Monthly Archives: July 2011

Hop Talk Podcast #7 – That’s not a wombat?

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In this episode we talk about

  • Homebrewers choose the best beers in America
  • Oregonians love Oregon beer
  • The Beer Bloggers Conference in Portland, Oregon, August 19-21, 2011
  • Pintley, a social beer recommendation engine
  • and, our contest!

Download it here: Hop Talk Podcast ep. 7

…or subscribe with iTunes

Show notes:

Beer News

Zymurgy, the magazine of the American Homebrewers Association, polled their subscribers, crunched the numbers and came up with a list of the fifty best beers in the U.S.

Beervana, Jeff Alworth’s blog, pointed us toward some information about Oregon beer. Not only are there a lot of breweries there, but they make a lot of beer, and a lot of it stays in-state. Lots and lots of numbers.

Speaking of Oregon, the Beer Bloggers Conference is coming around again in August. Golly, but we wish we could go. The agenda isn’t yet set, but some of the panels they’ve announced look really interesting.

Beer 2.0

We check out a new (to us) beer recommendation engine: Pintley. It’s a well-done site and after rating a few beers it offers up some good recommendations. There are also iPhone and Android apps, as well as a mobile-optimized website. You can friend us, too. HopTalkRon and HopTalkAl. (Perhaps soon HopTalkMatt as well.) Although we’re not quite sure what to make of the TechCrunch review.

Contest

Don’t forget we’re running a contest to win a free Headcase combination iPhone case and bottle opener.

What we drank:

Spot a discrepancy? Something missing? Let us know. contact@hop-talk.com

Follow us on Twitter: @hoptalk and @hoptalkron

Music credits:

Background music at bar during intro:
Artist: Gnappy
Song: Best Not FUnck Around

Main intro:
Artist: A Thousand Knives of Fire
Song: She’s Yours

Outro Music:
Artist: Aphasia
Song: Metal Tank

Transition Music:
Artist: Devil In A Woodpile
Song: Beer Ticket Rag

Meta Beer

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This is second Ethiopian beer scored for me by a co-worker. I love being able to sample beers that I wouldn’t normally encounter.

Unlike the St. George Beer, there’s a bit more information out there on the intarwebz. For instance:

Meta Abo Brewery is located in the town of Sebata, 27 km from Addis Ababa. The brewery was established in 1963 by the Ethiopian Government and Ethiopian private nationals as a share company with a starting capital base of 2 million Birr.

It is the only brewery which gets water from a big reserve of soft spring water (locally known as holy water of St. Abo). The spring water meets the international brew standard to be used without any treatment. The brewery produces bottled and draught beer.

Light caramel color, fluffy white head. Wheaty/grainy aroma. Light, crisp, a little toasty. This is actually a bit more robust than a typical light lager. This isn’t a style that I generally like, but it’s pretty good. I’d have this again. And I love the unique bottle.

St. George Beer

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A co-worker’s wife is from Ethiopia, and he scored me a couple of beers from that far-away land.

The brewer doesn’t have any web presence that I’ve found, so it’s been hard to find information about it.

As I expect, it is straw-colored and clear. Head is white and fizzy and drops fairly quickly. It is not, surprisingly, lightstruck. The aroma is light, slightly fruity. The taste follows the aroma: light and just a bit fruity and a touch biscuity.

It is, indeed, simply an attempt to mimic light American Lagers. It is, however, not a bad go. That it survived being imported from so far away is a miracle.

Win a Headcase iPhone case with bottle opener

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In addition to being beer geeks, Ron and I tend to wander into gadget geekery as well. We don’t always agree on certain aspects, though. I tend to like doohickeys that do one thing and do it well. He has abolished all single-purpose items from his kitchen. I’m also Android; he’s iPhone.

While we could probably argue about Smart Phone OSes at least as long as we discuss beer, I think this week he’s got the upper hand.

The Headcase bottle opener case is not just a case for your iPhone, it’s also a bottle opener. (They have models for the iPhone 4 as well as the iPhone 3GS.) Not only that, it comes with a free app that counts the bottle tops and cans you open and lets you record custom sounds to play when you open them.

Jungle Cents is running a special whereby you can get a voucher for one of these bad boys for $10. That’s half of the usual $20.

But you, dear reader, have an opportunity to get one of these bad boys FOR FREE!

How you ask? Simple:

  1. Take a photo of a beer bottle with your iPhone. (Even better: you and your beer bottle)
  2. Send the photo to me at al [at] hop-talk.com with your name and e-mail address, and maybe some background details of why you’re drinking that beer.
  3. Send it by July 14, 2011.

On July 15 I’ll pick one person at random and get him or her a voucher for a free Headcase.

Sorry, Ron. You’re not eligible.