May 2007
Posted by on Thursday, May 31, 2007
One Brewery For Every 120 People
Posted by on Thursday, May 31, 2007 in - 2 comments
That is the dream, right? Well they are living the dream in the land of my forefathers on the island of Colonsay off western Scotland according to this report from last month in the BBC: • “The brewery was officially opened by islander Dougie McGilvray, 98, at a ceremony attended by about half …
Vermont: Madison Brewing Co., Bennington
Posted by on Wednesday, May 30, 2007 in - 4 comments
It's hard sometimes to judge a brewpub on one visit. It's a bit harder to do so on a long run when you need a break and get it even if Andy Crouch has given you fair warning to expect less than you might want. Having said that, we liked the place. First, during an early afternoon shift, it was kid …
Back From The Road
Posted by on Wednesday, May 30, 2007 in - leave a comment
Well, I got back and though I never did hit that last brewpub in Vermont due to canoe issues, I was struck again by the normalcy of craft beer in much of New England. You go shopping at the grocery there is Allagash, Geary's, Smuttynose. You grab a bite to eat anywhere, there are a couple of …
Update From the Road #2
Posted by on Tuesday, May 29, 2007 in - leave a comment
Heading northwest today through the White and then Green mountains looking for one more new beer experience before the border after a week in the land of craft beer down the aisle from the cat food and cheerios. I wonder why we Canadians put up with it? Maybe lunch at the Vermont Pub and Brewery …
Review: Beeradvocate Magazine, May 2007
Posted by on Sunday, May 27, 2007 in - 2 comments
The long Memorial Day long weekend trip has been going well. Yesterday at around 4:30 pm I was at the Beale Street BBQ in South Portland having a Gritty's Vacationland waiting for my bulk BBQ rib order to be ready. Less than an hour later I was in a grocery store trying to decide between Dogfish …
Gary Finds A Use For Cave Creek Chili Beer
Posted by on Saturday, May 26, 2007 in - leave a comment
I have a hellacious cold and the temps got up into the 90s today, so it was time to crack open the chili beer. I wondered if it would clear my sinuses, and boy, did it ever! • From Arizona to me here in New York, I wanted to try the beer in the clear bottle with the floating chili in it. I got …
Beer Dinners Galore (on Long Island)
Posted by on Friday, May 25, 2007 in - leave a comment
In the last two weeks there have been four beer dinners on Long Island. In fact, there have been so many beer events lately that it's been difficult to choose which to go to since many of them are scheduled on the same night. The Thursday before I flew down to Houston (see yesterday's post) I went …
Update From The Road
Posted by on Friday, May 25, 2007 in - 1 comment
Donavan is doing a great job holding the fort and Gary already has a post lined up for me to post when I get some time between lobster rolls and Allagash whites but just a heards up to say we stopped in at the Madison Brewing Company in Bennington Vermont and had a great lunch. Andy Crouch in his …
How to Land a Flying Saucer
Posted by on Thursday, May 24, 2007 in - 2 comments
As Alan heads off to New England, I'm just getting back from an excursion to Houston. I scheduled this trip ages ago and didn't realize that I would be in downtown Houston during American Craft Beer Week. Since there are no brewpubs in downtown Houston and I didn't rent a car, I didn't get to …
Off On A Special Assignment
Posted by on Thursday, May 24, 2007 in - leave a comment
Hitting the road today into New England with the hope of running into a few beer stories. Tully's Beer and Wine in Well's Maine, one of my favorite places to buy beer, apparently has moved into larger space, Allagash has a tour at 3 pm tomorrow afternoon and there is always the Great Lost Bear. I …
Another Beer Column Is Born...Sorta
Posted by on Wednesday, May 23, 2007 in - 2 comments
It was good to see the "Life" section in this morning's edition of The Globe and Mail carry the story "Microbreweries raid the fruit aisle" by Beppi Crosariol. The new section had promised his wine and spirits coverage would be expanded to include beer allowing the Globe to catch up a little to …
National Six-Pack: Arkell Best Bitter, Wellington, Guelph, ON
Posted by on Tuesday, May 22, 2007 in - 2 comments
It has been a while since I did a National Six-Pack review. There are a couple of reasons. There are, relative to anywhere in the US or the UK say, quite a limited number of craft brews available to the Canadian consumer. And, in addition to that, there are a lot of them that I really would not …
New URL for the Brookston Beer Bulletin.
Posted by on Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Evan Rail On The Trail Of Local German Beer
Posted by on Monday, May 21, 2007 in - 6 comments
I must have been overwhelmed by the gardening and snoozing and beer sipping this weekend as I failed to mention that our correspondent for central Europe, Evan Rail, had a good piece in The New York Times yesterday on the somewhat elusive local real ales and lagers of Germany. Other than the two …
Making This Here Blog More Of A Multimedia Event
Posted by on Sunday, May 20, 2007 in - 3 comments
Building on the huge success of the pager update system that gives you notice whenever I open a beer and the web cam in Gary's fridge, I started a Facebook group for the beer blog just to see if that adds anything of value for us all. • You can check it out here.
Being Untrue With Heavy*Weizen from Southern Teir
Posted by on Sunday, May 20, 2007 in - leave a comment
I am usually quite true to you and this blog. I buy beers I never have had and I write about every one. Pretty much. But last night, after a warm spring Saturday on a long Canadian holiday weekend, after mowing and BBQing t-bones and checking out inter-league baseball...well, I cheated. I had a …
Big Hop Bombs: 10th Anniversary IPA, Stone Brewing, CA, USA
Posted by on Friday, May 18, 2007 in - 2 comments
I have to say, I like the anniversary brews. I had Stone's eighth anniversary brew, a 7.8% mild ale that I reviewed back in 2005. And I think this last year's edition uses font half the size compared to two years ago and I suspect there are over 1,000 words in the personal essay by brewer Dave …
I Thought That May Was Mild Month!?!
Posted by on Thursday, May 17, 2007 in - 3 comments
According to CAMRA, May is Mild Month. Great news if you are going to a beer festival. Not necessarily so great if you are just dropping into the pub for a swift half. • Last weekend we were in Norwich. Now I know of one or two decent pubs in Norwich where mild wouldn’t have been a problem, but …
Gary Tries Three Dutch Micros
Posted by on Wednesday, May 16, 2007 in - 1 comment
Like pennies from heaven, this correspondent received beers from Amsterdam. Nothing else to do but drink them! I notice the book review of a history of Dutch brewing here, so this is most apropos. I loved the first I tried, an unfiltered lager reviewed here from Christoffel. I didn't know what it …
Beer Blog Sponsorship Round-up Time
Posted by on Tuesday, May 15, 2007 in - 6 comments
Gentlemen, we need more stuff • From time to time I send out waves of emails to prospective sponsors, book publishers, brewers with new products and others to help with the future content that will be up here at A Good Beer Blog. It is a frankly a funny experience with reactions ranging from …
War Is Bad For Beer
Posted by on Monday, May 14, 2007 in - leave a comment
It seems like an amazingly obvious thing but as I was reading more of Unger's text A History of Brewing in Holland 900-1900 last night I realized that war is bad for beer. Whenever I got to one of those charts or tables of his showing taxation or production or consumption figures over time, war …
Book Review: A History of Brewing in Holland 900 - 1900
Posted by on Sunday, May 13, 2007 in - 3 comments
I started reading my copy of A History of Brewing in Holland 900-1900: Economy, Technology and the State by UBC professor Richard W. Unger, published in 2001. Careful readers will recall that I had ached after this book ever since I reviewed his 2004 publication Beer in the Middle Ages and the …
My Weekend With Hefe
Posted by on Saturday, May 12, 2007 in - 5 comments
My new hero • Not Heff! No, nothing like that. I said "hefe." My weekend has been one with the hefe even though I did not plan for it to play out that way. • As you know, like everything else - including, I learned today, canoes of all things - we Canadians suffer from high beer prices and …
New York's Beer Gardens
Posted by on Friday, May 11, 2007 in - leave a comment
I have never been to a beer garden. I have a garden in which I have had beer but that is a different thing...and I don't think a Canadian thing given our 7 weeks of summer: • “Between 1820 and 1860, 1.5 million immigrants arrived in America from Germany, bringing with them their own cultural …
Buying the Rounds at Callahan's
Posted by on Thursday, May 10, 2007 in - 2 comments
Last month I started thinking (out loud) about reasons for drinking at a pub, as opposed to drinking by yourself at home. I promised to write more about the social aspects of pub-going, so here you go: • One of the regulars at Callahan's, Doug, likes to buy rounds for the other regulars. It only …
Belgium: Brise-BonBons, Brasserie Fantome, Soy
Posted by on Wednesday, May 9, 2007 in - 1 comment
I have to say I am in a conflict with this beer. I have liked all the Fantome I have tried...and I am supposed to approach these reviews with some sense of objectivity...supposedly. I love this beer. There I have said it. And, yes, I would marry it, seeing as you asked. Fresh pear juicy bright …
Session #4 Announced: Local Brews
Posted by on Tuesday, May 8, 2007 in - 5 comments
The next edition of The Session has been announced by snekse over at Gastronomic Fight Club and it is all about local brews: • “The idea here is to be as helpful as possible for visitors to your area. What is the beer/brewery/brewpub that you feel is quintessential to your city? What do the …
Paul Tells A Tale Of Two Beer Festivals
Posted by on Monday, May 7, 2007 in - 2 comments
Bury St Edmunds Corn Exchange, home of the East Anglian Beer Festival • The East Anglian Beer Festival takes place in my hometown of Bury St Edmunds at the end of April. As it is on my doorstep, so to speak, it's a must visit event. I normally pay a visit everyday, but this year was different …
Stonch's Keg And Other Signs of Spring
Posted by on Sunday, May 6, 2007 in - leave a comment
There are a fewer greater things in life than witnessing the pure joy of others. And that is one of the things that makes this beer blogging stuff so fun. Look at that picture above of Stonch and his pals. My immediate reaction was to whip myself into motion and start the process of bottling the …
From A Good Beer Blog's Fan Mailbag
Posted by on Saturday, May 5, 2007 in - leave a comment
Through the grapevine...barley stem?... I learned that Roy Bonisteel, host of CBC TV's excellent Man Alive from 1969 to 1989, is a fan of this here beer blog. I sent word back asking for a few words and low and behold there is some background on the greatest beer related poem ever, Al Purdy's "At …
Session 3: The Closest Thing To Mild Around Here
Posted by on Friday, May 4, 2007 in - 4 comments
OK, here is a further last note about my best bet for a bottle of mild or a mild like product made in Ontario - Black Oak's Nut Brown Ale from Oakville to the west of Toronto. In the early 1970s, David Line (the grandfather of all homebrewing and thereby the great-grandfather of the modern craft …
Session 3: The Unlikely Quest For Mild
Posted by on Thursday, May 3, 2007 in - 6 comments
What's wrong with our mild!?! • As discussed, Jay has determined that this months edition of "The Session" will be all about mild and there is a panic throughout the globe. Why? Because it is a style that no one makes much anymore. It is a bit of historical dead end, as a lighter maltier beer …
TAP NY 2007: Not My Kitchen
Posted by on Wednesday, May 2, 2007 in - 2 comments
The festival in Hunter Mountain is over for another year and I have to thank the good folks at TAP NY for their sponsorship. Matthew won first prize and sent this report on the event. • +++++++ • My primary reason for wanting to attend TAP NY 2007 was that it is not my kitchen. My kitchen is …
Session 3: A Case Of Mild Anxiety
Posted by on Tuesday, May 1, 2007 in - 6 comments
We've had the stouts and we've had the dubbels. And this Friday the third in the beerapalooza of a monthly series called "The Session" will focus on milds. Jay will be host over at Brookston Beer Bulletin and he has posted a great introduction to the style there today. • Trouble is, I can't find …
