NEW YORK. While surfing, we found the following article on pilsners, by Jordan Mackay: Something More Than Crappy Pilsner: Americans learn how to make good beer. Bless you, Jordan, for helping to steer the uninitiated away from the swill made by the big American breweries.
Tailgating at Ole Miss
OXFORD, Miss. – Tailgating in the United States, especially in the South, is a recognized art form. No where is this more apparent than during crisp fall days on the campus of Ole Miss in Oxford, Miss. where tailgating in The Grove is a renowned football tradition. I had the great fortune to head down there last weekend to catch the Ole Miss – Auburn game and throw back lots of beer.
On game day thousands collect in The Grove, an area of about 10 acres of thick oak, elm and magnolia. Festivities begin around 6 a.m. when the men head over to their tents to set up and prepare for the day’s festivities. It’s a massive party – part cocktail party with the men dressed up in blazers and rep ties and the ladies in dresses – part frat party with prodigious amounts of drinking – even though technically, drinking is not allowed in The Grove.Tables dressed to perfection struggle under the weight of all sorts of homemade food from fried chicken, sausage balls, pimento cheese dips, chips, sandwiches, brownies, cookies, cakes and pies. A recent addition to many of the tents is a flat screen TV making tracking the day’s football games a breeze and helping to extend the partymaking well beyond the end of the game. This past weekend, many had their tables decked out in pumpkins and other Halloween finery.Of course, the critical ingredient for me and many of my fellow tailgaters actually lies underneath the tables. That’s where you’ll get access to the coolers holding the beer. My friend’s tent decided to keep it simple – sticking to all-American beverages – MGD, Miller Lite and Budweiser.I sat there thinking about Bud and why one in every two beers consumed in America is a Bud. It’s always been known as a pounding beer – which I still think it is. I poured my Bud out being careful to get lots of air in it and noticed that the head dissipated quickly. It smelled a bit of rice and almost not at all of hops. It’s a very pale yellow color. Going down it’s a little bitter, watery and I feel like a can also taste some of the beechwood chips that they use in the aging process and that supposedly contributes to its smoothness. The beer is way too carbonated as it goes down the throat. One thing that it does have going for it is its nice clean finish – this is probably the biggest reason for its drinkability. It’s a beer that’s got to be very cold to be enjoyable.Thus passed my perfectly enjoyable Fall afternoon -- amid the throngs of fans and reverberations of the Rebel battle cry, “Hotty Totty” drinking beer after cold refreshing beer watching the games on TV, chatting up the locals, and eyeing up the Ole Miss football team as they march through along the Walk of Champions, the brick path that runs through the Grove, to the Vaught Hemingway Stadium.
Although Ole Miss did wind up losing to Auburn 24 – 17, from scene of revelry in the Grove, you’d never know it.
CLEVELAND. The country is just starting to hear about this gem of a pub and brewery, but some of us have know of it for years (they opened in 1988). Nestled on the near west side of Cleveland, not far from downtown, is the Great Lakes Brewing Company. So, on a dreary day today, we stopped in for a sampler tray of their current beers on tap...oh, and lunch. For about $8, you can get six 4-oz glasses of their finest to get you started. Today, it was the Dortmunder Gold Lager, the Burning River Pale Ale, the Edmund Fitzgerald Porter, the Holy Moses White Ale, Eliot Ness Amber Lager, and Conway's Irish Ale. We've always been somewhat partial toward their flagship Dortmunder. It's as advertised: balanced malt and hops that's smooth, slightly sweet, but still crisp. Nice golden color (not revealed in the sorry camera-phone pic at right). Top notch. Their bottled version does it justice. Their Pale Ale is really an IPA. It's sharply hoppy and has a 6% alcohol content. Not bad, but not our favorite. Their porter is sweet, smooth, and chocolaty, and not too heavy (which belies its namesake, the ill-fated ship). Very nice. Their white ale, named after the founder of Cleveland, is perhaps too heavy on the coriander. Although they advertise that it's spiced with chamomile and orangepeel too, we couldn't taste it. That left it a little unbalanced. Their Irish ale and amber lager are awfully similar, but both very enjoyable. Sure, the amber lager had slightly more hops, while the Irish ale had a tad more malty taste, but they were nearly twins in taste and alcohol content (6.2 and 6.5%, respectively). We found the amber's hops smoothed out the taste a little, perhaps gaining the edge in the competition between the two. Do yourself a favor: visit their website for more info on their beers, and look for them at your favorite local beer store. Hello, Cleveland!
RIDGEWOOD, NJ. Popped into a restaurant here that had some taps flowing with Long Island's Blue Point Brewing Company's offerings.
These kegs were fresh. We mean it. And we'll forgive them for only having two working. We had BPBC's Toasted Lager and White Ale.
Sure, their website doesn't mention it, but the barman swore up and down it was their white.
And now for the real McCoy: the Toasted Lager was awesome. Lightly toasted, crisp, this beer has just a hint of carmel toasting, just the barest edge. 5.3% alcohol, and made, they say, from six different malts.
Newport, RI. A beautiful, sunny, almost hot, day had us dreaming beer. The pseudo-summer weather had us thinking of a crisp, light lager. We've heard it called "lawnmower beer": the kind of thing you drink to 'wet the whistle' while pushing a lawnmower on a hot summer Sunday.
And, guess what, we were not disappointed. Rhode Island has its own beer, which dates back to a transplanted German brewmaster in Providence, RI, back in 1888. A terrific history of Narragansett Beer can be found here. What that site won't tell you was that a group from RI actually bought back the rights and started brewing again in late 2005, reviving the tradition.
Narragansett Beer does not disappoint: crisp, light, nice, almost nutty taste. A perfect brew for a hot day. It's vaguely reminiscent of Yuengling.
"Hi, neighbor, have a 'Gansett!"
NEW YORK -- Imitations are seldom, if ever, as good as originals. Even worse if someone or something is pretending to be something that it is not. With this in mind I was surprised to learn in an Aug. 17, 2007 article in the Wall Street Journal titled, “When Beer Takes On Vintners' Airs” by Conor Dougherty that small brewers along the West Coast are busy making beer that tastes more like wine.
The underlying concept for these wine-beer hybrids is to add a layer of complexity to a beverage that some view as plain or even watery. A winey beer is made by employing either wine yeasts or by aging the beer in barrels that once contained wine. The result is a beverage that is more alcoholic, has a stronger aroma and fruitier tastes.
Some examples include:
While these beers aren't for everyone, why not go out and sample one to decide for yourself? As for me I’d have to say they’re two tastes that don’t taste great together.
Madison, WI. On a recent snowy day in Madison, we found ourselves downing pints at the Great Dane Pub & Brewery, a terrific pub near the center square. A highlight? The German-style pilsner called Verruckte Stadt German Pils. Imported German hops make this a marvelous beer.
What better way to kick off the night...before heading over to the Essen Haus for boots of beer?
Report : Chicago, January 2008
Slushy snow underfoot, barely bearable windchill, ever shorter days, grim economic news. How does one salve the ills?
Thanks be to the weighty, unctuous 8.3% Lagunitas Limited Release Cappuccino Stout. A Petaluma, California Ale brewed with Colombian Coffee, natch, "brewed with Sebastopol's own HARD CORE COFFEE".
And, as the famous, eponymous Crimean duel between Russia and allied French and English forces, it is a classic struggle between the bombardment of the latter's caffeine cup-of-chino-esque charms: versus the stoic, reliable high booze; and chocolatey mouthfeel of a sturdy stout.
Is it an ersatz Vodka | Red Bull challenge, for beer purists? At the end of a 1 pint 6 oz serve one considers the aggressive push of the caffeine surging valiantly against the relaxing, and defensive Rusky alcohol. Comrade/Jolly good sir, are you coming, or going?
All in all, at the end of this battle of the palate and metabolism, against the backdrop of gloomy weather and diminished light of a Chi- Town winter, the tastebuds and one's general good countenance are the victors.
Award (another ) full credit to the innovative and experimental brewing culture of the U.S.A.
Austin, TX. In addition to good golf, central Texas has two more things going for it. First is the best BBQ in the world. For that, a drive a half-hour south of Auston to Lockhart is mandatory.
Second, you can down your beef brisket with Texas's own Shiner Bock, from the Spoetzl Brewery. It's one of the first things we do after arriving in Texas: belly-up to the bar and grab a cold one. It's a dark beer with a light taste. It's not filling, and has just the right sweetness. It's classified as a dark lager, which is fitting, since it's very reminiscent of Czech dark beers.
The brewery has been making beers for 99 years, and it claims to trace its roots to German and Czech immigrants in the 1800s, and those who started the Shiner brewery in 1909. It's a great success story, as the brewery only had a 1% market share twenty years ago, but has been growing strong. It's now owned by San Antonio's own Gambrinus Company (named after the patron saint of brewing and owners of some awesome beers like Pete's Wicked Ale, and Portland, Oregon's Bridgeport).
Also deserving of mention is a copy-cat from A-B: the Ziegen Bock. Worth a try...if you can't get a Shiner.
NYC. Alright, intellectual property may have gone to far. They're trademarking the name of hops these days??
Still, we have to say we enjoyed Weyerbacher's Double Simcoe (TM) IPA. It's dark and full like an ale: full mouthfeel. Foamy ale head. But then, the head sticks around like a lager; it lasts and lasts. Does it have a mind of it's own?
And those hops on the back-palate: they are crisp and strong like a powerful IPA. And the alcohol content: 9%. Stay away from the heavy machinery.
The brewery started this one as a seasonal in 2005, but say they kept it all year round after good demand and reviews. And it comes from Easton, PA, home of Lafayette College, Crayola Crayons, and Dixie Cups. But what it really does? It hits hard enough in alcohol content and taste to make Easton native Larry Holmes proud.
And those trademarked hops? Straight out of the U.S. Pacific Northwest, a fairly new variety first released in 2000. IPA or ale? Who cares? Try it.
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