If you are looking for a place in Charleston to get your “English Ale Fix”, look no further than Blues BBQ at the corner of Leon Sullivan Way and Lee Street. Kay & Jay have added six new beers from across the pond. This is in addition to their existing portfolio of Samuel Smith’s fine ales.

Black Sheep brewery’s Monty Python’s Holy Grail Ale is traditional English bitter with a name that is a bigger mouthful than the beer itself. Holy Grail ale is your typical English session beer, meaning light on the alcohol and not too filling as to allow you to quaff a few pints. Blues BBQ has the Monty Python Ale on draught, replacing Shiner Bock on the tap line. Shiner is still available in bottles.

From the Cotswolds, are three very nice bottled ales by The Wychwood brewery. Hobgoblin is a wonderful ESB style beer, with just enough dark malt to give it a toffee flavor to balance the traditional fuggles hops. Wychcraft is my favorite of the Wychwood beers, with three additions of Kent Goldings hops for a nice lively hop flavor. The brewery calls this a summer beer, but I can drink this one year round. The brewery also produces an organic ale called The Scarecrow. This beer is apparently made with garden-grown Kent Goldings hops. I found the beer to be a little thin and sourish. I will give it another go to make sure that it just wasn’t my palate that evening.

The winner of the best bottle design would have to go to St. Peter’s Organic Ale. The flask style bottle is a replica of a colonial design from Gibbstown, NJ (40 minutes from my old hometown — gotta love dat!). The beer is not too bad, either. This beer is a typical easy-drinking session beer with some citrusy notes and a little bit of bready character. The brewery tasting notes mentioned an aroma of smoked ham… Hmmm. I guess I will sniff for that the next time. By far, the best beer of all of these newbies is the St. Peter’s Cream Stout. This beer pours with a creamy, but rocky tan head. The rich, roasted flavors are balanced with a slight fresh green apple flavor. The mouthfeel (body) is somewhat light. “Please Sir, May I have some more?”

Please don’t plan the Rich Ireland pity party quite yet because the title of this blog is dedicated to all of you fellow beer lovers out there in the beery wasteland of West Virginia. I have just finished reading the Sunday Gazette’s Life And Style section’s May 24, 2007 “Main Ingredient” column. As always, there is a yummy-sounding recipe offered up by the top-notch Sunday Gazette-Mail food writers Byers & Tuckwiller. I am also really glad that the editors have been occasionally working in one of my beer articles along with John Brown’s excellent gazz blog on wine.

This morning I noticed a sidebar titled “What to Drink”, which accompanied this week’s recipe of lamb meatballs with thyme and allspice. Apparently, the only thing “To Drink” with this meal is wine, since there was no beer listed, nor do I know of an attempt to do so. (more…)

Last week was “American Craft-Beer Week” and what better way to celebrate than with an American craft-beer dinner at Monk’s Café in the city of brotherly love. It was fortunate that my business schedule put me in Philadelphia, allowing me the chance to attend. Monk’s Café is Philly’s premier spot for the beer connoisseur, hosting themed beer dinners that pair world class beer with world class cuisine. This month’s dinner was no exception.

The guest speaker was Midwest beer and food maven Lucy Saunders who has authored several books on cooking with and pairing beer with food. Lucy has apprenticed in some of the finest beer cuisine kitchens in England and Belgium. All of the evening’s dishes served up were straight out of Lucy’s latest book called “Grilling with Beer.” An interesting twist to the menu was the fact that all of the American craft beer was packaged in aluminum cans! Yes, America’s craft brewers are taking back the can from the big boys. (more…)

To test this beer myth, that “Draught beer gives me a headache,” first we must understand how draught beer differs from canned or bottled beer. Most canned and bottled beers are heat-tunnel pasteurized before shipping. This kills off any small amount of bacteria or yeast that still may remain in the beer even after it has been filtered. (The exception to this is bottle-conditioned beer which is packaged with yeast.) It is extra important that these type of beers be stored cold at all times. We all have been witness to our favorite beer sitting at room temperature in some unknowing or uncaring retail store. If the room temperature beer has not been pasteurized, there is a good chance that re-fermentation could occur in the bottle or can resulting in an abundance of Co2 gas, possibly leading to explosive results. (more…)

I know most of you fell for the grand deception pulled off earlier in the week by Her Majesty’s Secret Service. The U.S. and British press were unknowing pawns in the scheme, reporting that Her Majesty would be coming to U.S. on a State visit, arriving at Richmond to attend festivities at Jamestown, and then off to the Kentucky Derby. What you did not know and I can now reveal to you are some details of the Queen’s Saturday visit along with her husband Prince Phillip, to my garage brewery to celebrate Big Brew 2007!

Many of you are probably saying to yourself “Damn! Rich invited us to drop by, but did we? No…” You probably were stuck somewhere wearing a cheesy sombrero, drinking bad margaritas or Corona in celebration of Cinco De Mayo. Or worse, you were all dressed up in your best formal clothes, sipping a watery mint julep out in the hot sun, waiting to watch a three-minute horse racing spectacle; while The Queen, The Duke of Edinburgh, Rich and his brew buddies were mashing in, boiling wort, and drinking great home brewed craft beer, having a great time!

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Congratulations are in order for the hard working beer activists in South Carolina, for they have “Popped the Cap” on the state’s archaic “non-intoxicating” beer law. South Carolinians are now allowed to purchase beer with up to 14% ABV( up from 6%). The bill was signed on May 2 by Governor Sanford. The revision will allow folks there to enjoy such world class beer as Trappist ale and German Doppelbock, to name a few. With South Carolina off the list, it leaves three states including our beloved and seemingly backwards West Virginia. (I think that’s us in the middle…) (more…)

The first Saturday in May has been officially designated by Congress as “National Home Brewing Day.” The American Homebrewers Association (AHA) created “Big Brew” as a way for its members to celebrate and also to introduce new people to the art of brewing. It is also a damn good time…

As always, I host a Big Brew event at my brewery (garage) in Charleston and I sincerely hope to see some of you there if only to stop by for a beer or to just peer into my mash tun. It’s pretty much an all-day event usually finishing up sometime in the early evening.

I will be brewing one of three designated recipes for Big Brew 2007. This year I will make a very hoppy IPA using a special hopping technique.

If you would like to stop by, please drop me an email at rireland@suddenlink.net

For more information on “Big Brew” check out www.beertown.org

The champagne bubbles
Hints of fruit and cloves spring forth
Warmingly potent

Written by Joe.

Joe’s Haiku describes a wonderful beer from Quebec called La Fin Du Monde. If the prose inspires you to go to the store and buy this fantastic beer, don’t be in too big a rush; our laws prevent it from being sold in West Virginia… (PS: Haven’t I seen that guy in Charleston before??)

As a homebrewer the onset of grilling season holds mixed feelings for me. On one hand it will be getting too warm to brew and on the other hand warm weather is perhaps the best time for real craft beer to shine. I’ll give you three reasons why you should always invite craft beer to your spring or summer cookouts. Marinating, steaming and of course drinking…

Let’s start with marinating. I am not talking about simply replacing the “other” liquid in a typical marinade with a can of Bud. I am talking about using a real craft beer that can deliver something besides “wet” to your marinade. Since many craft beers are highly aromatic, they are great as steaming liquid. When it’s warm outside ( and we are waiting!), beer is king. Nothing delivers the range of flavors along with refreshing bitterness and fizziness like beer. I am sure the first thing you want do when you finish mowing your lawn is quaff down a nice cool glass of chardonnay…Yeah right!

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