August 2008
So What Exactly Is A Session Beer?
Posted by on Sunday, August 31, 2008 in - 14 comments
A couple of articles I read this past week got me thinking again about that spiny question of what exactly constitutes a session beer. There was the last Tuesday's article in The New York Times by Betsy Andrews entitled "The Other Extreme: Low-Alcohol Beers" but I also got a copy of the summer …
Massachusetts: St. Hubbins Abbey, High and Mighty Beer, Holyoke
Posted by on Thursday, August 28, 2008 in - 2 comments
Excellent. A Spinal Tap reference in a well-priced Belgian-style ale, named for the patron saint of quality footwear. The brewery's website is but a page - refreshingly Tap-tastic as well. The brewery apparently uses the equipment at fellow Holyokarians at Paper City, whose mixed 12 pack I … read more »
Did Franklin Know That Much About Beer Goggles?
Posted by on Wednesday, August 27, 2008 in - 1 comment
I doubt not that moderate Drinking has been improv'd for the Diffusion of Knowledge among the ingenious Part of Mankind...drinking does not improve our Faculties, but it enables us to use them. • Benjamin Franklin, Silence Dogood, No. 12, 1722. • Franklin was 16 or 17 when he wrote that under … read more »
Maine: Novare Res, Off Of Exchange Street, Portland
Posted by on Tuesday, August 26, 2008 in - leave a comment
While in Maine, I headed out one night with pals who lived there to find a new Belgian beer bar that I had heard plenty about - Novare Res. We had a bit of trouble finding the place at night as it sits in a mid block courtyard near the corner of Exchange and Middle Streets in the old port part of …
Book To Be Reviewed:"Taverns and Drinking in Early America"
Posted by on Monday, August 25, 2008 in - 12 comments
I really shouldn't call this a book review when I have only read the introduction. Has anyone else seen this book by Sharon V. Salinger of UC Irvine? I found it at the Fort Stanwix gift shop in Rome, NY yesterday as we were driving back from Maine. From the first bit I have read, it appears to be … read more »
Maine: Shopping At Allagash Brewing Co., Portland
Posted by on Wednesday, August 20, 2008 in - 3 comments
We stopped in at Allagash to pick up some supplies yesterday, three hours early for the tour but that was fine. I was really looking just to shop on the one rainy morning during our week in southern Maine. I plan to be on the beach most days at 3 pm. Not that I usually mention landscaping but …
Maine Update: The Grocery Store Question
Posted by on Tuesday, August 19, 2008 in - 1 comment
One of the many great things about Maine is you can buy beer at a grocery store - and wine and what they call "haaaard liqaaaah" around here. So far I have only hit two stores in South Portland, Shaw's and Hannaford, but it is interesting to note the different treatment. At clean and bright and …
Scratch Bakery, South Portland, Maine
Posted by on Sunday, August 17, 2008 in - leave a comment
I should get a photo later this week (here is a good wintery one on Flickr) but just a note that it's nice to find a rental house five blocks from Scratch Bakery in South Portland Maine where you can buy fine cheese, fine wines, a whole whack of great breads and other backed goods - not to mention …
Heading To Maine And Not Stopping For Vermont Beer
Posted by on Saturday, August 16, 2008 in - 2 comments
I must be a homebody. A homer. A slug-a-bed. But, after a six hour drive from the east of Lake Ontario to beyond Lake Champlain, the last thing I want most times is a beer. Driving around Burlington at 9:30 pm last night trying to find a grocery store to lay in some breakfast, I passed any number …
The Sort Of Pub I Wish I Lived Near
Posted by on Thursday, August 14, 2008 in - 6 comments
I have to admit that I am not exactly a guy with a regular pub. Frankly, when I head to the States on holiday with our pals like I will tomorrow for ten days, I am more likely to have a favorite bar I go to regularly than I would have here. But none are like the pub mentioned at the BBC today … read more »
Belgium: Blond, Abbey Of St. Sixtus, Westvleteren
Posted by on Wednesday, August 13, 2008 in - 6 comments
Something green perhaps. Michael Jackson wrote in his Great Beers of Belgium that this beer has "a powerfully earthy, herbal aroma; a light, firm body; and an intensely appetising hop bitterness". Any beer that can generate that word to semi-colon ratio is fine by me, I suppose. • But first, it …
More On The Irish Price Of Malting Barley
Posted by on Tuesday, August 12, 2008 in - 8 comments
Ireland's beer blogger The Beer Nut noted it in yesterday's comments but the details are quite astounding as the maltsters for Guinness's owner Diageo are proposing a 20% cut in the price they will pay for the 2008 crop: • A spokesman for Greencore Malt, which supplies Diageo, said grain prices …
So Where Are Barley Prices Headed Now?
Posted by on Monday, August 11, 2008 in - 6 comments
I don't know what it is like where you are, but here in the rainy eastern end of the Great Lakes it's the year of the bumper crop, with Ontario's wheat crop set to be a record. That got me thinking about last spring's talk about price increases for brewers. Here are some stories harvested from …
A Thief Misinterprets The News About Beer Goggles
Posted by on Sunday, August 10, 2008 in - 1 comment
Sadly, it appears that one sicky fingered felony in Chicago misunderstood this week's news about beer goggles: • Police in the Chicago suburb of Buffalo Grove are asking for the public's help in returning a $150 pair of special goggles that are used to simulate the effects of intoxication …
California: Lumpy Gravy, Lagunitas Brewing, Petaluma
Posted by on Friday, August 8, 2008 in - leave a comment
A brown beer. A 7.2% special brewed just one time. But it has Frank Zappa on the label and that gives hope. I had a pre-punk dalliance with Zappa's orchestrated wit that The Sex Pistols and the Clash swept away with their powerful simplicity so this beer speaks back 35 years for me...though … read more »
Australian Monarchists Hate Punning...
Posted by on Thursday, August 7, 2008 in - leave a comment
...or is it intentional spoonerisms...or is it, in fact, just all humour? Odd that Oz brewers Coopers should buckle under political pressure and take down their billboard ads which read "Forget the monarchy, support the publicans": • "It crossed a boundary, because it said 'Forget the Monarchy …
England: Bitter, The Brakspear Brewing Co., Oxfordshire
Posted by on Wednesday, August 6, 2008 in - 5 comments
Loonie. I was even going to boycott British beer today because of the order of the loonie ruling about UK's Trading Standards department requiring Polish beer to be served in pints. I thought the victory over EU regulations was that the pint was saved, not that it was mandated. Boo. However, I was …
Why Don't They Study Slam Dancing And Health Anymore?
Posted by on Tuesday, August 5, 2008 in - 3 comments
Another day, another bunch of odd academic studies from labcoated laboratorians or policy documents from lobbyist trying to tell us all what beer does with you or what you do when you are with your beer: • From France we learn that "when the music gets loud, we tend to drain our mug of brew …
Book Review: "Amber Gold and Black" by Martyn Cornell
Posted by on Monday, August 4, 2008 in - leave a comment
OK, this is not so much a book review as an announcement of a book to be reviewed. I received an email today from Martyn Cornell of both the blog Zythophile as well as the excellent book Beer: The Story of the Pint, one of my first beery book reviews almost five years ago now. He has published an …
One More Reason Not To Worry So Much About Beer Pong
Posted by on Sunday, August 3, 2008 in - 1 comment
That is called "The Octabong" and I am still not sure whether the announcement of its creation on a website called "Inventorspot" is a joke or not. Sort of seems like the excess of that five blade disposable razor - do we really need that many people bonging beer at one time together? But, as with …
Session 18: No Anniversary For Me - Just New Beginnings
Posted by on Saturday, August 2, 2008 in - 1 comment
I didn't pop a beer with tenth or 14th on the label last night as other beer bloggers did. "The Session" happens on the first Friday of every month and this month was hosted over at The Barley Blog. A great topic was picked - the best in a while - but I just had other things on my mind with the …
