July 2008
Clearly, Beer Pong Must Die!
Posted by on Thursday, July 31, 2008 in - 15 comments
Here is another thing I do not understand. Maybe this is just "I don't understand things" week but - like my strange attraction to Ron at the beach - what is the whoop with beer pong? My only problem with it is it appears to be a modest expenditure to achieve much the same beer game experience … read more »
Ron On The Belgian Coast
Posted by on Thursday, July 31, 2008 in - 2 comments
I have no idea why I think this is one of the best beer blog posts ever written but it is one of the best beer blog posts ever written.
Gallup Says Me And Mine Prefer Beer
Posted by on Wednesday, July 30, 2008 in - 2 comments
The Gallup Organization, that shadowy group that has been telling me my whole life about what is going on and expecting me to simply accept it - and usually for good reason - has released the chart above according to the Boston Globe and a bazillion other news sources. It's quite an extraordinary …
Wisconsin: Bitter Woman IPA, Tyranena Brewing, Lake Mills
Posted by on Tuesday, July 29, 2008 in - leave a comment
My mid-west beer territory has expanded care of Stan's visit the other day. The New Glarus Spotted Cow of the other night was my first WI brew (of the non-cricketing WI that is) and here's the next one - Bitter Woman IPA from Lake Mills' Tyranena. The brewer tells us that the bitter woman in …
The Real Implications Of The A-B Buyout By InBev
Posted by on Monday, July 28, 2008 in - 5 comments
I am reluctant to share my thoughts on the recently announced merger of AB and IB (hey, that makes "ABIB"...but they'll always be "IBAB" to me) as I am all too aware, despite them not being exactly craft brewers, that there are careers and family livelihoods on the line and a lot of hardworking …
Josh Freed On His Favorite Dep
Posted by on Saturday, July 26, 2008 in - 1 comment
Dep? Make that dépanneur. One of the great elements of eastern Canadian beerness is the Quebec dépanneur, the corner store that sells beer like the ever excellent Marche Jovi in Gatineau. To someone in many of the United States this may seem like nothing much but to an eastern Ontarian or Maritime …
Can't We Just Admit We Like Corn Sometimes?
Posted by on Thursday, July 24, 2008 in - 13 comments
One of the things I don't get about beer lovers is the seething disrespect of corn - aka maize for some of you. OK, maybe not seething but my comment the other day that I now craved New Glarus Spotted Cow was met with particular surprise by Jeffery Glazer of Wisconsin's Madison Beer Review who …
More Ways To Get To A Good Beer Blog
Posted by on Wednesday, July 23, 2008 in - 4 comments
My gracious server masters are the most gracious server masters ever. I just got an email that they have gifted me with two more URLs which make a little more sense than the one I have been living with for about 4 years now. You now can also get your daily dose of A Good Beer Blog at …
The Hieronymi Were Here...As Were Steve and John!
Posted by on Tuesday, July 22, 2008 in - 1 comment
So beer writers Stan and Daria and family were here getting a break from the camper on their world beer tour 2008. As it turned out, so were Steve from Beau's and John o' Church-key. Between them the lads drove 500 km to get here and as much to get home - nothing compared, however, to the … read more »
An Australian Complains About The State Of Beer
Posted by on Sunday, July 20, 2008 in - 2 comments
This opinion piece in The Australian today speaks as much to the state of beer as the state of writing in newspapers in Australia. This extended quotation of James Jeffery's writing is remarkable both for its coarseness and its plainness about the moronic nature of the cult of globalized ice cold …
What Do You Drink When It Is Stinking Hot?
Posted by on Saturday, July 19, 2008 in - 17 comments
When I was a wee laddie back in Halifax and it was pushing 90F...or 33C...one pal inevitably declared "it's a drinker!" The undergrad group I hung out with - now doctors and lawyers and such as Waylon put it - considered drinking beer an activity in itself like, say, going to the movies, a dance …
Review: A Year With BeerAdvocate Magazine
Posted by on Thursday, July 17, 2008 in - 9 comments
I got my July issue of BeerAdvocate magazine in the mail today. It marks the conclusion of my first year of subscription and serves as a good reminder to think about what the magazine has accomplished and what it represents from my wee northern perspective. And it gives me something to type about …
Are These The Dog Days Of Beerdom?
Posted by on Wednesday, July 16, 2008 in - 2 comments
As you can imagine, news that MilCoo is moving to Chicago is about as interesting as the impending formation of In-Bud. Yawn. There must be something more interesting in beer going on: • A group in Toronto has formed called Cask! to agitate for more of what they want. Great news...though I am … read more »
Will I Drop By A Brewerianists Convention?
Posted by on Tuesday, July 15, 2008 in - 2 comments
I always wonder about this sort of thing but I may have to go this time if I have good manners. It appears my city will soon host the national celebration of beer stuff, according to our local Whig-Standard: • The Limestone Brewerianist Club - the name means a collector of beer bottles or …
Africa: Draught, Namibia Breweries, Windhoek, Namibia
Posted by on Monday, July 14, 2008 in - 15 comments
Is this my first African beer? I know I have had Kenya's Tusker but never posted about it. I also know that I have yet to have a Nigerian Guinness. You know - the one Ron buys for the train trip home. I received this and a few other's by Windhoek's Namibia Breweries from our pals at Roland and …
Following The Hieronymi Around The World
Posted by on Sunday, July 13, 2008 in - leave a comment
I have to admit that beer blogging has given me far more than I have ever given it. Through beer blogging I have electronically met a particularly rich seam of the most gracious and generous folk in the English-speaking world. One of the finest is, of course, our pal Stan Hieronymus, author of … read more »
An Update On The State Of Beer In Ireland
Posted by on Saturday, July 12, 2008 in - 3 comments
The LA Times has an interesting article today on the changing state of Guinness in the beer drinking life of Ireland: • Ireland is still the second-biggest beer-drinking market in the world, after the Czech Republic. But beer consumption has declined 15% since 2001. Rural pubs were closing last …
BrewDog Is Encouraging You To Do Bad Bad Things
Posted by on Thursday, July 10, 2008 in - 1 comment
What a burden it must be to be a firm with cheeky humour in a land...known for its cheeky humour. What would Billy Connelly say about this new move by the clearly irresponsible madmen in charge of this brewery?!? • Earlier this year BrewDog, the award-winning microbrewery, faced being … read more »
Do You Belong To The Cult Of Beer?
Posted by on Wednesday, July 9, 2008 in - 1 comment
Classes of beer. Not beer styles but classes: macro, craft, premium, discount, import. There seems to be another one - cult: • "I love the stuff," he said, comparing it to Molson Canadian. "It's got a lot of flavor and a bit of hoppiness. It's not too heavy or malty." Being unavailable is often … read more »
All We Want Is A Free Beer Market...
Posted by on Tuesday, July 8, 2008 in - 14 comments
...or is it a beer free market? Not so sure. But one Ontario man - the interestingly named Mr. Forward - is. He has started a petition to free Ontarians from the two-headed monster that is the government owned LCBO and the macro-brewery owned Beer Store: • His petition says: "We the people of …
New TV Show On Beer In The Works
Posted by on Monday, July 7, 2008 in - 3 comments
Evan Rail may have spilled a few beans over the weekend in a post updating the Prague beer scene: • I’ll be working with a crew shooting a Discovery Channel television special on beer, which, back home, will include brewing stars like Sam Calagione from the offensively good Dogfish Head and …
Ontario: Stuart's Natural, Scotch Irish Brewing, Lanark
Posted by on Sunday, July 6, 2008 in - 4 comments
Out and about on Friday I was quite happy to see this stubby at the LCBO, a cousin to the porter, imperial stout and IPA made by the Scotch Irish branch of Heritage Brewing. I was even more happy to see that it was a 3.7% ordinary bitter for $2.20 a bottle. • It pours a bright caramel-amber with …
Session 17: Anti-Seasonal Drinking or...I Like Macros!
Posted by on Friday, July 4, 2008 in - 1 comment
This month's version of the session is, a bit confusingly to me, about "anti-seasonal drinking." As I like everything all the time what can this mean to me? There is no season of beer to me. I am a beerophile and a freewheeling omnibibe without any book of days telling what goes in the glass. But …
Saison: Red Sky At Night, Clipper City, Baltimore, USA
Posted by on Thursday, July 3, 2008 in - 3 comments
Have I set up a saison category? I can't keep up with these things but if I did create a new category for these posts I would want it to be saison. I was sure it was going to be the next big thing back around 2005 but adding hops to the hops that just had been added to the hoppy beer seemed to be …
Update On The Economics of Microbrewing in Scotland
Posted by on Wednesday, July 2, 2008 in - leave a comment
There is a good article in Glasgow's Sunday Herald this week focusing on the state of Scotland's smaller breweries in the aftermath of the acquisition of Arran Brewery from its administrators by an investment firm, Marketing Management Services. In the last ten years a scene that boasted fewer … read more »
West End Brewing Company As Seen In Utica
Posted by on Wednesday, July 2, 2008 in - 2 comments
Reader and prize-winner Chad forwarded me some pictures from a visit to F.X. Matt in Utica to check out the place and give the brewery some support after their near calamitous fire in late May. I like this one the best. The brewery was called the West End Brewing Company in 1888 and appears to be …
Happy Canada Day - Don't Forget To Drink Your Beer
Posted by on Tuesday, July 1, 2008 in - 9 comments
It's a funny thing about beer and Canada. Canadians have this relationship to beer that is based entirely around the idea - largely erroneous - that our beer is better. So much so that it becomes a principle of our national existence as this article reminds us: • The poll, broken down into …
