February 2010
Can't They Get The Rules Of Betting For Beer Right?
Posted by on Sunday, February 28, 2010 in - 6 comments
You may have heard that Harper and U.S. President Barack Obama bet a case of beer each on the outcome of today's Olympic men’s hockey final. Apparently, because Canada won, Obama now owes Harper a case of Molson Canadian. If the U.S. had won, Harper would have owed Obama a case of Yuengling beer …
Breaking Down Walls Between Producers And Customers
Posted by on Saturday, February 27, 2010 in - 1 comment
Jack Curtin dropped an idea into the discourse today that I think is really worth exploring: • One of the secret strengths of craft’s little corner of the beer world has always been the breaking down of the walls between producers and customers. Add in the even stronger bond between brewers and …
The Women Every Real Canadian Male Has A Crush On...
Posted by on Friday, February 26, 2010 in - 4 comments
Truth be told, every Canadian male has a deep and abiding crush on every member of the woman's hockey team and photos of them drinking beer just feed the flame. We have commercials where the players kick doltish men like us all on the ice. They sell us social networking tech. While we have to work …
An Olympics And Beer Story That Makes Some Sense
Posted by on Friday, February 26, 2010 in - 16 comments
I still wonder what the average Latvian thinks about all this but at least this story makes a little more sense than needing to shut public booze sales and politicians drunk driving. Yet the International Olympic Committee is not amused: • Nearly an hour after the Canadians won their third …
Question: What Beer For Canada Against Russia?
Posted by on Wednesday, February 24, 2010 in - 3 comments
There are few phrases more evocative for a Canadian of my early middle age than "Canada Russia". • When I was nine I heard the final game of the 1972 series broadcast from Moscow on the car radio sitting in a parking lot in Middleton, NS. We won. We were not always successful in the … read more »
Further Olympic Related Drinking Problems
Posted by on Tuesday, February 23, 2010 in - 5 comments
It is inevitable, I suppose, that folks get all whipped up and excited when the big event comes to their town but this is getting a little weird: • A B.C. government MLA is facing drunk-driving charges after an evening of Olympic-related events. In statement issued Tuesday afternoon, North …
Craft Brewers Break Ranks And Use Rice
Posted by on Monday, February 22, 2010 in - 12 comments
One of the silliest things I have ever come across in all these years of yapping about good beer was last year's infomercial made by US craft brewers titled "I am a Craft Brewer." It included many mutual back pats and self-pinned blue ribbon statements including the pledges that they do not put …
Olympic Celebrations One Big Binge-o-rama
Posted by on Sunday, February 21, 2010 in - 5 comments
Call the Neo-probes! Athletic competitions now proven to lead to binge drinking as Vancouver struggles to keep up with drunk jet setting gangs of cow bell ringers and fans of third-rate curlering nations. Jet setting Olympic public boozing is apparently something we are very good at in Canada …
A Good Goat Cheese Likes A Belgian Pale Ale
Posted by on Saturday, February 20, 2010 in - 5 comments
Years ago, when I was thinking about extra part time jobs I might take on, I had this idea that I could set up an ice cream van that dispensed soft serve goats milk cheese. The brand was going to be "I Can't Believe This Came Out Of A Goat!" It never happened. • This evening I was reminded of … read more »
If You Are Gonna Sin, Please Really Really Sin
Posted by on Friday, February 19, 2010 in - 2 comments
Maybe one day I will ask a bartender for a gin with a shot of whiskey as well as a splash of rum. But if I am ever in Nebraska I now know I don't dare add a dribble of beer to that cocktail: • A Prohibition-era law still on the books makes Nebraska the only U.S. state to ban bars from serving …
Question: What Claims To Fame Can't Good Beer Make?
Posted by on Thursday, February 18, 2010 in - 5 comments
I think the forces of anti-neo-prohibition are at it again. I have never been sure who the anti-neo-prohibitionists are but that goes for neo-prohibitionists as well. They each stand for everything good as well as everything else and in the end look a lot like each other. Best of all, they aren't …
Wisconsin: Stone Soup, New Glarus, New Glarus
Posted by on Thursday, February 18, 2010 in - leave a comment
A Belgian pale ale from the USA's Upper Midwest. This one smells good. Either that or I smell really bad. I've just finished two 16 hour days so it is not beyond the realm of possibility. But I've been in a jacket and tie the whole time. So it's likely the beer or the guy next to me was …
Fully Expect 48% Beerish Stuff Has Been Made
Posted by on Tuesday, February 16, 2010 in - 3 comments
And it sits in a bottle waiting for the appropriate marketing moment for a price of 127 dollars. Between you and me, I don't really care that it is all about marketing but I also do not care to try this or any other loony strength beer. Drinking it isn't the point. Consider this statement …
Dutch News: "The Consumer Is Being Taken For A Ride"
Posted by on Monday, February 15, 2010 in - 5 comments
Back from a few days on the road and I am shocked - shocked!! - to find out there is an underworld of bootlegged beer out there. The news today comes from the Netherlands but this could be happening in your home town: • People drinking a beer in Amsterdam have a big chance of it being an …
Really? Is It Really That Unbelievable?
Posted by on Saturday, February 13, 2010 in - 3 comments
I have to admit that I never had any plan to attend the Vancouver Olympics given that they are thousands of miles from my part of Canada and, this weekend at least, I am in a region so vastly different from there - if only because there is snow on the ground and freezing temperatures. But if I … read more »
I Have Never Really Bothered With The Pour
Posted by on Thursday, February 11, 2010 in - 6 comments
There are many things that can get attached to an idea or experience. I presume the more precious or particular the key advice, the more likely you are dealing with a barnacle that needs scraping off the hull of your given ship of life.. or a consultant hunting for someone to bill. Like this … read more »
Ohio: Edmund Fitzgerald Porter, Great Lakes, Cleveland
Posted by on Wednesday, February 10, 2010 in - 6 comments
What is it about Canadian craft brewers? American's have a brewery called Great Lakes on the south shore of Lake Erie so we need one on the north shore of Lake Ontario. We have a New Brunswick brewery that just happens to come up with styles and names for beers that have been used for years next …
Have The Olympics Turned Me Off Beer Evangelizing?
Posted by on Tuesday, February 9, 2010 in - 4 comments
While I think Pete makes a very good point about most people really not caring much about the quality or even qualities of what they drink, the news out of Vancouver has me wondering about whether I might ever go out to drink with Canadians ever again: • If there ever was a reason for …
Healthy Hop Bombs For Big Bone Wannabees?
Posted by on Monday, February 8, 2010 in - 2 comments
I suppose everything will be... then won't be... good for you - and then they will be good for you later. So, I was not too excited by the news that beer seems to be an excellent source of dietary silicon by contributing to bone mineral density... until I noticed this tid bit: • "We have … read more »
How Do We Now Place The Work Of Michael Jackson?
Posted by on Saturday, February 6, 2010 in - 16 comments
I have no real skin in this question. Never met the man but at the same time have plenty of his books. Professionally with my LLB / LLM [Ed.: not as impressive as might seem to suggest] and academically with my BA in English [Ed.: now, bow ye down before me] I am used to the idea that there are …
Session 36: How Cask Ale Did Not Change My Life
Posted by on Friday, February 5, 2010 in - leave a comment
Tom Cizauskas of Yours For Good Fermentables is running this month's edition of The Session. He is doing such a good job he has posted somewhere between four and 27 different posts on the subject just on his own site. His question for this month is broad, very open ended: • I'd like to return to …
New York: Hop Warrior, Rooster Fish, Watkins Glen
Posted by on Thursday, February 4, 2010 in - 3 comments
An Imperial India Pale Ale from central New York. I didn't look closely when I bought this bomber for $8.99 at Party Source on the last trip south to the land of the salt potato. So, it is a happy me that gets a first try at a new to me CNY brewery and happy to say it's pretty fine. • I don't …
Where Are The Paragons Of The New Cocktailians?
Posted by on Thursday, February 4, 2010 in - 2 comments
I don't often repost from the sister station but a 16 hour work day drives a guy to it. And besides, while I like a drink as much as the next guy... am I a Cocktailian? I am not sure I could even communicate with a Cocktailian if I met one in the street or, better, in a cool darkened subterranean …
Bloggers Bust "Very Special Beer" Thieves
Posted by on Monday, February 1, 2010 in - 2 comments
Very Special Beer crime. We know its out there. We had faith that there are VSB Units out there in the police departments of the land. Until today - when it became abundantly clear who is really watching out for those of us who would enjoy that very special beer: • Two Madbury teenagers charged …
