The Hop Renaissance

Hop farming and estate-hopped beers return to NY.

Thanks to the Butcher and the Baker for sending this my way.

I thoroughly enjoyed this article and I think you will too.

From this dismal place, the United States is now the most vibrant beer culture in the world. Far from representing the nadir, American craft brewers now inspire bastions like England, Germany and Belgium to re-examine their own traditions and to invent new ones. American brews have kindled craft beer movements in unexpected places like Italy, Japan and Mexico. While the craft beer revolution in this country struck hard in the 1980s and ’90s, the last 10 years have seen an almost rocket-like acceleration around the world. Sales of mass-market beers have been stagnant or declining for years now, while craft-beer sales keep growing. In putting together the “Oxford Companion” now, Mr. Oliver has captured the blossoming of a global beer culture at a thriving moment.

Beer is newsworthy. Does this mean it’s time to change the name of the section to something different than “Dining & Wine” ????????????

Answer: Yes. I think something like “Digress & Digest” or “Chews & Booze” or “Put It in Your Face Hole.” I mean, what’s with the formalities anyways NYT? Get over yourself already.

The Home Brew Revolution

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Eye Candy meets Liver Candy

Chocolatey beer nom noms and hop droppings on your tongue. Picture it (not sure if that is the correct demand for a mouth-taste-imagination-demonstrative, but we’ll go with it).

A potentially good gift for those hard to shop for dads. Can’t picture my father ever wanting to eat any of these things, but maybe yours would?? Or, maybe you just want some, you know, for you.

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TGISUMMER!!!!!!

Officially, memorial day weekend is the first day of summer in NYC. And perhaps, much of the northern hemisphere at that. However, in the midst of our Monsoony May, this hot day is probably more than welcome by my fellow city dwellers.

And a hot day as such, at the start of a long weekend - will have people springing for summer cocktails. Frozen-mango-mojitos and other longform names sprinkled with pink umbrellas and loopy straws will certainly come out of hiding across the boroughs.

But what about the beer?

There are plenty of new summer beer developments to cherish this long weekend! Sixpoint cans, Seasonal Summer Ales, new beer gardens, oh my! BUT I encourage you to get experimental. You may have seen my recent post about Micheladas. Well, the NYT also put up this lovely article to let us know what other kind of beer cocktails are out there in the mix. Refreshing, and lovely looking. What more could we want?

And although this may seem like a very novel and new thing to New York, it is common practice in other parts of the globe. Micheladas in Mexico, Shandies in the UK, Or 1664 with Grenadine in France (don’t knock until you’ve tried it!) have all been served for ages. My advice to you this long weekend, is to try a beer cocktail if you’ve never had one - or better yet get experimental and mix your own! And please do let me know how it goes.

Click photo for NYTimes piece. Thanks to JL for sharing this article with me.

Not Your Average Beer Garden

I think this person is my new hero. I’m not sure what to say. I’m almost speechless. I read this article about 10 times, and this young gentlemen is just simply a genius! He is growing his own beer grains! Genius! And uses second hand milk tanks! And, two other amazing facts that I learned from this article: You can sell home-brew in NY farmers markets (I thought this was only possible in Missouri!) AND there is a Nano-Malt house in Hadley.

I have the feeling the whole course of my life just changed. He and I are going to be best friends, he just doesn’t know it yet.

I linked up the Iraq article to the post, thanks for pointing out that I forgot!

Horseradish Beer Mustard. This might have to be put on the agenda for CJX. Thanks to our biggest fan, Well Right, for hooking this one up.

Also, can we discuss that the link says “16 DIY Recipes.” Aren’t all recipes DIY? Isn’t that kind of….the point?

 Black Velvet, if you please. 1/2 Guinness, 1/2 bubbly. Picture from NYT Food and Drink.