An imperial pilsner. This is a sort of beer I never imagined I would need to concern myself with. Unlike stouts or pale ales with their history of bigness, surely no one would bother upping the game of brewing the steely king of lagers. No one told Dogfish Head from Delaware, however, and they went ahead and did it as they tell you about at no lack of length on their website, including this:

The big breweries are as guilty of any company in any industry of brainwashing the consumer through the sheer oppressive magnitude and breadth of their marketing efforts. They are selling a brand name and an image with such zeal that they have forgotten about the product behind all of this horseshit and hyperbole - the beer itself. Dogfish Head Golden Shower is the beer itself. A true Pilsner brewed with 100% Pilsner Barley, and impressively hopped using our self-developed continuing-hopping method. At 9% abv it's also nearly twice as strong as the American, wanna-be pilsners made by the big boys.

...Not drinkable at all. Really sad for such a great brewery. I dumped the remainder of my $12 bottle in the toilet, where it belongs. Don't waste your money on this golden shower...

The beer pours a very attractive bright burnished gold with a white head that resolves to a rim what with the low carbonation. When you shove your nose into the glass there is plenty of sweet apple and pear concentrate. The first thing I think of when I sipped was triple. It is sort of like a Belgian triple - candy-ish sweetness and all - but also with a fall fruit aspect like calvados. It is also thickish and does not have the overly metallic hop profile I feared - the hops are tightly herbal as much as anything. In fact, it is far more pale malty than anything else. And that is a remarkably well hidden 9%. The beer is not hot in the mouth but it certainly does warm otherwise.

Where does this beer fit in? It is a near neighbour to Belgian golden strong ales like Duval or triples like Chimay Cinq Cents with the white label - but without the bubble gum or candy floss notes Belgian candi sugar provides. A beer to contemplate the coming autumn. A beer to eat apple pie and vanilla ice cream along with, oddly enough. It would be interesting to have this beer condition in a wood cask as there is that butter and/or vanilla richness that could be umphed one notch for experimental purposes.

I saw this short but somewhat jam-packed story on beer culture in Japan today during my sweep of the entire internet¹ for new amazing tales of beer:

After-hours beer binges are a mainstay of corporate communication between salarymen, bosses and business partners. Red-faced executives, their neckties yanked open to one side, are a fixture of late night train stations. Beer girls with "backpack kegs" rush down the aisles at baseball stadiums to refill fans' cups. And though the official drinking age is 20, nearly anyone with enough spare change can buy a cold brew at beer vending machines.

¹ OK, I use Google News like everyone else but the effect is entirely the same as it I had swept of the entire internet for new amazing tales of beer.

The good guys at Beer Advocate posted this...

First, we hate blogs as much as this guy: http://mama.indstate.edu/users/bon ... bLogs.html. (Actually ... we hate blogs more.) That’s why this is not a blog.

I am a lucky guy. I now get books I ask for sent to me so I can review them for you. I like to think that I only review the ones I have a great deal of respect for but, still, the others do pile up...even if it is a little pile as there still are not that many books about beer being written. So here are some books I did not love but which may have good value for specific uses.

• Beer -Domestic, Imported and Home Brewed by Eve Adamson: The first thing you notice about this book is how poor its grey pulp page paperback format is. It is unfortunate that it is being published in such a cheap quality way as it is a decent enough attempt at a global guide to beer, not far off the concept of a Hugh Johnson annual guide to wine. The problem is it approaches that noble plagerism at too high a level. Facts are in general, descriptions are regional like the fact that Japanese craft brewers perfer sweet stouts while Seadog of Maine is referenced without mention that (as I believe is still the case) their beer are contract brewed at Shipyard. This means the book does present an effort to systematize information but, unlike the famous wine guide, we learn about alleged trends rather than the nerd knowledge we crave. This is bound to fail as few of the interesting aspects of fine craft beer are in regional characteristics. In fact, it feels like it was researched off the internet and we all know how reliable beer information on the internet is.

  Rating: a decent and affordable stocking stuffer for the newbie beer nerd who should move beyond it rather quickly.

• Brewing Up A Business by Sam Calagione: This relative blockbuster of a book (for beer related books anyway) by the co-owner of Dogfish Head Brewing of Delaware may surprise you in being reviewed in this company. The thing is it is way more about business than brewing, it is way more about Sam than brewing and it is way more about Sam's approach to branding than beer. This is not bad at all. I am inclined to recommend the book to a couple of very enthusiastic entrepreneurs I know. But I would not recommend it to my beer club pals in particular as it would provide more assistance to an owner of software start-up than someone wanting to learn about beer. And if the author tried to work the motto of Dogfish Head more into the text I would not be surprised as "off-center beer for off-center people" seems to be on every page, assaulting you with the branding message. I have difficulty with this as I do not consider myself off-center. It may have actually put me off the brewery a bit as opposed to drawn me closer to it. But I am not a young entrepreneur - which is the real subject of the book.

  Rating: a book for the person keen to learn some lessons about business.

• Craft Brewers of Ontario by Bill Perrie: I was really disappointed by this book. It is an uncritical look at certain members of the Ontario Craft Brewing Association which I would not be surprised to learn was a patronage piece. It is so positive and upbeat that it simply lose me with the boosterism. Consider these final words from the section on Ontario's beery history provided by beer writer Ian Bowering:

  The best microbrew beers are made by the members of the Ontario Craft Brewer's Association, many of which are in this book. The market for quality microbrewery beers has now been solidly established in Ontario.

  Sadly, craft brewings is only now becoming recognized as a product in the two available retail outlets in Ontario - the Beer Store and the LCBO - and has none of the general community support in the bars of the province like you would find in Portland, Maine or Syracuse, New York. And many of the best Ontario craft beers are simply not in the book as they are not part of the organization or were overlooked - and, frankly, some of the breweries that are in are really not that interesting. You will not learn about that in this book because, unlike the works of Lew Bryson or Andy Crouch there is no effort to actually assess quality with the result that there is little useful guidance in the book as to what is out there to be found and what is to be avoided. This shows up in one really irritating aspect. Each brewer's chapter concludes with a "tasting notes" section, many of which are not even notes about the taste. Consider Brick Brewing's Bambay which is described in this way:

  Bambay is a secluded cove in the Out-Islands of the Bahamas known only to those who can find it. Bambay is a unique citrus-brewed beer that is unbelievably refreshing.

  This is simply advertising copy and the use of "unbelievably" is indicative of the overly ripe spray of superlatives and hyped-up adjectives that bear no relation to the product or place being described. Another example is the first few lines on the chapter on Church-Key (or rather the incorrectly hyphenless Church Key) contains the words "nestled", "picturesque" and "quaint". The effect is rather like a tourism brochure. And while this is rich coming from me, there are a lot of other typos as well, more than I would expect from a published work. On the upside, the book is attractively presented with great photos and good basic information about the breweries - where to find them, who is involved and their range of products.

  Rating: this book will provide something of a snapshot of the craft brewing industry in Ontario in the mid-00's of the 21st century. Have it in the library if you want a complete library of beer writing from Ontario. Greg thought more of it and you can find his review here if you think I am too harsh.