October 2007
Another Great Way To Promote Great Beer...At Your Library!
Posted by on Wednesday, October 31, 2007 in - 1 comment
Hunting for an interesting story between the trickers and the treaters, I came across this blurb on how one beer brewers club has advanced the great cause of great beer: • “One of the main reasons the Portland system has such a vast collection is because Fred Eckhardt, the dean of American beer …
Your Mid-Autumn Beer Magazine Update
Posted by on Tuesday, October 30, 2007 in - 32 comments
...nice flooring... • I have written about beer magazines before but a recent stop at a book store made me realize that there are more magazines out there than ever and that it was maybe time to do some comparing. And, along with that, some consideration of what the deal is as I've always …
Porter Season: Porter, Ølfabrikken, Vejby, Denmark
Posted by on Monday, October 29, 2007 in - 3 comments
Even though the costs of imports is a slightly different question that that of regionally made and bought craft beers, given recent posts, you can imagine my excitement that this 500 ml bottle cost me 9.00 USD - and I bought it back when nine buck was nine bucks and not 8.57 Canadian. It's 50 … read more »
St Edmund Ale, Greene King, Bury St. Edmunds, England
Posted by on Sunday, October 28, 2007 in - 7 comments
Once upon a time there was a rather nice strong pale ale called St Edmund. It was a bottled beer brewed by Greene King to 5.5% abv. Admittedly it was a pasteurised beer rather than a real ale, but all the same it was a decent drop of stuff. Unfortunately, it's not been brewed for some years now. A …
Again With The Beer Price Points And Cost Inputs
Posted by on Sunday, October 28, 2007 in - 8 comments
Friday's interesting discussion has spun-off other posts. Stan has posted twice to develop some ideas from the comments and Greg supports the valuation of the premium in beer, suggesting I may be a wee bit of the cheeky contrarian in this - which is of course in part true, but I prefer "The …
What To Drink For Game 3? Have Another Jolly Pumpkin!
Posted by on Saturday, October 27, 2007 in - 1 comment
I have no idea how I picked up three Jolly Pumpkins for the stash and seemingly forgot about it. After last month's Bam and last night's Oro, both unflugabaligabally good, this one is the brewer's take on a Belgian white, Calabaza Blanca. Tonight, for game three of the World Series, what better …
Sour Beer Studies: Oro De Calabaza, Jolly Pumpkin, MI, USA
Posted by on Friday, October 26, 2007 in - 8 comments
A busy day today that will hopefully continue but the one point of agreement seems to be Jolly Pumpkin beers and - oh, happy day - I have one in the stash. I have been known to Bam and Oro de Calabaza is the strong golden ale by the same happy gourd of a brewer. • Wow. It's like a cross between …
Are Craft Beer Prices Too Low? No, They Are Not Too Low.
Posted by on Thursday, October 25, 2007 in - 75 comments
An entirely gratuitous and not quite related chart used to enhance credibility. • What was I thinking? Where was my head when Lew, Stan and Stephen all joined hands and sang Kumbaya (I'm a Minister's kid so that has more levels for me allowing me to use the word in that way) for the cause of …
Fact: Beer, Elephants And Electricity Do Not Mix
Posted by on Wednesday, October 24, 2007 in - 2 comments
This story is sad, pathetic, sick and still sort of funny in that way that makes you know you still retain something of a twelve year old wee bastard in you: • “The elephants gorged on the beer on Sunday night after taking apart casks kept outside by local villagers and ran through a nearby … read more »
Beer And Philosophy: The Book Is Out!
Posted by on Tuesday, October 23, 2007 in - 7 comments
It is either out or I have just received my copy but either way it is all quite exciting to have a book in my hand with a chapter written by me. So, of course, I read my chapter first and found myself thinking that I could have written most sentences better and that I hoped I didn't lose all the …
Whither The Dregs? Whither The Green Capitalists?
Posted by on Monday, October 22, 2007 in - 2 comments
I am not sure that I have ever used the word dregs in a post let alone posted about the dregs but it appears that there is something to them for the inventive or penny-wise brewer: • “The brewing giant hopes the move would help cut congestion outside its Westgate site and offer an …
Porter Season: XII, Imperial Porter, Middle Ages, Syracuse, NY
Posted by on Sunday, October 21, 2007 in - 2 comments
My high school history teacher taught us when you want to use the word "very" try using "damn" to see if it worked better. Most times neither were necessary. Lately that's been one point underlying much of the discussion around the word "imperial" - like this post by Ron, this by Stan and this by …
When Is It Right Not To Blog About Your Beer?
Posted by on Sunday, October 21, 2007 in - 1 comment
I took no notes. I had the camera but I took no pictures. The photo is from two years ago. • Even though you can blog about pretty much anything if you have a deft eye for the moment, I felt only a little guilty but blogging can get in the way of enjoying and I had such a day of craft beer and …
Quebec: Coup De Grisou, Brasseurs RJ
Posted by on Saturday, October 20, 2007 in - 1 comment
This was a real surprise. A bottle quietly sitting in the stash as those around it slipped away, often left unnoted from banality. Clouded light amber ale under a fine white swirled head. A simple beer with a focus on malt...ok, and the yeast, too...but it's buckwheat malt. The malt has a strong …
Find The Facts! Be Your Own Ron!!!
Posted by on Thursday, October 18, 2007 in - 9 comments
Ron Pattinson has hit the beer blogging world like a...like a...like a very Ron-like thing. Recently Lew wrote this about Ron: • “Pattinson, meanwhile, has been tearing apart the lazily accepted history of porter, stout, and mild...using great drifts of data he's collected from brewer's logs …
A Good Beer Bloggaganza In Syracuse This Saturday
Posted by on Wednesday, October 17, 2007 in - 4 comments
The view at Clark's if you stumble and almost fall • OK, OK. I'm just going to the Carrier Dome with Paul from Kingston to see if Syracuse can actually beat Buffalo in NCAA Football Division 0.988876 but after that Clark's, The Blue Tusk and stuff like that. I'll be the one spending Canadian …
BMP 2.0: Town Hall May Add Beer Celler
Posted by on Tuesday, October 16, 2007 in - leave a comment
Time I brushed off the old Beer In Music Project as that the same theme has now been announced as the next topic for The Session to be held 2 November 2007. • Good thing, too, as while I am obviously having a lesson in UK culture these days here at beer blog HQ, in large part at the direction … read more »
A Brewery, A Literary Tour And Another World All In One
Posted by on Monday, October 15, 2007 in - 10 comments
Her: I sure hope no one mentions this ever again. • Him: Me, too. How unlike us. Best to bottle it up. Pass me another. • An interesting combination of two of my interests may well come together in Nymburk, some 30 kilometers east of Prague, where a brewery, Postřižinský Pivovar, helps … read more »
Tripels: Black Tulip, New Holland, Michigan
Posted by on Sunday, October 14, 2007 in - 1 comment
What beer to drink with baseball? Triples, of course. Or tripels or, like this one from New Holland, trippels. • Black Tulup comes across as vegetative bubble gum. A bit of a shock after that Tripel Karmeliet [which will not go reviewed] and its echos of Hungarian Tokay - honey, almond, that … read more »
Belgium: Jan Van Gent, Liefmans, Dentergem
Posted by on Sunday, October 14, 2007 in - 2 comments
I was going to cheat on you, have a beer and not review it but this 5.5% Belgian pale ale is too good not to note. A massive rocky off white head sits over dark straw ale. The malt is all pear juice - quite extraordinary. It has a great French bread crust texture as well as some fine lacy faded …
Paul Discovers Grimbergen Blanche
Posted by on Saturday, October 13, 2007 in - 2 comments
As mentioned in a previous article, I delighted in trying new wheat beers on our holiday in Alsace this year. And whilst bieres blanche are readily available, I suspect that blonde beer is probably more popular in France. A popular blonde in Northern France and certainly one of my favourites is …
Beer Cocktails: The Question Of Sherry
Posted by on Friday, October 12, 2007 - leave a comment
I've written about beer cocktails and been a bit rough but Stephen Beaumont's comment has got me thinking: • “Another one to try, especially when the weather turns this fall, is the Any Port in a Storm -- 2 ounces LBV port in 12 ounces of Imperial stout (I used Victory's Storm King when I …
Hair Of The Dog: Fred Update
Posted by on Thursday, October 11, 2007 in - 4 comments
So it's been ten months since I got the case of Fred with the crap cap job. Rather than complain - or recap - I loaded them up with weight and have been sipping them quite happily as the days became weeks and then months. • The beer has settled down a bit. Rather than pour an explosive head like …
Sour Beer Studies: Sweet, Sour And...<i>The Brewmaster's Table</i>
Posted by on Wednesday, October 10, 2007 in - leave a comment
I have been a bad beer blogger. I just got a copy of Garrett Oliver's The Brewmaster's Table. One baaad beer blogger. And not bad like ManRam says either. The fact is, I thought it was really more like The Brewmaster's "Kitchen" and had expected it was more like a recipe book. Not that there is …
Belgium: Biere De Miel, Brasserie Dupont, Tourpes
Posted by on Tuesday, October 9, 2007 in - 3 comments
Autumn had to show sooner or later. We shared this one from the Dupont the does not make tires as clouds rolled in, trying to pick us off with the first splats of rain. • Clouded orange-amber ale with a lacy rich off white head. The scent is oddly a bit like lime juice and light rye bread. In … read more »
The Pub Game Project: Name This Painting Of Drunken Flems
Posted by on Monday, October 8, 2007 in - 4 comments
As a lad, in a state of utter unknowingness, I went to Belgium and drank Jupiler and Guinness. Again, for that I am truly sorry. I also went to the National Gallery and had a look at the Bosches and the Breugels before Jupiler outlets opened. • But for the life of me I can't figure out the name …
Paul Considers Shepherd Neame's Advertising
Posted by on Monday, October 8, 2007 in - 10 comments
George Orwell once said "Advertising is the rattling of a stick inside a swill bucket." This is how I feel about the way that Shepherd Neame advertises. Shepherd Neame brews pretty good beer, but I really do find their advertising very distasteful. Distasteful to the point where, I would recommend …
Belgium: Saison d'Erpe-Mere, KleinBrouwerij De Glazen Toren
Posted by on Sunday, October 7, 2007 in - 1 comment
What to have with Thanksgiving turkey...and garlic and spuds, and roast Brussels Sprouts - and parsnips...and pear and ginger pie. Stuffed and wrapped figs, too. What a feed - but what to drink? I wanted something less than a tripel, less malty than a barley wine or dubbel and without the hops of … read more »
Porter Season: Porter, Nøgne Ø, Grimstad, Norway
Posted by on Saturday, October 6, 2007 in - 3 comments
We are having a two month dry spell that has extended into October, bringing with it the sorts of temperatures that should have been fading away five weeks ago. Porter season is late hear at the most easterly point of the Great Lakes. And yet I think of the snow and winter and of Knut because this …
Stonch, Ron, Garrett And A Question Of Evidence
Posted by on Saturday, October 6, 2007 in - 5 comments
I have a confession. I have little or no interest in beer styles whatsoever. All I care about is that a particular beer tastes good, has interestingly depths, that the layers of depth contain clues to both its ingredients and history, that it is consistently made, is tweekable - and can be … read more »
Session 8: Food and Beer With Lucy Saunders
Posted by on Friday, October 5, 2007 in - leave a comment
Most excellent! I forgot it was session day today and the topic is food and beer as picked by the poetical industrial complex behind Beer Haiku Daily. As it happens, a few weeks ago...or more likely months...beer cook extraordinaire Lucy Saunders was kind enough to forward a review copy of her …
Who Is Blogaboutbeer.com?
Posted by on Thursday, October 4, 2007 in - 10 comments
It's hardly my place to call out another beer blogger but that is what I feel the need to do. Why? This is why: • “About 65 per cent of the beer produced at the Oland Brewery is exported outside the Maritime provinces. Maybe with the expansions, we’ll see Keith’s south of the boarder. One can …
Come To Church - Have A Beer
Posted by on Wednesday, October 3, 2007 in - leave a comment
Being a PK - preacher's kid - I have an inordinate interest in stories like this one: • “Sutton’s popular preacher Rev Taffy Davies is handing out beer tokens to tempt his parishioners to a pub debate on religion. But his wacky offer could spark a holy war with a neighbouring cleric and his …
Beer Cocktails Revisited And Then Run From
Posted by on Tuesday, October 2, 2007 in - 4 comments
A while back we were all yapping about beer cocktails, meaning putting not-beer in beer to make something that allegedly improved beer. I was not moved. I called them signs of the end times. Today, hunting out a story I think I came across the shadow of the valley of death of beer cocktails …
Paul Goes To The Ipswich Beer Festival
Posted by on Monday, October 1, 2007 in - leave a comment
I lost my virginity in my hometown of Bury St Edmunds. I think it was in late spring of 1990. And my second beer festival was in September of that year in Ipswich. There was a hiatus for the Bury St Edmunds festival for a few years after that, which means that I've been to more Ipswich beer …
