A Good Beer Blog

September 2006

Beer Food: Pilsner Kale Soup With Ham And Lentils

Posted by Mike Campbell on in , - leave a comment
Happy Oktoberfest, all!  •  Today I made the above soup and also beef roulade.  •  “Ingredients:  •  2 smoked pork chops  •  3" kielbasa sausage  •  3 tbsp salted butter  •  5 garlic cloves, minced  •  1.5 cups chopped Spanish onion  •  1 cup lentils  •  3 cups Pilsner  •  3 cups chicken stock …

Quick Note: Strong Ale, St. Peter's, Suffolk, England

Posted by Alan McLeod on in - 2 comments
Ale the nicest smoked amber colour with maybe a pinkish tinge under light cream foam and lace. Cherry juice, pear juice, slightly nutty. Pleasant as the day. Likely a hundred brewers have thought of this when they make an amber, thinking theirs is something like this when theirs is not. This is …

Beer Blog Contest

Posted by Alan McLeod on in , - leave a comment
Just a quick reminder that there are two days left in the beer blog contest with a real prize of a real CD from a real band with a real song entitled "BEER!!"

Pete Brown: The Interview

Posted by Alan McLeod on in , , - 7 comments
I like my non-job here at A Good Beer Blog. One thing I get to do - other than never have a second beer of the same type - is meet interesting people involved with beer over the internet. Consider this exchange about beer and language between me and beer book author Pete Brown:  •  “Pete: Hi Alan …

Beer Snob Beer

Posted by Alan McLeod on in , - 4 comments
It had to happen sooner or later. Just when I was thinking how wonderful it is that I can get the best beer in the planet for under ten bucks a 750 ml bottle, I find out that the beer snobs have begun their assault. Beware!  •  “Staff at Four High Petergate have added Deus to their drinks menu …

Belgium: The Week of Achouffe

Posted by Alan McLeod on in , , - 8 comments
The stash needs an airing out. And a bit of an emptying. I organized it last night into themes - brewers, styles, that sort of thing - and see that I have some stuff to get through or I will be looking at the some of these beers in 2007. That is all fine and dandy for the big corked Belgians and …

Ellie’s Brown Beer, Avery Brewing, Boulder, CO, USA

Posted by Gary Rith on in - 2 comments
Oh man, I love this beer. I was shopping with a friend the other day and grabbed this guy to try, because I have dogs, you know, and there is a dog on the label. (NOTE picture of Buster my black lab mix, and the stein I made with a dog on the side) My friend said he couldn’t get the beer because …

Beer Shop: Marché Jovi, Gatineau, Quebec

Posted by Alan McLeod on in - 2 comments
Directions to Marché Jovi.  •  A run to Ottawa to see the Billy Bragg show on Saturday meant the opportunity to do a Sunday morning run to one of the better shops in Western Quebec for craft beer, Marché Jovi in Gatineau, Quebec. The shop is handy for anyone near Ottawa's Island Park Drive and the …

A Note From Rogue Nation

Posted by Alan McLeod on in , , - 6 comments
I got an email from Rogue Nation this morning. What is Rogue Nation you ask?  •  “The Rogue Nation is comprised of the brewery, two brewpubs, two distilleries, and six public house embassies; along with an international network of distributors, retailers and consumers. Rise Up! Rogue Ales are …

Beer Blog Contest - Heads Up RSS Readers

Posted by Alan McLeod on in , - leave a comment
I have just realized that the ill-placed use of the cursed character known as an ampersand in a few recent titles has cut out the RSS feed for A Good Beer Blog so just to be fair to the 50% of you who read this blog via aggregation, we are having a contest with real prizes. Join in.

Pub Crawl Asia.

Posted by Alan McLeod on

Stouts: Three Stouts From Three Continents

Posted by Alan McLeod on in , , , - leave a comment
Japan, Ireland and New York. When managing the stash you have to make sure some of the lighter brews out there do not kick around too long. Bought in Maine, maybe in April, I am worried about the Japanese Sweet Stout as the label says "alcoholic content not in excess of 4% of volume." Hmmm. This …

Contest...A Good Beer Blog Contest!!!

Posted by Alan McLeod on in , , - 26 comments
Well, I told you I get emails and last week I got a good one from Kim Frankel of Rock Ridge Music out of New York, New York. Kim asked if I would be interested in the band Psychostick which has just released their first CD We Couldn't Think of a Title and their single entitled "Beer". Why yes …

Germany: Kolsch, Gaffel Becker, Koln, Nordrhein-Westfalen

Posted by Alan McLeod on in , - 4 comments
Kölsch in a land without kölsch. Canada has found a way to be a kölsch-free zone. Why import a rare style when no one could possible understand it. I once saw this style of beer in Petawawa. I see it only in Ithaca now. Or when in Maine. Gaze at Gaffel branded stuff to make it up to yourself …

West 50 Pour House and Grille, Mississauga, Ontario

Posted by Alan McLeod on in , - 3 comments
I do not think I have ever reviewed a picture of a bar before...especially a bar that has yet to open but following Greg's links from his story at the Bar Towel to the unfortunately URLed website "hiprestaurants.com" I found this great design for a tap house sitting right there on my computer …

Model Beer Trucks

Posted by Alan McLeod on in , - 2 comments
I want the van...a life-sized one please  •  I get emails every day. Some people tell me how my beer blog would benefit from linking to their blog about wine or podcasting or viagara and yet sometimes they have a "do not reply to" notice on their email. Some others invite me to promote movies …

Beer From Canada By Brazilians

Posted by Alan McLeod on in , - leave a comment
Interesting article in the Globe and Mail today on how Labatt is largely managed not Canadians so much, oddly, as Brazilians.  •  “...most people say the change in attitude was swift. Interbrew's slow reform was replaced by InBev's urgency. "It's not the way Interbrew came in. It's a very marked …

Knut Goes To Gothenburg

Posted by Knut Albert Solem on in , - leave a comment
A few weeks ago, I took the express bus to Gothenburg, a city about four hour's drive from Oslo. The event was a gathering of fellow beer drinkers who usually congregate at RateBeer, but on occasion meet to have a few beers and swap tall tales. I missed the main event - the grand tasting, but I …

Beer Still Big In Canada

Posted by Alan McLeod on in - 4 comments
More news on the bigness of beer coming out of the edifice that is StatsCan:  •  “According to the Statscan report released Wednesday, national wines sales reached $4.2-billion compared with $4-billion sold in spirits in 2004/2005. Beer still outsells both in the Canada, accounting for …

Big Hop Bombs: Double IPA, Ithaca Beer Co., NY, USA

Posted by Alan McLeod on in , - 1 comment
Another great Upstate NY IPA, this one from the makers of one of my favorite green hopped even arugulan IPA, Flower Power. I noted the press release for Ithaca Beer Co's Double IPA last spring and was happy to see that it was an experiment with local hops. I was also well warned that this brew …

<i>Beers Of The World</i> Magazine

Posted by Alan McLeod on in , , - leave a comment
I picked up issue #7 of Beers of the World magazine the other day. It is a UK journal pretty much geared for the English market. This places the North American reader at a disadvantage from the get-go with the subject matter centered elsehere. The magazine has a website which has yet to update to …

Belgium: Goliath Triple, Brasserie des Geants, Irchonwelz

Posted by Alan McLeod on in , , - 1 comment
This beer is slightly famous (if only to me) as it was so good I forgot to take notes last time I picked one up at Finger Lake Beverages. No such issues this time. There is some need to be clear about which beer sits before me as the Brasserie des Geants has two beers called Goliath or Gouyasse …

Breweriana And Me

Posted by Alan McLeod on in , - 3 comments
This is one habit I have just never fell into:  •  “John Ahrens recalls when he was sucked into beer-can collecting. The 63-year-old suburban Philadelphia man, who was among the more than 800 people attending the 36th annual convention of the Brewery Collectibles Club of America, was a student at …

More Great Beer Blogging Links

Posted by Alan McLeod on in - 1 comment
Because I am truly lazy man, I can think of no more efficient way to put more good beer links into your hands than just linking you to the links page from The Brew Site, a venerable beer blog which I first linked to almost two years ago... which, when you think of it, is very close to the big bang …

Quick Note: Booklyner Weisse Beer, Brooklyn, USA

Posted by Alan McLeod on in - 6 comments
Why can't every brewery be as good as Brooklyn? I don't mean they are the biggest, richest, most innovative or the nearest by or even the one run by people I have met and liked. I mean good. They are damn good. Solid in that plummy Colonel in the British Army circa 1890 thinks something is good …

Anti-Beerist Activism?

Posted by Alan McLeod on in , - 1 comment
This is shocking news from the English district of Cornwall:  •  “A Cornish brewery is mopping up after a burglar used its forklift truck to pierce seven settling tanks containing about 5,000 pints of beer. Another 5,000 pints in other vats were contaminated with petrol at the Ring O' Bells …

Stash Renewal...Expansion...Whatever...

Posted by Alan McLeod on in , - 9 comments
I heard somewhere it was International Be Good To Yourself Day...so I was. I visited the fine folk at Finger Lake Beverages with Gary of Ithaca, sometimes posting author around these parts, and went on a small spree. The sort of spree you go on when you realize winter is coming and a quick zip …

Joe's Rules For Freshmen

Posted by Alan McLeod on in , - 4 comments
I read the Joe Sixpack columns that are published in the Philadelphia Daily News fairly frequently and I quite liked this one on Joe's drinking rules for freshmen entering university, including:  •  Don't drink light beer. It is not real beer, and the calories you save are negligible.Don't drink …