The meme stops here – but for Jay . . .

The scary part is the little girl in the photo could be somebody's grandmother by todayJay tagged me, but I must — as in all things — blame Alan.

The background: Dave Turley tagged Jay Brooks in the “7 Things You May Not Know About Me” meme. He bit. Now I’m supposed to tell you seven things you don’t know about me and then tag fifteen other people. Well, so far I’ve thought of three things about me, two of which are the true, so because I like Jay I’ll break my personal “no memes” rule and push ahead.

But, in part because Jay already tagged most the people I’m willing to be mean too I’m choosing just one. Joe Rhodes, Mr. Trapipsahton, because why ask the question unless you are prepared for answers that will truly revolt you?

SEVEN THINGS

1. I have thrown up in every state in the country.

2. My name is spelled H-I-E-R-O-N-Y-M-U-S, a fact which has escaped too many magazine editors and people who write me checks.

3. My first pet’s name was “Bones.” Oops, I think I just gave you access to my bank account.

4. I invented the Internet. My uncle was a senior author of the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills (you old enough to remember that annual ritual?).

5. I’m pretty sure I’ve see “Two for the Road” more than any other movie, but I’ve never sat through “Forrest Gump.”

6. I am Santa Claus.

7. We are moving to St. Louis. Perhaps I should have posted this on Facebook seven months ago, but I didn’t get around to it.

Let’s hope Joe gets back to us.

The Session #49 (regular beer) roundup

The SessionBased upon the turn out for The Session #49 it would appear regular beers still matter. So let’s get right to the links.

Best use of graphs
Five Hundred And One Beers. Or as the first comment notes, “Geekalicious.”

My favorite line
“Beer has long been a regulator in civilization and for that, we are grateful.” From Ramblings of a Beer Runner.

Closest to song
The Reluctant Scooper. Also the strongest statement about the relationship between beer, place and circumstance.

It wasn’t written for The Session, but could have been
From KC Beer Blog, because this sentence must tell us something about regular beers, “I’ll take American Pastoral over Moby Dick any day of the week.”

Regular beer? It’s sweet
Alan McLeod makes a case for sweet, “a quality that gets little respect these days.” And he knows how to close the deal. “There’s better and there’s worse but at the end of the day . . .”

světlý ležák
When Max signs off “Na Zdaví!” you just know he’s off to drink a beer you wish you could.

A screenplay
From Kaedrin Beer Blog.

A wish for irregular beer
Jeff Alworth asks, “Will pale lagers always be ‘regular,’ or will our consciousnesses expand such that some future generation has a broader definition?”

Giving the geek within a night off
Or why Mark Dredge promises to keep a regular beer beside the milk and ketchup in his fridge.

When the discussion turns to reg’lar beer
Flagon of Ale points out that light-lager drinkers don’t get to define regular beer.

‘Ein Bier, bitte”
Flinchbot on ordering beer in Germany: “There is no negotiating or asking what beers they have and if they have a beer similar to your favorite beer. It’s pretty simple. They only have 3 beers, end of discussion.”

What’s next?
Mario Rubio’s regular beer is the one he hasn’t tried.

A regular brewer remembered
Joe Stange reports of the passing of “Rupprecht Loeffler, venerable brewmaster of the Cervejaria Canoinhense, said to be Brazil’s oldest craft brewery. He was 93.” Is Canoinhense a regular beer, a relic, a beer that evolved over time?

Bring on the table beer
How Jay Brooks gets there is as important as the conclusion. Flaship beers and “your dad’s beer” included.

Yes, call it table beer
And Sean at Beer Search Party provides his own example, Mission Street Brown Ale (brewed by Firestone Walker).

The regular beer of the moment
Rich at Beer, Baseball, and Other Things Writes Moby D ” isn’t my first regular beer and it won’t be my last.”

The beer you drink ‘every night’
And, yes, Nevitt at Beering in Mind makes me want to try Yona Yona Ale on cask.

Lager
In Pennsylvania it’s not a “style” but one specific beer. Jay Zeis raises his glass to Yuengling.

Whither the Hooker?
It seems that during this exercise Tale of the Ale may have found a new favorite.

Honk if you love Cabot Clothbound
Dave Phillips gives us Goose Island Honkers Ale, then Cabot Clothbound Cheddar, then the two together.

Some times they sneak up on you
Thomas Vincent isn’t one to order the same beer twice in a row, but Big Boss’ Blanco Diablo became his “go to” beer without him noticing.

Make it an Ordinary
Troy at myBrewing figures, “Regular beer is better than craft beer when it’s homebrew.”

. . . and a regular spot
David at Musings Over a Pint picks a regular beer at a regular watering hole – Blue & Gray Falmouth American Pale Ale.

Homebrew a regular again
At Drinking Class, Jim Pavlik writes, “. . . homebrew is again what it used to be, regular beer, a beer that regular people drink fairly regularly.”

Hmmm, brown malt
When you’ve already written the regular pub beers in your neighborhood what’s left? The Beer Nut turns to homebrew. But he promises not to make brewing a regular feature. “It’d be like a cooking blog from the guy who just figured out the manual of his deep fat fryer.”

So where’s the problem?
In Edinburgh regular means Deuchars IPA, once the Champion Beer of Britain. Richard at the Beer Cast exlains why it is one that divides opinions.

Regular, but occasional
Bob at beer.bobarnott.com explains why a regular beer – in his case perhaps Marble Dobber or HardKnott Infra Red – might be the occasional beer.

His six packs are mixed
Don’t ask Ray at the Barley Blog to pick a regular beer? He doesn’t even have a regular style.

Each has its place
“. . . each time I go back I remember why they are regular beers.” – Gregg Irwin at A Beer on the Downs.

Once upon a Rolling Rock
Tom at what we’re drinking provides a list the illustrates how anybody’s personal regular beer can shift over time.

For when you aren’t a snob
At Bottle Chasers that beer is Guinness.

Regular, but works of art
Seth From My Mellin singles out Victory’s Headwaters Pale Ale and Blue Point Toasted Lager.

The beer with no name
John Hambrock at BeerTaster.ca provides a description, but is keeping the name to himself.

When nobody is looking
A regular beer for one occassion might not be the regular beer for another. Bruce Ticknor, also from BeerTaster.ca, explains.

And at this web address
Two non-bloggers had a bit to say so I published their posts here, from Jeffrey McElfresh and Bill Farr. Bill’s candid contents about the effects of alcohol sparked comments beyond this blog. And finally — yes, was the last to post — there was our family visit to Urban Chestnut Brewing in St. Louis.

The final word
Goes to Jon Abernathy at the Beer Site, who has probably made as many Sessions as anybody. “The reality is, it’s respecting the beer that’s offered to me. For instance, when we go to my parents’ house, nine times out of ten there is canned macro lager in the fridge: not because my Dad doesn’t like craft beer, but largely because the American lager is what he grew up with and often because it may be an affordability issue. I respect that, and I’m happy to drink the beer that’s offered. It’s the Regular Beer I unreservedly drink when I’m at my parents’.”

*****

Alan McLeod at A Good Beer Blog will host the next Session on April 1. Now there’s something to think about.

It’s just strange enough to be compelling

Relatively early in Ska Brewing’s parody of the “Brew Masters” series on Discovery Ska co-founder Bill Graham hints that perhaps what we are watching could be more tightly edited. He’s right, but for some reason I couldn’t quit watching.

It makes much more sense if you saw the first episode of “Brew Masters.” And as long as they were going to begin with an allusion to “Star Wars” they might as well have asked Sam Calagione to appear as Yoda during his gracious cameo.

But, as I’ve written before, beyond excellent beer there are many reasons to like (even in a Facebook way) Ska Brewing. This video reflects that.

Session #49: Regular beers are part of the revolution

Reverence taps at urban Chestnut Brewing Company

This is my contribution to the 49th gathering of The Session. The theme is “regular beers” and my post is a bit late, but I have a good excuse. Besides, as the host I guess I can do any dang thing I want. Just to make sure all the dispatches from far flung outpost have arrived I will wait until Tuesday to post the roundup.

What kind of beer do you drink after a Mardi Gras parade?

The SessionOK, maybe it depends on how much you were drinking while begging for beads, but for the sake of what follows let’s agree it would be a “regular beer.”

Saturday much regular beer was consumed along the Soulard Mardi Gras parade route that stretches from Busch Stadium in St. Louis to the Anheuser-Busch brewery, and plenty more in parties that continued into the night. That’s another story, including how Mardi Gras in St. Louis compares to Mardi Gras in New Orleans (much colder).

This one’s about how beers of the revolution often become regular beers. Because standing in front of the taps at Urban Chestnut Brewing — located pleasantly out of the way of the madding Mardi Gras crowd — it appears that regular beer might reside on either side of the line demarking what UCBC calls beers of revolution and beers of reverence.

Urban Chestnut, which was still waiting for brewing equipment to arrive when I visited St. Louis in November, began serving its beer little over a month ago. Its menu describes the Revolution Series as “Our contribution to the renaissance of craft beer ~ brewing artisanal, modern American beers.” The Reverence Series is “Our celebration of beer’s heritage ~ brewing classically crafted, timeless, European beer styles.”

Beer and cheese samplers at Urban Chestnut Brewing

The seven beers available Saturday are pictured (along with the cheese sampler) above, the Reverence Series on the left, the Revolution Series on the right. They are described in detail at the brewery website, along with plans for other beers.

I was impressed, impressed enough to consider what beer I would bring home in a growler were the keepers of the airways willing to let me do that. Were it to share with friends looking for something different it would have been the Hopfen (a “Bavaria IPA”) or the Zucker Weisse (“essentially a Berliner Weisse,” with more bready/doughy character than I can remember tasting in any commercial version of anything called Berliner Weisse). To drink myself, that would be different. TBD or Wasandis, the unfiltered pils.

But when you call your brewery Urban Chestnut and you make a beer with chestnuts chances are that’s the beer people from out of town will be talking about. Winged Nut is the sort of beer that you wake up one morning and they are pouring on the Today Show.

Saturday we watched a couple — Baby Boomers, if you care about demographics — come in and order without surveying the draft board. Obviously not their first visit. They took their goblets of Winged Nut to a table by the window, hauled out their books and began to read.

Brewing a beer with chestnuts is not totally new. In fact, Italian brewers produce more than 40 different chestnut beers. However, I’m not sure any of them ferment those beers with a yeast most often used in fruit-rich/spicy Bavarian weissbiers. It’s different, it’s good, and at 6.5% alcohol by volume it packs a punch. Saturday it appeared some drinkers have already made it their regular beer.

The Session #49: Regular beer (guest post II)

The SessionThe topic for today’s 49th gathering of The Session is “regular beer.” Since I’m the host I offered to publish posts from readers who don’t maintain blogs. This is the second of two.

By Bill Farr (a semi-regular commenter here)

How I gained a regular beer and wrestled with virtually every issue related to “good beer”

The beer I drink most often is Arrogant Bastard Ale. For me to get to the point of having a regular beer, I managed to hit pretty much every topic that appears in the beer site forums – among others, scarcity’s perceived effect on flavor, variety, drinking “local,” the perceived quality of a brewery, the evils of marketing – and one that rarely gets addressed except to be quickly dismissed. I’ll close with that one.

I live in Illinois, and up until a year or two ago, Stone Brewing Co. didn’t bring their beers to Illinois. I learned of Arrogant Bastard years back through my brother-in-law, who had found a clone homebrew recipe for the beer in Zymurgy back in 2003. He tried the recipe and raved about it. I tried his brews, and he was right. Of course, who knew how the homebrew compared to the actual beer?

Well. I became aware that Stone was available in Indiana, and occasionally was able to cross the border and pick up their brews. Loved them. LOVED them. Waxed rhapsodic in written reviews. Especially loved Arrogant Bastard, and occasionally mentioned that it was my favorite beer, or one of two (neither of which I could get regularly). Wondered how much of this was due to only having a few bottles a year.

In the meantime, I drank like the stereotypical craft beer drinker as portrayed in, um, our literature. There was always a different beer or three in my fridge, and I was always trying something new. Believed in drinking local brews – frequented my local brewpub, drank a lot of brews from relatively local brewers. And . . . and eventually realized that certain brews and breweries kept re-appearing, because I liked their stuff.

And Stone entered the Illinois market. And by this time, there’s a backlash against Stone by some folks on the beer site forums – the beer’s too pedestrian, too gateway, too behind the times, no longer as good since they opened the larger brewery, too reliant on marketing, only as popular as it is because the company bullies others. “Huh,” I said, being unable to imagine a world where Arrogant Bastard would be deemed “pedestrian” or a “gateway” brew. And bought a bottle or three, and it was as good as it ever was.

And now I buy a bottle or two a week, and often it’s the only beer I drink in a given week. And I’ve learned a couple of things. One is that, for me, here’s a case where the beer’s former rarity didn’t make it taste better. It’s really good, and more often than not, it’s what I want to drink when I want beer. I explore other brews when I visit places, or when somebody recommends something, but . . . I’m not minding that, say, half the beer or more I drink in a given year is Arrogant Bastard. A corollary to this is that my experience drinking Arrogant Bastard and other Stone brews hasn’t provided any evidence of a change in quality in the beer produced by Stone over the years. Nor a diminishing in complexity, nor any evidence that other breweries have passed Stone by. Which suggests to me that the next great thing doesn’t mean it’s a thing not to be missed – I don’t need to try everything from every newly-loved and praised brewery. I don’t feel my life is somehow less full for not yet having the chance to try X, or perhaps never getting the chance to try Y. It’s ok. I’ve found things that bring me joy.

I’m a bit perturbed that my drinking locally has diminished, but . . . if my local breweries don’t produce something I want to drink as consistently, what do I do? Reduce my enjoyment? It’s tricky – rarely are all the ingredients of which a beer is made local to where the beer is made, so it comes down to local jobs and pride. And I guess that for me, if the local guys are able to sell all they make, I don’t have to feel guilty. It’s presumably going to folks who enjoy it as much as or more than I do.

Whether marketing is a bad thing — well, if people care, more power to them. The beer’s good.

So, having a regular beer has helped me make personal peace with many of the burning arguments on the RateBeer and BeerAdvocate forums. But it hasn’t helped me resolve one issue that rarely comes up on the forums except to be quickly dismissed. That issue is whether I (and others in the good beer community) drink too much for my (or for their) own good. Arrogant Bastard is over 7% abv, and only comes in a 22 oz. bottle. I already know I am susceptible to problems drinking — even a glass of beer or two at night might mess up my sleep and hence my effectiveness the next day, and a bomber of Arrogant Bastard is a bit more than a glass of beer. I know it affects my weight negatively, because I like to eat when I drink. And I know that, after a certain amount of alcohol, I’m going to want more alcohol. It’s here where the fact that Arrogant Bastard comes in single bombers rather than, say, six-packs helps — if I only buy one at a time, I can only drink one at a time. But that one bottle is still a lot of alcohol, and a lot of calories.

I’ve learned that it’s easy for me to stop drinking for weeks at a time, and that drinking socially is easy. But I also know how easy it is to drink too much in the comfort of my own home, and how easy it could be to do it all the time. And I read the folks who contribute to many of the beer site forums, and I wonder if the pursuit of enjoyment and camaraderie and connoisseurship has moved to the point of potentially dangerous drinking for many of them. And, well, to each their own, but no one does this in a vacuum, and there are family and friends and co-workers who are affected, and every time I see a “how do I convince my significant other it’s ok?” thread, I cringe. It’s not necessarily OK, and I wish we did a better job recognizing that. Beer is a great thing, and can bring joy and promote friendship. And yet it can bring pain and problems depending on what we do with it, be it session beer or wine-strength brew. We do ourselves a huge disservice by minimizing this aspect.

PS – By the way, that Zymurgy clone recipe for Arrogant Bastard? Surprisingly close!