August 2009
The Private Thoughts Of Maine's Bartenders
Posted by on Monday, August 31, 2009 in - 4 comments
I have no beer in hand. Not I. I have a Manhattan. More than once in a while in the summer - and it still is summer - I like the clink of ice in glass. So it was with some interest that I read an article from Portland Maine's community web news site, Switch, that a pal had sent me. It was about … read more »
Remind Me Not To Visit Grumpy Old Guy Stadium
Posted by on Sunday, August 30, 2009 in - 1 comment
A careful reader would know I like beer. And I like beer at a baseball game if it isn't at a rip-off price or a plastic bowl of plastic fluid. So, next time I am out looking for a game, I really should not sit next to Dayton Smith, 88, who's been gong to single A level games at Oneonta, NY for …
Hoist One For Angelo Cammarata
Posted by on Saturday, August 29, 2009 in - 2 comments
I really like this image from Associated Press photographer Ross Mantle of Angelo Cammarata, who is retiring after a bartending career that began in 1933. It conveys the cool and dark of a neighbourhood US bar, the sort of place that urban planning did away with in Canada for the most part over … read more »
Oligopoly? Oligopoly!?! What Oligopoly???
Posted by on Thursday, August 27, 2009 in - 4 comments
I have always liked the word oligopoly, not to mention oligarchy... which surely leads to a whole host of olig-this and olig-that if you ask me. But no one is asking me any more than anyone seems to have asked why beer prices going up when other prices are not: • Are the big beer companies …
Maine: Victor 2009, Allagash Brewing, Portland
Posted by on Wednesday, August 26, 2009 in - leave a comment
I got this in early July when we were in Maine. Bought it when I stumbled into a conversation with Rob Tod, the man behind Allagash, when I was at the brewery's retain shop. I mentioning (like a dooffus) that I had had my one and only bad Allagash experience with a Victor '07 or '08, a strong beer …
Is Alcohol Use Actually A Sign Of Modernity?
Posted by on Tuesday, August 25, 2009 in - 2 comments
This little nugget caught my eye in an article about alcohol use in Turkey: • As people go along with modernization and economic and intellectual development, they become less conservative. The increase in alcohol consumption stands as proof of this. • I don't know if I fully accept this even …
BBADD: UK 'Fraidy Cats To Ban Beer Glasses
Posted by on Monday, August 24, 2009 in - 8 comments
'Fraidy cats. The world is full of them. BBADD has no time for them. Yes, beer bloggers should be against crime and dumbness that leads to real harm but 'fraidy cats are not worried in the same way. They want to sweat the small stuff... but then try to make it look big like this: • The UK …
Canada: Where The Short Pour Is Mandated By Law
Posted by on Sunday, August 23, 2009 in - 9 comments
In Canada, we do not worry about things like the amount of beer you get in a glass. You may as well - and often do - ask for a "big" or "small" glass of beer as opposed to a pint. And what is "big" or "small" in one place bears no resemblance to what is on offer down the road. "Pint" can mean …
Indiana: Brian Boru, Three Floyds Brewing, Munster
Posted by on Friday, August 21, 2009 in - 3 comments
Irish red. I've never known about this style. What makes it different from an amber or an alt... because an amber was an alt before the days of the great stylistic explosion, right? But Brian Boru was from Munster just like this beer so it's the right thing to do, right? Ind with is an "old" Irish …
Thursday Night Trolling The Beer News And Blogs
Posted by on Thursday, August 20, 2009 in - leave a comment
Too lazy and beat to think of something clever to write. Baby. Four letters say so much. So I give you... links: • Perhaps one of the more difficult forms of beer related theft.Backhanded beer compliment of the week. According to the article "Saillard" who is stated to be French says '[i]t's …
How Closely Do Beer Sales Trace The Weather?
Posted by on Wednesday, August 19, 2009 in - 3 comments
At first, I thought this fact was pretty interesting if reliable. I suppose my beer purchasing habits are defined by other things than weather like availability of something interesting and the ability - a corollary of the first point - at any given time to get out of the local area and out on to …
CAMWA: Beer's Most Important Ingredient Tracked
Posted by on Tuesday, August 18, 2009 in - 7 comments
Finally, the suits are noticing that beer is made of water and water is, well, important as they join the tree huggers to make water the next big thing in eco-trendy marketing: • Water footprinting is being increasingly used to understand the total amount of water that supports our lifestyles …
Michigan: Too, Cream Stout, Dark Horse Brewing, Marshall
Posted by on Monday, August 17, 2009 in - 5 comments
When I was at Dark Horse last week, I picked up a few of their beers at Wacky Willy's Party Store, which sits at the south western corner of the brewery compound. I was told they sell all their beer through their tenant Wacky's... because before they did Wacky's wasn't selling any beer at all. It …
So Who Really Should Be Writing About Beer?
Posted by on Sunday, August 16, 2009 in - 10 comments
Stan linked via Twitter via Maureen to one of the oddest bits of beer writing I have ever come across in my years of doing this. It is by a Western Massachusetts based writer George Lenker, who apparently has had a beer column for about as long as I have written this beer blog. Looking at some of …
Back From The Eastern Midwest - And What Did I Learn?
Posted by on Saturday, August 15, 2009 in - leave a comment
I don't know that I learned anything. Maybe that faux Amish beards are in with brewers. A lot of the guys at the two breweries I hit between single A baseball games and small town diners, Dark Horse and Jolly Pumpkin, were sporting variations of big bear face. Looked a lot like a reunion of … read more »
Indiana: City-Wide Liquors, Jefferson St., South Bend
Posted by on Thursday, August 13, 2009 in - 1 comment
Just a bit of praise where praise is definitely due to the good folks at City-Wide Liquors at Jefferson Street in South Bend. I was able to stop in twice and found the place one of the beer best shopping experiences in my life, you know, with good beer. Why? Here's why: • There is an Indiana law …
Indiana: Gumballhead, Three Floyds Brewing, Munster
Posted by on Wednesday, August 12, 2009 in - 4 comments
I was in luck today. I had done the research and knew City Wide Liquors was the shop I needed to find in South Bend. But when I checked the map today, I realized it was only a couple of blocks from the hotel. Indiana law meant the lad, being under 21, was not allowed in the store but a clerk … read more »
Michigan: Bellaire Brown, Short's Brewing, Elk Rapids
Posted by on Tuesday, August 11, 2009 in - leave a comment
You can see I am not even in Michigan anymore - you see that, right? - but this beer is so good it is interstate. I bought a six of Bellaire Brown for $9.99 at Wacky's Party Store that forms part of the Dark Horse compound in Marshall, Michigan - just about half an hour's drive north of the … read more »
Michigan: A Two Hearted Ale And Then A Miller
Posted by on Monday, August 10, 2009 in - 4 comments
When we got to Lansing it was too late to do anything like shop for beer. We had a hotel pool to cannonball into, then a supper to find as well as a baseball game to attend. The tickets seven rows back of home were nine bucks, my Two Hearted Ale was four-fifty with dinner and huge mug of Miller at …
Ontario: We Got Your Beer... Just Not Here
Posted by on Sunday, August 9, 2009 in - 6 comments
This was one of those don't know whether to laugh or cry moments in my life with the Liquor Control Board of Ontario. As I holiday migrated slowly across the south of this great province from east to west, planning and daydreaming of the wealth of unknown beers that I might encounter in the week … read more »
Session 30: Beer Desserts... Or Something...
Posted by on Friday, August 7, 2009 in - 1 comment
I have a hard time with this topic as it really is really about food. Beer as maybe an ingredient. Maybe as an after thought. I don't know how it is about beer anymore than if it were to "beer and people I like" variations of which we have seen, unfortunately, before. Or the brilliant topic from …
Belgium: Saison, St. Feuillien Brewery, Le Roeulx
Posted by on Thursday, August 6, 2009 in - 1 comment
Saison. I think I said somewhere that 2006 or so was going to be the year of saison. Maybe 2010 will end up that way given the new takes that are popping up here and there. I picked up this one when I was in Maine a few weeks ago. It pours a slightly oranged straw with a white froth and rim. On … read more »
BBADD: Stop The Lawnmower Madness!!!
Posted by on Wednesday, August 5, 2009 in - 1 comment
It takes time to start a movement and especially one that is not humourless. So it is with some relief we have such an early example of the sort of behavior that I would think all beer bloggers can agree is way out of line: • ...authorities said that didn't stop the 49-year-old man from … read more »
Mmmmm... I Love Material In My Beer
Posted by on Tuesday, August 4, 2009 in - 5 comments
It's not so much a material I get to taste as a material that removes other material to make a material difference to beer. Makes sense? Me neither - here's the story: • A material that could lead to beer with significantly longer shelf life has been designed by researchers. The approach works … read more »
Importing Yet Another Eastern Euopean Lager
Posted by on Monday, August 3, 2009 in - leave a comment
Interesting article in the business section of today's Old and Male about efforts to bring yet another eastern European Lager into Canadian beer stores. Apparently, the task will be more difficult than one might imagine given the host of former Warsaw pact nations already represented on the …
Any Travel Tips For Central and SW Michigan?
Posted by on Sunday, August 2, 2009 in - 5 comments
While these things can go astray at the last minute, it looks like I am going to be able to roam the area east of southern Lake Michigan for a week later in August. My 2008 trip fell through so I have only been to Michigan's Ann Arbor area that one time in 2007. There are, however, rules of the …
That Messy Messy Democracy That Is Beer Writing
Posted by on Saturday, August 1, 2009 in - 1 comment
Stan H. and E.S. Delia have both written posts in the last few hours that go to the very heart of beer blogging. Stan's post "The end of beer writing as we know it?" and Mr. Delia's "On Beer Writing" both explore the relationship between blogging - an amateur form of expression - with profession …
