I have always held a fondness for British beer and English pub culture. While today’s Brits are often known worldwide as rowdy, drunken and often violent soccer “hooligans,” the historical reality is that the English have been some of the most civilized drinkers in the history of the world. In the last 50 years or so, England has been evolving (or devolving, depending on your perspective) into a largely commercially driven, lager swilling and very mediocre-beer drinking country. From my point of view, this “devolution” has been a contributing cause for the soiled reputation the English beer drinker earns today; it’s not unlike our own over-indulgent and irresponsible behavior that is all too common with the typical American macro-lager drinker.

Why am I picking on macro-lagers and macro lager drinkers? Well, it’s simple. The large macro lager brewers are all about volume selling. They want you to be able to “chain drink” one can after another without tasting it or filling your tummy. This sounds O.K. on the surface: Heck! Why not give the people what they want, right? The problem is that although they have lightened the beer’s taste and body, they leave all of the alcohol in the package. This means that you can guzzle away at great volumes with little consequence to your tummy; but your brain, well that’s another matter, it gets wasted. This all happens in a country where unlike most of beer drinking Europe, there is little to no public transportation to get your tummy and brain home…

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We mountaineers have come a long way in terms of craft beer that is brewed in state. Though we still have a long way to go to rank up there with neighboring states like Pennsylvania or Ohio, we can be proud of the small stable of West Virginia craft breweries that are turning out respectable beer.

One Charleston pub-owner has made it really easy to sample some of the best beers that the state offers. Kay Dillon at O’Kays on Leon Sullivan Way offers “West Virginia Beer Flights” on the menu. Patrons can choose a four-sample flight for $4 or a six sample flight for $5! The samples are three ounces, which is just the right amount for tasting. This makes it really easy to taste each beer and decide which one deserves your further attention when you order up a pint. (more…)

I spent part of last week and the weekend in Cincinnati attending the National Homebrewers Conference. Over 1,300 dedicated brewers, along with over 600 kegs of hand-crafted beer, were also in attendance. This was my first NHC, and it will surely not be the last. I must admit, I am a little “Beer-ed out” as of now, but I am sure I will recover before FestivALL’s “Blues, Brews and BBQ” this weekend.

Day one of NHC was a work day… That’s right. Judging the final round of the National Homebrewers Competition is really hard work. I spent the afternoon smelling, swirling tasting and critiquing some of the finest homebrewed beer in the world. Then it was right into “Brewer’s Night,” where homebrewers are paid homage by many craft breweries treating us with their finest brews, many of which were specially made for the conference. We partied with the pros, most of who began as amateurs just like us.

NHC is not all about the party. I was wide awake each morning and sitting in a presentation hall by 9 a.m. to listen and learn from some of the world’s best brewers, both professional and amateur. Technical topics, such as “Yeast Management for High gravity Brewing,” were presented as well as important beer culture topics such as “10 signs of a perfect pint – and why you rarely find them,” which were just as engaging and informative.

Samuel Adams founder and brewer Jim Koch took the podium with “beer in hand” Friday evening, giving what was a heartfelt and entertaining keynote address. Jim noted that he was addressing the largest gathering of brewers anywhere in the 8,000 year history of beer. He also was keenly aware of his audience when he went for easy laughs at the expense of winemakers and their undying affection for their single ingredient. They are pressured to find flavors in wine that do not exist, he said.

The highlight, or you could say the spectacle, of the weekend was “Club Night”. This is when the homebrewers and their brewing clubs entertain and attempt to outdo each other, like a kegged and tapped version of the mummer’s parade. “Rocket City Brewers” of Huntsville, Ala., strutted its stuff with pseudo-NASA blue jumpsuits and Rocket shaped tap-handles. Then there was West Virginia’s very own “Greater Huntington Homebrewers”, who dressed in yellow raincoats, hung a few fishnets and called our booth “The Deadliest Batch”.

(Click on pictures to enlarge)

The NHC is a great opportunity for brewers to leave their basement or garage breweries and find camaraderie, quirkiness and useful knowledge to improve their craft. I can only hope that more people who enjoy beer will find a friend who brews and offer to lend a helping hand at the next brew session. Or better yet, get online and order up a beginner’s kit to start their journey in a craft that is rewarding creatively, technically and really tastes good!

(Photos by Tim Lepley)

The rumors have been circulating for several months: global beverage giant Inbev of Belgium wants to buy Anheuser-Busch. Now, it’s official. Inbev has offered A-B shareholders an unprecedented $65 per share, making this something like a $50 billion deal. The financial pages of every major newspaper and magazine are touting the deal as a new page in the history of beer.

Interestingly, there is a contingent of U.S. citizens in a nationalistic uproar: “Some Ferrinners takin over Amerika’s Beer! How can y’all stand back and let this happen?!” Where was the outrage when Miller was purchased by South African Breweries, or when Daimler took over Chrysler? Frankly, I wish people were more concerned about energy independence and not “Beer Independence”! (more…)

Some of you may remember the commercial for a leading macro-lager showing someone wincing while drinking a competitive brand, making what was called a “bitter beer face.” This ad is ludicrous on so many levels. First of all, if you lined up all of the macro-lagers on a bar and tasted them, there is about as much difference between them as hamburgers from different McDonald’s locations. Secondly, “bitterness” is not a valid taste descriptor for any of the leading macros; there are barely enough hops in there to give the beer any character at all.

The real problem with this commercial is that it somehow tries to convince you that “bitter” flavor is a bad thing. These guys are trying appeal to your palate as if you were two years old. Yes, bitterness is a “bad thing” for most two year olds. It probably has something to do with our hard-wired “hunter-gatherer” operating systems, keeping the young’ins from eating potentially poisonous bitter berries. I guess if you want to be sure, go ask an anthropologist.

As we grow older and more adventurous, let’s hope we will take our taste buds on the journey. I admit that I have little patience with people that won’t try this or that for fear that it might taste bad… If it does, just spit it out! Grow up already! I am not talking about eating stuff like raw monkey brains or sheep’s eyeballs, (more…)

I thought I made a breakthrough a few weeks ago. After writing and ranting about better beer for nearly a year and a half, I was finally asked to recommend a beer selection to pair with a recipe in the Sunday Gazette-Mail. Wow! I was finally getting some respect from the Gazette’s foodies, Tara Tuckwiller and Robert Byers, who do the weekly “Main Ingredient” column. But the request did trigger a “red-flag.”

What I am talking about is “beer typecasting.” The first recipe they asked me to work with was Grilled Bratwurst, the second was Fried Catfish Tacos and the third was “Fish and Chips.” I was able to find what I thought were excellent beer choices to go with each. I noticed all along that none of the recipes fell into the “fine-cuisine” category; but more like cuisine you would find in a sport’s bar. I started to ask myself: ‘Am I (and better-beer) being played?’ I obliged them anyway, hoping for the best.

I withheld making any conclusions until this week. Where was that e-mail asking me to pair something with this week’s recipe? My inbox fell silent. Hmmm… My suspicions may have been confirmed this morning as I was sipping on my delicious black coffee and un-banding the Sunday Gazette-Mail. Oh! What’s this? A wonderfully delicious looking dish made with meat from a goat. Oooh, looky! It’s Parmesan and mint-crusted chops and looks like a fine dining entrée. “Hey, honey, they asked John Brown to give a wine recommendation for this dish. How nice.” What? No beer this week? I may just be jumping to conclusions here. Maybe it was a simple oversight on the part of Tuckwiller and Byers? Either way, the subject of typecasting needs to be discussed. (more…)

Who’d a thunk it? Just about a year ago I wrote a blog lamenting the lack of a decent beer selection at Appalachian Park, save for our beer vending friend “Mitch – The Elder Beer-Man” and his special selection of better brews. This year, I get the feeling Mitch’s vending business may not be doing as well as in years past.

The beer selection at the park has grown to include several beers from Mountaineer Brewing Company: Magic Hat and Hoegaarden. The transition started taking place near the end of the season last year. But I thought I would wait to see if the great beer selection returned this year before I committed to doing a blog on the subject. (more…)

It happened this past weekend, American Craft Beer officially made its case as a legitimate beverage, able to sit at the table of fine dining. The Brewers Association described “Savor” as an American craft-beer and food experience, though it may better be described as craft-beer’s Confirmation, Bar-Mitzvah or its debutante ball. For some of beer’s more hard-core enthusiasts, it was its coronation as king of the dinner table.

I attended one of the three sold-out sessions held this past weekend at the very “high brow” Andrew W. Mellon auditorium in Washington, D.C.’s Federal Triangle. Places like this are normally the domain of the fine wine and martini sipping crowd. The Brewers Association knew this, but they also knew that finely crafted beer, a very egalitarian beverage, deserves a place in such a venue which is owned by the people — and under the shadow cast by the monuments of the country’s Founding Fathers. They could have called the event “Mr. Beer goes to
Washington…” (more…)

I know this is a beer blog, but it is the political season and I can’t help having a little fun at the expense of the Presidential candidates. For this posting I am going to draw a lot here from my own personal opinions along with what I hear being said about each candidate by the political talking heads out there. I was thinking… If the candidates were beer, which beer would they be?

Here are my beer/candidate matches.

John McCain – Samuel Adams Boston Lager. The recipe is an old one, but a good one; very basic and simple. The beer is named after a revolutionary forefather and hero of the country, so it has deep roots and is respected. And just like Senator McCain, not everyone is enamored with it. It has bucked a few trends and has been a maverick as far as beers go, making it into country club bars as well as on tap at the bar next to a steel mill in the rust belt. This beer is not for everyone; it comes across with some strong hoppy flavors that many folks do not enjoy drinking.

Barack Obama – I am going to say Yuengling lager. Here we have a beer that everyone seems to want, but they really don’t know why. Just as with Senator Obama, the beer’s fans seem to be of the younger generation. Beer aficianados know that Yuengling is really nothing special as far as beers go; it’s a pretty average lager. When you actually get one in front of you and taste it and analyze it, you realize that you may have just been caught up in the marketing hype and that the beer is nothing special, except that it cost you a bit more.

Hillary Clinton – Once again a pretty generic lager, but in this case it’s Pabst Blue Ribbon. Yep! Good ole’ PBR. Why? Well this stuff won’t give up! PBR shows up on the market as an everyday beer for several years and then – Poof! It’s gone again! Off the shelves, not be seen for years. Then all of a sudden it makes a comeback, never outpacing the big lagers, but definitely making a showing. This is the beer with 9 lives going on 50; kind of like Sen Clinton and her ups and downs in this years Democratic primary. PBR sells well to a certain demographic, and can even appeal to a few of the Yuengling drinkers out there.

Well, there you have my picks. Why don’t you chime in with yours?

Just add a comment below… I would really like to hear from you!

I am always a bit wary of any pub that labels itself an “Irish Pub.” Usually such places wind up being poser bars serving up the obligatory Guinness on tap and laying claim to making the best “Black and Tan,” but having nothing else beery to brag about. So, when I hopped out of the hotel shuttle and through the door of the Dubliner Irish Pub in Dayton, Ohio, I thought I knew what I was in for. But I didn’t expect to run into an old friend.

To my delight, the Dubliner seemed to me to be a “working man’s pub” that could easily tolerate the occasional yuppie business crowd — and proved itself hospitable to this thirsty traveler. The place turned out to have a decent beer selection, though a beer menu or at least a beer list on a chalkboard would be a welcome addition (and would help sell more beer!)

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