03.08.10

All the Rage in Berlin: Currywurst

Posted in Uncategorized at 12:18 pm by Administrator

Lately, I’ve been eating a lot of currywurst. What is currywurst you ask? It’s a leading fast food in Berlin, a hearty snack or meal made with pork sausage doused in spicy curry ketchup and often served with a side of fries. Currywurst sprang to life after World War II as a fusion of German fondness for sausage mixed with occupying British zeal for spicy Indian curry. The treat is easy to make, and you can buy premixed curry ketchup like Burkhardt’s at GermanDeli.com.

Still, it’s easy enough to make your own by mixing your favorite ketchup with curry powder to your taste. This is what I prefer as I like mine with lots of curry, and I simply pour the sauce over fresh cooked brats from Patak Meats, garnish with a bit of paprika and enjoy. I like hoppy beers with spicy foods, and in that vein I match mine with a good German or German-style beer like Konig-Pils, Jever Pils, Victory Prima Pils, or Sierra Nevada Glissade Bock.

If you’ve never tried currywurst, you’re in for a treat. Why not try it with a cold beer today?

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02.24.10

What Happened to the Beer?

Posted in Uncategorized at 1:39 pm by Administrator

When in the Buckhead section of Atlanta, I’ve often made it a habit to stop at Pearson’s Wine, Beer, & Spirits to check out their beer selection. And that’s the problem: Pearson’s no longer seems to have one. On my last visit, I was disappointed to see that almost all of their craft beers had been removed, with only a rudimentary selection of the most popular brands remaining.

More wine now fills the space where the beer once was, and the store now goes by the name of Pearson’s Wine of Atlanta. All well and good, but they’ve obviously just lost my business.

If you’re looking for good beer in Atlanta, pass on Pearson’s and head downtown to Green’s instead.

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02.21.10

Sweetwater 420 Pale Ale Beer Bread

Posted in Uncategorized at 4:39 pm by Administrator

Usually, I find that people who demand much from their beer (gastronomically speaking) are equally enthusiastic with what they eat. This is not to say that I, for example, don’t enjoy the occasional fast food lunch, but I do get a lot more excited about something with a lot more flavor. This is especially true with bread, which is, after all, not that far removed from beer. Both are made with grain, after all.

Thus my enjoyment of Sweetwater 420 Pale Ale beer bread, made locally with spent grain from Atlanta’s Sweetwater Brewery and sold at Whole Foods markets. I picked up a loaf yesterday at Harry’s Farmer’s Market in Marietta, which is part of the Whole Foods chain. This delicious bread is hearty enough to be served as a meal in itself, and has so much flavor there’s no need to add butter. Dark and mysterious inside and out, this whole wheat loaf has spent barley brewed right into the loaf and seeded into the crust. It’s moist and chewy inside, crisp and crusty outside, and has a gentle sweetness and whole grain flavor that makes it akin to a big bran muffin.

Wonderful with sliced Cotswold and Butterkase cheeses, fresh pickles, and cod mild sausages (English bangers for me). Wash it all down with a glass of (what else) hoppy 420 Pale Ale, and you’ve a meal fit for a king.

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02.16.10

Beer Wars, the Movie: Exploring the Business of Beer

Posted in Uncategorized at 1:04 pm by Administrator

Have you ever really thought about your beer? I don’t mean how it tastes, of course, or if it’s too cold or too warm, or how much you paid for it. No, I’m talking about the business of beer: how it’s made, how it’s distributed, how it’s promoted, and how it’s sold. Chances are you’ve never given any of that much thought, even if you’re a craft beer drinker. You go to the store, you bring your beer home, and you drink it. And that’s that.

There’s far more to the business of beer, however, than there is to most other industries, a fact that you’ll learn while watching Beer Wars. Written and produced by Anat Baron, this captivating documentary delves into the world of beer from two angles: that of brewing behemoth Anheuser-Busch vs. tiny start-up microbrewer Dogfish Head (hence the “beer wars”).

Baron is no stranger to the alcohol business; she is a former executive for Mike’s Hard Lemonade and is therefore very familiar with how the industry works (and doesn’t). She appears throughout the film as narrator and roving reporter of sorts, all the while exposing some of the more intricate workings of the industry. Clearly, Baron is biased, and Beer Wars goes out of its way to portray the big brewers, especially Anheuser-Busch, as the bad guys while casting a halo over the heads of the small brewers.

There are a few shots taken at Anheuser-Busch for their attempts to get into the rapidly-growing craft beer market. Problem is, AB (and the other macrobrewers) also get lambasted for denying American beer drinkers choice by cranking out a line of mostly similar products that are bland, boring and have little taste. The latter is demonstrated in a rather funny segment that shows Coors Light drinkers blind taste testing their favored brand vs. Bud Light and Miller Lite. The reactions when they pick the wrong product are amusing to behold, though we never get any scientific data on how many times this happened.

Bottom line, however, is that it’s rather disingenuous to slam the big brewers for feeding us crap beer, and then slam them again when they respond to the market and give us the good beer after all. Yet this is just what Beer Wars does. Certainly, Anheuser-Busch and the larger brewers have plenty of genuine sins to atone for, and Baron explores them here. Craft beer aficionados will likely see red during the segment where Dogfish Head founder Sam Calagione describes how Anheuser-Busch is suing him claiming that he has no right to use the generic terms “Punkin” and “Chicory” on his beers. Strange then, Sam muses, that they have no problem using the term “Natural” on one of theirs.

And that’s the perspective much of the film takes, exposing the challenges small brewers like Dogfish Head face trying to pry away a miniscule amount of market share from the now foreign-owned brewing goliaths Anheuser-Busch, Miller, and Coors. We see it not only in the story of Dogfish Head, which has a brewery and is trying to build a bigger one, but also through the efforts of Rhonda Kallman to expand her contract-brewed Moonshot brand.

Certainly, Baron has done her homework, as she explores the history of brewing in America, the dark days of prohibition and its effects on locally brewed beer, regional breweries, the ridiculous amount of market share that the big brewers now possess, and the antiquated and unbalanced three-tier distribution system that overwhelmingly favors the large brewers to the detriment of the smaller ones. A range of beer personas have a moment in the sun here, and we get interesting insight from Jim Koch of Samuel Adams fame, Charlie Papazian of the American Homebrewers society, Garret Oliver of the Brooklyn Brewery, Carol Stoudt of Stoudt’s brewing, Dick Yuengling of Yuengling Brewery, and even a cameo by Michael Jackson.

In sum, you don’t have to be a beer geek to enjoy Beer Wars. Even if a Dogfish Head Raison D’Etre or Samuel Adams Boston Lager has never passed your lips, you may find this insightful glimpse into the politics of beer a fascinating study of how the powerful work their way in America. If you do love beer in all its shapes and forms, however, Beer Wars is certainly not to be missed, and will likely give you a perspective on the beer industry you might not have considered before.

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02.11.10

New and Exciting Beer Blog

Posted in Uncategorized at 1:16 pm by Administrator

I’ve been enjoying the bejesus out of a new beer blog, Beers in the Henhouse. I’ve known the author for decades now, and he’s one of the most knowledgeable beer enthusiasts you’ll ever meet. His first post about Pete Brown’s amazing book Hops and Glory got me to order a copy from Canada, and I’m in the process of reading it now. More on that later, but I can already recommend you get your own copy. Until it arrives, why not pop open a beer and hop on over to Beer in the Time of Cholera for a read? Enjoy.

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Beer is Good For You

Posted in Uncategorized at 1:08 pm by Administrator

Yet another reason to drink beer: it’s good for the bones, according to a Daily Finance article

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09.02.09

Just Say No! to New Beer Taxes

Posted in Uncategorized at 12:45 pm by Administrator

It’s been a hard day at work, and you’re thankful just to have that job. Times are tough. You haven’t had a raise in a year, your spouse is unemployed.  You used to stop off at the pub for a few every now and then, but that’s a luxury you’ve cut out to save a few bucks. Now, you simply go home and try to relax with a brew or two instead. Sound like a reasonable escape from life’s increasing woes?

For many, it is. But if you live in Illinois, your small pleasure is about to get more expensive. That’s because the state has decided to levy a further tax on beer that, after everything is factored in, may add about 50 cents to the price of a case of beer. Worse yet for wine drinkers, who’ll see more than a doubling of tax on a bottle, with liquor levies going up just under a doubling.

Picking the working man’s pocket is a popular way for states to raise income, and don’t expect Illinois to be the only state to do this. Simply put, it’s wrong, because it targets one sector of the public and allocates funds to the entire state. States with budget issues need to raise taxes on everyone, or cut spending. Beer drinkers need to contact their local representatives and be heard on this issue. The money you save may be your own.

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08.30.09

Has It Really Been Another Year?

Posted in Uncategorized at 10:32 pm by Administrator

Has it really been another year? Not just since we lost the Beer Hunter, Michael Jackson, but since I’ve posted an installment on my blog? It appears so. Michael, of course, has been gone for two years now today, though really it seems like just yesterday I heard the news of his passing. The loss was a great one, and at the time I felt like I had lost a dear friend, even though I’d only met Michael a few times. On one of those occasions,  I was fortunate enough to discuss beer with MJ at length, and got his autograph that you see below. It’s in one of my most prized possessions, a copy of The Pocket Guide to Beer penned by the Beer Hunter himself. In a few weeks, it will be 13 years since he signed the book. My, how time really does fly.

Sometimes, it takes the passing of time to realize that you don’t realize the full impact of someone’s passing right away. Having lost     my mom earlier this year, I’ll sometimes think about her as if she’s still with us. That’s the case with MJ, too. You miss the new books, and the interviews, and of course the columns. Nobody in the beer world today writes like Michael did, and I seriously doubt anyone ever will.

Normally on this day I pause to reflect and celebrate Michael’s life by drinking a toast to him with a carefully picked beer. This year, though, flattened as I am by a lowly virus, I’ll have to put that off until later (though I guarantee you that the next beer that passes these lips will be in toast to the Beer Hunter). But that won’t stop me from remembering the life of the best beer writer this guru of brew ever knew. So here’s to you, Michael. You may be gone, but you’re still not forgotten by the legions of beer hunters you inspired across the globe.

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08.31.08

A Year Without the Beer Hunter

Posted in Uncategorized at 4:04 am by Administrator

Here it is, the 30^th of August, and it’s been exactly a year since the world of beer lost its greatest benefactor: Michael Jackson. MJ was really the guy who got the ball rolling for the craft beer world, writing about it when nobody else really did, lifting it up when most looked down upon it, and really inspiring so many beer enthusiasts, including this one, to hoist their mugs on high.

Several days ago, a good friend of mine asked me what beer I would be drinking in memory of Michael. To be honest, I hadn’t thought about that. To be sure, I knew the anniversary was coming, but likely would have just pulled something out of the DBR to remember with.

But thinking of what I would drink to toast MJ, I decided to pick up a six-pack of Anchor Liberty Ale. I certainly could have decided on any number of beers, of course, but thinking back to the now-classic Beer Hunter episode A California Pilgrimage, a beer from Anchor seemed a natural choice.

And so I am enjoying a wonderfully hoppy Liberty Ale out of an etched Anchor beer glass. Next year, it will be something different, because diversity in beer was what Michael was all about. But for now, here’s to you MJ. You may be gone, but you’re certainly not forgotten.

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08.24.08

The South Shall Rise Agin

Posted in Uncategorized at 4:12 am by Administrator

It’s hard to believe how far beer culture and brewing in the southeast have come. When I first moved here from New England in 2001, you could not buy a beer in Atlanta (or the rest of Georgia for that matter) stronger than 6% by volume. That’s all changed, of course, and such silly laws have been abolished here, and in both Carolinas as well.

A  week ago this evening, I sat at the bar at Liberty Tap Room and Grill in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and enjoyed not only two pints of Oskar Blues Gordon from Colorado, but beers of their own making plus local specialties from RJ Rockers and New South Brewing. On tap to boot were craft beers from Terrapin in Georgia, Highland in North Carolina, and even a few imports from way up in Vermont.

When it comes to beer, it seems the south is rising again. And I for one am certainly happy about that.

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