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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Every year around this time, beer judges and professional brewers meet at various venues around the country to sit and judge the National Homebrewing Competition — or simply NHC. For a homebrewer, this is the “Big Leagues”. The NHC is sanctioned and organized by the American Homebrewers Association and with over 5,000 entries, is the largest homebrewing competition in the world. The competition is open to any homebrewer, anywhere on planet earth or beyond as long as they can get their beers in on time and in the appropriate bottle.

Last week, four other area judges and I took part in the NHC “first round” judging for our region. Judging was done at Gordon-Biersch Brewing Company in Columbus, OH. Our region consisted of nearly 700 entries, which were sorted out into BJCP beer-style classifications and judged according to the beer style that they are supposed to embody. (more…)

EITOR’S NOTE: Gazz “Beers to You” blogger Rich Ireland had good things to say about the last “Fest of Ale” at South Charleston’s Ramada Plaza Hotel Comedy Zone, which he helped to emcee and which drew more than 80 people for brew and laughs. Head there this Friday, April 18 for Vol. 2. of the event, starting 7 p.m.

It starts with a short ‘Beer 101’ session and then 11 samplings of craft beer with food pairings to match and comedy on the side served up by Jody Kerns and Mike Storck. Admission is $25 per person, which includes the beer, food, entertainment and a chance at prizes during the evening. Call 744-4641.

ONLINE: www.comedyzonecharleston.com

Most of you probably think that maintaining a blog is easy. All you need is a passion for a subject or a good reason to rant, and a computer to log on. When I started doing this over a year ago, I kind of thought the same way. I felt like I had so much to say about beer, that I would never run out of ideas or subjects to blog about. I quickly found out that as far as blog ideas go, it’s either feast or famine with me.

I was thinking about a subject to write about for this upcoming week and I thought of all the great blogging opportunities that I either missed or just never got around to. My inner self exclaimed “There you go Richie boy! Your blog for the upcoming week has almost written itself”!

So here goes. I present “The best beer blogs that never came to be”… (more…)

The “Beers to You” Mythbuster poses the question: Does Budweiser suck?

First we have to define the word “sucks.” In the context used it would seem that the word is being used to say that Budweiser is a beer of low quality. As any of my regular readers know, “Bud” has played the role of “whipping boy” in many of my previous articles. I personally do not enjoy drinking the beer (and only do so under duress), but that fact has to do with flavor and nothing to do with quality.

Budweiser, along with just about every other macro-brew, are beers of compromise. They are designed for the masses. Millions of dollars are spent to test market these beers before they are brewed. The goal is to make a beverage that is ‘flavor neutral,’ but still barely passes for beer. Bud is brewed with barley malt, but then they use other fermentable ingredients to keep it lightly flavored and still give you a buzz. Hops are used sparingly as not to impart much bitterness or flavor. Bud is brewed at breweries all over North America in very large batches. (more…)

The next time you’re strolling down your grocer’s beer aisle, take notice at how many craft beers are billed as “Pale Ale.” Sure, there may be some qualifiers on the label like “English Style Pale Ale” or “India Pale Ale”; but there’s no doubting pale ale’s ubiquity in today’s craft-beer market. But what is pale ale and what the heck’s the difference between English-style or India-style pale ale? I hope this primer will help de-mystify pale ale and hopefully make your next craft-beer purchase a bit easier.

The “Ale” family of beer consists of a wide variety of styles and flavors; many more than its cold-fermented counterpart, lager. Popular styles such as stouts and porters are ales along with the puckeringly sour lambics of Belgium and also the wheat beers of Germany. The yeast strain used for fermentation determines if beer will be a lager or ale.

Given all the varieties within the ale family, how does a consumer make a buying decision based on the name “Pale Ale”? Such a one-dimensional name could describe many styles of ale. There are plenty of ales which are pale in color but aren’t Pale-Ales. Belgian lambic beers are pale, but if you mistakenly threw one of those back thinking it’s going to taste like the pint of ale you drank at an English pub a few years back, you are in for a real sour surprise. (more…)