I am staring at an empty bottle of Detour Double IPA from Uinta Brewing of Salt Lake City. It's a big bottle and I think it was emptied at about 2:20 am this morning. My first beer from Utah and it got drained over a mid-week middle of the night family bonding fest of Kids in the Hall DVDs. The bottle still smells swell, the muskier sort of DIPA as opposed to the orange marmalade type. A cumin sort of thing is still going on in there. Seedy spiced malty sweetness 22 months after being bottled according to the label. There was a dribble left in the bottle just now but a drib plus a bleary memory (almost as illustrated) does not make for something reviewable... does it? I mean I had it, I liked it and I remember it. Is it wrong to write that down?

Or is this something other than a review. A note that frames the truth of the sofa but also admits conditions were less than optimal. It should be enough for what it's worth. Ticking in a way, I suppose but not marking the moment is worse than reporting the recollection. So what if I was paying more attention to Cathy and Kathie or the Chicken Lady? I'd buy the beer again. BAers have respect.

A few years ago we discussed how the eastern Canadian province of New Brunswick was coping with challenges posed by its location next to Quebec and Maine. It is at it again:

NB Liquor quietly launched a new plan last week to attract New Brunswick beer drinkers to buy local by lowering prices. The six discounted brands cost $18.49 a dozen, a $5 savings over the regular price. But the new deals are not being widely advertised. Marcelle Saulnier of NB Liquor is hoping the beer bargains will travel by word of mouth. "This is a pilot for us," Saulnier said. "It's until September 30th and we are interested to look at the sales and determine if New Brunswickers were happy with the selection and promotion and price and take it from there."

The answer, of course, is the marketplace. The earlier attempt to sell beer at $19.99 failed presumably because beer is locally available for less. It will be interesting to see if beer sold at $18.49 a dozen will also fail because beer is locally available for less. See, it is the buyer who gets to decide what is "local" and what constitutes value for money and buyers are mobile.

But of more interest to me is the idea of a brand in this project. It is not the fluid that is discounted but the label that goes on it. I don't think anyone is suggesting the new beer is something less than beer as is the case in, say, Japan's third-class beer or rather beer like fluid. It is simply the wrapper that has changed around what is largely the same thing. Which is what "discount" means, right? Paying less for something substantially similar. So who would pay $18.49 let alone $19.99 when something substantially similar is available at an even lower price locally - at least locally in the mind of the buyer who is happy to slip over to Maine or Quebec to pay less?

Me, I will over on the other side of the border this weekend myself. All hail freedom.

Seven months ago, I wrote a post entitled "And Quiet Flows the OCBeerCommentary Wiki" about the sensibly slow pace of its review of The Oxford Companion to Beer. But the flow more than slowed. Pace became somewhat geological over the winter. I have to admit that I wasn't very focused myself and the number of OCB entries receiving comment stalled around the 134 entries - or 12.2% of the total of 1,100 - noted as of 11 January 2012.

Things have started to move, however. Perhaps an ice jam has broken wherever the wiki is housed. Maybe there have been spring rains leading to swollen creeks. Whatever it is, Martyn has been adding comments in letters H, R, S and P. Yes, even P. If you go have a look at the page for P, you will find some quite interesting content under the entry for "porter". When you read above it the earlier corrections about "pale ale" and "Pilsner Urquell" it adds up to a fairly strong indication of the need for the wiki. Over at the letter S, there is more new content for "Samuel Allsopp & Sons", "Scottish & Newcastle Brewery", "spices", "St Gallen", "stock ale" and "stouts". Now, 151 entries have received comment.

Good stuff. And there is a fairly recent review out there as well as - at Ireland's Beoir.com by the Beer Nut himself. Still at an affordable price at Amazon.com, the book is clearly worth getting into even if it is also worth questioning. Time and likely further editions shall tell how authoritative it can be considered but for now keep an eye on the wiki, too, as it seems to be waking after a long winter's sleep.

I have no idea what to think of this. A sample of a Berliner Weisse from Grand Teton in Idaho showed up in the mail the other week and I thought to myself... I have no idea what to think of this. While I have quite enjoyed their samples before, I have only had one Berliner Weisse before and I have never been to Idaho.

On the nose, it smells like a milder take on gueuze with a bit of a yougurty tang. A ball of melon sweetness opens into a grassy note that is like Sauvignon Blanc but then it finishes with a mineral thing that is a bit like Riesling. Sad, isn't it. Reaching for wine metaphors. Lychee, white grapefruit and green fleshed melon cut with a bit of a lightly astringency. Not to style at 7.5% but, really, does anyone care anymore? What would I have with this? A chunk of cold salmon over bitter greens? Sushi? That'd do nicely.

I have to admit, I love the sample label. This beer is only released next Tuesday according to the brewery. It must have snuck out of its own accord. Four BAer reviews for your consideration.

An excellent set of observations by Velky Al over at Fuggled on the somewhat sudden trend for east coast production facilities for west coast US national craft:

I can't help but think that this is the first stage in the consolidation of the craft brewing industry, where the bigger companies start to force their way into markets by opening brewing facilities in various parts of the country. While we will see more and more Sierra Nevada, New Belgium and Oskar Blues beers in the supermarket aisles, we will see fewer local brews except at specialty outlets like Beer Run here in Charlottesville.

We like to think that craft brewers are elf like trustees of a big pot of goodness that can't be quite described but pervades to the point we might seem to anthropomorphize. But they are businesses and as more join the ranks of national craft, the risk to actual local craft brewers is obvious. It's been around for a while, of course. Redhook and its assignees has been up to this for years but we are looking at a real leap in the concept with left of the Mississippi brewers Sierra Nevada, Oskar Blues and New Belgium all moving into North Carolina. Does this create a conceptual separation in US craft between local beer and indigenous beer? In the world of global craft, isn't the idea of indigenous beer just a wee bit silly? More to the point, what will Sierra Nevada be that far from the Sierra Nevadas?

Now that I have a 1940s china tankard I want more. And think the view above is one that I would appreciate. A George II silver tankard for a mere £7,750. It's on eBay right now. I think it's worth it. I am worth it. What beer would it have held two hundred years or so before Orwell daydreamed about The Moon Under Water? It was the year of the second edition of The London and Country Brewer. Stitch?

But I found this which will do for now.

In George Orwell's 1949 essay The Moon Under Water - mentioned here, here and here - we are taken perhaps though the looking glass to an idyllic perfect pub of post-war Britain. It is a gorgeous physical essay that sets out the elements of Orwell's dream establishment including even the mugs:

The special pleasure of this lunch is that you can have draught stout with it. I doubt whether as many as 10 per cent of London pubs serve draught stout, but the Moon Under Water is one of them. It is a soft, creamy sort of stout, and it goes better in a pewter pot. They are particular about their drinking vessels at the Moon Under Water, and never, for example, make the mistake of serving a pint of beer in a handleless glass. Apart from glass and pewter mugs, they have some of those pleasant strawberry-pink china ones which are now seldom seen in London. China mugs went out about 30 years ago, because most people like their drink to be transparent, but in my opinion beer tastes better out of china.

There is also a small surprise of a garden... and stamps. I have been looking for a strawberry-pink china mug for a while now but have made do with this in the interim. It is a Wedgewood 1940s sage green tankard designed by Keith Murray. I got it on eBay for about $53 Canadian which is a lot but it is also not as I could likely put it on eBay tomorrow and get about $53 Canadian... which is what I tell people about my soccer jersey collection of about eight years ago that sits in boxes waiting for another five for the teens to discover it. I like the way the handle looks a bit like antler. Not sure what beer I will have from it. Looks nice where it is.

This is one of the weirder quotes of the day:

I like beer. I like the way it calms me, and I like the taste of it. I’m 38 and have been drinking around 10 beers a day for five years. I pace my drinking so that I am quite sober even with this amount of beer. I can carry on a conversation and feel quite with it. I wake up in the morning feeling fine — no headache. I put in a day of hard, physical work with no problem. My wife says I am headed for an early death. Am I?

Oddly, the health answers columnist in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune did not answer with that question about bears, woods and poo. I had a friend who got to this sort of point. I only knew it when he pulled out a beer as he was driving his truck to the municipal dump one Saturday morning when I was visiting. And while none the beer writers I have known have exactly mentioned having to manage the perils of free flowing ale, many have shared the story about being baked from the grind of beer launch after beer launch.

"Headed for an early death? Am I?" It's a good question to ask yourself from time to time if you list drinking alcohol some way or another on your resumé - as a hobby or even career. Does it also, as Dr. Ding diagnosed today, lead you to other risks? Sure, maybe it's just the risk of missing being fluent at Finnish as well as not being proficient at the banjo or, say, lawn billiards because you were vlogging your beer ticking notes daily for the last eight years. Beer is good but in a way it is not always great. It delay, defers, colours and even assumes on your behalf. It confuses a moment with 24/7. Like any pleasure it can seduce in small tricky ways. Or instead you can find yourself drinking ten beers every day. Or writing about how beer links all the most special moments in life.

There is nothing wrong with making these choices, coming to these sorts of places. But there may be something more right.

I have to admit that I have not given two seconds thought to the World Beer Cup in all the years since I began writing about beer. Not that I have anything against the idea of a mass sipping and note taking exercise - but a long time ago, I came across a brewery that claimed it had won certain prizes on its website which, upon a little investigation, turned out to be a straight up falsehood. It made me realize that the whole chain of evidence in an event like this is so unlikely as to make any outcome definitive. But that is just it. It's not like the process could ever be definitive. Fun for the participants but not much deeper than that.

Yet... I noticed a couple of things this year. When I read the results, I was quite surprised to read that Leffe Brune... err... Brown was declared the best dubbel in the world. One word came to mind: "whatchamafuzzathinkalunk!!!" Does anyone think that is the case? I was so shocked that I actually wrote about it on Twitter. I did. I really did. That takes a certain level of conviction, let me tell you. I mean it is nice enough to see when facing a straight up AB InBev tap selection but it's not like I would order it if there was another dubbel available. Then, roaming through Google News, I see that a Haitian beer won gold for "Category 42: American-Style Cream Ale or Lager"... whatever that means. Oh, here is what it means... or at least WBC C42 looks a lot like what GABF C33(c) means:

C. Subcategory: American-Style Cream Ale or Lager
Mild, pale, light-bodied ale, made using a warm fermentation (top or bottom) and cold lagering. Hop bitterness and flavor range from very low to low. Hop aroma is often absent. Sometimes referred to as cream ales, these beers are crisp and refreshing. Pale malt character predominates. Caramelized malt character should be absent. A fruity or estery aroma may be perceived. Diacetyl and chill haze should not be perceived. Sulfur character and/or sweet corn-like dimethylsulfide (DMS) should be extremely low or absent from this style of beer. Original Gravity (ºPlato): 1.044-1.052 (11-13 ºPlato)
Apparent Extract/Final Gravity (ºPlato): 1.004-1.010 (1-2.5 ºPlato)
Alcohol by Weight (Volume): 3.4-4.5% (4.2-5.6%)
Bitterness (IBU): 10-22
Color SRM (EBC): 2-5 (4-10 EBC)

Both the WBC and the GABF are creatures of the same Brewers Association so not sure why two number systems are required but I do think they are the same thing. And the Haitian beer, Prestige, won first prize for that... thing. Good for them. I will likely never have one. No great swelling desire within me is inspired by the news. But, when I check, some have tried it. And they have rated the experience over at BeerAdvocate and apparently 30 reviewers - including a brother, at least in 2005 - thought it sucked. Which is fine as cream ales can, you know, suck. Yet it does makes me ask why, if no gold was awarded at all in the category named "European-Style Low-Alcohol Lager/German-Style" (scroll down to category 30) why a gold was still awarded for the sucky beer from Haiti? Are somw WBC golds real gold and others semi-serious Gõ⌋ds? Why not, instead, a "thanks for coming out" with a footnote that American-Style Cream Ale or Lager pretty much suck? Perhaps we should ask for an explanation. I sure would like an explanation from the panel that picked Leffe Brown as the best dubbel going. An explanation or maybe a show trial.

Result? I am comfortable slipping back into that state of unknowningness about it all.