Monthly Archives: August 2008

Labor Day

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In the United States, Labor Day is the first Monday in September and has its origins in the 1880 as “a day off for the working citizens”.

As one of those aforementioned “working citizens”, I will endeavor to spend the entire three-day weekend resting from my labors. If I’m very lucky, even spending some time in my hammock (which I’ve only done twice previously this summer). Oh, and I’ll be rewarding myself with some good beer.

Labor Day is also the de facto end of Summer, so is popular for barbecues and other festive events. I wish you the best as you rest from your own labors and reward yourself with good beer. Responsibly, of course.

You’ll need to get your own hammock, though.

Dogfish Head’s cocoa beer – Theobroma

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I like Dogfish Head Brewery. They make some really interesting stuff and, since they’re just over in neighboring Delaware, local to me.

Spotted a news item today (although I’ve seen mention a few times before this) and thought I’d share.

Dogfish Head brews up ancient Aztec cocoa beer

Over the past few years, [Dogfish Head owner Sam] Calagione and his brewers have been working in conjunction with the University of Pennsylvania’s molecular archaeology department on finding – and recreating – recipes for beers of from bygone eras, which have included Midas Touch, brewed from a recipe found in the drinking vessels of the cursed king’s tomb, as well as Chateau Jiahu, a 9000-year-old Chinese recipe dating back to the Neolithic period.

The latest offering, available in September, is Theobroma, which translates to “food of the gods,” in Greek. Far removed from Greece, however, the beer is a recreation of a central American recipe for the earliest chocolate drink in existence, consumed by the Aztecs.

That certainly sounds interesting. I’ve been on a big chocolate kick lately and I find archaelogy and paleontology fascinating. Can’t wait to try it.

Dogfish Head: Theobroma

What’s Amberine?

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One of the highlights of my small local weekly newspaper is the articles that they reprint from the newspaper of 100 years ago. What a small town paper thinks of as news is fascinating. Scores from games at the YMCA. A new house is almost complete. Farmers are glad for recent rain.

Today, my darling wife was looking through this week’s edition when something caught her eye that she knew I’d be interested in.

August 7, 1908

ARRESTED FOR SELLING AMBERINE IN BRUNSWICK

The question whether “amberine,” the substitute for beer manufactured for sale under the Byrd local option law in Virginia, can lawfully be sold in prohibition territory in Maryland will likely come up at the September term of the Circuit Court in Frederick county.

Sheriff Myers, of Frederick, on Wednesday last arrested Frank Woods, at Brunswick, on the charge of violating the law against the sale of intoxicating beverages in Brunswick, which is a prohibition district. Woods, it is alleged, has been selling “amberine” at Brunswick. “Amberine” resembles beer in practically all particulars, but contains a smaller amount of alcohol than ordinary beer.

Woods was taken to Frederick before Justice C. H. Eckstein, where he waived a hearing and was released in $200 bail pending the action of the grand jury.

Brunswick hasn’t moved very far from the Prohibition days. There’s only one bar in town, no restaurants with an on-premise license, and two liquor stores.

But, what the heck is “amberine”? Sure, they describe it briefly in the article, but I’ve never heard low-alcohol beer called that befor.

Well, happy for an opportunity to learn something new, I turned to the intertubes to get some more information. Wikipedia? Nothin’. Okay, Google. Well, some results, but nothing about beer or a relation. I got the name of a woman on MySpace, what appears to be a large fishing lure a kind of fish, a (faux) precious stone variety of moss agate, a dietary supplement, a song, and a model of motherboard by ASUS.

Even my search for “Byrd local option law” came up empty, but I suspect I just didn’t get the search term right.

So, can anyone enlighten me? Where can I learn more about this?

Beer in Photoshop

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I have no Photoshop chops. I’m always amazed at some of the images I see at worth1000.com and which come out of the 4chan message boards. No, my results would more likely end up on Photoshop Disasters.

PSDTUTS is a blog/site which collects Photoshop tutorials. Recently, they put up instructions on how to create a drawing of a glass of beer.

Illustrating a Cool Glass of Beer

The inspiration was obviously a light lager (it is a pilsner glass after all). I’d love to see someone create some other styles, and in other glassware.

(via Boing Boing)

New King of Beers

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With InBev’s acquisition of Anheuser-Busch, the Boston Beer Company has become the largest American independent, publicly-traded, brewing company.

Fortune has an interesting Q&A with Jim Koch, the founder of the Boston Beer Company and Samuel Adams.

Fortune: Meet the new King of Beers

Koch’s brewery might be young in comparison to the large beer conglomerates, but he comes from five generations of brewmasters and conducts serious quality control by tasting every batch of beer bottled. Koch recently spoke to Fortune about the state of the beer industry and Boston Beer’s role in it. Edited excerpts follow.

Fortune: Did you ever you think you’d be the country’s largest independent brewer?

Koch: That’s like being the tallest pygmy. It’s amazing to me that we’ve been able to go from invisible to infinitesimal to today we’ve gotten all the way to tiny. Someday I hope to get all the way to small.

Fortune: What’s it like being an independent company when many breweries are falling under the umbrella of giant beer companies?

Koch: We can do interesting beers that these huge global brewing conglomerates are too big to be interested in. We make one beer that we sell 10,000 bottles of. It allows us to do the things that come out of an abiding interest and love of beer.

Perhaps more interesting is the Flash application that accompanies the article. It is a gallery of 99 American beers and shows those that are owned by Anheuser-Busch, InBev, Heineken, MillerCoors, and those that are no longer brewed. There’s also a timeline showing the changing marketshare of the big American brewers.

99 bottles of beer on the wall

The best beer in the world is…

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Today was my first day at work after a week of vacation.

The alarm clock went off far too early. The train ride seemed longer than I remember. I had almost five hundred e-mail messages in my inbox. There were no less than three emergency code releases that needed to be performed last week in my absence, and there’s always paperwork.

Not to mention that there were a few changes that came out of User-Acceptance Testing for the application scheduled to be deployed tomorrow that needed to go in, but both the Development and Testing environments were unavailable for the entire morning. Then the train was delayed on the way home.

Typical, I guess, for the first day back from vacation.

When I got home I sat down in my comfy chair to enjoy a well-deserved beer*.

Oh man, that’s good. That may be the best beer I’ve ever had.

The best beer in the world is the one with which you reward yourself after a rough day on the job.

* In this case, it happens to have been a Flying Dog Old Scratch.

On vacation

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I am officially on vacation for the next week. I don’t expect you’ll see many articles from me during the next nine days or so.

I will, of course, be on the lookout for new and interesting beers, although I’m not traveling very far afield. (Beer and food or gas? Tough decision.)

Anyway, I’ll see you all again around the 18th.

Session #19 announced: Deutsches Bier

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The Session - Beer Blogging FridayThe Session is a monthly one-day event held by beer bloggers around the world, where they each post their thoughts on a unified theme.

That theme, for September, is Deutsches Bier (German beer), hosted by Jim at lootcorp.

In honor of the start of Oktoberfest, I’ve decided to make September’s topic Deutsches Bier – German beer. I want you all to focus on the wonderful contributions our German neighbors have made to the beer world. You can write about a particular German style you really enjoy, a facet of German beer culture which tickles your fancy, or any other way in which Germany and beer have become intertwined in your life. Bonus points for Bavarian-themed posts.

I’m going to ask that no one submit an actual Oktoberfest trip report unless it really had some profound impact on you – the goal is to dig a little deeper and write about how German beers and beer culture have worked their way into your life (and hearts). Oh, and if you absolutely hate all beers German, that’s fair game, too – tell us why!

So, crack open that Märzen, Kölsch, or Weizen and put some polkas on the iPod

This episode of the Session will take place on September 5, 2008. Details here: Announcing Session #19 – Deutsches Bier

The best beer in the world is…

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After a long day at work and a tedious commute, I helped my wife paint our daughters’ rooms. Pink*.

She likes to paint. I really don’t.

It’s hot, sweaty work. Not to mention my joints don’t appreciate all the bending and kneeling and reaching.

After we were done (for the day, anyway), I sat down to enjoy a well-deserved beer**.

Man, that’s good. That may be the best beer I’ve ever had.

The best beer in the world is the one with which you reward yourself after a lot of hard work.

Update: It was so good, I wrote a haiku about it.

* “Zephyr” is the actual name of the color.
** In this case, it happens to have been a Brewer’s Alley India Pale Ale.