Companions).” You can be an avid fan, a casual fan, a bandwagon fan (you are either on the wagon or off the wagon).
– The Session. Another suggestion that pops up in comments is “beer people” — a good excuse to remind everybody that’s the theme for The Session #14 on Friday.
– From the business pages: MarketWatch has an update on hop shortages. Mostly dreary. And from “Brew” Blog: Land Grab and Shakeout in Craft Beer?
Published On Mon, 31 Mar 2008 13:07 Rss Channel: http://www.beerinator.com/beerfeeds2/
Year of Beer: #254 Spoetzl Brewing – Shiner Bock
Spoetzl Brewing is the oldest independent brewery in Texas, brewing since 1909. The company is celebrating there heritage with some limited release beer the last few years. The Shiner line of beer is very popular in Texas.
The aroma is chalky, common aroma for lagers, with a hint of malt. The color is a light brown, and clear, similar to the appearance of the glass bottle. The head pours medium but does not last long.
The taste is dry with not sign of sweetness. There is some caramel flavor and a light toast taste from the malt. There is some bitterness but not hop flavor. The mouthfeel is thin, and well carbonated. The finish is dry with a chalky taste.
This is not a great beer, but it is a drinkable beer. There just is not much flavor to this beer.
Published On Sat, 17 May 2008 14:56 Rss Channel: http://www.beerinator.com/beerfeeds2/
Appellation Beer: Beer From a Good Home: Italian beers: The Fourth Wave?
The Italians are coming. The Italians are coming.
If all he hype is correct then Birrificio is going to become part of any good beer geek’s vocabulary. Cancel that trip to Wallonia; I’m headed to Piedmont.
Goodness. These things happen quickly. Just a little over two years ago during the Great American Beer Festival the Brewers Association put together a panel of American brewers talking about their Belgian-inspired ales.
“Belgian-style ales are hot,” Ray Daniels said, making the introductions. “I’ve begun to refer to them as the Third Wave.” He explained German and British styles were the first two waves.
Is it time for a fourth already? It would certainly be different than the first three. Germany, the UK and Belgium all have historic beer traditions, dusty brewing logs to study, they invented beer styles. Italy? Italy was lumped in with “The Mediterranean” in Michael Jackson’s first World Guide to Beer. Compared to Iberia, which merited its own facing pages.
I mention this today, when I was so looking forward to writing about Light/Lite beer, because Don Russell has two must reads on the subject. Start with his column, Italy – the next great brewmaster?, and then head on to his blog and an extended interview with Lorenzo Dabove.
Additionally, in the previous issue of Ale Street News, editor Tony Forder detailed extensive travels in Northern Italy, importer B. United International has put together an entire Italian Release campaign, and on May 8 Brooklyn Brewery brewmaster Garrett Oliver will give a presentationa at National Geographic Headquarters in the District of Columbia titled “The Italian Beer Renaissance.”
The press release sums things up: “Long thought of as a wine producing rather than a brewing country, Italy has in the past few years seen the birth of several fine microbreweries. The result is an array of products that go beyond the traditional European beer styles, making for a brave new world of brews that echoes the inventiveness of Belgian brewers, but with an unmistakably Italian flair.”
Go beyond the traditional European beer styles. Indeed. These guys make Sam Calagione look like Anton Dreher. Chestnuts are big in Italy, as are flowers and just about any spice you could think of. Commercially available beers include a blueberry barley wine, a tobacco porter and pre-Prohibition American pilsener dry-hopped with recyled “We Want Beer” posters. (The first two are true.)
We’re not getting many of these beers in New Mexico. Guess we’ll have to visit my cousin in Italy (October, it’s on our schedule). Meanwhile, Joe Sixpack has the floor:
“Is Italy the next great beer nation? It has a long way to go, but its astoundingly unique selection of artisan ales certainly deserves some attention from U.S. beer lovers.”
Published On Fri, 22 Feb 2008 14:33 Rss Channel: http://www.beerinator.com/beerfeeds2/
Appellation Beer: Beer From a Good Home: If this is Beer Heaven, what are they drinking . . .
I was hoping that the new Miller Lite commercials would run during the NCAA basketball tournament because that’s the best chance I figure to have of seeing them for a while.
Turns out Miller has posted them at its website (you’ll probably have to do the age check thing along the way), but not at YouTube.com.
BrandWeek has the details: >
The other effort, “Ultimate Light Beer,” features a man walking into beer heaven. It’s a bar where the bartender recognizes him by name and he has a monogrammed stool, which turns into a recliner upon sitting down. Two patrons are playing air hockey on a table that also is broadcasting a basketball game. Others are shooting pool at a table with moving pockets that catch any shot. When our protagonist orders two Lites, two waitresses deliver.
Beyond the theological questions the commercials pose they got me wondering . . . Why, if this is heaven, is there a need to drink low-calorie (i.e. light) beer?
Published On Tue, 8 Apr 2008 23:57 Rss Channel: http://www.beerinator.com/beerfeeds2/
Appellation Beer: Beer From a Good Home: The Session #15: Beer and epiphanies
Writing about beer certainly changed my relationship with beer, and made what might look like a simple question next to impossible to answer.
I got to thinking about this because for The Session #15 Boak and Bailey asked those of us in the beer blogosphere to answer this question: How did it all start for you? And going further, “We’d like you to write about the moment when you saw the light.”
Looking over the early posts I’ve been startled that people can single out a beer or a where, because there is no single moment or beer I can point to. From the time going on 40 (gulp) years ago I thought “Hey, there’s something different about this Stroh’s from the the basic what’s-in-the-pitcher beer we’ve been drinking in campus bars” my relationship beer has been evolving. Still is. So across a few decades . . .
1980s, Central Illinois. Schlösser Alt. German bars in the Midwest moved enough beer that we told ourselves it was probably fresh. Dortmunder Union sure had more flavor than American lagers, but then we discovered this alt and bitterness.
1993, a lookout tower north of Mancos, Colorado. New Belgium Abbey Grand Cru. We were still Illinois flatlanders, enjoying a view of four states at 10,000 feet. The beer was brewed with yeast acquired from a Chimay bottle, but it was made nearby.
1994, Lyme Regis (south of England). Five days before a pint of Royal Oak (Eldridge Pope) in Sherbourne had been simply spectacular. This totally living Bass buried it. Bass. A lifeless beer not worth drinking in the States.
All of those experiences occurred separately from writing about beer. But we’ve also trooped into hundreds of brewpubs in the last 20 years, I’ve visited monastery breweries, only scratched the surface with American small-batch brewers and then there are hops . . .
Anyway, I also wouldn’t have been at the last 15 Great American Beer Festivals if I didn’t write about beer. So in October I wouldn’t have had either Cable Car or Toronado 20th Anniversary, brewed and blended by Lost Abbey and Russian River respectively to celebrate Toronado’s anniversary. (Yes, an option would have been to go to Toronado’s party.) One-offs that proved for the hundreth (or is that thousandth?) time that a beer can reveal something no other beer has before.
And no, it doesn’t have to be a new-fangled creation — later this year we’ll be sampling beers in the south of Germany and not much later in the north of Italy, which should be a pretty fun compare and contrast. And no, a beer doesn’t have do that to be great. And yes, perhaps I’m a little dense, but that beer can still surprise me is a joy.
For more Session posts, and perhaps even epiphanies, be sure to see Boak and Bailey’s roundup.
Published On Fri, 2 May 2008 13:17 Rss Channel: http://www.beerinator.com/beerfeeds2/
A Good Beer Blog: Session 16: What I Really Hate About Beer Festivals
A Good Beer Blog—
Here we are again – another first Friday and another beery topic to talk about in The Session. Generally, I am a very cheery person. One who never finds any issue with anything. I look to the sunny side. I really do. I am so great. But beer fests bug the hell out of me. And here is why:- I can’t get to any. I have a family and obligations and stuff and live in a part of the world that has no beer fests. I have only been to one. I hate that.
- The one I did get to was a real revelation. It was filled with people who weren’t getting legless, who were discussing beer and having a great time in a safe and community focused manner supporting local craft beer, food and other products and the great people who make them. Now that I have seen one of these I know that I am really missing out and I know that there is a gaping hole in my community. Damn you, beer fests.
- When I read about beer fests others like Paul go to, I realize there is a fantastic array of the rarest or even fest special beers that I will never have a chance to try, let alone have access to all in one safe and pleasant environment. I have to scrimpt and save and research and travel long distances to find my special brews for home consumption. If it wasn’t for beer fests, I would not understand how sad and isolated my life with beer is. Thanks for making me miserable, beer fests.
- Lew says beer fests have jumped the shark, that they aren’t what they used to be. Great. I’ve even missed the good years. $(x%x@ You Beer Fests!That’s it. I hate dwelling on the negative. Hopefully next month, the session will be about something I love or even like a bit, something I can experience without endangering my role as a father and unseparated spouse without a Family Court order against him. That isn’t beer fests. To be honest, they are sorta for the young…which I guess means I ain’t young anymore. Thanks for reminding me of that, too, stupid frigging beer fests.
Follow the rest of today’s edition of The Session over at Geistbear Brewing Blog.
Published On Fri, 6 Jun 2008 15:57 Rss Channel: http://www.beerinator.com/beerfeeds2/
Appellation Beer: Beer From a Good Home: Monday morning musing: When is Orval best?
Following up on the notion put forth last week by Ron Jeffries about “beer moments” and echoed by Andrew Mason take a look at Lew Bryson’s post about “discovering” Orval.
This particular Orval was just five weeks past bottling (at the monastery pictured to the right). Given that Orval undergoes refermentation in the bottle it might have tasted different two days later, surely would have two weeks later . . . and then realize this is a beer that people lay down like wine, eventually hauling out bottles they may have cellared for many years.
The moment Orval is at it best not only differs from bottle to bottle, but depends upon the drinker. For Lew, the revelation was a quite young bottle.
A couple of years ago I asked brewers just back from the “Extreme Brewing” trip Sam Calagione of Dogfish Head led to Belgium to suggest beers that a newcomer to more assertive beers might try. Vinnie Cilurzo of Russian River Brewing had this answer:
“At first glance it might seem to extreme for a beginner, but, here is my thinking: When the beer is young there is little Brettanomyces (wild yeast) character, yet lots of hops. In my mind, the hops are more complex than your typical American IPA or Double IPA. As the beer ages, the Brettanomyces comes forth and melds with the hops. Over time, the Brett can come and go.
“I was amazed when we tasted several vintages of Orval. The two-year old Orval was so full of Brett. At five years the Brett had diminished, yet at seven years it was even more bright than the two-year old. This is what I like about Orval; it is a beer that can age. Orval can age with the best of wines. Orval elevates beer to a level of wine in that it can age, and change, and be a different beer. In a way that is what we are trying to do with a lot of our beers.”
– Having written in some length about the Samuel Adams glass developed by Boston Beer it seems fair to mention report hat Pilsner Urquell plans to distribute more than one million of its newly designed glasses to restaurants and bars throughout its Czech homeland.
Those bothered by the unusual shape (or perhaps we should say shapes) of the Samuel Adams glass will be glad to know that this one looks more like you’d expect. And for good reason.
Designer Ronny Plesl explains, “Czech customers are very traditional, and for a designer, this is a big challenge. I am a modern designer, I design a lot of very modern things, but for Czech beer, this is not possible. It must be something in the middle. A modern design, with a traditional face.”
The Sam Adams glass was designed to present Samuel Adams Boston Lager at its best. Is this one meant to make Pilsner Urquell taste better? >
“Well the taste of beer is dependent upon many things, and this new glass has not been designed to change the taste, but instead to preserve the foam on top of the beer for much longer. So that is the main advantage of the new glass from our point of view, and indeed that’s the thing that will improve the experience of our consumers the most.”
Remember what Charles Bamforth said about foam.
– A list of the “Best American Beer Bars” at ForbesTraveler.com has received plenty of blogosphere attention and comment so I’ll pretty much pass on the latter.
Clearly an impossible task to do in 10 verses. Who you gonna leave off to get the Horse Brass Pub in there? (I’d venture that Chris Black of the Falling Rock Taphouse, which is on the list, would volunteer to pull his own pub to right that wrong — telling us something about the owners of both the Horse Brass and Falling Rock.)
Anyway, among the discussions online is why no place in Philadelphia gets a mention, particularly Monk’s Cafe and Standard Tap. Then, in conjunction with Philly Beer Week (now in full swing) Philadelphia Weekly compiled its own list of Philly’s Top 50 Bars. Standard Tap is sixth on that list, Monk’s is 14th.
No. 1? Grace Tavern.
Published On Mon, 10 Mar 2008 13:40 Rss Channel: http://www.beerinator.com/beerfeeds2/
Year of Beer: #216 Magic Hat – #9 Not Quite Pale Ale
Magic Hat Brewery is based out of Vermont.
This beer has some apricot fruit aromas and a slight malt aroma. The color is a light brown on orange, defiantly not quite pale. The head pours thick but quickly effetenesses away. There is a nice apricot taste to this beer. The fruit flavor tastes fresh, and authentic unlike some fruit beers that taste artificial. There is a light caramel flavor from the malt and a hint of hop bitterness, enough to make it clear this is still a beer and not just fermented apricots. The mouthfeel is light to medium, just a slight full feeling giving the beer some substance. The finish is fruity. I really like this beer. There fruit taste is enjoyable and it still is recognizable as beer. All fruit beers should beer this tasty.
Published On Thu, 10 Apr 2008 20:55 Rss Channel: http://www.beerinator.com/beerfeeds2/
Appellation Beer: Beer From a Good Home: Battle of the ‘Beer versus Wine’ books
Next weekend in Washington, D.C., the Brewers Association plans to show that beer belongs at the table with the grownups. OK, maybe that’s not the best analogy – suggesting beer might otherwise be served at the kids’ table won’t go over well in most circles – but you get the point of SAVOR: An American Craft Beer & Food Experience.
And the BA has called on several luminaries from the wine world to help make the case, like Ray Isle from Food & Wine and Lauren Buzzeo of Wine Enthusiast. Fortunately beer people as well, so I’ll pass on pointing out that maybe this looks a bit too much like beer has an inferiority complex.
For the most part attendees won’t hear much argument about whether beer or wine is better.
But that debate seems like a good way to sell the printed word. Exhibit 1: “Grape vs. Grain”by Charles Bamforth. Exhibit 2: “He Said Beer, She Said Wine” by Sam Calagione and Marnie Old. Three and four: Old and Calagione have taken their rivalry to the current issues of All About Beer and Beer magazines.
And a friendly rivalry it is. It started with a series of beer dinners where they’d pair each dish with one beer and one wine and ask dinners to vote for their favorites. They are a very entertaining team, in person and in print, and don’t be fooled if a few of their exchanges look a little adversarial. Although Old is a sommelier and educator and Calagione — you surely know — the founder of Dogfish Head Craft Brewery, in this instance they could both be described as promoters, even sales people.
HSB,SSW is jammed with inviting photos, including 20 each of the protagonists. Both talk about simplifying wine/beer and the editors of the book have set out to help them with easy-to-understand presentations. For instance, charts with objective characteristics for specific beers or wines, then charts with rules of thumb about serving wine or beer with particular dishes.
Bamforth’s approach is decidedly more academic. He is the Chair of the Department of Food Science and Technology and Anheuser-Busch Endowed Professor of Malting and Brewing Sciences at the University of California, Davis. Reading the book feels like attending a college lecture, but one conducted by everybody’s favorite professor. He successfully acts as his own foil, spinning stories that go beyond the chemistry behind beer, such a look at the evolution of the pub.
Yet you remember this is the author of “Standards of Brewing – A Practical Approach to Consistency and Excellence” when he chooses to explain dimethyl sulfide (DMS) — an aroma often described cooked corn — in particular detail in order to illustrate the complexity of brewing.
He’s always the educator, and the book could be characterized as a beer primer from wine drinkers and a wine primer for beer drinkers. He doesn’t hide his own preferences, writing in the preface, “To that extent, and reflecting my professional specialty, the theme of this book is primarily one of demonstrating how beer is a product of an excellence and sophistication to match wine, and I seek to do this by championing beer while being entirely fair to that other noble beverage.”
He’d need to be a little flashier to keep up with Calagione and Old. Consider this from the authors within two pages.
Old: Every culture what has had access to both (beer and wine) has judged wine to be superior — from the ancient Mesopotamians straight through the modern day.
Calagione: “It’s true that beer drinkers may burp more often than wine drinkers, which could seem “uncivilized.” However, I’ve always thought that is because wine drinkers don’t stop yakking about pretentious things like “notes” and “bouquets” for long enough to build up the required internal pressure.”
Old and Calagione will encore their debate to SAVOR on Saturday. Quite honestly, it wouldn’t be fair for Bamforth to act as “referee,” but let’s give him the final word.
“Wine and beer — both wonderful beverages, sublime outcomes of humankind’s oldest agricultural endeavors. They have much to learn from one another.”
Published On Sun, 11 May 2008 12:57 Rss Channel: http://www.beerinator.com/beerfeeds2/
Appellation Beer: Beer From a Good Home: Drinking local: Next up, beers from Alaska
Our next local beer will be from Alaska. Good deal.
We’ve been seeing beer from Alaskan Brewing since we hit Idaho, but it wasn’t the local beer then. Instead we bought an Idaho Riesling (instead of Alaskan Amber) in a gas station — an idea that turned out to be about as good as we expected when we did it. We saw lots of Alaskan in Washington . . . but still not the local beer.
Tonight we drank wine, Piety Flats Mercantile Red that we picked up in Yakima Valley. Fruit forward and pretty oaky, so very new American, but enjoyable. The winery is located across the road from an abandoned hop kiln (here’s a picture), and the plan was to call it the Hop Kiln winery until the owners discovered there was already a Sonoma County winery (situated in old hop kilns) using that name. We think the “hop kiln” wine in Yakima is better.
The Slow Travelers currently are bunking just west of Smithers, B.C., with an Internet connection that feels painfully dialup. Where’s Smithers? A long way from home and a long way from the northern “top” of our trip. Tomorrow we head for Prince Rupert, to catch a ferry that heads up the Inside Passage.
The government liquor store in town has plenty of beer, including mainstream, imports and craft (however you want to define the last). Unibroue costs the same as at home ($5.95 for a 750ml), but hardly qualifies as local since it is produced at the other end of the world’s second largest country. Most six-packs are in the $11 to $12 range, including those from B.C. breweries such as Granville Island, Phillips and Tree.
And just in case you were wondering, Stella sells for $22 a 12-pack. Wouldn’t be tempting even if it were local.
Published On Fri, 6 Jun 2008 04:21 Rss Channel: http://www.beerinator.com/beerfeeds2/
Appellation Beer: Beer From a Good Home: Book review: Good Beer Guide West Coast USA
Travel guides are worthless without trust.
So, you might be thinking, why should we trust a couple of British blokes who showed up for a holiday or two on America’s West Coast and then presumed to write about our beer?
Oh, sure they seem clever, for instance describing American IPAs as “hoppier than a one-legged man in an arse-kicking competition.” And the publisher Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) has outdone itself with a colorful, easy-to-find-what-you-want presentation plus an embarrassment of color photos.
But ultimately here is why you can trust Ben McFarland and Tom Sandham, authors of “Good Beer Guide West Coast USA.”
When I managed a newspaper copy desk the rule repeated every day was, “Readers trust everything they see in the paper until you write something they know about.” So pick up a copy of the book. Turn to a section you know about. Do they write about the best places? Do they leave any out? Are they right about the beers? Do they give you a reason to visit? Yes, no, yes and yes.
Feel free to be skeptical, but the proof is there in black and white. They dropped by the Craft Brewers Festival in San Diego last month to sign books and I sat down to talk with them about how they accomplished this. To be honest, my notes ended up full of “inside baseball” (or cricket) talk — and we weren’t even drinking. You’ll likely find their Q&A at the CAMRA site more amusing.
But some basics. They researched the books in two four-week stretches. The first included Las Vegas and Southern California (then back to Vegas). “We laid down for a week (afterwards),” McFarland said. “I got shingles . . . We were in pieces.”
They came back anyway, flying into Seattle and this time destroying their livers with the beers of the Northwest. They leaned on Tom Dalldorf (of Celebrator Beer News) for Hawaii and Dr. Fermento (James Roberts of the Anchorage Press) for Alaska. Obviously they also received a lot of help on “leads” about where to visit. Quite often they’d be in one pub or brewery and the principals there would ask, “Have you been to …?” and they were off again.
The resulting book doesn’t exhibit the sense of familiarity of one like Jay Shevek’s The Beer Guppy’s Guide to Southern California, but the authors are no less enthusiastic about what comes first — beer. In fact, surprisingly so, writing a love letter to American small-batch brewing that nicely carries on a tradition started by the late Michael Jackson.
And at times you get a glimpse of what the book might have read like had they been able to spend two years instead of two months wandering in and out of breweries and pubs. Writing about Diamond Knot Brewery in Muketilo, Wash., they begin:
“We must have been in here for about 20 minutes before ‘Johnny Vegas’, a Port Townsend ferryman, offered us a place to stay the night. Being British we naturally regarded the gesture with a level of cynicism and, fearing we’d be somehow chopped up and a feature in his wife’s stew, said yes and promptly disappeared. The fact is, he was simply a generous and friendly local and a perfect example of what this bar offers.”
Despite their youth — they are in their early 30s, giving them a fighting chance of surviving their research — both are accomplished journalists. Sandham had edited CLASS, a leading drinks magazine, for five years. McFarland became the youngest ever recipient of the British guild of Beer Writers’ beer Writer of the Year Award in 2004. He won it again in 2006.
And because of their youth they offer a look at American beer through fresh eyes and taste American beer with fresh tongues.
Published On Tue, 6 May 2008 03:50 Rss Channel: http://www.beerinator.com/beerfeeds2/
Appellation Beer: Beer From a Good Home: The Session #17 announced: Bucking the season
Rob DeNunzio has picked the theme for the 17th gathering of The Session: Drinking anti-seasonally.
He writes: “Think of this as the unorthodox cousin of such topics as ‘beer and food’ and ‘beer and music.’ Beer and weather, perhaps? More like beer despite the weather, I guess. Cracking open a Guinness on the beach, finishing a day of yardwork with a Speedway Stout, or whatever else you do that raises an eyebrow (again, beer-related, please), do us all a favor an take a few moments to share your non-conformist tale.”
I’m drinking Alaskan Stout as I type this which give the temperature (50F or so), constant clouds and occasional rains seems spot on for the season as it occurs in Juneau. On July 4, when The Session next arrives, we’ll be somewhere between Calgary and Winnipeg (a bit of space in there). So I’ll be drinking something we pick up between now and then. Don’t expect there will be any Alaskan Stout left.
Published On Fri, 13 Jun 2008 02:46 Rss Channel: http://www.beerinator.com/beerfeeds2/