May 2009
I Might Well Like A Local That Wasn't So Local
Posted by on Sunday, May 31, 2009 in - 18 comments
Sure, we all moan and groan about the fake relocated British and Irish taverns. But its not because of the relocation so much as they are bad fakes. Once in a while they work just fine like the Old Triangle in Halifax. So why isn't there more of that? Why not a Norwegian fisherman's bar in Texas … read more »
Swag-a-palooza '09: Pick Your Own Beer Contest Rules!
Posted by on Saturday, May 30, 2009 in - 4 comments
I am too lazy these days. Once, as an aspiring beer blogger, I would think up themes for contests on the slightest whim, pound the gift sources mercilessly and then pass it all on to you, the actual beer drinking public. Now, I wait by the door for cheques and love letters that never come, think …
I Hate Missing A Good Manifesto About Beer
Posted by on Thursday, May 28, 2009 in - leave a comment
How many times have you thought "what we really need is a good five year plan for beer." Well, likely not that often if you live in North America as we stand alone, we beer consumers left to the wolves without the equivalent of the European Beer Consumers Union. Without the balancing of a …
Wisconsin: Spotted Cow, New Glarus, New Glarus
Posted by on Wednesday, May 27, 2009 in - 8 comments
Knut made an interesting observation today about the way social media (a far better phrase than "community") creates the unexpected, brings beer fans and brewers together on the level. No one is in charge and each is responsible for their own degree of honesty. I was so interested that I tried to …
Massachusetts: Glacier Harvest '08, Harpoon, Boston
Posted by on Tuesday, May 26, 2009 in - 3 comments
Enough of the playing seer! Enough of the badly considered science!! Enough all ready!!! This is a blog about beer, isn't it. Well, I got out of the black shoes, jacket and tie at 9:38 pm so beer it is. • I have had a few of the Harpoon 100 Barrel series offerings before and generally liked …
That Persnickty Barley Carbon Absorption Rate Thing
Posted by on Monday, May 25, 2009 in - 7 comments
I spent the whole day thinking about this barley and carbon thing. Mainly because I am bad at science but it didn't distract me from the challenge. It just seems weird to me that someone can say that "the growing and processing of hops and malt into beer and whisky producing 1.5 per cent of …
I Knew I Couldn't Bear The Future For Some Reason
Posted by on Sunday, May 24, 2009 in - 1 comment
I caught most of the movie Brazil the other day. While I am hardly anywhere near the libertarian fringes politically once in a while I do find my betters somewhat lacking, their words foreshadowing a world like that in the movie, a world with committees of well suited people creating rules and …
"Feeding Frenzy" Or "Why Is RSS So Hard?"
Posted by on Friday, May 22, 2009 in - 4 comments
OK, Greg has explained it. People have been using: • http://beerblog.genx40.com/rss • but now should be moving to: • http://beerblog.genx40.com/feed • Trouble is the "rss" people number 3,221 on Google reader and the "feed" people number under 200. I presume other aggregators have similar …
Gluten Free Beer May Be Getting Better
Posted by on Friday, May 22, 2009 in - 2 comments
While I am at it, I should mention Josh Rubin's column this week about a gluten free beer added to the Ontario market recently. The interesting thing is it may actually be drinkable: • It's a pale, golden colour, with a fluffy white head and a spritzy carbonation. There's a little bit of …
If I Had A Contest To Run, This Photo Would Be In It
Posted by on Friday, May 22, 2009 in - 2 comments
Maybe I need to post some older photos to push the posts along in a possibly relevant way for you, the kind readers. If I had a prize I would offer it for the first person to guess where this photo was taken.
And This Too Shall Pass...
Posted by on Friday, May 22, 2009 in - 3 comments
You will have to excuse these short meaningless posts. See, I think the issue with the RSS relates to something in that post about taxes and the only way to deal with it is to push it down the posts lists until it gets out of the RSS feed's front page. The upside is that I moved off Bloglines … read more »
Another Gratuitous Photo From the Past
Posted by on Friday, May 22, 2009 in - leave a comment
The best looking tavern porch upon which I never had a beer.
Beer Prices Go Throught The Albertan Roof
Posted by on Thursday, May 21, 2009 in - 4 comments
Here is an odd phenomenon: beer prices have taken off in Alberta over the last year, one of the provinces in Canada which has fairly well entrenched privatized retail beer sales: • The price of Alberta beer is now higher than in any province, a complete reversal from April 2008, when this …
This Is A Test Of The Internet - Just A Test
Posted by on Thursday, May 21, 2009 - leave a comment
I don't know why last night's plucky post about taxation didn't get picked up on the RSS feed readers. Hint of a global conspiracy? Or a bug needing fixing? Who knows. So this is a test.
But Isn't Taxing Beer The Third Oldest Profession?
Posted by on Wednesday, May 20, 2009 in - 5 comments
It is interesting to follow beer fans in different jurisdictions in the US and the UK react to various plans to use beer as one way to cope with the global economic crisis. The British Beer and Pub Association backed by CAMRA and many brewers is running the Axe the Beer Tax campaign. • States …
California: Levitation, Stone Brewing, San Diego
Posted by on Tuesday, May 19, 2009 in - 1 comment
I've liked pretty much all the beers by Stone I have had but do have pick a time when I can have one. All big bottles of big brew. Except I picked up this one at C's of Oswego yesterday and it was neither big... or big. My traveling man on the inside at the brewery told me that this the lighter …
Beer and Value: Let Us Blame The Middleman
Posted by on Monday, May 18, 2009 in - 3 comments
You know when we talk about beer and value we talk about the price of hops, whether only snob appeal justifies a forty-three dollar price point and that sort of stuff but we don't really get at the real issue: middlemen. A report today out of the UK's Business and Enterprise Committee highlights …
What Did Crocodile Dundee Teach Me About Beer?
Posted by on Sunday, May 17, 2009 in - leave a comment
I watched Crocodile Dundee last night. I didn't plan it. When I bought the DVD player a few years ago - quite behind the curve of technology I'll admit - I bought a stack of old '80s movies thinking that each would be a welcome way to spend an evening for the $3.99 plus microwave popcorn. Spinal …
My Week In Beer... Or "I Travelled For No Beer"
Posted by on Friday, May 15, 2009 in - leave a comment
Well, at least I did have a beer today - a Sacket's Harbor IPA at the brewpub with lunch. I was at a thinking session so I won't get into it but suffice it to say that Sackets Harbor Brewing Co. on a warm spring day is one of the nicest spots to have a beer I have ever come across. • But the …
Quebec: MacKroken Flower, Le Bilboquet, St.-Hyacinthe
Posted by on Wednesday, May 13, 2009 in - 3 comments
Scotch ale au miel. Hmmm. 10.8%. Hmmm. Picked up at Marche Jovi for around $5.99 for 500 ml. • A nicely sweet rich complex aroma with plum, rum, licorice and maybe black cherry. Gorgeous deep chestnut under mocha cream froth and foam. Smooth and rich in the mouth and not as big as it might be …
American Craft Beer Week = Hooray for Everything?
Posted by on Tuesday, May 12, 2009 in - 8 comments
Not being American in the national constitutional sense, though somewhat in the continental Vespucci sense, sometimes I find things like American Craft Beer Week and a Declaration of Beer Independence all seem a bit too hooray for everything for me. You remember "Hooray for Everything" don'tca …
Will No Alcohol Beer Ever Have Credibility?
Posted by on Monday, May 11, 2009 in - 9 comments
Interesting article in the Financial Times today on how non-alcohol beer is booming in the UK, unlike its stronger siblings: • Declining beer sales have become a headache for brewers and pub operators alike, but one sector of the brewing industry is still making merry. Non-alcoholic beers are …
A New Beer Mapping Project For Those... Other Facts
Posted by on Sunday, May 10, 2009 in - 3 comments
There are many beer mapping projects, you know. Many sensible ones using a variety of innovative and technically challenging methodologies that convey the important information you need to know when you are out and about this planet of ours. This map is not like that. • Here's what I have done … read more »
Beer Class Warfare At Fenway And On The Shelf?
Posted by on Saturday, May 9, 2009 in - 2 comments
I like the Red Sox at lot and I like going to baseball games, too, though admittedly at a much more modest level for the most part. Modest like the Watertown Wizards or, you know, the Toronto Blue Jays. Having learned my lesson from the wallet lightening I once took at an Ottawa Senators game, I …
Your Privacy Ends At The Tavern Door
Posted by on Friday, May 8, 2009 in - 4 comments
In Alberta,¹ a law has been proposed that places going to a bar on a different level of activity from other common activity as it will allow bar owners to collect, store and trade personal information about the folk who pop by for a beer. It is aimed at gang members but fails to notice that most …
Thank Heavens We Maintained The Canuck Stereotype
Posted by on Wednesday, May 6, 2009 in - 2 comments
Lesson: Whatever you do to a Canadian in a time of confusion and crisis, however you restrict his liberties... you can make it all better with a beer: • Quebec students put under a seven-day quarantine in a small hotel in northern China are getting beer and McDonald's delivered and spending … read more »
Book Review: The Beerbistro Cookbook, Beaumont Morin
Posted by on Tuesday, May 5, 2009 in - 2 comments
I found most of the dishes in this book of beer-laced recipes quite easy to prepare and a pleasure to serve. • No, I didn't. Of course I didn't. I never know what to say about cookbooks. The whole function of the book is to help you do something other than read them but in the review its only …
How To Drink A Beer - Earn It And Only It
Posted by on Monday, May 4, 2009 in - 2 comments
I don't know if I agree entirely with this but the discord is mainly only over that "earn it" part: • ...the best way to enjoy a beer – any beer – is to earn it, then savour it in moderation in pleasant surroundings instead of swilling it down in excess until paralytic. • "Earning" sounds so …
BMP 4.0: A Case Of You
Posted by on Saturday, May 2, 2009 in - 5 comments
Canada. Jazz. Beer. Joni. Krall. It really is all there.
Session 27: To Boiler Make Or Depth Charge Or Not?
Posted by on Friday, May 1, 2009 in - 1 comment
I stole my idea for this edition of The Session. Nicked it entirely. Beer Daily Haiku wrote about boilermakers and a synapse twinked and winked not that far from my brain stem. Over the decades, I recalled this obnoxious habit of high school weekend parties back around 1980. Quite a foul one. This …
Session 27: Beer Cocktails Today And Some Ask Why
Posted by on Friday, May 1, 2009 in - leave a comment
I have not been the biggest fan of mixing beers with "not beer" fluids but don't forget to try this twittering idea for today's version of The Session. Here is the "how to" from March. Follow at Twitter Search.
