October 2008
Update On Stan's Beery Conference Idea
Posted by on Friday, October 31, 2008 in - 3 comments
I've just finished another great conference (at least my third this month) and I checked back with Stan's blog post on the beer blog conference thingie and the clever people at Madison Beer Review posted this incredibly apt comment: • I’m not unopposed to the idea in theory. I am concerned that …
"Man Arrested In Santa Cruz With Beer Keg, Harmonica, Wet Suit..."
Posted by on Thursday, October 30, 2008 in - 2 comments
"...and hallucinogenic mushrooms." • That's a headline in The Mercury News of San Jose today. When I go hunting Goggle, once in every while, for beer news to comment upon there are always masses of these sad stories about beer and violence to get through about, say, man beats man with beer or …
Winter And Xmas Brews: Brrr, Widmer Bros., Oregon
Posted by on Wednesday, October 29, 2008 in - 2 comments
The good folks at Widmer Brothers sent me a few of their new seasonal brew, Brrr. That was awfully nice of them and a habit more of you should consider adopting - especially nice as this will only be available in 17 US cities over just the next two months. • A big fruity nose on the first …
Beer Science: Beer Which Emits Light.
Posted by on Monday, October 27, 2008 in - 2 comments
The BBC has an interesting story today about the lengths to which macro-brewers have gone to figure out how to attract customers: • Green beer. Blue beer. Beer with the frothy 'head' in the middle of the glass, rather than at the top. Beer which emits light..."We've done lots of things which are …
Does Beer Glass Size Really Matter?
Posted by on Sunday, October 26, 2008 in - 8 comments
Years ago in Stirling Scotland I likely got my only true pint of beer. The fluid crested over the glass holding it through the miracle of surface tension and the bartender told me to lean over and take a first draw off the top to avoid losing too much. That was a fine pint. Every other of the …
Stan Proposes A Beery Conference And I Agree
Posted by on Saturday, October 25, 2008 in - 2 comments
This is a good idea and, frankly, would be the second annual as I held the first annual in my basement this summer with four attendees. I countered in his comments with a few ideas of how such a thing could work: • Do not hold it around one event in one venue. Too compressed. Too manic. Not …
Who Is The Best Beer Blogger? Ron Is.
Posted by on Saturday, October 25, 2008 in - 2 comments
If we were not clear on this point as yet, our English expat pal in the Netherlands has made it abundantly clear in his last post wherein he sums up the 20th century. If I perhaps could claim to be The Jam - an accolade I would resist - he is no less than The Smiths. I bow deeply. We are honoured.
Holland: Tripel, Koningshoeven, Berkel-Enschot
Posted by on Friday, October 24, 2008 in - 1 comment
I can't believe I have not written about Koningshoeven aka La Trappe. Like the great soda v. pop conundrum, this sixth monastic brewery has divided the planet according to how people describe it. Bah! What's that, you say? BAH, I say. Was not "La Trappe" created for those who could not pronounce …
We Used To Expect People To Publicly Pee In Comfort
Posted by on Thursday, October 23, 2008 in - 3 comments
Blogging upon other people's bloggy observations is one other the lowest forms of blogging. Yet, when someone like Pete Brown goes about actually going to real events and doing things like taking a cask of IPA to India by boat, well, that is really more like conveying actual news … read more »
The Pub Game Project: Pub Conkers!
Posted by on Wednesday, October 22, 2008 in - 1 comment
I think I only know about conkers because I am the child of immigrants. When I was little, grandpa came over from Scotland and was quite pleased to see that the schoolyard had a chestnut tree. Away he went picking up the windfalls and - all personal ethics and the Conkers Association rules being …
BMP 3.0: Beer and Music Cross-Referenced At Last.fm
Posted by on Tuesday, October 21, 2008 in - leave a comment
Here's an experiment. When I was at Zap Your Pram 2008 over the weekend, there was a very nice representative from Last.fm, the internet music social network thingie. I've been playing with it ever since, loading music into the library, figuring out which bands are like the bands I like and …
Road Stories: A Tale Of Two Liquor Commissions
Posted by on Monday, October 20, 2008 in - 4 comments
So it was not quite the same trip I had imagined. Not only did I not get across the bridge at Sarnia last weekend but, as if this weekend, I officially encourage you to think very carefully next time you get that feeling that it would good to travel from Levis, Quebec to PEI. There are nicely …
On The Road...If You Didn't Notice
Posted by on Friday, October 17, 2008 in - 1 comment
I am in PEI at a conference and typing this on a borrowed iPod. Saison Dupont 5.75 for 750 ml in Quebec. Nice. • Err...iPhone...
Barley Wine: Olde Deuteronomy 2003, Alley Kat, Alberta
Posted by on Tuesday, October 14, 2008 in - leave a comment
Election night here in Canada. So far most of the fun has been watching people get around the blackout law that bars transmission of election results until polls close across the whole country by posting from the UK or posting as rumours. The law is pre-Internet. It's actually pretty much pre-TV …
There Is A Limit To What I Will Do For Great Beer
Posted by on Monday, October 13, 2008 in - 4 comments
I had no idea such a limit existed. But there it was. Last Friday afternoon, I was heading to the Ontario-Michigan border with that plan to hit up nearby a shop or two for at least three cases of various craft beers when, whammo, traffic stopped. Almost two miles from the border, everything stood …
Session 21 Announced: What's Your Favorite Flavour?
Posted by on Wednesday, October 8, 2008 in - 7 comments
I think that's it...no, it's this: what is your favorite beer and why? While I did like the music non-beer theme, I'd prefer something more of a beer theme for The Session. All these non-themes that use beer as illustration, like last month's about beer and memories, are really treating beer as a …
Belgium: Ultra Amber, Brasserie d'Ecaussinnes, D'Enghien
Posted by on Tuesday, October 7, 2008 in - 1 comment
A small gift to myself from Tulley's last August. $3.25 from the discount rack. "Discount rack?!?" you say. Yes, discount rack. Don't you recall what your mother told you as she lent over you and cooled your brow with the wet wash cloth when you had that fever back in grade five? She said" …
Charleston Business Journal - Beer News Horn O'Plenty
Posted by on Monday, October 6, 2008 in - 2 comments
In amongst all the daily beer news items about this guy beating up that guy over a case of beer...or these guys passing a law that will never work to stop this guy beating up that guy over a case of beer...you find a gem like an article in the Charleston (Regional) Business Journal by Molly Parker …
Jeffery Amherst's Spruce Beer Circa 1759
Posted by on Sunday, October 5, 2008 in - 1 comment
I am a bad home brewer. I have had supplies in for months to do a couple of all-grain batches but still they stiff wrapped and wrapped again in plastic in a cool, dark place. I did buy another mash pot yesterday but, given my failure to avoid napping and reading this afternoon, no beer again was …
About Oaked Beer: Perseguidor 2006, Jolly Pumpkin, Michigan
Posted by on Saturday, October 4, 2008 in - 1 comment
This beer crosses a lot of categories: oaked, aged, sour and from a state that looks like a mitten. I picked this 2006 edition of Perseguidor from Ron when I spent an hour with him a year ago, probably my beery highlight of 2007 now that I think of it. • BAer's lavish love - though they lament …
Session 20: Beer Memories And Me
Posted by on Friday, October 3, 2008 in - leave a comment
So, I suppose it is a little ironic that I forgot this edition of the Session until today. But, given that beer is more related to the erasing of memory than the fixing of it, maybe that is natural. Interestingly, there is one memory related story - possibly apochrophal - that experiences during …
Beer Hunting in Michigan and Quebec
Posted by on Wednesday, October 1, 2008 in - 5 comments
I have a couple of big trips coming up in October. Circumstances place me to the west in London, Ontario relieved of duties before noon on a Friday which means I have an hour to head further west still to the border at Sarnia and the afternoon to shop in Michigan. Having been there before, I have … read more »
