Month: January 2009

Strange reasons people make drinks choices

It’s Monday, so muse on this link from Parade magazine. Two bits of drink related information in the same story:

– The birth of the Corona-and-lime ritual. Did this trend really become a trend because a bartender wanted to see if he could start a trend?

– Oom-pah-pah, ein Deutsche bier, bitte. From the story: “British researchers played either accordion-heavy French music or a German brass band over the speakers of the wine section inside a large supermarket. On French music days, 77% of consumers bought French wine, whereas on German music days, the vast majority of consumers picked up a German selection. Intriguingly, only one out of the 44 customers who agreed to answer a few questions at the checkout counter mentioned the music as among the reasons they bought the wine they did.”

I’d have been more impressed if the customers had put back wine on German music days and gone with beer.

 

Off topic: Songs of conviction

Well I used to run from the past
But the world got to spinnin’ so fast
I run from the future now
I run as fast as I can
Tryin’ to be a simple man
I just want to slow down.

               – Chris Knight

Heart of StoneBest recording of 2008? I spoke too soon.

When Sean Lilly Wilson asked for a few sentences for the Fullstream Brewery newsletter about the best “album” we purchased in 2008 I took the request seriously. Didn’t want to forget something because our long journey has experiences running together. So I re-listened to my finalists — James McMurtry, Billy Bragg, B.B. King, Randy Newman, Mary Gauthier and company.

What I found was a lot of recordings that I’ll listen to forever, dang good, but not quite great. So I picked “Another Country” from Tift Merritt, in part because her songwriting just keeps getting better and because, by a bit of luck in July, we caught a wonderful free concert in Burlington, Vermont. Or maybe just because she is from North Carolina and Fullstream is in North Carolina. A karma thing.

Not until the day after Christmas did I notice Chris Knight had released “Heart of Stone” a few days before we departed for Germany. Easy given the amount of press coverage he doesn’t receive, although his Amazon sales prove he’s got a bit of a following.

I’ve been listening to it a lot since. If you must drink at least two full servings (six is a better idea) of a beer before you evaluate it then you gotta listen to an album ten or a hundred times. Do the easy-to-listen-to-lyrics get cloying? Do you find something new and rewarding (kind of like the stuff in the background of a Simpson’s episode) each time, maybe as simple as the way he delivers a phrase?

This recording (it’s not an album or a CD; I bought a download) keeps getting better. Knight writes haunting lyrics — usually grim and sometimes violent &#151 about less-than-perfect lives. The music is dense whether acoustic (as the “Basement Tapes”) or with a rocking band in this recording. He’s a wonderful story teller, as opposed to telling stories about wonderful lives. Here’s an example from “Hell Ain’t Half Full”:

Get up in the morning
Fall out of bed
Go down to the basement
Cook up a little meth
All the young folks love it
Coming back for more
Ain’t it good to be working
Got your foot in the door

You’ve got to buy the recording to get the full story, and then maybe the five that came before it to begin understand what life lessons Knight has to offer. He’s a working guy from the blue collar town of Slaughters, Kentucky. You figure he might be a beer drinker, one of us, but even if he isn’t there’s a comparison to be made. Nashville and industrially produced beers on one side of the ledger, artists liked Chris Knight and the beers we drink on the other.

Chris Knight writes and sings songs of conviction.

Session #23 roundup and #24 announcement

The SessionBeerme (Mike) at Beer and Firkins has posted the roundup for The Session #23, a round of looking back and forward.

And February host David Turley has picked what some of us would consider a romantic theme for #24: “A Tripel for Two.”

If you have a beer or beer-related blog, it’s easy to participate in The Session. Pick a Belgian-style Tripel to review. Tell us why it’s your pick to share with that special someone. Be sure to include a review of the beer so that others might be inspired to choose that beer for a special moment. Bonus points if the person with whom you are sharing the beer includes their review as well.

The date is Feb. 6.

Now the shameless plug. If you want to learn more about tripels you’ve got time to order and read “Brew Like a Monk.” My wife, daughter and 16 customers think it is pretty good.

 

#22 – Where in the beer world?

Where in the beer world?

Do you know where in the beer world this photo was taken?

Leave your answer as a comment. And, as always, you are free to comment on the photo even if you don’t have an answer.

Sorry, no clue this week. Every clue I tried and then plugged into Google yielded the location way to easily.

 

Session #23: Beery things I’ll miss in 2009

The SessionThis is my contribution to The Session #23. Visit Beer and Firkins for the roundup of what dozens of bloggers had to write.

The question: What will you miss about 2008 and what do you expect will excite you most in 2009?

Let’s start with the second part of the assignment. a) I don’t have a clue what beers will leave me babbling or where they will come from. b) I’d like to see 2009 be “The Year of The Session” but is that something you’re supposed to get excited about? c) I am looking forward to tasting what’s new in New Mexico when we get home.

Now back to 2008. Should we talk about moments or particular beers? You only get one “first time” with Isabelle Proximus. And when will we next hike to an overview of Alaska’s Mendenhall Glacier, then refresh ourselves with Alaskan Stout?

With that in mind I made a quick list of five things that we did or drank in 2008 and surely won’t in 2009, or perhaps ever again. Not meant to be inclusive and certainly not ordered.

Thomas Hardy's ale– Opened a 1968 bottle of Thomas Hardy’s Ale. That’s the cork on the left, leaving the impression the beer was in a hurry to come out and meet us.

– Slept in the Bell’s Brewery parking lot. We were sober, sleeping in our beds away from home (the RV), and John Mallett offered us the place to park. Impossible to resist.

– Drank Zoigl beers on Reunification Day in Germany, the only day each year all the Neuhaus house breweries serve their beer.

– Discovered the keller beer Back Street Brewing in San Diego served during the Craft Brewers Conference in April.

– Opened the bottle of Cantillon’s Rosé de Gambrinus we hauled through 13 countries. When we bought the beer at the brewery in September they suggested we let it condition as long as possible, until the last night of our trip, making it the last beer we had in Europe. It got warm in the car and it got cold. No other bottle will taste exactly the same.