The BLager
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Ontario’s Craft Beer Scene Is Budding in an Unfriendly Climate
A beautiful video made by my favorite human.
Extreme Brewing
Through the lens of Sam Calagione, of Dogfish Head, The New Yorker walks us through some of the post industrial craft beer era. A pretty good read if I say so. Thanks to @MarcBertrand for sending this one my way.
New Breweries of 2012
Element Brewing Company of Miller’s Falls, Massachusetts has just released several new beers. Good news for beer geeks and chemistry dorks alike. I’m hoping to try some Winter Ion before the March thaw. This chocolatey brew is spiced with coriander and aged with cocoa nibs….sounds like a good Valentines Day gift to me.
And, new to New York starting Summer 2012 is Single Cut Beersmiths. Coming out strong with a small cult following thanks to Brewer Rich Buceta’s incessant homebrewing and establishing his apt. as a staple on Josh Bernstein’s homebrew tour circuit, many NYC beer drinkers are already in the know of this up and coming brewery. And although the brewery won’t be opening its doors at it’s yet-to-be-announced-locale, you CAN taste some of this magic March 3rd during the NYC Craft Beer Festival.
Ok, so there was a bit of regional bias here. Any new breweries in your part of the states?
The Story of Founders
…and their great tasting beer.
Breuckelen Distilling Company in Brooklyn.
This weekend visit to Western Mass involved a not-so-rare border run to Chatam Brewing. Did you know, it’s on the beverage trail?
Highlights included sampling the Cassis Porter, and ….sampling all of the other beers. Chatam brewery is actually popping up in a few restaurants around NYC incognito, brewing house beers for restaurants such as the Dive Bars mini chain in Manhattan. With plans to increase the brewery’s capacity 10 fold, we may be seeing Chatam Brewing pouring in other places around NYS and NYC, good news for those of you who couldn’t find it’s present back alley pour-front.
That’s What She Said: FemALEs in Brewing
Thanks JWB for pointing this one out.
And your thoughts would be?
I’m totally late to the game, but here is a nice review from NPR about the GABF. Someday I’ll get myself over there…..
You probably want to win this contest - A LOT. IF you win you get to go to CANFEST - basically, party in a can - in RENO. You’ve never been to Reno, some people say it’s lame (what do they know?!?) but you think it would be pretty dope if you were crunked out on cans of craft beer!
But how are you going to CHARLIE SHEEN this opportunity? There’s like, a million, beer blogs out there! A lot of them suck, a lot of them don’t, some are just like the popular kids with no personality….but the question persists of how to make yourself stand out enough to snatch up those tickets to the hopgasm of the year? WELL, just follow this awesome 10 step guide on how to be really good at winning contests!
1) DON’T BE A DUD(E)
Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but craft beer loving dudes are soooo first decade. It’s 2011 people! Oh wait, you’re a guy who loves beer? Do you hear that sound? Yeah it’s the echo of no one caring. Chicks are the new black!
2) MORE THAN A PRETTY FACE: BE PUNNY!
Pun’s are the highest form of humor. They are a linguistic art form, and your vernacular prowess is the ultimate adage to increasing not only your likability, but also people remembering the hell the name of your blog is.
3) BE REALLY POPULAR!
One easy way of spreading your beer-love around the globe faster than swine flu is tapping into star warz nerd culture.
4) EXPLAIN THE CONSEQUENCES
Just be honest. Tell the judges if you lose you will lock yourself in a room, cry in your pillow while drinking a bottle of Riesling (cause that’s what losers drink) with Blonde Redhead on repeat. You will never be able to quit your day job to be a professional contest winner. Your parents will say things like “Why can’t you be better at winning contests like your sister?” You will never be able to look at beer in a can the same way, not without a rising tide of shame that washes over you like alcohol-induced vom.
If you win you will jump around on the couch squealing “OOOOH oooh OOOH ohh OOHH ooh OHHHH” a la Austra! You have life long bragging rights! You will be able to put “Skills include: Winning Contests” on your resume! Goood bye day job!
5) DON’T BE A SNOB
Snobs are people that nobody likes. Don’t think modifying the noun “snob” with “beer” increases your like-ability, or makes you cooler. It doesn’t. Beer is good because it A) Tastes good B) is an art form and C) brings people together (as you can see, meta-lists within lists are inherent in constest winning). Beer should not be celebrated for creating drinking classism, irrelevant descriptors, esoteric vocabulary,or know-it-all culture. Beer enthusiasts, beer lovers, beer connoisseurs, beer aficionados, and beer drinkers will be invited to your I-just-won-a-contest-lets-drink-party!, and the snobs can stay home polishing their snifters and crying into their keyboards while they draft blog posts about idiots “who drink beer but just don’t get it!”
6) DRINK A BEER
By now you are probably like, “OMG there’s HOW many more steps! How am I going to write read 4 more??” Well, just relax and go drink a can of beer to get the brain juices flowing again.
7) WRITE A BRILLIANT BLOG
You might think you’re brilliant, but acknowledgment - in this case from Foodista - is always welcome.
8) PLAY WITH YOUR FOOD
Beer isn’t just for drinking, it’s for cooking! And you need to have an arsenal of recipes and delish dishes so that both tummy’s and livers are satisfied. A little beer in your soup? Sure why not! Caramelized fennel and onions in beer? TOTALLY!
9) BREW IT
This is probably the easiest and fastest way to get over yourself and how awesome you are, then totally build yourself back up again (which leads one to speculate Buddhists must be brewers). You might think YOU KNOW BEER. Well, you don’t unless you’ve made it.
Ever lug a 10 gallon pot through grand central station? Ever heat up your kitchen to the bowels-of-hell-degree and spend an hour stirring a pot of hot sticky liquid? Ever spill wort all behind your stove and have a dead mouse wash out from underneath? No? Oh, sorry. I guess you don’t know beer.
10) KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE
Acknowledge the fact that yes - YOU ARE WITTY - but no, most people aren’t going to finish this list. It’s not about ending strong. It’s about ending on a nice, even number.
Smacking Carlsberg Around The School Yard
Marketing, beer marketing in China in particular - is….mostly a ghastly combination of exploitation and harassment. I was once bullied into drinking a Carlsberg Chill by a scantily clad beer girl (an occupation that does not seem to exist outside of China and Taiwan, to my knowledge. Beer girls have to wear atrocious outfits that some what resemble a cheer leading uniform and cowgirl boots, they barrage you into buying disgusting beer that comes from other countries, and sometimes they even drink what you begrudgingly purchase from them). Ever since then, I’ve had beef with Carlsbarf.
Now they are trying to “woo women” with a “gender neutral beer” aka tasteless crap with a stupid label.
WELL, I just want to tell you that we should not chalk up the beautiful country of Denmark, nor the Danish beer market, nor the Danish beer drinker, to Carlsbarf’s pitiful marketing ploys.
Look at this brand, Mikkeller. Dude was a home brewer just a couple of years ago! Awesomesauce. And now he’s storming the Danish buds of taste with his inventive antics. And then there is his brother, of Evil Twin Brewing. This man has gone ahead and done the unthinkable….blended beer and wine! Disco beer is the name, and upon first thought you might think “ewwwwwwwwww” but come on, you gotta try it before you knock it. Remember, 2011 is the summer of experimental beer drinking (that’s soooo official). Also, we all have a mini crush on Denmark and this is the perfect way to get to know it a little bit better. Lastly, it might make a great house warming gift HINT HINT HINT.
THIS IS WHAT HEAVEN LOOKS LIKE: a wall of Sixpoint Craft Ale cans.
Gimme.
