Monthly Archives: March 2007

Beer for a good cause

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Velvet Oatmeal PorterIn Portland yesterday at the Lucky Labrador Brewing Company‘s Quimby Beer Hall they held a charity event to benefit the Search & Rescue organizations that participated in the Mt. Hood rescue in February.

In case you missed it, three climbers were on Oregon’s tallest mountain making their descent during a storm and fell over an icy cliff, falling 400-500 feet. They spent the night at about 7,400 feet above sea level trying to stay warm, and were helped by Miss Velvet, a labrador-mix owned by one of the climbers.

To honor this heroic canine, Lucky Labrador produced a new beer, Velvet Oatmeal Porter, specifically for this event.

(via dogblog)

The World of Beer: a Universal Language

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beer2.jpgBeer author Roger Protz writes The Guardian about a photography exhibition that all you Londoners should endeavor to attend.

The World of Beer: a Universal Language

It’s official: beer is the most popular beverage on the planet. As a photography exhibition opens in celebration, Roger Protz takes us on a guided tour of pale ales and pilsners – and nominates the best beer in the world

The article then goes on to describe the hot-spots of the beer world, from China, which is expected to overtake the US as the world’s biggest producer of beer by the end of the decade, to the United States which is in the midst of a craft brewing revolution, to South America, which has a longer-standing brewing tradition than you might think.

The exhibition runs from today through April 29 at the Proud Galleries (Camden) in London. Photos from exhibit can be found here:  http://www.proud.co.uk/world-beer-universal-language-c-81.html

(via Digest)

Marylanders for Better Beer and Wine Laws

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Marylanders for Better Beer and Wine Laws

Well, here’s something I can get behind. I am a relatively newcomer to Maryland, after all.

Marylanders for Better Beer and Wine Laws…advocates for beer and wine laws that: 1) benefit consumers; 2) promote competition; 3) protect the environment; and 4) support Maryland’s brewers and wineries.

Honestly, I didn’t know that things were really that bad. In fact, things here in Maryland seem, from a consumer’s perspective anyway, to be very similar to those in New Jersey. You can’t really buy beer or wine in supermarkets (there are some rare exceptions), alcohol retailer Sunday hours are rather restricted, and online ordering from out-of-state brewers and wineries isn’t generally possible.

But, still, I wouldn’t mind some more choice in the marketplace and, especially, some competition that results in lower prices. This is certainly something to keep an eye on.

(via  Chris O’Brien)

More craft brew in supermarkets

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Over at the “Brew” Blog, an industry-focused blog sponsored by the Miller Brewing Company, notes that craft beers increased their shelf space at retailers by 16%, according to ACNielsen. They note that this shouldn’t be surprising since craft beer shipments increased nearly 12% in 2006. They also note that imports also increased their shelf space by 6.5%.

The big question now is how much space crafts and imports will gain as retailers reset their shelves this spring — and what brands will lose out.

‘Round these parts supermarkets don’t sell alcohol. My preferred retailer devotes a majority of their space to craft beers and imports. Oh, sure, there’s some megabrews, but it’s not like they’re taking up half of the space. Of course, the convenience store down the road only has mainstream offerings; I think the most exotic thing they have is Killian’s Irish Red.

How about you? Have you noticed more or less craft brews where you buy beers?

It’s a social thing

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Of the forty or so beer blogs I read on a regular basis, there are a few whose authors consistently offer up opinions and insights that are very much in line with my own thoughts and opinions. Good golly, but these are guys I’d love to have a beer with. Very often, as well, their offerings are so well-written and complete that there is nothing more that I can add. I’m left with, basically, the option of posting “here, read this” and giving a link.

One such author is Jay Brooks. Recently, he offered a commentary as to why he doesn’t go out on holidays, especially those that seem to have become “drinking” holidays. New Years, Cinco de Mayo, St. Patrick’s Day, et.al.

Since I essentially drink most days and as a paid professional, I refer to these holidays simply as “amateur drinking days” because it seems like people just go nuts and drink as much as humanly possible.

I’ve been lamenting the loss of the meanings of holidays for a long time. As a person of mostly Irish descent, the transformation of a quiet feast day into an egregious, over-commercialized, trivialized booze-fest is especially distressing. I swear, if my co-worker had asked me one more time if I was going to have green beer I was going to reach across the table and smack him. (Of course, I am, by definition, an “amateur drinker” since no one pays me to wax poetic about beer. I just do it because I love it. I’m pretty sure Jay didn’t have me in mind, though.)

Jay’s commentary was inspired, at least in part, by an op-ed piece by Michael O’Hare in The Times Leader of Pittsburgh. In it, the author’s friend Seamus offers that he doesn’t go out on St. Patrick’s Day because he’s no “pop-culture Irishman”. He goes on to explain that the Irish reputation for drink is unfounded. The Irish (and the Brits, and the Scots) spent a lot of time in pubs, sure, but they were socializing, not acting like they were at a fraternity kegger.

Jay concludes:

Exactly. Beer should be savored with good friends and good conversation. I couldn’t agree more.

I couldn’t agree more, either. We have an “Atmosphere” category here at Hop Talk precisely for discussion of where to enjoy a beer, why someone would want to, and especially who to enjoy it with. It’s also the inspiration for our motto: While life is not all about beer, beer is all about life. Do you remember those Old Milwaukee commercials? A bunch of guys sitting around a campfire or some similar situation, and one of them says: “It doesn’t get any better than this.” Okay, I’m not a fan of the product they were pitching, but by golly the rest of the message was absolutely right.

Smuggler’s Notch 12th Annual Brewer’s Festival

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smuggs1.jpgI stumbled across this special event completely by accident while chatting with our waitress about working too much. She told us that she is taking off next weekend to ski. I was curious as to where since there isn’t much snow left in the Northeast this time of year. She went on to tell us that Smuggler’s Notch in Vermont was having some special pricing at $120 for slope side lodging for two nights… that also included a 2-day lift ticket… that also included entry to the 12th Annual Brewer’s Festival!

Unfortunately, there is not a whole lot of information I can find about the actual brewer’s festival. What it does say is simply,

Sample the finest in local & regional beers and wines, with music, munchies, and prizes. From 6:00 pm – 10:00 pm in the Meeting House.

You can’t really tell from that what to expect, but if you are a skier and like to have some fun, it sounds like a good deal. Maybe you will be able to catch some Magic Hat, or Otter Creek. Or, even better, perhaps some local brewpubs that I don’t even know about. Further investigation reveals that the advertised price is per person based on maximum room occupancy. With the right group of people, it could turn into a weekend to remember.

March 30 – April 1 – 12th Smugglers’ Notch Brewers’ Fest, Part II. Lodging, lift pass, brewers’ fest, more. Smugglers’ Notch, VT. 800-521-0536. smuggs.com

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Beer industry promotion from the 1950s

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This is a ten-minute promotional video from the United States Brewers Foundation, Inc. It describes just how important the brewing industry is, noting the number of jobs it creates, the amount of taxes it pays, and how responsible tavern owners are.

There is no indication as to why it was created, although I speculate that it might have been to influence some pending legislation. At the very least it’s a fascinating look into America not too long after the repeal of Prohibition.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9Dj0hwb2-c

(via Beer (& More) in Food)

A website to avoid

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We’re always on the lookout for good beer websites. Considering the vast amount of information available for this 4,000+ year old beverage there is no one site that could hold all of it.

So when I happened to spot a post entitled “How to find ALL the beers of the world in 1 website” during my normal beer blog trawling, I was of course intrigued.

Don’t waste your time going to www.isearchbeers.com.

First, I figured I’d search for one of my favorite brewers: Flying Fish. No results found.

So much for finding all the beers of the world.

Okay, let’s look at something else. Ah, they offer the chance to browse by country. Well, Australia has a healthy beer industry, let’s try them. Two results, one being Foster’s.

Switch over to the United States. Okay, a lot more listings, but they seem to be written by an 8th grader who doesn’t know how to use his shift key, or else someone who is not a native English speaker. Here’s the entry for Brooklyn Lager.

Brooklin Lager
Brewery: Brooklyn Style: Lager, Pale Country: United States

A great beer is the brooklin lager, classified as a lager, pale. We appreciate this beer, thanks to brooklyn, a well known brewery in united states of america having much more to discover than the brooklin lager. This beer is incontestably extremely enjoyed in united states of america. the brooklin lager is powered by an amount of 5,0% of alcohol, adding to its great characteristics. isearchbeer.com has granted to the brooklin lager a score of 74%. To conclude this review, we really believe that the brooklin lager is a great choice of beer and Is definitely made or beer lovers!

Since the decimal separator used is a comma, it sure seems like it was written by a European. How does one spell “Brooklyn” two different ways in the same sentence?

Okay, let’s give them the benefit of the doubt. They can’t all be like that. Maybe it’s a community-driven site and they need more beers entered by people visiting.

The trouble is, they are all like that. And there is no way to add or edit an entry, or even a place to register for the site.

Plus, a goodly portion of the real estate on the page is taken up by Google AdSense ads. The maximum three that are allowed. To me, this is obviously an attempt to have enough content to come up in searches and drive people to click the ads. Unfortunately, such sites are all too common.

Even the blog where I found reference to this, hotsitesreview.wordpress.com, is of little use. There are no ads on it, but it’s either someone getting paid to review fairly worthless sites or is shilling his own sites in the guise of reviews. None of the other sites I looked at from there are worth much of anything.

(I apologize for the lack of links, but I don’t want to give these shucksters any Google juice.)

If you really want to find most, if not all, of the beers of the world in a searchable database, with reviews from real people, I suggest you check out any one of these:

And those are just the ones that claim to cover the whole world. There are at least as many that cover specific countries or areas.

Lego bottle opener

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As a self-professed geek, I have been secretly lusting after LEGO Mindstorms ever since they were first released. Unfortunately, my own kids are too young for such a thing and I just couldn’t justify getting it for myself. I have far too many toys as it is.

Now, however, I may need to really think of a way to justify such a purchase, especially if I can do things like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boQ92CbaF_U

(via Where’s My Applesauce?)

Cool Tunes & Beer

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rock-box.jpgI’m very much into home theater and tech stuff, so this article on Engadget caught my eye when they showcased a jukebox with a built in beer cooler.

While this nifty item, with music, TV, and you name it (because it is driven by a computer running Windows Vista on the backend) does just about everything including keep your beer cold, I think you need to have the right room for this type of thing. But, for $6,500, if you are looking to find the perfect, somewhat eclectic, add-on to your game room along side of your pool table, card table and dance floor, you might want to put this on your shopping list.

Of course, if you already have a game room that big, you might already have a bar and home theater in there. In which case, why haven’t you invited me over yet? (I’ll bring the beer!)