I’m with Jeff Alworth on this.
He elegantly rebutts — with help from Brian Butenschoen of the Director of the Oregon Brewer’s Guild — an article in Time Magazine that declares Denver the best place for beer touring.
Doesn’t need any help from me, but I did have this additional thought when I first saw the article.
Denver has been “dubbed the Napa of beer.” Dubbed by who? Somebody in Colorado I suspect. And a PR person to boot.
Wednesday I am off to the Craft Brewers Conference in San Diego.
Yes, this involves drinking beer. It also involves a lot of asking questions. In my case many will be wheat related, since I’m starting work on the previously mentioned book for Brewers Publications.
But if you were going and could ask craft brewers or brewing industry suppliers a question (or questions) what would you ask?
Here’s the lineup of speakers and topics.
The week begins with judging for the World Beer Cup, with awards handed out Saturday. That means brewers from around the world will be on hand to judge.
Feel free to use comments or email the question(s).
– The St. Louis Post-Distpatch visits “extreme beers,” mostly locally produced and including the area’s micros as well as brewing giant Anheuser-Busch.
Great quote from Pat McGauley, vice president innovation, who is talking specifically about A-B’s 8% blueberry lager but makes what’s really a general observation.
“It lives in a much different world than most of the beers we deal with.”
Hosts Boak & Bailey have announced the theme for the next Session: How did it all start for you?
Continuing the “Beervangelism” theme, we’d like you to write about the moment when you saw the light. At what point did you realise you were a beer lover/geek/enthusiast? What beer(s) triggered the conversion? Did someone help you along your way, or did you come to it yourself?
In short; how did you get into good beer?
If you’re not familiar with The Session, it’s a beer blogosphere gathering where bloggers all over the world drink and write about beer based on a theme, and then post their thoughts on a designated Friday. In this case May 2.
All participants are welcome. See Boak & Bailey for details.
Yesterday I mentioned Luke Nicholas’ Twitter feed.
(What’s Twitter? This is a good way to found out.)
Luke, a New Zealander who brews Epic Ale, landed in San Francisco on Thursday and I can’t count how many beers he’s had since. As I type he’s working his way through the lineup at Russian River Brewing in Sonoma. He reports the brewpub is out of Pliny the Elder “because we drank it all at Toronado.”
Luke’s on the way to San Diego, where he’ll be judging in the World Beer Cup. How much fun would it be to read his tweets from there? I don’t expect the Brewers Association would permit that.
Research commissioned by UK brewer Greene King found “35 is the age at which British men typically settle on their ‘usual.’ ”
So I guess I’m a little slow. I don’t even have a “usual” style.
On the other hand perhaps I’m precocious, because “they trial an average of seven different brands before developing a loyalty to their favourite beer.” Only seven beers? Check out Luke Nicholas’ Twitter feed from last night. (And he’s from New Zealand.)
Obviously some across-the-pond cultural differences here. Nonetheless, more from the survey:
– One in five men try up to 14 different kinds of beer before settling on their favorite, and that is determined “on quality and taste above all other factors – including price, brand, strength and peer pressure from friends.”
– Peer pressure? Twenty-nine percent of those 18 to 24 order the same beer as their friends. Just 7% of men over the age of 35 are similarly influenced.
– While men in London are the most likely to rate quality as the key factor in their beer preferences, Londoners are also most influenced in their choice of beer by their mates (16%), and men in Yorkshire the least (4%).