March 2007
A Good Beer Blog Needs Good Beer Poetry
Posted by on Saturday, March 31, 2007 in - 6 comments
Spring is a time when a beer lover's thoughts should turn to poetry. Don't forget to get your entries into the second beer blog contest of the year. Post your poem of over 100 words in the comments or email me with your verse before the deadline of 4 pm EDT, Tuesday 10 April 2007. The prizes are …
Bartalk and Other Games at Callahan's
Posted by on Friday, March 30, 2007 in - leave a comment
I'd have to agree that proximity to one's house is very important for "a local." I'm at the age where I don't fit in at the college hang-outs (which in general do have a better beer selection) and at Callahan's I'm ten to fifteen years younger than the rest of the pub-goers (well, most of them …
Big Hop Bombs: The Week of Eleven Big US India Pale Ales
Posted by on Thursday, March 29, 2007 in - 2 comments
Two of my favorite eleven a side squads - IPA and AFC • Springtime is here. For me this is the perfect season for those American green, weedy IPAs that taste like liquid salad with gasoline for dressing. Autumn cries out for stouts and porters while winter needs a slow-sipped tripel or the malt …
Session 2: Don't Forget Your Dubbels
Posted by on Wednesday, March 28, 2007 in - 3 comments
Greg has reminded us to remind him to remind me that the day of the dubbels is coming a week Friday. I also rooted around in the cellar and found a bottle from a north-east US brewer that I bought a while ago, have never tried and forgot about so that should be an interesting taste. • Still, I … read more »
Boston Beer Travels - The Publick House and Bukowski
Posted by on Wednesday, March 28, 2007 in - leave a comment
With the beer gone and no buzz to speak of after leaving the Night of the Barrels, it wasn't a hard decision to agree to head to a beer bar for an impromptu after party. We climbed into a couple of cabs and went over to Brookline to invade The Publick House near Washington Square on Beacon St …
Quick Note: Boont Amber Ale, Anderson Valley Brewing, California
Posted by on Tuesday, March 27, 2007 in - 9 comments
I bought this beer because there is a cute little bear with antlers on the bottle. No surprise in a California beer, but life is better with a little humor, right? I did the smart thing and poured my wife a big glass of her favorite wine, so I wouldn’t have to share. Her comments are helpful, but … read more »
A trip to Westvleteren.
Posted by on Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Quick Note: Railbender Ale, Erie Brewing, Erie, PA, USA
Posted by on Monday, March 26, 2007 in - leave a comment
This is the first beer I have found from this western Pennsylvanian outpost on its north-west Great Lakes coast. The beer pours a lovely clouded orange amber with rich frothy white lace-leaving head. I wondered immediately after I poured it if I was looking at some sort of take off on a Belgian …
The Costs Of Alcohol In Canada
Posted by on Saturday, March 24, 2007 in - 8 comments
The Globe and Mail, Toronto's national newspaper, has a very lengthy article, entitled "Alcoholics Accelerated" by Margaret Philp, on the social and medical costs of alcohol consumption in Canada. While I am not one of those who challenges every pronouncement against drinking, I do find it strange …
Knut Pays The Taxman
Posted by on Friday, March 23, 2007 in - 6 comments
The wait is over. But the picture of the package on my doormat is not quite how it went. No, there was a new slip of paper in my mailbox, telling me there was a package to be picked up at the post office. So, what was the tab? • The alcohol tax was about 100 Norwegian kroner. • The value added …
Drinking in One Place - Blue Point
Posted by on Friday, March 23, 2007 in - leave a comment
Last year I spent my time driving (sometimes vast distances) in order to drink microbrewed beer. I spent a lot of time at brewpubs. Basically, I did a lot of beer chasing, and dare I say, beer hunting? This year I'm trying something different; I'm drinking in one place, a place I'm calling …
Beer Blog Contest 07.02 Announced!
Posted by on Thursday, March 22, 2007 in - 4 comments
The emails have poured in and the postman is sick and tired of dragging the sacks of postcards and letters up the front step. The crowds have let us know what they want and it is poetry! Yes, the second beer blog contest¹ of 2007 is going to require you to maybe do a little haiku, maybe a little …
Review: The Kegerator Portfolio
Posted by on Thursday, March 22, 2007 in - 3 comments
This post is my sixth effort for the ReviewMe service which I have signed up A Good Beer Blog for and through which good folks like they of the Kegerator forward some funds for a review of their beer-related web-based business. • I have to admit from the start that I have never bought a keg of …
Book Review: Beer and Food by Bob Skilnik
Posted by on Wednesday, March 21, 2007 in - 1 comment
Bob Skilnik was good enough to let me know this book of his was coming out and I am glad he did. He even signed it which is a nice touch for the lonely beer book reviewer. • The full title is Beer and Food: An American History and it could not be a plainer truth. Bob leads us through the …
The Second Session Cometh!
Posted by on Tuesday, March 20, 2007 in - leave a comment
Administrative matters. When I started blogging about beer on the internet three or four years ago I never thought I would have all these administrative matters to deal with. Sure it would help if I just got the last contest's prizes out in the mail before I decided what the next contest would be …
Just Another Reason I Am Glad I Never Took Up Smoking
Posted by on Monday, March 19, 2007 in - 3 comments
I am quite happy that my vices do not include tobacco. I am especially happy today given this news about a German idea for a new way to quit smoking which otherwise might claim me: • “Nautilus GmbH Laboratoriumsbedarf announced today the recent European launch of NicoShot, the world's first …
Quick Note: Porter, Wensleydale Brewery, Leyburn, England
Posted by on Sunday, March 18, 2007 in - leave a comment
Tonight, there's a bit of a nip in the air. The wind seems to turned to the north. A good enough excuse to open a dark winter type ale. • As if one needed an excuse. So I reached for a bottle of Wensleydale Porter, at 6.6% a punchy little number. This dark-copper coloured ale exudes a sweet …
Which Is The Mildest Cantillon?
Posted by on Saturday, March 17, 2007 in - 18 comments
Attentive readers will know I have not enjoyed Cantillon's sour beers but that I do love Finger Lake Beverages in Ithaca, NY. Well, I am down here again and will load up tomorrow for the spring's tastings and noticed yesterday that FLB has a good range of these sour things in stock. • Which - if …
Night of the Barrels in Boston
Posted by on Saturday, March 17, 2007 in - 2 comments
On February ninth six guys loaded into two cars and sped to Boston for the BeerAdvocate.com's Night of the Barrels, the "VIP" session the evening before the Exteme Beer Fest. Long Island to Boston can be done in about four hours, including the ferry ride from Orient Point to New London. We were … read more »
Stouts: Old No. 38 Stout, North Coast Brewing, Cali., USA
Posted by on Friday, March 16, 2007 in - leave a comment
I think I recognize North Coast now by the smell, maybe I just think I do: something fresh and fruity, even a bit seashore-ish. This is a great take on a dry stout. Dark brown under rich sorta Manila envelope cream rim and foam. In the mouth, soft water with dry roast barley and minty almost …
Brodie Visits Pub Italia, Ottawa, Ontario
Posted by on Thursday, March 15, 2007 in - 7 comments
In this post we introduce sometime comment maker, full time lurker Brodie as a writer here on A Good Beer Blog. He wrote me an email that started like this: • “Hey Al - I wanted to drop you a note and a few pics of my recent field trip to Pub Italia in Ottawa. The restaurant is located in …
Extreme Beer - A Road Trip
Posted by on Wednesday, March 14, 2007 in - 3 comments
Last time I surfaced on these virtual pages I was on my way to Boston for the Extreme Beer Festival, specifically the Night of the Barrels. If I were a novelist instead of a beer writer, I would probably spin a long story about how I ended up in Boston on one of those weird extended beer drinking …
Knut Goes Nowhere And Hangs Around His Mailbox
Posted by on Wednesday, March 14, 2007 in - 16 comments
On the outskirts of Europe there lives a peculiar tribe of people. Like most other nations, they feel that they have the solution to every problem on the planet. Other small nations have had to bow to the necessity of adjusting to their surroundings, but Norway had the curse to find oil and gas in …
The Next Beer Blog Contest Prize
Posted by on Tuesday, March 13, 2007 in - 6 comments
They came today. • Ten tickets worth $45 bucks each for a single day's admission to TAP New York 2007 to be held on 28 and 29 April 2007 at Hunter NY. I just do not yet know how to get these to you, the happy reader. Should I have a draw, ask you to send me gifts or just run a contest? These are …
Blogging Nun May Need Help With Beer
Posted by on Monday, March 12, 2007 in - 3 comments
Trolling Google News for something that catches my eye, looking for the next big toads for beer story, I never thought I would come across a real life issue like this one: • “A lot of people are fascinated by what a nun does on a daily basis, that a nun would talk about going for a bike ride or …
The Week Of Schloss Eggenberg
Posted by on Sunday, March 11, 2007 in - leave a comment
I feel so cheap using a photo with a flash. Where has my style gone? Couldn't I have lined these up in a snow drift or something? Anyway, this was the second set of brews forwarded for review by importers Roland and Russell. The first review bottles, four from O'Hanlon's was a real treat, so I … read more »
Nova Scotia: London Porter, Propeller Brewing
Posted by on Saturday, March 10, 2007 in - 6 comments
Halifax's Propeller Brewing Company has a new (nope, just newly noticed by me) London Style Porter. A very nice, smooth, tasty dark addition to the local brew scene. The Propeller website states: • “A dark full-flavoured beer but smoother and less bitter than stout. Made with softened water …
Can the Water Be The Best Part?
Posted by on Friday, March 9, 2007 in - 4 comments
Or if not the best part, can it be the thing that makes a beer extreme? [Or is it X-treme? Maybe X-treem! That's it.] • Anyway, Lew was asking again about session beers and X-treem! ones and wondered out loud if sessions are really just the lowest common denominators. Thinking about it, I wrote … read more »
What's In A Good Beer Blog's Mailbag Today?
Posted by on Thursday, March 8, 2007 in - leave a comment
It has been a busy wee while for the mailbags, physical and digital around here at AGBB HQ. Let's see what we have received (as I ignore for another evening that i have not yet got the contest prizes in the mail yet...la, la, la...I can't hear you, obligations, I can't hear you...la, la, la …
Quick Note: St. George's Ale, Young's, London, England
Posted by on Wednesday, March 7, 2007 in - 4 comments
I have reviewed a few of Young's ales but this may be my last given the news last fall of their merger with Charles Wells and the closure of the captial's Ram brewery after 469 years. I understand their range is now being brewed at the Wells' brewery in Bedford. I trust this bottle is actually a …
Posted by on Tuesday, March 6, 2007
I Declare! The Next Choice For The Session Is...
Posted by on Tuesday, March 6, 2007 in - 7 comments
Which author's second work out did his first? Who remembers the sophomore record by last year's big new band? That is sort of the feeling which I approach this, the declaration of the second beer style for The Session, the monthly global multi-blog-a-rama of beery goodness that was triggered by …
Intercept The Hash, Say No To Smokes - But Subsize The Beer!
Posted by on Monday, March 5, 2007 in - 1 comment
I love a story like this. Spending my 20s in a navy town, I was lucky enough to join in with a gang for a beer in the ship's mess once or twice. Good to see the spirit ingenuity reigns supreme after HMCS Fredericton got called away last year on a secret mission off Africa: • “There was a run on …
Paul Goes To The Elysian Beer Festival
Posted by on Sunday, March 4, 2007 in - 1 comment
It's strange how the politics of a republican changes from left to right as you travel from east to west across the Atlantic Ocean. Arguably England's greatest historical figure would also have found it strange. He would not have approved of my recent visit to the town where he lived for a period …
Beer Blog Contest Winners!
Posted by on Saturday, March 3, 2007 in - 3 comments
The first contest of 2007 for the readership of A Good Beer Blog has been a huge success. You will recall the top three winners each get a paperback cop of Beer School, the story of the making of the Brooklyn Brewery by its founders, Steve Hindy and Tom Potter. I recently reviewed the book here …
The Next Session
Posted by on Saturday, March 3, 2007 in - 7 comments
Oh, man. So this is how it's going to be, eh? • “Next round is on Alan at A Good Beer Blog, who should be announcing April's theme soon.” • Soon? Soon??? I am stumped - not that one style is all there is but which style goes with April? Remember this, ye who scoff: • “April is the cruelest …
The Session: Me And Stouts
Posted by on Friday, March 2, 2007 in - 7 comments
It would be easy if there was only one stout in the stash that I have yet to try. But I have Avery's Out Of Bounds, North Coast's Old 38 as well as Hop Back's Entire Stout. And I know them not. Other have their posts up already. Not Lew. If I can just make up my mind, I might get my post up before …
Boycott Greene King!
Posted by on Thursday, March 1, 2007 in - 4 comments
Or at least so reports Stonch. Does that make me a Stonch supporter? • “...hungry giant Greene King snapped the pub up some years ago and introduced its own beers alongside Harveys. According the The Friends of The Lewes Arms, Harveys outsold GK beers three to one. Not content with making … read more »
