March 2012
Why Not Just State How Much Alcohol It Has?
Posted by on Saturday, March 31, 2012 in - 3 comments
I have a hard time with "units" and "drinks" and whatever measure is used to give guidance on the number of beers a fella ought to have in a day or a week or a life. Here is what I know so far: • ♦ UK - the measure is a "unit" and represents 10 ml of pure ethyl alcohol. • ♦ Australia - the …
Oh No! Good Beer Can't... No... Errr... Ok... Maybe
Posted by on Thursday, March 29, 2012 in - 8 comments
QUICK! Somebody do something. YOU!!! NOW!!!!!!! Pink slime is making beer prices go up... oh... really... never mind.
Maybe Beer Will Never Work On Broadcast TV
Posted by on Wednesday, March 28, 2012 in - 14 comments
An interesting if rather rough tough article on beer and TV in the paper today: • "It was maybe too scripted and wasn't a beer show," said Lew Bryson, a beer writer and blogger from Pennsylvania whose own television show "American Beer Blogger" recently was broadcast on the Bethlehem/Lehigh …
Albany Ale: Well, Look At That... Wheat Beer
Posted by on Tuesday, March 27, 2012 in - 13 comments
It's not that I long to be right but once in a while I do like to be right. Not so much vindicated as explained. In August 2010, I referenced a quite from a traveler in the central New York region in 1749 who describes in some detail how the Dutch in the Albany area were growers - and maltsters of …
Boak And Bailey Return From Web Server Hell
Posted by on Tuesday, March 27, 2012 in - 8 comments
I am really lucky in the sense that I have not had a serious service interruption at this here beer blog or its more generic sister service. To be honest, for me, blogging is a habit more than anything else. I like the way I get to write about a topic I really don't know all that much about. If it …
What's In A Beer's Name? Fun Or Suffering Or Both?
Posted by on Monday, March 26, 2012 in - 7 comments
We have seen government interventions when beers take on brand characters like Santa or the Easter Bunny. People throw up their hands in a combination of libertarian outrage and laughter. But what happens when the images are more directly hurtful even if the message presented is quite dislocated …
Book Review: Ohio Breweries By Rick Armon
Posted by on Sunday, March 25, 2012 in - leave a comment
I really love these beery travel books published by Stackpole Books. It's how I met Lew and realized there was a whole world not only of great and reasonably priced beer just to the south of me in New York but also a world of sites to see, white hots to eat and roads to take. • As I mentioned …
The Many Semi-Dry Counties Of The United States
Posted by on Saturday, March 24, 2012 in - 2 comments
A great graphic from over at the BBC indicating the counties of the United States which still have some level of local alcohol control laws in place. You can read the story here. • Not sure what is the qualifying rule that makes Oswego Co., NY just to my south semi-dry. From this NY State …
So Do We Now View Good Beer Drinkers As The Rock Stars?
Posted by on Saturday, March 24, 2012 in - 2 comments
Fortunately, the brewer as "rock star" stuff appears to have passed after much well deserved pointing at laughing at those who suggest it or, worse, accept it. But apparently the beer drinker might be legitimately treated like one if KISS bassist Gene Simmons has his way: • ...when the bar …
So Many Questions About Who We Beer Fans Are
Posted by on Friday, March 23, 2012 in - 5 comments
One of the best things about Lew Bryson is that I am pretty sure he does not struggle that much with labels or categories or stuff like that. He just has an excellent understanding of the details, the effects, the process, ingredients, people and reasons. Yet we have an excellent post by Andy …
In Defense Of Beppi Crosariol And Wine Reviewers
Posted by on Wednesday, March 21, 2012 in - 5 comments
The Old and Male ran a column by its wine reviewer Beppi Crosariol [aka in my house "The Beppster" aka "Beppi-bepp-meister" aka... it goes on and on.] I have asked "WHY!!!!" when it comes to Beppi's beer reviews - but that was a long time ago and I was so taken by the headline "Why Wine Reviews … read more »
Good Beer Apparently Not Yet A Target For Crime
Posted by on Wednesday, March 21, 2012 in - 3 comments
You know you only know you have made it when you become a target. Apparently that has not happened yet in an odd crime spree in the US south west: • ...mainly a beer run is just shoplifting. Often it's kids acting on a dare, but judging from the surveillance videos I've watched, it's typically … read more »
What Caused Steam Beer To Be Low End Then Not?
Posted by on Monday, March 19, 2012 in - 8 comments
A couple of reference to steam beer flitting around today. Anchor has a new web ad for a line of new beers leaning on its research of early California brewing. And it came up in the comments from Saturday's post about... what was Saturday's post about? I like the references cited at wikipedia from …
Why Do The Nations Differ On Beer Tax?
Posted by on Sunday, March 18, 2012 in - 8 comments
One of the oddest things for a Canadian to read about in that great beery conversation is the role of taxation. You would think that this would be a hot item if the Brewer's Association of Canada is correct when it makes this statement: • Canada, with an average tax rate of 50% on beer, is the …
What Do You Do When You Just Don't Like A Beer?
Posted by on Saturday, March 17, 2012 in - 19 comments
Sometimes it may be nothing more than personal preference but what does the dedicated beer nerd do when you don't like a classic? • I bring the glass to my nose and slowly inhale, breathing her in. The first thing I think is, “This beer smells like balsamic vinegar.” Uh oh. I can also detect …
The Most Pointless St. Paddy's Day Story Is...
Posted by on Friday, March 16, 2012 in - 4 comments
...this one repeated by the CBC about a bartender in England: • Blakeney will often stand at the other end of the bar if any customer is sipping a Guinness. Her phobia of the popular brew was triggered when she spilled a pint of Guinness over herself as a child, she said. At six or seven, she …
Quebec: Brasserie Le Reservoir, Rue Duluth, Montreal
Posted by on Wednesday, March 14, 2012 in - 5 comments
Had a great lunch with friends at this spot at the western fringe of the plateau near the corner of Duluth and Saint-Laurent. Le Reservoir is one of the smaller brew pubs I have ever been in, seating maybe 25 or 30 in a space of maybe 20 by 50 feet between the heavy wood bar and floor to ceiling …
Welcome To Our New Beery Overlords!
Posted by on Tuesday, March 13, 2012 in - 8 comments
Over the last decade in Canadian politics we have witnessed the implementation of a new sort of social engineering aimed at specifically undoing what is claimed to be a former set of social engineering. We are asked to go along as part of the reversal of a pendulum swing or, worse, a resetting of …
Quebec: La Rousse (Revisited), Belle Gueule, Brasseurs R.J.
Posted by on Monday, March 12, 2012 in - leave a comment
Repeating an experiment, I realized last summer's beer was actually just off. This Belle Gueule Rousse was pretty fine with a wood oven pizza, the malty richness cut by the char of the crust. I didn't try it with all 75 varieties offered by Pizza Il Focolaio but I expect it would find it goes …
Do We Need To Keep The Cooks Away From Beer?
Posted by on Sunday, March 11, 2012 in - 14 comments
One of the main reasons I don't like the idea of matching and pairing is that everything pretty goes with pretty much everything else in the right combination. Failing that general principle can lead to some tortured twists of logic and language: • Sriram Aylur, whose London restaurant Quilon … read more »
Do Empty Beer Cans Hurt More Than Toilet Paper?
Posted by on Saturday, March 10, 2012 in - 2 comments
While this really should be a story for A Good Toilet Paper Blog or maybe a Becks Booster Blog, it is interesting to note the reference to beer in this story: • I would like to point out that there was no beer involved in this matter. The can is clearly empty. As this story shows, the can …
Denmark: Espresso Stout, Søgaards Bryghus, Aalborg
Posted by on Thursday, March 8, 2012 in - 5 comments
Ah, beer mail. Just when I think I am taking a break, they pull me back in. The kind folks at Roland and Russell forwarded a four pack of stuff I can't otherwise find in my house and this one jumped out at me. • First, note the clever label that no one thought of before. But folk from northern …
New York Shows How The Beer World Should Work
Posted by on Wednesday, March 7, 2012 in - 8 comments
Great news out of the great state of New York this morning: • The Cuomo Administration on Tuesday unveiled proposed legislation aimed at fermenting a revitalized hops industry in the state, playing off the boom in craft beers, as well as the interest in locally sourced crops. "We're really on … read more »
Captain Lawrence Has Found Itself A Storyteller
Posted by on Tuesday, March 6, 2012 in - leave a comment
Mike announced the news like this: • This is sort of a dream come true. I picked up a side gig writing a weekly column from a local brewery that makes the best damn beer in the U.S., and I used to say that before I was on the Captain Lawrence payroll! Perhaps the best part of it: I'm partially …
So What About The Price Of Ales And Lagers?
Posted by on Tuesday, March 6, 2012 in - 16 comments
It's come up twice this morning's reading. Jordan posted this on Facebook: • Why is it that price figures into wine reviews but isn't mentioned at all in beer reviews? If a six pack of something is a 7.5/10 at $12, and another six pack is an 8/10 at $15, isn't that worth mentioning in discussion …
Ontario: The Red Lion Inn, Yonge Street, Toronto
Posted by on Sunday, March 4, 2012 in - 12 comments
Came across this image of the Red Lion Inn in Toronto at the Archives of Ontario. The photo is from 1886 and shows a building well into its eighth decade according to this blog post of just a few months ago. Built in what was then the country, it was the first stage coach destination on the … read more »
Howe's Public Houses Of Entertainment In Nova Scotia
Posted by on Saturday, March 3, 2012 in - leave a comment
I picked up my copy of Western and Eastern Rambles: Travel Sketches of Nova Scotia by Joseph Howe this morning. The sketches are a series of essay's the later famous politician published in his newspaper, the Novascotian, from 1828 to 1831. His travels were largely not about the writing but …
Session #61: Is Local Beer Better?
Posted by on Friday, March 2, 2012 in - 8 comments
Clearly not. • Local is not better. As I wrote at Joe's, a steaming warm cow patty is both local and fresh. Local does not mean the brewer is better or even admirable. He might be the local abusive businessman or the slacker kid who lets health and safety standards slip. Their beer can really …
Late For Lent: Unsalted And Really Sober On Day Six
Posted by on Thursday, March 1, 2012 in - 1 comment
I don't know what there is really to report as I am so early on this experience of not experiencing. Keen readers will recall that last Saturday I decided to add to my recent passing on most salt intake to take a break on alcohol for Lent... and so far I have. Sure, I went beer shopping yesterday …
