April 2008
Tonight Is The Night To Drink Like A Finn!
Posted by on Wednesday, April 30, 2008 in - 1 comment
Have I ever told you my Finnish joke? I heard it years ago on a BBC World Service show on the cultural nature of Finns. The joke goes like this: • “Two Finns go to a cabin in the woods for a week of drinking. On the second day one Finn says to the other "shouldn't we have something to eat?" to …
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Posted by on Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Germany: Vitus, Weihenstephaner, Freising, Bavaria
Posted by on Tuesday, April 29, 2008 in - 2 comments
Troy has the story today about who Weihenstephaner is coming to Ontario for a seasonal release. The importer, Beer Barons, is new on the scene but (t)he(y) was good enough at the end of last year allowing the panel here at A Good Beer Blog study both the weisse and the dunkel carefully. We were …
Water??? You People Are Clearly Not Doing Your Part!!!
Posted by on Monday, April 28, 2008 in - 3 comments
Sadness reigns with the tragic news that I read this evening: • “In a new report on bottled water consumption, the industry newsletter Beverage Digest said in its latest issue that per-person consumption of bottled water has now outpaced that of beer and is second only to carbonated soft drinks …
Posted by on Monday, April 28, 2008
Meta-Beer-Blogging...Or Watching Troy Watch Phin And Paul
Posted by on Sunday, April 27, 2008 in - 6 comments
BeerBistro! after all the people go to bed. • I had a great time Friday night. It was fun to meet the Southern Tier guys as well as the very dapper Liliana and Vlado, those great folk behind hosts Roland + Russell (who, by the way, I am starting to think were either two dusty Victorian-era …
About Oaked Beer: Angel's Share, Lost Abbey, San Marcos, CA
Posted by on Saturday, April 26, 2008 in - leave a comment
The neatly manicured hand is Josh Rubin's. After the very successful Southern Tier dinner on Friday night, he snabbed Phin DeMink, Southern Tier's brewer Paul Cain (aka "Paul whose business card I misplaced") and me taking us on a taxi ride to BeerBistro! where we popped tops until we closed the …
More On That Beer Writing Code Of Conduct Idea
Posted by on Friday, April 25, 2008 in - 6 comments
Andy has another good post up this week about the sorts of ethical standards of journalism as (what I would argue) befits that particular corner (but not the other corners) of what I consider collectively to be "beer writing." I won't copy his bit (as you can follow the link above) but I did want …
Notes From The Beer Stained Coaster Part Of The Web
Posted by on Thursday, April 24, 2008 in - 1 comment
There's a bunch of things going on out there as I get ready to leave Easlakia and head west to the Big Smoke for the Southern Tier dinner Greg is talking about today. I am bringing a long a pal I first had a beer with in 1981 and will be interested to hear his take on all this craft beer stuff …
[Insert Beer] Wins [Insert Beer] Style Award
Posted by on Wednesday, April 23, 2008 in - 5 comments
I have no real complaint over the 12,474,832 awards that are handed out for beers every year. I have never paid any attention to these things when making beer selection decisions - though, to be fair, when a label mentions a claim to one of them I think of it as red flag worthy of further …
Do You Want To Meet Me? Really? Well , You Can Friday.
Posted by on Tuesday, April 22, 2008 in - 1 comment
...you know if you really have to. Because I will be attending a food and beer event being held at Toronto's The Academy of Spherical Arts in honour of Roland + Russell bringing Southern Tier IPA to Ontario. There is more information here and here. Events start at six but if you are the bailiff …
Book Review: "Brewing Battles" By Amy Mittelman
Posted by on Monday, April 21, 2008 in - leave a comment
This really should be labeled as "book review, part one" given I have not hit the half way point in this book, published just this year. But as I have complained long and hard about the absence of a comprehensive US brewing history, I am driven to tap and type, to type and tap. In a nutshell, this …
Notes From My Day Off Blogging But On Grilling
Posted by on Sunday, April 20, 2008 in - 4 comments
I have fallen into a habit of posting every day. I don't know when that started but I didn't so much not post yesterday on purpose as I had other things to do: driving guests around showing the town, organizing meat procurements, soaking ribs in Church-Key West Coast IPA, smoking and grilling …
Happy Birthday From Jay To Me!
Posted by on Friday, April 18, 2008 in - 1 comment
Jay was kind enough to post about my birthday today - especially after I let him know! Thanks for all your wishes and rest assured craft beer is paying a dignified and important role in the day. Best of all I suspect in about an hour a pal and a case of Allagash may come though the door to share …
Vermont: Roxy Rolles, Magic Hat, Burlington
Posted by on Thursday, April 17, 2008 in - leave a comment
Just a note on this one. • Very much like Ithaca Cascazilla but with the added buttery goodness of Magic Hat. A great deep orange amber caramel with a off white fine lacing cream head. Bitter green spruce hops on the nose amongst the maltiness. Cherry, black tea, raisin with plenty of graininess …
Check Your Kilt For Monkeys As Brewers Plant Hops
Posted by on Thursday, April 17, 2008 in - 1 comment
Funny how two months ago the idea that craft brewers might get off the supply grid and try planting a few hops - you know, to avoid being soaked by the tightened traditional supply and other rising cost inputs like transportation - was the cause of what might be called confusion. Now, according to …
Rock Stars? Enough With The Analogies Already!
Posted by on Wednesday, April 16, 2008 in - 5 comments
So...you guys got any good beer in there? Some Saison Dupont maybe? • Earlier today, Stonch pointed out the somewhat strained tone of this press release floating around for a beer event half a day's drive to my south in which one is promised that we may "[m]eet the luminaries of the craft beer …
Russian Bar Snacks Are My Bar Snacks!
Posted by on Tuesday, April 15, 2008 in - 9 comments
When I lived in Poland back in 1991, I loved the food. I was warned that the post-Soviet economy would mean line ups, inflated prices and scarcity. Nothing could be further from the truth for the experience I had in my Baltic resort city of Kolobrzeg. But even with the zap-shacks, bigos domovi …
Scotland: Dark, Isle of Arran Brewery, Brodick, Arran
Posted by on Monday, April 14, 2008 in - 4 comments
But for the invasion of Hungary and the Suez crisis, I might be very familiar with this beer. My people are from the part of Scotland that looks across at Arran and, but for that little thing about getting out before WWIII started, I might have grown up there myself. • Rummy scents on the pop of …
Warning: Beer May Cause A "Social Activity" To Occur
Posted by on Sunday, April 13, 2008 in - 1 comment
This is one for the ages, a doozy in the annals of local politicians who twist themselves into knots to avoid saying beer is not spawn of the devil: • “The tennis center, located across the street from City Hall, is where Selfon said she envisioned the sales taking place, but said she could see …
The Anonymous Brewers Speak: Rating The Raters
Posted by on Saturday, April 12, 2008 in - 44 comments
“From Alan: Recently I was contacted by a brewer who wondered if he, too, could write for A Good Beer Blog. Sure, no problem I thought. If Knut and Travis can, why not a craft brewer? But the brewer wanted to do it under the cloak of anonymity. I wavered. I wondered. I let it go for a while …
Beer And Health: What Do You Do To Cope With the Brew?
Posted by on Friday, April 11, 2008 in - 6 comments
Just sixteen pounds of steel. But 270 pounds of me. That's pretty much what I realized last fall. I took some photos of me reliving past skills from 30 years back, kicking a 35 yard field goal¹ - and when I saw them I thought that I better do something. There is an elephant in the room when it …
Ontario: West Coast IPA, Church-Key, Campbellford
Posted by on Thursday, April 10, 2008 in - 3 comments
Driving back from Toronto, today I thought that the 50 km's worth of relief from the 401 would be worth it if only there were some of that West Coast IPA. Well, not only was it there, it was on tap for the growler fill and John was around just before heading out for a 6 hour round trip delivering …
More Good News As More Good Hops Being Planted
Posted by on Thursday, April 10, 2008 in - leave a comment
Stan confirms in relation to hops what I noted earlier in relation to malt - farmers will do what farmers do and react to price and demand increases. Let the doomsday predictors have their day in the sun until the supply chain plays itself out, though. Just remember that hops and grain are not oil …
The Heart Possessed By Love Of Beer
Posted by on Wednesday, April 9, 2008 in - leave a comment
You really should go read something worth your while like Martyn Cornell's latest post over at Zythophile - and not this story. Mine is but a cheap cut and paste job from Google news while his is a good in depth bit about the colour of mild. Yet his does not once reference a lady who received a …
Head-To-Head: Two Blogs, Two India Pale Ales
Posted by on Tuesday, April 8, 2008 in - 6 comments
...Travis to the left, MNB to the right... • There has been a battle over beer out there, citizens. A battle between blue and grey, north and south, brewer and brewer. And, as is so often the case, it is the Canadian who is asked to step in an clear things up. • Here is what I know about the …
Your Volstead Amendment Day Guide For This April 7th
Posted by on Monday, April 7, 2008 in - 4 comments
Every American Bar, circa April 6, 1933 • I was thinking of being all Grumpelstiltskin and point out...again...that this is not "Prohibition Repeal Day" but I thought the better of it. I thought people might say "how expected" or even "ho-hum" or maybe even stoop to use the word "weenie." How …
Jolly Pumpkin Lambic Coming Along Nicely But Awfully Quietly
Posted by on Sunday, April 6, 2008 in - 6 comments
...is it in that one...or that one...? • When I read all the buzz this winter about Allagash's worthy lambic project, I was left scratching my head a little given that Ron at Jolly Pumpkin indicated to me last fall that their own lambic experimentation had started over three years ago and would …
The Winners Of The 2008 Beer Blog Poetry Slam
Posted by on Sunday, April 6, 2008 in - 1 comment
This has been a weird contest in a way. We've run a number of these arts/beers challenges and for the most part the entries are fun or light. But this time, even though there were not maybe as many entries as there might have been, the quality was really quite impressive. I have put all the …
Brilliant! Jay Proposes International Brewer's Day
Posted by on Saturday, April 5, 2008 in - 1 comment
So many clever people in the world of beer thinking. Jay is one of the best and this is one of his best ideas: • “I’m proposing now that we set aside a day as International Brewer’s Day, a day to raise a toast and honor all the brewers in the world. For the date, I’m proposing July 18, which is …
Great News! Grain Prices Are Starting To Drop!
Posted by on Saturday, April 5, 2008 in - 3 comments
Great news in all the gloom and doom about the inevitability of higher beer prices for ever and ever amen - grain prices are dropping: • “...speculators are getting out of the market and that prompted the heavy selling that pushed canola down sharply as it hit its lowest level in over 8 weeks …
Session 14: Where Are My Beer Peeps? Who Is My Beer Pal?
Posted by on Friday, April 4, 2008 in - leave a comment
I was chatting on the IM with Stonch about this subject when he was thinking about it and I had to admit that it would be a hard one for me. Like the other bloggers for this edition of The Session, a lot of people go one about beer being a social lubricant and all but that's just not the way it is …
PGP 3.0: It Sound Like Fun But What The Heck Is It?
Posted by on Thursday, April 3, 2008 in - 4 comments
Scanning for beer stories, I came across this reference to some sort of beer related sport but when I read and the reread the article and then did again a few times more I realized I had no idea what the sport was: • “At stake was a nine gallon keg of fine Stonehouse real ale, donated by the …
Contest: All The Entries Are In And The Committee Meets
Posted by on Wednesday, April 2, 2008 in - leave a comment
The entries to the Good Beer Blog Poetry Slam 2008 are in and the judges are hard at work. Here is the last entry from Erich Renken that got in under Monday's deadline: • “I remember well my first beers • Despite that time's been 17 years • Bud Light was the brew that night • "Wait a …
The Post With My Howard The Duck References
Posted by on Wednesday, April 2, 2008 in - 2 comments
Howard the Duck. I have some of the original mid-70s comics that I bought when I was around 13. A masterful idea I thought. The universe we know being one of many parallel ones that float in a meta-reality side by side bumping once in a while allowing figures from one to cross to another …
Another Interesting Set Of Obserservations From Andy Crouch
Posted by on Tuesday, April 1, 2008 in - 4 comments
Beer writing. Again with the critical beer writing. Look, I am not interested in being unpleasant or just an oath bolster in relation to calling out so you needn't worry about that. But this comment over at Stan's blog about the state of critical beer writing - the 66th in the thread - posted this …
Beer Fan Terminology Update
Posted by on Tuesday, April 1, 2008 in - leave a comment
What with all the April's Fools joke posts as well as at least one seemingly authentic blog funeral announcement, it was good to see an true advance in the thinking about being a beer nerd/fan/geek and, as usual, the news comes out of Scandenavia as Knut describes: • “I don’t care much what I’m …
