Month: February 2010

Weekend drinks links

In case you missed these blog posts last week . . .

  • Can you make money blogging about drinks? That was one topic of discussion at the Wine Writers Symposium last week in northern California. (You could have taken many of the panel topics, plugged in “beer” instead of “wine” and it would have made sense, such as “What wine writers need to know about wine.”) As far as blog advertising goes, Steve Heimoff (who works of Wine Spectator) says we’re “not even close” to a tipping point.
  • Jeff Alworth ends up in the woodshed, getting into a whole lot more trouble than I did when commenting on Malcom Gladwell’s “Drinking Games.” You probably need to start here (read the comments), perhaps detour to what Alan McLeod has to say, and then return to lessons Jeff might have learned.
  • Mark Dredge has tasted BrewDog’s Sink The Bismarck: “Maybe the hoppiest beer I’ve ever had, earthy, citrus, floral, imperial. So thick and full bodied, like syrup, like honey. It smells like a hop sack, so fresh, uniquely fresh, like hop resin, hop oil on the finger tips. It’s sweet like candy but hot like bourbon, it’s smooth but jagged, it’s bitter, it’s intense, it’s astonishing. Five months in the making, this is insane US Extreme IPA meets Scottish whisky, an unimaginable blend.”
  • 11 Things You Didn’t Know About Natty Light. Including No. 11, that Anheuser-Busch owns the domain name NaturalLightSucks.com.

    • You may now return to your glass of beer.

     

     

    Orange tree terroir

    Lord knows how scientists may have manipulated orange genetics since John McPhee reported this in 1966, but here’s a little bit about the where involved with oranges.

    He writes that taste and aroma vary based on “the position of the individual orange in the framework of the tree on which it grew. Ground fruit — the orange that one can reach and pick from the ground — is not as sweet as fruit that grows high on the tree. Outside fruit is sweeter than inside fruit. Oranges grown on the south side of the tree are sweeter than oranges grown on the east or west sides, and oranges grown on the north side are the least sweet of the lot. The quantity of juice in an orange, and even the amount of vitamin C is contains, will follow the same pattern of variation. Beyond this, there are differentiations of quality inside a single orange. Individual segments vary from one another in their content of acid and sugar.”

    In “Oranges,” his book developed from New Yorker articles, the Catch-22 becomes obvious to McPhee when he checks to see if a restaurant offers fresh juice at breakfast.

    “There were never any request for fresh orange juice, the waitress explained, apparently unmindful of the one that had just been made. ‘Fresh is either too sour or too watery or too something,’ she said. ‘Frozen is the same every day. People want to know what they’re getting.'”

    Then he strikes up a conversation with a couple at the next table. “. . . they had an orange grove on their property, with three kinds of oranges, so that ripe fruit was on their trees almost eight months of the year. All year long, they said, they drank concentrate at breakfast. They hadn’t made juice from the fruit on their trees for more than ten years.”

    People knew what they were getting.

    But what was the price?

    Tune in the Brewing Network Sunday

    Pardon another brief advertisement.

    I’ll be a guest Sunday on The Brewing Network Sunday Session. The show begins at 5 p.m. Pacific.

    We’ll be talking about Brewing With Wheat (I have a copy in hand, Alan, and it weighs 11.8 ounces), the book and the physical activity.

    You can even ask questions live by joining the CHAT ROOM or calling 888.401.BEER. Show some compassion and don’t make them too tough.

     

     

    Somewhere down the Ghost River

    Wait, did you hear that
    Oh this is sure stirring up some ghosts for me
    She said “There’s one thing you’ve got to learn
    Is not to be afraid of it.”
    I said “No, I like it, I like it, it’s good.”
    She said “You like it now
    But you’ll learn to love it later.”

      – Robbie Robertson, Somewhere Down The Crazy River

    If you use Twitter and follow beer folks you’ve see a lot of pointers today to CraftBeer.com, one of three relatively new websites from the Brewers Association. The other two are a site for members of the American Homebrewers Association and one for Brewers Association members.

    A bit of necessary disclosure: I did a bit of work for the CraftBeer.com site and I also write for association publications, including two books.

    That’s not why I’m suggesting you take a look at this particular video about Ghost River Brewing. Hit the arrow and hang on until they get to the river. You’ll wish it was longer.

    Soundtrack Project: A Tangible Birthplace from Memphis Chamber on Vimeo.

    Anyway, nice music. Works well, don’t you think? Yet when they return to the Ghost River and Chuck Skypeck (he’s the guy talking) mentions the “sound of your canoe going through the water” Robbie Robertson’s music found its way into my head. Both the melody from “Somewhere Down The Crazy River” and one of those lyrics you never heard on the radio and will never forget.

    A canoe, a river, a beer, music. All things that stamp themselves into your soul.