Archive for the 'Beer & Wine' Category

Weekend reading: AB InBev anniversary

Saturday, November 14th, 2009

Drastic changes, no apologies. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch has an in-depth look at Anheuser-Busch InBev one year later. Scientists discover that mormons like beer. Just go read it. It’ll make you smile. Best after. Deschutes Brewery founder Gary Fish talks about why the brewery decided to put a “best after” date on beers in its [...]

Glassware, terroir and wine myths

Tuesday, October 27th, 2009

Last week Joe Stange blogged about The Mythology of Glassware. Perhaps that’s why Gourmet moved a very long story about Riedel glassware to the free section of its archives. It’s titled “Shattered Myths” so I don’t think I’m spoiling the punchline when I quote from the end: Georg Riedel finally seemed to be vindicated when [...]

No, Supplication is not the ‘perfect beer’

Wednesday, August 5th, 2009

Now that I have your attention. . . . The folks at Chow.com seem to feel compelled to email me every time they post a story about beer. I find that strange because presumably what makes them different is they are discussing beer in an intelligent manner with an audience — folks who might be [...]

The end of beer writing as we know it?

Friday, July 31st, 2009

In commenting on the demise of the British-based magazine Beers of the World writer Adrian Tierney-Jones has written such a lovely headline that I have to find an excuse to repeat it: “Beers Of The World finito: the end of beerwriting as we know it?” If you live in the U.S. you likely never read [...]

The $1 million book, wine included

Monday, July 20th, 2009

You may have seen mention in various blogs about an upcoming book, called “1001 Beers You Must Try Before You Die.” To the best of my knowledge (based on the fact I’ve written the profiles on a few of the beer included) each beer will get its own page. That makes for a fat book. [...]

No hops, no glory

Wednesday, July 15th, 2009

Guess I should have thought of this before we started our adventure. I could have packed a bottle of locally produced India Pale Ale and hauled it around for 14 months, in the RV, on the plane to and from Europe, in our leased car. More than 60,000 miles, lots of bumping about, plenty of [...]

Speaking of beers with caffeine

Thursday, April 30th, 2009

Apologies, but I have to point something else out that bugged me watching Beer Wars. When you left the theater did you think that Moonshot was the only beer laced with caffeine? (Excepting the 849 coffee beers out there; mmmm, Meantime Coffee.) Not true. There’s also MateVeza Yerba Mate gold, and now Yerba Mate IPA. [...]

Are you drinking your share of beer?

Saturday, April 4th, 2009

Here’s an interesting statistic from the Wine Market Council: 15 percent of Americans drink 91 percent of table wine. What do you think the numbers are for “craft beer” (however you define it, but let’s not start)?  

What if rye-bread eaters had prevailed?

Sunday, March 22nd, 2009

While others were watching their brackets get busted in overtime Friday evening I was reading “Six Thousand Year of Bread: Its Holy and Unholy History.” Why? Because a book about brewing with wheat should include the role wheat has played in various cultures where people drink beer. It’s not exactly light reading, so maybe I [...]

The tyranny of the tasting note

Tuesday, February 24th, 2009

Last week during The Symposium for Professional Wine Writers New York Times chief wine critic Eric Asimov called for an end to tasting notes. At least if I read blogger Alder Yarrow (Vinography) correctly. Yarrow, who is one of my favorite wine writers, nicely recaps Asimov’s presentation called “The Tyranny of the Tasting Note,” mostly [...]