NanoBryg rss syndication » A Good Beer Blog

A Good Beer Blog (10 unread)

Where Are The Beer Nerds Heading Online?

Posted: July 30th, 2010, 4:14am CEST by Alan McLeod
I like to check in on the stats once in a while to see if I can see any trends. I've been at this blogging thing for almost seven and a half years now and you would thing some of the numbers would make sense. They seldom do.
- Contests are good for traffic, holidays are not. You are all reading this at work, aren't you? Cheater pants! Everyone of you.
- A lot of people really want to know who many calories there are in beer.
- Months later, I think the demise of RSBS did have a real effect on people coming here - at least directly. Other aggregators has more than taken up more than the slack but no universal beer related aggregator has really replaced it. I still feel less in the know.
- I get the 6th most visits from India compared to any other country over the last year. Yet where are the comments? Work conditions must be tough there.
That is all I can come up with. I still think there are twelve of you out there. Other than that, it is a mug's game. Except if you are monetizing. Monetize and the pieces all fall into place.
Assassination By Beer In Afghanistan

Posted: July 29th, 2010, 2:58am CEST by Alan McLeod

The Christian Science Monitor has dug up an interesting beery angle from the whole Wikileaks controversy. Apparently, the documents which have been released include references to a pattern of the Taliban poisoning booze as a mean to assassinate key personnel. Like this:
James Yeager, an American geologist who advised Afghanistan's Ministry of Mines, tells the Monitor he returned to his residence in Kabul to find it had been burgled. The intruder took money from a drawer and left behind a bottle of Corona beer. The Corona bottle sat on his counter for the next two weeks Yeager says, because Corona is one of his least favorite beers. He finally opened it during a going away party as the other drinks began to run low. “I pulled it out and when I popped it there was no fizz and the cap was loose,” says Yeager. “Because this one didn’t have fizz you wonder if it went rancid or not, and I just kind of sniffed it and I went ‘Oh, that doesn’t smell like beer.’ ” Yeager, a geochemist familiar with acids, realized it smelled like sulfuric acid – otherwise known as battery acid.
What a rotten trick. What a rotten way to go. You know, it's a damn good thing the Taliban are not aware which government advisors have a taste for Cantillon Bruocsella 1900 Grand Cru. They'd be done for.
"...The Proposal Would Help Tourism To The Area"

Posted: July 28th, 2010, 1:46am CEST by Alan McLeod

You know, we say a lot of good things about beer and pubs. We like to think good things, too. Think that our little hobby, our habit is not something that should be a bother to others. Sure there is plenty of evidence to the contrary but this one little tale of one little pub just sticks with me:
My property shares a wall with the proposed beer garden. I have serious concerns about the impact it would have on my quality of life and on my property day and night, particularly at weekends when the Castle Bar's clientele is very young and rowdy. Due to the extremely close proximity of our properties, the external noise levels caused by talking/shouting/singing/arguing from increasingly intoxicated drinkers would be unbearable. Further to that, there would be the noise caused by music blaring out from the bar, and doors banging as people enter/leave the beer garden.
In 2008, one review of the fine establishments of Banff in Scotland reported "the Castle for a fight, Aul Fife for no conversation and poor Karaoke." Wonderful. At the planning board meeting, the pub stated "the four-metre high walls around the garden would break much of the sound from customers" and "the proposal would help tourism to the area." Tourism. The sort of tourists you need to bus in and out.
Funny no one pointed out that the 13 foot garden walls blocking the sound of tourists in fights are listed heritage 13 foot sound blocking walls.
Book Review: Tasting Beer, Randy Mosher

Posted: July 27th, 2010, 2:39am CEST by Alan McLeod

Tasting Beer has been on the shelves for about a year and a half but I just threw a copy into a larger order from Amazon the other day. I like it fine but it is not the book I thought I was getting. I blame the internets as I didn't have that browsing moment leaning against a books shelf half thinking about the book, half thinking about a donut I had in 1986. I thought it was going to be a book primarily about tasting beer. Where did I get that idea from?
Around half the book is beer history along with beer styles and examples available in the US. Useful information covered elsewhere... and, again, over there, too. Often. Pages 28 to 144 or so, however, do not show up elsewhere. Pages stuffed with information on the human sensory experience, details about that weird vocabulary Stan throws around with words like "caprylic" and "trichloroanisole" as well as neato graphs on the relativity of bitterness and gravity on one hand and pressure and temperature on the other. Good data born no doubt of Mr. Mosher's background in home brewing. Quality.
One quibble of me is that I don't like the font or the layout. I don't like double columns in a book and I really don't like semi late 1800s "Golden Age" typography. It seems like the information on the page is harder to find than necessary. I wonder what it would look like with simpler fonts?
But that is just a quibble. This is great text for the intermediate beer fan. I think it might actually be too much for the beginner - a curse, I realize, no publisher or author wants to read. Yes, it has the obligatory forward by Sam Calagione (imagine that !) but don't hold that against the author. Buy it.
Hooray - I Love Being Told I Am Stupid - So Should You

Posted: July 25th, 2010, 3:37pm CEST by Alan McLeod

Update: To be fair, when I heard about their tattoo promotion I immediately thought "damn, you have to be at the pub on opening night...."
Am I supposed to cheer along with the giving of the finger to 99.998% of customers for the sake of marketing? Or is this supposed to be Dada beer? Who cares. All I know is I am far less inclined to buy any BrewDog beer. Why? Because of this short sentence:
A response to the haters.
"Haters"? Good Lord. Are you twelve? This has to be the stupidest new usage of a word that has been imposed upon the language and there is far too much use of it in craft beer circles. It denies the right to disagree. It tells us to stop thinking and start following. You call in to question my freedom from being your sycophant, I call into question your business model.
Not that there is anything wrong with the beer. BrewDog is quite good at making beer. As good as a lot of other great brewers. What makes it different is how it seems to be that it is brewed by pushy dullards with an over active interest in getting our money while letting us know we don't "get it." No thanks me thinks. This brewery has gotten too boring.
Florida: Saison Athene, Saint Somewhere, Tarpon Springs

Posted: July 24th, 2010, 3:28am CEST by Alan McLeod

I didn't expect this to be my first Floridian beer but I guess it is. Andy Crouch in his soon to be published (review copy delivered yesterday) Great American Craft Beer calls it both "a flavor parade of spice" and a "spice bazaar" which gives me some pause. Can I handle it?
It opens with a pop as the 2009 dated cork flies and lets loose with an appled gently funky wave of aroma. Golden ale under white froth and foam. In the mouth... it is a spice parade. Lighter bodied and crisp with curried notes of, maybe, earthy cardamom, a little white pepper and heated raw ginger. The balancing malt is that wheat cream thing that Lew mocked me mercilessly over. Tangerine juicy mid-swallow but ends with a drying brett finish. More semi-sub-tropical Orval than Oro but a solid brew.
Great BAer respect but not quite love. I don't know why.
Shopping At Broue Ha Ha In Gatineau Quebec

Posted: July 23rd, 2010, 1:34am CEST by Alan McLeod

I regretted the drive only when the alarm went off this morning. Adding 425 km and five hours driving to the gap between supper and sleep was not maybe the most intelligent thing to do mid-week but I sure was pleased with what I found. Broue Ha Ha is the newest addition to the private beer shop scene for eastern Ontario - none of which actually exist in eastern Ontario. I got a bit lost finding the place as its about ten miles or so to the east of downtown Ottawa but on the way home realized it sits fairly handy to exit 141 on Autoroute 50. Won't make that mistake again.
The shop sits in a new mini-mall in a residential area of town. The first thing you notice is the whole neat and tidy thing. Not quite used to the idea of such a snappy shop as craft beer places tend to be a bit of a friendly jumble. As you can see from the picture I nicked from Facebook, the small shop has a considered layout that features shelving according to styles rather than the usual geographical location of the brewers. Gilles, the owner, was tending to other shoppings in French but had no problem picking out my fundamental incapacity in that language and switched to English.
I picked up a few new beers like the latest double IPA from Charlevoix as well as their blanche, one from Multi-Brasses of Tingwick and another from a brew pub from Shawinigan. The rest were favorites from Le Bilboquet and Les Trois Mousquetaires as well as a six of Coup de Grisou by Brasseurs RJ . Prices very competitive with Marche Omni at the western end of the City. I stopped there on the way home and found a few beer not by at Broue Ha Ha by Microbrasserie de L'Ile d"Orleans.
Only open for a couple of months, one lone BAer gives high praise as do the three at RateBeer. More on Facebook.
Oregon: Chatoe Rogue Single Malt Ale, Rogue, Newport

Posted: July 21st, 2010, 4:17am CEST by Alan McLeod

Ah, to be left with only the third best camera in the house. I hope the beer isn't third best. As you can guess, I doubt it will be. I like the idea of veracity and authenticity in ingredients. I prefer it to brewer as wizard or rock star or TV host. Hard to believe some might find brewer as TV to be a tad cheesy but there you have it. By contrast, in this case the brewery states "all Chatoe Rogue brews are all GYO Certified, First Growth, Appellation products made with hops and malt from our Department of Agriculture's Hopyard and Barley Bench." Wonderful idea.
The beer pours a light yellow pine and generates a fine white lacy froth, foam and rim. Light floral aromas. Bright lemon grassy acidity followed by twiggy bittering moving towards a lime hoppiness. Lighter bodied than I might have expected but welcome at that minor girth. The malt is there in a supporting role, quietly biscuity. I really like this beer. Zesty.
I find the BAers a little less excited than I am.
Bootlegger Sentenced After 76 Year Trade

Posted: July 20th, 2010, 3:08am CEST by Alan McLeod

Good Lord. I have been writing this blog for a long time. It's over five and a half years since I wrote that post about the shutting down of the illegal bars in my old home in Canada's eastern province of Prince Edward Island. Well, apparently they didn't shut them all down as the sentencing of 85 year old Alexander (Slick) Rhynes today shows. I like his submissions to the court:
Alexander (Slick) Rhynes told provincial court on Monday that he was "just trying to make an honest living." He was found guilty of possession of liquor for sale and selling liquor. Rhynes told the court he's been selling liquor out of his house since he was nine and he's not hurting anyone. He also said he buys liquor and beer from the liquor store and pays taxes on it, and that he also pays taxes on the income he makes.
Therefore... Slick can make up his own laws, too! Slick seems to have forgotten the death of a man in a booze can like his which went unnoticed for sometime back in 2004. An honest living, indeed. The comments to the news item are priceless. I can't speak to the minimum fine imposed as I know the judge and like her a lot. Good hockey player. Got to watch those hockey playing judges. Just saying.
Is this so wrong? What sentence would Slick have received in your jurisdiction?
Why Is It So Rare That We Praise The Consumer?

Posted: July 19th, 2010, 1:51am CEST by Alan McLeod

Consumption is a bad word even though we all do it and we all must do it. The free market is based on aggregation of single decisions into total consumer demand yet, in the world of good beer, these choices are little discussed. It is often discussed in supply side terms. I don't see it that way. I think this article in the Irish Independent.ie has it just about right:
The country's real ale fans represent the perfect example of how greater consumer awareness can revitalise a struggling industry, say economists. Equally, the ever-growing number of microbreweries satisfying their demanding palates offers hope for the UK's small businesses. Experts at Nottingham University Business School came up with the findings after examining the history of brewing in England. They believe the industry's rebirth in the wake of the Campaign for Real Ale's founding in 1971 has implications for much of the UK economy.
No clients? No brewery. No taste for new beer, no risk taking at the check out? No craft beer revolution. Which is why every time I hear about another allegedly rock star status brewer or one more "we are the leaders" craft brewing association video, I wonder why they forget the most important two words in the whole deal - thank you. I also wonder why good beer drinkers in North American can't get their purchasing power together and achieve the success in the marketplace that CAMRA has.